Monday, August 26th

Family!

That is so cool that dad got an Antelope! Is he planning to put it somewhere in the cabin I'm assuming?? Also, just curious, But has he done something with the bear and the wolf? I am so excited for Cheyanne!!!! She finally gets to go to Argentina! That is sooo exciting! We have sent two letters back and forth to each other so far! And yes I did get the package you sent me (the envelope one) I don't know how long it takes for them to get here. But I can only get the packages that are sent their twice every transfer because I am up in Viseu and they are sent to Lisbon. But I think it is safer that way because I haven't gotten your second letter you were talking about (i got the one with the SD card) and I still haven't gotten Jason's letter that he sent 4 weeks ago... so. I think you should just send everything to the mission home. Plus when I do get transfered, letters don't show up after I have already left. And I have three more weeks until transfers. So the 15th of September are transfers. And I just get the feeling that I am next to leave. Ha. It will be so sad though.... And Ah!!!!!! I am soooo excited for Corbin to go through the temple!!!!! That is crazy! And the fact that Ryan gets home THIS week for Brooke!!!!! Ah! I love it so much! But I am a little sad I can't be there for all this this week! But thats ok. I am in Portugal! :) With a bug filled apartment. ;P Ha. The owner of the apartment finally came to look at our toilet. He said they will (finally) fix it and get a bug guy sent over. And repaint it. (Cause they were supposed to do that like 4 transfers ago) We tried to move, and Sister Fluckiger said to look for a new place. And we found one! That is super convenient (I feel like I spelt that wrong?) and ton nicer than the one we are in because it is ancient. But I guess we can't just move. There are contracts that we don't really know about and we have to have a legitimate reason to move. (Like the owner of the apt. has to just not fix whatever problem we are having) I think the only reason he finally came over was because he heard we were trying to move out. ha. But I guess they tried moving to a new place before as well and they didn't let them... So. it is a little frusterating. Especially when the mission presidents wife tells us we need to move because it is old and gross. But it is out of our hands. So we are just going to keep itching! Secretly it is starting to drive me nuts! I itch until I bleed.... I have to stop but I can't. Ha. I am not sure yet about the media thing. I think we will find out at our next zone conference. But as of now we aren't doing Facebook here. But I will let you know as soon as we know. But what I was thinking I would love is some kind of CD that is all hymns, but more fun or ones you like. Because I can't listen to anything but Tabernacle choir, hymns, or EFY music. So if you find a CD of hymns that is really good you should send it! That is the thing I miss more is music. :) So we sing together as we walk long distances when no one is around. It's fun! Last P-day, the Elders tried to take us to this place that serves yous meet on the sticks (like that place we ate at back home that is soooo good!) But it took us like 40 minutes to walk there and it was closed! So then we decided to go to the mall to eat. So we walked back for another 20 minutes. Ha. It took so much of our P-day! But thats ok. We got to all hang out and talk! I talked with Elder Wilson for a while about plays! Like The Lion King,  Wicked, and The Blue Man Group! It was fun! But it made me miss you guys soooooo much! But we both said that one day we are going to go to all of them again! Ha. Not together though, that would be weird... Well, we could! As friends! ha. He is pretty cool. So we taught this lady that is 82 years old. Maria de Jesus taught with us. (And gave us a ride because it is so far) But when we started. Maria de Jesus just started talking about the Book of Mormon and how we believe in the Bible as far as it is translated correctly and all these things before we even started the first point which is simply that God is our loving Heavenly Father. Ha. And she talked for like 10 minutes and we just sat there. It was weird and we didn't really know what to do so we just sat there until she finally looked at us to start. Then at the end we asked if Conceição would give the last prayer. So she did, but it was a little strange. She didn't talk to God. It was more like, about God. She was talking in third person. Like, referencing God. And after, ha, Maria de Jesus said thats ok, we all pray in our own ways and there isn't anything wrong with that. We were just thinking, um, no! Ha. We have to pray to God and in the name of Jesus Christ. It was funny though. But she is convert. :) Pretty much our whole ward , they are mostly all more recent converts. But we have a plan! We want to hold a "teaching members how to teach class" and we would teach them how to teach the 1st lesson, The Restoration. So you know how district was split up into two districts last transfer? We got to have a combined district meeting last week! I loved it so much! I miss having all 8 of us together for that. It is just so weird with only four. It is so small. So I tried this new cereal (I call it my cereal of the week because I try new ones every week!) called My Time. Soooo good! It is a granola with chocolate type cereal. But the chocolate is legitimate chocolate! So