Sister Hillam in Portugal: Trip to Lisbon

Querida Familia!

I celebrated 5 months on the mission!!! Oh my goodness...What happened?!? The time seemed to have flown by! Next month I will have 1 year left on the mission...

Last P-day when we were on our way back to Matosinhos we got to talk to this couple. I was talking to Carlos and come to find out he’s a member! Guess where he was baptized?! OLHAO!!!! I couldn’t believe it! He was baptized 15 years ago and his girlfriend is pregnant and wants to be baptized in the church as well! Oh the joy I felt when I heard he was baptized in Olhao and that they wanted to be married and she wanted to be baptized! They live in the area of the Elders. I’m so excited about this!!

Terca we got a call from one of our investigators whose daughter was sick with pneumonia. She asked is she could receive a blessing so after district meeting we took Elder Neighbor and Elder Cox to their house and gave her a blessing. Lydia (the mom) was crying the whole time. It was good for her to see the power of the priesthood. But then right after that Sister Andrade and I needed to leave and catch a metro to Porto and then the bus to Lisbon. She needed to renew her passport and an identification card before it expired. So, we road for 4 hours on the bus to Lisbon. When we arrived we found out that we would be staying with 2 other sisters! Sister Smith is from Idaho!! She graduated from Bonneville so we had lots to talk about!! It was so good to talk to another Idahoan!! She’s been out since October so about 7 months now. It was so good to talk about the mountains and snow again!

Quarta we spent the morning in the consulate from Cape Verde so that Sister Andrade could renew everything. It was fun to talk to the people there and talk with her about customs and this like that. We then caught the bus to Porto and sat for another 4 hours back to Porto. While on the bus ride home, Sister Andrade had the biggest impression that her family was ready to hear the gospel. So we found the address to the office in Cape Verde. She was so excited to feel that her family is ready!! We finally got back to our house around 6, and the Elders called us to say that we were going to meet with our ward mission leader. He didn’t show up but come to find out another Elder called us. He ended his mission in January and he was in town with his Fiancé and wanted numbers of the members. His name is Elder Oliveira and his fiancé was a missionary in Portugal like 6 months ago! Kind of funny haha she’s American!

Quinta we invited Elder Oliveira to join us in teaching our eternigator. He was the one of the many missionaries that taught her. We invited her to be baptized and she said yes!! We marked her for next weekend!! It was awesome! This month there is a huge party to celebrate the Saint of Matosinhos so the ward is doing Proselitismo with us! This whole month, everyday, the missionaries go and contact as many people and invite them to the church and then the members give them a tour. It’s actually really cool that the members do this with us.

Sexta we proselitismo with the ward all day! We contacted loooots of people and the groups that were the most interested were actually the youth. We had groups of youth listen and learn more. Really cool!!

Sabado More proselitismo with the ward and that night we had a ward family night. I love my ward so much!!!

Domingo was my 5-month mark!! Happy 5 months Sister Hillam! We taught a couple from Cape Verde who want to be married. We gave them a Book of Mormon. Ildo was married before and has a son that is 14. The mom died and he and his girlfriend have been trying to get him to live with them in Portugal. There’s a problem with papers and legal issues but they said that because of us they felt stronger to carry on through the process. They are such an elect couple. We visited a family in our ward and they had a sticker of Fatima. Sister Andrade asked is she could destroy it and Irmao said, `You know what the scriptures say, `Não Matarás.` (Do not kill) sooo funny! Everyone was laughing because he was so serious!

It was a great week for us to work with the members. This week I focused on Obedience and Faith. I read my patriarchal blessing a lot this week and these 2 principles are all over the place there. In my life I can see that faith and obedience are 2 qualities that mean so much to me. On the mission I’ve realized that I get really upset when we don’t leave the house on time or even a little bit before, I love being obedient to the rules because I know that I can stand blameless before my leaders and know that I’m following the rules with exactness. I love Filipenses 4´ 13. Literally I feel that when we are being obedient and faithful that’s when we receive more of Christ’s help. I love you all so much!! I hope you all enjoyed your vacations!! Love you all!!

Sister Hillam