June 30, 2014

This week has been quite an interesting week. Im not sure if i can explain how .. but it just seemed like everything was a bit off. but its just another trial and we decided that it was satan who is scared of our killer companionship so he is trying everything to throw us off our game. but its not working. not even with hna benson being sick.. she is a trooper. I really really like her. We just clicked from last transfers intercambio and its a huge blessing to now be companions.I will send a picture of us next week. Then you will be able to see her. she is tall, like six foot and blonde, were look very opposite but our personalities are pretty similar. we get along super well. 

We are still working with Jose luis and Sussi. they are WONDERFUL.II dont know if i explained who they are.. i feel like I would have. but sussi is member who has been inactive for a very long time, 10 years. but now she has met jose luis and wants to marry him but off course she has never been able to deny the church and she knows its true. so she has shared all her knowledge about the church with him and now he wants to be baptized. they found the church and have been coming now every sunday.  They are an artsy and interesting couple but they have the biggest desire to learn and progress in the gospel. they are just waiting for her papers so they can be married. But the other day for our second visit of the week, jose luis pulled out a paper where he had  summed up the main points of the lesson we had earlier that week. apparently he wanted to remember it and wrote it out after we left. how incredible! He is going to be a super strong member one day. He loves everyone and says hi to everyone at church who he knows. Its a bummer though that it takes super long to get married here in spain, especially if they are foreigners.

Talking about weddings there was a wedding on friday and there is going to be another this friday. They are older ladies in the church too. its so fun to see them find thier match and be happy and get married. In spain our church isnt recognized as a religion that can marry people, only the catholic church can so here the members have to get married civally first and then go to the temple as soon as they can right after to be sealed. Its amazing to see how the people here have to travel all the way to madrid to go to the temple. I have never appreciated living so close to the temple at home, than i do now. members have to pay 50 buck to go on a bus as a ward just to go the temple for one day and then come back the next day. and if not enough people sign up they cant afford to pay the bus so they have to cancel the temple trip.. its happened a few times now in different wards that ive been in. its so sad to see how dissapointed they are when they cant go to the temple after being so ready and willing to go. If anything , i want to encourage all of you who live in utah and do live right next to a temple to take advantage of it and go. I have not gotton "homesick" on my mission but i have gotten"temple-sick" haha. I am one of the very few in this mission who have had the opportunity to visit the temple, and what it did was make me miss it even more. so please, go to the temple, and help the lord with his work on the other side of the veil. we can be missionaries together:) if you go i would love to hear about it and your experience. I know every visit to the temple is a special visit to the lords house. 

I love you all and am looking forward to hearing about your temple trips. 

love, Hermana hair

June 24, 2014

Hello!! 

Wonderful news everyone!!!! IM WITH HNA BLANCO RIGHT NOW!!. She is going home this transfer.. so today or tomorrow. and she stayed the night in our place and oh my goodness is what great to see her because i havent seen her in like a year! She is doing great and its so good to see her again. 

second news, IM STAYING IN BARCELONA!  (although i secretly wanted to go the islands, its my dream to go and be in the islands my last transfer... theres still a possibility ha) but my new companion is hna. Benson. she is tall and blonde and from salt lake. she goes home in 8 weeks. but she is great! Ive been on an intercambio with her and she really is wonderful she has been companions with hna williams too so she says that she feels like she already knows me because of everything hna williams has already told her. :)  This is going to be a great transfer!  Hna nalbandyan is supposed to go to san sebastian but she has a really bad nose bleed and we had to take her to the emergency room because it wouldnt stop bleeding they stuck a foam thing up her nose and has to go back wed to get it taken out and see if she is better so for now i guess we are kind of in a trio ... but she cant leave the house so we will see what we will end up doing. 

