Oh, those windy days when the internet goes down... :)

It's a little windy here in Leiria... kind of like in Idaho. :) The internet had some serious problems though and went down a couple of times. Everytime the internet goes down I always just start praying that we'll be able to have enough internet to write our weekly letters to Presidente Amorim and put in our numbers. The other thing I pray for is that if I don't get time that Heavenly Father will just inpsire Mom and Dad to know that I'm still alive and happy... just too lazy to go and find another computer. :D If I don't get to email the family I'm fine. I know that you all are okay, but if I don't get a letter sent to Presidente Amorim I start to panic and twitch.

So... that whole little explanation up top is to make a lame excuse for why I don't have a great email this week. :) But hey, I'm sending a million pictures and pictures are worth a thousand words so that's better than the longest email in the world... right? ;)

This week we were out working in Quinta do Alçada and I found a magnolia tree so we stopped for about 10 minutes because I was having a horticulture attack.... and I took lots of pictures.... so that's why I have such a cute foto of Síster Lyman.

The other picture is of a picture Élder Orozco drew a little while ago. He was drawing cartoons of all our district members and apparently I'm a big scary shark that's going to eat the elderes... you just can't see that the shark is trying to eat them. I think he's probably got it right. :)

Anyway, on to serious stuff....

We are still teaching Neuza. She's amazing and so sweet and she has the beginnings of an incredible testimony. She's going to move to Luxembourg in June so we're working and fasting to try and help her get baptized before she moves there because she doesn't speak French or German and she needs to be taught the gospel in her own language. Obviously the Spirit doesn't have language barriers but everyone deserves the chance to hear the gospel in their native tongue. 

Izarete didn't come to church yesterday even though he had everything ready and he was planning on getting there early. We haven't been able to get in touch with him yet. We're going to try to find him tonight and if he was just sleeping in, we're going to call him to repentance, but if there was an emergency we're going to explain about why his baptism has to be rescheduled. I was really frustrated this morning with Izarete this morning during studies... so we did practices on how to call him to repentance with love. :) I think I figured it out and the Assistentes ao Presidente Amorim gave us really good directions on what we need to do. Élder McGhie and Élder Roberts are the best. 

I'm out of time, but I love you all. The biggest lesson I learned this week is that if you can love people you can make the biggest difference in their lives. Seeing people the way Heavenly Father sees them is what helps you to know how to help them, and how to help them come to know their Heavenly Father again. He loves all His children and He wants us to love them too. We had several experiences this week where we were told by people (including the elderes) that we've made big differences in their lives just by loving them even though they make mistakes and are not perfect. Heavenly Father keeps on loving us and helps us choose to be better just by leading us by love. 

Eu amo vos! <3

Síster Smith