Coelho's Family Message

We would like to share a message we received from a family in Portugal

Dear Restrepo Family,

Today we had our missionaries over for dinner and we were happy to learn more about Sister Restrepo , her family and her motivation to be here. How she wanted to be an example to her brother and how she decided to come on a mission after teaching with the sister missionaries one day and how much her mother cried with her when she said she was going to serve. And how her father cried and still cries everyday....  ( fathers...)  We always see a discreet smile on her face at church but today we got a glimpse of her mischief... we can see there's so much more to her,  a beautiful and vibrant young woman. We are happy that she came and she certainly brought her testimony with her .We love her dearly even though she's been here for such a short time. We hope to keep her for a while. She's great example to our 5 year old daughter, Joana.

 By the way, we are Cláudia ( the Mom wearing glasses) , Francisco ( the Dad going bald), Tomás ( the 9 year old brain in the family) and Joana ( the 5 year old princess/ drama queen).

 We are the Coelho's and we absolutely love our boisterous band of missionaries/ rock stars.

 Thank you for your sweet girl.  You must be so proud of her!

 Love,

 Os Coelhos

 

 

 In the back: Elders Smith, Taylor, Maxinho and Tapia

 In the front: Francisco, Cláudia, Tomás, Joana, Sisters Truman and Restrepo

 

 

Who thought Cobblestone was a good idea?

Hola friends and family!!!!

I hit my two month mark on my mission! It has definitely seemed like I have been on my mission for an eternity, but also that I just got here.

Who came up with cobblestone?! It was probably the worst idea. It gets slippery when it's wet, I imagine it takes forever and a half to put down, Sister Truman and I keep tripping because it is all uneven, and the little stones come out all the time...... what a waste of time..... I look like a weirdo that can't walk on sidewalk. Oh well.

We have been teaching this guy Isaias who has been such an amazing example to us! He has so much faith and has been learning a lot from us. He moved houses, so he is no longer in our area, so Friday was our last lesson with him and I cried. A lot. He is such an amazing person, and it is definitely hard to hand him to the other missionaries in Amadora. Every time we get transferred, it is going to be really rough.

Claudia Coelho is the relief society president, and that whole family is absolutely perfect!!!! I love them so much! She invited us for dinner and made a lasagna that was absolutely delicious, so I asked for the recipe! (Don't worry mommy, yours is still much better). We get lunch and dinners here pretty frequently. When we get lunch and dinner on one day, we feel like throwing up because of how full we are. The people here have big lunches and then eat really late at night. The kids here also stay up really late.

There is a bakery/pasteleria on every single corner and they all smell like heaven!! The bread is SO AMAZING EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!!

I really really don't like stopping people on the sidewalk to see if they would like to hear more about our church, but Sister Truman bribed me. She told me that if I could get someone's information, then we could go to McDonald's to get ice cream. This day was as hot as could possibly be, I love ice cream, and the ice cream here is easily 10 times better than in the U.S, so of course that bribe worked. I went out and contacted every single person I possibly could and no one said yes. When it was the last second, I contacted two men at a bus stop and was able to get their information as they entered the bus. Ice cream never tasted so good. I have been a little better at contacting since then! Also, The McDonalds are high tech here. You order on some screen thing and they have more desserts here!  I ate a caramel sundae today and I am convinced that the caramel was real arequipe / dulce de leche.

We visit this 80 something year old woman named Amelia and she is easily my favorite person to visit. She shows us soooo many things in her house and everything has a story. We try to share our message with her, but she starts talking to her cat and she is hilarious!! I love her so much. Our messages with her are really short because she moves on to talk about the flowers she picked that day or what happened when she was like 5. She is amazing!

Some more facts about Portugal

The two most popular cars here are Citroen and Peugeot

There are people that are randomly on horses, but those are usually the gypsies, and we don't really talk to them.

Now I know what Fogo de Chão means!!!! Fire of the floor. It makes absolutely no sense, but there it is!

I absolutely love a drink from Brazil called Guaraná

I love you all so much!!! Never forget that you are all children of God and that He loves you with his whole heart. Never forget your worth!

Have an amazing week,

Sister Restrepo

We went to a house and they gave us goodie bags after dinner

We found a blockbuster!!!!

It is of course out of business, but it was still a beautiful sight!

A beautiful city named Belas that we think is in our area,

but takes forever and a half to walk there

The outside of our apartment.

Ours is the one with the bed sheet over the window,

that room is our living room 

Claudia Coelho's son! He made that sign for us!! SOOO ADORABLE!!!!

Loving Portugal more and more each day!

Hello friends and family!!!

Let me tell you that I absolutely love this country! The food is amazing, the people are so wonderful and kind, the scenery is incredible!

We ride trains here, a lot. We had to buy a pass because we travel by train way too much to be paying each time. We went to a city called Sintra last week and our pass doesn´t work out there, we didn´t know until we got there. I tried to make it through the door with one of the Elders, but it squished my face instead. Today, I saw that the doors were open for a long time, so I decided to go through them, and once I did, it smashed my hips. I think I have learned my lesson.

Monday: My companion, Sister Truman and I deserve a best missionary companionship award. We left both our phone and our keys somewhere. We luckily found both, but we definitely beat ourselves up about it.

Tuesday: We met Anne and she is a young woman that decided to talk to us. She didn´t seem all that interested when we talked to her, but we will definitely continue to see where it leads. She is an awesome girl! We went to go see Auta and her family and I absolutely love them! We played a game with them where they had to get an Oreo from their forehead into their mouth by only using face muscles! It was hilarious! Everytime I am at their house, I feel like I'm with my family! They just make me feel so at home! It was also a really cloudy, breezy day which was definitely a tender mercy!

