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)