The finale

Hi guys! How's it going??

The end is near!! I will be flying into Salt Lake City on December 10th, and my homecoming will be on December 14th at 9am. I would LOVE to see all of you there!! 🥰

These past 2 weeks have been true pure joy. Watching the Lord work magic through his missionaries is the coolest thing ever. Let me tell you about some more friends!!

This is Sofía! 🇮🇨 My favorite Canaria! She has a heart so full of love and has taken so much time to learn, ask questions, and know of the truth for herself. She is so much fun and literally lights up a room when she walks in. I love her so much!! 💟

This is Jhon! 🇻🇪 I contacted him on social media back in June and he has been preparing for baptism ever since! He finally decided to let go of all of his doubts and put his trust in God. On Saturday he was baptized and oh my I am SO proud of him. I can genuinely say that I have seen a "mighty change in his heart" 🤍 

This is Emanuel! 🇸🇱 He is from Sierra Leone! He's 17 years old and living here completely SOLO. He is an amazing kid with the biggest heart. Teaching him wasn't always the easiest because of the language barrier, but with lots of love, prayers, and some help from my Krio speaking friend Braden Butters, yesterday he was baptized!!! 🫶🏼

Here's some other things that happened these past few weeks...

☆ Visited la casa del señor again!! I've been fortunate to have gone to the temple a handful of times on my mission, but every time I go I am more and more amazed about how cool and perfect temple work is. It is truly my favorite place ever!

☆ My LAST zone conference!! I didn't get very many pics because we were sprinting out the door like always hahaha but it was soo bittersweet. Seeing so many of my best friends for the last time was so sad but it was a beautiful day filled with the spirit and lots of amazing messages & testimonies!

☆ the GANG! The members here have become some of my best friends. They are majority of the reason for why I don't want to go home. We have so much fun together and I'm going to miss all of them so much!

Also the Christmas lights went up this week and they are beautiful!!

One more tribute to the islands zone...

I love them!! 🏝

So long story short, I am very happy. Time is flying by here and I am definitely not ready for it to end. Thanks for all of the love and emails and support!! I'll see you all soon! Les quiero muchísimo!! ❤️‍🔥

17!!!

Hi guys!! Today I hit 17 months as a missionary! That's crazy!
Also, some more of our friends got baptized last week!! Here's a little bit about them...

Priscilla y Sasha 🇵🇪

These 2 girls are filled with so much happiness. Teaching children is hard but even if they didn't understand everything completely, they love God so very much and to me that's the most important part!! I love them!!

Veronica, Javier, y Fabrizio 🇻🇪

The most precious family ever!!! They truly have the sweetest souls and the strongest testimonies. I'm so happy for them!!

Seeing the gospel change people completely has been the coolest experience. These people will be forever blessed for choosing to make this covenant with God. Nothing brings me more joy than this! 

Here's some other things that happened this week:

Flew to Madrid for MLC! I've been able to represent the islands for the last 4 transfers and it's been so fun!! 

Here's some pictures of the beautiful island of Tenerife!!! If I'm ever having a bad day I just remember that I live here hahaha

In my interview with my mission president last week he shared this quote with me:

& I just love it so much!!! Everything can be made right through the atonement of Jesus Christ. There is nothing that we go through in this life that he didn't already go through, that's what makes him so special and loving!

I'm so thankful for that knowledge, I'm so thankful for my mission, I'm so thankful for you guys. I have no doubt that my last month will be full of joy. Have a good week, les quiero muchísimo!! ❤️‍🔥

last transfer 🥹

Hii everyone!! It's been a sec and my mom said it's time for me to write another email soo here I am hahaha

These past couple of weeks have been soo good!! We got transfer news on Saturday, and I'm staying in Santa Cruz with Hermana Teixeira!! I'm so excited, I couldn't think of a better place to spend my last transfer. I love it here!!! 🏝

Sooo... here's what I've been up to!!!

On Saturday our friend Adrián got baptized! He is such a sweet soul and I'm so proud of him! We are teaching some amazing people who are diligently preparing to be baptized. Good things are coming people!!! 🌊

This week we had zone conference! The Islands zone is basically the size of a district but because of that we are all super close and I love it! Hermana Teixeira and I gave 2 trainings in Spanish and nervous was an understatement but everything went super good and I'm glad that it's over hehehe

This zone conference our mission president gave us the invitation to read all of the book of mormon in one transfer and mark all of the times it refers to Jesus Christ. It has been SO COOL to see all of references to him on every single page. I didn't realize just how much it talked about him and it has been such a testament to me that this book really is "another testament of Jesus Christ". My testimony of the truthfulness of the book of mormon has grown so much on my mission and I have not one doubt that it's true. I invite you all to do the same!! Read it and find out for yourself if it's true!

