PORTO

Ola! bom dia from where I am now...
I am in PORTO!!!!! WOW! Oh wait, AND I am TRAINING AGAIN!!!!!!!
...Hugest shock of my life! i was super numb right after the call, and em verdade i still am shocked but guess what we will be in a tripla so we are not white washing too, like i thought would happen for about an hour...
I will be training a native from Cabo Verde so it will be a really different experience than from this last transfer. But, just like when I got the call last transfer to train for the first time, i felt peace and immediately felt a confirmation that this is the will of the Lord. It is so crazy how the Lord works, yet He knows the reason for all things.
I had two hours to pack my bags and help Irma Young prepare to receive her new companion(irma reis!!!) I am so excited that Irma Reis will be serving with Irma Young! They will do so many miracles together. I was thinking on sunday afternoon that i would be staying in Linda-A-velha one more transfer so that we could actually see baptisms, but for some reason, that wasn't the will of the Lord. Instead, He is intrusting me with another missionary straight from the CTM! I am really excited because Irma Perkins also will be serving with us, and she has been here for one transfer already. She said the ward is big and lots of support for missionary work! yay!
I traveled by myself last night on the bus, and i will go back down to lisboa on thursday for the training again. i still don't know why heavenly father knows i can do this but I am humbly grateful for this opportunity.
There are lots of twists and turns each day in life, and as i was leaving LAV i thought about how quickly it all can be taken away. I also thought about choices, and our agency. The one thing that Heavenly Father wont ever take away form us is our agency to react to what happens in our lives. I am deeply grateful taht He still loves me even will all of my weaknesses, and faults. Last transfer was super hard for me personal struggles, but ainda assim, we saw so many miracles. Irma Young will help the area explode! My last sunday there, i had a tiny feeling that i might leave. It was such a great day! we had awesome investigators in church. these 2 brasileiros who just have the desire to make changes in their lives. Claudio who is searching for peace and changes. We had an awesome lesson with mariana who is a member, she has helped us so much.
The story with Nino... he told us during the week that he has a girlfriend, and that it will be too hard for him to stop his relationship with her for now, we had lots of help from the elders to work with him, but in the end, he chose to not be baptized for now. The familia amojo stopped anwering the phone and didnt come to church, but i still have hope that they will come around one day!
Hope! that is such a good word. Hope comes from the Atonement of Christ, and it brings me so much comfort that it is because of the love of our Savior that we can hope for a better world. Forgiveness comes through hope and love.
I really am starting to see the light of Christ much more. I feel like i was in a period of darkness, but it is through trials that we learn to see the blessings that really have been there all along. Thank you for your love and prayers. I am so grateful to be simply serving the Lord and His people here in Portugal! And especially now in Porto, which i never thought i would see!!!!! I know there are people here that I met before coming to this earth, and made promises that i would find them. We will go and do!! The Lord knows all things!

PS our area is where the mission home and mission office of Porto used to be, just like my area in LAV!!

I love you all!! Have a great week! Thanks for the letter from Jacob! I am sending him a snail mail letter to the office. i hope it arrives!!

xoxo
Irma Michael

Family

Snail mail received today, Aug. 29, 2011--written August 22, 2011

Hillary sent some photos and I will post them as soon as I can scan them.

Family,

I love you all! Irma young is incredible. Although I am a trainer, I feel like I am being trained. Really this transfer I am learning so much about the work and how I need the Lord in all things. I love the people here and I am learning each day the importance to love as Christ loves. He is the Master teacher and through our trials He is refining us to be better. There is always the opportunity to come unto Him. He will never leave us alone. 1 Nephi 9:6.

