Family!!!!

This week was full of miracles! I simply can't believe how good the Lord is. Joaquim was baptized this past sunday! (yesterday) Oh it was a beautiful sight! Seeing someone who completely changed their life around. Someone who was sad. And after the Lord brought him to the knowledge of the gospel, has a new light in his eyes! It is amazing! And the fact that he was invited by an investigator we have been working with is incredible!!! It is funny cause Joaquim got baptized first. But he progressed so fast! If I have seen real intent and desire in someone who wanted to align their lives to God, it is him. He is going to be an amazing leader in the church! And he speaks portuguese and english. :) Better english though. Ha. But as we were teaching one of his last lessons before baptism, he turned to us and said "you know, there is something that I haven't told you two. Before I met you, I was praying to God for him to send me someone, or something. To send me an angel. Cause I was in a sad place. And I needed a change. Two weeks later. God sends me two angels. And now I am happier than I have been in a very long time." It was so precious!!! And so sincere. I wish you could have heard the story from him. He is one of the most humble men I have ever met. So willing to learn, understand, and make changes. In his baptism, we asked him to bare his testimony at the end. (Which we never do) But Irmã felt prompted for us to ask him that. He was nervous but accepted. And it was so precious! He told the members the angel story. And that God sent him two angels. The spirit was so strong. And the members, because of his testimony, were able to see that he was truly converted and has a strong testimony! We had our ward meeting a few days later, and at the meeting, one of our members wasn't happy because not a lot of members came to his baptism, and the member (Irmão Bento) told of his testimony he gave, and said it is things like that, that members need to go to and hear. That at the baptisms of our new members, is where we can grow to love our new members and reach out to them and give them our support. And it is so true! So I encourage all of you to go to any and all the baptisms that we have. So that they can feel loved and included in our big family. :) So our other investigator that is marked on the 9th. (Antonio) We took his cigarette pack from him!!! Ha. ) He thought it was funny. But he doesn't smoke very many. Only 1 or 2, sometimes 3 each day. But he said he accepted our invitation to not smoke any more! Though as the week went on. He has smoked. But he is so close! Our new investigator,Carlos, is someone that doesn't believe in God. We found him on the street as we were hiding under a store out-reaching porch thing. (I don't remember what we call those? The covering things?) But we talked with him. In the end I gave the last prayer. After I said amen, he looked up at me and said "that was the most beautiful and sincere prayer I ever heard" (he speaks english. I mean, the prayer was hard cause I had to say it in english and I kept wanting to revert to Portuguese. But it meant a lot hearing that he was touched by the prayer. (Though it wasn't me, it was the spirit!) So we made another appointment, which was yesterday. After the first prayer and a little bit of talking, he turns to me and asks "remember what I said?" -I wasn't quite sure as to what he was referring to- " Your text, or prayer you said, was the most sincere and touching I have ever heard.... that is why I am here" Oh that was like fireworks inside, and a huge responsibility-type feeling rushed over me. I just couldn't mess up, him deciding to believe in God rested on us - me and sister Stewart. At the end of our lesson. He said " you are chipping 5 inches off of the door of God" (He is poetic ha) But he then said "you are convincing me to believe in God" He left with more faith than he has ever had! That is the most amazing thing about the gospel and the Holy Spirit! It touches people in a way that they have never felt before at times, and in a ways where they can't deny that is is coming from something or someone higher than us. Not something natural or human. But spiritual. From God. I love being able to see these miracles! Seeing someone discover that seed of faith that each one of us has. And learning how to make it grow (And even realizing that it is possible for it to grow) I love this gospel! We are even more blessed! We have a family! Already prepared. Mariana (mom) two sons Nuno (12) and Sérgio (6). They are marked to be baptized this next sunday! (We will confirm it again tonight, cause we first had said the 1st of Nov.) But she has gone to church many times with a friend where she used to live and loved it! But they moved and she didn't know where the church was. The Elderes miraculously talked to her son Nuno. Passed the reference to us. And Wah lah! We have a family! And Mariana and her son Nuno will be baptized! And Nuno is amazing! He answered all of our questions perfectly. He is so smart! Everything made perfect sense to him. He made the connection on why Joseph Smith had to receive the priesthood from Peter James and John (we used that picture cause its in the pamphlet- so we didn't mention john the baptist yet- two priesthoods. a little too confusing right now.) But he was interested the whole time! And the fact that he answered our questions perfectly! We are just sooooo ridiculously blessed it is amazing! But we have so much faith and the Lord is preparing the north to open a new stake! That has been the goal we have been told, and we are seeing that is is the the Lord's will! Anything is possibly if you will just believe! And we believe that we can find and baptize all those willing to humble themselves and make and keep sacred covenants with Heavenly Father. Thank you for all you do. I love you all so very much. Have a great week!

