Well, this is the last time! I think you all already know that I´m sad, so I´ll try to be upbeat!! But this last week was truly amazing, full of miracles, and we had three baptisms!!!! Max and Shirley, the kids that ´we´ve been working with were baptized, as well as Sérgio, whose whole story is a miracle of how we found and marked him. The elders here had a baptism too, so we had four in one! :D It was amazing, and such a great way to end.

I don´t have much time (and there´s never enough time to tell everything), but I just want to say how thankful I am for this chance to serve a mission, and here in Portugal. Yesterday I spoke in sacrament meeting about Joy, and it really is amazing to me how that is our purpose here, and how the gospel brings the fullest, most complete joy for us. Although there are difficulties and struggles in the mission, I have learned how to love everyday, and to enjoy the adversities, becuase it always means that a miracle is coming! I know that this truly is the work of the Lord, and that we are helping others to come unto Christ so that they also may have the benefits of the atonement in their lives. I know that this is the true and living church of God, restored and led by living prophets. We can know this for ourselves through the Book of Mormon, whcih helps us to come unto Christ and learn the path that returns to our Heavenly Father. I know that this is what leads to true and fulfilling happiness and joy. I am so grateful to have this light in my life and to have shared it with some, and hope to continue sharing it with all that I meet! I love the people here in Portugal with all of my heart, and am grateful for the privilege to know and serve them. Thank you for your support- I love all of you as well. My motto for this transfer has been 2nd Timothy 4:7 ´´I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith´´. I hope that we can all say at the last day before Jesus Christ!

Well, one more week sped by and we´re already approaching April! Every time I look at the calendar (that´s every day with planning!) I get scared :P But this last week was a good one.

On Saturday we had the baptism of Alberto, who we had marked the week before. He´s older (about 60), but he´s such a good-hearted and happy-go-lucky guy, it was awesome to see him in white! And Walkidi, who was baptized in December, preformed his first baptism, which was soo awesome to see :D I love them both so much, and it was a really good experience, although not many members came to support him, which is always frustrating...but step by step we´ll get where we want to be! But it was a great week to see Alberto progressing and really applying the principles of the gospel! I love seeing the changes in people as they learn and live the gospel.

This week we also marked two girls for baptism this next Sunday...I love this family. It´s a single mom with 4 kids, from Cabo Verde, and they are so amazing! The mom doesn´t have much time to meet with us, but reads the Book of Mormon on her commute to Lisboa. We´ve been teaching the two older kids (13 and 10) regularly, and I love them!! There is a 3yrold girl that talks the most I´ve ever met! And she talks like an adult...a lot better than our Portugues :P The three girls went to church yesterday, which was awesome. We also had some other miracles\blessing of people coming to church...

we´ve been teaching 2 kids (11 and 9) that are part of a huge family but only they have interest and time (the mom has interest but ALWAYS works...it´s amazing). We had already invited them to be baptized, but the mom wanted them to wait. So we´re trying to help them be more self-reliant and indepentant with the gospel...reading, going to church etc. So yesterday we had told them that they needed to go to church alone, that we couldn´t pick them up and go with them. They live about 20 minutes from the church, which is quite a hike for two little kids. BUT, they came alone!!!!!!!! I was so happy for them, because if they can manage to go to things alone they will be able to progress notwithstanding the support (or lack of) in their family. So that was a little miracle :)

Also, I was sitting at the piano playing the hymns when I saw two people walk in that were two investigators that I hadn´t talked to in a month! They came recently from Brasil and started working all the time (a common case here, mesmo). But yesterday they didn´t have work and came by themselves!! That was a miracle too, and a really good sign of genuine interest :) It´s interesting how we found them- we had contacted a family, and a few times later when we passed by these friends have just arrived from Brasil. The woman came to church the next Sunday...it´s cool how we find people through other people that we have contacted- there is a purpose for everything!

I am so excited for Conference this week!!!! It´s just a little sad because we don´t have as much time to work, but so worth it!! I love hearing the words of the living prophets, and the counsel and teaching that we need to apply especially now. I love that all of our questiosn can be answered :D It´s so amazing to me that we have living prophets, seers, and revelators that reveal the will and words of God to us! To know this is a huge blessing in my life that makes all the difference.

Well another week sped by...and today is transfers...and...I´m staying in Mem Martins! (my fourth transfer here, and I´m going to die here!). I wasn´t sure if I wanted to stay or go, so I´m happy to be staying. But my companion was switched to Almada, and another irmã- Irmã Thayer- will be coming here. I´m glad that at least something is changing...at times it´s rough when everything stays the same. But that´s the big news of the week.

