Email: August 28, 2017

Hey Family! 

This week was great!! We have been working hard and seeing some miracles! 

We were knockin' some doors and we talked through the doorbell with someone that said he already knows Jesus and stuff but would let us into the building to knock on other peoples' doors! So we went in and heard someone singing about Jesus, but it was his door. Me and Sis Johnson both felt like we should still knock and try again to talk with him. So we said a prayer and knocked again. He answered and was super nice and we talked for a little and told him about the restored gospel and said a prayer with him and invited him to church. He told us he would come to our church if we went to his! So early Sunday morning we went out to his apartment and he walked with us to church. His name is Patrick and he´s Brazillian. He stayed all 3 hours of church and was talking with the members and everything. He said that he would most definitley be coming back.  Then last night we went to his Evangelical church. Man, no one falls asleep in those churches. Everyone was SO friendly and welcoming so me and Sis Johnson decided our members need to be more friendly! Also we met some other people at that church that said that one day they would make a visit in our church. It was a blast! 

We have been teaching Maria Elisabete. She is going to be baptized! She made it to church this week and really liked it. We taught her the 3rd lesson and wrapped up each part of the lesson into presents and she loved it! 

I started reading the Book of Mormon again and truly I think a lot about Laman and Lemuel. I think sometimes I am a lot more like them than I am like Nephi. They also were obedient, as in they still went to try and get the plates. But the difference was they didn´t have faith and they complained. But I also read the talk from Brad Wilcox called His Grace is Sufficient and I learned we don´t have to be worthy to try again, but that through Jesus Christ, we ALWAYS have new beginnings. 

Sorry I don´t have much time because we locked our keys in our apartment and we had to wait and hour and 15 minutes for the guy to come. hahah 

Love you all and I pray for you every day! 

Sister Emma Hulsey

We literally live right in here! It´s soooo cute

                                         Our zone!

There is a fair going on right outside our house

Sister Johnson had a birthday!

It´s either super hot or foggy and rainy! 

Email: August 21, 2017

Hello family!!!! 

haha glad you got the pics from tomi...turns out that tomi is just the brand of some machines they have throughout the city that take fun pictures! 

I'm very glad Eli´surgery went well. That little dude is a champion. Megan will love school. It is so much fun. 

MAN so much has happened I do not know where to begin. Viseu is like the complete OPPOSITE of Sao Joao so it has been a kind of funny adjustment. We have a ton of people to teach and keep finding more every day. The ward is really big and our house is super close to the church. We all call this place Vicéu. I am super blessed to be here! My new comp is Sister Johnson and she only has 6 weeks on the mission. She´s a great missionary though! We have been working and working and my head is spinning trying to learn the new area and all the new people but the Lord has blessed us a lot.

I had a kind of long bus ride to come to Viseu and I was sitting by this cute lady and we had a wonderful conversation about the Plan of Salvation. I was kind of unprepared and didn´t really have anything in my backpack but an Ensign so I left it with her and she gave me all of her information and everything. She told me she knew it wasn´t a coincidence that we sat by each other.  

The night I got here we went to go visit someone but we ended up getting a little lost...out of the corner of my eye I saw this girl at a cafe so I waved and said hello and next thing you know she was walking with us to her house so we could talk with her and her family. She said she felt bad because we were lost but she was really excited to talk with us. She is super cute and already has desires to be baptized. We found out it was her birthday on Saturday so we wrapped up a Book of Mormon to give to her. We brought it over there and she was pumped! Then we went over the next day and she said she really likes reading it and that her aunt was going crazy the other day so she grabbed the Book of Mormon and started yelling verses at her and she said the aunt stopped and was fine. 

We have been finding some really cool people. The Lord is truly blessing us. We have been getting home super tired but it´s the best. Training has been fun because the training material is so good! We learned a lot about the power of the Book of Mormon in conversion this week. I know that the power of Jesus Christ has been restored and I am so excited to share this news with others. 

love you all! 

Sister Hulsey

When me and sister griffin had to pack up and move! We almost missed the one bus that left sao joao!! 

Lisandra, the person who had pity on us when we were lost.

Sister Johnson´s family tradition is every friday night eat popcorn and smoothies for dinner so we went with it!

Email: August 14, 2017

Hey family! 

Wow what a week! I had the opportunity to go to this big mission council. It lasted 2 days and it was full of trainings and the spirit! It was so fun to see some people before they left. We had Elder Moreira of the 70 come and speak with us. I learned so much and I feel like a whole new person and missionary. One thing that Elder Moreira explained to us is that we are doing the exact same work that the apostles did in the Bible. We are entitled to the same power. 

We only had a few days to work in our area this week and we really wanted to reach our goals and help our peeps ! We were able to find some awesome new investigators and we had some amazing lessons with our investigators. On Saturday we had a movie night in the chapel and these AMAZING people showed up. They are from South Africa. As we were talking with them they got emotional at the fact that we leave our lives behind to serve the Lord. We watched the Joseph Smith movie. I LOVE THAT MOVIE! I felt the spirit SO strong and my testimony was definitely strengthened. After the movie, we asked them how they liked it and they said they loved it! They asked when our church meetings are and everything. THE WORK IS MOVING ALONG SO WELL HERE IN SAO JOAO! But I am SO sad because I am leaving! 

