The Temple, Crackers, and Hummus

Another week down and I don't know about you guys but we're all starting to feel the Christmas spirit over here!!

I don't think I've ever laughed harder than I have this week. Hermana Killian thinks I'm so funny and everything I do makes her laugh so then I laugh and then we end up laughing at everything together. Definitely makes being in a different country without anything from home a little easier

This week was super good but definitely a harder one mentally. I've been feeling like I'm not doing enough. I'm not putting in enough work to learn spanish, I'm not helping our friends enough, and were not doing enough to find people to teach. But then I try remember that I still have soo much to learn and that God expects effort, and not perfection. So al final, I know that God is proud of my efforts and that nothing goes unnoticed!!

I'm obsessed with 2 things right now - The temple, and crackers and hummus. Hahaha. I blame my companion for the second one. I think I've eaten more hummus this week than I ever have back at home. And as for the first one, welllll that won't ever change. President arranged for all of the missionaries to go to the temple the day before zone conference. I just went to the temple like 2 weeks ago but guys I was so excited to be back. There's no where in the world I love more. The spirit speaks to me so strongly in the temple and I can feel Gods love at every moment. All of my problems are gone when I'm in the Lords house. I would truly go every day if I could!

Our friends have been flakey recently and we unfortunately had to take 2 people off of date which was really tough. But the work continues on and there are so many more people out there who are ready to be found. We still have 2 of our super elect friends who are both getting baptized next month and I couldn't be more excited!

Spanish has been kicking my butt, but there's something so amazing about bringing people unto this gospel who aren't of your native tounge. So I continue to work hard every day to be able to fully share the message I have for them. I love these people so much even when I don't understand fully what they're saying. It's such a beautiful thing that I'm able to experience here.

Spiritual thought: 

This week we had zone conference! I always love zone conference because we have the wisest mission president who knows exactly what to say when we need to hear it. This zone conference he talked a lot about involving everyone in the work. There are 4 key groups we work with: friends, recent converts, active members, and less active members - and everyone plays an important role. It was such a good reminder that everyone is involved in the work, not just the missionaries. As disciples of Jesus Christ, we are all on the same team, and we all have the same goal. So when we work together it creates a strength and bond that Satan can't break. "Connecting these people is how we build the kingdom!"

Remember that you all are important to this work. God needs every one of us to help bring his children home. I'm feeling super grateful today for all of you. I had a visitor from home come to my ward yesterday and it was definitely a highlight of the week.

I hope you all see miracles this week. The Lord is involved in each one of your lives. I love you guys so much!!! 💓

Spain or South America?

This week has been crazyy and unfortunately I've been super sick for most of it but it was still soo good so here's the latest...

-Transfers! I'm staying in Carab and my new companion is Hermana Killian! She is literally the sweetest human ever and I'm so so excited to work with her

My (basically) second compi is Hermana Chase and she is cousins with some of our good family friends back at home (shout out to the MacPhersons!) She may also be Elder Rasbands granddaughter...

I got put with an STL again which means that I'm going to be going on a lot of exchanges with Hermana Chase now, who is one transfer under me in the mission. Which means she's still in training. Which means that I'm kinda like 1/4 training her. Pray for mee!

I'm super excited for this transfer! I miss Rob already but I realized pretty fast that I actually can't just stay with her for my entire mission. So it had to happen eventually 😢

-Because Hermana Robinson left this area we had what felt like a billion member meals because they all wanted to feed her one last time. We would go from house to house and get fed so much food at each one. I was already soo sick but I was fighting through for Rob hahaha. I genuinely have no idea how I didn't throw up at any of them, especially the one where we ate fried fish and ceviche. I truly saw God's hand this week because it's a miracle that all my food stayed down

-Día de Hispanidad!!! 🇺🇲🇧🇴🇵🇪🇻🇪🇪🇨🇩🇴🇪🇸

You guys! I've literally never had more fun in my life. 

