WHAT UP FAM TUDO BEM TUDO BEM. Hope everything is tudo na boa and everyone is feeling fine and that PÁSCOA PÁSCOA PÁSCOA was a BLAST for tudo mundo!! Yayyyyyyy Easter
Speaking of Easter, we just so happened to be in the absolute best place in all of Portugal to celebrate the holy day. But really though, they call Braga the Rome of Portugal because everyone and their dog is Catholic so they put on a huge, HUGE FESTA for Easter and theres a billion tourists and churros on churros and CRAZY PROCESSIONS all day, everyday. I felt culturally enriched out of my mind all week!!! And also fat because you know, churros.
Soooooooooo for the week:
- we took another surprise visit down to P-town Porto (why do these keep happening) and ended up having a bunch of extra time before our train left so we were like AMERICAN sTORE??? And mosied our way down (and by mosey I mean run. Run for the mac and cheese) and WENT SO HARD YOU WOULD NOT BELIEVE. Pretty sure I spilt a tear or two in the Dr Pepper aisle. As Sister Runyan pointed out, we've been in Portugal long enough that we get excited about a little taste of home now instead of Portugese food. Maybe that explains the daily McDonalds cravings??
- so ABOUT THESE PROCESSIONS. YOU GUYS. Wednesday night there was one that went through the full Bible, from Abraham to Christ and everything in between, feat. a wooden Mary being guided on a donkey through the streets. Thursday they had the "ferricocos", which are guys dressed head-to-toe in black (literally, with eye holes cut out of their black sheets) carrying fire and noise makers and calling people to repentance. And Friday had Christ on the cross (again, literally, a literal person being carried through the streets on a cross) and Saturday was THE BURNING OF JUDAS AT THE STAKE. What did I tell you fam THEY DONT MESS AROUND WITH EASTER HERE. It was the biggest party in the world and I think I will come here for Semana Santa every year
- Also for Easter nobody was at church so bispo came in clutch and cancelled the last hour of church. Hahahahahahahhaah THE IRONY. And no one actually invited us to eat with them for Easter so we had a huge district Easter party!!!!! Problem is, we are at the end of the month and none of us have any money.... or food.... so we pooled ALL of our resources at the capela and ended up making mashed potatoes, some kind of feijoada-thing, and french toast. The greatest Easter lunch ever???? Possibly. You decide.
- Friday we had a ward activity and it was a blast. Actually it was great because normally nobody shows up for missionary activities here and we managed to get like 8 pesquisadores there!!! We couldnt get the church website videos to work so we ended up having to pull up the second stringer "To This End Was I Born" which is a TINY bit intense and kinda dropped the cheery mood by like 400% but what can ya do. We pulled it back with a bazillion cookies and lemon bars and goofy games and everybody really loved it!!! Success squad
And on the realz I hope everyone had a fabulous Easter!! We really focused this week on Luke 24:5-6 and 1 Corinthians 15:22 together, and how since Christ resurrected all of us will resurrect. Thats the miracle of Easter, folks!! Christ LIVES and because of that, we will all live again. And I am so blessed and grateful to know all that and to get to share it!!
Wait, me saying spiritual things??? What happened??
Hahahahahaha alrighty thats all I got for the week fam but I LOVE YOU ALL TONS AND TONS.
BOA SEMANA GENTEEEEEEE
much love from the Portuguese Rome
xoxoxoxox bjnhs Sis P
P.S. sorry I suck and I didnt actually take any pics of anything this week but yall can probably mooch off my comp or something??? Whoops MY BAD
(Carly forwared the following picture from her comp)
And as suggested... stolen from the companion!
Monday, March 28, 2016
Monday, March 21, 2016
This is gonna be the best day of my lifeeeeeeeeee
WHAT UP FAM TA TUDO NA BOAAAAAA WHATS UP SQUAD TUDO BEMMMMMMMMMMM
So I spent all of Saturday morning preparitorily (is that a word? Prepar-a-torily??) singing the subject line song at the top of my lungs and I think I can safely say that Saturday did NOT disappoint. IT WAS POSSIBLY THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFEEEE. NOT JUST MY MISSION LIFE BUT POSSIBLY MY WHOLE LIFE. THE CHURCH IS TRUEEEEEEE EVERYBODY.
So basically, y'all all know Sandra and Hélder, the family I taught in Porto that were getting married slash baptized on Saturday. We actually got permission from Prez to go!!!!!!! But we had to have an investigator, which for lazy Portuguese people to spend their Saturday going all the way down to Porto to go to someone's baptism they don't know, is actually harder than it looks. So we dedicated our whole week to finding someone to go with us, we were praying our faces off everyday, the works.
Finally it gets to Friday and we STILL HAD NO ONE. So the prayers got more intense and the convites got more and more desperate (we were calling and inviting people that the Elders were like "sisters, you have a problem" i.e. the schizophrenic ward member's crazy sister and the ward hobo's crazy uncle) and finally in complete determination I decided to fast until we got someone to go with us. And for anyone who knows me even a little bit, you know that THAT is real sacrifice right there, friends. Girl loves her food.
And honestly, this was probably the most faith-filled I have ever been in my whole life. Person after person was calling us and telling us they couldn't go but I somehow just KNEW that we were going to find somebody and was completely peaceful about it the entire time.