Mom and Dad, thank you for teaching me to love the scriptures and to love everything about the gospel. Each day gets a little better in this great adventure to invite others to come unto Christ. I am living the dream, understanding a little bit more of the grand picture--eternal life with our families and with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I love you all!

xoxo

Irma Michael

Where Can I Turn For Peace

"Where Can I turn for Peace"

We sang this song in comp study this week and it really hit me super hard. Ele e meu salvador e meu amigo, responde minha oracao, da me paz. Every time I ask, he is ready to respond. he understands my every heartache, and the heartache of every person in the world. There are so many people searching to find comfort but don't find it because they don't know were to find it.
Last night we contacted a guy who said he is athiest. We asked him if there was a time that he believed more and he said basically he got tired of searching for answers that he couldn't find. he gave us his contact, but I don't know if he really believed us when we testified that god answers our prayers and there are ways to find answers to his questions. Vamos a ver.
After the contact, Irma Young and I talked about how true it is that all of the answers come through the restored gospel of jesus Christ.
We also have tried to continue working with the familia Amojo...they are from Brazil. Irma Graf and I started teaching them, but they still haven't come to church. Our ward really needs them, they just haven't felt it enough yet.
Cool story...we had a few minutes to do procura, so we passed by the house of Graca and Arnaldo, but they weren't home. Irma Young started wealking up the stairs to the top of the building and we started knocking doors. Then a kid answered the door and we started to contact him, but he said his mom wasn't home, just the friends of his mom. He let us in, and guess who was there...familia Amojo!!! Vanusa and her 2 daughters!!! It turns out they are friends and really what we said was, well we felt inspired to knock that door, and God led us to them. It was so cool! We shared a brief message then marked another appt. with the familia Amojo! When we visited them, we started talking about the plan of salvation. This family already has really founded principles, you could say they are dry mormons but they just don't understand why we have the book of mormon. We have tried to explain many times, but we can't spoon feed them the desejo, although so many times I wish I could! We will continue to pray for them and one day they will open their hearts and they will be a great asset to this ward!
This was a week of milagres!! Afew weeks ago, we were contacteed by a guy named Nino. I might have talked about him with the name Nuno but it is Nino...anyway so we had a couple lessons with him, then he was at church last week. We have worked with him a lot this week, he is really searching for the truth. We talked about the basic principles of the gospel, and invited him to be baptised. He said he feels it is too early and that he wants to learn more. Then we read Alma 7:14-15 with him, and the part nascer de novo, be born again really stuck out to him! After the lesson, we showed him the pia batismal, (font) and as he stood there, the spirit was just so strong!!! He said baptism is a serious thing! Yes it is, but it is the greatest thing too!!! There is so much joy in making sacred covenants with Heavenly Father!! We will keep working with him this week! sidney has really helped us a lot with working with Nino. It is so awesome hearing the testimony of a recent convert, who always had a strong christian background and finally found the whole truth!
Also, this week we had a cool experience. Our first week together we contacted this guy, Alino, and marked an appt but it feel and we never got a hold of him on the phone. We passed by his house last Sunday night, but the address was wrong. right after this, a girl walked out of the predio, a fril that Irma Speigle contacted last transfer, and that I had met one time on a bus. Carmen...We talked for a minute and noted how interesting that it was we didn't know she lived there., but we felt led to find her. We marked with her for sunday afternoon (yesterday). so, last night, we went to her house, and as we knocked the door, who answered....Alino!!! What?!?!? He said that he is the primo of Carmen and that he also lives there. We had just written the address wrong. Wow! that was such a cool expereince!! Carmen wasn't home, so we marked another appt to come back an we got his correct number.
It was a really great reminder that God is guiding our every step. I just need to put the inspiration into action!!
I love this gospel. I know that God Answers our prayers and He gives us challenges to test us. Love is the answer for everything. God loves us so He sent his son. Jesxus Christ loves us so He gave His life. He loves us so he gave us the gift of the Holy Ghost. He loves us so he gave us the Book of Mormon to help us chegar mais perto de Christo and overcome our trials. perfect love casteth out all fear.
Thank you for your love!

xoxo
Irma Michael

Gracas damos o Deus por um profeta

i woke up today singing we thank thee oh God for a prophet! I am so grateful taht we have a prophet on the earth in these latter-days to guide us. I know that this comes from our loving Heavenly father who wants each of His children to return to live with Him!

Thank you so much for sending the letter from Jacob! i can´t even imagine what he is experiencing!!!!

Sounds like the treck was an amazign experience for all of you. thank you for sharing your testimonies with me. I am so grateful for the Holy Ghost who confirms truths in our minds and in our hearts.

