Homecoming!

Irma Erin Dean has returned from her mission.  She got in to Maryland late last night and was released shortly thereafter.

one

This week was really awesome! We had a lot of miracles and a lot of fun.  We have been trading weird Bible stories with our District Leader and his companion.  I'm not going into much detail because we are hoping to go on an adventure today. I'm going to try eating snails today! Pray for me.

Basically this email is to thank each and every one of you for all of your prayers, letters, and emails during this whole crazy ride of a mission. The mission has been the most amazing, miraculous, intense, stressful, draining, exciting, fun, painful, inspirational, and gratifying experience of my whole life. It has FLOWN by and I really can't even comprehend that it's just about over. It's been hard having to start saying goodbyes again and realize that I need to enjoy every minute, not only of Portugal, but of serving the Lord with all my heart, mind, might, and strength.

I'm so grateful for the restored gospel in my life. I know that Christ lives and that He loves each of us. I know the His love for us is infinite and that we can feel it in a way we can't comprehend when we apply the Atonement. I know that we have a living prophet on the earth today. I know he guides and counsels us so we can return to our Father in heaven. I know the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I know that we can become closer to Christ more through reading that book than by any other practice in life.

I love you all and I love Portugal and I love Christ.
See you in a week :)

 Paula before the baptism.

This is a less-active/part member family that we work with a ton who blessed their baby girl on Sunday. (they asked if I could do the blessing... some people who are not super active don't really comprehend the details of priesthood)

Two

Ugh! It’s so close! I’m excited and devastated all at the time.

Guess what!
There is nothing to write except.....

PAULA GOT BATIZADA!
SHE GOT IN THE WATER.
It was glorious.

Here’s the skinny on how it happened.
Tuesday she called us after not having been able to see us for two weeks. She was really upset and having like a panic attack about some family drama and just needed to vent. She asked if we could come over on Thursday so we did.

We got there and almost immediately she asked when I was going home. She then apologized for the phone call and freaking out and thanked us for listening to her. Then she said, "I don’t have work on Saturday morning or Sunday morning. I want to do it before you go home."
I was so surprised that I didn’t even understand what she was talking about. So she had to be all... Baptized. I want to get baptized.

It was so fast and so epic and so perfect. Literally everything fell perfectly into place and it was incredible. I still can’t even believe it happened.

The members helped us so much and showed up to support her and us even had investigators attend! The baptism was perfect. Seriously. One of the strongest times I’ve felt the spirit my whole mission. She received the Holy Ghost on Sunday and this is the best part: a recent convert and a returning less active who we have worked with both received the Melchizedek Priesthood last week and participated in giving her the Holy Ghost! How cool is that?! She cried and I cried and the spirit was so strong.

Ahhhhhh! The Lord blesses us when we are patient! Ha-ha it was awesome.
Love you guys! HAVE A GREAT WEEK! Remember how incredible the gospel is and how much it blesses our lives!
Ok got to go, I love you!!

Three

What up, What up, What up?

Guess what happened yesterday?!
SURPRISE.
President Fluckiger was at our branch for church. ha ha ha yeah. awesome.

No, it was actually much better than I expected it to be, especially because of two people: Fernando and Maria.

Here's Fernado's story.
Basically he is the husband of a member and has been taught missionary lessons since like 2007. He is just really stubborn and doesn’t want to listen to the missionaries or come to church ever. Well the Relief Society asked that we go and Rosemarie, the wife, ad perk her up because she’s struggling a little right now. We went over and had a message all planned out and when we got there Fernando was home and came to sit in for the message. I felt very strongly at the very beginning that we needed to scratch the original plan and sing "Love at Home". We did, and it was fine, and then we were just talking with Rosemarie a little when she started to cry a bit. She talked about how things are hard right now and she had originally wanted to cancel with us because she was really tired. But, she accepted the visit and she knew it was Heavenly Father trying to tell her He is watching over her because we came in and sang that song after she had just fought with her husband. (awkward but really cool!) So anyway, we get to the end of the lesson and ask Fernando, "Will you come to church on Sunday to hear your wife's talk?" and he just straight-faced stares at us and says... "no."

Well, well, well. something changed because we walk into Sacrament meeting yesterday and look who was sitting there next to his wife looking somewhat uncomfortable but supportive! FERNANDO. it was really exciting.

Then there’s Maria.
We were walking to get lunch and Sister Austin said we should contact a woman sitting on a bench. We went over and she was really nice and everything and the contact went well. We prayed with her and gave her a Book of Mormon and read Mosiah 18:9 with her. She talked about how people flock to her for advice, even strangers, and how she just wants to be a good person. We found out she lives in Lisbon (my old area!) but that she’s here for about a month. We gave her the address of the church and she said "I WILL BE THERE"

Well, all week we couldn’t get a hold of her but we called on Sunday morning and she said "Hello! I’m already getting dressed, see you in a little bit" she had some trouble finding the church but she made it and stayed for all three hours and loved it! The members were so wonderful too! They did an awesome job at fellowshipping and helping her read the hymn book. It was really cool. She's elect.

Anyway, life is good. And my time is getting short.

I’m really excited to see you guys soon but for now things are picking up well here so I’m really grateful for that.

Love you guys! Have an awesome week!

Irmã Dean  

four

Ok, sorry. I don’t know how but I got a little excited and sent that early. The week went really well and we had some cool miracles happen. Here’s what I wrote to President:

This week went very well! We had an awesome miracle with a less active family. We have been visiting them since last transfer. The mom loves having us over and is returning to church, but the 14-year-old daughter refused to even come out of her room for the closing prayer in our first visit with them. Over time she started coming out to talk with us a little, then participating, and then agreed to read some of the Book of Mormon. She left on Saturday to visit her father in Austria for the summer, and at the end of our wonderful lesson the day before, she asked, "I think I want to try going to church while in Austria. How could I find out where the chapel is? Do you think it would be ok for me to go even though I don't speak German?" We were blown away at her question and arranged to email her instruction on how to use the chapel locator and keep in touch with her while she is gone.

We also have an investigator, Natércia, who has accepted everything except the law of chastity. While trying to take away those doubts we continued teaching everything and she is making progress. She called us on Saturday, out of the blue, to confirm that it was fast Sunday and ask if she could pay her fast offering and said, "I feel like God expects it of me." Now we are focusing on getting her to feel that about chastity as well!

Also, we went and taught the 16 year old daughter of a recent convert and the lesson was awesome! She’s so confused and curious and just doesn’t know what she believes but she is golden. And she is obsessed with the band 30 Seconds to Mars, so we became friends real quick.

Also, last night we had a really cool lesson in which an investigator made me do some really weird meditation stuff which was really sweet. She told me all the psychological reasoning behind my back pain.

Good week all in all.
Love you!
Irma Dean

Five!

Boa tarde família!

I just love you guys. This week was wonderful.

Here’s what I told president

Our investigator Paula has been having a really hard time committing to a baptismal date, so much so that our last lesson was a "do or die." We prepared the lesson to every detail we could think of, practiced, and prayed a ton to be able to have her accept a date so we wouldn't have to drop her. When we started the lesson she said, "Ola Irmãs, na segunda-feira vou saber meu horario para trabalho, e na primeira fim de semana que tenho o sabado e domingo livre, eu quero ser batizada e receber o Espirito Santo."(Sisters, I’m going to know my work schedule for the month on Monday, and the first weekend I have a Saturday and Sunday off I want to be baptized and receive the Holy Ghost.) We hadn't even said the opening prayer. We are joining her in prayer and fasting that she can have this Saturday and Sunday off to be baptized because she wants to receive the Holy Ghost on the 7th, her wedding anniversary.

At church we were greeting a recent convert and asking how her children were doing. She said that her son was doing well but her daughter had failed her exams and would have to stay back a year in school. She said that she was thinking about and hoping maybe we could talk with her daughter and help give her some direction. We went over for dinner a few weeks ago and loved her daughter, who is clearly in the confused teen years, and we got along with her very well so our recent convert hoped we could use that as a way to get her interested in the gospel and have better values. We are so excited to go teach her on Thursday.

