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