FIRST AREA-HUELVA

Holy moly where do I start?!

 So I´m here in Huelva!! I don´t know if you saw on the Malaga Mission blog already but my trainer is Hermana Robayo! She is buenissima! She´s from Ecuador but has lived in Barcelona (Spain) for the past 12? years. At first, not gonna lie, I was panicking because she doesn´t speak English but its all turned out okay. She is sooooo patient with me! Haha it takes me so long to register what the says and then respond but she´s always encouraging me. If I wasn´t working hard before to learn Spanish, I am now! My goal is to be fluent (as in actually being able to understand people) by Thanksgiving. The accent here is really really hard. Southern Spain in general is difficult to understand but Huelva I heard is one of the hardest. But once I master it I´ll be able to understand any Spanish accent right? haha. Its not too hot here, usually between 30-40 degrees Celcius (I think thats around 85-100 Fahrenheit). You may think thats hot but we went to a Zone meeting in Sevilla which is the hottest place in Spain and lemme tell ya, I wanted to die! Sooooooo hot. We at least have the ocean breeze here.

We live in a really nice part of Huelva, kind of like the scenic, touristy part I guess. There´s lots of stores and our chapel is only a couple blocks away. But we don´t live in our proselyting area and have to take a bus to visit members/investigators. We ride the bus A LOT. Thats how people get around here. The rest of Huelva is pretty poor. The first thing I did, fresh off the train from Malaga, was visit a member´s house in ¨gypsyland¨as one of the Elders called it haha. Oh man I was a freaked out...but now I can actually say I´ve been in a ghetto. Haha but its not so bad everywhere else. Since Wednesday night, we´ve had 13 lessons, 10 with members. I feel like a lost puppy following Hra. Robayo around but its getting better. I feel confident bearing my testimony in Spanish and now I´m working on teaching.

Right now we´re trying to get Erika to accept baptism. She´s 13 years old and lives with her sister and grandma. Her mom died of cancer when she was a baby and her dad is out of the picture. Her grandma and her sister were baptized months ago and now its her turn! I love their family. They´re crazy but I love them. Everyone in Spain (or at least the members) are so loving and touchy-feely. I must have given/recieved 100 besos by now haha (only to the girls mind you ;) My first Sunday was crazy. I met so many people (soooooo many), theres about 80 in the ward. I had to introduce myself in Sacrament meeting which was nervewracking but I think I did okay.

In our ward there is us and two Elders. Elder Puelles is from Barcelona too and he and Hra. Robayo have been friends for years. Elder Fisher is from Pocatello and is angel from heaven because he´s the only person I can speak English with! haha. They had a baptism this week which was CRAZY. We got there at 7;30 to help set up, the baptism started at 8, lasted an hour but when we left at 11 people were still partying! Everyone loves to celebrate haha. But it really was a miracle. Paula is 15 and has been an atheist for years. Her family has all been baptized except for her. But she went to EFY a little bit ago and was instantly converted. So cool.

So I´d just like to say that my sleeping habits have helped me so much in my mission so HA ;) We don´t get up until 7:30 and lights are out at 11:30. We proselyte for about 3 hours in the afternoon before mediahora and then again from 4PM to 10PM. I´m loving it here and I´m not too homesick, which is nice. I just hate not being able to understand! Hra. Robayo has to do all the calling and most of the talking and I just feel useless sometimes but I´m here and I love the people and I have a testimony and thats all that matters!

My favorite phrases I´ve learned this week:

Poco a poco (Spanish will come; little by little)

Toda en la cabeza! (our apartment is on the 5th floor and the elevator is broken so this is how we encourage oursleves haha)

Que te pasa!

Puro y punto.

I love you all!!

HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!

Hermana Morrow