Week 69: Samuel The Lamanite And The Seagulls

 This is me and a recent convert named Luisa. She is the bomb and we are helping her learn how to do family history!

 This is Berta. <3 She is so tiny!!! She insisted we take the picture like this. =) She is awesome and drives like a wild woman!

 This is the goat man. His name is Luis. There is a grassy hill next to our chapel and it sometimes has goats on it. He was so funny. We invited him to church but he exclaimed  "Who will take care of my goats!?" I may have volunteered.....

 This is an awesome key chain that Sister Aiono gave me during our great division together! It was so fun to be with her again!

 I am giant. Haha! Look at the top of the door. In this area, we see a bunch of tourists and I'm like, WOW! Tall people! 

Then I realize that I am their size. =P

Me in front of a Catholic church right next to our house. We jog by it every morning.

 A scrunchy that my comp gave me.

 This cool house is next door to ours. Architectureeee....

 This is our house. We live on the second level.

 The stairway and the elevator.

 This is the view from our balcony.

When we run in the morning, we see this awesome view. It is amazingggg.

Letter Home:

So on Sunday I was kinda having a pity party because we weren’t able to find anyone to come to church with us. We are still figuring out this area and we frequently have days where we don’t teach a single lesson. Its frustrating because we are working hard, we talk to tons of people in the street, but no one so far that has a ton of interest. We were praying to find new people and to actually have investigators whennnnnn Sunday came. And lo and behold, a woman named Consição comes to church. She was contacted in the street a few years ago and randomly decided to come and visit the church. She even brought the pass along card, one that is really old and that we don’t use anymore. She seemed really cool and we will be meeting with her tonight. Fingers crossed that she is elect! She seems like it!

There was this one funny day when we were doing the spiritual thought after a member meal, with our wonderful friends Dília and Barbara, and we talked a little about Family History work. I’m glad that Sister Bravender is my comp because she has some cool new ideas of things that I have never thought before. Anyways, we give both of them a little booklet to get started and they were SOOO HAPPY! They straight up started filling them out right there and everything and we were like hehe Irmãs, we need to leave. But it was so cute how they got so excited and it really makes me want to do more family history work when I get back because I never really did any. I wanna know, can you showww me?

So one day we were walking along and it was really sunny outside and I noticed a bunch of seagulls flying overhead. All of a sudden, it starts raining....but not rain. It was SEAGULL POOP. Literally it seemed like they were attacking these two poor little missionary girls. Bombs away, guys, make sure you get it on their scriptures! We started screaming and covering our hair, but in the end it was not necessary. Like a couple of cute Samuels the Lamanites, we were not hit. It was a miracleeeee. But we still start squealing now every time a seagull flies over our heads haha:)

This week I was able to go on a division with my own, Sister Aiono! It was so fun! She is such an awesome missionary and we had fun giggling and reminiscing about old times, back when we were in the same ward as the APs and we gave them so much grief:) She came and was able to teach this new girl we found named Andreia. SHE contacted US because she wanted help to learn English. She is practicing to be a flight attendant. We are helping her prepare for the interview as well as when she is on the plane itself.  She is so cute and we love her a lot. She was absolutely BLOWN AWAY by our ability to speak Portuguese, especially Sister Bravender who has only been here for 3 weeks.

We are still getting lost. Daily. And that still stresses me out. But I am working on relaxing and just taking it by stride. Hey, lets get real, everyone is late here in Portugal:) maybe I am just immersing myself in the culture.

Love Sister Barron

Week 68: Elder Bednar ALERT!

Elder Bednar came and spoke to our mission!

It was amazing!

 He opened to a question and answer session. Sister Aiono asked a question!

 A senior couple took pictures and shared them with everyone. I was lucky to be sitting right by them. =D

 Wonderful man.

 Our whole mission 

except the missionaries on the Azores.

 My destroyed shoes.

 I loved these shoes.

 This is a cute girl from our branch named PAIGE!

My cute comp. Snapped this on the way to play basketball this morning.

My Letter Home:

So this week was fantastic because Elder Bednar came to our mission and spoke to us! It was incredible! I pulled a Barron and sat on the front row...score! I loved his wife. She is just a little angel. We got to hear him speak to our mission and also the stake of Oeiras. Both times he did an interesting thing and instead of giving a talk, he simply opened up the crowd for questions. I didn’t have the courage to ask a question (hehe) but I still learned so much from all the inspired questions of my friendly neighborhood missionaries! I even got to DIRECT THE MUSIC in front of an apostle and almost the whole mission! I may have passed out...but tudo bem!

So we are struggling to find some people to teach. We still get lost a lot and that stresses me out, but sister Bravender is awesome and always reminds me "Everything happens for a reason!" Then we look for someone to talk to. We are learning how to ride public transport in our new area the hard way, we have missed many a bus. It is super stressful! But then we laugh and figure it out. Also, I have discovered the magic of TAXI’S. They are expensive, but so easy and fast! We might end up just eating oatmeal the whole month and getting taxis everyday! Wheeee

To get to the chapel we have to walk up this longgg steep hill. It is such a nightmare. Just to warn you all, I might come back with calves of steel!

I love you all! Thanks for the support!

Sister Barron

PS. What is up with all you people trying to set me up already! I DON’T THINK SO! Haha! I have two months left still. It is too early for that sorta stuff! You crazies! Tata!

Week 67: This is Cascais Portugal!

 This is me with my last three companions. 

I trained all three. 

My new companion is Sister Bravender!

I love them all so much!

