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
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