Sister Selk: Nobody saw this coming!

This week was absolutely unexpected- So good and so sad in so many ways! Ahh! Mission life!

It started off with a funeral- SISTER BRYNER DIED TODAY!!!! oh my goodness fam. I gave her one last hug in the mission office today and just about died! She is the cutest human being! So obviously for district meeting this week we gave her the best funeral that we possibly could. (I would have to say that it was probably right up there with the pope's funeral!) I will send you guys the photos and I think they will speak for themselves.

If I haven't already talked about my love for Mafra......and for Sister Tilton, I am just going to talk for a minute about those two things. Our group here is absolutely INCREDIBLE! I love them so much! We had an activity in the capela this week that went really well. Sister Tilton and I planned an activity with a whole bunch of Minute to Win It games related to gospel principles and the members here just loved it! They literally "Ate it up" and it was so fun to see all of them get so excited about everything. We tried really hard to put an emphasis on bringing a friend to the activity, but unfortunately that was the only unsuccessful thing.....no one brought a friend. (We are going to have to work on that)

I can honestly say at times on the mission I have questioned if I am making a difference or making the area I am in better, but this week I really felt a strong impression that we were doing things that were changing Mafra. We had one particular experience with a member one morning this week where she invited us over and completely opened up to us. She works a ton and has a busy family, so in the past the missionaries rarely were able to go to her house, but more and more she started inviting us to her house, up until the this point where she just thanked us for the work we were doing. It was the first time I have had a member tell me that I really was there making a difference and changing lives. I have felt constantly inadequate on the mission, so it was so nice to have someone tell us to our face that we were there making a difference.

Sunday our whole group went to Mem Martins because they had the primary presentation. Oh my goodness. If you thought the regular primary presentation was good.....just try watching a bunch of little portuguese children sing and talk about Jesus. IT BLEW MY MIND!!!!!! I just had a huge smile on my face the entire time I was there, and I am pretty sure Sister Tilton was laughing more at my reaction to things than the children. I was loving life! And it was awesome because I looked around and almost our whole group was there! Antonio was there and it was CRAZY because I looked over and almost didn't recognize him! He cut his hair and he looked like such a chic man! It really is incredible how the gospel changes the appearance of people. There was something special yesterday in our church meetings. I felt like our group was so united and powerful and that we were really progressing together to salvation. It was the coolest feeling!

With all these feeling that I have had over the past week and over the past 2 transfers here in Mafra for these people, I was sure I would be staying at least one more transfer with sister Tilton there. I had written President about all my goals too, and he gave me the strong impression that I would be staying as well........Welll. Yesterday night when we got transfer calls and found out I would be transferred.....I literally felt like someone had just absolutely betrayed me and backhanded me in the face! A little dramatic?...probably, but I cannot even tell you how much I wanted to stay in Mafra one more transfer. I was pretty devastated.

So to give you the news: I got transferred to VASCO DE GAMA! And I will be serving with Sister Lacey!! It is her last transfer in the mission, so I will be killing her. That will be a new experience. I literally was up all night packing last night because we were in a super solid lesson until way late with a family that Sister Tilton found knocking doors....which is another reason I am super bummed that I had to leave Mafra....This family is definitely going to be baptized! They were absolutely incredible! They invited us back to our house and we taught the first lesson to them, but in reality they basically taught us and shared all these amazing insights, and my mind was exploding the whole entire time we were there. So that is cool! And then I got the call and was in no way prepared to pack all of my backs. So I got one hour of sleep last night and I feel like I got hit by a bus at this point. We were in the mission office for like 4 hours today and I hadn't had anything to eat but coke......so basically I am treating my body real well! But it was fun to get to see A TON of missionaries that I have come to know in the mission because we had 16 WHITEWASHES this transfer. CRAZY! Basically every area got switched up real good!

But I am incredibly stoked to start this new transfer and I know I am going to learn soooo much here!

Love you guys to death! Participem bem! Paz e Bênçãos!

-Sister Selk