A God of Miracles

It shouldn´t surprise you all that this past week has been as crazy as the rest! 

I feel like half the things that happened this week, didn´t actually happen this week, but about a month ago....time just doesn´t make sense on the mission.

We did a super successful activity with a Family from our ward this week. Our mission is always focused on getting references from the members, so we decided to go to the house of Família Garcia and make cookies with them, and then we put together little packets of the book of mormon with their testimonies inside, the restoration pamphlet, and of couse our number. They turned out super well, and they got so excited to do it. The best part was that we were able to present on of the packets to their oldest daughter and her husband who aren´t members.

Success.

We worked in a new area this week called Quinta do Anjo- it is an area that not a lot of missionaries have worked in in the past, but we had Incredible success there! In a period of only one hour we found 3 families that let us in to talk to them, and look like they have real potential! And altogether from the few days that we worked there, we found almost 7 potentials. One casal was incredibly nice, and we found out that the husband actually studies religion and has already completely read the book of Mormon.

My mind was Blown.

I had my final zone meeting and mission counsel this week. It was a bit surreal to be sitting in those meetings knowing it would be the last.

Ugh. I don´t like thinking about it.

It seems like there hasn´t been a week yet that I haven´t had to drive to some place unexpectedly. This week it was Lisbon. I had to drive to Lisbon twice this week to attend mission counsel and also so that Sister Ditton could get her eyes checked for her driving license.

Saturday was a bit of a trying day. Maria has been out of Setúbal this week because of a sick uncle that she had to take care of, but it actually turned out to be a miracle, because when I called her at the beginning of the week to see how she was doing she said that she wasn´t able to smoke in her uncles house. I was super happy and it was literally a blessing because she had to stop smoking by the middle of this week in order to be baptized on the 31st.

Unfortunately, when she finally returned home, and we visited her on the Saturday she received us with a great big smile, but then told us that she just couldn´t change religions. She loves us a lot, but she said that she thought about it a lot and she just doesn´t feel like she can give up the catholic church.

I was crushed. Literally. 

Presidente Tavares has put a huge focus on having enough faith to make things happen, and I felt like I was putting all the faith I could into helping Maria be baptized, but in the end I just felt like my faith wasn´t enough. It was a hard thing for me to accept. Mainly because I have grown to love Maria so much, and I wanted to see her baptized before I leave. There were definitely a few tears shed...or many, but if there is anything that I have learned on my mission, it is that God is a God of Miracles. I knew in that moment I had 2 ways that I could respond to the situation. I could have continued to be sad, and dwell in the fact that our only person marked for baptism fell through, or I could continue to work even harder to find someone that is just waiting by the baptismal font, ready to jump in. I said a big long prayer at lunch, started a fast, and we went right back to work. We ended up working in Azeitão Saturday afternoon, and We saw tons of tender mercies from the Lord. Including teaching Joana-Alexandre´s girlfriend, and also visiting with a woman who´s son is severely brain damaged and discovering that her mom was actually a member of our church. I can´t even begin to explain the many small miracles we saw from the Lord this week. He is so loving, and knows our every need. I was reading in Mormon chapter 9 this week, which I feel describes my week perfectly. You should all go read it. It´s one of the best.

I love you all! I will see you in ONE WEEK!!!!!!!! Don´t get too excited. Keep calm and say a prayer :)

Paz e Bênçãos.

-Sister Selk

Maria Victoria and Raul came to church with us yesterday!

our avo here in Portugal- Victor :)

It´s super hot here, so just ignore the appearance. 

Familia Garcia

Recidencial do Gaio

I met some of the coolest people I have ever met before this week. And they all ranged from about 60-90 years old.

