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!!!