fotos

We went and explored Porto for p-day today. We just got off the metro stop at Trindade and we walked for three hours. It was a lot of fun. :) We got a little lost but it was really fun and we saw a lot of cool things. We walked from Trindade down the Avenida dos Alíados and then we walked up to the Torre dos Clerigos and then we explored some parks. It was fun. In one of the parks there was this statue of drunks guys pushing their friend down and some random Português guy came and asked us if we wanted a picture with it. The nice little old man took our picture with the goofy statue. In that same park there were really, really, REALLY big old trees and they made me happy. :)

P.S. I bought post cards!!! I'll send them this week.

Hooray for email time! :)

Guess what família?! There weren't any computers open at the library, so we're at the capela and I don't have tons of time. :D Que bom. Vida boa. Mas eu vou mandar fotos desta semana e só contar algumas histórias engraçadas desta semana. :) I will send more fotos in other emails.

 This week we had our big activity for the "Conheça os Mórmons" movie night. We spent the whole week literally talking to EVERYBODY!!! It was fun, and I made a discovery that even if we don't get big numbers and the elders tell us that they don't think we're working hard, when we are actually giving everything we've got we're happy and we feel that Heavenly Father is happy with us too. It was a good week. On Saturday we had a big activity in the road with all the members. We were at the metro stop at Santo Ovidio for a couple of hours and we had posters and we were singing hymns and literally talking to everybody on the road. It was a lot of fun. We were split up in groups through Gaia and I was with a bunch of missionaries from Porto. Sister Runyan was in a different group with missionaries from another part of Gaia. It was fun. In the end the only investigators we had at the filme were Gabriel and Carlos. Gabriel really liked it and he said he almost cried until he looked over and saw me and Sister Runyan crying. :) We're sisters. We cry during church movies. :)

This week we are going Menos Ativo hunting and we're discovering that lots of the members on our list of members don't actually live here anymore. It givs us lots of opportunities though to find new people. It's good. 

I don't have time... I am super sorry. It's the library's fault, but I have lots of good pictures to send. Remember to prepare for General Conference and prepare to receive new guidance on what we need to be doing. :) Hooray for modern profetas! I heard about Elder Scott on Saturday, and while I was a little sad I just felt that Heavenly Father already had the new apostles prepared and that He is in charge of everything. He made the plan and his plan can't be stopped. He is in charge of everything, and we just have to trust in Him. 

I love you all!

Sister Smith

Harry Potter has come to Porto... :)

School has started... and that means that all the university students are all walking around in their "Harry Potter" robes. Basically, it brings a little bit more sunshine into our lives every time we see someone in those robes. :) We're odd... we know, but at least we're happy! :) Today for p-day we went to Porto. We took the metro from João de Deus up to the stop in Combatentes and then we walked to the mission office to drop off a coat for Sister Pereira. She left her coat here in Gaia when she got transferred, so we took it up to the mission office for her. We talked to Sister Ransom in the office for a few minutes, and then we got back on the metro at Combatentes and went to Trindade. At Trindade we switched metro lines and we went up to the stop in Sete Bicas in the Porto Norte Zone. We got off there and then we walked to the mall called Norte Shopping. We went to see if they had any fall and winter stuff, but they didn't really have anything. We didn't get a ton done but we did get out of the house this p-day. We went and explored Porto a little bit so it was a good day. We got our groceries done in the morning and then we just wandered around. It was pretty nice.

This last week we spent a good amount of time in the house. The weather was ridiculous and Sister Marinho told me that I wasn't allowed to go out in the rain because she didn't want me to catch pneumonia (the way they say "pneumonia" in Português is so cool). On Tuesday the weather was so bad that the elders were soaked completely... we were pretty dry. :) Wednesday was rainy for part of the day but then in the afternoon it stopped and we went out and worked and then went to our Reunião de Correlação with the ward mission leader and the ward missionaries. After the meeting Xeca was walking with us and this guy named Carlos came up and started asking for money but once we said that we were missionaries he got really upset and stormed off. He knew we weren't going to give him any money so he didn't want to talk to us anymore. Hello people! Salvação é muito mais importante do que dinheiro! Ó pessoas.....

Thursday we finally got to spend the whole day working! And then all of our plans fell through and people didn't want to talk to us on the road. It was a little bit frustrating, but it all worked out okay. Friday we did weekly planning and we planned a ton of visits with members this week to get ready for a big activity this weekend. On Saturday we're going to show "Meet the Mormons" in the capela... if we get the film. It's an act of faith, we don't the filme yet but we're still planning on showing it. Hopefully the bispado will get it before the weekend. Anyway, we're giong to stop by members' houses this week to do lessons about the importance of sharing the gospel. People don't really like to hear about member missionary work, but this activity for "Conhece os Mormons" is super good and we want the members to invite their friends and their family members to see it because it's not a weird activity and it's not something that people would feel uncomfortable going to. It's a movie... and it's a really good movie too! :D I love this movie so much. 

