Hello?

Is anyone out there? 

 

It´s me, Irma McCrery. I´m in Portugal. I only heard from Claire in a quick e-mail this week, no one else. Hope all is well!!!! Maybe you are trying not to bombard me with e-mails... but feel free! Hahaha

It is really a strange thing that happens every time I come to write an email, I can´t think of anything that happened this week because when I try to remember my brain explodes because so much happens everyday. I can´t believe that I have been here 3 weeks, it seems like a long time and a short time all at once. Since this is my companion´s last transfer, she talks like she has been here for 25 years and has seen it all. I have been here three weeks and I feel like I have 25 years ahead of me hahahaa. But seriously things are really great right now. We are in a bit of a hard place because every single person that we were teaching has dropped us. So that's not good. But we are trying to find more people that are ready to receive the gospel and willing to change their lives to receive the blessings.

 

This week we had one day specifically that was filled with miracles.  It started out rocky (to say the least). While we are in our house we wear slippers or flip flops to keep the floor clean and our feet clean, the first week here I bought a pair of knock off bright yellow crocs that I thought would do the trick. So this particular morning as we are getting ready to leave after studies, we knelt to pray and we had about 5 minutes til our bus would come, so we prayed sincerely, but quickly and ran out of the apartment, down the elevator, out the door and across the street. We had an appointment in our chapel with someone that we were really excited to teach and did not want to be late. So my companion is ahead of me and we see the bus coming around the corner, what a relief--we almost would have missed it. As I am about to cross the street to get the bus my companion yells ´´IRMA, YOUR SHOES!!!!!!´´ I look down only to realize that I was sporting my bright yellow crocs with my missionary outfit in the middle of the street. It was terrible. So I immediately turned around and ran back to the apartment, and my companion had to wave the bus on... needless to say, we missed our bus, had to walk and were 15 minutes late. By the time we got the chapel our appointment was not there and his phone seemed to be off or not working. It was a bad start to the day. But somehow as we continued on during the day things kept on moving we went along our way and worked hard. We had lots of people to see and teach, we didnºt know how we would see them all or if they would all answer their phones and doors. Heavenly Father blessed us with miracle after miracle. We ran all over Oeiras trying to get to these people, but when one wasn´t home, we would find someone else who wanted to hear in that apartment building. Every little thing fell into place. By the end of day, we had somehow seen every person on our list that we needed to see. None of them were where we thought they would be, but we found Claudio at an ATM as we walked by, and Custorio was just getting out of his car as we got to his apartment building, and on our way to Miguel´s (who didn't answer his phone) we ran into him walking in the most obscure ally we could have chosen to walk down, as we walked to Giovane´s house for the second time, we ran into Marcio and as we talked to Marcio, who comes around the corner of that street, but Giovane (the one who was not at the chapel in the morning, turns out we had his wrong phone number and that he wasn´t able to go to the chapel). We ran into every single person we wanted to see. It was really something else. I don´t think I described it very well because I can´t put it into words, but it was a tender mercy.

 

Another tender mercy...

 

We had a zone meeting this week, we had to go into Lisbon and up north on the metro to get there. It was fun. I love the metro system here it is a well oiled machine. And as we are walking through the underground station I hear Sigur Ros over the loud speakers. It was Glossoli. It was epic. I gasped, stood there for a moment and then kept on going. It was neat.

 

Brian´s birthday is soon, COOL! Happy birthday Brian. And Brian and Amy are going to your house this week, bil and stepper! That will be really fun! You should have milkshakes.

 

There is a fair thing that we are going to on Saturday. It is being put on by the ``American Association of Portugal`` It is a fourth of July celebration, and the woman putting it on is LDS, and asked our mission president if missionaries could come to help and to be around to talk to people. So my companion and I will be at this all American, pie eating contest, games, food, and fun galore fair. hhahaahhaha. As missionaries, it will be strange to say the least. My companion is a little weary, she is no longer accustom to American things or people. I think it will be great! I feel like I was just there! hahah.

 

The Portuguese people are blunt. did I mention that? They tell it like it really is. Or how they think it should be. It´s charming, mostly because I don't know whats going on. When I have a feeling that something not nice was said, I ask my companion, she tells me what they said and I just learn to roll with the punches. It´s good for me.

 

I hope all is well with everyone. I miss you all a lot. I will try to write letters today! But feel free to email me! I love you.

 

The Gospel is so so so true, it is the only reason I am still out here. People have got to know, you know?

 

Irma McCrery