Wednesday: We met a woman on the street named Paula. I decided to go over to her and talk to her about why we are here and about the message we have. She was interested and took one of our cards. On the back of the card, it had a picture of the Book of Mormon, so she came back to talk to us and asked about the book. Sister Truman had one and gave it to her. We walked away again and Sister Truman really wanted to mark a scripture for her, but we didn't know where she went. A couple minutes later, Paula ran into us and we were able to mark the scripture! What a miracle! We had lunch with some members and they gave us lasagna and we had cantelope as dessert. I cannot stand cantelope, but I ate it nonetheless. We then had dinner later on and guess what they gave us for dessert....... yup. cantelope. It wasn't a small piece either, it was huge!

Thursday: We ate with the Familia Martins. The wife had to run out and give a class, but we were with Brother Martins! He is such an amazing person! He definitely reminds me of my grandpa, a lot. I loved being there for lunch with him. We were feeling a little discouraged this day because we knocked many doors and there were some people that just really did not want to hear anything we had to say, but we found a park and decided to try to find people there. We found two teeneage girls and they decided to let us teach them! They are both really nice and had lots of questions for us. Miracles happen! We also found a woman who told us that we don't believe in the Bible, so she gave us Bible verses to study, and I just thought that was funny because we do believe in it.

Friday: We taught Wandy's cousin, Chiena! she is a really nice and had lots of questions for us. We said an opening prayer and she cried during it, saying that she really enjoyed it. We shared a message with her and she wants to be baptized!

Saturday: We taught Adelaide again! She is such a strong woman and such an example to us. She has been through so much in her life, and yet, she is very strong and faithful! We met a woman named Felisbella and she really opened up to us. She also has been through a lot of heartache and pain in her life. We just shared brief testimonies and asked if we could stop by another time to talk, and she accepted! We also had lunch with a member, and yup, you guessed it... we ate cantelope for dessert. I guess I am going to have to love that fruit.

Sunday: We met an amazing family! The husband is a bishop over a ward in Lisbon, yet they live in Cacém. They moved to Cacém recently and he was already called as a bishop. They have two little kids and they are the cutest kids! The little girl showed all us missionaries all her toys! She is so precious!

I love you all so much and appreciate all the love and encouragement you send my way! Thank you all for your support! I invite you all to seek out how the Lord blesses you everyday and write down those tender mercies!

Love,

Sister Restrepo

Tiny tiny little cars here

We played a game with a family where they had to get an Oreo 
from their forehead into their mouth by only using face muscles! 

It was hilarious!  

There are tons of Renault 4's here. Same as in Colombia  

Holy moly it´s hot!!

It is really hot here in Portugal and we walk all day, so if I don´t lose weight on this mission, I have no clue how to lose weight! 

I am also convinced that all the people here in Portugal are either sick or late for something because every time we try to talk to someone on the street, they say they have an appointment or that they are in a hurry. Viva Portugal!!

Today we went to the city called Sintra! It is absolutely gorgeous and I would invite all of you to go there sometime in your life! It´s amazing! We went to a palace there and holy smokes it was beautiful! All the tourists go to Sintra!!! When you think of pictures of Portugal or Italy, that is exactly what Sintra looks like! It´s gorgeous!

 

Tuesday: We talked to a lady on the streets named, Patricia and invited her to come to church with us and she said yes! How crazy!! We also met this woman whose son is a member of our church and she has a really strong desire to join this church, but her situation is very complicated. I absolutely adore that family and want to help them, but our hands are a bit tied with this situation and it is just so sad to witness. Her name is Auta, and she is such a strong and faithful woman. We also met Mario, who is a really awesome guy! We have him marked to be baptized on the 30th of this month!! We were rejected lots of times, but we made cookies and put ice cream in the middle to feel better.

Wednesday: We were out 4 hours in the morning trying to find people that weren´t coming to church anymore and talking to people on the streets, but no one answered their doors or wanted to talk to us. We went home, ate, and went back out to be rejected some more, but met a super funny old woman named Amelia!!! It has been really hard here, we knock on doors and people don´t answer and we talk to people on the street and they say no, a lot. We ask people who clearly look like they need help to see if we can help them and they say no, Jehova´s Witness is a big thing here and a lot of people take their messages. It´s hard, but we are talking to people who are SUPER COOL and really want to learn more and are just amazing to be around, so I try and focus on that so I don´t get sad.

Thursday: We have several people that don´t want to talk to us anymore, but we are keeping our heads up!!!

Friday: We met an amazing Brazilian family!!!! They are so awesome!

Some facts about Portugal:

The geography: We walk everywhere here. Everything is uphill. It´s really exhausting, but it’s all part of the experience!!!!! YAY!!!

The weather: Deliciously fresh in the morning and at night, but during the day is so HOTTTTTTTTTTT!! I am in a puddle of sweat all day long, and I drink soooo much water.

The food: The food here is sooo delicious!!!!! The bread is to die for! We don’t eat out because it cost us money and we don’t want to spend when we can eat at home.  We just got the dinner schedule where people from the church sign up to feed us, so I will tell you more about the food next week. I ATE OCTOPUSS in a member’s house!!!! She also added the whole shrimp, with eyes and everything!!!!

When I speak Portuguese, I have a Colombian accent and people here think I am from Spain!

Love you all!!!!!!

 

My companion Sister Truman

 

 

Our apartment

 

Pastel de Nata. A local sensation, but I am not a big fan....

Maybe with time

Remembering my family + soccer. We collected Panini stickers during

the World Cup 2014. They have them here, so I got one 

 

 

We went to that lady´s house who is a less active member,

 and she cooked us octopus!!

 

On our way to Sintra