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