Barreiro - Week 22

Olá gente!
Last week we had our mission Christmas party which was wonderful! The assistents and President and his wife spoke and they all had wonderful talks about Christmas and missionary work.

One of the assistents played "Christmas Shoes" at one point of his talk and related it to when judgement comes, we will all be that little boy that doesn't have enough money to purchase his christmas shoes. In our case get in to the celestial kingdom. Just like the man stepped in to pay for what the little boy couldn't pay for, the Savior will do the same for us. He has paid the price for us for what we can't give.

We also did a white elephant in between the sisters and the elders. I got a mini lightsaber (picture included) and so did one of the sisters that was in my district last transfer :). We also had a talent show kind of... well each zone was in charge of doing something. The elders in our zone didn't want to do anything so the 4 sisters in our house played "Do you want to build a snowman" on our ukueles. Yes... I now have a new talent haha. My Ukuele is purple and it´s awesome. We saw a lot of our mission friends and a selfie with President Tavares is included :)

Christmas in Portugal is different from the US, but because I am on the misssion it has litterally changed my perspective. We are just able to serve people every minute of every day and tell them about the birth of Christ and what a joy that is to our lives! Its a different experience being away from family and friends when that's where all the memories are, but it is a very special experience to share the message that Christ was born so that families can be together forever.

Our branch had the primary program yesterday in sacrement, and sister Stegeman and I sang one of the songs with them. Our branch is so excited for Christmas and we have been working hard to share a Christmas message with all of the memebers. We have quite a few members that invited us for Christmas and we are so grateful for the love they show to us.

Well I think that is all! I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and remember the real reason that we celebrate, and that you share This gift with someone else :) Don´t be afraid to share the happiness of Christ´s birth!
Com amor,
Sister Jarnagin

https://youtu.be/tuRP5_CR6BY

Barreiro - Week 20

This week... I can´t believe the first week of December already passed. It has been really foggy here lately. I woke up and almost thought it was snow. It was so white and I got really excited, but it was just thick fog haha. We had a wonderful zone meeting this past week and they introduced the new Christmas message from the church and they gave us new pass along cards. They also created a new activity for us to do called "White Christmas" and getting our friend dressed in white this Christmas.

This week we also got a chance to watch the ceremony of the first stone of the temple placed, and it was so wonderful! All the members that were with us were very excited to watch and see their long awaited dreams coming true.

This week was a little bit tough, but we are doing our best. Our mission president gave us a lot of counsel about eliminating all distractions even if they are little. So we are being very conscious about what we think about and what we do.

This week we did some new finding activities by wrapping up books of mormon and writing in the front with a picture of our family and a couple of our favorite scriptures. Sister stegeman and I both did one and we gave it to a person when we felt the spirit.  Both of the people we picked were happy to get the present :)

Well I love you all!
Love Sister Jarnagin

Barreiro - Week 19

This week was a lot of new.

My companion is Sister Stegeman from California, and she is basically awesome! She plays the ukele and sings like nobody's buisness! She was in charge of this concert that was for the Lisbon stake and a lot of missionaries in that area used their talents to sing and play instruments. There were a lot of people that came to the concert and a lot of non members as well, which was awesome! Sister Stegeman sang and played her uke for a couple of songs she wrote. We have so much talent in our mission it is wonderful!! One of the elders, who is new this transfer and was on The Voice, sang and then all the missionaries sang ´Joy to the World´ at the end.

This week was also Thanksgiving! So Portugal does definately not celebrate this holiday, and we had district meeting this day so we decided to have a mini thanksgiving with the district. Every dupla brought something different. It was really cute and we all ate together. One thing I did learn... Elders do not know how to cook turkey haha. They made these curry turkey strips that left our bellies feeling a little spicy haha. But it all turned out pretty good!

We were walking home and Sister Stegeman had on red and green and a santa hat and a big bag of apples over her shoulder that a member had given to us. We walked past a school with little children and they were all like ´SANTA!´which reminded me about Elf haha `SANTA! OH MY GOODNESS!` And of course she had to ask them what they all wanted for Christmas and reminded them to be good. It was super adorable!

