SPRING IS HERE!!

It is sunny! Spring is here! Or at least here in Portugal! The weather has been so great the past few days! Complete opposite to two weeks ago when it was raining cats and dogs! :)
Today while the sun shines i think is the title o the hymn in english... we sing it every p-day because the chorus talks about o dia de preparação!
Então, this past week was another amazing week in the mission of Irmã Michael! Every week it is difficult to write all the things that happened during the week, but i will start wih Sunday, yesterday:
Sundays are always full of things to do, and yesterday, Irma Thayer and I left our house to go help her investigator get her kids ready to go to church with us. She has a 3 yr old, a 19 month old and a 9 month old, and when we arrived there, they had just got out of bed so we helped them get dressed and out the door, Irmao de Jesus, from the ward, picked them up and took them to the chapel. Then, Irma Thayer and I walked to Deboraºs house to walk with her to the metro to get to church. We were late with the family, so by the time we got to Deboras house, it was already 10am and thats when church starts :) so we thought, well we will make it to church in time to take the sacrament in the other ward. Somehow Heavenly Father was watching over us, and we made it to the chapel by 10:35, but they were in the middle of sacrament so we were able to partake right away. ( the ward had started late...) that was a blessing.
Debora is a 13 year old girl whose dad is a menos ativo, hasnt been to church for 16 years but every time Debora visits her grandma (near Porto) she has gone to church. We have been teaching her for a while, and about 2 weeks ago we invited her to be baptized. She said she wants to but she doesnt feel ready. Honestly, she is so ready! She already knows that everything is true. This week we worked with her, we were at her house often this week to help her know that she is prepared. It was a neat experience because Tuesday night we prayed with her about baptism, them invited her to pray at night, to ask Heavenly Father if she is ready. We returned ~Wednesday night and she said she received an answer! She said that after she prayed she opened the scriptures and the page fell open to Doctrine and Covenants, a verse about baptism and the Holy Ghost! She said she felt that was a clear answer that she should get baptized! YAY!! So we filled out her baptismal form with her, and left it with her so she could have her dad sign it. (the mom doesnt want anything to do with religion, but she is supportive of whatever Debora wants) We called the grandma to ask her ot come to the baptism (this past weekend) but she said she couldnºt come. we tried everythign we could to help provide a way for the grandma to come, but in the end she couldnt come so we postponed the baptism to the 12th of March. Debora is excited and we are excited for her too!
Other things taht happened this week, we had a zone Conference on Tuesday, to talk about some of the things we learned at sone conference last week with President Torgan. I dont think i mentioned much about that last week, because i never have enough time to write but today i have more time yay!
About conference last week: it was incredible! We watched a film, the quest, then we compared it to our missions. the man in the film received injuries from WW2 but he was seeking a job. he started his day with a good attitiude and them he tried his very best to do everything to be worthy of a position in the job. We compared that to our mission here. we have to do everything that we can to fulfill teh will of the Lord. I felt that way this week. I learned too that people still have their agency and they are not always going to choose to follow the Savior, even when they have felt that He is the way, the truth, and the life.
As dad wrote in his letter this week, i am in the moment now of this mission, but a few years from now i will be looking back, and really it is so difficult to discribe everything about a mission. The most important thing i am learning is how much the Savior means to me. He came to this earth to sacrifice everything for each of us, so that we, although completely imperfect, can return to live with our Father in Heaven again. Only through His grace and mercy we can return. As a mission we are reading Doctrine and Covenants as part of our studies and it is so neat to read it from a missionaryºs perspective. HEavenly Father has called me to serve here in Almada. Although i have so many weaknesses, he has called me to share His love with the people here. iT IS incredible!
Eu sei que Deus ama nos. Ele é nosso Pai Celestial. Ele enviou seu Filho Amado porque ele ama nos. O Livro de Mormon é um livro de poder. Joseph Smith realmente viu Deus e Jesus Cristo e atravez ele, Cristo restaurou a plentitude do evangelho! Nos somos irmãos e nosso proposito é para voltar e viver com Deus para sempre!
Eu amo vocés!!
Have a wonderful week, and remember who you are as a child of God!!