We received a reference from the other Elders In Setubal saying that they had run into a less active lady on the street that lived in our area in Palmela, so we were able to get the contact from them and set up plans for the beginning of this week. Her name is Raquel and when we called her she told us that she worked in an elderly home, but told us to stop by there to talk to her. I was a little bit confused at first as to why she would tell us to stop by her work, but on Tuesday afternoon we headed to Palmela and showed up in front of Recidencial do Gaio. It basically just looks like a normal home from the outside, but from the moment we stepped inside I literally felt like I was living in a film. We found out that Raquel is acutally the owner of this Elderly home, and she has about 8 residents living there that were previously mistreated in other homes. She is honestly the coolest person. You should all go look at their facebook page. All the Elderly people are SO cool as well. I wish I had time to go through and introduce everyone to you guys, but everyone has such a different personality and they are Hilarious. For example. We were all sitting around this table eating and there is this man named Zacharias- I literally didn´t know if he was super coherent to be honest. He didn´t say much at the beginning, and just looked a little bit like a skeleton, but then as we were eating he just started cracking all these jokes! It started with him drinking the lemonade and making the funniest little yelp along with a super ugly face followed by the comment "What are you serving me? Vinegar?!" 

Oh my gosh..I died.

And then he started hitting on Lurdes across the table from him- blowing her kisses and everything. I haven´t laughed that hard in such a long time.

I have so many stories to tell you guys when I get home.

Other events of the week: 

We had a division this week. I had to drive to Cascais to pick up Sister Barron and Drop off Sister Ditton on Wednesday morning. Sister Barron and I worked here all of Wednesday Afternoon, and then on Thursday morning I had to drive all the way back to Cascais to drop up Sister Barron and pick up sister Ditton again. It was super tiring, but we got through it!

As for an update on Maria.

She is slowly smoking less and less, and absolutely loves our visits. I have grown to love her SO much! She has to get baptized before I leave. She has to quite smoking 10 days before her baptism, so basically we are praying that she will be able to quit by quarta feira. We did a fast for her yesterday, but unfortunately she still wasn´t able to make it through the day without smoking, so we might to another one with her this week. I am so confident she is going to get baptized though! It´s going to happen!!

Well folks, Life is good! I am living a dream, I love the Lord and I love all yáll.

Fiquem Bem!

Paz e Bênçãos!

-Sister Selk

Sister Vanaquer spoiled us this week.....we like food way too much 

Sitting by me is victor (capitão chefe do lar) and then next to Victor is Zacharias 

Working hard or hardly working (Sorry it´s upside down...we get a little crazy in the car)!

 

Joana!

This is where the jovens in our ward were "camping"

July 11

We saw some amazing miracles and some strong opposition this week in Setubal. Sister Ditton and I have been working super hard, and because of that we have seen Satan working even harder against us, but we have also seen more miracles than ever.

The youth in our ward had their yearly camp this week, and we were invited out to give the spiritual messages a few days in a row. Their camp consisted basically of just all the youth camping, playing on the beach, and dancing to music......nothing super spiritual at all, so it was neat for us to be able to add another dimension to the camp. The best part about it was that out of the 30 youth that were there, I think about half of them were either less active or nonmembers. I am going to be completely serious and say that we have quite a few punk youth in our ward, but then we have this group of angel jovens that reminds me of the 2000 stripling warriors because they are so incredible!

I will talk about 2 youth specifically that are absolutely incredible- Alexandre and Simão.

First of all Alexandre is one of the coolest young men I have yet to meet here in Portugal. He is already an incredible missionary and is only 16 years old. At this camp he had 2 friends who are recent converts (Simão and Fabricio), he also had his girlfriend there who was not a member, invited another nonmember friend, and also Fabricio was there with 2 nonmember friends. So just because of this one young man there were about 6 other people there.

SUPER COOL.

We went out to their camp on Friday morning and did an activity with them. We decided to do the activity about the atonement and the doughnuts. We had a great big giant box with 36 doughnuts, and all 30 of the youth were there. We actually asked Alexandre if he could do the pushups. (Keep in mind that Alexandre is a pretty skinny dude that said that his max amount of pushups was 40.....I can do better than that, but I didn´t tell that to his face) I think all of you already know this story, so I won´t explain, but I went down the line and started asking every person if they would like a doughnut. For every answer of no or yes, I asked Alexandre to do 3 pushups. He hadn´t even gotten through half of the people and I could see that he was already getting super tired and weak. At one point he was starting to collapse and I honestly didn´t know how he was going to make it through the other 15 people. 

I have done this activity before, but I have never been the one giving out the doughnuts, so this time gave me a whole different perspective on how Heavenly Father must have felt as he watched his son suffer for all of our sins.

