Wow, another week has already flown by, and we´re in the middle of November! I arrived in my new area, Mem Martins on Monday (well, technically at 1am Tuesday morning). The executive secretaries were asked to give all the Irmãs rides to the new areas, but as all of the areas changed, it took a while for all of us to arrive. But, eventually we all arrived :)

Mem Martins is close to Sintra, which is supposedly a big tourist spot...hopefully I´ll get there on a pday soon. There´s a big castle on a mountain that we can see from where we live. It´s a lot different from Lisboa- there´s green! There aren´t as many people in the streets, which is a little sad, but I like it so far.

My companion is Irmã Reis, this is her second transfer in the mish. She´s originally from Angolda but has been in Portugal for about 10 years. She´s fun to work with and so far everything is going well!

On Sunday at church, I felt like I was in Brasil! Almost all of the members here are Brasileiro, which is a change but is neat. The ward is really strong and has a good missionary focus, so I think it will be great to work with the members here. They like to feed the missionaries..which is a bad thing for me! We have lunch almost every day of the week, and sometimes two meals in one day....yesterday we had lunch with a member after chuch, an investigator wanted to have a ´´lanche´´ (a snack or small meal), and at the end of the night another investigator gave us food to take home...aaaghh!!!

Apparently there´s no one in the ward that plays the piano, so I got to acompany the ward in Sacrament Meeting..the primary also asked me to help with the ward primary program that they´re having in two weeks...I think I´ll be playing a lot! But I really like to play, so I´m all right with having the chace to serve :) I´m grateful to be able to help.

Things are going all right with the work here. There have been a lot of recent converts, but the inctivity rate is high too, sadly. So we´re trying to bring them back while finding new people as well. We marked two women this week to be baptized in a few weeks...they´re friends, and older Portugues women, and they´re sweet. Hopefully they continue to progress!

Yeah, not really much new to say (well, everything is new, but I´m not sure what´s the most interesting). Christmas is already coming in ful force, in stores, at home...I´m excited!

So, today is transer day :( I´ve been praying all week that I wouldn´t leave, but as usual, Heavenly Father knows better than I do! I´m being transfered to Mem Martins, which is close to Oeiras, but I don´t really know where...I´ll be greenie-breaking a native! It´ll be nice to serve with a native again, my Portugues could use a little polishing :P (or a lot!)

But this last week was really good. Everything went well with Cesaltina´s baptism. Well, at least in the end everything worked out... the baptismal font in our chapel in ´´under construction´´ and locked to our access, which has been really frustrating. So we have to go to Gago Coutinho, which is about 40 minutes away, to have baptisms. Last week for Jorge´s baptism, we missed the bus to get there by 30 seconds, which was soo frustrating!!! Luckily the Bishop was kind enough to come pick us up. So, this week we got to the stop at plenty of time before the bus would come by. However, there was a protest going on in the same area (its by a big roundabout- Marquês de Pombal). Little did we know that the bus stop was closed off to vehicle access. So we watched the bus come, pass the area where it would enter the bus stop, and continue on around the round about! We started running after it, hoping it would stop for a few minutes at the next stop, but it was gone. So we had to wait another 40 minutes for another bus to get there!! There is always ´´drama´´ when there is a baptism. But, the elders helped us get everything ready and the members were great, and it was a really good service. Her boyfriend baptised Cesaltina, and it was really cute, although she had to go under 3 times to get everything covered! But it was awesome to see her and Jorge confirmed during church on Sunday. The chapel was full, and also the gospel principles for new members class, so its really rewarding to see how the ward is growing.

I have really LOVED Lapa- I love the members here, the new converts, and working in the city. I really didn´t (and don´t!) want to go becuase my heart is here, but I know that I´ll love Mem Martins too, in time. It just shows that time really is moving when changes come...