Daddy, you were asking about the investigators so I'll give you the rundown on all of them. We stopped Rodrigo a few weeks ago in the road and he said he wasn't really interested because he likes science and then he started saying something weird about the iluminadi (or something like that... I don't know what it is), but then the next day he sent us a message to say that because he hadn't been able to read my handwriting on the pass-along card (which is weird because my hand-writing is really nice... :) fact not opinion) he went on the site for the Church and started talking with the missionaries online. We taught him the first lesson and it was actually really good. It was probably one of the best lessons I've ever taught on my mission and he came already knowing everything. However, we have not been able to meet with him since. He's always busy but he's going to try to come to the filme on Saturday. Zé is the MMA fighter. We are better than the FBI and we figured out his name and his work schedule so that we knew when we could call and set up appointments with him. He's one where we never meet with him unless we have a member with us. We had passed him off to the elders, but then they didn't show up to an appointment they had set with him and he was offended (and this is why the elders don't have friends). We ran into him on the road one night on the way home and he ended up talking for about and hour and a half.... it was interesting. We discovered quite a lot about him, but mostly that he needs a lot of help. Yeah, he needs help. Then there's our investigator Carlos.... he's vry secretive and refuses to say anything about his personal life, but I'm really annoying and I keep asking him questions and we're pretty sure that he's on probation or involved in something really sketchy... we were talking to the Bishop's wife last night and she has all the same theories that I have, but she said that she's been planning for weeks now to just follow Carlos one day and see what he does. :) Silly members. We've also started knocking doors around where Zé lives and we found a guy that was taught by the missionaries 10 years ago and he now lives with his girlfriend but he said that we could come back and talk and that he would try to come to the filme at the capela. It will be good. Last night we also got a referência from the Sisters in the ward of Gaia 2. There's a lady that lives in the zone leaders' area that stopped the sisters on the road twice and told them that they had something that she wanted for her family. The elders stopped by but her husband didn't like them, so now we're going to stop by this week and see if we can conseguir a ensinar a família. 

I'm out of time now, but this week I have stamps and cards that I will try to get mailed off. I love you all and don't forget to read the scriptures carefully and apply them to yourselves. That's the way that we are supposed to use them. :) Also, I'm sending the video about the Português scriptures to you all. I'm going to try to send the video in English. If I send the Português one to you... sorry. We watched the video during Escola Dominical ontém e eu quase chorei. Eu choro sempre agora. It's not true, I don't cry a ton anymore but I just get pele da galinha when I see these videos. I love them. Watch the video and appreciate the sacrifices that were made for us all to have the scriptures. :)  

https://www.lds.org/church/news/president-eyring-announces-great-blessing-for-portuguese-speaking-saints?lang=eng

Amo vos muito, muito, MUITO!!! Fiquem bem e façam coisas boas. Não façam asneiras (Xeca tells me that every day).

Amo vos!

Little Sister Smith

P.S. The pictures are of this morning when they were putting up the big posters about the movie activity on Saturday and then Sister Runyan and me outside of the mall in Porto today. :) Foi fixe. 

The adventures never stop

I liked reading all your emails this week. Your emails are always really good, but this week they were 5 stars. Cinco estrelas. :)

This week was full of adventures. I was feeling a little bit down this last week and I didn't know why, but then Saturday I had a fever and I slept all Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. It was good, but then yesterday in the afternoon my throat started swelling up and by the night time I was having a hard time breathing so Xeca and Avelino took me to the hospital. Hooray for nice people who take good care of me! The doctor said that I'm just sick and that it should go away in a couple of days. The right side of my neck is still swollen and it looks like I have a tumor growing in my neck, but I'm breathing and I'm feeling better now. :) Não preocupe. 

I got an email from Ana, the girl that I taught in Viseu, and she told me that she went to the temple for the first time this last week. She sent me pictures and everything. It was nice to see pictures of her in front of the temple. 

Today, it is raining.... a ton. Xeca called and told us that on the news they're actually advising people to not go out on the roads in the afternoon because it's supposed to be really rainy and windy. Today is Xeca's birthday though, so we're going to go help her get ready for her birthday party tonight. She's been taking good care of me this week. I call Xeca my "Mãezinha" and she says that basically she's my mom and I'm her kid. :) I sure do like these Português people. :)

I don't have any pictures to send this week... sorry. I'll send double pictures next week. Tell Bishop Frey that I hope that he gets better soon. I'll remember him in my prayers. 

