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
Monday, May 27, 2013
Monday, May 20, 2013
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
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
Monday, May 13, 2013
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
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
Monday, May 6, 2013
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.
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.
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