Muito bom trabalho lá

Queridíssima família,
I contacted a man riding a horse. He was just riding a horse in the road and we just were staring and so he stopped. He looked at my nametag and then started speaking to us in German. Then he switched to English. "Oh you are American! John Wayne is my hero! I also really like Benjamin Franklin. He said once..." Then we started talking to him about the gospel. His response: "Christian-ism is a good religion. Much better than Judaism or Muslim. But I don´t know if it´s better than Buddhism; I´ve never tried that." We kept talking and then when we tried to set up an appointment or get his contact info,he just rode away into the sunset.
This week, our main focus was "Operation Carlos". There is a part of our area called Vale Figueira where we go every day. There is going to be a branch there someday, at least that is what we are planning. There is a menos ativo who lives there who is the KEY to success. Basically when he comes back to church, at least 5 other people are going to be baptized, including his friend Manuela and her nephew Nuno, and his ex-girlfriend Nádia and her two daughters. And then he will become branch president, and will marry Nádia, adopt her daughters, and they´ll all get sealed. So to do that, we have an 8-step-plan. We are on number 3 right now---get them to come to church. They almost came yesterday, but then Nuno got sick and so they all slept in. But this week we´ll get ém!
Patricia and Bea are doing well---but their mom says they can´t get baptized until they are 18 :( So we are going to keep teaching them and pray really hard that they can stay firm until then!
The other day we were in an apartment complex trying to visit an appointment and there was a HUGE group of people having a party. They asked us to take a picture, and they all sat on the stairs. Perfect opportunity! So after we took some pictures we asked if we could sing a hymn. They said yes. We sang "Count your many blessings". One lady was snapping her fingers to the beat... We just sang the first verse because at the end they all cheered. We asked to say a prayer, and then our member Jessica said a lovely little prayer, but then they all cheered again and clapped. So strange.
One investigator we are teaching is SO COOL. His name is Joaquim and we contacted him on the bus. We invited him to English class and he came and then we invited him to church. We called him on Saturday to remind him and he said "Of course I am coming! I bought a white shirt!" And sure enough, he came to church in a white shirt and tie. He looked like a ward clerk or something. He got divorced recently and the gospel is about to change his life forever. :)
I read a scripture this morning in personal study--Isaiah 26:3-4. I love that when we trust in the Lord, we will have PEACE and STRENGTH (I especially need that one!) And it´s true. Sometimes we are walking and I am like "I don´t know how I am doing this but if Heavenly Father says I can..:" And then all the sudden I get a burst of energy or I understand what we need to say to help our investigator. And I know that the same thing can happen for non-missionaries too. If we trust in the Lord (which includes obedience, and trusting in His commandments), we will know how to live our lives and we will be happy! Heavenly Father is so wonderful.
I hope you are all healthy and happy! Enjoy the week--it will be a good one, I can tell. :) I love you!
Com amor,
Sister Gidney
P.s. My feet tan.

I feel sweaty...Oh so sweaty...

Ola família,
It feels like just yesterday that I emailed you last!
This week went by quickly. Seems like it just slipped through our fingers. Proably because it was so hot and humid!
All the interesting things happened yesterday. Paloma got confirmed! And it was Sister Cardoso´s birthday! I made her a cake, but we didn´t have much flour, and also I had to make it in the microwave, so it came out more like a weird little pancake, but I just told her that´s how american birthday cakes look, and she seemed satisfied with that. I also gave her a BYU shirt because she wants to go there after the mission.
This week was kind of hard, at least physically. On Thursday especially, both Sister Cardoso and I were both sooo tired. We were kind of crawling through the street and stumbling around. We felt like we weren´t doing anything---we were giving all we had, which was almost nothing. But then at the end of the day, we realized we had met several new people and had quite a few lessons. It just goes to show, the Lord really will consecrate our actions for good, if we pray for it! (2 Nephi 32:9)
Another scripture I found that I really like is 1 Corinthians 1:27. When we are weak physically, we are strong spiritually (that is why fasting is powerful).
Some of the funny things Sister Cardoso said in English this week: "Repent yourselfs!" "That´s a nice car... Let´s rob it!" (Steal) "My body is sweated" (sweaty) "All Americans eat are hamboogers".
Patrícia and Bea are doing well--they fasted this weekend! They still haven´t gotten permission from their mom, but there is still time. :) We are very hopeful! Patrícia is so awesome. She works on Personal Progress every morning, and tries to do at least one experience per day. And she helps Bea say her prayers every night. She is so wonderful.
Seems like the hardest thing for people in this area is coming to church. Everyone says they need to have more "spiritual strength" before they can come and that they need to have a better testimony and etc etc. We have tried to explain that it is IN church that they will find those things but so far, no one is taking the initiative. I think mostly they are lazy because it is summer vacation.
So I don´t know if I have already told you about this---but after getting my mission call, I was disappointed that I had to wait so long to report to the MTC. I was really struggling with the wait, until one night I had a dream, that in my last two weeks on the mission, I found a woman, who I had never met, but that I recognized immediately. She was baptized, in my dream, on my last Sunday in Portugal. She told my companion and I that she recognized us from somewhere, and it was only because of that that she didn´t shoo us away like she had so many other missionaries before--that it had to be US or she would never have accepted the gospel. And obviously, if I went on the mission sooner, I wouldn´t be there to find her.
That dream helped me be more patient and I just thought it was a nice idea to calm me down, but over the past few weeks, I have started to feel like it wasn´t just a dream, but it really can happen. But I feel like this woman is not in my current area. I don´t know where she is, but I know the Lord knows. Then this last week, I had another dream that I was transferred and became companions with Sister Anderson, in her area. I don´t know if that was a coincidence, but I don´t think so. I hope I can find my sister!
I hope that youth conference went well and that you are all having a wonderful summer! Have fun and be good :)
I love you!
Sister Gidney
P.s. we found some fun stuff in our house

