"And at all times, and in all places, he shall open his mouth and declare my Gospel as with the voice of a trump, both day and night. And I will give unto him strength as is not known among men."

-D&C 24:12

Monday, December 8, 2014

I AM TWENTY WHOOHOO

Hello!
This week I missed you all so much because I had my birthday and thanksgiving, but it really was the best thanksgiving and birthday I could´ve had while not being at home!
   Where do I begin???
   Well...
   Monday: We went to the beach.
   Tuesday: We had district meeting (I made cake for my district leader because his birthday was close too) and Sister Baird and Sister Rosemann had to do divisions, so we split up once again. We travelled to Lisboa and the Office Elders picked us up at Oriente Train station (BEAUTIFUL). They tried to take us to the Odivellas sisters´ house, but we ended up getting lost for an hour until we got there.
   Wednesday: My residency in Lisbon took all of 20 minutes... Then we had to go to the bus station in Sete Rios to take the 3 1/2 HOUR bus back to Portimão. Sooooo we didn´t get to go to The American Store :( We did proselyting as best we could and then we went home late to start cooking for Thanksgiving.
   THURSDAY WAS RIDICULOUS: Since two of our sisters were still on Divisions, we had to cook everything. I made sweet potatoes with marshmallows, stuffing, and apple pie (ALL FROM SCRATCH). It´s so weird because I have been the sister that cooks the most in our house. Weird, right? Nevertheless, I could only find pink marshmallows (they don´t really sell them here), so we had pink sweet potatoes. That was just during our study time! Then we had to go out and proselyte! And then Sister Baugh had a doctors´ appointment and then the sisters got home and it was just CRAZY. But later on, we had thanksgiving with te Stuckis´ and 3 other americans that live in our ward. The Elders made mashed potatoes, and you can´t really find a whole turkey here, so Sister Stucki just made chicken. There was pecan pie and everyone loved my stuffing and Sister Stucki makes THE BEST GRAVY EVER. It was so nice and so fun and the room was just full of love. After dinner, we went around and said what we´re thankful for and it was so nice.
   Friday: We had weekly planning and were out the door for the rest of the day! We had lessons with some investigators (A FAMILY!!!!!) named Eliseu and Clarice and their children. They have so much potential and they like it when we come over. The whole family is ready ready ready (just add water) except for the dad. He has a smoking problem :( but we´re working on it! His daughter is a member of the branch and she´s marrying this RM  and they are the CUTEST COUPLE EVER. We also visited another investigator named Vladimir and he is kind of progressing, but you can tell he still has a long way to go.
   SATURDAY MY BIRTHDAY YEAH WOOHOOO WWWWWWOOOOOOOO:
   It was THE BEST DAY EVER! Sister Baird woke up a teeny bit early and made little papers to put on the wall for when I woke up (with things like "you´re an iron chef!" and "you bring disney into our lives everyday!") and the sisters sang happy birthday and it was awesome! They made crepes cause they know I love crepes, and then... I opened the rest of my presents from home. I FLIPPED OUT When I got the Elsa costume for my build-a-bear. FLIPPED OUT. I was so excited! I think that was my favorite present :) AND for my birthday we also found... 2 new investigators! That´s what I REALLY wanted. I´m so excited cause they seemed pretty firm. We also went to this little old lady (she´s a member, but she´s too old to leave the house. She´s blind and it takes a lot for her to walk and answer the door) and she has my same birthday so we sang happy birthday to her! She was so happy! The Elders also called and sang happy birthday and then they gave me Oreos. All four of us sisters went out for lunch and we went to this all-you-can-eat chinese restaurant (YES. I haven´t had chinese since the U.S.) and we stuffed ourselves and it was GREAT! We had a full day of proselyting and then we had an activity at church (noite de integração) and there were lots of deserts and members and investigators AND THEN they all sang happy birthday to me! But that´s not all! When I got home, I found out that the sister had actually made me a cake! A funfetti cake! Boxed cake! AMERICAN BOXED FUNFETTI CAKE! Sigh. I love my sister so much. And Portimão :) Next week is transfers, so I don´t know if i´ll be staying or going! Presidente Fluckiger said that so many missionaries are leaving that they have to close some areas with 6 or more missionaries. That´s us. So probably one of the sisters duplas are going. So...
   Sunday: Funny story, because they asked me to speak yesterday in sacrament. So that was fun. I talked about (surprise) misisonary work! But I really do like the branch. It´s the biggest in the Algarve and there are a bunch of members and we have an awesome branch president and everything! We have a stand alone chapel, too. We had lunch at this member´s house. She´s so cute! She´s 76, and she loves to cook for us. We had a church tour for this guy who is an investigator. Then we had dinner at a different member´s house and it was her son´s birthday so we had some REALLY good cake. Did I mention that that day, all 4 of us sisters ate the WHOLE funfetti cake in one sitting? It was crazy.
   Soooo... That was my week!
You are the best! All of you! I LOVE YOU!
Love,
Victoria
P.S. WRITE TO ME.



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