We had a cool experience this week with a less-active. I had in my mind for a few days the name ``Ribeiro Santos´´ like a streetname. I looked in our index of streets, and saw a rua that was ´´Ribeiro Sanches´´. So we went there and knocked the predios there. In one of the first few predios we knocked, we found a woman named Joy from the Filipines. She works in a house there and has been here for 3 months. She was baptized in 1987 and even went to the temple, but becuase of family opposition eventually fell into inactivity. But she was so happy to see us, and she really wanted to go to church and become active again. Just so happens that we have a single mom in our ward who is from the Filipines. We saw her the next day, so we told her about this woman we had found. She called her, and it turns out they are from the same island of the Filipines! Joy came to church on Sunday, and it was soo awesome to see her and Elsa together. Elsa has really needed a friend, and it is so good for her to have found Joy. They were both blessed!! It´s great to see them both so happy and have the chance to mutually strengthen each other. IT´s interesting how we were led to find her, and was really a testimony to me that Heavenly FAther knows and watches out for each of his children.

I hope you all had a great Halloween and are ready to settle into the holiday season! We busted out the Christmas music last night, and I´m officially excited :D But it´s crazy to believe how fast time is flying...

This week had its ups and downs, like always. We did a lot of procura but didn´t find as many new investigators as we would have liked. Its weird that at times it seems to easy to find new people, and at other times it´s such a struggle. It really doesn´t depend on us, but we just have to continue to seek direction and work, and the results will come. But, we did still see miracles :)

Yesterday Jorge was finally baptized! We´ve been working with him all this month. He´s from CaboVerde and came here for a leg operation and is recovering\ receiving treatment. These last couple weeks his family has invited him to spend the weekend with them, which is good, but meant that he couldn´t go to church. He finally made the decision that church is more important, talked to his family that he wanted to stay here for the weekends, which was the only thing he was lacking to be baptized! It´s been interesting teaching him- he doesn´t talk Portugues really, just criole, that isn´t all that understandable. But we´ve all learned a lot of patience in the last month ;) It´s been neat to see the changes in him over the last couple weeks, and so good to see him finally ready to be baptized. Our chapel is ´´in obras´´ and the baptismal font is locked, so we had to go to another chapel, which was a pain and a hassle. But, everything is worth it in the end!

We also had a surprising miracle yesterday. There´s a young woman who is dating a boy in our ward that has been coming consistently for a few months. I had tried in the past to set up appointments to teach her, but they fell through and I didn´t think that she really had that much interest, but just came because of her boyfriend. BUT, yesterday she came up to me at church and asked if we could teach her the last two lessons that shes lacking (she was taught like 4 months ago the first lessons). Of course I said yes, and we set up an appointment for yesterday afternoon. We taught her, which was the first time I had had a prolonged conversation with her, and it was really good. She know so much and she has a strong testimony that the church is true. We talked about the gospel of Jesus Christ- the five basic steps. She said that she had already thought about baptism, and had wanted to be baptized before her birthday in the summer, but with holidays and other things, it didn´t work out. We committed her to be baptized, and she said ´´yes, as soon as possible...I've already waited months´´!!!!! So we´ll be having her baptism this Saturday. It was totally a surprise, but as we talked with her, she is so ready, and has such a strong desire. She talked about about how so many things have already changed as she´s gotten to know the church, and I know that she´ll be even more blessed by the decision to be baptized. Bençãos!!!!!!!!

So despite the work being hard or discouraging at times, Heavenly Father really gives us so many tender mercies and we see so many miracles. I love it!

Bem. Lots of random things happened this week, and I just wanted to give you a taste of what is missionary work in Portugal....

There is the ´´Portugues finger´´. When you´re doing something wrong, or somebody doesn´t want to talk with you, they give you the ´´Portugues finger´´, where they wave their pointer finger definitively in the air. The finger is the final rejection! ...there´s also ´´the hand´´ where you greet someone thats passing and they raise their hand, almost as if to greet you with a wave, but really it´s saying ´´don´t talk to me´´. When this happens we say to each other ´´you got the hand!!´´. It´s interesting talking with strangers all day.