But by far the most spiritual part was when Simão (Alexandres friend and recent convert) got up without being asked, went over by alexandre´s side and started doing pushups with him. It was honestly one of the coolest experiences I have seen on the mission. Almost instantly Alexandre got more strength- I still don´t know how or from where, but he was able to do the 90+ pushups. 

I think it was definitely a touching moment for a lot of the youth.

I wish I had time to tell you everything that happened this week, because we honestly saw so many miracles!!! Including marking a lady named Maria for Baptism! She is such a cool lady, and she came to church with us this Sunday. She told us beforehand that she was really nervous to go to all 3 hours of church because she doesn´t do well sitting down for very long, but after church she said, "I can´t believe I made it through all 3 hours! That must be a sign!"

We will be teaching her tonight, so I will probably tell you more about her next week, but she does smoke, so if you could all pray for her this week, I would really appreciate it.

I am extremely grateful for the miracles that I witnessed this week. I know God is looking out for us, and helps us in each step of this work.

Love Yáll.

Talk to Mason for me. #jealous.

Paz e Bênçãos.

-Sister Selk

Too legit to quit!

I was reading Mason´s email from last week and realized that I had a pretty similar week to him this week, so it might be a bit of a repeat, mas tudo bem.

I was thinking about what happened this week, and we really did so much this week! 

First off, I will talk a little bit about Olhão!!! It was super fun being able to drive down to Olhão and spend a few hours visiting with everyone I know there. We really didn´t have that much time, so we didn´t get to visit everyone that I was hoping to get to visit, but I was super content with every visit that we made. I got to see Rosaria! We went and knocked on her door and her mom answered and said that she was working, so we asked for her number, but then her mom told us to wait one second and went and knocked on their next door neighbors house. Sure enough Rosaria opened the door! I was so not expecting that, and I know Rosaria was not expecting to see me because when she saw me her mouth dropped wide open and she came and gave me a big hug.

Priceless.

I also got to see Nato and his Family. They came to the church to visit with us for awhile. Bruno is preparing to serve a mission and we actually just found out yesterday that he will be serving in Spain! So that is super exciting!

Definitely the highlight of the day though was being able to go visit Avo Rosalia and Nuno. I knew that she wouldn´t recognize me, because her memory is not the greatest, but I died when I saw her. She is honestly the most Precious woman I have met here in Portugal, and is just the most dedicated member. She still walks to church all by herself, even though I don´t know how safe that is for her to do, because of the issues she has with her memory. But what made my day is when she still talked about the "lourinha" missionary that was so "querida"- That being me :) Although she didn´t completely recognize me, she still knows and remembers who I am. She was talking about me and asking where I was and Nuno had to tell her that it was me, and she just got so excited and happy.

I cried.

So basically it was a super succesfull trip to the algarve. 

On tuesday we had zone conference. Like Mason mentioned in his last email, all the missionaries bear their testimonies in the last zone conference, so like him, I also had to bear my testimony and my feelings were about exactly the same. I have seen so many other missionaries get up and bear their testimonies that it almost didn´t seem real that it was my turn. 

I honestly don´t want to and can´t think about that. Just sitting in my last fast and testimony meeting here in Portugal yesterday had me bawling.

I´m a mess.

But I am taking advantage of every minute that I have. 

As our final testimony they ask us to bear our testimonies on "why our mission was a success" I stood up and had to change that a little bit to "why my mission is a success, and will continue to be a success."

I love the mission so much.

We met the sweetest couple in one of our areas this week. They are just the cutest little things! Maria Vitoria and Raul. They are 83 and 86 years old, but they are goers! Man they probably work harder than I ever have! I feel pretty blessed sometimes as a canadian, because other people that have any connection to canada always love me. That was the case with Maria and Raul. They lived in Canada for many years and Raul was a very good carpenter. (He actually reminds me a ton of Grandpa Johnson.) They raised their family there and everything, and one of their sons still live there, but they moved back to Portugal with their other son. When They found out I was from Canada they invited us back to have lunch with them, so we returned and got to explain more about the book of mormon. I think the funniest part is that they are just this cute little couple but they have the most massive, terrifying dogs I have ever seen in my life.....I will try and send a picture.

