PIOJOS

Haha I don´t know where to begin! This week has been INSANE. I can´t help but laugh as I look back at all the things that happened, oh man....

For starters, we had a surprise companion exchange? (I can´t remember what its called in English haha) on Tuesday! Our Sister Training Leaders called us in the morning and told me that my bus to Sevilla was leaving in a couple hours....  So that was just a little crzy and Hra. Robayo and i ran around like mad women trying to get ready and fix all the appointments for the day haha. But in the end, it all turned out well (even if just barely made it onto the bus with 30 seconds to spare)! The next 24 hours I spent with Hra Grant. She actually lived in New Jersey for the first half of her life! This was the first time since the MTC that I´ve had a companion who speaks fluent English and let me tell you, I took advantage of it! Poor Hna. Grant haha I talked her ear off! She´s going to BYU too and it was fun for me to tell her about all the things that have changed on campus. We had a great time together and I definitely learned a lot. This exchange was special for me too because I had my first exchange back in August in the same area and I got to visit a family I had taught before. it was amazing to see their progression. One of the daughters looks and acts exactly like Jenna so it was extra special :)  Later, we even got to meet the Bishop of the ward there and he and his wife took us to see the brand new chapel. SO BEAUTIIFUL! It was almost like seeing a temple. The members in this area had been renting a piso (floor/apartment?) for years and now they have enough funds and enough members for their very own chapel. I want to serve in this area soooo badly. Especially since I find out this is the ward all the members from the military base go to :D Oh my gosh i would just love that! Cross your fingers for the Dos Hermanas area! Someday...

So guess what? I learned a new word in Spanish, that I never EVER wanted to learn: piojos. LICE. My companion and I got LICE. Oh man it was so awful but I´m so glad we can look back and laugh at it now haha. We had to wash all our clothes and our bedding like 3 times and members let us come over and they brushed our hair for us haha (so embarrassing!). It reminded me of The Great Lice Episode of The Lahti/Morrow Reunion a couple years ago haha  (sorry, Popes!) I hope we can look back on that expereince too and laugh!

 

So quite honestly, this week was a rough one. Not just because of the lice. Missions are hard, man! And I just want to say that I won´t ever say that the mission is easy. I knew coming into this that it was going to be hard, but I didn´t know it was going to be this hard! haha. I have so much more respect for return-missionaries, no matter for how long they served--2 years, 2 months, or even 2 weeks. I could come on my email every week and just write about the good things but it wouldn´t be real. I hope you don´t read this and think I´m ever complaining or that its ever unbearable. It may be emotionally, physically, and especially spiritually demanding but let me tell you--its amazing. It´s amazing. No matter how hard it got this week, all I could do was laugh and pray, and push through it.   

And we have two GOLDEN investigators who have made it all worth it. I would go through the struggles of this week a hundred more times for Estela and Antonia. They make it ALL worth it. Antonia is well on her way to baptism. The date is still set for October 11, less than 2 weeks! She is a special lady and has been prepared for a long time. We visited her the other day and her son happened to be there and we taught the lesson to them both and it was so special to be able to see her share her love and her testimony of the gospel with him. She wnats him to accept the gospel in his life SO badly because it means so much to her. It reminded me of how the gospel of Jesus Christ, our knowledge of the Savior and His Atonement, is the best gift we could ever give someone. 

And Estela! oh my goodness,I love her to DEATH. She´s only 11 years old but spiritually speaking, more like 30! We taught her the Restoration one visit and asked her to pray about Joseph Smith and if he was a true prophet of god. We asked her the next day how her prayer went and all she could say was  "muy muy muy muy muy MUY BIEN!!" She doesn´t believe, she KNOWS Joseph Smith restored the church as a prophet of God and that this chruch, The Church of jesus Christ of latter-Day saints, is true. I have never in my entire life seen someone so open and so able to feel the Spirit. She just soaks up everything in the lessons. She invited a friend over to listen to a discussion with us and we sked Estela to tell her friend the story of Joseph Smith (expecting her to say only a sentence or two because she had heard the story only once the day before) and she just turned to her friend and said thingls like "he saw a pillar of light" and "he saw Jesus Christ and the Father" and "Heavenly Father pointed to Him and said, Listen" and Hna. Robayo just looked at each other in unbelief, like "did she just recite the first vision?!?!" haha this girl is incredible! She reads the Book of mormon every day and says that when she doesn´t understand something, she prays until she understands. Like serisously, this girl is an angel from heaven and makes me want to be a better missionary!! But I know that it is the Spirit that converts the hearts and minds of the children of God and helps them remember the Great Plan that they heard before this life. The amazing plan of our Heavenly Father that we shouted for joy when we heard! 