So yeah, basically really great things are happening. We are finally seeing some pick up in people. We have started to get references and meet people that are progressing faster and more deeply.

Also, did you all watch that broadcast, the Work of Salvation? I loved it. I was a little bit of a mess in the musical numbers. Hymns in English are so different that Portuguese ha-ha you feel the spirit a lot stronger. Speaking of which, we actually watched the broadcast twice. Once during church in Portuguese and again after in English with other missionaries. I’m very glad I got to see it in English. I’m still really blown away by how much I can comprehend Portuguese, but the second time I watched it I felt like I received so much more inspiration on how to be a better missionary right now and even more when I am at home.

it’s really hot here, my companion and I are having a good time together, everyone likes making comments about how I am "dead" and "starting to smell" because I’m so close to finishing. But the ward has been so sweet and loving and trying to spoil me because they know I’m ending my mission here.

I love you guys tons!!! Have an awesome week!

Irma Dean

The Final Countdown (six)

Today is the first day of my last transfer.

Yep. Weird.



I don't have much time today, so I copied some of what I wrote to President.

Ola President,

This week has gone well. Today and this past week I am just grateful. Very, very, grateful. It’s been a hard adjustment coming from Lisbon to Santarem, and I have had moments of not handling it well. But I reflected a lot yesterday during the sacrament on the chance Heavenly Father has taken on me here. Here in Portugal, here in Santarem, here as a missionary, and here on Earth. As the bread and water were passed I read and pondered the words to the hymn, Assombro Me Causa (I stand all amazed), and really understood how incredible it is that God was willing to take such a big chance by letting me, an extremely flawed, 21 year old who never really had a testimony until half-way through the mission, be an instrument in His great and marvelous work. The mission is hard sometimes, but we wouldn't be able to become like Him if we didn't endure hard things. I know struggles will continue but I feel like this next (my last) transfer can easily be the best I've had on the mission.

Fam-bamily, I just want you guys to all know that I love you so much and that even more I love the Lord. I love His incredible work. I am excited to see you all again soon, yes, but I have sent way too much time letting myself think about that. So today I am done with that. So, mom and dad and others, please no more writing about all the fun stuff we will do when I am home. right now, I have some really fun stuff to do like see the Atonement change people's lives, eat Portuguese pastries, teach my greenie how to perfect her Portuguese, and help the district become a stake by the end of the year!

Time to work!

Please, everyone pray for Orlando if you can, he lost his job and moved back to Lisbon and is pretty discouraged.

I love you all, have a wonderful week!

Irmã Dean

Seven

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

You guys, God is good.

So Santarém is definitely not like any other place I've served. The work is very different and a lot more difficult. They cal this zone the Refiner's Fire of the Portugal mission because you basically have to suck it up and develop every Christ-like attribute and know Preach My Gospel like the back of your hand to be able to have any success here. We have definitely felt that. I came from the most successful zone in the mission to one of the least. And it has definitely been a rough adjustment.

But God is good. Two weeks ago we worked so hard and only found one new investigator all week, while the mission standard is ten. This past week we studied harder, prayed harder, worked harder, fasted more,and humbled ourselves to ask for help from all our leaders, and we were blessed to find six new investigators. We're still not there yet, but it was a big leap that's for sure.

Also, our investigator Paula said that she has finally been able t go more than a week without smoking and doesn't feel the withdrawals so badly anymore that now she feels like she can mark a baptismal date for herself and her daughter!

Today while we were getting groceries, Elser and Sister Rose, the senior couple in our Branch, called and asked if we wanted to spend some time with them and go see a nearby castle today. After five p-days in the house it was a huge tender mercy! We had a ton of fun and went to a place called Óbidos. I'll try and include pictures. So the Lord looks out for us and knows when we need a little reminder that He's there and that He loves us and that things can still be fun even when things are getting hard again.

I love you all so much and the next time I write you I will officially be in my last transfer on the mission. Pray for me please ha ha
Have a wonderful week!!!


love
Irmã Dean

Eight

Hey, Guess what?
My companion and I got hit by a car this week.
Not kidding. We are fine. Don't worry. ha ha
We were in a crosswalk and it had rained that morning so the guy tried to break and the car wouldn't stop. He didn't like slam us or anything, it was like a... firm bump I guess. It didn't hurt or anything and they were definitely worse off than us. They were terrified and the guy's wife looked like she would burst into tears. They were really happy we were missionaries, that's for sure.

Other than that, the week has been pretty normal. I'm still not quite sure what to do here in this area because the vine is completely different than anywhere I've served, but Irma Austin and I are trying to figure it out ha ha. She keeps me laughing, that's for sure. She is a full on kook. Dad, you would love her sense of humor.

Speaking of dad, if I'm not mistaken... Happy Father's day!!! On Sunday... I have a card for you in the mail, so I hope it gets there soon!

We had interviews this week and mine went well. President encouraged me to use family history in proselyting more but I'm really not sure how to go about that. If anyone has tips, hit me. I also got to talk to Sister Fluckiger for a bit. She said she missed me! ha ha That made my week. I missed her too. She's pretty much precious and such an awesome example. I really love her.

Hey, do you wanna hear something cool??
So, Orlando, right? He's awesome. Did I tell you that his nephew, Gui, the one we originally visited when we found Orlando, was baptized two weeks ago and invited a friend to be there? He received the Holy Ghost the next week. Yesterday he received the Aaronic priesthood and baptized the friend he had invited to his baptism.
THIS FAMILY IS GOLDEN.

This work is amazing.
I love it so much.
And, I love you all so much.
I'm sorry I didn't have time to respond to individual emails this week, we were low on computers. but I promise I still love you all. Have a wonderful week and go share the Gospel with your friends!

Love, Irma Dean

Nine

Hello, Hello, Hello, Hello.

Hey, guess what?! Remember Orlando? He bore his testimony yesterday! He talked about how he knew God had sent me and my companion to Lisbon and the Elders here in São Domingos to rescue his life.
Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat??? I almost cried.

Church was just incredible yesterday. Everything. It was awesome.

I can be so stressed out and just crazy because we have to worry about investigators or recent converts and so many other things, but there is just so much beauty and peace in taking the sacrament and having a few minutes not to worry about anything other than your own personal relationship with God. It's a much needed few minutes; because then it's back to worrying about everyone else and you just don't have time or desire to think about yourself.

I have a greenie to think about! Ha ha ha, she is awesome. We literally are different in every way except for like five random things. All of which Dad will be pleased about. Dad and Katie would love her just as much as I do, because:
She loves Les Miserables also
She likes Shakespeare
She has seen "Whats Up Doc!" can you believe that?!
It's very exciting stuff. That's pretty much everything we have in common.....

It's been super fun teaching her the language especially though. I feel like I'm back at the Reading & Writing center and I love it. It's making me feel really good about my Portuguese too. Not because hers is bad or anything, just because I'm realizing how much I know. Even though our work is going pretty slowly, she's picking up really fast on teaching skills and I'm realizing that even if we aren't teaching an investigator in that moment that I am still teaching her every second of every day. No pressure.

It's taught me a lot about the kind of example I need to be after my mission as well. To my friends outside the church but also to people thinking about serving a mission. The mission has changed my life so much and I don't want to go home and have people see my example and say, "That it doesn't seem like I'm any closer to Christ." I have also learned that I want so badly to be involved with church service or maybe even work for the church. I have no idea what I would do, but a girl can dream.

I'm gonna wrap up now. The work is a little slow right now so I don't have a ton to report about people we are teaching but I'm gonna paste a story I sent to Presidente and remind you all that the Lord hears and answers our prayers! I know he does, He loves us and wants to help us. He wants us to be happy and wants to use us as instruments in his hands if we will just follow his Holy Spirit and the guidance it gives us.

