This is Sister De Souza! She is a new missionary from Brazil. We worked together for a day!
It was super fun!
This is Sintra, part of our area! There are three castles in the distance if you look closely at this photo.
It is so beautiful here! We were trying not to look like tourists and still snatch pictures of our area. It is gawgeous!
When we were in Sintra, we found a toucan?!?!?! It was cool............and whatever.
I discovered another new fruit this week! It is like an interesting type of apple. Very good!
A pretty road in Sintra.
Sister Bakker found this fruit on the way to the Dukes house.
My Letter Home:
So you remember last week how I told you all about our bread
hookup? Well, the whole thing has gone totally bazerko. Without fail, every
night, he gives us TONS of bread. Muffins, pastries, loaves,
cakes...everything! And we literally cannot eat it all! It is as if he thinks we have a superhuman
ability to eat bread or something! Haha nooo.... So once our freezer was full,
we started giving it out to people. There are a lot of people in our ward who
could use the help, so it is actually a cool opportunity it give to people at
this Christmas time. We still have hope that our bread friend will come to
church someday. He said he will once he has a day off on Sunday. What a great guy he is!
I got to go on my first division as an Sister Training Leader
this week. I went with Sister De Souza, a missionary fresh from Brazil. She was
so cute. She has a big heart and totally wants to become the best missionary
she can. We got lost a few times, but I did my best to not make her stressed
out. I was cool with doing whatever. It
was interesting to be with her and remember when I was a new missionary. I didn’t
talk at all, being new with the lauguage. But she talked a lot! Totally
different experience! I really liked it though. Hopefully she learned something
haha, I don’t feel like I did anything. I helped her make a plan to learn English
and bought them a mini Christmas tree for their apartment! It was fun seeing a
new area! It seemed like they are in the middle of Africa. Amadora has a lot of
people from Africa.
So during the division, Sister Bakker and Sister Donahoo stayed
in Mem Martins and they headed up to Sintra to look up a reference. One day we
just got a text from the church with an address. Instead of a name, it had the
words "Duque da Bragança" haha okay?.... So they looked around and
long story short THE ADDRESS WAS THE ADDRESS OF A REAL DUKE. I AM GOING TO
TEACH A DUKE. IF PORTUGAL WAS STILL A MONARCHY, HE WOULD BE THE KING. What?! I
got to go later and see his house and it is huge! We are so pumped! We will
teach anyone, from a homeless man to a duke! They marked an appointment for in
the future. I am so psyched that I get to go! Heehee
We had our SISTER POWER
MEETING! It was really fun to sit down in a circle and talk about what we
thought our zone needed as Sisters. It was super spiritual. We didn’t plan out
super well what we would say, we decided we wanted a little bit more of a
discussion. We left a lot of the time open for the Sisters to talk. I love them
all so much. They all have really useful points of view.
This week was actually really hard. Not a lot of people wanted
to talk to us. But we are excited to keep going and celebrate Christmas like
none other. It will be wonderful! :)
Love you all!
Sister
Barron
PS.
One night we were walking and we literally came up on a car accident as it
happened. Within a minute, there was a fire truck and an ambulance and a tow
truck there at the same minute. We were just standing there watching, there
really wasn’t anything for us to do. But eventually we left and kept walking,
and we passed a woman. I remember looking at her face and thinking I had never
seen someone so tired in my whole life. She had a baby in her arms and was
pushing a baby carriage with another child and a bunch of groceries on the
handle bars. Simultaneously, Sister Bakker and I turned around and looked after
her. She had to stop like every 10 steps to readjust the baby. We decided she
needed our help and we ran after her. She was soooo grateful for our help.
Sister Bakker pushed the carriage and I talked to her. She was so exhausted. We
walked with her all the way to the taxi. She ended up taking our card and
giving us her address and number. She lives in the Elders area, so we passed it
to them. Hopefully her heart was softened and she will listen to their message.
I felt the spirit so strong as a bunch of people were running by to catch the
train, but we were there with this woman. Her Heavenly Father looked down on
her in that moment and decided she needed help. He sent us. I am so glad she
was humble enough to accept help. I know it totally made our day.
A part of Sister Bakker's letter home:
So I go on a division with the sister of Amadora. Sister Donahoo came and served with me in my area, Mem Martins. Well our first plan of the day was to go to Sintra to find this weird reference that we got from someone in Porto. So we go and we are walking along and asking people how to get to this weird road and they are all like "sempre em frente sempre em frente" or in English "always in front" So we are walking on this twisty mountain road in the middle of nowhere when we get to this random city. And we are like wow we made it!! So then we ask people for the next road that we are looking for and they are like what do you need on that road and we are like, we are looking for Duque. And people got so excited when we said that and we are like what the heck. What is Duque? So we get to the road and we are like ok I see no house named Duque. But we found the number and we ask this little old spanish lady "o que é Duque?" and she gets all excited and tells us in half Spanish half Portuguese that the duke is not home right now but that his brother is and that we needed to just touch the doorbell. She then showed us where the door was. In that moment Sister Donahoo and I look at each other and are like OH MY GOSH IT IS A DUKE!!!! So we walked like 1 hour to this HUGE house like soooo big we thought that it was like an old mansion that was turned into like rooms for tourists or something. BUT no it was a house that a duke lives in!!! So we talk to this lady and tell her that the duke wants to talk to us and she is like well you need an appointment. Call this number. And she gives us this weird number. So we leave and we call the number and this lady is talking to me and is really, really formal and is like who gave you this number and I am like uhhh Orlanda... and she goes "AHHHH SENHORA ORLADA!! ok ok we will make you an appointment and call back!" Soooo ya that is right we are totally going to teach a duke!!! And so we ask around a little and find out that if Portugal was a monarchy he would be in line for king!! WHAT!!!!!! SOOO COOLLLL!!!
A part of Sister Bakker's letter home:
So I go on a division with the sister of Amadora. Sister Donahoo came and served with me in my area, Mem Martins. Well our first plan of the day was to go to Sintra to find this weird reference that we got from someone in Porto. So we go and we are walking along and asking people how to get to this weird road and they are all like "sempre em frente sempre em frente" or in English "always in front" So we are walking on this twisty mountain road in the middle of nowhere when we get to this random city. And we are like wow we made it!! So then we ask people for the next road that we are looking for and they are like what do you need on that road and we are like, we are looking for Duque. And people got so excited when we said that and we are like what the heck. What is Duque? So we get to the road and we are like ok I see no house named Duque. But we found the number and we ask this little old spanish lady "o que é Duque?" and she gets all excited and tells us in half Spanish half Portuguese that the duke is not home right now but that his brother is and that we needed to just touch the doorbell. She then showed us where the door was. In that moment Sister Donahoo and I look at each other and are like OH MY GOSH IT IS A DUKE!!!! So we walked like 1 hour to this HUGE house like soooo big we thought that it was like an old mansion that was turned into like rooms for tourists or something. BUT no it was a house that a duke lives in!!! So we talk to this lady and tell her that the duke wants to talk to us and she is like well you need an appointment. Call this number. And she gives us this weird number. So we leave and we call the number and this lady is talking to me and is really, really formal and is like who gave you this number and I am like uhhh Orlanda... and she goes "AHHHH SENHORA ORLADA!! ok ok we will make you an appointment and call back!" Soooo ya that is right we are totally going to teach a duke!!! And so we ask around a little and find out that if Portugal was a monarchy he would be in line for king!! WHAT!!!!!! SOOO COOLLLL!!!
