"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, April 27, 2015

Ice Cream, Black eye pea soup and baptisms.

AHHH!!! How was everyone´s week? Sorry I kinda disappeared for a while. BUT...
   I get to stay in Braga for another transfer!!!! I´m so excited and I love it here, even though I will probably stay in the Porto mission... But that´s ok, because I will always be a benfiquista in my heart.
   This week was so full of adventures! Me and Sister Gutierrez are staying together for another transfer! We´re really really excited! We had some interesting adventures this week!
   MAJOR MIRACLE: 
   We had just finished eating lunch and we were walking to our next appointment that day, but it was SO HOT and we both looked at a nearby cafe that was selling ice cream, and we both looked at each other and ran in! After buying the ice cream, we met the owner lady, and she said "oh! Sisters! I´m so happy you´re here!" and she hugged us! It turns out that she had talked to the sisters before a few years ago when her husband passed away and she said that the sisters that were here helped her out a lot in that difficult time. She ALSO said that right before we´walked in, she had been praying for someone to come and help her. MIND BLOWN. It´s amazing how a simple ice cream craving was actually a spiritual prompting to run into this amazing woman! Her name is Paula, and she was so looking forward for us to come back. We are too!
   Cleyton was baptized yesterday! He is from Brazil and we met him 2 weeks ago. He never came to church because he was never invited, so we invited him and he actually came! He really was someone who the Lord prepared to receive the gospel! He said he felt so good afterward, and he knows that it won´t be easy, but it will be worth it.
   It has been raining LIKE CRAZY OVER HERE. But it´s so funny because when we forget our rain jackets, we look like we´re braving a hurricane or something! The wind ALMOST broke my favorite umbrella!
   FUNNY STORY:
   We decided to make soup for after the baptism! My mom sent me a really good recipe that we made a couple of weeks ago and it was AMAZING! So we thought, ok, we´ll make that soup for the baptism! Well, it was A FLOP it tasted so bad, but we´d made so much that we decided to take it anyway. So we did. We hauled that GIANT Cachupa pot all the way to the chapel (30 minutes from our house... walking fast. But you can´t really do that when you´re hauling a big pot in between you both...). After the baptism, only a few people stayed and I think they might´ve just eaten our soup out of sympathy. They all had like 2 bowls and they were eating slowly and we could just tell. Cuitadinhos. But it was a great day anyway!
   I love this work and I love Braga and I love all of you!!!!! Have a great week! Write me!
love,
Sister Mancuso

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Hello!!!!!

How are you all??? BTW if anyone is getting married/engaged or if anything interesting is happening in anyone´s life, I wanna know about it!
  This week was awesome! Me and Sister Gutierrez just finished running up Bom Jesus (this giant Catholic church WAY up on a mountain. We´ve been training every morning and we finally did it! It was so hard but WE DID IT!
  Let´s see... So much happened this week! We got a reference from the Church headquarters this week from a woman who was interested in learning more. MIRACLES! She lives super far away, though! but she went to Church with her daughters and liked it and we´re so happy and excited to teach her!
  We found this elect Brazilian guy named Cleyton! He´s gonna be baptized this Sunday! He knows this is the truth and is so excited! He´s so elect!
  Me and sister G are doing a 40 day fast from all of the things that are keeping us from being more consecrated.
  Our phone stopped working! it´s so frustrating!
  We made bread this week! seed bread! it´s SO GOOD.
 I just love my mission! I have seen so many miracles and my testimony has grown so much! I can see how much the Lord has truly blessed and prepared these people to receive the gospel, and just my everyday encounters with people and i can see their divine potential! Me and my comp are both latinas and we speak Spanish sometimes but we are struggling! Portuguese has taken over my Spanish

... :( But we are working really hard to become consecrated missionaries. Have you read that talk by Tad R. Callister? It´s called the consecrated missionary and it´s my favorite! find it if you can! It´s SO GOOD. It´s funny because this transfer, I feel like my weaknesses have been thrown into my face and I feel like i still have a lot to go. Ether 12:27 has been the scripture that has really gotten me through it. It´s one of my favorites and time and time again I´ve had so many experiences with it throughout my mission. In the consecrated missionary there´s a part that says that the Lord doesn´t expect immediate perfection, but He expects immediate progress. So that´s been my story lately. And as I try and try, I can see how the Lord blesses us and shows us He is conscious of us. I LOVE MY MISSION! Hey i´m not perfect, but I´m trying hard, working hard, and loving the people!
love you all!!!!!




Monday, April 6, 2015

Feliz Pascoa!!!

Happy Easter!
  I hope it was great for everyone! Braga has a lot of traditions. We heard bells ringing all over the city in the morning! It was really cool!
  I know it totally was for me! We watched conference at the Chapel with everyone and as usual, The Lord knows exactly what I needed to hear. IT WAS AWESOME! Right before, we made an Easter lunch at the Church with the Elders and we all ate and sat and watched Conference! I love that we have the chance to hear the words of our Prophet Thomas S. Monson! It was truly amazing!
  I went to porto this week for the first time! It was amazing! We went to a Zone Conference! Zone Conferences are where we get to meet with a bunch of other missionaries in other areas and just get pumped up about Missionary work! Porto is so beautiful and historic! Especially since I´m probably gonna be in the Porto mission anyway so I better get used to it...
  Women´s Conference was also this week! I bawled. BAWLED. But i´m ok now, tudo bem. Every once in a while it´s just so hard to control!
  We had a miracle this week with a woman named Mariene! She´s brazilian and so awesome and we had one lesson with her and she was already saying that she felt the things we were telling her were true! She´s marked for baptism for the 19th! We could all feel the Spirit so strong in that lesson!
  We visited 2 people in the Hospital on Easter. One was a member from Nigeria (she gave me an African dress!)  who´s been having heart problems. We went to go spend time and comfort her because she really needs it. Another was this investigator of the Elders who just had a baby! he was so tiny and cute and perfect and it really strengthened my testimony that Families really come from God and that we´re all His children!
  I hope everyone´s doing great! BOA SEMANA!
Love,
Sister Mancuso