Photos Received February 18, 2017

Celso Marcelo Pinho Grando sent these pitures today through facebook.

Celso Marcelo Pinho Grando enviou essas fotos hoje através do Facebook.

Email: February 13, 2017

Ola Familia!!!!!!!

We had a fantastic week. The Lord blessed us this week to be able to serve a bunch of people! and it was awesome. we got to help a woman in our ward unpack her things for her new house, we helped the elders with one of their investigators, we helped one our investigators Belmira clean up her house. Oh so belmira is the ex investigator that we found a few weeks ago but she wants to meet with us again! She has some problems and was involved with drugs but we cleaned her room and now we have new clothes! It was really cool because she said she tried to get help from lots of other people but in the end who were the ones that helped? the missionaries! 

HAHA so last wednesday we were doing studies and we got a knock on the door. It was some peeps to do an inspection for the gas in our house. They did the inspection but we didn´t pass! so they turned off our gas and i don´t think we will have it on again until this thursday! So we haven´t had any hot water and can´t use our stove. The cold shower hasn´t been fun because our house is already soups cold but i brought the heaters into the bathroom and it wasn´t too bad. haha a bunch of members have offered to let us shower there but we figured it´s either walk in the rain or just take a cold shower. but all is well!!

so funny story...the owner of our apartment came to our house to fix the leak on our stove. We were getting ready to leave and i had to go brush my teeth. So  i went to my bathroom (first time in my life i have my own bathroom!) and the door was cracked open so i entered but only to find antonio (the husband of the owner) sitting on my toilet leaving me a surprise!!! he screamed and i screamed and this his wife said sorry, forgot to tell you he was in there. OH man it was awkward but im still laughing about it. (oh and then when we got home that night i realized he didn´t flush!!!)Then that same day we got a phone call from ana from our ward and we scheduled to meet with one of her neighbors. she said after you´re done visiting her "voces vao almocar aqui" (have lunch here) so i told her awesome and that we would be coming soon. what a blessing because we didn´t have gas in our house!  Well we tried the neighbor and after we called ana again to see when to come over. I asked her when lunch was and then she explained to me that she had said "me calçar" (help her put on her shoes) OOPS i told her we would be right over! she laughed and i laughed and i think my comp almost killed me. 

We saw miracles and had 5 investigators at church yesterday!!!! gloria para deus!!! I feel like every week i am coming to know our savior more. I am learning more how to rely on him. Also i just love the book of mormon. I read in mosiah 18 a few days ago and i love that we have the opportunity to take the sacrament every week and remember our baptisms. I love our savior and know that he has already suffered for us. 

HBD MEGAN ESSA SEMANA!!!!!!!!!!!!! megan i would make you a sign too but i forgot my camera but parabens for doing well in stake conference and for having a good date with alex. 

LOVE YOU GUYS!!! HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!! (i think we are going to heart attack a bunch of our peeps) 

Sister Emma Hulsey

--so this was from my first transfer and now we are serving together

Email: February 6, 2017

Hi mom! and everybody else,

it rained a loooooottttt this week. my cute rain boots were FILLED with rain . i heard that we had a tornado here. which makes sense because there was tons of wind and rain but we continued to work. On saturday NOBODY was in there house but finally at the end of the day we taught this family and finally were able to teach the father of this family. Then yesterday we didn´t really have anyone to visit so we quickly made some cookies and delivered them to members and investigators who were sick and it was super fun! Also we too had a wonderful sacrament meeting yesterday. it was super spiritual and our investigators isabel, rosa e henrique came to church! they are from angola and are awesome. And i love what you said about the fast offerings mom. the lord knows EVERY effort we put in to try to be obedient. 

and a very happy birthday to eli this week! i will send a picture for you guys to print out for him. i love you and am always praying for you guys! 

Sister Emma Hulsey

Email: January 30, 2017

hello family!!! 

I love hearing from you guys! but i don´t like responding, nothing against you guys just im not very good at writing. Anyways....this week was cool!! To start off the missionary schedule changed! we now can choose when to do comp and language study and we plan in the morning. Its been a little funky to adjust but i love having time to relax before bed! we had a worldwide missionary broadcast and it was SO good. i learned so much and i know that our prophets and apostles are inspired. Something that i am really trying to focus on this transfer , well ok to not focus on, is numbers. But to really help my peeps progress in this gospel. In this broadcast we learned that we are not just here to preach but to really establish the church and to baptize converts! this will take patience and more sensitivity to the spirit but it is #worthit!!! we were still able to teach some peeps this week which is a blessing! but we had i think 10 appointments fall through this week which was a bummer but we will continue. Also yesterday we were knocking doors and we found this really sassy girl and it was probably one of the most awkward contacts ever but when i think about it i just laugh. She did NOT want to talk with us but she kept responding (very rudely) to the questions we asked. I don´t really know how to explain it but just know that i am sitll very awkward and probs more awkward in portuguese but i always have a reason to laugh. Wowzers is has been raining quite a bit here but i love the rain and it  always makes me think of all the blessings we have and also that song i like to look for rainbows.

anyways i am doing well! every day  i hope to be a more consecrated missionary. 