Love Always,

Sister Amanda Stokes :)

 One where you can see her face. ha 

Elder Rigby (came in with me from MTC- though wasn't in my district but he is fantastic! and Elder Taylor- in my district while I was in Quinta do Conde for two transfers. 

He is awesome too! ha. 

Me getting kissed by Sister Shumway. haha. 

She is a sweet-heart! I love her. 

She goes home the same time I do.

 Me and Sister Stewart!

Our fabulous zone leaders! (Elder Lopes and Elder Muñiz)

 We tried a fruit we have never seen before. We decided to be brave! :) And it was super yummy!!!

 Our Zone! :) (with an additional zone! Porto and Porto North -I am in Porto North- we were spoiled and had a two zone, zone meeting! :) I got to see lots of people! Including Elder Mehl my district leader for two transfers. He is cool. I wanted him to talk to Steffy. :) hahaha. Yes that one. 

Did I mention that??

Family!

So this week has been so good! I am loving it so much here in Braga with Sister Stewart! We are having so much success and getting to know and love so many people! As of now we have three marked for baptism! And one that is thinking about it. ha. But he basically already is a member. He goes to church every sunday, the members absolutely adore him, and he calls the church, his church. ha. He will be baptized. :) And many more whom we will find! We are pumped! So Joaquim. He is down to smoking just 4! He is getting there! For today we told him no more than 3! We are so excited, and he is excited! He said he has tried for so long to stop smoking and he hasn't been able to do it. And now that the tobacco is tasting real nasty to him! We are so happy! He will be baptized this saturday if it all goes smoothly. And it will. I have full faith in him! He will do great things in the church. He lived in Florida for 30+ years. Though he was born here. His parents moved to the US. Then later he moved back here. But he likes speaking in english better. So i get to teach in english! And yeah. It is weird and a little hard to do... But I can't even tell you how incredible he is and how much he is changing! And even he says it! He is so much happier now! And all because a friend invited him to church. And this friend isn't even a member of the church! We are talking to him too! And he is our recent one marked for baptism. His name is Felipe. He too has to stop smoking. But he is ready and willing to stop. We talked to Joaquim about how with the time difference in their baptism dates, he would be able to baptize his friend. Oh you should have seen how happy that made him! It gave him an even stronger desire and urge to do everything he has to to be ready for his baptism date! That gospel is incredible and I don't even know how I was so lucky and blessed to be able to see all of the wonder things I get to as a missionary. The Lord truly loves His children and wants to help us to become better. We taught an investigator (one of our marked for batpism) Antonio, in the home of Margarida (R/C) and it was amazing! She bore a powerful testimony, and talked so good about us, and thanked us so many times for all we do. For her and for others. And Antonio did the same thing! It was such a sweet touching moment to see that we can truly make a difference in the lives of others. In the church and out. Whether we realize we are or not. Oh! I forgot to say. When we marked Antonio, we were talking to him about baptism, and how it is done and why it isn't right when babies are baptized. (he was baptized as a baby) He felt the spirit strong, and you could see it in his eyes, as soon as I stopped talking, the next thing he said was " What do I have to do to be baptized?" It was incredible!! We hadn't even gotten to marking him, and he asked the question. I left that lesson so amazed and happy! Anyways. I just want you all to know that I know that this gospel is true. And how grateful I am for all of you and your testimonies and examples. Thank you mom and dad for raising our family in the gospel and making it possible for us to serve missions. So far we have all served missions that have been able to! That is amazing! I never realized that before! Thank you for all you do for our family. I love you so much. All of you. I hope you all have a wonderful week! 