Flash forward to the 23rd hour of a 24-hour fast, we are in correlation meeting and we get a call from Catarina. BACKGROUND: Catarina is this adorable menos-activa in our ward, Felipe is her non-member boyfriend. They need to get married so Felipe can be baptized. Basically the same situation as Sandra and Hélder so we had really, really wanted them to go to this baptism but they hadn't showed any intrest at all. SOOOOOOOO we randomly get this call from Catarina and she's like "hey whats up sistas" and Im like Oh not much also WHAT ABOUT THIS WEDDING BAPTISM THING. And shes like "idk but call Felipe" and so I did and he was like actually that sounds pretty cool yeah we should go when can I come get you
.......
AHHHHHHHH AIHFOIWJLKCJAJSDSAKLJDA YOU GUYS. MILAGRES ARE REAL AND THEY HAPPEN. And like, I know it wasn't that big of a deal but thats what made it so amazing, ya know?? Because it wasnt a huge thing but since it was really, really important to me the Lord made it happen. THE CHURCH IS SO TRUE. YOU GUYS. IT IS SO TRUE. Fasting is real, prayer is real, and the Lord wants us to be happy even through the littlest things.
And yep, we made our way down to that wedding and baptism and it was THE. GREATEST. I was bawling the whole time. Sandra looked perfect. They were so happy. OH AND FREAKING BONUS, there is a recent convert and her daughter that we always hung out with in Foz and her husband was never that interested in the church, then I get there and SUPRISE find out that PAULO WAS ALSO GETTING BAPTIZED. YOU. GUYS. I cannot even EXPLAIN to you how happy I was. IT WAS THE LITERAL GREATEST THING IN THE WORLD. And Felipe totally loved it, it was his first time seeing a baptism and he kept being like "this will be me one day everybody". AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
So, yep. That was pretty much our whole semana, or at least the most important part. There were also some crazy Easter Catholic processions and crazy investigators that answered the door without pants and super drunk recent converts. Ya know, the usual. But BASICALLY everything is perfect and missions are the best and thats all that matters.
MUCH LOVE TO ONE AND ALL. Thanks for the love and prayers and all that jazz. Y'all are the bestttttt.
FIQUEM BEM, GENTE.
xoxoxoxoxox bjnhs Sis P
Sooooooooo Im finally back with more picz for the fam!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Last week Matosinhos came up and partied with us and it was the actually greatest
1. All the ladiez at Bom Jesus
2. Part 2
Also after my now super famous Bom Jesus selfie, a part 2 with my gurl Sis Cahill just had to happen
also today we went to Guimarães and went to a REAL LIFE CASTLE WOHOOOOOOOOO
So I spent all of Saturday morning preparitorily (is that a word? Prepar-a-torily??) singing the subject line song at the top of my lungs and I think I can safely say that Saturday did NOT disappoint. IT WAS POSSIBLY THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFEEEE. NOT JUST MY MISSION LIFE BUT POSSIBLY MY WHOLE LIFE. THE CHURCH IS TRUEEEEEEE EVERYBODY.
So basically, y'all all know Sandra and Hélder, the family I taught in Porto that were getting married slash baptized on Saturday. We actually got permission from Prez to go!!!!!!! But we had to have an investigator, which for lazy Portuguese people to spend their Saturday going all the way down to Porto to go to someone's baptism they don't know, is actually harder than it looks. So we dedicated our whole week to finding someone to go with us, we were praying our faces off everyday, the works.
Finally it gets to Friday and we STILL HAD NO ONE. So the prayers got more intense and the convites got more and more desperate (we were calling and inviting people that the Elders were like "sisters, you have a problem" i.e. the schizophrenic ward member's crazy sister and the ward hobo's crazy uncle) and finally in complete determination I decided to fast until we got someone to go with us. And for anyone who knows me even a little bit, you know that THAT is real sacrifice right there, friends. Girl loves her food.
And honestly, this was probably the most faith-filled I have ever been in my whole life. Person after person was calling us and telling us they couldn't go but I somehow just KNEW that we were going to find somebody and was completely peaceful about it the entire time.
Flash forward to the 23rd hour of a 24-hour fast, we are in correlation meeting and we get a call from Catarina. BACKGROUND: Catarina is this adorable menos-activa in our ward, Felipe is her non-member boyfriend. They need to get married so Felipe can be baptized. Basically the same situation as Sandra and Hélder so we had really, really wanted them to go to this baptism but they hadn't showed any intrest at all. SOOOOOOOO we randomly get this call from Catarina and she's like "hey whats up sistas" and Im like Oh not much also WHAT ABOUT THIS WEDDING BAPTISM THING. And shes like "idk but call Felipe" and so I did and he was like actually that sounds pretty cool yeah we should go when can I come get you
.......
AHHHHHHHH AIHFOIWJLKCJAJSDSAKLJDA YOU GUYS. MILAGRES ARE REAL AND THEY HAPPEN. And like, I know it wasn't that big of a deal but thats what made it so amazing, ya know?? Because it wasnt a huge thing but since it was really, really important to me the Lord made it happen. THE CHURCH IS SO TRUE. YOU GUYS. IT IS SO TRUE. Fasting is real, prayer is real, and the Lord wants us to be happy even through the littlest things.