Im very excited for this transfer. i have a really good feeling about it but  not just about me and my new comp but about the whole mission. I feel like we are going to see many many miracles this summer. 

and spain actually wasnt too crazy with the whole world cup thing .. but ive heard its because we are in catalunya and they dont really want to be part of spain anyways so they dont make a big deal out of it but i heard that in madrid its a HUGE deal.. . but spain already lost... haha. GO COLOMBIA ;)

I love you all so much! something that hna rackham and i have been talking about this past week is that obedience really means love. and that that is why through our obedience is how we show our love for God. He really has given us everything and even our free agency.. theres no better way to show him our gratitude than using the gift of choosing that he has given us and choosing to follow him and obey him. I love Him so much and I choose to be obedient. I hope we can all strive to be more obedient to his commandments and really show him our love and gratitude. 

i love you all!!! mucho mucho mucho. 

xoxoxo 

Hermana Hair

Okay so here is hna blanco and I last night. ... it was very late and we are tired and ​i had just put my hair up so...we arent looking our best haha but im so happy to see her !!

June 16, 2014

Hello all! 

This weeks email is going to be short because im writing at the end of preperation day and dont have all my email time. But today we had a BBQ with all our zone in a park called Trinidat Vella. its a huge park with lots of open space (not common here in barc) and we just played various sports and ate and took some pictures.. it was nice. and last preperation day we went to park Guell... its Gaudis other famous creation here in barc, it was 8 Euros to enter and not very big... I wouldnt do it again, i think its too pricy for the size but its very interesting and beautiful around that area. there we met an armenian girl who contacted us because she say Hna Nalbandyans name tag and asked if she was armenian. - most armenian names end in "yan"  she ended up tagging along with us and it was great to have a new friend! she wants to learn more about the church but was going on vacation for a couple weeks but when she comes back we will be in contact with her. 

Melisa and Genesis are still doing really good., We bought melisa a new triple and wrapped it for her and gave it to her and she was SO excited. she opened it and was like wooowww... what is it? hahaha we explained to her the different books and then we told her to just flip open and she did and landed on DyC 66:11 which in spanish says, Obedece estas palabras, porque son verdaderas y fieles... obey these words because they are true and loyel...    It was wonderful to see how the book itself was testifying of what we had just explained about it. there is no doubt that the book of mormon , DyC and the PofGP are the word of God. I love little miracles that I get to witness every day! I love it . 

Hna rackham had a mini missionary.. but she got sent to cornella so... we are in a trio again! :)

I love you all and hope you are all healthy and well.

xoxo 

Hna Hair

Gaudi´s famous salamander and I 

a movie billboard but the title just fits us... there is not two without three... (since we are in a trio now haha)

June 9, 2014

Hola hola:)

this week was MUCH bettter than last week. We have been in a trio, because since, hna nadal went home, hna rackham is companionless so she has been with us. We have been working both her area and our area .it is harder because the area we have to work is now so big but we are doing. We actually have been able to work pretty evenly both areas and we have just been literally running from cita to cita. super busy but so happy! the three of us each have something different to add to the companionship so its been great being in this trio. I have admired my compañera very much this week. If I had to choose one thing I loved about hna nalbandyan is that she really knows how to listen to the holy ghost and then follow those promptings one of the biggest miracles this week was because she was following those promptings. she listens and then just acts, i love that about her. hna rackham is amazing too! she really shows true genuine love to all those around her and she makes them laugh and feel comfortable at the first encounter. what wonderful companions I have! Im grateful for everyone I have the opportunity to meet and work with. 

This week we met Jose Luis y Sussi. Sussi is a less active from bolivia who has been here in spain for about 12 years. Jose luis is a spaniard from valencia. They met about 6 months ago in this art course they are both taking. long story short they fell in love, are now living together and she shared her beliefs and religion and now he wants to get baptized, she wants to be active again  and they both want to get married and later sealed in the temple!! HIM a SPANIARD??!! the lord is preparing spaniards and he is doing it through the members and less actives. We did nothing at all, he just has that desire to be baptized... que increíble! they are just waiting for papers to be able to get married and well this is all thanks to sussi who says even though she hasnt been to church for 10 years she has never lost her testimony , she has never stopped knowing who she is and sharing it with those around her. sadly they wont be able to get married till the beginning of august, if everything goes well but immedietly after they get married he is for sure getting baptized... I wonder if I will still be here in this area to see this gran milagro? I sure hope so!

