Porto and Lisbon Missions Combine

We finally got the call today and we are all staying here for one more transfer!! YAY!!! We each can continue to watch the progress of our investigators!!
The big change is this: We had 3-zone conference with Elder Cousse of the Seventy on Friday and he announced that as of July,Porto and Lisbon will combine and be one mission with President Torgan at the head! That ~is great news for Portugal because the members are doing their part and we will be united in continuing to prepare this country to receive a temple in Lisbon!!! That was really exciting news! The coñference was amazing- we were instructed on the importance of humility and President Torgan is an amazing example because he always teaches that we need to be humble and always seek the will of the Lord, and nothing else. Elder Cousse taught us too about repentance and the importance of repenting every day so we can have the spirit with us to do the Lords work.

Roberto received the Holy Ghost yesterday! What a difference it makes, he said he feels so much peace.

Last night Irma Thayer and I were on a division and we found this man who already has a Book of Mormon. It is amazing how the Lord works. Elder Cousse said about finding the elect, that when we find them, someone has already been there before. It is so true and i am so grateful that we are not alone in this work.

Today for p-day Irma West came and visited. She was Irma Graf's companion 9 months ago and that is when she finished her mision. I thought of you Russell because we visited your mission 9 months after you finished your mission.

I just want to share with you all that there is power in prayer. Heavenly Father is there to guide us if we seek Him humbly and are willing to do what He asks of us.
have a great week and remember that Heavenly Father is watching over each of you!

love,
Irma Michael

ANOTHER WEEK!!!!:)

Ola!!
okay first... Jacob!!! I mean Elder Maikolo!!!! S in the MTC! I love your letters you are so awesome!!
This past week was full of miracles!! Roberto was baptized yesterday! It has been a really crazy week for him, his dad passed away saturday morning and he was really really sad. He has a ton of family problems and it was really difficult for him to hang on, but we ended up having the baptism during the last hour of church because he had to leave for the funeral right after church and we were nervous that he wouldnt come back for his baptism. it definitely was the shortest baptism ever. song prayer, testimony, ordinance, song prayer, then it was over. But he had the biggest smile on his face as he left the font. THe only people present were bishop, us 4 missionaries, the person to baptize him, and 2 other people to witness... definitely abnormal but because of the circumstances that was how we had to do it. As we were on our way to church, Irma Greco and I were praying for miracles because we werent sure if Roberto was going to make it to church. THe Lord was watching out for us and for him. He feels much better now that he has been baptized and next sunday he will receive the dom do Espirito Santo ( Holy Ghost).
Friday morning we attended the wedding of Francisco and Alexandra! They have lived together for three years, Alexandra has 2 children, and they are all members except for Francisco. The wedding was quick and great, they have to have the wedding at the Registro Civil, and after took pictures.

I am out of time sorry its short this week... one thing i am working on is following the promptings of the Holy Ghost!

Have a great week!!
love, Irma Michael

ps mary congrats on your call to Prague!!!!

OLA FAMILIA E AMIGOS!!!

Ola lovely familia e amigos!!!!!!

I love being here!! (just in case you couldnt tell from my other letters:) ) Okay this past week was way faster than the week before! It always goes faster when we have people to teach and when our lessons go well!!

This week i want to tell you about different parts of being a missionary:

First, the language. I feel much more comfortable with understanding what is going on, and I definitely am thinking a lot in portuguese. Our Mission President said when we arrived that there is a rule about the language: inside your house you may speak english, but as soon as you walk out the door, it's all portuguese! That has been a big help, because sometimes there are things that i dont know how to say in portuguese, so i can ask about them at home.

Investigators: it is so amazing to watch the Spirit work as we teach people. I want to tell you about some of our investigators. Mario is a portuguese man in his 60s who just showed up at the church building one sunday before i got here. The other irmas taught him a couple times, but i have been teaching him with irma greco ever since i got here. He has lots of interesting ideas, and i mean `out there´... he has searched tons of different religions but has never found the whole truth...hmmm. As we have met with him weekly, we have been able to teach some of the lessons, and he comes to church every week. we invited him to be baptized last week but he was really hesitent, he doesnt want to pray to gain a testimony. we keep telling him that he needs to pray about the book of mormon and joseph smith in order to gain a testimony, and understand that the authority of God has been restored. Saturday we met with him again, this time, we had prepared scriptures to help him understand the importance of reading the book of mormon. we decided to read Jacob 4 with him and had him read it. Towards the end, he paused, and couldnt finish, so irma greco finished reading the final verses. We asked him how he felt when reading and he said he thought that those words were for him. It was a powerful experience for me because we had prayerfully chosen this chapter to give him to read, and the spirit testified to him of the truth of those words. Yesterday at church i asked him how his prayer went (about asking God if the book of mormon is true) and he was still hesitent. He said he is afraid that God doesnt listen to him. We are meeting with him again this week, but I know that he is getting closer to understanding the truths of the gospel. I know that one day, hopefully soon the light will click and he will have the desire to be baptized :)