And yep, we made our way down to that wedding and baptism and it was THE. GREATEST. I was bawling the whole time. Sandra looked perfect. They were so happy. OH AND FREAKING BONUS, there is a recent convert and her daughter that we always hung out with in Foz and her husband was never that interested in the church, then I get there and SUPRISE find out that PAULO WAS ALSO GETTING BAPTIZED. YOU. GUYS. I cannot even EXPLAIN to you how happy I was. IT WAS THE LITERAL GREATEST THING IN THE WORLD. And Felipe totally loved it, it was his first time seeing a baptism and he kept being like "this will be me one day everybody". AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
So, yep. That was pretty much our whole semana, or at least the most important part. There were also some crazy Easter Catholic processions and crazy investigators that answered the door without pants and super drunk recent converts. Ya know, the usual. But BASICALLY everything is perfect and missions are the best and thats all that matters.
MUCH LOVE TO ONE AND ALL. Thanks for the love and prayers and all that jazz. Y'all are the bestttttt.
FIQUEM BEM, GENTE.
xoxoxoxoxox bjnhs Sis P
Sooooooooo Im finally back with more picz for the fam!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Last week Matosinhos came up and partied with us and it was the actually greatest
1. All the ladiez at Bom Jesus
2. Part 2
Also after my now super famous Bom Jesus selfie, a part 2 with my gurl Sis Cahill just had to happen
also today we went to Guimarães and went to a REAL LIFE CASTLE WOHOOOOOOOOO
Monday, March 14, 2016
THE RED SCARE
What up everybodyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy HAPPY MONDAY!!! TUDO BEM TUDO MUNDO???!!! I hope the semanas forem boas and everything is correring tudo bem!!
SO WE HAD A GREAT WEEK IN BRAGA COMO SEMPRE. But seriously, I love this place with all of my heart, Braga is the best best best best best!! The crazy people, the crazy wonderful food, the crazy good food, everything. How did I ever get so blessed??!?!?!
But for this week I honestly cant think of anything to share lolz sorry fam here we goooooooo
- That email title though. Sis Runyan was trolling hard this week so she found a thing on our phone that cuts phone calls at 5 minutes. I, being one who loves my phone time, did not take it well. I assumed it was a mission thing and went completely crazy and decided we were in a communist regime and was planning on making my email title "Back in the U.S.S.R."... but ya know, since that wasnt actually what was going on, now its just the Red Scare. Hahahaha bad history jokes for dayzzz. And yes, I have started the addiction recovery process to my phone usage. "Hi Im Sister Parkinson and Im a phone user...."
- Wow ok this email already started off bad. Lets see here, we also didnt eat at home like hardly at all this week so we didnt even have to do groceries. My love for McDonalds came back with a vengence and I was ashamed I ever left it. Our RC Antonio gave us 9048093284 pieces of gum for some reason so Sis Runyan and I decided to try and fit as much in our mouth as possible, I naturally won by a landslide with 26 pieces (those chipmunk cheeks though) but then I had to lay on the floor for like 3 hours because the sugar rush made me insanely sick. We brought brownie bowl back this week and I nearly died afterwords.... ?? Thats all I have honestly. Hahaha the mission life.
- ALSO, Prez has been making a bigger deal about getting up and actually exercising, and we took it to heart and actually went out running the last couple of days. And the first day we did, we had 6 LESSONS THAT DAY (anyone serving in Utah, I know its not a big deal but for us its like the Michael Phelps just won 8 medals again or something) so basically, following the conselhos of your leaders is real and really does work. Church is true.
- I should write about investigators I know, but thats what companions are for. Haha suffice it to say that our investigators are super cool and I really love them all!! Pray for all of them, especially Carlos, João, and Cecelia. WE GON SEE MIRACLES HERE, GENTE.
And also, pray for us!! We have permission to go to Porto for Sandra and Hélders baptism and wedding, but only with an investigator. And since I a) think this would be an amazing opportunity for a bunch of our investigators and b) REALLY REALLY REALLY want to go, all y'alls prayers would be welcome!!
AND I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!! Thanks for the love and support and prayers. Missions are the best and I love being here.
MUCH LOVE, TODOS
xoxoxoxox bjnhs Sis P
SO WE HAD A GREAT WEEK IN BRAGA COMO SEMPRE. But seriously, I love this place with all of my heart, Braga is the best best best best best!! The crazy people, the crazy wonderful food, the crazy good food, everything. How did I ever get so blessed??!?!?!
But for this week I honestly cant think of anything to share lolz sorry fam here we goooooooo
- That email title though. Sis Runyan was trolling hard this week so she found a thing on our phone that cuts phone calls at 5 minutes. I, being one who loves my phone time, did not take it well. I assumed it was a mission thing and went completely crazy and decided we were in a communist regime and was planning on making my email title "Back in the U.S.S.R."... but ya know, since that wasnt actually what was going on, now its just the Red Scare. Hahahaha bad history jokes for dayzzz. And yes, I have started the addiction recovery process to my phone usage. "Hi Im Sister Parkinson and Im a phone user...."
