What language am I speaking?

Bom Dia Alegria Minha Família!

This week was the festival do marisco here in Olhão which basically means lots of tourists, lots of seafood, and lots of Portuguese concerts starting at midnight and lasting until 3 in the morning! Which also means a lot of dance festas on the varanda for us sisters. hahah jk.

I guess I will start off with my awkward moment for the week, because I always seem to have a few of those. But like I said, due to the festival there were a lot of tourists here in Olhão-more than normal, but the only problem is that sometimes you just can't tell if they are tourists or not (that is a feat, let me tell you because most of the time you can't pick out tourists no problem) Anyways, we were contacting in the street and tried talking to this lady but soon found out she was from England and didn´t speak Portuguese. You would think I would be able to speak to her in English, but I for the life of me could not speak English. It was the most painful moment of my life to try and explain to her who we were and what we wanted to talk to her about. I was studdering like a fool!  So right now I really don't speak good Portuguese or good English-so sad.

We received a bit of bad news this week. Just when everything looked as if both Otilia and Bonafacia were going to have everything sorted out to be married at the end of this month we found out that the conservatorio is completely full for the month of august.....meaning that the two baptisms that we have been planning on for this transfer have to been put off until next transfer......I will be absolutely crushed if I get transferred in 2 weeks without seeing the baptism of my beloved Otilia....and seeing as I already have 3 transfers in Olhão the odds are not looking in my favor. But! I believe God is a God a miracles and we are going to exercise our faith to the best of our abilities! 

We have already seen small miracles happening. While we were planning for the week and making our weekly goals, Sister Andrade and I decided to exercise our faith and make our baptismal goals higher than normal. We really had no idea where these batisms would come from, but we both felt inspired to do so. That same afternoon we got to do a division with Sister Tavares, because we had zone conference the day before and they were still in the area. She asked if we could go visit the relief society president of our Ramo, and to make a long story short, by the time we walked out of her house we felt we knew the person that we could baptize by the end of this transfer. Our relief society President has a granddaughter whose mom is not active, but she has come to church on a few different occasions and after our visit with her, she said she would ask her daughter if she would allow her daughter to be taught by us! MIRACLE! We are hoping to have FHE with them tonight, and we are just praying that everything works out. 

We are still trying to get in contact with Dalia. The people here seem to work 24/7 which makes things a little more complicated, but we saw her at the cafe she works at a few days ago, and she said she still wants to talk to us which is awesome! I know she has incredible potential!

We contacted a lady named Siquina this past week. She is the cutest mom with two 4 year old twins that are literally the cutest things I have ever seen. We talked with her for a bit a few days latter and basically asked us ALL sorts of questions about our beliefs-especially about the plan of salvation. She is actually muslim however, so we had to get permission from Presidente to teach her. We were able to walk with her to church with her two little boys yesterday which was incredible! I just couldn't stop smiling! ahhhh! so good. She has such and open and accepting heart, so we will see what happens this week.

As for other people we are working with: We had an amazing lesson with a lady named Ana batista this week! She was taught by sisters in the past,and during my time here in Olhão we have tried on several occasions to try and get in contact with her but never had a whole lot of luck. We would see her every once in a while on the street, but other than that we haven't been able to really have a lesson with her. Finally we were able to talk with her and it was SO good! Sister Andrade and I had a solid lesson, and she said she felt so much lighter after talking to us. The spirit fam....it is an incredible thing.

Oh, I also thought I would update you on the Reynolds! I got a letter back from them a few weeks ago which absolutely melted my heart! They are doing so well, and Cat said that her and Fred go to the temple almost every week for their date night. I just have the biggest love for that couple! They are incredible!

This work is undescribable at times. The amount of love I feel for people that I have the priviledge of meeting absolutely blows me away. I am so blessed to feel just a portion of the love our Savior has for his children.

Amo-vocês com todo de meu coração! Ficam Bem Família. Até proxímo. 

-Sister Selk

We ran into otilia´s "husband" in the street the other night and he told us that he had something for us. A can of "black" beans for Sister Andrade and a can of "tan" beans for me

One of the Irmãs na igreja made cachupa for us yesterday and we had a big ol´festa after church. Can I just say how much I love african food. Ugh. In heaven.

Sometimes companion study gets a little crazy....you can take your guess as to who Sister Andrade was reinacting

Horrible picture, but we had a "picnic" with Rosaria and her family before her mom left for Brazil.

The view from our varanda in the morning just puts the biggest smile on my face.

We went to this incredible palácio last Pday which they actually turned into a hotel. It is kind of like a way amped up Portuguese version of the Prince of Whales in Waterton.