Dear Everyone,

 

This week has been quite an adjustment, but it has been great. The Sisters before us left everything well, which has made a big difference. And you know who was here last? Sister Gidney! The apartment is very nice, too, so I feel spoiled.

 

Miratejo is really a wonderful ward. There are so many youth! On Sunday Sister Caldwell and I were in shock to see the chapel filled with young families, young single adults and Young Men/Women aged members! It was almost overwhelming! I was also blown away this week with our Ward Mission Leader. His name is Daniel Adriano (the Adriano family is a really imprtant and strong family in the Church here in Portugal) and his a return missionary from Florida himself. He is dating the former Sister Mendes- remember her? I went on a division with her on the Azore Islands but she had back problems and eventually was released as a missionary because of it. She was visiting this week and we saw her at Church on Sunday. What a treat. Anyway, Daniel is SO on top of everything! In fact we missionaries don´t even need to go to ward council. He´s such a boss! I know that might seem funny, but it´s the first ward that I´ve been in where we don´t go to ward council. AMAZING! Most wards are still semi dependent on the missionaries to function, but not this one!

 

This week I had to exercise a lot of patience because on white washes neither you nor your companion really know what you´re doing. But I had the pleasing and most satifying opportunity to look back and compare this white wash to my second transfer when Sister Giberson and I white washed Setúbal. I´m so happy to say that I´m a much more rational, calm and patient person! I am so happy to see improvement. Sometimes it´s difficult to see if what you´re doing really makes a difference, but when you look back and compare yourself to the past, it is really rewarding. In the Doctrine and Covenants the Lord tells Joseph Smith several times that all his trials will work out for his benefit. It´s true! What a blessing we have to learn in this life.

 

I love you all and hope you have a good week,

 

Sister Derrick

Dear Everyone,

 

This week we had some unexpected twists and turns, which really kept us on our toes! On Tuesday we had President and Sister Fluckiger over for District Meeting and a mini-division. At first we were a little nervous, but everyone was just themselves and we ended up having a great time. When we talked about our investigators we never had to twiddle our thumbs wondering what else we can do to help because the fountain of all knowledge was right in front of us! What a priviledge. After District Meeting we had a lesson with Daniel and Sister Fluckiger about the commandments. It was really fun to teach with her and hear her testimony. Wow, Sister Fluckiger is really a great example. Funny story, though. She offered Daniel one of those colored pencils with red on one end and blue on the other for marking the scriptures, but he didn´t want it. So she threw it at him and refused to take it back! We got a good laugh.

 

Something that our mission is studying right now is a really old talk by Alvin Dyer... to be honest I´m not really sure who he is. Perhaps he was an apostle around the 1920´s? Anyway, the talk is called `The Challenging and Testifying Missionary´ and it is pretty hard core! If anybody reading this has a friend or a family member (besides me, ofcourse) out/going out on a mission, you should give them a copy. It basically says that the Lord is truly the one that prepares people for the restored gospel, not the missionary. All the missionary really should focus on is 1- teaching by the SPIRIT (as opposed to the knowledge of world, evidence and proof of men) 2- Testifying of the truth and 3- Inviting them to be baptized as soon as they get the chance. I really am enjoying reading, studying, and applying it.

 

Daniel is improving and is on his way towards baptism this Friday, which is good. He has a lot of questions about gay marriage, and he wanted to learn more about what the leaders of the church say about it. I know there is a good church website: mormonandgay.org but unfortunately it is only in English!  If you guys find anything good that has a Portuguese option, let me know! We´ve been teaching with a recent convert his age, Bruno, and that has been helping a lot with these sorts of doubts that he has.

 

Anyway, we had 7 people come to church yesterday! It was really neat because 3 of them have committed to going to church every week for at least 3 months and showed up to Sacrament Meeting for the first time yesterday! Good for them! We are excited to see what they thought and hopefully apply what we´ve learned from our dear friend Elder Dyer.

 

Faith has been something at the front of my mind lately. It has been a whole year since I was in Aveiro, which is now my District Leader´s area, and I was thinking about how much I´ve learned since I got there. I remember in my first week someone in the street asked me what faith meant and I didn´t know it well enough to respond well! Now when people ask me in the street what faith is, I usually respond by saying, `Trust in the Lord and believing that He´s there even though we can´t see Him right now.´ Not a bad response. But now that I think about it even more, that response doesn´t give the word `faith´ any justice. You can´t really explain faith. You need to experience it. You can talk about it all you want, but until you put everything in His hands and hope there´s someone on the other end of your prayers, you won´t know what faith is. My favorite scripture about faith is Ether 12:4

 

Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God.

 

I´ve been having to trust in the Lord a lot. I think that when I was in Aveiro I had an idea of what faith is, at least on paper. But now I have a reality of what faith is and I never want it to go away, both in the ups and in the downs of life. I love you all and I hope that you have a great week.

 

Sister Derrick