WEEK 8- Teensy Tiny Kisses With Strangers : *

Hey everyone! It's me again! Good ol Sister Barron. Good ol iron side! Portugal is in some good hands! Here's whats going on this week:

I have had a few funny escapades with old Portuguese men this week. I swear, I dont think we have stopped someone under 50 this week. This town is comprised of only old people! =D and us. But I love it. They are always really nice to the ´´lindas meninas´´ (pretty little girls). Haha!

I met two old men this week who were very proud of their pet birds. A ton of people have pet birds here, like little canaries or tiny little birds. You see a lot of people feeding pigeons on the street. These two old men LOVED their birds. This one man had a cute little cage in his front yard with like 10 little birds in it......but the other old man. Oh. My. Gosh. He had a whole ROOM in his house FULL of these little birds! It was the craziest thing I have ever seen! I'm so sad that I didn't have my camera! It was wild! Bird poop everywhere, like you wouldnt believe! It was so sososos fascinating. 

Another funny old man story: Okay, a funny thing about Portuguese people is that everyone kisses eachother. It's not a super big deal, it's just two little kisses on the cheek for a greeting. Its called ´´beijinhos´´ (directly translated ´´little kisses´´) It's different coming from an American perspective. Lol One night in our apartment my comp, Sister Jones, exclaimed ´´I hate beijinhos!´´ hahahaha it was so funny. Its always a very awkward experience. But don't worry Sister Jones´s mom (who I know reads these emails) she is a good girl and does her beijinhos to all the women in the ward. =) Anyways, we are expected to give these little kisses to all the women. Normally we would do it to the men too, but it is a mission rule that we are not allowed to give beijinhos to men. Haha phew. One day though we met this old man on the side of the highway and he asked us where we were from. When we told him we were from the Estados Unidos he exclaimed ´´I love the United States!!!´´ and grabbed my neck in an iron grip and tried to give me beijinhos. There was no way to get out. I tried to escape but it was too late! So I just sort of ducked my head and he kissed the top of my head. Dangnabbit! Jeez, haha I have to stay out of arms reach of these Portuguese! It was fine though, I did all I could. =D

I met this really cute old man again this week, his name is Lorentino and I think he could be the cutest patriarch. He always calls us his ´´amors´´ or ´´amigas´´ or ´´lindas meninas´´ or anything else endearing. He is wanting us to come teach him today, so wish me luck with that! The other day we passed by and he was out feeding his pigeons, and we had a short prayer with him. We prayed for his health and happiness and family, things we know he treasures. When the prayer ended we opened our eyes and he was standing there with teary eyes. He exclaimed ´´you brought me to tears!´´ and tried to give us beijinhos....we dodged it haha. But then he started to recite a poem. I couldnt understand everything he said, but it sounded very beautiful. The desires of his heart were on the table. Oh man, I know he would love the church. This is exactly what he is looking for to fill the hole in his heart. So many people want this, they want answers to their questions. I know he will find it here. 

And last but not least: bread. The bread here is so. good. The smell of freshly baked bread is always wafting over the city in the moming. This morning me and Sister Jones went on a run to go get pastries....haha it seemed a little backwards but we figure we walk about 10 miles a day so it should be okay lol. The pastry was sooooo good, flaky and buttery, straight out of the oven, and chocolate in the middle. Mmmmmm I could've eaten 10 of those babies. But I only ate one. Yay me!

Another funny thing: our shower is broken right now, it has been since we got here, and we shower using a hose-like thing. Its pretty ratchet. Showering takes much longer than it could. Gotta love the mission life! Hopefully we get that fixed soon. 

The language is.....going haha. Its kinda strange. I understand a lot of what people are saying, but I cannot respond. Its kinda like being gagged. And I love to talk, so sometimes it is very difficult. I want to converse and talk, but I just can't. I know, I know, its only my second week, I will learn, but I want to know pork´n´cheese now!! Haha I guess I'm learning a lesson in paciência. 