this work of salvation is the lords work and he is hiring everyone in the church to help him! we are all employed in this labor and its a full time job. and just like any business, we are seeing success when everyone does their part and does it with a smile. The members,the less active and the recent converts are bringing friends and sharing this gospel. i know that this is how the lord wants his work to go forward. and we all have a part in this! we are so blessed to all have this opportunity to help the lord and to all be working together . 

i hope you have a great week! summer is just around the corner, its getting warmer. Happy almost summer :)

love you all!!

Love, Hermana Hair

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June 2, 2014

Slow week, 

Everyone and their companion has been getting sick here in this mission okay maybe not the whole mission but for sure here in the barcelona zone. Theres been lots of sick days/mornings in piso this week, with my companion- she is getting better though. Its felt really wierd. because it doesnt feel like missionary work. but we are determined to come back with fire this week :) the sad news is that the other hermanas in our piso are more sick than we are. compared to them we are very very healthy.I would say im the healthiest right now out of all four of us, im basically all normal. but  hermana rackham (an mtc friend) has bronchitus and her companion , hermana Nadal is going home this afternoon because she has been sick for 6 weeks now and the doctors dont know whats wrong with her. so as you can tell there has been lots of emotions and coughing going on in our apartment... hermana nadal has only been out for 3 months, she is from the south of spain and a real trooper. she has put up with not feeling well for a very long time and has worked when her body has allowed her but everyone thinks that going home and getting better and then coming back to the mission is the best for her, that way she doesnt loose her mission time in bed. we are very very sad to see her go, ive only known her for about 3 weeks but i love her and know that we are going to always be good friends. 

So also this week when h. nalbandyan was feeling better we had an intercambio and I went to l'hospitalet! i was with hna benson who was just barely , the transfer before, with hermana williams!!! she said she had heard a lot about me from hna williams, so much that she feels like she already knows me.. i hope its all good stuff! :) but it was a fun intercambio. 

we also had a flamanco performance in church from a dance company that wanted to have their final performance of the season at our church because it has a big stage. it was interesting and fun to watch and we got to talk to a lot of people that came for it who are not members... most werent interested but hey, now they know where the church is haha. 

well thats about it for this week. here is my 13 month picture... 

love you all! 

Hermana Hair 

May 26, 2014

Querida Familia y Amigos,

Umm monday again?? time flies too fast :(

The best thing this week was that MELISA GOT BAPTIZED!!

So on Tuesday we had specialized training with the barcelona and badalona zones. President Pace and Hna Pace give us a specialized training every 3 months . they ask us to come prepared with prayfully picked questions that we want answered at the conference. So obviously hna nalbandyan and I both have our question that concern Melisa and Elizabeth... crazy thing is that the conference was all about feeling the holy ghost and praying.. exactly what melisa and elizabeth need. they are waiting on their answers and wow , it was as if this conference was made just for us to be able to teach them. 

So something we started doing was teaching elizabeth and melisa seperatly because they both have different needs and they seem to like the special attention more. so its all good. So later on tuesday we had a cita with melisa and we focused on how she was praying , what she was asking and how the holy ghost works and how to recognize it. So we sent her off with the invitation to pray specifically and to listen. Then all we could do was trust that god was going to answer her in his due time. our next cita we had with Melisa this week we had to sadly cancel (supposed to be on thursday), because hna nalbandyan was sick and we had to cancel our intercambio where I was going to go to hospitalet and another hna was going to come to barc for a day. we were bummed about the situation and stayed in piso that day. the next day hna nalbandyan was feeling much better so we set up our visits and met with melisa. During this visit, we wanted to go back to lesson one and talk about joseph smith, his prayer and answer after watching the restoration dvd. at the end of the lesson we asked her if she believed in god, if she believed in christ and if she believed the book of mormon was true. Yes, she replied after each question. okay... so we read mosiah 18:8-10 . she started to laugh because of the direct question that she knew was directed to her... we said, melisa.. do you want to be baptized?.. YES, she said. MILAGRO!???!!!! we kept our level of excitedness to a normal amount.. She explained that she had received her answer, that before she was praying but that she wasnt asking for anything specific, she did not like the job she had so she decided to ask god for a new job (umm very specific). and on wed she got offered a job!! she said that at first she thought it was a coincidence but that in her head came the thought, "this is the answer i was looking for, this is what i asked god"... we told her that that thought that came into her head was the holy ghost... she smiled.  I know that God at that moment was smiling too.