Love Always,

Sister Amanda Stokes :)

xoxoxo

 Oh. And his owner is that man looking over at him trying to get him to keep coming. ha

 Colombo :) (Mall in Benfica)

Me and Sister King! We did our residency so we saw our whole group!!!!!! 

All of us from the Mtc! The whole mutley crew!!! It was fantastic!!!

 My first Francizinha. (if that is spelled right? haha) 

Me and Sister Stewart with our first Francizinhas!! 

cool church we saw on the way to an appointment

Cool building we saw! Not sure what it is. haha

 

Family!

I love Braga! I am excited to serve here. :) We have an amazing investigator, Joaquim! He is so incredible. He has been at a rehab to help him stop drinking and he gets out in three months. He has been changing his life completely around. Last week, his friend (one of our members) simply invited him to go to church with him. He didn't have any others plans. So he went. And he loved it! A little later we meet up with him, and give him a Book of Mormon and explain a little about it. In the end he was excited and told us how he just wants to be a better person and that he is really trying. And that recently he has been praying more. He also said that seeing people with so much faith like us helps him have more faith, and to want to believe more. He thanked us for the faith we have. It was so precious! THEN he did make it to conference! And he loved it! We taught him our message of the restoration right after the session ended. We had our fabulous member, Jessica (From England) , with us. And one of our zone leaders. And Joaquim speaks english. (and Portuguese of course) But the lesson was in english. Can I just say how amazing it was! The spirit was so strong! My companion was in tears (She is just the sweetest most amazing person ever) and in the end, Joaquim was marked for baptism for the 18th! Talk about miracles! He is so excited. And we know that he can stop smoking in time. :) We feel so good about this. And we all just can't wait! I am so happy right now! Life is just so great! And I can't believe how much the Lord spoils his missionaries. We are so unbelievably blessed to be able to be entrusted with this work of saving souls and bringing them to Christ. It is such a beautiful work and I am so grateful for the opportunity to have a front seat in it. I love you all so much. And don't you doubt the gospel for even a second. But if you do, but your knees to floor and ask for help from our loving Heavenly Father. I promise you that He will speak to you through the spirit. Thank you all for the wonderful examples that you are to me. I don't know how I got so blessed to have such a wonderful family. I love you all so much. Stay safe. 

Love Always,

Sister Amanda Stokes

ps. The interresting event of this week is we saw a  pig, yes a pig, walking down the side walk as if it were a dog. People have pet pigs! ha. Never thought I would see this in Portugal in the middle of the city.

 Train station! 

 A cake that we were given so yummy! 

 me and Kaique. (son of a less active- 8 yrs old. 

not baptized yet. our goal was to baptize him! Hopefully the other sisters will get on that! 

We got red tongues! ha

 Our District! Last District picture... 

Me and Sister Harper saying bye... ;(

Family!

So I don't have much time. But to start off.... HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEGAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HOLY SNAP. 16!!?? How is that even possible. That just blows my mind. You weren't ever supposed to be allowed to date. You are my baby sister! But I can't wait! Me and Jason will just have to go on a date with you!!!! Oh how fun! ha. :) But I love you to pieces!!!! And I love all the pictures I get sent! You are too cute! I hope you have a fabulous birthday! So I got transferred! They closed Quinta do Conde.... We were so unhappy about it! Those poor members... But the Sisters in Seixal will try to tend to our area a tiny bit. But that won't be much.... But I am going way up north! To Braga. :) I am excited! My comp is Sister Stewart. She is super cute and lively! I can't wait. This will be a transfer of miracles! She is in her 3rd transfer. So she is still a baby. Just out of training. :) But for updates thats it and I don't have more time... But I love you all so much! Stay safe! 

Love Always,

Sister Amanda Stokes

 The Baptism of our other Sister Missionaries 

in our ward. A Family!!!!!!

Our District!

Family!!!