As far as miracles go, we did a district fast to have more investigators in church. We had four people committed to coming to church and on Sunday morning none of them answered the phone or showed up to church. However, at the beginning of Sacrament meeting the Elders said there was a man there who lived in our area named Jaime. He is an old investigator from about a year ago and we had stopped by his house a few days before. He wasn't home so we said a prayer and left a card with his mother. He said that he had already thought about maybe coming to church and then got home and saw the invitation to attend church and figured it meant he should come! We have an appointment with him on Tuesday and are very excited. It may be differently than we expect but God answers our prayers!

Love you guys!!!
Irmã Dean

Every companion I've ever had.  We were together for a training meeting.  

There are olive tree orchards here! 

Sister Austin with her first pastel de nata (famous Portuguese pastry) 

Ten

Hello! How was your week? Was it wonderful? I hope so. Ours has been really wonderful.

1. My comp is a kook. We are very opposite in a lot of things. Like a lot. But she’s really wonderful and has so much desire to work and to just stay excited even with all the stress of our situation.

2 we are in an amazing place. Santarem is really cool and like off toward the middle of the country so it’s really beautiful. Part of our area is actually this place called Cartaxo which is famous for its wine. Ha-ha yeah! So although slightly apostate, it’s really beautiful because there are vineyards all over the place.

Also, our branch is so incredible and doesn’t even seem like a branch because of how many people are here and how organized and well functioning they are. And the members are sooooo excited to have sisters. I guess it’s been like 5 years since they’ve had sisters so everyone is really excited for us to be here.

3. Our investigators are really cool! We got here and they were three women progressing who want so badly to be baptized. We just have to work on a couple doubts and addictions, but they are so dedicated to the gospel already and already act like and are received like members by the branch.

4. Ok. I wanted to tell you guys about a man named Orlando. I don’t know if I’ve told you about him. When I was in Lisbon with Irma Walton last transfer, we went to a potential investigators house and had a lesson and his uncle, Orlando was there and participated as well. Orlando really liked talking to us and committed to coming to church. Not only did he show up, but he turned down a ride from the bishop hat morning and said he preferred to walk. Yeah he walked TWO HOURS to get to church and was still there 20 minutes early anxiously waiting for church to start. So we keep meeting with him and we mark I’m for baptism may 12th and he said yes and is really excited. And then he calls and tells us he found work, in Cartaxo, which is part of Santarem. We had no idea what that was but he said, "Is there a church there that I can go to or should I just take the train down to Lisbon on Sundays?" So we passed him as a reference to the office and didn’t really hear anything of it.

We were really peeved because we wanted to know if he had gotten baptized! So on the 12th, when I got the transfer call, I was told I would go t são Domingos which is part of Santarem. I was like wait a second, I’m going to be in the ward where Orlando is! I then talked to an Elder who was leaving this area and he was telling me about the baptism they’d had and how he would need to get the Holy Ghost next week and I was like yeah! I know him! He was our reference!

So last Sunday he received the Holy Ghost and is preparing to receive the Aaronic priesthood! It was so cool to be able to have this experience and see how the Lord uses us as instruments in his hands and really puts us where we need to be to help specific people!

God is good! And the gospel just makes you so apply I can’t even stand it. I love you guys ad hope you have a wonderful week! Irma dean

I'm in over my head

Oh my goodness gracious I don’t think I’ve ever prayed so much in my whole mission.

So this past week has been really incredible and really long also ha-ha.
Monday I went all over Lisbon trying to accomplish all my last minute everything before I had to leave the city. It was a really good day and we got back to the mission home that night and there were about ten other sisters staying there with us. The next day it turned to about thirty because guess what! We received 29 new sisters on Thursday! We almost doubled our number of sisters in the Portugal mission. How crazy!

It was seriously a big party there in the mission home and we had an amazing time. I was really blessed to be able to have really good heart-to-hearts with Irma Quebbeman and Irma Palmer, the two companions I had in the beginning of the mission when I we even more of a hot mess. We were able to just feel peace about everything that had happened in our time together and I feel even closer with both of them now.

On Wednesday we had a training meeting for the trainers and it was intense. I got really overwhelmed about having to train and do a pink wash at the same time, but I asked my good ol' district leader, Elder Brady, for a blessing. It was really incredible and he said that the companion I was about to receive had been working her hardest to be ready and worthy of her trainer and her new calling and that I had been doing the same. He said that Heavenly Father was so pleased with the efforts we had both put in and was giving us this time together to bless us. It’s a really good thing I got that blessing because otherwise I would not believe that this is a blessing.

Unfortunately, even with everything I thought I had learned about how to be a good missionary, we got here on Friday night and I feel like a greenie all over again. We are definitely not in Lisbon anymore, but I know the Lord wants me to branch out of how I’m used to doing missionary work. Thank goodness for two things
1. My companion is incredible. She is the sweetest thing in the world. Sister Austin is handling everything I throw at her like a champion and has already marked three people for baptism!
2. The branch here (yes, my first branch) is INCREDIBLE. They are so wonderful and everyone was so excited to have sisters here. They have already come with us to lessons, fed us, driven us around, printed and explained maps, and followed up with our investigators to help them keep progressing.

I’m really excited to be here, and President Fluckiger has a goal to make the district of Santarém into a stake by the end of the year, so we have a lot of work to do! But I’m really excited that heavenly father is giving me enough responsibility that I couldn’t get distracted by going home if I wanted to.

I hope you all know how incredible the mission is. How incredible missionary work is. There is nothing more joyful than watching someone’s life be changed by the love and atonement of our savior Jesus Christ. He is our brother and our best friend; we just have to put in the time and effort to get to know him.

Here’s a quote for you and then I’m on my way. It’s from a talk called the fourth missionary.

"Just give it up. Surrender your will to him. Unconditionally. Withhold nothing. Turn it all over to him; all of your desires, wishes, dreams, and hopes. Be true and faithful in your head and in your heart, not just in your behavior. Trust in him. Trust in him who knows all things. Trust in him who has all power. Trust in him whose love for you is perfect. Trust him who alone suffered, paid and atoned for your sins and for your weaknesses as well. Trust him that he will make of you immeasurably more than what you will ever, ever, in all eternity make of yourself. He will crate of you a masterpiece. You will create of you only a smudge. You will create an ordinary man. He will create a god."

Love you! Irma Dean

Expecitng

Hey guess what. I’m pregnant.

That’s right; I’m going to be a momma. My greenie, Sister Austin arrives on Thursday. And we are pink washing. That means we are replacing Elders in some random area that I still know nothing about. So that should be fun.

Basically I was just shell-shocked when I got the call from Irma Fluckiger and then the longer I processed it the more stressed I got. Also it got consecutively harder because we found out early enough for me to go around the area on the way back to the mission home and say goodbye to everyone. It was really hard. But it’s definitely time to leave, so it will be good. I feel okay about leaving I’m just still not sure about the destination.

At least we are having a huge slumber party in the mission home though because all the sisters are here to get ready to train!

Other than that... Our week was really cool. Here’s what I wrote President Fluckiger, Ola Presidente,

we had a lot of miracles this past week! We are so excited for the area to split and have Elders. It will really help our Ward Mission Leader and some recent converts who are struggling with activity. I know they would like to go on teaching appointments with the Elders and I think it will help them stay firm in church attendance.

We feel really happy with the growth we've seen in our area as well. We were able to spend some good time in the part of our area that is further away and we found new investigators without even trying. We were reminded of the importance of "going about doing good" in the success stories from last week, and we planned lessons for every hour of the day and trusted that the Lord would give us novos. We went and almost none of the appointments went through but we were able to meet five new investigators, including three members of a family, within an hour as we walked to and from back up plans. We feel really good about the status of the investigators, and the ward has also shown a lot of desire and interest this past two weeks in being involved in missionary work. We had an amazing thing happen last Monday after emails. An old investigator, Pedro, sent us a text message asking us to call him. I started teaching him with Irma Olson and he had a really hard time grasping faith, was waiting for some kind of a big sign from God and wouldn't keep the commitment to attend church even after he accepted a baptismal date, so we ended up dropping him after the first visit when Irma Walton had arrived. It had been at least two months since we had any contact with him, so we called and he said, "Eu queria falar convosco sobre sendo batizado."(I wanted to talk to you guys about being baptized) We said absolutely and went to his house on Wednesday. In the lesson he said he had continued reading 1-2 chapters in the Book of Mormon per week and was saying prayers. He had prayed and made a promise to God that if he received an answer that He existed, he would be baptized. Pedro said he had received some answers and now he needed to own up to his part of the deal. We marked him to be baptized in June and he will be an excellent addition to the Priesthood in Ala 1.

