Well, we´re hitting the end of January! After a couple of spring-like days the cold, wind, and rain returned with a vengeance! I never knew that you could put on so many layers of clothing ;) Usually I use 2 pairs of pants (leggings), under my skirt with boots, and 2-3 jackets under my coat and scarf...it takes 10 minutes just to get all the layers on before leaving the house!! :P

This week was good overall. We had a baptism yesterday of a girl that´s nine years-old. Her parent aren´t members, but she has two brothers that are members, one serving a mission in Porto. We started teaching her a few months ago, but in the end she didn´t have a lot of desire to be baptized. We decided recently to start teaching her again, and it was interesting to see the difference, and how the Lord prepares the hearts of His children. She really wanted to be baptized, and it was neat that her brother was able to baptize her (he´s a priest). It took him three times, but he did a good job!

We´ve also started teaching a mom and her teenage daughter, and they´re amazing. We contacted them a few weeks ago, but after several missed connections we finally began teaching them last week. The first lesson was really good, and they came to church (which is always a higlight :D )I´m really excited for them and hope they continue to progress.

It´s funny how we receive so many blessings, and how at times the Lord answers prayers before we even think of them. On Saturday we had to pay our gas bill, which we had meant to do during the week but never had time or were close to the place. We got there on Saturday at 12:35, to see the sign that says they close at 12:30. We didn´t know what to do since it was the last day to pay the bill. So while we´re standing there thinking and debating what to do, a woman comes up, and entering asked what we needed. We showed the bill we needed to pay, and she helped us so that we could pay the bill even though the system had already been shut down. What a BLESSING! It´s amazing how the Lord knows even the little things that we need...

At the beginning of the month, our President talked about the value of our message and the truths that we teach (see D&C 6:7). He grabbed a backpack and asked who we know that needs 2000 euros...what we have is worth even more. So following this method, we have had a few lessons of ´´2000 euros´´, where we ask members who they know that needs 2000 euros....which has led to some intresting situations!!!!! We asked one member who he knew that needed 2000 euros, if someone he knew had had a baby, a death, or other event or problem recently. He then started to recount how his son had died last year, but he hadn´t told anyone in the church, about the problems he has....basically pointing to himself. When we pulled out the ´´´2000 euros´´ (aka the Book of Mormon), he just started to laugh. Similar things have happened with other members...funny how it is human nature to think of ourselves! But I know that we really do have the greatest wealth, which is the truth. We have hope to achieve eternal life, which is the greatest gift that we could ever receive.

sorry this email is random and scattered...but sometimes thats kinda the way life is!! I hope you have a great week and remember I love ya. :D

Irmã Geiger

PS- Who do YOU know that needs 2000 euros?!

I know I say it every week, but I can´t believe its pday again. The days fly by here...this last week was just normal. We´ve found a lot of new investigators, which is good, but a lot of our return appointments fell through, which is always sad and frustrating. But we found one family that was taught and went to church about 4 years ago, and they have a friend who is a member who talked a lot with them when they visited Switzerland one time. The mom went to church and loved it, and I´m excited to hopefully see them progress.

This week in our district meeting the zone leaders had given us some scriptures to read about santification (? santificação). I love reading and learning about this topic, because really this is our purpose here- to become sanctified. One of my favorite scriptures is Helaman 3:35, where the members of the chuch fasted and prayed, and became sanctified as they gave their hearts to the Lord. Oftentimes we talk about the sanctifying power of the holy ghost- I really like Alma 13:11-12 that talks about this power. There are a lot more scriptures that I found and like, but I´ll leave it to you to find more!

This Christmas was a REALLY good one. On Christmas eve we arranged with another pair of Elders to sing Christmas songs in the street by the train station, and we were joined by a couple of recent converts (and one soon-to-be). We sang in the street for about 45 minutes. I have to admit I was a little apprehensive to just start singing in the middle of the street, but when we started it was soo fun. Some people stopped or at least slowed down when they passed, and it was good to be able to smile and sing joyfully of the birth of Christ!! After that, we went around and sang at the house of some investgators and did some door contacts singing. It was fun even in the cold rain without umbrellas :P

On Christmas we woke up early (like always!) and traded our presents, and then we read in the scriptures about the birth of Christ (the traditional scriptures that Dad always leads us in). After that we opened presents and made a table of presents :) Thanks for all the love and thoughts- I loved everything that I got. Then I made homemade hot chocolate like Debbie!! I finally found evaporated milk here because of the holiday- they don´t normally have it. We had lunch with a member family and than went to the chapel to prep for the baptism and talk with family!!

