FELIZ NATAL!!!‏

WHAT IS UPPPPP FAMILIA?! 

So we were supposed to have a baptism yesterday... ya our guy has gone missing. That actually happens a lot more than you might think here. We call him and go to his house and we ask around and ya he is like just gone... so ya. Hopefully we can find him today and give him so garbage for skipping his baptism! How was Christmas?? After I skyped you all sister Phippen made us taco soup that was like American heaven in a bowl and then we went and taught some people who were all alone on Christmas. That was good, sad that we knew so many people alone on Christmas but good that we could go and see them. We brought a present to this one joven who is not active and I put a cosmic brownie in it and he just looked at it like what the heck is this gross American thing. It was funny! 

As far as the rest of the week, it was good. Long because no one wants to talk to you during the holiday, but it was ok! Sorry this email is kind of short there isn’t really a ton to report from the week. 

The only advise I have for you all comes from one of the coolest people I know, my dad. In his words `don´t step in any dog crap`  yup. that pretty sums it up! Love you all and hope that you had a great Christmas! and that the new year treats you all well! Set some good goals and then stick with them! Goals are awesome! 

Hugs and Kisses,

Sister Lyssa Bakker

P.S. I totally forgot to tell you! We got news today in our letter from the president that the Portugal Lisbon mission will be splitting in July! Yup that is right! Porto is becoming a mission yet again!!! Yay!! Both the new mission presidents are Brazilian and we are going to rock it! I cannot wait to see if I am going to be a Lisbon Missionary or if I will be a Porto Missionary!

Hey there USA!!!

December 22

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! wow cannot believe I am already saying those words! how is good old Utah? Is everyone getting super stoked for Christmas? Have you all seen the he is the gift video? ahh it is so good! and we totally have a way awesome investigator becuase of it! we contacted her in the road and asked her to watch the video and gave her a card and marked a time to come by and talk about it. So we went the first time and she like barely let us in and was really hesitant with us and didn’t really seem like she liked us very much but we asked to come back and she said yes. So we came back with a member and she had read the part in the Book of Mormon that we left for her and had lots of questions about it! So we retaught the first lesson and left her with more to read. Then she totally came to church the next day and she loved it! so we taught her again that night and she was so excited to see us and told us to come right in and had her Book of Mormon ready and she pulled it out and she had marked the chapter up that we left for her and she said the opening prayer and was so stoked about the 2nd lesson was all like I cannot wait for the celestial kingdom! She is sooo elect!! we love her so much! her name is S! She is on a trip right now to see her family for the holidays so we won’t see her until the 3rd but ya we are stoked to teach her again! she is sooo great! 

This week we had the Christmas conference with all the missionaries in Lisboa and President. That was sooo cool and so spiritual! I loved it so much!! then on Saturday we had the Christmas party at the church! that was fun...long...but great! We made these brownies but seeing as we are missionaries and we tend to just use what we have, they turned out a little interesting. We didn’t have coco so we used chocolate milk powder, and we used a recipe that a native gave us and the conversions weren’t right so we just kinda guessed on how much of everything was needed. and we don’t have measuring utinsils so ya. it was bad. But in the end we just made a less chocolatly version of cosmic brownies! They weren’t that bad!  then our district leader Elder Perreira was Pai Natal (Santa) for the little kids. He wore his own Santa suit, which was just a onsie PJ set thing with a beard and hat. The kids loved it! 

Also thank you ward! they sent me a little thing with little slipper socks and little photo books from everyone! and one primary girl said that she wanted to serve a mission in Portugal! ahhhhh that was so tender! it was one of the Lucas girls so that makes sense but still!! It was so great! and I loved it so much! so thank you ward for the Christmas package! It was great!

Thanks for all you do for me!! Merry Christmas! Talk to you in a few days!!!! yay!! Love you all!! and remember that the best way to spread Chirstmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear. so this is my challenge for you this week. Sing like the Portuguese, off key, loud, and super super bad, but with all your heart and love every second of it!

Love,

Sister Bakker! 

What is that Smell?