All of the predios, or buildings, have a doorbell pad (I don´t know what you call it in English), ou seja, campainhas. You ring for each apartment, and they always say ´´Quem é?!´´ to ask who it is. If the pad doesn´t have an intercom system, they like to open their windows and yell to talk. This may work when they´re on the bottom floor, but when they´re on the 3rd or higher floor, it gets complicated! There´s no way that there going to hear or understand us, and we´re just there on the street yelling that we´re disciples of Jesus Christ! Not exactly the way I pictured contacting :P They also ask ´´quem é´´ when you knock on their doors. People here are afraid of opening their doors, and refuse to open it until they know who it is (and even then they don´t...) But when they can´t understand what you´re saying because there´s a door in the way, it can be frustrating!! It´s happened several times where someone came to the door and couldn´t hear or understand us because of other noise. They went back inside to turn off the tv or tell someone to be quiet instead of just opening the door and solving the problem!!! it´s interesting ;)

I always knew about the supposed discord between missionaries and dogs, but really never appreciated how annoying dogs can be :P There are so many dogs here...the streets are covered in dog poo! But they´re always inside the houses. It´s happened several times that someone said they could not open the door or talk to us at the door because of the dogs. The other week a dog bit me for the first time! Luckily it didn´t draw blood, but was a little scary....suffice it to say that the mission has sealed a solid dislike of dogs in me...

Other quirk of Portugues culture- when we try to talk to people who are in their house, they say that they came answer and that there busy, or whatever other excuse. Then when we go on to talk to more people in the same area, they decide to help us, saying at every house we go to ´´não há ninguém´´, or no ones home. This has happened many times that someone says that at the same time that someone answers the door at that house....interesting how they suddenly want to ´´help´´ us. The other week we contacted a lady that was in her window (they all like to stay at the window and watch the street) and she didn´t want anything. Then when we were contacting people on the other side of the street, she started yelling at them about who we are when they came to the window to talk to us (see two paragraphs above for an explanation of this behavior!) So they gave us the ´´Portugues finger´´ and went back inside. aahh, life is interesting in Portugal!!

I really do love it, sorry if these descriptions seem a little negative. It´s really not, just oddly absurd and at times I can´t believe that whats happening really is happening. But, you never know whats going to happen when you´re a missionary! We passed this potentials house last week and there was another couple there from Romania that didn´t really speak Portugues. We sang and prayed with them, and then tried to watch a dvd. She put in the film and then started asking us if we would give them money, because they´re behind on rent. Obviously we said that we couldn´t give them money. She wrenched the dvd from the machine, and they practically kicked us out of the house, all the while speaking things that I had no idea what she was saying....we just laughed about it afterward...so absurd.

But, it is awesome to get to know Heavenly Father´s children, of all varieties. I know that He loves each and every one of us individually, and that He has a plan. I hope that you all have a great week and remember that I love you!

Well, another week has already gone by...next week we´ll be in November! crazy. But things are good.

Yesterday at church was the primary program here- it was so good! There are about 10 kids in the primary here, and the program they put on was actually really amazing...there were a lot of prayers offered by the primary leaders! But the spirit was good, and they bore a simple but powerful testimony. It´s good that it went well especially because there were a few jornalists there yesterday. I don´t know what journal they were with, but they asked us several questions, and talked with other ward leaders....I think they had a good impression of what they saw and heard, which is always good!

