First Week In Portugal!

HIIIIIIIIIII

My family.. I cannot even begin to tell you how happy i am in Portugal. I LOVE it here. It is beautiful. There are palm trees here (which i never expected) and the bread and cheese is divine. I am serving in a city called Odivelas. It is in Lisbon and not too far from the Mission Office. My first week here has been insane. I have so much to tell you. When we first arrived at in Portugal we were greeted by President Torgan and Irma Torgan with two Elders. Elder Walter and Elder Olsen. We went to the mission office to drop off our luggage and then President Torgan took us to lunch at Chili's.. I love not eating MTC food :) At Chilis i got to meet some Elders that work in the mission office. They have all been here for over a year, so they were able to give us good advice and help us settle in to the mission field. Portugal is full of amazing missionaries. seriously. After lunch we went back to the mission office to have our interviews with President Torgan and we found out where we would be serving. President Torgan told me i would be walking into a baptism my first week here and spoke very highly of my companion! WHAT!!! I know.. He is an incredible and inspired man. When i shake his hand i can feel his spirit overwhelm mine. He is wonderful. After our interviews we had to go get our visas taken care of with some elders and that took forever. We were exhausted. I still have bags under my eyes. I know i will never catch up on sleep. For dinner we ate at the mission home and then had a testimony meeting and went to bed. The mission home is beautiful and clean and just like a temple. I love love love the mission home. We woke up the next morning and ate breakfast with President Torgan then we were off to meet our trainers at the mission office. My new colega is Irma Joslin. She is the greatest trainer! I was worried at first because Elder Walter told me she was Japanese and did not speak English. I was thinking.. okay.. i will just be immersed in the language and this will be hard, but it will be okay. So, when i met Irma Joslin and she started speaking English to me. I freaked out. ha ha Missionaries say and play jokes ALL the time. Irma Joslin is hilarious though. We will get along really well. We trained for the rest of the morning and then we were dropped off in our new areas. I unpacked and got right to work. Irmas usually just do contacting. We do not have to knock on doors or buzz apartments. This country is full off apartments. There are no houses unless your have lots of dinero. I actually stopped someone on my first and introduced myself and Irma Joslin.. then when the person started talking to me i freaked because i could not understand one word they were saying. Then I said a prayer right there on the street to bless this persons life. It was a rush. But i did it in my little broken Portuguese. So.. everyday since i have been here, that is what we do. We stop people on the street and ask them if we can say a prayer with them to bless their life. Then after the prayer we ask if we can come teach them about a principle we believe in. It is incredible. There are miracles here.

I also got to teach the first vision to an investigator this week. I was so excited. He was listening and we gave him a book of Mormon and invited him to church. He said he would come, but then he didn´t show up. So Irma Joslin and i went to pick him and we could hear him tell his sister to say he was sleeping. She got mad at him and said i am not going to lie to these people. It´s hard to get excited and hope they will accept the gospel and then they shut down. II didn´t leave everything behind just for kicks and giggles. If i didn´t believe in the gospel i would have stayed home. And that is what i told and person on the street the other day. I want others to feel what i feel. You know!!!

So.. I am sure you are wondering about this baptism. The little boy´s name is Bruno he is 9 years old and has been taking the discussions with Irma Joslin for the last 2 weeks. He was baptized yesterday and then on Tuesday the day before i got here Irma Joslin committed another girl to baptism. Her name is Doris and she is from Guinea. (can´t spell. Sorry) She was also baptized yesterday. SO i saw 2 baptisms my first week here. I got to bear my testimony at the baptism and i felt so much excitement for these two choice individuals. Heavenly Father has big plans in store for them. This week we are hoping to commit two more people to baptism. They are ready- they just need to say.. Yes, i will be baptized! I love it.. I love the work and i love the people. Almost every person i walk past looks so sad and the moment i say, hello- good afternoon.. they light up. I know they can sense our spirits. We get stared at a lot too. It´s funny. and most people think we are Jehovah's Witnesses. It´s annoying.

Portugal is getting ready for summer.. It is not tooo hot.. but each day gets warmer. And we walk a lot. I don´t like sweating in church clothes that i have to wear every week. Seriously.. The drivers here speed and cut you off like no one´s business. Cops don´t do anything about it. It´s strange. The cars are so small. They fit like 2 people. ha ha I live right by a market and pastry shop and we pick up fresh fruit every other day and bread for sandwiches. I love the different foods and treats here. They are so yummy. The other day i had this chocolate filled croissant. The chocolate here is like Nutella and i could live off nutella. I took the metro the other day.. Loved it. Mom- this is everything i imagined. I love it here. Europe is different but i haven´t really had culture shock. I thought maybe i would be freaking out by now, but it has not hit me yet. Yeah, it is really hard for me to be able to communicate.. but some day.. some day i can actually have a conversation with someone. I know i will be blessed. I just need to have MORE patience. and i am working on it. Heavenly Father blesses his missionaries and i bear my testimony, the spirit just fills my mouth. It is something i can´t describe.

I hope you are all doing well. I don´t know the postal code for my area.. so continue to send my letters to the mission office and i will be there in 2 weeks for zone conference and that is when i can pick up my letters. I will let you know my personal address when i get it.

Also.. My teachers from the MTC wanted you to forward my emails to them every week. I forgot to bring their email address with me to the cafe, but can you do that for me mom? Both of my teachers served in Portugal and wanted to read about where were were serving. I was so blessed with 2 great guys who taught me in the MTC. I was definitely spiritually prepared for this. I always continue to ask Heavenly Father why me.. Why am i so blessed. He never forgets about me and small things that i go through. I don´t know what i would do without this gospel.

I can´t wait to share more with you next week. Thank you for your love! I feel it everyday.

Sorry if this is all jumbled. I can´t seem to get all my thoughts out in order. I LOVE YOU!!

Take Care,

Irmã Boshard

XOXO


*Posted By The Boshard Family