"What time?" "Leave the church woman alone!" "Do you girls want something to eat?"

ENTÃO FAMÍLIA. E AMIGOS. E OUTROS.

This week, we took a train and rode across our area, passing beautiful ocean views and palm trees. Upon arrival in Caxias, the end of our area, we asked a kind old lady for directions. Before I knew it, we were carrying this 77 year old´s heavy groceries along a tree-lined pathway through a gorgeous green park with red roof tops off in the distance and a stream easing alongside the trees as she told us about her years of working as a nurse and about her late husband´s life in the army.

This is my life.

Oh Ronaldo . . .

These are the moments that I wish you could all experience with me, the little ones that make up my life here in Portugal, that capture it really. Serving amazing people in a beautiful country. Have I mentioned how much I love it here? More about the old lady later.

As for now, I´m hoping all is well over on your side of the pond. People are bummed here about Portugal being out of the World Cup (misinformation from my comp...awkward), but I´m happy at least one of my countries got through :)

Uh oh. TOO MUCH TO WRITE ABOUT FROM THIS WEEK WHERE DO I START?!?!?!

Okay. As always, from the beginning! Last P-day, Sister Hirschi and I went on a last minuted adventure to Lisbon! I LOVE LISBON OH MY GOODNESS I LOVE IT. It is seriously the most beautiful place in the world. We just hopped on a train and went to the end of the line then got off and went exploring. It is so freaking beautiful!!!! I can´t describe it well enough to give it justice so enjoy the billions of pictures I´m sending.

After that...This week we taught this amazing lady, Graça. She is a cancer surviver who takes care of her two 40 something year old deficient daughters and she is INCREDIBLE. She understands the gospel so perfectly and even though so many dificult things have happened to her in her life, so many things out of her control, she still trusts in God´s plan and she knows that people have their agency. After teaching her twice, we invited her to be baptized next Sunday. She just looked at us and asked, "What time?" People that come so incredibly prepared like Graça are rare. How blessed am I to have the chance to teach these people. They are so humble! This amazing lady who is at least 3 times my age trusts 2 young American girls to teach her about salvation and how she should live her life. Astounding.

As for our family that we´re teaching. We had an activity planned on Tuesday and we made all these plans to go pass by the family´s house to walk with them and...nobody was home. At this point I just turned to Sister Hirschi and I said, "I´m not sure what to do with them if they don´t commit, we´re going to need a miracle to know that we should keep teaching them." Heavenly Father is a wonderful being. We had the activity and it went great. Just as we were all literally about to walk out the door, in runs Joni! And then Bia! And then their dad Vitor! I was so surprised! They said that they had to do some stuff and we way late but Joni begged his dad to pass by. So we got the chance to show them around the church and we had a really spiritual experience as we talked about sacrament meeting. It was the sign I needed. 

It´s funny how life works. We got that sign, several really. We had plans to teach them the next afternoon and as we were going home to have lunch we ran into Paula and some of the kids and found out she had to go to work right when we had scheduled to visit so we got a chance to bump it up a little bit to talk to them all. They´re going, slowly but surely. They still didn´t go to church this week (they have crazy sleeping schedules), but I´m calm about it. Conversion has many speeds and not everyone is a Graça. But Heavenly Father has spoken and we´re trusting in that.

Too many things happened this week! We had a crazy adventure to a really sketchy bairro...we went at like 3 in the afternoon so we thought it´d be chill. Wrong. Right after we got off the bus all these creepy guys came over. We usually just ignore them but they kept asking us if we were from ´the church´. I finally said yes, terrified. With that, one yelled to the others, "Leave the church woman alone!" And they left. Wow, Heavenly Father protects us. Second miracle, we walked out of the lesson there, the very second the bus got there, hopped on and rode off to safety!

As for the old lady we met in Caxias, she is hilarious. We carried her groceries all the way home with her telling me how tired I was going to get. ME, a 20 year old, haha. She then showed us her whole house and asked us if we wanted something to eat. I´ve learned that in Portuguese culture it´s not really that rude to say no thanks if you don´t have time and stuff. The thing is, they just don´t take no for an answer. Ever. We told her we needed to go because we were already late and she insisted on handing us bananas. Before I knew it, everything spiralled and I was eating a yogurt with a plate of shrimp in front of me and some chocolate salami off to the side. I also left with 2 oranges. They just don´t let you not let them be generous to a hilariously adorable degree. Can´t wait to pay her back with some knowledge about the plan of salvation!

