Better late than never, right?! Rob turned 21 last week! We took him to the Cheesecake Factory because he wanted cheesecake instead of a birthday cake. The hamburger he ordered was so big, that he was too stuffed to eat cheesecake at the restaurant, so we took it home in a to-go box. However, the servers did bring him a bowl of ice cream with a lighted candle, and we all sang to him. Yay! He's such a MAN now!!! Happy birthday Robbie!!!!!
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
The Sweetest Words!
On Sunday afternoon I got the best surprise ever! Becky held the phone up to Asher and asked him to say "Hi Grammy" and HE DID!!! It came out "Hi Gammy!" Since then I've heard it about 5 more times! I've been waiting to hear those words for so long! I feel like a REAL Grammy now! Such a moment to remember! Asher, I love you sooooo much!!!!!!!
Operation Save Benidorm is Working!
December 16 Excerpts:
Hey Mom. we are still here in Benidorm working with all the amazing people that we have met!
otras cosas.... Okay. There is so much that i want to tell you this week! I'm starting with people.
Family from England, Debbie, James, Hayleigh, Cheryl - Family sent from HEAVEN! Okay. so we were knocking doors a few weeks back when i just bearly got here to Benidorm and we found a young English girl named Cheryl who introduced us to her family. THEY ARE AMAZING.
we spent some time knocking doors on sunday after church and it was so funny. so, we knock on a door at the very top of some random building and a spaniard man comes to the door and says hello, so we start presenting us and he says what do you want, and we say to share a message from god with your family. so he says that we can come back another day and starts to give us his phone number and suddenly we hear, JOAQUIN, NOOO!!!!! His wife freaked out and he was like, Dear, you don't want to listen to 2 missionaries? and she was like NO!!!! But we still made a cita with him to come back. We'll see how it goes, it was soosososo funny.
Normally we are the ones that get the door slammed in our faces, but we were knocking on a door and a little boy came to the door and so we said, is your mom home? and he went to get her and she shouted, NO! I don't want anything! CLOSE THE DOOR! So we had the privilege of slamming the door in our own faces. We laughed about that.
We were given cookies at someone house the other day and we were eating them and they were really good until we got to the last one, picked it up and saw that there was a DEAD COCKROACH on the plate with the cookies. I wanted to throw up. Hermana H and I both just put the cookie back down and pretended like we didn't notice. It was so grosss!!!!
Hey Mom. we are still here in Benidorm working with all the amazing people that we have met!
otras cosas.... Okay. There is so much that i want to tell you this week! I'm starting with people.
Family from England, Debbie, James, Hayleigh, Cheryl - Family sent from HEAVEN! Okay. so we were knocking doors a few weeks back when i just bearly got here to Benidorm and we found a young English girl named Cheryl who introduced us to her family. THEY ARE AMAZING.
we spent some time knocking doors on sunday after church and it was so funny. so, we knock on a door at the very top of some random building and a spaniard man comes to the door and says hello, so we start presenting us and he says what do you want, and we say to share a message from god with your family. so he says that we can come back another day and starts to give us his phone number and suddenly we hear, JOAQUIN, NOOO!!!!! His wife freaked out and he was like, Dear, you don't want to listen to 2 missionaries? and she was like NO!!!! But we still made a cita with him to come back. We'll see how it goes, it was soosososo funny.
Normally we are the ones that get the door slammed in our faces, but we were knocking on a door and a little boy came to the door and so we said, is your mom home? and he went to get her and she shouted, NO! I don't want anything! CLOSE THE DOOR! So we had the privilege of slamming the door in our own faces. We laughed about that.
We were given cookies at someone house the other day and we were eating them and they were really good until we got to the last one, picked it up and saw that there was a DEAD COCKROACH on the plate with the cookies. I wanted to throw up. Hermana H and I both just put the cookie back down and pretended like we didn't notice. It was so grosss!!!!
Holly's Adventures Continue
December 8 Excerpts and Photos:
vaya. que semana mas llena con cosas que hacer! haha. that says what a week more full of things to do. i don't know how it translates to correct english. i am forgetting my own language.
we made a cita with Lorena, our new investigator from Colombia. we actually met and taught her mom over the web camera that she had at her house. we sang and she wants the sisters in colombia to go visit her at her house. we are going to send the referrence to her house. it was fun. first cita over the internet! (Here's Hermana H, Lorena, and Holly in the photo below)
(Below are the hermanas in the ascensor or elevator. Don't they look like they're having the time of their life?! This is one of the few times I've ever seen Holly smiling in an elevator. She is deathly afraid of them!!!! I just love Hna Henderson for her happiness and enthusiasm!)
vaya. que semana mas llena con cosas que hacer! haha. that says what a week more full of things to do. i don't know how it translates to correct english. i am forgetting my own language.
we made a cita with Lorena, our new investigator from Colombia. we actually met and taught her mom over the web camera that she had at her house. we sang and she wants the sisters in colombia to go visit her at her house. we are going to send the referrence to her house. it was fun. first cita over the internet! (Here's Hermana H, Lorena, and Holly in the photo below)
(Below are the hermanas in the ascensor or elevator. Don't they look like they're having the time of their life?! This is one of the few times I've ever seen Holly smiling in an elevator. She is deathly afraid of them!!!! I just love Hna Henderson for her happiness and enthusiasm!)
we ate lunch with our branch president's wife. she is hilarious and al final, she ended up teaching us all the verbs for animal sounds, aka, to meow is maullar in spanish, to roar like a lion is bramar, to chirp like a bird is piar. it was so funny, i was crying.
The bus ride to Valencia was 2 hours and we consumed an entire bar of chocolate out of excitement. We stayed up basically alllll night in Valencia talking and chatting and I got my hair cut (more spanish bangs!) by one of the missionaries that was a hairdresser before her mission :) It's so cute. i love it.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Thanksgiving 2008
Fourteen of us descended on Mom and Dad (aka G&G) for Thanksgiving dinner. It took 2 tables for everyone to fit. Bruce and fam were on their way to Hawaii and took advantage of a 36-hour layover on Turkey Day. Brad and fam just hopped in their airplane and flew on over. Neil and Sherry and Rob and I came the old fashioned way, by car. It was great to see how all the kids are growing up. Mom's cooking was fabulous, as always, and she and Dad gave us all the royal treatment. We are a much-loved bunch of rascals! We couldn't get enough of Apples to Apples. Sherry, Camille, Trent and I caught the afternoon showing of Twilight and had some good laughs watching it. I must be really old because Edward and fam just didn't excite me in the movie like the book did. I'm with Marie - my imagination has the best version of the movie!
I missed having my girls and Asher with us. Neither April nor Becky could get away for longer than the day to travel back to Utah, so they spent Thanksgiving with friends. Sure missed them! Holly missed out all together in Spain. I'm sure she'll love seeing her traveling photo in many of my pictures when she returns! (not!)
I missed having my girls and Asher with us. Neither April nor Becky could get away for longer than the day to travel back to Utah, so they spent Thanksgiving with friends. Sure missed them! Holly missed out all together in Spain. I'm sure she'll love seeing her traveling photo in many of my pictures when she returns! (not!)
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
More Hna Holly Photos
Here are some more pictures from Holly! She says: we bought sweaters finally, and the other one is district meeting in alicante. i have long hair. and hermana grant was there :)
Highlights from this week's email from Holly:
Highlights from this week's email from Holly:
Hey mom. SO the highlight of my life is that I was in Valencia yesterday and i was able to see Virginia, Nice and Alex, and all the wonderful members that I love and miss so much! it was such a weird feeling to be back. It felt like I was home, so I can´t imagine how much better it is going to feel to be home in my own home one day! Hace 2 days, i made 15 months in the mission. Can you believe it? 15 months! Oh man. Time is stopped, but at the same time going by too fast, does that make sense?
