WEEK 35- Minda and Marco!!!!!!

THE GLORIOUS BAPISM OF 

MINDA AND MARCO :))))))))

Joanna is our girl!

 Joanna had fun with my camera. 

I am sending these pics to her too.

 Joanna and Claudia Cabral 

(I talk about her in my letter.)

 Me and the daughter of the Family Cruz. 

She lovesssss her Sister Barron! :)

 The daughter of the Family Ferreira.....she is SOOO cute!

 The missionaries provided a special musical number for the baptism. Here we are practicing.

 Hino Especial

 THE FEAST!

 Joanna and Elder Mubai

 THIS IS MARIO! The man that owns the church on the hill. You can tell by his sweater that he is very fancy and HIPSTER.

This is the view from Mario's church. 

It is incredible. 

You can basically see the whole island.

 I got to go on division with Sister Bakker. She is the best! (And I got to speak English again for the first time in 5 weeks! Ahhhh)

 Mario gave us these little grape things......

I literally discover a new fruit every week. 
(The stick part is very chewy.)

Sister Neves surprised me with a massage night! I walked into the room and it was all dark except for a circle of candles. I though I might be getting sacrificed......but it ended up being awesome! Quiet church music was playing and everything!

 This week Sister Neves taught me how to make sardines. She literally forced me to gut the fish. It smelled bad, but I could handle it. =) Can you? ;)

 "Grab the fish Sister! Grab it with your hands!"

My bag haha is so pitiful.

It was a good Prep Day today! We forced the Elders to eat SO MUCH SUSHI, they hate us now! Haha! It was hilarious.

My letter home:

 This may or may not be my last week in the Azores, because transfers are next week. So this is the time to get my fill of everything Azorean! But really, these islands are so cool. It’s like a little secret in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. I recommend to anyone looking for an adventure to come here! Bring a backpack and go for it! It is so beautiful and totally worth it. We have dreams about someday setting out on one of the giant cruise ships we always see out of our window. I will do it someday! 

I AM ABOUT TO TURN 20!!! QUE LOUCURA É ESTA?!?!

I am almost to my halfway point! I can’t even!

This week was amazing because we had the baptism of MINDA AND MARCO:) It was a wonderful occasion. <3 So many of our members came out to see it and celebrate with them. Minda was all nervous, it was so cute. She wanted everything to be perfect and everything was perfectttt. Joanna (her daughter) even said "Their baptism is better than mine!" Haha sorry honey, your parents already have a lot of friends in the branch. =D There were special talks given, special hymns sung (by the missionaries, surprise surprise) and SO MUCH FOOD. I am not joking, this was the branch activity with the most food I have seen yet. There were cookies, dip, CHICKEN (thanks to Paulo Jorge) and CAKES UPON CAKES UPON CAKES. We all ate as much as we could. It was so wonderful. When I went to hug Minda after it all, she said in my ear "I will never forget that you were the first Sister to come into my house. We will never forget you." :") I am so very blessed to be one of the Sisters that first taught this family. They are so strong and have big goals to go to the temple in one year to be sealed for TIME AND ALL ETERNITY. I love them with all my heart and I am sooo happy that I will never lose contact with them. (They are already facebook friends with my Mommy haha) 

I am so overwhelmed when I read the emails of all my friends that are out on missions. I have friends in Russia, Bolivia, Cambodia, Mexico, Canada, England, Argentina, El Salvador, Arizona and a bunch of other places I don’t know! I just hope they all know how amazing I think they are and how PUMPED I am to be a part of this flipping awesome army of God. 

This week my testimony was really strengthened by an irmã in our branch. Her name is Claudia Cabral. She has a wonderful strength and I admire her a lot. It is not easy to be a member of the church out here. In fact, it is really really hard. But she is doing it. She is a mother, she works, and her husband is the Branch President. She is asked to do so much by the Lord, and I’m not sure if I could fulfill her calling if I was in her shoes. I don’t know if she reads my blog, I really doubt it, but if she does I want her to know that she is someone that I want to be like. (And she makes some DELICIOUS banana cake:)

I love you all and I hope you have a wonderful week!

Sister Fontfilla Barron

WEEK 34- Eu Te Amo!!!

 Sister Neves taught me how to make a chicken dish and I was being all squeamish with the raw meat and she exclaimed, "Grab the meat Sister! Ahh.. you are so white!" Lol!!!

Just so you know, the chicken dish was so delicious and wonderful. I have really matured in my fear of touching raw meat.

 I'm a big girl now Mama! =D

My latest planner....they are becoming more practical. Something that I can use in my teaching.

 I ate the weirdest fruit this week. I have no idea what it is called. Sister Neves said that they have these in Brazil. It was kinda like a melon with giant seeds. It was really good.

We made some cake this week....my comp is really cute. =)

My Letter Home:

BOM DIA IRMÂOS E IRMAS! 

(That is how you start a talk over the pulpit in Portugal)

This week was new, fun, and an adventure!

