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 

Week 6

#thestruggle

Honestly what a week..

The struggle is real and haunts my life. If only Elder Bickley were in here to laugh at all my problems.

 

Well let's start off:

Wednesday:

We got to host again, I hosted a cute girl from San Clemente that knows ma gurl A-Pundy so shout out to ash hole, it's Sister (anneliese?) Carter, but finally gave me something to talk about other than "when did you get your call?" "don't drink the orange juice." typical conversation i have with everyone and their dog! and then at dinner i ran into Elder Cameron Tribe! holla!

 Thursday:

 The struggle began first thing in the morning, walking down the stairs as the sisters were mopping, avoiding the bucket, doing just fine.... all of a sudden BAM slipped and fell flat on my ace. Okay.. funny yeah, laugh it off, didn't really hurt, we're all good. Stand up, next step BAM flat on my ace and slid down the whole entire staircase! I was laughing so hard cause it was so ridiculous but it honestly hurt so bad. I have a huge black bruise on my butt the size of my hand, don't worry I took pictures. (as modestly as I could) but seriously i had to laugh so I wouldn't cry, I had to limp alll the way across the campus only to find out we had to walk 15 minutes to a church off campus for In-Field Orientation..... really? kill me. so I limped down there and sat on my bruised butt for an 8 hour training.. it was awful. But one of the teachers was Brother Christensen, from the District! (any recent missionary probs knows exactly who he is... the Law of Chastity lesson fail, LOL) so yeah he is on "the District" which is about as famous as we get here in the MTC, and you all know how i love my celebrities so I was lovin life!

 

Friday:

OKay a little background story, there is this super annoying (by annoying i mean he is superrr nice but there is literally NEVER a time when he is not talking....) elder in a different district, but he is flying to portugal with us, and we figured out if they do our seats on the flight by alpabetical order then it will go Elder Collier, Elder Curfew (the chatter box) and then me Sister Dumas for 3 plane rides..... Collier suggested one of us needs to take one for the team and switch him spots so we're both not having our ears chatted off the entire time and he challenged me to a 1 of 1 Rock, Paper, Scissors, to settle the debt. Deal. I threw rock, he threw PAPER! nooooo! I've literally never seen him so happy! he jumped out of his desk shouting YES!! soo yeah my day started off bad... and progressively got worse when I got called into the travel office only to find out i have NO VISA. i repeat, NO visa. Yes I have had my travel plans for a week and a half and they didn't bother to tell me that didn't mean i don't have my visa yet.

 

I was so upset. The lady told me they are closed on the weekend, but we will know for sure on Monday if I get it in time. Then she told me if not, I would stay in the MTC and be a solo sister for a couple days and then probably be reassigned.. seriously 4 days before i am supposed to leave you're going to drop this ball on me? I'm literally  gonna be bouncing around missions like a beach ball at a Nickel Back concert. I just started crying, went back to my class and half my district was in there so i told them the news and they were all shocked. Elder Zaccaria ran and shut the door and was like okay let's pray. So we all knelt down and Elder Bowden prayed that I would recieve my visa if it's the Lord's will and if not then I would be comforted that what ever happens is for a reason.  Sister King and sister Hancock both suggested we fast the next day. Then Bro Kyle Lemperle (served in Portugal, from viewmont so yeah he know the blotter twins and all them) came by to say bye, give us some last advice on Portugal and tell us his new district is going to portugal, so I told him it looks like I may be joining his class until my reassignment or visa comes and he told us we need to have a District fast. and then got us pumped about Portugal, as always. And then everyone included me in all the prayers that were said throughout the day (which we all know is a LOT here in the MTC)

 

Honestly i love every single person in my district.  I was just a mess all during class. The reason I was so upset, is not that I have to stay at the MTC and it's not that I don't get to Portugal yet, cause honestly my Portuguese could use some help still and being reassigned would actually be really cool for a little while, but i was so upset because I LOVE my district and I want to be able to travel with them (whether I'm sitting by chatter box or not) and stay with them that first night in the mission home and see where they all get transferred too.

Saturday: 

My whole district fasted. I also don't think it was any coincidence when Irmao Taylor taught the lesson on Faith that day. but we were all doing fine as the morning started until lunch came around and the MTC thought it would be a good idea to have this huge BBQ grillin burgers outside for daysss. You could smell it everywhere you went and had to walk past it a bunch of times. It was literally like The great and spacious building from Lehi's Dream.. If you have been around Elder Zaccaria at all, you would know all he wants is a cheeseburger! honestly he brings it up and cries about it everyday, it's all he talks about. He always threatens that he is running away to get a cheeseburger. And the one day they decide to do this huge delicious smelling BBQ we were all fasting, I felt so bad for him, definitely a huge trial of his faith (which he passed)

 

To smooth everything over I got a package with all new clothes, thanks dennis, and the T-shirts to surprise my district with. I made them all close their eyes as i passed them out and when they opened them... Oh my goish they LOVED them, to say the least. Honestly throughout the whole day they would all just look at it and be like oh these are so cool I love them! tell your mom thanks so much blah blah blah they loved them! and I loved them, so thanks for making them!!

