By small and simple things

Bom Dia Energia!!!

Olá tudo mundo!! I hope everyone is doing well and is excited for conference this weekend! I am so excited! We will be watching it in our church building with everyone in the branch and we have a few investigators that want to come so it will be a great weekend!

I don't have a ton of time but I will get the big updates in!! This was a crazy but wonderful week!

First off, this week we had zone meeting and interviews with President Amorim! Zone conference was great as always and we focused a lot on working with the members which Sister Smyth and I have been trying to do a lot more!  After that we had interviews which was really great! President Amorim is probably one of the best men I have ever met and had a lot of great advice for me, which was really nice! I even got a nice little Portuguese lesson. We started off the interview with a prayer and I may or may not have made a few errors but tudo bem! Who better to learn Portuguese from than your Brazilian mission president? 

Other great thing: Bruna came to church this week! It was so wonderful! She really enjoyed it! All of the members were super great at welcoming her and she had a great experience. We had a lesson with her last week and will hopefully have one or two this week! I love teaching her and love seeing the gospel touch her heart. It makes me so happy! 

We also have two other investigators named Cristina and Domingos. Cristina is Columbian and speaks Spanish but she is so great! How we understand each other I have no idea but the gift of tongues is real! She really believes in the church and is planning on coming to conference this weekend! Domingos is her boyfriend and he is really incredible. He really wants to find the true church and has been praying to know. We left them a chapter in the Book of Mormon to read and are going back later this week and I am excited to see how it goes!! 

All in all everything is wonderful in Portugal! Sister Smyth and I will sometimes stop and just say "We are in Portugal!! Portugal!" and then talk about how incredible it is that we are on the other side of the world, speaking Portuguese, and talking with everyone about the gospel. This truly is an incredible work and I am so grateful to be a part of it! 

I thought a lot this week about how through small and simple things, great things come to pass. I think this very much applies to our and our eternal progress. As much as we want to one day wake up and suddenly be perfect, that isn't how it works. It takes small changes, every day. But through those small changes, every day, we can become more like our Savior. It requires a lot of patience, and we won't even realize we are changing, but the more we try to be like Him, the more we will become like Him and the better we will know Him. 

Have a great week everyone! Enjoy conference! Love you all! 

Com amor,

Sister Morey

Bom Dia Energia!!!

Olá My Wonderful Family and Friends!! 

I hope you are all having a lovely week! This week was transfers and....you'd better believe that Smyth and Morey are sticking around for another transfer in Guimarães! We were both very pleased to see that and the transfer has gone off to a great start! In fact, this has been the best week of the mission so far! Want to know why? It has absolutely everything to do with Bruna. We knocked on her door a few weeks ago and ended up teaching a quick lesson about Heavenly Father and our relationship with Him. We left the Restoration pamphlet with her and went back this past Tuesday. Well it was absolutely incredible! We taught the Restoration and were inviting her to pray about it and she stopped us and said "What is this feeling in my heart? It is beating so quickly! I felt it last time you were here and every time I looked at the pamphlet!" As you can imagine Sister Smyth and I were just beaming as we told her that this was the Holy Ghost helping her know that the gospel is true. We went back again on Friday and when we asked if she had prayed she said "I know this church is true, I feel it in my heart!" And (it gets even better) She agreed to be baptized!!!! Oh it was absolutely incredible! I am so so excited for her! The Lord truly does prepare people to recieve the gospel and seeing the Holy Ghost touch their heart is a truly incredible experience. 

Our other investigators are doing well! We are teaching a family and their oldest son Ricardo (he's 16) has come to church twice and told us yesterday after church (without us even bringing it up) that he wants to be baptized! We are very excited for him and are trying to help his entire family come to church so that they can feel the same Spirit and excitement about the church that Ricardo feels. 

Other updates: 

A few weeks ago we had Mission Conference with Elder Zwick! It was such a great experience! It was so fun to get to see all of the missionaries, President and Sister Amorim, and see Elder Zwick again! (He spoke to my zone the second day at the MTC) It was a great reminder to me of the privilege it is to be serving a mission and the power that missionaries have. 