Sometimes its hard, especially the late hours when we are wandering out in the cold while everyone is eating dinner (they eat dinner from like 7-9, its crazy), but I am having a lot of fun. We always take a moment to laugh. We rejoice in our purpose. I know I am here to do the Lords work. I hope I can fullfill all of your expectations for me, because right now I don't feel super useful. I will be the first mime missionary! But I am super grateful to be here in Portugal. I wouldn't rather be anywhere else. Its so nice to have such a clear purpose in life, I don't think I have ever experienced this sort of feeling in my life. I know exactly what I have to do. I know exactly what the Lord wants of me. Now I just have to do it. Bring it on! 

I hope you all have a wonderful week! I love you all!~~Sister Barron

WEEK 7-I'm in Portugal!!!

 Flying over Lisbon. <3 I can't explain it, but I already love this country and it's people 

and I have yet to touch the ground.

This is a picture of all of the incoming missionaries and their new trainers. We are about to head out to our assigned areas. =D

This is my Mission President and his Wife, 

the Fluckigers.

Me meeting my trainer Sister Jones for the first time! She is from CA and has been 

in Portugal for 9 months!

 Us in front of the church building on Sunday.

 
Me in front of our apartment. =D

My letter home:

Oh my gosh hello everyone! I am officially in the country of Portugal! Its been a crazy couple of days here, and I will now tell you a little about them:))))) Its funny because I am currently typing on a Portuguese computer so all these words have red lines under them. I dont think Ive forgotten English that fast!!! haha

So to get here was a crazy adventure. Me and the other missionaries going to Portugal had to travel together. All in all, there was about 21 of us. It was nuts. Everywhere we went people had funny reactions- whether it was looks of awe or strange looks. Hehe The life of a missionary is great. We induce strong feelings from strangers. I talked to a few people about what we were doing and where we were going....most people think its so awesome that we are immersing ourselves in a different culture and learning a different language. That is fun, but our purpose is not to tour and see a new country but to help people COME UNTO CHRIST. Everything else is just a perk.

When I got here to Portugal it was completely nuts! We were soosososososoososos tired, we were running on probably 6 hours of sleep for the past 2 days. Our travel time was over 24 hours....yeah, I couldve slept on a bench and been so content. I got here and immediately met my new companion. Her name is Sister Jones, and she has been here for 9 months! She is amazing, from California and completely fluent in the language, so it's nice to know that I can rely on here to not leave me hanging. =) We met, listened to some speakers, and left for our assigned areas. It was sad to see Sister Dixon leave in a car without me. I hope she is doing okay in whatever area she is in. I know we are relatively close in the country of Portugal, so I kinda know what she is going through. She was assigned to Porto as well. Sister Jones will be an incredible trainer, I can tell. =D

The weather here is funny. Its pretty windy, cold in the morning and evening and hot in the day. Luckily its not so bad I need to use my huge coat. I am not near enough to the ocean to see it, it just seems like I am in a really windy, cute tiny city. Everything seems tiny here, its so funny.

I have been assigned to serve in the Porto North area, specifically in the Amial C area. We are in the very most northern part of the country. What a surprise! For some reason I had the strongest feeling I would serve in Lisbon or in the South! I hear the people there are really different. Lots of African immigrants, all very nice, but up here in the north it's a bit different. Everyone is only Portuguese. They are sososososoosoososos short, and me and my comp are SUPER tall compared to them (she's taller than me). People stare at us wherever we go. But I also think that the people here are very nice. They always say ´´Bom Dia´´ back, and they are alwayssss willing to give you directions if you are lost. Which is really good because me and my new companion are opening a new area. There have been missionaries here in the past, but there was a time when not a lot of people were getting baptized so they closed the area and sent the missionaries to other, more busy places. Probably Lisbon. But the work here is picking up and we are excited to figure out where the heck we are haha. She hasn't lived here before either, so we use our maps and kind directions from strangers a lot. Here in Portugal we walk A TON. No missionaries have cars. No missionaries have bikes (because the streets are all cobbled, you would crash in an instant. So I have had to get used to that. My calves will be like rocks after this year and a half. Its funny because we have to walk a little ways to get into our specific area. We walk on the side of a highway haha (Sorry, Mommy, I swear we tried to find another safer way.) Men are always honking and whistling at us ahah. I've started a cat call tally, Im at 12. Been here for 3 days. yepp. The Portuguese men are nuts. But I love it here. Such a different feeling than in the states. And I am working for a wonderful cause. Can you believe that I've almost been on my mission for 2 months!? Time flies!