 

Sunday:

The World wide broadcast was awesome! I hope you were all there, and if you were I hope you saw me singing in the choir! Because you will never see that again. If you missed it, go to LDS.org and it's right on the front page and my moment of fame is at 2:15, you can also see martis, and our picture is right on the front page of LDS.org as a link to the LDS Newsroom which is a huge picture of us! so cool, you don't understand the fight and struggle we went through to get that perfect seat... oh what all of us missionaries will do for 3 seconds of camera time...

 

But my favorite part about the broadcast, besides getting pumped for missionary work, having Elder Russel M. Nelson blow us a kiss, waved at by all the Apostles and a thumbs up from Elder David A. Bednar and M. Russell Ballard, was when they played the little movie with the song "I'll go where you want me to go dear Lord" which obviously has been on my mind a lot the past couple days.... but it's true. I will definitely miss my district, and won't have as much fun flying all the way to Portugal by myself, but if that's the Lord's will, then so be it. He's in charge and I am just one of his many instruments (1 of over 70,000!!) preaching the gospel of happiness to His other brothers and sisters and children of God no matter where I am in the world. Portugal, provo or vernal.....

 

Monday: 

Started packing, just in case, but stopped halfway through cause I decided I would rather stay up late packing my bags then trying to unpack when they tell me I've still got time to be served in the Provo penitentiary. Then we had our last class with Irmao Taylor, he is the greatest, such an inspired, faithful guy. Honestly no one be surprised when he's the first Apostle to be called at age 23. halfway through class I realized I had to pick up my alterations before 2 so we left, and on the way there I ran into the lady from the travel office that has been helping me, along with Don (mom's new best friend), but she told me the Visa did not come.. and to come into her office and we would call Don and see if I was staying in the MTC or when I would be reassigned. I told her we had to run to alterations and we'd be right back.

 

At this point i was a little bummed, but nothing too bad, no tears were shed. I know it's all up to the Lord. so we ran up to get our alterations and this oldddd lady hands me my skirt and put on her hater shades and starts judging mad hard. and goes "umm you should definitely take off that nailpolish. it's very worldly. You're out there trying to spread the gospel, and not that. So take that off and have a great time in Portugal" umm... okay geez. A. low blow, I just found out I for sure don't have a Visa and B. I'm not taking my nailpolish off and neither are the other 2,000 girls in here but I just said okay thanks and left.

 

Went back down stairs to hear my fate and the guy goes okay Sister D we have some news for you, and my companion was like yeah we heard, the visa hasn't come and the guy was like no, your Visa just got here. two minutes ago.

...what? No honestly.. WHAT!?

it's a christmas miracle!!

For real, how does a visa show up after they've already checked the mail and it wasn't there?? I screamed and jumped for joy! i was SO HAPPY!!!!!!!! There were two random elders in there and I justed looked them straight in the eye and told them "fasting and prayer work!" and then the guy told me they'd call me down when they get everything settled with my travel plans.

I LEAVE FOR PORTUGAL IN 16 HOURS!!! ahhhh!!! I went back and told my class the whole story, including the ridiculous nail polish encounter, and when i got to the end they all cheered and Zaccaria ran and shut the door again and asked Brother Taylor if we could all kneel and pray again, so we did. The faithfulness in my district never ceases to amaze me.

 

This week definitely had it's very high ups and very low downs, but miracles do happen. Even Elder Collier is giving me another chance to win back my spot not next to the chatter box in a best of 15 rock, paper, scissors. The Church is true. Fasting and prayer work. There is no way I should have my Visa, and yet it is here. God answers prayers. I am off to Portugal in the morning and I couldn't be happier. Trust in the Lord and always have faith. Eu SEI que a igreja e verdadeira.

 

Love and miss you all,

xoxo, Sister Dumash

Peace out America. PORTUGAL HERE I COME!!!

week 4 and 5!

Krakenator Update!!

Week 4

Well...... not much happened this week..... except DR. SISTER MEDICLE MARTICLE IS IN DA HOUSE!

Can I get an AYE AYE??