it is like a dessert! I probably never should have tried it. Ha. But Elder Limperle (He served here and he had just started teaching at the MTC before we left) but he told us we had to try it when we got out here because it is amazing! So I finally decided to try it. And he was right! I wish I could send some to you guys to try! But it wouldn't work too well... it would melt. Plus I don't know if you can do that? I don't know. maybe you can. So we found this guy named Carlos. He is like 22 about. He believes in science. So he doesn't believe in God. But he is so cool! And if he did believe in God he would have sooo much faith! But he is super smart and he has read work from scientists that try to prove there isn't a God. So he stopped believing in a God because of that. It is so sad. But he seems like he really wants to know for himself if there is or not. So we met with him a second time. His sister was with us this time. She is 16. And she also doesn't believe in God. It is so sad. But I don't know how it would make any sense that things work perfectly and all in their own spheres and it all just happened to occur by chance, or by some massive explosion. It's like when someone said (I don't remember who) but making a dictionary explode and all the words and their own definitions in it just appear. But at the end he told us that his goal was to make us doubt our beliefs... So. I don't really know what to say about that one. But it won't work. ha. So we will see what we will end up doing with him. But never-the-less he is an awesome person. I think if I was a normal person we would be friends. :) But he has already read 26 pages in the BOM! So he is super cool. Atleast he is giving it a chance more or less. So we also met this family (older) Carlos and Fernanda are the 45 +- year old kids and Isabela is the mom. She is like 65. But when we were teaching them the first lesson and we got to the first vision and recited it as we showed the picture, they all sat forward in their chairs to lean forward to see better. it perked their interest and they really like it. It was so cool! And they all believed it. So we will see what happens with them too! I love that though. When we get to Joseph Smith's vision, usually everyone likes it. Seeing that God the Father and Jesus Christ really are two people. The Father and the Son. It just makes so much more sense! ha. We finally had our first service activity! We did the dishes at Paulo's little food\bar. But it was soooo gross! Ha. It smelt super super bad back there. So I never will want to eat there. ha. But he is a Brazilian we met and he is soooooo funny!!!!! We love Brazilians soooo much! Hahaha. They are just funny and super outgoing! And everysingle one of them have always talked with us! But his daughter is Mikaela. And she is 12. We thought she was 16. Ha. But we met her and her mom a month ago on the street. And we never thought we would see them again. But we were walking by this "bar" and she was sitting outside. She waved I guess twice but we didn't recognize her at first. So we waved back. But she ended up getting up so we walked over to her. Then we realized how we knew her! How cool is she that she remembered us and wanted to talk to us that she waved twice and decided to get up to make us come over. Haha. I don't know why we didn't just go over. I think maybe we were just trying to think of how it is we knew her so we were just not thinking to walk over. Who knows. But she is sooo cool! We already taught her the 1st and second lesson. Her parents are divorced. So her dad works at the bar and she lives with her mom in Coimbra. But they travel here a lot. Cause after our first lesson with her. We stopped by her dads store and he said they had already left for Coimbra and we were so sad because we didn't know if we would see her again. Then one evening all our plans fell through, so we prayed about what we should do. So we felt like we should go see Paulo-her dad. Which is weird because he is always working and there isn't enough time to sit a teach him a lesson because he has customers and things to do. But we decided we would follow the prompting. And so we went in and starting talking to him. Then he said, wait, my daughter. And then Mikaela comes running in! We were so excited! Ha. She is super cute. So we talked with her for a little and taught her the 2nd lesson. :) We are going to baptize her whole family. i just know it. :) I don't know if it will be while I am here. But it will happen. (Though that is soooo sad that if it happens, I will miss it) Cause Paulo was already talking to us about how we have to be continually doing good things each day, because we never know what will happen or when we will die and we have to be prepared. And so he teaches his daughter that same thing. To just be a good person. And he doesn't believe in drinking alcohol or things of that nature. He is cool! So yesterday in church. Anyways, this week was good! There is just so much to say that I don't have enough time to say it. But we had more fully planned and firm appointments this week. So that was nice! I am still happy and loving it here except for all the itching. But other than that I am great! I hope all is well at home! I heard from Kaitlyn that Brittany is having a baby boy!!!!!! I will have a nephew now tooo!!!!!! (And why did I hear this from kaitlyn and not you guys!?? Punks! Ha) Anyways, till next week! 

Love Always,

Sister Amanda Stokes