On Thursday I went on exchanges with dear hermana hancock who has become one of my closest friends here. Her and hermana egbert are 2 of the sweetest humans with so much love and drive. We've all gotten really close after moving into their house. Despite our small living quarters, I have loved living in a quad with them 🫶🏼

This is my new favorite drink. I love hermana teixeira, brazil, & guaraná #iwishiwasabrazilian

Oh I almost forgot!!! GUYS I went back to my old area Pamplona for exchanges and saw some of my favorite people EVER! I have never been so happy to be reunited with my very best friends. It was SO MUCH FUN!!

Lastly... a tribute to the 3 people who have made my heart absolutely explode of love these past 4 months. This week they moved to another city in Spain and even though I am so sad that they are leaving us, they are going to bless so many lives wherever they go!!! They have changed my life in just about every way

I'm soaking up every bit of these last 2 months, I truly love it here. I hope you all have the best week ever! Les quiero muchísimo ❤️‍🔥

Más fotos!

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🇧🇷🇧🇷

Bom día!! Como estem vocês?? Eu estou aprendendo português!

So transfers happened and I said goodbye to my best friend ever Hermana Ence 😪 we had so much fun together and saw countless miracles. God really used us as his instruments these last 2 transfers. Good thing I'll see her in a couple of weeks!

It's been a while. Soo much has happened these past couple of weeks! We had zone conference in Madrid with a general 70 and it was so good and spiritual! (And I got to see all of my best friends hehe)

We've done lots of exploring around our island. Went to this place called "Monkey park". I'm sure you can guess what that was like hahaha and then we went to the sand dunes on the other island! Didn't even know that those existed here but they were so beautiful!!

Ate lots of good food as always! Andddd then last week we had transfers!

My new companion is Hermana Teixiera and she is from BRAZIL!! 🇧🇷 She is so beautiful and such a light. Speaking spanish all day is super different and has definitely humbled me but it's been so good and I'm soo excited to spend these next couple of weeks with her!! I have also been on my portuguese studying GRIND these past couple of days. I've never wanted to learn this language more than I do right now. Catch me at the end of this transfer falando português!

We are also now ward sharing!! The Elders stole our piso 😒 so we now live with the other hermanas in their area! It will be an experience for sure but I'm happy. There's so much work to do here and the elders are going to help so much! Oh AND now we're the STLs over Pamplona so I get to go back there for exchanges!! Soo random but I'm so excited

We have some really amazing friends who are progressing so fast. I could talk about them all day! About a week ago we put our friend Darío on date to be baptized and then after teaching him the word of wisdom he said "you don't understand, I am ADDICTED to coffee. I can't go a day without it." We invited him to pray about it and try going just one day without it. We met with him the other day and I'm happy to report that out of 7 days of the week, he drank coffee 2 of those days!! 😁 I'm so proud of him and his efforts to do what he thought was impossible! God is so good. We have some other friends preparing to be baptized this transfer too and I just love meeting with them and bringing this light into their lives that they didn't even know was missing 🥹 that's my favorite part of being a missionary!!

This transfer might be the busiest transfer I will ever have. There's been a lot of changes and I'm still learning how to balance everything. Between flying to different places every week for exchanges, calls, preparing our friends for baptism, and now living 40 minutes from our area, it feels like we are hardly going to have any free time for the basics, like finding. I look at the transfer as a whole and genuinely don't know how we're going to be able to do it all. BUT I'm taking everything day by day and realizing that everything will work out according to God's plan!!

33 But if ye will turn to the Lord with full purpose of heart, and put your trust in him, and serve him with all diligence of mind, if ye do this, he will, according to his own will and pleasure, deliver you out of bondage.

This is just a scripture that I love!! If we turn to him, serve him, and trust him, we will be blessed. It's a simple act for a lifetime of blessings and protection!

I'm currently at the airport about to head to Madrid for MLC buttt we just missed our flight!!! We'll get there eventually 🫠 I hope you all have a goooood week!! Les quiero muchísimo! ❤️‍🔥

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Ojalá fuera venezolana 🇻🇪

Hi guys!! ☺️

I truly did not think that I would be this bad at writing emails but I promise I'm alive and well, just soo busy!! Today we're in Madrid for zone conference so I had a little extra time to write something. We just went to the temple again too!!! 🤗 ahh I love it there!! Then on friday we'll head back to our little isla 🏝

These past couple of weeks have been so busy but SO good. God has been blessing us with so many miracles! After the majority of our progressing friends got baptized last transfer we have been on a diligent finding grind and God is preparing so many people for us to teach!