The Holy Ghost is the teacher, we are just the mouthpiece.

We worked a lot with Conceição this week, and at the end, she decided that she

didn´t want to be baptized. Well, she had some encounters with people who said stuff contra the igreja and also found stuff on the internet... she just needs more time, but tudo vai dar certo. Only God knows the end of every story.

This week, we had interviews with President Torgan, and i was so grateful to talk with him. he gave me really good advice about the two most important hours of every day. Estudos(study) and oração (prayer). Prayer is really a conversation with our Pai que habita no ceu, and He really wants to communicate with us, we have to do our part and open up to him and share with him and also be ready to do the things He whispers for us to do. And study is really the timeto search for the answers to our prayers. I gave a talk on suday after interviews and as i was speaking an experience came to my mind about when we received the news that Bishop Leavitt and cancer. I remember that dad pulled us all together and we said a prayer together, and dad asked Heavenly father that the will of God would be done. from then on, every prayer taht was said was "let thy will be done" the same thing with clarissa. Everything is in the Hands of God. He knows all things, and we as His children are here to seek and do His will, trusting with faith that He knows all things.

Thank you dad for your example!

This week we also finally met with this man named Nuno. He stopped us pn the street about two weeks ago and said he wanted one of our bibles. Irmã young kept reminding me that we needed to go there and send it to him, finally we did. he is searchig for the truth. he came to church and really enjoyed his experience. we had a lesson with him and Mariana, a member who helps us sooo much! it was so awesome! it turns out that Nuno is the cousin of Patrick, the guy from France!!

The work keeps moving forward here! There are miracles happening every day. I am really working now on coming closer to Christ so that I can invite others to come unto Him as well. thank you dad for your comments on being prepared.

i feel like my whole mission i have been trying to prepare, but i think i have been just looking in all the wrong places. The language will come with practice. the teaching skills come now with practice.

Thank you for your love and support!

have a great day!!

xoxo

Irmã Michael

personal question for dad and mom: when i am already in the middle of my mission what can i do to be a better prepared missionary so that i can be a better instrument in the hads of God. i know that feeling weak is important to help us be humble. How can i be humble in the right way, and use the talents and abilities that God has given me for good?

Thanks for the Love and Letters

Thanks for the love and letters!

The day of my birthday was different... but also really good. we had a reunião de zona in Mem Martins, me and irma young are the only irmas in our zone now, that is weird for me, but it was a really good meeting. I went with lots of questions about the work, and i feel like all of them were answered. especially about faith and fear. one elder shared a story about how he was in his second transfer and he was training and he didnt know what he was doing in his area, and he just felt super scared. he had an interview with president torgan and President shared a scripture with him, i think it´s d &c ... somewhere that said basically why are the miracles not happening? because of the fear in your heart. He then talked about how we just cannot have fear in our heart, we cant doubt as missionaries. it just cant be that way. we have to have faith. throughout my mission i have always felt like a missionary of super little faith. for some reason this is one of the greatest challenges of my misssion, believe in God and all that He can do. Believe in myself as a true servant of the Lord. i try to believe, but i think i lose patience too quickly, and i lose trust in myself and in others and in the Lord. it is a really big challenge now that i am here with a new companion. She is so awesome because she jsut keeps reminding me that we are here to do God´s work so we should ask Him what He wants us to do. Then, we should go and do that work!! I still feel like i dont know the language. i mean i know enough to understand and get by, but me accent is horrible and many people dont know what i am saying. also, my vocab isnt that great, but paciencia i am the one who needs to fix that problem by studing more. But where is the time?? I will find time this week to use my time with more wisdom.

Well, there are miracles still happening all around the world, and here in Linda A Velha we had a neat experience this past week. A member, Maria Vinhais, called us and said that her neighbor wanted to meet with us. So we set up an appt with her for thursday. Her name is Conceição and she lives on Rua da Liberdade N 20!!! There is a story here... last transfer with irma Speigle i had a dream/woke up in the middle of the night thinking about rua da liberdade! I felt super strongly that someone on that street was ready to be baptized. During the middle of the night, i got up and went straight to the Area Book to look for anyone who lived on that street, and I found a lady named Conceição who lives in #20. i thought this is the lady that needs to be baptized!!!But for some reason, we never contacted her. we passed by but she wasnt home, and we called but she didn´t answer. So we moved on.

