March 3, 2014

Hello!! 

well... this week was was really rainy and windy! which equeals two drenched missionaries, only one functioning umbrella and very frizzy hair. Its always a bit harder in this kind of weather because everyone who is not a missionary decides its smarter to stay indoors:) so we try doorknocking.... but its carnival week so everyone is out of town. so what do we do? we drop everything and go to the carnival as well! kidding!! we keep on trudging along because we know that if we work and do our part that the lord will do his and that miracles will come. we found a spaniard family who is willing to listen! we have a visit with them this week. we found an old investigator who was basically a member (just didnt want to get baptized) who for some reason stopped going all together. She recieved us with the warmest hug and kiss and told us all about how she loves mormons - she used to be a nun for a very long time. the miracles dont stop there.

Yesterday around 9 pm, it was pouring rain and there was absolutely no one on the street . we see this man in the distance and without saying anything we know he is the lucky one we are going to stop and talk to. We stop him and he is like oh mormons! i know you i found a little card with a book on it that had some information on the back on the ground the other day. Do you have that book? I would really like one but i dont know how much it costs. We were happy to respond that it was FREE! and that we just happened to have one on us and that he was more than welcome to have it. We went on to give him our information from the tarjeta and he took that too. He said this really interests him but he refused to give us his number or informacion . porque? idk... but we are praying for him because i know that anyone who reads the book of mormon can not deny that its truthfullness.

It really has been a pretty slow, wet week but no matter how long i have been on the mission i am still amazed at how many miracles the lord provides for us when we are doing our part. And I know that goes for everyone and anyone. The lord promises to bless us when we are obedient to his gospel. He promises blessings and all we need to do is trust in him and work. keep trudging forward trusting that once we do our part, he will do his. and his part is what makes all the difference. 

Love you all so much! too much to even explain with words. keep dry and warm and on the lords path! love you! 

Hermana Hair

p.s. im going to try placing pictures on a dropbox. our mission president said we can use this. so much better and faster for everyone to see my pictures. the first file on there is from last preperation day when we went to a faro... a lighthouse. up in Gorliz. it was BEAUTIFUL! our missions name is el faro (the lighthouse) so it was perfect. 

I just uploaded all the pictures we took that day so lots might be repeats or random ones... like one of the elders trying to reinact the first vision.. ha. 

February 24, 2014

OH MY ! this week was great! we try so hard every week to meet the mission goals i know we could always try harder and that is our goal but when i look back on our weeks i just love all the little things that we do and happen that you cant just put a number on.  We were blessed in finding many news and and working with now 2 families!! The first family is the family from portugal/cabo verde and they are just the sweetest people i have ever met on my entire mission.  they are just so giving and they GET what charity means, they serve with their entire heart and love the lord. they love it when we come over and talk about God. unfortunately they werent able to come to church because their little boy was sick but they are coming for sure next week. 

The greatest thing this week though was a fast for this family that h. gillette and I thought of doing 24 hours before thier cita. so friday after lunch we were about to open the fast together when I felt a really strong impression that we should read a chapter out of the book of mormon first... I told hna gillette this so i grabbed an english b.o.m. from the shelf and just opened it. It landed on alma 26. I have never felt the spirit and the peace that the spirit brings stronger than what we felt in that moment when we read the chapter together, talked about it, then prayed together. That chapter is amazing. I have read it multiple times before, but this time it just... wow.. i have no words to express, i will quote ammon and say, " Behold, I say unto you, I cannot say the smallest part which I feel." (verse 16) 

We really were on a spiritual high after that. the peace that was felt in that room is unforgetable. When walking out of piso hna gillette and i expressed that we wanted to do EVERYTHING possible to keep this spirit with us the rest of the day. we only spoke spanish, we were out of piso right on time. really, we were EXACTLY obedient because that is how we keep the spirit with us and well, just as God promises miracles followed, we were able to find 5 news just in that day! God blesses his obedient children and the spirit guides them, comforts them and refines them. 

I love the guidance we recieve from the holy ghost and I love alma 26. Its a humbling chapter, yet full of love and hope. I know the Lord was speaking to us directly when we opened that chapter and read it before our fast. It really prepared us spiritually. These are the experiences I will never be able to forget, and sadly, the ones that I will least be able to really explain to others. Its a "you had to be there moment" Im so grateful the Lord loves us SO MUCH. His love is unexplainable and I get to feel it everyday, I get to feel not only the love he has for me, but for my companion, investigators, members, even for random people we talk to on the street! and i can most definitely feel the love our savior has for each one of you. 

