Arroz con leche!!!

Hello!!! It's been a crazy week with lots to do but everything's going so good! Here's some highlights:

-Got my residency card. Feels good to be legal 🙌

-We are blessing this area book with our hard work. We recently got a list of all the active and less active members in the ward and we started completely from scratch locating their addresses and putting every single one of them on our map. By the time were done with this project we will probably both be out of the area but at least the next set of Hermanas will have a perfect map of members to carry on the work with!!

-First bible bash, 0/10 wouldn't recommend

We met up for what we thought was going to be a dinner with a less active member but ended up just being her ranting to us on a bench for an hour about what she didn't like about our church. I wanted so badly to understand every one of her concerns and help address them but unfortunately this happened on a day that we were on exchanges so we just did our best to follow the spirit!

-On a better note, we are teaching some awesome people!! A lot of them are super new to religion in general and its been so cool to help them build their testimonies. They all seem super interested in learning more! Our most progressing friend, Samadhi, told us that shes sacrificing her dream of owning a coffee shop for this church. Priorities are tooooo straight and if it was up to us she would be baptized tomorrow. Also, we got a reference the other night of a mom and her son who just moved here from Peru and they came to church yesterday!! Hoping we can get them back on date here 🤞 Carab is on fire!!!

-I dont think any of you are eating better than I am right now. We've had a member meal every single day this week, sometimes 2 meals a day and I feel like the luckiest missionary in the world to confidently say that it's all been amazing food. I dont think I've ever had more arroz con leche in all of my life but I can't even complain. I'm genuinely so thankful for our members who love us so much that there's a line to feed us. I don't want to leave this area just because of them!!

Spiritual thought:

The other day I had a prompting to read my patriarchal blessing. I haven’t read it since being on my mission and it was one of the most spiritual experiences I've had here. There is so much good in it that I didn't see before and more than anything else it gives me so much purpose and happiness. If you have a patriarchal blessing, go read it! If not, go get it!!! I promise you will feel the spirit and notice something new in it every time

This email was a little chaotic but I love you guys! Hope you all have an amazing week!!! 💟💟

🌊🌊

Hello everyone!!! I'm such a slacker and I didn't have time to write an email last week but this week was super spiritual so here's my update...

Two big highlights:

-Zone Conference!! Saw my MTC besties and heard some amazing messages that made me rethink my purpose as a missionary

-Stake Conference!! It was right outside of the temple and wow I missed the temple so much. It was amazing just to be able to hang out there with a bunch of other ward members, missionaries, and all of our progressing friends!! The Spirit was so strong and I know everyone could feel it

For this email I basically just want to brag about 2 of the friends we're teaching...

Samadhi:

She is one of my favorite humans. Genuinely brings the light with her wherever she goes. Haslam and I taught her a lesson the other day about the 10 commandments and when we asked her if she has any more questions she said "about the lesson no but I do have a question." I said to myself "okay Megan enfoqué you got this" Wellllll I did not have it. She started going off in Spanish and neither of us understood a thing. After we stared at her with blank faces for 5 seconds she sighed, said "okay" and re-explained her entire question in perfect English. I was actually shocked. If I would've known that she speaks English that well I probably would've taught her the whole lesson in English hahaha

Anyways, she is truly one of my favorite people. Now that I know that she speaks English it's so much fun to teach her and talk to her because she helps me. We finally put her on date last night too!!! 🥳 She is so ready and has such a strong testimony. I could not be more excited for her baptism!

Dayana:

Speaking of baptisms, last night one of our AMAZING friends named Dayana got baptized!!! We've been teaching her since the beginning of my first transfer so it's been so cool to watch her grow and progress these past couple months I've been here. I'm so happy for her! The spirit was so strong and you can just tell that she is filled with so much love for this gospel.

 

Also we have the most supportive ward!! I'm so thankful for everyone that pulled through for her. We genuinely have the best members here in B9!!! Everyone is so loving and patient with my spanish too. & they love to feed us, which is a bonus of course

Long story short, I grow to love the people here more and more every day. Everyone is so amazing, I'm feeling blessed, Carabanchel is definitely the promised land.

Spiritual thought:

It's so hard to share just one thing! On Thursday we had our mission and Elder McConkie from the 70 came and spoke to us. Him and his wife are such amazing people, and they shared so many amazing things. The spirit was everywhere. At the beginning of the conference we talked about our purpose as missionaries, and how when we are focused on our purpose, everyone around us is blessed. We went through D&C 112 and each scripture either talks about 

1. The clarity of our purpose

2. The blessings of our purpose

I really love verse 19! It says:

Wherefore, whithersoever they shall send you, go ye, and I will be with you; and in whatsoever place ye shall proclaim my name an effectual door shall be opened unto you, that they may receive my word.

Missionaries are sent to places all over the world!! I love that wherever we go, if we proclaim his name and spread his gospel (clarity), he will be with us (promise). When we do our part, the Lord will open the hearts of the people and they will receive his word.

I feel the effect that God and Christ have on my life every day as a missionary. I can not complete this work without them and I definitely can not learn a language without them. They are the center of everything I am and do!!

