WEEK SOMETHING AND I ONLY CRIED 25098460 OR SO TIMES

WHAT UP FAMILIA!!!!! First off, I gotta said a huge, massive, incredibly excited PARABENS to the new Mr. and Mrs. Parkinson! Thats right fam, Alec and Jalyn finally sealed the deal and got themselves married. MUITO CONGRATS TO ALL!! I only cried upwards of 14 or 15 times that day too, so I feel pretty good about that. And I cried reading the emails and seeing pictures and Im actually crying right now but we wont worry about that

Anyway, this week was great! A little slow and not much happened, but still great! Gaia is seriously incredible, the members are so great and wonderful and the best. We had... wait for it.... 4 DINNERS WITH MEMBERS THIS WEEK. Im pretty sure this is a Portugal Lisbon Mission record. Hold the applause fam. But actually though, that took up a good majority of the week. Portugese people dont really understand the "one hour of dinner" concept and sometimes we are just a little too lazy to correct them, especially if it means theyre bringing out more food. The food here is just too good.

We did have a zone conference on Quinta and it was glorious because I GOT THE WEDDING ANNOUNCEMENT. THE DAY BEFORE THE WEDDING. I didnt think Id get it for at least another week or two. Small milagres fam! Since then I spend most of my time sitting in front of the fridge staring longingly at the annoucement which has caused more than one sister missionary to question my mental health. Suffice it to say the annoucement is BEAUTIFUL and my brother and his wife are very cute and I miss them.

We also had interviews with Prez this week which I probably couldve enjoyed a lot more if Elder Bianucci hadnt spent a good 15 minutes or so right before showing me his incredible President impersonation. Prez is so great, and very inspired... And also very hilarious to impersonate. He also goes home AFTER THIS TRANSFER? Which is CRAZY and we will all miss him a ton. Im definitely slightly jealous hes headed back to the promise land TEXAS but Im sure hes jealous I get to stay here so Ill just stick it out and wait until I have that feeling too.

Sunday was especially cool, we had Stake Conference and we got to hear talks from President and Sister Fluckiger and Elder Moreira, a member of the 70 here in Portugal. Probably the raddest thing about it was that I didnt have to fight to stay awake because I WAS UNDERSTANDING SOME OF THE THINGS THAT WERE GOING ON. Small successes am I right?! I actually had a moment at one of our favorite MAs house this week, when I was participating in the conversation and then realized that I was participating in the coversation?! And knowing what was going on? It was a very "Best Two Years" moment and I was a lot more proud of it than anyone else would have been. PORTUGUESE FAM. It no longer sounds like chinese and that makes me more than a little happy!

Thats pretty much all I have to share I guess... We had a number of pretty powerful lessons that Im hoping leads to some success! Our RC Joao is still rocking it and the members just ADORE him (great for us, we get to tag along when he gets invited to dinners and stuff), it was Elder Bianuccis birthday so we spent probably too much time eating cake in the kitchen of the church, eating cake at members houses, eating cake at restaurants... Always cake. Portuguese people make good cake.

Anyway, thats about all I have! The days and starting to blur together into one long "we did missionary work" week so I have a feeling my emails will only get more boring from here on out. BOA SORTE FAMMMMMMMM I love all of you lots and lots and think about yall too much. Stop being so cute so I can stop missing yall, ok?! MUCH LOVE FROM PORTUGAL

(Editors note: Pictures stolen from a missionary serving in the same area... see other blogs linked on the side)