Me 🤝 2nd Transfer

 HELLO!! 

Transfers are tomorrow and IM SO EXCITED!!!!!!! I'm staying in Tejo with SISTER CORNELL!!! Guys Sister Cornell and I literally manifested this. Sister Cornell and I were in the same efy company like 3 years ago!! And we've been friends and messaging ever since. I may or may not have told President in my email to him last week that I would love to be comps with Sister Cornell. And it worked!!!! A miracle!!!! Yay!! Ok I'll talk more about this later but first, my recap of my week. 

Segunda: 

- Zone Pday!!!!!

- Met at the mission home and walked over to a field and played soccer. I missed soccer so much!!!! No one knows me and I was last pic for teams but doooon't worry I made sure they regretted that. I only scored a few times. 

-They finally dropped the mask mandate on public transportation!!! 

Terca:

- It's embarrassing and sad how sore I am from playing soccer. 

-Found out I have a little solo in the musical number for Elder Soares. 

- Planeamento semanal!! I always look forward to this because we go to a different Pastelaria every time. So bomb. The fresh pasteis make up for the tears shed HA

-We met with a menos ativo and she is the nicest lady. She didn't raise any of her kids in the church, but we were able to talk and read the Book of Mormon with her and her 19 year old daughter and it was so cool!! The menos ativo was explaining and bearing a powerful testimony of the things we were teaching and I know that the Spirit was testifying to her of the truthfulness of the words she was saying. It was a way cool lesson and we're going to try and teach her daughter!!

- Every week this transfer on Tuesdays, we meet with Mimi!! She is the sweetest lady from China and she only speaks Chinese, so a member comes and translates our Portuguese to her Chinese. Mimi and this member are my favorite, they act as if they are our moms and are so kind to us. Mimi is always telling us how much she loves us  Mimi really wants to be baptized, but she's trying to fly back to China rn to live with her mom, and it'll be illegal for her to be a member. Suuuch a hard circumstance but her faith and knowledge about the gospel, even through a translator, surprise me every time.

Quarta:

- District Counsel in Lapa today and I love Lapa it's so pretty. The chapel there is sooo pretty too with so many Portuguese tiles. Afterwards, the member we did service for bought us McDonalds and bro, I am so blessed to be in a mission that has McDonalds. I was literally teary eyed as I ate those fries. 

- We still receive so many references from ads and things online!! But okay I think it's so funny, how these people fill out an ad saying they want to learn more about prayer, or God, or the Book of Mormon, and they agree to a visit from the missionaries, and then they put their name, number, AND address. But then when we call them, so many hang up immediately once they hear that we're the missionaries. Or they leave us on read. Lamo 

- Even though I won't see Mal, for some reason it's so comforting that she is so close in Jerusalem and is only 2 hours ahead of me in time difference 

Quinta:

- Today we made cookies and brought them to our friends!!! I love serving and giving presents, hahah it's so fun to see how easily a small act of kindness can make someone so happy. We used an American recipe for chocolate chip cookies and everyone was going craaazy over the most mid cookies I've ever made hahah. 

- We had a lesson with Sao! The lady I talked about last week that called us out of nowhere and was reading the Book of Mormon!! She is so awesome and accepted a pre-convite to be baptized!! 

- Some days I feel good about my Portuguese. I sound decent I'm confident, and other days I don't know how to say anything and I sound like a toddler lol. 

Sabado: 

- We had a lesson at the chapel with a man named Ricardo! He was a reference from an ad online and he wanted to learn more about the Holy Ghost. He loves the Bible and he just genuinely wants to learn more. I'm so impressed by people like him. Apparently he's only been to prison a couple times and he only has a few tattoo's with the f word, but he talked about how much he's changed and loves God and Jesus Christ. He even shared a personal story where he felt the Spirit giving him guidance. In the afternoon, the other sisters were having baptism, and none of our other friends said they could make it. But we remembered our new friend Ricardo and 10 minutes before the baptism (which is so terrible of us we forgot to invite him earlier) we called him asking if he wanted to come and he said yes yes! He even got an Uber to get there faster. It was so perfect, because in our lesson we taught about the Holy Ghost, and then the baptism and the talks were perfect explanations of how we receive the Holy Ghost it was way cool. 

In our area, I feel like we've had a lot of turn over. We've dropped a lot of people, which is a good thing, but also at times is very discouraging. But!!! This truly is the Lord's work because, slowly but surely, we're finding lots of new interested people!! In our District (of 4 companionships) this transfer, we had a goal of finding 185 new people. Which means meeting them, teaching a principle, and marking another time to meet with them. We made it to 194!!! Which is crazy!!!! Our job is to invite. The Lord will do the rest! 

With having a new follow up trainer, that means I have to lead the area which is scary!! I have to know the difference between the 8 luis silva and 6 Paulo Miguel's and 300 marias!!! But I'm excited. It'll be good for my Portuguese too. Now that I'm more adjusted, I'm excited to make new goals and start fresh this transfer. 

I'm excited for this week too! Elder Soares is coming this weekend!!! Our mission conference with him is on Saturday (please pray for me in the musical number ) and because I'm in the Lisbon stake, I'm also able to see him for the young adult devotional on Friday (hopefully our friend pulls through otherwise I can't actually go to this) and for the Tri-stake conference on Sunday! So I'll get to see him in person for sure twice hopefully 3 times! Yay

Two things have been on repeat in my mind this past week. One is something Ricciardi said, "If you want to punch Satan in the mouth...open your mouth and preach." And the other, a line from "Let Us All Press On." "The Lord, our helper, will ever be near. In the days of trial his Saints he will cheer, and prosper the cause of truth." I'm starting to feel soo much more comfortable going up to random people and talking to them and I  am really starting to enjoy it!! Which is great news everyone! It's been easier to find courage with the visual "Let Us All Press On" gives. That the Lord is not only with me, but cheering me on!! This transfer has been hard, but I already made it through my first 6 weeks in the field!! And if I can make it through that, I'm confident I can literally do anything. Hahaha. If the Lord thinks I can do it, then I can and I will!!

 Sister Menden

Pics!

1&2. Zone pday!!

3. Mimi made food for us! Please take a look at the chicken foot in the container in front me. You better believe I did my best at avoiding that.

4. 

5. Maskless

6. Me eating $1 metro pizza and yes I took a bite from the crust.

7. Kinder egg transfer predictions!! I got little plastic things you put on your shoelaces so I'm not super sure what that meant lol but I'm staying so! 

8. The river Tejo

More pictures...