Love, Irma Michael

"Be Thou Humble..."

I just read my letter that I wrote last week, sorry that it was so short, i usually wait to the end to start writing the mass email, but today i will start here. To finish the story of Brazia, Saturday night she called and said she didnt want to get baptized. We talked to her on the phone, but we knew that we needed to go over to her house. We literally ran all the way to her house, talked with her, but still there was something wrong, but we were not sure what. Alexandra (member) bore testimony that Satan is trying to stop her from making a sacred covenant with Heavenly Father, it is so true that Satan doesnt want this work to go forth. Sunday morning we went to her house and woke Brazia and her mom up, and helped them get ready really quickly (Brazia has a 4 month old sister too) and we took the metro to church. It was pouring rain!! WE all arrived at the church soaked!
Brazia still wasnt sure she wanted to be baptized, but finally she said okay and the service was right after church!! YAY! And she received the dom do Espirito Santo yesterday in church! It is so great to have been part of the process of Brazia come into the fold of Jesus Christ! This is what this work is all about!
This past week we did a lot of Procura (proselyting) because we need new investigators!
Remeber Mario? Well, we met with him this week, and felt that he is not ready, because we have already taught him everything that we could but he doesnt want to commit to baptism yet, so we wont be meeting with him for a while. He still comes to church and wants to continue to learn, but we felt taht as missionaries we couldnt do anything else to help him progress.
Language: i have been talking õn the phone the past few weeks! it is lots more difficult when i cant see the person, to understand the language, but i feel like it is going well. i cant unerstand everything and sometimes i just want to turn it over to irma Greco but she helps me by making me try. The gift of tongues is incredible. i feel like i am understanding almost everything, i jsut need to increase my vocab (always) to be able to speak better.

We had interviews with President Torgan on Friday!
He and Irma Torgan are incredible! Something he talked about is how we can find the elect when we are doing the will fo the Lord. Those who are ready to hear the gospel will not listen to my words but they will listen to the voice of the Lord. Thus as He servant I need to be in tune with His will, and follow the promptings of the Spirit. He and Irma Torgan are so full of love for us and for the Lord!!

This is a scripture from dear friend Donna Penn that i want to share because it is so true. Thank you Auntie D!
D&C 101:10. "Be thou humble and the Lord thy God shall lead thee by the hand, and give thee answer to thy prayers."

The Savior is watching over all of us! He is the head of this work. Eu sei que o Salvador vive!
com amor,
irma Michael

THE ANGELS WERE GUIDING!

okay so we had a family night monday night with members and their friends Lucinda and Rita (investigators). It was so great and i am so grateful for member missionary work! We invited them to be baptized, Rita for sunday yesterday, and Lucinda for next sunday. It was so great! We met with them throughout the week and continued to teach them the lessons. Lucinda has to quit smoking so we were working with her on that, it is difficult for her, but she was trying. Then Friday night they stopped answering our phone calls and it was really weird. Saturday morning they were supposed to have their baptismal interviews with the district leader, but they were still not answering so Irma Greco and I went over to her house. Finally she answered the window and gave us a plastic bag with the books of mormon and all material we have give them... we talked with her a little bit, she was really stand off ish but finally she let us in to talk to her daughter Rita. End of the story is this: Rita still wants to get baptized but her mom wont give her permission. The mom softened up and was nice, but we think she has a problem with dizimo (tithing) anyway, as we left, it was sad to see someone reject the blessings of the gospel. There were still tiny miracles that happened as Heavenly Father helped us and directed our thoughts and actions.