But yeah. Ugh sorry. I’m like in a weird mood because I’m still in shock and also there’s a lot of craziness happening here in the office.

But I loved loved loved talking to you guys yesterday and you all look great! I love you so much and I will definitely have more to tell you next week ha-ha.

Love Irma Dean

Ai ai Ai I'm tired

Getting to the home stretch of the mission is exhausting. You’re just beat. But the Lord is my strength. .

Its bullet style this week folks. I’m sorry. .

1. Beta and Fatima were confirmed! And Enzo (Beta's son) was given a baby blessing! It was wonderful and they were so excited. They were BEAMING. Their mom came to church to see the blessing and celebrate Mother’s Day (European Mother’s Day was yesterday). So naturally the Primary sang and Fatima was up there singing with them like a champ and Paula cried watching! It was really tender. Also, I was sitting behind the three of them, and Beta and Paula reminded me of Mom and me in sacrament meeting. We try to be reverent during the sacrament but after that we were always laughing hysterically while trying to hide it. I love them. And I love how much they love the gospel. .

2. Dean is not going to be baptized anytime soon. He has tried really hard to be getting his responses and what-not. We have been fasting and praying like crazy, but sometimes you just need to accept the Lord's timing. He is wonderful though and is still reading, praying, and attending church. So keep praying for him, and pray that China will open to missionaries. .

3. The person who was supposed to be baptized next week moved to a different zone so we had to pass him on but he is still firm as they come! The gospel is true no matter who is teaching or where it's taught. We are still teaching his nephew and nieces though and they are awesome! .

4. I learned the coolest party trick ever. Kind of. I learned how to undo a knot tied into a single strand of hair. It’s remarkable. I will teach you all one day. .

5. We still live in the mission home, and I’m pretty sure this is my last week in Lisbon because I’ve been here a long time. Our area will split next transfer (a week from now) and the ward will have four missionaries! It’s about time because our area is huge. .

I don’t know. I’m sorry I’m boring, but basically this week was a roller coaster of awesome and hard and it was just good old mission life ya know? I’m tired as can be in the best way and I’m super excited to have this last week with Irma Walton. Even if I don’t leave this area, we wouldn’t be companions because we would both train here.

The mission is great; the gospel is true and Deus é Grande. I love you guys, and I will be on Skype probably around 5 or 6 Portugal time for family members who would like to and can Skype on Sunday. .

Happy Mother’s Day! Congrats on retiring dad! Love, love, love, love Irma Dean.

PS: Also! Claudia got her documents from Africa! Well almost, a cousin was able to get them and is bringing them on Thursday when she comes for vacation so that means either this weekend or the next Claudia should be able to be married and then baptized! She even skipped out on her son’s preschool presentation for Mother’s Day early so she could be at church! Ha-ha I love her. She is converted for sure.

Happy Independence Day or Beta and Fatima are Baptized

April 25th! Woo! Yay Portugal. Independence Day was something about Carnations and a HUGE PARADE through our entire area.

This week was incredible beyond words.

I will be brief unfortunately, so use your imagination to go into details about how I felt about it.

1. We met a man whose daughter is serving a mission here in Portugal. He hasn’t seen her since she was 11 years old when he moved here for work. Families are eternal ya know! It’s really cool. We are hoping to get him in the water and ask President if she can come to his baptism.

2. Speaking of getting in the water.... what? Did we have two baptisms? Why yes we did. BETA AND FATIMA WERE BAPTIZED!

Here’s what I wrote to president about it:

This week has been wonderful! First of all, Beta and Fatima were baptized! The baptism was amazing and their whole family came to support them, all of which are non-members but have shown some promise, and also their member-relatives from other wards came to celebrate and support the day. The baptism was really wonderful and the family definitely felt the Spirit. Their mother was asked about baptism and her response was "who knows, we'll have to see if maybe I should," when before she was very firm that she wasn't ready to be investigating deeply. Also, her brother lost a charm from his necklace and found it in front of the baptismal font and said, "Maybe it's a sign that I'm next!", and their sister-in-law asked us to please invite her to all of their future lessons. The members were so wonderful and just killed the family with kindness and all expressed a desire to see them in church next week. Their mom, Paula, then invited us over for lunch and we taught the whole family the first lesson! While discussing the First Vision she said she wants to better understand gospel things and have someone help her understand a few dreams she's had in her life. She continued to explain that once she dreamed she was baptized and when she looked at the font in the chapel, the blue tile around the font and the entrance into the water made her remember and feel like she was back in her dream because it was exactly the same. We are so excited to be teaching the whole family now and to help them feel the Spirit and unity of the gospel.

3. Please pray for Dean Lee. He’s not doing so hot right now and kind of hitting a wall.

4. We did a division this week and both got to work in our area with what are now called "sister trainers" so instead of one of us staying and the other leaving we just stay and accomplish double I one day. Only we accomplished way more than double. We found four new investigators and committed three people to be baptized! one of which was the first time we even talked to him but the spirit was so strong and he is so ready for this, another is an investigator that walks two hours to church and before Irma Walton and the sister trainer got to say anything he said, I really want to be baptized. I was very touched by the testimonies on Sunday and I felt like that man who spoke about the importance of baptism was speaking to me. Yeah. This work is amazing.

5. We live in the mission home. Seriously. So ya know how I said weird stuff was happening? Well we went home on Monday night thinking that everything would be fine and then about 12:15 the weird stuff started happening again so the elders came and picked us up and took us to the mission home. The Fluckigers were out of town but talked to the elders and said that it’s now a top priority that they find us a new house and we are to stay in the mission home until a new house is rented. We pretty much have the house to ourselves also because the Fluckigers are always traveling. It’s very strange but also very awesome.

Ok I love you guys and I’m going to send pictures in just one second. Have a marvelous week and now those miracles and invited when we have faith and when we got on our knees and ask for them!

I love you and I love the gospel and I love my mission!

Irma dean

Epic Adventure!

Today has been the most spontaneous and awesome 18 hours of my mission. In like a non-spiritual kind of way.

First... some weird spiritual stuff was going down at our house for a long time and so we had President and Irma Fluckiger come over and bless our house. That, on top of the fact that our house has a ton of really bad mold all over it made them really concerned so they are looking for a new house and I’m pretty sure we will be moved by the end of the transfer. So because of that, Irma and President Fluckiger left their house key for us at the office while they are traveling this week! As in they offered, and like wanted us to sleep at the mission home. We weren’t even planning on it because our house felt a lot better spiritually that night. But then the Elders from the office called repeatedly to convince us to go, and reminded us that this is super awesome and a once in a mission opportunity, especially since they trust us to stay there when they are gone. So we went and stayed there last night and got some really good sleep on GOOD BEDS AND IN A HOUSE THAT DOESNT SMELL LIKE MOLD. It was wonderful. It felt like a hotel ha-ha.

So while we were on our way back to our area to have a normal p-day, we decided we might as well stop and see the tourist attractions down the street from their house. We went to the Discoverer’s Monument and this really cool Monastery. We even ran into more LDS tourists and one of our investigators who is a painter.

Then, while we were there, the Elders called us and asked where we were. They said, “Okay, we're coming to get you. We’re going to the castle of St. George." (not Utah ha-ha) So we had an AMAZING and completely spur-of-the-moment morning and afternoon with the Elders there. It was so much fun and something we've been wanting to do forever.

Last week was incredible! We had amazing miracles and our investigators are progressing so well. We had an awesome integration activity about the temple. We had stations doing things like toilet paper wedding dresses, a sugar cube temple, drawing what we think the Portugal temple will be like, and learning about family history. There were so many members there and investigators too and it went so well!!