This week was pretty normal, not much to report. One of the elders in our ward goes home today, so he was wayy trunky this week! It was funny to watch him and realized that it really will end one day! But there were a few highlights or interesting stories from the week...

We had lunch with a member that is an older woman, who is extremely quirky but so sweet...she laughs in every situation, and its contagious. So, as costume, we washed our hands in the bathroom before eating, and then were helping her ge everyhing to the table and organized. She went into the back of the house, and suddenly we heard this loud, nervous laugh. We went there to see what happened, and we had flooded the bathroom! The faucet didn´t turn off all the way, and the drain was clogged, and there was a solid inch of water on the floor! We grabbed a mop and a towel, and tried to pick up all the water. She was a really good sport about, just laughing and saying she shouldn´t have bothered cleanning the bathroom. But it was a really funny experience! :P

We found a family this week from Cabo Verde that is really neat. It´s a single mom with 4 kids, and they´re incredible. When we got there for our appointment, the kids were on a sofa eating dinner together! (not normal!) We had a really good lesson with them too...it was really neat.

So on Saturday, we weren´t sure if we would have daylight savings here or not. We knew it was in America, but no one here had any idea. So we called the Zone Leaders, and after a while they called back and said that it would be. But no one here knew it, so we still weren´t sure. So we woke up an hour early, but weren´t sure if we should go pick up our investigators an hour earlier or not, because no one knew. So we tried calling the ward leaders to see if they knew, but no one answered (a common problem here!). But finally we got ahold of one who said that it was not dayight savings. Later the ZLs called and said that the secretaries (who had said it was) were wrong...So basically we lost an hour of sleep and lots of stress of not knowing when church would start. Sometimes being cut off from the world can be hard!!!

Then, during church (which we managed to get out investigator to :) ), the Primary president called me out of Relief Soceity and said that two kids that had come to church had disappeared, and they didn´t know where they were! So, we went with two members of our bishopric to the house of one that lives just 5 minutes from the church, and they were there playing PSP. !!! So we left the one at his house and took the other one back to church....I never had investigator run out of church before!!!

But yeah, other than some interesting experiences, it was just another week. I heard about the tsunami in Japan from the members here- sounds like it was a huge disaster. Just another reminder that the day to prepare ourselves is today!!!! Hope you all have a great week!!!

Happy March! Today is my 17-month anniversary- crazy! Time flies so fast...there´s an elder in my district that´s going home next week...it´s so weird to think that that day actually comes!

But things are going good here...this week wasn´t as miraculous as last week, but we always need to learn patience and perseverance! We have a lot of people that we passed by a lot, but weren´t progressing, so we felt that we should drop them. It´s always hard and a little scary to drop people that you want to help, but that don´t really want to be helped. But I know that as we continue, we will find more of those who are prepared to be helped to attain salvation mesmo agora.

This Sunday we had Stake Conference, which was interesting. As usual, my favorite speaker was Presidente Torgan :D He spoke about the famous Portuguese explorers who defied the traditions and beliefs at the time and found new lands and riches. He applied this to the Portuguese latter-day saints, who are defying the traditions of the culture here to embrace the truth, and who are finding new opportunities, hope, and riches of eternity through the gospel of Jesus Christ. I am so thankful for the gospel of Jesus Christ- it is the most precious thing that I have, along with my family (love ya, btw!) :) Being here and spending all my time, thoughts, and energy on teaching the blessings of the gospel has helped me realize even more every day the endless blessings that we have. I love the scripture in D&C 6:7- rich is he who has eternal life- we really do have the greatest wealth that exists!

There was also a 70 from Germany that came and spoke- he was really interesting and amusing. He talked about optimism and balance in our lives. I honestly remember more of what he did than what he said, but what we need most is balance!

So, changing lanes, this last pday was incredible. A member of our ward (Roberto) offered to drive us to some of the main tourist spots close to us, and we got permission from President to go. It was so cool!!! We went to Boca de Inferno (hell´s mouth), which is a group of rocks on the sea that foam up and look like a mouth when there are lots of waves. We went to see a few beaches, and also went to Cabo de Roca, which is the farthest west point on the European continent!!!! This area of Sintra is sooo beautiful, and it was so neat to see the high-lights. It´s so much faster when you go by car! It was like 3 normal pdays in 1. I honestly love Portual so much...the scenery, history, the people. It´s so different, but I love it here. I´ll send pics from pday in another email.

wow, it seems like Spring is finally coming! I think we´re all excited, especially those in the snowstorms in Michigan! Good luck :)

This last week taught me a lot- at times it was rough, but I really felt the blessings of the Lord.

