30 de Abril

Hi Family!

We made the chocolate chip cookies today! They are delicious. It is nice to have homemade, ´American´ chocolate chip cookies, haha. We gave a few to the Elders. They are happy.

Those decorations are adorable! Parker will love them. I feel a little sad that I can´t be there to help with things, and to meet Parker when he´s a tiny baby, but it´s good to be here.

SO Mother´s Day here is on May 6th. I only just found out that Mother´s Day in the USA is on the 13th. Hahaha. I am calling on the 13th, not the 6th, don´t worry. I was planning on 6:30 pm (on May 13th), which I think is 2:30 pm your time, which I thought was after church for you all. If 6:30 ish is not good for you all, email back with what time is better! I am pretty sure the time difference is four hours, but maybe you can double check as well. The Açores are different than Portugal, and I think Portugal is five, so Açores are four... I also have a terrible terrible fear that my phone card is not going to work. But now I have an extra week to come up with a backup plan, so it will all work out!

Don´t worry about sending things, I can get almost anything here, and whatever I can´t, I can do without. I do really appreciate what you´ve sent me! It makes me feel loved. I will let you know if there is anything I really really need that I can´t get here. The only thing I´ve really had trouble finding is stockings, which is frustrating because they wear out so easily, because we walk so much and because my feet are kind of callused. But I´ve just stopped using them every single day, just Sundays, especially since it´s hotter out now, so they last a little longer. So if you ever are going to send a package, at like Christmas or something, that´s always useful (but don´t worry for now, I still have the ones you sent at Easter. Just in the future) But seriously don´t worry about sending packages. Although I wouldn´t mind getting a letter once in a while, if you have time. Next week is transfers, though, and while I can´t imagine I´d be transferred, because I was tranferred last time, we really never know. I will let you know next week =) Oh we are having interviews on Friday, so in the end, it´s not going to interfere with P-Day. Things got delayed this transfer, it´s odd that it´s happening three days before the transfer ends.

This week when we were knocking on doors, a lady answered the door and invited us inside. We talked to her a little about the Plan of Salvation, and then she started crying and said that her husband had just passed away. One interesting thing was that before we had explained too much, she told us about some things she believed, like that we lived with Heavenly Father before this Earth, that God and Christ are separate beings, and that we will all be resurrected one day. Which is basically the Plan of Salvation. I can´t really explain it in words, but it was a really powerful experience, the Spirit was so strong, and made me realize that some people really have been prepared to receive the Gospel in their lives. Normally nothing comes of door-knocking -- the people we teach are usually referrals from members or people who have been taught in the past. So we are really excited to teach this family. I think she has three kids.

I am afraid there is not much new happening here... it´s kind of ´same as always.´ Let me know if 6:30 Azorean time is alright for you all on Mother´s Day! I am excited to call in two weeks.

I love you all! Have a great week!

Julia

23 de Abril

Hi Family!

Ha! I love getting your emails. It sounds like you all had a great trip to North Carolina. The yogurt place sounds yummy too. There are loads of yogurt places in Provo, Carolyn you should totally go to one sometime, if you like that kind of thing. So I feel a little dumb saying this, but when all those yogurt places in Provo started popping up, never on any advertisement did it say ´frozen yogurt´ so I thought it was just normal yogurt. And hey, there was a rice pudding shop, why not a yogurt shop? And then one day some friends and I decided to go to a yogurt place after playing tennis, and I found out that it was actually frozen yogurt. It was actually kind of disappointing, you know, when you expect one thing and it turns out to be something else. But it was delicious enough that I got over it pretty fast.

Washington DC sounds like it was a lot of fun! Ha maybe we can visit the Library of Congress on the way to Florida after I get back. I would like to see it. Just like in National Treasure.

Thanks for the basketball update, Bradley! I appreciate it. That is disappointing that BYU lost so quickly. It is odd thinking it was a whole year ago when all that crazy basketball stuff was going on. Hey if you have a minute sometime, I need to know which Portugal soccer team is better, Sporting or Porto. It is hard to know because my companion in Braga said Porto, but my companion here says Sporting.

I am excited for you to go out to BYU, Carolyn! Don´t be nervous about your roommate. Just love her and be nice to her, and while it´s fun to be best friends, it´s okay if you´re not. There are plenty of people to be friends with.

OH I did get the chocolate chips! Thank you so much, that was a nice surprise! We are excited to make cookies with them. I really appreciate it!