The baptism went really well. We had about 12 people there, which considering it was Christmas, wasn´t too bad. Because of what happened last week with the freezing water and the cold outside, we only used hot water to fill the font. At the end it was really warm!! They complained about it being too hot, but hey, its better than getting hypothermia!! It was a really good day :)

Feliz Natal! I can´t believe that Santa Claus is coming this week :D Are you all prepared and excited?!

This last week was a good one. On pday after writing we went to Sinta and visited Castelo dos Mouros- it was really neat and has a great view of Sintra and Mem Martins. I´ll send photos in another email :)

This week we worked a lot with Orlando to prepare him for his baptism on Sunday. Everything went well except for the fact that we didn´t have hot water. For some reason, both of the heaters for the baptismal font weren´t working. So we asked him if he wanted to postpone for another day to fix the heaters or be baptized in COLD water- he was really brave and said that he didn´t want to delay his baptism. So we went ahead and had the baptism. An elder in our ward baptised him, and oh, the look on his face when he entered the water! I hadn´t thought until than that we asked Orlando if he wanted to be baptized, but we didn´t ask the elder if he was willing to baptize in the freezing water! :) But he courageously fulfilled his duty. When Orlando came up out of the water he gave a huge gasp of shock....I thought we had killed our investigator!!! But afterwards Orlando was really happy and said it was a good experience (in spite of the cold!)

We also have another investigator that´s going to be baptized on Christmas!He´s an awesome investigator who reads, studies, goes to church, and is really serious to understand the gospel. He´s been praying and received his answer that this is what is right for him to do, which is so awesome! He´s the brother of a recent convert, and it´s been so neat to see how excited he is for his brother to be learning and accepting the gospel. Especially considering that their parents are JWs, they are really firm.

On Friday we had our ward Christmas party. The ward mission leader was also doing the decorations and asked the misionaries to help him paint a sleigh and reindeer that he made from styrafoam. We spent 5 HOURS painting the thing!! Then we had to leave the party before it came out because the party went really late. Then when we saw it the next day, and had been torn! That´s a little frustrating considering how much time we spent painting it, but, service is service. The ward party was fun- dinner and then a concert by the youth who are learning piano in the ward.

We had a lesson the other day with a recent convert about repentance that was interesting. He understands the concepts of repentance, but feels that he hasn´t felt the change of repentance, or the ´´sorrow´´ or weight of repentance. It made me think of a talk I read recently by Elder Eyring, where he talked about repentance and conversion, and how they are implicit in one another. It was interesting to talk with him about the reason of repentance- sometimes we repent or regret something just becuase of the consequences that it brought, and not necessarily that we disobeyed or displeased God. One is an external force that may change our actions, but doesn´t change our heart or desires. They other is a change that starts from the inside- our love of God and desire to obey and please him. As we feel the weight of acting contrary to this, our heart and our desires will change, which will thus bring a permanent change in our behaviour. Repentance is something that I am constantly learning more and more about, and I am so grateful for the opporutinity that we have to repent!

On a less serious note, I hope that you all have a great week until Christmas!

Well, we´re officially in the holiday season, with less than 3 weeks
until Christmas :D

This last week flew by, as has been the custom lately. We had two
baptisms planned for Satruday that didn´t happen, but I think
everything happened for the best.
The cousin of our most recent-convert, has been progressing bastante
(I don´t know how to convey that meaning in english). He is 60+, and
lives alone. He went to the baptism and confirmation of Mizé, and
liked it a lot. One big problem was smoking- he´s smokedaround 12
cigarretes a day for 39 years. We talked about the WoW this week ( and
he already knew he needed to stop). But it was amazing for me to talk
with him about this problem and addiciton that he knows and wants to
stop. He even started to cry during our lesson, talking about how hard
it is. I had never comprehended well until that moment truly the
anguish and suffering that an addicition can cause. But I know that
the gospel of Jesus Christ and His sacrifice can relieve that
suffering. That very night, Orlando stopped smoking, and he hasn´t
smoked since!!! It´s been amazing to see the difference in his life
and countenance.

