10 hours of conference in one day and I can't get enough!!!

Let's just start off with again how much i love being a missionary. This is literally the hardest thing I have ever done, but I've never been happier. 

Yesterday I was crushed and cried some of my hardest tears and an hour later I was laughing harder than that one night me martis and shart had the giggles when we were watching the superbowl last year. it's definitely an emotional rollercoaster alllllll day erry day 

Let's start off with some good news.... Happy one year batismo aniversario to Hannah Mack! You're email made my week and I am so happy to hear you are still thriving in the happiness that this gospel brings! and cute little Alberto, my first baptism is at the temple in Spain this week doing baptisms for his first time! ahhhh! I was SO happy when i heard that :)

This week we were working with our progressing investigator Arcelindo, he's this 20-something year old little nig with super long skinny dreads from Cape Verde that wanted to be a padre for catolica, but then he started having a lot of doubts. He wants to find the right path in life so bad, but he has been having a hard time with Jospeh Smith and the Book of Mormon. Last week Bispo invited him to fast during General Conference with the question in mind "Was Joseph Smith a prophet?" We were so excited for him to finally get his answer. We stopped by or talked to him every day to prepare for his fast. On Wednesday we were talking about real intent which means we are willing to act upon whatever answer we receive so I asked him. Arce, if you get your answer this weekend during conference will you get baptized that night? and he said yes! the next day we went over the baptismal interview questions and he passed them all except the one if he believed that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. So we marked him for sunday, planned the whole baptism and fasted and prayed so hard for him. 

Saturday we got to the chapel to watch the Relief Society session and right before it was about to start we got the most heart breaking text I've ever received. He told us he had been reading the book of mormon and read in the introduction where the Prophet Joseph Smith said this is the most correct book of any book on the earth and he took that to mean that we dont believe in the Bible (obviously someone totally skipped over the first paragraph in the intro that says we do) and then he told us he wasn't going to fast or come to conference. Seriously my world just got rocked. 

I had no idea what to do. As the leader in our companionship I feel like I have to be the one who knows what to do, but seriously I didn't. We called him and tried to ask him to just talk to us one more time or just watch one session of conference, but he had pretty much made up his mind. but the worst part is, he didn't pray about it!!

Over the phone I read him the verses in Joseph Smith History that talks about how he went to pray in the spot he had previously decided and when he started he had the over powering darkness that fell upon him and he thought he was doom to sudden destruction. But he used all his force to pray out loud and then he had that maravilha vision as God the Father and His son Jesus Christ visited this humble boy and started this marvelous work. As I read that to him I knew this is exactly what was happening with Arcelindo.. He had previously made the decision to fast and pray and watch conference to get an answer, but right before it happened Satanas brought out the troops because he knows how much of a force Arcelindo would be for the church here in Coimbra and Arce was not using all his force to fight against him and pray about it. We tried passing by his house that night, but he wasnt there. We haven't been able to get ahold of him since and I don't know what to do. #justkeepprayin

For conference, I didn't get any of Dennis' french toast and home made caramel syrup which was a bummer.... but Saturday night we got to watch the Saturday morning session live, it was being broadcast in the chapel to everyone in portuguese, and then all us 'mericans were in one of the rooms watching it on a tv in English. and then Sunday morning we got to the chapel at 10 a.m. and were there watching conference until 11:30 at night.................. it was like the best day ever though. We hung out at the chapel all day and had sessions almost every 2 hours and in between we just made chocolate banana bread and redeemed myself as a sister missionary (last couple of cooking experiences I burnt the brownies and the tortellini and i added baking powder instead of soda to the cookie dough...) 

and I had been thinking all week that I wanted to get a priesthood blessing, but I thought I was just being selfish or something, because i had no health probs or something, and also my goal for the week was to not be chato (like annoying) to the Zone leaders or my DL Elder Morse anymore (I feel like I call them 5 times a day with questions, or problems like getting locked out of our house last week and making elder barbosa scale the apartment building at 10 o clock at night to break in through our balcony... twice.) But during the first talk in conference, the speaker said that we are all capable of receiving all the blessings of the priesthood and I got the confirmation from the spirit that I should ask for a blessing. So Elder Morse gave me a blessing of comfort and it was exactly what I needed. I am so grateful for the priesthood and for the worthy holders of the priesthood i can call to at anytime I need. 

AHH im out of time, and i could go on and on about everything I learned in conference, but if anything I just hope you are all taking the counsel of the prophet and all the apostles that talked about members being involved in the wonderful work of salvation! and when one of them said to pray for the missionaries and their investigators BY NAME... We need all the prayers we can get, please pray for Arcelindo, Evandro, Celson, Yan and Manuela! 