I walked into the capilla there in valencia and all the members were practicing a song in the relief society room and so i was like, well i can´t go in there right now cause i will cause a huge scene. well, alex came around the corner and shook my hand (i didn´t hardly recognize him) and then walked away. About 10 seconds later, Alex is at the head of a stampede of people running towards me and before i know it i am bombarded with hugs and kisses and i couldn´t hardly even breath! Nice gave me the biggest hug and told my companion, ¨Ella me salvó!¨ or in english, she is the one who saved me! I started crying, and she started crying and it was so much to take in all at once.
we contacted 259 people this week. I think that is a record in the mission for people contacted in 1 week by 2 missionaries. really. Normally we struggle to get 100. That´s how desperate we are for finding investigators!!!!
on sunday after the conference in valencia, we came home with our branch president and their family and we stopped in the country side and had a picnic together . it was so fun. it was a tortilla de patata sandwich. look up the recipe and see if you can make it. it´s sooooo good!
well, i love you. tell all happy thanksgiving. no feast this year. nobody had invited us. we´re such a little branch that i doubt anyone even thought of it. LOVE YOU LIKE I LOVE SPAIN!
on sunday after the conference in valencia, we came home with our branch president and their family and we stopped in the country side and had a picnic together . it was so fun. it was a tortilla de patata sandwich. look up the recipe and see if you can make it. it´s sooooo good!
well, i love you. tell all happy thanksgiving. no feast this year. nobody had invited us. we´re such a little branch that i doubt anyone even thought of it. LOVE YOU LIKE I LOVE SPAIN!
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Operation Save Benidorm!
I got a real treat yesterday - photos from Holly in Benidorm!
The first photo is of Holly and Hermana Henderson, her awesome companion. This was taken south of Benidorm as they rode down the coast with a member to have dinner at someone's home.
The last photo is the view from the mountain across to Benidorm. Wowzer! That is one beautiful Mediterranean Sea and city of Benidorm! I can see why they nicknamed it Beniyork, for all the skyscrapers.
Our first email from Holly in Benidorm was full of details. Here's the story in her own words:
Hey MOM! Oh my. Okay so here I am seriouly, in Mini New York! It looks so much like it with all the tall buildings and all. But it is SOSOSOSOSOSO BEAUTIFUL. Wow. I´ve never been anywhere more beautiful in my entire life. Yesterday we went to eat at an english couples house who live about 45 mintues outside of benidorm and i was blown away by the view. The houses all tucked away into the sides of the mountains, the MOUNTAINS!!! YEs. I am surrounded by mountains. The Mediterraneon or however you spell that, the train that was traveling over the hills, the buildings and the churches... oh man. it was amazing. the family pulled over and let us take a picture. it was beautiful.
yesterday for our exercise, we went hiking cause there is a mountain just around the corner from us and it was the most amazing thing that i have done. we ended up at the top of a mountain overlooking the sunrise and the city. i took pictures and a video. unbelievable.
the ride from Alicante to Benidorm is also one of a kind. We take a train, tram type thing nad it goes through the country side and a long side the beach almost the entire time. We get to take the trip every week. so lucky. Heavenly Father must really love me. He always sends me to the hardest, newest areas, but they are the most beautiful!
SO get this though, I might not end my mission here in Benidorm. We got a call from our mission president a week or two ago and he told us that he is thinking about closing the area and sending us to a new area to open it up cause there hasn´t been any success here in this area for so long and there is a new area in Alicante that needs to be opened. we´re both pretty new, so we don´t know the area. it´s like a whitewash, or thats when they take old missionaries out and put in 2 brand new ones. that is kind of like what we are doing right now. we´ll have to see what we can do. We call it Operation Save Benidorm! haha.
guess what? my hija, hermana grant is training! that means that i am a grandmother now cause my daughter is giving birth! at zone conference we will be 3 generations :) SO much fun.
As for missionary work, the first thing we did was get to church on sundy and start passing out pass along cards so that the members could see that we are here to work! and then we put up a big sign with our pictures on it to say that we are here to WORK! and all the members were really receptive to it. so, we´ll see what happens.
we were knocking doors, and nobody was listening to us and so we decided that we were going to sing to the next person that answered the door. so we got our hymn books ready and we rang the doorbell. we heard someone coming so we took a breath to be ready to sing, and as the door swung open, this strange looking, super tall man in a tiny white bathrobe opens the door. both of us just froze, and didn´t know what to do. the man shook his finger at us to say no and closed the door. we fell on the floor laughing it was so funnY! haha.
one woman tried to pay us to go away from her door while we were knocking doors. so funny! i almost cried laughing afterwards.
the work is hard, but I am having the time of my life here in benidorm with all the chaos that is going on. there is so much to do here. and so little time to do it. i don´t want to waste a single second.
One week later:
Best week ever. Operation Save Benidorm is well under way. I get to go to VALENCIA next week! YEp. I am going to see all the members and Alex and Nice and Virginia. I am so excited. It´s stake conference and Benidorm is in the stake of Valencia. Oh man. SO many blessings from being here in Bendorm and trying to rescue the area. I have seen a huge change in the branch here. We are getting the branch excited about missionary work by passing out pass along cards to the members every sunday and asking them to feed us and trying to get them to share the gospel with their friends. We are trying to light the fire here in Benidorm with Missionary Work, and it´s working! YES! I love it here. I am going to tell our President that Benidorm is the best area ever and that he can´t send us to Alicante to open up a new area. He just can´t do it! It´ll have to wait for another set of missionaries cause i am here to BAPTIZE Benidorm!
The first photo is of Holly and Hermana Henderson, her awesome companion. This was taken south of Benidorm as they rode down the coast with a member to have dinner at someone's home.
The next photo is of Holly as she is going down the mountain that they hike in the mornings for exercise. She says it's just around the corner from her apartment. Isn't her hair getting long?
The last photo is the view from the mountain across to Benidorm. Wowzer! That is one beautiful Mediterranean Sea and city of Benidorm! I can see why they nicknamed it Beniyork, for all the skyscrapers.Our first email from Holly in Benidorm was full of details. Here's the story in her own words:
Hey MOM! Oh my. Okay so here I am seriouly, in Mini New York! It looks so much like it with all the tall buildings and all. But it is SOSOSOSOSOSO BEAUTIFUL. Wow. I´ve never been anywhere more beautiful in my entire life. Yesterday we went to eat at an english couples house who live about 45 mintues outside of benidorm and i was blown away by the view. The houses all tucked away into the sides of the mountains, the MOUNTAINS!!! YEs. I am surrounded by mountains. The Mediterraneon or however you spell that, the train that was traveling over the hills, the buildings and the churches... oh man. it was amazing. the family pulled over and let us take a picture. it was beautiful.
yesterday for our exercise, we went hiking cause there is a mountain just around the corner from us and it was the most amazing thing that i have done. we ended up at the top of a mountain overlooking the sunrise and the city. i took pictures and a video. unbelievable.
the ride from Alicante to Benidorm is also one of a kind. We take a train, tram type thing nad it goes through the country side and a long side the beach almost the entire time. We get to take the trip every week. so lucky. Heavenly Father must really love me. He always sends me to the hardest, newest areas, but they are the most beautiful!
SO get this though, I might not end my mission here in Benidorm. We got a call from our mission president a week or two ago and he told us that he is thinking about closing the area and sending us to a new area to open it up cause there hasn´t been any success here in this area for so long and there is a new area in Alicante that needs to be opened. we´re both pretty new, so we don´t know the area. it´s like a whitewash, or thats when they take old missionaries out and put in 2 brand new ones. that is kind of like what we are doing right now. we´ll have to see what we can do. We call it Operation Save Benidorm! haha.
guess what? my hija, hermana grant is training! that means that i am a grandmother now cause my daughter is giving birth! at zone conference we will be 3 generations :) SO much fun.
