AGUINHA!!!

This week our cute little friend Elsa was baptized! It's been kind of an adventure with her. It seems like all of us passed threw tests of faith this week. Elsa talked to the missionaries last year for a few months and then the Sisters were whitewashed and Elsa thought the Church had closed. We were walking through the area and she saw us and got all excited. We talked to her and she was ready to be baptized!  But we had so many problems with her work schedule and the schedules for the bishopric that the only day that worked for her and us and everyone else was a Tuesday night at 8:45pm. Here in Portugal we have to be home at 9:30 or 10:00 at the latest so we ran to her baptism and dunked her faster than a major league baseball player at a dunk tank.

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We also went to Sintra for Pday! You can't come to Portugal without seeing Sintra and I had to take my baby there for the last Pday of the transfer. 

While we were there we met up with one of my best friends here on the mission, Sister Ribeiro. She's going home next week so we hung out and messed around. Here's a picture of her being sacrificed by her greenie in a mock isaac and abraham thing. It was actually raining a ton so all of us got soaking wet.

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Cute little Portuguese veranda... oh i love this place so much!!!

Have a great week!

Sister Ellsworth

10th Transfer Povoa Photos

Link to Paige's Google Drive

Roubando Cigarros

Hey yall!

This week was fun. We ran around talking to people and having fun. I think one of my favorite moments was when our investigator, Antonio, gave us a huge handful of cigarettes. We have been working with him for nearly 4 months and finally he called us almost in tears saying that he was sick of being addicted and brought us these. I saw a man really come to his knees and plead for help. We taught him about the Atonement and before he left he managed a smile and promised to read.

Take that!!! haha

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The later at church we had all these cigarettes in my bag (i forgot to take them out) and in Gospel Principles I pulled out my scriptures and all of them came tumbling out. Then the Patriarch asked for all of them and took the filters off and handed me back the white part. I was like... why?? and apparently the filter stops cuts really well. LOL I love being in an area where all the members are converts!

Other than that it was pretty uneventful. The Church is still true!

Sister Ellsworth

Fall In Portugal!

Hey! There are many stories that happened this week... It rained once. Apparently that means it's fall now! And it rained on Pday and I'm not quite sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing but we went out to see Rossio and Santa Apolonia anyway. We went with a huuuuge group of Elders. Our zone has 30 elders and 6 sisters. It was us and half the elders so it made for some pretty fun and crazy adventures.

We had a couple of lessons with some lazy investigators and gave them the whole 1-2 thing. It's basically where you give a really powerful stop-being-lazy-and-do-the-things lesson and they wrestle with the spirit the whole time. One decided to start reading and the other kinda just backed off and continued to run. That's okay. Area book, right? 

We had a fantastic Zone conference though. Our president gave an awesome training on being a Woken up missionary. You can look the scriptures up later because they're pretty cool. (2 Nephi 1:13, Alma 12:11, 2 Nephi 4:28,  Psalms 24:3-4, Mormon 9:27, Alma 5:7, and Mosias 4:5.) I would also add Revelations 3:16 and Mosias 4:27.

He talked about waking up is when your conversion takes place and you being to understand how the Atonement works and why it works. You start to work because you love the Lord and not just because your District leader is going to call that night and ask when happened or that the Zone leaders are pushing and pushing for numbers. One of my companions asked me once how she can work tirelessly and we had a good long talk about how the good missionaries are the ones that try and don't stop trying. They're the ones that work hard when no one is watching, the ones that smile and are happy when talking to people even if they know that they are standing in fresh poop (that happened this week too XD).

I think the most important thing I've learned so far is how to love being a missionary. This is the best thing I've ever done and I've never been so happy (and so exhausted) in my life. I mean just look at this beautiful place....

Rossio <3

top of a restaurante named Bellalisa in Rossio. You could see all of Lisbon. We stayed there for a long time :)

​bahahaha *points finger and laughs* Oh tourists. You're so funny with your crazy sunburns. She had a white hand mark on her arm from sunscreen.... you gotta rub it in honey......

Love you all,

Sister Ellsworth

more pictures of Portugal

Raw eggs, animals, and Brazilians

Hey yall!!

This week was pretty fun... Telo smashed a raw egg on my head. C'mon guys I need ideas for missionary appropriate revenge.... LOL!

We had divisions this week with Sister Salas and Sister Pastrana. Sister Salas and I stayed here in Povoa while our greenies wandered around in another area... lost and scared without their moms. Haha! Sister Salas and I had a party here were we hit the ground running.... Literally. We were late for like everything but we taught a bunch of lessons and contacted a bunch of really cool people. 

We were walking in the road and we basically found a picture of Portugal. 

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This is an underground trashcan that is so full of beerbottles that it's over flowing. We left a Word of Wisdom pamphlet :)

We found a new best friend!! It's a little teeny tiny lizard that hung out with us and rode around on my shirt for a while. He was so cute!!!

Also there's a petting zoo really close to our house and one day the peacocks got out and we helped chase them back into their pens!

Okay I swear I'm doing missionary work and not just playing with animals XD

We also found this Brasilian family this week. The mom had talked to the Elders a while ago and invited us back and we heard their whole life story in an hour. We laughed and cried and groaned and now we're best friends. The best part was hearing that they believed that God sent us to teach them about God.

Love you guys! Have a great day!

Sister Ellsworth