Halfway through the transfer já!

 Pday 

I did not take very good notes of my week so let's see guys bear with me. 

Tuesday:

- Our mission is on the biggest facebook kick ever rn!! They're coming out with tons of new resources on like how to start convos, how to baptize your Facebook, it's crazy. Every week now we have to keep track of the number of messages sent and those who respond, number of friend requests sent, and those who accept. It's been hard to make sure facebook is a priority in our day, but guys facebook literally works! A lot of the time I feel like our efforts on facebook aren't doing anything and it's a waste of time, but then if you really think about it, while my feed is full of missionaries and come follow me daily, for some of these people we have added, my tiny little story is the only thing in their feed, the only thing in their day that talks about God and Jesus Christ. We spend lots of time on the street contacting, and even if they reject us, we're planting that seed. And we can do the same thing on facebook just by posting on our stories. Technology and the reach we have is so cool. I posted a story last week, and didn't think much of it. And then this lady who I had messaged a couple months ago, who told me she didn't have interest, responded saying, "I want to go to this church. Can I?" Um say less. Miracles!!! 

Wednesday:

- We all went to Viseu for district council and Sister Smith and I gave the trainamento on something President taught, faith + sacrifice + hard work = miracles!!!

Thursday: 

-  Sister Smith introduced me to the ENTIRE Prince of Egypt soundtrack in Portuguese!!! And it's even Portugal poruguese guys. Amazing. 

- Speaking of Portugal Portuguese, we've had multiple Brazilians tell us on separate occasions that they literally can't understand Portuguese people when they speak portuguese. And we, not even being fluent in Portuguese in the first place, have to understand and speak with these people lolsies!!!!

- Our first week of the transfer, we found this cute less active lady named Sonia. And she was super stand offish at first, but we've been able to go to her house for the past 3 weeks and have taught her and her husband and it has been the most tender thing. They're an older couple and ever since covid they've been inactive. In the closing prayer, Sonias husband thanked the Lord that the church has found them again. And on Sunday they both came to church  It was so precious because they showed up and all of the members in the ward were SO happy to see them!!! They all hugged and it was the purest thing in the whole world. 

Friday: 

- This day was bomba. 

- We started the day with a videocall lesson with our friend Gilson!!! About 3 weeks ago, Gilson was a referral online from an ad that talked about needing more friends. A lot of the time those types of referrals don't go anywhere, but Gilson has been meeting with us a lot and has been reading the Book of Mormon and everything. He was raised catholic so it was a change for him not to say just the memorized prayers to saints, but last week he was telling us about how much he likes how we pray. He told us he feels so much peace and safety when he prays to our Heavenly Father. That made my heart literally soooo happy. But this morning!! We had a videocall with him and a member and we finished the plan of salvation and we put Gilson on date for baptism on February 18th!! It was so cool!!!! We invited him and it was the easiest yes I've ever heard. My heart  Now we just need to teach him the palavra de sabedoria! lolsies February 18th is the last saturday of the transfer and he has to stop smoking and drinking before then.  Miracles vão acontecer people. 

- This week we've had more members meals than I've ever had in a single week on the mission! Suuuper cool. We had some bomb stroganoff with a Brazilian fam for lunch. Bless up.

- We had a lesson with Sergio!! Guys I don't know why we only ever teach men?  Sister Nielson's dad told her that being a Sister rather than an Elder is just another tool in our toolbox LOL. Anyways! Sergio was the miracle from a little while ago that stopped US on the street and said that he needs a church. It's taken forever to actually meet up with this man, but then we had a bomb lesson and did a pre-convite (Which is something like, "If you pray and receive an answer, will you be baptized" etc etc) And he also gave the most easy yes in the whole world. Just without hesitance. yay!

- We went to this suuuper nice Sushi restaurant with this old man member named Valdemar. It was the best sushi I've literally ever had. Valdemar works at this sushi place and washes the dishes in the back. And it was soooo funny because all of the other workers at this place are young, good looking people. Like it's a nice trendy kind of restaurant. And then the old man worker shows up with two young american girls and everyone is like "Valdemar!!!!! " We were sitting eating and I could just see all the workers over the counter just  

Saturday:

- We had a relief society activity where we all learned how to hem up a skirt and sew on a button and things and it was actually so fun. Sister Smith hemmed it up wrong and I almost peed my pants because the scary old Portuguese lady came up to her and was like "no that's wrong, no one will want to wear a skirt like that." and then Sister Smith was like "I would. I would wear a skirt like this." And then the Portuguese lady went off. and then Sis Smith was like 

Sunday:

- I love this ward!!!!!! I love these members!! Even cat dog pee house family I literally love them so much. It's actually so weird the love I feel for these people I met like yesterday. Missions are so cool. Like there's never gonna be another time in my life where I just get invited over to all these random peoples houses in Portugal to eat meals and talk in Portuguese about Jesus. 

- After church we had a lunch with the whole ward that they do on every last Sunday of the month and it was so yum. 

- I feel like this area is really starting to kind of take off which is super cool to see. With 4 sisters all the things me and Sister Adib wanted to do last transfer, suddenly there's time for and it's soo amazing. Between the 4 of us, we had 12 people at church!! 4 families and Gilson!!!! And 2 of the families that were at church we found through our english classes!! And they learned about our english classes through our posts on facebook! Que bênção  

This week, my theme has been a little quote I found from President Nelson's recent talk that I want to be better at remembering. "The adversary does not want you to discover the power of Jesus Christ." There is just so much power in Him and His Atonement. It only makes sense that the adversary would do everything he can to stop us from realizing and taking advantage of that enabling power!!! 

As missionaries, we teach the same thing over and over, and you would think that maybe it would be tedious, but actually it's very beautiful in the way that I've grown to love it. I have a better understanding now than I ever had before about the importance of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I was reading a devotional by Elder Neal A. Maxwell and not to compare myself to him in any way, but I feel he describes how I feel really well. "I am even more anxiously engaged in the restored gospel than ever because the restored gospel is so engaging. It really does get a grasp on our minds, and there is no end to the exploration that one can make of it. It is, as I said from this pulpit years ago, an “inexhaustible gospel.”... So although some people at my stage of life might say, in effect, “Been there. Done that,” not I. I feel instead this sense of anxious engagement in something that I have yet to take the full measure of." I love this gospel 

I love you guys!

 Sister Menden

I have a million pics. Featuring my facebook milagre. And also tell me how we're supposed to buy groceries when we have like 5 dollars!! Thankfully somehow Sister Smith had money and saved us. At least we have lots of members meals this week so bless. And also me and Sister Nielson resuming our positions on our weekly trip to the store as we hang out in the back and chill while Sister Adib and Sister Smith make all the decisions as for what we're gonna eat  hahaha.