Funny things I've noticed about Amial: there are cats and dogs EVERYWHERE. You have to be so careful not to step in poop all the time. I don't think any of them have homes, but they aren't mean animals. They usually just mind their own business and so do I. The power here is wierd. I plugged in my hairdryer once to use (in a converter) and after about 5 minutes the power in our apartment died!!! So I haven't used it again since then. There are tons of old people here! Soooo many, I would say we talk to 90% people over 55. But I actually love it. They are always really nice. There are always these funny old men standing on the street corners, not doing anything just standing there watching people. They always say ´´Ola meninas!´´ haha (hello little girls). Everyone smokes here. Like, the air itself in the city smells a little like cigarettes. It was really noticable when I came here, but now I only notice when we go into anyone's house. Woo, instant headache. =) The cars are all really tiny. Although not all Smart cars like I thought it would be. There are tons of these chinese stores everywhere. So many, I don't know how they stay in business. But they sell anything you could every want! Kinda like a dollar store, but everywhere. People are always surprised and confused when they see two white, tall, American girls walking around speaking Portuguese. Haha element of surprise!!:)

The ward we are in is so awesome! The church we go to is huge! And so new. I can tell they are anticipating a big congregation. We are happy to oblige! It's funny though because the building itself is new and a lot of the things are new, but all the hymn books (church music) are literally falling apart. I got to see the baptism of this old lady on Sunday. She was sososo adorable. She was super tiny, and when the man performing the baptism tried to baptise her she curled up into this tiny ball and he just picked her up and gently dunked her. She had this look of immense happiness and peace. She came out of the water and immediately said ´´Is that it!? All finished!?´´ ahha what a sweety!  Her name was Fátima. That is really common name here. 

The language is going.... I feel like I am doing really well. I've been here for only three days, but I feel like I understand a lot of what is going on. Its hard out on the streets though because a lot of people talk strangely, either mumbling or  they don't have teeth or super super fast. I don't understand a lot of that, but luckily my companion has my back and can handle anything. ;D I'm not super stressed about it. At church I understand about 90% of what people are saying. I have definitely studied the religious aspects of Portuguese more than anything else. Everyone was so shocked at how fast I have progressed. The Elders in my area were so jealous of how I took a Portuguese class at BYU before the mission. It seriously helped so much. And to all my friends who have a mission call to another country: STUDY THE LANGUAGE BEFOREHAND. It definitely doesn't make you fluent, but you will be that much farther into the kinda painful process of learning a new language. It is awesome to do whatever you can. 

Me and my comp were walking down the street and we saw this woman working in her tiny garden in her front yard and I said "bom dia" and ´´bonito jardim´´  because that was about all I could think to say, and she immediately came up to the fence and started chatting with us. She just had stars in her eyes. She said she would love to hear a message about our Savior, Jesus Christ. Her name was Rosalina (pronounced Hoshaleena). We shared a short message with her and then offered to say a prayer with her. We prayed for her health, happiness, and to find what she was looking for in her life. When we opened our eyes after praying on the side of the street, she had huge tears in her eyes. She got choked up and said she would love for us to come back again. She is the reason I am here. To find those people who are ready to hear this gospel. To bring them something they crave, something that will bless them for the eternities. I hope things go well with her. She seemed very ready and eager to hear what we had to say. I know that this gospel can help her, along with anyone on this earth. I feel the spirit so strongly at times, I know that what it testifies is true. I was called to come to Amial, Portugal to get all these cute, old people to church. To lend them a helping hand on the road to salvation. I am so excited to get this work going!