She's valid!!

Ola querida família,
We accidentally went on a division with the elders this morning.
I will explain.
Today we had a district P-day to go to see Cristo Rei (see the picture attached). We caught the same metro as the Miratejo elders to meet up with the elders from Almada. (Our district is huge--Miratejo A, us. Miratejo B, Elder Knight and Elder Walker. Almada A, Elders Almeida and Brown. Amnada B, Elders Josi and Riggs). We got to the metro stop, and the door wasn´t opening, so we all went to the next door to get off. Well, I THOUGHT we all got off. The metro pulled away, and I looked around for my companion. I only saw Elder Walker! We both looked around for a few more seconds in shock, and then I just started laughing because I realized our companions were still on the metro and it was SO WEIRD. Better yet, we had both the phones. We walked as fast as we could down the metro line to the next stop, hoping Sister Cardoso and Elder Knight would get off and walk towards us as well. Luckily they did and we met up about six minutes later. Shortest and strangest division I´ve ever been on. Oops.

This week was fun! I got to know my companion better--she is a sweetheart. She was born in Angola but moved to Porto when she was six. She has three sisters and a mom. Her mom and two sisters are members of the church. She was baptized when she was 9. And her first name is Isabel.
Yesterday, our investigator Paloma got baptized! She is 15 and wanted to get baptized in the RIVER... So we went! It was cool. A member baptized her, with a few people on the beach watching. (We realized about an hour later that he did it with his left arm and not his right so we were really worried and called President Fluckiger but he said it was fine--that that has happened in the temple before and that it is still valid because of the intent of her heart, and it was with the priesthood and by immersion. Luckily!)

We are teaching a LOT of jovens, including Patrícia and Bea (ages 14 and 9). They are sisters and want to get baptized--they just need permission from their mom. We marked them for the 26th to be baptized and every night at 10 p.m. all four of us kneel to pray to ask that her heart will be softened. Patrícia´s testimony is already so strong--she told us why she wants to be baptized and the Spirit was SO strong--her mom will feel it for sure. They are so cute. I love them already.
Yesterday in church Sister Cardoso and I taught Princípios do evangelho AND Moças. In moças, the counselor (a RC) was asking us a whole bunch of deep doctrine questions about where God came from and where the first god came from and etc. We answered briefly but then just said "It doesn´t matter too much because all we really need to know is that God loves us and we need to do certain things here to qualify to be like Him".
Oh also. The office called us Monday to say, You will have an ex-missionaria living with you for a few days. Well it´s been a week and she´s still here. Kind of weird to have a "normal" person in our house--but she does our dishes so I don´t mind. ;)
I have been thinking about how some people say a mission is the "MTC for the rest of your life". I think that´s because we live the law of Moses here. You have to wake up at this time, pray at this time, study at this time, sleep at this time, eat in this many minutes, only walk this many steps on Sunday.... And then when you go home you are expected to live the higher law and do things on your own. It´s interesting because it´s more "freedom" but it´s also more responsibility. But also more power. So hopefully I am learning the things that I need to here to be ready for that!
I hope you all have a wonderful week--I love you all tons!!
Com amor,
Sister Gidney

Miratejo?