Last pday we went with our elders to Sintra, to the Quinta do Regaleira, which is a big old house with gardens that are AMAZINGLY cool- like underground caves and tunnels, towers, and just about everything you could wish for. It was the coolest ´´touristy´´ thing I´ve done here in Portugal. It was an awesome pday. At the end of pday our zone leaders called and said that our President and Assistants had prayed and they wanted to know yes\no if we would have a baptism this week. They asked us to pray and then call back with an answer, but if we said yes, we really had to baptise....(no pressure!). So we prayed and we felt that we would have a baptism, and basically we made a covenant that we would have a baptism this week. I´ve learned a lot about covenants and the power and blessings we have when we make covenants, but its a lot of pressure when you covenant with God that you will baptise someone! But I really felt that He would do His part as we did everything that we could...but there is always a trial of faith!

So this week we were really focused and really doing everything that we could. But the first couple days of the week were unusually rough- not finding new people, appointments falling through, and things just working out very well. I really felt that the Lord was teaching about humility- we could (and we were) doing everything that we could, but we cannot determine our own success. But it was really interesting- despite the difficulties that we were having, I could appreciate the lessons that we were learning in the moment, and I still really had faith that we would fulfill our covenant to have a baptism. And just like we always hear, the Lord fulfills his promises and after the trial of faith we will receive His blessings, and we did!

So we received the ´´call´´ on Monday, and we went 3 days without sucess in marking anyone. Remember that family that I talked about last week that I felt we should pass by and we found the daughter at home and she went to church? We had marked an appointment with her early in the week, but she had to leave to visit a relative and our appointment fell through. We tried to pass at other times, but she was never home (and she doesn´t have a phone). When we were on the way to visit someone else Thursday night, we saw her in the road and marked an appointment with her (no way it was coincidence to find her in that road at 9pm!). We had felt earlier in the week (after praying) that she was ready to be baptized, so in our lesson on Friday we invited her to be baptized on Sunday, and she accepted! It has been an amazing experience to teach her, becuase she is a perfect example of someone whose heart has been prepared by the Lord. She is so willing to learn, and recognizes the truth...we didn´t really have to do anything expect teach her, because the Lord had already done the rest. It was a HUGE miracle for us. She was baptised on Sunday after church, and it was such a special service, and I felt so happy for her, and for the changes that she is making. I feel so privileged that I had the opportunity to find and help her. It was so interesting how the Lord really showed us that it is NOT us that really do this work or bring conversion, but it is His work that is done in His way through th spirit. So even though it was a semana muito dura, it was so worth it for the things that I learned and the miracles that I saw.

We´re still teaching some other famies, and have lots of kids that come to church! We had a church activity on Saturday, and my companion was sitting with Dália (our baptism) and I was sitting with 5 kids ages 11, 9, 8,8, and 8- what a hand full! I want a family, but I want to spread it out a bit :P But I love teaching kids too, they´re so fun.

Well, one more week flew by! It honestly seems that every week passes by faster and faster...I need more TIME!! But this week was a good one.

An update on the flea situation :P - we got rid of them this last week washing and ´´bio-killing´´ everything in our house. Then my poor companion got 4 more bites during one day this week. But we don´t know if it is the same bugs or others...but we´ve gone a few days without anymore bites, so we´re hoping that´s a good sign!

Lately we´ve been finding and teaching lots of families, which is new for me and has been really fun. I love how kids are so willing to listen and learn, and they recognize the truth so easily. And they are actually excited to go to church!!! Yesterday we about doubled the size of our primary with the kids that we brought to church :) They´re really funny and so cute. We had a lesson about OLA (oração, leitura, assistir igreja) and we used mini glowsticks that my comp brought from the states. They don´t have them here, and the kids LOVED them! It´s so fun to teach families :D

The mission leads to lots of moments that you just have to laugh. Have I already mentioned that they have a LOT of dogs here? Yesterday we were walking and tracting on a road that had vivendas (stand alone houses instead of apartment buildings that are more common). There was a dog in the road in front of us, but I didn´t think much about it. My comp is REALLY scared of dogs, so she was a little reluctant to walk by. Suddenly we´re surrounded on both sides of the road by HUGE dogs that are in the yards of the houses on either side (like, St Bernard huge- like a pony!). There are about 5 dogs barking like crazy and growling at us, with one loose in the road! My comp ran away a little, so I found myself alone in the middle of all the dogs! We had to pass through to keep going in the road, so I went back to my comp and pushed\pulled her through the dogs to keep going, and the dog in the road was following and growling at us...finally I got him to leave us alone, but it was soo annoying! I never loved dogs but the mission has sealed a solid hate of dogs in my soul!!

