Well that´s just ridiculous

Ola querida família,
Guess who got transferred? I just got to my new area in Braga. My new companion is Sister Bollinger. I´m pretty excited--I´ve heard this is an awesome area. Also our house is like a mansion. It smells like America inside.
Even though I´m excited, it was REALLY hard to leave Cacém. I knew I was leaving on Friday (well at least I was pretty sure) so I started packing my bags Friday night. Sister Juilfs and I went over to Jessica´s to say goodbye to her and her sister Daniela and it was so sad. But Daniela said the most amazing prayer. Eu fiquei muito contente.
Alright I am going to tell you about our main miracles from my last week in Cacém:
Segunda-feira (Monday): Sister Juilfs and I were working with Irena, this wonderful member who helps us a lot. We went to our compromisso but they weren´t home. So we were heading to our plano alternativo on the main road when suddenly I was like "hey let´s go down this sketchy alley instead" (because I was really curious) and they were like "uh..." but I was already heading down there. Suddenly this lady appears, BAM. We start talking to her; turns out she´s super elect and has been SO prepared to learn about the gospel and the Plan of Salvation. All because we went down a dead-end alley.
Terça: We were running late for district meeting but the comboio was 30 seconds late so we ran down the escalator and jumped in just in time. I felt like Indiana Jones.
Quarta: It rained a LOT but we managed to get to our compromissos despite the river in the rua. Everything worked out perfectly. I also was wearing my rainboots even though it was sunny earlier.
Quinta: We met a really nice Brazillian lady first thing in the morning. We didn´t get her contact info and I was kicking myself as we walked away. About an hour later as we were walking back towards the comboio, we ran into her again! She said she had read our pass-along card and that she wanted a Book of Mormon. We gave her one, got her info, and set up an appointment to go back.
Also, learned the Linha Sintra handshake. It´s the handshake that all the jovens on the Sintra train line know.
Sexta: There was another random rainstorm. We had a lesson in Massamá Norte but there was ligtening and it was POURING rain and so we didn´t know if we´d be able to get there. We ended up stopping by a pesquisador we hadn´t seen in awhile and then right after the lesson, the rain stopped so we were able to go up to see our other compromisso, too.
Sábado: So our pesquisador Paula has been trying and trying to find a job because she has no money to eat and on Friday night she got kicked out of her apartment until she could pay for the luz and água. The next morning, only about 12 hours later, Irena called and said she found a job for her. So now she can move back and we can keep teaching her.
Domingo: I don´t know why but this week was probably the most meaningful week in church I´ve ever had, especially during the sacrament. I learned a lot from the talks and it was really nice.
So when I first got out here, I decided to make some goals for my mission. One of them was to find a baptism in every single transfer. But when I was praying about them, instead of that, I said that I wanted to change someone´s life every single transer. Because sometimes baptisms aren´t life-changing. I was thinking about this transfer, and I think the life I changed the most in the past six weeks was my own. I don´t know exactly how or why, but I kind of feel like a completely different person. But at the same time, I feel like I´m finally who I really am. So. Yeah.
I guess maybe I should include something sappy and inspirational but I don´t really have anything. I just know the Church is true and I know that Christ is our Saviour. And I am SO lucky and SO grateful to be here. I am going to be depressed when I have to come home. But the Church is true on every part of the globe!
Challenge of the week: Write down one miracle that happens every day this week!
As our English class would sing, "If you´re happy and you know it, shout `I LOVE JESUS`!"
Com muito amor e carinha, Sister Gidney

Bú kré bai igreja kú mi?