Line of the week: 

we went to lunch at Anabellas house like always and as she cooked who knows what this time she told all of us to go look at the puppies so as we were watching these two cute wittle puppies wiff their wittle mama for like 20 minutes i realized we were actually watching the dog currently giving birth!!! ahhh

Elder Bluemel: "Oh my gosh doesnt she want water!? I feel like if I was giving childbirth I would want some water!" 

LOVE YOU ALL!!

xoxoxox Sister Krack

p.s. mom im broke as freak....... please put some money on my debit card!

PICSSSS

1. the infamous Elder Bluemel that has made the line of the week for like the past 5 weeks straight

2. me and my wittle mao relagio

3. distrito de ctm reunidos 

 

 

 

 

fogoo

I literally have NO time to write today...... but it's fine cuae i have no great stories this week.. it was a  r o u g h week. literally everyone decided to drop us like it's hot and i have NO idea what happened......... but gotta keep pushin on. but one good thing: I made it on Presidentes letter this week on the stories of success :) <--- you all know I love all the credit I can get!

This week I got to go to Lisbon to do my Visa papers and I got to have a sleepover with Sister Hancock and spend the wholeeee day with Elder Zaccaria and Scott it was so great and it was exactly what i needed! but we were all sitting in the office and all I hear is elder scott go: "ugh I'm so sick of this..." and i look down to see this HUGE ace package! ahh i was amped.. reeses sticks mmmm... and all those cute clothes! i was so pumped because I am so sick of my clothes right now. and it started raining this week so the boots got here just in time! entao obrigado maezinha! love you dennis!

Line of the week:

-"Irma, yeah just dont be sad.. eat ice cream!"

-Elder.... we dont have any ice cream.........

-"Eat fruit! that's what I always do. how do you think I got this body of gold? Well you wouldn't know cause your a missionary and you shouldn't be looking, but I do."-Elder Bluemel.

hahaha yup..... you can expect every line of the week to come from him this transfer cause he is just too funny. He is literally exactly like Cheney Doane. same glasses and everything! speaking of which who has Cheney's email? kaylee cannon? send it to me stat! 

peace n blessins', paz e bençaos

x o x o

Sister Dumas 

transferred... again

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Well can pres just make up his mind already? this is my 3rd transfer... and 3rd area!  

Thursday night Elder Barton called me and said we will be splitting Leiria so we have to figure out a line to divide the area, get the house ready for 2 new sisters, get them appointments for next week and alllllll this stuff, and he told me that me and Sister Lofgreen would be staying together.

Fast forward to last night at 9:30..... i got a call that told me i was being transferred in the morning... what? to Coimbra... my comp will be Sister Taylor... and ....I'm training..... WHAT!

If you all think I know Portuguese yet... yeah you're wrong. I'm freaking out! but I am also sooooo excited this transfer is gonna be so much fun! Coimbra is one of the places I was hoping to serve in and my district is too funny. literally you can't not laugh when you're with any one of them. it's gonna be a great transfer. 

Well this last week went out with a bang we totally turned the work in Leiria around. The elders before us were having about 8 lessons a week, then we white washed and flipped errythang upside down. literally we got to business and did work. last week we had 35 lessons and 2 batismos! and it's only gonna go up from here! I'm bummed that I won't be there to see all the success thats about to hit them! This week in ward council we told them our vision for the ward and that we are planning on baptizing every weekend. When we said that, the spirit hit me so hard and I knew it was true. Now is the time that the Lord is hastening His work here in Portugal. 

So yeah this weekend we ended off with a bang- 2 batismos!! Mario the one who gave himself the baptismal interview last week and Alfredo who paid his tithing the day after his baptism!! ahhh milagres. 

Line of the week:

elder: Can you tell me 2 things you always wanted in a future husband? I'm writing a poem.. oh yeah I write poems by the way.. and I'm going to be writing a poem about a knight..

Yup... I think i know EXACTLY what dad was like on his mission.... ^^

P.s. why is Noah Tippetts sending Martis Dear Elders and not me? I'm pissed. 

Happy birthday to Billy Jack and Beaston this week! i am dyingggg that they are so freaking old. is my car still alive? poor paul... sorry its so short but theres 8 elders jumpin on my case to get off this computer.......... 

LOVE and MISS you allllll! fica bem, 

Love. Sister Dumas 

yoooooo

Welll this week i realized imma be a missionary freak when i get home.. One of the days when i got home this week I was SO pumped to get 2 letters from both the Kaylees.... 2 days later i remembered I got distracted filling out teaching records or something that I never even finished reading them..... Who am I?

and of allllll the drama and juicy updates they both gave me, the best part was that ma gurl KC got herself a current temple recommend and will soon be getting her patriarchal blessing. HOLLA ATCHA GURL!! #youmakemesoproud so S/O to her.

