Family!!!!

This past week was fun and interresting. We found out we are actually in a triplet! That was a surprise. Ha. Sister Kunz told us she was our new companion, and at first I thought she was just kidding. But I love her. I am excited to have this experience as a triplet. It does make contacting on the street harder. But now we can do divisions with the members easier! Cause we only need one of them! And it makes it easier to teach men in the church. Though we don't have a key tp the chapel still. And apparently we won't be getting one because of a Sister in the past that was disobedient to some rules. So now the ward doesn't trust the Sisters as much. When we were asking about keys, they told us that we couldn't have keys to the church because we are sisters. It hurt because I feel like they look down on the Sisters more here... but we are changing that! It is crazy that a mistake from one Sister from a while ago takes its effects so long afterwards. But the bishop told us he knows we are good sisters, but the rule is still in place. It is just frusterating because we can't always rely on the Elders, cause they have keys, and one of our appointments from yesterday fell because we didn't have keys to get into the church so he left because we didn't have anywhere to teach and he said to call him once we got into the church. But we never got it becaust they Elders were gone. It is hard here because there isn't a park nearby or a place where we can teach. But with time maybe they will let us get a key. So I don't know if I mentioned it last week, but Eduardo relapsed with smoking and he is struggling with that. But we are going to help him with that one day at a time. And Guilherme has a date to be baptized on the 28th of December. He will be an amazing addition to the ward. He is already being a missionary without even being a member! He told us he was talking to his friend about relilgion and how he was answering some questions his friend had about our beliefs. He is super cool! So right now we are trying to re-fill our pool of investigators. So we are talking to people on the street. We also want to focus on those who have fallen away more too. Our bishop started holding a meeting after church every sunday to list those who weren't in church and to assign people to reach out to them. I really like this idea. It really helps the ward be more unified and aware of all it's members. I am excited to have another transfer here in Benfica.So it is me, Sister Peiper, and Sister Kunz. Sister Kunz is 19. Sister Peiper is 22 and will be going home soon... They are great! I am sad I don't get a full transfer with Sister Peiper. But thats ok. So something happened to me for the very first time here in Portugal... We got flashed by a drunk women.... She was crying and talking about how she wanted to go back to Africa, to go back home, and that she needed our help. She wanted us to pray with her. So we went into the church -it was already opened- and we sat down and she said a prayer. Then she had all of us hold hands a say a prayer together. The reason she flashed us was because her sister had scratched her, and she was showing us the scratch marks. It was a little awkward... And the poor Elders! They were with her before us! The reason we came down -cause we were taking lunch in our apartment- was because one of them called us and told us to get down there. He said there was a women who was crying and he thinks she lives in our area. i was confused as to why he couldn't just finish the contact for us. But he insisted we go down. So when we got down there, Sister Peiper almost immediately gave the women a hug-which is what she needed. Then the Elders said "you-ve got this" and they left quickly. Shortly after was when she showed us her scratch. And man did it catch us off guard. We all freaked out but did our best to cover it up. Ha. No one expected that. But I did feel bad for her. I just wish she would have stopped lifting up her shirt. Oh those poor Elders! They have been scarred for life the poor things. So we calmed her the best we could and then she left with her cousin. So that was interresting. I just can't stop feeling so bad for those elders. Even a couple members saw it. Junior- a member that is putting his mission papers in-asked us if we knew what she did. We just smiled and said we know. But that is pretty much all for this week! I hope all is well at home! I love you all so much! And I can't wait to get to talk to you on Christmas! Love you! Till next week!

Love Always,

Sister Amanda Stokes