Thanks you all! My new mailing address is:

Rua Bernardim Ribeiro, 376 2º DRT TRAS

4465-041 São Mamede de Infesta

Dont feel pressure to write me a letter, I know it is super expensive to send stuff internationally haha. Like 5 stamps or something (a certain cost has to be on the envelope, I donºt know what) But yeah! That is where I live! Email me though!  I love hearing from you all.

quincey.barron@myldsmail.net

I hope you all have a wonderful day! I know I am! :D

Sister Barron

INDEED! I am alive!

Here are all new missionaries with our new trainers and the Mission President and his wife.

I am in Portugal! This is so fun and strange haha. My area is the Porto North Zone, more specifically the town of Amial. My new trainer is Sister Jones. We have a lot of fun and we are both really tall haha. We call ourselves the forest. I guess Portugal is where they send all the tall sisters. We are actually opening a new area! We are super excited. We were given a bunch of records of people who have been taught in the past, some from 2007! Haha! And this morning we went through all of them, trying to figure out who to teach. Sister Jones is new to this area too, so it should be interesting.

The travel was crazy, hours and hours without any sleep. We kinda got jipped of our welcome to the mission shpeal because of the travel mixups, but its okay. =) My Mission Pres. seems cool and so does everything else. My prep-days that I will email you is on Mondays. I have yet to talk to a real live Portuguese person, so that will be interesting. =D Oh wait, I heard their voices on the phones! wooooooo~Haha!

Love you all! The church is true! Portuguese is fun!~~Sister Barron

Week 6 - I leave TOMORROW! =0

 My flight plans.

And…takeoff!!!

Just in case you didn't know,  it's right there. =P

 Our Portuguese teacher, 
Brother Lemperle had a birthday.
 So we made him a piñata!

 On our way to class!

 This Elder was in my ward at BYU! 

 Fun to see him there!

 We met some foreign Elders. One from the Netherlands and one from Haiti. They are so nice and have an awesome passion for this work! The church is true all over the world! (and it was super fun to speak Port. with the Haitian elder)

 Our CREW…LOL!

All are leaving to Portugal tomorrow!

My letter home:

Wow. This is my last day before I get on a plane to fly out to Portugal. Everything has worked out so well. I actually got my visa without a hitch! There was a worry for a while that I wouldn't get my visa in time to go out with my district. There were three missionaries in my zone who didn't get their visas. Each of them were reassigned to somewhere in the US while they wait. Elder Tobler in my district got reassigned to Montana, and two other missionaries were reassigned to Chicago and PROVO. Wow. I'm so glad that we were able to get things done for mine. Just send me to my country pleassssse :)

Our last Sunday here was amazing. There are a ton of missionaries leaving the MTC right now. Me and all the Portugal missionaries sang in church. We sang "God be with you till we meet again". I was fine the first two verses, but the third verse we sang A Capella in Portuguese and I lost it. I was crying in front of everyone, haha so embarrassing. But the spirit was so strong. We are going out to do the Lord's work and we will be blessed with the ability to speak this language. It is amazing to me. The translation of the song into Portuguese is really interesting too. It has a totally different message "with power, with power, with power we find in Jesus." 

My teacher, Brother Lemperle, had a birthday this week. We all love him so much. He is such a spiritual power, he is so inspiring. We wanted to do something awesome for his birthday. We put together a "pinata". Basically it was a box full of all the candy and snacks we didn't want and we decorated it with all the random things girls stick on their residence hall doors. It was so funny. He is really an awesome guy. He told us a lot about the country this week, and it got us so pumped to go there. It sounds different than I imagined! But still so amazing. Miracles are on the horizon, I can almost taste it!