 

 

So Wednesday, I was counting down the hours till you guys came, 12:30 comes around finally and me and Sister Hancock go to do our personal study by the window, let's be honest i was studying the cars pulling in more than my scriptures.. but then Elder Zaccaria (our new district leader) came down and told me the story of the people of Jericho and how they were united in a cause and were able to walk around the city till the wall fell down and won the battle, but the next battle, one person had stolen something so the Lord didn't help them win......... Then he told me that the night before he was at a leader meeting with the branch presidency and the president said no one should meet up with their familes... He felt so bad, he was gonna go out and see his best friend who was coming in that day, but he told me he wouldn't go see them if I didn't see mine. I just started crying. I knew seeing you guys would not make me homesick, and if i didn't see you i would be SO mad that you were all that close. But I love Elder Zaccaria and I really didn't want to disappoint him, especially if he wasn't going to go see his friends family. then I looked back out the window, and I saw a suburban, i thought it was you guys and my suspicion was confirmed when i saw the billowing blonde locks of hair of Sav L hanging out the window searching for me. I WAS SO HAPPY! and then i thought about not being able to see you guys and i was so upset. So i chose a happy medium and ran out just in time to wave at you, but not go to the car. I was SO happy to see all your faces!! and I watched you guys all unpack Madi, you have no idea how close i was to just running over there. But I didn't want to disappoint Elder Zaccaria, (now, had it been my old district leader Elder Lee I would have just said screw that and ran to you SO fast)

 

 

The best thing ever was watching cute little Sister Dumas walking up the sidewalk with her cheetah suitcases. I ran over to her and hugged her I was so beyond happy to see her! I wish i could have talked to and hugged all of you. When we went back to class, Sister Hancock told Zaccaria he should be so proud of me because I didn't talk to you guys. He was so happy. Then we did another one on one teaching experience and I had to be taught by Zaccaria and after he gave me the sweetest little apology letter, it made me cry. He is such a little sweetie, so I'm happy I listened to him.

 

Well I'm sure you're all dying to know.... me and Martis have completely opposite schedules, but she lives right below me so i see her every night before bed :) just like old times. and I get ALL of her mail. my district hates it. Zaccarias favorite thing to say lately is "queres lutar?" which means wanna fight, so anytime i say yes to that or unplug his headphones during TALL or something he tells me that he's not giving me my mail until madi gets less mail than the rest of the district haha. Speaking of Zaccaria and mail, i fell asleep during personal study on Sunday and i woke up to paper crinkling for like 5 minutes.... he was trying to mail an oreo.... haha

 

Yesterday my teacher asked if we have any news, and no one was saying anything, so of course I proudly announced Kim Kardashian is having a baby girl! :).... no one cared. all my teacher said was Bom.. por.. Ela.. (good for her....)

 

You know when you peel an orange and theres that sick white skin on it still?? Well I was peeling it off and my comp began to tell me how thats what has all the nutrients for you... blah blah blah squawk squawk.. still not sure if i believe her, but me and Elder Bowden decided we better eat it if we want to receive all the nutrients of that orange. So we fear factored that batch and took the skin and wrapped it in a waffle fry and dipped it in Jake sauce. oh the entertainment you have to succumb to here in the MTC.

 

I can't believe I only have 2 weeks left in the MTC! i'm so excited to get to Portugal, but i am NOT ready to say tchao to my district! I love them all so much! but I am so happy we will all be serving in Portugal together, so we'll see each other around every so often. But everyday at least 2 people, if not more, say how hard it's gonna be to say goodbye, or that they're not ready to leave each other yet. I love every single person in my district (even the elder that I dog on all the time. haha)

 

I saw Elder Curtis Lloyd yesterday, he told me about Luke Van Skyhawks mission call to Arizona! Syd, tell him congrats for me! that is sooo cool, he will LOVE it! and now for the shout outs. S/O to Melissa Freaking Brown and Jess Reeder for all the celeb gossip updates. honestly they get me through the week and give me something to say when our teacher asks if anyone has any news. S/O to the bro Taylor for quoting sasquatch gang haha i was LOL'in 4 real, and S/O to Allie Shaw raking in 3 letters from her in one day! and S/O to Dennis for the Nutella and Portugal Flag!!!!! honestly my district couldn't have been happier, and no the thank you note they wrote you wasn't even my idea, although I did tell them to call you Dennis.

 

Happy Fathers Day on Sunday to THE best papa in da wholleeeeee worlddd!!! the present i was gonna get you is not in stock........ it may be here friday... but we'll see. just be glad i'm not like elder bowden and getting his dad an MTC waterbottle. hahaha

 

 

well I love you all! the church is true! miss all your faces, someone write me with the latest hollywood drama stat por favor.

xoxo,

sister dumas

 

 

Week 5!!

"On the 12th day till Portugal we got our flight plans, and NO one got reassignments!"