 

This week was so great. i got the fogo of missionary work burnin. We had divisions a.k.a. i got to serve a whole 24 hours with my old comp Sister Blanco!! and we had an all day Zone Conference in Coimbra it was soo great. The missionaries serving here in Portugal are all so amazing. Literally I learn so much from all of them. and Presidente is so inspired, At this conference we did a practice of the Convite de batismal de poder (a.k.a. powerful baptismal invite) it got me so pumped to mark everyone for baptism... The next day we marked 3 people for this next weekend!

 

One of the people we marked was Mario...... If only every investigator could be like Mario... He walked into the chapel on tuesday and asked how he can get lessons... So we marked with him for the next day, went to that appointment and taught the first vision and he accepted the convite suave to be baptized!  

Then the next lesson we asked him a few things to see what he remembered.... he explained the why and whats of the priesthood better than I've ever heard. and when we marked him to be baptized on the 15th he was like...... DIA 15!?!?!?! ....sim. ya haha so we talked a little about the baptismal interview and showed him the list of questions he would have to answer and he just took my planner right out of my hands and gave himself the baptismal interview and passed!! the only thing he didnt know was the word of wisdom, so we explained what it was, and he was a little sad about his coffee... but he committed to live it right then!  

Then sunday we had Stake Conference....... do you know how hard it is getting people to one hour of church at 11:30? now imagine getting them to come to church when they have to catch a bus leaving for Coimbra at 7:30 in the morning......... Only Mario showed up. :( but during conference they talked about temples, tithing and missionary work. On the bus ride home, Mario had internalized everything and asked us how old can you be to go on a mission, does he need a passport to go to the temple and how does he pay his tithing? Seriously? he is so great!

 

well mish life is great. work hard pray hard. its all i do. My district is literally theee worst story tellers in the world! so these last couple weeks I've been praying for them to get better and it worked! #prayersgetanswered for real all 3 of them have gotten so much better! haha theres a miracle of the week, but i hope everything is going greatttt back home. love and miss you all!

oh Dennis or papas fritas, will you add Joe Burton to the email list.. joseph.burton21@gmail.com

 

And lines of the week:

 

me: welllll geez Elder, 2 water bottles, did you think you were gonna be thirsty today?

Elder Bluemel: umm yeah I'm a frickin canibal!

me.... what?

........ Camel. hahaha

 

Elder Barton: No this is serious, if you hold kids you can go to prison. or get sent back to the United States.

the only Costa Rican elder in the room who isn't from america... 

Elder Vargas:....... okay

 

LOL

love you all, keep the faith

love, sister dumas

i think i read my mission call letter wrong....

Yeah... I'm pretty sure I read my mission call letter wrong.... It must have really said Dear Sister Dumas, you are hearby called to serve in the Angola Africa mission not Portugal..... Every single one of my investigators is either from Cape Verde, Angola, or Mozambique! I love it though. And we may or may not have a case of jungle fever comin in hot...... #thestruggle

 

Also i have never received so many wedding proposals before.... not even when i lived in china! it's actually really great on your self confidence when everyone else is rejecting you left and right! but this week one of our investigators, a joven (teen) named Kelvin basically told Pablo that he wants to go out with me... and Pablo being the good member that he is told him as a missionary i can't but when i get home i will!..... thanks pablo....

 

And also it's really hard to be exactly obediente (and not hold babies) when everyone and their dog is having black babies left and right...... #thestruggle

 

Dennis, you've been so worried about the food here, yes the members feed us a lot... they leave food for us at the church like twice a week and then we have dinner at pablo and nandas. The food here.. it's not bad, but its definitely not anything good. it all just tastes like medíocre pot luck church get together left over food. This week we went to the church to pick up the food and we finally got something normal, chicken and rice.. i was so excited! i ate it up... then the next day Paulinha asked us if we liked it.. well yeah who doesn't like chicken?' oh wait.. nope.. it was RABBIT.

 

Okay now for the good news, on Tuesday we went to Fatimas to teach her some more commandments, ya know, gettin her ready to be baptized, and we both felt like we should change her date to be baptized this weekend.... which was really scary cause she has been so reluctant to pick a date and the whole time she always said i will sometime in september... and this saturday was the 31st of August stilll.....  but we just threw it out there.. and she said YES! So Saturday, after many struggles with filling up the baptismal font, putting us 2 sisters in charge of finding and lighting the pilot light in the water heater while the sissy elders felt the water to see if it was cold or not, we had ourselves another batismo!! and yesterday at church, she received the holy ghost AND bore her testimony in fast and testimony meeting about how grateful she was for how persistent we were with her :) ahh i love her and i am so happy she is so happy now!

