Chestnuts for Halloween?!

Here's another fantastic update from your fave missionary! I thought it was interesting because she said for Halloween there, they roast chestnuts... Um, Christmas anyone? Haha... Who actually does that anytime actually? Ok - maybe you do. Sorry if that was offensive - haha!

- Ridiculouslygoodlooking

"November 2, 2009

SO, this week was filled with all sorts of first. Who would have thought that I would be getting firsts this far along! However, we have a recent convert in our ward who is already less active. The Elders have been working with her, but as of this week we started preparing to help. Why would that need preparation you ask? Well, she is deaf so we have been starting to learn Portuguese Sign Language to be able to communicate. It is actually kinda fun, but very strange at times. When praying only the person praying closes their eyes because everyone else obviously needs to be able to watch, but it is still really weird. I also get to make up my own sign for my name....Anyone have suggestions? It is actually much easier to speak in sign that Portuguese because you don´t have all of the crazy verb conjugations...there really isn´t any grammer-you just throw all aspects of the sentence in there and everyone gets the gist. Weird.

Anyway, this week was the finale of the new student orientation-ish party that the university had, so we had a bit of time where there wasn´t really anything we could do outside of our apartment as it was quite the party in our area of Coimbra, we did have some interesting experiences trying to get home, but it was pretty funny. They have a huge parade where all the Coloiros, freshmen, are dressed up by their madrinhas in something related to the course they are in and then marched from the University all the way to the river where the madrinha or padrinho then baptizes them and they are officially recognized as students. However, they still can´t use the uniform for the first year. Yeah, pretty funny.

As for Halloween, that isn´t celebrated as much in Portugal except by the tradition of roasting chestnuts , so we had a ward activity in which we did just that. It put me in a very Christmasy mood as I then had "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire" in my head all day. I have to admit though, roasted chestnuts are not my favorite and it seems all the fun came from the fact that your hands end up very black with soot and then everyone chases each other around trying to wipe blackness on them.

They also have November 1st as the day to visit your ancestors graves. SO, us being the followers that we are...we followed the people. This meant we also went to the cemeteries...armed with a whole bunch of Plan of Salvation pamphlets. It was actually really a great experience all the way up until it started pouring rain. Not too much of a problem except that I had left my umbrella in the house....oops. We had some amazing experiences and it really made me realize what my purpose is and how I have become a different person in the past year and um pouco. Who would have thought that one day I would be standing in a cemetery in the pouring rain praying with a woman in a different language and reassuring her that one day she would see her Husband again. I am so thankful for the wonderful knowledge we have of the Plan of Salvation. Sometimes I think I take it for advantage how I know our purpose here, where we came from and where we are going. It seems so simple to me, and yet it is such an amazing concept to these people who have no hope- to see the marvelous change and the light that comes into peoples lives as they come to know that there is a loving Father in Heaven who cares about them and that there is someone who will always know how they are feeling. How every one of us has someone we can turn to in any instance in our lives.

Well, hope that everyone has a fantastic week and it is great to hear from you. Love you!!

Irmã Ray

November 9, 2009

Well we had another absolutely stellar week here in Coimbra. Irmã Draper and I have been really praying and working on developing more faith in the ability of the Lord to work miracles, even in Portugal. Well, it has been a couple weeks of planning every minute of every day, working our tails off (more than we had thought was possible) and doing a whole lot of praying. After a couple weeks it has finally started to catch up to us and we saw a whole lot of miracles this week. We also were really able to work with our members (seeing as how we have the greatest ward in the country) and it has been amazing to see the amount of people that have started to change their lives and to see the differences and light that have come into their lives as a result. The greatest thing is that we feel like we aren’t even doing anything. We had a ward record this week in that with us and the zone leaders we had 8 investigators in church!!!! That might not seem like a lot to some of you who served in other areas, but it definitely was a miracle here in our tiny country. Even more of a miracle was that we didn’t know 4 of them before Sunday. I have been realizing more and more on the mission the way that the Lord guides each and every one of our paths. Definitely the master planner of the universe, because there is no way we could get everything to work out so well even if we planned for 10 years.

