O Salvador Vive!! (The Savior lives!)

Watching Sunday Afternoon Session of General Conference
(at 9pm in Portugal) Everyone else could watch it at home :-)

A package from Brooke!

Friday night pizza (delivered through the window!)

At night, after planning, in PJs,  enjoying Portuguese soup from a member

Ola minha família!! 

Conference was so amazing!!! I got to watch all of the sessions.  It was seriously amazing! I am so glad that you guys got to go! We are so blessed to be guided by prophets and apostles! And just a side note, Elder Teixara, he is form Portugal and he is so awesome! It was cool to see him speak. He was the Elder who talked a lot about technology and said,´´Life is not confined to a 4 inch screen.´´

This week was amazing!! On Thursday, we were contacting some people and I stopped this one man. We talked with him and he said when he was younger he went to our church a couple of times. We invited him to watch "Because He lives" and we went on our way. He didn't give us his contact information because he said he will be moving to France to work soon.  I felt kind of strange though. We felt like we needed to talk to him again and leave a restoration pamphlet with him. Well, he was walking in front of us and so we chased him down. Haha We started talking again and we said a pray with him right there and after the prayer he said, you guys should know that I am a member. I was a deacon after I got baptized but a few years later my mom got a job and we stopped going to church. We got his contact information and left a Book of Mormon with him and tears welled up in his eyes. He said he is going to be really alone in France, away from his family, and he knows the Book of Mormon will help him. He came to General Conference and we have an appointment with him and his family tonight. :) Do we take for granted the power of The Book of Mormon?

This past 2 months as a mission we have been studying about the last week of Christ's life.  We ended yesterday. I love my Savior. He is so real to me now. I love him and I miss him. I was pretty sad on Thursday as I ended my studies with his death. It really affected me. And I read something interesting in Jesus The Christ. John explained that a solider stabbed Christ after His death to make sure he was dead and that blood and water came out of the wound. (Sorry, why I am explaining this will make more sense soon).  Well, I remember learning about this in college, but in rare cases people have died of Cardiac rupture, or in other words, a broken heart. This is caused by intense grief, pain, and sorrow. It is true that it was Christ's choice to ´´give up the ghost´´ but when I think of it and a doctor said it in Jesus The Christ, that he believes that Christ died of a broken heart. I just cried when I read that. He was completely alone. When I cried out to The Father, ´´My god my god why hast thou forsaken me.´´ I finally realized then that Our loving Heavenly Father left him so that Christ could have the complete victory over death and sin.

I know he lives!!  He is so real to me. During studies this week I was just thinking that I wouldn't have been surprised if he just walked into my apartment. I know that won't happen, but that is how real he is to me. He is the life, the light, and the hope of this world. How blessed we are to know he lives. I love him! 

Sister Lacey