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