Leiria WEEK 2

Making Progress

We're gettin somewhere out here.... my comp thinks I'm funny!!! And not only that, but she said I was THE funniet companion she's ever had.. can I get an ooo OOO!??

This week we were doing procurar in the park, finding new investigators, and this guy approached us.. okay this never happens.. we were pumped! his names Antonio and he seems really interested so we start talking to him and decide to sit on this bench with him.. he sits down literally on top of Sister Lofgreen.. so she scoots over.. so does he.. she scoots again... so does he... she scoots again- literally on top of me at this point.. here comes antonio... one more time i scoot as much as i can, at this point I'm on the arm rest.. she scoots... he scoots again.. okay really? Then for the first time on the mission I had to teach that we fold our arms when we pray so he would take his arm off of her hahaha i was dying. so we hurry and prayed and marked for another day when we could have a member present, maybe Pablo who used to own a fight club.. Then we ditch, go to the other side of the park to wait for our other investigator. a few minutes later we notice Antonio is circling us.. 

uh... then he comes over and warns us to be careful because there's been a lot of assault in the neighborhood.. okay thanks. He leaves, starts circling us again.. comes back over and warns us of the gypsies and tells us that they aren't as hungry as they say they are... okay thanks... Finally our investigator showed up and we started teaching him, halfway through the lesson i looked up and noticed Antonio stopped circling us but was still just staring at us! When I looked at him he totally pulled a Molly Ringwald from 16 Candles move, when Jake catches her staring at him in class and she just awkwardly turns around (Baylie Goucher i know you know exactly what I'm talking about here!) haha so ridiculous.

 

Our next lesson with him, we couldn't get a member there so we just made sure to do it in public haha but we marked him for baptism! For the 30th of August! And he came to church yesterday.. but during the Gospel Principles class, he sat next to Sister Lofgreen and literally was just turned and staring at her the whole time. Pablo asked if Sister Lofgreen will just give the class next time so he will for sure be paying attention hahaha

Oh sister Blanco called me again last night, seriously it's the best to have her as my leader :) but she told me about all my old investigators and that in church they called Alberto up to share his testimony and he didn't know what that was so  he just started said a prayer! ohhh he is so cute and she told me in every single prayer he never forgets to pray for me, "his irma in Leiria" oh minha coraçao! tenho tanto suadades de todo mundo em Caldas!

This week we had Zone training and interviews with the Presidente Fluckiger, he told me to plan on being here like 5 months.. so i guess ya'll can keep sendin letters to this address. 

Then the line of the week comes from Sister Fluckiger giving us a training on companionship interviews and how we need to talk openly with our comps

"I don't care if you're black and white! .... oh no that sounds a little racist..." hahaha 

and from Elder Williams

"yeah so we were fine nothing happened, oh except to the guy that got stabbed."

Oh my I am lovin life out here in Portugal! The mission is sooo good. Tough work, lots of walkin, but so worth it. So happy I'm here servin the Lord and alllll my irmaos in Portugal, whether they accept what I'm preachin or not. and I never want it to end! The Church is true! Miss you all!

 

Beijinhos e um forte abraço!

x o x o,

Sister Dumas

Leiria Week 1

Problems, predictions, and personal study

So we have a problem.... BIG problem... My companion.. doesn't think I'm funny. Like yeah I know my jokes have gotten a little lame since the mish (no more thats what she said) and yeah i know jake and brodis tried to give martis the funniest friend award... but really... can I get a few pity laughs? epa!

And she also does not enjoy my exaggeration.. literally after everything i say (and no thats not an exaggeration right there) after EVERYthing i say she says "life is hard" .... really? kills my jokes even more... 

Welll this week was bem dificil. hardest week of the mish.. so far. I have worked soo hard this week, and not seeing much progress, where's the elects?? But I have seen the gift of tongues SO much this week. The first day I got to Leiria, I could understand every single street contact! Where did that come from? #giftoftongues and all of a sudden I don't have fear to talk to anyone! I'm still not fluent by any means, but all the sudden my ability to comprehend the people is so much better. The problem now is my comp doesn't know how to bro people.. If there is one thing I learned from Elder Perkins.. "You gotta bro them first. Make everyone think your bros." and I don't know enough portuguese to hold a full conversation and still be tight.. soo... that's been a challenge. I don't think Elder Perkins was meaning to bro them by asking people how old they are.. 

But after all this work, I can see how much of a better missionary I am, just in my first week here. Sister Blanco would kick my butt if she saw me now! but to be fair i couldn't understand anyyyy one in the street contacts in caldas! Probs cause no one had teeth there.. 