I kind of got to celebrate canada day! We went to Claudia and Bruno´s house and I made them poutine....I have to say, I just pretend like I know how to make poutine everytime, but everytime it turns out pretty dang good.....What can I say, I am a true canadian.

Another cool story of the week! We have a family in our ward that is super firm, but they have a son who is 13 and has never been baptised because it is the second marriage of the mom, and his dad never allowed him to get baptized. But finally they got it authorized, and he was baptized on Saturday!!!! It was honestly one of the coolest baptisms I have attended. He was SO happy, it was incredible. He has been religiously attending church his whole life, and has always had to sit and watch the other deacons of our ward pass the sacrament, or hear about the other youth going to the temple, but finally it was his turn, and he is officially the newest member of our ward. That baptism definitely had me crying.

The rest of the week Sister Ditton and I were just working out bums off trying to find new people to teach. We visited a TON of our members to ask for references and when we weren´t doing that we were knocking doors like crazy!......It is definitely smoking here is Setubal. It was a solid 40º yesterday.......But I honestly cannot complain. I love this work, and every little struggle is so worth it.

Amo Vocês! Fiquem bem! BEIJINHOS.

Paz e Bênçãos.

-Sister Selk

Olhão

Minha Filha now serving in my area.....so weird!

Roberts!!

Rosaria

Minha Querida Avo!!!

Nato e Familia....and Luis....haha

Maria Vitoria e Raul

Some pics from the past few weeks

I never got to send pictures or talk about the baptism of André, but it went really well, and it was super special! Here he is!

Cristo Rei e Belema

The final 6

Let me just say right off the bat that this week made me extremely grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ in my life. I mean I wouldn´t be out here preaching the gospel if I wasn´t already grateful for it, but this week we got pretty exposed to some other religions, and let me tell you...The church is true my friends.

One of these experiences being with a Jehovas witness. We met this son and father knocking doors a few weeks ago and they invited us back to talk a few times, but our lessons just turned into more of a discussion of the scriptures more than anything else, so this time I was determined to go back there with purpose to find out if they really had the desire to learn more about this church. We prepared a lot for our lesson, and brought e member, and in the end it was a super good experience. 

We ended up dropping them, but it was still a super cool lesson.

We realized that they were more firm in their church than we thought and were basically inviting us over to try and convert us. At one point in the lesson João (the son) was saying something about the fact that he just couldn´t believe in someone like joseph smith and said that any true prophet of God, does not speak of himself but only of the will of God. It was at this point that I was able to bear one of the strongest testimonies I have shared about Joseph Smith. There is no doubt in my mind that Joseph Smith is a prophet called of God. I shared with him just a few of the things that joseph did in his life- including leaving his family and friend behind to die for this religion, and then I asked him if he thought any man who was just establishing a church for himself would do something like that. 

He got pretty quiet after that.

In the end, he really had no desire to change his life, but for me every minute was worth it, just because of the fact that I myself gained a greater testimony of the Prophet Joseph smith and this gospel.

We were also invited to the 7th day adventist church on Saturday, so we attended a few hours of that church as well, and it was basically the same story all over again.

The church is true fam.

We are still teaching Vitor and it is going well. It is a pretty slow process with him, and even though he doesn´t have the greatest intelectual capacity, he has such a desire to change his life which is amazing.

Oh! Also, another super cool experience that happened this week!

We were invited to Bruno and Claudia´s house to eat dinner on Saturday night (they Always give us food! They would invite us over everyday if us was up to them!) but anyways, bruno had to give his first talk in church this week, so we were helping him with his talk after dinner, and the best part was that his brother was there having dinner with us. He is a super nice guy, but you could tell he was kind of trying to keep closed to make sure that we knew he wasn´t interested in anything we had to say. But there was one point where I just shared my testimony of the atonement. I don´t remember exactly what I said, but I do remember saying that I wished that every person in the world had a greater understanding of the atonement because everyone would be so much happier. I continued to share my testimony, and as I was talking Bruno´s brother was listening so intently. I then asked Bruno to read Alma 7:11-13, and I think that scripture really hit him. We finished up with a prayer and while we were praying I got the strongest impression that I needed to ask him-actually not just ask him, but basically tell him- that he had felt something as we were talking. As soon as the prayer was done I looked straight into his eyes and said, "you felt something didn´t you." He responded without hesitation and said a simple "yes". All I said after that was, "when you want to feel that again, you have our number and we are available whenever you want to talk to us."

