My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding!

Sup fam!

So, we went on some adventures today after we played volleyball with the elders and some investigators and let’s just say we took the wrong path and instead of crossing like 6 train tracks we decided to turn back and it took like forever and then the internet place was still not rockin it for us this week and so we had to go to the chapel again and take turns so ya I have like 30 mins instead of my reg hour and a half. Yay P-day fun! I love it here so much!

This week was so great! We baptized Sandra!!! yay!!! I wish Icould tell you all the joy that we felt as we saw her enter the waters of baptism! Man she was so ready and she totally on the right path! She is so great and I love her so much! Sunday we had 3 other baptism as well! Nelson, Josifina, and Tatiana! They are all great and this next week we are supposed to have 3 more! Yup our district is on fire right now! I love missionary work so much! I have really fallen in love with it this week!

This week we also went to a gypsy wedding. Like you know that show My Big Fat gypsy wedding? Yup I went to one of those but it was at the chapel and it was crazy! That was an adventure for sure!

Also dad this is especially for you, so there is dog poop all over the place here and it also rains like every day so the poop gets all wet and then it dries and gets moldy. Yup there is moldy poop like everywhere we go! It is super funny!

Some fun facts about our branch, We have a guy named A who has a fake leg because he literally lost it in a war. One of the members of the branch presidency is 18, and our elders quorum president is also 18. haha ya Portugal! I love that here it is just like what ever! Things are so chill and as long as you have the priesthood you can hold what ever calling you need to hold! It is great!

Well thanks for all your love and support from home! You are all wonderful! Fica Bem! love you all and please do me a favor and don’t step in any moldy dog poop this week and I will try my best to do the same!

Much love,
Sister Lyssa Bakker

The path we use to get home from church, yes it is that tiny one straight up in the middle of randomness

Pizza for S Cullimore's birthday

my scriptures

milk carton

Giant nesting doll

Gypsy wedding

Tunnel we walk through to get to Vialonga (city in the back)

Baptism Storm!  

Rio Tejo and sand volley ball

I Have a Dream!

I HAVE A DREAM!

So as far as investigators, Sandra is right on track to be baptized this Sunday! We have taught here all 5 lessons and she is totally ready and willing to do everything that we have asked! I love her so much! When people tell you before the mission that you are going to love the people that you serve, they don´t tell you how much. Well let me tell you right now. IT IS A LOT! There are no words to explain the love and the spirit that you feel when you see someone make the decision to fallow Christ. It is so amazing! It is these feelings that remind you that even though things can be hard it is all totally worth it! So funny thing that happened this week, we knocked this door and no one answered for like a long time so we moved on and knocked 3 other doors. Then we heard someone go, "Quem é?" at the first door. So we hurried back and told them that we were the missionaries. This little African lady opened the door and welcomed us right in. We sat down with her and taught her the restoration. The whole time we were very confused cause she seemed a little off her rocker. We asked if we could come back and she was like ya and next time my son will be here and I will tell him that he needs to read this book (Book of Mormon) for when you come back. We left and we were like hmmmm I wonder if she actually has a son... haha ya she was that strange. But we came back and what do you know her son was totally there had read the part we left in the Book of Mormon and was ready to hear more! So we taught him and then marked him to be baptized after the lesson! wahhhooo! His name is Bruno and let me tell you he is one elect person that is super ready for the gospel in his life! Oh and the funny part, the crazy lady she totally kissed our head and our hearts. Yes literally our hearts... please just take a second to imagine two American girls in this little house where a crazy lady kisses our hearts. Yup. our lives our super funny!This week was also Sister Cullimores birthday! That was fun we had American cake that her mom sent her and sang happy birthday and totally ordered pizza! haha that was awesome! Man I love food that just gets dropped off at your door! Such a good idea! Props to whoever had that idea!This week was awesome and as always full of miracles! People dreams do come true, and even though I am not in American right now I am still celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. today. So I hope that you are too! I will end this weeks letter with some advise that I feel is very appropriate, DREAM BIG and then when you know your dream, go make it happen!!love always,Sister Bakker