And this email is way too long but I just want to share my testimony that I know Heavenly father loves us and he cries with us during the hard times and smiles and has joy with us during the happy times. And we are never given a trial that we can´t handle, and there´s always a tender mercy, something we learn or the person that we become because of that experience, that makes it all worth it. 

I love you all!!! 

HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!

PS Hows your Book of Mormon reading going? My companion and I are in 2 Nephi, whoop whoop!

SECOND TRANSFER

And my second transfer has begun!! It´s already so much better (probably because I´m really REALLY working hard to carry the work alongside my companion). She might leave after these six weeks and I´ll be the one who knows the area so I´m trying to learn and memorize as much as I can!

We focused on finding old investigators this week and the Lord blessed us with so many! We had faith that He was preparing people for us to teach so we went through our Area book, wrote down their addresses, and went to find them and see if they were once again prepared to recieve the gosple into their lives! I´d like to share a couple of those miracles with you.

Miracle 1-- We were looking for a man but when we got to his apartment, we found out he didnt live there anymore BUT we met his sister and her daughter. They´re from Romania and have the cutest accents. The mom was SO friendly and asked us to come back on Sunday. So we visited them yesterday and let me tell you, she is GOLD! She has so much faith and is willing to read the Book of Mormon as long as it doesn´t contradict the Bible. (PERFECT!) But my favorite part of the lesson was when we were talking about prayer. We had forgotten to say a prayer at the beginning and she was said, "You know what we forgot to do? We forgot to pray before we started talking and thats so important" and when we said the closing prayer, she asked if we could kneel! GOLD! Haha my companion and i looked at each other like, uh HECK yes, is this really happening??? She offered the most beautiful prayer i´ve ever heard and I have so much hope for her! Even though we couldn´t find the man we were looking for I´m so grateful for the blessing of being able to find this family that is so willing!

Miracle 2-- We had the Piso number of a woman but not the buliding number. So we went with Erika and Lorena (they know the area better than us) and were knocking on all the buildings and were getting a little discouraged until we reached this one building and two women pulled up. They asked us which piso we were looking for and when we told them, one of the women said "oh hey, thats mine!" Turns out she was baptized over 10 years ago but she was young and didnt remember much about the church. And then she introduced us to her sister-in-law and guess what! They were both super interested and excited about us returning! There´s no way they both showed up at the door at the EXACT moment we walked up to the door by accident. It´s amazing to see how all you need to do is be obedient and do your absolute best and the Lord will take care of the rest. Just have faith.

Miracle 3-- We have another bautismal date!! Remember the family I told you about last week?? Well we fought over them with the Elders (not really, the families are in their area so they graciously let us keep one of them haha) and we will be teaching Estela (her mom is a member) while the Elders teach the other family with the three girls and the father. We went over to her house this week and set a date for the 25th of October (happy birthday jenna!!)! Estela is so beyond excited! She´s already been reading the Book of Mormon and has literally been begging her mom to take her to church! She´s so ready. And I´m so excited at the prospect that the other family (Estela´s aunt, uncle, and cousins) will be baptized too! Oh man, its just so incredible to see the gospel bringing families together. And I don´t want anything more than to see their family be sealed in the temple someday! Dos veces en blanco (two times in white--the motto of our mission).  

Anyway, including all of that, all is well! Antonia still has her date for the 11 of october and Erika is as cute as ever. We visit her and her family all the time and she and her sister, Lorena, often accompany us to visits or help us find addresses--we´re so grateful for them! My companion is the best and i love her like a sister! Literally. aha

Now I have a special request! As a mission, we´re reading the Book of Mormon starting today (the 191 anniversary of when Moroni first showed the plates to joseph Smith) and ending on December 31st. 100 days!! i invite each and every one of you who reads this to take the challenege!! you can do it! Do it individually, do it as a family, just do it! I know you´ll recieve so many blessings. The Book of Mormon is incredible and I appreciate it more and more every day. I can personally testify that it is true. Every single word. I´m learning to love it more than i could love any other book. So please, take the challenge! i´ll be reading along with you (in spanish--AH!) It´s all I want for Christmas ;) 

I love you and pray for you all! Thanks for the emails, for the prayers, and for your examples!

HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!

WEEK OF MIRACLES!

You could title all my weekly emails the "Week of miracles" I swear! haha

But first off,  I had to go to Malaga in order to do all my residency things (I don´t really know what was going on...I´m so grateful for the church and all that they do for us without us even realizing it! I just had to follow people around for a day and wa-lah! everything was done for me.) So me and my group from the MTC got the chance to reunite at the Mission Home!! I can´t even express how perfect timing that was. I got to see my first companion and we were able to swap stories and comfort and encourage each other and it was just so fun! Preidente Deere and his wife even took us out to eat one night and afterwards we were able to have a little training session. They´re both so awesome! I love them.

I left Wednesday, spent the night and then had to return the next night, and let me tell you--the traveling part was crazy enough! Listen to this: I took a bus to Sevilla, caught a cab to the train station, took a train to Malaga, then rode the metro to Fuengirola (where the President lives), and then I met up with all the other missionaries and we rode in a van to the Presidents house! And the same thing back to Huelva! haha it was so crazy, I´m pretty proud of myself that i didnt get lost! On the way back though on the train, another Elder and i were able to travel together and we struck up a conversation with 2 other couples sitting next to us. Haha it was pretty weird teaching with an Elder but the Spirit can work through anything right? ;) In the end, nothing profound happened but we were able to leave them with pass along cards and I gave one of the women a quick note that I had been prompted to write. Afterwards, the Elder and I were talking and we both expressed how even though we weren´t able to give them a Book of Mormon or teach any gospel principles, we felt we had done enough. Maybe it wasn´t their time and maybe these people need more short, signifcant encounters with the church before they even consider listening to the missionaries or even feel interested. We shared what we felt they needed and parted with (I hope) a good impression made. And this knowledge is so comforting to me! Sometimes I feel like we can get super stressed about sharing the gospel and not doing enough--i know i do sometimes! It was hard at first to not feel giulty for not speaking to every person I saw in the street about the gospel haha but I think its important that we remember that Heavenly Father is always preparing His children to hear the gospel. And we don´t have to feel bad if we think nothing came out of our efforts. Something always does. And maybe it was just another step for them being prepared to recieve the gospel. 

 But anyway, miracle time! So we´ve been trying to meet with a teenager, Mercedes for a month now but she was either always busy or we were always busy. But we were able to meet with her this week! We went to her house prepared to share a quick message and get to know her. And when it was time to say the prayer, she asked me if I would pray. I felt prompted to ask if there was anyone that I could pray for, and she  said yes, can you please pray for my friend, Salud? So I prayed and asked Heavenly Father to bless her and ended the prayer without thinking much of it. But then, BUT THEN (haha I´m so happy typing this) not even 5 minutes later guess who knocks on the door! Salud! And thats not even the best part! Mercedes invites her in and then introduces us as the missionaries of the TRUE church and then proceeds to teach Salud how to pray!! And at the end, mercedes even offered the prayer herself and invited her friend to church! So cool! We left the house a little dazed at what had happened and my comp turned to me and asked, "Do you understand what happened?!" She was so excited and I was a little confused at first because I didn´t fully realize what a miracle that was until she explained that we had prayed and instantly, her friend just happened to show up and now we have the opportunity to teach Salud and strengthen Mercedes´s activity in the church! I´m so grateful Hra. Robayo recognized how special that experience was. She´s amazing and she´s teaches me so much. 

Alright, miracle numero dos! We had a little time before a dinner appointment so we decided to stop by a member´s house. We go there and began teaching about the Atonement when two of her adult daughters and three of her grandchildren came in. At first we were a little flustered because we had to restart the lesson over like 5 times as different people decided to join the discussion haha but then Hra. Robayo was inspired to stop and give one of the grandchildren a Book of Mormon and through that, we just happened to find out that only one out of the 5 had been baptized! We thought only one wasnt! And not only that, they were so excited about the thought of being baptized and the little girls were even talking about how they could bring their new Books of Mormon to school to read together during lunch!! WHAT. Hra. Robayo and I were just sitting there dazed like, what just happened?!?! hahaha! It just proves to me, like I said before, how Heavenly Father is always preparing people for us and putting them in our path! And it was humbling to me how Hna. Robayo and I didnt really even doing anything, we were just trying to do what we could and it was the Spirit that is worked through their hearts! So yay! We´re praying for at least 3 more new bautismal dates in the next week!