Brazia is 13 and a neighbor of a member. (yay member missionary work!) We started teaching her and her mom the week i arrived in Almada, and they both loved learning about the church. But them the mom didnt want to listen anymore but she allowed Brazia to continue. So we have continued to teach her. Vitoria is a member who is a neighbor of Brazia and goes tot he same school. she has come to some of our lessons with brazia and brazia was at church yesterday! Vitoria invited Brazia to go to seminary with her so she went this morning!! YAY!!! The help of the members is marvelous!! Also brazia wants to get baptized but right now her mom wont let her. But she said that when Brazia feels ready, she can get baptized. We are going to work with Brazia a lot this week so she will feel ready and hopefully be baptized this month!!

Roberto is golden!!! WE met him on the metro a few weeks ago, but it was difficult to meet with him until this week. We met with him at a cafe and taught the first lesson. His brother was baptized years ago, but has fallen away, and Roberto has been to church a really long time ago. We had planned to meet with him again, and it was at his friend Paula´s house. It turns out that Paula´s brother was baptized years ago too, and she showed us the book of mormon/d&c that she has and theres a picture of the missionareis that baptized her brother! anyway, so we taught roberto and paula about OLA orar, ler as escrituras e assistir igrega (im sure you can figure that out, mostly... the first is prayer, read scriptures, and go to church) At the end of the lesson we invited Roberto to be baptized and he accepted!! He really could feel the power of the Holy Ghost as we talked with him. He has a lot of trials in his life and he really wants to find peace, and begin anew. HE will be baptized sunday the 23rd!!

Fransisco lives with Alexandra who is a member and is the mom of Vitoria (girl above) they are not married and have lived together for years. lots of missionaries have worked with them and we were at their house saturday night to teach the commandments as a game of memory (Brazia was there so we taught her too). We received a phone call today that they are getting married friday! and he will be baptized saturday!! YAY!!!

Ronaldo and Marly are a brazilian couple who are not married either. They will hopefully be getting married soon so they can get baptized too!!

Anyway, those are some of the people we are teaching! It is so amazing to work with the Holy Ghost to teach people. I love learning about peoples lives and applying the principles of the gospel to them, because the gospel is for everyone!! This work is so amazing and i am so grateful to be here right now serving the people of Portugal! My understanding of the gospel and of the Savior have changed so much and i am so grateful for the foundation i have in the gospel! With God all things are possible! The gospel blesses families and everyone!

I know that the Book of Mormon is a powerful tool and as we read it we can find answers to our questions and we can feel the peace of teh Holy Ghost.

Thank you for your love and your letters! Continue to remeber the Lord in all things!

I love you all!!

love,

Irmã Michael

"We are as the Army of Helaman..."

Today was so AWESOME!

Not much time today... today was so awesome! we experienced portugal culture! our bishop took us to three castles and told us about the history of portugal and we saw olive trees that are 2000 years old and the castles are from 1200s it was incredible we took pictures by the beach too! it is so beautiful!! i feel like i have experienced more of the culture now!!

so this past week was difficult :) Irma Greco was sick and still kind of is, and the work was slow. It rained a lot too and is raining today. But we did teach Ana and João and had their baptism planned for yesterday. Saturday night João changed his mind although he stil believed everything... something about he doesnt ned to change religions, and then ana came to church sunday, but didnt show for her baptism. we went to her house and talked with her, prayed with her and tried to figure out why dhe didnt wasn tot be baptized, but she didnt want to, so we bore our testimonies to her of the truthfulness of the restored gospel of jesus christ and then we left. After we walked out the door, irma greco and i said a prayer then got back to work. the work must go on.

