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

Portuguese Novelas

Querida familia,
This week was probably the craziest and funniest week ever. I love it here. It´s basically like we´re in a soap opera.
On Tuesday during district meeting the elders flooded the capela. They don´t have gas in their house because they broke it, so they always cook at the church. They invited us to stay for lunch. The sink apparently leaks and there is a bucket underneath to catch the overflow, but they forgot and it overflowed and filled the entire relief society room with water. Took about 40 minutes to mop up.
On Wednesday, we went to LISBOA. We got our residency cards! So now we´re official. We went to a mall and got these really nice pictures taken, then went and sat in this DMV-like place for five hours. Finally they took my fingerprints and my signature and sent me on my way. Luckily we only live a 30-minute train ride away. But we got to see a lot of people from our MTC group. Everyone is more blonde and more tan. And can speak better Portuguese. The best part about it was that afterwards they took us to the escritorio and we got to get some pedidos and some mail. We finally got some pamphlets and things we needed. (And I got a package from Aunt Miriam that was super awesome!) When we got back, we had a meeting at the capela. The elders met us at the comboio station because we were bringing them a bunch of Book of Mormons. This lady stopped us and wanted the address of the headquarters of the Church. She wanted us to call the prophet and get the address and was really confused why we couldn´t...
Thursday was a great day. We talked to a ton of people. We also had Aula de Inglês, which is my favorite time of the week. This little old man in our ward always comes (apparently he is the stake patriarch. I didn´t know that until yesterday). So we had taught colors and clothing items so we decided to play "I love my neighbor" to help them learn. This is the game where you sit in the circle and someone in the middle says "I lvoe my neighbor, except for those with___" and whoever is wearing that has to switch chairs, and the person in the middle tries to get a seat. So this man got to be the one in the middle, and he looked around, then as seriously as possible said "I love my pants!" He quickly looked around for a spot to sit, but no one had moved, so he said it again louder "I LOVE MY PANTS!" We helped him... While trying not to laugh. Basically every game is better when the people playing don´t understand the language. To end the class we did a nice round of "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" because our zone leader said they love it. And they did. Everyone went crazy.
On Friday all of our compromissos fell through so we ended up goign to the north end of our area to try to find people. The only ones we met were a guy who said "I´d love to talk but I´m drunk right now" and a guy I think was on drugs. He was practically confessing his love to us as we walked away.
Saturday was hilarious. We went to a dinner compromisso but the lady got confused when she found out Sister Juilfs is allergic to meat so we ended up sitting behind the family at the table, and she fed us maria bolachas (these graham cracker-like cookies) and juice while the family ate chicken and rice. It was so confusing. We also met a man who grabbed our hands and read our palms. He told me I am good at art and drawing (yeah right), that I am going to have at least two children, and that I love cats. I tried to say "actually I don´t really like them" but he said "No I KNOW you like them. It is written. Here, in your palm. It is written."
Yesterday I got to play a violin! The elders had a baptism and wanted a special musical number so a ward member lent me her violin and I played "I Feel My Saviour´s Love" with Elder Taylor (he played the piano). I think it turned out alright. We also had someone tell us that the Book of Mormon isn´t true because the picture of Jesus in the front is white and "with where He was born He couldn´t have been white". So that was interesting.
The best part of the week is JESSICA. She is the best investigator ever. We were really worried earlier this week. Sister Juilfs and I both feel really strongly that she needs the Holy Ghost next Sunday, and so she has to get baptized before church. She didn´t want to get baptized yesterday because she wants her family there (makes sense), but also she wanted her friend to baptize her, and he will be in Spain until late Saturday night. So We were worried that she wanted to wait. But she said "No I´ve been praying. It has to be this Saturday. I don´t care who baptizes me as long as it´s on Saturday." So the member we had with us will be baptizing her. Also, her favorite scripture is 1 Nephi 3:7. "The Lord has already prepared a way for me. I just need to cumprir His ordens". She knows that there is a path for her; all she has to do is follow. I feel like SHE is the one teaching US-I always learn so much when we teach her.
I feel like there was more that happened this week but I can´t think of anything right now. Basically it is hard but we are having a TON of fun. I love my companion, the elders are hilarious, and I LOVE our investigators. (Not as much as some of them love us but.. that´s a story for another day). I also love you all TONS. I) hope you are reading the Book of Mormon. I am on chapter 16 now (in Portuguese!) Also one thing I have been doing that I love is writing down a miracle every day. Some of them are a stretch, but it is amazing to see how blessed we are. Good luck with the first few days of school--the Church is true and I love you!
Tchauzinho,
Sister Gidney

Com licença

Ola familia :)
We´re done with our second week here.. already. It´s starting to go really fast. Part of it is probably that we have been working to the last possible minute every single day (we usually end up running home to make it on time).
We got fed every.single.day this week. So I´ve now eaten chicken foot soup, octopus rice (including the suckers..), bacalhau lasagna, and some other fine delicacies. ..Yep.

