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.