Mom had a very good question in her last letter. (Ellen--where are you?) My companions and I got a good laugh. Yes, you heard right, my companions. They needed two sisters to keep track of me because obviously one wasn´t enough to keep me out of trouble. I am now in São João da Madeira, a cute little city in the middle of the hills about an hour and a half south of Porto. We were transfered on Saturday from Matosinhos, just to be safe and to make sure we could work without the police looking twice at us whenever we walk down the street. At first I was really worried about all of our people and how they would progress, but then I realized that really the Lord is more worried about them than I am and that helps a lot. I do have some great stories to tell my grandchildren.
So, my companions are: Sister Medieros from Angola (yep! a native speaker who speaks in Portuguese all the time) and Sister Schneiber from Connecticut who speaks probably the best Portuguese of the sisters, having spoken French fluently before learning Portuguese. I feel really blessed to have the opportunity to learn correctly this language so early on. This time with them will be short, but we do speak 24/7, and that helps. I really like being in a tripla, it´s really fun and we can enter anywhere. The very first door we knocked on Saturday was the house of two young men of about 20 years and the marvelous thing is, with three sisters, we can enter, which we did, and teach, which we also did, with power and it was great. We do teach very well together and we get along smashingly. Sister Schnieber is fun, we joke around a lot, and another cool thing is that she wants to learn how to quilt by hand, having loved machine quilting. She is also a great teacher and I love that every door that is opened to us, we teach. We end up teaching a lot of people who don´t want to hear, but they at least have a little idea about what they are rejecting. I am excited to learn all that I can from her. Sister Medieros is very good at teaching simply and at keeping me humble, which I always need. She also will have my language perfected if it kills me, but I really am enjoying our companionship.
On Tuesday we had a zone conference and got all pumped up again. Our new goal is to do even 10 contacts more per person than we would have otherwise so that we can really talk to everyone and teach at every single opportunity. Yesterday we contacted this girl Carla in the city center. She was just sitting on the park bench and we went and talked to her and the message of hope and faith that we shared with her made her cry and really was an answer to her prayers and to ours. It was yet another testimony to me that this is the Lord´s work, that He is really gathering His sheep here in the last days and those who are really seeking with hear His voice.
This area is one of the only ones in the mission that only has a branch. I get to play the piano for sacrament meeting on Sunday and that is always fun. We will be spending a lot of time with the members helping to strenghen and fortify their testimonies and knowledge of the gospel as well as working with our great investigators, of which there are many. I´m not sure if I will still be here in three weeks, but I really do love it here and am so thankful for the opportunity to be here, even if it did mean that I had to be arrested twice to get here. This really is the Lord´s work and His kingdom on the earth. I am so thankful for the knowledge that I have and for my testimony. I know that God is really my Father and that He loves us in the same way that He loved His children in the past and for this reason has blessed us again in these the last days with a prophet, as was profecied by Christ and all of the other prophets of ancient times. A prophet always receives the gospel by revelation and then teaches this gospel to others and also bears testimony that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. I am so thankful for the opportunity to serve the Lord in this manner, to be part of the gathering of Israel for this the last time. There is a great work going on here in Portugal, it will go on with or without me, but I am trying to be better every day so that I can help it go forward.
Happy Birthday little Ethan! Parabens to Emily Palmer and also minha sogra LeAnn Halgren (I think this makes 50--chuckle--) Love you all, thanks for your support, and Samuel, thanks so much for your testimony, it really helps in those hard days.
Oh, my address is: Avenida Dr. Renato Arujo Nº 369-3º Fte
3700-244 São João da Madeira
ellen
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