Well this email is already mega long but here´s one last update on our 40 day fast. We´ve reached the end! And I´m still imperfect haha, but a little less than before. I learned so much! One example to share, Heavenly Father told me to put interrupting people on my list. You should all know, Portuguese people LOVEEEE to talk. Some of them could literally talk for about 2 hours with you responding maybe 3 times. So over time during my mission I have practiced and learned to artfully interrupt in order to get things on track and under control. Needless to say, I was a little surprised when Heavenly Father told me to never interrupt people. It was super hard in the beginning! I felt like lessons went on and on and it was hard to get them back on track. As time went on, however, I realized that sometimes, or really all the time, what these people need IS to talk and to know that we´re really listening to them. So I listened and I just let them talk. Somehow, Heavenly Father helped me so that now when I do get a word in, it´s so much more succinct and powerful. Incredible, huh? He lets them still talk because it helps them and He helps me fulfill my purpose by giving my few words more meaning and effect. It´s pretty cool.

Well, it was a fab week and I haven´t even scratched the surface. Just remember that Heavenly Father always knows best even when it seems like what He´s telling us to do doesn´t make any sense at all. Trust Him forever and always!!!!

Com bastante amor,

Sister Swasey

Celebrating One Year - with food of course!

Still celebrating 1 year with food.

All Creatures of Our God and King - This is totally normal in Portugal.

Dead animals to be eaten.

LISBON - OH HOW I LOVE YOU!

Cable Cars

Statues are everywhere!

Classic Catholic church

He is the Answer

Olá amigossss!

Another week come and GONE. Wanna know a secret? I hit my year mark this week.

WHAT?!?!

I know. It´s madness. A YEAR as a missionary. I have to say, Heavenly Father has been good to me in a million ways. The time is unfortunately passing faster than Cristiano Ronaldo can score a goal against the US (just kidding, I don´t even know who won that game yet, my World Cup knowledge consists of whatever facts I pick up on the street. Literally). On the other hand, however, Heavenly Father is constantly helping me learn a billion and a half things and so when I look back, I feel like I´ve been here for even longer than a year for so much that I have learned on this adventure. 

But ANYWAY... I really don´t know what to write this week. It was a good week, as all of them are, but sometimes the week is just composed of lots of random moments. So...here´s my week!

Oeiras is a flowery palm tree paradise! 

We taught this family from Senegal! Portugal is seriously an amazing melting pot. Unfortunately this fam didn´t really want anything, nor am I sure how much they really understood of our Portuguese but I got to practice a little French with them! Goodness people, my French grammar is intact but the words have left me.

We had a really cool lesson with Brito and Antunes this week, accompanied by our dear Irmã Sofia Albino. She was baptized less than a year ago but man is she fantastic and super knowledgeable. We call these our Recent Convert Pow Wows and they are the coolest things. It´s really neat to have Irmã Sofia teach with us and everybody´s just bearing their testimonies left and right, strengthening each other as they all go through the same experience from their different, yet often similar backgrounds. 

Oh, I have just been informed by my companion that Portugal won. WOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOO. Sorry guys, I´m a patriot but let´s be real here, it´s SUPER fun being in Portugal during the World Cup. Everybody has their flags out, it´s kind of like the July 4th in America but in Portugal with Portuguese flag. VIVA PORTUGAL. (Obviously Danielle really doesn't know what's going on! 2-2 go USA!)

Also, HAPPY FATHER´S DAY MEGA-LATE. Fun fact: Father´s day in Portugal is in like March or something so...I completely forgot. All you dads out there though, you´re great.

Catching up on our journals on the bus

Um...other fun facts. We live in an apartment right by this centro-comercial. It´s kind of like a tiny mall with little boutiques and restaurants and a grocery store so we cut through it every single day and of course on P-days to go grocery shopping. The funny part is, Sister Hirschi and I 1) only have one day to do all of our grocery shopping and 2) we like to eat. So we always buy tons of food and then we have to lug it through the shopping center taking breaks along the way and all of the Portuguese people just stare at us with their daily shopping bag (note the singular nature of that word) thinking we´re crazy. It is a riot.

