Transfers! Flooded Church and God loves you

Olá!!! This week was great! Sister Selman and I worked until we died. There were a few times this week that we had so many lessons planned that we had to teach two at the same time. Sister Selman would teach one at one end of a bench and I would teach one at the other end. It was fantastic!

So I'll be staying in Póvoa for another transfer but not with Sister Selman :( But I'm going to be a mom!! :D I'm going to finish training a sister named Sister Warren. I think she's from the USA but I'm not sure... It will be fun!

This week a prank war started in between one of our recent converts and the Sisters. It started when Telo (the recent convert)  put ketchup in my shoes while we were teaching his wife. I was wearing sandals and was so focused on Catia that I didn't even notice that he squirt this big ol wad of ketchup in my shoes. Then when I stood up the ketchup was cold and squished all over my toes! I about fell over because it was slippery! Then I tried to chase Telo down but he ran laughing like a 12 year old boy who is annoying his older sister. So I went to the bathroom while his whole family laughed and laughed. But Telo had turned off the water!!  Then I decided to get my revenge and I hid his backpack in the church a few days later.  he didn't find it for about 2 hours. Then, knowing that I had hidden it, he took a big bucket of water and tried to dump it over my head while we were teaching English Class in the church!

Then I managed to get a hold of his phone, wallet, and keys while he was hiding in the secretary's office and Sister Selman and I tried to run home so he would be stuck at the church alone. But he caught up to us and stole my name tag. We had a stubborn stand off where I wouldn't give him his phone and he wouldn't give me my name tag. 

Let's just say its war now... Any of you that know me had better warn Telo! Haha

Also on Saturday we were using the buses quite a bit and every time we got on the bus it was the same bus driver. After the third time in a row he shouted "You guys are following me!! Well I just gotta give you a hug because we're family now!" And then he reached over and grabbed Sister Selman in the most awkward hug ever but she tried to protest and pull away which pulled the bus driver out of his chair and he fell on to the floor of the bus, still clinging to Sister Selman. I about died laughing and the nearly full bus laughed too. We helped him up and gave him a  pass along card. He was cool! Making friends wherever we go! Haha

We found this sign this week... It is a road called "Turn from the Shower". It's funny. hehe.

We also found this gem knocking doors.... "Propoganda religiosa aqui não" means "Here there is no religious proselyting." It reminded me of those southern signs you'd find in the USA.

We also found another door sign that says "Jesus te ama" Which means Jesus loves you!! How sweet ^_^

​Also the church flooded. Oops. We helped mop up water for 2 or 3 hours. It basically turned into a Disney song sing of. :) *insert Tangled song*

Book of Mormon Miracles

This week was full of miracles!

We were so busy this week... Every day we had appointments every hour and sometimes even two or three backup appointments. 

This week we found a young man named Tiago who had this beautiful husky and we decided to contact him so that we could pet the dog... Our contact ended up turning into an hour long dissussion about the Apostasy and the Book of Mormon. Apparently he had seen the Elders and Sisters all the time, for years even but no one had ever stopped to talk to him. He asked for a Book of Mormon but we had given our extra away. We told him to just wait in that spot so we could run back to our house and grab another one. We ran back to find him, marking scriptures in the book as we were half walking half running. We gave him the Book and invited him to read and pray about it. A few days later we had a follow up appointment and had another deep discussion, him being intruged the whole time. My companion and I gave each other that "You know what I'm thinking right??" look and invited him to be baptized. He smiled and said that when he recieved his answer that he would be baptized on the beach. 

Then on Sunday he came to church and sat through all three hours!! The Elders quorem wouldn't let us sit with him during the third hour so all during Relief Society I was having an anxiety attack about what was being taught but after church ended we found him again in the middle of the Elders quorum talking to the Bishop asking questions with a Principles of the Gospel book in his hand. It was awesome!!

Then we got to visit with a recent convert named Sony... He's absolutely hilarious XD He was talking to us about how he was having a hard time getting his citizenship here and one night he was on the train and the train conductor stopped him and asked him for his ID. (they do that every once in a while with foreigners. We carry our ID cards with us always). Sony didn't have his ID, just his train ticket and the Book of Mormon in his backpack. He told the train conductor that he didn't have his ID and showed him the nearly empty backpack. The train conductor pulled out the Book of Mormon and started to read it a bit. Then he gave the book back and in Sony's words "The Book of Mormon saved my life!"

Last week I talked a bit about a family... Well they are like the coolest people ever. The dad is named Ricardo and he's married to Jaci and they have three adorable little kids, Madelaine, Ricardo, and little Laura (in the picture). It was Laura's birthday and Sunday so we stopped by and gave her this little stuffed lamb. 

​

I think I'm getting to the point in my mission where the end looms like a rainy cloud. I feel like Heavenly Father has known exactly what people I needed in order to be able to better myself. I feel my mission can be summed up in one phrase: "You're gonna suffer but you're gonna be happy about it." I'm honestly 100% truly truly happy here. It's hard... I'm always exhausted... But I'm so happy to be here serving these wonderful people. 

Com muito amor,

Sister Ellsworth

What even happened... I don't know

Well!! Um... Haha... Things happened I guess...Hm....

*looks in journal to find something to write*

Oh yes!

So we taught a lawyer this week! We were knocking doors and this older lady let us in and we started talking about the Book of Mormon with her. She asked a lot of questions about Joseph Smith and the Restoration, mainly not believing that we had had a period of time when the priesthood had been lost. Normally to explain how authority works we tell a little story about how an Ice cream man couldn't give someone a ticket for running a red light in a car because he's not a policeman. Well come to find out (thanks to our Lawyer friend) that in Portugal Ice Cream Men actually CAN give people tickets. It's something like a citizens arrest I think... But she was cool about it haha!

We invited absolutely everyone we taught this week to be baptized due to a challenge from our District Leader. No one accepted... YET. We're gonna do it again. Muhahaha.

We treated for lice again!! Hopefully we're lice free. We found out that the Primary kids all came down with lice the week before we got it and no one told the missionaries. The Sunday after we found the lice half the kids in the primary came to church with shaved heads XD

This week we taught Joana about the Atonement and how faith and repentance are like steps on the ladder in order to get out of deep a hole. She sat for a moment looking at this little picture we drew and then clapped her hands and had a eureka moment! She looked at us and said, "Sisters!! Now I know why I love Jesus!" We smiled and my heart was filled with sunshine ^_^

We had an activity at the train station again!! From left to right around my head, My companion, Sister Selman, Marisa (a RM), Tolwer (the Elders quorum president and a recent convert of the sisters) Sony (recent convert), Carla, and Lili (recent convert and soon to be missionary). IT WAS AWESOME!!!

​We also had this heart attack of a dinner with the best family ever. I think They're trying to kill us XD This is basically 3 grilled cheeses with a steak in between every sandwich, stacked on top of each other in a tent of cheese on top of french fries drowned in sauce and sauted onions and mushrooms. So yummy!! Heehee!

We also had a tour of the church with one of our families that we're teaching. They really liked it! The kids went off to play in the nursery and the ping pong table that we have and we talked to the parents about the youth programs and the temple. They are such a great family... I'm just praying every day that they'll be able to get married so they can be baptized.... SOON:

Well, that's all folks.

Love you!!

Sister Ellsworth