Transfers!

New transfer!! I love Sister Darnell! She is awesome! 

The beginning of this week was pretty normal. We taught some lessons, did some contacts, got ready for transfers, cleaned our house. Then Wednesday we took the three hour train down to Lisbon! I took a little nap and then looked at the scenery. Honestly, Portugal is STUNNING it is so beautiful! The natural landscape as much as the cute old buildings and streets. I love this country! At transfers I saw Sister Crowder! It was a happy reunion, and it was so fun to see some of my other friends and I got to say goodbye to Presidente which was sad, but I am happy for him. Then there was the rush and scramble as the packages arrived and then another rush and scramble to get our tickets and get all of our bags onto the train! But soon we were back in Porto. The train had gone really slow on the way back for some reason so by the time we got back to our house there was only half an hour before we would need to be inside anyway so we just sent some messages until 9:30 and called it a night. 

The rest of the week was pretty normal! We had appointments and did contacts and started getting to know each other! Sunday was probably the most exciting day of the week. We went to lunch with a member and they had made bacalhau com natas which is a really common and popular Portuguese dish whose primary ingredient is cod... So my no fish streak was broken. The dinner was just the cod and nothing else and everyone was loading their plates. So I bravely loaded my plate as well and managed to eat every bite! I'm sure it was delicious, for someone who likes fish. Lol. But it was an adventure and I was proud of myself. That afternoon we taught two lessons in English to a girl from the Czech republic and a guy from Nigeria (he is a professional soccer player playing on the Porto national team!!!) The lessons went well, but I truly found the saying "you are called to speak the language you teach best in" to be true because I am not good at teaching in English! I am much better in Portuguese lol. But the man from Nigeria seems really interested, so I am excited to keep teaching him! Other than that our week was extremely normal!

Today for pday we did a white elephant gift exchange with some of our zone then we went ice skating (kinda) it was this little indoor sheet of plastic covered with a thin layer of ice. It was still really fun though, until at the end poor elder Weber and Élder Guzman fell and Elder Webers pinky got sliced open! The emergency medical guys came and wrapped it up, but it was pretty deep so they are going to go to the hospital to get stitches. Poor guy! But he was laughing and joking the whole time. And now we are at the Chapel ready to chill!

Since my email is pretty lame this week, I am going to share my thoughts with you about something I have been pondering lately. Someone said once while I was contacting them "I believe that religion is within each of us" and I thought, wow that is really true. But if it is, why do we go to church and practice organized religion?  It is true that faith and religion and belief, those are things that are personal, they start and belong within our hearts. But organized religion is also necessary, and which organized religion is also vital! Church provides us a place and an environment to practice our religion, and when we go to the true church of Jesus Christ we also have the chance to participate in saving ordinances that are necessary for our salvation, such as baptism and the sacrament! So yes, there is only one God and we are all brothers and sisters, and our faith and our religion dwells within our hearts, but I am here to help people come and partake of those saving ordinances that are only available in Christ's one, true, and organized church. And the are available to all who will come! Anyway I have been thinking about that and sharing that with some of our friends and it has really helped them understand the importance of our message, and really helped me gain a greater respect for the faith and beliefs of others. My testimony is that God is our Father and he loves us so much! He sent His son Jesus Christ to atone for us, and I am so grateful. God the Father and His son love us so much they organized a church for us so that we could learn and grow together and so that we could grow closer to Him. I know that this is the true church! I know the book of Mormon is true! Read it! Go to church! Pray! It really isn't that hard, but the blessings will last you throughout the eternities.

OK, sister Hardy out. Be good. Remember who you are. 

Sis Hardy 

Pictures to follow