Merry Christmas from the Island!

The best Christmas present ever would be...? A letter from Sarah Ray! Ding ding ding! That is the correct answer - so, ask and ye shall receive! Here's the latest from the island - she only has about three months out, so give her a shout out and WRITE! Merry Christmas and Enjoy! :)

- Ridiculouslygoodlooking

"December 14, 2009

Okay, big news for the week was that Liliana was baptized on Saturday! It was a wonderful experience and probably the best day of my mission. She is such a fantastic example to everyone. It was my first baptism that something didn’t go crazily wrong, so we were pretty thankful. Irmã Call and I spent all day really nervous and anxiously awaiting whatever it was that we were going to have to deal with….but it never came. I guess we covered it all with our last baptism together in Coimbra. It really was a great example of the miracles that can happen when the members and the missionaries work together. It looked like a picture out of Preach My Gospel during the baptism. She was so well supported by people from both branches; we had more people at the baptism than we usually have in church! Plus she then bore a very sweet testimony about how she knew she was gaining a family in the church since her family isn´t really a family. Her father has passed away, her mother is in a metal institution and her sister is still living with the foster family ( since none of her aunts or uncles here would take them in) that kicked Liliana out when she turned 18. Needless to say everyone cried especially when the closing song was Families can Be Together Forever.

We also had a fantastic lesson with Carla, who has recently told us that she didn´t believe in God, because she couldn´t understand why bad things happened. Well, what did we do, we prepared a lesson on the plan of Salvation and prayed a lot. The lesson went really well and we ended up talking with her this week and she said she knows she needs to be baptized; she is just worried about her family now. We are making progress….it was pretty exciting.

Other than that, we have pretty much become the primary in our ward seeing as all of the kids seem to think it is more fun to follow the Irmãs around. It is kinda funny really, but hey, if it means that their parents have great experiences at church it is worth it. Speaking of primary, the program went really well and I am SO HAPPY it is over. I have a whole new respect and love for those who work in Primary and especially those who had me. Thank you for that.

Well, time is up but I LVOE YOU ALL and hope that you have a wonderful Christmas season for now. We haven´t really realized it is Christmas seeing as how we are still running around in short sleeves, but the lights and music are proving us wrong. Have a great one, and don´t forget why we celebrate!

Irmã Ray

December 21, 2009

Well, this week was the Christmas celebration week! President was here, we had the district of Madeira party, and we had the 1st counselor of the area presidency (Elder Caussé) here to talk to just us 10 missionaries for a whole day. It was awesome, even if we wanted to die we were so tired at the end of the week. President had a bad habit of keeping us out way later than we were supposed to be, but it was always his fault. Kinda funny. However, it was great fun.

We have also discovered that Caroling is not a Portugese activity. Irmã Call and I attempted to carol to people instead of knocking doors. Unfortunately, not a single person listened to us. Not that they weren´t home, just that they told us to go away. Now, I know we are not the Tabernacle choir here, but we are not THAT bad, and who doesn´t like good old Christmas Carols. Blast.

The weather also decided that it couldn´t be sunny and warm since it was almost Christmas, so now it is rainy and only kinda warm. The funny part is that we are on a mountain right, so when it rains, the streets become rivers. Now, not just a little bit, we were walking in water that went over our shoes a good two inches. Too bad we didn´t have our cameras. Now I understand why all the main streets have rivers in the middle of them, it isn´t to be pretty, it is to keep the city from floating away when it rains. We had a grand time singing on our way down the mountain at the top of our lungs...good thing I am with Irmã Call, she does crazy things like that with me.

On a sadder note, we had the worst lesson of my life last night. We are working really really hard with a family....the parents are menos activo, the 14 year old son isn´t a member and the 35 year old son (still living at home) is super active, but also a jerk. So we are trying to teach his brother and get his parents to stop smoking and drinking. So we had a really good lesson last night until Nelson (the older son) decided that the end of the lesson was a good time to apologize to his family for the mess he has been creating lately. We were thinking, okay that is good, until he started to tell everyone else why they were wrong, and things escalated in about 2 seconds to where the three adults were all yelling at top of their lungs, throwing things, hitting things, swearing up a storm and there were two missionaries and one member who came with them scared to death on the couch. So we stood up, and walked out the door....well more like ran scared for our lives especially when we could still hear them all they was outside of the building. It made us VERY thankful for our families and for everything that you have done to raise us not to be idiots.