Mom asked about the scripture I picked for this transfer. It´s D&C 1:4-5. I like it because it reminds me that God chose us, not just to be missionaries, but to be where we are when we are and with who. So He knew what he was doing when He put Sister Juilfs and I here to open an area still trying to figure Portuguese out. And it´s also nice that nothing will stop us if we are trying our hardest. Not only will the people or Satan or whatever not stop us, but our own weaknesses won´t even be able to "deterá", because this is God´s work. He´s got this. "Porque eu, o Senhor, os mandei ir."
So we started teaching this AWESOME girl this week- Jessica. She is the friend of a member who just got his mission call. She´s probably the only blonde in Cacém, and she is SO elect. We marked her for baptism the first time we talked to her! She is 19 and was never baptized in any church, and said that right before we showed up she was looking for what she should be doing, if she should get baptized, or what should she do in her life. (Miracles happen). This weekend she came to a baptism at the capela and then to a ward activity, and then to all three hours of church, and the came back for choir. I think the most impressive thing though was that after the second lesson she asked "So what are the basic steps we need to take in this life?" So we left a 3ª lição panfleto and all the mandamento pamphlets and when we came back the next day she´d read all of them, the chapter we left in the Book of Mormon, and started reading the Book from the beggining. And her only question was "So how do we repent?" She´s really awesome. I am really really excited for her. Another awesome pesquisador we have is Nené. He is atheist, but after reading some chapters in Alma, he said he is starting to believe in God!
One miracle we saw this week was Quarta-feira night. The zone leader challenged all the areas to find 3 novos during the day. It was 9:20 and we still needed one more, and we also had to walk home. We stopped and said a prayer and said we knew it was possible, but that we needed to help. After we said ámem, we looked up and saw... nothing. No one was on the street. We stood there for a few seconds and then started walking up the street, away from our house, thinking for sure it was hopeless and that we would be late. At the corner we saw this car pulling up, so we awkwardly waited until they started getting out. The two ladies had a bunch of suitcases so we asked if they needed any help. They said no, but one lady started talking to us about her travels (she is from Madeira). We asked if we could say a prayer with her for her viagem the next morning... and she let us, with her friend. Turns out that the friend lives in our area, already has a Book of Mormon, and wants us to come back and explain it. We set up an appointment and then ran (as usual) home. We made it home on time AND found our new novo. Even though we were expecting someone to be like right behind us after we prayed, we still had the miracle we needed, because we took those steps of faith.
Okay one funny story to finish it up. We contacted this old man who was hanging out by a bus stop. We talked about Jesus for awhile and then he interupted us and said "You have beautiful eyes. They remind me of a fruit. Do you know which one?" We were confused and just said "uhhh..." and then he said something we didn´t understand. He repeated "Azeiton. You know, like the oil?" Yeah turns out he said Olives. So I have olive eyes so that´s cool.
Yep all in all we´re trying to get this area "up and running". We have a few great people to work with and are still working hard to find more. The hardest part here is that in our area (probably about the size of 3 BYU campuses) there are 9 churches. So please keep me and the people in Massamá in your prayers :)
I hope all is well with you all. I love you tons!!
Com muito amor,
Sister Gidney

