Week Three of the Tripla

Querida Familia e Amigos!

Not sure if ya'll heard about it, but we had a the Worldwide Missionary Broadcast this past week. Man, was it awesome! They answered a lot of the questions that I had about how to become a better missionary and help investigators more! We also received a giant schedule change which we're still getting used to. It'll take a bit.. But it's super nice! It was so much fun watching it with our district! We ate this food called Cerelac which is actually baby food but it's like sweet cream of wheat and it is SO good!! I'll be bringing some in my suitcase home.. 

We ended up going to up Porto this week by surprise too. We got a text from Presidente telling us to come up the next day; Man we were scared. Then we got there and he called us each into interviews and he ended up telling us that Sister Mavy's Great Grandmother passed away. It was really sad. S. Mavy loves grandmas. She said she would skip the whole mom phase and just be a grandma. Afterwards, Presidente and Sister Amorim took us out to lunch to a Brazilian Steakhouse. We had picanha.. AMAZING. Probably the best food I have ever had in Portugal so far... Picanha definitely beats bacalhau.. 

Last Pday, we went sight seeing in Porto. It was so beautiful!! We took a hop on-hop off bus. We went right by the beach and then up the river and through all the historic sections of the city. BEAUTIFUL! 

We had an activity that was thrown by us, the missionaries. They gave us a week notice on the acitivity. So we just played games like Bingo and then ate food. Spiritual message of course. Miguel, the best 17 year old member I know, brought his little brother, Gabriel, who isn't a member. He's 9 and the whole night, he was poking all of our cheeks and saying, 'Eu gosto muito de bochechas.' (I really like cheeks.. ) It was odd. But by the end of the night, we're best buds. 

I can't even describe how amazing São João da Madeira is. The members are amazing. The area is amazing. My comps are amazing. Our district is amazing. This sounds so cheesy but this place is amazing!! I know that we are in certain places for a reason and that the Lord does everything for a reason. 

Love you all!
Sister Hillam

Hop On Hop Off Bus

The Tripla

We are kind of fed-up with pigeons!

Marlie-Moo??

The old district of Porto 2... Que saudades!

1. The Tripla
2. The old district of Porto 2.. Que saudades!
3. Marlie Moo...?
4. The Tripla

Week Two of the Tripla

We got our elders!! They're great!! I added a picture at the bottom. They're a funny companionship but the members already  love them!

So one of my cousins served here in São João da Madeira and she asked us to go visit one of her recent converts. So we go to his house and he was there!! He was super super cool!! We learned that he got divorced and that only one of his two sons were living with him. He didn't have time for us to teach anything but he thought it was soo cool that I was cousins with the missionary that baptized him!! I'm so excited to bring him and his family back to church. He already has the priesthood and everything!!! 

Yesterday, Sister Nagliati went on a division with a member and me and Sister Mavy went off to find people to teach. We were knocking doors for like two hours and no one answered apart from an athiest.. Then we knock a door, and this lady answered. We asked to do a prayer with her and she invited us in and introduced us to her husband. We talked about Christ and our families. They told us that one of their grandsons passed away before being born and that one of them has deficiencies. They were crying and we were able to testify that they would see their grandson again and be able to hold him in their arms. I haven't felt the Spirit so strong like this for a long time!! It was amazing!! 

These past weeks, I've learned a lot about our will and God's will. If we really want to be changed and help further the work, we have to give God everything. If He has to change something, He needs us in His hands. He can't make us give everything to him. We have to do it ourselves and then He can make us the people he wants us to be. I think this is so amazing and I want to try to do this even more on my mission so I can change for the better and become more like my Savior!!

Com amor,
Sister Hillam

The valley of Vouge. The pictures don't do it justice.. 

Elder Law and Elder Aguilar

Vale de Cambra

A cute abandoned house

The District of Porto 2 and our amazing tshirts :) 

TRIPLA e TRIPAS

We got transfers last night! And guess what... WE'RE STAYING IN A TRIPLA!!! And... SÃO JOÃO NOW HAS ELDERS! We're not just sisters anymore! It'll be awesome, the members might revolt, but it'll still be awesome!

This week we were soo busy with trying to find new investigators. Last week our district goal was 40 and we hit it! Then we decided to go for 60. And guess what.. WE HIT IT! It was so hard and we're dead now but it was so amazing! We had so many miracles! We started a district fast on Saturday and right after we started, each dupla found a least one novo. And then at 9pm, we had 58 novos. WE ONLY NEEDED 2 MORE! So we got permission from President to stay out just a little later and find the novos. AND WE DID! It was awesome!! To celebrate, we're going to MATOZINHOS to play volleyball and have a picnic! I'll send pics next week probably..