Interestingly enough, the very next lesson we marked someone for baptism. Weird how there can be such hi and lows withing one hour! There really are two teams in the world and unfortunately Satan never goes on vacation.

Well, hope that everyone has a marvlelous Christams seaons and a great week. Love you all!

Irmã Ray"

The Best way to write Sarah is: (Ok this is a change, pay attention)

A) Since Sarah is on the Island, the best way to send anything (i.e. letters, packages, etc) through regular US mail is below. This method requires US $.98 postage for letters. (Better check this out, it should be the same as before)

Sister Sarah Ray
Rua de Ponte Nova
nº 12 5P
9000 Funchal
Madeira
Portugal

B) The alternate way is of course Dearelder that may eventually get to her.
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.

Life on the Island!

So, Sarah succeeded in preparing a Thanksgiving dinner on the mish! She also recieved a black eye from the days events.... want to know more? Read her recent letters below, and when you are done send her some Christmas love via the address below. Christmas is the PERFECT time to let her know you're thinking of her - ENJOY!
- Ridiculouslygoodlooking

"November 30, 2009

So first off I have decided that there is nothing like thanksgiving in a different country to make you thankful for your mother. Espcially when that thanksgiving includes being given the responsibility to make the Turkey and Gravy for 10 missionaries in a place that is not accustomed to turkey or gravy. We definitely were missing the great boxed foods of America, but I must say that our tiny little Madeira Zone managed to show our half native group what a real Thanksgiving should be like. Unfortunately the only football we had was about half the size of a real football so our Turkey bowl was a little interesting and in compromise we ended up playing futbol for half of the time as well. However, we did not get to play the whole time seeing as how 3 seconds into the game I managed to put myself in between the ball and the goal in a way that currently have a bit of a black eye....Luckily no one scored! I decided I would stick to American football seeing as how our team won that one. Of course it was really just Irmã Call and I against each other since we were the only ones able to defend against each other.

In other news we have started teaching a girl who lives in what used to be a convent. She however, is not a nun, is just guarded by one. Funny huh. Luckily the nun hasn´t opened the door yet when we go over there.Speaking of that however, we have been meeting with a member who was the 3rd to be baptized on the island, and who used to be a nun. The only problem is that she is really old and starting to lose her mind, so between showing up to church in her temple clothing and still thinking she is married to Jesus Christ sometimes, our lessons are a bit interesting.

However our most exciting news is that Liliana is going to be baptized on the 14th of December!!! We are pretty excited for that and for her.

Hope that the week was great for everyone.

Irmã Ray

December 7, 2009

Well, this week was yet another fantastic week on the Island. Liliana is golden and decided that she wanted to move her baptism up to this Saturday instead. So now we are running around like crazy trying to get everything done and just as happy as ever about it. To add to the good news we were able to mark somone else for the beginning of January. Her name is Lidia and she has 3 kids who are cute, but impossible to manage. Basically Irma Call and i just play babysitters at church trying to keep them from bugging their mom so that she can feel the spirit. However, they are going to participate in the Primary Program next week, and they actually didn´t cry to be left there this week. Speaking of the Primary Program, I have been roped into doing the music since I arrived here....but luckily I was able to knock that down to just playing the Piano and leaving the rest up the the branch.

So funny story of the week. The Elders passed up a less active family that they are all women because we can enter the house and they can´t. However, they forgot about the appointment we were supposed to have to basically pass the baton. So, Irmã Call and I ended up setting out on our own with the directions of get off the bus when you see this and they should be waiting in the courtyard. Well, goes without saying that we were slightly apprehensive about these directions, but as we arrived in the courtyard there was a little kid on a bike who got really excited, said you are here, and I will show you where to go. That meant that Irmã Ray started repenting in her heart for thinking bad things about the Elders directions. My feeling bad moments lasted until we went inside and realized that it was definitely NOT the family we were looking for, but was a member family who then said "we didn´t know you were coming but we are excited for your lesson." So we taught them and after all sorts of other funny things finally found the people we were actually looking for. So it all worked out allright. Luckily it was not the same day that BOTH Irmã Call and I managed to leave the house without nametags....that was kinda bad, and we both felt super weird all day. It kinda made me realize just how strange I have gotten on the mission.

That being said I LOVE THE MISSION. I have really found the reason that I am here at this time here on the Island. It is strange to think that if I had gone on a mission at any of the other times that I had considered serving, I would not have been here now having the experiences that I am having. I have no doubts that the Lord has lead my life so that I could be here in Funchal at this time, because I needed to be. It is a pretty great feeling to know that you are in exactly the right place doing the right thing at the right time.