I love you all so much, 

Love, Hermana Hair

February 18, 2014

Hey everyone! just wanted to let you all know that I love you. and I am so grateful to have so many people who love me and who have played such an important part in my life. I know this is a mass email but I just looked over everyone that i am sending this too and I want you each to know that you are all individually so important and special to me. I hope you all had a great Valentines day!. We spent valentines morning at the foot doctor and family doctor. H. Gillette has a fungus on her foot and I have had an itch all over my body for about the past couple weeks. So we went to go get healthy and now we are! Then we had papusas for lunch with our honduran less active who is now not so less active. YES! but she is great! i love her and next time i will have a picture of her and us to send to you so you can see and love her too! 

Us with the San Sebastian Hermanas last preparation day in their apartment.

Talking about less actives we had a wonderful miracle this Sunday. Carola with her two daughters came to church!!  it surprised us all but oh the overwhelming joy that just swelled in my heart when i saw her walk through the doors is just undescribable. We have been working with Carola for a long time now. We would visit her occasionaly with hermana Swenson and then we lost contact with her for about a month so now we have been able to get a cita with her and she has been wanting us to go over every day now! we cant go over every single day (because she is in the elders area) but we have been going over as much as we can, about 2-3 times a week. She is a young mother and isnt married to her husband. So she distanced her self from the church. Her husband is not a member but she is really wanting to feel the spirit, which is why she wants us over every day and she came to church! she is ready, the lord is working miracles with all his children, they just have to want it, and right when they feel that desire to come, he is there waiting with his arms extended. 

Another great miracle this week was that we found a family of four, Romeo, Gracy, Cristy y Cristian (three of baptism age) from portugal who are just incredible! They get the gospel, you can tell they want to learn and they have that "thirst" for the word of God. They love us and are coming to church on sunday! which is incredible because they live in the part of area that is THE FARTHEST away from our chapel in Las Arenas, yet they didnt even mention the distance or anything they WANT to come. I know that when people have that desire to learn and desire to know, coming to church is not a burden but a reward. I am looking forward to be working with them and i am so grateful that the lord has heard and is answering our companionship's prayers for a family to teach. 

My comp and I taught Relief society this past sunday on stregnthening and perserving the family. everyone was like whoa, we've never seen two teachers up there at a time. haha. they said it was incredible how unified we were and how we it flowed so smoothly. companionship unity :) 

We also had Jessica's service this week. Many people came. She was and is so very loved. Her family is so strong and are leaning on the Lord to help them get through this. Thank you for your prayers for her and for me. 

Oh i forgot to tell you that this week was TRANSFERS and i am so glad and grateful that i am staying here in las arenas with my compañera H. Gillette. Its exactly what we wanted. There is still a lot that we need to do here. Well... love you all so so much! next week i will email on monday, like normal:) 

LOVE; Hermana Hair

The inside of an open truck that was delivering to meat to a meat place here.. caught us by surprise to see all that hanging in there.. sooo... we had to take a pic:)

and here is the blogspot that our mission presidents wife updates.. idk if im on there but she is always taking pictures. But maybe you could see a pic of the people and events here in the spain barcelona mission.     spainbarcelonamission.blogspot.com

February 12, 2014

What a week.... Alright. So, the main thing that happened this week was actually very hard and very sad. I dont know if I have ever talked about this family but there is a wonderful brazilian family that is here in our ward and one of the only two members that live in our proselyting area. But they are just great! they are the ones that us four missionaries here in Las Arenas spent New Years Eve with. They have the biggest hearts I have ever seen. Their family consists of Lynette (the mom), Jessica (the 23 yr old daughter), Dalyson (jessicas husband) and Luis Carlos (11 year old brother). About a year ago, Jessica got diagnosed with lymphoma cancer (not sure if thats how its spelled) but she is one of the strongest women I have met. She had an unshakable faith in our savior and in the church. She came to church every single sunday possible for all 3 hours even when she felt weak after chemo and radiotherapy. We grew close to their family, they feed us almost twice a month and we would do random stop bys to see how they were doing. Last week Jessica spent every day in the hospital, she was not well. The relief society hermanas were taking turns covering a morning shift from 9-1 to stay with her while her husband and mom covered the rest of the day. We volunteered and were with her friday morning. Then Sunday afternoon I called Lynette to ask her if she wanted us and the elders to bring her the sacrament. The three rings on the phone was answered by a broken hearted mother, all i could understand was her desperate call for company when she said, "hermanas" between her tears. A lady took the phone from her and informed me that just minutes ago her sweet jessica had passed away. 

