I'M A MOM!

I officially have an hija!! Her name is Hermana Vigo and this entire letter will basically be dedicated to her haha. 

Okay,well actually first...Wednesday I said goodbye to Hermana Steffensen which was actually harder than i thought it would be. I really enjoyed my time with her and i´m going to miss her a lot!! I know she´s going to work hard and see miracles in Cartagena! Dang, I miss her so much already. Okay okay, weepy time over. 

After we parted ways, I traveled once again to the Mission Home in Malaga! The whole ride I was so nervous and just kept praying and praying that I could do this training thing and that my new comp would like me and I wouldn´t completely mess up the entire beginning  of her mission!. Haha just kidding, I wasn´t that nervous, but I just wanted to be the best momma missionary I could! 

Eventually we all made it to the mission home and there we waited to meet all the new babies! They had us go in the room first and then all the new missionaries filed in. Then, President would call out the companionships one by one (it was VERY dramatic haha) and the trainer would announce where they were serving. SOOO finally, President called me and Hermana Vigo´s name and when I announced where we were going she FLIPPED out! Turns out that once upon a time, in a pueblo of Spain, a missionary named Elder Soliz and his comp taught a girl named Ana. She wanted to get baptized but had to wait until she was 18 because she didnt have her parents permission. So sadly, this missionary wasnt able to be at her baptism because he was serving somewhere else at that time. After a couple years, Ana decided to go on a mission. She got called to Malaga and thought it would be really cool if she could serve in the ward where the missionary who had converted her lived. And it happened!!! Hermano Soliz just got called as the Ward Missionary Leader the Sunday before Ana (Hermana Vigo) got assigned to Puerto!! But we didnt tell Hno. Soliz but invited him to our District Meeting the next day and surprised him! He was just in shock and couldnt even move for a couple seconds! Oh man, its just amazing to me to see how the Lord works. This was a miracle in my eyes! 

And we got to see many more!! I seriously LOVE training already! I´ve heard missionaries always say that you´ll see miracles while training and now I´ve had some first hand experience! The first day, the very very first day in the mission field for Hermana Vigo, we set two baptismal dates. TWO! The first one was with a woman Hna. Steffensen and I contacted on the street the week before. She didn´t have a lot of time so we briefly shared a summary of the restoration and the Plan of Salvation and how the gospel of Jesus Christ could bring her and her family closer to Christ. I felt the Spirit SO strong! Although we didn´t have a lot of time, the woman seemed so sincere. We asked her what she hoped from our visits and why she let us visit her and she really has such a strong desire to come closer to Christ. She knows where our chapel is and even said that whenever she walks past it she feels something special in her heart. At that point I threw Hermana Vigo under the bus a little haha and just turned and looked at her and this beautiful companion of mine asked the woman to be baptized! And she accepted! We even have a date for the 28 of February! (please pray for her!) It was such a spiritual experience for us and I have such gratitude in my heart that we were able to find this woman! 

But wait, theres more! Remember Isabel? Well, Hna. Steffensen and I have tried to set a baptismal date with her for the entire transfer but she never would because she felt it was hopeless to set one since her husband wouldn´t let it happen. But we felt that this was a way she could put her faith in the Lord that He would help soften her husband´s heart, that if she acted upon her faith and did her part, Heavenly father would do the rest. I told this all to hermana Vigo before we went in and had an amazing lesson with her about baptism. It took a lot of listening and comforting but at the end we all decided that this week we would fast again for Isabel and her husband. And then almost out of the blue, Isabel exclaimed, "in a month I want to be baptized" and we set the date for February 21! The Spirit was so strong. I´m still just amazed and sometimes can´t believe that it happened! We definitely felt the Lord´s hand guiding us that day to find the two people who were most prepared to recieve Him. 

We saw so many more miracles that unfortuantely I have no time to write about! But I want to leave these miracles with all of you and my testimony that I know this Church is true! And that i´m here to bring others to Christ not only through baptism, but through faith, repentance, the gift ogf the Holy Spirit, and persevrance un til the end. I´m here to convert, not only baptize. I´m so grateful for my life and how I have been blessed with the gospel.

I hope you all had a great week and a greta week! Love you all!!

HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!!

New missionaries!  My children!

