Well, I've officially been in Portugal for five full days! It's... interesting. It’s wonderful and so not wonderful all at the same time. I seriously have to show you guys pictures of my house. You will laugh. Picture in your mind the quintessential 80-something year-old European apartment that has tile accents and everything looks dirty and is falling apart. Then add not having hot water, and you have my apartment. But, the Lord knows what he's doing. We had the crazy-long plane ride to Paris and I got no sleep, but most of us were awake pretty much the whole time and just talked and reviewed grammar and stuff, and it was pretty fun. We got into Paris but didn't really have enough time to look around or do anything. We just went straight to our gate and flew to Portugal!
Portugal is so beautiful! Seriously, it’s so scenic. We got picked up by the mission president and his wife and two of the office missionaries and had to wait forever because three of us hadn't gotten our bags. We then had to go get our entry stamps for our passports. We finally got to leave and went to the mission office to be interviewed and get our assignments! I'm in an area called Mem Martins B. There are two companionships in the Mem Martins Ward and we are in the area a little further away, so we live in a place called Rio de Mouro. It’s about a 30 minute bus ride away from the mission home and I think that's like outside of Lisbon. I'm really not sure ha ha. Just Google map it.
A lot of us were placed pretty close together, and actually Elder Tucci is in my zone and being trained by the zone leaders, so I´ll see him every once in a while I guess, but not very often. My trainers name is Irma Quebbeman. She is so nice and like the sweetest person ever. She's pretty quiet though so that’s interesting ha ha. And,Guess what?! It’s only her third transfer! In the mission, you're trained for two transfers so that means she was just being trained and is already training someone. But guess what? That's not all! So that night we went to the mission home and had dinner and a testimony meeting and went to sleep. In the morning we had breakfast and came back to the office to meet our companions and have a training meeting. When I met her she told me that she had just found out we would be pink-washing! So when an area is white-washed, that means that both missionaries who were there are leaving and a completely different set of missionaries comes in who don't know the area. So, a pink-wash is when it used to be elders and now sisters are coming into the area! Yeah! So neither of us know anything about where we are ha ha. It's been an um..... adventure. to say the least. We´re really trying though. I can tell its stressing her out because she doesn't want to mess anything up and she wants this to be a great experience for me, but she’s really amazing.
The other Irmas in our ward are wonderful! They are so funny and they've been here a lot longer so they've helped us with like everything, including letting us shower at their apartment today! They are seriously gems. Saturday two of our elders, one of which was a zone leader (they were on exchanges) were in our area to come do a baptismal interview for our investigator and do one for the other Irmas. Our potential baptism was an 11 year old girl though, and her mom was having second thoughts about letting her be baptized because she wanted her to have read more of the Book of Mormon and go to church more and really make sure she understood her commitment. So, we had no idea what to do and the elders came in and were awesome and helped convince her that it was right for her daughter. They were so helpful. Unfortunately we did not have a baptism though, her mom wouldn't let her come to church on Sunday, meaning she couldn't be baptized since she'd only gone once before.
I've just learned even in four days that the mission is never going to be what you expect. It's been all kinds of craziness and we didn't have ANY other investigators from the previous elders so we've really only been doing street contacts and trying to find people to teach. It's been rough. We definitely see mini miracles, like the fact that I'm awake and that I can even understand a quarter of what people are saying to me. But mostly I feel like a deer in headlights right now trying to just go with it. It's stressing me out but the other people are so wonderful and helpful and the ward is really great. We missed most of sacrament meeting because we were trying to talk that girl's mom into letting her come, but no dice. We still got to meet a lot of people in the ward and a wonderful family had all four sisters over for lunch and let us Skype our families on Mother's Day.
It was so great to talk to you guys yesterday! I really needed it. Happy Mother’s Day, Mom and Jen and Brooke and everyone!! Over all, things are hard but I know I'm here for a reason. The Lord is definitely testing me ha ha but I don't know, everyone says it'll get better and I certainly didn't expect my first transfer to be a breeze.
For those of you in the MTC, stop complaining about anything and everything. Right now. Stop it. Because you will get here and think, "ahhh jeez, real life isn't as awesome as I thought it would be." The Lord is still just as wonderful, and you'll realize it even more, but the other stuff is not as wonderful .
Well I love you all, please keep the prayers coming because I certainly need them.
Thanks, eu amo voces!
Irma Dean
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