HOLLA! 7 days till I'm off to Portugal! Minha nossa! i'm stoked out of my mind right now! Me and sister H were walking back from lunch late and right when we walked in the door Zaccaria was at the top of the stairs yelling for us to hurry, we didn't know why so of course we just ignored him and continued to saunter up the stairs and he kept yelling so finally we hurried and got to the classroom and our flight plans were there!! but first our teacher made us sing and pray... we have all never sang "the spirit of God" so fast in our lives, and the prayer was like "Pai Celsetial, obrigada por nosso flight plans. amem." then we finally got to look! AH! We leave Tuesday morning from the MTC at like 11, and then I will call all y'all and you all better answer! (I've been stocking up on all my quarters so I can just be on the phone between erry flight.) then at 2:30 i fly to Fortworth, Texas (S/O to kaylee, i'll give Elder Bowthorpe a kiss for you when I see him) then we have a 3 hour lay over, so obvi, I'll call again, and then fly to London and have another 3 hour lay over (not sure about calling here...... will def try) and then i fly to Portugal and land at 6 at night. OH MY! i'm so excited to get there and to talk to all of you guys of course!

 

 

Other than flight plans, not too much else happened this week.... except it was our last temple walk, one of our progressing investigators, Arthur, was baptized, i got like 7 packages of food! seriously Dennis, i know you're bored, but we are over flowing on food over here and only a week left to eat it, then i'm giving it to the Italians, so start sending clothes or something i can take with me :) and then last wednesday we got to host and Guess who is the brand new Italians in the classroom next to me?? THE one and only, Snow Hall Bachelor!! HOLLA! Elder Kenney, breaking hearts left and right even in the MTC. So i get to talk to him everyday now, and Keeton Alder is on the floor below so he I see him a lot too. and Elder Lee finally isn't 18 anymore. Me and Sis Hancock went all out, (as all out as we could with our limited resources) we decorated his desk with hot pink zebra birthday decorations another sister gave us, got him a birthday card and had the whole district sign it, sang happy birthday in Portuguese multiple times throughout the day and then Elder Zaccaria had a bottle of sparkling cider his mom sent him as a "congrats you made it 4 weeks, didn't think you'd make it that far" package so we popped that open and all took shots. Para Bens!

 

We had a lesson with one of our progressing investigators this week, Jose about the Palavra de Sabedoria, (Word of Wisdom) Sister Hancock read him that scripture in D&C 89 that says "nao bebidas fortes" (no strong drinks) and proceeded to tell him that meant no coffee. I knew she was wrong, but i only had my Portuguese scriptures so as he was fighting her telling her that coffee wasn't a strong drink, i was rapidly searching for the right one. Finally, I found the verse that says "nao bebidas quent" (no hot drinks) and said so no coffee or tea, now do you understand? and Jose was like okay so no hot drinks. no coffee, no tea, no "chocolat quent"  and i was like no you can have hot chocolate and he just continued, "or no "lait quent"....... and sister hancock goes uhh who even drinks hot milk anyway? and then tried to explain that he could drink that. Then we proceeded the lesson into the Plan of Salvation and as we were teaching about Adam and Eve he asked us what the forbidden fruit was, mind you this was all in poorly conjugated Portuguese, and sis H. was like i don't know, but its not important, and he was like "ohh foi maca" (ohh it was an apple) and she was like no, i dont know what it was and he was like yeah I think it was apple, and she goes the type of fruit is not important and he just goes apple. okay. haha we were like okay whatever maybe it was an apple. haha our investigator is our teacher so he's always trying to give us a hard time so he can get the enjoyment of watching us frantically racking our brains for portuguese.

 

Right now we're all in a little stage that I like to call "language puberty" not only does our portuguese suck, but it's really taking a toll of my English, and we all speak "portuinglais", so a little bit of both. but it makes everything so much funnier. Like during TALL this week, i fell asleep, of course, but someone pressed play on the video and it woke me up so later i was asking who did it and Elder Bowden goes "foi espirito santo" (was the holy ghost) haha i don't know why that was even so funny, but you can literally say the dumbest things in Portuguese and the whole class will be rollllllling. Which is doing wonders on my ego ;) The problem is Elder Zaccaria just makes up his own portuguese and I know his words better than the actual thing. Like lately he told me Mariposa means butterfly, well i looked it up last night, after i have been calling people that all week, and the dictionary said butterfly was barboleta or something so i was like what the heck, then i looked up what mariposa means.... and it means moth. haha so stupid. i have been calling everyone little moths all week. Que vergonha!

 

Yesterday we had gym at freaking 7 a.m. so we played beach volleyball outside with our district, Elder Collier kept hitting the ball but it would never make it over the net and no one would like help it over. So he was finally like "okay sister Hancock, this ones coming to you.." right at that exact moment, elder Lee had told her to turn around and face him so she could watch the ball, BAM! the ball hit her right in the face!! HAHA it was literally so funny. i was on the ground, crying i was laughing so hard. and she was trying to defend herself "I'm only crying because it's funny!!" hahaha yeah right. and then later i missed the ball and she started laughing and making fun of me and i was like "shut up sister Hancock, you got hit in the face." oh mi goish, i think Bowden might have peed his pants, he thought that was the funniest thing he's ever heard and he literally brought it up probably 8 times throughout the day. Well at least he thinks I'm funny.

