Vila Real: Week 3

Her companion, Sister Silva

Their closet! Ha!

Their chapel in Vila Real

So I have some good news! For everyone but dad... I got a new camera so don't you fret! I only have taken one picture with me in it so sorry mom I just like the scenery way better and we're only allowed to take pictures on P Day because they don't want us looking like tourists. Anyway. I'm broke as a joke now! But I love my camera. It's my new baby. Now a little bit of bad news. I burned a huge hole in my favorite skirt while I was ironing. Hahaha I am going to make a horrible wife huh? But so I am down yet another skirt and found out that 2 more this week don't work while you're walking. Seriously I don't even want to count how many times people saw my underwear this week. My long ones are way too hot to wear so I basiclally am down to like 2 skirts that I can wear. Seriously if you want to go to DI and buy me like 1 dollar skirts I'd be so happy. Kelsey go with mom so she doesn't pick out something too scary but anything would be SO MUCH appreciated. And don't forget to put Mother Mary stickers on the box so no one will open it!! 

I decided I should probably not even tell you my food stories because I have so many every week that they're not even funny. For real though. People eat the grossest food. When I come home we're going to Zupas. I wish you could mail some to me. But we ate with an older couple this week. Seriously the lady is grandma Curry's twin. I already told grandma that but she dresses the same, looks the same, and acts the same. It's so crazy! She told us since we don't have our moms here she is our mom. Cute huh? It was sister Mile's birthday that day and she made a huge cake with like pink diamonds all over it hahaha. People here are really nice! They will feed you everything they have in their kitchen. Grandma Curry's twin made us some juice and all she used was lettuce and water and some lemon... mmmm? 

I am developing a lovely tan line where my watch and my shoes are. Super awesome. The language is getting a little better every day. I am getting to the point where I can answer yes or no questions so that's pretty good progress right? Hahah. Oh man Ryan those pictures you sent me. I don't even believe you that those are my nephews. Lincoln is HUGE. You had to have done a baby switch for that picture. Thanks for sending those though I love seeing what everyone is doing! I expect more next week :)  Kelsey is soaking up the sun in Mexico right now then? She emailed me this morning and said they had 2 huge vans full of kids going? That's awesome! I can't believe her class ruined Senior Sunrise for Cedar High!  Haha my class started that and her class ends it. Typical. Those punks! 

I'm really sad to hear about Brother Lyndaker. He was an awesome awesome guy and I can't even believe that! I hope Francine is doing okay. Gosh give her a hug from me! 

Well.... this week we marked 5 people for baptism. We're not sure if any of them will work out but we are REALLY hoping. That's a huge number here. One of them we know for sure will, she just has to be married first and they have a date set for June 15th. It's crazy here in Portugal its really rare to find people who are married. They live together their entire lives and have a bunch of kids they just don't do the legal part! Haha but yeah that will be awesome. And then we have 2 kids that we have to get permission from their parents. Their parents are Catholic and wouldn't let the grandma get baptized so we're worried they won't let the kids either. But we will find out tomorrow! Our last 2 are a really awesome couple. Sometimes I don't think they understand what we're talking about because they said they'd go to church with us yesterday and they went to a random church they saw down the street. Haha they'll get it. 

We still haven't gotten our mail. I don't think we will for another 2 or 3 weeks but I'm really excited for it! Thanks for those who wrote me. Oh man I have forgotten to say this for a month now! Kristan you know how when you were in the MTC Pres. Uchtdorf spoke to you? Well we watched that talk while we were in the MTC too! Just the video of it but I could tell it was the same because it was like right before President Hinckley passed away around the end of the year and he gave them an apostolic blessing at the end! So right when you were in the MTC. I can't remember exactly what his topic was but I remember him talking about his wife's conversion. I have been so excited to tell you and forget every time! Anyway yeahhhh.

Oh. Some more bad news. One of the kids in my MTC district had to go home this week because he hurt his hip. It's so sad because he was like so pumped to be here. I hope he will be able to go serve someone else because he said he won't be able to come back to Portugal. I would be really sad if I worked so hard on this language and got a taste of the culture and then had to leave! 

Oh now some funny news. The circus was in town this week and one of the lions escaped! Hahaha oh man we were next to the circus all day long going to different appointments and I wanted to see it so badly! We turned a corner and there was a huge white fluffy dog and I thought it was the lion. It was super embarrassing but oh well. Yeah I don't know how you can let a lion escape though... Hahaha still kills me. 

I don't really have any more news from this week. Just know that I think about you all every single day! 

Well I just thought of something a guy said in a talk at the MTC. Every single day someone in their family writes in a little book a blessing that happened that day. They just call it their blessing book. Even when it's been a terrible day there's always something good to get out of it. I decided I'm going to try it so I want you all to too okay? It will be neat to see how good life really is. Hope it helps some of you having a hard time. I'll talk to you next week! Thanks for the love and prayers!

Sister Carroll