As we get ready to head out me and Sister Dixon are getting ready to part ways. When I get there I will be assigned to a new companion who will train me in the language and the area we will be in. I hear a lot of newbies get assigned to be trained by native Brazilian missionaries  so they are kinda forced to learn the language faster. It sounds a bit scary, and potentially lonely, but I honestly hope that I do get assigned to a native portuguese speaker. They say you learn the language like twice as fast.

I don't want to think about leaving Sister Dixon. I love her so much! She has taught me so much spiritually. She is truly a ray of sunshine. (That was how my Branch President described us when he was releasing us from our Sister Training Leader duties. "You two were a ray of sunshine to this branch." It was so awesome to get to serve in that capacity. Now some other sister will get the chance to be leaders! And we will be at the bottom of the totem pole once again haha:)) I cannot wait until the day when at the end of our missions we meet up again and we are BOTH completely fluent in Portuguese! Wow, it will be awesome and soooososososososos much fun!

This gospel is so amazing. A scripture I have been reading a lot lately is Alma 32:28. It talks a lot about how faith is like a little seed, and when we plant it in our hearts we can be rewarded. I know that by the fruits of our faith we can receive the greatest gift of all: eternal life with our Father in Heaven! That sounds like the most wonderful gift we can ever receive. And guess what? it is!!! This is Briggs' favorite scripture "And if you keep my commandments and endure to the end, ye shall have eternal life. Which gift is the greatest of all the gifts of God" (D&C 14:7) THAT is the goal. THAT is the reason I went on a mission. THAT is what I want to give to everyone I teach, everyone I know, and everyone i meet. I hope you all meditate on this fact this week. Do you want eternal life? What would you do to have eternal life? Do you want to live with God forever after this life? I can tell you how! And so can any other Mormon missionary! =D

Thanks you all! I love you and really appreciate all the love and support ya'll send my way. <3 My mailing address will be changed now that I am going to Portugal! I can't remember what it is at the moment but I posted it on Facebook a while back, so feel free to go look it up if you want. Letters are worth their weight in gold to a missionary! Thanks also for all the emails. I read each and every one!

Muito Amor!

Sister Barron

Week 5- The ZOO came to town!

 It must be done.

Sister Dixon is awesome.

Next week we will hop the pond!

This is our MTC Branch President

 

This sweet couple is the Bertassos!  I must remember them. I love them!

 

Love this sculpture at the MTC.  Makes me kinda thankful that we don't ride bikes in Portugal. Hehe

My letter home:

OI TO ALL! This week has been great! Wow, surprise right? Jeez, I am having so much fun being a missionary. I love it all.

This week the zoo has come to town at the MTC! One night I was trying to sleep and I hear all these girls screaming and squealing. In a dorm, that is a normal thing to hear at midnight. But at the MTC we all go to bed at 10:30 on the dot, so I was wondering what in the world those girls were doing. And then we here a girl on the phone with the front desk "There is definitely a MOUSE in our room!" haha no one could sleep very well after that! haha the whole hall heard her! and then during relief society on Sunday we were all sitting there trying to pay attention and all of a sudden a BAT starts flying around the room! Like what?! Haha whenever it got really close to the audience the girls would scream. Haha needless to say, we were not very focused on the speaker.

This week me and Sister Dixon got to welcome our new sisters and elders into our Zone. We had 7 new sisters and 3 new elders. They are all going to Brazil. It was so fun to look into their eyes and know exactly how they are feeling. We bore our testimonies and let them know they are in good hands. It's so bizarre that we are the "oldest" missionaries in our district! We only have one week left before we go! It's coming up fast! We are the senior citizens of the Portuguese hall! Haha we try so hard to set a good example for future elders and sisters.

For example, yesterday my district decided that we would do a "English fast" all day! Every time we accidentally spoke English we had to put a mark on the board with our name by it. We all had tons of marks by the end of the day! But I honestly think it was such a great experience. Soon we will be constantly doing and "English fast", might as well start now! I was able to say so much more than I thought I could. For the most part I was completely functional!

