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.