So first off I heard it was Kaylin´s birthday! And that she is leaving in October for her mission. Just wanted to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY! And that you will LOVE the mission! :) So interresting experience with the rain. We met up with an investigator named Marcio. He is 18. We were teaching him on a park bench. but we had only just started talking when the rain started. It started off soft. But quickly grew. We luckily had our umbrella's so we set them up. I shared with Marcio cause he was on my side and plus my umbrella is bigger. Then, seconds later, the rain builds and builder. Until it is literally shooting waterfalls out of the sky! Hahaha. So we book it over to Pingo Doce (the nearest grocery store) And get under the over hang out front. And holy snap.,, We got soaked!!!!! haha. My shoes and skirt were completely drenched in water! And it was cold..... So we decided to just say a prayer with him. And we both went our separate ways so that we could get into dry clothes. ha. And not soaked shoes. I only had my boots. But they have a hole in the side where the sole and the boot part have separated. But they worked. :) I need to get shoe glue for that. We were going to pass this place today to fix our boots. Sister Harper needs to as well. Anyways. It was quite the experience, and super strange because, running with an umbrella, and sharing it with an 18 yr old teenager, in pooring rain, as we are getting soaked by the second.... ya.... weirdest feeling ever! haha. The weather is just ridiculous. Some days it is like summer. And hot. And then we have days like that. wet... But he is amazing! He came to church on sunday. And the members were incredible! They went up to him. Greeted him. And they invited him to a broadcast that was going to happen at another chapel. And got him a ride for that. And also got him an official ride for each weekend to go to church! I have never seen the members so engaged! It made me sooo happy! And it made Marcio feel so comfortable and he loves the ward now for it! The members truly make all the difference! Anyways. We are super super excited for him. :) We also got to serve this week! It is sad cause here we don't get to serve very much.... No one accepts the help. They say thanks, but don't let us do anything. So we passed Edite. She is very pregnant! And it is possible she already had the baby! We will call her today. Her 9 month mark was Friday! But we helped her with her groceries. We passed right at the perfect time! She had just gotten home. So we helped her put her groceries away. And we chit chatted with her for a little bit and shared a message. It was amazing! She is the cutest thing. And so creative! Almost all the decorations in her living room are things she made. It looks like she had boughten them! Anyways, the only sad thing is she hasn't been to church in months. The members say pretty much her whole pregnancy. But she has had a hard pregnancy. She talked to us about that. But she has got a strong testimony still and is planning on going to church every sunday after the baby´s birth. speaking of babies. I still can't believe Brooke is pregnant! haha. Anyways, I love you all so much! I hope life at home is going well and that you are all making good decisions. :) ha. Till next week.

Love Always,

Sister Amanda Stokes

xoxo

Family!!!

This week we found Ivan and Betia. They are super cool! They have already been prepared and are ready for baptism! The only problem that we have is that getting them to church is super hard! The are 15 and 13. And they leave on the weekends to visit family.... We are going to talk to their mom this week and see if they can come to church next week! They have already been taught by missionaries in the past. And church was the problem as well. But with lots of prayers, miracles happen! Especially if it is in concordance with the will of the Lord. And I am pretty sure this is. :) We are super excited about them! We also have another investigator- who we have yet to meet in person. Haha. He was a reference. His name is Neka. He is 17. The missionaries that contacted him had talked to him about chastity in the road. And he still wants to know more! Talk about a miracle! He sounds really cool! He was supposed to be at church... but the saddest thing happened. We called the night before and in the morning. Ha. When we called in the morning he had been sleeping so his voice was hoarse. But, we asked, and he said he would go and that he would ask his mom to bring him to the station that is close to the church. We told him to call us when he got close. We didn't hear from him... So I planned to call him just before sacrament meeting. But I was going to be giving a talk and one of the counselors told me to sit up on the stand. So I gave my phone to Sister Harper to send a message to him. Well. In the end. Turns out he made it to the station. But he couldn't call us or get a hold of us because our number starts with 91. And his with 96. And he didn't have money on his phone! We called after church- and he said that he had been at the station waiting for an hour! I felt aweful!!!!!!!!!!!! He was super sweet though! Next week! But I can't tell you how sad we were! I was a little nervous about my talk. Especially cause in our ward we have Elder Moreira. (Who is an area seventy over three countries) But I tried not to think about him being right behind me. haha. But I don't know if I told you. But we ate at his house once. And we will be eating there again this week. :) They are a really nice family. And his wife. Isabel. Cook really well! Ha. But other than that, and an experience on preparedness-the rain came.... and I hadn't yet boughten an umbrella. And I had spoken on obedience and preparedness. So I included my little experience in my talk. Everyone laughed. :) Oh! And we found a really cool guy the other day! We don't know if he is interrested in our message cause he didn't really let us get to that. But he would be an amazing leader! Turns out, the other day, he was one we had said "good afternoon" to, and to him I said "bom trabalho!" (good work!) cause they were doing construction stuff. And he laughed. Then, we ran into him and he recognized me as the one who had told him "goog work!" haha. It was funny. So we will see what happens! We marked a time to meet with him at the park this week. :) With Vasil being gone, that made one less potential priesthood leader! (Vasil left before he was able to get the priesthood. But he will get it in Italy. :)...)So we need them! Well, I love you all! Stay safe! And have a fabulous week! :)