Another fun update: two weeks ago the elders had a baptism and asked us to make cookies for it (twist my arm to make cookies!) and all of the memebers loved them and are asking for the recipe. So don't worry, just because I am on a mission doesn't mean I have given up my love for baking :) 

Also, every third Sunday in our branch is "Missionary Sunday" and they have a few of the missionaries give talks. So who do you think gave a talk yesterday? That's right! Your's truly! I talked about prayer and how prayer is our opportunity to have a personal relationship with Heavenly Father. It went really well and overall it was one of my favorite sacrament meetings so far! 

Final update: Becaue I know you all want to know how the Portuguese is coming I will tell you my conversation with our investigator Lurdes at the ward picnic last week. Please note this conversation was in Portuguese.

Me: I love your shoes!

Lurdes: What?

Me: Your shoes! They're pretty!

Lurdes: Irmã, speak Portuguese to me. 

Me: .........

Lost in translation every day!!! 

I love you all and hope you are all having a great week! Thank you for all of you love and support! The church is true! I am so grateful to be serving here and so grateful for my opportunity to share the gospel!

Com amor, 

Sister Morey

Lord, to whom shall we go?

Well fam, this week was CRAZY!!! We had two divisions back to back!! Sister Smyth is Sister Training Leader and President decided this transfer that he wants the training leaders to do divisions with every companionship in the zone every transfer. So this week we had two! On Wednesday I went to Matosinhos with Sister Gouveia which was a lot of fun! Thenon Thursday, Sister Bastes was with me in Guimarães! That was an interesting day because both Sister Bastes and I are in our first transfer so we are both pretty new but thankfully she speaks Portuguese! We had a great time together! It was kind of scary being the one to get us to appointments and activities but thankfully I only got us lost once! Haha It was an insane two days! Both Sister Gouveia and Sister Bastes are from Brazil and neither of them speak any English which was quite an adventure. I was so nervous before hand but I was surprised at how much I knew! At the same time I realized just how much I need to learn. But that's okay! It was a great motivator for me to work hard at the language and learn all of the lessons in Portuguese. But I will say I was thrilled to be back with Sister Smyth! After divisions were over we just looked at each other and grinned and said "Backstreet is BACK!!!!" and had a great rest of the week together. We made cookies for some members (You know that made me happy!), practiced our musical number for the Mission Tour this week, and met some great people! 

Speaking of the Mission Tour, tomorrow Elder Zwick is coming for a mission conference! We are so excited! He actually came and spoke to my zone the first day in the MTC and was amazing so I am very excited to hear him speak again! Granted, he served in Brazil which means the conference will be in Portuguese, but tudo bem! It will be a blast Our district is singing "If the Savior Stood Beside Me" and we are hoping it goes well!

This week we had a lesson with a recent convert who was struggling with some doubts about prophets and other church doctrines. While we were teaching, I remembered one of my favorite scriptures in John 6:66-69. It talks about how Christ's disciples begin turning away from Him and so Christ asks His apostles "Will ye also go away?" And I love Peter's response. He says "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life." I love that so much! We all have doubts, we all have questions, but that doesn't mean we stop following the Savior because He has the words of eternal life. The gospel is a gospel of joy and a gospel of peace. It isn't easy to live, but it is worth every effort. There will be times we feel our testimonies are fragile and we are weak, but if we rely on the Savior, everything will work out. Our testimonies will be strengthened, and our faith in the gospel will grow. Every promise God has made will be fulfilled and we will be happier than we can possibly imagine. So ask your questions! But when you do, remember to continue to rely on Christ. Read the scriptures, pray, go to church, and in time we will find the answers to our questions. 

I love you all! Have a wondeful week! 

Com amor,

Sister Morey

Pictures:

Sister Smyth and I adventuring in the forest

A Portuguese parade yesterday!! 

One Month in Portugal!

Helloooooooo Everyone!!!

What a great week this has been! I can't believe I have been here a whole month! Time is so funny here. The days are so slow but then you look back and a whole month has flown by! 

But let's talk about the past few weeks! I didn't do a great job of updating y'all last week so here we go!