Hi There,

So this week was good. Long, but super good! Povoa is super differnet than amial. we walk a ton in this area which is ok, except for it is all hills. like no joke i literally live at the top of a mountain! It is great! I like it ok. Sister cullimore and I get along swimmingly so that is good! She is a good trainer! Also I think that the accent in Lisbon is easier than in Porto so it is a little easier to understand people. So that is also good. as far as this week went nothing huge to report it was pretty average mission life. we walked and contacted like 100,000,000 people and we tried to talk to like everyone about Christmas! It was cool. We have one guy marked for baptism on the 28th so we are excited about that! his name is J and he is super elect and ready for the blessings of baptism!

So the grossest things happened this week... #1 our shower totally broke haha so ya we did not have a shower for like a week. but it was so bad that when you did anything in the bathroom using water the tub would start to fill up with gross brown nasty water that smelled like sewer. So it was really bad and we had to not use that bathroom at all, but luckily we have another bathroom but it does not have a shower or a working light so we were taking sink showers in the dark for a few days until we could get that fixed. #2. a rat ran aross our feet in the road last night. ya that was nasty.

     

So that is the current state of my life!  Cannot wait for Christmas to skype you!! That is going to be so awesome!  Love you all and thank you for all you do for me! Remember in the words of sponge bob... when in doubt pinky out.

Love one of the 2

Sister Bakker´s

Rabbits and Ducks and Chickens! Oh My!‏

Ola!! 

Hi there family soo L totally was baptized yesterday and it was sooo cool she was baptized by the ward mission leader S! The elders in the district also had a baptism and Elder Wiborny baptized him! It was sooo cool!!! My first baptism!! It was so cool and the spirit was soooo strong!! Loved it soooo much! She did not own a skirt so me and Sister Azevedo went through all our stuff and found the stretchest thing that either of us owned (L is a little bit taller and heavier than either of us) and we found one skirt of mine that we thought might work for her so we prayed with all our hearts that it would and brought it to her. The Lord answered our prayers and it barley fit but it did! So her first skirt was that blue one that grandma helped me hem and that I wore at my farewell...The baptism was soo awesome but was kind of bitter sweet because although we got to see her be baptized and it was sooooo awesome I also had to say good bye to her and her family because of course I got transferred....

So ya my area got shut down and the elders took it over. So please if you are trying to send me something do not send it to that address anymore I will probably never see it or it will take a few months for me to get it! But it’s all good!!! My new area is.................................................. POVOA! It is like right by Lisbon! so ya I served like in Porto and now I am like in Lisbon! My new Trainer is Sister Collimer! and she is awesome! She just hit 9 months and she is like the coolest person ever! I love her so much already! She is from Logan Utah and is 20! Love her! Also my new house is at the top of like the huge hill that might as well just be a mountain so I am going to have awesome legs at the end of being here! I am going to miss Amial sooooo much! I was really starting to love it there! the people were so great! They were just warming up to me and I was just starting to form good relationships with some of them. So ya I was really sad to leave. But its all good! There are going to be awesome things for me here in Povoa!

 

I said good bye to Sister Azevedo today and that was sad but good! luckily the week before she left lots of people wanted to feed us.. so we had some yummy duck (which I actually really did think wasn’t that bad) and some rabbit ( that was gross. I don’t like rabbit turns out). with the rabbit they served some over cooked spaghetti and black beans. luckily they did not feed us the rabbit head that was in that soup... hahaha oh Portugal!  Portuguese food is like the same no matter what you eat, rice, pasta, chicken, beef you name it and even when it is different it still tastes the same. hahaha and its neither good nor bad it just is... I am loving it! 

My new area is smaller than my first but still pretty big I am excited to get to work and to start getting stuff done here. Today was really long but it was good! We left Porto last night right after our baptism. We had to convince a member to take us because we missed the bus because of the baptism and then we took a 3 hour train to Lisbon stayed at the sisters house there and then went to the office and I waited there until about noon for my new comp we took the train again to my new area and now here I am at 4:30 pm finally getting to P day stuff! Love it!!

This week was good! we had lots of stuff that happened and lots of people that did awesome things! ohh also this was cool, I totally went to the beach this week! hahaha it was soo cool!!

Being a missionary is the best! There are things that make you want to just sit down and quit but there are also things that are sooo good that make up for every hard times! 

Peace out until next week!

Sister Bakker!

Why a Missionary? Why not a Badger or a Bald Eagle?‏

HELLO FAMILIA!!!!

