Oeiras!

Ok, this place is BEAUTIFUL! There are a ton of houses here, which is a thing I was starting to think Portugal didn't have, and many of them are these really geourgeous old houses all done up like new or modern style houses all mixed in with trees and fields. On the way to the train station from our apartment is this field with a giant cow just hanging out in it! There are tourists here too, which is a new thing, because of the beaches here and how close we are to Lisbon. That's been fun to be on the trains and hear so many different languages around me! Its even cooler now that I can understand portuguese! 

Anyway, this week was really cool! The first week in a new area is always a little odd because you dont know your way around and you don`t know any of the members or people we are teaching and so its just like being a kid walking around with your parents. You have no idea whats going on or where you are, but you trust the person leading you so you are just happy to be there! (Hey, thats a pretty good metaphor for life, walking side by side with Jesus! We dont have any idea what we are doing, but if we are walking with Jesus we can just enjoy the ride!) But I am starting to figure it out a little bit I think. Church was a really cool experience here in Oeiras! The ward here is really strong, and there are actually quite a few people who just speak english! So i spent a good amount of time pretty confused because I still struggle switching between the two smoothly. I kept speaking english with the portuguese speakers and portuguese with the english speakers! We are even teaching a girl who doesnt speak portuguese at all, (though she does speak her native african dialect, french, english, and chinese...) and some of the other people we are teaching we are also helping them learn english! We had a wonderful woman come to church with us this sunday. She was found because she wanted to learn english and so we go over to teach her english and always leave a spiritual message and she has really been loving both the english and the spiritual aspect and wanted to know more about what we believe, and she absolutely loves church! She is really cool. 

Now I am going to tell you about our saturday, a saturday of MIRACLES! We had a blood drive on saturday at the church and we had handed out a ton of fliers the day before so we stopped by to see if anyone had come. No one had, but one of the members that was there, a recent convert actually, comes up to us with his friend and asks if we have a book of mormon! Obviously we did and we gave it to his friend! It was so cool! That morning we had been trying to decide if it would be worth it to stop by the blood drive or not. We knew it was likely to just be members there and we had a day full of appointments and so we didn´t have a lot of time, but we decided to stop by, and look what happened! God was behind it, I have no doubt of that. Then later in the day we were on the bus on the way to an appointment in a neighboring town and this lady comes up to us and says she is a member of our church! She shared with us a little about her conversion and the joy that she felt at that time in her life was so plainly obvious. She described the day of her baptism as "magical" (she was speaking with us in english. She is portuguese, but her english was really good and the people here like to practice their english with us) and she also told us why she had drifted away. She struggled with breaking some bad habits and she felt that if she went to church she would be a hypocrite because she didnt think she would ever be able to change. And that feeling had kept her away for years. I was able to share the quote with her about church not being a gathering place for saints, but a hospital for sinners, and that idea really seemed to touch her. Well actually she said "thats a really good argument" and then got quiet for a second. But after that we talked to her about the 12 step addiction recovery program and offered to come to her house and look at it with her and she was so grateful and excited! I then asked her if she still had a book of Mormon and she looked a little embarrassed and said no, and I asked her if she would like one and she gave me a big smile and said "YES!" I luckily had one in my backpack and i gave it to her and she hugged it to her chest. She is so amazing and i am so so grateful I met her and got to hear her story. She was an example to me of someone who was truly converted. She had lost her way a little bit, she is a sheep who wandered from the fold, but the love and testimony she has of the restored gospel, the book of mormon, and her savior jesus Christ. I am so excited to start meeting with her and help her come to understand her good shepherd a little better so she can come back to the fold. I have only spoken with her once, but she already helped me come to know our good shepherd a little better. He does not want His little sheep to wander, and He will lead people who need eachother together. There are too many coincidences in this life, and especially in this work, for there not to be a greater purpose behind it. A greater being, a greater power. It brings to mind the scripture in Mosiah 4:9 "believe in God, believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend." mmmmm.. good stuff. I love the Book of Mormon. I love the scriptures, what a blessing it is to have the bible and book of mormon and be able to read the words of God ever day and ever moment we need! If I had one piece of advise: READ THE WORD OF GOD EVERY DAY! ok. thanks. Thats all.

PSYCH! one more miracle. This one actually happened a few weeks ago, but I have been thinking about it and it really is pretty cool. Ok. Lets take it back a bit to my stint in the good old michigan detroit mission, Southfield east. Shout out to my home girl sister Burt. The work was going pretty slow. And when I say that I mean it was basically dead. It was really discouraging to be honest. One day, dont remember the specifics, but we were on the way home and I think it was a sunday so we couldnt go into any stores to do store contacting or something like that, but we had a few minutes so we decided to pull into a gas station and see if there was anyone filling up their gas that we could talk to. The person we had our eyes on pulled away just as we pulled in, and so we looked over and saw this old beaten up van and a couple of youths standing around it. So we go up and we contact one of them and he really didnt seem too interested but His friend did, so we got their numbers and that was that. A few days later the friend calls us (what! we are usally the ones doing the talking, so that was pretty cool!) Anyway, we set up a time to meet at a the popeyes down the road. We start teaching them and the lessons pretty much turn into question and answer sessions. They didnt seem like they were going anywhere, but they were the only people we had. We soon figured out that because they were technically YSA we had to hand them over to the sisters over the YSA ward. Then I left for Portugal and that was that. Then a few weeks ago during zone conference, I get a facebook message from one of those young men. He said "Hey Sister Hardy. I know you´re far away but I just want to tell you I´m finally getting baptised." Apparently the sisters have been teaching him, he has made some changes in his life and decided to get baptised! He went from a young man who didnt even know if God was real, but wanted to, and now he is here. The work of God will never cease to amaze me. I know that throughout my mission there will be times that I will never see or even know of the fruits that come of my labor, I am so incredibly grateful that I was allowed to see this miracle, I am so grateful I got to help this son of God.

Mom asked for a nice long email, hope this one doesnt dissapoint! I love you all so incredibly much! Thank you so much for your support as I am here, Now go and support the missionaries in your ward! Go out to teach with them, slip them a mini snickers at church, see em on the street, give em a holler! I promise you they will appreciate it! We went to a place called cascais for P-day today and this total stranger sees us in passing and just says "hi sisters" smiled and kept on walking. We didnt stop to chat, but man were we grateful for just a friendly and appreciative smile and hello. This work is the gratest work being done here on the earth. It is literally the work of God. How grateful I am to be a part of it. Is it hard? yes. Worth it? Heckin YEAH! 

Ok. Sister Hardy out. Hope your week is righteous, and you are too. Hugs and kisses, your (probably) favorite sister serving in Portugal. 

-Sister Hardy

Sorry! I always forget! This might take a few emails, you know how I love sharing photos!

-here is that cow I told you about! 

-we got a little lost today in Cascais, but we weren't too worried about it

-THE OCEAN! 

Mais fotos

We went to Cascais as a district activity, so there were a lot of missionaries!! We rented bikes and rode along the coast! It was GEORGEOUS!