TEMPLE STEPS

¡Qué tal!

Only 12 more days until I head out to the mission field!! AHHHH, I´m so excited! But it´s also very bittersweet. I love all the Hermanas and élderes here and its going to be a little hard to say goodbye! BUT I can´t wait! We have been working so hard this past month to prepare. It´s incredible to see how much we´ve all already improved. I´ve come from speaking only basic conversational Spanish to being able to teach the gospel in Spanish with investigators for four hours a week! Our district has even started having “Solo Espanol” mornings, where we only speak Spanish in our classroom from 8am until 1pm. We have all our names on the board and if we mess up we get a Marca de Verguenza (tally mark of shame) and then we see who has the least at the end of the morning haha. Its so funny to see people randomly run out of the classroom so they can speak english when they can´t figure out how to say something in Spanish! But I know it´s all from the Lord. He has blessed us, if we put in the effort, to be able to learn quickly. There´s no way I would have been able to come this far--at all—without his help. He definitely takes your weaknesses and makes them strong. And I am so grateful.

Now on the other hand, our Ukranian Elders and sisters left this week so we got a new group—the native Spanish speakers that will be joining us in our missions! So yeah…..that was a humbling experience. A couple of them asked me if I had arrived that same day and when I responded in my Spanish they could immediately tell I was in the learning group haha. I´ve definitely improved but I have so much farther to go! I pray my trainer has a LOT of patience! Haha.

But anyway, I realized that I have not talked about singing on Sundays! (Maybe I mentioned it?) It´s my favorite part of the whole week. All of the missionaries get together and we sing on the temple steps for about half an hour. Mostly members, but some people from the streets come and listen to (and then missionaries from the Madrid mission contact them J ) We usually sing a couple English hymns, a couple Spanish/Portuguese hymns, and then always Called to serve in Russian/Spanish/English which is really fun. But my most favorite part is when we sing “We´ll bring the world his truth.” Definitely the best song ever. We even change the last verse from “and we will be the Lord´s missionaries” to “And we are NOW the Lord´s missionaries” and it just gets me every time. I love this work so much. I have already changed so much and become so much better—I can´t even  imagine how much my actual mission will impact me! It´s already the best thing that has ever happened to me. I know that for me, personally, a mission was the next step I needed to take in my life. I have had so many experiences and moments where this has been reiterated to me. 

Thank you so much, mom and dad, for being such an example to me! I love you!

"I Have A Gift For You"

Hola hola hola!

This week has been crazy, I am so far behind in my journal writing its not even funny! We study so much but I love it! I have had so many spiritual experiences here already, but for the sake of time I´ll just share with you my experience at the park last Saturday.

I was paired up with a Sister from Ukraine (we got three ukranian missionaries going back to Ukraine and 5 Russian elders from Provo last week). We had a little less than two hours to talk to people before it was time to sing hymns in the park. Okay, so before, with my other companions we would just walk around and wait to feel if we were ¨"supposed" to talk to someone, but this sister wouldnt have it! We were literally running after people and talking to anyone and everyone we could find!! She would run up to them and say "Soy de Ukrania, tengo un regalo para usted" (I´m from Ukraine, I have a gift for you!) and hand them a Book of Mormon and then I would come in and attempt to carry on a conversation in spanish about the gospel. She was such an example to me--now thats how you do missionary work! We even found  a lot of people who spoke english, whcich was a miracle and I know the Lord blessed us so that we could both talk to people about the Book of Mormon (the sister speaks English very well). One thing I took away from the park was how I needed to be more like this tiny Ukranian sister. We´re all children of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ is for everyone. I will never not talk to someone about the Book of Mormon or about our Savior because I´m afraid or I think they´re too busy. We all need to be more like this sister and just jump at the chance to share this beautiful message with strangers and especially the people that mean the most to us.

I love especially talking to people about Christs visit to the Americas. I´ve grown up with this knowledge so sometimes I forgot how incredible this is!! We spoke to one guy in the park about it and he was like, "really?? thats amazing!" and wanted to hear more. I love this work and I wish everyone could just go to the MTC for 2 weeks...your testimony grows so much!

Anyway, I love you all! Thanks for the emails!! Here´s a funny thing we did this week. The BoM answers every question right? so we asked questions in our district and tried to find the answers in the BoM. My favorite was¨How can you find a spouse? Answer: Mosiah 20:4-5 hahaha :)

I miss you all!

Hurrah for Israel!!

I love to see the Temple!