We have some really promising friends but lots of them are still super new! It's so cool meeting so many different people who want a change in their lives and have recognized that God can bring about that change. Knowing that this gospel blesses all of God's children in individual ways is so cool and makes teaching them so special!! I'm excited to keep teaching them and watching them grow. They all have such a strong desire to know the truth and I have no doubt that they will find it here!

We have eaten such good food here. Hermana Ence and my current obsession are acai bowls and cachapas. I think in an alternate universe I'm a venezuelan because hooolllyyyy crap their food is SO GOOD. I think that God knows me perfectly by sending me to Spain because one of the coolest parts about serving here is being able to learn about and experience so many other cultures. I love it!!!

Tonight we have another MLC and tomorrow we have Zone Conference and Elder Jack Gerard from the 70 is coming!! I'm super excited and I know that the spirit will be so strong!!

💒💒 

Mosiah 16:4-5

4 Surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 

 5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

I've been studying a lot about the atonement these past couple of weeks. For so long I didn't understand why Christ had to suffer such horrible things when he lived a perfect life. God is all powerful, why couldn't he just save us without having to send his son to suffer? I'm still just barely scratching the surface of the concept of the atonement and why Jesus Christ chose to take upon himself all of our sins and pains, but now I recognize just how necessary it was. It would literally be impossible to be saved into the kingdom of God without it. We needed a savior, someone to SAVE us, and no one else could've done such an act, it had to be Jesus Christ. I read this scripture the other day and I really just love it so much! "With his stripes we are healed". He suffered everything and because of him, we are healed! He has saved us!!

I wish I could tell you about every little miracle that I've seen these past couple of weeks but we both don't have the time for that. Just know that God loves me, and you, and everyone else. I love my mission and I'm so lucky to be in such a unique place gathering his children!!

Les quiero muchísimoooo! Email me and tell me whats up! ❤️‍🔥

Bautismos por miles habrá!

I've never felt God's love for me and for his children more than I have here in Spain. This last week especially was the biggest confirmation to me that God truly is in every single detail of each persons life. This last transfer I've been able to see our friends grow and change completely and just this last week there was a huge party up in heaven because 5 of them were baptized. Let me tell you all about it!!

Raquel 🇵🇪 

This woman is the BIGGEST sweetheart. She has a problem with her knees that causes her lots of pain and makes it so that she has to use crutches and walk at a very slow pace. She is the hugest example to me of devotion. She will walk an hour to church every single Sunday even with her condition because she loves God and she knows the importance of putting him first. I could not be more proud of her and her incomprehensible dedication and faithfulness to him!!

Katty, Cristhopher, Christian 🇻🇪 

These 3 humans are literally angels sent from above. I have been so amazed by them from day one. Katty hasn't had an easy life but she has never doubted God or let her faith falter even in the toughest moments and it shows!! Her two boys are so smart and so pure. They were literally quoting the bible in lessons!! I'm mind blown every day at how much they all know and how much love they have in their hearts. I'm so proud of these beautiful humans and I know that thanks to God's plan they will be able to be sealed as a family forever!!

Felipe 🇧🇷

Well well well, he did it!! Felipe has worked incredibly hard to grow a testimony for himself and for nobody else. I'm proud of him for recognizing that he wasn't ready a couple of weeks ago and working hard to keep preparing. We taught him everything again and by the end he was teaching us! He has changed his whole life and knows the truthfulness of the church through prayer and o livro de mórmon! He is so awesome and I know that he will be blessed forever and ever through his decision!

I have so much love in my heart for these people!!! 🤍🤍 God is so good and man am I so lucky to be his servant

Here's some other things that happened this week:

- Zone conference!! Hermana Ence and I gave a training which had me stressing but it turned out really good! We also met our new mission presidents the Grows and they are so amazing, they feel like home. Our zone is basically the size of a district but I loved it so much because we're like a big family. Zone conference was so good!!

- Exchanges!! On Friday I went on exchanges with my girl hermana Egbert who is the biggest ball of joy and I loved spending the whole day with her!!

Then yesterday I went on exchanges with my bestie hermana Haslam. Guys Haslam and I would go on exchanges at the very beginning of our mission because our trainers were STLs. We knew no spanish but we got out there every day and did the best we could. It was SO cool being with her again yesterday and seeing how much we both have grown. She goes home in a week so we really have been together from start to finish. She truly is one of my favorite people on this whole planet!!! 💟

- If you are a missionary you know the absolute painnnn of running out of money. This whole transfer we've been SCRAPING on MSF so one day God blessed us with a bag full of bread sitting by the dumpster! It was kinda stale but it did the job 😁

- Ate paella for the first time on my mission. All I have to say is that I still hate fish

- Took a literal cruise ship over to the other island (not actually but it was close) and it was such a cool experience. Living on an island is so much fun 🏝

I think that about sums things up! I love it here. I'm so lucky and so happy. I hope you guys have the best week! Les quiero big time! ❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥

Bom dia parça!