As for missionary work, the first thing we did was get to church on sundy and start passing out pass along cards so that the members could see that we are here to work! and then we put up a big sign with our pictures on it to say that we are here to WORK! and all the members were really receptive to it. so, we´ll see what happens.
we were knocking doors, and nobody was listening to us and so we decided that we were going to sing to the next person that answered the door. so we got our hymn books ready and we rang the doorbell. we heard someone coming so we took a breath to be ready to sing, and as the door swung open, this strange looking, super tall man in a tiny white bathrobe opens the door. both of us just froze, and didn´t know what to do. the man shook his finger at us to say no and closed the door. we fell on the floor laughing it was so funnY! haha.
one woman tried to pay us to go away from her door while we were knocking doors. so funny! i almost cried laughing afterwards.
the work is hard, but I am having the time of my life here in benidorm with all the chaos that is going on. there is so much to do here. and so little time to do it. i don´t want to waste a single second.
One week later:
Best week ever. Operation Save Benidorm is well under way. I get to go to VALENCIA next week! YEp. I am going to see all the members and Alex and Nice and Virginia. I am so excited. It´s stake conference and Benidorm is in the stake of Valencia. Oh man. SO many blessings from being here in Bendorm and trying to rescue the area. I have seen a huge change in the branch here. We are getting the branch excited about missionary work by passing out pass along cards to the members every sunday and asking them to feed us and trying to get them to share the gospel with their friends. We are trying to light the fire here in Benidorm with Missionary Work, and it´s working! YES! I love it here. I am going to tell our President that Benidorm is the best area ever and that he can´t send us to Alicante to open up a new area. He just can´t do it! It´ll have to wait for another set of missionaries cause i am here to BAPTIZE Benidorm!
Holly is Transferred to Benidorm!
Holly was transferred to her 4th area - Benidorm. She thought for sure she would be going up north by Barcelona, since she hasn't yet served in that area. However, her mission president had other plans for her. She is still on the Costa Blanca, just north of her last area, Torrevieja.
I know everyone is dying to write to her, so here's her new address!
Hermana Holly Michelle Thomas
c/Llebeig 5, 7-C
Edificio Esmeralda
03570 Via Joyosa (Alicante)
SPAIN
Excerpts from her email:
So, I am in Alicante right now on my way to BENIDORM. My last area. It was really hard to leave Ivonne and her kids last night. We had a family home evening with her and our two ward missionaries and the bus came early so Hermana Grimm and I had to give quick hugs and run to the bus. I cried and Luna ran after the bus forever until she couldn´t see us anymore. It was like a movie. Ivonne yelled after me, You have to come to me with your mother!
So. Benidorm. Let me tell you what! The Lord might have well have sent me to Britain on my mission. It´s the exact same story in Benidorm. Lots of english speakers, I have to translate every Sunday... We travel all the time... I hear that it is BEAUTIFUL. I never even served up north. we were on the bus this mornign to Alicante and I felt so peace. I just felt like everything was going to be okay and that the Lord really needs me here. The best part though, is that I have an awesome companion. Her name is Hermana Henderson and she is from Idaho. on SUnday night when I found out that i was going to benidorm, i found out that she would be my companion and everything was okay after that.
And we have a piano in the church, and it´s an actual church! So things are looking up. We´ll see how the area is doing, and we´ll find people and get them all baptized! I am really excited for that part. It´s going to be a challenge. I knew something was coming up cause i told you last time that if i stay, there are challenges, and if I go, there are challenges. I just didn´t think that the Lord would send me to Benidorm. It was the last place on earth that I thought I would serve. Oh well, the Lord has something in mind and it´s his will, so I accept it and I will take the challenge. 4 months to be the best missionary that i can be, and hopefully learn to speak spanish, inbetween all the english areas in which i will find myself.
Sylvia and Emil (Ivonne´s son) will be baptized without me. And it´s okay cause they are going to be BAPTIZED!!!!! Yoo hoo! and then the next weekend comes Mercy. I was able to see lots of Miracles in Torrevieja.
I am happy. I am healthy. I am on my way to the other side of paradise, BENIDORM with Hermana Henderson. I am way excited. Who knows what kind of adventures are coming!
I know everyone is dying to write to her, so here's her new address!
Hermana Holly Michelle Thomas
c/Llebeig 5, 7-C
Edificio Esmeralda
03570 Via Joyosa (Alicante)
SPAIN
Excerpts from her email:
So, I am in Alicante right now on my way to BENIDORM. My last area. It was really hard to leave Ivonne and her kids last night. We had a family home evening with her and our two ward missionaries and the bus came early so Hermana Grimm and I had to give quick hugs and run to the bus. I cried and Luna ran after the bus forever until she couldn´t see us anymore. It was like a movie. Ivonne yelled after me, You have to come to me with your mother!
So. Benidorm. Let me tell you what! The Lord might have well have sent me to Britain on my mission. It´s the exact same story in Benidorm. Lots of english speakers, I have to translate every Sunday... We travel all the time... I hear that it is BEAUTIFUL. I never even served up north. we were on the bus this mornign to Alicante and I felt so peace. I just felt like everything was going to be okay and that the Lord really needs me here. The best part though, is that I have an awesome companion. Her name is Hermana Henderson and she is from Idaho. on SUnday night when I found out that i was going to benidorm, i found out that she would be my companion and everything was okay after that.
And we have a piano in the church, and it´s an actual church! So things are looking up. We´ll see how the area is doing, and we´ll find people and get them all baptized! I am really excited for that part. It´s going to be a challenge. I knew something was coming up cause i told you last time that if i stay, there are challenges, and if I go, there are challenges. I just didn´t think that the Lord would send me to Benidorm. It was the last place on earth that I thought I would serve. Oh well, the Lord has something in mind and it´s his will, so I accept it and I will take the challenge. 4 months to be the best missionary that i can be, and hopefully learn to speak spanish, inbetween all the english areas in which i will find myself.
Sylvia and Emil (Ivonne´s son) will be baptized without me. And it´s okay cause they are going to be BAPTIZED!!!!! Yoo hoo! and then the next weekend comes Mercy. I was able to see lots of Miracles in Torrevieja.
I am happy. I am healthy. I am on my way to the other side of paradise, BENIDORM with Hermana Henderson. I am way excited. Who knows what kind of adventures are coming!
Farewell Georgia Til Next Time
We spent our last day going with Becky and Brad to get Asher's shots! He's so brave that he earned 2 stickers! It was a wonderful trip. Thanks to Becky and Brad for showing us such a great time! We packed in a bunch of FUN! It was hard to say goodbye (sniff, sniff).
Asher Turns 2!
So the big day came and Asher hit the big TWO! Brad cooked up a scrumptious birthday dinner for us all of roasted chicken, broiled potatoes and carrots, and yummy salad. And of course, Beckster made Ashbadash a delicious chocolate birthday cake! He had fun opening presents. He such a sweet little guy. I love him so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Visiting the Biltmore Estate in Asheville NC
After Columbia SC, we traveled north the Asheville NC, where the fall colors were in great spendor! The highlight here was visiting the Biltmore Estate, the largest privately-owned residence in the US. As you can see, it's quite the castle! The grounds are immense, with corn fields, a working farm, a winery, an inn, and probably much more that I've forgotten. It was an all-day event and we had a great time! We also stopped by and explored the Grove Park Inn and you'll see pictures of that, too. It has an amazing spa!
Cho! Cho! Asher Rides a Steam Engine
April and I met up in Georgia to celebrate Asher's birthday. We packed up the baby (growing up!) and grabbed the old lady (yes, me) and loaded up Brad's 4-Runner for a trip to Columbia, South Carolina, to a train museum. Asher loves trains! We all got to ride a real steam engine! They only give rides twice a year, so we really lucked out! Toot! Toot!
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Visiting April Joy!
What a great trip I had visiting April Joy in Vegas during the Labor Day weekend. That girl knows how to treat her mom special! We went to a cooking class at the swanky Babareeba restaurant on the strip and learned how to make paella for Holls. We got both facials and foot massages. We hiked Red Rock Canyon. We ate two of April's favorite restaurants and had Vietnamese Pha and then Lebanese food (with a belly dancer, of course!) at Khory's. We painted one of April's livingroom walls brown to contrast with her beautiful new sectional in her cute apartment that she just moved into. We went on walks. We just totally ENJOYED ourselves! Thanks so much April Joy! I love you forever!
Torrevieja Happenings
Better late than never! Here are excerpts from Holly's emails about her time in Torrevieja! Enjoy!