I'm getting transferred to Viseu. I will be sister training leader and I'm going to finish the training of a sister. I'm really excited to go and I hear Viseu is awesome but I loved my time here! The other sad thing is a lot of missionaries were supposed to arrive but due to problems with visas only a few will be arriving so our area is being temporarily closed and only one dupla of elders will stay here so they can take care of a few of our investigators. I am so sad to leave this branch and our peeps here but I know the Lord has a plan for everything. I learned and grew so much here. It is the ghetto farmlands but I love them. I came closer to my Savior Jesus Christ! 

I LOVE the mission. Every transfer I learn more and more about the Atonement. We get fresh starts and become better. Glad things are going well back at home. Can´t believe summer is already coming to an end! 

Love you guys! 

Sister Emma Hulsey

we went to a medieval fair last week . it was so cool!! 

we had to bring home a lot of book of mormons. We stopped like 10 times carrying them coming home from the bus

the CUTEST members otilia e odette

Email: August 7, 2017

Hey family! 

Another week has come and gone! It was a really wonderful week for me. A list of reasons why... 

-I finished the book of mormon in portuguese haha took me long enough but I know with ALL of my heart that book is true. It has helped me on the best and worst of days because it literally has ALL the answers. I feel way closer to jesus christ through reading that blessed book. 

- We had a zone activity in porto and handed out TONS of bom´s on sister Griffin´s birthday. It was so fun to have tons of missionaries together talking with everyone! they took a group pic and at that moment they were trying to call us over but we were talking to this really cool lady . So no group pics for us. 

- Some brazillians that are on vacation came to our branch yesterday and gave us some awesome references to visit. 

- We met this cool brazillian lady Graça a few weeks ago but then she left on vacation. yesterday we decided to go find her house and she let us in! She already has a book of mormon and said she reads it sometimes. She was very excited to hear our message and is excited for us to come back! 

-Heavenly father helped us reach our weekly goal for new investigators...we had a goal of 5 and on Saturday we only had 1. But we set out with high hopes and found some awesome people! 

-We taught fatima the 2nd lesson and the spirit was super strong. I love the plan of salvation--sometimes it is really confusing and there is a lot to teach but everything just points back to jesus christ! Fatima also read the part in the book of mormon that we left with her! she was going to come to church but she canceled last minute. 

-Our president challenged each missionary to do something bold this week and i have always wanted to preach on a bus SO as the bus was driving past the church i stood up and invited everyone on the bus to come to the true church of jesus christ. It was kind of scary but pretty fun too. 

Im very grateful to have the calling of a missionary. Im glad things seem to be going well back in the good ol lindon. Holy cow so many people had babies! Thanks for all of your love and support! I love you guys a lot! I am grateful for your wonderful examples. 

Love 

Sister Emma Hulsey

I LOVE Portugal because there is always fruit on the road..we found blackberries this week.

our district

Sister Griffin calls us the salvation squad

Email: July 31, 2017

Hey family!! 

So great to hear from you. I can´t remember too much of what happened this week ! But one day I remember Miguel was walking with us and we were saying hello to every one but then Miguel reminded us of a line in our mission song and he said " Sisteres sem deixar passar ninguém! " (I think this must mean that we should let no one pass by without inviting them) so then we started full on talking with EVERYONE. Pretty sure we didn´t get to anywhere we had planned on going but we met some cool people with some great potential! 

As a district we are trying to really get the members involved in our work so we had the opportunity to do a special 3rd hour lesson yesterday. We prepared a lot for it. On Saturday Sister Griffin and I decided to make cookies for everyone and attach them to a cool quote so during our lunch hour we made the dough but then we were busy the rest of the day SO when we got home we started poundin' out the cookies and gluing quotes. It was a mess but the members LOVED them. During our lesson, we asked the members to share some ways their lives were better because of the gospel and it was so sweet to hear! All the time on the mission I realize the gospel IS the answer to everything in life. It helps us with every aspect of our lives. I am so blessed to have it! But we also must share it because God´s plan doesn´t function without missionary work. 

We started teaching this awesome lady named Fatima. We had a super spiritual lesson with her and she has a real desire to learn. Right as we were giving a baptismal invite her doorbell rang and her sister came in so she didn´t agree to baptism yet but we talked more with her sister and she said one day they will all come to church ! 

We had a bunch of people promise to come to church this week and NONE of them came. Was a bummer but we will get them next time. 

I have been studying a lot about faith this week. Every time I read more about faith I realize how much I don´t know about it (you don´t know all that you know, so keep trying....name that quote hahahah) But I know that miracles do not produce faith. But faith is believing and trusting so much in God that our wills are exactly aligned with His and then we ask for things and it is given, but because our desire are pure and righteous. 

I love our savior and am so happy to representing Him! 

Love you all! 

Sister Emma Hulsey

Irmã Teresa .. We met with her in the church to do listao and got 5 references from her then she said "Vamos para a rua!" she walked with us for a few hours and all the old portuguese men were hitting on her!!

           classic selfie with miguel.

O ramo de São João da Madeira