Love Always,

Sister Amanda Stokes :)

 Saying bye to Vasil. He is now in Italy!!! 

He left last week... Saturday

Me and Sister Harper! Waiting for the train. :)

 We went to the castle today!

Me and Sister Briggs.

(Sister Harper and Sister Lacey were 

in the MTC together and they 

are tied at the hip when we do things as a district. Ha)

 We died...

Then came back to life! ha. ;P JK.

Our district! ON the castle!

 Everyone behind me, leaving the castle :)

 me and sis. harper

 it got foggy so fast! And then shortly after sunny! ha.

Family!

Well, today was fun!!! We got to go to a castle in Setúbal. :) I will send pictures. But the work is still going. Though it feels as though we have hit a rough patch since this transfer started.... We have fasted though! I know we are just waiting for the dawn to come! But our other Bulgarian friend came back! We got to talk to him last night. He speaks english actually! Though his mom is Jehova´s Witness, and he is currently studying with them. But he is amazing! Though, since he had left for a month or so, we haven't been able to talk to him much. OH! The rain came out of no where! And then left again. haha. One day (a couple days ago) We left the house with sun. Then.... WHAM! Downpoor! For like 4 minutes and then it abruptly stopped. It happened about 3 times. And it hasn't rained since... hahaha. It was interresting. so our investigator João kinda took a wrong turn. He is Catholic because he was baptized as a baby. But doesn't know a whole lot about the whole religion thing. So we got to our second visit and we had our member, Elizabeth, with us. Well. It started well. We talked about baptism, and read about christ's baptism. But then, out of no where he brought up the debated topics of abortion, hunting, homosexual relationships... etc. Ha. Elizabete saved us. :) But he said he really likes talking to us because these are things he can't talk about with his friends. Let's just say it was an interresting lesson. But, we thought for sure he would be baptized, but now, we will just have to keep working with him... So Vasil left for Italy!! ;( It was so sad saying bye. Though I don't think it has hit me yet... He truly is so amazing! He changed so much! Like, he was already a good person. But just in his way of being, and the happiness that you could see coming off of him. The gospel is incredible! Antonio was also our new investigator. He is from Cabo Verde. But we are worried about him cause we haven't been able to get a hold of him. We had a marked lesson with him, but we wasn't answering his phone.... I got a phone call from sister Decker! Though it wasn't a good news phone call. (My last comp) She is going home on tuesday (3 weeks early) .... I hope she can start feeling better once she gets home and can get some good help. :) She is such a trooper! She´s fabulous! :) But when we got to talk to Vasil on the phone for the last time, the things he said made me so happy! He basically said he has so much to thank God for. For finding us, for the huge blessing of the gospel, for all of his brothers and sisters in the church... etc. And he told us he prays for our happiness and that god will bless us with helth, and good families etc. He is so sweet!  We also got our interview with President! It was really good. He made me feel better about training. He said he is really glad that I am training, and that he knows I am a good trainer. Though sometimes I just wish I could do more to help. But, yeah. Anyways. I love you all! Stay safe!

