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