"we baptized a zoo"

Dearest familia,
This week was SO crazy! First of all, I am so so excited - we get to text now. Yes. It is going to be so much easier to follow up with everyone and set up appointments,
Alright first of all - THANK YOU for the package (and all the letters from Katy)! Made my week.
So on Wednesday André got baptized! I´m 99% sure he will have a video on mormon.org someday. Listen to this. You already know he´s a doctor of Chinese medicine. He has already read the Book of Mormon through part of Mormon. We had exactly 4 lessons with him before his baptism. He accepted everything SO easily. Seriously it was so easy to teach him. We´re just like, Hey Word of Wisdom, hey tithing, and he says, Okay awesome. Not to mention he speaks English fluently so if we don´t understand he translates. Also he plays drums, guitar, bass, upright bass, didgeridoo, and the bagpipes.

Sister Gidney, Andre, Sister Cutler, Paulo

On Saturday, Mario got baptized! We were really, really worried about him. I think maybe he used to be the town drunk... And we weren´t really sure if he was actually understanding us becuase he can´t read and his learning capacity isn´t as high. So we were praying SO hard to know if he would be ready or what. And when we taught him and prayed about his baptismal date we felt really good about it. He passed his interview, but some of the members were still a little worried. But we had him come early for his baptism, and we asked him why he wanted to get baptized and he said "To get more help from God, and so I can help more people". And after his baptism, we asked how he was. "Estou a sentir melhor" (I am feeling better). It was really wonderful to watch how the church really is for everyone-and that everyone needs the gospel.

Mario, Paulo, Sister Gidney, Sister Cutler

Probably one of the neatest parts about the baptisms was that both asked Paulo to baptize them! I don´t know how it feels to baptize someone, but I think watching one of your recent converts use the priesthood to enact the ordinances of salvation for others is probably pretty close.
Some funny moments this week: 1. I asked Sister Cutler if she was a fruit, what she thought she would be. Her answer "probably a raisin..:" (okay I thought it was funny. She said it so sadly).
2. We were talking to Linda after one of the baptisms. She was telling us her neighbors see us all the time and were asking about us. She said, "Basically they just think Paulo has two pretty girlfriends".
We started teaching this little old couple this week, Maria and Amelio. They are probably 70 ish and SO cute. I love them. We went by to invite them to the baptism and Maria answered. She was trying to tell us Amelio wouldn´t want to come, that he´s "a hardened and stern man", but finally we convinced her to let us ask. When we went in and asked and he said, "yeah sounds great!" and then Maria looked at us and very seriously told us, "He gave his word. We´ll be there". And sure enough, they came. It was the first time they´ve been in a church since they were newleyweds. And they really liked it. Maria almost cried when Sister Valdez and I sang for a musical number. Maria has also been reading the Book of Mormon every day. Amelio is SO funny. We told him to pray for the things he wants and he said: "But if you pray for everything you want, you´ll be praying all the time!". They are really great. I hope I am still here next transfer, because I think they will get baptized.
Oh yeah. On Thursday Sister Cutler and I saw two ladies get in a fist fight. They were rolling around on the ground yelling something about a marido (husband). It was really sad and luckily there were a bunch of people around to stop them. We left before cops or news or anyone showed up.
Our district went to the castle in Santa Maria da Feira this morning! It was really cool, even though we couldn´t go inside. I wish I knew more about the history of it. It is crazy to think about how old it is and what kind of people must have walked around on that very spot.

Basically this week was pretty great. This is the last week of the transfer, so I really really hope I get to stay here at least one more transfer. I really love it here, even though I miss you all a lot. But time is going by so quickly-this Saturday will be 4 months! Be sure to keep sending me pictures so I can recognize you when I get home :)
Thanks for all the news and emails. I pray for you all all the time, and love you TONS!
Fique firme na fé- a Igreja é verdadeira- e vos amo!
Love,
Sister Gidney

It's already week 5 of this transfer!