So guess what? I completed my first transfer!! Thankfully, Hna. Robayo is staying with me!! We´re saying goodbye though to Elder Puelles which is really sad for this area. He´s been here for 6 months and everyone loves him! He´s helped me so much too. Our district leader isn´t in our ward, so we joke that Elder Puelles is my "dad". (Hna. Robayo is my mom because she´s my trainer). He and his comp, Elder Fisher, have been so nice and have helped me transition better into the mission life. And they´ve done SO many favors for Hra. Robayo and I. We owe them a lot! I´ll try to send a picture of our district later.

Anyway, love you lots!! And FELCIDADES TO MCKENNA DAWN YOUNG AND HER MISSION CALL TO FRANKFURT GERMANY! I´m so excited for her!!! AHHHH I love her so much! 

Have a great week!!!

HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!

Hermana Morrow

SEVILLA

So as you know, these past few weeks have been just a little hard, but I told my companion thats because something awesome was coming and I was right! Ha-HA!

This week we had interviews with the President, Zone Conference, a special training session, and 2 sessions of Stake Conference, and a bunch of miracles in between! We spent four days in Sevilla because its a waste of time and money to keep going back and forth from Huelva to Sevilla every day (1-2 hours by bus) SO we totally deserted our area for four days ahhhh!! But don´t worry, we kept in contact with our investigators and we´ll just have to work extra hard this week to make up for lost time!

Our first miracle happened hours before we left for Sevilla. My companion had an investigator that she was teaching before I arrived but we haven´t met with her since I´ve been here because her work schedule is IMPOSSIBLE to work around! But not only were we able to finally fix an appointment, we were able to schedule a baptism date even though she hasn´t met with missionaries for almost two months! Her faith is SO strong. We taught her Lesson 3 (The gospel of Jesus Christ) and the 5 steps (faith, repentance, baptism, recieving the gift of the Holy Spirit, and enduring to the end) and she completely agreed and bore her testimony about each step. At the end we asked which step she thought she was at and she said she was at enduring to the end because she already feels the Holy Ghost so strongly! Haha she´s so cute....we still have a lot to teach her but I´m super excited for her and her progress! Pray for her and the 11 of October!!

So anyway, we left for Sevilla and had our interviews with President Deere first thing. He is the best!! He gave me really great advice and encouraged me to keep working hard. I love him and Hermana Deere so much!! Hermana Deere found me and kept asking me how I was doing and she wouldn´t let it rest when I told her I was doing just fine haha. "No, how are you REALLY doing? Are you sure? Are you sureeeeeeee?" haha.  But seriously, everythings great. The mission is hard but I wouldn´t have it any other way. I´ve learned a lot about myself already (turns out I´m not as perfect as I thought ;)  and what I need to work on. It´s funny how everything I need to improve can be imporved through mastering an attribute of Christ. Literally everything! For example, I need to work on keeping a journal better: diligence. I need to learn spanish: diligence, patience (lots of it), hope (haha).i w ant to be SO weird when i get home from the mission haha!! I want it to be really hard to adjust back to normal life because to me personally, that will show me how much I´ve grown and changed for the better. I think its important to keep your personality and do missionary work in your own unqiue way (within the bounds of mission rules and PMG of course) but to also change your nature and become more like Christ. I don´t want to stop being a missionary when I get home, I want to take everything I learned and continue to help build the kingdom of God. 

Oops got a little sidetracked there.....ANYWAY we stayed with two other sisters in Sevilla for those four days which was a lot of fun. One night we did splits and I went tracting with a Hermana who is also from Spain (seriously, can´t catch a break....Heavenly Father REALLY wants me to learn Spanish!) and since the other sisters were taking all the appointments, we went knocking on doors for a couple hours. Missions are different now because they really are focusing on teaching and less on finding so I havent done this a lot but I really like it! (Probably because we dont have to do it everyday). One thing I like about Spain, especially Southern Spain, is how even if we meet one rude person, we then encounter 10 super super nice people who offer us food and drinks even if they aren´t interested. Everyones so sweet.

The next day we had Zone Conference and then training with the President. My zone is awesome, everyone is so great! I just love missionaries so much, there are so many missionaries in my life who I´ve looked up to for so long and its so weird to finally be one! I´m so proud and happy for Brie, Kenna, and Dominick. They´ll be amazing. 