So with the phone call on Mother´s day: I don´t know exactly what time, probably sometime in the early-ish afternoon. (We are four hours ahead, I think? Açores are one hour behind Portugal, so I think four hours ahead of New York) I will definitely let you know next week, a better estimate of what time. Elder Rose, the zone leader said that I can make international phone calls from the chapel, but I will have to look into that. Otherwise I will buy a phone card. I heard I can actually talk for an hour, not 45 minutes like I thought. Elder Rose also said we can use Skype if we want, instead of regular phone calls. But I don´t really know how to use Skype, and I´m not entirely sure where I would find a webcam. But if you guys have skype and want to use it, I will figure it out. But otherwise I think I will just make a regular phone call. Maybe we can do Skype at christmas.

SO updates here. Life is exciting, as usual. You can tell it´s nearly summer because we see cruise ships almost every day. I like seeing them, because it makes me feel like I´m on a tropical island. Which I am. But, you know, it´s cool. The one that was here on Saturday was GIGANTIC, the biggest I´ve ever seen. It had three waterslides on top. Normally we don´t see them that close up, because the dock is in the Elders´ area, but we had a meeting on Saturday in the chapel, which is kind of close to ´downtown´ Ponta Delgada, where the dock is. They dock there, and then there are these double decker buses, very touristy-looking with the top open, that take all the people to the other side of the island, where they go look at the pretty rocks and stuff. I am not really sure what there is to see, but all these people go there so it must be good. Maybe one day I will come back and visit the other side of the island.

Here is a funny story: The other day we were walking back from the chapel from some meeting or another, and we passed this guy selling popcorn. It was sweet popcorn, with this red sugar drizzled over it. It looked good, and it was a fundraiser for something or other, so we bought some. But then it turned our hands and our tongues bright red. And we had appointment in the next town over, no time to go clean up. It was really bad. But we had a few crackers in our backpacks and thankfully our tongues turned back to normal rather easily. Hopefully no one noticed our pink fingers. But here´s the good part: when we bought the popcorn, the guy asked, oh what church are you from, and then he asked about The Book of Mormon, and so we asked if he´d like a copy, and he said yes! So the next day we brought him a Book of Mormon and he said he was interested in it and interested in going to church. So that popcorn eating was actually very inspired. Unfortunately he lives in the area of the Elders, so if anything comes of it, they will teach him, not us, but it was good popcorn and a good story.

AND more seriously: We had a baptism on Sunday! The man who was baptized is named Mario Jorge. He is awesome. His brother is a member, and he has come to church with his brother a few times. And the past few times, he brought a friend with him! We´ve been trying to talk to him for a while, but it´s hard because he works all day, every day, leaving his house at 6:30 am and returning 11:30 pm. But we found out he works close to the chapel, and so we started talking to him in the chapel for a little bit every day during his lunch break. AND a few times he brought his friend to our lessons! He was a great missionary before he was even baptized. His brother baptized him, and that was a really really special experience. They were both so happy. I have to say, there was very little we did, as missionaries, in this case. His brother had done most of the work, given him a Book of Mormon, been a good example, encouraged him. Here´s a picture. Arginaldo is on the left, Mario Jorge is on the right.

The language is still really hard, and sometimes it feels like I´m not making any progress. But I am trying, and hopefully it will come. It can be frustrating because I feel so helpless, like I can´t really do anything. But it is getting better, I can understand people a little more. And I know as long as I am trying my hardest, Heavenly Father will help me. The people are so kind and so patient here, which is really good. And my companion is very patient with me as well. I am glad she speaks Portuguese.

Anyway, Thank you all for your email! I love you all! Have a great week!

Julia

16 de Abril

Hi Family!

So it is Monday, and I am emailing you... we didn´t have interviews this week as planned, so they might be next week. (I am sorry I haven´t really known exactly, things have gotten switched around here. I think in part because our mission president just got called to be an Area Seventy. But he will be our mission president until July.) I am pretty sure our interviews will be on this island, because I heard the zone conference was on the other one last transfer, so I might be able to email on the normal Monday, but it might be Tuesday. Sorry I know so little. Ha.

So the most important thing, CONGRATULATIONS SARAH! I am so excited to hear about my nephew, and I absolutely love the name Parker Rowe. You all are in my prayers. That is fun that you all went down and put the nursery together. If you have pictures, email them! I want to see! And when the baby is born, you better email lots and lots of pictures every day! I am glad to hear that you all got home safe and the cats are well. I worry that they won´t remember me when I come back. There are loads of white cats here, way more than I ever saw in the US.

Time is going fast, it is crazy! We´re already halfway done with this transfer. I am hoping I get to stay here for a little while longer. I heard that in the islands, missionaries usually stay for several transfers, but really, you never know.