Ola familia!!
This week went by so quickly! Probably partially because I was on drugs the whole week! For my hand, you know. It´s looking a LOT better. Almost normal. Probably only looks a little different because when it got swollen my skin got all stretched out. So one of my hands might be chubbier than the other for the rest of my life, but at least they didn´t have to amputate (I don´t know why I was afraid of that but when it started swelling I just could only think: "This is infected and it´s going to get gangrene and they´re going to have to cut off my hand and then I´ll have to go home from my mission early". So it was a relief).
So this week on Wednesday Sister Cutler had to go to Lisbon to get her residency card. So Tuesday night during English class she LEFT. It was so weird. I was with the other sisters but I felt like I was breaking the rules. Especially because I slept in my "own room". On Wednesday I spent the whole day following the other sisters around. I talked to this guy on the train all by myself for like 20 minutes (we took the train to part of their area that´s farther away). He thought I was weird and I didn´t really care. I told him that "yeah I´m weird. But it´s true". Luckily Sister Cutler got back that night so we could work in our own area again. I LOVE our area. On Thursday we went out to Santa Maria da Feira and we found this awesome little family. A mom and her two daughters. We just saw them at the playground and went over to talk and the mom let us teach the first lesson. And we have an appointment to go back this week (it was Saturday but she called to reschedule). The best part was the 12 year old´s prayer. Well first she tried to get her mom to say the closing prayer (we asked if one of them would), so she read the description in the pamphlet to her mom 3 times. Finally she was like "Fine I´ll just do it". She just said "Jesus, protect me from the bees. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen". It was so cute and so funny.
Yesterday in church we helped a family of menos ativas come :) the mom and four kids. The two youngest kids are 8 (they´re twins) and haven´t been baptized, so maybe that will be happening soon? There is also another MA who came who we are helping quit smoking. It´s really great to be able to help people find AND refind the gospel.
Our investigators are so great. Well Mario we have marked for baptism this Saturday but we still aren´t sure if he understands completely, so we might have to move it to next weekend. Bernardo is getting so much more brave- he wants to get baptized and is trying to convince his parents. We challenged him to read the Book of Mormon before the end of the year and when we called to see how the reading was he said "So great! This book is like a dictionary with all the answers!" That was great to hear because it really is! Also, André is probably the most elect person we have ever met. He is almost done reading through Alma now (remember that we met him less than a month ago and he´s had a Book of Mormon for two and a half weeks). He told us "Oh there was a passage I really liked". It was Alma 32:21. Scripture mastery-good choice. Also he invited some of his friends to his baptism (this week) and some of them can´t come but "it doesn´t matter; I´m doing this for myself". It is seriously such a privilege to teach him. It´s so EASY. We´re just like, "Hey, tithing. Hey, word of wisdom". And he says, "Hey, cool. I´ll do it."
Random: In Relief Society yesterday, Linda was sharing a personal experience and she started crying and saying how grateful she is for me and Sister Cutler because we helped her find the church. She was saying how much better her life is and how happy she is now and then afterward gave us these slobbery kisses on the cheek. It was really crazy to realize how much the gospel means to people-we are really lucky that we get to share it.
Oh and one funny/weird thing. Last night we tried to visit a menos ativo and his brother and we got trapped there for more than an hour by their Russian mom who was asking us all these WEIRD questions. We tried to explain but we didn´t want to Bible-bash so we just basically ended up saying, we don´t know. So she gave us some chocolate and told us to never come back.
So basically even though sometimes it´s still really hard, it´s also really great. Also it helps that it hasn´t been as hot. Oh hey, guess what. Sister Cutler and I go running like every other day. Lots of new experiences... We are always SO tired but also really happy. I can´t wait to send pictures of André´s baptism-he asked Paulo to baptize him! :)
I hope you are all doing really well. Don´t miss me too much - I am already 20% done here. Time is going so fast. It´s kind of sad. But I miss you all lots. And love you TONS. Remember who you are... The Church is TRUE!
Tchau, tchau, bacalhau :)
Love you,
Sister Gidney

crazy week!