July 1: okay so get this. I´m still in Valencia right now, but i´m on my way at 4:20 to.... TORREVIEJA! The farthest south that a missionary can go and it´s on the BEACH and so beautiful (so i´ve heard!). Oh man mom. Valencia is my home away from home. SUnday it was so hard to say goodbye to everyone. I cried. Made lots of promises to come back and visit. Took lots of pictures. Prayed hard. and then left it all behind. Wow. What a life. And in about 3 hours, i get on a train to enter a whole new world of adventures in Torrevieja. It´s SOSOSOSOSOSO hot there. it´s the hottest part of the mission.
July 7: it´s been a rough week. we are in a branch of 40 active members. church is run in english and i translate to spanish for the 2 active spanish families. i already have to give a talk next sunday. we have no investigators and i have never been so tired in all my life. it´s going to be a rough few months a head of me. i´m trying to love it here, and i think its just cause the week has been kind of crazy, but it was so much easier in valencia! i guess this is what i needed. and i´ll do whatever the lord needs me to do. i knew that valencia was just too easy! i needed a challenge. well, i got one!
July 14: Wow. This week has definately been an adventure. And yes, we have had some better luck this week. Man there is so much to tell! Well, it turns out that i am a rebel and i flat out REFUSE to speak english here in SPAIN. It´s funny cause a lot of the members actually speak a little so they are starting to speak more cause i only speak spanish.
we live literally right next to the beach. you walk out our front door about 6 minutes and we are on the beach.
almost everyone we talk with is from other parts of europe and don´t speak spanish or english. i am learning the language of smiling and just waving at our contacts. it´s pretty crazy. what else?
it´s not so hot, but really humid so we drip with sweat all day long.
there is a park by our house and all the old women love us cause we always walk by and say hi. we´re like their grandchildren adn we always give them pass along cards and pictures of christ. they love it and it makes us really happy.
we spend a lot of time going from city to city trying to reactivate inactive members. it´s really fun working with inactives, but really hard to get them back to church, especailly cuando it´s not even run in their own language. but there are so many people here that need help.
i had a dream the other day about going home from the mission and not being able to speak spanish all day and i woke up sweating! haha. it was really funny.
My companion is Hermana Lunt. She´s really great and I think that we are going to have a lot of fun together.
I don´t know how i am going to be able to thank everyone that has helped me be able to serve a mission. It´s the best thing I ever could have done, and will continue to do. I don´t think there is anyone more blessed than I am in the entire world to have so many people who really care for me and for you and for the whole family. Wow.
there are 17 different nationalities in our branch... scottland, england, belgium, sweeden... all sorts of differnt ones.
did i already tell you that we teach spanish and english here? and there are about 47 people that come to all three of them. its a fun way to share the gospel.
my talk was great on sunday. i did it in spanish and it was only about 4 minutes (that´s what they asked). then we sang, (hna lunt who sings like an angel, me and our investigator marina, who sings like a soul sister, you know one of those black halaluja type voices, but shé´s from spain)... haha. it was an adventure.
July 29: wow. so much has happened in such little time. i don´t even know where to start! we have been so busy that i haven´t even written it down in my journal and now i am kicking myself for it. i have to be better at that.
so, there is this one woman that we are FINALLY going to be able to teach cause she is the wife of a member who has decided that she wants to recieve the charlas and that she is going to let us come over and teach her. she is from china slash the philipines and she lives here in spain but speaks english. what a mix! this is what i love most about torrevieja is that we have so many nationalities that it´s really like i am serving all over the world!
August 4: wow. almost an entire other transfer has gone by and it feels like i arrrived here in torrevieja yesterday.
MOM! Wow. so much to say and so much time to say it today! so, here is what is going on. Ivonne, the sweedish chilean that we are teaching is officially getting BAPTIZED!! On the 6 of September. Yep. In spite of all the trials that we have been having, once again, God has reached into this work and helped us big time. she is so great. we teach her in english cause she has lived in sweeden almost all her life. she is divorced and has 2 cute little kids.
you would not believe the sun here. i am so tan! my feet especially. my face not so much cause i smother it in sun screen! in fact the other day, i had white fingerprints all over my face cause i had rubbed it on in a hurry and so the places that i had missed were burned and the places i had not missed were white! it was really funny!
August 12: Transfers! Hermana Lunt and I are still here in Torrevieja. It´s getting so hot i feel like I am starting to melt. Wow. So much to say, so little time to say it. oh lets see, i made a list. so, Ivonne is still on for her baptism. we ate with her on friday and had a cita with her last night and she is so excited.
oh yeah. now i remember. so get this. marina, the spanish investigator that we have, works in a pakistani restaurant and she invited us to eat with her on thursday. so, she took us even before the restaurant opened, and fed us like QUEENS! you think that mazza is good, whoa. watch out. i´ve had the real, authentic stuff. oh man. so this is what it was, this excelent flat bread like stuff that we ate 2 loafs of, i has spicy potatoes, eggplant something, lemon rice, a potatoe patty and a whole platter full of apetizers. it was so good that i couldn´t stop eating. i don´t think i´ve ever liked any other food like this. it is the BEST! and when you come, i am taking you there. oh man. tell april that she better be jealous. haha.
August 18: Vaya. I can´t belive that it´s almost been an entire year!!!! Yesterday after church, we were looking at all the videos that we have in the church and there was one about going on a mission and it reminded me of everything that happened to me for going on the mission... getting the letter, opening it with the family, leaving for the mtc, getting the orange sticker... it was crazy and i almost cried remembering us all being there! this year has gone by so fast! i just keep telling myself that the next six months is going to fly by! after this transfer, i´ll only have 4 more left. that is just so crazy to me. i can´t hardly belive it. wow.
so did i tell you that we teach english to a little buddhist family? yep. and last time we went to teach english, debi, is the mom´s name, gave us little jewels to put on our foreheads inbetween our eyes and we took lots of pictures. it was so cute. she is so sweet. we are teaching them how to pray and the last time we went she did it! it was so sweet.
the weather here is starting to get a little little better. its starting to get dark earlier and i keep getting reminded of when i started the mission in palma. the other day it smelled like grass and i didn´t realize how much i miss grass until i actually smelled it. i almost craved it. not to eat, but to feel and to just get out of all this chaos. there is no space here anywhere. it´s just piso after piso and it makes me feel claustraphobic a lot. i am so greatful that we live close to the mountains and that there i sopen space so close to our house. wha. i really miss it.
well, i love you. the gospel is true. we are so lucky to be who we are and know what we know and have what we have. my favorite scripture this week is in Philippians 4. it´s paul talking and he says, for i have learned, in whatsoever state i am, therewith to be content. i am going to sum up the area that i am working in with that scripture! animo! fuerza! paz, y felicidad. todo mi amor. te quiero mucho y te echo de menos. hasta la semana que viene.
August 25: les amo a todos. la verdad es que españa es lo mejor que todo. tengo el privilegio de ayudar a dios de llevar el evangelio a las personas aqui en españa, aunque parece que estoy sirviendo en inglaterra aqui en torrevieja, estoy contenta. sé que esta es la iglesia verdadera. tengo la esperanza de volver algun dia a los estados unidos y seguir compartiendo el evangelio con todas las personas alla. sé que dios nos ama un montón y quiere que tengamos la felicidad. sé que por medio de cristo nos podemos salvar y obtener la vida eterna. amo a todos ustedes y espero que todo vaya bien y que todos sigan fuerte en la fe. les quiero mucho a todos y les agradezco por el apoyo y amor que me dan dia a dia. hasta la semana que viene,
September 1: yesterday we had the funniest cita. so there is a woman from brazil that always comes to our english classes. and the other day we were talking about how we go to peoples house and teach them the gospel and she was like i want you in my house! and so we set up a cita for sunday and we went and she made ups chocolate cake and these really amazing brazilian cheese balls. sounds groos, but it was soo good. we taught them the restauration and invited them to pray about joseph smith. i hope that they will come to church one day.
it´s getting a little bit cooler down here. i can´t wait for the fall, but am dreading the winter. i am thinking that i will be up in the barcelona area, crossing my fingers, but that means a really really really cold winter. yikes! so i am going to have to buy a really nice coat.
the mission rocks my socks. god really answers prayers. i love it here and can´t believe that i only have 6 more months! ahhh!!!!
