Tuesday, July 26, 2011

tear drops on the keyboard...

To all:
 
Ok did you like my emotional subject line? Well as you could probably have guessed at this point, my email account is still locked, and I have never had such a let down coming to the computer ready to hear from my family, dying to hear whats going on because it´s been two weeks...and its locked. Did you get my email from last week? Can you re-send your email from last week, today and from now on to this email address too (lizzie.mccrery@gmail.com), just in case? OK well I just quickly chatted with eric taylor and told him to call you so that this probelm could be fixed. That was a desparate move.
 
Ok but let me get the news from these parts. Basically its like this....
 
I live in Coimbra, Portugal. I live on the other side of the city than the University. But I can practically smell Harry Potter from here. The University is actually in the Elder´s area which means I don´t get to see it everyday.
 
I love this city. It was like coming home when I pulled in last monday. The sky was overcast and the city is tucked in rolling hills of greenery, but full of tall apartment buildings. It is so famiiar here but at the same time completely different and unique. It turns out that I didn´t end up taking the train to Hogwarts, but the bus. A little less epic. But I will say that I have had the Harry Potter theme song stuck in my head everyday without fail. It is so diverse here. There are parts of the city that are 800 yers old, mixed with buildings from the 70´s and then totally modern architecture around the corner. The weather is nice, breezy. We don´t live too far from the grocery store and barely 5 minutes from the chapel! Ok do you have a vision of where I am living now? There is a river that borders one side of the city. Ok now you know.
 
This Saturday a guy nmed Delcides was baptized! He is awesome. 22 years old and from Brazil he is studying at the university. He was seriously prepared for the Gospel, by the time I got here we just had to teach a few more things before his baptism. But basically it was such a blessing to be here for his baptism, also he is already starting to prepare for his mission. He is so excited to serve a mission. He will start teaching lessons with us and the elders.
 
Also.... HAPPY BIRTHDAY CLINTON!
 
The ward here is really very small, about 42 people attend each week, is what they are telling me. But lots of people are gone on vacation right now, so there were not very many people this sunday. But let me tell you about the Bishop here....
 
Bishop Pitarma and his wife Irmã Ana. From the fist 10 minutes of being in bishop´s home, I felt 100% at home. Do you know why? because Bishop Pitarma and Ana are Bil and Stepper´s Portuguese-personality-twins! It was like walking into Bil and steppers house. Bishop is 31 and Ana has got to be like 26. They have two sons Guilherme is 2 years old and will turn 3 in a few months (aka Portugese-twin for Wyatt) But seriously, even the way that Guilherme look s reminds me of Wy Guy. And then, the baby Salvador is probably like 1 year more or less. Basically, if Bil and Stepper were Portuguese, this would be their life. I will have to take a picture with them. Bishop Pitarma is awesome. He got back from his mission like 3 years ago. So misionary work is a priority in this ward, HOW REFRESHING! Irmã De Sousa (my comp) says that he´s got our back, that he will always defend us if there are problems in the ward. Right on. Talk about tender mercy from the Lord, after my refiner´s fire experience from my last area.
 
Ok also I just found out that Eric Talyor is getting married on wednesday. Cool!
 
Did you get my address from last week?
 
Irmã McCrery
Escadas Praceta Pedro Alvares
Nº5 1ºC
3030 Coimbra
 
We live super close to the mail office, so any packages sent here will be super easy for me to pick up...wink wink nudge nudge.
 
Also one more fun fact. Supposedly there is a place here that is like a little park filled with miniature versions of buildings and monuments in portugal. I´m dying to go there. They will be novetly size. Novelty size Portugal. What more could I ask for?
 
Peanut BUtter. Thats somethign I could ask for. Apparently northern Portugal has never even heard of skippy.
 
Also, the work is going great so far. Lots of changes with my new comp who has been playing by a different rule book with a different mission president.... but forward ever forward, we will whip this area into shape!
 
I actually really love being  a missionary. I love the work. Have I told you that lately? I do. I can feel it slipping through my fingers and I don´t want to miss a moment. Next week maybe I will go a bit deeper and talk about more than the weather and Harry Potter.
 
Please don´t forget to send me the emails from last week and this week to this email.
 
I love you all!

Monday, July 18, 2011

2 Letters...

EMAIL NOT WORKING!!!

My LDS mail is not working! I´m so frustrated! I have such exciting news, but now I´m breaking the rules to write and I can´t even read the emails that you guys sent me this week!

But get this...... I´m going to COIMBRA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!

That is the northern part of Portugal, a part that I never would have served in if the missions hadn´t combined a couple weeks ago!!! This place has the university Coimbra which JK Rowling based Hogwarts off of.... so basically today I ´m getting on the train to Hogwarts and I will probably stay there for the rest of my mission!! Cool! Ok let me try my LDS mail account again. I don´t know what happened.

ate ja!
 