 

Oh where did shart get her new mission call to?? sheridan write me back and tell me about it!! Dad did you get our fajas day package?? HAPPY FATHERS DAY to you again!! :)

 

This week I have been missing Macklemore toooo much. Maybe cause his birthday is tomorrow!!!!! happy birthday to the filthiest man alive. Love him. You all better be enjoying all dem dirty rap songs for those of us who can't. (i'm awful.... yolo.)

Entao, I am so excited to be serving in Portugal in just one week, but I am really gonna miss the MTC. I know I'm a freak, but it is so fun and I am learning so much. I love my mission and I am so happy I am here. The church is true. Eu sou muito grato para a Igreja em minha vida e para minha dessicao a servir uma missao.

 

xoxo,

Sister kracklepuss Dumas

 

EVERYONE write me in Portugal now:

(unless you're putting a letter in the mail today, which i doubt you are)

 

Sister Kristen Dumas

C/O Stephen L. Fluckiger

Portugal Lisbon MIssion

Apartado 40054

1500 Lisbon

Portugal

 

LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL MUITO! TCHAO!

 

 

 

 

 

#KeepingupwiththeKRaKen

Letter Numero 3

Ola familia e amigos!

let's give a couple shout outs to begin.... S/O to Martison coming to the MTC tomorrow! AHH so excited, I will see you all at 1245 :) S/O to my girl Kim Kardashian for having a GIRL!! so happy for her :) S/O to Jess Reeder for keeping me updated on ALL celebrity gossip including amanda bynes and david beckham haha it was perfect. keep it comin' S/O to the family for the last package! my district obviously L O V E D it and we already ate all the candy.... and enough with the fruit snacks!  and S/O to Papa Dumas for his novels. literally I could publish all of your letters. they are amzing, Eu t'ama, Obrigada. and S/O to the handwritten and dear elders i got this week. Especially from Yum Yum. she is the best Asian there ever was. but seriously I LOVE MAIL so keep it comin erry one!

Also Dennis told me to make sure I'm using good language in my emails for the older people reading these...... sorry bout it, just tryna keep em hip and with the times #youllthankmelater

 

 thanks to dennis greg martis and tay way who write me off the hook. p.s. being a sister rocks, we get $8 every wednesday and the elders only get $6..... #manyarecalledbutfewaresisters

 

Dad you wrote me and asked if i was driving sis hancock crazy and that she probably never danced..... WRONG. A. she loves me and B. go to lds.org and check out the Laie Hawaii temple cultural celebration to see her debut.. with braces... HAHA don't worry she's the only white girl so she's easy to spot, she's in it twice. Elder Zaccaria always reinacts it and we always relate everything back to that. it's so dumb, but everything in the empty sea is funny to us. So she is often MTC famous anytime a district watches that everyone recognizes her and asks her about it, it's so funny.

 

Oh boy. Volleyball. I just need to tell you, the caliber of people we play volleyball with has really gone down since Elder Bowden hurt his ankle and Harp and Manley's district is now in the mission field. I'm about the best one on the court now.... and thats not saying much. it is so fun though. The best part is this typical red head glasses nerdy elder who no matter what, EVERY single time he hits the ball... double fist punch. every. single. time. the ball goes flying all different directions. rarely ever makes it in the bounds. it's such a joke, but it's so funny. even when he serves, throws it up, ultimate punches it across the court. we've all had little talks with him, but he continues to double fist punch the crap out of the poor ball. and i continue to laugh because it's still funny

 

This week our sister training leaders got reassigned cause they haven't gotten their visas to brazil. You think you're done saying bye to everyone when you get dropped off at the curb.. nope. Bye, bye , bye by N*Sync is my new theme song. but as we're talking about visas... This week me and sister Hancock got to take a field trip alllll the way toooo........ Taylorsville. it was the BEST! we had to go there and get my fingerprints re-taken... again... but it was perfect. I was SO sick of studying and getting so distracted, but then we got to leave for a couple hours and do that, #tendermercies and when we got back i receieved my package and i was SO happy!

 

 

Our district has been going a little stir crazy lately so we have had to devise a few ways to keep us entertained, while the sisters were diligently studying this week, me and a couple elders set up 2 chairs that have like padding on the seats and would bounce an almond joy off of them and every time we threw it we had to say a word in Portugues. Haha Oh the language is coming along..... this week Elder Bowden prayed to please become "mulher" at something..... well he was trying to say please help us become better at something.... and Melhor = better but mulher = women so he prayed that we would all become women. hahahaha so funny.