Well the other night, i was so tired of all our lessons falling through and seriously just wanted to cry. I was soo homesick for Caldas (is it weird I'm more homesick for Caldas than I ever have been for home?.... Imma freak) but then I got a phone call from Sister Blanco.. #perksofbeingasistertrainingleader obrigada paizinha!!! It seriously made my week so much better! And to top it off our whole conversation was in Portuguese!! (that has never happened with us before) she was a proud mama :) and we just laughed and laughed the whole time. it made everything so much better. and thennnn she told me that Antonio was getting baptized the next day!! AHH my 3rd baptism! I'm soo happy for him! I wish I could've been there, but I'm so excited for him and for the branch in Caldas to have another priesthood holder. It is so amazing to watch the work moving along all over Portugal! 

Then sister Blanco told me she thinks I'll be the next sister training leader... I laughed in her face. but the problem is she is psychic about this kind of stuff... The day before the last transfers she told me she thinks she'd be the sister training leader, Elder Barton will be the next A.P. and Elder Carling will be transferred.... and that all happened. soooo. I better get working on my portuguese to prepare for that! 

This morning in personal study I was studying a talk by Tad R. Callister from the Priesthood session of last general conference, and it said 

"For the Son of Man is come to save that which is lost, -Matthew 18:11 If it is a priority for the Savior to rescue the lost, if it is a priority of President Thomas S. Monson to do so, as demonstrated by his entire life, should it not be the priority of every member in this church to do likewise? Go get the lost and bring them back!" Whether it's me out here in Portugal, Martis in the Phillies, Landolf down south or everyone at home, it needs to be all of our priorities to rescue the lost! Every member a missionary :) 

Well I hope everything is going greeeatttt at home and that four of my favorite people have the best birthdays this week!! (makenna, carkon, kaci knight and papa dumas!) All of you expect letters comin your way pretty soon! 

LOVE YOU ALL

beijinhos, 

xoxo Sister Dumas

 

 

 

 

Babessss ^^^

 

 

 

I always imagined myself eating chicken under this sign

 

Happy birthday Alexandra!!!

 

Investigators

 

Clock we made for Paulinas family

transfers.........

Well. I got transferred. :( wahhhhh! I am so sad. We didnt see it coming at all! I was not ready to leave Caldas, the work was going so great, I had a baptism on Saturday and I was having SO MUCH FUN. 

(seriously I never knew missions could be so fun.) 

butttt yesterday we got the phone call that I was being transferred to Leiria. Me and my new comp, Sister Lofgreen would be white washing the area. Not only white washing, but me and her are replacing 4 elders! This area is HUGE. literally like 5 times the size of my last area that had 6 of us missionaries in one branch. It is going to be a LOT of work. but it will be good. Whip me into shape, make sure i'm not a fubeca. Sister Blanco kept saying it's cause our Presidente has a lot of trust in me.... I think he might be going crazy.. I've only been here 6 weeks! this is my second white wash! I dont know portuguese! I didnt even finish the 12 week training! but it's all in the Lords will. "I'll go where you want me to go dear Lord" has been my motto. for the last couple months. and I just have to always remember that. I'm soo sad to leave Caldas,) but I'm ready to get work done in Leiria.

I'm gonna miss Sis Blanco calling me Duminhas (if you add -inha to the end of any word it makes it little like tchau is bye, but tchauzinha is little good bye, like too-da-loo haha) but the good news is she is now the Sister training leader so I get to do divisions with her! and she can call me whenever she wants :) 

Well my new area.. Its beautiful! no graffiti and way more city ish. The view out my window is a castle... so that's reallly cool. I'm in a ward with 80 members that 70% are all related, the ward mission leader will feed us every week and insist that we speak english in their house.. HOLLA! and my new comp is a fellow Aggie! All my other Aggies out there can i get a dun... dun... dun.. dun... show me the scottsman who doesnºt love the thistle! okay i dont have time to type it all but you know imma be whippin that out every day! Morning prayer, The Scottsman, get ready, The Scottsman Personal Study, The Scottsman, Comp study, The Scottsman, so on and so forth.

Well my last week in Caldas was great. Until I walked out of the bathroom and was talking to Elders Carling and Barton and like 5 minutes later sis blanco comes over and slyly pulls on my skirt and elder barton was like yeah... your skirt was tucked in your garments.... k really.... que vergonha para me! And the thing is, that's not the first G-flash i've let out.. this wind plus skirts is NOT good. Literally uncontrollable, but YOLO. poor elders. #sorryboutit but other than that this week was great. We committed Antonio to be baptized this Saturday and in every lesson after that all he wanted to do was plan his baptism.. woahhh there, we've got commandments to be teachin ya! 