- Wow ok this email already started off bad. Lets see here, we also didnt eat at home like hardly at all this week so we didnt even have to do groceries. My love for McDonalds came back with a vengence and I was ashamed I ever left it. Our RC Antonio gave us 9048093284 pieces of gum for some reason so Sis Runyan and I decided to try and fit as much in our mouth as possible, I naturally won by a landslide with 26 pieces (those chipmunk cheeks though) but then I had to lay on the floor for like 3 hours because the sugar rush made me insanely sick. We brought brownie bowl back this week and I nearly died afterwords.... ?? Thats all I have honestly. Hahaha the mission life.
- ALSO, Prez has been making a bigger deal about getting up and actually exercising, and we took it to heart and actually went out running the last couple of days. And the first day we did, we had 6 LESSONS THAT DAY (anyone serving in Utah, I know its not a big deal but for us its like the Michael Phelps just won 8 medals again or something) so basically, following the conselhos of your leaders is real and really does work. Church is true.
- I should write about investigators I know, but thats what companions are for. Haha suffice it to say that our investigators are super cool and I really love them all!! Pray for all of them, especially Carlos, João, and Cecelia. WE GON SEE MIRACLES HERE, GENTE.
And also, pray for us!! We have permission to go to Porto for Sandra and Hélders baptism and wedding, but only with an investigator. And since I a) think this would be an amazing opportunity for a bunch of our investigators and b) REALLY REALLY REALLY want to go, all y'alls prayers would be welcome!!
AND I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!! Thanks for the love and support and prayers. Missions are the best and I love being here.
MUCH LOVE, TODOS
xoxoxoxox bjnhs Sis P
Monday, March 7, 2016
I DONT MESS AROUND WITH PAPER AIRPLANES
What up friends and fammmmmmmm tudo bem tudo mundo???? I hope yall had great semanas and all that!!!
Theres actually not much to report from here in Braga town. People are crazy, its still cold and rainy, and the work goes on as usual!! Lets see what I can whip up here:
- Probably the most important part of this letter is for all of you to know that, for the first time in my mission, I breached the unthinkable barrier and ate McDonalds for, you guessed it, 3 MEALS IN A ROW. We hit McDs on the way to a zone meeting, we obviously had to get it as a zone afterwords, and then had nothing in our apartment for dinner so we HIT UP MCDONALDS. I want with all of my heart to say NO RAGRETS but there were actually, real life regrets, and I havent eaten Mcdonalds since. I know its hard to believe. I myself have trouble accepting it, but its true. Looks like 6 months to sexy may be a go after all.... ??! Stay tuned fam. This is serious stuff.
- Sis Runyan had to, once again, deal with my instability as I spent a good part of the week figuring out stuff for BYU. I had a real-life panic attack and have basically decided that I am never coming home. Sorry for anyone who is disappointed by this news but yep, looks like I will be a missionary forever. SORRY BOYZ
- We finally FINALLY had a zone meeting this week and it was just as goofy as ever!! Its always great to see old friends and do ridiculous practicas and ride trains and eat Mcdonalds and all that jazz. PLUS we got our mail after like 34809 months so SHOUTOUT to Mama P, Melanie, the Haas and any and all other mail senders!! Yall are saints. Much love and bênçãos to ya.
- So Sis Runyan and I realized that we had basically NO new investigators to teach and it is kinda frustrating DEMAIS, so we did some hardcore evaluation and realized that, oh yeah, we hadnt actually been doing all our contacts. SO we set some high contacting goals and hit the streets on what just happened to be the coldest and rainiest day of the week here. Every time it would start raining or we had some kind of setback we would just be like NOT TODAY SATAN. NOT TODAY. And in the end, we made ourselves that little goal and WHOPPED THE DEVIL.
- Actual missionary moments: we got to do a fast with one of our investigators who was going through some legal stuff for her netinha, and it was actually super spiritual and really cool, and everything worked out the way they needed it to. Then another investigator needed some help legalizing her child, and after saying a prayer the VERY next day got the letter she needed in the mail. WOAH. MIRACLES HAPPEN FAM. And its especially cool to watch it happen for others and ESPECIALLY ESPECIALLY cool when they recognize the hand of the Lord in all of it. Thats one of the most rewarding parts of missionary work, when people receive blessings and know that they are coming from the Lord. Church is true, everybody.
Now for the subject line slash a special segment called BEST OF SISTER RUNYAN. Have to give the lady a shoutout for being constantly hilarious
1. The subject line. She made a fairly impressive paper airplane so I was like "hey man thats a pretty good airplane there" and she just immediately shouts I DONT MESS AROUND WITH PAPER AIRPLANES. Hahahahah dying.
2. "TIME FLIES WHEN YOURE HAVING FAST". Gotta love that positivity when you are fasting twice a week
3. A member called during one of our lessons, so obviously we didnt answer because, you know, we were teaching. So afterwords I look at the phone and Im like "oh look, Jessica called" and she goes "oh really?? What did she say?". HAHAHAHAHA SHOUTOUT. Shes the best.
Anywayyyyyyy thats all I got. Sorry if my emails are sort of the worst but just so all know, THE MISSION IS THE BEST. Braga is wonderful and the church is true. And everything is wonderful here in Portugal!!! Thanks for all the love back home, one and all!!