It was such a cool experience! Ahhh. It was crazy! I´m excited to see where it goes. Yesterday his little 8 year old son came to church with Bruno and Claudia, so that is a start.

To end, we got transfer calls last night and I found out I will be serving with Sister Ditton! It is going to be a blast. Also we are going to have 2 canadians in the house...the only canadians on the mission, so that is pretty cool! Sister Bravender is from Edmonton and is only in her 2nd transfer and will be serving with Sister Vanaquer. You better believe we are going to have a great 1st of July in our house! Whoop.

Hope you all have a great week. Love ya lots! Fiquem fortes! Só mais 6 semanas...Ahhhh!

Paz e Bênçãos.

Sister Selk

Serra de Arrabida

               Me attempting to do a breakdancing move that Sister Vanaquer taught me......fail.

I like catching crabs and stuff

Snails.

Well we went from nothing, to being super busy all within Last Monday to today. Finally the work has picked up!

We had what was called a "Semana Branca" Thid week in our mission, where every missionary dedicated just a little bit more and sacrificed just a little bit more, and did all that they could to baptize this week. 

Needless to say we saw many miracles right from the very start of our week.

Sister Bird and I started with a Fast on Monday to start out our week, and that night we went to a big park in our area with the sisters to meet up with one of our recent converts. While we were waiting for him we were doing contacts and I spotted a man sitting on a bench that I went to contact. We talked with him for a bit and then invited him to come join the lesson we were going to have with our member. He accepted. and as it turns out that, the member that was recently baptized is related to this man (vitor). We have since been teaching vitor about everyday, and he even came to church with us yesterday.

The only problem is that we found out he has killed someone in the past, and was very into drugs etc......but everytime we talk to him he tells us how much he wants to change, and he has already cut cut down his smoking.

The atonement is for everyone! But we will have to be a little careful and see how it goes. :)

I made cafe rio this week for our whole district, and everyone was loving it, so thanks katie for the recipe. You made some elders extremely happy that day.

We also had a division in Caiscais on Friday. Usually we stay over with the Sisters but we had to help with a baptism on Saturday, so it was a pretty quick "there and back" trip. But it is always fun to get to spend some time with Sister Barron. It was weird talking about the fact that we both only have one more transfer left on the mission.

Saturday was absolutely crazy. We were running all over the place trying to help out with the baptism of the Sisters and the Elders-Printing out programs, and getting baptismal clothes, picking up one of our investigators, and then on top of all of that trying to put together a musical number with the sisters.

Yup....Missionary life. But the baptisms were absolutely incredible! Sister Jarnagin and Vanaquer baptized the coolest 16 year old young man named Simão. He has such a strong testimony of the church and is going to do increidble things.

That night we had to capture Claudia-One of our recent converts-because it was her birthday and we planned a surprise party for her with her husband. So she came and taught some people with us while her husband and daughter prepared everything with the elders and some other friends. It was pretty fun to be a part of that.

Yesterday was also a solid day. I got to see my montijo family for the 3 time in 5 weeks, and I told them we would have to keep up this pattern. They all came to Setubal to see the baptism of one of the members daughter. (Which is a super cool story that I am going to have to tell you guys in a letter) Nevertheless, I was extremely excited to get to see them all! 

And then to finish off the week.....Snails.

I had my first experience eating snails this week. 

How I have gotten this far on the mission without eating snails...I don´t know.

But I was actually pretty excited to each them, and I think I was the only missionary out of the 4 of us who actually kind of enjoyed them.

Adventures. Why not.

Hope you guys have an incredible week. Try something new. Love ya!

Paz e Bênçãos

-Sister Selk

My first attempt at parallel parking...Sis Vanaquer has since taught me better:)

Small and simple things

Blessing of the week: It sounds like the Sisters of Setubal will be getting a new house! Whooo!