On a completely different topic we went to a really old monastery as a district today and it was really cool. Amazing that everything is still hanging around from the 1300´s….okay so it has been restored, but it was still super cool. Unfortunately my camera is now dead, so pictures will have to wait until next week.

As for the transfer question…calls come in on Saturday, so we will have to see. It is a pretty best bet that I, like Andrew will be relegated to the coldest area on the mission for the winter….I had the second coldest last winter, so Andrew, I feel your pain. We need to work on our luck. I have pretty much given up my Island hopes since you usually stay for 4 transfers, and I only have 3 left including the one that is coming. Weird. Hard to believe that so much time has passed already. Love and miss you all!

Irmã Ray"

The Best way to write Sarah is:

1) On the internet go to dearelder.com website.
2) There is a drop down box on the right hand side down just a couple inches. Enter her mission which is Portugal Porto and then click "write a letter" just below where you select the mission.
3) On the next screen enter your return address and Sister Sarah Ray in the address line, add your email in the email box below the envelope.
4) Write your letter in the text box and then hit the "send letter" box under the text box to send it on.

This site does require US $.98 Postage. You can set up an account and it will deduct the postage each time you write.

2) The alternate way for sending anything (i.e. letters, packages, etc) through regular US mail is below. This method requires US $.98 postage for letters.

Sister Sarah Ray
Portugal Porto Mission

Rua de Amalia Luazes

No.23 Sala 1

4200-052 Porto

PORTUGAL

Irma Ray and Irma Draper!

Here is another note from our amazing Irma Ray! I won't plead with you to write, but rather encourage you to do so... She needs some mail right now. I hope everyone is having a fabulous week - let's continue to keep our friend in our prayers!
- Ridiculouslygoodlooking

"October 19, 2009

Well I am happy to report that this week was better on the health front!!! Everybody is happy and healthy and we are very excited that the weather has turned towards the fall. Today marks our first official day of fall for sister Draper and I because we have graduated from knee highs to full nylons and three quarter length shirts. WOOHOO. Now we are just dreading the dread certainty that the rain is not to far behind....blast.

In other news Irmã Draper and I have decided that we should start up a super hero team, or at least a TV show to catalogue our many adventures. Who would have known that in the process of trying to find the house of a menos activo we would manage to find a bridge that crossed nothing and went nowhere except for into a ditch, climb an entire mountain thinking we were on a street, travel to the middle of nowhere on a bus, have a surprise party thrown for me (happy one year birthday to me), and still have time to plan for the next week. Unfortunately we never did manage to find João, but we are going back this week! OH, and don´t worry, we did cross the bridge and when we got to the ditch we did what every good sister missionary would do. Buckled on our bags, gathered our skirts and jumped. Once again we emerged victorious from our fight with the wild in that there were no nylon runs involved!!!

However the best experience of the week would have to be on Sunday. We have been teaching a woman on and off who has been investigating the church for over a year and a half. We ran into her on the street Saturday and I challenged her to read a scripture a day, and we set an appointment for church the next day. Well we decided to pass by and see how the scripture reading was going last night and we actually found the Book of Mormon open to 2 Nephi 31 on her table. So, I asked her if she learned something about how important baptism was and she said yes, it is very important. My next question was “so, when are you going to be baptised?” I almost had to pick Irmã Draper off the floor who thought I was crazy, but it was good because now she is planning on being baptized next month! We are pretty excited about it, and she already has a different light about her. It is amazing the difference the gospel can make in peoples lives!!! Thank you all for the support and continued love...

Irmã Ray

October 26, 2009

YAY for the weather in Coimbra.... It hasn´t rained all week and here at the end of October it still isn´t very cold. I am loving being in the South of Portugal instead of the North.
So this week was interesting in that Irmã Draper and I were the representatives of the sister in Mission Council. Turns out our new President has decided this is the time to change pretty much everything and so we were able to help put together the new mission plan. Quite the experience. THe funny thing is that no one knows about the changes yet because zone conference is tomorrow...so it has been a bit interesting for this week.