first week in cacém

Ola familia,
Well as you know I got transferred. I am now in Cacém B. We live and work in Massamá. The area is TINY compared to São João, but there are SO many people here. This week we found 28 novo pesquisadores- that´s in the 5 days we were working here. My new companion is Sister Madison Juilfs from Las Vegas. She is 19 and also goes to BYU. In our district/ward there are 3 duplas-us and four elders. Apparently we are the first sisters to be here since like 2007. So we went to ward counsel yesterday and the bishop was like "Yay! Sisters! We´re going to treat you like princesses!" And then elder Lopes was like "and not us?" So I guess all six of us will be princesses. And by princesses, we mean pigs. We got jumped on by four famillies wanting to feed us this week.... Hopefully we don´t gain weight... Probably not though because I think my stomach might not be able to handle the food here. It tastes good but it is just not what I am used to... (see the picture of chicken foot soup).
So we are basically opening this area. It was opening last transfer, kind of, and now we are whitewashing, so we just have to go out and find people. As usual, we meet a lot of weird guys who are interested... in us. So that´s fun. We met a guy this week who tried to hold our hands. I decided if there is one word to describe being a missionary it is "awkward" (but a close second is "AWESOME").
Oh so we live with a member. The ceilings are tiny. She does our laundry I guess, and also cleans once a week? It´s kind of like we have a maid, except I want her to let us help. She also has this fat little dog that´s pretty cute and really likes missioanries.
So when you first arrive in an area and don´t know anyone, funny things happen. We found a menos ativo in our area book so went to visit her... turns out she´s actually been active since 2010 so. Oops. Also, we met a guy who asked if we spoke ENglish. When we said yes, he started speaking to us in Creole. Oh and last night, probably my favorite. We got a call from a potential investigator... we thought, who said meet by the school we met at the first time. We show up, and he´s not there. Turns out it wasn´t the right guy. So we ask where to go and we start walking there. We still aren´t sure who it is, so we decide that it was probably this other guy we talked to. When we got there though, it was a THIRD guy we had talked to...and we didn´t remmeber his name. To be honest, we still don´t know it. We may never know.. THe names here are a lot harder because there are a ton of Africans, so not everyone is named Maria and Paulo.
Hey cool thing. I can understand people here! Not everyone, and not all the time, but I understand probably 80 or 90%. I don´t know if it´s because the accent is easier or if I finally have the gift of interpretation of tongues but it was interesting. On the way here, I still couldn´t understand. But as soon as we got into our new area, I started understanding a LOT. When we´re on the street and in lessons. But still not in church. So I guess it really is a blessing. We´re called and so we´re qualified. Sweet.
I´m not sure what else to say. We talk to a lot of people every day so we can build up a base of pesquisadores (we are basically starting with nothing). Everyone says this area is "elect" so we are trying really hard to find people that are ready for the gospel. It´s hard here, but also not. I can´t explain it. Also I am really tired so I will go now.
I hope everything is going sooo well with you all. Good luck getting ready for school to start. Don´t forget to read the Book of MOrmon with me! I am reading it in Portuguese. It´s hard.
I love you all TONS- siga sempre em frente :)
com amor,
Sister Gidney

TRANSFERRED

Ola familia,
It has been a CRAZY week. I probably don´t remember most of it.
Last P day we went to the castle in Santa Maria da Feira.. Hopefully I can send pictures sometime. It was really fun. And it makes me wonder who has walked where we walk every day. Tipo, anciently.
This week we had no novos until Friday. No one wanted to talk to us. Everyone kept saying it´s a waste oif time and not worth it. Finally on Friday we were talking to this lady, "Oh it will be a waste of time" and I just started talking saying "It won´t be a waste because God loves you" and just kept going and afterward she was like "oh" and then gave us her contact info and prayed with us. So I guess a little righteous indignation sometimes is a good thing :P
Alright since I am really tired I don´t remember much of last week. On Sunday night at like 10 p.m. we finally got our phone call about transfers. I thought I was staying, but nope! Sister Cutler and I both got transferred. So did Sister Valdez. They are combining the two areas and leaving Sister da Silva (who got there three weeks ago) to do them both... while she´s training. So we stayed up until 2 ~packing (and crying) and finally got to bed. Just in time to get up at 5 so we could catch our 6 a.m. bus. We went to Porto and then rode the train to Lisbon and to the mission office. There I met my new companion-Sister Juilfs. She got here the same time as me. She is really really nice... and also knows the same or less Portuguese than me. This is going to be interesting! We are whitewashing an area that was only opened last transfer-basically opening-- in Massamá. Near Cacem. Near Lisboa. I am in the Oeiras zone, which altogether is smaller than São João. But everyone keeps telling us this area is bem eleito. We are the first sisters to be in this ward since 2007. Hopefully we do a good job.
I hope you all are happy and healthy. Love you tons-please pray that I will understand the people here :)
Love,
Sister Gidney