Anyway, that you all for your love and support. Have a marvelous Christmas season, and I will talk to you all next week!

Irmã Ray"

The Best way to write Sarah is: (Ok this is a change, pay attention)

A) Since Sarah is on the Island, the best way to send anything (i.e. letters, packages, etc) through regular US mail is below. This method requires US $.98 postage for letters. (Better check this out, it should be the same as before)

Sister Sarah Ray
Rua de Ponte Nova
nº 12 5P
9000 Funchal
Madeira
Portugal

B) The alternate way is of course Dearelder that may eventually get to her.
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.

Coming at you from a brand new location!

Here's the latest! There's a big change going on for her - there's a picture at the bottom. Enjoy!!!

- Ridiculouslygoodlooking

"November 16, 2009

Okay, so big news first....Remember how I said I expected to be in the coldest part of Portugal for the winter. I lied. Seems that I have won the transfer lottery and will be sweating out my Christmas on a tropical Island off the coast of Morocco. I am going to the Island to be with Irmã Call again. Weird....and REALLY exciting. So as a result of going to Madeira, my only workable address will be the island address and I would say to direct all mail there, because it will be my last area on the mission. Irmã Draper is loving that because she is inheriting all the clothes that I can´t take since we are only allowed one suitcase of 20kilos. Luckily, I don´t have to bring a coat because it doesn´t get that cold!

On other news,we now know what it is like to have a fire in Portugal. Our neighbors left the stove on when they left for the night so Irmã Draper and I were awakened to the sound of the firemen breaking down our neighbors door and putting out a fire that had resulted. Mom don´t worry...the only problem is the lingering smell on our floor. However, we did realize for the first time that there is no such thing as smoke alarms in Portugal....we prayed real hard before we went back to sleep, so I´m not worried :)

We have had a bit of a crazy week with transfer calls coming in, because the schedule is way different due to flight times for me. However, we have managed to get a good bit of work done, and we had an awesome lesson with Francisca, our investigator who is going to be baptized in a couple weeks. The only sad part about heading off the continent is that I won´t be able to come back and see the baptism.

Well, I am sure there is a whole lot of other exciting stuff, but Madeira pretty much trumps everything since there are only 10 missionaries there, it is pretty coveted. Irmã Draper has been looking at me about every 10 minutes for the past two days and saying something along the lines of.... you realize you are going to Madeira! Funny huh. Thank you all for your support and love.

LOVE YOU ALL

Irmã Ray

November 23, 2009

Well, this week has definitely been a whirlwind of a week. I had to say all of my goodbyes to the Mainland Portugal and then catch a plane to Madeira. It was quite the interesting experience and all happened a little bit faster than I was expecting. Irmã Draper thought I was nuts trying to take pictures of all of the trains, metro, everything that I am not going to do again on my mission. it was a bittersweet moment to be staying in the mission home the night before and realizing that the next time I would be there was my last night in Portugal.

HOWEVER, that being said I am now in pretty much the coolest place ever and loving the fact that I can use short sleeves in the middle of November. We live in Funchal, which is the biggest city on the Island and also the place where all the cruise ships come in everyday. It is absolutely gorgeous and we can actually see the ocean from our balcony. Yeah, life is great. We are actually working in two branches and that means lots of names and faces for me. Hopefully I will be able to get them down in the next four months. At least I know exactly what I am getting in to seeing as how President gave me my ticket and it happens to be one of the very few round trip tickets bought by the mission. Very weird. There are no real beaches, it is all rocky cliffs but it is BEAUTIFUL. I already know it is my favorite area, but not just because it is a cool place, but because I have already felt that I have made a difference here and I finally feel that I am here for a reason. I feel like my time is so short, which is funny because in the beginning I thought it would never end. Weird

We are currently getting ready for Christmas since we can see all of the lights all over the city, we are very anxious for them to be lit! Sorry all of you from Utah, but Funchal blows Temple Square out of the water....however, it will help Irmã Call and I feel a little more Christmas-y while we are walking around in our short sleeves.... We also have some fantastic investigators, one of whom I have already become very good friends with, her life is crazy, but she just started investigating the chruch and it is amazing to see the ways her life has changed in the past week. We are hoping to baptize Liliana in two weeks, so keep her in your prayers.

Well, time is up so I will attach some P-day hike pictues and then you will know a bit of how I feel, even though pictures never really do it justice. LOVE YOU ALL!