As for the funny experience...I know, there can´t be an email without one...who would have thought that a mission would be so funny- or maybe we are just weird after so long. Anyway, we were walking to church yesterday when we heard the familiar yell of "MORMON"...so we just wave a bit and keep going. However when we decided to wave to the clearly drunk group yelling at us we were greated with a distinctly English "YOU ROCK." Quite unexpected and there for very funny. I am realizing much more how thankful I am that I went to BYU as I have see the afterafects of the huge party that has been going on all week. It is interesting to note that when we leave our apartment to run every morning we are able to see all the people just finishing up and attempting to make their way back home. Kinda funny, kinda sad.

Well, sorry that there are no really cool stories this week...We spent the majority traveling, but we did manage to meet some pretty cool people on the trains. Unfortunately they no one lives in Coimbra...darn.

Our current hopes and dreams are tied up in Francisca and a new investigator we knocked into his week...name Bonga. Yeah, I had to try really hard not to laugh when he answered. Well, until next week,

Love you all!

Irmã Ray

The Best way to write Sarah is:

1) On the internet go to dearelder.com website.
2) There is a drop down box on the right hand side down just a couple inches. Enter her mission which is Portugal Porto and then click "write a letter" just below where you select the mission.
3) On the next screen enter your return address and Sister Sarah Ray in the address line, add your email in the email box below the envelope.
4) Write your letter in the text box and then hit the "send letter" box under the text box to send it on.

This site does require US $.98 Postage. You can set up an account and it will deduct the postage each time you write.

2) The alternate way for sending anything (i.e. letters, packages, etc) through regular US mail is below. This method requires US $.98 postage for letters.

Sister Sarah Ray
Portugal Porto Mission

Rua de Amalia Luazes

No.23 Sala 1

4200-052 Porto

PORTUGAL

ONE YEAR MARK TODAY!!!!!

It's that time again - Sarah's email update! Haha! Today is also...

SARAH'S ONE YEAR MARK!!!

Yep, our amazing friend and family member, Sarah L. Ray has now been officially Irma Ray for a year now, and been in Portugal for a little over nine months... CRAZY! If you have not taken the time to write her yet, you still have six months (till mid-March for you non-math people) to write her... but you should do it now. NOW! Haha... You can email her now too - see the "Editor's Note" below...

Thanks for all of you who have shown her support and kept her in your prayers - I know it means SO much to her! :)
- Ridiculouslygoodlooking

"Editor Note: No it is not Sarah's Birthday, you still have a couple months on that one. I did want to pass along the following from Sarah: "Oh, and by the way....We now have permission to email the general public, so if you want to save a stamp, you can email me now! sray@myldsmail.net"

October 5, 2009

Hey Hey
So, hopefully everyone had a marvelous conference weekend, because I know that we did! So, conference in Portugal is interesting because of the time difference. We watched the Relief Society broadcast and the Saturday morning session starting at 5 in the afternoon so that we could see conference live. Then Sunday becomes a regular old marathon...Priesthood at 10, Saturday afternoon at 1, sunday morning at 5 and sunday night at 9. Unfortunately our English TV was not working so Saturday was all in Portuguese. However the faith of 20 missionaries combined works miracles and due to a diligent building manager we managed to get conference English on Sunday. Unfortunately the only place we could get it to work was in the hall...but that worked for us! It sure did seem to be the entertainment for all of the members who kept coming out to laugh at us. We didn´t get to see Sunday night because we have to be home at 9:30...but they also cleaned everything up because I guess here in the South no one stays that late. We sure were grateful for the chance to hear the words of the prophets. It was a great experience and we actually had 3 investigators there. It was really a cool experience.
In other news....the calls came through and Irmã Draper and I are going to be staying together for another transfer here in Coimbra! I am also going to be in my very first all American district....provided the greenie we are getting isn´t Canadian or anything. We will see. So life is good...the temperature is starting to fall from the 90´s so we are pretty excited about that. All in all life is good and I am loving being a missionary!It is crazy how fast time seems to be going. Love you all and thank you for the support and love!

