3rd Time's a Charm!

Olá todos! Tudo bem?

This week was very interesting, but also very good. I learned A LOT this week. BUT I´ll get to that eventually. Right now: TRANSFERS! So it turns out I stayed in Faro this transfer! This is my first area where I stayed longer than 2 transfers (about 3 months) so i´m really excited to see what´ll happen this transfer! But I have a good feeling about it :)

  Sister Cardoso finished her mission today! She´s off to Sintra (her hometown) and she is so amazing. I learned a lot from her and she truly helped me to do my very best. She has such a big love for everyone, and she is so loyal and she really taught me a lot about what it means to be a true friend (ha, that sounds so cheesy, I know, but it´s true!). Sigh. Getting a new companion is always sad because I get so attached to them, but that´s ok because my new companion is Sister McChesney! I served in the same zone as her in Coimbra, so i´m super excited to work with her here in Faro!

  BIG NEWS: This week, our recent convert of 14 years old, André, went to FSY ( a big, church-sponsored week-long program for youth 14-18) and LOVED IT: He said it was super spiritual and that he learned so much about the gospel. He shared his testimony with us that before he didn´t have a certainty, but he felt the spirit so strong testify to him that all of this is true. There was a youth there that got his mission call and decided to open it at FSY, and André said "it wasn´t even my mission call and I was so excited and happy for him that I almost cried. I felt the spirit so strong and I felt that I really need to serve a mission one day as well." Needless to say, I got so happy I couldn´t take the smile off of my face for the rest of the week!

  I love this gospel and I know it´s true and can bless all of our lives! Have a great week! Love you all!

Com MUITO amor,

Sister Mancuso

Pai Eu Quero Ti Amar

Hello Everyone!

   I´m so sorry that I haven´t written these last couple of weeks! When I say things have been crazy, this time i´m not kidding. Wow, i haven´t written for 3 weeks, that´s crazy! And SO MUCH HAPPENED. So... where to begin?

   3 weeks ago, we went to Lisbon for Mission Counsel and it was AMAZING! So spiritual and all the leaders in the mission got so pumped up andwe were all ready to go out and talke to EVERYONE about the Gospel!

   Not to mention, the day before that, we got to spend our P-Day in Lisbon, and i´ve never visited the ACTUAL city of Lisbon- it´s SO GORGEOUS. I fell in love. We ate ice cream and strolled around and visited so many cool places, and I got to take the metro!

   This transfer has also been the transfer with the most opposition. I don´t think i´ve ever seen so much opposition in my life. but it has also been the best transfer. Full of lots of self-evaluation, growing, and let´s not forget the fun moments I have with my comp. I LOVE Sister Cardoso! This transfer has been a roller coaster ride, but I KNOW that us being together this transfer was INSPIRED and had to happen. AFter everything that happened, I feel like we have a stronger bond because of everything that we´ve been through this transfer. She has taught me so much about love and service and not being afraid to share your feelnigs with the ones you love. I have had a lot of difficulty on my mission with sharing how I feel and communicating with my companions. I know that it´s something I need to better, and Sister Cardoso has helped me a lot with that. Despite all of her health problems, she made it to her last week on the mission (when so many thought she wouldn´t, even us at one point or another), so we are going to make it the best!

   Last week I hit my one year mark in Portugal! It was really strange and I don´t like to think about it...

   Last sunday was also Manuela´s baptism! She has been doing a lot of family history since she came in contact witht he church, but despite all of the problems in her life, she took the step to be baptized and it was amazing! She also prepared her testimony to share at the next testimony meeting and we didn´t even know about it!

   I know that God has a plan for every one of His sons and daughters, and I know that He loves each one of us infinitely. 

I LOVE THIS GOSPEL AND I LOVE PORTUGAL AND I LOVE FARO!

love,

Sister Mancuso

 

 

I am weak, but He is strong

Hello everyone!

  I know that I say that every week is crazy, but this week was the craziest of my mission as of now. I don´t think I've felt emotions so strong as I have this week.

  Lots of things happened this week, but basically, my companion was in the hospital this week due to a couple of seizures that she had. But now everything is ok, Sister Cardoso is ok, and we´re both in Lisbon today for mission counsel! Lisbon is beautiful and great stress relief!

  But, due to everything that has happened this week, it has caused me to reflect a lot on our human weakness and the part that Grace plays in all this.

  As humans, we are weak. We have weaknesses and strengths, and that is part of our human condition living on this earth. Even though they may be different, everyone has them. And that is

 

 

 

why the Grace of God is so important.