We found so many wonderful people this week! Because sister Stegeman has a wonderful talent, she played in the streets and sang about the gosple principles and the prophet. People LOVED it and I was able to hand out ´He is the Gift´ cards while she played. A lot of people are out on the streets more... maybe it's just me, but I think it's becasue Christmas is coming and they are excited... or it could be because they sell roasted chestnuts and Farturas on the streets. We found a family that we were able to teach! Maria and her daughter Belga. They both accepted the invitation to be baptized when they recieve an answer to their prayers. And we have a family home evening planned with them tonight which we are excited for!

Well I think that is everything for this week! We are trying different things with the area and visiting as many less actives as we can and finding part member families. The work is going good and they will put the first stone in for the temple this week which everyone is excited for!

I hope you all have a wonderful week!
Com muito Amor e carinho,
Sister Jarnagin

pics:
Our thanksgiving
and my MOM! I saw sister Cardoso at the concert and she is the cutest!!!

Barreiro - Week 18

So it´s a short one... but this week was good. This week the Elders baptized Vadinho, who Sister Swain and I taught when we were in the Vale de Amoreira before our switch with the Elders. Vadinho was happy and I'm so glad I was able to see his baptism. He had been investigating the church for 2 years. Some of the missionaries that had taught him recently were able to come. I love being able to see the people that I have come to love get dressed in white and enter the font. It is a blessing to be able to see people start clean!! Especially when they have truly come to know the church is true!!!

This week was also sister Mendes' last week with me. We got our transfer calls and she is staying 2 weeks in Lisbon before she goes home. We dropped her off at the boat station this morning and it was so sad to see her go!! She is one of the very best friends I have made on my mission and we always had a lot of fun together in the street and teaching.

So with transfers, im STAYING. So that will make 6 months in this area when this transfer finishes, and 7 1/2 months in this zone. So I'll be leaving at the end of this transfer for sure. I have only ever stayed in an area for 2 transfers so this is different, but I love this branch and this area. It makes it so much easier because I know all the members so well. My new companion is Sister Stegman. She hasn't gotten here yet. She is in her 3rd transfer so I am greenie breaking her. I hear she is a lot of fun too! She will get here later today with the Elders that are coming from Lisbon while I stay with the Sisters here that I live with.

Meanwhile, our house is getting ready for the Christmas season. I don't think Portugal does Thanksgiving, but I'm thankful that I am on a mission and I am thankful for all these wonderful people here too! Sometimes it is hard to be thankful for the hard things, or the people who are rude, but I'm thankful for this chance to be a missionary and share the light of the gosple with others! Shout out to my wonderful family!!! I am so grateful for all of their support and love! I am especially grateful for my grandma Christensen and her wonderful letters to me! :) We set up our little paper christmas tree that we found in our house and boughts some lights and lit the candle my mom sent me. We are excited to be able to share "He is the Gift" with the people of Portugal. I think those are my favorite cards to hand out. The people are happier during this time of year and they are happy to take the cards. We have some special activities planned to contact and get to know our members and less active members which I am excited for!!! :) It will be a season of joy and sharing the message of the birth of Christ!!!

I think that is all!!
Com Amor!!
Sister Jarnagin

1. our district last transfer.
2. Vadinhos baptism and the missionaries who taught them.
3. My little friend from our branch
4. another one :)
5. Our goodbyes this morning :( It was SO SO cold!

Barreiro - Week 17

Ola gente!
Not much is new this week... We are still continuing to teach Maria and her family. This is the last week of the transfer and we think Sister Mendes is leaving and ilql stay again, but we will see what happens.

So the pictures:
Sister Mendes and I walking through the jungle on the way to our area :)
Christmas that has began in the shopping center. Whoot!
Justin Bieber´s mug shot on a members cake for her birthday haha
And my cute Cabo Verdiana companion!

Have a wonderful week!
Love, Sister Jarnagin

Barreiro - Week 16

So lots of things this week... and one from last week.