Ola minha família,
Guess who´s learning to speak Creole? That´s right, I am. Yep, I haven´t even learning Portuguese all the way, and now I´m learning a dialect of it anyway. (Creole is a Portuguese dialect spoken in Cabo Verde and Guinea-Biseau). After trying to talk to a bunch of poeple who "only" spoke Creole, Sister Juilfs and decided just to learn it. We know a few sentences now--enough to contact someone. My favorite sentence thing to do is to ask if they speak Creole, then ask in Creole if they want to come to Church with us (Bú kré bai igreja kú mi?). They think it´s hilarious to see a little white girl trying to speak it. And then they talk to us. And it´s awesome.
My descent into an old Portuguese woman has continued this week. We decided to try to make some hot chocolate, so we bought some powdered chocolate milk mix at the Mini Preço, heated up some of our (still a little orange) tap water in the microwave, and tried it out. It was alright. The only problem was, well, let me explain. We have about a million fruit flies in our kitchen. They are seeking shelter from the rain, and like to eat our garlic. Whenever we open the microwave, at least one flies in, thinking there must be more and better food inside. Instead it meets an ignominious death (find that Book of Mormon scripture), usually landing in our food. Well, this happened with our hot chocolate. I was using a spoon and pulled up a fruit fly. I just pulled it out, put it on a napkin, and kept drinking. Portugal is changing me!
We are seeing lots of miracles this week. One was that we were saved from an attack by a drunk guy by Santa Claus. So on Wednesday, the elders and we were doing an activity in all the different areas, contato da rua, where we go out with some members and contact people and sing and some other things like that. We started out in Cacém and then worked our way over to São Marcos. There aren´t very many people on the street except for right by the Pingo Doce, but unfortunately the praça right next to it is often inhabitted by a very angry man. He has threatened to kill the elders before (with his green water gun). We were near there when we saw someone we had contacted in Massamá so Sister Juilfs and I went over to talk to him. We were talking to our friend, who looks a little bit like Santa (he has a white beard and is very jolly). He was holding a trash bag that we offered to help with. He said no and after talking for a little bit we were leaving to stand closer to the members to help them. Suddenly, the drunk angry man started storming over. He was wearing a construction vest and a hard hat and had his watergun strapped to his belt. He started yelling at Sister Juilfs and I and tried to swing a punch at us so we started walking quickly away and he was about to chase us but our friend got in between us and started whacking him with the garbage bag. The trash was spilling everywhere and so all of us missionaries were leaving the area as the cops showed up to diffuse the situation.
Another miracle was that we found a wonderful lady, Paula. We talked to her on the street, and she didn´t seem too interested, but when we went back she listened attentively. When we told her that God has called a prophet again on the earth, she almost started crying. She is reading the Book of Mormon every day and wants to get baptized (we just have to help prepare her before she moves to Alemanha).
We also felt the gift of discernment this week. We had been teaching a lady in hte past couple months, but she decided she didn´t want to actually act on anything. We went over one more time to try to help her, but she basically said, "I´m fine the way I am. I will read the Book of Mormon every once in awhile but it´s not worth it to go out of my way. I don´t want to change my life". It was sad, obviously, but not just because she doens´t want to get baptized or anything. In that moment I had the distinct impression that she is going to the terrestrial kingdom. Because yeah, she´s a good person and a good mom, but she doesn´t want to esforçar herself enough to actually follow God. It was a big lesson to me, about a lot of different thing. Like how God knows everything--because I feel like I "know" her future, but it´s because I know HER. And about how we really will get a recompense according to our works.. and our desires. And that makes me want to re-evaluate myself every day and make sure I´m actually trying really hard. And also I am SO grateful that I was born into the Church and have such great parents :)
Another interesting lesson I learned was in Church this week. It wasn´t actually something that was being taught (I still don´t really understand the lessons unless I try really hard and then I get a headache) but just from observing everyone. I was looking around in sacrament meeting, how there were a bunch of people with crutches, one in a wheelchair, one that is blind, a few who can´t really hear, and a lot more with infirimities that can´t necessarily be observed right away. It made me think of that scripture "Come unto me, ye that are heavy laden, and I will give you rest". The Church really is for ordinary people, with ordinary sofrimentos and trials and problems. We´re incredibily flawed--but luckily, Christ was incredibly perfect. And that´s why I´m here. Sister Juilfs and I are here to find our brothers and sisters who are suffering--who need to be healed-- and who WANT to be healed--and give them the tools to do that. But they have to want it, and they have to follow the Doctor´s orders. We´re just the pharmacists :)
I feel like Sister Juilfs and I are working really hard out here. We come home every night exhausted. And we were talking about if we are going to be this tired for the rest of our lives and I thought, "Yeah, if we do it right". We should wear ourselves out. We´re hear to WORK, not to sit around. We´re here to FIGHT, not to stand idely looking on. I am SO grateful for the opportunity to be here, serving the Lord and our God, fighting against the powers of evil. I am getting really cheesy, but this really is the most amazing experience I have ever had. Thank you for supporting me and for all your love and prayers!
I hope you have an absolutely fabulous week! I love you and am praying for you
Bú kré bai igreja kú mi? :)
Vos amo,
Sister Gidney

Remember how I bought rainboots and it didn´t rain at all this week? :)

