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