This part of our area is in the tourist zone.
Cute cafe in which we ate.
My little notebook and Portuguese scripture case....yeah, I'm
cool. =P
The oceanside is beautiful.
We and the Elders in our district. Elder Soares is from Mozambique
and Elder Oliveira from Capo Verde. They are seriously so cool and have so much
swag...
Countryside...this is called Lagoa de Fogo or FIRE LAKE! There
are all these hot springs and cool stuff that steams here. We are definitely
coming back here as tourists, there is so much fun stuff to do here that I didn't know existed until today. Alex drove us up to see all of this. He is the
bomb. Soooo cool!
This is Alex.
The countryside with 100's of cows.
Minha collega...We don't use the word "companion" in Portuguese
because it is a romantic term. Instead we say "colleague".
On the road. We are in NEVERLAND!!!
The inside of our chapel.
This is our church building.
Interesting design huh.
Something I did, trying to show my faith to my Heavenly Father,
was leave my English scriptures in Portugal on the continent. When missionaries are called
to come to the Azores they can only take one bag. So I had to leave a majority
of my books and heavy things (coat, boots, etc....not that those are needed
haha) on the continent. I had a huge dilemma when I was thinking about whether
or not I should bring my english scriptures. They where really heavy and I
wanted really bad to get better at reading them in Portuguese. So I made a
promise to Heavenly Father that I would trust him enough to leave them on the
continent, and He would help me learn the language fast enough as to not suffer. Can I just say that it was a GREAT idea. At first, it was sooooo awful to
read them in Portuguese. Wierd language, not anything like what we are actually
speaking. (kinda like in English. How many times have you heard a person
seriously say ´´and it came to pass...´´?) But now I can officially say that I
LIKE it...it still is sometimes hard, but it is getting easier everyday. At
first I could only stomach two or three verses but now I read chapters at a
time. I am in 2 Nephi. Already passed the Isaiah part! (phew) But I am so
grateful that I made that promise to my Heavenly Father and that He is
fulfilling his part. I am learning this language like lightning! Everyone
always comments on it. So grateful that I left those precious scriptures on the
continent.
So every week we have a family night in the church and all the
people without families can come and socialize. We have a short spiritual
thought and always have food and play ping pong. We always have the most random
group of people there, and always all MEN! We literally have twice the number
of men in our branch than women! We need to baptize women! I don't know why but neither
the elders or us have any women investigators. Weird!
It is amazing how we all have friendships and really feel like a family. Such a
weird group of people, and yet we all have something in common: our belief that
this gospel is true. And we all have changed hearts! We bond over our love for
the Savior and His infinite Atonement. They are all equal in Gods eyes! It really is amazing.