FIQUEM BEM TODOS
xoxoxoxoxo bjs Sis P
Theres actually not much to report from here in Braga town. People are crazy, its still cold and rainy, and the work goes on as usual!! Lets see what I can whip up here:
- Probably the most important part of this letter is for all of you to know that, for the first time in my mission, I breached the unthinkable barrier and ate McDonalds for, you guessed it, 3 MEALS IN A ROW. We hit McDs on the way to a zone meeting, we obviously had to get it as a zone afterwords, and then had nothing in our apartment for dinner so we HIT UP MCDONALDS. I want with all of my heart to say NO RAGRETS but there were actually, real life regrets, and I havent eaten Mcdonalds since. I know its hard to believe. I myself have trouble accepting it, but its true. Looks like 6 months to sexy may be a go after all.... ??! Stay tuned fam. This is serious stuff.
- Sis Runyan had to, once again, deal with my instability as I spent a good part of the week figuring out stuff for BYU. I had a real-life panic attack and have basically decided that I am never coming home. Sorry for anyone who is disappointed by this news but yep, looks like I will be a missionary forever. SORRY BOYZ
- We finally FINALLY had a zone meeting this week and it was just as goofy as ever!! Its always great to see old friends and do ridiculous practicas and ride trains and eat Mcdonalds and all that jazz. PLUS we got our mail after like 34809 months so SHOUTOUT to Mama P, Melanie, the Haas and any and all other mail senders!! Yall are saints. Much love and bênçãos to ya.
- So Sis Runyan and I realized that we had basically NO new investigators to teach and it is kinda frustrating DEMAIS, so we did some hardcore evaluation and realized that, oh yeah, we hadnt actually been doing all our contacts. SO we set some high contacting goals and hit the streets on what just happened to be the coldest and rainiest day of the week here. Every time it would start raining or we had some kind of setback we would just be like NOT TODAY SATAN. NOT TODAY. And in the end, we made ourselves that little goal and WHOPPED THE DEVIL.
- Actual missionary moments: we got to do a fast with one of our investigators who was going through some legal stuff for her netinha, and it was actually super spiritual and really cool, and everything worked out the way they needed it to. Then another investigator needed some help legalizing her child, and after saying a prayer the VERY next day got the letter she needed in the mail. WOAH. MIRACLES HAPPEN FAM. And its especially cool to watch it happen for others and ESPECIALLY ESPECIALLY cool when they recognize the hand of the Lord in all of it. Thats one of the most rewarding parts of missionary work, when people receive blessings and know that they are coming from the Lord. Church is true, everybody.
Now for the subject line slash a special segment called BEST OF SISTER RUNYAN. Have to give the lady a shoutout for being constantly hilarious
1. The subject line. She made a fairly impressive paper airplane so I was like "hey man thats a pretty good airplane there" and she just immediately shouts I DONT MESS AROUND WITH PAPER AIRPLANES. Hahahahah dying.
2. "TIME FLIES WHEN YOURE HAVING FAST". Gotta love that positivity when you are fasting twice a week
3. A member called during one of our lessons, so obviously we didnt answer because, you know, we were teaching. So afterwords I look at the phone and Im like "oh look, Jessica called" and she goes "oh really?? What did she say?". HAHAHAHAHA SHOUTOUT. Shes the best.
Anywayyyyyyy thats all I got. Sorry if my emails are sort of the worst but just so all know, THE MISSION IS THE BEST. Braga is wonderful and the church is true. And everything is wonderful here in Portugal!!! Thanks for all the love back home, one and all!!
FIQUEM BEM TODOS
xoxoxoxoxo bjs Sis P
Monday, February 29, 2016
Braga Part 2!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Also THIS WEEK WAS COMPLETELY WILD AND I HAVE TOO MANY GREAT STORIES TO TELL
- First off, not only did the district fam stay but we have 2 ADDITIONAL FAMILY MEMBERS and one is half Portuguese and the other is a baby from the good old US of A. It has been really entertaining to watch the ward members faces when Elder Ward, the friendly neighborhood Portuguese American, starts speaking to them in his perfect Portuguese. Entertaining and also incredibly frustrating because theyre starting to realize just how horrible all of our American Portuguese really is. Huh, maybe this is actually backfiring....
- We have made the recent district discovery that John the Beloved is actually incredibly beautiful. As Elder Erickson says, "why do you think he was beloved??". But really though, this is factual and we have the religious art to prove it. You can go to any, literally ANY picture or statue or SEJA QUAL FOR of John the beloved and he is always, ALWAYS, clean shaven and the best looking one there. Test me on this fam, you will not be disappointed.
- So we are teaching these 2 ladies, Isabel and her mom, from Brazil and they are slightly crazy. Super sweet and adorable, but Isabel is basically a TJ and has the entire Bible memorized and mostly just likes to argue doctrine with us for a good couple of hours every week. So we tried a different tactic and showed the 2 of them the Joseph Smith prophet of the Restoration film, the long beautiful one that is really intense and wonderful, and afterwords we were like "so what did you think yall??" and Isabel is immediately like "HE WAS FOOLED BY THE DEVIL" and whatnot, so we turned to her mom (who is about 80, really really cute and super sweet" and we were like what about you Maria, what do you think? And she sits up and just says "I loved it and I know, without a doubt, that this Joseph Smith man really existed". HAHAHAHAH. I couldnt even hold back my laughter. First step folks, she knows that Joseph Smith really lived!! Now we just have to move into the prophet concept and we have her
- Me trying to talk about actually missonary work moment: we found a woman a couple of weeks ago named Cecelia, shes from Brazil and we finally had the chance to teach her this week. As it turns out, she had already been taught by the sisters a couple of years ago, to the point that she nearly got baptized, but then went back to Brazil where the church wasnt there yet. BUT guess whos back, back back, back again in Braga!! She has already read the Book of Mormon, already has a strong testimony, and is excited to come back to church. WHAT THE WHAT. I literally think this may be the biggest blessing slash miracle I have seen on my mission so far. Braga is filled to the brim with amazing people with tons of potential and I am so so crazy excited to be serving here and be a part of it!!
