August 19, 2013

Okay, this might be a very short letter... Well this past week was ... hmm..  a bit tough. Our baptisms didn't fall through because they went with their birth dad to Barcelona, and we aren't really sure what is going on but we want to talk to them and find out once they get back. The Elders had their baptisms and it was actually a very nice baptisimal service. 

I have learned this week that when things get tough you just have to keep going. Things aren't going to get better if you don't do anything about it. I know  that its discouraging when you dont see the results of your work but honestly , I feel like a missionary is happy when they are working. Even on discouraging days, as long as you feel like you gave your best you are somehow filled with a sense of peace. Maybe not at that excat moment but you are later reassured that you have done all you can do and that you are going to do it all over again the next day. 

I really am loving the mission though, and the work and how it brings out the best and worst of you! haha I was talking to my companion today and she said that its like with every transfer that goes by something that you dont like about yourself surfaces, usuaslly your weaknesses, and you have to work with it, fix it and mold it into a stregnth. 

I know that we, full-time missionaries, are set apart to be disciples and representatives of Christ. We have the power and authority to teach, preach and help guide God's children onto the right path. I am so grateful that I have a loving heavenly father who loves me and is with me 100% of the time. The atonement is real. Its there for us. Not just for forgiveness but for stregnth and comfort. Lets use it, all the time. 

I love you all, 

Hermana Hair

August 12, 2013

Hello family and people who basically are my family, 

Here in Lleida the work is still going and I feel like we had a good week. The most exciting thing that happened is that we set two fechas with Deivid and Luigi!!! They are the two boys from that family that has been seeing missionaries since January. Their mom, Danny is living with Jose Maria which is why they cant be baptized as a family. At first we were trying to animar them to get married so they could all get baptized but then the truth came out and Danny told us that she wasnt sure if she wanted to marry him. They are a very cute family and we were sad and surprised to hear that she felt that way so we just talked to her abour prayer and revelation and asked the boys if they wanted to be baptized because we dont want them to be missing out on the blessings. Deivid is the 12 year old and he is very excited to get baptized, he placed his conversion calander on the fridge and everything. He even wants to serve a mission when he is of age! Luigi on the other hand, knows everything is the truth , he believes but he is unsure about baptism. he said he has been praying but hasnt received an answer yet. I feel like he does know that the B.O.M. is true but he hasnt really prayed about it to receive that confirmation. This week i feel like we need to start from the base and help him feel and recognize the spirit and the promptings that he feels. I am a bit scared that Danny, being a very emotional and sensitive lady, is feeling kind of left out. She would love to be baptized with her boys and she is letting them choose and make the decision but i also feel like we are walking on eggshells with her. I just think that there is a lot going on at home with her and her family so im praying that we can show her our love, and that she can support her boys in this decision and know that she can follow their example one day. I love this family so much and i wish the best for them. I hope that one day i can see them all get baptized and better yet sealed in the temple. If everything works out how we are praying it will, then every companionship here in lleida will be having a baptism this weekend!!! That is four people getting baptized the same day! its going to be a white saturday for sure! I am so terribly happy and excited because this will be my first baptism on the feild from investigators that we have been teaching. I can only imagine the happiness the Lord feels when he sees his children enter into the waters of baptism. 

Well as usual, I am short on time But i hope everyone is doing great. I received Jessica's, Joy's and Ben's letters! It makes me so happy to hear from you all and hear how you are doing and what is new in your life. Thanks for the letters and love. I love you all with all my heart! 

Con muchisimo cariño, 

Hermana Hair

p.s. here is my 3 month picture!! 

August 5, 2013

Not gunna lie, I think there has been a couple days this week where I feel like I have felt the most heat I have ever felt. It's like you can feel the heat being produced from inside of you and coming out... I dont know if that made sense ha but its all good, Im glad I mastered the putting up my hair with a pencil technique before the mission. if anything , I´m perfecting it here. :) Well the miracle of this week was a phone call. We received a phone call during our last cita of the day from a number we didn't know, We silenced the phone and kept going with the lesson. Forgetting that we had received that phone call, we went home after the lesson, planned, and went to bed. The next day during the evening we received a call again from an unfamiliar number so I answered the phone and on the other line was a lady named Lucia, she asked if we were with the church and if we taught about Jesus Christ. She claimed that we had contacted her on the street but she was busy so we gave her a pass along a card and that she wants us to come over and teach her. She gave us her address and told us to visit her Monday. My companion and I were surprised, People usually dont call us especially when thy seem uninterested in the contact. I do not remember the woman but I am excited to meet her. I Know that something must have impacted her during the probably short two minute conversation on the street. Its just a testimony builder that We are always representing christ and that we need to do our best to give the best impression even if we only have two minutes and to always speak with the Love of Christ and even if we dont see the miracles on the spot, they will come with time. 

Oh right now I am actaully in Barcelona!! I am staying the night here with Hermana Melchin- she was in the mtc with me- because we are going to pick up our residency cards tomorrow morning! I will finally be legal here in Spain. yay. So my companera is in zaragosa with hna melchins comp.Its weird being out of your area but kind of like an adventure. Today was supposed to be Pday but my zone had a special training meeting so we are having pday tomorrow but since hna melchin and i are not getting pdays tomorrow (basically) because we will be doing our residency stuff , we are emailing this afternoon. If we get done and the other sisters we are staying with arent back from their cita yet then we are just going to contact people around here because there is really nothing else we can do because we arent in either of our areas. But talking to random strangers is very fun actually. The other night when leaving a members home their teenage daughter was being goofy and was like, now walk safe, dont take candy from anyone, and dont talk to strangers. then we laughed because we were like, we talk to strangers every day and she laughed too because she realized it was true. anyways, i would like to copy something that i sent in the letter to the president today, 

"Today during the special training I didnt get a chance to bare my testimony but I do want to share a bit of what i wanted to say. I really have a strong testimony of the plan of salvation , when we read helaman 5:12 i noticed it started with remember, remember, and that is really what we as missionaries are here to do . all of us here on earth lived with christ and our heavenly father. We chose to follow him. and the things we teach are not new things . they are things that everyone has already heard and known . We are just called to bring to rememberance these things to the people. that is why the spirit can testisty of the truth to someones heart, because they can feel that it is true because they can feel that they already knew this once. I love the quote that is common for missionaries "return with honor" I want to return home with honor.. but most importantly , i want to return home to my fathers presence in heaven with honor. I know that this church is true, I know that we have been set apart to help Him in this wonderful work and I know that we can do it with His help. He lives, and this work is His. This living work continues and I am so grateful to be a part of it, especially here in the Barcelona Mission."

 

Well that was my testimony to you all as well. Remember that we all need to return with honor to our heavenly home and our blessings will be grand , not only at the end when we reach our destination but even throughout the journey the Lord will always bless and help us with each footstep that we take forward. 

Love you all sooooooooooooooooooo much!!!! 

love Hermana Hair

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.