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!