  Grace is the enabling power from God to do what we can´t do on our own. When we physically can´t, that is when Grace comes into our lives. I learned that this week. When my companion was lying on the floor from the first seizure, I was lost and frantic. I don´t know what to do. I said a prayer and started crying. At that moment, I know that the Lord helped to do what I couldn´t do- He helped me to overcome my weaknesses and help my companion, and that is what I learned this week from all this. I´m so grateful for Jesus Christ and His atoning sacrifice, and for God´s amazing Grace.

  The church is true, and so is the Gospel! I love all of you and hope you have a good week! Love you all!

  Love,

Sister Mancuso

One more transfer in Faro!

Hey y´all!

  How was your week?

  Mine was CRAZY. but I guess, as a missionary, there´s never really a normal week (all you RM´s know what i´m talkin´about!). Let´s see:

  New transfer! I´m staying in Faro with my companion, Sister Cardoso! This is her last transfer, and we´re stil STL´s for the Algarve, so this´ll be fun! Usually, Zone leaders are the ones to do transfers, but since ours were busy, they asked us to call everyone, so that was great one and only experience i´ll never do again!

  We had a baptism this week: Lucas! He´s only 12, but he such a big example for all of us! He was so excited to be baptized, and so was his family! We´re still teaching them and we brought some members to have a lesson with them this week: it ended up being so spiritual. We brought the Prado family to talk with Leo and Sol (Lucas´ grandparents. BTW, don´t know if I mentioned this, but Sol is lamanite- she´s form the amazons!) and we started talking about the Restoration of the gospel and the Book of Mormon, and sister Prado shared her conversion story, which was truly remarkable (she bought the BOM at a used book fair, read it and knew it was true, and traveled all the way to Peru to try to find the `Mormon` church, which ended up being right here in Portugal!) Lots of people were crying, and then sister Prado also said that she´d had a dream with Leo and Sol the night before, and afterward, Leo said that when they hugged, he felt like it was not a woman hugging him, but someone bigger and more loving and basically, he said it felt like the Savior was hugging him.

  Sigh. Gotta love the mission. So many spiritual experiences! I just love how the Lord places us right where we need to be in order to do His will. It´s mind-boggling, really. He loves us so much and He genuinely helps us all the time as we strive to bring His children closer to feeling His love. 

  I LOVE THE MISSION!

  We also did divisions in Olhão this week with the sister there, Sister Selk and Sister Andrade. I´ve already done divisions with Sister Andrade, so I thought it was great that we got to be together again! Then the next day my comp had a doctor´s appointment, so we didn´t get a rest this week! SO MUCH WORK. SO TIRED. BUT SO HAPPY.

Well, I think that´s all the news i´ve got this week! Hope everyone has a blessed week! Love you all!

love,

Sister Mancuso

 

 

 

 

Lisboa, Menina, e Moҫa

Hello!

How was everyone´s week?

Mine was SO AMAZING! 

Where to start?

  I am now a year old on the mission. That´s new. I also happened to have the best 1 year anniversary ever because it was Mission Counsel and it was the most powerful one yet!

But i´m getting ahead of myself.

Let´s start with tuesday.

  I met my new mission president and his wife on tuesday night! Then on wednesday we had the Algarve Zone Conference with President Tavares! It was super spiritual and amazing! Before coming to Portugal, they received special instruction from all of the apostles for 5 days! There is no other training like that in the church, so, man, was he inspired!

  President Tavares has been working for CES for most of his life and so he´s very instructed an dintelligent. He has this Fogo (fire) for the new mission and for Portugal, and it´s incredible to be able to witness it. Sister Tavares is so sweet! She is always feeding us and she is so ready to be here and help out with the work! She served a mission here in portugal before she got married, so it´s great that she´s back!

  And since the Tavares´ were going back to lisbon that day, we decided to hitch a ride with them instead of take a really long bus... 3 hours with the new mission president... But it actually ended up being really awesome and we all felt very inspired and uplifted afterwards! Since mission cousel was going to be in the mission home the next day, we stayed there and hung out with Sister Tavares (who is such a sweetheart and I already love her so much!) and their daughter, Karen. We laughed and talked a lot, and they told me all about Brazil (they´re from Curitiba) which makes me really wanna go there one day, especially since I can speak the language now!

  Me and Sister Cardoso spent the night in the mission home... in the General Authority room! It was so funny to think that lots of Apostles slept where we were sleeping...