OH! So now that everyone´s going to the beach all day everyday (us excluded) so many strangers with their friends and surf boards honk, whistle, and yell the 3 English words they know at us constantly. We learn to tune it out (though I am tempted to yell back in German or something, just to throw them off...if I knew anything in German that is). But ANYWAY, this week we were in this kind of sketchy bairro (ooh...english translation would be something along the lines of run-down apartment complex neighborhood-ish). And anyway, we saw these cute little African boys and as we passed by they yelled out that we were ugly. It was literally the cutest funniest thing ever. Send a tall American girl to Portugal and she will come back excited when someone calls her ugly. 

Fun fact: This is the most normal thing in the world - Portuguese people park wherever and however!

Bairros are interesting places. They have lots of humble people but they also aren´t places we want to be at night...we honestly have been trying really hard to avoid them, but it´s interesting how Heavenly Father sends us to where He wants us to be in a big area like Oeiras. We just do contacts and try new areas but no matter what we do, recently we end up finding lots of people that live in this one particular bairro so it really is Him showing us where we need to be. And I trust that.

Sorry, this email is beyond random and all over the place, but hey, that´s my life! Last thought for today...in sacrament meeting I´ve been really trying to get more revelation. One thing I realized, as missionaries we´re constantly looking for answers. Answers to investigators questions, doubts, and things that are impeding them from just progressing and being baptized. Sometimes when I study I just want a perfect answer but there just is no fix-all answer. One thing I realized yesterday is that it´s true, there is no perfect answer in the sense that the people that don´t want it, don´t want it and we can´t change that. As for the people that DO want it, the answer is ALWAYS Jesus Christ. I´ve had moments on my mission, light bulb moments when I realize, DUH, the Book of Mormon is EVERYTHING or, DUH, going to sacrament meeting is EVERYTHING. Yes and no...those things are everything for our investigators because they testify of and bring us closer to Jesus Christ. They say that Jesus is the Light, the Life and the Way. I would add just one more, and say that He is the Answer. He truly is the answer to any question we may ever have because it is His Atonement that makes everything work and everything just and everything wonderful.

Just a little food for thought.

I love you all and I hope that you´re all doing well :) Have a glorious week!

Com muito carinho,

Sister Swasey

Sardines and Mustard Seeds

Como é que é?!

Hello family and friends! Life here in the land of Portugal is swell as always. My Portuguese continues to progress and I´m starting to add in all the Lisboa jargon, including today´s intro. It literally means "How is it that it is?!" which makes me laugh. The not so literal translation is something along the lines of "What´s up?" as far as I can tell. Good times.

So this week Portugal became an oven of heat beyond my wildest expectations. We walked around all week asking ourselves how on earth the missionaries in Africa survive. Fun fact, however, all the Africans keep telling us that this heat is worse than Africa. PORTUGAL IS HOTTER THAN AFRICA, I´M SORRY, WHAT?!?!?!? True story. That´s what they tell me.

Antunes and Brito

Let´s see...I don´t really remember what happened this week... OH! We had one of the funniest street contacts of my life. We taught Antunes with Irmã Aida and then we went with them to try and find somebody´s address. On the way we asked this girl for instructions and then started to contact her. We asked her if she had ever heard of this church and she said that she had already been baptized in it in Cape Verde! Irmã Aida and Antunes started getting super excited and Irmã Aida asked her if she remembered the names of the elders that baptized her. She said her mom told her that they had died... At that I just got confused and everyone got all serious and sad. She didn´t know how they had died and so Irmã Aida said it was probably just an accident...and let´s be honest it was a little awkward. Then, we asked her how old she was when she got baptized.

She said she was 2. ...What?

Turns out she got mixed up and definitely hadn´t gotten baptized in this church before! So we got her contact info to explain more and then went on our merry way. Too funny. Side note: while I was talking to her, I saw Antunes lean over and tell Sister Hirschi something. Afterwards I found out that he told her that I am a mermaid. I really have no other explanation for you all. This is my life.

This week we had the most fun ward activity EVER. It´s called a sardinhada, which as far as I can tell is a Portuguese version of a ward barbeque and instead of hot dogs and hamburgers we all eat sardines! Guys. These sardines are NOT those nasty things in a can that nobody wants on their pizzas, THEY ARE SO GOOD. It was seriously so fun! Antunes, Brito, AND Marcolino were helping out, a beautiful sight to see! Antunes even had a shirt on that said STAFF even though I know for a fact he has no idea what that means. ;) There were so many members and non-members there and everyone was just having a blast. Everyone was teaching me and Sister Hirschi how to eat it correctly so you don´t eat any of the nasty stuff. (I´m a slow learner, fun fact- random fish organs do NOT taste good.) But yeah, it was just a really fun activity and a really cool cultural experience for us. Everyone thought we were hilarious taking pictures of everything.