 

ahh the mission is the greatest thing ever! I wish you all could experience the things I am experiencing everyday! i had a heart attack last night when i realized it's almost been 4 months already.... i never want it to end!!!!!! life is so good and the church is true!!!!!

p.s. dennis tell Elder Annis i said boa sorte! he's gonna love it and steal the hearts of all the latin women in the Southern área of mexico city.

 

fica bem!

x o x o,

Sister Dumas

Milagres!!

This week was a little rough... but ended in multiple milagres! (miracles for you americans)

First off i have 47... yes 47.... 47 mosquito bites!! all over my body. We have got to stop doing procura (finding new investigators) by the river every night... or maybe i should just splurge on some bug spray.

Then Paulinha, she's so cute and one of the members here, broke my heart and told me that Michael Scofield from Prison Break... is gay! Please tell me it's not true...

and then the gothic fest... Yes there was literally a gothic festival at the castle this weekend. Their scream-o death songs blaring throughout the whole city realllllyyyyy helped bring the spirit to our lessons on the river all weekend.

Then yesterday going to church we called Domingos to see if he was on his way to meet us, and Sister Lofgreen thought he said he wasnt meeting us, so we were all bummed and she just told him to at least come to sacrament. Then when we got to church.. only 1 investigator was there.  Miguel. who we met yesterday only because Fatima bailed on us (which never happens) but her bailing was a milagre in disguise, because we met Miguel and after church he told us he loved it and wants to come back every Sunday for the rest of his life! uhh.. okay! We'll be marking him for baptism tomorrow :) so that was milagre number one.

 

Then at sacrament only one other investigator showed up so I was um pouco in baixo... after church we were walking to the hospital to visit Pablo and Nanda who had their baby!!! Bianca :) ohh my cutest little thing ever! but on the way, we heard some one yelling at us, turned around and Domingos was chasing after us.. he asked us where we were that morning and told us that he had waited for us at the park for an hour and a half to go to church!! We felt sooo bad! On the phone earlier he told her he would be a little late, not that he wasnt coming! oh my we felt so bad. stupid language barrier. So we stopped to have a little lesson with him

 

back up.. lets talk about Domingos, he's this cape verdean 40 something year old lerpy old black guy who always wears a YMCMB hat and he is always on the river, he has a book of mórmon from years ago, but we've only had two 20 minute lessons with him so we have only taught him about prayer and keep the sabbath day holy. So yesterday we start going into the first lesson and he stops us and told us that he used to smoke a pack of cigarettes a day.. (20) but since he's met us, he only smokes 4 a day! whenever he wants to smoke he reads the Book of Mormon.. WHAT! Milagre! I was dying! we haven't even taught him the Word of Wisdom or really much about the Book of Mormon! We marked him for baptism right then for the 14th and then gave him more advice on how he can quit smoking. it was mesmo a milagre!

 

Then that night we went to have a lesson with Fatima, who for the last 4 weeks has had a testimony of the book of mórmon and joseph Smith, but will not pick a date for baptism. She keeps saying sometime in September.,. because her daughter is J-dub (jehovah witness) and is freakingggg outttt about the mórmons talking to her. So she was scared to tell her daughter she wanted to be baptized. Last night when we got to her house, Fatima was so upset about her daughter and was crying and freaking out and Sister Lofgreen just asked her how we can have the spirit with us more to help us in our trials.. ya know, expecting to hear like pray, read the scriptures, go to church.. the usual.. no Fatima just yelled out BATISMO! welllllll yeah.. i guess thats right too! After she said that she was sooo happy, she just had the biggest smile on her face. so we asked her if she picked a date, and she said "satan and catarina (her daughter) aren't going to win soooo the 15th!" How about the 14th, its a saturday? and she said yes! MILAGRE! She was soo happy! so we taught the word of wisdom, and walked out of her house with all her iced tea. MILAGRES!   

 

I am SO grateful to be here in Portugal witnessing the little and big milagres every single day. The Lord knows exactly what he is doing and the people are soo prepared. I love being a missionary.

 

mom to answer your million questions: we only need to have emergency Money enough to get to Lisbon at any point, which the most expensive that would be is like $40 but i do need Money for those scriptures i told you about! and if you haven't sent my package yet I want that mini mini paper back book of mórmon, and a mini english preach my gospel but if you already sent the package dont worry about it, i can buy one from the mission office when i go to Lisbon. Thank you so much for the instagram and drama updates! love it!

Can someone send me all of Landons emails? i havent gotten any since ive been on the mission and i know I'm missing out!

 

tenho tantos saudades de todo mundo!

fica bem! x o x o, Sister Dumas