Sunny in Porto!

Sister Thornley has had this sweatshirt forever and finally met a Minnesotan!

Porto relief society

 

This week. 

This week was good. things are getting better. Im here in Porto with sister Thornley and i love her so much. she is so funny and so positive and is helping me be so positive without being annoying or unrealistic about it. We have a blast. Its also my first time serving with someone younger than me but ive just stepped right up to it, it feels so good to work, to speak portuguese, to open my mouth, even when it doesnt go how i want, i just feel good at the end of the day because i know i did my part. We contacted at least 20 people everyday and saw some miracles, and we are starting to find some cool people to teach. and one day we found like, four brazilians and it was the best day ever. Things are slowly starting to pick up in this area. slowly. we didnt have any investigators in church on sunday which was rough, but it just gave me even more of a desire to work hard and bring people to church, and find people that want to go to church.

we are coming out of winter here and its the best thing ever. we left the house one day without jackets or anything! happiness. the sun is out, the weather is getting warmer and its wonderful. and its easier to work in weather like this too haha. 

Today as we were leaving the house, we usually do a prayer in the doorway right before we leave, and sister thornley starts doing it in english, without thinking, and then goes, wait, i mean... 

it was soooo funny. praying in english again is going to be a transition. 

We have an investigator who has a ring back tone of the song new york... you know, that one where its like, these lights will inspire you, lets hear it for new york... singing over email doesnt work out so great. but anyway, everytime we call her that song get stuck in our head so now we are making up our own chorus and rap for Porto instead. its gonna be awesome. i love my companion.

Our relief society had an activity this week and the president asked us to make cookies so we did and it was soo good to see our ward coming together and just being a ward. We as missionaries are planning an activity for our ward to help them have a chance to get to know each other a little bit better and to get them excited about missionary work. we know that all it takes to really ignite a ward is one solid convert that wants to contribute, so we are really trying to find that person. its a process.

So sunday night we had a marked to visit this brazilian family that we hadnt been able to teach in awhile, and they are the most perfect most beautiful little family ever, and i didnt want to lose them and i was gettin really nervous. so we go over there sunday afternoon with one of our brazilian members and we get there and it was horrible timing. the dad was skyping his mom, the daughter was out of control, and they had a friend over from an evangelical church that talks really bad about our church. he wouldnt even look at us and left the room when we walked in. so we decided to come back later. i was freaking out, i thought that the evangelical guy was going to talk trash to the family while we were gone, and it was a little awkward when we showed up in the middle of everything and i thought they might have been annoyed, but sister thornley calmed me down and talked to me. shes an angel. And after, i was like, yeah, im just gonna do my part and heavenly Father will do the rest. its in his hands. We said a little prayer and went out to work, an then when we came back that night, we had an awesome lesson, they love the missionaries so much, told us why they hadnt been able to get to church, invited us over for lunch after church the next sunday and we left that lesson on cloud nine. Ive really been learning to just work my little heart out, and follow every prompting that i get, and trust in the Lord, and if things keep going like they have, we are gonna see miracles. it was such a good night.

Well, now that the sun is out, it seems like everything is going better. keep up the prayers, and ill keep praying for you all. next week post cards will be going out to many. I love you all and the Lord loves you too. live His gospel, follow His example. The church is true.

Paz, amor, casamento do templo, 

sister Briggs