Olá! So it may have passed some of you by, but on June 21st was my birthday. It was a fantastic birthday. It started off with a Portuguese Happy Birthday song sung by Sister Prieto and a gift of Brazilian chocolate and a cake. But not just any cake, a cake of tuna with blown out matches for candles. Oh the adventures of being a missionary. So that was fun. Then the members here are really great, I was sung to multiple times throughout the day in Portuguese and accented English. It was a really good day. And the best gift of all was that Raquel was baptized in the evening! I loved seeing her accept the gospel and I know it is going to bless her life so much. And I know some of you were probably a bit put out at the fact I didn´t send out an e-mail this last week. For that I am sorry and hopefully you will all forgive me as I relate the crazy events that transpired from the 23rd of June until now. Last Monday was transfers. For any unfamiliar with how a mission functions, transfers occur every 6 weeks - here in Portugal, we do not find out until the Sunday before if we are staying in our area for another transfer or heading out somewhere else. On Sunday we went through the entire day and didn´t receive any call and since we have the 12-week training program for new missionaries, Sister Prieto and I both figured that we would remain in Tomar. Well, then at 10:15 pm, we get the phone call - Sister Prieto is leaving for Benfica and I will be training a new missionary here in Tomar. (Here is where I start sort of freaking out in my head, because I can´t understand Portuguese, among other feelings of inadequacy.) Then after a late night where Sister Prieto had to pack everything and call everyone and say goodbye, we headed off to Lisbon. Here things were crazy - tons of missionaries, lots of confusion - because some people were preparing to go home, others to train, others to new areas, etc. On the bright side, I got mail and was able to use the computer for a short amount of time. I ended up working in Benfica (sort of a part of Lisbon) for Monday evening, Tuesday, and part of Wednesday, with a sister from my MTC district, which was great! Then on Wednesday we had training for trainers and I was able to briefly meet my new companion, Sister Silva. She arrived earlier than everyone else because she is from Brazil - so at least one of us speaks Portuguese! She also speaks English pretty well, so communication is much easier and she is helping me a lot with my Portuguese! On Thursday we had more training and my MTC companion Sister Miley was there! (As you recall, she had visa issues, but finally made it!) So that was fun. There was a public transportation strike on Thursday, but we were able to make it back to Tomar by bus, so it was fine. And then we had an awesome weekend! Saturday was probably one of the best days on my mission so far. We didn´t have a whole lot of scheduled appointments, but we decided to visit a few of our investigators and invite them to church. This went well, and during the afternoon we had a fun branch picnic activity. But the evening was when it was the best - we decided that we would talk to every person that we saw, no matter what. And we were so blessed! We found a woman who already had a copy of the Book of Mormon and was willing to meet with us, a woman and her son who had spoken with missionaries in Abrantes a few times, and many other people who were willing to talk to us and wanted to know more. It was awesome!! I truly saw how when we are exactly obedient and doing the work we will be blessed. And for those unfamiliar with mission lingo, when a missionary trains another missionary, the trainer is known as the mom/dad and the new missionary being trained is their daughter/son. Rest assured that training is not as bad as I thought it would be and that Sister Silva and I are having an excellent time here in Tomar! I hope you all have a fantastic week! Love, Sister Giberson
Posted on: Thu, 04 Jul 2013 02:55:52 +0000
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