Ola familia!
This week felt like it was twelve years long. On Monday we went out to Escapães (like 3 miles from our house) to try to talk to some menos ativos. We found one. She wouldn´t let us in.. but she talked to us out of her second story window for more than two hours. It made our necks hurt, but mostly it was sad because she was saying she knows it´s true but she got offended and so she doesn´t want to come. Hopefully we can help her strengthen her testimony.
Tuesday was a good day. We found a bunch of people who are interested. Also remember André? The pesquisador who is almost done reading the book of Mormon? He´s in Alma now. Also during our second lesson - he said he would get baptized - this weekend! Well we had to move it to next Wednesday because the nurses are on strike so he has to work all weekend... But he will get baptized :)
Wednesday we had zone conference with President and Sister Fluckiger. It was really great. They fed us pizza, too. But I liked it because we got to hear their testimonies and counsel for us.
Oh Wednesday night Sister Warner got emergency transferred :( One of their pesquisadores asked her to marry him. So now she´s gone. But we have Sister da Silva! She is from Brazil and got here the same time as me. She is really nice and I am excited that we have someone who only knows portuguese to force us to speak it at home. Oh speaking of Portuguese this week we were teaching a lesson and or a minute I wasn´t thinking about speaking Portuguese I was just SPEAKING it! It was so cool but then when I noticed I couldn´t do it anymore.
On Thursday we had a division- I was with Sister Alves, from Brazil... So we only had Portuguese all day! I think I did all right. We had some really good lessons and contacts. I like divisions becuase we can learn different ways to do things, like contacting. It is really helpful and we learned a lot.
Saturday we got attacked by a dog. Not really, kind of. It´s a funny story: We went out to Escapães again to try to find the house of the guy we contacted in like, May, whose house we could never find. We finally find the road so we were walking up. The right side of the road had houses, and the left had warehouses. This dog up ahead in a chainlink fence started barking but we ignored it. When we got up parallel to it, we realized there was another on the left side too. It looked kind of like a wolf. All matted and dirty and for sure had fleas. We thought it was behind a fence too, but turns out it was just one of those parking lot gates... Because suddenly it was running towards us snarling and barking and trying to kill us. Sister Cutler froze. I remembered that one of my MTC teachers had said pretend to throw rocks, so I stooped a little and just start chucking air at this dog. It was kind of lunging at us and snapping but I just kept pretending to throw. I was trying to get a real rock, but couldn´t seem to bend over all the way. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Sister Cutler just standing there holding a Book of Mormon so in my panic I just kept throwing and screamed "Throw the book!" She jolted out of the daze and started throwing rocks too. We finally picked some up and just ran away throwing them behind our back. We escaped. We were still holding a bunch of rocks, and were really freaked out. So when we passed this little weiner dog just sitting on the sidewalk Sister Cutler threw a rock towards it. It skittered away and she went "Yeah that´s right!" hahaha. It was so scary but also really funny. Don´t throw scriptures.
Also on Saturday I got stung by a wasp four times. We tried to take care of it and thought it would be fine. But Sunday it was really swollen. I got a blessing from some old men in the ward. But this morning it was still really swollen, so the Senior Sister missionary in charge of health (we´d called her Sunday morning and have been working with her since) said we had to go get it looked at.. So this morning we went to the hospital (it´s more like insta-care). We went with two members, Ana and Renata. I hope I never have to go to a doctor outside of America ever again. We signed in, and were sitting in this weird little waiting room. Right outside the window was someone smoking. But I was reading the Book of Mormon and in Mosiah 28:7 underlined "the Lord will preserve thy.. hand..." which made me feel better. Haha. Luckily we were only in there for like 40 minutes when we got called back. We go in and the doctor and the nurse barely look at my hand when he hands me a prescription. Luckily the nurse was really nice. She even spoke English. They decided I needed a shot... They tried to do it in the inside of my elbow but couldn´t find my vain so they stuck me like 4 times. And then when they finally got it she walked away so I thought she was done so I looked at my arm and the needle was just sitting there inside my arm. I gagged. Then I passed out. So Ana and Renata called a taxi and took us home in a taxi. It was a fun little adventure. I got some antibiotics (after getting it approved by Sister Fluckiger) and I think it is helping a little. It´s a little less swollen than the picture. The worst part is that little wasp is probably still alive. Now we can never go near Mario´s house again because it has a taste for my blood.

