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.