How are ya´ll doing? Life here is moving right smartly along! We are starting to pick up the work a little bit more this week so that is good! We have like 5 new investigators and I think that 2 of them are really solid! L is still marked for baptism this Sunday and she is super elect and totally ready to go! We cannot find her teaching record and so we have to reteach all the lessons but is cool because as we talk to her she finishes our sentences and stuff and so we like totally know that she gets it all and actually believes it! She is so awesome!!! love her!! also her mom is less active and so we are hoping that because of her daughter’s example she will come back and then the little sister will be baptized and then they have this cool cousin and any way we are hoping for a cool domino effect! They are great!

As far as adventures of this last week! so Monday we randomly decided that we were going to have Thanksgiving so we called a few duplas and we had 3 sets of elders and 3 sets of sisters over to our chapel and we had Thanksgiving! Some of the elders made a chicken and we made mashed potatoes and there was a salad and this awesome banana cake for dessert! It was the most thrown together Thanksgiving of all time and I loved it so much! Then I went on my first division this week with Sister Larson! That was way cool! We started telling people about the “He is the Gift” vídeo that the church just released (if you haven’t yet watched it, go do that like literally right now). It was super cool! We got 2 new investigators that night and they are really cool! Then Wednesday we taught this lady who was a referral so we were stoked ‘cuase we literally never get referrals and so we went over there and we were like looking around and saw tons of pics of fatima (Mary) and we were like wow this lady is really Catholic she is not going to accept the gospel she is just nice. So we talked to her a little and turns out she is a nun! haha yes we are currently trying to convert a nun! She invited us back cause she said that she loved our message and she told us that we were beautiful flowers in Gods garden. Ohh the Portuguese and their super weird compliments! I love it! so then Saturday we had my first ward activity and it was a pancake night! hahahahaha ohhhhhh that was a little special. sooo pancake mix is not a thing here so we were like no probablem we will just make them from scratch. ya lesson of the day, don’t let 2 sister missionaries guess how to make pancakes. and then don’t let the ward mission leader get them toppings ‘cuase he will come back with tuna, cheese and weird smoked bacon, that to me just looks like raw bacon. haha that was quite the night!

Portugal is great and I am really starting to get the hang of being a missionary I think. I am really glad that God made me a person and not an animal like a dog or a cat or a bald eagle, becuase I am a person and we are all people we can make good decisions like going on a mission and accepting Chirst into our lives and it is super awesome! The field really is white and ready for the harvest! Missions are weird and missionaries are weird. We do strange stuff and we stand out like a green marker in a box of red crayons and yet it is super just ok with all of us! It is so cool being a missionary right now! It is hard and yet when we focus not on how much we have on our plates but just on inviting the spirit in that moment things seems to just work out and all the hard moments become easier and it is good!

Stay classy USA and citizens of the USA! 

Until next week, this is Sister Bakker signing off!

Tracting and then tracting and then more tracting

This week in Portugal we started out with tracting and then we kept tracting and then just when we thought we were done we did some more. I knocked on more doors and I talked to more people in one week than I have in my whole life this week and I loved it! It was great! Haha this place is so strange! I like it a lot! I feel like once I can talk to people I will fit in just fine!

So last week I think I talked about J. Well he was supposed to be getting baptized but he stopped keeping our appointments and so when we went and found him he was super drunk so we left him and waited to talk to him until the next day. So we went and found him again and he was even more drunk the next day. It was crazy he was like not able to stand up and he was like really angry and scary and then like fine and super loving the next. He told me that I was a beautiful cat and that I was more beautiful than the stars. So after he got down on his knees in the middle of the road and begged for my companions heart we decided that he just needed to go home so we told him to go home. He took that as follow someone into their homes so we had to go save this poor guy from J following him into his house. We then had to walk J home which made us miss our bus home and so we had a nice little adventure where we planned in the street and waited for like an hour for the next bus it was quite the night! so ya needless to say he is not getting baptized anymore... sad. The elders are now talking to him and they are now trying to get him to quit because we felt that it was no longer appropriate for sisters to handle the situation. They gave us one of their investigators that they could no longer teach, we went to see her and she couldn’t talk really but this other random girl was there and she said “I will talk to you.” She is 15 and her name is L. She is so great! She told us that she wants to be baptized and that the elders like 3 months ago were teaching her and that she loves church and would still be going but her mom won’t let her go alone. Well what do you know we are neighbors so we are totally taking her this week and she is getting baptized the week after! How cool is that? God really does bless you when you are obedient and when you are doing all you can to help others come unto Christ! We lost J but we found L and she is super elect! I love her!

