WEEK 37- Do I Seem Fruity?

 Another weird fruit that I don't know.

 This was the last picture of our missionary

 zone on the Azores. 

My new zone has more sisters, so that will be fun!

 My new planner. The vibe I was feeling was Women Of Faith/Women In The Gospel.

 Another new fruit! It is called Maracuja.

 This is Reinaldo, we play Checkers and Chess with him. He was very funny, despite not being able to speak.

 Sister Neves always wanted to beat him in Chess....but he was just too smart. She never did.

 We always had a lot of fun when we would visit him, he has a very special spirit.

 For our last picture he wanted to make a scary face. Haha!!!  Love him!

At the edge of our area.

 The last supper with Bruno, 

our ward mission leader in the Azores.

ON THE PLANE HEADED FOR THE CONTINENT! I LEFT PART OF MY HEART ON THE ISLAND! =(

This is Sister Olsen 

pondering which way we should go.

I love Sister Olsen, she is such a sweet spirit.

 We started knocking doors on a street and we saw some Jehovahs Witnesses, when they spotted us, they stopped in their tracks and took off in the other direction. Haha we totally won! ;D You can see them behind me. It was so funny! I wanted evidence! Lol! "Love ya guys!"

Today on Prep Day we helped these Scottish tourists that were lost. It was fun to speak English! I realized that my conversation skills in English have deteriorated after 6 weeks of no English at all. =0

My Letter Home:

So this week was so crazy, full of new things! It's weird being the new comp in this area of Portimão. I feel bad sometimes for always just following my comp, but I am getting to know the area better everyday! We try really hard to not get lost because Sister Olsen has just been here for one transfer so she sometimes gets confused too. Oh, and by the way,

I LOVE MY NEW COMPANION, 

SISTER OLSEN! 

She is so awesome! She is from Utah! AND we can speak english in the house again (like drinking water after walking through a desert Ha!). She is a super sweet girl, and she is on the dot obedient! (If her Mom happens to read this, just know Mrs. Olsen that your little girl is in good hands and I love her a lot. She is so consecrated, it’s crazy. She has big goals and is eating her vegetables... sometimes...=)) It’s an interesting adjustment to live with someone new, but it’s totally been fun and I am so excited to get to know her better!

This area is so awesome, and sooo very different than the Azores. There are bigger streets and bigger apartment buildings and lots of new people...it's great! Parts of our area border the ocean. We are in the veryyyyyy southern part of Portugal, called the Algarve. There are a lot more Africans here, which is fun because I love them! They are always so funny and happy go lucky. I love to talk to people from Capo Verde because Sister Neves taught me a few phrases in Criolo and they crack up when this white blonde girl starts speaking their language.

I got to meet all the new members here, I was giving out my bracelets left and right. =D There are a lot of cool jovems here, (young men and young women). They invite their friends to church and to activities and it really is super cool. It makes a huge difference. We had a cool activity on Saturday where we played soccer, and we had like 3 nonmembers there. Great activity! And I learned that I do not know how to play soccer! (the people here are crazy good, there was this one like 12 year old kid that was just completely owning me....haha good thing Sisters can be klutzy and get away with it.) I love this branch and all the people here. By the way, it’s looking like I will start playing the piano in church every Sunday because there is absolutely no oneee here that knows how to play. Once again: PRACTICE YOUR PIANO BOYS AND GIRLS THIS IS NOT A DRILL.

Probably the coolest thing for me was meeting a recent convert of a Sister that I was friends with in the MTC. His name is Bruno, and he was taught by Sister Steagall! It’s so cool to see that she has grown out in the field and is bringing miracles about. When I knew her, she couldn’t speak Portuguese and was so funny and greenie (we all were =)). But now she is a full grown missionary! It’s so cool. We have come full circle. Maybe she will one day get called to the Azores and see the fruits of my labors. =)

I miss all my friends from the Azores! <3 You guys are amazing! Saudades!

I love you all and I wish you a beautiful week!

Sister Barron