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
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