We recieved our flight plans this week! We will be flying to Dallas, then to ENGLAND and then to Portugal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We have a 4 hour layover in London, but unfortunately we cannot leave the airport. We wanted so badly to go out and explore, but I'm sure they just don't want us to miss our flight. That would be tragic! 

Me and Sister Dixon got to meet personally Brother and Sister Bertasso. Brother Bertasso is the second counselor of the whole Missionary Training Center. He has been to Portugal and only had awesome things to say about it. I honestly believe I am going to one of the best missions. =D He really loved us, and told us that he knows our future mission president personally (the one that will be put in in July) and wanted to send him and email saying "You know you have been blessed if you see that you will be getting Sister Barron and Sister Dixon!" Wow, what a compliment! He asked us on the spot to teach him something in Portuguese and we nailed it. Wooo!

This week an elder told me and Sister Dixon that we have "the best hair companionship ever". Haha never heard that one before! Thanks elder!

I love this church and I love you all! I know this is the one true church on the earth! It has everything we need! I know it when I pray, read the scriptures, and teach. We had an awesome experience this week. We were teaching this elder (pretending to be a nonmember who was interested in the church. He was a very good actor). He said afterwards that he was trying his hardest to act like a nonmember friend of his. We were teaching him about the importance of prayer (all in Portuguese of course) and we asked him to pray with us. We all knelt down to show respect for God, and he gave the most innocent and sweet prayer ever. The Spirit was so strong, He even choked up a bit.  Afterwards he said it was so spiritual and he could just feel our sincerity and he truthfulness of our message. It meant so much. 

Love you all! Have a wonderful week!!!

Sister Barron

*Week-4 *Month-1 HEY! It's Sister Barron Again!

Our entire zone of missionaries going to Portugal!

 You can never get bored of pictures 

of groups of missionaries standing 

in front of the temple, right?!

At least you get to see our different outfits. =)

Letter Home:

Hey guys! I hope you all are having a totally rad week! Haha I miss you all and I love you all as well. Can you believe I've been out for a month already?!?!?! I am 1/18th done with this mission of mine! Woooo bring it on! I have two more weeks at the Missionary Training Center and then I am off to Portugal! I am one of the veterans here now! =) Most missionaries, who are going on English speaking missions, are just here for 2 weeks. As for me, I am here for 6 weeks. The mountains here are covered in snow. It is seriously so beautiful. Me and Sister Dixon always talk about how we wish we could just go out and hike those beautiful mountains. Someday, Sister D, Someday! She truly is my bosom friend. (Anne of Green Gables) haha I've always wanted to use the term "bosom friend". Be glad you are here to witness it.

This week was pretty hilarious so I will make a list of the funny things that happened this week:

1. So every Sunday night all the missionaries get to watch a movie. It's always a gospel related movie of course, but everyone still gets a little thrill from actually watching a movie. Haha a lot of people like to watch the Joseph Smith movie because it has a little bit of romance when he meets his wife, Emma. hahahah missionaries are so goofy. Anyway, my family sent me some microwave popcorn in the mail and me and Sister Dixon went a popped it beforehand so that we could eat it during the movie. Oh my goodness EVERYONE was looking at us haha. The smell must have been driving them crazy. Sister Barron and Sister Dixon are here!!! 

2. So me and my district decided as a group that every time we are late to class at 7 in the morning we have to do 10 pushups as a punishment. Well the sisters and I HATE pushups, so every morning it is a frantic sprint to the classroom in the darkness. Haha running with a huge bag, in a skirt is not my idea of fun. I always think I am in a nightmare or something. But hey, what better way is there to wake up than by running in the freezing cold in a skirt? Haha

3. Another district challenged us to a "tower challenge" where we try to eat all the cereal in one of the cereal dispenser thingies. That is A LOT of cereal! Honestly I was afraid. But we all worked together and we downed that baby! Haha I never want to eat frosted flakes again. I'm pretty sure one of the elders almost threw up. Wow I just looked out the window and it is snowing like crazy! Time to wear my tights!