Melisa is so very special, she is a daughter of God AND now she knows it! because when we started teaching her a month ago she was atheist... what a huge change. only God can make this change in people, not me, not hna nalbandyan.. only God. I love this work. it bring me such joy and peace to see how it helps everyone and how people can change.  

I have a very very strong testimony that everything happens for a reason, that we need not fear when things dont go as planned because if we trust in god and let the holy ghost guide us then everything is happening how God wants it to happen

I know god wanted them to prepare for the 17th so that they would have doubts so that afterwards when they come out of the doubts they can be baptized saying I KNOW this is true. I know that God wanted me to be there for this cita and that is why hna nalbandyan got sick and I couldnt go to hospitalet (a city near barcelona )because i would not have been present at this cita when she told us she wanted to be baptized. how sad would that be?.. either way i would have been extatic about her decision :) but im glad I was there for the visit. and I know that the specialized training was inspired and that we were blessed because we went out and acted on our leader's guidance. I know that God answered her prayer because she was diligent, had faith and was going to act on his answer... thats exactly what she did, she recieved and then acted. she told us on friday she wanted to be baptized, and the next day at 7 pm was... She is so happy , you can see it on her face. I love her! 

and I love you all! Have a great week!

love,

Hna Hair 

May 19, 2014

Short Email this week. 

So this week for the first time in my whole mission I was sick.. It was like the same thing that I had in the MTC exactly one year ago. Started out with alergies that turned into a sore throat with a headache and feeling super weak which is now winding out with a cough and stuffy nose.But I am okay. I'm getting better and there were a couple mornings where we stayed in and rested and then went out and worked the afternoon. Funny thing though is that my companion and I are so united that once I got sick... She did too.. haha.

Quick updates.

1.Melisa and Elizabeth did not get baptized this week, They want to but they say they havent received their answer from God yet. But they are still doing their part, reading the book of mormon, praying and coming to church. they have even brought friends to church who they want us to teach too! incredible! Dont worry though, I know God has a plan for them and that all of this is part of his plan . I was rereading the book of mormon and when i was reading about sariah murmering because her sons hadnt come back from getting the brass plates but that after they returned and she had suffered (I assume as any mother would) she could testify with a SURETY that her husband was a prophet and that the lord had protected them. and THAT is what i think God wants for melisa and elizabeth he wants them to go through a bit of hard times in their conversion so that afterwards they can say that they know with SURETY that this church is true... at least thats one thing i think God is doing. :)

2. This past sunday - so yesterday- in our ward we could have easily made up a whole branch of just americans! idk why but everyone decided to visit barcelona this weekend and come to church! ha. most of who.. were from utah. there were 6 byu graduates who were backpacking through europe. and of course the mormon world is so tiny that I knew one of them and he informed me of all my friends that are now married.. its crazy to see everyone getting married. but im happy for all of them:)

3. I cant believe that of all the months I have forgotten to take my one year picture but I will send it next month. 

I hope you are all having a healthy and fun week! 

Love, Hermana Hair

Actually these two pictures can be my one year picture. Both of these were on May 1st when H. Nalbandyan and I decided to celebrate it and get McFlurries from Mcdonalds and eat it infront of the sagrada familia and then the other picture is of the three of us, hna rackham, elder alder and I who all had our one year mark on may first! Crazy