Irmã Ray

October 12, 2009

Well, this week doesn´t really have anything to talk about. Due to illness once again, we spent 4 days in our apartment....or really our room. We are both a bit crazy now. I used to be scared to death to teach, but now it is not even a big deal to give a lesson with zero prep in the middle of the street....I actually am getting pretty good at teaching the Law of Chastity in contacts on the street....that probably has more to do with the number of drunk college students who try to hit on us instead of real acceptance, but that's okay. it is kinda funny. In all seriousness though, I used to be scared to death to teach, even in the states for Sunday school or anything. Now we get to church and they say oh, we the speakers didn´t show up- Irma Ray you are talking, or teaching gospel principles. BUT instead of freaking out it is okay, who has a manual, what is the topic. Kinda crazy to believe that it is actually me and it is in Portuguese. But really, it isn´t me, so it is okay.

Irmã Ray"

The Best way to write Sarah is:

1) On the internet go to dearelder.com website.
2) There is a drop down box on the right hand side down just a couple inches. Enter her mission which is Portugal Porto and then click "write a letter" just below where you select the mission.
3) On the next screen enter your return address and Sister Sarah Ray in the address line, add your email in the email box below the envelope.
4) Write your letter in the text box and then hit the "send letter" box under the text box to send it on.

This site does require US $.94 Postage. You can set up an account and it will deduct the postage each time you write.

2) The alternate way for sending anything (i.e. letters, packages, etc) through regular US mail is below. This method requires US $.94 postage for letters.

Sister Sarah Ray
Portugal Porto Mission

Rua de Amalia Luazes

No.23 Sala 1

4200-052 Porto

PORTUGAL

Snap Shots and Visual Aids!

Here are some AMAZING pics of Irma Sarah L. Ray on her mission in Porto, Portugal! Enjoy!!!









I have the cutest best friend ever! Haha...

Sarah's Most Recent Account of the Mish!

Hey Y'all!
Here is another update of your favorite sister missionary, all the way from Portugal! Actually, I am in Draper... So, all the way from Portugal via Draper? Haha! The next entry is all the pictures she just sent - there are a BUNCH and they're way fun!!! Enjoy!
- Ridiculouslygoodlooking

P.S. WRITE HER!........... NOW.

September 21, 2009

"Hey Hey

Well, first of all for those of you who are worried sick about the Coimbra Irmãs the good news is that we have water again!!! It is kinda orange at the moment because of the calcium in the piping, but after a couple of hours of Irmã Ray trying to deal with bureaucracy in Portuguese, we managed to get a plumber over! It took threatening to move out of the apartment before the Dona did anything, but we are sitting at a final score of Irmãs - 1 Portugal - 0. Woo hoo!! We are pretty excited and very much more firm in the reasons that we do not drink the water after seing the inside of our plumbing.
So now that we aren´t camping inside our apartment we decided to search out opportunities in the community. SO we went to one of our areas that is a bit outside of the city and hasn´t been visited in about 4 months. However, since neither of us knew how to get back we ended up hiking through a construction site, the remains of a forest fire and the woods to finally find our way out in the hospital parking lot. We definitely got a couple of strange looks coming out of the woods in skirts and nylons (WHICH may I add we managed the whole trek without running the nylons...miracles do happen in our times!). I think next time we will try and find a bus, or at least a road.
We also managed to find a couple of people who are at least somewhat interested in what we are talking about. Actually, it is better said that they found us. Irmã Draper and I are working on the challange of knowing when we should stop and respond to the people who like to yell things at us, and this time we did. That prompted a large conversation on how God could call a new prophet because Fatima appeared to the three pastorinhos and they aren´t prophets. So, we had a bit of straightning out to do, but in the end they want to come to conference! Point team Irmãs. He is conviced about apostles though because he has the name of an apostle (João Paulo)
Laura has come back to Coimbra too, so we are once again trying our hand at teaching in English, which is surprisingly hard! She is awesome though, and we are convinced that she is here in Portugal to find the church.