We´ve seen a couple cruise ships passing by, it´s pretty exciting. There aren´t any tourists in our part of the island, nor is there really anything to tour, so it´s kind of strange, but kind of awesome to think I live somewhere that people take cruises to. Someday I´ll come back and visit the part where people vacation! Irmã Suzarte said that last transfer, they saw a Disney Cruise ship. It is kind of odd to think about all those kids on that ship and how very different their lives are, compared to the kids on this island.

I am glad to hear about Andrew´s show, that is really exciting! Maybe I can go see it if there is a show nearby when I get home. If it is in Cleveland I will take a detour to get some Graeter´s ice cream.

I am trying to think of what all I should say. This week was a little frustrating, all but two of our appointments with investigators fell through. For the entire week, we only had two appointments. And we always make back-up plans, but those fell through too. We had a handful of appointments with recent converts and less-actives, but besides that, that meant A LOT of unscheduled time. So we did lots of contacting. And we met lots interesting people, a few of whom seem like they really do want to talk to us, so that is good. Sometimes it is hard to know, because the people here are super nice, and almost anyone will say ´sure come on over´ but then they aren´t home for the appointment or they don´t actually want to talk to us. But it´s okay, that´s just how some weeks go, I think. It is unfortunate when people we´ve met while tracting don´t want to talk to us, but it is harder when our investigators who we have taught for a long time stop talking to us. You can´t help but love these people, it is the strangest thing because they´re people I don´t really know and can´t really even communicate with, but I feel so much love for them. And then when they stop wanting to talk to us, it is the saddest thing because I know they are giving up the best blessing they could possibly have. There was one investigator, the very first one I met, who told us ´I know that The Book of Mormon is true, and that the things you are teaching me are true. Thanks for teaching me to read the Book of Mormon and to pray. But I can´t keep doing this, I needed to choose to follow the world or to follow God, and I chose to follow the world.´ It was the saddest conversation, and probably also the strangest. Of course that´s why anyone loses interest in the Gospel, because it´s much easier to follow the ways of the world, but I have never heard anyone say that, just like that. But at the same time, I am pretty sure that these people, who progress so much and then loose interest, are the ones who will one day decide to come back and learn again and be baptized. Maybe it will be a few months, maybe many many years, but I have no doubt that this guy will get baptized one day.

So that is all for now. I hope you all are doing well! I love you all. Have a good week!

 

Julia

09 de Abril

Hi Family!

I don´t have lots of pictures, but here are a few. Also, pictures from Gel´s baptism, in Braga, it´s a few weeks old but I thought I´d send them anyway. I will try to take some others. It is hard because we can´t really take pictures during the week, and there isn´t anything particularly interesting to take pictures of on the way to the chapel (where we write emails) on P-day. I didn´t think to take pictures of my apartment, if you really want I can send some next week, but it´s just normal-looking. (and we do have a washing machine, thank goodness. We did in Braga, too. Although I heard in Porto, they don´t, they pay members to do their laundry) Like any place, there are neighborhoods where the people are poor and neighborhoods where the people aren´t poor. And some of the people in the ´poorer´ areas are poorer than others. It is just kind of odd because there are some places that are really poor, but then if you walk forty-five minutes or so, you can get to the mall or whatever. Thank you for offering to send Fruit Roll Ups, but I think it would be easier if I just went to the grocery store and bought fruit snacks or something, if we wanted to give them to some of the kids.

I hope you all had a good Easter! Thank you for the Easter candy, I am really enjoying it! It rained like crazy here yesterday. It rains pretty much every day, but yesterday it was pouring all day, with loads of wind. But it was actually a good thing, because nobody wants to talk to us when it´s raining, and nobody wanted to talk to us because it was Easter, so it was good that it happened on the same day. And actually, we found a few people to talk to. We had dinner with a less-active family, they are super awesome and super nice to us. Their cat had just had kittens, so it was fun to see tiny baby one-day-old kittens. They aren´t really cute yet, but maybe in a few weeks. Ha.

So we were talking to this twelve-year-old boy the other day, a somewhat-recent convert, and he was trying to explain to me that he had gone rappeling (I don´t know how to spell it, but you know, with the harness and you kind of slide down the wall), but I couldn´t understand what he was talking about. I told him I could look it up later, but he was so excited about it, and he wanted me to understand, and we couldn´t find the word in the little dictionary I have. So this poor kid, he had hurt his foot somehow, (maybe rappeling, I don´t know) he hops off to go find someone who speaks English so he can explain. (he´s at a boarding-school type place because he was ditching school, so he went to go find the residence person in charge of him) And I felt so bad, because I could hear him hopping around all over the place, and then he finally comes back. And it turns out that it´s the same word in English and in Portuguese. And then I felt even worse. But he thought it was hilarious. So I guess it is okay.