Anyways, there's some crazy milagros going on over here. Excited to keep this spiritual momentum going. God is so good (even tho I'm not fluent in Spanish yet rip)

Love you all and I hope you all have an amazing week!!! 💟

"I'm selling my duck"

Hi everyone!! Happy Pday but more importantly happy 100th birthday to President Russell M Nelson!!! If you want to know the secret on how to live until 100 I'd suggest joining the livestream tonight. No excuses, it's at 12am Spain time and we're still getting up to watch

This week was good!! We have a new Hermana in the Quad!! Her name is Hermana Sowards and she might be one of the funniest people I've ever met

The caption is too long of a story but just know that they play some fun games here (including "I'm selling my duck") during Noche de Hogars 

If you want a good laugh, everyone here wears shirts with sayings completely in English. But no one speaks English so they have absolutely no idea what the shirts say. Some of them make absolutely no sense. Mira:

Hahahaha it makes me laugh

Our STL comps left us for MLC on Thursday so Haslam and I went to two member meals without them. Both went surprisingly well for the Spanish we know! So well that I made both of them tear up with my spiritual thought (Proof that the spirit can still be there even if my spanish isn’t) However, I don't know if we just weren't hungry or didn't like the food, but at our second meal we told the lady we want "un poquito" and she brought us each out two plates full of food. Bless her heart. She left the room for the entire meal so we just ate in silence. Haslam ended up throwing a big chunk of meat out of the window in the middle of the meal. Then proceeded to tell her the food was "muy rico!!" (delicious) so so funny

Our amiga who ghosted us for 3 weeks finally answered and we had an amazing lesson!!! She was SO ready to get baptized and when the day finally came, she called us and told us she can't get baptized and then stopped responding to us for weeks. I'm still not entirely sure what happened, but I do know that Satan is working hard on her. She's not ready to set another date yet but being willing to come for a lesson is improvement!! We shared with her the conference talk "Stay by the Tree" by Elder Pearson. It is sooo good!!!

Spiritual thought:

I read Enos the other day and it is a beautiful chapter. Such an important reminder that prayer is essential for our salvation. If we exercise our faith by turning to God in prayer, he will bestow blessings upon us. The reward is worth the effort! Through prayer we can gain a testimony of the Lord's infinite love for us, just as Enos did!!!

Everyone take 10 minutes to read Enos sometime this week!!

You guys are amazing!! Don't ever hesitate to reach out, I would love hear from every single one of you! 💌💌

Photos: 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/QBqRnzJBCkan82Bb8

Fiesta del Barrio 🥳

Hi guys!!! This week was good, here's a quick update!

Transfers are already here!! Petey left us this morning :( The quad won't be the same without her. Also rip Bell and Nuñez they will be missed here in Carab!!

The weather has been a dream. It rained 3 times this week!!! It's getting colder and I couldn't be happier. Hoping the next time the weather gets this hot I'll either be up north or at least know some more Spanish so my brain won't be melting along with my body!!

Haslam and I are basically second comps at this point... Exchanges otra vez! This time Halsam ate a pastry that was filled with mold (yep it was really gross!) and we found 3 people! All of them seem interested. We set up appointments with all of them anddd so far none of them have followed through. Not giving up on them yet tho!!

Our barrio had a ward party on Saturday! Ward parties here are not like how they are in the states. Ward parties in the states are maybe 2-3 hours. Here, they are all day long. We didn't go for the whole thing because unfortunately 8 hours of dancing and karaoke is not very productive as a missionary. But Rob and I did sing "I want it that way" together. The ward knew none of the words to the song but we still got them hyped up. I made an absolute fool of myself and they were all laughing at my (amazing) dancing and (amazing!) singing. I think they like us better now though so worth it!! (This video will not be posted on my google photos I'm sorry)

Yesterday was testimony meeting! I love testimony meeting because here there are no gaps of silence in between speakers. There are ALWAYS people ready to share something and the spirit is always so strong even when I can't fully understand. It's also the one day where people are using mostly simple phrases!! My favorite testimonies are the little kids because they are the ones I can pretty much fully understand... which is improvement!!

Also Rob and I put one of our amigos on date! She hasn't been to church yet but we're praying she comes this week. She is so awesome!!!

Spiritual thought:

4 And I know that the Lord God will consecrate my prayers for the gain of my people. And the words which I have written in weakness will be made strong unto them; for it persuadeth them to do good; it maketh known unto them of their fathers; and it speaketh of Jesus, and persuadeth them to believe in him, and to endure to the end, which is life eternal.

This week we struggled a lot with flakey friends. (Welcome to missionary work H. Anselmo) We met a lot of awesome people and set up tons of appointments but almost all of them either didn't respond to our text or didn't show up to the lesson. It's been really frustrating for me because I would rather people just tell us that they aren't interested instead of wasting our time.

Then I realized that technically, this isn't my time. I'm working on the Lord's time, and God's plan is perfect. He knows when people are ready to hear the gospel! I know that the Lord speaks through his missionaries, and he will make our words strong unto the people we teach. One day these people will be ready to learn more!! All I can do now is spread the message, and pray for them often. Even when I feel like we've hit a wall, it's important to remember that we're planting seeds and God will work through us to do the rest!!

Miss you all tons! Dios te ama! Have a good week!! 💟💟

Photos:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/QBqRnzJBCkan82Bb8