University of Coimbra, Coimbra Portugal. Very Hogwarts-like!
 
 
One of the libraries at University.


Is this reminding anyone else of the Great Hall in Hogwarts?
 
 
 
OK, I'm Back and Bitter

Dear Stepper and gang,

So basically I just wasted 15 precious Internet minutes trying to figure out why ldsmail won´t let me sign in. But I just have a feeling that I have some gem emails waiting for me there, but like I already told Stepper I have big news! I´m going to Coimbra! In the northern part of Portugal. It will be such a treat. I´m going to serve with a Brazilian Irma. It should be good. She has been in the mission for the same amount of time as Irma Lima (my old comp rom cabo verde) they came to the mission at the same time. So she is a younger irma in the mission. I´m so excited. I also found out that my dear old friend irmã De Almeida (my favorite Portuguese companion) will being going out the Azores for her last two transfers...It will be incredible to meet back up with her at the end of our missions, and talk about our experiences!

This last week in quinta do Conde was awesome. We were reminded that there are no weak areas in a mission, only weak missionaries. I had been a bit weak these past few weeks or so. A little bit burnt out of being in the same area for so long, and over all just a downer. My poor comp irma thayer got me on the tail end of a rocky road. But after these few weeks with irma thayer, I have grown to love her. As we really got to work, and stepped up our game, we started to see miracles together. This past week we found some people that I won´t ever forget. One of them is Eliseu (translated is Elijah, like the Prophet). On Thursday as we were getting ready to leave we prayed to know where we should go to find those who are prepared to hear the Gospel. After our prayer irmã Thayer said that she felt like we should go to a certain road right on the outskirts of Quinta do Conde, as we trekked our there, I felt a comforting feeling of faith that we would truly find someone up on that road that was waiting for us. As we knocked that street either people weren´t home or couldn´t care less. but we kept going until the end, when we reached the end we got the the cross street and saw a house that looked abandoned and didn´t think much of it, we turned the corner and kept going, but as we round the side of this ´´abandoned´´ house we saw towels drying on the clothes line and realized that the house in fact was not abandoned. So we turned around to find the front door and saw a man with a hard hat digging around the side of the house. We politely called his attention........ TO BE CONTINUED... our ride just got here.... see you at Hogwarts....



address:
Escadas praceta pedro alveres cabral Nº5 1ºC
3030 Coimbra
Portugal

Monday, July 4, 2011

Hello!

Big changes here in my neck of the woods.
 
This last week was a week of twists. Tuesday afternoon we received a phone call from the mission presidente´s wife informing us that Imra Perkins needed to pack her bags because she would be leaving to go to Setubal to serve with Irma De Almeida and Irma thayre would be coming to serve with me in quinta do conde. SHOCKER! We are in the middle of a transfer, did i mention that? we don´t move in the middle of transfers. But the reason it happened is because there were two irma´s whose time it was to go home, and it just happens to fall in the middle of the transfers, so they were going home last week and instead of giving us warning, they called the day before and gave us a good ole surprise.
 
Needless to say...I was devastated. Irma Perkins has become one of my best friends. So I got off the phone with Irma torgan and told Irma perkins. We were in shock for the rest of the day. But we know that Heavenly Father has purposes in everything He does and that there is a reason we were split and moved around. I hope Irma Perkins is doing great. I´m sure she is. She is serving with my other favorite companion of my mission, so basically it will be a real treat.
 
My new comp is Irma Thayer. We´re getting along well!
 
We´ve had a rough couple weeks here in the area. But I know that these are the moments that the Lords shapes us and molds us to be who He needs us to be.
 
So we have been teaching our favorite Brazilian family with Barbara and Josefina, When Irma Perkins had to say goodbye, our dear little Josefina (88 years old and still sharp as a tack) started to get teary eyed and told us how much she appreciated this time learning of the Gospel and having us in her home and she one the most tender things, as she described our travelling missionary lifestyle she said that when we leave we.. ´´deixa saudade onde passa´´, doesn´t translate as profoundly, but basically it means that as we missionaries pass through these homes and towns we leave a feeling of missing when we leave, there is an impression made where we pass through. It meant a lot. She is so ready for the Gospel, she just has to get past little hang ups. I wish you could all meet this woman. She is really something else. She is an incredible example of Christlike love and integrity. I will have to take a picture next time we are over there to show you how short she is. She has got to be like 4 feet tall or something.
 
Today we will be going to a place called Cristo Rei. It´s that giant statue of Jesus that sits looking out across the river from Lisboa. Neat.
 
I sure do miss you all. I hope all is well back there. More next week!
 
Lizzie