I am trying to think of other stories... ha, I don´t really have tons. Life is exciting. The people here are awesome. We have a new investigator who is amazing. We taught the first lesson, and left a copy of The Book of Mormon, with a few verses for him to read that night. And we came back the next day, and he had read the little bit and a whole lot more, he was just so excited about it. He has so much faith, it strengthens my faith to talk to him and to hear how much he loves the gospel, already, and we´ve only been teaching him for a week! I think he is divorced but he has a couple of kids who live with him, so we´re hoping to be able to teach them too. His mother lives with him also, and we´ve been teaching her along with him, she is this awesome old lady. She is super Catholic, but she likes to talk to us anyway. And I think she memorized the whole Bible, because whenever we say we´re going to read a scripture from the Bible, she recites it. She is funny. The only problem is I don´t really understand her often, and she is always directing her comments to me. So I just smile and nod, and apparently that is sufficient because she smiles and nods back and keeps talking. Ha.

Anyway, that´s all that´s happening here. Oh I think we have interviews next Monday. I don´t know when or if I will be able to email on Monday, but if I can´t on Monday, it will be sometime during the week. I will find out about calling on Mother´s day.

I love you all! Have a good week!

Julia

 

 

02 de Abril

Hi Family!

Thanks for your emails! It is always so good to hear about what is going on at home.

I didn´t get to see very much of conference, actually, and the part I saw I didn´t really understand. Saturday we were only allowed to watch if we brought an investigator with us. We ended up bringing someone for the last half hour of Saturday morning, so we heard President Eyring´s talk. I didn´t even see Saturday afternoon, with the MTC choir! (it was on very late at night here anyway) And then we were late for both sessions on Sunday because we were talking with investigators (and trying to get them to come with us). It was all in Portuguese, so I understood more or less what the talks were about, but it was a bit more difficult than usual. Haha. I figured I would just read the talks (in English) but now I am going to try to figure something out so I can listen to the MTC choir! Bring my speaker or something next week when we do email. That is so exciting that they were there. And exciting David Archuleta was there too!

 

I wish I had some awesome island stories, but I don´t really. Ha. The island I´m on is São Miguel. It´s pretty big, I think. And it is very beautiful here, very green with lots of hills. There are palm trees here, but actually I think there were more in Braga. The only sad thing is, while there are lots of beautiful places to visit, none of them are in our area, so it´s not like we can go see something exciting on Pday. But our area is plenty beautiful as it is, even if it´s not a ´destination´ and we get to see the ocean every day. The people here in general are poorer than those in Braga. It is interesting, because there are some areas, like where we live, that aren´t that different-- people have nice, normal apartments and some of them even have TVs and cars. But there are some areas that are so, so poor, it is like a different world. It´s hard to believe that it´s the same island. We have children come up to us in the street asking for a copy of The Book of Mormon, because they don´t have any other books in their houses.

I ate some fish the other day at a member´s house. It was pretty good, though I wasn´t totally sure how to eat it, they just had these tiny fishes, whole, and they were salty. And we also were served spaghetti with ketchup and a fried egg on top. That was different. The members here are pretty awesome, though I don´t know too many yet (given it was conference weekend). One family has given us all these ananás, which are kind of like pineapples but really small. And delicious.

I am loving it here, even though it is really hard. I am still having a lot of trouble with the language, and the interesting accent and different dialect doesn´t make it easier. It sounds almost French. It is difficult because Irmã Suzarte is on her second transfer as well-- I don´t think this usually happens, putting two ´greenie´ missionaries together, especially since I don´t speak the language very well yet. I think it will be a long time before I forget that moment, our first morning together, when we sat down for companionship study, and pulled out the training manuel and just looked at each other and laughed. It is frustrating sometimes because I can´t communicate well with my companion or with our investigators, but I really really need to learn, because Irmã Suzarte really really needs a companion who can help out. It is good though, because I think I will learn faster (both Portuguese and how to be a good teacher) than if I were put with a more experienced companion. I am grateful for this opportunity to completely and fully rely on the Lord, because there really is no way we could do this by ourselves.

And hey, at least I get to struggle through this on a beautiful island. And I am plenty healthy and happy and life is good. I will try to send some pictures sometime soon.

I love you all!

Julia

Transferências e um Baptismo (Transfers and a Baptism)

Óla!

Oh My Goodness the past few days have been the craziest of my life. But in a good way, y´know.