I love you all! Have a great week and don't forget to read in the Book of Mormon every day! :) Every day is better when you read in the scriptures every day. 

Little Sister Smith 

"When you give a mouse a cookie..."

Except for me, the title should be, "When you ask to be shown your weaknesses..."

When you ask to be shown your weaknesses, Heavenly Father gives you just a little glimpse of them. Prayers definitely get answered, sometimes we're just not prepared for the answers. Oh well... É vida. Vamos continuar a melhorar cada dia. É assim... vida boa.  

This week we got the transfer calls. Presidente Amorim does things differently than Presidente Fluckiger. Now we get transfer calls on Tuesday nights, then we have to make our own travel plans, and then we leave on Wednesday morning. Luckily, I am staying in Gaia for one more transfer. FINALLY!!! I get to stay in an area for more than three months! :D We were at Xeca's house when we got the call and Xeca about started crying she was so happy. She didn't want me to leave. Yesterday Xeca actually told me that after my mission if I want to come back to Gaia I can live in her house and she'll help me find a job and a husband and she'll help me get Português citizenship e tudo. I think Xeca likes me. Sister Runyan and I are together for one more transfer and we're currently in the process of trying to find new investigators. We still talk to Carlos and Gabriel but Zé quit talking to us and we really need to find new people. We found one family that was taught by the missionaries last year. We're going to try to start teaching them again. Our little old lady investigator Maria José didn't get baptized. She doesn't really want to get baptized and to avoid doing the baptismal interview she nearly died.... yeah. That was probably one of the weirdest experiences ever. I don't ever want to repeat that ever again. I was a mess and I was crying and the elders were all there and they just kept making jokes. We have a brand new elder too. It was his second day in the country and he had no idea what was going on. Poor kid. He was so confused. Oh well.... little old ladies are so stubborn. 

We also found a guy named João.... or Juan. He's half espanhol and half português. We thought he was pretty cool (and way lost and a little weird... he's an "artist") and we started teaching him and it was all going great until he started asking me if I wanted to go to the bar with him and get a drink. It happens a lot so we didn't think anything of it because it's a very normal thing here, but then the second time he and his friend invited me to get a drink with them we figured it was probably best to just leave. Turns out he's not even in the country any more. He went... somewhere? We don't actually know. He just kind of wanders around. It was an interesting experience and if anything it makes me more grateful that I have a normal, structured life. :)

This week we also started teaching a gypsy family that lives in the zone leaders' area. The zone leaders have been working with them for months but the family also likes the Sisters and they respond really well to us. There are different kinds of gypsies and these ones are the kind that aren't dangerous at all. They're from Romania and they have a little bit of a hard time speaking Português so we talked to Presidente Amorim and he said he will try to find out if it's possible to have Romanian speaking missionaries teach with us using Skype. That would be really nice. They're a really nice family. They are actually some of the nicest people I've ever met, but they've got some struggles. They can't find work and they're trying really hard to quit smoking, but quitting smoking is turning out to be a huge battle for them. Also, not all of the family is here. Part of the family is still in Romania and they have relatives going in and out quite a lot. They're really nice though. 

I have run out of things to say. :) That's new. Oh wait, I remembered something. Presidente Amorim in his weekly email this week said that he wants to start corresponding with our parents so don't be surprised if you get an email from him. Maybe. I don't know when he'll start doing that. Also, I love p-day because then we do groceries and that way we have food in our house. We're much happier missionaries when we have food in the house. :D

Little Sister Smith

P.S. This week we tried teaching Ana and her kids how to make chocolate chip cookies.... Português people just can't quite get it.:) They tasted fine but they looked awful.  

The other picture is us with Gabriel. We had a lesson with him this week and he thinks we are just the weirdest people on the entire planet. :) He's pretty cool though. It was a really good lesson and he is progressing a ton! He just doesn't realize it. :D

Hospitais são tão divertidos... :)

This week felt more like 7 months and it was really weird... but it was one of my favorite weeks of my mission! :D I love being a missionary.