I´m running out of time so I´ll just quickly tell you my other miracle. Erika and Lorena came to Conference! It was really hard for them but they came and sat by us and I just wish I could express to you how much of a miracle this is. They´re only 12 and 13 years old and they found a way to get from Huelva to Sevilla all by themselves so they could watch conference. And this is coming from the girl who said just 3 weeks ago she would never be baptized!! Miracles happen. The Spirit is real. The church is true. 

I wish all of you kiddos the best with school!! Kate is a babe and Ryan is a stud. And of course Eric and Jenna are cuties. Their pictures killed me, they already look so different! I´ve only been gone 3 months! Not allowed!! haha. I love you all so much. Thank you for the prayers, I have felt so much peace this week and I´m so happy! (Especially since the heat is going down woohoo!) And I know its because of your prayers. 

Love you.

HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!

WORTH OF SOULS

Oh man--this week! Not gonna lie, it was super hard. My comp told me many times it was the hardest of her entire mission which gave me comfort that it most likely won´t get any worse than this! Haha nah I´m kidding, it wasn´t that bad. Hra. Robayo was very sick for most of it and as a trainer, I know she has SO much more stress than I do at this point so I understand completely why she would say that. But she´s a trooper! Seriously, she has been such an example to me this week. She worked through the pain when she had too but she also knew when it was time to call it quits and return to our apartment. And we had some of our most special bonding moments at those times, which I´m extremely grateful for. Unity is important! I love her like a sister and I hope she will continue to train me after this transfer ends in 2 weeks!!! AH! So crazy, time has flown by! I feel like I just got here. I´ve learned so much but I know that I am SO far from being where I need to be. Again, thank you for your prayers!

This week I had my first intercambios! I took a bus (by myself might I add, what a rebel ;) to Sevilla where I met up with Hra. Moreno to take another bus and a train to a cute little town called Dos Hermanas. At first I thought it was a little silly to take a 6 plus hour round trip to only be in one place for 24 hours BUT i¨m so grateful for that little time I had! Hra. Moreno is from Spain and finishes her mission at the end of this transfer. She is the cutest thing and reminds me exactly of the main female character in the movie "Dan in Real Life" haha. She´s the coolest. We did a lot of knocking on doors which I haven´t really done before and it was a little scary! Haha but I really did love the practice and everyone was so sweet. The people in general in the South of Spain are sooooo nice. I think I´ve mentioned before, but the culture here is so different. Everyone is so loving and its even considered rude to not give kisses (or in our case, handshakes) to people you meet, even if you´ve never met them before. I love it.

This week has continued to be a week of miracles! We´ve had some struggles with Erika and her family, but we also had our blessings--the older gentlemen (that I bawled like a baby in front of haha) came to church this Sunday for the first time in months! We were so happy, i can´t even explain it! We went to their house later that night and made tortilla de patatas with them to celebrate! I understand a little better now the parable of Jesus and finding the one lost sheep. Every soul has worth in the eyes of our Heavenly Father and its so important that we find these lost sheep and bring them back, no matter how hard we have to work or how long it takes! I really like here how much we reach out to less active members. Hra. Robayo and her previous companion had been visiting with these men for months, every Sunday, with no progress until now. She never gave up on them. I also really appreciate how willing the members in the ward are to work with us. Most of them are return missionaries or youth preparing to go on missions and they´re such a strength! One girl, Erika´s sister, is only 13 and she has gone to so many lessons with us! I wish I had gone out with the Sisters more in Jersey. It´s not as scary as I thought it would be. Its actually really easy--you just share the feelings of your heart and what you know to be true and the Spirit does the rest. It´s so interesting to see how missionary work has changed for knocking on doors to recieving references from members and then working alongside these members to help bring the gospel into their friend´s lives. Don´t be afraid to share the gospel with those you love! It´s the best gift you could possibly ever give them and I know Heavenly Father will help you every step of the way if you ask Him. Mom, you´ve been such an example to me of this and I think about you often and your experience with giving away a Book of Mormon to someone for each day  of  December that one year. You´re amazing.

Anyway, i love you all so much and hope you have a great week! I miss you!

HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!

PS Shout out to Kenna for SENDING IN HER MISSION PAPERS (without telling me might I add!) i can´t wait to find out where she´s going! She´s a MAQUINA!