Other than that this week has been great and hard and long but I am hanging in there! Portugal is super strange and the people are crazy! I ate some questionable stuff this week and I am not totally sure that anything I have eaten is sanitary but hey I haven’t gotten sick yet so its all good!!! love it here!! Thanks for all you do for me! you are great and I love you all! I’m am praying for all of you!


Love Sister Bakker





The North part of the mission with Elder and Sister Cook. Alyssa is directly behind Sister Cook

Yo Yo Yo Família!

yo yo yo família!

Ok so Portugal, it is... interesting and not what I thought it would be like at all... My area is Amial which is as close to Porto as the sisters get here. It rains everyday with out fail. No one holds anything back. If you don't look good in something you will hear it at least 3 times a day. And they make fun of Americans all the time. Especially ones like me who cannot speak any Portuguese. ya... the struggle is real. my apartment is freezing! like we have two space heaters that we just drag from room to room depending on where we are. We are blessed though cuase we have a washer! but they don't have dryers here so everything hang dries. It is so humid that nothing ever dries... so ya haha I am going to spend the next 17 months wet. love it!!! 

Elder & Sister Crossman w/S Bakker

So the first day we got through the airport, then President drove us to the mission home. SCARIEST THING OF MY LIFE!!! everyone here is crazy when they drive!!! I swear we are going to hit something one of these days!!  We had the best lasagna I think I have ever had, probably just because I lived off MTC food for the last 6 weeks but ya it was great! The next day I met Sister Azavedo my trainer! She is great! She is 20 and from Northern California! She is the only member in her family so that is a cool story! and she is great! she speaks English with me so that is really good. She helps me out a ton! I love her, but she will only be my companion for 4 weeks. This is a weird transfer for some reason, and I am killing her which means that she is going home at the end of this transfer.  But ya i really love her and I am the first person she has ever trained! So we live about 20 mins from our area so we take the bus there. We also have some parts that you have to take the metro to. I like one of the places out there a lot it is called Maia we went there last night and it is super awesome! I wish we lived closer so that we could do more work there! It is super awesome! We are teaching a new family there right now that is good! We are also getting pumped cause we are hoping to have a baptism this week! We have a man named J who has the date set he just needs to quit smoking and drinking! He is super solid the elders gave him a blessing yesterday so that he could have the strength to stop. We are teaching him tonight so hopefully he will still be good! If he can do it for one week then he can get baptized so we are really really hoping that he does! Also we have two other investigators there names are P and C and they are the best! They are super funny and they are super great! P I think wants to get baptized and be a solid member but his brother C is holding him back a little. GRRR but its all good!! One day it will happen!

Sooooooo you are all about to be super jealous... I MET ELDER COOK!!! say what?! thats right he came to our mission and he talked to the missionaries only on saturday morning check the fb page maybe Sister Flukiger put some pics up and then that night he stayed in Porto and he came for our stake conference!! so we got to hear him 3 times!!!! it was so cool!!! He is super great! I got to shake his hand twice and I was like front middle for his talk! How cool is that?! So ya its no big deal I just am on like first name bases with an apostle now! its what ever!

Mom you asked about my kitchen hahahahahaha ohhhh my kitchen. we have an oven and a dishwasher... neither of them work. we also have this ghetto microwave that I think is going to give me cancer. The stove works about half the time, but our fridge is a champ!! The food here is super strange and we don't ever eat dinner. We cannot drink the water cause its like you will get a parasite from it. So that is gross and we just have these huge jugs that we buy at the store across the street. I really do love it!

as far as pics go sorry i totally forgot my adapter thing and so you will have to wait until next week for those. sorry. But I am good and Portugal is good.   Thank you for all your prayers and support!! love you all and miss you all tons and tons!

