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!!