My district with the ward mission leader

Playing Uno on the train back to our zone

This restaurant in Rota always lets us eat there for free once a week (theyre not even members or investigators!) me and the biggest calzone Ive ever eaten! haha

HARD AT WORK

I don´t even know how to classify this week! I honestly can´t even remember what happened, it all went by so fast. I´m gonna have to look in my agenda for this one.

Alright, so Monday was great! But also sad. Thats what this week is--bittersweet. We went shopping on P-day (no mom, I didnt buy anything ;) and then later we took the bus ride to Rota to have our last Family Home Evening with Kat!! But on the 15 minute walk to the Guffey´s house we decided to contact 10 people (our mission´s goal, 10 people evry day but our district is going to pump it up to 15 next week! heck yeahhhhhh) So usually we´ll get one or two futures for every 10 people we talk to (meaning, we get their phone number and/or address) but we got SIX! That´s a miracle. Rota is seriously the Promised Land! We havent worked their too much because its over an hour round trip to get there and back, but after this week, I think its definitely worth it! People are being prepared there for sure. But anyway, we were able to go to the Guffeys and say goodbye to Kat--we´re going to miss her! I´ve only been here a short time but I´ve already shared a lot memories with her. I wish her the best of luck! I´ll be at your baptism Kat, don´t you worry!! ;) 

Tuesday and Wednesday I was in Malaga! It was a 10 hour round trip and lots of trains but it was so worth it! We got to the mission home and ate dinner with all the other trainers and President and Hermana Deere. Then we had our Trainer´s Meeting which is on the top of my list of most spiritual experiences on my mission! Hands down. There wasn´t actually a lot of "training" as i thought there would be. It was basically just a group discussion and we talked about what we believed the new missionaries needed: LOVE! And how we can lead by example and show them how much we love the mission and The Lord! I´m not perfect, and I´m going to make a lot of mistakes, but as long as I love my hija and try to lead by example, everything will work itself out. And I´m so excited to see miracles these next 12 weeks!!

The next couple days we spent visiting ALL our investigators and less active members and members so that Hermana Steffensen could say goodbye. She´s so loved!! She began here mission here and the people here have been able to see her grow as a missionary and in her spanish (its better than mine!)  and they are going to miss her a lot! We ate with a couple American families (thank you Miles, Rhineharts, and Rasmussens!!) and Spanish families too. I thought I was going to explode haha. We only get one eating appointment a week so having 3 in one day at one point was death haha. I may never eat again. 

So I´ve been looking back at this transfer lately and man, it was a pretty good one. If I solely looked back on the numbers of lessons we had, our how far our investigators have progressed (well, lack of), I could definitely choose to be disappointed. But I´m not. We weren´t always perfect, but Hermana Steffensen and i worked HARD. We battled through sicknesses, the holidays, and all our appointments failing us, and let me tell you at the end of it all: I Loved it! I can look back and remember all the miracles we had even if they seemed small, I know they were tender mercies from the Lord. I can look back and remember all the relationships we built and even if nothing seems to come of it, I know these people felt the Spirit when we taught and will remember that feeling forever. I can look back at all the silly times Hermana Steffensen and I had together and know that we were put together for a reason! She´s an angel. A rebellious one at times but an angel nonetheless ;) She definitely taught me how to love and serve everyone. I wish her the best of luck too--she´s opening an area with an Hermana that just finished her training in Cartegena! MAQUINAS. 

I love you all! Next time you´ll here from me I´ll have my hija with me!! (SO excited ahhhhh!)

There´s many reasons why I´m here on my mission but the only one that matters to me now is that its because I love the Lord! And I´m so grateful and excited to share that with my new companion these next couple transfers! (Whoever you are, I love you already!)

HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!

Hermana Morrow

Shout out to Hermana Lyons who is finishing her mission on WEDNESDAY!! She´s amazing. I got to see her on my way back from Malaga and we got to go out to eat together--definitely a tender mercy! I´ll miss her so much!! LOVE YOU ABBY!

HOLIDAYS ARE OVER!

I got some good news and bad news....

Bad News: The holidays are over

Good News: THE HOLIDAYS ARE FINALLY OVER!!!

