Dear Everyone,

 

Well, quite a bit happened this week. Here´s the weekly layout:

 

Monday: We went to Lisbon as a district to eat some yummy, rare Mexican food. I must say that the guacamole was amazing. Unfortunately we received a text from Joaquim that was rather disheartening. He said he needed to `take a break´ and that he´d `come back.´ Not exactly a comforting message. We´re just worried as to what arouse. Perhaps his family didn´t like the fact that he was gone on Sundays or that he was spending so much time with us and the ward members? He lives far away (2 hours by public transit) so we can´t even visit his house. Needless to say, he´s in almost every one of our prayers.

 

Tuesday: We brought Nuno, a ward missionary, to walk around with us. Luckily he saved us from an awkward situation when a 50 year-old investigator said that I looked just like the only woman he ever loved... Phew! So glad Nuno saved me that time! We also had a great ward council meeting.

 

Wednesday: We´ve decided to something called `In and Outs.´ No, they don´t involve Californian fast food restaurants. We are visiting a few relief society sisters each week for 10 minutes just to get to know them. Our first visit was to Maria Chaves, who says I look like her grandaughter Raquel. Well, 10 minutes turned into 2 hours when she told us her and her husband´s life story and gave us four bags of goodies to take home. I think she´s in that elderly stage where she needs to get rid of stuff so she´s starting to give it all away the second she gets a chance. It was fun. Unfortunately this time Abel, her husband, wasn´t there. Hopefully we´ll be able to catch him again!

 

Thursday: We contacted a guy named Helder a few weeks ago and finally got to teach him a lesson. Turns out he just moved into town, but had been taught by my Brazilian buddy Sister Salies in Sacavém beforehand! Then we just contacted him in the street! What are the odds of that? The Lord is preparing him, I feel.

 

Friday: We had a lesson with Rita and mother in the Silva family´s house. Boy, that was an interesting scenario. The atmosphere was really tense and the Silva´s were cranky with one another, even started arguing in front of us all. But we sang a song and started drawing out the Plan of Salvation, and things cooled down a lot. Rita is so prepared and ready. After the lesson Bruno said we needed to have a meeting with him on Tuesday to talk about her baptismal preparation. We´re losing our patience with him, but the more we get to know him, the more we see that he does these controling things to everyone. I don´t know if that is comforting or not...

 

Saturday: The Elders had a baptism and forgot to tell us! We felt so bad because we didn´t realize we missed it until we were on the phone with the district leader that night. Instead of supporting the Elders we explored a city we had never been to before and ended up talking to a crazy man whose mind was like Dory from Finding Nemo. Whatever. It makes for a nice story.

 

Sunday: Church was great, but for some reason Rita wasn´t there. We visited a couple named Silvestre and Rosa. They aren´t members, but their daughters are. Both of their daughters married Americans and are in Utah, but one of them Ana Maria Preto died suddenly a month ago. They are devastated and are in true mourning-- wearing black and keeping the lighting dark, the whole bit. Super sad. They have a lot of friends and support, though. I really, really want to teach them the Plan of Salvation if they´ll let us. Especially for Silvestre. We also visited a sweet, recently returned missionary, Ana Gama, who is a counselor in the Relief Society. Her family members aren´t members of the Church, so it was another great introduction to the church and what she had been doing not to long ago for a year and a half. It was treat.

 

Well, that was my week in a nut shell. I love you all and hope you have a good week.

 

Sister Derrick

Dear Everyone,

 

This week was pretty eventful. We have been teaching Rita and her mother, Isabel, together in a member´s home this week. We marked Rita for the 1st of November! Hopefully everything will line up! Rita is really cute and already knows a lot about the church from her friends. It´s kind of a stressful situation because the members have unrealistic expectations and want everything to run their way. It´s been a true test of our patience, but I know it will be worth it, because we´re doing this all for Rita. Cutie Pie.

 

There were two really neat experiences we had this week in particular:

 

1- On Tuesday we had had an unusually difficult day for some reason. We were frustrated with our area, the Elders and ourselves. Sister Anderson and I had to have a minute to vent and talk things out that evening after our Correlation Meeting. So we were sitting in a park, crying and eating a little chocolate-- because that´s what women do, you know!-- and a man we didn´t know came up to us. His name is Vitor (Victor) and he has depression (as do lots of people in this country.) He was having a panic attack and asked us for a magazine to fan himself with. Well, of course we had a dozen pamphlets, so we gave him one of those and invited him to come sit and talk with us. Turns out he is interested! It was a little tender mercy that we were in the park at the same time and both in need of each other. How amazing was that?

 

2- On Thursday night we were walking from the Church to our house when we came across the most terrifying dog I´ve ever seen. Sister Anderson has an a really deep fear of dogs (she was bitten when she was little) which didn´t help because the dog could sense our heart-rate go up. As it ran towards us, I threw my umbrella at it and then it ran away. Sister Anderson went into shock! It was scary but funny at the same time to help her get into our apartment. She was shaking for a long time afterwards. We were talking about that whole experience, along with others, that have been spooky on the mission. I must say that I have been really protected. I am so grateful. I know that many of you pray for my protection while I´m here. I know that there are also dear friends on the other side of the veil that are also protecting me. During my mission I have seen things and been places that I wouldn´t want to see or go to again, but I was never the target. I didn´t realize how much divine intervention there´s been till now! The Lord is truly keeping me safe.

 

Well, I love you all and again I thank you for all of your prayers and support.

 

Sister Derrick 

 

Dear Everyone,

 

It sounds like everyone had a great week with Dad´s birthday celebration in California! How fun. I sure thought about him on Saturday.

 

Well, this week we were luxuriously enjoying our electricity and hot water! Oh, how blessed we are to have such accomodations! We also had a Zone Meeting in Setúbal that was interesting and a division with the Sister Training Leaders. I hate to say it, but I´m not sure much happened this week that was so eventful that it would make it in this email, nevertheless it was a good week doing the Lord´s work. We are still on a high from Conference and saw Elder Godoy´s talk again in our integration night on Friday!

 

As a mission we are studying about the Atonement a little more deeply with a packet that President Fluckiger and the office Elders made. It has been really wonderful and mind opening. Every time I study more, I realize how little I know and understand the Lord´s sacrifice, love and power. The Atonement is so powerful. It is so powerful that it came into effect even before Christ was born of Mary. It is the supreme act of God´s and Christ´s love for us. It´s real. It helps me everyday out here in Portugal to just simply survive through all that life throws at me. True success is making the Atonement an active part of one´s life through faith, obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel and repentance. Oh how grateful I am!

 

I love you all and I hope you have a nice week.

 

Sister Derrick