Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone!! I hope ya'll had an amazing Christmas Eve and day!! 

I don't have too much time to email but this week was so much fun!! It was super hard to find people at home because everyone was gone for Christmas but we made lots of treats for our members to thank them for what they've done for us. We went carroling on the street with the ward missionaries. We ate an AMAZING Christmas dinner with a family and then an AMAZING Christmas day lunch with another family! Then we got to skype our families which was definitely the best part of the week :) I love my family and I'm so grateful that we can live together forever!! I so grateful for my Savior and that He was born. I'm here in Portugal BECAUSE HE LIVES! Because He was born. Because He showed us the perfect example. Because He loves me and I love Him. I hope to never forget everything He has done for me. I know that because of Him, we can be forgiven of our sins, our weaknesses, and our faults. We can become stronger through Him. 

Merry Christmas to all!!! 


Com amor,
Sister Hillam

The Sisters of São João caroling

Our cute presents from the members

Merry Christmas!!!

Anibal stoking the fire. He's the cutest old man I know

Zone Conference Christmas Party

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Presidente Amorim dresses up at the Christmas Conference! Best day of my life!

Christmas!!

ALMOST MERRY CHRISTMAS! Wow how this year has flown by! We can't even believe that there are only a few more days until Christmas! 

We had our branch Christmas Party! It was so much fun and there was so much food! Talking about food, the dessert table was COVERED with cakes and pies and cookies and a cute little center piece with snow on it, of which a member was very worried that I'd eat it so he made sure to tell me that it wasn't real. It didn't even look like a cake! Oh our members... Us four sisters performed a song, The Twelve Days of Christmas, but it was in portugues and about the mission. Here are the lyrics:

Este ano no Natal a missão deu para mim:

A novinha Sister Mavy
Dois pes quebrados
Três dias gripados
Quatro malandros
Cinco famílias
Seis novos na igreja
Sete lições com membro
Oito milhas andando
Nove cães ferrando
Deis portas na cara
Onze horas da chuva
Doze almoços

The new Sister Mavy
Two broken feet
Three sick days
Four crazy guys
Five families
Six new people at church
Seven lessons with members
Eight miles walking
Nine dogs (ferrando... chasing or biting)
Ten doors in the face
Eleven hours of rain
Twelve lunches

We acted out everything and the members we laughing and dying! It was great! I have a video but it's too big to send. :(

Some random things this week:

Someone asked if Sister Mavy was my daughter.. I almost responded yes because I'm training her but.. that would have been weird. 

We were doing companionship inventory and I jokingly asked if Sister Mavy had any beef with me and she just looked at me very seriously and said, "I don't think we bought any beef this week." Then we both just died laughing. 

I got called out in the street for not using a jacket by some old man. I just told him that the cold didn't scare me and then he just shook his head and walked away. Gotta love the Portuguese!

I'm so grateful for my Savior and that He was born. Through Him, we can become better people. We have new beginnings. We can live with our families again. I know that this is true. I know that our salvation comes through and only through Christ. This is a wonderful time to remember Him but we should remember Him at all the other times during the year. 

Merry Christmas to all!! Feliz Natal e um Bom Ano Novo!!

Com amor,
Sister Hillam

Sister Mavy and me and our cute Christmas tree!

Our Christmas tree and the Nativity my dad gave me for Christmas last year to take on my mission.

Mud Masks!

TIME IS PASSING. QUICKLY! Já 7 meses!!

MAN! I LOVE SÃO JOÃO!! Literally the best area in the mission, if I don't say so myself. I'm so grateful to be staying here this transfer and to train a new little missionary!