Irmã RayThe Best way to write Sarah is: (Ok this is a change, pay attention)

A) Since Sarah is on the Island, the best way to send anything (i.e. letters, packages, etc) through regular US mail is below. This method requires US $.98 postage for letters. (Better check this out, it should be the same as before)

Sister Sarah Ray
Rua de Ponte Nova
nº 12 5P
9000 Funchal
Madeira
Portugal

B) The alternate way is of course Dearelder that may eventually get to her.
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.

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

August Hits the Portugal Sisters!

Here's some love from August - Enjoy and (you know what I'm gonna say...) , Pleas write!

"From Sister Sarah Ray
August 10, 2009

Ói.

yet one more week here is Coimbra has flown by. Crazy how time flies when you are having fun...
So...as most of our investigators have gone out of town for ferias we have found a couple more...in the unusual places.
1. Pedro...Pedro is the son of a recent convert and is totally ready to get baptized. The only problem is he has to get out of prison first. Yes, the lessons have been taught in Prison, but they also get weekends off from prison in Portugal, so we teach him at his mom´s house when he has a weekend out.
2. Elisabete: Also a weekend outer...but this time from the psych hospital. SHe was commited for being schitzophrenic (spelling??), turns out she isn´t, but now they won´t let her out because she has no where to live. The problem is she can´t have a place to live unless she can get out. SO, we get to go and teach in the psych hospital which is way out in the middle of the mountains. Quite the experience.
3. Francisca: Her son is also schitzophrenic ( I think they really like that diagnosis in Coimbra...every other person we talk to has it.) She is still being bossed around by her 52 year old son who takes all of her pension, spends it on prostitutes and kicks her out of her own house to live in an apartment she has in Coimbra every couple of weeks. She also wants to be baptized but won´t set a date because she never knows when her son is going to call her back home to do his laundry and cook for him. Personally I think a job would do wonders for him, but we are working on that.

Well, for all my poking fun at our actually pretty entertaining line up, we really have had some great experiences. Since we do not have so many people we have really gotten to concentrate on some, and it has made a difference. My favorite part of a mission is being able to answer someone´s prayer. We stoped by Francisca´s house and when she opened the door and saw us, she asked us how we knew that she needed us at that exact moment. It really makes everything else worth it to see the gospel change peoples lives. I love the miracles that I can see on a daily basis. Thank you all for everything! Have a great week.

Irmã Ray

From Sister Sarah Ray
August 3, 2009

Well, this week was definitely challenging. I never thought that I would hate school breaks so much. Unfortunately the entire city of Coimbra has moved and it pretty much looks like a ghost town. Just means that we get to work even harder, so I guess it is a good thing. We did manage to have some good times anyway though! We actually have a new investigator Laura who is from Canada and only speaks English. I never thought that it would be so hard to teach in English, but our first lesson with her would rough! I kept switching into Português, which I guess is a good thing, but it was a bit confusing for her. The cool thing is that the institute group is being great with her, they are planning an all English night activity, translate everything for her and really have done a great job of making her feel welcome. She is awesome. So we gave her one of the MTC Portuguese books that we had lying around our apartment to help her with Portuguese. We explained that it had a lot about church things in the beginning but also had grammar and vocab in the end. So, she opens it up and the first thing she reads is “will you be baptized” ….it was pretty funny. I still do love COimbra and the church is still true. Love you all and have a great day. I am going to try and attach some ~pictures from the castle!

Irmã Ray"

Here's another picture in this entry of Sarah! It's a bit dark, but an amazing shot!

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

Back Steppin' to July!

Here are her two grouped letters from back in July lettin' you see where she's at! Enjoy and WRITE!

