TRANSFER 2

Ola familia!
First, happy birthday to Jeremy! I thought about how I was missing the cake yesterday. But then I realized that you all would still be asleep the night before so I felt better. Hope he had a good day. I can´t believe he´s 17. Crazy.
This week was great! Also first good news. I didn´t get transferred-our whole district is staying here for another transfer. I´m really excited. Our district is pretty great.
So this week on Tuesday we had divisões with the sister training leaders. They came down here and so there were two companionships working in our area. Sister Wilde was working with me. It was really great-I learned a lot and I think I am braver now. Also I don´t know what it changed but Sister Cutler and I are going crazy now. The week before last we found like 3 novos (new investigators), and this week we found 21. We want to keep improving but this was a great jumpstart.
The best thing this week was that Paulo finally got baptized!! 4 nonmembers came, too, which was really great. His dad came as a surprise. And Paulo is like a completely different person (but he still won´t smile for pictures).

                                                 

This week it suddenly got really hot. Also the bugs came out. The insects here look like aliens. I have 7 bug bites.
Today Sister Cutler and I bought some short-sleeve shirts. I couldn´t help but think, "I´m buying clothes in EUROPE". I feel fancy.
So the work is going really well, except for one problem. A lot of the time we run into people who are more interested in us, than in our message... There have been several young men who have texted us (we can recieve texts but can´t send them) saying we are pretty and they want to hang out with us. We obviously don´t respond. If they call we just invite them to church.
I think I am starting to love being a missionary. I was thinking about it while we were waiting to find out about transfers yesterday and I will be really sad to leave São João... and I don´t even want to think about leaving Portugal. It´s really pretty here, but also I am starting to love the people. Even though they don´t have teeth and have hairy ears. Also, I even am getting used to old ladies kissing my face. And it´s still really hard sometimes, and I am SO tired all the time, but I also am usually really, really happy. I´m not even sure why. It´s weird. And also great. So yeah.
Sorry this is so random. My brain is all scattered. We have a dinner appointment tonight with a member (finally. haha). How is the summer going? How hot is it in Utah?
I´m attaching some pictures of Portugal :)
I miss you all and love you tons!
Eat a quesadilla for me/love,
Sister Gidney                                                   

The beach and the rain

Hi familia,
First sorry this will be kind of short-we went to the beach today so I don´t have much time to write :)
The weather here is CRAZY. It was really hot, and then started raining like crazy. I like the rain though. It´s like I´m in Seattle, except no one speaks English.
This week Paulo quit smoking! It´s crazy how much the gospel can change people. Seriously he smoked for 24 years and then quit basically overnight. It is really exciting.
On thursday we had a zone meeting in Porto, so I got to see Sister Carroll and Miles and Brand and Elder Beckstrand. It was a cute little reunion.
We had a talent show in the ramo on Friday night. One man sang Fado? Traditional Portuguese music. It was really good-watch some on YouTube or something.
Our district went to the beach in Espinho today. It was raining and kind of cold so we were the only ones on the sand but it was SO fun. It was a great stress relief-and I got to put my toes in the Atlantic Ocean for the first time!
We dropped or were dropped by like all of our investigators this week... Except for a couple. So we are hoping to find a lot more this week. We have started planning where to tract and then praying that there will be people there. I´ll let you know how it goes.
I hope you had a Happy Father´s Day without me. I´m sure it was rough, ha.
Okay that´s all I have the time I have for now-But I love you all tons! And miss you!
Love you,
Sister Gidney
P.s. There is a castle in our area too-the pictures are of the beach and that. Love you!