So a while back my comp got a bug thing in her stomach, and she got REALLY sick. She is a crazy hard worker, and basically never took a break even though she was throwing up all over the place. So I finally put my foot down and called the missionary couple that is in charge of helping us with health issues. They booked an appointment for us at the local hospital and on Friday we went. Let me tell you, it was absolute CRAZINESS! There were people crying, and I didn’t understand what was going on, and it was NOT clear where to go or who to talk to or what we needed. We basically wandered around asking everyone until we finally ended up in the right place. But then we found out we had missed our appointment and it had been cancelled, so we had to make another appointment and do it all againnnnnn. Oh my goodness, such a waste of time. That is one thing I see a lot here. Ways that things could be more efficient, ways for businesses to save money....things that they are not doing. If I was the Queen of the Azores, things would run so much more smoothly. It would be glorious. (I like to think so anyway. LOL!) =P

This week we marked Joana’s parents, Minda and Marco, to be baptized on Sunday! They are really good people. They truly want to live like Christ. They have the purest intentions. I hope everything goes smoothly for their baptism and their marriage. They will be in my prayers a lot this week. I love them both so much.

I used one of my stories a lot this week. It was the story of me and my friend Whitney back when we were in high school. One day during the winter, we went to school. When we got there everything was CRAYCRAY because the entire student parking lot was covered in a thin sheet of ice. Cars were stuck everywhere and people were all stressed out. We were walking into the school and there was  this huge white van stuck in the ice. My friend Whitney said that we should go and push the car and try to help him get free. I was kinda skeptical because we were two girls, but I agreed. We went and pushed that van with all our might and LO AND BEHOLD the van got free! The man drove away and he was very thankful. We got SOOOOO excited, we were so happy that we had helped someone. We started helping other cars and calling out to passing students to come and help us. I didn’t even care if I would be late to class because I was helping others. When I finally got into school (NOT late) I started telling all my classmates " If any of you see a car stuck in the ice, go and help them! It makes you feel so good!" It really is true. When we help people, without having to be asked, you get this special feeling that doesn’t come any other way. 

Random fact: I conduct all the music in our branch! Everyone laughs at me because sometimes I have a hard time reading Portuguese, singing, and directing all at the same time. Good thing they all like me! =D

Até logo!

Sister Barron

WEEK 33- High School Musical!

 I cut my hair! Fun fact: I have been cutting my own hair since I was 13 years old. My Mom cut it before that. I think I have been to a salon like twice in my life. Don't worry Mommy, I am growing it out again. It just needed it.

Sister Neves really wanted me to make her "American Cookies".....I was happy to oblige. Although I am ashamed to admit that this batch burned a little...:(

 She is in her "Adventure Time" Prep Day shirt. She really does wear it every Prep Day! =D

My Letter Home:

Hey fans, friends, and family!

Sister Neves and I had a KILLER High School Musical Dance party in a desperate attempt to work out! Cuz its the STARTTT of something NEWWW.

This week Sister Neves hit her ONE YEAR mark, so we decided we would do something a little fun. (It’s funny how all of my companions have hit their one year mark with me. =P ) So there is this beautiful Catholic church up on this really steep hill, and I always had wanted to look inside and see what was in there. So we made the trek up the steep hill and went inside. It was totally BEAUTIFUL. It had all the getups, statues and nice music, etc. We went all the way up to the top tower. I swear, we looked out over the whole island. It was amazing. While we were there, we met the caretaker of the chapel. His name is Mario. He is a very interesting person because he is not religious at all, yet he spends the majority of his time caring for an old Catholic church. Apparently it was totally run down and abandoned for a long time, like teenagers would hang out there to drink and whatnot, but he BOUGHT it and fixed it up. I don’t know if it really counts as a church anymore, he puts on theaters and stuff like that now. But anyways, we started teaching him! And it was funny because we were sitting right outside this Catholic church teaching him. But he was very interested in what we were saying, AND he even came to church with us this week! He showed up on his little bicycle. We have marked him to be baptized this weekend! I hope everything goes smoothly and God answers his prayer to know that this church is true. How fun is that!

This weekend was amazing because we got to hear from one of the SEVENTY! In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, we have a prophet, twelve apostles, and then there is a group of seventy below them. This is how the church of Jesus Christ was organized in the Bible. So it was a big deal that we got to hear from him. He was Portuguese, and veryyyyy Santa Clausey. He was chuckling the whole time. He had some very good advice on how we can help new people in the church stay. We also got to hear from the Mission President and his wife. They are so adorable and have the BEST mission stories. There was one week of his mission where President Tavares baptized 40 people! Like what?!?

This week was also really special because I got to teach some of our investigators with my recent convert, Joana. She was absolutely AMAZING! She bore her testimony with so much power. She is on fire  with this major discovery in her life. The Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. I love her so much. She is an example to all the members that have lost their fire for missionary work. She will take us to her friends houses without a moment of hesitation.

I love you all and I hope you all have a fantastic week! I know this church is true! I talk to a lot of people who say "I believe all churches are true!"...but I’m sorry, that doesn’t make sense. All churches teach different things! There is only one God, there should only be one church! He is not a God of confusion! He has one way, one gospel, one baptism! And I believe that this church is the one true church in the world! Don’t take my word for it, go and ask of God!

Loveeee, Sister Barron <3