Dear Everyone,

 

This week was really good! We only had four days in our area because of divisions, but it was still great. Last week President Fluckiger had a special interview with our District Leader about how the work is going in the ward. He told us that we needed to work more with the members to help our investigators and gain a better relationship with the members. So on Tuesday we worked with 4 different members and had a total of 7 lessons with members present! It was so wonderful and helped the area so much! We have a goal of having half of our lessons with members this week, and I am so excited about it. Billy, a recent convert, doesn´t speak Portuguese very well, but he was soooooo excited and he helped our stubborn investigator feel more comfortable with the idea of being baptized and coming to church. What a blessing! Plus, Billy has strengthened as well. How fun was that!

 

Yesterday only one out of the 7 people we asked to come to church showed up, which was rough, but I won´t let that get me down. His name is João and it´s his second time in church but he doesn´t even live within the ward boundaries. He was a reference of a friend of his that we know. Good for him! We are excited that he is showing such interest. He even asked us when our collegues in his town were going to pass by. I really hope that he will continue to progress.

 

We did two divisions on the Azore Islands this week, which means we had to take some flights! It was fun because Sister Gidney hasn´t traveled a whole lot so it was a great adventure. First we went to Ponta Delgada Island to visit Sisters Bos and Camacho. They have the sweetest companionship and it was fun to see how they are doing such a good job. I did the division with Sister Camacho and I was so impressed with her! It is her second transfer in the training and she is already speaking and teaching well. She is actually from the same ward in Texas as the Fluckigers, which is sweet. On Ponta Delgada there is a GORGEOUS chapel (really on both islands there are great meeting houses) and some really great recent converts. We had a lesson with the family member of some recent converts that is marked for baptism. It was such a treat to be a part of their conversion!

 

The other division was on Terceira Island to visit Sisters Mendes and Riveros. I went with Sister Riveros and it was really fun and different because she is 39 years old! It was like going on a division with Arlene! How fun! She is from Peru and only speaks Spanish with us because it´s the closest thing to Portuguese that she knows. Good thing I took all those Spanish classes because I was using it to interpret what she was saying! They are cute sisters and I think and hope that we helped them and their area a lot.

 

On the Azores the work is basically the same, but there were some things that were different than the mainland. First of all everything is really green and there are COWS! I never realized how much I liked cows until I went without seeing a single one for 9 months! It was a hoot. The islands look like checkerboards because they have so many fenced grazing fields and ranches. I heard that the milk products are fabulous but we were fasting so we didn´t try any.

 

Anyway, I have a big piece of news. We got a phonecall from President Fluckiger last week that was kind of surprising. he called asking if I would consider and extention of 2 more transfers, so I would be staying three more months than we were planning. He said that I have a little while to plan and pray about it, so that´s good. I really want to, but I still need to come up with a final decision.

 

Thank you so, so much for your prayers. I really apreciate all that you do. We kept safe in our travels and happy in our spirits. I love you all!

 

Sister Derrick

Dear Everyone,

 

Thank you so, so, so much for the prayers you´ve said in my behalf. This week was better than last week. We´ve been giving more of those magic thank-you notes and we did a Family Home Evening. I´m hoping that little by little things will smooth out. We are also helping the Relief Society by helping recently converted sisters in the ward do their visiting teaching.

 

Yesterday we had 2 investigators in Church! Yes! One of them is Helena, who has huge potential. She is African and is friends with some a recently converted family. She is showing a lot of interest towards us and our message and we really hope that she gets baptized. We are going to present a baptismal date this week. This morning we had a zone conference call saying that we need to ALWAYS invite people to be baptized at a certain date in our second lesson with our investigators, and that the date needs to be as soon as possible. So, we´re going to invite a lot of people to be baptized this weekend and this upcoming weekend!

 

As of right now we have one person marked for baptism, Amadú. Amadú is really cool. He is from Guinea, is a non-practicing Muslim and speaks Portuguese worse than we do. Sister Thornley and I actually found and started teaching him, but not until now he´s started progressing. He has been reading the Book of Mormon in Arabic and is excited for baptism! It is so fun to teach him, because we have to teach him like a primary child. Our lesson on the Gospel of Christ went something like this:

 

Us: `God wants us to be content (he doesn´t know the word for happy), so Jesus was our example.´

Amadú: `okay.´

Us: `Faith is trust in God.´

Amadú: `uh huh.´

Us: `Repentance is saying sorry to God when we do something wrong.´

Amadú: `I´ll say sorry next time.´

Us: `Good! Baptism is important because it makes us clean. Only good in our church.´

Amadú: `Yeah, only good in your church.´

Us: `Wanna be baptized?´ pointing to picture of baptism

Amadú: `Of course!´

Us: `Why?´

Amadú: `Because it is good. I like to be clean.´

 

What is funny is that he actually understands most of it! We get a kick out of him.

 

Now for the fun stuff! We had the priviledge of helping the Sisters out in Lapa. I was with Sister Austin and Sister Gidney was with my MTC companion Sister Call. It was great. I love doing divisions because you get to help so many people! They are great Sisters in a great area. It is kind of interesting to see how the work is so different from one area to the next. Lapa was the first church unit to be created and it is gorgeous and FULL of great people. This week we get to go to the Azore Islands for 3 days to help two areas there!

 

Well, thank you so much for all of your support. I love you all!

 

Sister Derrick

Hello Everyone!