Ola família!
General Conference this weekend was so awesome! Has it always been so missionary-oriented, or is it just because I am a missionary?
We have been having some technical difficulties with our house. The elecrticity has been going off and on all week. Luckily our stove is gas so we can always eat. Also Deolinda gave us some candles. Using the bathroom by candlelight is acutally pretty soothing. It makes getting up in the morning a little easier. Also the water was being weird. There was no cold water Tuesday thru Thursday. So the showers were boiling hot. Also the little dog we live with snuck down behind the cleaning lady and peed on our floor. It smelled pretty bad even though she cleaned it.
So Dad asked for some stories of the people we are teaching. Here are a few from this week:
-We had a lesson with Sabino, our investigator, at Mónica´s house (our recent convert). She said the prayer at the end. Since Creole is her first language, usually her prayers are pretty short and simple. But this prayer was AMAZING. She basically bore her testimony to the Lord, saying "I didn´t believe [the missionaries], but then I read the Livro de Mormon, and now I know it´s true. Please bless that Sabino can feel that too." and guess what--two days later, he did! We asked, "So is it true?" And all he said was, "CLARO!"
-So Sabino wants to get baptized now. The only problem is, he wants the prophet to baptize him. "You know, the one who talks to Jesus".
-People can feel the power of our message even when they don´t want to do anything. We were teaching this guy who was always calling us, asking if there was anything else we could teach him, if there were any more pamphlets we could give him. Even though he was too scared of the social consequences to actually come to Church or get baptized, he has one thing very important--"thirst for the words of Christ".
Other developments:
-We had zone conference on Wednesday. They asked me to recite the scripture of the month. I said it and assumed that I was off the hook. But at the end, they called up people to give testimonies... the three brand-new missionaries in the zone, and then me. And President was there. It was so nerve-wracking. I can bear my testimony to strangers all day on the street, but to other missionaries... It was a lot harder.
-Sister Juilfs and I have a great marriage. There was a LIahona article about how to build a better family so we evaluated ourselves using the criteria and realized we have a great "family".
-NO one can understand us recently. I think it´s because they keep asking if we´re American and then assume we only know English. But it was funny beause one day, literally everyone we spoke to said they couldn´t understand us. But when we called our district leader (who is Brazilian) to give him our numbers he said "you two speak portuguese almost perfectly!"
-You know how the conference rest hymn was called to serve? we were watching in English but we stood up and sung that in Portuguese. I realized the words mean a lot different. I am really glad Enlgish is my first language, jsut because of all the opportunities it gives me. So thanks for having me be born.
I got really contemplative with my year-left and six-month mark this week. And after some of the study Presidente has been having us do, and General conference, I feel completely different about my mission than I ever have. I realized: 1. Even though we don´t HOLD the priesthood, we still have the AUTHORITY and its POWER because we are CALLED and AUTHORIZED (ou seja, set apart) by the priesthood. I was set apart the exact same way any elder ever is. It´s the same calling and the same authority to preach and teach. I just don´t have to have the other responsibilities :) 2. It really is a privilege to be here. When they prayed for the missionaries in General Conference, I could feel the power of the prayers in my heart. THat sounds cheesy but it´s true. 3. I never want to go home. This is the best thing of, and for, my life. I feel like a different person, in a good way. I jsut love being here. It´s super hard to get up in the morning, I am alwasy tired, my feet and back hurt, the people can be rude, we might not have anyone show up to church, but I love EVERY minute of it.
I love you all sooo much. Have a wonderful week and keep being your wonderful selves :)
Love you,
Sister Gidney



Constipação Oct. 14, 2013


Ola querida família!


As the Portuguese would say, I´m constipated. But don´t worry, that just means I have a cold with a stuffy nose. Constipated in the face? It´s been cracking me up all weekend to have people keep asking me, "Oh Sister, estás constipada?"


Esta semana foi uma pouca maluca. Last Monday, Sister Juilfs and I decided that maybe if we sacrificed something we´d start seeing more blessings in our area. We decided to fast all week. From ENGLISH. It was the longest week in my life, but now I feel SO accomplished. We went 7 whole days without speaking our "mother tongue". And now it´s kind of hard to speak Enlgish and I kind of feel like it´s bad to speak it.


One really awesome thing this week was working with the members. We hadn´t been working a lot with them, but this week after conference we thought, "well, there are 8 youth preparing to go on missions in our ward. We´re going to train them". So we started to call everyone and this week we ended up teaching 17 lessons with members! (Usually we only have 2 or 3). It was really fun to get to show the jovens what it´s "really like" to be a missionary (especially trying to do street contacts). It also made me realize how much I really have learned already. Even though I feel like I jsut barely got here.


