CONFERENCEEEEE

Pessoas Lindas!

Zona de Porto Norte

WHAT A WEEK. As always. We spent the P-day in Porto which is always a blast then we took the alpha train down toooooo LISBON. I know, I lead a pretty chic little life. That train ride is always fun because it stops and picks up more and more missionaries along the way and it passes by really cool sites. We went to Lisbon for Mission Council, also always realllyyyy amazing. It´s basically all the mission leaders and best of the best, and then just like me being like, ´What am I doing here with all these amazing people?!` But hey, it´s fun for me and I learn like SOOOO much. I also recently learned a Cape Verde creole rap and sang it for a few elders from there. Pretty hilarious to hear a tall white american sister rapping in an African language, let me tell you!  

Porto

703 in Portugal with Sister Jackson (from Ashburn)

Basically this week was crazy and I only spent one full day there! We had mission council, a day of work, then I did a division in Porto, which was really cool. Their area is ENORMOUS and really made me grateful for an area that is about a 45 minute walk end to end, rather than a 45 minute bus ride end to end. Crazy. It was fun though! We ended the division by going to CONFERENCE WOO HOOOOOOO!!!!!! As a missionary, conference is pretty much as good as Christmas, don´t ask me why it wasn´t always like that in my life :P I obviously liked it but seriously here it´s like a celebration with a banquet after fasting or something. It was cool too this time because all us missionaries that went to the stake center to watch it (our chapel doesn´t have satellite) we got to watch in in English! I love watching it in Portuguese but it definitely takes way more effort and it´s SO nice to hear their actually voices. WHAT AN AMAZING CONFERENCE. So much about covenants and discipleship. That hit me. I can´t be a missionary like this forever, but really the BEST thing we can be is a disciple of Christ and that I get to be FOREVER. I also loved what Elder Uchtdorf said about how we don´t like endings because we are eternal beings. With transfers coming this next weekend, that stuck with me. I HATE ENDINGS.

Porto

This is a Francesina! It is basically a sandwich made of texas toast,
 3-4 types of meat, covered in cheese and sauce, served with french fries Aka, a heart attack!

Porto

Seriously. If you all knew how COMFORTABLE and HAPPY I am here in Matosinhos, it is like my home. I know all the members and they know me, they joke with me, don´t even ask before serving me tons of food, and I´ve had the chance to learn so much about their lives. 4 transfers is a LONG time somewhere and even though I sometimes want a change I think to my ward here and I NEVER WANT TO LEAVE. I love these people too much! They have my heart! I definitely don´t want to leave my recent converts either. It was SO cool to see Angela and Amandio yesterday after the conference, they loved it! They´re so firm in the church and they´re already making plans to go to the temple next year. When I look at them, everything is worth it. To know I played a SMALL part in their conversion is such a wonderful feeling of true joy. I can´t describe it..

We bought classic Portugal aprons. ALL the old ladies are wearing them these days.

Another reason I don´t want to leave Matosinhos is Lidia and her family. She´s the miracle we found last week. Well this week we had the chance to teach her again with her two teenage kids, Simon and Liliane. They are SO COOL. They all ask amazing questions and loved reading the Book of Mormon with us. At the end, we did what we call a convite suave- the invite to be baptized when they know that it´s true. They all accepted, happily too! As we kneeled to pray with them, Simon told us that he´s already starting to believe that it´s true and the other two agreed. I CAN´T LEAVE THIS AMAZING FAMILY. Lidia told us about how she really believes God led us to her house and we talked about how we really did feel impressed to come back and talk to her but God knew we weren´t planning on ringing her doorbell again so He sent her downstairs to meet us. We´re going to visit them again tonight and I´m super excited!!!! 

Awkward self timer table pic

English Room for Conference

I hope you´re all doing great and that you loved conference as much as I did. I hope you´re all happy. I´m happy :) I wish I could describe all the feelings that come with this call...but it´s impossible. I´ve never felt stronger and yet also never see so many of my own weaknesses haha. I love you all, be good!

Com muitas saudades,

Sister Swasey

More Cool Grafitti

Cool Grafitti

Sweet Museum

Sweet Museum 2

Sweet Museum 3