¡Hola!
So I left out SOOO many things from my last email because I ran out of time so I´ll try to be more concise and catch up on the things I missed. First of all, thank you everyone for the letters that you put in my suitcase! That was so very sweet and I didn´t find them until I was unpacking at the CCM so it was just perfect timing.
Now I have to tell you about the temple! I´ve been through three times since I've gotten to Spain and they are each beautiful experiences that I will never forget! It is an amazing place! The temple is literally a stone´s throw from the CCM and I can see it every time I walk past a window. The CCM is on temple grounds so I am pretty much on temple grounds 24/7 and you can definitely feel a difference. I feel so much peace and love, it will definitely be hard when I leave for Malaga.

Also I can´t believe I couldn’t talk about the park last week! Holy moly, it’s been an amazing experience! Every Saturday we take the metro to Parque del Retiro in Madrid. We split up into different companionships (the first time I was paired up with a sister from France who speaks 5 languages! FIVE! Needless to say, I didn´t really talk that much at the park) to go talk to people about the gospel. Last Saturday was a way better experience than last week anyway so I´ll just focus on that one J I was paired up with Sister Mendes from Cabo Verde, who is going to Portugal on her mission. She only speaks Portuguese soooo I was a little nervous about being the dominant speaker when we approached people but I was excited to have the chance to talk more. We talked to many people, most of them just shooed us away but we were able to give away four copies of the Book of Mormon and 3 referrals! Sister Mendes was incredible and even helped me when I didn’t understand what people were saying. It was amazing to get the chance to bear my testimony IN SPANISH and talk about the importance and blessing the Book of Mormon is. We even found people who spoke English and Portuguese so we even got to talk in our own language which is soooooo nice! Haha. After we talk to people for about two hours we sing hymns in the park. Its an incredible experience and has strengthened my testimony as well as have a greater desire to share the gospel with everyone I meet!

Also, I´d like to mention that I play fútbol every day IN SPAIN with SPANISH strangers in a SPANISH park haha. It´s a lot of fun even though I´m absolutely horrible at it haha.

I have lots of pictures from last P-day from when I went to the Prado Museum so once I get the SD cards I´ll send them to ya!

I love you all and I hope you know how much I love my Savior and that I want to serve Him as best as I can! He´s already converted one person on this mission and its me! I love this gospel and I love Spain, even though the like gets frustrating sometimes! I love you!

HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!
Hermana Morrow

Buenos Dias!

Sorry I didn't email you on Monday, our Preparation Days are actually on Thursday so expect an email then. Thank you for all your emails!! I love them so much, I can´t tell you how much I've looked forward to reading them! We only have 30 minutes so please forgive me if I don´t get the chance to respond to everyone directly. If you personally want me to respond, just let me know in your email or just send me a letter directly. But don´t stop with the email updates, I LOVE AND NEED THEM. Here´s my address until August 5.

Sister Kelsey Ann Morrow

Spain Málaga Missionary

Spain Missionary Training Center

4a. Planta

Calle del Templo Nº2

Madrid 28030

SPAIN

 June 25-July 3

Oh man I don´t even know where to begin! First off though, I just want to let you know that being here is incredible. I love every second and the transition has been super easy and I recognize your prayers and the Lord´s hand in that.

My companion is Hermana Carmen from Wyoming and I love her! We´re already close friends. I room with my companion and 3 other girls—two of them are in my District: Hermana Shake and Hermana Shurtz (we call them shake n´shirts haha) and another girl who is going to Russia next week. There´s 6 more American girls in another room and we´re all going to a mission in Spain—whether its in Barcelona, Madrid, or Malaga (except the Russian sister).

We also have brothers and sisters going to Portugal in a week, most of them are from Portugal itself but some of them are from Argentina, Mozambique, and France. There´s about 25 missionaries total in the CCM, I love it!! We´re all so close, especially with the Portuguese sisters. The language barrier is not that difficult and we can talk to each other easily. It´s so fun haha! I´ve already picked up on Portuguese and Russian since being here.

My district consists of the two other girls from my room, my companion, and Elder Dunn (who we all agree will be translated any second). We´re technically in the advanced Spanish class but it does NOT feel that way sometimes! The first couple days were a little discouraging. Our teachers are all native Spanish speakers (like from Spain, with thick accents). But my prayers and the prayers of others have definitely been helping and I am beginning to understand them more and more each day. We have about 4-5 grammar teachers who teach us basic lessons. What I really like about this language study program here is how they gear everything towards teaching people the gospel. We may learn about infinitives one day, but we are taught in the way where we can use it in a lesson. Everything we learn is for the people we teach, nothing is for ourselves.

Four times a week, we teach two investigators. Mine are Juana, a tattoo artist, and Macarena, a Catholic mother of two. I have improved in my teaching so much already and I can actually hold a conversation. We teach for about 30 minutes each meeting and it’s amazing so far we´ve come already. I love the teaching and you can see the change in people as we help them discover the love of our Heavenly Father and the gospel of Jesus Christ.

 I love you all and theres so much to say but I ran out of time! I miss you!!!

 HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!

 Hermana Morrow