Hi Sardines!

I love sardines!

Sardines! Nasty Right???

My buddy Diogo

Reuniting with past District members

This week we also had another big 3-zone conference, of course in our chapel. It was really awesome and I got to do a special musical number with Sister Call, my STL, and Sister Hirschi played the piano. We didn´t have much time to practice but it turned out okay. Either way, I like doing them because it´s a fun experience and lets me get to do a little bit of everything on the mission.

Zone Conference

At church on Sunday we ended up doing the same musical number but I just did it solo. It went pretty well which was nice :) Other than when missionaries do it we never have musical numbers at church and so everyone really likes them and it mixes things up!

As for some good spiritual stuff for the week...Well we´re still working with our family but they didn´t make it to church this week. It was hard and a little sad but Heavenly Father really helped me handle it. I REALLY worked on my faith this week. It´s funny, I always thought I had a ton of faith, and I do in some senses but in others I really see so much room for improvement. Sometimes it´s still hard to put your whole heart and soul into people that might let you down and sometimes it´s hard to expect miracles rather than just hope for them. So I´ve been working on taking my faith to the next level so that I can know when I look back on whatever happens, that I did my best and that I put all my faith into the work. I was getting a little stressed about it this week honestly, wondering if my faith was really growing and if I was doing enough when Sister Hirschi (without really knowing what I was going through) read this scripture in our comp study-

"And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you." (Matthew 17:20)

EXACTLY what I needed to hear! Guys, we don´t need faith the size of the mustard tree, we just need faith the size of a mustard seed and when we use it and try we can move MOUNTAINS. Amazing. 

Anyway, I think that´s all for this week folks! I hope you´re all doing well and moving mountains :)

Abraços, beijinhos, e MUITAS saudades,

Sister Swasey

"Elder, we need to FAST."

PESSOAS LINDASSSSSS,

Goodness. Life is really great. Really, really great. WHAT A GREAT WEEK. So great.

So...it´s always a question of where to begin. How about the beginning! The Lisboa area is a pretty sweet place with lots of great shopping and temptation. This week we went up to Sintra on P-day and spent the whole time in one store, the ever-missionary famous Primark. It´s mega-cheap and has the coolest European clothes ever! This is a pretty missionary irrelevant fact, but in case anybody stops by Portugal, that´s your shop.

As for the work, let me see...well, this week Sister Hirschi and I were kneeling at the door praying before we left after lunch, as we always do. After praying, we always wait for any response Heavenly Father wants to send our way. Usually I just stay there for an extra couple seconds but this week I had a "The Best Two Years" moment. You know when Elder Calhoon prays for like an hour in the morning while everybody else gets ready and such. Well I stayed on the ground a good little while because Heavenly Father had a few things to say. Okay, actually He only had one. Start a fast. I was super confused and so we had a little chat. I was like, wait, huh? We just fasted on Sunday, did I hear that right? The response- start a fast. I´m not sure I´m understanding, Sister Hirschi´s sick right now... START A FAST.But...START A FAST.  To which I responded, okay, okay! Just double checking! When I looked up, Sister Hirschi asked me if I´d gotten any cool revelation. I simply asked, "Would you think I´m crazy if I said we should start a fast?" Well my friends, my faithful companion simply asked if we could go get her some stuff to help her headache before starting. WHAT A CHAMP. I love her.

So anyway, we got some stuff and then stopped by the church to kneel and start our fast. We had quite a few things on our list- our goals for the month, more faith, more excitement, etc. As I was praying I thought to include fasting specifically for a family. Something we´ve been talking about for awhile but hadn´t talked about for this specific fast yet. So I threw that in there. As we left the chapel, Sister Hirschi called someone to confirm an appointment or something. I look up, and 10 feet from the gates of the church I see a guy and his son. A FAMILY. Me- But wait, Sister Hirschi´s on the phone...that´s weird. The Spirit- DON´T BE SILLY SISTER SWASEY THAT IS A FAMILY. You are so right Heavenly Father. So I ran over to them and started contacting them while she hurried to finish up on the phone. They turned out to be really cool but in a hurry so we marked to visit them the next day. 

