Lapa

12/10/12

Lapa!

Well I had my first week here in Lapa! It was great.

This area is the heart of Lisbon, in the historical district with all the awesome architecture and tourist attractions. It's decorated so beautifully for Christmas and I am so excited to be here for the holidays!

My new companion, Irma Olson, is from Utah and she's really great. We get along really well. If for no other reason, because she is also obsessed with Jersey Shore and movies. Basically we quote Jersey Shore every single day and we have a lot of laughs.

Our house is just about the smallest thing I've ever seen but it’s in a really cool old European building, so it's part of the experience.

The week went really well. We've been working mostly with two guys, Fernando and Yuri, who were both baptized last week. We taught them throughout the week and they both received the Holy Ghost on Sunday. They are awesome! Especially Fernando. He is the boyfriend of a member whose family, Família Pico, is part-member/part-active. He had no interest in talking to the missionaries but always came to activities and stuff and then started to read the Book of Mormon and talked to the missionaries and said he knew he needed to be baptized. This was two weeks ago, and today he is almost done with the book of Mosiah! He has been highlighting and making notes in the margin of his Book of Mormon and asked for one in English to start reading. He also brought his mom to church on Sunday to see him confirmed, and has already given her a Book of Mormon. What a rock star. He's so legit. He needs to serve a mission.

We've also been working a lot with that family, Família Pico, because they were baptized a few years ago but when they moved to Lisbon they went inactive. Now the parents are still inactive, but the two oldest girls are back in church (girlfriend of Fernando and another one) and the two youngest daughters haven't been baptized yet. They are nine and twelve and are always at church, the dad is just keeps saying it's too fast and they need to wait a little longer. They read and pray every day though and that whole family is awesome. The bishop came to a lesson with us and said that he would talk to the dad Joaquim, and that he should be the one to baptize the little girls. Bishop is on board and we are hoping to get Joaquim's permission to baptize them this Sunday. So pray for us and the family! Our President and the area presidency want us to complete families so we know the Lord is rooting for us on this one.

Tomorrow is our mission Christmas Conference! We are so excited!! ahhhhhhhhhhhhh it's Christmas! Yay!

Whelp, I love you guys. Go watch the following.

Home alone

Elf

The Family Stone

The Holiday

Just Friends

The Santa Clause

It’s a Wonderful Life

And then drink hot chocolate with a candy cane in it.

Love you!

Irma... I mean Sister Dean... yeah they switched our tags. I don’t want to talk about it.