So Monday night I woke up with a lot of pain in my toes of my left foot and then in the morning they were all swollen and a little red. During the day it got so bad that I couldn't even walk so we went to the farmácia and the doctors said that it was just a bug bite. Well, Tuesday I hobbled around a little bit but then Wednesday I could barely walk so we hobbled along to Xeca's house and she looked at my foot because my toes were kind of purple-ish and swollen. Xeca was concerned so we called Sister Marinho who's in charge of the health of the sisters in the mission and she was all concerned and upset so she sent in a guarantee of payment to the hospital and then on Thursday morning we went to the emergency room because my foot was all funny. The best part is though, that my foot looked normal by the time we got to the hospital in Porto so they just thought we were crazy. :) Pois... The nurses and doctors were all very nice though and I was abnormally happy so it was a pretty good opportunity to talk to every single person there about the gospel... I actually had a lot of fun going to the hospital. People loved talking to me and it was probably one of the more successful days of missionary work I've had in my mission. :D I enjoyed it. It was also a huge blessing because it turns out I had misplaced my health insurance card. I had to find it so that we could go to the hospital, and now if there's any real medical emergency I know where I have my health insurance card and my residency card. I also made sure that my companion knows where I keep those things as well. Hooray! I think I actually had too much fun going to the hospital... I was too happy so the doctor didn't take my medical emergency very seriously. Oh well. He said it was just inflamation and I've been taking medicine for it. It magically healed the next day, so I figure that Heavenly Father sent us to the hospital for reasons other than my foot. Hooray for opportunities to share the gospel!!! :D (It was so much fun... I just can't get over it. It's one of the best parts of my mission).

Anyway.... that was really the most exciting part of my week. I've literally been waiting all week to tell you about the hospital trip... but now that I read it, it sounds really boring. You'll just have to take my word for it and trust that it was fun. :)

This weekend we had three baptisms in our district. Elder Camper (who is actually going home tomorrow) and Elder Kreutzer had a family get baptized. The mom is the sister of a member and they got baptized on Saturday. They are super cute. Then on Sunday Elder Brown and Elder Pedro had an investigator named Silvia get baptized. She was marked for baptism last year but for some reason she just stopped talking to the missionaries. She got baptized yesterday after church. It was really cool to watch her though. The Spirit was so strong and she started crying before her baptism and then afterward she couldn't even talk. Her cousin was there and her cousin felt the Spirit so strongly that she went up to the Elders and asked to know more. That never happens!!! It is literally the coolest thing ever when people come asking the missionaries about the gospel! It was a really good week. We have a little old lady that we've been teaching for forever that is going to be baptized this weekend. Her name is Maria José. She's pretty sick and we just feel very strongly that we need to baptize her as soon as possible... yeah. So she's getting baptized on Saturday. She was supposed to be baptized last year, but never showed up to her baptism because she just didn't feel like it, but this time that's not happening. I will carry her on my back if necessary. Little old ladies are so stubborn sometimes... and lazy. Gee... that kind of describes me sometimes, stubborn and lazy. Hmmm.... :)

On Sunday the lesson in Princípios do Evangelho the lesson was about Caridade. Nothing makes you feel worse than having a lesson on Charity... I think I've got a fair bit of work to do in that department. Actually, I believe that developing charity is a lifelong pursuit for almost everybody. We're all in the same boat. 

The library closed early.... again. We haven't figured out how to tell when they close early or not. Oh well. Someday we'll figure it out. I'll send Mom all the pictures and then she can distribute them. I love you all!!!

Love,

Little Sister Smith

P.S. There's a picture of me in front of the hospital and then a picture of the couple that was baptized on Saturday, José e Liliane.

Ana Cruz and her daughter and then on Sunday we were all invited to Xeca's house for dinner. 

The elders had a lot of fun at Xeca's house. They had fun with her hats and her African drums. It was pretty fun. 

 

Rain... Rain... More Rain.... We were Singing in the Rain actually. :)

It rained a lot yesterday. When church ended it was cool and a little cloudy, and then after lunch it was a little bit cooler and a little bit more cloudy. Then, once we were pretty far away from home the rain just dumped on us. I had my little umbrella, but I prefer street contacting without umbrellas so I didn't use it a ton... We got pretty wet. It was fun. :)

This week.... was very long. It was really long. We had our email adventure last week when the library closed. Then, we went to the capela and there was a returned missionary there with her family. Her name was Sister Hickey. She actually was in the MTC volunteering with TRC when I was there... and I remembered her.... and she was a little weirded out by that. :) She also served in Miratejo so she and I talked for a little bit about the people there. It was pretty fun. On Tuesday after District Meeting we went to the Mission Office in Porto and met with Presidente Amorim. Tuesday night I had a lovely chat with the elders over the phone about bullying. There's been a problem the last two transfers with the elders bullying us, so we had a nice chat over the phone and ever since then they've been a lot nicer to us and the members even noticed the difference yesterday in church. I guess standing up for yourself is good sometimes.... who would have thought? :) 