 

 

S/O to Elder Zaccaria for teaching us about "regacoes" a.k.a Laps on the rolling chairs/desks around the hallways when we get tired. I have taken plenty of regacoes this week. me and sister Hancock even did our companionship inventory over a few regacoes.. i feel like I am literally living the plot to "the Best 2 Years" movie, because during companionship inventory she asked me to stop saying "frick"........ aye yi yi. it's been a struggle.

 

My favorite part about the MTC (besides getting mail and the hottie teachers) is when we practice teaching... but not at the TRC or with our progressing investigators, cause those are planned out and hard, but in class we watch these things from New York Times called "One in a Million" *everyonecheckthemout if i were home i could sit there and watch them all day. it's just a million like 2 minute videos about one person and their life. So we watch one of those and then teach each other one on one as if they are that person and really focus on teaching to our investigators needs and because it's one on one i don't have Sister Hancocks fluent Portuguese to bail me out. i have to really rely on the spirit. it's so cool and gets me SO excited to actually be doing this in Portugal.

 

This Sunday for fast Sunday... yes you guessed it, no blueberry muffins :( but also it was so cool to be in fast and testimony meeting and hear everyone bear their testimonies in Portuguese. I also set a goal to finish the Book of Mormon by the time I leave the MTC.. 3 weeks, that's like 23 pages a day, and even with all the study time i get, it's still tough. but I am already half way through 2 Nephi and it's only my 3rd day! It is so cool how Nephi could testify of Christopher Columbus, The Revolutionary War, Joseph Smith, and the Restoraion, 600 years before Christ was even born and all in the first 50 pages! You read that and then tell me Joseph Smith wasn't a true prophet. Picture Boston or Jaxon who are around the age that Joseph Smith was when he restored the gospel, (14) but picture one of them, having almost no education and then "making up" the Book of Mormon plus a whole religion around it that is still standing and still growing 200 years later.. the church is TRUE. Eu SEI que O Livro de Mormon e verdadeira e Joseph Smith foi um profeta chamado por Deus a restaurado Ele evangelho a terra.

 

I love you all, and can't wait to see the fam tomorrow. the church is true. I am SO happy. I love my mission. until next week..

XOXO

Sister Dumas 

 

Week 2 in da MTC!!

well lets start this off right........

i love the MTC and everything.... but...... i have literally NO one to talk celeb gossip with. The only worldly thing i have is talking Eazy E to elder zaccaria... i dont even care about eazy e that much but its the best thing i got. I NEED some kardashian updates!!!! Kaylee/ Syd? allie? jess? somebody hoook me up!!!Well today is my 2nd P-day here in the MTC and I just got my GTL on for the day.. gym, temple, laundry. (yeah.. I could def use a jersey shore update too.. Allie. you're in charge of that.)

 

Okay OMBRIGADA para um package. it couldn't have come at a more perfect time! that morning i was just barely experiencing my first symptoms of homesickness and then after lunch... i got a package slip! I WAS SO MUITO ANIMADO!!!!! and my district was just as happy about all the candy... we already ate it all... sooooo..... send lots of candy! we got the shaft in the meal plans... breakfast is at 630 and dinner is at affing 4!!! so we're always muito starving. Martis if you could..... bring like 2 giant bags of candy for my district when you come to the MTC next week...... i and my whole district will love you forever! or for the next week... as long as the candy lasts haha

 

 

 

The other day we were doing our hour of service and i was finished mopping the floors and they told me to go see if my companion was finished in the basement so i go down this creepy dark stair way..all i could hear was an industrial vaccuum.. turn the corner and at the bottom of this dimly lit creepy narrow staircase was my companion sitting on a little chair all by herself vaccuuming buckets of chalkboard erasers! hahaha okay I don't know if it's as funny as i think it was... but i was dying! muito funny!

 

For all of you future missionarios out there, especially Martis.. I highly suggest memorizing the First Vision and The Missionary Purpose in ENGLISH before you get in here! (oh and the baptismal challenge if you can) especially if you are learning a language! cause now i'm tryna memorize it in portuguese and i dont even know what im saying and its muito hard! i have to memorize it in both languages and yeah just do it before you get in here. also study the crap out of 2 Nephi 31. cause that is all we focus on and talk about for 15 hours a day.

 

This week we had to seperate from our companions and teach a 10 minute lesson.. in portuguese.. by ourselves.. 10 minutes is a LONG freaking time! so I had to teach Elder Bowden, he went first and I could feel the spirit and understand all his portuguese. Then I went and I was so nervous. I didn't have my companion there to bail me out or help me know what i'm trying to say, but i just taught the most chopped up version of the first vision half in portuguese/ half in english.. I felt the spirit so strongly. and Elder Bowden told me he could feel it really strongly too and he thinks I know a lot more Portuguese than I think I know cause he could understand everything i was trying to say. I was so happy to hear that, but it was so hard to teach and super humbling. i have A LOT of work to do on the language. but it's coming..