Beta and Fatima are so excited to be baptized and when they came to church on Sunday ALL OF THE MEMBERS SWARMED THEM because of how cute Beta’s baby boy is. The ward LOVES them and they are already like completely integrated. We have a Family Home Evening with them tonight and it’s going to be awesome!

Also, on Sunday we had a brand new investigator walk two hours to come to church and he said that he loved church and we were angels put in his path to help him find this church. THE CHURCH IS TRUE!!!!!!!!!!! SERIOUSLY!

Ahhhh this work is amazing. I love my mission so much!

Honestly I’m coming to the harsh reality that it’s ending REALLY soon. I got what’s called "the trunky call" a few days ago. The office Elders called to ask what airport I will fly home to. I don’t know if you’ve already gotten an email from the mission, but my flight is probably booked already. So weird. I hate it. It makes it really hard to focus. Not in like an I-don’t-care-about-mission-stuff-because-I’m-leaving kind of way but more like I get distracted in the middle of lessons by how much I'll miss this.

Ok I have to write President but I love you all so much!!! Stay safe and happy and close to the Spirit and you will see miracles just like I’m seeing! God loves you!

I got a feelin’

04/15/13
That this transfer is going to be epic. Really.

So family bo bamily. I’m really tired right now. I apologize if anything doesn’t make sense or is typed wrong. I have three stories for you!

This week has been incredible! Seriously amazing. During emails last week we got a call from the ward mission leader in Mem Martins (my first area!) and he said he had a reference for us and wanted to go there with us at 5:30. We said NO PROBLEM. And met up with him to go to the appointment. So he introduced us to his cousins, Beta and Fatima. Beta just had a baby and has never been religious but over Easter watched the miniseries thing on TV about Christ and told her member cousin that she wants to know more about Christ.

We went over and started teaching her and she is so cool! Just like earnestly seeking truth and direction in her life. On Wednesday and they had not only read the book of Mormon but had written down questions like, “What does omnipotent mean?” , and “What is the law of Moses?”, and “What is the organization of the plates of gold and the plates of brass?”. They said they had prayed about the Book of Mormon and felt that this was the right path for them to take. We invited them both to be baptized on the 28th of April, and they accepted and were really excited. We had another lesson on Friday and confirmed that they would come to church on Sunday. Saturday rolls around and Betas phone was off or something so we weren’t getting a hold of them, and so she calls us at ten that night and says "Hi Sister, it’s me, Beta. I’m just calling to confirm what time you will be here to come with us to church." For anyone who hasn’t served a mission, that doesn’t happen all the time. Like you’re lucky if three of the ten people you've committed to coming show up.

So Sunday morning, we go over there at nine. Stake conference started at ten. Portugal standard time is about 20 minutes later than when you arrange for. THEY WERE READY AND WAITING. But that’s not it. THEY WERE IN DRESSES. Like they looked NICE. THEY HAD GOTTEN READY and had LOOKED UP THE BUS SCHEDULE. This is a missionary's dream. At least in our mission. We went to Stake Conference together and they LOVED IT. Beta said she really loved the music and the speakers and Fatima was even paying really close attention. At the end of conference a bunch of people came up to them and it turns out they have other cousins who live in our stake and were saying stuff like, "yeah Beta mentioned that she’s getting baptized, please call us and let us know the details so we can be there."

It was amazing. And they just fell into our laps. I love it. That’s when you know it is right and that’s when they’re going to stay firm. References who have friends and have expressed desire! Don’t get me wrong, there are elect people waiting for their door to be knocked, but really member references is the way to go. Heed the advice of our leaders in General conference and talk to your friends about the gospel and give references to the missionaries!

Also this week we had a miracle with Dean! Dad thank you so, so, so much for your letter with your testimony written in Chinese. I gave it to him in a lesson on Friday and he was so excited. I even took a video of it which I will try to attach to the email. He translated it into English for us and the spirit was so strong that my companion was starting to cry. After he read it he just kept smiling and saying thank you and asking me to tell dad thank you. He said, "This is real gift. This is from the heart. I am very touched. Thank you much." (mistakes intended on that one). As we continued to talk to Dean about what he’s learned and the responses to his prayers (the two dreams about Christ) he said that in his dream, Christ reached his hand out to him and that he wanted to grab it but he woke up before he could. As we talked to him about how he can reach out and take the Savior’s hand through baptism, the spirit was so strong. Dean said he still wasn’t sure that these things are a response for him to be able to pick this path. We invited him to, if before that date feels that he has received his response from God to take this path, be baptized on May 4th and HE ACCEPTED. The first time we brought up baptism he was extremely firm that he was neither ready nor willing to think about that yet. This is an amazing step for him. Everyone please pray hard for Dean to receive recognition of the responses he is getting from the Lord. I know that prayer works and it would be awesome to have your support in this. He needs it!

Also. Being Lisbon and all, it has been my dream to meet Mormon tourists and take a picture with them. That dream came true this week! We got on the bus and a couple started talking to my companion and me. Turns out that he had served his mission here in Lisbon 30 years ago and they were here for just three days before meeting up with their son in Spain who just finished his mission. It’s their first trip back and they were really excited to have run into us. As we were talking they asked where I was from and when I said Maryland, the wife mentioned she had family in the Frederick area and I said that’s my stake! She asked what ward I lived in and when I said Westminster, you should have seen her face. She said, "My sister lives in that ward!"Susan Knouse! I about had a heart attack. We were so excited and I told her I had been Kristina’s camp counselor and that I love their family! We took pictures and it was amazing! The Lord blesses us so much in life and on the mission. He knows when we need a tender mercy and he WANTS to give them to us! So cool huh!

This week is going to be wonderful for me and I pray that it will be just as wonderful for all of you! I love and miss you all!!!

Irma Dean

General Conference (was awesome)

04/08/13
This whole week was incredible! We had an amazing p-day of NOT getting transferred, our investigators were progressing like crazy, we had an amazing zone meeting, my comp is really hilarious, and we had General Conference!

Basically that's what I want to write about. and Dean. Because he watched all four sessions.

But first, I have a favor to ask, that all of you keep Margarida in your prayers. She was doing so wonderfully with the plan to quit smoking in time for her baptism and then four days before she smoked one more cigarette than she was supposed to. She got really down on herself and Satan pounced. The next day she smoked 11 cigarettes and she is really struggling and has pretty much lost all faith that she can still be baptized. She received a blessing from our ward mission leader and was feeling a lot more hopeful but is still really sad from having to postpone the baptism. She watched Saturady General Conference at home and I know the Lord spoke to her through Craig Cardon's talk on repentance. On Sunday she came to the chapel to watch with us but had a really bad reaction to not having her tobacco with her and it ended pretty badly so she went home early. She is so incredible and it's really sad to see her like this. Satan is a real something-I-can't-say-as-a-missionary.

But! Dean is amazing! First, this week we taught him the Plan of Salvation. He had incredible questions and understood it so well! We got to the end and he said, so if we go to the sun kingdom, we are perfect and we are like God. (Yes) So then we are also Gods. (Looking at each other like wow... yes!) So there will be many Gods and we will keep progressing (hallelujah). When we finished up the lesson and he didn’t have any more questions, he just looks at the chalkboard, nods his head a little with a smile and goes, "It is good." We invited him to say a prayer that night and ask God if the Plan of Salvation is true. The next day we called to confirm plans for conference and follow up on the prayer. Hey guess what, he had a SECOND dream about Jesus. He said that it was a majestic sort of thing and there were other people around smiling and then Jesus smiled at him and reached His hand out to him. Yeah. He’s elect.