"From Sister Sarah Ray
July 28, 2009

Well, one more week in Coimbra and I really do love it. Irmã Call and I have made some crazy hard goals, and we are actually doing pretty good at keeping them up. It has been really cool to see the miracles that have been happening. One of our new goals is that we write a list of the miracles that happen every day and it really has helped us see how much the Lord is guiding our work here, and that he really does have a plan for us!
Unfortunately we had to go to Porto to renew Irmã Calls visa this week, so we had a fun little trip on the train. Luckily everything went well this time and my companion is not going to be deported from the country.
The sad thing is that all of our investigators seem to be leaving Coimbra. The month of August is Feiras in the entire country, so everyone leaves. Yeah, I got sent to the college town during summer break....I guess President figured I could do the least damage here...:)
So funny story for the day. We changed our P-day this week because we had the opportunity to attend a funeral. As a result we decided to go to a Castle and Palace that is not open on Mondays. Well, it is in a different area, so we were about an hour away from Coimbra. We thought it would be really funny if we ran into the Elders that are serving in Leiria so that we could surprise them , but we arrived at the castle without an elder spotting. So, right about the time that Irmã Call makes it to the top of a wall we decided to climb...in a skirt no less...we here, "what the heck are you doing here" in English. Quite surprised we looked up just to see four elders looking over the parapet of the tower. Apparently they had gotten permission to change p-day as well so they could visit the castle. It was pretty funny....Elder Zabriski was making a movie on his camera from the top and it went something like this " so we are here on top of the castle and down there you can see the old ....what the heck are the Coimbra irmãs doing here!?!?" We all had a good laugh.
Well sorry for the short and kinda lame email, but as always time is short. Love you all!!!

Irmã Ray"

From Sister Sarah Ray
July 20, 2009

Well, the wonderful LDS mail site just deleted my very entertaining, slighly lengthy welcome to Coimbra letter. Blast! I guess that means that you will not be punished by having to read a long letter. Lucky you.
ANyway, to sum up....I made it to Coimbra in one piece...after a lot of traveling. We are way south right now, so I am having to adjust to a different style of speaking and a whole lot of new words. FUnny how just a couple hours can make such a difference. I am absolutely loving Coimbra though. We have a lot of really good things going on, I think my companion is absolutely fantastic and we even had a baptism on saturday...which is quite the story. As always everything had to go crazy wrong, but we just laughed it all off. I will give you a mental picture...and then I will attach some real ones.
1. The chapel doesn´t have clothes for a 10 year old boy. Which was a problem because Hugo happens to be a 10 year old boy. So, the poor kid ended up entering the wedgie of the world compition and using the 8 year old clothes because it was that or my size. He opted for two small, but i felt really bad for him. Unfortunately the Bishop of the other chapel doesn´t think that the missionaries should have access to the baptismal clothing, so we were not able to get him anything else.
2. They didn´t actually show up at the baptism until about 20 minutes after it was supposed to start. Of course that seems to be normal and no one else showed up till about then either. I htink that the Portuguese have an even higher standard of lateness than the church.
3. We had a member who set the temperature on the circulation system for the font. I am not sure exactly what went wrong yet, but somehow the water managed to heat up in the waiting time to just below boiling. SO; we had the pleasure of orginizing a bucket brigade to dump cold water in the font from the kitchen while we sent everyone else back in to sing hymns. Of course one of the investigators used this as a good time to step outside, leave the door open and have a cigarette break. FInally everything worked out and they were able to actually enter the font without becoming the color of a lobster.
4. SO we finally arrived at the little party afterward, and Hugo´s mom(less active) had wanted to take care of all the refreshments. She pulls everything out of the fridge, sets it up, and everyone starts to eat. Well, the missionaries go in and notice that there are two bottles of ice tea that are being served as the drinks. We managed to get it hidden in the other room and later disposed of the bottles, but it sure was an interesting moment. I guess we have a lot of work to do with the family.
Believe it or not we even mangaged to have a very spiritual experience with everything that went wrong. Just one more moment to prove that even though the world is crazy, the Lord is in charge and everything is going to work out in the end...I am really thankful for that knowledge! Have a fantabulous week and thanks for everything!

love you all!
Irmã Ray"

Below is a pic of Sarah, hard at work with one to baptize!

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

Transfers!

She's been transferred! Thus, ladies and gentlemen, let us write her in our new spot - get to typin' it out y'all! AND, here is her most recent group email - Enjoy!!!
- Ridiculouslygoodlooking

"July 13, 2009

Well, the calls are in, and I am out. I am being transfered to Coimbra, Which is way far south from here. I am pretty bummed as we are just getting to the point where we know our way around....we never did find a map but luckily the Portuguese people are more than willing to give directions. Of course, they will give you directions even if they have no idea where it is, but it is all good. It is kinda sad, but I actually think that I am going to be more sad to leave Gaia than I was Braga, and I was only here for 6 weeks. Weird. The people here are great though, and I really found another family. A couple of the members are mad with President right now, but what can you do. Apparently I already did what I was here to do. The bigger news is that I am actually going to be with an American!!! Wow. Hope that I don´t lose my Portuguese.

