Time is a weird thing...

It feels like it's been months instead of one week, but it's been one
of the best weeks of my mission. Sister McCall and I just work and
work and work. It's so nice to just go out and work hard all day every
day, and at the end of the day to just fall into bed knowing that you
did everything you were supposed to do. I love Sister McCall. She's
nothing like me, but somehow we clicked right in the beginning and we
work really well together. We both just want to work hard and find
people who are ready to hear the gospel. Our personalities are very
different but we have the same goals and we're not afraid of doing
what's been asked of us. It will be a really easy transfer
companionship-wise, but we're determined to baptize this transfer so
we're working so hard every day. (Random note for Mom: She knows
Richard and Juneve's family. They used to be in the same ward in
Kentucky. I was telling a story and I mentioned the name "Stolworthy"
and she started listing the Stolworthy's that she knows... so yeah...
Sister McCall knows my relatives).

Missionaries are not very good at keeping records... our two area
books are scary. They're just really messy so Sister McCall and I
started going through the area books to start trying to clean them up.
Turns out Heavenly Father had a lot of old investigators waiting for
us. We have found quite a few people this week who we're going to
start teaching. We've discovered that lots of the phone numbers don't
work anymore or they don't live at the addresses that are written on
the registros so we have a big funeral pile of old registros, but we
also have lots of references to pass on to the missionaries in other
areas. Last night we knocked on a door to see if an old investigator
lived there, but it turns out that now she lives in Angola and her
brother-in-law is living in her apartment. We started talking to him
and he was really open to what we had to say. We asked him if we could
come back another day to talk some more about how the church of Jesus
Christ was restored to the earth and right away he said, "Yeah you can
come back tomorrow." We gave him a pamphlet about the Restoration and
invited him to read it and pray about it. We also talked to an old
lady in the street who was not very nice. She was telling us lots of
stuff that she "knew" about the "Mormon church" but it was really
weird stuff like "I know you have pastors on tv that you show every
week in church ... etc.... etc...". she wasn't really listening to
anything that we said, but then we asked her if we could say a prayer
with her. She agreed as long as we only gave thanks for things instead
of asking for blessings. After the prayer she was a lot calmer and a
lot nicer. We gave her a pamphlet about the Plan of Salvation and
invited her to read it, and then we marked an appointment to meet at
her house and talk some more with her. About an hour later, we were
walking in the same area and we saw her sitting on a bench reading the
pamphlet. Miracle! Sometimes you never know who's ready to hear the
gospel and you just have to open your mouth and talk to everyone....
no really... EVERYONE.

Today we wanted to go to Cristo Rei but the weather turned and it's
raining sideways because of the wind. So we're just going to buy
groceries and stay in our apartment today. Sister McCall and I started
a "40 Day Fast" so for 40 days we're not speaking any English except
for on Mother's Day. I bet I will be learning a lot more Portuguese a
lot quicker now. May 3 was Mother's Day here in Portugal, but nothing
really big happened. Our ward mission leader got married this week so
we didn't have any meetings with him. They got married and then went
up to Spain to be sealed in the temple.

There's really not much else going on here. We're just working hard
and trying to find people to baptize. I have my first cavity, so
Sister McCall and I have to go to the dentist at some point but first
we have to find a dentist.... and if we're lucky we'll find one who
uses novocaine on his patients. Yeah... not much else. Not the best
email this week, but I promise it really was a great week. We had lots
of little miracles and lots of blessings all week long. I'm learning a
lot about not giving up and just continuing to work even when we're
not seeing the results right away.

The Church is true and I love you all! I'm excited to skype on
Mother's Day next week!

Sister Smith

P.S. The picture is me and Sister McCall.