Día de Hispanidad is a huge holiday here where everyone gets together and celebrates the country they're from. Our wards party was this last Saturday and there were 10 countries represented. Each country had their own dance and a decorated table with TONS of food to share.

The missionaries were in charge of the United States! (of course) We didn't win sadly but it's okay because I probably wouldn't have chose us either. I made brookies (brownie cookies) because what's more American than that? We also had burgers and chili and cornbread. Our dance... let's just say it consisted of the cotton eyed joe, cha cha slide, whip and nae nae, proud to be an American, and many more classic American party songs

It was so so cool to be able to get a glimpse of each country's culture, and the uniqueness of the different foods and traditional dances. Our ward went above and beyond too. I could hype up my ward every day (they really know how to party)

(Link to my google photos if you want to watch the dances: https://photos.app.goo.gl/QBqRnzJBCkan82Bb8)

Spiritual Thought:

I was reading in Mosiah the other day and I read this scripture:

21 And he commanded them that there should be no contention one with another, but that they should look forward with one eye, having one faith and one baptism, having their hearts knit together in unity and in love one towards another.

When Alma baptized these people in the waters of Mormon, he taught them to be one. As members of the church, we all have the same goal. If we all look forward with one eye and have our hearts knit together in unity and love, we will build the kingdom of God stronger and stronger. It's that simple, we are one. With one purpose, one God, one goal!! 

D&C 38:27 Behold, this I have given unto you as a parable, and it is even as I am. I say unto you, be one; and if ye are not one ye are not mine

You are all amazing! I'm feeling lots better now and I love seeing God work miracles every day. I hope everyone has a good week, and please write me! I want to hear from you all! ❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥

Willy Wonka 🍫

This week was super bien and I just love gathering Israel. Here's some highlights:

-Got transfer news!! Stay tuned...

-Went to a farmers market and advertised our free English clases. The amount of people who think they are about to be scammed hahaha

-Our favorite Willy Wonka member is still loading us up with chocolate every sunday

-We put another friend on date this week! Her name is Aracelly and she is the daughter of the recent convert who was baptized my second week here!

-Got so painfully lost after we took the wrong bus to a members house who lives in literal narnia. (How was I supposed to know that there are two different 679 busses) Anyways... after some phone calls and norma breaking experiences later, we ended up walking to their house from where we were and arrived only an hour and a half late, starving and ready to enjoy a good member meal. Jokes on us because they didn't make any food. Just an older American couple who wanted to chat. All jokes aside though it was really awesome to be able to speak in English and get to know this sweet couple. The wife is not a member and is not interested in being converted but I have faith that she will open up to the idea one day. Definitely an adventure of a day to say the least.

-We have had some great member meals this week though!! And we are absolutely stacked this next week because everyone wants to feed Rob before she leaves this area. I'm gonna get fat guys

Best highlight from the week: 

Hermana Robinson and I had the opportunity to go to the temple for an endowment session and watch a live sealing for our recent converts!!! It was the most amazing experience. It was so unique hearing everything in Spanish and being able to spend time in there with the members too. The new endowment video was super cool and different too! I've never been to a live sealing before and I couldn't even understand the Spanish but the spirit was so strong and it left me in so many tears. 

If you know me you know the deep deep love I have for the temple. It's my favorite place in the whole world and there is no where else where I can feel God's love for me stronger than I do in there. I hope everyone gets to go inside one day. I feel the presence of angels in there every time. If you haven't been to the temple in a while I'm inviting you to go this week because I took it for granted when it was only a 7 minute drive from my house. Here, going to the temple is a reward and I won't take that for granted again!

Sorry this email is a little bit lameee and i'm super busy today but I wanted to update you all! Things are good, Spanish is coming slowly but surely, and God's plan really is perfect! 🫶

+2000 Points to Slytherin

Guys!!! So many good things happened this week. I am so spiritually nourished. God loves all of his children, and the gathering of Israel really is the most important work on the earth right now!!!