Last week we had a special activity where right after church all the missionaries went to the nearest cemetary. We were all fasting because of fast sunday so we went in the spirit of fasting and prayer. On this Sunday Portugal celebrates their dead and cleans and decorates the graves, so we took pictures of the temple, plan of salvation pamphlets, and family history pamphlets. It was a different kind of contacting, and we were just there to give love and support and help comfort. I am so grateful for the knowledge we have that our families can be together forever!

Right now we are working with a family and last night we had a very succesful lesson with them! The mom and the younger daughter have a hard time beliving that God exists, especially the Mom. She says if God exists, why do so many bad things happen and why is my son sick. Her son has epilepsy and she also has 3 other children. We are working so hard with them. Most of the time we start teaching and they have so many questions so we are always responding and always have to be prepared. Her 2 children haven't ever been baptized which is very rare here. We were explaining about baptism and the baptism of Christ and then she says "So how the Catholic church baptizes isn't correct!" We were like... you said it. She understands things so well. And her daughter says that she has doubts in God, but what we are teaching makes absolute sense! We asked the children if they wanted to be baptized and they both said yes. Right now we are teaching them and helping them to have a personal belief and not believe in us only. The daughter plays football every sunday so teaching and understanding the sabbath day is very important if they want to get baptized.

So the other story of the week. We had lunch with a member and were walking home and saw this adorable puppy with a collar and broken string for a leash just wandering around. We couldn't just leave her, being servants of the Lord, so we set off on our quest to find her owner. After a prayer, some meat roll for Clair (that's what we named her), and some asking around, we were able to find her owner. Yep. Doing good deeds for animals too :)

I hope you all have a wonderful week!!! :)
Love, Sister Jarnagin 

Barreiro - Week 15

Wow... ok well not much is new this week, but it was Halloween!

So our week started out with rain, rain, and more rain.  We left just after p-day and came back literally soaking wet.  Because of the humidity, clothes don't dry so fast so it took a while for our coats and clothes to dry completely. We put on so many layers to keep warm. It's a different kind of cold here... the humidity makes you feel it down in your bones. I feel like my feet are always icecycles in my rain boots. I am sure we look completely crazy walking around in the pounding rain, but hey, haha we find a lot of miracles! Rain and the cold are good motivators.

We walked so so much this last week. We have a lot of families we are teaching, but most of them aren't married. A lot of times they are fine with not being leagally married, so we have to teach the Law of Chasity very directly. One of the familes that we found we had a family night with, and we taught them how to play a card game which was really fun and they loved it! The daughter of the family is 15 and has the most interest in our message. The only problem is that she plays football and has games every Sunday. She is really sweet.

Halloween isn't the biggest thing here, but hey, Portugal is trying to be better at it. Our branch had a dance for Halloween and it was really fun! Below are pictures :) The four of us aquired some african clothing from a member and we all wore our dresses. We couldn't do much, but it turned out so fun! Sister Mendes was there to help us too ;) We also made some pumpkin bars from scratch. (oh the saudades of pumpkin in a can). And of course the members loved them. The primary did all the decorations and hung lights, pumpkins, cats and other things all over the room. I think the best part was watching the young men dance and do karoke.  Man... they seriously know how to dance here!

I have been in this area for a while now, and I realize what  a blessing it is to see people progress, but I also feel sad when I see the people we have been teaching for a while who know the church is true, but still don´t want to be a part of it or think that they can procrastinate. It breaks my heart, but I have come to love them. I have learned that we can't force people to choose. They have to choose for themselves, but we can bear testimony. We can keep the faith because one day they eventually will accept this gospel. I was reading in Moses this past week about how God cries for us when we are disobediant. How imperfect are we and we make so many mistakes, but yet the only person who is perfect, cries for us. And all because he loves us. We all have so long to go, but I'm grateful that we can grow and try our best to become perfect like our Father in heaven.

I love you all! Have a wonderful week and enjoy the snow if it does snow because I miss it!
Com amor,
Sister Jarnagin

PS Happy Halloween! :)
Love, the Sisters of Barreiro