Love that crazy american living in Portugal

Sister Bakker

ps just incase you are wondering the people here try to say my name like Americans would cause I am American so they still call me Baker and then when I say Bakker they all give me this weird face and try to say it back and never can so here I am bakdeh... unless you are P and C to them I am Alisha. yes they call me by my first name. they are crazy and I don't know how they even knew what my first name was.

Portugal!

I am alive! and in Portugal! So yeah it is perfect and I am never coming home. We got to the mission home last night and I feel like I am swimming through the air it is so humid! I am heading north to Amial today and my trainer will be Sister Azevado! more to follow Monday! love you all!

Sister Bakker

This photo was texted to me by a random nice person from the Salt Lake City Airport as they were about to embark for Dallas then London then finally Lisbon

This photo was emailed to me by Sister Fluckiger to announce the safe arrival of the new Portugal Lisbon Missionaries.

Peace, Blessings and maybe some Ribths (ribs)‏

my district with Irma  Wilson

Well, the time has come for me to finally say goodbye to the blessed CTM!! WAHOO!! I am so excited to go to Portugal! The time I have spent here has been amazing and it has been hard and I have felt the spirit like never before but I know that I am ready to get to my actual mission field now! This is my last email home from the US that’s strange... But awesome at the same time!
This week I think I have learned more about what being a missionary really is than my whole MTC experience so far! It is super cool! We had a lot of great speakers come and we had a lot of cool things happen! Saying goodbye to our teachers was weird... I feel like we have spent so much time with them that they should just be part of our everyday lives now and yet I may never see them again. How strange is that? I will miss them a ton! They were/are 2 of the best people that I have ever known and I am so grateful to have been taught by them!

Para Bems with S Johnson, E Higginbotham and E Harden

S Bakker and S Woods

So this week something cool, I got to host Tacee Woods into the MTC!! How cool is that! I had been praying actually to be able to host her. I had finished 4 girls before her and I thought that I was probably done for the day but I went to double check to see if they needed more help. Low and behold as I walked up guess who was pulling in! The Woods family! I chased them down and I saw them all and said hello and goodbye and took Tacee with me and helped her figure out her first day here! I am on the same floor as her and everything! We see each other all the time! I seriously love her so much and I am so glad that she is here! her strength is so crazy and I look up to her so much! I literally don’t think my heart can handle how much love that I have for her!!! She is such a blessing to have here and I am so excited to see how many lives she is going to touch!

The Sisters in my room, Cordner, Johnson, Nielsen, me, Haycock

my district with Irmao Buttars and Smith

Anyway TOMORROW is the big day and even though I am scared out of my mind I am strangely calm and I feel like I can totally do this! I love my mission so much! I cannot believe that it was a month and a half ago that I said goodbye to you all and that I started the journey. It seems like it was yesterday! Eu Amo Voces!!!

Can’t wait to get there. I am praying for some good American ribs when I get there. I have been craving those for the last....6 weeks or so hahaha. They may have to wait another 17 months though!
Love
They strangest sister of them all,