September 8: i crave peas. how weird am i? AND suddenly i love beats. the mission is mixing meso up! on friday we bought 6 avocados for 2 euros. that is out of this world inexpenseive. it´s still hot here. my hair looks permed.
September 15: wow. so ivonne is getting baptized on saturday!!!! yay! yep. it´s a miracle. we had a cita with her last week on friday and she said i want to do it on saturday! my cute little companion is going to see her first baptism! ¡que bendición! i am so excited for you to be able to meet her and her cute little kids. luna and emil they speak only spanish and swedish...
i´´m really starting to love torrevieja. things are starting to happen here. i love it. there are so many miracles that are happening every single day. The lord really is blessing me with being able to see so much success. last jueves was when i completed 1 year here in spain. i was thinking about coming over on the airplane and how i felt like i was riding on the stars cause they were so close! and it´s gone by so fast.
next weekend are transfers, but i´m not going anywhere. don´t you worry. hermana lunt has been here for 6 months. wow. that is a long time. and we have been together for 2 transfers, so it´s time for her to go. i´m most likely going to train again.
life is good. the weather rocks! on saturday ivonne is getting baptized. probably i´ll be in barcelona next time i write to pick up a new companion. wow. that´s exciting.
i love moroni 10:32, and mosiah 5 and jacob 3:1 and mosiah 7:33...
September 23: Mom! I´m in barcelona picking up another new missionary! it´s been the best adventure of a life time! it took 2 days to get up here we had to go to murcia first and then take a train 7 hours to barcelona. it was so beautiful. oh man. and last night we had our training meeting and we are going to be picking them up so soon! i am so excited. i bought her a flower to give to her, like i did for hermana grant. i am so so so excited. we had so much fun together my last new missionary and i.
and yes! Ivonne was baptized on FRIDAY! in my branch presidents swimming pool. oh mom. she looked like an angel. she was all dressed in white and so beautiful. i was so touched by the spirit when she went under the water. she was so ready and now she is a beautiful member of the cburch! we are teaching her 10 year old son emil so that he too can be baptized. yes. torrevieja is booming. i am so excited to be there. and i think that this is my last transfer and then i move to my LAST AREA!!!
it is so cold up north here. and guess what? i think that i am going to be here for the winter. super excited to come up north. wow. time flies when you´re having fun eh?
be good and know that i am here in barcelona about to pick up the new hija. i´m in labor again! ahhh!!! haha.
September 29: It´s official. I have given birth to another bouncing baby girl! haha. Hermana Grimm from Holiday Utah. YAY! My first companion from Utah. Isn´t that crazy? Besides my MTC companions. They don´t really count. We basically like to do the same things. Run, mountain bike, hike, the mountains, run in the mornings, eat good food... It was a great match. She likes to work hard too so we are going to be really busy this transfer running all around this little town. I think this is my last transfer here, so I am going to make the very most of my time here.
we had a miracle cita. so helen, is a woman that was in our spanish classes. and last planning day we called up penny and invited her to share the gospel with someone. to pray about it and let us know. and you know what? she did it! that, in and of itsself was a miracle. so anyway, we set up a cita with her for friday and she invited us over for lunch. we watched finding faith in christ, you should see it! and Helen afterwards (seh´s from england) said wow. this is what i grew up believiing. i didn´t know that the mormons believed this. she was shocked to find out that we believe in christ. so we gave her a book of mormon and she said thanks so much adn so we´ll see what happens. i knew that i could see a light in her eyes in our spanish class. really. i think that something is going to happen with her.
October 6: So, we are in Murcia, once again. Conference was in Cartagena and so we are spending 4 days in Murcia cause our bus doesn´t get us back in time. We will go back to Torrevieja Tuesday night. Yikes. Conference was the best ever. I LOVED President Monsons talk on finding JOy in the journey, and finding it NOW! it was so powerful. I like the talk by the young womens woman on virtue and how we should strive to be more ¨fit for the kingdom¨ instead of more ¨fit for the world¨. that really touched me and helped me to refocus a little bit on the work here in Sunny spain. I LOVED president Hollands talk about Angels cause I thought of you and how you are my mortal Angel. Thanks! Of course, i loved elder Wirthlins talk on being Happy and LAUGHING! I almost cried laughing at the story he told about the daugher his going on a date. that was so funny. haha. made me think of all the stupid things that i have done in my life and laugh at myself.
we have been having lots of success finding new people. we also taught a man from ecuador who loves the book of mormon and another girl named laura who loves the book of mormon. we started our spanish classes and english classes and we had 24 people in spanish and it was so much fun! only 6 came to english, so not so much, but it´s fun. we´re excited about it.
October 20: So get this... we have 3 baptismal dates. Yep. Emil, Ivonne´s son, Mercy, a woman from Ghana, and Silvia, a woman from Nigeria. I sure do love those Africans! haha. Mercy is the sweetest thing ever. I think I told you a little bit about her a while ago. She was the woman we found randomly knocking doors one day. Sylvia is the woman that we have been teaching from Nigeria for so long, but i haven´t said much about her cause she was kind of just like a side person that we taught, but didn´t really think that it was going to go anywhere. So suddenly, she is so excited to be baptized and is going to do it on the 8th of November with the other 3 people. Que bien. I am super excited. But i probably won´t be here for their baptisms, cause we have transfers on the 2nd and i probably am going to leave. I could stay, but it would be very small chance. That´s okay though. I´m ready for another change... a change up north cause i´ve been at all the corners of the mission... now i just need to go north. we´ll see what happens.
this week i will complete 14 months on the misson. wow. time is so flying. 4 more until i hit my 18 month mark.
October 27: We´re starting to teach a new woman from brazil that is in our english class. we taught Mercy the law of tithing and she was so excited to pay her tithing. she is an angel. really. i was shocked after we had taught her about it cause she was just like. yep. i´ll pay it. and i´ll do it cause i love my savior. it was amazing. i still can´t believe how righteous this woman is. i´m so glad that the lord led us to her.
after church yesterday we had a really yummy dinner with a family from scotland. i felt better after we ate ice cream. my comp and i are having a lot of fun! we´ll see what happens next week. i don´t dare hope for anything cause if i stay here it´s going to be a challenge for me, but if i go somewhere else, i´ll just have to face new, unknown challenges. whatever Heavenly Father wants for me, i´ll do it!
July 1: okay so get this. I´m still in Valencia right now, but i´m on my way at 4:20 to.... TORREVIEJA! The farthest south that a missionary can go and it´s on the BEACH and so beautiful (so i´ve heard!). Oh man mom. Valencia is my home away from home. SUnday it was so hard to say goodbye to everyone. I cried. Made lots of promises to come back and visit. Took lots of pictures. Prayed hard. and then left it all behind. Wow. What a life. And in about 3 hours, i get on a train to enter a whole new world of adventures in Torrevieja. It´s SOSOSOSOSOSO hot there. it´s the hottest part of the mission.
July 7: it´s been a rough week. we are in a branch of 40 active members. church is run in english and i translate to spanish for the 2 active spanish families. i already have to give a talk next sunday. we have no investigators and i have never been so tired in all my life. it´s going to be a rough few months a head of me. i´m trying to love it here, and i think its just cause the week has been kind of crazy, but it was so much easier in valencia! i guess this is what i needed. and i´ll do whatever the lord needs me to do. i knew that valencia was just too easy! i needed a challenge. well, i got one!