On Wednesday we did a surprise division with the Sister Training Leaders Sister Wood and Sister Jones. I was with Sister Wood. I really, really, REALLY like working with Sister Wood. She's an incredible missionary and she definitely knows how to follow the Spirit. Thursday.... I don't actually remember what happened on Thursday, but I know that our apointments all got cancelled. :) Friday we had weekly planning and then we went and contacted on the streets when our appointments all fell through. On Saturday we did more street contacting because our plans fell through again. :) (I don't know about you, but I'm noticing a pattern...) And then on Sunday we had church... Church is nice. Church is really nice. It's a little stressful because we spend the whole morning hiking around trying to bring our investigators to church and then we spend the whole Sacrament Meeting praying that our investigators will feel the Spirit even though there are some really weird things going on or false doctrine being preached. :) Yeah, church is interesting sometimes. Every day is an adventure. Actually, Sunday morning is one of my favorite parts of the week because I call every single one of our investigators to wake them up... :) I'm pretty sure they all hate me, but it makes me feel good knowing that I'm helping them make good choices. When I called Carlos to wake him up he told me that he would never answer the phone again, and then at church he tried to give me the cold-shoulder but in the end he was laughing because I kept telling him, "Sorry Carlos. I only do it because I have to. Eternal life is kind of important. I care more about eternal life than the amount of sleep you get." I don't know when he'll get baptized, but he told me he might not invite me just because I wake him up early every Sunday morning. Oh vida.... vida boa. 

This week Zé stopped answering the phone when we call. We saw him on the road a few times this week (that's a big blessing every time) and he told us that his MMA fighting is more important to him right now than religion and he also said that while he's not a complete waste of our time, he's almost a complete waste of our time. It was a little bit discouraging. It made me really evaluate how we had been working the last few weeks and how our recent lessons with him have gone. I re-learned a very important lesson this week: that no matter how bad the missionaries are and no matter how poorly they teach, the gospel is true and the Spirit will testify of it, but people still have agency. We're really not very good teachers.. hindsight is all we need to know that we're not good teachers, but thankfully the Spirit still speaks to our investigators. If the church wasn't true, the missionaries would have messed it up a long time ago and that's the truth. I think Zé will get baptized someday, but right now we're going to give him a break and see what happens. He just needs to get his priorities straightened out and that's something that we can't really help with. He has to make that decision for himself. 

What else happened this week? .... I can't remember. Quite a bit, but it's all jumbled up into random thoughts in my head. Maria José, a little member from our ward gave me a white skirt this week. I wore it to church yesterday and she paraded me around and told everyone how nice it looked on me. I was embarrassed until Ana Cruz told me that I looked less-white than normal in the skirt. :) She was pretty funny. 

We had a new investigatore with us in church yesterday. His name is Bruno. He's 18 and he just came back from living in Switzerland with his dad (sorry Daddy, they live in Geneve in the French part... not the German part). Sister Runyan and Sister Jones found him on the division and he was really excited about going to church. He was a little weirded out by church yesterday, but he said that he really liked it so I'm guessing he felt the Spirit and will still come back. Hooray! :D

The library is closing early again.... luckily we came earlier this week, but now we have to go to the capela to finish emails. 

Okay... we're at the capela now. The problem is that I don't have much else to say... :) I love you all. Remember that things will all work out the way that Heavenly Father wants them to. Normally there's just stuff that we have to learn along the way. So keep reading and studying the scriptures and praying every day. I didn't realize until my mission how important the smallest things are in helping strengthen and keep our testimonies. I love you all!

Little Sister Smith

P.S. Keep me updated on Benjamin's mission papers... and don't forget that I expect to see a video of his mission call opening. I want to see it before I read it. :)

P.P.S. Here's a lovely selfie with Presidente Cruz and his wife... and me... and Sister Runyan... and Elder Nielson. He actually ended his mission yesterday and went home... poor guy. :)

The other picture is when we were out and about in the rain. It was a little wet. Good thing I have all of the song "Singing in the Rain" memorized. It tends to weird people out that I'm so happy and it gives a pretty good excuse to talk to them about the Gospel. :D I'll send more pictures to mom and she can distribute them. Amo-vos! Tchau!

The little lady is Maria José that gave me the skirt

Then there's our district picture with our whole little district before Elder Nielson left. 

I spent the whole day updating the Area book today... it was a boring and fairly responsible p-day.... responsibility... whose idea was that?

And then there's me with Ana Cruz and Tatiana Gomes