- Ok Im sorry I have one crazy long story after another, but this one is possibly my favorite, ever. We went to visit an old investigator of the sisters and right as we knocked on the door, she answers and goes AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. Just kidding, come on in sisters!! Literally screamed right as she opened the door. THAT WAS PROBABLY A WARNING SIGN. Then she goes ahead and introduces us to her friend, a homeless man that was staying over who very aggressively tried to give me beijinhos, then invited us into her house, which was pitch black because, oh yeah, they cut the lights the other day. Hahahahaha I nearly started crying I was trying so hard not to laugh. She asked if we could pray and said she would offer, so she grabs us all into one big group hug and just starts shouting "BLESS US LORD BECAUSE WE ARE GOOD PEOPLE AND EVERYONE IS JEALOUS OF ME BUT YOU KNOW THAT WE ARE GREAT PEOPLE LORD".... and I just had no words. One of the greatest lessons that has ever happened, ever.
- If anyone remembers the crazy investigator Antonio from Gaia, he called this week. Yep. I asked how he got the number and he was like "You dont need to know. Im an investigator and I investigated" hahahah classic. Anyway, he asked for my address, which I obviously couldnt give, but I was like "oh heres a number that will help you Antonio" and it was the number of the office elders. HAHAHA SWEET REVENGE. Hopefully they didnt actually give our address though...
- OH MY WORD I CANT BELIEVE I DIDNT SAY THIS ONE FIRST THING. THEY. FINALLY. HAVE. MCMUFFINS. AT. MCDONALDS. McDonalds hasnt served breakfast up until THIS VERY WEEK and we went on THE VERY FIRST DAY and were the ONLY PEOPLE to get mcmuffins but it didnt matter. It was glorious. I cried real tears and Im not even ashamed to admit it.
Alright alright alright Im done I promise. Congrats if any of you made it all the way down here. If so, lots of love to one and all and have a great week, todos!!!
MUCH LOVE PEEPS
xoxoxoxox bjs Sis P
(Pictures pilfered from comp... sure she will love me posting this first one!)


Monday, February 22, 2016
The path to hell is paved with good intentions
HEY FAMMMMMMMMMMMMM WHAT UP YALLLLLLLLLLLL I HOPE EVERYBODY IS TUDO BEM!!!!
We had another wild week here in Braga!! It was actually pretty ordinary so I will see what I can scrounge up to talk about for the fam:
- First off, that glorious email title. It comes from, you guessed it, our beloved mission president!! That was actually a long time ago but its one of the wonderful things that he said to me once in an interview and I forgot how hilarious it was so here you have it, wise words from Prez. Apply it, people.
- WAIT I ALMOST FORGOT WE ACTUALLY HAD THE COOLEST EXPERIENCE EVER THIS WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Elder Patrick Kearon from the presidency of the seventy came down to Portugal and we had a MASSIVE mission conference and IT WAS THE COOLEST THING IN THE WORLD. First off, getting the whole mission together is just the greatest because you know I love me my missionary friends. And second, Elder Kearon is ACTUALLY INCREDIBLE. He thanked us over and over again for our service and gave about the most uplifting and spiritual and simultaneously hilarious talk that has ever been given. It was the actual best thing in the world. I LOVE THE MISSION AND THE CHURCH AND THE PEOPLE IN IT.
- WE GOT A MEMBER REFERENCE THIS WEEK!!! Dude those are a serious rare-find Pokémon out here so it was completely golden and wonderful!! Its a less active from the Açores that wants to come back to church and take his wife with him. Milagres on milagres on milagres. They were super sweet and, more importantly, make really good cakes. CHURCH IS TRUE FAM
- For some reason I always forget to talk about this but our RC Antonio has 3-4 friends that we teach in a café every week and it is the actually highlight of my semana, always. This week we spent all our time trying to teach english slash drawing maps of the US slash singing Beatles songs together. Missionary work at its finest, folks.
- For some reason President hasnt approved our transport money yet so Sis Runyan and I are completely broke so you know what that means.... NO BIG MACS. I HAVE NOT EVEN BEEN SURVIVING. I literally havent eaten a Big Mac in like a 6 days and the withdrawls are realer than real. #PRAY4SISPARKINSON2016
Oh my goodness these emails have gone downhill big time. A THOUSAND APOLOGIES but thats all Ive got for now. Transfers are this week so we will see what happens and I will try my hardest to get us into more weird situations this week!!!!