Holding back my own tears. I knew what I had to do. I called the branch president, I called the relief society president and we said a prayer and then ran out to go be with this sweet member who answered her phone in a time like this because she needed us there. The rest of the afternoon we were at the hospital, we walked into the room to see lynette sitting in a chair leaning over her daughters body, which laid peacefully in the hospital bed. You can only imagine the hug that i gave lynette. As we held eachother in our arms, even in this very sad situation, I could feel our saviors love and his arms wrap around us. 

The relief society President, hermana lopez, served her mission in the south of spain 30 years ago, she sat next to me and my companion in the waiting room and thanked us for informing her, thanked us for our work and love and then asked how i was doing, there were no words that came out of my mouth. I just looked into her eyes and she looked into mine, she placed her hand on my lap and said, "this is the mission."

I know that she was talking about the ups and downs and heartaches and the happiness that every missionary has on his/her mission. But those four words ment a lot more to in that moment. I know that we all have a mission here on earth. We are all here for a purpose. I know that when we have acomplished our mission... we go home. And I know that the Lord takes his best angels to go be by his side. Jessica was an angel, Jessica IS an angel. I know with all my heart that this plan of happiness is really the plan of God. The plan of salvation is just as real as me and you. It is everything.

I also gained a very stong testimony of the organization of the church. It is wonderful to see this little branch push and support eachother through every trial. I knew exactly who i had to call and I knew that they would do the rest. This church is the true and only true church of christ on earth. It is perfect. The organization is perfect. This plan of salvation is perfect. Gods love for us is perfect. I love this church and I am so beyond grateful to have the knowledge that I do and to be able to share it with everyone. 

Please pray for lynette and her family. They need all the prayers they can get at this moment. and thank you. Thank you for everything every one does, for your prayers and more importantly for your faith. 

con mucho amor, 

Hermana Hair 

Hello :)

okay family, so we are having a two day zone conference up here in bilbao so today and tomorrow. we have hermanas staying in our piso and its been a good day. But i just got on to let you know that i am going to to have preperation day on wed. so just letting you all know that i am great but not to worry, you will hear from me on wed! 

love you all so so much! xoxo

Hermana Hair

February 3, 2014

Buenas! 

Alrighty, so this week has been pretty good. The best day, however, was yesterday! Sundays are kind of different on the mission becuase they feel like just any other day. We go to church, have mediodia (one our for lunch and one hour for language study) then go out and work! So we didnt really have any planned citas for Sunday afternoon but we felt really prompted that we should go to a part in our area that we just found out existed earlier this week. Apparently down in the metro instead of taking the escalators out there is a small turn that is a small train like box that takes you up the hill underground and we end up on top of a MOUNTAIN! We felt like we were in a whole new world. New ground, new faces, a fresh start:) We were having really good vibes about this place too , the only downside is that it is pretty far away from the church, but we didnt let that stop us. We decided to go all the way UP and see where it took us, contacting a few people on the way. We started getting up higher and when we look around it looks like we are Ireland! there are the cutest little houses with green all over and vegtable gardens and then we look to the other side and there is the ocean! It was a beautiful view. We Knocked a few houses and found some very nice people who reject us with a smile. We kept going up and found yet another little group of apartments. and this we said, is where we are working tonight. We decided to try knocking and MIRACLE the first door was open, so we walk in and my bright idea is to play the guessing game, which is where before they open the door you throw out a description of who you think is going to answer. Its funny when your right and even funnier when your way wrong. Well I have never had this game go so well yet so wrong as it did on sunday. H. Gillette had never played this game before so I started, I said, "Grandma, blue eyes and glasses" and i was right! the next one H. Gillette says "pink" and the lady had a pink robe on. the next one I whisper "man. chubs" and maybe it was because we were amazed at how well we were doing that it caught us off guard when, once again, we got it dead on. I dont know why it was so funny but right when he opened the door and we saw him, we both were trying so hard to choke back our giggles. It was tough, it was the best one yet. He was on the phone and didnt pay much attention to us but we managed to give him a card because im sure he didnt understand a thing we were trying to say behind all our random laughing.- now that i type this story it sounds like we were laughing at him but we really werent , it was just a funny end to our game. But the night continutes!

We invite an old man to be baptized who forgot to put in his dentures and was super embarrased about it but still sang to us an old spanish song. He said me da igual.. which means whatever, but i think he wasnt completely there. Then we meet this old lady who lets us in her apt, She tells us all about how she loves the mormons, gives us juice and some shoes... so we gave her a book of mormon She also started to guess our age, she thought H. Gillette was 19 and she though i was 31???????????????!!!!!!! this mission thing is aging me i guess.. haha.(I did find a white hair this morning) . So to sum it all up... we had a pretty interesting day.  I love the random people we meet. Every person impacts my life. I know Im where im supposed to be and im doing what im supposed to be doing. I love the song, "I´ll go where you want me to go". Especially that last sentence that says, "Ill be what you want me to be" I want to be the missionary the Lord knows I can be and I have 9 months to do it! gross... 

