Lisbon Portugal, Lapa Week 2

Olá Familia e Amigos! (Yay I figured out how to do the accent mark!)     Oct. 13, 2014

It has been a wonderful week! I feel so blessed to have this opportunity. This week I initiated my first contact. We saw a little girl who probably just got out of school. I went up to her and started our conversation. Her name is Josiel. She was so sweet! She lives with her mom and her sister. Her mom called us a few days later and said they weren´t interested though. I was kind of expecting that. But hopefully we planted a seed for Josiel! That day we also had a lesson with João. We contacted him on the street my second day here. We were on a public bench and the streets around us were really noisy but it all seemed to fade away as we taught the lesson. The Spirit can be present even in the middle of a busy city! I taught a lot in that lesson and it was really special to me. He agreed to pray to know if its true and that if he got an answer he would be baptized! 

I really, really love our area. I never want to leave! It is so beautiful! We pass all of these cute little cathedrals. Lisboa is so beautiful! There is a lot of graffiti and garbage but it is still so charming. Lots of the people we teach are really poor. Everyone lives in tiny apartments.

People feed us dinner sometimes. Lots of yummy African rice dishes. But mostly we just grab a pastry when we are starving. There is a pastry shop by our apartment and it always smells so good when we walk home. Its our ´temptation´. Haha. We go right into the back of the shop by the ovens and they are cooking the batches for the next day. Lots of people we teach give us fruit (mostly apples and pears.. yum!). Whenever someone offers us one I always feel starved so I eat it all down to the core. I am always hungry for some reason. Its really hard to not stop at every Gelado or Pastry shop we see. Saturday was Sister Cardoso´s birthday. Someone from her ward delivered us lots of goodies from her mom. It was an interesting day! We rode a big transportation boat thing to get to a Baptism in Bairero (Sister Cardoso´s old area). She taught the family and wanted to see the Baptism. It was an adventure! Sister Cardoso is sick with a cold. I really hope I don´t get it.. But I probably will! I am so sick of being sick!

We had a lot of ups and downs this week. M--- was all set for her baptism and she readily agreed to give up coffee and she seemed so excited. And then two days in a row she missed our appointments. We tried calling her and she answered and said, ´´I am not M----´´ But we knew it was her! Then the next day she called us and said she wasn´t ready for baptism and to stop bugging her basically. Very sad! Hopefully she will feel ready with time.

One miracle I saw this week was with T---. She is 25 and has an adorable 1 year old son. He is soo cute! He always just stares at me. One day Sister Cardoso asked him who he liked more.. me or her. And he pointed to me! It was so funny. The Sisters have been teaching her for a long time but she never really wants to sit for lessons or change. But this week I saw something change in her! She finally has motivation. There is a light that wasnºt there before. She is ready to change and wants to be baptized.. and she is EXCITED for it. She asked us if she has to bring her own white clothing to be baptized in. It was so cute. This week I have been starting to feel this incredible love for all my investigators. I just want them to have the happiness and security that the gospel brings. I love having the opportunity to witness their conversions. 

The language is coming. Slowly... but itºs coming. I feel like it´s a puzzle.. I´m slowly starting to put the pieces together. I learn more every day. A little bit each day! I love you all! Have a nice week! Tchau!

Love,

Sister Anderson

We went to Bélem today. It is AMAZING. I will show it to you someday. Ahh

Sister Cardoso, Elder Cluff and Elder Fox

I was SO excited about this. I was freaking out and kept saying "I'm gonna die this is so cool"  I said that if my dad was here he would geek out with me too haha. You understand Dad. :)

SO AMAZING. Wow. You NEED to see this someday.

This reminds me of Notre Dame. It is very detailed and very ancient! Gothic style.

Rossio. This is at the end of the street we are emailing on right now. It's like the

Champs-Élysées of Portugal!! BEAUTIFUL. And its in our area! Right outside my door.

An aerial view of Rossio (taken from the internet and added by mom).

My camera has an amazing zoom lens. This picture is taken from the boat.

Isaac, it's your Jack Sparrow.. on a boat where he belongs! haha

I felt like you mom when we were zooming in on the Eiffel Tower haha!

A real pirate ship.. for Chickee!!!!

Some of the food in our beautiful chapel's kitchen. The whole chapel is GORGEOUS. 

It has blue tiles everywhere and marble. ahh. This week was interesting only 30 people showed up to sacrament because of the rain.