  And then the next day: MISSION COUNSEL.

  2 words: Blown away. The most spiritual MC yet. We all gathered in the living room and President and Sister Texeira (he´s part of the seventy and he is in charge over ALL of europe) who both also served in Portugal as well. We learned a lot about making goals. We learned the importance of setting, making, and keeping them. This work is full of goals. We´re ALWAYS making goals. Even in life, goal-making is essential. But when we align our will with the Lord´s will and work on reaching inspired goals, we will witness miracles. Not just in the mission, but in LIFE! I love how the mission really is preparing me for what comes next: life! MC was incredible and everyone was crying and we all heard inspiring stories and all of us left with so much FOGO and were so ready to go out and talk to everyone! 

  After those amazing 2 days in Lisbon, we had to go back to Faro by Bus. I kinda missed riding with the Tavares´ because it was cheaper and shorter and with better company. But this time we went with the Elders, and that was also great because the Elders can be such goofballs and make us laugh on long bus rides!

  We also had this great lesson on Friday with this elect family of 2 grandparents and their grandson. Lucas, the grandson, is so excited to be baptized. He was the example for his family, and now his grandma is also preparing to be baptized and we had such a spiritual lesson with them. They are from the amazon in Brazil (aka Lamanites!) and they know that these things are true! The Grandpa, Leo, had a dream that someone was telling him about the church and its beliefs before we ever even got there and ever since then, he´s been wanting to be baptized! So, we´ll update next week!

  Hope everyone has a great week!

  Amo Vocês!

-Sister Mancuso

 

 

 

The law of opposition is TRUE

Hey everyone!

  This week was... interesting. Wow. Where do I start?

  Well, like I said last week, we had the amazing baptism of our investigator André. Man, he is gonna be a big leader in the church one day. I can feel it. But just as I can feel it, the enemy (Satan) can also feel it, and he was working hard last week to make that not happen. I see this a lot on my mission. We missionaries call it "A lei de opposição"- the law of opposition. I know that it truly exists because i´ve seen it time and time and time again on my mission, and in my own life as well. Every time we make a decision to do good, Satan is right there behind us trying to steer us away from that.

  Long story short, André was definitely feeling that opposition this week. Without going into too much detail, lots of strange things were happening and we decided to have a lesson with André and the elders, and the Elders gave him a blessing of comfort and peace. We spent a lot of time with André, Joana (she´s 7 and getting ready to be baptized too), and Elisabete (their mom). They are starting to see the difference of living the Gospel in their home, even though it´s not easy. But it´s worth it. 

  And we felt so proud of them when we all went to McDonald´s and Joana traded her iced tea for a juice box. *sniff sniff wipe off a tear* AND He was confirmed yesterday at church! He now has the gift of the Holy Ghost, which is super important!

  We also had our very last Zone conference with the Fluckigers. They are leaving Portugal next week and we´re gonna get new mission presidents! It was super spiritual and we all cried, and me and Sister Cardoso made SO MANY COOKIES for our sisters here in the Algarve.

  Fun Fact: Portugal doesn´t sell chocolate chips, so we have to cut up chocolate bars every time we make cookies.

  So that was my week. I´ll finish off with my favroite quote of the week! Love you all!

“No unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done.”

-Joseph Smith

Love,

Sister Mancuso

Batismo em Praia de Faro

Hello!

This week was great!

  André, our investigator, got baptized yesterday at the beach! Another Jovem (youth) baptized him and he was really happy. The opposition for him was so strong, but he did enter the waters of Baptism and he loved it and now, life is good! He´s only 14, but he was such a bright future ahead of him! I have a feeling he is going to serve a mission one day :)

  His mom was a less active for most of her life, butnow they are all coming to church, and they make me so happy! Sometimes I get scared when i think of the future, but then I think of the scripture that says "If God be for us, who can be against us?"

  Needless to say, yesterday was one of the best days ever.

  What else?

  We did a division in my old area of PORTIMÃO!!!!!! It was so great to be there again and to see everyone! it was also strange because last time I was there was when I was in my 3rd transfer, and now I came back as an STL and in my 8th! It was surreal, but so worth it. I did a division with Sister Marinho (YES, Sister Marinho (mother), I know you´re reading this!!!) and with Sister Steagall, both of which are stunning sisters. They teach with the spirit and I just love divisions because they teach me so much!

  I know that this church is true, and I know that the Lord loves us!