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First week of the transfer!! Venky's baptism!!!!

Sister Smith and I are still moderators for the facebook page!  They upped our time so we for sure do an hour of moderating everyday which is kind of a lot sometimes because that doesn't include our time on our personal facebooks for the day. We are now moderating two pages though! The mission facebook page and the church's official page for Portugal so at least we'll have stuff to do lolsies. 

We had our mission devotional last week and President always includes a word of the week in Portuguese haha. This week the word was contar (to tell) because everyone always gets it mixed up with cantar (to sing). Literally right after the devotional, we had a lesson over video call with one of our new friends! We were about 15 minutes into the lesson, and the mood was serious and we were about to the climax of the resto you know and Sister Smith says with a dead serious face that she is now going to sing the story of Joseph Smith. and it really should not have been as funny as it was I'm writing this now and we're literally so dumb and I feel bad but we all had a goood laugh about it.

We said bye to Sister Adib this week. It was sad! I miss her! Sister Hirschi moved in and she's awesome!! But the Aveiro house just has not been the same without Sis Adib. 

Sister Nielson and Sister Smith both thanked me this week for liking soda and helping them not feel guilty buying and drinking soda with our missionary money.  At least I'm good for something 

Something I just realized I truly looove, is member meals. I love learning peoples stories and seeing how God is so intimately involved in every single one of our lives. 

The gospel library app got a revamp this week and it was literally like Christmas. Tell me why we were all just so excited. 

We have two friends that I'm really excited about!! 

Our friend named Cristina I love soo much and there's no way she doesn't get baptized within the next couple of weeks. She is the most precious Brazilian lady (pois) ever. She reminds me of São  She has been so easy to teach. And recently she lost her job which is so sad but also has been a blessing in disguise because this past week we've met with her so much and she's come to a couple ward activities and then she came to the baptism and church and she has loved it all so much.  She came to church for the first time yesterday and during the sacrament she looked at me with a big smile and tears in her eyes. She said she didn't want to mark a baptism date until she had gone to church so pray that everything goes well in our lesson tomorrow!

Our friend Danilo we found whiteboard finding a couple weeks ago!! He's also from Brazil and is here all by himself and has had a hard life, and has been so cool to see him learn about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. He has also been meeting with us a lot and he came to the baptism! and church! and he knows that baptism is the next step for him! He has been sick, and this week he is getting an operation but an operation on I don't know what because my portuguese vocab is definitely not that expansive desculpa lá. And after church yesterday, the Elders quorum president gave him a priesthood blessing and guys it was so cool to see our friend, barely knowing the church, receive that blessing. The power of the priesthood is real. 

Venkatesh's baptism was on Saturday!! It was streeessful planning everything this week but we made it. We don't have a baptismal font, but a member just finished filling up her pool so we were able to use that for the baptism! We went over on Thursday, and the pool is in this courtyard she has in her house kind of and we spent a couple hours cleaning up and killing spiders and mopping. Guys the baptism was so GOOD. I cannot get over it! Venkatesh was a reference online about a year ago when he was living in France. (A reference as in he went online and put in his info for the missionaries to contact him.) He's moved back and forth between France and Aveiro a few times (Sister Cordner taught him too!!) But it wasn't until recently in France that he said he really started going to church. Then about 3 weeks ago he moved here and when we first met him I was literally blown away by how ready and prepared he was for baptism. He was sooo excited. Sister Smith and I didn't do much at all but I feel so blessed to have been a part of his journey because I've never seen someone who loves our Heavenly Father so much! And someone who so eagerly wants to follow our Savior!! Soo many members came to the baptism it was the coolest thing ever. The members just love him. We had the baptism at night, after all the ward activities, and it was freeeezing. And though we tried, there was no heated water, so the water was even more freezinger. Venkatesh's foot kept popping up so they had to dunk him 3 times and I felt SO BAD he was so freezing. But then after the third time he came out of the water and said with a big smile "Finally I am baptized!!"  During the closing song, it was literally impossible for me to not shed some tears. Because here we were, in this rinky dinky little garage thing, packed with members and friends, just having watched one of the happiest sights in the whole world, freezing, literally can see our breath as we sing "que assombroso é, oh ele me amou e assim me resgatou. Que assombroso é! Assombroso, sim!" Something that I'll literally remember forever. On Sunday after he received the Holy Ghost and was confirmed a member, we went up him and he could not stop crying. My heart was so full 

Last zone conference, Sister Barcellos gave a training on loving Portugal and I've been thinking about it and studying it a lot recently. In the mission, we really don't teach and baptize a lot of Portuguese people. As you can probably tell from my emails, we teach a lot of Brazilians and immigrants. Portuguese people are a lot more closed off and private and evil on the streets. So whenever someone baptizes a Portuguese person, the whole mission literally goes crazy because it's such an accomplishment. But I have been called to preach the gospel in Portuguese to the Portuguese people and I've really truly grown to love these people. I was sitting in a member meal yesterday with this super cute Portuguese family and I thought, I just love these people and their culture and their language and their accent (believe it or not I think it's kind of sick). 

Portugal was dedicated to preach the gospel in the year 1975 which is literally so recent! (And then dad came and served here in 1988-1990!) The dedicatory prayer was given by President Monson (then he was an Elder) and I think it is one of the coolest things ever. I want to share some of it.

"We acknowledge, Heavenly Father, that this is the beginning, and we invoke Thy divine blessings to advance the cause which we have undertaken in Portugal. Wilt Thou open the way. Wilt Thou prepare the people, that those persons who are here who have prepared themselves for the message of truth may receive it. O Heavenly Father, be patient with the people. Extend Thy loving hand unto them. Thou knoweth how long they have been without the truth of the gospel. And wilt Thou now bestow upon them Thy divine blessings in great abundance that they may rejoice in spirit, that they may praise Thy holy name, that they may know that Thou hast intervened in their lives."

"Bless these missionaries, Heavenly Father. Grant them power beyond their own, and as Thou dost bless them we ask Thee to bless every missionary who comes to this land, that each may recognize that he is standing in a land which has been dedicated for the preaching of the gospel, that he might labor with his might, and that each missionary may recognize that the worth of souls is precious in Thy sight."

What a happy week 

Sister Menden

Pics!

1. Currently a biggest fan of the Come Follow me daily page lol

2-3. The pages we're moderating! 

4. This is the famous bacalhau or codfish de Portugal. This is the only way they sell it I do not know why they still only sell it preserved in salt

5. A girl and her tripa

6-7. Saying bye to Sister Adib trying not to cry

8. Baptism prep

9. Lesson with venkatesh!

10-12. Portugal 

The rest lol the baptism!!!! With some cutie pics with Cristina! 🌊🌊🌊🌊🌊