The beach and the rain

Hi familia,
First sorry this will be kind of short-we went to the beach today so I don´t have much time to write :)
The weather here is CRAZY. It was really hot, and then started raining like crazy. I like the rain though. It´s like I´m in Seattle, except no one speaks English.
This week Paulo quit smoking! It´s crazy how much the gospel can change people. Seriously he smoked for 24 years and then quit basically overnight. It is really exciting.
On thursday we had a zone meeting in Porto, so I got to see Sister Carroll and Miles and Brand and Elder Beckstrand. It was a cute little reunion.
We had a talent show in the ramo on Friday night. One man sang Fado? Traditional Portuguese music. It was really good-watch some on YouTube or something.
Our district went to the beach in Espinho today. It was raining and kind of cold so we were the only ones on the sand but it was SO fun. It was a great stress relief-and I got to put my toes in the Atlantic Ocean for the first time!
We dropped or were dropped by like all of our investigators this week... Except for a couple. So we are hoping to find a lot more this week. We have started planning where to tract and then praying that there will be people there. I´ll let you know how it goes.
I hope you had a Happy Father´s Day without me. I´m sure it was rough, ha.
Okay that´s all I have the time I have for now-But I love you all tons! And miss you!
Love you,
Sister Gidney
P.s. There is a castle in our area too-the pictures are of the beach and that. Love you!

 

another week

Ola familia,
This week was pretty great. On Monday night, Linda got baptized!! We realized we forgot to tell her to plug her nose so it was a little awkward, but she looked SO happy. When she got comfirmed yesterday, she had the biggest smile on her face. She keeps telling us "Every day I get happier and happier". :) It´s so great. 

On Tuesday we were contacting people na rua, and the funniest thing happened. I went over to this old guy with a dog and was trying to ask the dog´s name, because it seemed like a good way to start the conversation. He was saying something that neither SIster Cutler nor I could understand, but then suddenly he leaned over and KISSED HER. On the cheek, but only because she turned. She was like "No não podemos fazer isso!!" and he like laughed and then tried to do it again. He was just laughing this creepy little old man laugh and trying to kiss her and I was trying SO hard not to laugh. We walked away pretty quickly.
We are teaching this nice boy, Bernardo, who already thinks the Church is true. He asked what more he needs to do to get baptized, but he is a little nervous to talk to his parents about the Church, because they don´t really like it. But we have a lesson with him tonight, and we are hoping to mark him, and practice how he will tell his parents he wants to get baptized.
Oh also I contacted some people all by myself this week. One lady at the bus stop, who was really nice. And then I got really lucky, I went up to talk to this guy while Sister Cutler was on the phone with the district leader, and I started trying to tell him who I was. He stopped me and said "Sorry do you know English becuase I´m Australian"! It just goes to show that when we are trying, the Lord will enable us to do His will... whether by giving the gift of tongues, or giving me people who speak English, haha.
Yesterday was crazy. After church, the other sisters´pesquisador Tiago got baptized. He is 19 but is more "like a criança" and he was SO excited, especially because he had to get interviewed twice (he didn´t remember enough the first time). But they didn´t have 2 Melchezidek priesthood holders there to be witnesses so the choir director had to leave to go pick up a ward member, so President Vasco and Tiago were just standing in the font in the cold water for like 15 minutes while everyone just looked at them. It was kind of awkward... but they got a witness and he got baptized. So two people got baptized into the ramo this week :) we are hoping the members see that we are taking this seriously and will start giving us a lot of referrals.
Last night we had the weirdest coincidences that I don´t have time to explain but in the end, all four of us (me, Sis Cutler, Sis Valdez, and Sis warner) ended up teaching together, to a menos-ativo and his friend who is not a member. The non-member is really nice, but she thinks she can´t be forgiven. It was so sad, she was saying how she can see purity in our eyes and wishes she could have that. We are hoping to teach her more and help her gain a testimony of the Atonement.
Oh so I guess today is some sort of holiday because EVERYTHING was closed. We are at the capela emailing right now because the library and the internet cafe and every other place in town was fechado. It´s weird how we don´t know about any of these things.
Okay I´m attaching a picture of Linda´s baptism and one of my face so you can see that I am not dead.
Oh one more funny thing. Only about half the ramo can say "Gidney" so the Relief Society president starting calling me "blue eyes" (why they know that in English but can´t say Gidney, I don´t know) so now a bunch of members call me that. Better than "one of the sisters who doesn´t know Portuguese".
I think that is pretty much all. I ate a delicious pastry this week that cost less than a euro. Yep that´s all. Okay have a great week :)
I love you all lots,
Sister Gidney