The other day we were walking to an appointment when the heavens opened and we got sooo soaked. We had umbrellas, but with wind and literally rivers of water in the road, it doesn´t help much! When we got to the house, I was wringing out my skirt in the doorway before going in...we stayed wet the whole day, but thankfully eventually the sun came out :)

One of the challenges of the mish (and life!) is learning to be led by the spirit to know what and where to do and go. We had one neat experience this week that really showed how the Lord guides His work. A few months ago the primary had its presentation, and I played the piano. We had a practice on saturday, so we were in the chapel. My comp invited some kids from the street to come watch the practice, and they liked it. We saw the kids a few days later in the street with an adult and talked to them briefly, but didn´t get their contact info, and never saw them again. A couple weeks ago I contacted a woman in the street that was going to buy compras, that said we could pass by her house another day. We passed by a few times, but no one was ever home. This last week while on the way to another appointment that passed by the house, I felt that we should try again. We knocked, and one of the daughters was home and talked to us, and told us that the two younger kids had already gone to our church once and always talked about the church when they passed the chapel- it was the same family that we had seen that one time! We went back the next day and met some other members of the family, and they went to church yesterday with us. It was just so cool to see how we were guided to find this one family- what is the chance that we would contact the mom of these kids in the street and find them again? It´s always neat when things like that happen.

Well, one more week has speeded by! This week was good- we taught a lot and I like working with my new comp a lot. We just need to strengthen our area and help our investigators to progress more. I am really coming to love the ward and the people here in Mem Martins...it´s weird to think that I might end my mission here (thanks for all the trunky emails, by the way :P )

But really, it hits me more every day how grateful I am for the opportunity that I have had to be here, and all the things that I have learned. I really feel that what King Benjamin said in the beginning of Mosias is so true about unprofitable servants. We may obey and do everything that we can to serve the Lord, but He will recompensate us so much more than the little that we have given! Truly the lord turns little sacrifices into great blessings. When we were doing our weekly planning, we started a new agenda because of a new transfer. I was filling in all the dates, and this trasnfer goes until the middle of March! I felt like i wanted to cry when I was looking at the yearly calendar and seeing how little time is left. I love you all, but I don´t want to come home!! I´m glad that I still have 3 long months left to be here, and do my best to help the people here.

This week we had a zone meeting that was really good. One of the scriptures that we read that I really liked was in Doctrine and Covenants, section 33, or roundabout. It talks about how we should open our mouths and it will be filled by the Spirit, like Nephi experienced, and that we will have many sheaves upon our backs (or something like that translation). I had read it recently and really liked those verses, but they asked a question that I hadn´t thought of- why Nephi was used as an example of opening his mouth. One reason I thought of is of what Nephi taught his brothers- basically repentance and trust in the Lord. How many times did they refuse to follow the counsels of the Lord, and didn´t even want to understand His way? Also, it was interesting to think of how Nephi was the youngest brother. He had to teach and chastise and call to repentance those that should have been the examples. Especially as a young missionary, you feel that way a lot as well. Here we are, more or less 20 years old, teaching so many people and families that have a lot of experience in the ´world´, but that need to be called to repentance. At times (a lot!) you feel weak, young, and inadequate, but it is by the weak things of the world that the Lord confounds the wise and brings about His purposes. A lot of times I may be more like Laman or Lemuel, but I want to be like Nephi! I was reading about Captain Moroni today as well, when he lifted the Title of Liberty. What power and courage he had! I want to have the same power in defending the truths of the Lord.

There are always interesting stories that come when you tract, but there were a couple of sad instances this week. We ran into multiple people who basically said the same thing- they didn´t know if what they knew or believed was true, but it was what they were used to and didn´t want to know the truth. When we flat out asked if they would like to know the truth for themselves, they said no. That made me really sad that there are people who aren´t even interested in the truth, but just content to stick to the statis quo. That just means that we as misssionaries and members need to find those who have been prepared by the Lord, that are looking for the truth. I know they exist everywhere- we just have to open our eyes to see them