July 14: Wow. This week has definately been an adventure. And yes, we have had some better luck this week. Man there is so much to tell! Well, it turns out that i am a rebel and i flat out REFUSE to speak english here in SPAIN. It´s funny cause a lot of the members actually speak a little so they are starting to speak more cause i only speak spanish.
we live literally right next to the beach. you walk out our front door about 6 minutes and we are on the beach.
almost everyone we talk with is from other parts of europe and don´t speak spanish or english. i am learning the language of smiling and just waving at our contacts. it´s pretty crazy. what else?
it´s not so hot, but really humid so we drip with sweat all day long.
there is a park by our house and all the old women love us cause we always walk by and say hi. we´re like their grandchildren adn we always give them pass along cards and pictures of christ. they love it and it makes us really happy.
we spend a lot of time going from city to city trying to reactivate inactive members. it´s really fun working with inactives, but really hard to get them back to church, especailly cuando it´s not even run in their own language. but there are so many people here that need help.
i had a dream the other day about going home from the mission and not being able to speak spanish all day and i woke up sweating! haha. it was really funny.
My companion is Hermana Lunt. She´s really great and I think that we are going to have a lot of fun together.
I don´t know how i am going to be able to thank everyone that has helped me be able to serve a mission. It´s the best thing I ever could have done, and will continue to do. I don´t think there is anyone more blessed than I am in the entire world to have so many people who really care for me and for you and for the whole family. Wow.
there are 17 different nationalities in our branch... scottland, england, belgium, sweeden... all sorts of differnt ones.
did i already tell you that we teach spanish and english here? and there are about 47 people that come to all three of them. its a fun way to share the gospel.
my talk was great on sunday. i did it in spanish and it was only about 4 minutes (that´s what they asked). then we sang, (hna lunt who sings like an angel, me and our investigator marina, who sings like a soul sister, you know one of those black halaluja type voices, but shé´s from spain)... haha. it was an adventure.
July 29: wow. so much has happened in such little time. i don´t even know where to start! we have been so busy that i haven´t even written it down in my journal and now i am kicking myself for it. i have to be better at that.
so, there is this one woman that we are FINALLY going to be able to teach cause she is the wife of a member who has decided that she wants to recieve the charlas and that she is going to let us come over and teach her. she is from china slash the philipines and she lives here in spain but speaks english. what a mix! this is what i love most about torrevieja is that we have so many nationalities that it´s really like i am serving all over the world!
August 4: wow. almost an entire other transfer has gone by and it feels like i arrrived here in torrevieja yesterday.
MOM! Wow. so much to say and so much time to say it today! so, here is what is going on. Ivonne, the sweedish chilean that we are teaching is officially getting BAPTIZED!! On the 6 of September. Yep. In spite of all the trials that we have been having, once again, God has reached into this work and helped us big time. she is so great. we teach her in english cause she has lived in sweeden almost all her life. she is divorced and has 2 cute little kids.
you would not believe the sun here. i am so tan! my feet especially. my face not so much cause i smother it in sun screen! in fact the other day, i had white fingerprints all over my face cause i had rubbed it on in a hurry and so the places that i had missed were burned and the places i had not missed were white! it was really funny!
August 12: Transfers! Hermana Lunt and I are still here in Torrevieja. It´s getting so hot i feel like I am starting to melt. Wow. So much to say, so little time to say it. oh lets see, i made a list. so, Ivonne is still on for her baptism. we ate with her on friday and had a cita with her last night and she is so excited.
oh yeah. now i remember. so get this. marina, the spanish investigator that we have, works in a pakistani restaurant and she invited us to eat with her on thursday. so, she took us even before the restaurant opened, and fed us like QUEENS! you think that mazza is good, whoa. watch out. i´ve had the real, authentic stuff. oh man. so this is what it was, this excelent flat bread like stuff that we ate 2 loafs of, i has spicy potatoes, eggplant something, lemon rice, a potatoe patty and a whole platter full of apetizers. it was so good that i couldn´t stop eating. i don´t think i´ve ever liked any other food like this. it is the BEST! and when you come, i am taking you there. oh man. tell april that she better be jealous. haha.
August 18: Vaya. I can´t belive that it´s almost been an entire year!!!! Yesterday after church, we were looking at all the videos that we have in the church and there was one about going on a mission and it reminded me of everything that happened to me for going on the mission... getting the letter, opening it with the family, leaving for the mtc, getting the orange sticker... it was crazy and i almost cried remembering us all being there! this year has gone by so fast! i just keep telling myself that the next six months is going to fly by! after this transfer, i´ll only have 4 more left. that is just so crazy to me. i can´t hardly belive it. wow.
so did i tell you that we teach english to a little buddhist family? yep. and last time we went to teach english, debi, is the mom´s name, gave us little jewels to put on our foreheads inbetween our eyes and we took lots of pictures. it was so cute. she is so sweet. we are teaching them how to pray and the last time we went she did it! it was so sweet.
the weather here is starting to get a little little better. its starting to get dark earlier and i keep getting reminded of when i started the mission in palma. the other day it smelled like grass and i didn´t realize how much i miss grass until i actually smelled it. i almost craved it. not to eat, but to feel and to just get out of all this chaos. there is no space here anywhere. it´s just piso after piso and it makes me feel claustraphobic a lot. i am so greatful that we live close to the mountains and that there i sopen space so close to our house. wha. i really miss it.
well, i love you. the gospel is true. we are so lucky to be who we are and know what we know and have what we have. my favorite scripture this week is in Philippians 4. it´s paul talking and he says, for i have learned, in whatsoever state i am, therewith to be content. i am going to sum up the area that i am working in with that scripture! animo! fuerza! paz, y felicidad. todo mi amor. te quiero mucho y te echo de menos. hasta la semana que viene.
August 25: les amo a todos. la verdad es que españa es lo mejor que todo. tengo el privilegio de ayudar a dios de llevar el evangelio a las personas aqui en españa, aunque parece que estoy sirviendo en inglaterra aqui en torrevieja, estoy contenta. sé que esta es la iglesia verdadera. tengo la esperanza de volver algun dia a los estados unidos y seguir compartiendo el evangelio con todas las personas alla. sé que dios nos ama un montón y quiere que tengamos la felicidad. sé que por medio de cristo nos podemos salvar y obtener la vida eterna. amo a todos ustedes y espero que todo vaya bien y que todos sigan fuerte en la fe. les quiero mucho a todos y les agradezco por el apoyo y amor que me dan dia a dia. hasta la semana que viene,
September 1: yesterday we had the funniest cita. so there is a woman from brazil that always comes to our english classes. and the other day we were talking about how we go to peoples house and teach them the gospel and she was like i want you in my house! and so we set up a cita for sunday and we went and she made ups chocolate cake and these really amazing brazilian cheese balls. sounds groos, but it was soo good. we taught them the restauration and invited them to pray about joseph smith. i hope that they will come to church one day.
it´s getting a little bit cooler down here. i can´t wait for the fall, but am dreading the winter. i am thinking that i will be up in the barcelona area, crossing my fingers, but that means a really really really cold winter. yikes! so i am going to have to buy a really nice coat.
the mission rocks my socks. god really answers prayers. i love it here and can´t believe that i only have 6 more months! ahhh!!!!
September 8: i crave peas. how weird am i? AND suddenly i love beats. the mission is mixing meso up! on friday we bought 6 avocados for 2 euros. that is out of this world inexpenseive. it´s still hot here. my hair looks permed.
September 15: wow. so ivonne is getting baptized on saturday!!!! yay! yep. it´s a miracle. we had a cita with her last week on friday and she said i want to do it on saturday! my cute little companion is going to see her first baptism! ¡que bendición! i am so excited for you to be able to meet her and her cute little kids. luna and emil they speak only spanish and swedish...
i´´m really starting to love torrevieja. things are starting to happen here. i love it. there are so many miracles that are happening every single day. The lord really is blessing me with being able to see so much success. last jueves was when i completed 1 year here in spain. i was thinking about coming over on the airplane and how i felt like i was riding on the stars cause they were so close! and it´s gone by so fast.
next weekend are transfers, but i´m not going anywhere. don´t you worry. hermana lunt has been here for 6 months. wow. that is a long time. and we have been together for 2 transfers, so it´s time for her to go. i´m most likely going to train again.
life is good. the weather rocks! on saturday ivonne is getting baptized. probably i´ll be in barcelona next time i write to pick up a new companion. wow. that´s exciting.
i love moroni 10:32, and mosiah 5 and jacob 3:1 and mosiah 7:33...