We talked with Sister Tavares last week about our house situation, because our house is LIXO! haha I have never seen such bad mold in my life. It is to the point where the mold is no longer black but has turned pink....how that happens, I have no idea.

Mysteries.

We also have a ton of cockroaches in our fridge and kitchen, and when sister Tavares heard about this she was pretty convinced that we needed to move. So our task this week was finding a new house. I had no idea what was included in this, but together with the 4 sisters, we figured it out. 

The real estate ladies didn´t take us very seriously, but in the end we found a nice apartment, so if all goes well we should be moving in the next few weeks.

As for the missionary work....

It´s been a little bit slow, but we are fighting the fight with faith!

Lately our challenge has been finding people with real intent. It isn´t that we haven´t found nice people.....we just haven´t found people that are willing to change their lives in accordance with the commandments of God. 

This week we had a lesson with a man that we contacted a few weeks ago. He was incredibly nice, and invited us back, the only problem is that he doesn´t believe in God. This week I was also reading in Alma about the AntiChrists, and I was thinking about him the whole time. There are so many evidences that God exists, but it is so sad that men are blinded by the things of the world. 

So if you guys are questioning what it is that you guys can pray for....We would appreciate prayers to help us find people prepared and willing to hear our message and change their lives.

Until we find these people....I don´t have much more to update you on. It was a pretty normal week doing the work of the Lord, but I am so grateful for the trials and difficulties we experience everyday, and especially for the tender mercies that the Lord gives us amongst these difficulties. Despite being a slower week, I saw many blessing from the Lord and received many answers to prayer. 

I have been learning that the Lord works through small and simple means-meaning that sometimes our answers will also be small and simple. Many times we overlook these answers to prayers, but I know that as we pray to recognize the hand of the Lord in our lives we will see his presence in our lives.

Love yáll. Fiquem Bem.

Paz e Bênçãos.

-Sister Selk

May 30

I´m forgetting everything that happened during the week at this point.....so it might be a bit of a short email.

We had zone conference this week, and basically the whole meeting we talked about having the faith to find people, which is really what we have been needing here in Setubal. That same afternoon Sister Bird and I dedicated our time to finding new people to teach, and we saw a lot of success. We decided to try working in a new area that we had never worked in before. It is a bit of a wealthier area, so it wasn´t easy work, but we were able to find some good people to return to. Some of those people being Lucas and Paula-a mother and son who has 15 years old.

They let us enter into their yard and we were able to talk a lot with them about religion. They are very religious in their own way, and are just the humblest and nicest people (She grew up in canada for a time, so that explains a lot ;) I can honestly say that I have never explained baptisms for the dead in my first contact with anyone, but our conversation lead to that, and they were really interested in the temple. I´m hoping we will be able to go back and visit them again this week, but they are an extremely busy family, so we will see what happens.

We talked to Milia and Sofia again this week and invited them to stop smoking. I think it is going to be quite the hard addiction for them to quit, so we are working on that. Unfortunately they weren´t able to come to church this week like they said, so there hasn´t been a ton of progress with them.

I have been trying to get to know the members a little bit better, so one day this week we went and visited one of the jovens in our ward-Alexandre. He is probably the coolest jovem I have met in Portugal. Sister Jarnagin and Sister Vanaquer are teaching one of his friends at the moment who is going to get baptized in the coming weeks, and Alexandre has already baptized another friend of his who was actually asked to give his testimony in front of elder Bednar at our stake conference, so basically this one young man is creating and army of valient LDS youth......he is super cool. He is only 16 years old, and has one of the strongest testimonies I have heard. He has been working on his girlfriend as well, and we have plans to do a pday with them next week, so we can get to know her better and create a relationship with her and start teaching her! I think it is going to be a golden tactic!

The rest of the week was pretty normal. I can´t think of much else to add, so I think I am going to leave it at that.

The church is true fam. I love this gospel, and the opportunity I have to share it with as many people as possible. 

Thanks once more for all the support and love. Vocês são INCRÍVEIS!

Paz e Bênçãos

-Sister Selk

Bednar

I thought nearing the end of my mission I would be accustomed to how busy life is, but it always surprises me each week how much actually happens and how much I still have to learn.