After Sister Streadbeck left last Monday, I stuck around with the other sisters in São João and then Tuesday morning, I ended up catching a bus to Porto to wait for Sister Cook, who was coming down from Viana do Castelo to also train. So we decided to work in Porto for the day and help the missionaries heading to the island get to and from the metro with their bags. We asked the Elders in that area if they had anyone who they'd like us to visit and they gave us the name of a family of less actives. Their names are Lúcia and Patrícia--Mother and daughter. They're from Cabo Verde and AMAZING!! We had never met them before but they just welcomed us into their house. We asked them if they could invite the whole family to say a prayer with us so the mom, Lúcia, yelled, "Children! I have chocolate!" and they all came. They're all older and in their 20's or 30's. We said a kneeling prayer as a family and then after, the kids all started to leave. We asked them to stay for 5 minutes and that we had a really important question for them; they agreed to stay. And then Sister Cook came out with the most inspired question I have ever heard in my life and directed it to Nelson, the son (30ish) who didn't really want to be there. "Nelson, who do you love the most in the world?" And BAM like that, the Spirit just flooded the room. It was so amazing. He answered that he loved his mom, Lúcia, and his son the most. We talked about that with all of them. Nelson eventually had to leave but it was amazing! We were definitely being guided by the Spirit in that lesson. We made goals with Lúcia and Patrícia to go to the temple and they're super excited!! 

The next day, we got to meet our new comps! We had 6 hours of meetings and then at the very end, President said who our comps are. I'm training SISTER MAVY! WOOT WOOT! She's from California and she's studying nursing at BYUI. She's actually a month older than me so it's kinda funny. She's so adorable. She loves contacting and saying hi to everyone and has such a strong testimony. And the even greater part is that she's willing to learn and be corrected. I asked her how often she would like me to correct her Portuguese and she's said to just correct everything. She learns super fast but is right now speaking more Spanish than Portuguese. It's cute. But she's so awesome!! We're going to do great things in São João! Oh and she writes me cute little notes and hides them around in the house for me to find :)

Saturday was a day of miracles!! We hadn't found any new investigators to teach yet that week, given we hadn't been in our area for half of the week, but still... And I really wanted Sister Mavy to have a super good first week. So I was praying soo hard and I'm sure she was too so that we could find some people to teach. So first, we found Carolina, a super old lady but really sweet. Then we knocked on Carlos's door. We had knocked his door a transfer ago and he was never there. Then we knocked it, he opened it, let us in, we taught his wife and his son, and now we're going back in a week! AHH FAMILIES!! Then we only had about 30 minutes left of the night and we knocked on Domingo's door, again, someone we met a transfer ago. He let us in, we taught him and his wife, and we're going back in a week! ANOTHER FAMILY!! I LOVE FAMILIES!! Miracles do happen, especially when we have faith and we do all we can. 

We also taught Anunciada this past week. She's this cute 70 year old lady that doesn't read and lives all alone. When we first started teaching her, she was very closed off but now, she LOVES us! We always ask her if we can help her with something but she says no. So this time, I asked her if I could clean off one rock in her patio. She just laughed and said yes. So, I got the broom and started cleaning the rock. She was just dying with laughter. I told her that every time that we come, I'll clean a rock. I really love Anunciada. She's so sweet. I've learned with her that sometimes, we can't teach every person the same way. With her, we have to go really slow, but she's starting to feel the Spirit and recognizing that she needs the Gospel in her life. 

We had a meeting with our branch president, Presidente Emerciano, about our plan for the year 2017. Our ultimate goal is to become a ward. We actually only need 20 more people at church on Sundays to become a ward. WE ARE SO CLOSE!! I hope I can be here to see that day!

Oh, and we got chased by a yelling drunk guy last night. That was fun... 

Well, it's been an amazing week! And next week will be even better!! 

Com muito amor,

Sister Hillam

Old and New Companions--Sister Kunz, Sister Pennock, Me, and Sister Mavy

Sister Amorim, Sister Mavy, me, and Presidente Amorim!

Sister Streadbeck and her cake of her life after the mission

The beautiful sunset!

Ana Namentenha from Angola!! I'm actually like 20 feet taller than her but she didn't like being short. She's a sassy one.

Transfers!!!

