Sarah's General Conference Expereince!

First - Happy Easter!!!
Second - I am so horrible! I got this letter a week ago and it has still taken me FOREVER to post it... I'm not sure how many people actually read her letters via blog anyway, but still! This is for her to have all her emails on record as well... done and done. Enjoy!!!
- Ridiculouslygoodlooking

P.S. There is a picture attached below that relates to the letter - enjoy that as well!

April 6, 2009
"Hey Hey!

Hope that everyone had a marvelous and wonderful conference weekend. Ours was definitely eventful. It started off with service at painting the school again. We had a great opportunity to play with some of the kids afterwards. I am ashamed to admit that we missionaries were completely thrashed in soccer by a small group of elementary to middle school special education children. Very embarrassing, but it was a lot of fun. They were great.

Next, divisions with the sisters from Guimarães. I drew the short straw and therefore got to forgo the set appointment and had the opportunity to knock doors de novo. It was good because I have been wanting to knock an area for a long time, but since my companion isn´t really big on the whole finding new people thing, we haven´t done it yet. HOWEVER, Irmã Solles is a rock star and so we decided to take on the hill (a certain area by our house). We were feeling really good about ourselves until it became apparent by looking through the windows that the first house we knocked had no one living there. Not to be deterred, we continued on and to our surprise we were invited in at the next house. Little to our knowledge it ended up being 3 very old Jehovah´s Witness die hards. After about 30 minutes we managed to escape with our bibles (he almost kept one) and a small part of our sanity. Don´t worry, all of you were included as well as he pretty much cursed anyone we had ever talked to. The funny thing was the next house we knocked the man asked us if we were JW and when we said no he said good, what is your message...I don´t like them. At that point neither did we. I have to admit I had the very un-Christlike urge at one point to kick the stool out from underneath the poor guy. HOWEVER, I did not, and we all escaped on friendly terms...more or less.

To go back in time just a bit...April Fools Day is also a Portuguese holiday, but the whole idea of pranks is totally lost to them. Unfortunately we tried to use a member as our in to get the Elders, so the whole thing went up in smoke as she TOTALLY gave everything away. It was a bit of a bummer as I was so kindly surprised with a special treat in my food after district meeting...see attached picture.The sad thing is I have actually been served these for real in peoples houses....scary! Don´t worry, we will get them eventually.

Okay as for conference. It ended up being the biggest fiasco to date on the mission. It is only transmitted in Braga , Porto, and Coimbra. SO, we had about 10 missionaries coming to Braga to watch the Session on Saturday (we only have one, sat afternoon is shown Sunday afternoon at one, then we have sessions at 5 and at 9) We also were picking up Erica and everything was set. About 3.10 (session starts at 5) we get a call saying that the equipment is broken, and there will be no conference in Braga...everyone needs to go to Porto (1 hour 15 minutes by train). SO, we were in an appointment, desperately called a taxi and everyone in Braga made a mad dash for the train station to catch the 3.30. We made it there first and bought tickets for the Elders and the other Irmãs. 20 minutes had already passed. Luckily we got the majority of that session and Sunday the equipment was fixed so we could watch the first two sessions, then we had to go home. BUT,it was amazing and I am so thankful for the ability we have to hear the words of a living profeta. It is truly a blessing to have the council of the Lord for our day. I can not wait until the Liahona comes out and I can read them again (or the ones that I didn´t get to see). I loved the emphasis on the temple, that is something I have really been studying lately and it really is amazing how much we can learn from every aspect of it...not even just the ordinances, but the sacrifice to go and everything it entails. Everyone needs to go for me, because I don´t get a chance for another year!

Anyway, that's it for Braga, stay tuned for the next episode!

Love
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

Rua Padre Antonio Vieira

Nº91 5º Tras

Braga 4710-374

Portugal