Wednesday, July 17, 2013

what up

i literally have 17 minutes left on the computer because we went with the DL's to a castle today which was reallllly cool but after we walked around for an hour trying to find an internet cafe and soooo i have NO time. FML. but i'll scribble out what I can and hopefully I'll be able to write more next P-day but I dont know cause we might have a BBQ in Peniche :)

Well first mom, did you ever pick up my package from Post mart? and second I sent a package today with madis shoes i accidentally packed in the MTC and letters for all my july birthday girls! 

Sunday our new convert, Alberto, received the Holy Ghost and the Aaronic priesthood! he was SO happy he started crying during the blessing, it was soo cute! and we have another baptism marked for next Sunday! Our DLs gave us "facas" about not doing the convite suave on our first contact or lesson, so we did that this week convite suaved Joao in the first lesson and marked him for baptism on next Sunday! ahh i can't even describe the miracles we see everyday! i love being a missionary!

Also I learned I have to stop getting visibly excited when I hear good music.. This week a car drove by blasting "Charlie" by my fav Red Hot Chili Peppers! Oh you know I made a scene... Sister Blanco just started singing hymns over the other music. ughhh i was not a happy camper. 

Oh and we played fooseball against the elders..... I need Nate Patch. Sister Blanco is killin my winning streak! I'm pretty sure we lost every game. 

And everyone thinks I'm Brazilian.... So I guess my Portuguese is pretty good. Everyone probably just thinks Im a brat and doesnt want to talk to them since I dont say too much.

Also if I have to kiss one more cheek..... You know the little kisses on both cheeks greeting... I HATE IT. My cheeks are honestly gonna start breaking out  if I do it again. We seriously have to do it like 60 times a day.. Epa!

Well I love and miss you all! ate proxima semana tchao!

xoxo, Sister Dumas

portugal week 2

Portugal Week 2

This week was a LOT better than last. still hot as a mofo, but we ended it off great with my first batismo!! but we'll get to that later. First I just want to say how grateful I am for Magnum bars. Seriously they're the best ice cream ever and get me through a lot of HOT ace hours of tracting.

This week we had a Zone conference.. guess who was there? Sister Hancock!! AH! I was sooo happy! Can I just tell you one more time how much I love and miss my MTC district. so I was so beyond thrilled to see her. 

Right now we have 2 stalkers. Luis and Pedro. Apparently all Brazilian women in Portugal are prostitutes, so Pedro calls my comp every single day. And Luis is just someone we found street contacting and sends us like 5 texts a day telling us how beautiful we are.. great self esteem booster I guess.. 

Oh yeah sorry about the wrong address last week, my freaking comp gave me the wrong one! but luckily Paulianna is a freaking angel and could give you the right one. and Mom I heard your FB friends with her now.. you guys are so gay. and she told me you wrote her something on her wall that just made her cry. ahh I love paulianna.

well now to the good stuff.. YES you heard me, only been 2 weeks and i had my first baptism! it was perfect. It was Alberto. He is this cute little old guy with no teeth we found street contacting on my first day here. On Wednesday we set the date for him but he lives with his brother who pays for everything... well bro didnºt want him baptized... entao, #thestruggle. but we continued meeting with him and praying for him, Saturday we fasted and at our lesson that night he told us he had a dream about him being baptized, and we were in it and God and his mom who passed away, (im sure it was really cool, but that's all the translation my comp could give me) and then he told us he talked to his brother and he will be baptized tomorrow. AH! it was like 8 at night at this point and we had to set up a whole baptism for the next day! We ran around like crazy, and our D.L.'s live like a half hour away so we had to wait for them to come down when they could to give the baptismal interview.. didnºt even get home till 1130... then had to make a cake and soo much shite. Batismos are amazing, but a LOT of work! We didnºt go to bed till 130... 

The next day we accidentally didnºt wake up until 745.. I think it was a tender mercy, but Sis Blanco thinks we're just fubecas (slackers) then we had to round up everyone for church. If you don't drag your investigators out of bed, they ain't coming to church. so we ran all over town back and forth from someones house to the church, then to the next house, then back to the church, mind you our area is freaking huge! i thought i was gonna over heat, but in the end we had 4 investigators at church! and 2 less actives. para bens! AND we had a total of 42 people at church which is the new record ever at this branch!! 

One of the less active members we had at church was Elyanna, she's the cutest little 11 year old ever and part of the less active family we've been meeting with. We couldn't drag anyone else out of bed, but she was already waiting for us to go. Ah I wish her family would stop being fubecas, but I'm so proud of her example. She reads her scriptures every night and has 1 Nephi 3:7 memorized and alwaysss recites it to us. So after church while we were in a meeting, she got the pass along cards and put all 3 companionships of missionaries phone numbers on them! caauuute! On the way home she tried to pass them out to everyone she saw, pretty sure they all rejected her #welcometomylife but it was so cute. She'll be a great missionary one day!

After Church we had to get errythang else ready for the baptism, find cars, find someone to speak, finish the cake, which we burnt SO bad. it was literally black as night and hard as a rock on bottom, so we just took a knife and shaved it off, and put chocolate frosting on top... the Elders will neverrr know... plus they'll eat anything. but after all this chaos, it was finally time for the baptism. It was all 6 missionaries, the branch pres and his wife, and then Alberto there. It was all coming together nicely until Sister Blanco surprised me with the fact that we were the special musical number....... k really? aye yi yi. Then we went to the beach and found a little hidden place where no one was and baptized the hell outta him. Elder Scott (from my MTC district) got to baptize him for his first time. 

Earlier in the day I was thinking how it would be considered a tender mercy for me if they sang one of my favorite hymns during church.. well the closing hymn at the baptim was "how Great Thou Art" it was perfect. God is good. The church is true. Alberto is baptized! and one step closer to the Celestial Kingdom! ahh. i love being a missionary. 

and for the line of the week:
we drove with the DL's to zone conference and Elder Costa has been working on his English lately.. He was gonig off on how in Sao Paulo, where he's from, theres 22 million people and soo much traffic and everything..
he said "if you ride a bike you will either be killed or stolen."
what!? you'll be kidnapped if you ride a bike! where the heck do you live??
Come to find out he meant your bike will be stolen.. 
Robbed vs. Kidnapped
haha I was dying. 

Later that day........

Elder Costa: this chocolate gives me gas to get through the day
(me and elder carling.. what?? ...after 5 minutes of trying to decipher that...)
Costa: Like gas in a car, this gives me gas.
Carling. Oh chocolate gives you "gas"
Costa: yes this gives me gas!
hahahahaha he still doesnt know why we thought that was so funny. Bless his heart. but thats probs how everyone is for me with my Portuguese. 

BIRTHDAY SHOUT OUT TO MY MAIN BOOS!! Both Kaylees, i hope you ate all the sushi you could afford. and i have a letter in the mail coming your way. 

and i hope you all had a happy 4th of july and at a hot dog and enjoyed all the fireworks at the demolition derby like the way America's birthday should be celebrated. 'Merica. 

Love you alllll tchauzinho meninos 

xoxo, 
Sister Dumas