Irma Walton and I were invited to attend the Saturday sessions of Conference in English at the mission home with President and Irma Fluckiger, who also welcomed Dean and Kelsi (the member friend). The first session it was us and some other sisters and then between sessions we asked Dean what he thought. He didn't understand all of it because of the language but he really liked the feeling of it. We taught the first lesson and he asked what the difference between a seer and a prophet is. This guy's incredible. We then ate a Portuguese dinner (something called Fransazenias or something it’s basically a heart attack in sandwich form) with a bunch more missionaries and the Fluckigers and Dean asked if he could stay for the next session. Sunday he found his way to the chapel in Benfica (about an hour away on public transport) all by himself and appeared right as we were calling to see if he needed us to go find him at the metro stop. And PS: he's already reading in Alma 5. Please pray that he will finally recognize what Heavenly Father is trying to tell him!

I love you all and I hope you guys were just as edified by General Conference! If not say a prayer and watch it again! Love you and have a wonderful week!

So Blessed it’s Ridiculous

04/04/13

Heavenly Father answers prayers.

Somewhere in Luke is the parable of the judge and the woman who wants vengeance. The judge says that the woman wearies him so much that he is willing to do what she asks. Sometimes in the house during lunch, we listen to Truman G Madsen's lectures. One time he talked about that story and how we should "Weary the Lord for asking" until he gives us what he wants. Also, Helaman 10:3-5 told me the same thing.

Here’s what happened. Irma Walton and I are both Senior Companion because she's only a couple of transfers older than me, and I knew the area when she arrived. Senior comp is supposed to stay in the area for 6-8 months. Since she was also senior, and I only have three transfers left, and also just because of a lot of things that were happening, I felt for sure like I would be leaving Lapa today.

Like, I was completely sure… until a week and a half ago. When I decided to weary the Lord. I am too in love with this place and these people to leave. I can't do it. I have to see Dean recognize his relationship to God. I have to see Margarida be baptized during General Conference and quit smoking. I have to be at Claudia's wedding before she is baptized. At least that was my opinion. So I told Heavenly Father what I wanted and I did it EVERY TIME I PRAYED. Even to bless food and in the prayer to start our comp study and the prayer to leave the house and just EVER SINGLE PRAYER.
One day last week I was praying to end my personal study and I just told Heavenly Father like it is. I poured out my heart about why I want to stay and I heard, "okay. sure." and I was like, “Whoa, Wait. Like... really?” And then I started doubting that I had received a response so since then I felt completely in the air of whether I would stay.

Last night when the Elders called to tell us about transfers, Elder Souza made it all dramatic because he knew how badly I want to stay, and he told us we would be staying together! I get a fourth transfer in Lapa! I get another transfer with Irma Walton! I get to keep helping Dean and Margarida and Claudia and everyone else! I get to be in the best place in Portugal for another six weeks!
I burst into tears when he told us and we had like the most epic hug ever.
I AM SO EXCITED. I love this place, I love my mission, I love talking to strangers about God, I love Dean, I love Margarida, I love Claudia, I love our ward, I love the office, I LOVE LIFE. Seriously.

Any who, the work is going really well! Margarida received a blessing to help quit smoking and she is doing really well!! Dean spent the week in Spain for vacation, visited the Madrid Temple and attended church in Barcelona the Sunday he wasn't here! He was so excited to show us all the pictures. We fasted with Claudia and her papers are coming along to get married! The members have started giving us tons of references! And Sunday was Easter! Best thing ever.

I hope you all know how much the Savior loves each and every one of you. It is infinite! His love is beyond comprehension. I am so grateful for the chance to teach people of His love and His sacrifice. I hope you all had a wonderful week, and please know that I love and pray for you!

Irma Dean

Another Week, Another Miracle

3/25/13
So I have enough time this week, but my brain is kind of weird today, so I hope you guys don't mind that I'm just going to copy and paste my letter to President Fluckiger and then add some stuff.

Ola President, This week has been truly amazing! We are seeing so many miracles here in Lapa and our investigators are progressing really well.

Our investigator Margarida is marked for baptism on the 7th and is incredible. The first day we met her she was so depressed and just weary looking and sobbed from her depression and physical pains she is going through. She attended church the next day and in our second lesson with her, she said that she wanted to be baptized before we even had a chance to mention it. We told her she would need to quit smoking and also give up coffee and she accepted wholeheartedly. The next appointment we had with her she said she had already spoken to her doctor and started a plan to quit smoking within 15 days, which worked perfectly for the date we felt for her! I have never seen so much will power in a person, ever! She is already a completely new person and recognizes that it comes from the Gospel. She is reading the Book of Mormon every day and has a completely different spirit and light about her. The Gospel is changing her life so much already!

We are also teaching a man named Dean Lee, from China. He is here studying abroad and was a reference from a member in the same study program. He has already attended church three times, is past Chapter 20 of 2 Nephi, and said that after the first time he prayed he had a dream and saw an image of Christ, but that it was a little far away and he couldn't get to it. He is having some trouble recognizing the answers he is receiving to his prayers about God's existence and nature. We have seen so much grow in him though and to our baptismal invitation (without a date, just the general, will you be baptized when you know for yourself this is true) he responded, "I don't think I can say yes right now because if I'm going to be baptized I must know for myself that it is right and that I will be able to honor this commitment I make with God." So he basically said yes while trying to say no. I love working with Dean! My dad, brothers, sister-in-law, and best friend all served missions in Taiwan my family has lived in Asia for a long time, and my Dad served as a Branch President while living in China, so I felt a little like an outsider of the family coming here to Portugal. I feel like Heavenly Father has given me this tender mercy of working with Dean to have the same experience and joy my family has felt of bringing the gospel to the Chinese people. He was not at church on Sunday because he is in Spain right now, but sent a message to his member friend saying he went to visit the Madrid Temple grounds and loved it!

President, I love this area and all of the people we are working with so much. I have loved serving with Irma Walton and can honestly say this has been the best transfer of my mission as far as the work, as far as my confidence, and as far as my desire to keep participating in this work. Thank you so much for following the prompting to put me in Lapa. I know because of how badly I want to stay here, it probably means the Lord has other plans, but honestly the desire of my heart is to stay here one more transfer and continue to care for this area and these people I love so much. I do trust your judgment though, so I'll happily serve wherever the Lord wants me.

Thank you for everything, Irma Dean

So yeah, we are working with incredible people. We also have an investigator named Claudia who is working to be baptized on the 14th. She needs o get married first, but same with Margarida, she mentioned being baptized before we even brought it up, said she wants so badly to be baptized and has been to church every Sunday for a month (PS: she walks 40 minutes to get there). Today we went with her to the Guinea- Bissau embassy to see what papers she needs to get married. Guess what! His embassy is right across the street from the mission home! Sister Fluckiger saw us and invited us to come over after we finished at the embassy. She invited us to all come over and we made soup and had lunch with her and two of the office Elders and President. Claudia loved the soup and liked being with President and Irma Fluckiger as well.

Oh another miracle! We have a standard of finding ten new investigators every week. Friday we had only found 1 all week and then started a fast on Saturday to find new people to teach. We only found one new person that day, but on Sunday after we broke our fast, we found 8 investigators in one day without even trying! People approached us and asked to know more and there were new people in the homes we visited! Fasting woks and the lord blesses his missionaries!

Hope you’ve all had a wonderful week, sorry this is forever long, but I love you guys and I love Heavenly Father and I love the mission and I love these people!

Love, Irma Dean

We Bought a Zoo

Well, we didn’t buy one, but I just got back from one! Ha-ha it was really strange and really fun. The office elders, (our district) took a stand and declared that they would finally spend a p-day out of the office! So they invited us, more like convinced us for almost an hour and even offered to pay us, to come with them. It was worth it because really the day was awesome. The only bad thing was that I didn’t feel like a missionary all that much. We were definitely outside of any kind of missionary bubble for a while.

Other than the zoo, we definitely had some adventures this past week. You want to know something sad? I am so far in the mission that I have to look at my planner to remember what happened every day because every day just blends into the next and every week passes so quickly that I’m still processing things from two weeks ago.

First, I got to do another division this week! I went to an area called Odivelas with Irma Parker. She is in her second transfer and a rock star. She’s the only member in her family, she’s from Utah and is super fun. She’s half black and half Portuguese! We had a complete blast getting to know each other and being able to teach together. She has so much greenie fire its ridiculous and I barely remember what it felt like to be that new in the mission. I still feel like I barely know what I’m doing so I don’t think I really want to remember how nervous I was feeling at the beginning!