I have reached my peak, the humb of the mish.... is this for real? Well all i ask the lord is to help me make these last 9 months even better than my first 9. And i have loved every minute of these past 9 months so i Know these last 9 will be fantastic! Sorry mom, but I dont want to go home... :( I feel like the time has gone by too fast. 

I really hope everyone is doing great! You are all always in my prayers. Keep up the great work you are all doing every day to be examples of Christ. and "be who HE wants you to be!"

Les Queiro Mucho Mucho Mucho! 

-Hermana Hair

Here are a couple pictures of my ninth month. One is where I am super bummed that its my 9 months and the other is that im happy that I still have at least 9 more months ahead of me. Its a weird place to be. where i have enough time to look back on my mission but still lots of time to look forward to. 

So on saturday we went up for stake conference in Vitoria and we were on a bus for an hour and ten minutes and we go over this mountain and on the top there is snow!!!! It looked just like utah. I loved it.

 

January 27, 2014

My broken umbrella and 3 layers of jackets!

Kaixo!! (Hola in Bask)

I have been here for just about two months in Las Arenas and I still am amazed at how beutiful it is here. If any of you are ever planning on coming to Spain Las arenas might just be a must. This little bask part of Spain is gorgeous, even in the rain and spontaneous wind storms! It has been raining a lot more this week and both mine and my compañeras umbrellas broke in the wind. It was actually very funny . Good thing there are lots of  chinos around (chinese owned little random stores- kinda like a dollar store.. but they literally have everything you could ever imagine that you might randomly need) because the word around is that buying an expensive umbrella does no good in this wind, so might as well buy cheaper ones. either way you know its going to break so.... chinos here we come :) 

Portugalete (a part of our area)

The miracle of this week started when we decided to go visit a member's chucheria (a candy store) we were there talking to him and then without us even asking for references he started telling us about a member he sees and talks to that stopped coming to church almost five years ago. He said that he wanted to see if we could go visit here, he gave us here name and phone number and that was that. we called the elders, because she lives in their area , and asked if they had met with her already but they didnt even know her. We asked the senior couple if they knew anyhing about her and they didnt either so we went ahead called her up and set up a visit. - as hermanas we are kinda free to go out of area and visit single ladies because the elders cant go in without another man with them so its easier for us to visit inactive ladies even in their area- We get there and Imara is the sweetest  33 year old lady from Honduras. She tells us her story and how elders a long time ago came and tried to visit her but she wanted nothing with the church but she was very surprised to see that we called her becuase she has been having the strongest feeling to go back to church but she didnt know where to start. She said we had came at the perfect time and it was just what she needed. this all happened on tuesday AND THEN on Sunday she came to church, just as she said she was going to do. The first sunday back to church is HUGE for Less actives but she was there with a smile and all, she was loved by all the members who knew here and she said that she felt like she was coming back to her family. She gave us a big hug before leaving church and said ill be expecting you this tuesday as well. Milagro?? creo que si. :) I know it was nothing WE as missionaries did that made her come to church, it is always the Lord, he knows his children and he knows exacly what they need. I know that the member who gave us the reference was inspired to think of her and to have enough love for her to want to send us to her. I thanked the member on sunday for listening to the promptings of the spirit and giving us her information, He seemed a bit surprised but though about it and smiled. Not all of our actions have to have a huge spiritual prompting but just a small thought that comes to our mind, if its good, is always from God. My dear loved ones, follow every prompting you have, even if its just a small phone call that you feel you need to make to a neighbor, family member, or friend, Believe me, they probably need it, The lord uses us as his tools but if we dont place ourselves in his toolbox we will loose the opportunity to make a difference. Live worthy to be able to hear the whispers and promptings of the spirit then do it. That member did it, and I am so grateful he did. 

The rest of the week was great as well. We are struggling a little because we had to drop some of our investigators so we are working on finding, finding, finding. I love all the very interesting people we have the oportunity to talk to on the street. Hermana Gillette has the wonderful habit of praying for the ones who are very rude after they leave, so we just stop and pray. She apologizes to God and asks him to forgive them for rejecting Him. She is a wonderful example and missionary. 

I LOVE YOU ALL SO SO SO SO MUCH!!! Always remember that! 

Un abrazo grande, 

Hermana Hair

Making empanadas at a members home! (h. rackam from bilbao is also with us in this picture, we were in a trio for this day)