Week ? aka gypsies, sore feet, and picnics

Ola familia!
I realized that last week was memorial day. It´s so weird that holidays are different here. But even though there was no Memorial Day, on Saturday we got to help out with a branch picnic. And guess what, we even got to wear pants! It was soooo weird.
So we had a cool experience on Wednesday. We took a bus to Santa Maria da Feira and we were trying to visit menos ativos. Our appointments all either cancelled or took way less time than we expected so we had about an hour before the bus came. So we were wondering what we should do, and Sister Cutler said we should pray (which it´s still kind of weird for me to like stand and a street corner and pray... but we did) and we felt like we should go down this esquisito little alley. So we went down there and I felt like we should go to the second door and we went and, oh by the way it was pouring rain this whole day, and this lady answered and let us in, I think maybe because we looked so pitiful and wet. But we started teaching her, and then her husband. And they want to come to church and said we are welcome anytime. They were really really nice and I am excited to teach them again to see what happens.
On Thursday we met a nice gypsy man (there are a lot of gypsies here) on the rua and we tried to give him a pamphlet but he couldn´t read so wouldn´t take it. But as we were leaving Sister Cutler tried to shake his hand and he kissed her hand. He held out his hand to me and I saw it so I went for the shake, I was pumping up and down pretty vigorously, but he like timed his face against the shake and kissed my hand anyway. So I´m not sure how I feel about that.
Also on Thursdya, I HAD MY FIRST REAL CONVERSATION WITH A PORTUGUESE PERSON BY MYSELF. So we were near-ish to our apartment and Sister Cutler was calling our next appointment and we saw one of our pesquisadores. She was still on the phone so I started talking to him and we talked about how many missionaries are in Portugal and what a mission president is and how we don´t choose our mission or our areas, we get assigned, and we understood each other! It was so cool! And I haven´t really understood anyone since then but that´s okay.
Hey guess what- Linda is getting baptized tonight :) I am so excited for her. Her and Paulo both already seem like part of the ramo. They come to church the whole 3 hours every week and he comes to activities and English classes and everything. They are both so much happier and it´s really cool to see the gospel changing them.
Speaking of the ramo (branch), the members love us. They are always complimenting us and calling us about missionary appointments and things like that. And there is this little 12-year-old boy that always hangs out with us at church, plus the young women always follow us around. I love it.
One more thing really quick. I decided I´m going to pick like a theme scripture for every transfer. Last week I was reading in the Book of Mormon during personal study and I read Alma 38:12 so that´s the one I picked for this transfer, because RMs always talk about how much they love the people, and I want to love these Portuguese people, even though they never brush their teeth and are really hairy, so I picked this one because it says how to be filled with love. And it basically tells you how to be a good missionary, like when you´re teaching. "Use boldness, but not overbearance;" (you have to be bold, but you don´t want to be annoying and force people into it) "also see that ye bridle all your passions, that ye may be filled with love" (you have to forget all the things you loved to do, like facebook or pinterest or going on roadtrips or sleeping in. You have to have ´both feet in the mission´ or you won´t love the people.) "see ye that ye refrain from idleness" (I´m here to work!) So yeah that´s my theme for this transfer. I like it. Amen?
That´s about all. We walk 400 miles every day and teach a lot and also get turned down a lot but I´m starting to get to the point where I am liking being here. It´s not as weird anymore, so that´s good. I still get overwhelmed a lot but I think I am learning a lot. About Portuguese and the gospel and myself. So it´s pretty cool. I miss you all a lot and love you lots!
Have a great week-don´t party too hard with school getting out :)
Love,
Sister Gidney

SEMANA 2

Ola familia,

This week was a little better than last week. A lot of funny things happened. Also, Paulo and Linda are going to get baptized! We marked the dates on Friday. I´m so happy for them.