LOVE YALL SORRY MY EMAILS ARE THE WORST HAHAHAHAHA
paz e bênçãos everybody
xoxoxoxoxox Sis P
OK WAIT THIS IS ACTUALLY SOMETHING TO WRITE ABOUT YES FINALLY REAL-LIFE MISSIONARY NEWS!!!!!! There is a family that I taught the whole time I was in Porto and they are the literal best and most adorable people in the world. Sandra was a less active that stopped us on the street and shes living with Helder, her really cool boyfriend and their 2 kids. We went to their house every week for dinner and FHE and it was the GREATEST, and this week THEY CAME TO VISIT ME IN BRAGA!!! And even better than that, Sandra and Helder have plans to get married and then HELDER IS GETTING BAPTIZED here in March!! They come to church every week and are actually real-life active members. I ACTUALLY CRIED WHEN THEY TOLD ME ALL OF THIS. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH THEY ARE THE BEST AND I AM SO SO SO SO SO EXCITED. HOLY COW. Now just comes the part where I have to ask Prez permission to go.... PRAYERS FAM PRAYERS. I love this family so muchhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
also CONFERENCE
We had another wild week here in Braga!! It was actually pretty ordinary so I will see what I can scrounge up to talk about for the fam:
- First off, that glorious email title. It comes from, you guessed it, our beloved mission president!! That was actually a long time ago but its one of the wonderful things that he said to me once in an interview and I forgot how hilarious it was so here you have it, wise words from Prez. Apply it, people.
- WAIT I ALMOST FORGOT WE ACTUALLY HAD THE COOLEST EXPERIENCE EVER THIS WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Elder Patrick Kearon from the presidency of the seventy came down to Portugal and we had a MASSIVE mission conference and IT WAS THE COOLEST THING IN THE WORLD. First off, getting the whole mission together is just the greatest because you know I love me my missionary friends. And second, Elder Kearon is ACTUALLY INCREDIBLE. He thanked us over and over again for our service and gave about the most uplifting and spiritual and simultaneously hilarious talk that has ever been given. It was the actual best thing in the world. I LOVE THE MISSION AND THE CHURCH AND THE PEOPLE IN IT.
- WE GOT A MEMBER REFERENCE THIS WEEK!!! Dude those are a serious rare-find Pokémon out here so it was completely golden and wonderful!! Its a less active from the Açores that wants to come back to church and take his wife with him. Milagres on milagres on milagres. They were super sweet and, more importantly, make really good cakes. CHURCH IS TRUE FAM
- For some reason I always forget to talk about this but our RC Antonio has 3-4 friends that we teach in a café every week and it is the actually highlight of my semana, always. This week we spent all our time trying to teach english slash drawing maps of the US slash singing Beatles songs together. Missionary work at its finest, folks.
- For some reason President hasnt approved our transport money yet so Sis Runyan and I are completely broke so you know what that means.... NO BIG MACS. I HAVE NOT EVEN BEEN SURVIVING. I literally havent eaten a Big Mac in like a 6 days and the withdrawls are realer than real. #PRAY4SISPARKINSON2016
Oh my goodness these emails have gone downhill big time. A THOUSAND APOLOGIES but thats all Ive got for now. Transfers are this week so we will see what happens and I will try my hardest to get us into more weird situations this week!!!!
LOVE YALL SORRY MY EMAILS ARE THE WORST HAHAHAHAHA
paz e bênçãos everybody
xoxoxoxoxox Sis P
OK WAIT THIS IS ACTUALLY SOMETHING TO WRITE ABOUT YES FINALLY REAL-LIFE MISSIONARY NEWS!!!!!! There is a family that I taught the whole time I was in Porto and they are the literal best and most adorable people in the world. Sandra was a less active that stopped us on the street and shes living with Helder, her really cool boyfriend and their 2 kids. We went to their house every week for dinner and FHE and it was the GREATEST, and this week THEY CAME TO VISIT ME IN BRAGA!!! And even better than that, Sandra and Helder have plans to get married and then HELDER IS GETTING BAPTIZED here in March!! They come to church every week and are actually real-life active members. I ACTUALLY CRIED WHEN THEY TOLD ME ALL OF THIS. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH THEY ARE THE BEST AND I AM SO SO SO SO SO EXCITED. HOLY COW. Now just comes the part where I have to ask Prez permission to go.... PRAYERS FAM PRAYERS. I love this family so muchhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
also CONFERENCE
Monday, February 15, 2016
Always in the Splash Zone
WHAT UP FAMMMMMM TA TUDO NA BOA?!?!?!?!?! I hope yall had some rockin semanas and tudo isso.
YOU ALREADY KNOW THIS WEEK WAS GREAT
- First off, the subject line. Hahahah so the rain and cold has been OUT OF CONTROL this week. Seriously though, I have never been more wet and more cold. I didnt realize I was serving in Siberia?!?!?! But anyway, you know those scenes from movies where the cute female protaganist is walking along in the rain, minding her own business and then a huge truck comes by and splashes her with dirty muddy cold rain water?? WELL THAT IS REAL, AND IT IS MY LIFE. This has seriously happen like 298375 times this week and somehow I am the only one who ever gets splashed?? Its a curse. Living life in the splash zone.
- Lately Sister Runyan and I have been thinking up new jokes based off the line "a Portuguese, Italian, and Iranian girl walk into a bar...." because we were knocking doors one night and got let into a house with exactly that combination. You have to love living by a university and getting the craziest combos of people in the world.