Haha we got that text from our Mission President this week and we laughed really hard because its SO TRUE. Spain had another big holiday, El Dia de los Reyes (Three Kings Day) last Monday/Tuesday which is like their Christmas. They believe that Monday night the Three Kings that gave Jesus gifts, come to their house and give them their gifts (like Santa Claus but three of them). This holiday is native to Spain but Christmas has been brought over from people who have moved here from other countries so they celebrate Christmas too. But this holiday is bigger. So basically they have two Christmases! If I was a kid I would be so jealous but seriously, I could not imagine having the stress of the holidays TWICE. Besides the being away from family part, I really enjoyed the holidays here in the way that it was stress free. We just focused on service and being around people we loved. And if we gave gifts, it was home-made or a simple card. Thats how the holidays should be!

Anyway sorry, rant over.

 So to celebrate, for P-day we went with the Guffeys, Kat, and other Elders from our Zone to Jerez which is only about 15 minutes away by train to watch their big parade. They have big parades all over the cities on the 5th (equivalent of Christmas Eve). They had all these floats and marching bands, and people in costumes (I think i saw the Spongebob crew at one point), and fire blowers (have no idea what theyre called haha). And it was so cool! They all threw candy into the crowd and I mean they, THROW them. Hard. I swear I have a couple bruises haha. After that, we went and celebrated at Dominos (the 4 Elders ate SEVEN pizzas) and just hung out. It was just so fun.

But then the next day was rough! Everyone was opening their presents that morning so we had no appointments and no one would let us in. We couldnt even contact in the street because everyone we stopped was carrying these giant gifts and were in a hurry to their families houses. But we saw miracles that evening and were able to get three appointments. Miracles! But now the holidays are finally over so we can focus on the work and actually get IN people´s houses! This transfer has been pretty rough in that aspect. We started out with over 15 investigators and throughout these six weeks, we´ve only been able to visit about 5 and out of those, only 2 are progressing. I´m excited for this week and the next transfer to come though! 

We had another amazing cita with Isabel too this week--we were talking about temples and she just loves EVERYTHING. She says she wishes she could start her life over again and be Mormon. And oh man, and that just got me thinking about how BLESSED, just SO blessed I am to have the gospel in my life and to have been born of "goodly parents" who taught me the truth. I ache for those people who didn´t have that chance! But I know that we are all placed in specific families and in chosen places for a reason. And I´m here to help give people that chance! How grateful i am for missionary work!

This week we also had companion exchanges and I went to Jerez with one of the Sister Training Leaders, Hermana Herrera from Madrid. And we saw so many miracles! I love intercambios. We had some good laughs too--we stopped this one guy in the street at one point and asked him if he believed in God and he just paused for a moment and said " I would like to marry you both." Thats it. We just backed away slowly and said "thats nice" haha. Ohhhhh man. The people you meet sometimes. 

And finally.....*drum rollllll*

I´m a mom!!

Haha I got a call from president last night and he asked me if I would be willing to train this next transfer and I said yes!I´m excited but also super nervous...AH! I´m leaving tomorrow for Malaga for Trainers Meeting and then I´ll pick up my hija next Wednesday! OH and Hermana Carmen, my comp from the MTC is training too! Thats so special to me, we live so close too so it will be so fun to share this experience with her!

Well thats it! Just know that I love being a missionary and I,m here because I love the Lord. There´s no other reason more important to me. And although I´m not perfect, i believe in daily repentance and I´m so grateful for the blessings and miracles I´ve seen and the person Heavenly Father is molding me into. I invite you all to let Him do the same in your lives.

I hope you all had a great holiday season and are now settling back into work and school and just everyday life well. Dont give up on those New Years Resolutions! I LOVE YOU ALL! Shout out to my FOURTEEN year old brother, Ryan! I love him a ton. 

HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!

Hermana Morrow

¡FELIZ AÑO!‏

Hermana Steffensen and I have had an amazing start to this New Year!! It all started with our investigators Olga and Daniel. Olga´s husband is less active and in the Navy and right now they´re stationed here in Rota. Olga is spanish and is originally from Sevilla. They have two kids ,l one who is also named Daniel. We´ve been trying to get over to their house for weeks now but its been nearly impossible with the holidays--UGH. The only downside to holidays on the mission--no work! But anyway, we managed to squeeze in a time New Years Eve morning (we were very persistent haha) and we took The Guffeys (senior couple in our military branch). And it was so amazing! We talked about how the gospel blesses families and The Guffeys shared how the teachings of Christ and the good principles they taught to their kids have blessed their lives in more ways than they could count. By the end, we were all feeling the Spirit so strongly! And sweet Hermana Steffensen felt the prompting to ask her to be baptized and oh did it shock Olga! Haha but it was absolutely perfect and she said yes! We don´t have a date because her husband is deploying soon and she still wants to learn more but we´re so excited!! They are an amazing family. 