This week we had some interesting experiences, but I learned a lot. We´ve been working with one woman who was scheduled to be baptized last week but was out of town for work. She remained out of town for most of the week, and we didn´t know when or if she would come back this week. So pretty much the only thing we could do was pray and fast for her, which we did, that she would come back and would have the opportunity to be baptized.We called her friday morning, and she said she would be coming back on Saturday, which was great! We called her on saturday to arrange something, but she didn´t answer. We stopped by in the afternoon and caught her right before she left to go shoopping. (coincidence?!) So we went by later and talked a lot with her. She had doubts about being ready to be baptised, and we talked a lot about what it means and the blessings we receive. The spirit was really strong, and I knew I was being guided in what I was saying. I know that she felt the spirit and knew what was the right thing to do. But in the end, she said that she wanted to know more, even though she doesn´t have any doubts about the truthfulness of the gospel, and refused baptism for the present. On Sunday she didn´t even end up coming to church, which made us supersad. But in all of this I learned a lot as well, despite of the frustration and sadness...I learned even more that Heavenly Father hears and answers prayers, and that fasting is a powerful tool to call on the powers of heaven. I know that He helped us to meet Carmen at exactly the right time. I know that our prayers were answered by the spirit that we all felt, by the words which were given us to teach her. But in spite of everything, God also gives us agency, and no one will be compelled to righteosness or wickedness, but it will be granted unto us according to our desires. I just hope that eventually she will be able to receive the blessings that I know are waiting for her. We claim blessings by our obedience, and Heavenly Father cannot fully bless us when we fail to cumply with the commandments that He has given us...

So in this and other things, it was a week of learning. I´m grateful for these experiences that I´m having, for the people that I meet here...so, so grateful.

Wow, I can´t believe that another week has already come and gone! We´re already approaching the middle\end of October...

This last week was good- lots of work. Unfortunately we didn´t see as many fruits as I would have liked. Last weekend we had two people marked for this last Sunday (dia 17). On Wednesday we taught another fairly new investigator and marked him for dia 30...so everything seemed great! Then Wednesday night when we taught someone that was marked, he said that he had to go out of town for family...In our mission there is a big focus on receiving revelation for the exact day that someone should be baptized, and that that particular day is the will of God for that individual. So to say that you´ll be out of town on the day that you´re marked for baptism is a big thing...we tried to explain this to him, to talk about what God wants him to do, but in the end he felt that it would be okay to be baptized this next weekend...we´ll see how things pan out. But that was a little (lot!) frustrating.

The next day we got a call from our other marked investigator, saying that she has to be out of town for work this weekend.....talk about frustrating! We still have hope for them, but its frustrating when everything is being thrown in the way of baptism..but thats the way this work is. It really is a guerra (war)...and we are on the front lines!

So besides the frustrating of cancellations, it was a good week. We had a Zone Meeting where we talked more about the focus of the new mission curriculum, which was good. Yesterday we had stake conference, which was good. President Torgan talked, and I loved his talk (obviously...) He talked about the importance of baptism to access the power of the atonement, and about the blessings that we receive immediately depois baptism...principally the gifts of the spirit. He speaks really well (since he´s a politician), but speaks with the spirit that gives so much power to his words...its incredible!

I´ve been reading recently in Alma, about the missions of Alma, Amuluque, and the sons of Mosias. They are such incredible examples, I love reading about their experiences. I read today about when the sons of mosias left on their mission, praying and fasting in the wilderness on the way to the Lamanites. The spirit filled them with courage, which I thought interesting. All of us are asked to do hard things, but when we seek the assistance of the Lord, He will give us the courage and power that we need to fulfill what is asked of us. The Lord really qualifies whom He calls! Which is always a big reassurance :)

For last PD we went to the aquariam, it was cool, but not awesome. By the River Tejo in Vasco de Gama; Irmã Perez e eu

Thanks to those of you who sent pictures...the wedding looks like it was beautiful and happy, as it should be :D But that sure is sad that Dave and Liz got stuck in Chicago!