So transfers came early. I'm going to be a mom!! (missionary lingo for a trainer...) I'm training! I've got mixed feelings about this but I'm excited!! I'll go pick up my new baby (missionary lingo for a "new" missionary to Portugal) on Wednesday and until then, I'm comp-less! I have to stay with the other sister missionaries here in São João da Madeira until then and then tomorrow, another sister who will be training is coming down here from Viana do Castelo and we'll work together tomorrow in my area and then head up to Porto Wednesday morning. Lots of changes!! I'm excited though! Wish me luck!!

So this week, we made a goal as a district to have 18 new investigators. That's nine for each of us. We hadn't found alot of new people to teach the past few weeks, so we were so excited! We decided to get Tripa Doce on Saturday if we hit our goal. Tuesday comes around and we got one new investigator (novo). Super exciting! Then Wednesday, nothing. Thursday, nothing. Kinda freaking out. So we decided to do a division in our area and cover our entire area. We got 6 novos in less that 3 hours!! It was awesome!! I worked with Sister Nagliati, Italian by birth but raised in Brazil. She's soo amazing and I learned tons of things. She was really good at contacting someone and teaching the gospel right then and there instead of awkward chit chat beforehand. We ended up getting 14 novos total this week but we tried our best, so decided to get Tripas. Sadly, the Tripa Doce stand was closed (it's owned by a recent convert) so we didn't get any but we will tomorrow!

We were teaching a cute little old lady, Conceição, the other night and she was getting really tired because it was late and she kept on talking about God and it kinda just turned into a prayer and then she started falling asleep. I'm still a little sick so I coughed and she like freaked out and jumped out of her chair and yelled. It was hilarious!! We decided to let her get to bed after that... 

I know that the Church is true. I know that this is the only Church where we can be saved with our families and those we love most. I'm so grateful to get to serve here in Portugal. It is really the "promised land" (no offence to all the other missionaries in the world...). I love my Father in Heaven and my Savior. I'm so grateful for this time of year when we take out extra time of our lives to think about the birth of Christ. 

Com muito amor e carinho,
Sister Hillam

Oh... oops.. 
I totally forgot my camera at home so... no pictures today. They'll be really good next week!

They have these cool street cameras in Portugal--you can take a photo and email for free.  (Luckily, mom has a photo to include this week!)

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!! We threw our Thanksgiving activity in our branch! It was soo cool and we had so much food!! 

We literally were cooking every night and then almost all day on Friday! 8 full chickens, 10 lbs of potatoes, 8 pies, stuffing, green been casserole, cheese ball, jello, etc.. It was a lot of fun! We still have tons of leftovers too. Probably enough to last us this next week!

We had almost 30 people there and about half of them were either investigators, less actives, or recent converts!! All the members were so scared of the food at the beginning. They didn't really know what to think of the stuffing or jello or green been casserole. We had to teach them how to eat everything. They ended up loving the stuffing (they called it salada) and the casserole (they though it had bacalhau in it..) but they would not eat the jello with salty food. It was hilarious!! Then when we brought out the pies, they swarmed the table! It so great!!! 

We had a little skit put on by us and the ward missionaries about how Thanksgiving came to be. It was adorable!! Everyone really loved it! I'll try to attach it in a different email later. 

We played bingo, watched the Church's Thanksgiving video, said what we were thankful for, and then watched the 'Because of Him' video. The Spirit was so strong! 

Anyways, transfers are next week and Sister S. will be leaving me for good :( Gonna miss that girl!! 

Love you all!!! Have a great week!!
Sister Hillam

I found a hedgehog!!

I let it free... :( We can't have pets!)

Food!! This wasn't all of it because everyone had already eaten everything :(

Membros!!

Membros!!

Membros!!

Paulo!!!!