4. A sister in our room (Sister Runyan) received nerf guns in a package. We had soooo much fun ambushing random people outside and in our hall. I am not kidding, I think they are sending all the crazy sisters to Portugal. We cry laughing probably everyday. I am having so much fun with them.

5. Sister Dixon's skirt was wayyy to big on her, so one day I brought my tiny sewing kit to class and we went into a study room and I fixed her skirt! We just kept hoping no one would walk in on us.   Thanks mommy for teaching me life skills like sewing!

6. Me and Sister Dixon had a dance party this morning. But because we can't listen to music, we had to get creative. I set my alarm for a minute in the future and when it went off we went crazy! It was actually wayyy more fun than I thought it would be. There's even a drop and everything! Haha we will definitely do that again. Go and try it!

Okay, so that you know I don't just goof off all day, I will now tell you guys some of the more serious spiritual experiences I have had. There have been plenty and I love it! 

This week was fast Sunday. We resist eating food for two meals and the money we would have spent on that food goes to those who need it. All church members do this once a month. It was such an awesome experience. I felt like all of us, youth together in the gospel willingly giving up food for two meals, was such a power for good. It shows that we have self control. If I can't resist the temptation to eat a pop tart, how will resist when Satan really throws a curve ball? I am so glad that I had the opportunity to fast with my fellow elders and sisters. We also got to go to mission conference with the whole MTC! We had awesome speakers, they all had really uplifting things to say. Our leadership here is truly divinely inspired.

I also had the opportunity to have a temporary transfer for a few days. I switched companions for 2 days. I was working with Sister Steagall. She is such a spiritual power and so talented in the language! Our lessons together were like a piece of art! The spirit was so strong. I am so glad I got to work with her. She is funny because whenever she starts laughing she literally cannot stop for probably 10 minutes. Then I start cracking up watching her. It's a never ending cycle. I loved working with her.

The language is going great! We are now learning all different sorts of verb conjugations, like preterit and imperfect and stuff like that. I am understanding pretty much everything we talk about! I know that once I actually get to Portugal the language will probably punch me in the face, but for the MTC my language abilities are totally sufficient! I love it! I have so much more capabilities than I ever imagined. I always thought I was bad at learning a language, and here I am, entirely capable of having a gospel discussion in Portuguese! Like what?! I totally believe the gift of tongues is real. Us missionaries are totally blessed. 

Me and Sister Dixon are loving our duties as zone sister training leaders. We get to welcome a bunch of new missionaries into our zone this week! We have 7 sisters coming in and 3 elders! Wow, soon the number of Sisters will succeed the number of Elders in the MTC! Wow, sister power! I love feeling so useful in the hands of the Lord. 

 This week I have read this one chapter in the Book of Mormon over and over. It is so applicable for so many things in our lives. I used it in multiple lessons and discussions. It is 2 Nephi chapter 31. In it, we can read the actual words of our Lord, Jesus Christ. He just wants us to "follow" Him. He lead such a perfect life, all we can do is try our best and do everything in our power to be like Him. I challenge you all to read this chapter. If you don't have the Book of Mormon, you can access it online for free. I love you all and I know these words will uplift your day as it did mine. 

Thank you all for your sweet emails and kind words! I read them all and I love hearing from you! I know most of you probably won't read this, but I just wanted to put my testimony in here in Portuguese. I know this church is true!

Eu sei que Deus e Jesus Cristo vivem. Eu sei que eles querem ser um parte de nossas vidas. Eu tenho muito amore for meu Salvador. Eu sou grato servir uma missão for meu Senhor. Eu tenho muito saudade estar com meu Pai Celestial em céu, mas Eu sou grato por este opportunidade servir. Eu sei que nos somos mais poderoso que nos sabemos. 

Keep up your growth! I love you all!

Sister Barron