This week was good here- a lot of work. But we saw miracles happen, which is always gratifying! On Monday night we got a call from other missionaries with a reference from a member. We called her that night, and it just happened that the next day was her day off. She is amazing and is looking for the truth- another person prepared by God to receive the restored gospel! The lesson with her was great, with such a strong spirit. We taught her again a couple times during the week, and she has been amazing. She went to church yesterday and loved it, and is marked for baptism. I feel so blessed in the people that I have gotten to know here- there are so many people that have had different experiences that have prepared them to recognize and receive the truth, and their lives change and improve so much- I love it!!!!!!!!!!!! We also found some other investigators this week that have progressed that I would never have thought the first time that we met them that they would even be interested. That just shows me how we really can never judge the heart of a person, but only God knows who has been prepared. But it was a good week :)

You can tell that winter is coming here- it rained every day this week! I still need to buy a new unbrella (mine broke with the wind and rain last winter), but it´s weird to see that the time and season really is changing...but it´s nice when more people stay at home during the winter and the rain, so its easier to find them :P

Wasn´t conference incredible?! I couldn´t believe it when I heard that a temple had been announced. We were in the mission office trying to get the internet to work so we could watch it in English, when one of the assistants got a call, started to go crazy and ran to the chapel next door. When we got there, we heard that there will be a temple built in Portugal Lisboa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The members were all going crazy- calling people, laughing, crying....it was amazing to be here. We talk a lot in the mission about how our goal is to prepare Portugal so that one day it will have a temple, and now we know that day has come! It was a lot of emotions as a missionary, and incredible to see the reactions of the members- the people here have longed for a temple, and they became so grateful when the announcement came. After that session of conference there was an impromptu testimony and prayer of gratitude in the name of all, and it was really special. Especially because I am in the Lisboa stake, which was the first in Portugal and where the temple will be built (well, in Lisboa somewhere). But there will be a temple here!!!!! It made be even more grateful for the blessings of the fulness of the gospel that are becoming more available to all.

So besides conference, this week was good. We had a baptism on Sunday right after the Preisthood Session was shown here! He went to temple square a year ago, visited all the sites and heard ´´Music and the Spoken Word´´ and was really touched. He spent the next year trying to call the church here, but never succeeded in making contact. He returned to temple square about a month ago, and gave his information as a reference. When we got it a couple weeks ago, we knew that he was golden! It has been a really great experience teaching him- it´s interesting to see how someone can know its true without even knowing what it is or exactly what it means! But as he came to better understand the doctrine of the gospel, everything made even more sense. It really is a privilege to know and be able to teach him. He asked me on Saturday what the best experience of my life has been (thats not a difficult or loaded question!). But what I answered is really how I feel- the mission. It´s not always (or ever!) easy and not always ´fun´, but it has definately been the best experience- to deepen my own testimony and understanding of God, His love for me, and the gospel, and to be able to share that with others, and seeing the huge changes that the gospel can make in all of our lives. I just want the time to stop speeding by!

I really liked conference- I can´t wait for the conference ensign to come out! I really liked a lot of talks, but one that I especially liked was by Elder Eyring on Sunday, about trusting in the Lord. As I reviewed my notes from conference today, I was thinking about this talk, and what we can gain or how we can be~benefitted by trusting in the Lord. Clearly there are an infinity of ways that we are blessed, but in my studies I found a couple scriptures that I really liked. In Mosiah 23:22, it says that those who trust in the Lord will be lifted up in the last day- what better eternal promise can we have than this? But, there are also more immediate ways that we are blessed- I love a few verses from Alma, who talks about the experiences f his life. In Alma 36 when he is talking to his son, he says how trust in the Lord has helped him- in verse 3 that those who trust in the Lord will be helped in their tribulations, trials, and difficulties...I love that promise. He also talks about the difficulties in his missions, and that although he was cast into prison and worse, he always put his trust in the Lord and the Lord continually freed him. I know there are a myriad of examples, but I love the promised blessings that we receive when we trust in the Lord. To trust Him we have to know Him, and how can a man know the master who is far from the thoughts and intents of his heart? (Mosiah5:13) There is a direct link between our thoughts and desires, our actions, and our trust in the Lord...I´m sure you can all think on a level far deeper than me, so I´ll leave my thoughts there!