Happy Happy birthday, Irma Graf!!!!

so. not much this week but some pictures from my birthday... um the elders that im serving with in my ward suprized me with brownies... which really are cake stuff doesnt cook the same here... haha. and it was still warm when they put the candles in so they melted into the cake haha. it was so funny but everyone at church still ate it! wax and all. um... the other pictures... a cool house in our area that i LOVE! a traditional portuguese-ish house thats not old and in the city... the cool road signs that are done in tile... um... what else did i include... a random picture of me on my birthday... im 22!!! and my hair is attroshish! ( i have no clue how to spell that... but my hair is that... nice and wavy and gross... but its growing... so im not complaining too much... um... then that night after planning we had an ice cream cake in our house and had a mini celebration... it was a great day. nothing special, but over all it was just want i wanted in the mission... a day that was just like any other. and thats what i got :)

dont worry, i celebrated last pday and bought a cute pair of boots and a super cute pair of gray shoes that i LOVE. the boots really are a necessity here because of the rain and the shoes... well, they go with my gray skirt! :) thanks daddy! youre the bestest ever! (dont worry this was the first time i bought something like this... promise).

okay... so this week... i have a cool story... last transfer we were contacting, knocking some doors and this guy answered and when we asked if we could offer a prayer (prayer contacting... i think i talked about it when i first got out in the field...) he was like i have to ask my wife... irma howard and i looked at eachother and thought okay what a weirdo... who does that... hes the man of the house... he came back and said she said no not now. so we asked when we could come back and talk to them he went back and asked his wife... at this time we really thought he was weird. he came back a second time and said he didnt know. she didnt want us to come back. so we just thought whatever, and we gave him a card, one of those offers for the finding faith in christ dvds with our number on it and left. later, like a week later we ran into him on the train. he looked at us like he knew us... (its normal for people to look at us... two giant americans in dresses...come on. its not normal.) and so i smiled and said hello and asked if we knew him from somewhere... he took the card out of his pocket and said yep and asked when we would pass by. i told him in the next week. well, that week irma howard was transferred, i got a greenie and it was super hectic and, honestly, i forgot about the guy. then, 2 weeks ago, we ran into him on the street when we were with an investigator... i said hello as he passed by and then he turned around and said hey! ive been waiting for you and you never came to by my house! I apologized, got his number and marked an appointment... i really honestly still know who he was... i had forgotten about him again. so, we met with him and he was receptive. i called him the day after to see if he had read and prayed, he had and he wanted us to come over to his house and talk to his wife about it too. well, we did but it was irma reis and a member because we were on division. he helped to teach the lesson to his wife. then they came to church and it was good. then we passed by last tuesday and i asked him how the reading was and the prayer to ask if the book of mormon is true. it was the most amazing thing to me when i asked his face lit up and he started talking about how he felt when he read. he is so ready for baptism! its crazy! they only thing is that they arent married and the wife is a little bit slower with the whole thing... ill give it to her... she recently had a baby and has her hands full with the 3 week old baby... but still... we are working with them and they are doing great! i learned so much from this experience... that really, its not our place to judge who can and cant accept the gospel, who does and doesnt need it. i learned just a little bit more really how much our heavenly father loves us and how he will prepare our paths, our lives... everything that happens to us, in our lives, happens for a reason.

i am so glad to be here in the mission learning and growning... but also, i know that this was a part of my life that heavenly father prepared for me specifically to help others, but also to prepare me for later in my life. i love this gospel and i know that it is true and that if we follow it, we can have eternal life. I know that this church, is the true chruch, the same church that Jesus Christ established when he was on the earth, and that through joseph smith, a prophet of god, it was restored to the earth.

have a fabulous week!

love,
irmã graf