Sister Selk: Perseverar até o fim

Minha Família!!!!

Well this week was honestly the craziest week of my life!!! It consisted of a whole bunch of fantastic chaos!

Because I was without a companion for about 2 days I spent Monday and Tuesday with the Sisters in Barreiro. (It is a 4 sister house, so it was basically a huge festa for 2 days, especially because Sister Ventura was there and just so many sisters that I love) :)

I feel like I can literally travel anywhere in the world so easily now because of the mission. I am getting pretty good at transporting a ton of luggage from buses, to boats to metros. That´s actually what I did for about 3 days straight this week. I went to Lisbon on Monday to take all of Sister Lacey´s luggage, returned on Tuesday and took another sisters luggage, and then we helped Sister Ventura with all of her luggage on Wednesday morning, and then it was finally back to Montijo with all of Sister Andrew´s luggage on Wednesday night. So.....I am pretty much a pro.

Our office elders have stopped giving people rides for transfers so we have to walk a good 20+ minutes with all of our bags and that is not even including the 1 and a half travel we have before that, so after 3 days straight of doing that I was pretty dang exhausted.

We got a TON of new missionaries this transfer! About 12 sisters arrived along with probably 12 elders as well. We had training on Wednesday morning and then at lunch we finally got to meet the missionaries we would be training! Sister Andrew is probably the cutest sister I have ever seen. She is one of those sisters that just make all of the rest of us sisters feel bad about ourselves.....hahah Sad, but true! She is adorable! She is from Boise Idaho, and it has been so fun to get to know her. She is doing amazing for only having a few days here in Portugal. She has the funniest spanish accent when she speaks Portuguese, and I just love it!

It has been so interesting to be a trainer!!! As I have gone throughout the mission, it has been hard for me to see the progress I have made, and how far I have actually come, but as I have been training Sister Andrews I have really been able to see the progress I have made throughout my mission. It is amazing. I have felt extremely blessed these past few days. I know that the Lord qualifies those he calls. I have no doubt about that because I have already felt that so much this week. I have felt more bold and confident in my teaching, the language, and just as being a missionary in general. And I can attribute all of that to the Lord.

So besides getting a new companion, we had a super busy week! Sister Andrews got here on a running start! That is for sure. We were preparing this week for the baptism of Paulo!!!!

So let me just take a minute to talk a little bit about Paulo.

Paulo is probably one of my favorite human beings.

He is just the cutest Portuguese man with the best heart.

Ever since we met Paulo for the first time I have just become more and more amazed with him. I don´t know if you remember, but he contacted us in the street my first week here in Montijo because he had talked to the sisters about 13 years ago. And then just a few weeks later he basically hitch hiked and walked such a long ways to get to the church on Sunday, and everyday from the beginning he has been so dedicated to this church. Paulo is EXTREMELY intelligent. He went to university and was studying for a highly demanding program when he was younger and this is when things started going wrong in his mind. I still don´t know extactly what is wrong with him, but it kind of seems like he might have something like asburgers (or however you spell that) because he is basically a genius and remembers EVERYTHING we teach him. It is amazing. Every lesson we have he is frantically writing down notes, and applies everything we teach him. He always talks about "enduring to the end" Ever since we have taught that concept he just can´t get enough of it, and just because of that I know he is going to do amazing things for this branch.

We were able to get his baptism all organized for Saturday which was a miracle in itself because I was out of our area for so long this week, but I shouldn´t have been surprised when everything went perfectly, and his baptism was beautiful. When he came out of the water he had the hugest smile on his face. It was the most precious thing I have ever seen, and I will remember that moment forever. He looked SO happy!

During one of the talks at his baptism a member in the branch was talking about the Priesthood which we had recently taught him and he piped up and said, "What do I need to do to get the priesthood?!" To which Presidente Luis responded "Show up with a white shirt and tie tomorrow at church and we will talk more."

I just got the biggest smile on my face when I walked in the church doors yesterday morning to see Paulo standing there with a white shirt and tie.

He is my favorite!

It was such a good week! I loved every moment of it, and I am so grateful for the miracles and blessing that happened this week. God is watching out for us. I know that to be true.

Espero que vocês tenham uma boa semana! Amo vocês come todo meu coração!

Paz e Bênçãos!

-Sister Selk