 One thing I forgot to mention last week was that Sister Smyth and I got to stop by FSY which is EFY in Portugal! They held it here at the college in Guimarães and it was a BLAST! They called us because there were a few workers helping with FSY that weren't members and so we came and talked to them about the church and gave them a Book of Mormon. After that we went in and chatted with all of the people running FSY and helped them cut up fruit and had a great time!

Miracle last week! Okay it was the end of a long day and we were knocking some apartment buildings. Sister Smyth and I were both exhausted but we were chugging along and then we knocked on a door and Consuela opened it. It turns out she is a less active! We talked to her and she was telling us about how her husband is Catholic and none of her kids have been baptized. Then she started to cry a little bit and told us that she had been praying recently for more light in her life and had started to think Heavenly Father wasn't answering, but she knew that we were the answer. It was such an incredible experience! You never know where the Lord is leading you! We haven't taught her family yet because they've been busy but this week hopefully! 

Yesterday was a great Sunday because two of our investigators came to church! Ricardo is 16 and we have been teaching his whole family but only he wanted to come. And he loved it! He is so excited about the church! We are teaching his whole family again this week and hope they all come next Sunday! The other investigator is Larinda and she is the mom of a recent convert. She has come to church so many times and really loves it. She lives far away so it is hard to teach her but we are figuring it out! 

Other updates: I saw Harry Potter and the Cursed Child at the store and Sister Smyth and I had a little nerd moment about it.Other fun things:

1. The local pasteleria has 3 pastries for 1 euro every day at 7....let's just say Sister Smyth and I have had to make serious health goals...

2. The other day as we were walking a lady called out to us and said "Hello my fellow Americans!!!!!" Her name was Joy and she is from Indiana and is the funniest lady ever! She has lived here for 6 years and so she always recognizes the missionaries and likes to chat with them. She was talking about how hard Portuguese is and told me to embrace my inner yoda to learn the sentence structure. It was a blast to talk to her and we hope we find her again!

3. Sister Smyth is a fantastic singer and basically knows every musical out there. Including....Fiddler on the Roof. We have had a great time singing that together as we walk home :)

Alright that is enough updates for now! I hope you all are having a great week! My scripture for you this week is John 16:33. I love this scripture! We don't need to fear because Christ has overcome the world and through Him, all things are possible. I can learn Portuguese and find people ready to recieve the gospel, and you can do the things that are hard for you too! 

Com amor,

Sister Morey

When the going gets rough you know what you gotta do? Just keep swimming!

Olá Everyone! Tudo Bem?

What a crazy few weeks these have been! But they have been such great weeks! I love it here and am so happy to be serving here! Things are settled down and I have gotten into a rhythm which has helped a lot! And the Portuguese is coming along! As much as I want to wake up one day and just understand what everyone is saying, I know that it will come a little bit at a time. But I am able to understand a little more every day and that is all that matters. Yesterday I bore my testimony again in sacrament meeting and let me tell you, I wanted to die realizing I was going to have to go up there again, but it turned out better than I expected! My brain was working so fast trying to put the conjugations together but I think everything worked out! :) 

We got to go to Porto twice this week! Once because Sister Smyth had leadership council so I got to go on a division with some other sisters (Including my favorite Sister Hulsey!), and the second time for our zone meeting. It was so fun getting to meet all of the other missionaries! And for our meeting our president included some clips from Apollo 13 so we got to have a little movie party which we were all very excited about!

I'm sorry I don't have a lot of time, but I will have a better update and pictures next week. But to follow up with the title of the e-mail, over the past few weeks I have realized that we all have hard times. All of us! There will always be hard moments. But we choose what we do with those hard times. We choose whether we let those moments make us miserable or if we will embrace them, learn from them, and keep moving forward! Life is hard, but there are so many things that make it worth it. So keep swimming! Keep looking for the good! Look for the little blessings and miracles in every day. Because they are there. This life is a life for us to learn and to grow, but God wants us to enjoy this life! He is there, constantly strengthening us and showing us His love, we just have to look for it. 

I love you all so very much! Have a wonderful week!