So on Thursday we decided to pass by an old investigator who is amazing. He has a testimony of the gospel, he loves hanging out with the young adults, he goes to church most weeks... but for whatever reason, hasn´t been baptized. He´s been taught by missionaries for quite a while, taught and then dropped, taught and then dropped... it´s hard to know what to do with him, because he´s so great (and such a fantastic missionary too, most of the references we get, are from him, and he wasn´t even a member) and I really think he´s wanted to get baptized for a long time, but never wants to commit... It´s difficult, I don´t really know... but anyway, on Thursday, we stopped by, and taught a really amazing powerful lesson. And the best part was, I actually taught part of it! Ha. I always teach part, but it was the first time I felt like I was really teaching, rather than just trying to find the right words in Portuguese. We had planned to invite him to get baptized 1 April, but ended up filling out the paperwork right there because he said he wanted to get baptized that weekend. So then on Saturday he had his interview, and we always go and wait while that happens. But it took three hours and talking to the district leader and a zone leader and it was hard not to wonder if this was actually going to happen, he´s been a ´work in progress´ for so long and has had dates set for baptism before. But in the end there wasn´t any problem, and he felt fully satisfied he was ready for this, and was baptized on Saturday and received the Holy Ghost on Sunday. It was amazing, and I am so glad to have been there for that. I have pictures, I will send them sometime.

And THEN, last night around 9:30pm, I get a phone call that I´m getting transferred, and have to leave at 5:30 am this morning. So I hurridly packed (Irmã Lima left too, and Irmã Olson stayed in Braga), got up this morning around 4:30, and we called the taxi... and they didn´t answer their phone. So we call a member from the ward who was going to give the Elders a ride this morning (same train to Lisbon), and ask if we could get one two, before they have to pick up the Elders. So we pile all our bags in and get to the train station, and try to buy tickets to Lisbon, and they say ´Sorry we´re sold out.´ So then we had to figure out the next best route, seriously, I felt like I was on the Amazing Race this morning (and it gets better...) so we get on a train to Porto, and then transfer to a train going to Lisbon, and then when we get to Lisbon we wait for the office Elders to pick us up.. and then I am told that my flight to the Azores leaves in an hour (and by the way, the Azores was not where I was told I was going...). So I hurry to the mission office and rearrange my bags because you can only take one to the Azores, (and picked up my package THANK YOU SO MUCH, I really appreciate it! Really alot) then hop in the van to hurry to the airport... but we go to the wrong terminal, so back into the van then get to the right place... the office elder basically hands me off to some random airport worker, gives him my flight plans and says ´She doesn´t really speak Portuguese, get her where she needs to go, bye´ and I felt a little slighted because I speak SOME Portuguese, at least enough to get around an airport where everything is repeated in English anyway, but it ended up being a good thing, because when I got to the check-in gate the lady said, ´Sorry, the check-in is closed.´ But really, what are they going to do with an American who doesn´t speak Portuguese, without a telephone, money, or any way to really go anywhere or do anything... so they check me in nonetheless, I run to the gate, and then turns out the flight is delayed anyway... ha. It was exciting. And here I am, in the Azores, which is every missionary´s dream... I have heard it´s hard to go back to mainland Portugal after living on the islands, and I believe it. But mainland Portugal is awesome too, it will be fine when I have to leave, and I´m so excited to be here, now, because it is beautiful and amazing. There aren´t too many missionaries who serve on the islands, so I´m glad I have this opportunity! My companion is from Brazil, I think, but she got here the same time I did. Which is really odd, because we´ve both only had one transfer. The new training program lasts twelve weeks, and we´re only six weeks in. So I guess we will be training each other. Ha. She knows the language and knows the area (she served her first transfer here) so she has a little bit of a leg up, but really, ít´s kind of nice to be sort of on the same page. I´m excited for it. I think it will be good, even though we´re both inexperienced, we know enough. The only other problem is apparently they speak some other dialect here, not actually Portuguese, so it will be interesting, since I don´t really know Portuguese that well yet. But it will be good. I´m excited.

Irmã Gourley who I knew in the MTC is here as well, she was here last transfer too. She and her companion opened an area. It is pretty awesome, they don´t have a chapel so they have church in their house. They baptized two people, but one left, so they have one member. They just leave the door open and people walk in and they have church. I guess they ship in some Priesthood holders every week so they can have the sacrament. Their goal is to get six people in the area with the Aaronic Priesthood so they can have a branch. My area is a little more established, there is a chapel and a branch and everything. Anyway, I am so excited to be here, and I will let you know more next week!

Hope everything is going well for all of you!

I love you! Thanks for everything!

Mais fotos! (More Photos!)