- We taught ALL THE CRAZIES THERE ARE this week. Hahaha but really thoughhhhhhh. The first was Antoneita, who doesnt like religion, just spirituality, and has taken negative words out of her vocabulary. After arguing with us for like 20 minutes I just gave up and was chatting with Sister Runyan while she read a scripture and she goes "EXCUSE ME. I AM TRYING TO READ THE WORD OF GOD HERE". Hahaha classic. She has a point. The second was Antonino, a preacher from Brazil who has seen visions that he cant even explain to us because he is so much more spiritually advanced than we are. Right. A WEEK IN THE LIFE FAM. I wish I had 857439 hours to tell you all the ridiculous stories we hear out here. PORTUGUESE PEOPLE ARE CRAZY. I love them to death and they are all completely insane :)
- I had this super intense mental breakdown this week (not really, but you get the idea) because it was raining and my shoes broke and I was so very very very wet, and then Manuela, our crazy 90 year old friend that we bring the sacrament to, was sick and canceled on us and THEN we saw a dead dog on the road and it was just too much to handle and I completely lost it in the middle of the sidewalk. Poor Sister Runyan. But like the wonderful comp she is, she handled it by forcing me to eat a ton of chocolate. In case anyone is wondering why I am gaining weight here in Braga....
- Speaking of which, 6 MONTHS TO SEXY IS GOING SO WELL. I just did a evaluation of our week and it looks like I had 2 françazinhas and 3, possibly 4 Big Macs. On this diet you can bet I will be comin home thin as can be!!! Watch and see fam!!!
Alright thats all I got. I know, the emails get worse and worse. I try fam, I really do. Just know that even as I freeze my little buns off and am wet as can be, I am happy as a clam eating everything in sight and teaching all the goofballs of this country. AND I LOVE YOU ALL. Thanks for the love and support from everybody!!
MUCH LOVE
xoxoxoxox Sis P
Picz
aka proof that my big mac 6 months to sexy routine is workin its magic
HAHAHA WAIT JUST KIDDING
1. I am realizing that this looks like a 7 but its supposed to be a 1. As in 1 year. Whoops
(This picture was on her current companions blog... I think the lighting is better )
and 2. We went back to Bom Jesus, the crazy beautiful cathedral, and this is accidentally literally the only picture I took. YOU KNOW YOU LOVE ME FAM
YOU ALREADY KNOW THIS WEEK WAS GREAT
- First off, the subject line. Hahahah so the rain and cold has been OUT OF CONTROL this week. Seriously though, I have never been more wet and more cold. I didnt realize I was serving in Siberia?!?!?! But anyway, you know those scenes from movies where the cute female protaganist is walking along in the rain, minding her own business and then a huge truck comes by and splashes her with dirty muddy cold rain water?? WELL THAT IS REAL, AND IT IS MY LIFE. This has seriously happen like 298375 times this week and somehow I am the only one who ever gets splashed?? Its a curse. Living life in the splash zone.
- Lately Sister Runyan and I have been thinking up new jokes based off the line "a Portuguese, Italian, and Iranian girl walk into a bar...." because we were knocking doors one night and got let into a house with exactly that combination. You have to love living by a university and getting the craziest combos of people in the world.
- We taught ALL THE CRAZIES THERE ARE this week. Hahaha but really thoughhhhhhh. The first was Antoneita, who doesnt like religion, just spirituality, and has taken negative words out of her vocabulary. After arguing with us for like 20 minutes I just gave up and was chatting with Sister Runyan while she read a scripture and she goes "EXCUSE ME. I AM TRYING TO READ THE WORD OF GOD HERE". Hahaha classic. She has a point. The second was Antonino, a preacher from Brazil who has seen visions that he cant even explain to us because he is so much more spiritually advanced than we are. Right. A WEEK IN THE LIFE FAM. I wish I had 857439 hours to tell you all the ridiculous stories we hear out here. PORTUGUESE PEOPLE ARE CRAZY. I love them to death and they are all completely insane :)
- I had this super intense mental breakdown this week (not really, but you get the idea) because it was raining and my shoes broke and I was so very very very wet, and then Manuela, our crazy 90 year old friend that we bring the sacrament to, was sick and canceled on us and THEN we saw a dead dog on the road and it was just too much to handle and I completely lost it in the middle of the sidewalk. Poor Sister Runyan. But like the wonderful comp she is, she handled it by forcing me to eat a ton of chocolate. In case anyone is wondering why I am gaining weight here in Braga....
- Speaking of which, 6 MONTHS TO SEXY IS GOING SO WELL. I just did a evaluation of our week and it looks like I had 2 françazinhas and 3, possibly 4 Big Macs. On this diet you can bet I will be comin home thin as can be!!! Watch and see fam!!!
Alright thats all I got. I know, the emails get worse and worse. I try fam, I really do. Just know that even as I freeze my little buns off and am wet as can be, I am happy as a clam eating everything in sight and teaching all the goofballs of this country. AND I LOVE YOU ALL. Thanks for the love and support from everybody!!
MUCH LOVE
xoxoxoxox Sis P
Picz
aka proof that my big mac 6 months to sexy routine is workin its magic
HAHAHA WAIT JUST KIDDING
1. I am realizing that this looks like a 7 but its supposed to be a 1. As in 1 year. Whoops
(This picture was on her current companions blog... I think the lighting is better )
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