So
today during pday we were walking around and we were stopped by this young
couple. They are members of the church from AUSTRALIA! They said they saw our
nametags and wanted to buy us lunch! So we went with them to a fancy restaurant
and talked to them. The guy said he had served his mission in Sydney, Australia
and LOVED it! He was so nice, and his wife too. We had so much fun meeting them
and talking to them. They got the biggest kick out of me speaking Portuguese to
the waiter.
We also wandered around our area in these beautiful sculpture gardens.
More silly garden pics.
This was the week of the SUNGLASSES! The rules have changed and we can now wear sunglasses.....we love them! Our eyes aren't frying any more. Wheeee
One day we got lost and we ended up walking along the beach....it wasn't so bad in the end! That is when we met Shadi!
The other day I could sense that my comp was kinda bothered and
I wasn’t sure why. So during our comp inventory I used some inspired questions
to try and figure out what was wrong. And I did! She opened up and explained
that she was really stressed because her journal-keeping has been lacking. Her
"journal" was just a bunch of pieces of paper that she had stuffed in
a bag. She was dying to organize it, but we didn’t have time. In that moment I
had to make a decision. What was more important, my companions happiness or the
training that I might give her? I made a decision and then we spent the next
hour organizing her journal. I cut out SO many little pieces of tape and paper.
Glue sticks were flying. In the end we didn’t even finish, but we got a good
chunk done. Afterwards she got really happy and thanked me a lot. Maybe it wasn’t
the most obedient thing for me to do, but I don’t really think so because it
was l was serving my companion. I have been praying for ways to serve her and
this was the thing I was waiting for. It reminds me of something that one of my
good friends here in Cascais told me, "Missionaries that don’t keep the
rules are bad missionaries, BUT missionaries that leave behind their companions
to keep the rules are WORSE." We are called to be representatives of Jesus
Christ, not only to those that have the potential to be baptized but to
EVERYONE. Members, neighbors, and ESPECIALLY our companions. I believe that the
BIGGEST fubeka (Portugal missionary slang for "lazy missionary") is
the missionary that can’t love her companion. If I don’t baptize a single
person, but I love my companion and we try our best then THAT is success. One
of my biggest mission successes is that I am friends with all of my companions.
I love them all, each one. They all have a special place in my heart. I hope
they can say the same thing about me.
Another thing that I learned this week was that my parents
taught me how to WORK HARD. An Irmã in our ward asked us to come over and
work on her garden. Honey, I just went to town. I was ripping out weeds like nobody’s
beeswax. And in the end her yard looks really good! She thanked us so much and
said "Wow, Sister Barron, your parents really taught you how to work!"
That is for sure:) When I was younger we had goats and a donkey, and I cannot count how many barrels of
poop I had to scoop. It was horrid. But after that, any sort of work
looks easy! I am grateful my parents taught me how to work and work HARD.
So this week we had a meeting in the chapel with our ward
mission leader, João. Okay, just to explain a little bit, our chapel is an old
house that was converted into a church. So it’s really different than any other
chapel that I have worked in. During our meeting, we heard some strange noises
upstairs, so we run up there to check and there’s nothing. We shut all the
doors and go back down and continue our meeting. All of a sudden we hear
another sound and we go to check and TWO OF THE DOORS ARE OPEN. I started freaking
out and João opened up and told us that a lot of people joke around that our
chapel is haunted. Lots of weird things have happened in there that don’t have
explanation (EX. the sink randomly turning on and off, the piano playing by
itself, doors opening and shutting) So we start flipping out for fun. Sister
Bravender is on cloud nine, super excited that we have a ghost friend. When she
went to the bathroom afterwards, me and João decided to play a joke on her and
write on the whiteboard "I am here" in creepy, little cursive
handwriting. But when she came out and saw it she was not impressed and didn’t
believe. We laughed and left, locking the chapel. We talked with João for a few
minutes and then he said he needed to use the bathroom. When we went back in
the chapel, THE DOORS WERE OPEN AGAIN and, best of all,
THE WORDS WERE ERASED OFF THE WHITEBOARD!!!!!!!!! Lol! (I
have a feeling a certain Ward Mission Leader was the culprit)
I started screaming and freaking out. We went and got ice-cream
to cool down. =D
One day we were lost (surprise surprise) and we ended up walking
along the ocean to get back to our house. As we were weaving through the
tourists, this girl comes running up to us. She knew we were Mormons and
missionaries and she said that she has a cousin that is serving a mission in
Colombia. Her name was Shadi ane she is from Venezuela. She told us she wanted
to come to church with us, that she had never been to the Mormon Church but she
was very curious. The next day we met up with her and she came with us to Stake
Conference. She loved it and had so much fun looking at all the babies that the
families had. She is super cool and we are excited to start teaching her.
I love you all! Have a wonderful week!
~Sister
Barron