Hello Everyone,

Paulo was baptized!!! Saturday was so crazy but everything worked out the way it was supposed to! So first, we had his interview scheduled at 10am and the zone leaders were going to get a bus over to here from Gaia. Turns out that there was only one bus on Saturdays which was at 12pm--So we scheduled with Paulo. Thank goodness he is so elect! He was so kind about it. Then they started the interview and it lasted almost an hour and a half, which is really long and you usually start to think that something is going wrong. But nope! Everything was great and Elder Garcia and Paulo came out of that interview with giant smiles! Then we had the baptism. It was probably the most spiritual baptism I've ever attended. MAN. Everyone could feel it. And then Paulo was baptized and THE SPIRIT WAS SO STRONG! He came out of the water with the biggest smile ever!! Afterwards he received the Holy Ghost. MORE SPIRIT! And then we had some refreshments and everyone was so happy! I LOVE THIS BRANCH! They're all so amazing! Paulo is already part of this big family!! Ahh life is soo good!

Apart from the baptism, we didn't really have the chance to do much this week.. We had to go to Porto on Tuesday which ended up taking all day. And then on Thursday I woke up and was soo sick with a fever and everything. We had to stay home. LAME. Then the crazy baptism day on Saturday. But apart from that, it was a great week!!

Right now we're in Aveiro for District (or should I say Sistrict...) P-Day. Pictures are attached! We found free bikes and have been riding around on them all day! It's a beautiful city! Too bad only Elders serve here :(

The experience I've had with Paulo has truly strengthened my testimony that the Lord is preparing people everywhere for us to meet and teach. He was soo prepare--we literally didn't do anything. We just taught him the lessons. He already has such a strong testimony because of the things he went through. I know that the Lord knows each and every one of us individually and loves us so much!

Love you all! Happy Thanksgiving!!
Sister Hillam

Paulo's Baptism

Riding Bikes in Aveiro!

Beautiful Aveiro!

​

IDE EM PAZ

Querida Familia,

First funny story: We met this really really nice guy (sarcasm) who, when we knocked on his door, came out, with his hand pointed toward us (like Darth Vader trying to force choke someone), and said, 'IDE EM PAZ!' Which translates roughly to, ´Go ye in peace!´ We just walked away laughing...

Funny story: We have this investigator, Marta, who's friends with a member so she comes to a lot of the activities. We've tried to help her set a date for her baptism but she says that she needs to think about it more. Buuut we have this recent convert, Sergio, who is about the same age, sooo we were joking around in correlation meeting and Presidente Emerciano said, 'If only she had a boyfriend in the church...' Then literally everyone's heads turned to Sergio and he just said, 'Wait, why is everyone looking at me??'  We're going to try to hook them up! :)

Another even funnying story: So we were in the Gospel Principles class on Sunday and we were talking about how each of us are children of Heavenly Father and how we fought to come here to earth so that we could follow Christ. Well to demonstrate that..the teacher showed a video of.. fertilization.. Just to show how amazing life is and that even before we were created, many things happened even in the pre-existence so we could come to earth. I understand what was she was getting at but MAN that was awkward.. One for the books..

Paulo is still set and soo ready for baptism this Saturday! He's so elect! He takes notes at church and comes to all the activities and everything! He worked in Lisboa during the week and he told us that he took a detour and drove past the temple site there! He said that it's still in the beginnings but that it's really big! Super excited to see it someday!! Anyways, he's so ready! The Lord has definitely prepared him. Pray for him this week so that everything goes well!!

While walking and knocking doors this week, we found an azuleijo (Portuguese tile) that had this quote on it:
O pouco com Deus é muito e muito sem Deus é pouco. 
(A little with God is a lot and a lot without God is little.)

I really loved this quote and it made me think about my life and what I want to get out of it. When we truly focus on God, everything always works out. We always have what we need to be happy. And if we follow Him and all His commandments, we will gain the greatest reward in the world: Eternal Life, life with God. But when we focus on the things of the world, we will never be eternally happy--Maybe temporally or for a few minutes, but not for eternity. I'm so grateful for this promise. We know exactly what we need to do. Follow the example of Christ in everything. Keep the commandments. Follow the prophet. Go to church. Read the scriptures. Pray. Not too hard :) And it's totally worth it!! I love this Gospel and I know that this is the only true church on the face of the Earth with all the truths restored so that each and everyone of us can partake of the blessings that our Heavenly Father has in store for us. 

