Miracles, Miracles, MIRACLES

So the BIGGEST miracle happened this week!

We were all in the chapel one day and a man´s car broke down right in front of the chapel. He asked if the Elders (who JUST happened to get a car this week!) could give him a jump on his battery. The car was still not working, so we decided to show him the chapel. Then we all got to talking, and this man we just met said that he grew up in Venezuela. As with ANYONE who mentions Venezuela, I said "My mom is from Venezuela!" Then he looked at my name tag and said, "I can´t believe it. I can´t believe it! I know who you are!" 

Silence. I was really confused.... Then he said "You´re grandpa is Fidel Castillo, isn´t he?" and it was even more bizarre! I responded YES, and he started naming everyone in my family! Turns out he´s a family friend of my mom´s!!!!! I FREAKED OUT! It was so cool and unbelievable and I couldn´t believe it! I still can´t. All the way in the Algarve, there is someone who knows my family in Venezuela! But I know that that wasn´t coincidence and I know that the Lord has a plan for this man! His name is Carlos Figencoli (don´t know if that´s how you spell it) correction: Carl Fingenschou. But really, it was incredible. It strengthened my testimony that the Lord really does put us in the right place at the right time. 

I love you all! Have a great week!

 

Members! Members! Members!

Olá!

Tudo bem?

This week was amazing! 

So much happened!

  So. This week we had the best zone meeting. EVER. We got the whole Algarve zone pumped up and ready to work and ready to help make this district a STAKE! We worked super hard and the spirit really touched all of those missionaries. We focused a lot on working with members, reactivation, and working with the leadership in our branches. These are the things that are going to contribute real growth to our district here, and we all felt really strongly that the Algarve WILL be a stake!

  One funny thing we did during the meeting to help out the missionaries with not getting bored is that we made milkshakes for them! We randomly brought them out after doing a treinamento, and they all got super excited and happy!

  Me and Sister McChesney have been running every single morning and working really hard to be fit and healthy! The running was really hard at first, but after 2 weeks, i´m feeling way better and i´m kinda starting to like it... :)

  This week has been full of miracles! We have seen so many! We have talked to so many people this week and have felt so quickly the love that God has for them, it´s incredible. A little hard to describe, but it´s really amazing. You can see the potential that person has to be so happy, especially when they´re sad. It makes me wanna talk to even more people. We get a lot of rejections, but when we help someone come closer to Christ in that moment, then it makes the rejection worth it.

  We have been working so much with our members this week! We saw an amazing miracle. Remember when I said we went to a funeral a few weeks ago? Well, me and Sister were walking down the street, when I felt all of a sudden to go down a certain street. We went down it, and almost immediately, a woman opened her door and said, "I knew it! It´s the sisters!" It ended up being the widow of the man who had passed away (she´s a member´s mom). We ended up entering her house and having a powerful lesson with her. We explained the Plan of Salvation and explained the Temple. It made me so grateful for the knowledge we have of these things.

Hope everything turns out amazing for everyone this week! Never forget how much the Lord loves you!

love,

Sister Mancuso

 

 

Faro- City of Miracles

Bom Dia pessoal! Tudo bem?

  How are all of you today????? So this week was really amazing! Me and Sister McChesney have been working hard and talking to EVERYONE about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ! I lost count of how many times I felt the spirit during contacting (talking to people on the street) this week. It´s amazing how much the Lord guides us to talk to certain people who really need it.

  One other thing we did this week was... MISSION COUNSEL!!!! I. Love. Mission counsel. It´s incredible. This time we went to Lisbon on wednesday night. A 3 hour train ride with the Elders. Sigh. It was a long train ride, but it was good. Our Elders are so funny and so different, that their companionship totally works! Me and Elder Braga are the ones that stayed here in Faro this transfer, and Sister McChesney and Elder Fish got here this transfer. We all sdecided that this transfer is gonna be the best on yet! 

  And honestly, that´s the way we have to start our transfers. It´s so important to exercize our faith and really start off the transfer right. I´m so grateful for the opportunity I have to serve a mission here in Faro and I love you all so much THE CHURCH IS TRUE!

Com amor,

Sister Mancuso

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