Then we had a lesson with Yan and Valentim which is always frustrating because Valentim will not read the Book of Mormon, repeats the same questions every lesson and will NOT let us answer before he asks the next question.. but this time was especially bad. we were all getting so frustrated, but trying to be patient and keep the spirit there, I was about ready to give up and then Elder Barton pulled it all back together by pulling out a picture of Joseph Smiths First Vision and testified to Yan and Valentim that he knows if they will finally just pray about Joseph Smith, they will get an answer. if the answer is no, then we're all liars. but I promise you you will receive an answer. and I promise it will be yes, because it was a yes for me. Then he pointed to each one of us.. it was a yes for sister Blanco. it was a yes for Elder Santos, it was a yes for Sister Dumas... When he pointed at me and said that, The spirit hit me so strong. He was right. My answer was yes. It was so amazing. The church is true!

I am so grateful to be here in Portugal spreading this restored gospel to all my brothers and sisters. Whether it's in Caldas or Leiria or wherever I'm going next. The church is true. love and miss you all.

xoxo, 

Sister Dumas 

New address: errybody write me! 

Sister Kristen Dumas

Edificio Maringa, Torre 2, 9º E

2400-118

Leiria, Portugal  

piiichaaas!!

Alberto, my first baptism!

All the elders at the peniche piquenique

all of us and the branch president, squished in the car on the way to the baptismo

sis blanco, me, costa, and perkins

me and elder costa ballin it up bowling!!

ola familia e amigos

Can I just say one more time how much I LOVE being on a mission? it's literally sooo fun. and I can't believe today is starting my 6th week in the field. Transfers next week! stuppppid. but i'm like 99.9 percent positive i'm staying here with sister blanco

This week I figured out why we've been having soo much success. Our ringtone is this creepy slow childrens choir singing "come into the water...... Come into the water...... Follow Jesus Christ... to a better life..." haha i hate it. but it works apparently. and it's brain washing me it's constantly stuck in my head. 

If i have one suggestion for you parents... let the missionaries come do service! Honestly it's the highlight of the week when we get a service project! For this whole transfer we've been doing an extreme home yard makeover missionary edition. We have been helping this family once a week for at least 6 hours everytime and we're still not done. They are literally hoarders. its disgusting. Picture the show hoarders and then me cleaning it... Plus they have 4 pet geese roaming around and cats coming out theirs butts. Last week the elders found 2 dead cats just laying in the yard.  This week we got to demolish this little house in their backyard though and it was soo fun. but after you use the missionaries as your slaves.. feed them. thats the best part. 

I feel like the only new words I am learning in Portuguese is whatever I pick up from the Elders.. Aranha, Nigel (which isn't even portuguese), and padei. a.k.a spider, someone who is just so stupid- they compared smalls from Sandlot, and i farted. haha but at least I'm learning something. but it's getting easier to understand. I can understand almost everything the american elders say, 3/4 of what is said during church and...... like 1/8 of what the people on the streets say... but it's coming. 

I am about to lose it on all the flies in our kitchen though! This week we had to give the flies a Lei de Castidade lesson. (law of chastity) haha. its so sick. I really think they are satan though because they are just flying around the kitchen and then right when we go to start studying they attack and start flying around my head and breaking the law of chastity on my scriptures. Sai moscas!!  

Yesterday we started our first music class. oh my. LOL. It started out as a fail, no one showed up so elder Barton taught us missionaries, 45 minutes later Yan, Valentim and Joao came... that's where the LOL comes in. they could not grasp the concept of why notes are held for 2 counts instead of 1 and it was sooo funny. but now i know how to lead music :)

The other day elder Barton asked me for my picture book i have with all the pics of everyone from home and was like okay thanks i'll give it back on sunday... okay why does he want that all weekend? Then this weekend we had a picnic in Peniche with our whole branch and the DLs group, it was a sardenada... or something with a lot of sardines. but it was so fun. we played capture the flag and it got intense. i have some battle wounds. but the whole day Elder Barton kept saying "Sister Dumas. Referencias" what? are you telling me I need to be asking everyone here for references? I could not figure it out.. then finally he said "References. it's how you find people to teach. It's also how you find someone to marry." ohhhhh now it makes sense. thats why he was demanding my pictures. So some of you lucky ladies... the elders have been studying my pictures and some of you may be getting letters this week ;) Today we are going to go through details, like you do with any reference. how did you meet them? what are their beliefs? what do they like? all that. and we already went through the section in Preach My Gospel on references.. Contact within 24 hours, see if they know anyone else who would be interested, make a return appointment, all that jazz. haha. so be expecting letters!

Syd guns or allie or someone... Does anyone remember the rules to scatter ball? i wanna play it next P day.... help a sista out! 

Ate proxima semana! the church is true! LOVE YOU ALLLLLLL 

beijinhos xoxoxo

Sister Dumas 

picture update!!