I want to start with General Conference, which was definitely a different experience here considering the sessions were at 6pm, 10pm, and 2am and also that I had to listen to the whole thing with my airpods in English while it played out loud in Spanish hahaha. It's so cool that all around the world people can watch conference. It doesn’t matter where we listen, what time it is when we listen, or what language we are listening in, the message is all the same.

Also those little angel children singing "Holding Hands Around the World" literally brought me to tears. Each speaker and choir brought the spirit in the best ways.

I have a different kind of love for General Conference being a missionary. Starting with the fact that in just a couple of months I have grown to recognize even more how important the role of the Prophet and Apostles play in this church. But also while I was listening to each talk, I found myself thinking about how each message could help the friends we are teaching. It's so cool to have this time where life's needs and focus stretch beyond my own. 

I could talk about what I loved from each talk, but that would take days. Instead I want to share one of my very favorite ones. Bradley R Wilcox's talk left me with a whole different perspective on my role in the church. The question "Why must Latter-day saints live so differently from others?" is a question that I have had so many times in my life. When we teach people about our laws, like The Word of Wisdom for example, our answer to "Why?" is simply "I dont know why, but we are asked to do so and we trust that we will be blessed for it." This talk is such an amazing reminder that we really DO recieve so many blessings for the ways we choose to live as disciples of Christ. We are not just ordinary people! God chose and trusts us to help bring his children home to him. We are members of his crew. And what do we recieve in return? "It would be easy for Heavenly Father to simply give you all that he has, his desire is to help you become all that he is." and to become all that he is, really is worth the things we are asked to give up!!!

ESTA SEMANA:

Our zone has been in a Harry Potter themed zone challenge this week focusing on our recent converts and members. We get 10-20 points for each lesson we have and the "golden snitch" is worth 1000 points if we put someone on date to be baptized if they were referred by a member in the same week. Which we all thought would be nearly impossible. This is important later on...

MILAGROS:

So many miracles happened this week!!! 

We found so many amazing people, gave away so many Book of Mormons, and seeing this gathering come to life is one of the best parts of being a missionary...

A random referal showed up to the church on Wednesday night with her sister. The Elders who recieved this reference introduced them to us because they live in our area and we went to teach them a lesson. We had never met them before, so we got to know a little more about why they were interested and soon found out that the original referal (Monica) told her sister (Tatiana) that she had a suprise for her, and brought her to us. Tatiana explained to us that she doesn’t believe in organized religion, and doesn't really know why her sister brought her here. We start teaching them a little bit about our church, what we believe, and who Jesus Christ is to us. Monica instantly started sobbing. We shared a couple scriptures along with some basic truths - The Atonement of Jesus Christ, The Book of Mormon, Prayer, Sacrament, and ended with our testimonies on how the Gospel has blessed our lives, and that God has a perfect plan for each of us. The spirit was so strong, and they were both wide-eyed over the things we were saying. Every one of us ended up in tears. (even the Member in the lesson!)

I've never seen the power of conversion so strong in my whole life. You could just see how much their hearts grew and changed in one short hour. We ended up putting them BOTH on date that night and both of these amazing women, who we had never met prior to this lesson, are getting baptized on November 17th. Tatiana even gave a beautiful prayer at the end of the lesson. And after it was all over, Hermana Robinson and I ran into the church kitchen, screamed, jumped up and down, cried, and then got on our knees and prayed. This is something that I only dreamed of happening when becoming a missionary and I truly feel so lucky to be here, helping Gods children return home to him. There is no greater joy than the joy that I feel every day carrying out his work. (& Not that this is what's important butttt that's +2000 points to Slytherin and Carabanchel absolutely destroyed this challenge 🐍🐍)

If there is one thing we all need to take away from conference, it's that we really are in the last days and everything we do now counts!! If we rededicate our lives to Jesus Christ, we will find true joy. Before we know it, he will be here calling us all home. I love you and I am praying for you all!! 💟💟

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