cows and the sea

Ola família!
This week was pretty crazy--we spent half of it in the middle of the ocean! We left Wednesday morning for the Azores and didn´t get back until LATE Friday night. The islands were wonderful. Basically they are just little green hills in the middle of the ocean, covered with cows. I´ll attach a picture.

It was really wonderful to see how Heavenly Father took care of our area even though we couldn´t be here for a lot of the week. On Tuesday we were able to work with a LOT of members--we had more lessons with a member that day than all of last week combined.
On Tuesday we saw yet again the hand of the Lord protecting His missionaries. We were walking from part of our area to the capela for a lesson. We were as little late so we decided to cut through this little nieghborhood that we had only been through once, in the daylight. We were walking through, pretty quickly, when a group of young men called out "Oh Elders!" they kept calling but we just kept walking. As we entered the last little alleyway, there was another girl who came up behind us. One of the young men ran over and jumped on her, trying to steal her bag. Luckily another man was coming up the other way and helped her. It was literally 2 feet away from being me or my companion, but it wasn´t. And that girl is okay, don´t worry.
The Açores were so much fun. I loved working with the sisters there. On Wednesday we went to Ponta Delgada. I was with Sister Bos. We met a lot of people and also explored some new parts of the area. I was really impressed with her and her companion. They are really good friends and are just happy all the time. On the contrast, our next division was in Angra. The sisters there were stressed out about their companionship and their area. We tried to help them calm down a little bit, especially about the things that they can´t control. Basically what I learned this week is we all just need to relax a little. Do what you can do, and then let go of the rest. "it is not meet than a man should run faster than he has strength". And I am trying to apply that in our area because I feel like we are trying and trying but nothing is happening. But I don´t feel upset about it because we are doing our part. And we just have to let go of the things we can´t control. Because no amount of stressing will give us control over them.

On the islands, we met a lot of Americans. They told us we "look Mormon". I think that is a good thing maybe.
Also on Ponta Delgada the accent is SO weird. It is like French or something. It was fun to listen to. Less fun to understand.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMILY!!! I can´t believe you will be 14.
I hope you all enjoy General conference this weekend! It is going to be wonderful.
I love you all tons! Here are some pictures of the trip :)
Com amor,
Sister Gidney