Love you all!!
Sister Hillam

We celebrated Miguel's birthday. We made him a t-shirt that has a tie and a missionary tag on the front and then on the back it says, 'Featuring Michael Lopes of Saint John of Wood.' The members get a kick out of calling São João de Madeira Saint John of Wood. Miguel loved it!

Our members are kind of crazy but lot's of fun

Castanhas!! Chestnuts! We had the annual Magusto party where you literally just eat chestnuts!

All of the members! The cute irmazinha in the back is Ana. She's from Angola and is the most adorable person in the world. 

The sunset over the valley in Cucujães

Found a Book of Mormon in an antique shop today from 1997. Almost bought it for 1 Euro..

Nun on a Motorcycle and "Tripa Doces"

Querida Familia,

São João is the best!!! Ahhh I love it here!!

I don't have much time to email so I put a lot of pictures to make up for it but here are some highlights of the week:

I saw a nun on a motorcycle. I'll try to get a picture next time. 

One member, Vasco Almeida, came to meet us for an appointment and he came up and showed me two very very old Ensigns (a magazine) and opened both of them up to two of the conference talks that my grandpa gave years ago! It was so thoughtful of him and he thought it was soo cool! 

We are right now the only district of sister in our mission. Our district leader is a sister. So we called ourselves 'The Sistrict' after the missionary series 'The District.' It's tons of fun!

Paulo is still marked for baptism and he is so firm and progressing towards November 19th! He studies by himself and is already keeping all of the commandments!! He's amazing!!! 

Well, I love you all!

Sister Hillam

Tripa Doce!!!

I made a Tripa Doce with our recent convert Alice who has a store!

When it comes to planning for the weather, I'm not the best...

The three recent converts who are the cutest in the world!!

We tried smiling but it didn't work!!

Madeira!!!!!

São João de Madeira that is... Haha got ya :) So I'm in São João now with Sister Streadbeck! We're a little more south than Porto and part of my area touches the beach! We haven´t visited it yet but I saw a part from our area! It's so beautiful here AND warm again!! So it's pretty much the same as Madeira, right?

We moved houses again... My luck.. But our new house is super chicy and has a couch #blessed 

The members here are sooo amazing! They're all super old, apart from a few 20ish year olds. But they'll walk with us all day and help us even if we don't end up teaching anyone! One member, Vasco Almeida, walked with us all yesterday for about 6 hours in the heat, without water. And he's 75!! He's now my offical dictionary. I just point at things and he tells me the name of it. It's great!

We're going to be having a baptism on the 19th of November!!! Paulo!!! He has a super cool story. So a couple months ago, he was long distance dating a member in Utah and he started taking lessons from the missionaries. Turned out that his girlfriend got cancer and broke up with him because she didn't want him to join the church for her, but for himself. Then she passed away a little bit after. He got really depressed and stopped talking to the missionaries. Then this week, he decided to come back and he watched a member get baptized on Sunday and saw himself in the water getting baptized. He told us that he wanted to get all the lessons over again so that he really knew if this was the right decision. We taught him the first lesson and at the end, Sister Streadbeck said, ´Paulo, we have a special invite for you.´ And then I was about to invite him to be baptized and he said, 'I already know, I already know.' And he just laughed. Then I invited him and he said YES!! We're soo excited for him!!! 

Anyways, São João de Madeira is AMAZING!! We sometimes call it Saint John of Wood because that's it's translation in English. It's so great :)

Love you all!!
Sister Hillam

We were the coolest companionship ever!!!

The final pic of the Viseu District

And we are sometimes normal.......

Christ walked here....

And knocked this door!

Rua dos Missionários, Missionary Road