I also wanted to update you all on our Chinese investigator, Dean Lee. He is amazing. Seriously so incredible. He has been to church three weeks in a row and he has already finished reading the first book of Nephi (in English because he thinks that translations have bias and wants to read the original). He has been online researching where the closest church group to his house is in China and asks so many questions. He has already researched tithing, the Word of Wisdom, and tons of other doctrine from the church. He is making such a huge effort to really comprehend all of the beliefs that are so foreign to him. We will be inviting him to be baptized in an appointment on Wednesday, so pray that the spirit will touch his heart to accept! He is so curious but is still struggling with making the gospel personal. He like wants to keep himself at a distance still.

We also got to meet this woman named Margarida. She is a reference from a member and has been super depressed and having some health problems. When we went to visit her we talked about hope and comfort that come through Christ and gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon. When we came back three days later, she was so much happier and had been reading and taking notes every day! She then came to church on Sunday and was absolutely beaming. She was so happy and so excited to learn at church. It helped strengthen my testimony of the book of Mormon so much.

We have put a huge emphasis on using the Book of Mormon in our teaching lately and we have seen a huge difference. We also made a goal to hand out at least two books during street contacts every day. There was one night this week that we were on our way to an appointment; and I felt like we should talk to a young man in the street. We talked to him and had a little mini lesson right there about Ether 12:4. We invited him to read and pray about the Book of Mormon, and said a prayer with him. He said in the beginning of the contact that he was struggling with his faith and he wasn’t really sure where he stood with God. So at the end, when we asked if he would say the prayer, he declined and said he didn’t feel very comfortable doing it. About an hour later, we got a text message from him with a four page long prayer where he poured out his heart about the struggle he’d been having with feeling like he could turn to God, asked for blessing for himself, his family, and asked that God bless Sisters Walton and Dean for bringing him the message of comfort and peace to his heart. We have a return appointment with him on Thursday and we are really excited!

Goodness this week was full of miracles!

And also hilarity.

Like when a gypsy man tried to convince us that we couldn’t have our appointment with his family because no one was home except him. So when we pointed to the two women in the back of the room (whom we were supposed to be visiting) and asked "what about them" he just replied, "No, there’s no one here. I'm by myself. They all went to the hospital to visit family"

Or when we went to visit a less-active woman and asked her how she was introduced to the church. She said she was getting really old and forgetful and at the moment couldn’t recall. Later on in the visit she asked how we had her contact in our records because she had no idea what we were talking about. She said she’s catholic and has always been and has zero recollection of being baptized. We even showed her a picture and asked if she remembered a day when she was baptized that way and she just stared at us and said "nao faco minimo idea" which means, I haven’t the slightest idea. Really sad because she probably has Alzheimer’s, but it also made for a very interesting lesson...

Well, time is up but I love you all a ton! Only 20 more emails from me! Ugh sad. Keep praying for me and especially our investigators! Love you all and thank you for the prayers and support! Irma Dean

Picture from the Zoo

Top:
Elder Brady, Irma Walton, me, Elder Souza, Elder Rodriguez, a random man
Bottom:
Irma Blanco, Irma Urgiles Encaldada, and Elder Fausset

Men's Hearts shall Fail Them

If you would like to know what I learned this week, watch this video.



This week, I hit one year on the mission, and exactly five months left on the mission. It was kind of a roller coaster. It’s really weird to be two thirds done. Five months! That’s like tomorrow!

So I started kind of panicking a realizing that I only have five months left to take advantage of living every day completely focused on the Savior and on helping other people and on teaching the Gospel. I realized that I only have five months to be the kind of person I wanted to be by the end of my mission. But then I had a really awesome talk with my district leader, Elder Brady, Elder Fausett, and Irma Walton and then the elders gave me a blessing. The whole thing talked about how Heavenly Father wanted me to recognize the progress I’ve already made and just continue the way I’ve been working and with pure desires. I really had expected to get some constructive criticism because I’ve been pretty distracted this past week and not super focused on my purpose. But that’s why we have the atonement, so we can move forward.

A few days later, I found that video, and felt like I needed to apply it. Instead of an airplane crashing toward earth, I’m on a mission crashing toward its end. I found a lot of peace from the video, especially when it says, "Don’t demand things that are unreasonable, but demand of yourself improvement. As you let the Lord help you through that, He will make the difference" So that’s what I’m trying to do, because really things are going well with the work. We have a girl named Madelena marked for baptism on the 24th and she is incredible. We have seen more people in church than in the last seven weeks, we have had more lessons taught and we’ve been finding new people. The quality of our work has increased so much. So it’s not perfection, but improvement that matters.

Also, this week I got to do a division with our coordinating sister, Irma Wilde, whom I knew in the MTC and we had an absolute blast. It was actually on my one year mark too so that was really fun. The closest we got to being able to celebrate was McDonald's and some candy, ha ha ha missionary life.

This week really has been great and so many of our investigators are starting to really get answers to their questions and recognize the truth of the gospel and the love God has for them. Ahhhh I love the mission! it’s so amazing

I love you all, and please pray for me to make it through these last five months as best as I can!

Aloha Gente

Well as you all know, I didn't have time to write a group email last week. My apologies. But not really. It wasn't my fault. We had interviews with President Fluckiger! So p-day got cancelled.

So I'll start with the week you missed. IT WAS AWESOME: It was Irma Walton's and my first week together and we saw so many miracles it was ridiculous. We also had a lot of adventures.

First of all, our area is huge, and these past two transfers Irma Olson always knew where we were and everything about transport. Yeah, I may have gotten us lost for two and a half hours one day, but we had a really fun time! Then we found some really cool new investigators! That day was also the first time I've ever been splashed by a car on my mission. Yay for having another missionary cliché!

But really that week was a huge testimony of following the Spirit. We had so many things fall through and so much confusion because of the transfer change, but we fasted, prayed and searched diligently for opportunities to teach and to serve, and as we did so the Lord blessed us so much!

Then this past week was pretty much the same thing. So many appointments are falling, like never before in this area, but we always find out what God's purpose for us was in that moment. I feel like these past two weeks have been weeks in which the Lord is using us to administer tender mercies to people. Members, less actives, recent converts, investigators, neighbors, strangers, everyone! We helped a group of students move and some tourists find their hotel and a ton of little things, but we've also had the really important tender mercies as well.

For instance: one day we all of a sudden had a three hour block open because things fell through and we felt like we needed to go to this is lodging house in part of our area. We know a lot of people there but we had to try so many different people before we got a hold of someone we could go teach. We went and started to teach Manuel, a newer investigator, and we ran into Admilson.

Admilson is an old investigator I met with Irma Olson and he is incredible, like extraordinary. On the day we were going to commit him for baptism, he dropped us. He said that he had to tell us something, and that he knew what we were teaching him was right but that he wasn’t ready to act on it right now. He said that he couldn’t make this commitment to God yet. Then he started crying. The weirdest part was that the Spirit told both of us that it was right to drop him and give him space until he was ready to act.

So, we ran into Admilson, and he was so sad from missing his family in Cabo Verde and he joined in the lesson. Not five seconds later Manuel said he was feeling really sick and needed to go lie down, so we just kept talking with Admilson and we were able to really lift his spirit. The same thing actually happened last night. We ran into him while teaching another investigator and he was really sad again so we just joked with him and got him smiling and told him Heavenly Father doesn't want him sad. He said, "I know, because every time I´m sad like this you show up and always make me smile" !!!!!!!!!!!! That is being a disciple of Christ. Don't get me wrong, I love baptizing people, but I just love being able to remind people of how much God loves them and is aware of their needs and their hard days.