Yesterday Sister Cutler, Sister Valdez and I gave talks in sacrament meeting. Everyone laughed during the right places in mine, which was good. I think they understood. We talked about missionary work so I mostly talked about the "what", like what to share, the doctrine of Christ. It was a good experience.
This week is going to be less hot so hopefully we will not sweat so much. Thank you for all the emails and love and prayers - I love you all TONS!
Continua firme na fé e vos amo! <3
Sister Gidney
p.s. picture with sister cutler and sister warner right before she left-do I look less white?

another week

Querida Familinha,
Ola boa tarde! Guess what: it is so hot and we sweat so much that we are losing weight! It´s been around 100º for like two weeks, and since nowhere has A/C, we are pretty much constantly sweating. We have a nickname for it; sworpo- sweaty corpo (body). To keep cheerful Sister Cutler and I always ask each other: How´s your sworpo? Also we always tell each other that "it´s not sweat, it´s the glow of the gospel".
This week was really great. On Monday night we had a ward noite familiar ( FHE). We tried to make a cake for it, but.. well we didn´t have the right ingredients, and then we cooked it really weird, and for too long... so it was really gross. But we left it in the kitchen and I think the other Sisters ate some of it, so maybe it wasn´t too bad. Hopefully.
On Tuesday we went to get bus passes so we can go to Santa Maria da Feira more. Turns out you have to have a picture, so we went by a white wall, took a picture, went across the street and printed it, and came back. The poor guy at the counter is so sick of us (we go all the time asking about buses and trains and things), so when we came back to pick them up and saw that they spelled my name wrong, he just said it was fine. So now I have a bus pass for Sister "Oridney". (Maybe I should work on my handwriting).
Wednesday we had ZONE CONFERENCE! That means MAIL! I had a few letters waiting for me... So that was great. There is only one brand-new missionary in our zone (a lot of people are new to the zone but not to Portugal). Álso some of the missioanries told me I speak really well, especially for it only being my second transfer, so that was nice. After zone conference we came back to São João and tried to go to a lesson with Renata (a ward missionary). But turns out every city has the same street names... so we were in the wrong city. We started walking and Renata was praying for a taxi, when one drove up! So we took a taxi to our compromisso. It was only like 3 minutes driving. So now I´ve been in a taxi. We had our lesson with André.. he is ELECT. We stopped him by the bus stop on our way home one night and he was like "Yeah come teach me". Also he speaks perfect English and is a doctor. And rock climbs so that´s cool. But we called him on Saturday to ask about reading and give him the address for the capela in Porto (a lot of weekends he gives conferences to nurses there and said he would like to go to church even if he was there). He had read the chapter we left, and started at the beginning of the Book of MOrmon and was in 2 nephi 13 already! And he said he could come to church here! Sister C and I were so happy we just like screamed and hugged each other.
Also on Wednesday we marked Mario for baptism at the end of July :) He is this little old man we met with a pitchfork. He can´t really read. He quit smoking in two days and is always so happy. But we are not sure how much he actually understands of our lessons (sometimes he seems to get it and other times he is really distracted) so we want to have a few weeks to make sure he is ready).
Independence day! We sung the national anthem during companion study... Also on Tuesday after English class we had a piece of watermelon to celebrate. But that´s all. It is super weird that July 4th isn´t a thing here. Besides being a normal day. Umm also on Thursdaywhen we went to get our bus passes we went to wash our hands in the bathroom... we accidentally went into the men´s. Sister Cutler went around corner and was suddenly pushing me out "OH NOPE THIS IS THE MEN´S". So that was awkward.
On Saturday we had to go back to Porto for a stake missionary conference thing... We got some pastries on the way (i´ll send a picture ... My face is shiny with sweat). But they asked all the missionaries there to sing Called to Serve... In the chorus after the second line (Cumprir fiel missão) in zone conference we shout "Portugal Portugal!" and then keep singing. So when we got to that line, we all cut off on "missão".. And you could tell we all almost screamed it. So let´s hope I don´t do that in sacrament meeting sometime.