Also, MONICA MOVED TO FRANCE? We didn´t even know she was leaving until after she was gone. Sister Juilfs and I are really sad that she is gone. I also realized that when (if) I come home, I am going to be reallllyy sad because I may never see these people again. We come here for 18 months and love these people with all our hearts and then just have to go home. So probably when I get back you should have some Ben & Jerry´s ready for me.


We had a really cool miracle on Wednesday. So we were on a division with the sister training leaders. I went up to Massamá Norte with Sister Nigri and we were teaching with Jessica. We had some extra time so we decided to pass by the apartment of one of our pesquisadores. We went into the building (so all the buildings you have to buzz in but most of the locks here are broken so you just push the door open) and we walked up the stairs to the third andar. When we passed the first andar I felt... I don´t know how to describe it, the Spirit or something, but we kept going and I pointed down and said "Vamos bater esta porta depois". So when we were going back down, we did. That was the only door we knocked in the predio. This lady answered and we were talking to her and she said "don´t you want to come in?" She let us in and we taught her, her husband, and four of her 7 children the first lesson. They all accepted to read and pray about the Book of Mormon together. It was one of the neatest experiences of my life.


Another miracle this week is that I found 50 cents on the ground. Portuguese people never drop money, and if they do, they never leave it. So that was wonderful. I bought a croissant.


Really funny experience: We met this blind guy and his wife on the street in Massamá Norte. They said we could pass by their house so on Quinta-feira we went. We got there at 11:30 and he was drunk and wearing five sweaters. We taught his wife the first lesson and he sat in the corner and kept asking weird questions ("But who IS Mormon? Tell me about Abraão!"). At the end of the lesson we were like "alright we´re going to pray and leave" but he freaked out and said "HOLD ON HOLD ON" He ran to the kitchen and came back with four manga compals (little glass bottles of juice. mango flavored) and gave one to each of us (him, us, and his wife). Then he dramatically kneeled on the gorund, holding the juice in the air like Simba at the beginning of the Lion King, and began to pray. "THANK YOU for this JUICE. Please BLESS it. Give us FORCES through this JUICE." etc etc. He prayed for about five minutes like that. At least it felt like five minutes. Finally he ended and made all of us clink the juices together and then let us leave. After making us talk to his neighbors.


Yesterday was the "farewell" of one of the moças. She´s going to Cape Verde on WEdnesday. I like the way they do farewells here. It was testimony meeting so her and all her family members got to get up and say something and bear their testimonies. That´s what I want when I get home. You can all bear your testimonies and I will listen :)


I just love the people here so much. We have been teaching with Jessica a lot. We were teaching her mom the 2ª lição and she was saying, "Yeah and when we get resurrected your shoulder won´t do that creepy popping thing!" Even when we get frustrated, I love them. Like yesterday we ended up having three jovens with us for our last lesson.. The poor investigator. The members were like, telling him everything they knew about the restauração and it was jsut so much information. But it reminded me, we need to focus on the basics. Yeah, there are a lot of cool facts or random fluffy parts to stories. And yeah we can learn a lot from them. But they´re not what´s most important. What´s the most important is the pure Gospel. Jesus Christ is our Saviour and He came to earth for us and so if we do the right things we can be pure of our sins, which will let us live with God. The plenitude of the evangelho was restored through um profeta vivo and the test of that is the Book of Mormon. And that´s it. That´s why we´re here.


So even though I can get frustrated a lot (like when we taught law of chastity and our investigators were saying "but if it´s true love God will say it´s okay!") I know why we´re here. It´s not just to make people´s lives better, but to bring them eternal life and exaltation. Which is pretty awesome. So even though I´m "constipada" and want some Nyquil, that doesn´t really matter. Because being here is the best thing EVER. I love Massamá and I LOVE SIster Juilfs and I love these crazy Portuguese people and I´m never coming home.


I also love you all tons. Your emails are the best. Thanks for being the best family ever. Have a fantastic week and remember that I´m thinkg of and praying for you!


LOVE YOU,
Sister GIdney

Week one of transfer 4? Do you realize I hit 6 months in TWO WEEKS

Sept. 23, 2013

Ola minha querida familia,

This week was pretty much normal. The best part was all the different things we saw driving down the 4-lane street:

-An old man in a motorized wheelchair. He had a traffic vest.

-A weird three-wheeled car that kind of looked like a giant sardine can. I don´t know how he got in and out.

-A tractor

-A horse-drawn cart with two wheels. It was more of a pony. We saw it go around the rotunda. 

We ate squid this week. It was really chewy and really salty and the legs freaked me out because there were like a million.