 Sneaking a few pics during our companionship study. Haha

 The amazing view from our chapel patio.

Our cool chapel looks like a house! Because it was an old house that they fixed up to be a church building. I think it is my favorite chapel that I have served in yet.

This is our house. Today we stayed in from 10:30 to 3:00 cleaning and organizing. It was bad.

This is the view from our window in our house.

Letter Home:

Picking up my new companion from the office was fun and CRAZY! We were on our own to get her 3 bags to our apartment on the trains of Portugal. Basically my arms are still sore when I think about all the stairs we went up and down. It was crazy. But in the end we got home safe. I was literally exhausted. But we gave people the opportunity to serve and help two pitiful girls get the bags up the stairs!

Sister Bravender is awesome! She likes to write books and loves horses. We have those things in common. She almost passed out from joy when I told her I had Enya on my pindrive. I am enjoying training her and letting her talk in every contact and every lesson. I want us to get talking on a 50/50 basis as soon as possible!

So today for prep day we stayed in our house from 10:30 to 3 CLEANING. When we got to our new house it was pretty bad. All you return missionaries know what I am talking about. Grime everywhere, even on the walls!  We threw away tons of stuff. The only good thing about being in such an old house is that we have about 100 coats from past Sisters. We can pick and choose each day and wear a new coat. That is kinda fun.

The members here are incredible! Our new branch mission leader is named João and he is the coolest. He served his mission in Portugal and he is so eager to help us. The fact that we are both new in this area only makes him want to help us more. I love it so much! Tonight we have a Family Home Evening in his house with a woman named Luisa that was baptized last week. João and his family are awesome member missionaries!

I also love the members because they loveee feeding us! I think this is my area with the most member meals so far, almost everyday! That is like unheard of in Portugal. They even give us food to keep in our house. We basically don’t have to buy groceries. This branch is short on Youth and Priesthood and Families, so that is our focus.

One day we were sitting with an Irmã of our ward, getting to know her, when someone knocked on her door. She answered and it was the man asking about her light bill. When he saw us he stopped and asked us " Are you elders?" We explained that we were Sisters from the same church and he said that he had a coworker and friend that was going to be an Elder soon. I asked what was the name of his friend and he said Ismael. I stopped and asked him if he was from Mem Martins and he said yes! Later that day we met up with my friend Ismael! It was such a crazy coincidence that we were there when he knocked! We ended up getting his number and passing it to the elders of Belém. I hope he is baptized, it would be such a cool story!

I got to give a talk on Sunday. I talked about how we can identify people in our lives that would be ready to hear the gospel. I shared the story of Alma 32 when the poor people weren’t allowed to enter into the synagogue because they were too poor. But when Alma saw them, he got super happy because he knew they were humbled and ready to hear the message of the gospel. We are surrounded by people like that in our lives. People that experienced a death in the family, had a baby, lost their job, moved recently, or are sick. These people many times are brought to their knees in supplication to our heavenly father, and we can be the answer to their prayers!

We don’t have any huge progressing investigators but we have some promising contacts that we will be teaching this week!

Love you all! Sister Barron

Week 66: Dying with style.....I know my fate.

 I have been transferred! I will spend my last two transfers in Cascais training another Sister. Here I am saying goodbye to some dear friends.

This is a little girl named Loreline. 

She is crazy cute!

 Ismael,  Elder Soares and me. Too much swag to handle. I've officially been in the same ward as Elder Soares for six months. (We also served on the Azores at the same time.) I will miss him! He is an awesome missionary!

 Elder Welch and Elder Soares will have to take care of Mem Martins when I leave. 

(Which is today.)

 Me and Sister Steagall on our last division together. =( She was sent to the Azores! Lucky duck!

 We went and did service by working in our ward garden. We had fun and planted watermelons!

 We went with the Laura Engalls dooo...

Skyping on Mother's Day <3

My Letter Home:

So I have been called to do it all. This transfer I will open a new area in Cascais, train a new American Sister named Sister Bravender, I will continue as the STL of the STLs, and I will need to stay sane. I will need all the prayers I can get! Thank you all for the support.

My baby, Sister Aiono, was called to be a Sister Trainer! I am so proud! She is so new on the mish! Everyone says that she is such an awesome missionary and I can’t help but get a little proud when people say that to me. 

It started raining like crazy. I thought I had put my giant green coat in the closet for good but I guess not. I am so ready for summer! 

This is for you if you’re called to serve as the Ward Mission Leader:

This is a calling that does not have strict outlines for what you should do, so a lot of it will need to come from your creativity. The missionaries are trying their hardest not to be a burden to anyone and a lot of times they think they can do it all alone. IT IS NOT TRUE. They need your help desperately! They need help setting up appointments, calling people, getting new members integrated, and running baptismal services. Don’t let them take it all on their own! Volunteer to help and teach with them, call them randomly to see how they are doing. THAT is a good ward mission leader. They are rare and precious.

It was hard to say goodbye to the people of Mem Martins. I love them all so much. They are like my family. One reason I know I need to go is that a lot of them know my first name and randomly will call me that thinking they are funny. Haha uhh I’m still a missionary, peeps! But I know that they will always have a special place in my heart. I have truly gained friendships that will last a lifetime. I hope that I can always stay worthy of the nice things they say about me, even in 3 months when I won’t be wearing this nametag.

I am so excited to go to a new area and get cracking! I love this work and I can’t believe how fast the time is passing. The mission is the HARDEST and BEST thing I have ever done! I want to just work and not stress too much about things. 

Love you all so much! 

Sister Quincey Barron