Miracles Happen

This week I would like to start of my quoting one of my idles, Lizzy Maguire. "Miracles Happen Once in a while! Miracles happen if you just believe!!" Wow thanks Lizzy for that inspiration! Ok but really though this week was a week full of milagres (miracles). We marked our investigator S for the 25th!! yay!! She is so cool! and she has such a desire to be the best that she can! Ahhhh I love her so much! She is such a miracle! Also last P-day we totally watched “17 Miracles”! That was a totally miracle! loved it!!!! Also we have been moving forward with this Mestres de Israel challenge from our mission president and things are going good with that! man we talk to a lot of people if we do the math it has been 12 days, 10 people a day, that is 120 people per missionary so that is 240 people that we have talked to. So just in my district we have talked to 480 people in 12 days. Wow. That is a lot of people! We got some new people though so that is good. These numbers really do show how many people you have to talk to to get anyone to listen! It is crazy! But hey in the last week my district marked 3 people for baptism! yay! Miracles!We continue everyday to see miracles happen and it is sooo cool! I love it! I can honestly say that when you pray for things, GOD ALWAYS ANSWERS!! It is so amazing! Oooohhh something funny that happened this week, I had my first door straight up slammed in my face. it was... funny! haha we just looked at each other laughed and moved on! ohh also I lost my planner. Leave it to me to lose the single most important thing to make the days run smoothly! Classic Sister Bakker right there folks! but yet again it was just one of those things I laughed off and made a new one! Oooh mission life! It is good! I love Portugal! Much love!! Keep up all the good work and thanks for all that you do for me! Love, Sister Bakker!

I Support the Bread Truck!

“I support the bread truck!”

Hello to everyone at home! This week in the land of Portugal has been one for the books let me tell you! So to prepare for the new year, the split of the mission and for new mission presidents, president Fluckiger has pulled out the big guns. We as a mission have started something called Mestres de Israel. It is this 30 day thing where everyday we have to do 5 things and if we dont do them then we have to restart back at day 1.#1 wake up at exactly 7. #2 Read 3 pages in the missionary manuel#3 Plan at night using the guide in PMG and in the front of the planner#4 We are only aloud to speak Portuguese out side the house.#5 We have to contact 10 people everyday.It is pretty cool! most of it isn’t that hard. The thing that gets me is that when I don’t know a word I have to either act it out or guess or just not say it. haha that is hard. Also the contacting thing is hard for me. People stress me out when they actually stop and talk to us! But it is really good and I am learning a lot! Also to complete the Mestre de Isreal thing I have to know all the lesson points and have all the scriptures that go with them memorized as well. So in all that is 29 scriptures 4 lessons and 4 extra power lesson things that our mission has. wow. big 30 days ahead of me. Today is only day 5. Wish me luck! I am excited though cuase this will finish my training and then I will be ready to just kill it as a regular missionary!This week we had lots of stuff! new years! that was good! the Portuguese go hard. Lots of drinking and smoking at partys. and they are really really loud for a really long time at midnight! haha also we were supposed to have a baptism 2 Sundays ago that fell. We are still working with J on that and trying to figure out what is really going on there. Also with the new year it was a great time to set lots of goals for the Year of my Mission! It is cool cause I get to be a sister that serves for a full year in the mission! So ya this year I have big plans for the People of Portugal! They better be ready for the storm of the gospel that is heading their way! And my favorite part of the week. THE BREAD TRUCK!!! yup there is a truck here that goes around and honks its horn really loud and then stops and people run out of their houses and they buy bread from this really funny bread truck! haha we totally went there and got some! it was awesome! I love the bread truck!I will end with the worlds of my 2nd favorite fish, Dori. Just Keep Swimming. Anyway that is all for now folks! hope that you all make awesome goals for the year of 2015! This is going to be the best year yet soooo I hope that you are all strapped in and ready to crush this year! love you all! Sister Bakker

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!