Next day. We go by their house. He wasn´t there but his wife and daughter were. We talked to them for a little while and literally practically marked them to be baptized in that very moment. It was a miracle!!!!!! We marked to visit the whole family. We went there on Saturday. THEY ARE SO AMAZING. We had the best lesson I´ve ever had in my entire mission. They have 5 kids, ages 21, 15, 12, 11, and 6. MIRACLE. We talked to all of them except for the 21 year old and the 6 year old who weren´t there. They were all super receptive and just amazing! By the end of the lesson, we started talking about baptism again and the mom, Paula, told us that after we´d met she and her daughter Tamara had talked a lot about it and so they said they wanted to be baptized! In that moment, we marked Paula, Tamara, and her two sons Johnny and José to be baptized!!!!!! IT WAS AMAZING. HEAVENLY FATHER IS SO GOOD TO US. We would have tried to mark the dad, Vitor, as well but he had to leave early. Guys. WE´RE TEACHING A FULL BIG AMAZING FAMILY. I haven´t baptized a full family yet on my mission and Heavenly Father just put one right in our path. Please, can I ask a favor? Can you all PLEASE pray for this family specifically for me? I´m begging you! We need these prayers! This family is going to do amazing things for this ward here in Oeiras and be yet another pillar for the church here in Portugal, I just know it! Please, pray for them!!!! I know that it´s not going to be that simple because I know Satan sees their potential just like we do but I know your prayers can work miracles!

Just think about it guys...if we literally wouldn´t have done that fast, we wouldn´t have been at the church and we would never have met Vitor and José. Heavenly Father knows what He´s doing!!!!

Other miracle...this week we were about to have our district meeting with the elders when Brito, our recent convert walks in with his two friends!!!! Maria Helena and Augusto came to do family history! We marked an appointment with them and almost marked them to be baptized too! THEY ARE EQUALLY AS AMAZING. MIRACLES ARE HAPPENING HERE IN OEIRAS. They just need their confirmation from the spirit and we may be planning a huge mega double family baptism. PLEASE, THESE PEOPLE NEED YOUR PRAYERS. I need them!

My District

The news gets BETTER! Can you believe that?! Last week we were talking to this guy on the street when this other guy, Marcolino started talking to us. He had already seen the church up the road and the more we talked the more interested he was. In short, in about 5 minutes of talking to him on the street we had him marked for baptism! Last week he came to church, we taught him all this week, and...yesterday he got baptized!!!!! These things do NOT just happen! The Lord is preparing people all around us! He is working SO many miracles, real, huge, amazing MIRACLES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is incredible. The baptisms and the good news of us teaching families is getting the members fired up like I have never seen before. OEIRAS IS ON FIRE. Heavenly Father is just so GOOD to us. He tests us, pushes us, makes us work but then MAN DOES HE BLESS US. It is an amazing thing.

Sister Hirschi, Marcolino, Ruben & Me

Guys, this is the Lord´s work and He is directed it. He goes out ahead of us and then just yells at us to try and catch up. It is a wonderful thing to be a part of His work. I LOVE IT. I LOVE EVERY SINGLE DAY. Life is so wonderful :)

LOVE YOU ALL, HAVE A MIRACULOUS WEEK!!!!!!!

Abraços,

Sister Swasey

X-Rays, Waffles, Guang Li Xu, and Magic Buttons

ENTÃO FAMÍLIA, AMIGOS, E OUTROS,

Another week gone by...it´s all really flying. It´s strange to think that just a year ago I was shopping for skirts and now I´m in Portugal speaking Portuguese, preaching the gospel!

Also, can we just talk for a second about the fact that I haven´t been to the temple in almost a YEAR?! That, my friends, is a very long time. It´s really cool to be in a mission preparing for a temple. I learned a lot of things I never knew, like you have to have such and such number of priestholders and whatnot to build one. I´d never thought about that before but I mean hey, it makes sense. We were talking with our member friend Aida this week about the temple and I was just so SAD. A whole 18 months without ever going to the temple is such a LONG time! When I go home I just want someone to drop me off at the Orlando temple and only come pick me up when all the nice workers convince me that I´m really not allowed to sleep there overnight. Anyway, as I was thinking about this this week I have a challenge for all you temple recommend holders out there! (And if you´re not one the challenge is to go become one) It´s simple- GO TO THE TEMPLE THIS WEEK. And for those of you that always go, GO TWICE, THREE TIMES, STAY LONGER. Take advantage of this huge blessing that so many people don´t have! 18 months without a temple is hard and that´s a small number in comparison to other people. When you´ve gone, send me an email! Tell me about your experience! Make it an extra special one! I´m going to do a little vicarious living here. I´m serious about this people, I want to hear about your temple trips! It´s such a wonderful place!!!!!!