 

Tomorrow morning at 6 a.m. my favorite Elders (Harp and Manley) are headed off to Canada and I am sooo sad! They're like our only friends outside of the district and I am gonna miss them muito! Our elders in our district hate them haha they always get mad at us for "33-ing" (33 is the page in the white handbook that says no flirting haha) the other day we were sitting by Harp and Manley at dinner and I looked up to see Elder Zaccaria shaking his head disapprovingly and flashing a 33 at us. haha it was exactly like 2 dollars.... on Better Off Dead for whoever's seen that. haha i was dying. but really i'm gonna miss those guys! Who the heck am i going to bond with about rap music i actually care about? who the heck am i going to vent to when elder lee, my pipsqueak little 18 year old justin beiber twin district leader holds my mail hostage until 930... (i know i know we're not supposed to read our mail till bed time, butttt whatever happened to YOLO?? and Free agency??) just gimme my letters yo! it's so obnoxious, so now everything else he does is that much more obnoxious.. oh goish. BUT he has a sweet spirit and he really is a good district leader.

 

 

Okay i can handle a lot of things in the shower... the humming.. the pitch perfect riff-offs... the single jet spray of water..... but i can NOT handle the opera singer who showers every night from 9:30-10 and just freaking belts the hymns.. like honestly just shut up. She starts singing before she even turns the water on.. I'm over here tryna rap under my breath so i dont get chastised by all the "holier than thou" sisters and i got freaking opera over here making it so i can't even hear myself think... just shut up. also the wall of hair in the shower was okay when I lived with Smorg or Martison.. ya know, it was hard to deal with, but i got over it...but the MTC shower wall of hair has got to go. I gag. literally gag, everytime i shower. it's awful.

 

i LIVE for the 50 minutes of volleyball everyday. but the Elders are a little too good. like it's scary how hard they haul that ball at you! when there's only like me and one other sister on the court... they have no mercy and then laugh their aces off when I duck instead of attempting to break every single finger trying to set it back to them after they just spiked it in my face. So yesterday, the guy was like okay gym times over and elder harp was like k just keep going till the ball hits the ground! so we're playing.. everyones hitting it everyones doing good, it hits the wall.... but we saved it and kept playing.. like this is going on for a while, finally Harp bumped it over to me and I am feeling so confident, i got my arms set in the right position, the ball is aiming perfectly for me to hit it and everything.... uh guess not.. it freaking drilled me straight in the face. I have never seen someone laugh so hard. the elders were dying. it was funny... but so stupid, i was so confident and then BAM good night. right in my face. hahahaha so dumb.

 

Yesterday Sister Hancock had to go to the bathroom, so we go to the door and theres a sign that says "please knock" so she starts knocking and like puts her ear next to the door trying to hear something cause it was so loud in the hallway and i am like all about it, i was like oh yeah maybe the lock is just broken, thats kinda weird.. then i look over and the door next to us all huge says WOMEN she was just knocking on some ones office door hahaha i was laughing so hard i almost peed, good thing we figured out where the bathroom was now hahaha. I wonder if that lady gets her door knocked on all the time for the bathroom or if we're just stupid...

 

 

I made a new goal for myself last night. Be my companions favorite companion. I know it shouldnt be too hard for me, but for real imma try to do it for all my comps.

 

I made it as the second quote ever on the quote board!!! (if you know me at all... you know how much i value getting my credit when it's due so this was muito exciting for me) so the day was dragging on...... studying for days.. literally.. and i found it it was only 630 and we STILL had another 3 hour class with Brother Taylor..... oh my i wanted to just die and I was being so dramatic, but serious and i said "I feel like I've been living this day for a year..." oh my district thought that was just about the funniest thing they've ever heard, they threw it up on the quote board next to elder zaccarias quote, now he is funny so that is quite the compliment.

 

Well my companheira is rushing me, so i gotta go, but i LOVE YOU ALL! keep the letters coming! tchao, ate logo!

Love, Sister Dumas

ps. Boa Sorte to Ash hole and Joysticle on friday!! wish i could be there :( so sad.... but as the honorary bridesmaid i expect a letter and pics with ALL the deets.

 

 

 

 

 

Translation:

Martis = Madi (Kristen's Sister)

Ash hole = Ashley, Kristens friend who is getting married

Joysticle = Jace, Kristens other friend who is marrying Ashley ^^

YOLO = you only live once

 

First P Day.......