Sister Bakker

Irma Wilson and the sisters in my district

my room, I am the middle top bunk

S Bakker, S Bently

S Stockwell, S Bakker

All the sisters in the zone

Those who performed a musical number, and those that were the moral support

My class room and district w/ Iramao Buttars and Iramao Smith

S Haycock, S Bakker, S Nielsen

Para BANGS

Ok so first thing is first I have to explain para bangs haha it is actually para bem haha but ya we call it para bangs and we all put our hands on our heads and make our fingers like bangs are well all look way stupid but I love it! My teacher Irmao Buttars tells us all the time that we are the strangest district that he has ever taught... LOVE IT!! haha oh and para bems means congratulations by the way. Any how sorry for the random fact that you you all probably don’t really care that much about. But what ever!!!
So I got to see Drew this week!! that was great! I loved that so much! It was cool to talk to him in person! He is...Different and yet the exact same. But ya it was great! Best Halloween ever! Halloween is my favorite holiday and seeing him just made it that much better!
So this week has been so cool!!!!! I love the MTC so much!! We got our travel plans! wahoo!! I leave on Tuesday for Dallas then London then Portugal. In all I will be traveling for like 2 days or something crazy like that!! I am stoked! my whole district is traveling together except for 3 who are going to Brazil. But it is all good! I am so excited to get out of here and at the same time I am dreading it! I love the people here so much and saying goodbye is going to be so hard!! I wish that we could all just serve together for our whole missions! that would be awesome!!
So this week was also kind of sad. We had 2 people in the zone go home. Elder A and Sister E. Elder A was in a different district but I knew him pretty well and it was really sad to see him go. And sister E was one of my best friends here. She was one of the 4 sisters in my district. She was going to Cape Verde and She could convert anyone with her smile and beaming testimony. She had been really sick for like 2 weeks and eventually they had to send her home to get all better. But we are praying that she can come back out in a few months. She is so great and I love her so much!! I miss her like crazy too! We had a lot of fun together. So now I am in a trio with sister Niel-Dog and Haycock! It is really cool. We teach well together and we are really helping each other become who we need to be! I love it and I love them both so much!! I could not ask for better companions! I am so blessed!!
Today for Tuesday devotional there is a rumor that it is going to be a member of the 12 so we are all holding our breath for that! how cool would that be to have my last Tuesday dev. be a member of the 12!!! ahhhhh I will have to let you all know!
Sorry that this letter is kind of short. All my days are like mushed together here and I cannot even remember what has happened so if you have any questions ask them! Cause I struggle remember what I need to tell you all! But other than that I just want you all to know that I am so grateful for all you prayers and support! Thank you so much for helping me along as I go out and help others come unto Cristo! I am so blessed to have a family like you! I cannot thank you enough! Eu te amo familia!! por favor nunca parar amarido duez e eles igreja!!! Obrigado por todos tu fazes! I love you all!!!! keep being great and awesome and the coolest cats around!
OOOOOOHH one more funny thing... I laugh in my sleep. like what? ya everyone in my room heard me and they were all way freaked out by it and they are all like kinda freaked out by me. But lets be real if someone is going to laugh in their sleep it would be me. So props to Sister Bakker for yet again doing something that my comps are just a little weirded out by! hahah I love being here! it is great!
I have one more P day before I take off so I will write one last time using American computers haha how strange is that!? But ya starting next week all my pdays will be Monday!
Love you all!
Stay golden
and remember when in doubt just say as Sister Bakker says and Para Bems!
Love
that strange child you once called Lys
Sister Bakker

To Infinity and Beyond!‏

Long ago in a far away land called the CTM there lived a sister and her companhera Niels Dog, and together they were to bear it what ever it may be. One day on a cold crisp October morning they were preparing for V their beloved pesquisador when they just could not seem to feel the spirit that was needed. They clashed heads and tried to see the others point of view and it just was not happening for these sisters and their crew. Then an elder so calm and cool headed came to them and said "want to help me with my lesson" together they frowned and hardly agreed, but they helped none the less because they knew he was in need. So they knelt in a prayer and the spirit was there. Then opening their eyes they felt no despair. They knew how to help and they knew what to teach. And together they taught better than an army or fleet! V committed to baptism and is striving to follow the words of the prophets and is helping all that will follow. The sisters were blessed because of a prayer, so people I ask will you kneel today?
This story is true. My companion and I are as different as can be and some how we are making it work not just because we are supposed to but because we care so much about each other that we would do anything. She is my best friend and I would be so lost without her here. It is so cool the people that god puts into your life. She has so many strengths where I fall short and I have strengths in the places that she does. Together I feel like would could convert the world. I don’t want to ever not be companions with her. Yes we have hard days just like the one I talked about but I am so blessed to know that no matter how frustrated I get all I need to do is pray and some how when ever I open my eyes I see her with more love than ever before!! It is so cool!! PRAYER IS COOL AND IT WORKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Also, I need to tell you about my teacher Irmão Buttars. He is the best blessing in my life right now. He just gets it. I am so blessed to have him as my teacher. He has a way of teaching things that just makes you understand weather it be language or gospel he can teach it! It is amazing! We have some of the coolest conversations in my class and I am so grateful for them! He has taught me so much about what being a missionary really is and he makes our district want to be the best that we can. He calls us a celestial district and when we slip up he reminds us that in that moment we were telestial or terestial, and we are striving to always be celestial. SOOOO COOL!! I love my district and my zone so much I wish that you could all meet them! and I wish that I could serve me whole mission with all of them! I love them all!!
Also wish me luck! As of tomorrow we are not allowed to speak English until we leave the CTM!! That is a long time to not speak. My favorite saying is going to be Não falo Englés. and Eu falo um poco portugués, descupa. It is going to be a super strange and quit few weeks! LOVE IT!!!!
I love my mission and I am really starting to love the language. It is so beautiful and I think that it is so cool!! I keep forgetting words in English and in Portuguese it is like I don’t have a language anymore! ahhh crazyness!! But it is cool I have learned so much and keep learning more everyday!
Love you all and make sure that you are still smiling and that you are still doing all that you need to do to make the right choices in your lives! And when in doubt just ask, would Sister Bakker do this? hahahahahahaha jk don’t ask that cause I am kinda crazy and you never know! but do put yourself in Christ’s shoes and think about what he would do if he were you.
love