So I still can´t really understand people. Sometimes I can kind of figure out the topic, though. So people here, we don´t always have a hard time getting them to stop and talk to us; we have a hard time getting them to stop talking. Sometimes they just say "Não, sou Catolica!" and keep walking but seriously, whenever we actually talk to people on the street, they start talking about wars and bread and the most random things for like 10 minutes and won´t let us say ANYTHING. But at least they are willing to talk to us right? Also this week I did my first contact! Kind of. I said "Ola como esta?" to this man and he stopped and was like "Who me?" and I said yes and then he said something but I didn´t understand him so then it was awkward and then he said Tchau and left. But I was trying.

On Tuesday we had zone conference so we took the comboio to Porto. I got to see Sister Carroll and Sister Miles and Sister Brand because we are all in the Porto zone so that was really fun. I also had my first interview with President Fluckiger. He is really really nice. Except I feel bad because I made him cry. He was asking me why I came on a mission and I was telling him about all the things I realized prepared me and then when I was telling him how I was in the car with you Mom when we heard President Monson´s announcement he got all teary. He and Sister Fluckiger are really great. I wish we got to see them more.

Tuesday night we teach English classes. A few ward members, a few pesquisadores, and also the branch president came this week. It was sooo fun. Probably mostly because I could understand everyone. And President Vasco (the presidente da ramo) speaks like perfect English.

Wednesday was a looong day. We had a bunch of lessons planned but no one was home or they didn´t let us in so we just contacted a bunch of people, and walked 400 miles. OH but we met this guy... He was talking to us about how he doesn´t need religion because religion is in everything and we were just like what... But he said he didn´t need a church and so Sister Cutler says something like, "Well we do need a church and you can see that because there were prophets that guide the church". And he says, "were, or are?" so we get excited and say both and try to start explaining the restoration but he stops us and says "Yes, are. There are prophets. Everyone is a prophet, because everyone has God in them." and we didn´t really say anything and he said, because of that, "Eu sou Deus. Você é Deus. E ela é Deus." So basically he thinks everyone is God. Yeah we got his information and then left.

Also we met a man who gave us his contact information, but only because he wants us to find him a wife. He kept saying "Ligar quando teem uma mulher para mim" (call me when you have a woman for me). Also we went to contact a reference; it was this lady who has an ooooold Book of Mormon already. It had a note in the front cover from these elders, and it was all yellow and there were no footnotes or anything. It was crazy. But my favorite part was that she kept calling us "Normans". "Honey it´s the Normans!"

The people here always say one of two things about me. 1. You have pretty eyes (because there aren´t many people with blue eyes here) and 2. Can you talk?

Bet you never thought anyone would say that about ME right? haha.

I wish I knew Portuguese better. I want to do so much like talk to people and knock on their doors and teach them but I feel like I can´t because even if I could talk AT them I can´t have a conversation or understand them. I am understanding a little more so I am just trying to be patient but it´s really frustrating. I used to think the gift of tongues was just like, you show up and know Portuguese, so this is disappointing. Ha.

Alright I will be sending some pictures later today from the chapel computer. I hope everyone is doing well. Isn´t it like the last week of school? Good luck with that and work and everything. I love you all muito,

Sister Gidney

P.s. Happy birthday to Kalen yesterday!

Hello from Portugal!

PORTUGAL WEEK 1!

