There's a Snake in my Boot!

Yo yo yo!

Sup y'all! How was Christmas? We partied pretty hard here in Mem Martins! It was awesome! The sisters in Mafra were with us for Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. We had a night with mega bed and the Polar Express (found the book in our house and we had to read it.) It was so great! Also it was really great to talk to you all! Crazy that that was the last time I will talk to you on skype. Next time will be in person! wow! I'm excited! So ya the rest of this week nothing too great happened. We did have a lady have a panic attack during a lesson and I had to watch her 2 kids and Sister Barron had to like wrestle a crazy lady and we had a member come help us. It was really intense but it all worked out!

Life here is good! I am glad that you are all doing great!

Also I have been thinking a lot about Toy Story this week. Don't know why. But that movie is really good. You all should watch it this week!

Love you all!

Sister Bakker

caroling in Mafra

Christmas Eve at our Bishop's house

Secret Santa Exchange

Pecan Pie and Peanut Butter Fudge
Thank you American Families!
Best thing I've eaten since I left the US!

Irma Lidias for lunch (she is at the head of the table, please note her cool purple hair!)

Christmas morning making Panakuk

This one goes out to Skipper

Sister Bakker and Sister Barron
we did not have time do do a Chirtmas card but if we did this is the pic we would use

Dear Skipper and everyone else but mostly Skipper,

This week was a good one! We had our Christmas party with our whole mission. It was really fun and really inspiring. Good old mission spirit that is even stronger around the time of Natal! It is good! We are getting excited for the big day! We are going to Christmas Eve with our bishops family and having a secret santa! and then on Christmas day we are going to lunch with a lady with purple hair named Lidia and then dinner with the Lees! It is going to be great! I am excited to see you but I have to give you a fair warning I am like really awkward and I don't know how to speak English without using Portuguese so ya... just go with it.

So funny story, yesterday at church our recent convert, Carlos, decided that he needed to tell us all the things that he used to do that were not good. Well we found out that he was a hippie coke addict and that his source of happiness was found in smoking strange drugs. That was the most off topic church class of all time. Thanks goodness for the gospel that the changes it makes in peoples lives!

Well the mission is good! Love you!

Skip you were the best dog ever! Love you buddy and I will see you in the reino celestial! Love you for ever buddy!


Com Muito amor!
Lyssa


FELIZ NATAL!!!!!

Sister Bakker and the case of the missing scissors‏

I literally don’t even know where to start this email. So I will just start on the beginning of the week. Monday, we made shirts and pie and it was crazy. Tuesday we had a sister meeting and all of the sister cried and I was just like ahh why are there so many tears going on and it got weird. But it was really good. Wednesday is where it gets good...

the big yellow house on the right is the back of the Duke's house.  I feel like I look at it and just think of the words to "I Love to See the Temple--I'll go inside one day , to feel the holy spirit, to listen and to pray--"

So I go on a division with the sister of Amadora. Sister Donahoo came and served with me in my area, Mem Martins. Well our first plan of the day was to go to Sintra to find this weird reference that we got from someone in Porto. So we go and we are walking along and asking people how to get to this weird road and they are all like "sempre em frente sempre em frente" or in English "always in front" So we are walking on this twisty mountain road in the middle of nowhere when we get to this random city. And we are like wow we made it!! So then we ask people for the next road that we are looking for and they are like what do you need on that road and we are like, we are looking for Duque. And people got so excited when we said that and we are like what the heck. What is Duque? So we get to the road and we are like ok I see no house named Duque. But we found the number and we ask this little old spanish lady "o que é Duque?" and she gets all excited and tells us in half Spanish half Portuguese that the duke is not home right now but that his brother is and that we needed to just touch the doorbell. She then showed us where the door was. In that moment Sister Donahoo and I look at each other and are like OH MY GOSH IT IS A DUKE!!!! So we walked like 1 hour to this HUGE house like soooo big we thought that it was like an old mansion that was turned into like rooms for tourists or something. BUT no it was a house that a duke lives in!!! So we talk to this lady and tell her that the duke wants to talk to us and she is like well you need an appointment. Call this number. And she gives us this weird number. So we leave and we call the number and this lady is talking to me and is really, really formal and is like who gave you this number and I am like uhhh Orlanda... and she goes "AHHHH SENHORA ORLADA!! ok ok we will make you an appointment and call back!" Soooo ya that is right we are totally going to teach a duke!!! And so we ask around a little and find out that if Portugal was a monarchy he would be in line for king!! WHAT!!!!!! SOOO COOLLLL!!!

Ok that was the coolest thing that happened this week. But the rest was still really good. Our bread friend is still giving us bread EVERDAY. Our freezer is really full of bread and cake and pastries and we are giving stuff away like we crazy! Hah it is great! For to love it!

We are getting excited for Christmas! It is going to be so fun!

Also I lost my scissors. Which is sad cause they are safety kids scissors that I found in my first transfer. I cut myself on the twice (yes even though they were safety ones for kids). I will find them though. I have faith.

Love you all so much!

Merry Christmas!

Love, Sister Bakker

This is a toucan we found on the way to the Duke's house

a weird fruit we found on the way to the Duke's house

Sister Barron with a man we found

a cool road in Sintra

Eagles and Bolo Rei

Warning this email contains shocking information read with caution.

This week in mem martins there was a festa de natal (Christmas party) there were booths and good food and all sorts of fun on the roads. Well, we had to use that road to get to and from a few appointments. So we are walking down the road pretending that we have horse blinder things on our eyes when this random guys pulls us from the crowd puts a big glove on Sister Barrons hand and goes "smile!" Next thing we know they are taking a pic of her HOLDING AN EAGLE!!! Then they go ok now its your turn. Well if anyone knows me they know my VERY VERY VERY big fear of birds. Well folks on that day I swallowed my fear and my pride and I held that eagle! thats right! I HELD AN EAGLE!!!! (pics to follow). It was so cool!

Also we have a bakery right across the street from our house and every night the baker looks out the window to our window and waves to us before we plan. Well on the same day that we held an eagle we decided that it was time that we talk to the baker. So we go over there and he showed us inside and then gave us 2 free loaves of bread!!! It was awesome! Then last night he was, "oh hey girls come here" so we go over there and he gave us a bolo rei! (which is just a gross fruit cake but if you eat around the fruit it is not bad!) WAHOO everyone was just lovin' the sisters this week! It was awesome!

Also this week on a more spiritual side, the temple ground breaking happened! WAHOOOOO PORTUGAL IS GOING TO HAVE A TEMPLE!!!! It was so cool to see it happen! We got to watch from a chapel close by. It was so amazing to see this huge great and wonderful event take place! We are so blessed! I love the church so much and I am so excited to have a temple here in Portugal! I cannot wait to come back one day and see all the people I love inside! Best thing ever!

This week was great! I love my mission so much!

Thanks for everything! Eu sei que nosso salvador vive! eu amo esta igreja e eu amo minha missão! vocês são minha força! Obrigada por tudo! Feliz Natal!
Com Amor
Sister Bakker!

We made tee shirts for our sisters with the help of a member!