Ola família,
Guess what--we got whitewashed! Ou seja, both Sister Derrick and I got transferred. Now I am in Miratejo, the other side of the river. That means that there are only three zones in the whole mission I haven´t worked in--Madeira, the Algarve, and Coimbra.
So this week was exhausting. On Monday we went to a castle in Lapa with our district and we saw the "classic view" that you get when you look up "Lisbon" on google images. It was so pretty. Also it was free because we are residents. We got ice cream from an Italian gelataria on the way home, which was incredible. I love ice cream.
On Tuesday, we had mission council! While we were at lunch, I was sitting next to Sister Fluckiger. She looked at my eyes and asked if they hurt because of the sun, because they are so light. I said yes and she said I can wear SUNGLASSES. I´m going to be the coolest missionary on the block.
On Wednesday we taught Simeão, who is going to be baptized on Saturday (so sad I´ll miss it). He is AWESOME. We taught him the word of wisdom--"Oh I already am living that" and the law of chastity--"Yeah I´m living that too." He knows the Book of Mormon is true and knows the Church is true too!
On Thursday we went on one more division, with the other sisters of Povoa, Sister Mullen and Sister Brooks. I was with Sister Brooks, who is going home tomorrow. She is from Georgia but goes to BYU. I really really like her.
That evening, the jovens threw a "surprise party" for Elder Bluemel since he is going home as well (lame). The party was a good idea but... it ended up being more hilarious than it was meant to be, because when we got there, we went downstairs, expecting them to be hiding and jump out to say surprise. But to OUR surprise, when we got downstairs, there was literally just some balloons on the floor, one 12-year-old investigator, a thing of juice, and a plate of cheese. Sooo we left out the back door, and the sisters went in first to tell all the jovens (who ended up being in the kitchen) to run down, and then the elders came in AGAIN and they "surprised" Elder Bluemel. Good thing he likes musical theater---he managed to act surprised.
Friday was the 4th of July! We ate ice cream to celebrate (we would have eaten it anyway but this time it was in honor of America). They had a Ferrero Roche flavor--those delicious chocolates you know? So good.
As we were doing weekly planning, the APs called us and told us we were going to be whitewashed. So we already knew we would be both be leaving. Luckily, one of the sisters who will be taking over, is Sister Taylor! So they said to do a division with her to show her around. We did that on Saturday.
Saturday morning though, we had a ward party! It was called a "Freedom Party", secretly also for the fourth of July. We had a barbecue, melon, and some "homemade" lemonade (in Marina´s Bimby). It was very fun and we took a bunch of pictures with the members.
Saturday afternoon was our mini-division. I went with Sister Taylor to show her around. It was an inspired division because, remember Bea? We basically saved her life. It´s kind of a long story (and sensitive) but basically we were out until 10:30 with the elders and a bunch of members to resolve the situation.
Yesterday was the last day in Odivelas! Maria do Carmo cried and our investigators were all pretty sad that we´re going, so that made me feel good (not that they were sad but that they cared). Yesterday night the stake had a musical fireside about the Restoration. The missionaries from the stake all sang "No monte a bandeira" (high on the mountain top). Afterwards we said goodbye to the jovens for the last time :( Some of them cried (Brendo, Ianik, Marina) because all three of us are going (me, Sister Derrick, and Elder Bluemel). Sister Derrick and I have stayed here longer than almost any other missionary has in a long time. I really love those kids.
This morning we caught the train to the other side of the river, and now I´m here in Miratejo! That´s in the Setubal zone. I know that means a lot to you ;) My new companion is Sister Isabel Cardoso--she´s from Angola! Either my portuguese is going to get really good, or her english will. She is really cute and I am excited to be with her.
I can´t believe that another transfer has already come and gone. I realized today that this might be my last area, and that I don´t have very much time left here :( I kept thinking "Oh I have plenty of time, I have at least the whole summer"--but now it´s already JULY and I don´t want this to end. I love Portugal SO much--and the people here are my brothers and sisters. It makes me want to cry just thinking of leaving them. Can I just take like a two-week break at the end, but then come back?
I love you all so much, and I hope you are doing well. Please pray for Bea, and also for Sister Derrick--she will be training a new missionary this transfer!
Vos amo,
Sister Gidney
P.s. Us at the view near the castle and us with Marina