Labor Pains

The new missionaries and their trainers.  Sister Steagall and Sister Bakker are in the middle left both wearing white shirts.

My first week as a mother! After one whole week of anticipation I finally got to welcome my new beautiful baby girl into the world of missionary work! And let me tell you it has been crazy! Last week I had to go to Faro and stay with the sister training leaders for a few days. Then I went to CaixCaix and stayed for a night with the sisters there who happend to be my MTC comp so that was awesome!! love her!!! Then I finally got to pick up the beloved SISTER STEAGALL! She is from Bountiful, UT and she is a swimmer and she is great! I love her!! She also sings like an angel! So that is good she really makes up for my terrible singing voice! We are going to have a great transfer and I am so stoked to be here in Portimão still!! Sister Steagall is so stoked about the work and she is ready to go! This really is going to be great! President has put Portimão in the hands of me and Sister Steagall, and the elders, one of them came in with me and the other is in his 3rd transfer. so uhhh, ya, we are all super super new on the mission! It is awesome! It just means that President has a lot of faith in us and we are going to see some really, really amazing things happen in the next few weeks!

So we had this really amazing thing happen yesterday! We came home after church for lunch and our phone rings. It was a number that we did not know. Which is always exciting becuase we are always hopeful that it is someone calling to tell us that they want to hear more about the gospel (I have never had that be the case but whatever, I am still hopeful!). So I answer the phone and it is a girl with one of the heaviest Brazilian accents I have ever heard and she goes "is this the sisters? You guys stopped me on the road the other day and I got really mad at you and told you I did not want anything to do with your church. But I showed my dad your card and he said that he was a member of this church in Brazil and has been looking for the church since he moved here and wants to come to church next week. What time does it start?" WAHHHHHHH WHAT THE HECK!!! MIRACLES!! It really is moments like this that make you really realize how important it is to talk to everyone! I cannot wait until next Sunday to meet this guy and to find out his story! WOW the Lord really does work in amazing ways! So great!

Thank you so much for all of your prayers and all that you all do for me! Love you all so much! Eu sei que esta igreja é verdadera e eu sei que temos um salvador que nos ama! My weekly advise comes from something that I have really learned this week... Be who you are and love it! God puts you where you are for a reason and He expects us to grow and change in the gospel but He does not want us to be someone we are not. TRUST HIM HE KNOWS WHAT HE IS DOING!

Fica bem!
com amor!
Sister Bakker!