Barreiro - Week 23

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

A member of the sisters' branch invited us and the sisters over for dinner on the 24th so we ate with them. Bacalhau with natas. We had a fun little Christmas eve program in our house and I was the wise man haha and we all shared a talent and a Christmas tradition that we did with our families.

On the 25th we had lunch with Irma Bia who fed all 8 missionaries. More bacalhau haha. She was so happy to have all of the missionaries over to eat and we even sang with her and she danced with her dog.

We had dinner with one of our members who also fed all the missionaries. I bet you guessed... BACALHUA! haha

Christmas was so good and we were able to talk to so many people about the birth of Christ and they were all so happy :). And of course SKYPE with my family was the best Christmas present :) I just feel so very blessed especially at this time of year. We are continuing to find new pesquisadors. We found this man José that seems to have potential and he invited us and the elders for dinner and we were able to teach him. I hope you alll have a fantastic New Year!
Com amor,
Sister Jarnagin

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!!!