Okay, enough with the ranting and on to my week. I don´t remember the last time I had a week as random as this one, nor a lesson as strange as the one we had with our new buddy Guang Li Xi. Here´s basically how that contact on the street went, translated for your benefit-

Sister Hirschi- "Hi! How are you doing!"

*Confused look from the Chinese man in Portugal*

Me- "We´re missionaries here, do you speak Portuguese?"

Chinese stranger- "Speak very little Portuguese."

Sister Hirschi- "Okay, well do you live here?"

"Yes, yes!"

*More painful small talk in broken Portuguese*

Me- "Okay, well do you believe in God?

*Blank stare*

Me- "Do you have faith?..." 

*More confusion*

Me- "Do you believe in anything (using a different Portuguese word to say believe)?"

*Still nothing*

Me- "Uh...do you have a belief?"

Chinese man- "Oh, yes! I have son who live with wife in China, far away!"

Alright guys, don´t start thinking I´m racist or anything, just thought I´d give you the inside look to our lives on the streets of Portugal haha. Street contacts are always adventures and it´s always extra interesting when WE´RE the ones that speak more Portugese. The best news is we somehow communicated with him enough to walk a block over to show him the church where we were going to meet this lady, Leonor, to do some family history. We ended up going in with them both and showing them the chapel. I LOVE giving chapel tours, especially here in Oeiras. We always end in the sacrament room and the Spirit comes over and practically smacks you in the face it´s so strong. I have no idea how much our new friend Guang Li Xu (his last name is also the Portuguese word for garbage, completely irrelevant fact), understood but he said he felt really good and gave us all of his contact information! We´re going to try and visit him with a Chinese member from our ward. We´ll see what happens :)

Saturday night was probably the craziest. We got home to our aparment building and Sister Hirschi started looking for the keys. She looked up at me and asked if I had them. She tends to mess with me often so I just laughed and said nope. She was serious. So yes, friends, we did get locked out of our house. The nice neighbors let us in the building but from there we had no keys to open our door. So we called the couple missionaries to ask them if anybody had a spare key (except for us, that is, woops...). But ya know, having a spare key in the office would have been too easy. So she started telling us a way that you can cut a water bottle and sometimes it works so we started chugging when our neighbor´s friend came over to look at the door. He tells us the water bottle trick will never work and what we need is an X-Ray paper. Well, unlucky for me I forgot to bring mine with me that day...all the sudden our neighbor´s like, "Oh! I have one!" What?! She runs over to her apartment and brings back some X-Rays! He jammed it in the door, wiggled it around for awhile and TA DA!!! So now you all know how to break into people´s houses. NOT, however, the moral of the story. What are the odds of the neighbor´s friend visiting and the neighbor having an X-Ray with her? Heavenly Father takes care of even irresponsible missionaries.

Then, we get in and...we had no power. NOTHING. The building had it but our apartment was a black hole. So then we called the Financial Secretaries to ask if somebody forgot to pay our power bill as we frantically looked through all our mail to see if we missed something important. As we were sitting in our doorway on the ground, 2 more neighbors came in and asked us what we were doing. After explaining the sitch, the old man just walked into our house, opened up a box, pushed some magic button and TA DA!!! The house came back to life! What did I tell you, Heavenly Father takes care of us. 

Other random stuff...I don´t know, lots of little moments like getting to eat waffles with a member family. Their daughter actually just did a semester at BYU and she worked at the library for my old boss! Small Mormon world. Classic little highlights like that filled our week. 

We also had the chance to go to a baptism of an 8 year old girl from the ward. It was so cute! The primary kid sang that song about rainbows (that I can never remember the actual name to) and I just wanted to cry! It was a moment to step back and remember that I was a missionary in Portugal getting to have so many amazing experiences with the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. Baptisms are always such beautiful moments... whether it´s a 60 year old convert or an 8 year old child it´s a new start, it´s a covenant, and it´s amazing. 

I love you all, hope you enjoyed a little glance into the random and strangeness of our week here in Oeiras. Don´t forget to go to the temple a little more this week! (I´m serious about this one people, you won´t regret it, Scout´s Honor!) :)

Fiquem fixe! (Stay cool!)

Sister Swasey

Went to Continente - the biggest grocery store in Portugal!

Sister Hirschi in Continente - this place is huge!