It is amazing how the Lord really does have everything organized. It is amazing how he plans every little thing to work out in the way that is best for us, and we don´t even know until it happens. Nothing is ever by chance. It is really cool to be able to see the Lord working in the lives of the missionaries and the people of Portugual. It is also incredible that they can be the rudest people in the world, but I have this overwhelming feeling of love for even the buildings here, because I know there are people inside of them that need what I have. As our Gospel Principles teacher said this week "Missionaries give up their lives so that they can enter into the lives of those who they are teaching. " Pretty much sums it up.
Thank you all for your support and love!
~
Irmã Ray

September 28, 2009

Well, one more week on the Chronicles of Coimbra. THis week has pretty much been hillarious. I have learned that House arrest is used in Portugal...it is why one of the less actives isn´t coming to church. We also were talking to his mother about prayer. The conversation went something like this:
Cândida: "well, I don´t usually do prayers at night, do you know why?"
Irmãs : "no, why?"
Cândida "Because I am crazy."
Then she sat there, as if that was a perfectly normal and acceptable answer and excuse. Meanwhile we were trying very hard not to laugh at her. We did end up having a pretty good lesson, figuring out the real reasons and coming up with answers to help her family. It turned out to be very cool because her neighbor came over and we invited her to listen as well. At the end we were able to mark an appointment with her and she was really excited to get the Book of Mormon.
On other good news, our Canadian investigator is really doing well. Granted I am not any better at teaching in English, but the Spirit is, and we had a really good lesson with her this week. We have a baptism goal of the end of OCtober with her!
Well, I think that about sums everything up for our week. It is just more of teaching, finding, and loving life. I have decided that I am pretty much the luckiest person ever to be serving in Portugal...sorry for all of you who think your missions were the best...they may have been, but right now the best place is definitely here!

Irmã Ray"

The Best way to write Sarah is:

1) On the internet go to dearelder.com website.
2) There is a drop down box on the right hand side down just a couple inches. Enter her mission which is Portugal Porto and then click "write a letter" just below where you select the mission.
3) On the next screen enter your return address and Sister Sarah Ray in the address line, add your email in the email box below the envelope.
4) Write your letter in the text box and then hit the "send letter" box under the text box to send it on.

This site does require US $.94 Postage. You can set up an account and it will deduct the postage each time you write.

2) The alternate way for sending anything (i.e. letters, packages, etc) through regular US mail is below. This method requires US $.94 postage for letters.

Sister Sarah Ray
Portugal Porto Mission

Rua de Amalia Luazes

No.23 Sala 1

4200-052 Porto

PORTUGAL

The Latest in Coimbra!

Now presenting the words of Sarah L. Ray - It has been down for a bit, but here is the most recent she has written to everyone- Enjoy!!!
- Ridiculouslygoodlooking

"September 14, 2009

Well, as things have really slowed down in Coimbra we decided to go camping. Or actually the city decided we were going to go camping as we have been without water in our apartment for almost a week now. The city water was cut for construction and when it came back on, our apartment has only managed to dribble out of the faucets. And the hot water doesn´t exactly exist. Apparently it is just us that are suffering from this marvelous challenge, but we are definitely getting better at the sponge bath thing. Actually we usually start the bathtub running and by the time we get done with personal studies one of us can use the 4 inches of water that are in the tub. Then we start again and after companion study the other one can get clean. We are just hoping the massive amounts of calls that we have been making will come to some good this week and we can be normal again. We have been having some pretty good jokes about it at least. We have decided it must be the reason no one wants to talk to us :)

Also, this week was stake conference which meant that the Viseu Irmãs were staying with us too. More to party! It was actually really good. The temple president from Madrid was here and it made me realize just how much I miss the temple. It was also pretty cool because he only spoke in Spanish, but everyone understood him just fine. It was really interesting because he couldn´t understand us. I don´t know why Português can understand Spanish but not the other way around. I have also been able to understand a good bit of Italian and French. Who knew?

