Mais Milagres!!

Alright this week was awesome!!! So we found some sweet people AND found an amazing family!!! It's a mom, Isabel, and the son, Xavier. We contacted them outside of their house and they totally just invited us inside! We taught them the first lesson and they had some pretty sweet questions! You could just see the light of Christ in their eyes! They're amazing!! We're finding lots of families now!! The Lord is blessing us :)

We had our ward activity this week too. It was about the Plan of Salvation and we went through each ´fase´ of the plan and there were games and cool hands-on things. We only had 11 members... But it was still awesome!! They loved it!

Thank ya'll so much for all the birthday wishes!! Ya'll are the best!

Also!! General Conference is this weekend!!! Conference is even better than Christmas here in the mission. We're all SO excited!!! It should be on lds.org if ya'll wanna check it out!!!

Com Muito Amor,
Sister Hillam

Me trying to pet our pet horse!

The Elders made lunch because we didn't have time to go home for lunch and it was Sunday and they had extra food! Go Elders!

The members trying to get the bolacha marias in their mouths from their foreheads

Little Miracles

Yesterday we had the worst luck getting to church. Church starts are 9 am and we take a train there at 8:31 am. So we get to the train station, and we're waiting...and waiting... and we totally hear the train coming and about 100 feet away from the station, the train breaks down. Our luck, right? So by the time we figure out that the train broke down, it was 9 am. So we sprint to the bus station and try to find some bus that'll pass by the church and literally get on it JUST as it was leaving. And you know that song in Home Alone where they're running through the airport trying to catch the plane? Well, we get on the bus and that's the song it's playing!! That was pretty sweet! And we got to church right before the sacrament!

The day before, Saturday was a super rough day. We had tons of fixed appointments and they all fell through. And then no one was at home. So we got home that night super super sad and the only thing I was looking forward to doing was getting to church the next day and taking the sacrament. I think that was the first time I really recognized the need in my life for the sacrament. And I was so sad when I thought we were going to miss the sacrament because the train broke down. But everything worked out. The Lord knew what we needed. I'm so grateful for Christ and his Atonement. Without Him, we would be completely lost and no one wants that!

ALSO! We decided that we really wanted to focus on families. So we make a goal to pray for families in every prayer. So yesterday, we're walking to find some old investigators and a family passes by... And then another.. AND another.. And we FINALLY realized that God has been putting families in our path. We were pretty slow at realizing that. But we decided to contact every family for the rest of the day. And then, we were knocking doors late at night and found this amazing family!! We asked them if they'd like to come to church and they said yes without hesitation!! Families rock!!!

Oh and yeah so today's my birthday! The big 20!! This morning we wake up like usual and clean the house. I start getting ready for the day and start getting some breakfast but Sister Bushman says, "You might not want to eat breakfast." Then like 10 minutes later, I realize that our window is covered with a poster that has Happy Birthday written all over it and somehow there was a container of scrambled eggs and bacon with it. I look outside and it's the elders!! They woke up early and make us breakfast and then ran it down to our house. Man, we've got the best missionaries here in São João da Madeira! And Sister Bushman did a good job at planning it all out without me knowing! 

Com Amor,
Sister Hillam

Sister Bushman and I

Happy Pie Day with our Gluten Free Crust

Happy National Women's Day in Portugal!!

So apparently here, Dias das Mulhers, is like a big thing, so our branch had a BIG activity on Saturday to celebrate all of the wonderful women in our lives. They had the women arrive early and had us, the sisters, paint their nails, had a professional hair and makeup stylist (the nonmember daughter of a member!!!) make them pretty, and had them all dress up! Then they had all the women walk on the catwalk they had made and they took pictures and everything! Then the men made all the food and served it to the women. They had Elder Cannon play a musical number on the piano for them and then played a slideshow of all the pictures that had been taken that night. It was SUPER well done! And the great thing was that they involved a nonmember in it and the photographer was a less active member who brought his less active family!! We also had some other investigators there and it was great!! 

This week we knocked a lot of doors and now we have a ton of appointments for the future!! Yay!! I'm excited to see the fruits!

Also, I hit 10 months on Saturday! CRAZY!! Time flies when you're having fun I guess!! I'm so grateful for all the people I've met, all the comps I've had, and the chance to serve! Here's to a great 8 more months!!

Love you all!
Sister Hillam

Cool Picture of my Tag!!

The piano that Sister Bushman carried for 30 minutes on the way home from the church. I'm teaching her how to play piano now :) Thanks mom for the piano lessons!

The food the men made for the women's activity!

Pescadores e CAÇADORES

First week of transfer 7! So I'm serving with Sister Bushman from Flagstaff, Arizona. She's great!! Not too much has been going on this week apart from knocking doors. We really want to find someone who is interested in the gospel, not just in talking to two American girls. We've found a lot of cool people that we're excited to go back and visit this week! 

This Sunday at church was all about missionary work so Presidente Emerciano gave us an opportunity to share a little. We talked about the scripture in Jeremiah 16:16 where it talks about fishers and hunters. We said that a long time about in São João da Madeira there were A LOT of baptisms. That was done by the fishers. Now, there aren't as many baptisms. We are now in the hunting stage. When you hunt, it's very organized. So we explained that we want to be smart hunters and work with the members! So this week, we have tons of appointments to visit the members for just a little and share a message with them and get to know them. Then in the future, we will do listão and work with their friends!! I'm super excited to stay here for another transfer!! SIX MONTHS GOING STRONG!! 

Love ya'll!!
Sister Hillam