July 29, 2013‏

Wow the weeks are going by so fast! Mondays just keep coming and coming, Time really is something precious because once that time is gone you are never going to get it back. But I wouldn't want to be spending this time I have right now anywhere else but here on the mission. 

So this past week was kind of rough. I felt like every week that has gone by we keep inching up this big hill , but we keep getting farther up every week... except this week. I feel like we had a minor slip and inched back down a bit but I am not worried. This is a new week and we have new goals and we are determined to get back on track. There is a quote that I really like by Richard G Scott, "To reach a goal you have never before attained you must do things you have never before done." That has been on my mind this past week and I know that it's something that is going to help me out all throuhgout my mission because usually, from my own experiences, when you feel that you are in a rut its because you are doing the same thing over and over again but are not seeing any results. 

We have a couple of really good families that really want to be baptized but they are not married! The marriage thing takes forever here especailly if they are not Spaniards and its a bit discouraging for the families because then they get lazy about the whole process so we have to keep reminding them and encouraging them to keep going. Its like we are wedding planners! and psychologists and missionaries all at the same time. Ha. But I really am loving it here! Today with the Elders we ate at Burger King... it was alright. I definetely dont miss it, but it was a very american experience. Oh happy 24th of july everyone! 

The elders had a baptism this weekend. They baptized this African Lady and I gave the batism/Holy Ghost talk. She was very very very happy afterwards. Hna. Blanco and I were in the bathroom after to hand her her towel and she started crying becuase she was so happy and then after when we were walking out I looked back and she was singing and dancing to herself in the mirror. It brought me so much joy to see how happy she was. The spirit was definetely present and testifying of the truth. 

I love you all and hope you are all happy, safe and healthy! 

Love, Hermana Hair

July 22. 2013

A picture of Colombians at church. Elder Rios, me, and a member. 

Transfers was this past week!!! well they are actually this week but we found out Saturday night. It felt like Christmas Morning ! Because it was a surprise finding out who is leaving and going where. So nothing exciting happened with me and my comp . We are both still together and staying Lleida, which is what we expected. But two of our all of the other three companionships  in our district are splitting up and one is leaving which means that I am going to meet Three new elders ! actually only two because the new one in Andora was in the MTC with me so I already know him. It's going to be weird having new Elders but fun at the same time. We know that next transfer in sept we are receiving a huge amount of new missionaries so almost the whole mission will be training. which in Semptember I finish my training which means there is high chance that I will have to train someone new. But who knows.We will find out then. Im excited though, I would love to train. 

MY 2 MONTH PICTURE!! with Hmna Blanco. It was her 7 month picture. That's why shes sad.

So our investigators are coming along, Manuel-the 62 yr old spaniard dropped us, Because his sister basically made him do it. Its very sad and i was frusterated that she had her head already set to thinking one thing and wouldnt even listen to us. But everyone has there agency, it is just really really sad when they aren't even open to hearing the message and then choosing a path. But I know that sometime in the future they will be more willing to listen and maybe some future missionary in Lleida will have the opportunity to touch their heart. 

So the weather here just keeps getting hotter and hotter. Its going to get to 40 Cº here which i think is like 104 Fº .I know its gotten that hot in Utah before but then again in Utah I was either in AC Cars or AC homes. Our apartment doesnt have AC and sometimes in the day it gets really hot but the nights and mornings are usually pretty cool.  ITs been storming and raining almost every night here which helps cool it down. My hair finally seemed to get used to the weather change, either that or I just got used to my hair being different. ha. 