This week was pretty mcuh full of normal stuff. Yesterday it rained
like nothing else. It was pretty mcuh pointless to have an umbrella!
The streets turn into rivers here, and both my coat and skirt were
literally dripping water when we got home, and my shoes full of mud.
But it was a good day! I love missionary work and I love being here!

wow, another week has flown by and now we´re almost in december! Christmas is definately in the air here! This week was a good one :)

We finally had a zone conference with President Torgan. They came out with a new curriculum for all the missions in September, I think, and in the new curriculum we only have interviews and zone conference every three months, instead of every transfer. So it feels like forever since we had had a zone conference with President. He talked about how we can open our eyes (spiritually of course) and gave us a step by step process of conversion- for us and also for our inveestigators. Desire, which comes from our testimony, leads to obedience. From that comes faith and repentance- feeling the remorse of sin and changing. As we make and keep convenants, we have the company of the spirit, which gives us spiritual power. As we act with power and open our hearts we will be able to open our eyes as well, and be truly converted. It was really interesting everything that we talked about, and the scriptures he shared. I don´t have my notes with me to give the scriptural references, but you can study them out and find them :) But the conference was good.

On Thursday was Thanksgiving! Our ward is all brasileiros that don´t do anything for thanksgiving, so we didn´t have any invites to eat with members. So, us and the elders in our ward had our own thanksgiving lunch. They actually made (and bought) almost everything, which was really impressive! We had chicken, mashed potatoes, stuffing (it was real homemade stuffing!) and rolls...not too shabby! It was fun to celebrate, even if it was just us. I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving as well.

On Saturday we had a baptism- Maria José, who´s an older Portuguesa. She started to learn about the church a year ago, but decided not to be baptised. The irmãs had just started teaching her again right before I got here. Whats neat is that one of the elders who started teaching her a year ago returned to this area for his last transfer right now before he goes home. So he got to baptize her. She was really excited when he returned, and it is so neat to see that really each of us has a purpose in being where we are! We´re teaching another friend of her´s that will be baptized this next Saturday, and also her cousin. She´s really great :) The baptism was really special and had a sweet spirit.

So, those are the highlights of the week...I can´t believe that we´re almost in December, before you know it Christmas will have already passed! So we just have to take advantage of every day that we have :D Hope you all have a great week and remember I love you!

Love,

Irmã Geiger

ps- to any who are planning to send packages\cards or something- the mission christmas party is on December 21 and is when we will get all the stuff that is sent to the mission office. It normally takes 8-10 days for things to get here, so it would be a good idea to send items in the next two weeks :D

Wow, I can honestly not believe that I´m already writing again! Time
is flying by so quickly.

This last week nothing unusual really happened. The ward members here
like to feed us, which is nice of them, but I feel that we lose a LOT
of time by having a lunch with members every day. It´s hard to be
charitable and grateful sometimes! But I just need to get better...

This week we continued to work with two women who are preparing to be
baptized this Saturday. One of them has been investigating the church
for a year, and finally decided to act and get baptized. The other
lady is her friend, that has a lot of drama in her life (divorce,
daughter with depression...) a lot of problems in the family. Trying
to help them both with their problems has made me so grateful for my
relative problem-free life!! Also there is an investigator and a
member here who are both facing the problems and drama caused by
breaking the law of chastity. I am so grateful for the commandments!!!
It is soo obvious why they are so important when you see the suffering
and problems caused in the lives of those who break them. Truly they
make us free.

So, are you all looking forward to Thanksgiving? There´s no
thanksgiving here- just another normal day. Everyone is already
getting ready for Christmas! There are lights in the streets and all
the holiday decorations in the stores :) It almost makes it worth
being cold...

Not really much that is noteworthy has happened...I finished the Book
of Mormon again today :) It´s interesting that I never noticed how
much it talks about the ministery of angels at the end...In Morôni 7
he talks about the ministry of angels to men- that they manifest them
to those who have a vigorous faith and a mind firm in sanctity (vs
30), and of the importance of this ministry to prepare the way and
fulfill the covenants of the Lord. I had never noticed before that one
gift of the spirit is to see angels and ministrating spirits (10:14).
How neat! I decided that I would like to develop this spritual
gift...so we´ll see how that goes! But it was just something that
stuck out that I have never really thought before.

I hope you all have a great week and a great Thanksgiving! Eats lots
of turkey for me, and cornmeal rolls :D