Querida Familia,
Hello! So I can´t send pictures from this computer, so the few I have will have to wait. But I am alive and somewhat well. Here´s what´s happened the past few weeks:
On our last Tuesday at the MTC, our district got to usher at the devotional. It was pretty fun, and it was surprising to me to see how organized they really are. They gave us all these instructions and direction and everything. The next day we got to host new missionaries! They changed it the week after you dropped me off so sisters pick up sisters on the curb. So I got to help 4 sisters find their new class and everything. One of them was crying... I felt bad but wasn´t sure what to say because she didn´t want to come into the MTC and I didn´t want to leave!
Our last day was a P day so we got up at 4:30 to go to the temple one more time. After that we left! They took our luggage in a truck and we took front runner to the airport. When we finnnalllyy got on the plane and got going, I started getting sick and then I slept basically the whole way to Lisbon (when I wasn´t throwing up). So for all I know I could still be in the United States.
On Wednesday we got to LISBON! We grabbed our bags (which made it there safely) and the office elders and some senior couples were waiting for us with President and Sister Fluckinger. They got us all loaded up and since there were 50 of us, took us to a hotel. It was cool because the hotel they had us stay in was actually the place where the first official Church meeting in Portugal was held. So that night they fed us some weird meat and then we finally got to go to bed. The next day we had a couple meetings and then we met our trainers and left! My trainer is Sister Cutler. She´s from Utah too. Also she has only been here six weeks. Not like, in the area, but like, on her mission. But she lived in Brazil for like a year so she knows Portuguese pretty well. Which is good because I don´t understand anything. At all. Ever.
We´re in an area called São João da Madeira; it´s a little south of Porto. Sister Carroll and Sister Miles are in Villa Real and are in my zone, so I get to see them tomorrow at zone conference. It was hard saying goodbye to my MTC district, especially the elders because we can´t write to them.
Getting here was completely overwhelming. We took a 3 hour train ride (which I also slept on because once again I was motion sick) and then we had to take the metro and then we missed the last bus so the branch president came and got us four sisters in his van with a member named Renata (she´s a ward missionary and helps us a lot. She just got baptized like 3 months ago). We live with 2 other sisters, Sister Valdez and Sister Warner (Sister Warner is actually one of my freshmen year roommate´s sister´s roommate and she is a greenie too).
We got to the apartment really late and then had to make our beds... LIterally put them together; we are in an apartment that hasn´t been used for missionaries before. BUT I am glad because that means we have brand-new mattresses which means NO BED BUGS... at least not yet.
My first actual day was Friday. We taught 6 lessons that day. And by "we" I mean Sister Cutler taught and I tried my best to understand and say a sentence a couple times. It is SO hard to understand the natives. When they talk it sounds really pretty but I can´t understand at all. It sounds like mosquitos buzzing around my head. But I do have a story about one of the lessons. It was actually really cool- we were walking home for lunch, I think, and this lady stopped US and said something about her son needing to hear from us... So that night we went over and taught them both. Paulo and Linda are their names. We´ve taught them a couple more times, and they came to church on Sunday. Linda cried all the way through sacrament meeting. And Paulo needs to stop smoking (which he is trying to do) but they are both really great and I think they have been prepared to be taught the gospel. So that´s cool.
Church yesterday was good. We had 3 pesquisadores and 1 less active come (last transfer in six weeks they only had 5 pesq.s show up so it was amazing). BUT I couldn´t understand hardly anything anyone said. One woman gave a talk I think about some sort of ticket and gospel principles was about baptism, I´m pretty sure, and Relief Society I have no idea. Also I and Sisters Valdez and Warner had to introduce ourselves in sacrament meeting. Sister Cutler says I did okay.
Some funny language mistakes that Sister Warner and I have had:
Mixing up "pez" and "paz". Instead of saying "the gospel gives me a lot of peace" - "o evanghelo da-me muito paz"- it was "o evanghelo da-me muito pez"--the gospel gives me a lot of fish.
Also, ovelha vs. olho. Instead of "you have pretty eyes"-tu tens bonitas olhas- it was bonitas ovelhas--"You have pretty sheep".
That´s basically it. Oh, Porto won last night. Cars were honking all night and people were waving their Porto flags and scarves.
It´s really pretty here. I always catch myself thinking "Wow this looks like Europe". It´s kind of hard still but I am glad to be here. Hope to hear from you all soon!
Love you lots,
Sister Gidney