NExt story, here is where the angels were guiding (well they always are but just wait) So, remeber Brazia? Well, we felt she needed to be baptized yesterday, Sunday, but we needed to get her moms permission so, we were at her house tuesday night, here mom was really nice and not standoffish this time, which was new... we think its something with the live-in-boyfriend, who no linger is there... anyway so her ,mom said she would have a response by friday. we said okay. thursday we realized we needed to have the interview friday, so we went over thursday night, and her mom gave permission! way easier than we thought. end of story, Brazia was baptized yesterday!!!!

the Lord is on our side! this work is incredible!

love, Irma Michael

SOUP

So i thought i would only have a little time to write, normally we have an hour but we only used 30 minutes but now we have 30 more!! YAY!!
So that last email was a tiny bit about the culture, and next week i will hopefully send pictures...
I wrote about how everyone has soup at lunch, and i want to tell a little more about it: so they make soup here different, they boil vegetables and potatoes and onion and garlic and then they blend it with a `magic wand´ to where it is liquidy, then they boil spinich, or other green leaves, and there is portuguese soup for you! It is really good! And it is interesting because everyone has their own variation of it. We have lunch with members three times a week, and we always have soup wiht a roll, then usually some type of meat, chicken or turkey, and salad. One thing here that Portugal is famous for is bacalhau (cod fish) and they use it in all sorts of dishes, usually like some sort of casserole type dish. I´m sure you can find tons of recipes online.
Another thing about fish is there is this market right next to our apartment that we walked through the other day and it is tons of venders with a bazilion different types of fish and seafoods. It is kind of fun to walk through because i´ve never seen anything like it before!
As far as the work here, we are still teaching a lot of the same investigators, Brazia is really close to baptism, we have taught here everything and she wants to be baptized, she just has little fears she needs to oversome, and she needs permission from her mom. We asked her to pray about this saturday the 12th for baptism and she said she will have an answer tonight for us. This past friday night we had a family night in the house of Alexandra and Francisco (the ones who got married, and he got baptized recently) and Brazia was there and also Rita (Victoria´s friend) and Lucinda (Rita´s mom). We did a plan with the family of Alexandra and planned this family night , where they would bring friends who arent members. It was so great!! We did an activity where they each had to build their own city with index cards... they then had to write things on the cards that strengthen their testimonies (activity taken from Alma 50 where Moroni fortified the cities against the lamanites) it was really great!! They all enjoyed it and we set up another family night at Lucinda and Ritas house for Monday night! Then there was a baptism Saturday night (the other Irmãs found Ney knocking doors and he was golden!!) and Lucinda and Rita came! Brazia was going to come but something came up. Rita said to me and to Irmã Greco that she wants to get baptized!! So, we will start teaching her and her mom tonight! It is really neat to see how the Lord works!
Roberto, the man who was baptized 2 weeks ago, actually is in the boundaries of the elders ward... it´s complicated but he told us he had a house in Almada, but he actually lives in another area, anyway, so he will be going to the other ward starting next week. But he bore his testimony in church and that was way cool!
Our ward is getting better. Irmãs Graf and Greco said that when they arrived the transfer before we came, there were about 15 people in church but this past week there were 70!!! YAY!! Our ward technically has over 400 people but most of them are inactive so we have been trying to find menos activos.
A note about the language... i feel comfortable talking to people although i dont understand everything they say, and i have started talkin gon the phone which is harder, but it is getting better. My english in writing is getting all messed up.. :) i love being a missionary and doing this work fo rthe Lord!
Remember who you are!
love, Irma Michael

HILARIOUS!!!

ola!

So this week i want to share a little about the culture of Portugal! only a few minutes becasue we are going to go play at the beach for p-day.

The driving here is crazy! And people park wherever they want and just put on their emergency lights while they run in to the store- it is hilarious! There are chinese stores everywhere- basically like 99cent stores where you can get things for really cheap. cobblestone streets everywhere. we work in oldtown almada and thus there are tons of old people who are catholic who have a belief in Jesus Christ but dont want to hear our message. Knocking doors is entertaining, well we make it entertaining especially when lots of people have the same reason to not talk to us, they do not have time to talk to us, but last night we found this lady who heard about the church in Angola and she is really interested in hearing about the gospel.There are lots of people here from Angola, Cape Verde, and St. Thomas.

There are tons of Pastelerias here, the bread is amazing, everyone eats soup at every meal! Ellen, i have eaten fish too!! :) it was good :)

WE are currently ~working with our ward to help them be functional. we are doing the activites for YW any ideas??

Each time i bear my testimony, it grows stronger and i am so grateful to be a part of this great work!!

love, Irma Michael