Then when Maria called, she said the name of the lady was isabel. i thought, cool, but didnt thonk much more of it. When we arrived at her door, she opened the door and as we introduced ourselves she said she is Conceição!! In that moment it clicked! This is the lady of my dream!! WOW! So she had met with the elders about a year ago, the livro de area is not really updated so we don´t know really what happened, but we started teaching her! She is really em baixo, (down) she doesn´t have much work, and she is looking for a way out of this darkness, and she thought of the missionaries, so she contacted maria! Maria is a super missionary!! She just wants to share the gospel with everyone! It is so great to work with her! After our first lesson with Conceição we visited some other people with Maria, and she is just cheia com fogo pela obra missionaria!! It got me all fired up too! :)

Friday, we returned to the house of conceição and invited her to be baptized! She accepted, and was a little emotional. she came to church sunday for the first time and it turns out that she knows some other members as well!! Already she is making friendships!! we are excited for her!! Her baptism will be next sunday, dia 14 de agosto! Please pray for her, she needs angels to protect her this week!

As for the rest of the week, we did a lot of procura but didnt have a ton of success. We did kind of an evaluation of our work last night and we really need to plan our time better so that we can help people progress!

Oh at church yesterday, a guy appeared during sacrament meeting,a dn stayed until the end then we talked with him. he is from brazil and his girlfriend lives there and she said to check out the church! We will have a lesson with him this week! we are so excited!!

i love the Lord and I know he is at the head of this work! I am so grateful to serve His children here in Portugal.

Congrats Scott!! that is so crazy!! i got his announcement the other day! super cute!!!

Thank you for the birthday package, grandma and mom and thank you too for the letters and prayers and support!

ps how is jacob any news??

irma young is from Hinckley, UT

irma Michael

Irma Hillary this week

President and Irma Torgan and Irma Young and Irma Hillary

Irma Hillary and Irma Young

Irmas in Portugal with Irma Hillary Michael

Obrigado pelos emails and birthday wishes

Ola familia e amigos!! Obrigado pelos emails and birthday wishes :)

Today we went to Sintra!! It was super rainy though, so we got soaked, but it was cool to see some catholic churches. It reminded me of my adventures in Austria.
This has been an interesting week, we finally realized last night where we need to make some changes so that we can find people to teach that will progress. We tried to work with the family of Zizi this week, and we passed several times, but they never answered the door. I was a little sad about this because I really love this family, and I know that one day they will be ready, but i guess it is not yet their time. Irmã Young is so great! I often am unsure about what to do and she simply just suggests that we pray and ask GOd what He wants us to do. I am really grateful for prayer!!
Another thing that is so neat about training is to watch as she works so hard at the language. She already speaks really well and she understands a ton already. Something that we´ve talked about, and that I have noticed is that she understands more when the spirit is present. There are several times that we are talking with people, but when they talk about other topics that have nothing to do with the gospel, she understands less. She has related to me how interesting it is and how much she relies on the spirit to understand. It is so true. The Spirit is the teacher, not us. We are just the vessel through which the spirit teaches.

This week sidney and george received the aaronic priesthood!!! This is so great and exciting!! We also had a lesson with sidney about temples, which is one of my favorite lessons to teach recent converts!

Oh, there is this great story I want to tell! we were in a predio because we had an appt. we arrived early and she wasnt home, as we were descending the stairs, this guy said to us. `do you have a bibile, I want one of those Mormon Bibles´ .. we said uh okay, ... he spoke in English, and we started talking to him. It turns out, he doesn't speak Portuguese he is from France and here visiting family. He understands Portuguese but only speaks Creol (from Capo Verde) anyway we have been teaching him this week he is super eleito!!! The only sad thing is that he will return to France on Saturday! but he came to church and it was so great! reminded us of Sidney!

love you all!!
xoxo
Irma Michael