This week i have felt the Holy Ghost testify to my soul of the truth of this work. It is powerful. THe gospel is real. I am so grateful.

Thank you for your prayers and your love. I feel your support especially when the work is difficult. But it wasnt meant to be easy.

THe portuguese is getting better. i do my best to talk when i can.

Press forward with faith in Christ

I am so excited for Jacob!!!!!!

I love you all! Boa semana!

love, ~

Irma Michael

FELIZ ANO NOVO

Greetings from Portugal!

What a wonderful day it is today! The weather is beautiful today! I just realized it´s the first `normal` day in Portugal since I have been here because it has been holiday for the past two weeks.
Jacob goes into the MTC Wednesday... you are going to be amazing! The best thing i can tell you you already know, trust in the Lord with all your heart, and soak it up :) You are going ot be amazing!! I am excited to read your weekly letters.
P-day today, we cleaned the apartment and finally went grocery shopping because we haven´t had time to go until today. I love it here! I don´t know where to start.
So we had two baptisms on Tuesday night, Monica the mom and Tiago who is 9. The two daughters were baptized right before I got here. It was so wonderful and it is so great to see another family tree changed. It is amazing to see the change in their eye once they have entered the waters of baptism. It was a simple service, not very many people attended, but they knew that baptism is the gate by which we enter and is the beginning of a new life.
Teaching the gospel is so amazing. We taught another girl who was baptized about a month ago, Elisabete. She is 16, and we talked about endruing to the end. That is the stage many of us are at right now in life. It is sometimes difficult but when we are built upon strong foundations, we cannot fall. As we knocked doors this week, with very little success of really being able to share our message, I realized how grateful I am for my testimony of the truthfulness of the restored gospel. My testimony of the Book of Mormon grows stronger each time I teach of its truthfulness. Saturday was a particularly difficult day as we didn´t have any appointments so we tried searching for less actives. No one was answering the door, or they just didn´t want to hear our message. After hours of knocking doors, we went home to "re-group" and prepare to go back out. When we walked in the door, I had my first "break-down" since beginning my mission. :) After a few minutes of tears I opened the Book of Mormon and began to read, I don´t remember what, but I immediately felt peace. I know this is exactly where I am supposed to be. I think I say that a lot, but every time it has a different meaning. I am learning so much about myself, as well as about the gospel of Jesus Christ. My companion is so great and the four of us are having so much fun together. The three of them are reminding me that it´s okay to have fun and be a missionary! :)
One of my goals is to learn something from every one that I talk to. There are so many people who have had so many different experiences. Heavenly Father loves each of us and He has given each of us different talents to bless us, and the lives of others.

Portugal is awesome! It is so beautiful! There are cobblestone streets everywhere and palm trees :) We live close to Cristo-Rei, one of the famous statues of Christ in Portugal! And the buildings are just amazing! The people are wondeful too! Everyone says hi "bom dia" "boa tarde" and "boa noite" they are so friendly, and patient with me and my limited portuguese :) but I really try to speak every chance that I get. Irma Greco is really encouraging too and she allows me the opportunity to speak often. I really have this great desire to talk to people, and although my vocabulary is limited I am doing my best. I love walking down the street and hearing people speak that I can understand. It is interesting with portuguese though because there are lots of people from lots of different places so the accent is different. It is like retuning my hear each time someone new speaks. It´s an adventure I enjoy though :)

I want you all to know that Jesus Christ lives! He is our Savior and Redeemer. The fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored to the earth and we have a living prophet today who has the full authority to act in God´s name. Thomas S. Monson is our prophet today. I know that I have been called by God to represent the Savior in this calling. It is the greatest work to spread the good news of the restored gospel! The Book of Mormon contains the fulness of the gospel. Each time we read it, we can feel of the power of God in our lives and God answers our prayers through the scriptures. Rejoice in this new year as we all try to be a little better and do a little more to invite the Savior into our lives!

I love you all! Press forward always with faith in Christ!

With lots of love,
Irma Michael

PS Good luck with another semester of school! Also, thank you for all the letters and emails! Russell I got the package of letters :) I loved all those letters! Obrigada!!! And mom I got the package!! Thank you so much! I am wearing the scarf and sweater today!! :)

This is my current address for the next 4 weeks;
Rua Jose Fontana #4 1A
2800 Almada
Portugal

This is the mission office address:
Rua Jose Barradas 14C
1500 Lisboa
Portugal