So church is really weird for people. Yesterday I was sitting next to a pesquisador in sacrament meeting. He was watching really intently, obviously because it was so new. They passed the bread and it was fine. But when they were passing the water to the people on the stand, he leaned over and said quietly "Okay now I´m really worried about breaking these tiny glasses". I almost laughed but manage to just say "Don´t worry they´re plasitc". But I am still laughing about it on the inside.
Yesterday evening we walked to a town called Escapães. We saw the most beautiful sunset over the ocean. It was a nice way to end the week.
Yep that´s about all. This week we have another zone meeting and we´ll have splits again, so it´s looking to be a great week :)
I hope everything is well with you all. I love you tons!
Love, Sister Gidney (Oridney)
:)

summerrrr

ola familia!
Suddenly it´s like I live on the sun. It is SO hot. It was about 41º this week... I´m not sure what that is in farenheit but I think it´s about 105. Plus however much humidity... I sweat so much that I feel like I just got out of the shower and didn´t dry off before getting dressed. It´s pretty gross. The worst part was that we only had one fan in our apartment (there´s no air conditioning or anything) and so it was SO hot at night that we all woke up probably every hour. Also I kept waking up on the floor - I guess it was cooler down there than in my bed. But Presidente Vasco (the ramo presidente) gave us like 3 more fans from the capela storage, so now we sleep lots better :)
I can´t believe it´s almost the fourth of July! What are you doing this year? Sister Cutler and I will celebrate, probably with a fartura... I also colored my planner on that day to look like an American flag. `Merica. Also here´s a scripture for independence day: Alma 10:6. (Read it. Get it?)
Also I think I never told you. My scripture of the transfer is Isaiah 41:10. I picked it because sometimes we get discouraged because no one wants to listen, but we don´t need to because Heavenly Father is helping us. Also I like the phrase "upheld with the right hand of my righteousness". That made me think of 2 things. 1. When we are righteous, we can be found at the right hand of God. So when we do our part, we will be where we need to be for Him to support us. 2. When we sustain people in church, we uphold our right hands. So basically God is sustaining us. He is saying He knows we´re worthy and able of this calling, and that He will do all He can to help us magnify it. So I liked that. I am going to try to memorize it in Portuguese.
The best part about this week was watching Paulo´s conversion continue. He helped pass the sacrament for the first time yesterday. It was amazing to see someone use their priesthood for the first time. And after church, another pesquisador was looking at a picture of President Monson, and Paulo went over to explain "That´s the prophet. He´s alive. Joseph Smith restored the gospel but he isn´t alive anymore. This one is living." And even though it was just a simple explanation to him, hearing Paulo (an ex-smoker, drug-addict, etc) bear testimony like it was second nature was maybe the most beautiful thing I think I have ever heard.
The mission president broadcast was amazing. The four of us here (us and Sisters Valdez and Warner) got to watch yesterday.. in ENGLSH. It made me miss the Marriot center (ha) but also it was amazing. Especially that musical medley with the missionary family. I want to be like that someday.
We got fed by members like 3 times this week. Portuguese food is soooo good! I am glad that we have exercise time every morning... Also I have been going running with Sister Warner twice a week. (Sister Cutler likes to go the other days). On Saturday we ran two miles without stopping. Take that, asthma.
Two pesqusiador milagres:
1. We had this pesq., Rosaly, who didn´t want to talk to us anymore. She has two adorable little kids. She got a job and said she was two busy, even though she used to want to be baptized. But yesterday we felt like we should pass by, so we did to invite her to the family night the ramo is having tonight. She said she will come, and that we can start teaching her again!
2. Bernardo. He wants to be baptized, but is scared of what his parents think. But he came to church (he hasn´t been since my first Sunday), and it letting us meet his family to talk to them so he can get baptized!
I am starting to be a weird missionary- everything reminds me of a hymn or scripture. But I LOVE IT HERE. São João is probably the best area in the whole world.
I hope everyone is having a great summer. I am sending a little package-ish thing this week or next for you all; hope you enjoy it. Did Dad and Jeremy get my letters? Don´t get heat stroke and have a great week!
I love you tons,
Sister Gidney