Love you guys with every thing that i am! 

Sister Emma Hulsey

we aren´t allowed to ride on horses...

Email: January 23, 2017

Querida familia 

This week was muito fixe! First because we had like 5 meals with members this week which was a blessing because we didn´t go shopping last pday! alsoooo because we found this awesome family this week! when we knocked on her door she was apprehensive to speak with us but after talking a little bit more with her she opened up and we were able to return! and teach her 2 sons! her one son miguel was so adorable and when we gave him a pamphlet of the first lesson he immediatley grabbed it, read it and tried to draw it. And her other son said the closing prayer! the lord is blessing us here. I LOVE teaching whole families. it is such a privelege! Also i am really growing every day more to love my personal study time. This week i was reading in Jacob and dang he is such a great example. he explained that he was ready to answer for the sins of the people. He felt comfortable standing in the presence of god saying yes, i did ALL that i could to help this person. What love he must of had for those people he was teaching! I want to work harder to get to the point that jacob was at. Also my testimony was strengthened a lot about church attendance. First because sis gouveia and i have been studying about how we can get our investigators to church and also because this week at church i received so many answers and felt a spirit so strong. 

Funny story sis gouveia like to always scare me and turn out the lights when im in the bathroom (because here in portugal the lights for the rooms are outside of the room) so this week i was praying before bed and i though sis gouveia was already in bed because the lights were out and there was a lump in her bed. Then i hear the door creek so i just started praying harder because i was flipping scared but then realized it was sis gouveia. Also while we were knocking doors we found sooo many people who were taking baths. Only slightly awkward!! 

Love you Guys

Sis Hulsey 

THANKS FOR THE PACKAGE AND THE PJSSSS !!!!!!!!!

Email: January 16, 2017

Hi family!! 

Was kind of a strange week but in the end was good and i learned a lot! Oh man our president challenged us for this month to find lots of new people to teach, so sis gouveia and i wanted to participate in this. We knocked so many flipping doors this week that we both had dreams about it! every night we came home super tired but with a peace knowing we were trying to do all that we could. Man we also met this atheist that talked our ears off (but in the end we left a book of mormon with him and told him the only way he could return it to us was at church!) and jehovah witnesses that talked and talked and also just a bunch of peeps that didn´t like us buuut after every time sis gouveia and i talked about how the spirit was telling us the truth and our testimonies were strengthened!! we also tried contacting people from our area book and everything and in the end only found 2 new people to teach!! but they are really cool and we have lots of hope for them. i´m grateful for the spirit that is always helping me know what to say, where to go, and feel comfort!! 

haha this week i also gave a talk in church and translated for someone. and every week i lead the music. haha im grateful that sis lundberg taught me how. I was kind of nervous to give a talk but i think it went alright!

transfers came and i am staying with sis gouveia here in braga! first time im staying with my comp. im excited to see what this transfer has for me, the last one went by super fast. 

glad you guys are doing well! thanks for that thought about the atonement mom! i like to be happy and the atonement will help me! im praying for you guys! OOOOHHH and i received my grammy jammies and christmas package! thanks so so so much i love everything! a couple came to do an inspection and brought it to me (also i met elder and sister lam who have family that live in lindon, they are super cool!) so i immediatley tried on my jammies but had to wait until night to read the note so i could cry like a baby! 

love you guys! 

Sister Emma Hulsey

i promise i will send pics of my grammy jammies next week we forgot the cord to send the pics! 

Email: January 2, 2017

Querida Familia!

Oh sorry that you´re sick! everyone here is too, everyone has gripe. But sister gouveia and i are healthy so that´s a blessing! holy cow where did megan and ren  have this party. sounds like fun. Hope grandma Huggy called on new years. I can´t believe it is 2017 either! what a wonderful year 2016 was! i am jealous that you guys are teaching sunbeams, besides a missionary that is the best calling in the world. 

We had a great week and a very happy new year! we did some family nights this week which went really well! we had entire families participate! i love how the gospel of jesus christ that was restored through a prophet unites family! these are the miracles most special for me to see because i know that my family has been so blessed by this gospel. Through any hard time or whatever problem the gospel is the answer. Saturday night was interesting because our appointments fell through so we went to knock doors and pratically NO ONE was home. so we just kept trying and said we can contact peeps on the street but there was NO ONE on the streets. but we kept going and knocking but the miracle came the next day when we had 2 less actives and 2 investigators come to church, early in the morning after new years!! i was so happy to see them. oh at midnight there were SOO many fireworks it was super cool. 

I love you guys and i am excited to see what this year has in store for me! 

Sister Emma Hulsey