September 23: Mom! I´m in barcelona picking up another new missionary! it´s been the best adventure of a life time! it took 2 days to get up here we had to go to murcia first and then take a train 7 hours to barcelona. it was so beautiful. oh man. and last night we had our training meeting and we are going to be picking them up so soon! i am so excited. i bought her a flower to give to her, like i did for hermana grant. i am so so so excited. we had so much fun together my last new missionary and i.
and yes! Ivonne was baptized on FRIDAY! in my branch presidents swimming pool. oh mom. she looked like an angel. she was all dressed in white and so beautiful. i was so touched by the spirit when she went under the water. she was so ready and now she is a beautiful member of the cburch! we are teaching her 10 year old son emil so that he too can be baptized. yes. torrevieja is booming. i am so excited to be there. and i think that this is my last transfer and then i move to my LAST AREA!!!
it is so cold up north here. and guess what? i think that i am going to be here for the winter. super excited to come up north. wow. time flies when you´re having fun eh?
be good and know that i am here in barcelona about to pick up the new hija. i´m in labor again! ahhh!!! haha.
September 29: It´s official. I have given birth to another bouncing baby girl! haha. Hermana Grimm from Holiday Utah. YAY! My first companion from Utah. Isn´t that crazy? Besides my MTC companions. They don´t really count. We basically like to do the same things. Run, mountain bike, hike, the mountains, run in the mornings, eat good food... It was a great match. She likes to work hard too so we are going to be really busy this transfer running all around this little town. I think this is my last transfer here, so I am going to make the very most of my time here.
we had a miracle cita. so helen, is a woman that was in our spanish classes. and last planning day we called up penny and invited her to share the gospel with someone. to pray about it and let us know. and you know what? she did it! that, in and of itsself was a miracle. so anyway, we set up a cita with her for friday and she invited us over for lunch. we watched finding faith in christ, you should see it! and Helen afterwards (seh´s from england) said wow. this is what i grew up believiing. i didn´t know that the mormons believed this. she was shocked to find out that we believe in christ. so we gave her a book of mormon and she said thanks so much adn so we´ll see what happens. i knew that i could see a light in her eyes in our spanish class. really. i think that something is going to happen with her.
October 6: So, we are in Murcia, once again. Conference was in Cartagena and so we are spending 4 days in Murcia cause our bus doesn´t get us back in time. We will go back to Torrevieja Tuesday night. Yikes. Conference was the best ever. I LOVED President Monsons talk on finding JOy in the journey, and finding it NOW! it was so powerful. I like the talk by the young womens woman on virtue and how we should strive to be more ¨fit for the kingdom¨ instead of more ¨fit for the world¨. that really touched me and helped me to refocus a little bit on the work here in Sunny spain. I LOVED president Hollands talk about Angels cause I thought of you and how you are my mortal Angel. Thanks! Of course, i loved elder Wirthlins talk on being Happy and LAUGHING! I almost cried laughing at the story he told about the daugher his going on a date. that was so funny. haha. made me think of all the stupid things that i have done in my life and laugh at myself.
we have been having lots of success finding new people. we also taught a man from ecuador who loves the book of mormon and another girl named laura who loves the book of mormon. we started our spanish classes and english classes and we had 24 people in spanish and it was so much fun! only 6 came to english, so not so much, but it´s fun. we´re excited about it.
October 20: So get this... we have 3 baptismal dates. Yep. Emil, Ivonne´s son, Mercy, a woman from Ghana, and Silvia, a woman from Nigeria. I sure do love those Africans! haha. Mercy is the sweetest thing ever. I think I told you a little bit about her a while ago. She was the woman we found randomly knocking doors one day. Sylvia is the woman that we have been teaching from Nigeria for so long, but i haven´t said much about her cause she was kind of just like a side person that we taught, but didn´t really think that it was going to go anywhere. So suddenly, she is so excited to be baptized and is going to do it on the 8th of November with the other 3 people. Que bien. I am super excited. But i probably won´t be here for their baptisms, cause we have transfers on the 2nd and i probably am going to leave. I could stay, but it would be very small chance. That´s okay though. I´m ready for another change... a change up north cause i´ve been at all the corners of the mission... now i just need to go north. we´ll see what happens.
this week i will complete 14 months on the misson. wow. time is so flying. 4 more until i hit my 18 month mark.
October 27: We´re starting to teach a new woman from brazil that is in our english class. we taught Mercy the law of tithing and she was so excited to pay her tithing. she is an angel. really. i was shocked after we had taught her about it cause she was just like. yep. i´ll pay it. and i´ll do it cause i love my savior. it was amazing. i still can´t believe how righteous this woman is. i´m so glad that the lord led us to her.
after church yesterday we had a really yummy dinner with a family from scotland. i felt better after we ate ice cream. my comp and i are having a lot of fun! we´ll see what happens next week. i don´t dare hope for anything cause if i stay here it´s going to be a challenge for me, but if i go somewhere else, i´ll just have to face new, unknown challenges. whatever Heavenly Father wants for me, i´ll do it!
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Holly in Torrevieja
Here are pictures of Holly and her comp, Hermana Lunt, in Torrevieja. These were taken by couple missionaries -- the Browns -- when they came to do an apartment inspection. The hermanas passed with flying colors. The Browns took them to a fun restaurant by the sea. Yes, that's the beautiful Mediterranean in the background.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Holly is Transferred to Torrevieja
Transfer time again and Holly is now in Torrevieja. Still on the coast, but further south. Here is her new address:
Hermana Holly Thomas
c/Travesia Gabino 19,1,1
Fase III CALABLANCAS DEL MAR
03183 Torrevieja (Alicante)
SPAIN
Hermana Holly Thomas
c/Travesia Gabino 19,1,1
Fase III CALABLANCAS DEL MAR
03183 Torrevieja (Alicante)
SPAIN
And here's where she is on the map. It's such a small city, it's not even listed on the map!
Just before she left, Nice and Alex were baptized and Holly sent this photo!
Asher Gets Glasses
When Becky realized that Asher was having trouble focusing on objects up close, she took Asher to the eye doctor and learned that he was farsighted. So at 20 months old, he got glasses. I was worried that he wouldn't keep them on, but right from the start he left them alone, unlike the sun glasses that Becky tried to get him to wear. These new glasses must help him see really well! Doesn't he look adorable in them?!!!!
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Valldemossa in February
This was a long-awaited pday trip for Holly to the quaint, historic village of Valldemossa in on the north-western coast of Mallorca. This village is a favorite site for painters, because it is so beautiful. And you will surely see that is true! This slide show is a treat for the eye!
Palma in January
This is early January (and New Years) in Palma de Mallorca with the cute missionary.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Holly Becomes a "Mom"
Here is Holly meeting her new "daughter" for the first time in Barcelona. That is, she is training a brand new missionary. It's referred to as giving birth. She is Hermana Melani Grant, from Michigan. They rock as comps!
Farewell to Hermanas
I think these are photos of the Hermanas traveling to Barcelona - Hermana Ferranini to go back home to Argentina, and Holly to pick up her new missionary just out of the MTC that she will train!
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Virginia's Baptism
This was truly an amazing day for everyone. Virginia is really special. She was baptized the day after Holly's birthday. Here are excerpts from Holly's email:
VIRGINIA WAS BAPTIZED!!!!!!! It was beautiful. She was so happy and truely looked like an ANGEL. We sang I like to look for rainbows (all the hermanas) and I played the piano. She cried the entire time. She recently told us that she wants to be a leader in the church. She is going to be a missionary in the heavens one day this angel.
VIRGINIA WAS BAPTIZED!!!!!!! It was beautiful. She was so happy and truely looked like an ANGEL. We sang I like to look for rainbows (all the hermanas) and I played the piano. She cried the entire time. She recently told us that she wants to be a leader in the church. She is going to be a missionary in the heavens one day this angel.
