Desculpe!

OLA BOA TARDE!

 

Daqui fala irma McCrery. Como estas coisas consigo? I espero que todas coisas estao boas. I don't have a ton of time to write. We didn't really have a P-day today, we have interviews with the mission president instead. So we are late doing e-mail. I got some great e-mails this week! Just refueled me for the week. This is my last week with Irma Brinkerhoff, she gets on that big plane to go home in a week. It is strange to think that one day this mission just ends. But i have a long time before that happens. For now we work, and we work hard. We walk and talk people all day. Some days we have appointments to meet people and teach them about everything that God has ready for them, and every appointment falls through. Other days we have no appointments and just find people that are prepared to receive the message and recognize the truth and accept it with ease. All days are so different.

 

I received a letter today from Elder Alex Woods. It was incredible to hear from the guy. He is serving right next door in Spain and he is telling me about the things he hears about my mission and such. It is so crazy to imagine that we are doing the same thing right this moment. I love to imagine all of my friends just pounding the pavement trying to find those who are ready to hear.

 

OK whoa whoa whoa

email is over now. i love you. write me if you can. e-mail if you want. I will be at the same address for the next 6 weeks at least.

 

love irma MCCrery

 

 

And this from the lovely Claire Beaumont:

I received a tip on Lizzie's current coordinates and was asked to pass it along to you if you hadn't received it yet:

Irma McCrery
rua porto alegra

Nº2 5 RECT

2870-030 Oeiras

Portugal

 

Thanks, Claire! 

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

Ola!

Boa Tarde minha familia e amigos,

Thank you so much Bil and Stepper for your e-mails this week and last week. I only have an hour for e-mail and i don't know how to print. So I was self and just leisurely reading your e-mail and I have a little over 30 minutes to write.

SORRY ABOUT LAST WEEK! It was a crazy day. we went to the neighboring city for P-Day. I found out my companion has a history here in Portugal, and most specifically this city. Her dad was the mission president here about 10 years ago!!!! She lived in Cascais (neighboring city) for 3 years when she was 10. Nuts huh? anywho, really really really long story short, she taught one of her childhood friends and she was baptized last month in Cascais. So we went on P-day to have lunch at her friend´s house (well actually it is a grand estate, the kind with a pool and tennis and 3 course lunch, marble floors and 5 pristine dogs running around the huge yard filled with old trees and statues. It was neat, but we ran out of time to e-mail....lame.

Well life is always busy here, were always going going. But we see miracles everyday. When I really step outside of myself and stop thinking about me, I am able to see them. Isn´t that strange how it works? Sometimes as we walk these streets, I get so lost in thought because most of the time I still don't know what is going on. When I get lost in thought, I sometimes forget why I am here in Portugal. I am here because there are people that Heavenly Father has prepared and is continually preparing to receive the Gospel of Jesus Christ right now. We are hear to find those people that are prepared--whose hearts are open at this time, and sometimes don't even know it-- and teach them the simple truths of the Gospel, then we invite them to know for themselves. We invite all people to know for themselves that the knowledge we share is true, by praying and asking and when they feel it, when they really feel, they show their faith and are baptized. It is so simple, but when the conversion is real and people remember the truth that they knew before they came here, Its a beautiful thing.

We are teaching Chris from America. He really knows his stuff, but has questions like everyone, he just knows not where to find the answers. Heavenly Father has given the world the answers, isn't that great? Joseph Smith restored those truths, plain and simple.  So we are teaching Chris and I know that he has been prepared to receive the Gospel.

The miracles we see everyday are in the little things. Like when we don't know where to go and we decide to just go to an apartment building to knock, and we see Antonio (who we were teaching but he didn't want to quit smoking so he hadn't been meeting with us) We run into him and invite him to church, and he says yes I would like to go to church. So he came to church! We are just doing the best we can, and Heavenly father puts people in our path.

I can`t remember who said it, but a general authority probably Elder Holland said that not everyone is good for a mission, but a mission is good for everyone. Meaning that if someone comes out on a mission, and doesn't work and do their best, they may not be helping the work along very well. But no matter what, a mission is good for everyone because you learn things and grow and if you endure it well you will be blessed. I hope that I am good for this mission. Some days here it is a matter of getting through the day, trying to understand what people are saying and trying to figure out what I am supposed to be saying (whether in English or Portuguese). I know that as I try my hardest to be better everyday, Heavenly Father blesses me with a little more faith and a little more help. I know that a mission is good for me. I get choked up just writing about it. I honestly don't know what is going on 90% of the time, and it is frustrating and discouraging. But in that 10% of the time that I am really understanding my purpose and seeing the knowledge of the Gospel change people and change me, when I feel Heavenly Father´s love for me in subtle thoughts of encouragement, it becomes so clear. You know? I pray that as time goes on the moments of clarity will be more frequent and I can fulfill my purpose even more effectively.

Ok I wrote that I don't eat. Well now I have had a couple meals with the members here...let me tell you...It is sooooo good. Rice and Chicken, sounds simple but they do something good to it. So good. And the pastries, well my companion is kind of a health nut in real life I think. She is a twig but she eats soooo much food. She has gone her whole mission without really eating the doces (desserts) here but this is her last transfer. Which means she goes home in 4 weeks. So she said she will try one of everything before she goes. I have a feeling this will be rough month of self control for. hahahahah. Speaking of her going home in a month, you can imagine how talk of home might come up. She is really focused and doesn't want to think about home, but it happens, and then I think about home, and then we eat pastries. hahahaha.

The weather is wonderful! It really is beautiful, we have a ocean breeze always. It gets a little chilly at night. I will need sweaters in the winter.

Ok well this was a dinky e-mail. I love you all. To my brothers and their wives and kids- I LOVE YOU AND THINK OF YOU ALL THE TIME!

Thank you so much for everything! Pray for me and I´ll pray for you.

Love

Irma McCrery