BUT THAT’S NOT ALL. While we were in that first lesson with him when he was so sad, we started to wrap up reading a passage from the Book of Mormon, when a woman walked in and talked to him and then saw us. She asked who we were and then saw our name-tags and said, "AH! SISTERS! LIKE IN CABO VERDE!" and went on to explain that she is a member of the church and was the first person baptized on the island where she lives. She moved here to Portugal about two months ago for medical treatments and had no idea where the church was or if there even was one around here. She said she had been praying because she felt so lonely and wanted to be back in church to feel closer to God. We were able to give her the address of the church and arrange for a recent convert who lived downstairs to accompany her to church on Sunday!

GOD IS GOOD YA KNOW

Oh! Also, cool story for you guys, I am now an official Dean missionary! I'm teaching a Chinaman!!!!! Ha ha ha no but really. An American exchange student who is a returned missionary brought a friend of hers to our activity on Wednesday night and his name is Dín Lí. He is so cool and was so excited to come and to hear I grew up in Taiwan. He thinks it’s hilarious that we have the same name (Dín and Dean), and helped me brush up on/ laughed at my Chinese. He’s really cool though, we had a lesson with him on Saturday about who Christ and God are and why they are important and how much they love us. He’s having a hard time grasping that we can be forgiven for things we've done wrong and that God could love him unconditionally and talked a lot about the difference in Chinese culture. He came to church yesterday and said he really liked it and felt something good, so he understands why western cultures like this feeling of Christ so much. He’s so cute. So fam bam, if you have any tips on how to share the gospel with him and help him understand and feel the spirit, PLEASE LET ME KNOW!

The work is awesome and by the way my interview with President went ALOT BETTER than the last one ha-ha like it was really great and he helped me understand how we can keep this area doing so well and really strengthen our ward. It was very productive.

Oh my gosh. AND. ha-ha sorry I just have a lot to tell you! So in my district this transfer, we still have the office elders, but their proselyting area got split and now there are sisters sharing their ward. One of them is Irma Barlow! My MTC companion! It’s been a lovely reunion ha-ha and the new office Elder who is also our District Leader is Elder Brady, who we knew in the MTC. So on Tuesday we had this training meeting with the Assistants and President and Irma Fluckiger, and it was amazing. Seriously inspirational. We talked a lot about teaching people and not just teaching lessons and how to understand the needs of our investigators so we could really help them come unto Christ. We also talked about conversion and that it is the priority, not just to baptize which used to be the mentality of this mission. For part of the training we divided into districts to discuss our goals for the month and how we would accomplish them. We only had ten minutes to do that. Those ten minutes were the most inspirational ten minutes of my entire mission. I am not kidding. Elder Brady talked about how he once had a companion who said he wanted to disappear in the lessons. That he wanted to make it so the investigator couldn’t see him the missionary, but instead would see Christ because of the spirit in the lesson. He said that was the vision he had for our district because our areas have so much potential and we as missionaries have so much potential. He wanted us to work to become the invisible district. The district who transmits the spirit and treats people the way Christ would treat them so much that the people don’t even process that we are our own entities. That we can just completely consecrate ourselves and be one with the spirit and one with Christ to show people how much He loves them. The spirits was so strong and like half of us were tearing up. Literally the most inspiring ten minutes of my whole mission and even as a whole the best training of my whole mission. We are so excited to teach to people’s needs and be consecrated missionaries.

Ahhhh the mission is great you guys.

Yeah, it’s been a good two weeks.

Love you guys a ton!!! And I hope your week was wonderful!!!

Transfers

Guess what!

I GOT TRANSFERRED TO MADEIRA!

Just kidding. He he he. But, my companion did. Sad day.

So yeah, we had transfers! I stayed here in Lapa and I'm serving with Sister Walton, from California. She's really sweet and I’ve always wanted to get to know her better so I’m excited.

Irma Olson went to Madeira (island) today and it was actually really hard. Not just emotionally, but like difficult to get her there. She has a lot of stuff, and you’re only allowed to take one 50lb suitcase with you to the islands and a carry-on. It was a hot mess trying to figure out what she was going to leave behind in the office and then her bag was still overweight and she didn’t even own a carry on. So then we found her one at the office and LITERALLY had to sew it shut with twine because the zipper wouldn’t go. ha ha ha It was an adventure. I was lucky though, because I got to stay with her and see her off at the airport which isn’t normal. But then the people coming in from the islands had their flight delayed so the other sisters didn’t arrive and I was alone with three elders in the car for a long time. It was different...

But other than that; this past week has been really great.

There were some hiccups like a trip to the hospital because I thought I had strep and my flu was coming back (I’m fine, it wasn’t and they gave me medicine and I feel great now).

Our stake is doing a trip to the Madrid temple this week and people left today for the full week trip. Students and youth and what not will leave Friday night to spend Saturday there. And guess what!!! We have three recent converts going! Yuri and Fernando, who were baptized the week before I arrived, are going and also Erica who was baptized a month ago!! We had a family home evening with Erica and a member and talked about the temple and she is so excited to go! That girl is so amazing. Irma Olson and I talked about how she is one of those people who the Lord had prepared way before we even met them and literally all we needed to do was teach them and they would want to be baptized and progress on their own and continue firm. Erica is doing so well and the young women’s president has asked the bishop to give her a calling as the secretary!

Also, one of the miracles we saw this week happened at church on Sunday. There is a Filipino woman here who doesn’t really speak Portuguese but she is attending church and has a calling in Relief Society. She is living with a Catholic woman and tries really hard to be an example to her but the roommate never really wants to hear anything about the church. Well, Joy (the member), was asked to give a talk in church this week so we went over on Saturday to help her write it and we found out she was really struggling. She said it’s been really hard to have her roommate smoking and drinking and everything because it’s a huge temptation for her to stop attending church. While we were at the house we talked to her and tried to cheer her up. We told her roommate Emmy that she should come support Joy with her talk the next day. Emmy was saying how she didn’t want to, and it was too early, and she’s Catholic, but maybe. We literally did not expect her to come because we figured we needed to keep encouraging her but when we got to Church she was there! She stayed for all three hours and was so glad when it ended ha ha ha but she was there and she said she really liked it, just that it was really long!

But really, the Lord is good and we saw a lot of miracles this past week. I have no idea what it’s going to be like now with the new companion but I’m excited. I love you guys and pray for you always!

Sick, Sick, Sick

Aloha family!

I was re-admitted to BYUH today! Woo! So after the mission I’m headed back to Hawaii!

Anyway, this past week was kind of a hot mess. We were disgusting-nasty-sick. We spent four days in bed. We were engripada. That means we had the flu!

Monday we left the house to attempt emails and to grab some groceries and even that was feeble.

Tuesday we didn’t leave the house at all.

Wednesday we had to go to a Zone Meeting and then Irma Olson was feeling well enough to do her email so we finished that and then had an integration activity here at the church (we only went because we are in charge of them).

Thursday we were in bed until 5:30 when we met with Erica and then tried to visit a girl we are teaching named Marcia. Well let’s just say, we got off the bus at the station near her house and then we have to climb these huge stairs and walk like another ten minutes to her house. Normally it takes about 15 minutes to walk. It took us almost an hour and our ward mission leader was with us and practically holding Irma Olson up. Also I fell in the street. Like literally I collapsed walking up a hill. But we were so close so we finished trekking to her house and shared a scripture with her. It was totally worth it though because she is soooo shy and never agrees to say the prayer and she said the prayer to finish the lesson! She was so excited to do it too! So we left and we were so happy but then we went straight to bed.

Friday we were in bed all morning and then had a few lessons but we were still so exhausted.

And the Saturday we had an awesome activity that we planned for the young men and young women to help integrate our investigators and recent converts and the help bring back the less active youth. The activity was incredible! It was a complete success and we had everyone there that we had worked to get there and everyone loved it. We made American chili for lunch and brownies for dessert and played capture the flag and seriously it was awesome. I love our ward to death.

But really that’s everything we did this week. We’re still feeling a little gross but a lot better to be working and we were so blessed with how week our activities and lessons went considering our heads were about to explode.

But hey, we are excited because we are going to work hard, it’s the last week of the transfer, and we are in freaking Lisbon! And we love it! The Church is true and the work is amazing!
Love you guys!  
Irma Dean