I found out that the worst thing about the mission is not being able to hold babies. It kills me inside when I see one and can only pet its head or touch their arm. I never knew it would be so hard . especially when they reach out for you and your like pushing them away. Or when a mother asks if you can hold the baby and you have to say no!! I have never ever in my whole life said no to that question. But now i have :( ha well i hope there are new babies in the family when I get back so i can hold them! 

alright, so this handcart is outside of our church and we found this pioneer costume. So Elder Rios convinced hermana blanco and I to try them on and go outside and take a picture. No this was not on sunday haha, it was before FHE and we were the only ones at church :)

I love you all and know with all my heart that families  can be eternal! we all have to work hard every day to not only keep progressing as an individual but as a family. Its very important to have that love and unity. Especially when the love and unity is centered around the gospel. Lots of people here think that religion is just another thing to add  to their already full plate but really the gospel is the plate that holds all the other daily things together and supports them all up. Place God first and everything else will fall in to place. 

Mucho Amor desde España para todo mi familia y seres queridos! Take care everyone and know that I love you all sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much!!!! 

love, 

Hermana Hair

P.S. if anyone has a really simple yet yummy chocolate chip (or any kind) cookie recipe I would much appreciate it if you could send it to me. apparently every person here expects americans to know how to make cookies... hmmm. :)

July 15, 2013

Hello everyone! I have spent like ten minutes trying to figure out how to upload pictures on this computer. It´s not a ghetto computer or anything, its just i dont know, broken I guess. I feel terrible thought, I will send some soon. One day you will all just get like 20 picutes in your inbox or something. ha.

So this past week went by super fast, as it seems is the trend with weeks on the mission. I THINK I JUST GOT THE PICTURES TO WORK!! I'll try and attach some. Anyways about this week, I feel like everyone decided to go on vacation this week. A couple of our investigators, Darek and Manuel were gone all week, but then Darek, the polish guy, called us and basically invited himself to church - he was telling us he was back in town- Hna. Blanco said, "they're ready for baptism when they call US to make appointments" it was awesome, We also found a new investigator this week his name is Daniel and he is Dominican (there are lots of dominicans here) Well he has two young kids but is divorced, He is also very smart but gets off on tangents whenever we are trying to teach. So we have to be more direct and controlling of the conversation which is fun because we are fuerte with amor. which is strong but with love. He didnt come to church this sunday which was a bummer but we are still meeting with him and actually he has a baptisimal date which is aug 3rd, We are working towards that, I think he will be able to do it. Another Dominican that we are teaching is Felix, he also has kids but they are in the DR still . He is a sad guy, you can see it in his eyes, but he told us the other day that he like talking to us and feels good when we teach him. although he too talks a lot and goes off on tangents, but his tangents are good because he is asking us more about our church and how we do things, I also made him promise that he would come to church the next three sundays, so we will see.

I love that the gospel really can help anyone in any situtation. or better said, the gospel helps everyone in every situation! People tell us their troubles and concerns and I'm always saying in my head, WE CAN HELP YOU and then we tell them that we can help and its frusterating when they are like no religion cant help , if only they knew, but hey that is why we as missionaries are here! to help them know.

 

I love you all !

Love, Hermana Hair
 

So I dont know the order of the pictures. but the one with the yellow house apartment behind me is our apartment..The one with the guy is Darek,he is the polish investigator.

July 8, 2013

Another week down, this is crazy how time flies. Well we have two new baptismal dates one is for Darek, a polish guy, and Manuel, a cute old spaniard, both for july 27th. They both came to church this past sunday and since it was fast sunday Manual stood up and we were like uhhhh... what is he doing. because this was his first Sunday attending church and he went up and said, "This is my first sunday here. I was invited by Hermana Hair and Hermana Blanco, I really love this church and i want to come every sunday . I feel very welcomed and just feel good here. amen" hahah it was the cutest thing ever!!!!  Well I Dont have much time this week to write but I want everyone to know that I love you all so much! This is a church of love. As long as we love Christ and His gospel our hearts will be opened with the capacity to love everyone and that is when we start to see everyone as Gods children and no matter what they are going through if we show our love and serve them , it will help them out tremendously. 

Everyone take care!! 