Here is a picture of my knee. The cobblestone is really slippery when it´s wet. 

Also here is a cute picture for you guys :) 

And one of store water vs. the sink water 

So basically I am freaking out a little bit because in two weeks we hit our "Year-left" mark. That means if I was an elder I would be halfway done, kind of. I can´t believe how fast time is going... And I feel like I still am not fluent in Portuguese! Or in teaching. But we are getting better every day. I think, anyway. And I am pretty much fluent in understanding, so that is really great. We even have people talk to us in Creole and we can understand. Like, one lady was talking about how she needs to go to Guinea to break the witch-curse on her daughter before she can come to church, and we understood it. And I am forgetting English, so that is another good sign. Sorry if I coem home and speak only Portuguese :) 

I hope everything is going wonderfully for everyone. Get good grades and read your scriptures-Love you TONS 

Com amor,
Sister GIdney

a picture of portugal

and of my knee after i fixed it. love you!

Sept. 30, 2013

tomorrow is one year left

Bom dia familia! 

Como vocês estão? Espero que tudo seja bem e que vocês estejam a ter boas semanas em escola e trabalho. Eu queria tentar a falar Português porque, devo saber agora. Já tenho quase SEIS MÊSES na missão. Tempo está a passar TÃO rápido. Talvez vou ficar mais de 18 mêses...

This week, winter started. That means--rain. I guess I will have wrinkly feet until July :) But the good news is, my athlete´s foot is gone... And at least it´s not cold rain. Just wet. And because of the humidity you stay wet. But it is nice-- we never have to get out of the "shower". 

This week was pretty Portuguese. We saved our bread bags, after we finished the bread, so we could put other stuff in it. We washed out our empty tomoto sauce can, too. And kept it. Now it has a centipede in it on our mantleplace. It´s named Maria José. Sorry if I come home Portuguese... :) 

So at the train stations here, you buy a ticket for where you want to go, then you scan it and go through the little gate. It closes after it senses you go through. A lot of people try to go through behind others, because they don´t want to buy tickets. We usually just stop right on the other side so no one can push through behind us. On Wednesday, though, this guy went behind me and then when I stopped he started swearing and yelling. Then he saw my nametag and said basically, "You aren´t following Christ because the Bible says to let people through behind you". It made me stop and think, what is the greater law? Honesty, or charity? Because that was his argument; if you had charity you would let me through. But I was thinking about it, and the greatest way we can show and develop PURE charity is to help others follow the laws of God so they can grow closer to Him. Because all we´re doing here is preparing ourselves so we´ll be comfortable in God´s presence. That´s why we have commandments, and covenants, and families and temples. To try to be "fit for His kingdom". 

Alright I will get off my soapbox. Some funny things fro,m this week:

-We realized that the only thing scarier than a Portuguese driver in Portugal is a Brazilian driver in Portugal. We went to a lesson with a Brazilian member who, as we were pulling out of the underground garage, hit the corner and completely dented the car. We thought the windows were going to shatter and we were going to die. The only comment was "Good thing the car isn´t new". 

-We got contacted on the street by the Testemunho Jeovah missionaries (Jehovah´s witness). We testified to them about the Book of Mormon and gave them the address of our capela. 

- This week was the election for the county mayor or whatever it is, so everyone was campaigning at the train station. One had their own theme song: Sintra pode mais! (It just means "Sintra can more"). I´m not sure what it is supposed to mean but it was very catchy. Said Sister Juilfs of the interlude: "it sounds like a leprachaun with a flute jigging around a colonial American flag".

-This random guy on the street gave me a flower and siad "uma flor para uma menina bonita" 

-We watched a car trying to go up a hill in the rain. It just slid backwards. Really scared the cars behind it. 

-I accidentally punched our ceiling doing morning workouts. We live in a hobbit hole. 

-The missionary who was serving in Vegas just got home. He can´t remember POrtuguese. I´d like to be like that with English, so if everyone could email me in POrtuguese that would be great :) 

This week was great. We have a lot of people we are teaching. They are all changing and growing and it is really amazing to watch. There will be a lot more bigger changes soon too (because since it rains all the time, the only people to contact are the smokers. ha). 

Just so you know, I had a dream about coming home. I got in a fight with Katy about using her shampoo.

Portugal is great! I love it here sooo much. And now that I bought rainboots today, i could stay here the rest of my life :) 

I love you all tons. Take care of yourselves and keep reading the Book of Mormon. Have a great week! 

Com tanto amor,
Sister Gidney