Hi guys! Sorry this email is an essay but these last couple of weeks have been absolutely crazy. Sooo much has happened. Buckle up

God has truly blessed us and our area so much these past couple of weeks. I've never gone to an area and seen so much success before. It's been miracle after miracle after miracle and I have been so incredibly blown away at how aware God is of his children here. I feel like a different missionary after just 3 weeks. I know that God has seen the hard work that we've put into each and every activity and it feels like he's blessed us with a good outcome every time. Especially among what feels like 80 other responsibilities and things going on. I feel like there's no time to stop because there's just so much to do! 🙌🏼🙌🏼

However, it's hasn't all been sunshine and rainbows. Here's the story of the week:

We had 2 friends on date to be baptized this weekend. Luis on saturday and Felipe on sunday. We worked all week to prepare them, meet with them, plan their baptisms, etc. Then reality struck. Luis spent the weekend in the hospital getting tests done, so he wasnt able to get baptized on Saturday. And then the day before Felipes baptism, he texted us and told us that he didn't feel ready yet and wants to keep preparing. He wasn't baptized this weekend either

Sadness was an understatement. Hermana Ence and I just felt a sense of failure. We felt like we didn't do enough, teach enough, care enough and because of that neither of our friends got baptized this weekend. Saturday was easily the hardest day of my mission so far. I was in my head all day, wondering what I could've done differently to have changed the outcome of the weekend. I was discouraged and I felt like we worked so hard to help these people and then Satan came in and took it all away from us. We spent all of saturday piecing together a giant puzzle that had been handed to us, figuring out where we went wrong and what we could do to fix it. In reality, there were a lot of outside factors that played into why Luis and Felipe didn't get baptized. After the longest weekend of my life, I came to realize that it wasn't fair of me to blame myself for all that had happened. I did everything I could, how could God expect even more from me than that?

He can't, and he doesn't! We did what we could, and he does the rest. I know that his plan is perfect. There's a lot going on in the lives of Luis and Felipe right now. They both have their own challenges but I know that their story isn't over. I'm so proud of them both for how far they've come. I'll keep you all updated, they'll both be baptized before we know it 😇

Anyways!! Heres some more stuff going on in my island life: 🏝🏝

MLC was so good!! Despite how scared I was it ended up being so good and spiritual. Something about having a bunch of different missionaies with different ideas on how to better our mission brainstorming together was so cool to me. That was also the last time I saw president and hermana Eastland!! I have so much love for those 2!!! Our new mission presidents the Grows got here the week after MLC and I still haven't met them yet but we will next week at zone conference!

We have 4 more friends on date!! Raquel, our sweet peruvian abuelita is getting baptized on Sunday and Katty and her 2 kids next week! They are all so amazing! I've learned so much from each of them and their love for God that just seems to constantly be overflowing! 🌊🌊

Ence and I hit 13 months together!! El tiempo pasa tan rápido guau. We celebrated with acai bowls and they were soo good!!!

Last week we went to Loro Parque which is like a massive zoo x sea world x aquarium and is truly one of the coolest places I've ever been. There was SO much to see. We saw dolphins and sea lions do the coolest flips and tricks, massive orcas that splashed us and left us soaking wet. I found out ant eaters actually exist! It was so so cool!! 🐋🐬

4th of July!!! Truly wasn't anything special. Apparently Spain doesn't celebrate America's independence which is kinda crazy of them but we made the best of it with hamburguesas! The most underwhelming 4th of july to date! 🇺🇲🇺🇲

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I finished the book of mormon this week!! (Por fin) I've never gone through it so thoroughly before and my testimony of it's truthfulness just kept growing each time I opened it up and prayerfully read it. This week we shared a spiritual thought about the liahona, and how it only guided Lehis family through the wilderness according to their faith. We shared this scripture:

44 For behold, it is as easy to give heed to the word of Christ, which will point to you a straight course to eternal bliss, as it was for our fathers to give heed to this compass, which would point unto them a straight course to the promised land. 

45 And now I say, is there not a type in this thing? For just as surely as this director did bring our fathers, by following its course, to the promised land, shall the words of Christ, if we follow their course, carry us beyond this vale of sorrow into a far better land of promise.

I know for a fact that the book of mormon is true. I know that it was written by prophets who were chosen by God to guide us in these last days. And I know that if we read it and follow it's words, we will be guided, blessed, and pointed to a straight course to eternal bliss! I've felt that on my mission time and time again!!!

Les quiero muchísimo!! Chao! ❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥

- hermana anselmo

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