A mission is crazy... super, super crazy!

This week was so crazy! My first transfer was crazy and I still haven't met my companion, but I'll be really quick and I'll tell you as many stories as I possibly can.

So, Sister Hirschi went to a surprise mission conference in Lisboa and I stayed with the sisters in Coimbra... de novo mas foi bom. I love Sister Donahoo and Sister Mancuso. On Wednesday we had a zone conference and it was so great. It was so nice to get back in our area though.

I learned that an umbrella doesn't do much good when there is wind. We walked to Helder e Lidia's house in the rain and when we got there we were soaked... I've never been so wet in my life. It was so much fun though.

Cray miracle that happened is that we got special permission from President Fluckiger to have Rute baptized on Saturday. It's a rule here that they need to go to church at least twice, but we were having this impression that she needed to be baptized on Saturday instead of Sunday after church. We called Rute and the Bishop and then we called President Fluckiger. President Fluckiger listened to us talk about Rute and then he gave us permission to have her be baptized on Saturday. It was so crazy. There were so many things going wrong. The font wouldn't fill up and the elders had to get in the water to try and get the plug to stay in, but eventually they got it figured out and the font filled up in 45 minutes! This font takes several hours to fill up so it was literally a miracle. After Rute was baptized she just told us "I feel so good!" It was so cool to see someone from the beginning and then all the way up to baptism. She is so elect. She cam prepared and all we did was invite her to make the covenants. Heavenly Father knows who he wants in His church, and He'll lead them to the missionaries!

We got transfer calls Sunday night. My district leader, Elder Madsen, got transferred to the Algarve and he's a new zone leader down there. Elder Poston's new companion is Elder Ruggers.

My new companion is Sister Bender. I've talked with her on the phone but I haven't met her. She was supposed to get here today at 2:30 pm, but something happened and now she won't be getting here until 5:30 so I'm trading off with several different members today.

Sister Hirschi left for Lisboa at 11:15 and I got told that I needed to go back to my house alone and wait there until the elders came. Thank goodness our apartment is literally across the street from the bus station. It's the weirdest feeling being alone as a missionary and luckily it was only for an hour in our apartment, but I didn't feel comfortable until after I said a prayer. After I said a prayer I suddenly didn't feel alone. This huge peaceful feeling came and I knew that I was going to be kept safe and that I'd be able to find members to stay with. The elders came and got me an hour later and we went up to the chapel to wait for a sister from their ward. None of the sisters in my ward are off of work until this afternoon, so I'll be hanging out with Gisa for a few more hours.

I didn't want to say goodbye to Sister Hirschi, but I'm ust so grateful for the time I had with her. She was so amazing and she helped me so much.

I don't have more time, but I love you all and I love getting all your emails. Keep doing the good little things every day and you'll find that things are better.

Sister Smith