OH MY GOSH I LOVE THE MTC!!!

honestly i am having the best time here. Minha companheira is Sister Hancock. She is a doll. She's from Oahu and she is just super simple and super cute. She went to byu in provo oh and she knows Elder Graham by the way.. but she is super knowledgable about the gospel and she took Portuguese before coming here so she is a HUGE help to me. Love her. except the first day i met her she asked me where utah state even was..... go aggies. I get so excited everytime  i see someone in here in their Utah state gear! seriously that's like more exciting than getting letters haha  

The first day I got here, i was checking in a the lady helping me was Allie Howe's mom.. so S/O to her! haha then every where i went after that it was SO HOT. i wanted to die. I didn't want to be that sick girl that takes her shoes off in class, but i was dying... don't tell Martis, she'll be pissed. but i couldn't help it i was roasting in those things! Then that night we had our little introduction devotional and sang "We'll Bring The World His Truth" and on the line that says "and we will be the Lord's missionaries.." we sang "and we are now the Lord's missionaries.." wow. I am on a freaking mission. I could feel the spirit so strongly that this is where I am supposed to be. i love it here.

 

My district is amazing. It's weird cause you only have a teacher in the class for like 3 hours everyday.. you would think have 6 elders and 4 sisters squashed in a tiny room for 8+ hours a day things would get a little cray cray, but no. Everyone is so dedicated and so faithful that we all continue studying like we are supposed to. I mean yeah sometimes we go a little crazy and get off topic, but really not that much. and if we do lose focus, we pray. We are constantly on our knees as a district. If we're tired, we pray. if we get off topic, we pray. before we leave the classroom, we pray. it's so amazing. The other day our teacher didn't show up for class and Elder Zaccaria suggested we take turns each reading a verse in the B.O.M in English and then in Portuguese. so we went around doing that, seriously my district is the best! i know everyone says that about their district, but NO. mine is the best. Except yesterday i told them we need to do our emails in the laundry room cause the computers aren't timed and they all looked at me like i just told them i hate portugal or something..... chill out irmaos......

 

Plus my district is so funny. Elder Zaccaria.. oh he's a hoot. he just says things in English and adds a Portuguese accent and acts like it's portuguese haha it is so dumb, but so funny. and last night at dinner, we were showing off our bodily talents, and Elder Bowden grabbed my chicken strips and started juggling them.. haha i wasn't planning on eating them anyway.........  

I don't know why everyone dogs on the food here in the empty sea... it's freaking bomb. it's the water that's gross!! seriously it tastes like an old rusty drinking fountain in an orthodonists office. ew.

And I know why everyone says make it to Sunday.... The blueberry muffins on sunday mornings are divine. literally. I was dying. I made my whole district go get one, even if they hate/ are allergic to blueberries.. I still made them try it. Yes, they were that good. Then the rest of the day is pretty laid back, just a lot of personal study and devotionals and temple walk which is like the best thing ever! better than recess in elementary school! and sacrament is pretty much all in portuguese and they call 2 people at the beginning of the meeting who will be speaking so you have to prepare a talk erry week... holla! not.

 

My 3rd day in the MTC we had to teach a full 30 minute lesson ALL in Portuguese. ahhh. good thing minha companheira is so good at Portuguese. Last night I lost my B.O.M. or should i say L.D.M. (o livre de mormon)... but it's okay cause i lost it to Vander our investigator who we committed to reading the book of mormon!!!! I was so excited! I can't even imagine how great it is gonna be when it happens for real in Portugal!.

 

There is a tree here that smells like cream soda. i'm not even joking. I can not wait for 2 more weeks Martis gets here!!! It is so exciting to see people you know here! I have seen....... Amy Crofts, Brent Syphus, Chincy, Jake Hutchins, Emily Sheffield, Kelsey Christopolus, Melodee Young, Hayden Stofferan, Gage Marberger, Brenna (sabricks cuz) and every single day i see BUH!! (Elder Neiderhauser) his classroom is right by mine so i see him erryday. but for real, it is like Christmas in the MTC when you see someone you know, but what is better than that.. It's like being front row and getting a shout out from Macklemore when you get letters!!! so write, email, dear elder.. whateva it takes, and i promise i'll write ya back ;) Shout out to all my homies who have written me! love you all.

 

well I'm running out of time, and i wanna send pictures, write and send pics plz!!!

 

I am SO happy. I love the MTC, I love my district, i love my companion, I love Portuguese, I love my mission, I love the gospel.

Eu sei que a igreja es verdadeira e o livre de mormon e palavra de deus. THE CHURCH IS TRUE and i love you all

until next week,

xoxo, Sister Dumas

 

Minha companheira sister Hancock

Brenna!

Meu Districto!

Elder Gage Marberger

my two favorite elders in the MTC who leave to vancouver canada next week :( Elder Harp and Elder Manley

S/O to sbluis!
happy birthday!

 how i read during personal study so i don't fall asleep....... so uncomfortably comfortable, it just works