P.S. my apartment address is Avinguda Prat de La Riba Nº4 2,1. Mail can be sent there but any packages should still be sent to the mission home in Barcelona:) 

Love you all! , 

Hermana Hair

TWO MONTHS!!!‏

This week has had both extremes of really good and really bad. First with the Bad, So Juan Miguel is currently looking for an apartment which means he is technically homeless which means he can not be baptized this Saturday but he is still meeting with us and we are praying that he will be able to find a place soon. Also Tuesday was pretty hectic, I started my morningn out by rolling my ankle while jogging around the Castle, some crazy man was yelling at us (the whole disrtict because we had just gotton done with district meeting and went to get some kebobs - the closest thing to a burrito here) about how religion is ruining the world. and then when Hna Blanco and I were going to our  hotel room we realized the keys were locked in the hotel room. when we went to the front desk to ask for a spare they said that they didnt have spare keys!! So we ended up having to wait for a locksmith to come and we were running short on time because i was supposed to be on a train to Zaragoza for an intercambio (exchange) while one of the sister training leaders came to lleida. So we ended up having to pay 40 euros for the locksmith which is a rip off because all he did was slide a credit card through the door. I could have done that and saved 40 euros. ha. but then we had to run and grab my stuff and run to the train station and then run to catch it and then relax for a half hour. the intercambio was fun because I got the opportunity to work with Hermana Bracken in Zaragoza!!! She is a classmate from middle school!! it was so crazy when we saw eachother who would have thought back when we were 12 that one day we would be serving together in Barcelona. It was really cool, and also really hard to not call her by her first name ha. 

Well now for the good stuff, This week was actually pretty great!!! Wednesday, my compañera went to zaragoza while i returned to lleida and worked with the sister  training leader, she is a machine and such a great missionary , i learned a lot from her. But anyways the most wonderful news is that we found 7 new investigators this week so we are now teaching 13 ivestigators!!! It really is such a blessing and such a miracle! This past sunday we had 5 investigators come to church , we even picked a couple up and walked with them to church, I was pretty excited because that was my first time ever walking an investigator to church! The best part was when we entered and the members started to come up to them and introduce themselves and immediatly start to fellowship them! I was very proud of the member for doing that , the Bishopric even came up to them and introduced themselves, I know that this is something the whole ward has been struggling with but it was so good to see them trying to reach out to the investigators. The members really make a huge difference when they help out like that. The sad part was that the woman, Juana and her daughter , Eli, who we walked to church are actually not in our area so we had to give them up to the Elders, but they were our street contact and they are golden. They loved church and I really do hope to see them next week there again! 

Juse Miguel and Dani also went to church!! Dani told us this past week that she had a conflict with the bishop about a month ago and that is why she got discouraged, he said something that offended them and just came off wrong to them. but we talked to them and encouraged them to continue . After church Dani asked to talk to Hna Blanco and I so we stepped away into the hallway and she asked if we could start visiting her family more frequently!! that is a huge miracle and hopefully they will be more willing to progress because they are the ones that right now the problem is that they are not married. 

Anyways those are only a few miracles of the many that we saw this week. We do walk everywhere and do not have bikes but i feel like lleida is small and it doesnt take long to walk everywhere. The Bishopric is fairly new so they are trying to improve on things but they are still very great people. I think the missionary work still needs lots of work here but that is why we are here. hopefully we can get the ward better organized and get to know everyone a bit more as well. The members all show lots of love to the missionaries, especially the sister missionaries.. haha because

they havent had sisters here for a very looooong time, I am loving it here. Its getting hotter and hotter every day ! I love everyone and hope everyone is doing well ! 

sending my love from Spain! 

Hermana Hair

p.s.- we now have an apartment. its the elders old apartment.... ummm lets just say we did a lot of cleaning and organizing today. ha I will send pictures later. I forgot my camera today... I know im not doing a good job with keeping up with pictures. but hopefully next week I will do better. I will try my best. Love you all!