Sister Bakker
formally known as Lyssa

There's a Storm coming Harry...

- Eating ice cream in the hall.  WE could not find spoons so I used the end of my razor and S Niel-dog used a knife…ohh the life of a missionary!

Cheerios!

-some of the girls in my zone, on the last temple walk w/ E Noyse who is super funny and loves Avatar, E Sorenson who is one of the elders in my district, also super funny but he doesn't like Avatar. S Cordner is the tall brunette on the left back, she is one of my roomies her comp is the blond next to me S Johnosn. Next to S Nielsen is S Bundy and her comp S Hennefer, they are both in my zone.  S Haycock is another sister in my room and in my district!  I love all these people so much!

S Baird (from swim team) and S Bakker

OLA FAMILIA!!!!!!

Okay so first thing is first... The CTM is the MTC. It is just in portuguese. Sorry if that confused people. I had a lot of questions about that this week for some reason...
Now this week was AMAZING! It is my hump day here!!! WAHOOO The language is coming. I think I sound like a robot that pauses for like 5 seconds after every word but what ever!! I don't even care! I have been here 3 weeks and can teach a lesson, pray, bear my testimony, and carry a very broken simple conversation. That my friends is what I call the Dom De Lingua (gift of tongues)!!!! I love my mission so much! I cannot wait to speak fluently and teach everything about this gospel! It is so cool!!!
So one of the coolest things that happened this week, my teacher, Irmao Buttars called it a primera visao experience! I was teaching a lesson to our investigator V, I was supposed to teach her about the spirit and I totally froze. I literally could not speak!! My mouth would not make words in English or in Portuguese. I was stressing out and sat there totally silent for what felt like eternity. Then I was totally over come by the spirit and I knew how to say more in Portuguese than I have ever before. I bore the best testimony I think that I ever have. I knew exactly what to say and I have never felt the spirit that strong in my life. IT WAS AMAZING!!! We closed with a prayer and I cant be sure but I think that our investigator (Irma Wilson one of our teachers) may have had a tear in her eyes. It was so cool. She even said that she would come to church on Sunday!! wahoooooo!! GIFT OF TONGUES PEOPLE!!!!! IT IS REAL!!!!!!!!
Also you know that we are having a really spiritual moment when our teacher Irmao Buttars speaks English. Last night we were supposed to have language class and teach but instead we had a 3 hour question and answer in all English of how we can turn our district from just a distrtict in the zone to the one that everyone knows is progressing the best and has the most spirit. IT WAS AMAZING! I don't even know what I am going to do with out them. My teacher tells us all the time that we are weird. He says that our district came together faster and were better friends than any other he has ever taught. It is so cool. He taught us how to use our friendship against Satan and how to use or friendship and unity to become the best missionaries ever!!! It is so cool and the spirit is amazing!!
I LOVE MINHA MISSAO!!!! I feel like there is a storm inside all of the missionaries here and it is just brewing waiting to destroy Satan!! OOOOOHH he is going to hate us when we all leave here!!
Thank you so much Family and friends for all your love and support! I have officially fallen in love with my mission and I never want it to end! Good thing I am still here for like 17.5 months!!! WAHOO missions are the best!!
Sister Bakker’s Advise for the week: SMILE!! Even when you don’t want to and even when you think you cannot go any more, SMILE and I promise that it will change your life! It changed mine!! Love you all!!!!
Eu sei que a igreja e verdidera!!!
Love

Sister Alyssa Bakker
more commonly known to y'all as Lyssa!!