Speaking of baptisms, I got an email from Hermana Lyons saying that Merly´s father finally gave her permission to be baptized and she got baptized last Saturday!!!! YAYYYYY!! This gives me more joy than I thought I could have! Even though I wasnt able to be there I know it was a beautiful service and I can imagine how strongly the Spirit´s presence was felt. I also heard that Merly also participated to give a talk in Sacrament Meeting too--this girls ELEVEN mind you! Holy cow, I love this girl!! What an incredible example to me and to her family. She´ll always be my little apprentice!

I also got to see a family from the Huelva ward. They were in town and we decided to meet up for a little visit! Her name is Maria del Mar and she´s a convert for about 3 years. And she is amazing! We call her the Missionary Mom. She loves the missionaries so much! She goes to the bus station every time a missionary leaves the area and gives them presents haha. After the mission she told me she has a million pics to post on my Facebook page! So that was really sweet to be able to see them and reminisce about Huelva. The missionaries are doing amazing work there! I am proud to have been "born" there!

So now on to the best part! On New Years Eve we didnt get any invites but we ended spending it in the chapel with the District and it was actually really fun! We played card games all night (I taught them Palace--shout out to you Taylor Falkowski!!) and made pizza. Then close to midnight we went to a local plaza where we thought there would be a countdown. But there wasnt a lot of people there and like 5 minutes before midnight we heard there wasnt going to be one BUT some person in an apartment buliding of the plaza stuck there head out of the window and counted down banging a pot and pan haha. And in Spain they have a tradition where they eat 12 grapes, one grape each second after midnight, so we felt really cool participating in that tradition! And no choked haha. But the best part was literally the few seconds of the New Year we spent contacting! We met a woman and her daughter from the States and we were able to get their information--we´ll see what happens!! Perfect start to the New Year.

 One tradition here in Spain is wearing red underwear new years eve---its supposed to bring you good luck or something. So for a week EVERYONE was selling red underwear haha. 

Then the next day we met with Isabel again--she is SO close to baptism, it hurts!! Everything we teach she accepts instantly because she says she feels the Spirit and knows this is the path for her. Like we taught her about Fast Sunday and at church on Sunday she showed up with her little fast offering, no questions asked! We all fasted for the health of her husband and so that he´ll give her permission to get baptized! Please join us in prayer! Isabel´s really nervous and we´re praying for the right time and that his heart will be softened. This week for sure we hope to recieve an answer!!

Thats it for my new Years miracles! I love Puerto already. In Huelva I had my eleven year old girls and here I have my grandmas! Isabel is so sweet and we also visit regularly two other "older" woman in the ward who need to be loved. i try to serve them and love them in the way that I hope other people would take care of my grandparents. 

But just a quick 6 month update: I am officially stating now that I know Spanish! In chruch this week I was surprised to see a teacher from the MTC and I could actually understand her!! It was so bizarre, it didnt even sound like she speaking the smae language that she was in the MTC haha. So YAY! i´m so grateful for all the Lord for blessing me with the gift of tongues so that I might learn Spanish. Of course i still have a long way to go but its so exciting to see such great progress! New Years Miracle, say what? haha

 Quick shout out to Brandon Casper for his first day in the BEST UNIVERSITY EVER! Go BYU! I wish you the best of luck! I know you´ll love it :)

And another one for my beautiful Kenna!! She´ll be heading to Germany pretty dang soon! I´m so excited for her and her example! I LOVE YOU BABE!

Anyways, I hope you all had a great New Year and made resolutions you can keep! (haha). One of mine is reading the Book of Mormon in spanish every day and studying from Preach My Gospel and other scriptures (I´m starting with the New Testament). I love you all!! 

HURRAH FOR ISRAEL!!

Eating crepes at a member's home

Celebrating an Elder's birthday.