Com muito amor,

Sister Morey

Once Upon a Time in Portugal!

Oh my goodness guess what!! I am in Portugal!!!!!!!

I can't even begin to describe what a week this has been! From traveling for 24 plus hours, getting to Portugal, meeting my mission president, President Amorim, getting my trainer (Sister Smyth), coming to my area, Guimarães, and then finishing off the week has been quite the ride! But I'll do my best to update you!

1. I know you all want to know about the language and I think the best way I can sum it up for you is with a quote from The Best Two Years. You know when Elder Calhoun first talks to someone in Holland and just stares at them blank faced and then turns around and says "That isn't the language I learned in the MTC." Well folks, that has been the past week of my life! I'll be honest, it's definitely tough not being able to understand people because I have no idea what to say back to them! But baby steps! I know I'll get there! I did share my testimony in sacrament meeting this week which was terrifying but I was really glad I did. I figured that the best way for me to show the Lord and my branch my willingness to learn was by opening my mouth and sharing my testimony. A lot of people came up to me and said that I spoke well (at least I think that is what they said...) Just know that I smile a lot and look to Sister Smyth a lot for help :) 

2. Speaking of Sister Smyth, she is AMAZING!! She is from California and has been out here a year! She is so nice and cheers me on every day. After the lessons when I am slightly skeptical of how I spoke, she always says "You are doing so well! I feel the Spirit every time you speak!" I am so grateful for her! She makes me laugh and is so fun to talk to. I have been very blessed to have her as a trainer. We work hard every day and are doing our best to find people and families ready to be baptized. Speaing of which...yesterday we had quite the miracle! Our mission goal is to have 12 lessons a week and we had 11 yesterday. So we prayed and prayed that as we went out that we would find one person to teach by the time we had to turn our numbers in at 5. So we went out and started knocking doors. And....nothing. It was 4:45 and we hadn't found anyone! But then as we were walking up the hill I heard something, turned around, and there was a lady outside her house. Well it turns out she is the nicest lady in the world! We talked to her for about 15 minutes and then she said we could come back again! Miracles happen ladies and gentlemen. 

3. Finally, Guimarães is the most beautiful place I have seen! I honestly feel like I am walking around in a movie! It is one of the oldest cities in Portugal. There is a castle, cobblestone streets, alleyways with laundry hanging down, everything! It is so beautiful! Every day I just think "I am in the most beautiful place in the world!" Also, right now there are festivals going on so there are parades and bands and all kinds of great things!

Alright I have to run, but know that I love you all so much and that we can all do hard things as we rely on the Lord!

Com muito amor,

Sister Morey

T-minus 6 days until PORTUGAL!!

Hello hello!

Another week has just flown by! And now I have one more week before I hop on a plane and go to Portugal! I can't even believe it! I am so excited! 

Okay I am short on time but I'll give some quick updates 

1. Best moment of the week was getting flight plans! We leave the MTC at 3:50 am on Monday morning ( who really needs sleep anyways?) The best part of the flight plans (besides going to Portugal of course) is that one of our stops is in Frankfurt, Germany! And here I was thinking I wasn't going to Germany on my mission! Yes, it is only the airport, but it counts. 

2. We had skype TRC this week where we talk to members in our missions! We talked to an RM from Lisbon and it was so cool! He was really nice and told us about the history of Portugal, helped correct our Portuguese, and told us a little bit about Porto. It made me so excited to go! 

3. We had another really great lesson with one of our investigators this week! We found the video "Because of Him" in Portuguese (Gracas a Ele) and showed that in our lesson and then talked about the Atonement. It was such a powerful moment for all of us and once again, Sister Hulsey and I walked out of the lesson beaming. 

Other than that everything is great! I tried playing basketball this week and remembered why I play tennis and Sister Hulsey and I forget our cell phone on the daily much to the dismay of the front desk (we are supposed to have it all the time in case the MTC needs to get a hold of a sister in our zone) But I am as happy as can be!  I am so excited for this week but am also so sad this is the last one! I will miss it here so much.

I love you all! Have a wonderful week! Continuar para frente! A Igreja e verdadiera!

Love,

Sister Morey