This week Elder Bednar came to visit our mission.

Let´s just say that I don´t think that man ever sleeps, breaths or eats. 

I literally don´t know how he does everything that he does!

All the missionaries in our mission went to Lisbon on Friday to be addressed by him. We were all packed in the little Benfica chapel and it was ROASTING in that room. That´s what I can the refining fire of the spirit.....or just way too many sweaty missionaries in one little room. 

Elder Bednar arrived after we sang the opening hymn and said the opening prayer and left before we sang the closing hymn and said the closing prayer, so it was pretty clear that he was on a tight timeline. 

But during our 3 hours with him he asked us a lot of questions, and also gave us the opportunity to ask him questions. The whole 3 hours was just a question and answer period, which was super interesting. 

He is such a power house! He is bold and direct, but so loving in his words, and it was a bit unreal only being a few rows from him. 

I know I personally received a lot of revelation and answers during that time, and he helped me view and understand the holy ghost much clearer.

We were also super fortunate, because on Sunday he gave a conference especially for our stake of Setubal, so just the missionaries serving in the Setubal stake got to listen to him again yesterday. It was another amazing meeting, and I was especially excited because I got to see all my family from Montijo! And not only them, but I also got to see Sister Andrade! 

Not long after I walked in the door I spotted all the members from Montijo and they all gave me the warmest smiles. I was literally so happy.....AHHH I miss my Montijo Family! And what made me even happier is that 2 members who we were working to reactivate were there!! Both Dionisio and Bruno were there, and they were both as happy to see me as I was to see them. 

Sister Andrade spotted me when I came in and ran up and gave me a great big hug! I got to sit with her for the first few minutes, but then there were too many people and not enough chairs, so all the missionaries gave up their chairs and we stood the 2 hours along the walls. (That alone was a touching sight to see)

During most of the conference with Elder Bednar I was just writing down all the things I was grateful for, because my feelings of gratitude were out the roof yesterday morning. I honestly can´t even begin to describe how grateful I am for my mission and all the people and experiences I have encountered. I don´t want to believe that it is coming to an end.

As for other exciting things things that happened during the week.

We have been working in an area called azeitão this week. It is honestly one of the most beautiful places I have seen while being in Portugal. There are lots of vineyards and trees, and it is a whole other part of Portugal that I have never experienced. We were able to find some new people to teach there, and actually ended up marking a mother and a daughter (milia and sandra) for baptism. I think they are going to require a bit of preparation, so we have planned for their baptism in June, and we will see what happens! We had a really good lesson with them, and Milia was really interested in Joseph Smith, and just began to explain that she too has had the same questions Joseph Smith had in respect to there being so many churches.

I love humble people that just realize that this gospel makes so much sense.....today on the other hand, we interrupted our P-day to have a lesson with a couple who turned out to be 7th day adventists.....they were not so humble. :)

The work has not been super easy lately. I thought coming to Setubal where I have heard of there being a lot of success it would be a bit easier, but it has been a bit of a struggle trying to find people who are truly interested in learning more, but little by little we are building things up.

I am still having way too much fun living in a house with 4 sisters. It is such a party, We had our first french class this week, and it was good to be able to review some of the things in french that I knew and completely forgot when Portuguese entered my head. We will see how far I can get with that in the next 10 weeks! 

Sister Vanaquer is also teaching us how to break dance......haha Oh my gosh, she is the coolest human being! She is just way too cool for me, but I am trying to pick up as much french swagg as I can while we are living together. Sister Vanaquer and I have been running in the morning and then we have meet up with the other Sisters in the church and have about a 1/2 hour dance lesson. I will see what I can do to arrange a video for you guys :) The other morning we were learning how to spin on our heads.......watch out fam, Sister Selk is going to have some serious swag by the time she gets home!

Love you guys so much!  Hope you have have an incredible week, and just remember to count your blessing because there are many to be counted!

Paz e Bênçãos!

-Sister Selk

Montijo Members:

Minhas queridas! Rita and Matilda

Bruno, one of the coolest less actives we were working with! I was super stoked to see him.

It made my day when paulo had to run up to me as soon as he saw me to shake my hand. I Love this man, and the transformation I have seen in him.

