Happy Spring!

Cascais, Portugal

Dear familia e amigos,

Happy Spring ;) I hope that everyone is well. And a special shout-out to Alex: Happy Birthday this week. I can't believe it is already half-way through April practically! What happened since Christmas? I mean, really? I guess this means school is almost over for the semester--good luck with absolutely everything and I hope you and Maggie are healthy and happy.

This week is transfers. We still don't know what is going on. Irma Nkutxi said she wanted to stay in Oeiras for one more transfer for the first five weeks of the transfer (she already has three transfers here), and this past week she has been getting a little trunky and wants a change. Therefore, she has already packed her bags and she is sure that she is getting transferred. She is really hilarious. I am just glad that I won't have to break the news to her if she has to stay here :)

Although, last night we had a fireside with our mission president in our chapel and he told us that we should get our things together because he is thinking of whitewashing the area! I couldn't believe it! I might get transferred. He wasn´t sure, so we are still waiting for a phone call from President to tell us what is going on...

Anyway, to answer your questions about prep days:
We can sleep on prep days, but I have only had time once.
We have to stay in our areas on prep day unless it is the first prep day of the month and then we can go anywhere in our zone. They used to be able to go anywhere in the mission on prep days, but missionaries got into trouble, didn't get back to work on time, etc. Basically anything that could have happened happened. So, we have stricter rules now. (Hence why last week was really awesome P-day because we went to Cascais and shopped and walked along the beach and had a great time with Irma Coelho and Irma Morrison. It was the best!)

On Prep days we normally do email, buy food, clean our house, do our laundry, write letters, visit places, etc. Oeiras is an area of mostly houses, so there is not that many places to visit because it is not very touristic, but Summer would love the shopping! Seriously, European fashion is fun. I just have to keep remembering that I am a missionary and I have to fit all my stuff into two suitcases.
Doing laundry is interesting...we have a washer in our house but no dryer and since it is so humid here it takes about three days for everything to dry out. So, you have to plan out what you are going to wear if something is washed, but that's life :)

The work is amazing as always. I am learning more Portuguese everyday. Basically, I am really lucky to have such a funny companion. She is learning more English and her accent is hilarious. She usually only speaks English when she is mad and she doesn't want anyone around us to understand what she is saying, so she usually says, "Irma, What the HECK? I'm so mad--you don't even know! I can't even believe this person!" I usually burst out laughing and try to respond back in Portuguese to calm her down. But, she is way funny. Right now she is waiting for the call from President that will hopefully tell her she is transferred and she is speaking her frustrations in English :)

Also, I love our district. It is just me and Irma Nkutxi with Elder Blair and Elder Bretzing who work in Cascais. They are really fun, but we only see them once a week at district meetings. Irma Morrison and Coelho are not in our district, but they are in our zone. Everyone who works in our zone is in the stake of Oeiras. Since we work at the stake center, everyone travels to here for stake activities, etc. So, everyone came here for General Conference since the branches were not showing the sessions. So, it is fun to see Irma Morrison so much.

Anyway, I think that is all for this week. I love you all so much. Keep going strong :)

Irma Perez