We've been making a lot  of listões with the members, which is just a giant list of their friends so that later, we can work with them. Anyways, with one listão, we did it with these 3 old people, Odete, Otília, and Irmão Tavares. They're all siblings. So we were asking them about how many siblings they had and Odete said 7 and the other two said 8. They counted out the siblings and Odete still didn't believe them!! We decided she's the dumb blonde of the family. 

Oh a story that I forgot to tell from a long time ago...
So, Sister Mavy and I were in our apartment and the power goes out. So I try to turn the breaker on and it doesn't work. We call the mission office and they hook us up to the electricity company. So I'm talking to this not-so-nice portuguese man with a very thick accent and he tells me to go to the electicity box outside and press the orange button. SO I do.. and at that moment, the phone dies AND I turn off all the power in the WHOLE APARTMENT COMPLEX.. So we run inside our apartment and chill there until someone comes and fixes our mess. They come and the power goes back on except in our apartment. We ended up having to wait until the next day for someone to come and apparently there was a different orange button to press.. Oops.. Lesson well learned :)

I'm so grateful to be staying in São João! It's literally the best place in the world with the best members!! In Relief Society, they remind everyone to pray for the missionaries and they love helping us!! São João is going to be a ward soon!!! Wish us misisonaries luck and pray for us and our investigators and members and everything!!! 

Com amor,
Sister Hillam

PS.. There is the cutest old couple in our ward that is getting married now! They call each other girlfriend and boyfriend! And they hold hads and kiss ahhhhh ADORABLE! They're like in their 70s :)

Pictures.. we didn't take any. Sorry!!

Another Week of Miracles!

Not too much time this week.. Sorry!!

So this past week, Presidente Amorim gave all the districts a challenge. Whoever gets the most new investigators in 2 weeks will get a special training and lunch from Presidente and Sister Amorim. We have the most pumped up district ever so we took the challenge and set our district goal for last week to 40 new investigators. AND WE GOT IT! Man, it was so crazy! On Saturday, we only had 24 and only had that day and yesterday to reach 40. We challenged the other missionaries to think of something they hate doing and then decide to do it if they didn't reach their goal. One Elder, Elder Wanlass, said he would shave his legs for the whole week if they didn't reach their goal. Needless to say, they did. We found 16 investigators in one day as a district! We all worked together and it was amazing to be praying for each other and having so much faith. There will be much rejoicing tomorrow at district meeting! As of now, we're in second place so we'll have to work much harder! We have found soo many wonderful people and I'm positive that at least one of them will be baptized! 

Love you all!!
Sister Hillam

Pics:

É UM ANO NOVO!!

Happy New Year everyone!!! 

It's a New Year and I am soo excited to start this year! And to start the year, I'm in a trio!! Just for two weeks but it's so much fun!! It's definitely a little weird to get used to but I'm grateful for the experience!

We had a week of miracles!! We found 16 new investigators and they were all families!!! It was SO AMAZING!! Funny story with one of these families... A week ago, S. Mavy and I were in an area super far away and decided to take the train for the first time. So we're waiting where we thought the train would stop. It doesn't.. So we have about 15 minutes until the last train will pass again so we run to some random house and knock. A family opens the door and we ask them where to go, we quickly say thank you, and then run ON THE TRAIN TRACKS to the station IN THE PITCH BLACK and the train was going to get there IN A FEW MINUTES!! Definitely a scary point on the mission... But everything worked out and now we take the train all the time :) So fast forward a week, we return there and tell them thank you and they let us in to teach them. Turns out Julieta, the mom, already knows the church and has a Book of Mormon. She recognized us as missionaries last week and searched through her house for the book and read part of it. They are a PERFECT FAMILY! They will definitely be baptized!! There is no such thing as coincidences!! 

I'm so grateful for the opportunity to serve a mission! Portugal is AMAZING! And I can't imagine going home! I only have about 10 months left and it freaks me out to think about it!! They'll have to drag me onto that plane!!

Have a great week and a great new year!!!

Love,
Sister Hillam

These are the only pics I have at the moment.. ):

Our Trio

District P-Day at the Beach

​Lunch at the Pereira's on New Year's Day!​