The new president is getting used to it I think. His wife actually went out with us this week, and that was pretty cool. She is really sweet and I like her a lot. I think I like her more than I like President. Opps. He hasn´t started changing everything yet, so we will see what happens. Sorry that I don´t have a whole lot to talk about right now, with transfers we don´t have a whole lot of time, but thank you all for all of your support. I appreciate your support and love!! Have a great week!

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 Portugal Letters" Return...

Enjoy Sarah's latest update - she even tells about meeting some people from GEORGIA! Holla! Haha... Enjoy!
- Ridiculouslygoodlooking

"July 6, 2009

Well, big news for the week is that President and Sister Walton made it here in one piece. We actually had a big meeting with them the next day and they seem really nice. I think it is going to be a great thing for the mission. I really like them. It will be interesting to see how things change here. Speaking of which we get transfer calls this week, so we will see who is leaving Gaia. I really would like to stay as we are just starting to get comfortable with the area, but I kinda have a feeling that it is going to be me who leaves. It makes more sense that Irmá Polito finishes her mission here. Of course anything is possible.

However, after 6 months together I finally succeeded in turning Irmã Polito American. For the 4th of July she dressed in Red white and Blue and proudly serenaded our district with "I´m Proud to be an American". it was much improved over our other Brazilian who just complained that we were able to have a district activity. Party Pooper. We did have to work all day, but we had permission to have a BBQ for dinner. However, since the office elders stole the grill from our chapel for an office party we ended up buying our grilled chicken and french fries...which we then did our best to sing the star spangled banner and let everyone know that actually, it was a holiday. No one seemed to believe us. We thought it was pretty funny that in our district of 7 we had a Japanese elder and two Brazilians, but we still had a party. Irmã Polito and I drew a giant American flag and we hung it in the chapel. We also made the rule that only English would be spoken. It was kinda hard.

SO I tried to contact in English the other day and it was rough. There are 50 guys from Georgia here in Gaia right now being trained for a factory that is opening by Savannah...I discovered this after recognizing someone wearing the UGA logo on the metro. Irmã Polito didn´t think they were American, but they were ...good old southerners with a heavy accent. I felt right at home.

Well, I have written a novel this week so I apologize for the lengthy reading. Have a fantastic week everyone and thank you for the support. The church is true, the gospel is worth it!

Irmã Ray"

WRITE HER!!! IT'S HER NINTH MONTH MARK!!!

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 Portugal Letters..."

Here is the latest installment of "The Portugal Letters..." Haha! She is doing well, but you still should send some love. Her nine months mark is in two weeks! Here's her recent letter - enjoy!
- Ridiculouslygoodlooking

"June 29, 2009

Well,
The big news this week is that it was São João. Basically it is the party for John the Baptist and the people in Portugal take it very seriously. That is, if you can take seriously a night where everyone eats sardines and runs around hitting each other on the head with plastic mallets. Yeah, I´m not sure of the purpose of that, but no one is allowed to get mad if you get hit on that day. Weird huh..normally it would be very strange if random people just hit you on the head, but it is totally acceptable this week. Go figure. The other part of the tradition is to eat grilled sardines and all of the wine companies have a boat race of the carvalas on the river. They also have a huge fireworks display over the river at midnight. Unfortunately we didn´t get permission to stay out that late, so we just woke up to the fireworks, but the rest was kinda fun. I don´t think sardines are going to become my favorite food, but keeping with missionary tradition, we eat what is given us...so that included the sardines. (attached picture). We actually did have a good time.

We had a couple cool experiences with investigators too. We are teaching a mom and daughter (Libânia and Vitória) and we asked them to get baptized yesterdsay. Vitoria said yes, but mom has to let her, and mom has to quit smoking first. Libânia is really nervous to try because she has tried so many times and it has never worked. We taught her all about fasting though, and she is going to think about trying. She still hasn´t given permission for Vitória to get baptized but we are going over there tomorrow too, so we are praying hard. They are a way special family. We were teaching about how you could be sealed together in the temple and Vitoria was so funny. She wanted to know how it worked and so we were explaining that it was like spiritual glue, at which point she decided it wasn´t a good idea. She looked at her mom and said " but what happens if I want to go in one room and you want to go in the other...you are bigger than me I will have to go with you." We all got a good laugh out of that one, and know she knows she could still go places alone.

Well, the search for a map continues...but we have found one of those big city maps(like the ones they have in malls...in the big poster things) that we took pictures of, and use the camera sometimes. It kinda works.

Love you all and thank you for your support. Have a fantabulous day, the church is true.

Irmã Ray"

P.S. If anyone can get map of Gaia - I think someone should send her one... Haha!

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