As for other news, School starts tomorrow and orientation was today...as a result I have started to adjust to living in Harry Potter land. For those of you who are familiar with the movies, the costuming of robes and such was actually taken from the Coimbra University traditional uniform...cape and everything. Luckily we have a member who is at the university so maybe next week I can send a picture. We are still having quite the challenge with the local take on the church, but we are hoping to change that. Due to a lot of working with the members recently we have a couple people willing to teach with us. Now we just have to actually find someone who will let us in the door. Even though it is hard, I am loving the mission. It is amazing to see the difference that the gospel can make in peoples lives. We have really seen little miracles, and we know that they will lead to big ones. Love you all and thank you for the support!

Irmã Ray

September 7, 2009

Well, unfortunately Coimbra was attacked by a fairly vicious round of sickness which resulted in the majority of the week being spent inside of our apartment...or rather shoebox that is sometimes referred to as an apartment. However, we did manage to find one new person who is our saving hope at the moment. She is a good friend of a member who has already given her the Book of Mormon and talked to her a whole lot. So, Cinda (the investigator) is really excited about the gospel, but moving kinda slow to understand everything. SO, as we are teaching her, Sister Lisete (member) stops us and says....she is going to baptized and it is going to be so pretty!!!! Poor Cinda looked scared to death. We will get there though! Good thing since our only really progressing investigator this week dropped us. Darn. Our excitement sure took a hit this week, but that is okay, it will come back. It is amazing how even when everything is going wrong, we are able to see the miracles of the gospel. We had a family night with a member and we were able to explain a little more about the atonement to her, in a way she had never thought about it. She was so excited to apply our lesson to her life and even called us halfway though the week to tell us the difference it has made. Moments like this that make a mission worth all of the times that we get yelled at, cussed out, things thrown at us....all the craziness of a mission.

The other highlight of the week is that part of our weekly soccer activity was used to teach the Portuguese how to play what we all know and love...real football. (in honor of the BYU game...looked like it worked!) I have to say I was able to get royally even for all of them mocking my soccer skills.
Well, thank you for all of your support and love...hope that everyone is doing well. Love you all

Irmã Ray"

The Best way to write Sarah is:

1) On the internet go to dearelder.com website.
2) There is a drop down box on the right hand side down just a couple inches. Enter her mission which is Portugal Porto and then click "write a letter" just below where you select the mission.
3) On the next screen enter your return address and Sister Sarah Ray in the address line, add your email in the email box below the envelope.
4) Write your letter in the text box and then hit the "send letter" box under the text box to send it on.

This site does require US $.94 Postage. You can set up an account and it will deduct the postage each time you write.

2) The alternate way for sending anything (i.e. letters, packages, etc) through regular US mail is below. This method requires US $.94 postage for letters.

Sister Sarah Ray
Portugal Porto Mission

Rua de Amalia Luazes

No.23 Sala 1

4200-052 Porto

PORTUGAL

It's almost Fall in Coimbra!

Hey Everyone!

Here's another update on Sarah and her wonderful mission in Portugal - Quick question for you... Have you told her lately, that you love her? Haha... Seriously. Take out a piece of paper, write two paragraphs to her, and send it - NOW. It will mean the world to her, as I have said before... So, here is her update: Enjoy!

"From Sister Sarah Ray
August 17, 2009

So we did have a great week this week, despite the fact that it is August. We have managed to find a couple more people here in Coimbra. Of course they are all really old as well, but that seems to be our population here right now. However, we did develop a new talent. Due to the fact that the temperatures have skyrocketed to over 100, we have become very adept at picking out which are the very few buses in Coimbra that have air conditioning. It doesn´t work very well, but it is better than nothing and we have definitely been trying to take advantage of the opportunities.