Love Always,

Sister Amanda Stokes :)

Letter to Jeff from Amanda :)

Dad!
Wait, Steffani is in Kentucky!!?? I thought she was in
Ohio???? But thank you so much for the email! And thank you for being such a wonderful father. I know I also speak for all of us kids that we were soooo blessed to have been sent to be your kids. I don't know  how we all got so lucky. And I realize everyday, more and more, just how spoiled we are! I can say that I am a very very blessed spirit daughter of my Heavenly Father. And I know that even if I work myself
to death our here- which sometimes I feel like I come close. ha. that I won't ever come even close to giving back sufficient in comparison with what He has given me. I love you so much! I hope you know that. And thank you sooo much for supporting me and Steffy out here on missions. It means so much to me, as I know it does for her. I hope you have a fabulous week and that work goes well. :)
 
Love Always,
Sister Amanda Stokes :)

 We were making our planners. And this -obviously- is of a temple and so Sis. Briggs took a picture of me with it saying that is where me and Jason will be going soon. Ha. The punk.

 Me and Sister Harper. "Minha Filha" :)

 Our train station! :) We use the train a lot. (We have to take it to get to our church) That is why we are working on getting a church here in Quinta do Conde! The members need one. But I am realizing that this area is really hard... So many don't want to change their lives. Many claim to be catholic, 

but don't go to church, or do anything…

 So basically, there are just a lot of people that have 

put God on the side. it is really sad… 

Many don't even pray. It makes me sad.

My Blessed Wonderful Family <3

So this past week was... well, hard. We are having a hard time finding those who are willing to make commitments, and follow through. Also, we are meeting a lot of people that say they have faith. But, that don't do anything to act on it. It makes me super sad. There are actually tons of people like that. But recently, we have been running into even more. So as of now we don't have any firm progressing investigators... If you could pray for us and for the people here in Quinta do Conde, that would help a lot. Vasil and José give me hope! They are our recent converts (I still haven't sent the pictures from José´s baptism because I didn't have my camera with me that day. But monica (member) will be sending me the ones she took. So next week! :) But there really aren't any novidades. :) Just walking as always, searching for those who are looking for the gospel-even if they don't even realize they are. :) I love Sister Harper! She is super cute. Though I still feel bad cause she can't understand or talk very well. But she seems to be better than I was at this point! But in all honestly, I just don't remember. But she is doing great! Oh right! So we ran into a man one day, basically, all he had to say to us was, well, nothing good. He wasn't happy that we had decided to put off schooling to walk around and talk to people about God, especially a people such as the Portuguese. Cause they are all Catholic and we won't make a difference, and that we should just go home cause we are wasting our time.... yeah. That made me pretty sad. But not because it hurt me. It made me sad for him. What is sad, is a lot of people don't realize just what it is they are saying. And one day I know they will be sad because of it. But I have already forgiven him. :) He just didn't realize he was talking to a disciple of Jesus Christ who had been called and sent in His name to preach His gospel. That is one of the biggest things I have realized where I have changed a lot. In the beginning of my mission. It used to hit me and hurt a lot more- on my part. But now I have been able to build my own personal testimony to the point where, when others say unkind things that go against what we know to be true, I don't tremble or feel as though my testimony had just been weakened. It is the craziest most amazing thing! Cause I know what I know, and it makes me sad to see others fleeing from it, or not willing to know it because they don't want to change their way of life. But I know from the bottom of my heart that this gospel is true. That we have a living prophet today, and 12 apostles. Cause God does NOT change. He called a prophet again just as he has always done. Today, people deny and reject the prophet, just as they always have. And we who have the knowledge of the gospel, just have to keep pressing on, one day at a time, doing everything that the Lord asks. And in the end. We can hope that our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, will look upon us and say "Well done my good and faithful servant, there is a place prepared for you in the mansions of my Father" I can't wait for that day! And I want to help as many of our brothers as I can so that they can hear those beautiful words one day as their Savior calls them to rest. :) I love you all so much! Thank you for the amazing examples you are to me, and to all those around you. You don't even realize how incredible and special you are. I hope you have a blessed week. :)

Love Always,

Sister Amanda Stokes