TRANSFERS ARE THE WORSTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTt

OLA FAMILIA. You probably couldn´t tell by my email title or anything, but transfers were this week and can I just say (because I didn´t say it before) THEY ARE THE WORST. Okay, I´m still in Gaia and my new comp, Sister Smith, is super sweet and we already get along really well. Plus I have the ward family so I´ve got nothing to complain about, right?! It´s just that our district was such a FAM and now Sister Pereira and Sister Harper AND Elder Bianucci have all left me all at once and poor Sister Smith probably (definitely) thinks I´m emotionally unstable because I keep getting randomly emotional at the weirdest things and basically I JUST MISS MY BFFS. It´s especially sad because the sister´s area is being whitewashed with the zone leaders (gross, there goes fun District Meetings) so it´s just Sister Smith and I holding down the fort in our sad, should-be-a-four-person-but-is-only-a-two-person house.

Wow ok no really this transfer will be great and we´ll get a lot of work done and I promise I´m excited. Also I feel like it always sounds like we don´t do anything here (too many True Mormon stories) but I swear we do missionary work sometimes

AND ALSO THIS WEEK WAS SO GREAT. SO quick background story, about a month ago Sister Pereira and I were trying to find an ex-pesquisador and we happened upon this crazy old lady and her sister who were staring at us from their garden. Sister Pereira started talking to them (claro) and we´ve had a few little tiny, you´re-really-sweet-but-just-really-really-old lessons with them since then.

Then one day Sister Pereira called and invited them to church and THEY ACTUALLY CAME?!?! (this doesn´t happen in Portugal familia) and after we had a lesson during divisions and Sister Da Luz just kind of marked them for baptism?!?! So we´ve kept having lessons and preparing them for baptism and whatnot, and yesterday, nossas queridas Maria and Albertina WERE ACTUALLY BAPTIZED YESTERDAY. Yes they are 4 billion years old and yes they don´t always understand everything super well, but they were so cute and so happy yesterday and they have the sweetest little testimonies it´s just adorable. And as the ward has been saying, nunca é tarde para seguir Cristo! Seriously though, it was a super sweet service, they bore their testimonies afterwords about how Christ had given them a bath and now they feel so good. JUST TOO CUTE.

Other fun things from the week:
   - I did residency on Wednesday so WE GOT TO GO TO LISBOA!! For about 2 hot seconds, but still with the mission splitting and all, I just assumed I´d never get to see Lisboa and now, I have. So so exciting
   - Speaking of the mission splitting, I am officially assigned to labor in the Portugal Porto mission! I´m stoked to be up north, even if there´s less Brazilians and Africans it´ll be fixe as heck. That also means that the mission address will be different, so don´t keep sending mail to the one I´ve given out to everybody. But the other address, the Praceto Dr something or another is still where I leave so feel free to send me everything your heart desires
   - I have expected there to be a giant revolt after Sister Pereira announced her departure on Sunday, but instead everybody just wept and since then I´ve gotten 2908892405 phone calls "quero falar com Sister Periera onde está Pereira?!?" OK FAM BUT I´M STAYING NO NEED FOR THE TEARS
   - We started a new tradition of playing the Restauration every Friday in the capela, which is actually really super great because it´s mega powerful and the pesquisadores love it. Unfortunately for this last Friday, I sat next to the elders so I didn´t get as much out of it as I could have. But if you ever want a good movie night, I can suggest watching any Joseph Smith classic and imagining all the characters being played by Nick Cage.

Anyways, that´s the mission life over here. I love you guys lots and lots and lots, thanks for all the support and love and prayers!

Sister Parkinson