                                                               Guess Who Else I Saw??

The adventure begins in Setubal

Nova Zona

Who knew I was entering a house where everyone loves sushi as much as I do......QUE BÊNÇÃO

Trains, planes and automobiles

Oh my goodness.....where do I even begin!!!

This has probably been the craziest week of my mission. Absolutely nonstop and packed with lots of excited news and new adventures! 

We will start with last Monday.

We didn´t have much of Pday last week because we were preparing everything for Toni´s baptism!!! Everything worked out according to plans, and Toni was baptized on Monday evening! It was definitely the best way that Sister Andrew and I could have ended our time together. We were so happy. We met up with Toni in Setubal because he works near Setubal, so we figured why not just make it easier for him and have the baptism there. It was pretty strange to be there in the church that I knew I would be serving in the next day. The baptismal service was really beautiful. We had a decent amount of members there who all bore their testimonies about what baptism meant to them. I think Toni was really touched by it. He wasn´t sure if he was going to have to work on Sunday or not when we last talked to him, but we really emphasized the importance of getting the holy ghost, and after the baptism he told us that he would be at church on Sunday whether he had work or not. I called him and Sister Andrew yesterday and sure enough he went to church in a nice white shirt with the tie Sister Andrew and I gave hime and some spanky white shoes......He´s so cool!

It was the best way to end our transfer.

On Tuesday I finished up packing, because I really hadn´t had any time to do it earlier, and then we headed to Lisbon......I am SO happy that this was the last time I had to haul all my luggage around Lisbon....just saying.

There I met up with Sister Bird and said goodbye to Sister Andrew. I was quite touched saying goodbye to Sister Andrew, because I wasn´t sure how much of an impact I have made on her during our last 5 months together, but it was REALLY difficult for her to say goodbye, even though we are still serving pretty close to each other and will still see each other pretty frequently. She cried a few times, and looked extremely stressed to be leaving me, but I know she is going to grow so much this transfer. She has already called me about every night this week......hahah she is cute.

Sister Bird is in her third Transfer, just one transfer behind sister Andrew. She is from Salem Utah, and is super nice! She already speaks really good portuguese, and is super on top of things for just getting done training, so it is going to be a solid transfer together.

As for driving....

I couldn´t believe that on Tuesday, they just stuck me in my car and left me to figure out how to drive in portugal all by myself! Before I knew it I was taking round about after round about, driving amongst tons of crazy portuguese drivers, and crossing the lisbon bridge.

BUT.

We made it.

All is well in zion.

I haven´t gone down any stairs like the last sister who was driving this car.

I have only had a few people honk their horns at me.

I still have managed to get away with not parallel parking.

And overall it hasn´t been as bad as I thought.

The hardest part is coming into an area that I have never been to before, because I still am just relying on Sister Bird to tell me where to go. Luckily I feel like I have a pretty good sense of direction. I can get to the church and back without her telling me, so now it is just getting to know all of Setubal!

It has been SO fun living in a 4 sister house! I have absolutely loved it so far. I was excited to find out Sister Vanequer would be living in the same house. She was sister Andrew´s companion in the MTC, and from the little things I had heard about her, I knew I would get along super well with her. She is actually from France, and is one of the coolest sisters I have met on the mission. She has been helping me remember what little french I know, and we have already decided that we will have french class in our house every thursday. I´m pretty stoked about it. I haven´t got as much sleep as I probably could use, because her and I just talk at night. She is so interesting and we have a lot in common, so it has already been determined that I am going to have to go visit her after the mission.

I am loving Setubal so far! It has been fun working with other missionaries for a change. In our ward alone we have 3 sets of missionaries, and then the other ward has 2 sets. I haven´t never been in areas with other missionaries, so I feel like I am starting a whole new mission!

We had to go back to Lisbon on Thursday for mission counsel, and we also had our zone meeting this week, so I haven´t had a ton of time in our area itself and with the people, so I will give you an update about that next week!

I hope you all have a marvelous week! Love you lots!

Paz e Bênçãos!!

-Sister Selk

BATISMO!

Sis. Andrew - missing her already

Sister Stegi - haha - I love this sister. Enough said!