Dear Elders,

Ola familia e amigos!

Here are the answers to the questions:

1. How do you keep your food from spoiling if you don’t have a refrigerator? Do you have to shop every day? Do you eat with families? Um, good question...we just eat canned foods. Let's just say that it has been interesting food-wise. I am learning what foods last and what foods don't. But, we have been blessed with health, so all is well. (tudo bem :) We don't shop everyday, just on preparation day. We don't eat with families. We got invited to an irma's house next Sunday because it is my companion's birthday, but we usually don't eat with families. My comp says that in some areas the ward feeds the missionaries, but in this one they don't.

2. What is your schedule like? My schedule is basically normal missionary schedule. But, we get up at 7 instead of six thirty and we stay out until 9:30 and get to bed at 11. It is because a lot of people work late, so our prime teaching time is from 7 to 9:30. But, I get up, exercise, get ready, eat, study until 11 and then we leave for the day and contact and preach and teach and invite :)

3. How are the members involved in the missionary effort in your branch? We have a ward mission leader who is pretty awesome--Maikon. He is only 21 and is a convert of one year. He has a daughter, Anna, who is really sweet. I like talking to her because I feel like my Portuguese is good enough to talk to children :) She is probably 3 or 4. He is really great. He talks to the bishop for us and comes with us on appointments and contacts with us. We have a meeting every week with him and the ward council to try to better the missionary work.

4. How many young women are there in your branch? Interesting you should ask, I was just counting yesterday at church because I knew that you would be interested in knowing. There are about 8 young women in our ward (they call it a ward here--apparently there are enough members for it to be a ward because they don´t call it a branch (ramo)). There are also about 15 children in Primary.

5. What are the prices like? (i.e., what does a loaf of bread cost? a bus ride? a can of soda?) Prices...yeah, well, I don´t really know how this all converts, but a loaf of bread costs about one and a half Euros, a bus ride depends on where you are going, but can be anywhere from half a euro to two Euros. A can of soda--I have no idea because we don´t buy soda, although we had some guarana last week and it was awesome!

6. How big is your area? Our area is pretty big--I am still trying to get used to finding my way around. It used to be two areas--one of elders and the other of sisters. But, since we have less missionaries in our mission, a lot of areas have combined, so we have two area books, which is kind of crazy because there are so many names and forms! But, it is great--possibly more potential investigators :)

7. What is your normal mode of transportation? autocarros! (buses). Yeah, we are really good at missing our buses. But, what can you do?

Anyway, this week...Jose is getting baptized! I am so excited for him! We are working hard to prepare everything for that special day. We have been really blessed this week in trying to find new investigators. Right now we are teaching a couple named Gilberto and Natalia who are really interested and they ask really good questions. It is amazing to teach people with such desire to know the truth. We are also teaching another couple named Marcos and Marta who also had really good questions for us.

It is really great to speak Portuguese all the time because the other day I tried to speak English to our district leader, and it came out all weird--not that I can speak that great in Portuguese, but I guess that is a good sign that I am getting really immersed :)

Life is great--Portugal is still amazing and beautiful. We are working hard. I am learning tons! and trying to be better everyday. We have gotten to teach a lot of different things this week to recent converts, less actives, and new potential investigators. I am learning to teach amazing things like temples, family history, service in the church, apostasy, faith, word of wisdom, law of chastity, etc. Also, this week we watched the Restoration video with two of our investigators and it was awesome! Very good spirit. and I really enjoyed watching in Portuguese.

That is awesome that Jessie is going to serve a mission--I wish her the best. That is awesome that she will get to learn Spanish. It is good to hear that everything is good, but busy at home. Wow, that is a lot of cooking! I hope you didn't burn yourself out mom :) Oh, to have your own kitchen and cook amazing things...one day I will have one of those :) Thanks for sending messages from people, it is good to hear their comments. (oh and p.s. Abbey's last name is Carson).

Anyway, that is pretty much it for the week. We have zone conference tomorrow. I am excited to be able to go and feel the spirit with bunches of missionaries. We have 8 irmas in our zone! That is more than we have had in a long time...Anyway, thanks for everything family and friends. I love and miss you all. Fica bem.

Com amor a lua e volta
with love to the moon and back

irma perez