We have also managed to have some rocking awesome lessons. We have been teaching a woman named Alda for a while now, but she really hasn´t been doing a whole lot. Well, she has two kids so this week we played the game of life, missionary style, which basically covers the 2nd and 3rd lessons. You have to have all the cards of faith, repentance, baptism, gift of the Hold Ghost and Endure to the End to win. So we talked about how that was how we could follow the path that God gave us, and we finally hit home. She has a completely different aspect of the gospel now, was asking questions, wants to know, wants to pray, wants to read, and we are SO EXCITED! Months of prayers that have finally happened.

We also had a pretty interesting experience visiting Elisabete this week. So, she has vacation from the crazy bin this week, and all she has missed for the past 10 years is Chocolate Chip cookies. SO, we tried our best with the crazy little easy bake oven that we have and turned out something that resembled Chocolate chip cookies and took them to her. We had to wait a couple of minutes for the nurse to go get her and in that time we became quite the celebrities with the other patients that were there. It ended with us sitting on a bench teaching 8 people who then wanted us to come back tomorrow. While nomally we would be thrilled at that aspect, due to the situations, we will go back next week. It was pretty funny though...we are thinking about just starting to teach up in the front of a bus and see if we get kicked off next. Who knows.
All in all it has been a pretty fun week, despite the frustrations. Irmã Call is awesome and is great at keeping up the good attitude even when everything goes wrong, we are in the heat and want to die. I really am thankful for the opportunity that I have to be here. It is amazing to see peoples lives change. Thank you for all of the support! Love you all!


Irmã Ray


From Sister Sarah Ray
August 24, 2009

Well transfers came through this week and I am staying in Coimbra. I have also adopted a small green monster as a pet named jealousy as I am sending Irmã Call off to Madeira. Bum, she is also going to serve with my #1 choice of companion if I could pick. However, the good news is my #2 choice (besides Irmã Call of course) is going to be my new companion. Her name is Irmã Draper and I have yet another American. Looks like I am going to be in the states probably from here on out. Our natives are pretty much all leaving soon, so we will see how it works out. However, people here sure seem to like Americans. We were talking to a guy in the square the other day and when he found out Irmã Call was from Utah he got all excited and said something I never expected to hear in Portugal "I love the Utah Jazz"....What the ?!?! Needless to say as soon as he left we both died laughing.

Other than that, this week has been pretty dry....but luckily we are coming up on the end of the feirias!!!WOO HOO! I am one happy missionary with that in mind. We also get to have a spend the night in the mission home, since the plane to Madeira leaves way early...we have to be in the mission home Wednesday night, so that will be interesting.

Alda is still doing well. Despite the fact that we have already taught her everything se seems to be taking it all in like she had never heard of it before. Maybe that is why we started over again. So we were talking about Profetas this week and she was worried that not everyone knew that we had a profeta today. She said we should do something to let everyone know to which we answered..."Alda, why do you think we are here." She was pretty shocked to learn that we have over 53,000 missionaries. She is doing really well though!!!

Well, stay tuned and hopefully I will have some more interesting stories over the next few weeks with the people coming back to Coimbra! Till next week! LOve you all.

Irmã Ray
PS Anyone who wants letters back has to let me know their new school address....."

The Best way to write Sarah is:

1) On the internet go to dearelder.com website.
2) There is a drop down box on the right hand side down just a couple inches. Enter her mission which is Portugal Porto and then click "write a letter" just below where you select the mission.
3) On the next screen enter your return address and Sister Sarah Ray in the address line, add your email in the email box below the envelope.
4) Write your letter in the text box and then hit the "send letter" box under the text box to send it on.

This site does require US $.94 Postage. You can set up an account and it will deduct the postage each time you write.

2) The alternate way for sending anything (i.e. letters, packages, etc) through regular US mail is below. This method requires US $.94 postage for letters.

Sister Sarah Ray

Portugal Porto Mission

Rua de Amalia Luazes

No.23 Sala 1

4200-052 Porto

PORTUGAL