 

This week was a good first week of the transfer. Sister Gidney knows how to work well, so I am excited about the things that will happen while we are companions. She is sweet, from West Valley and likes to eat dinner... This is the first time in the mission that I´ve actually been eating dinner, so it´s quite a change for me! Anyway, we are really excited about being Sister Training Leaders and we´ve already started planning out when and where we´ll go each week. I think it will be fun to see other areas, missionaries, investigators and parts of Portugal. This week we´ll do a division with the sisters that live with us.

 

We are working hard to help João Carlos and his companion Susana get married (we didn´t know they weren´t married until last Sunday) but the devil and the Ukrainians are working hard against us. João has had to go to many meetings to see what must be done in the airforce concerning the havoc that is happening in Ukraine... To tell you the truth I am not sure exactly what is going on since we don´t read the news, but so far the Lord has been helping us and He´ll help us this time too. 

 

Something cool about Sister Gidney is that she is tough on Paulo when it comes to smoking. She made him throw away all of his cigarettes and give all his money back to his mom so that he wouldn´t be tempted. WOW. Paulo hasn´t completely quit, but is continuing to improve every time we talk to him. Her first lesson with him both Paulo and I were crying she was so intense! The Lord truly knew what he was doing sending Sister Gidney here.

 

This week was also really great because we got to reconnect with an investigator named Mamadu. Last transfer we met him in the street and he showed interest but got scared and frustrated because he couldn´t understand what we were saying. He is from Guinea and only speaks Fula (a native African language), which isn´t even a written language. But he grew up as a Muslim and can read Arabic as if it was his first language. So this week we gave him a Book of Mormon in Arabic, and he has been really liking it! Finally he is started to understand and the Spirit has a better chance to touch his heart. What was even more fun was that his friend has been reading too and wants to talk to us! We are so excited for him.

 

You know something funny? During my first six months of my mission I wasn´t really happy, even though we had a ton of baptisms. I was doing what I was supposed to do because that is what I agreed to upon leaving on a mission. Now (and I think having darling Sister Thornley as a companion helped me realize this) I do what I am supposed to because I want to and I love the people here-- who have become dear friends. I am so glad that I am figuring this out now, while I still have a lot of time left on the mission so that things will continue to improve. One scripture that I read this morning sums it all up:

 

Wherefore, be not weary [or trunky] in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great. Behold the Lord requireth the heart and a willing mind; and the willing and obedient shall eat the good of the land of Zion in these last days.-- D&C 64:33-34

 

I love you all and hope that the week is good!

 

Sister Derrick

Dear Everyone,

 

This week was great. Just to clarify some questions and doubts, I´d like to take a moment to describe what exactly is a Sister Training Leader.

 

In the Mission there are various leadership positions for the Elders: Assistants to the President, Zone Leaders and District Leaders. The President counsels with and advises the Assistants about how the missionaries can improve through various trainings. Then the Assistants go on divisions with the Zone Leaders to make sure that everything is being applied and learned properly in their companionship and work in the area. The Zone Leaders in turn go on divisions with the District Leaders and the District Leaders go on divisions with the other missionaries in their District.

 

Sister Training Leaders are basically Zone Leaders in this aspect of the work. There is no way for the President to know exactly for sure what is happening in a Sister´s area without sending someone there to help and see for themselves. Here in Portugal there are 2 Sister Training Leaders for every 2 zones (or every 5-6 companionships of Sisters). My companion and I are going to have the Zone of the Azore Islands and Lisboa (Lisbon).

 

That being said, I had the priviledge to go to the Mission Office for Mission Council this week! It was honestly like I entered the MTC again. What was going in my mind was, `What on Earth is President Fluckiger thinking?´ But as time has gone on I´ve realized that there is a reason for everything and it will all work out. But Mision Council is really a great treat. The training for this month is to help missionaries have smoother contacts and get to know a person well before diving into the doctrine. It has been so fun applying what we learned!

 

Here are a few examples:

 

Dulce: A Cape Verdian that we contacted knocking doors. She didn´t show much interest but we visited a second time, talked about her life quite a bit and realized that she speaks Creole. So we had a Creole lesson! Nh gosta de bo' means `I like you!´ Then we left a Book of Mormon and testified of its truthfulness. She was excited and said she´d read and give it a shot.

 

José Luís: A sweet old man that we contacted on the street. We talked to him about the rain, his health, Portuguese, his wife that passed away, the woman he´s dating, and his former profession before we dot serious and talked about prayer and showed him an example in how to pray sincerely. He said that because we were so nice and funny he was willing to hear what we had to say.

 

Antónia: We knocked her door and offered to say a prayer. Then we talked a lot about her family. After a minute she completely opened up and said that she was so grateful we passed by because that day was the anniversary of the passing of her husband. Nobody she knew was answering their phones to talk to her and she felt awfully lonely until we knocked on her door.

 

Anyway, something that I´ve realy been enjoying about this area is that we´ve had many more opportunities to serve. We give English classes every week and we are giving private classes to a sweet man named Manuel. This week we are going to help an sick elderly man clean up his house! I really like it because in my previous area we didn´t have very many opportunities, but now we do!

 

João Carlos´ family is marked for this upcoming Saturday to be baptized, but yesterday we had a little conflict. Yesterday João received an emergency phone call that he needs to serve in Russia. Man, that is SCARY in all aspects. He received the phonecall in church in between classes and the whole family started to cry and get upset about it. He doesn´t know for how long he´ll be there. We are all praying for them and we included them in our fast yesterday.

 

So great! I am really excited for the up coming transfer. I´m not sure what it will all entail, but I have never been happier to start out. I think the Lord prepares me during my current transfer for the upcoming one. I love you all and hope that your guys´week is great.

 

Sister Derrick