Mishun Life - Parte Uno
I wish I could tell you who these people are with Holly. But that will have to come next year when she's back home. Suffice it to say that she looks like she has made lots of wonderful friends, and had a blast with her comp from Argentina! Oh, and she turned 22 while in Valencia, Spain. Happy Birthday Holls!
Hna Holly - The Fallas!
So in Valencia, every March they celebrate the Fallas, or the Fires. The whole city explodes daily for 2 weeks with firecrackers in the streets and fireworks at 2pm. They create these gigantic, intricate, colorful, exotic, satiric statues out of wood and plaster and display them in hundreds of major intersections of the city. On March 19, they cut holes in statues and fill them with fireworks. At the stoke of midnight, they set fire to the statues and watch them blow up and burn. You think I'm making this all up? No way! Only in Valencia! And here are Holly's picture to prove it!!!
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Stranded in Denver at the Renaissance Inn
It took me 28 hours to get home, from the time I left Becky's home for the airport, until I walked in my door. If it could go wrong, it did!
Asher's Adventures at Olive Garden
It started out well. And then progressively got...well, you get the picture. Needless to say, he went straight home to the tub.
Mother's Day with Becky and Asher
I spent Mother's Day and the following week with Becky and Asher in Georgia. We went to a nearby park on Mother's Day. Asher had so much fun! It was the perfect Mother's Day!
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Holly is Transferred to Valencia! (new address)
Holly just passed her 6-month mark 4 days ago and she is no longer a child of the island. Today she moved to the costal city of Valencia, which is the 3rd largest city in Spain.
Here is her new address:
Hermana Holly Thomas
c/Polo y Peyrolon 23, puerta 17
46021 Valencia
SPAIN
(Put an accent mark over the last o in Peyrolon.)
She is pretty excited! Here are some excerpts from her emails:
February 26, 2008: Here I am in Valencia with my new companion from Argentina la Hermana Ferranini. Yep. She is a native, so I am so going to be speaking spanish when I am done with this transfer. And she loves to run and so we are going to run in the mornings and this is her last transfer, so she is on fire. There are 2 other hermanas in our piso so we are 4. I can´t even tell you how happy I am right now. I was sad to leave the island and yesterday we spent the day running around saying goodbye to everyone, but here I am in VALENCIA!
March 3, 2008: wow. you wouldn´t believe the weather here. unbelievable. every morning we wake up and open the door to the balcony that is right above my bed and we just soak up the morning sun rays and heat. it´s so warm here. i am going to be wearing sandals here in a few weeks. oh man. i thought palma was amazing. but no, valencia is INCREDIBLE!!!!
so, we don´t have a lot of investigators, but the amazing thing was yesterday at church. there were like 5 people that randomly showed up that werent members. so many that we didn´t have time to talk with them or anything cause we had 3 investigators in church and my companion was playing the piano and i was trying to set appointments with people and meet the people and it was so much chaos cause we had just run across the city from an eating cita with an investigator and a member and we were almost late for church and the other hermans had locked themselves out of piso so we had to run back and give them the keys and then the elders needed my preach my gosple and then we lost the list with all the eating citas and it took an hour to figure out that the relief society presedent had taken it with her.... breath! so yeah. i tried to make that as exciting as it really was. haha. we were running all day yesterday. and guess where we are going today? it´s called teh oceaongraphic, or something like that. google it. i hear that its amazing.
so i finally get the METRO! it´s so weird. we travel underneath the city and so when we get out of the metro, i basically have no idea where we are cause there is no visual. but it´s great fun. i love it. i have to pay very close attention to everything that is happening cause this is my amazing companions last transfer, so for sure i am going to be here by myself trying to figure everything out! so i am payying close attentino to every step we take. lots of bus transportation tambien. bueno.
que mas. my spanish is improving alot cause my companion is always helping me. God sure does love me to give me a native compaion who wants to run and who wants to work...
mom. this is what a mission should be like. it´s hard, i´m not going to lie. but i love it. i wouldn´t trade this experience forever.
Here is her new address:
Hermana Holly Thomas
c/Polo y Peyrolon 23, puerta 17
46021 Valencia
SPAIN
(Put an accent mark over the last o in Peyrolon.)
She is pretty excited! Here are some excerpts from her emails:
February 26, 2008: Here I am in Valencia with my new companion from Argentina la Hermana Ferranini. Yep. She is a native, so I am so going to be speaking spanish when I am done with this transfer. And she loves to run and so we are going to run in the mornings and this is her last transfer, so she is on fire. There are 2 other hermanas in our piso so we are 4. I can´t even tell you how happy I am right now. I was sad to leave the island and yesterday we spent the day running around saying goodbye to everyone, but here I am in VALENCIA!
March 3, 2008: wow. you wouldn´t believe the weather here. unbelievable. every morning we wake up and open the door to the balcony that is right above my bed and we just soak up the morning sun rays and heat. it´s so warm here. i am going to be wearing sandals here in a few weeks. oh man. i thought palma was amazing. but no, valencia is INCREDIBLE!!!!
so, we don´t have a lot of investigators, but the amazing thing was yesterday at church. there were like 5 people that randomly showed up that werent members. so many that we didn´t have time to talk with them or anything cause we had 3 investigators in church and my companion was playing the piano and i was trying to set appointments with people and meet the people and it was so much chaos cause we had just run across the city from an eating cita with an investigator and a member and we were almost late for church and the other hermans had locked themselves out of piso so we had to run back and give them the keys and then the elders needed my preach my gosple and then we lost the list with all the eating citas and it took an hour to figure out that the relief society presedent had taken it with her.... breath! so yeah. i tried to make that as exciting as it really was. haha. we were running all day yesterday. and guess where we are going today? it´s called teh oceaongraphic, or something like that. google it. i hear that its amazing.
so i finally get the METRO! it´s so weird. we travel underneath the city and so when we get out of the metro, i basically have no idea where we are cause there is no visual. but it´s great fun. i love it. i have to pay very close attention to everything that is happening cause this is my amazing companions last transfer, so for sure i am going to be here by myself trying to figure everything out! so i am payying close attentino to every step we take. lots of bus transportation tambien. bueno.
que mas. my spanish is improving alot cause my companion is always helping me. God sure does love me to give me a native compaion who wants to run and who wants to work...
mom. this is what a mission should be like. it´s hard, i´m not going to lie. but i love it. i wouldn´t trade this experience forever.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Holly Rocks Mallorca
November 12: We just got back from Soller the most beautiful place on earth! Well, not quite, but it was amazing. we went hiking on a cliff that over looked the medeteranian ocean. so yesterday we had an investigatior in church! !!! from spain. her name is puri and she is Mallorkeen, or that means she was born here. But i have to tell you what happened. all was going well... she was taking notes in sacrament meeting, we had her sitting by a member, she was enjoying everything. then, we went to sunday school and she was asking questinos and reading, and all that great stuff. then, came relief society. she was talking with everyone, and all that jazz and as soon as they wrote the hymn on the board she stood up and said ¨were singing agani? I´m leaving! and she just up and left! it´s cause she didn´t like the music and said it was classical. it tunred out to be a disaster! And i was playing the piano for the primary and the kids were going loco and it was so much chaos! Aye Aye Aye! Count your blessings that you belong to the ward that you do! I feel like we are running the entire ward some sundays. we had to play the piano in sacrament and lead the music cause nobody was there... it was a disaster! But all is well and all we could do is laugh and say that we did our best.
November 26: What a crazy week. so many things happened. so it was thanksgiving, eh? all the members wanted to celebrate with us since it is an american holiday. so we drove to the other side of the island (it only takes an hour) and we ate with a less active family. turkey, corn, potatoes... even a very warped pumpkin pie (they don´t have canned pumpkin here!) It was so great. I was so full after we ate. blah. and then just last night we had another thanksgiving feast wtih another family. they are
really great. they are the Queirolos and they are from chile and oh my goodness. i can´t even tell you how great the food was. they made me a special vegetable soup that was so great.
so you wanted to know what we do on pdays... we just catch up, buy groceries, laundry, roam the city, write our families, and EXPLORE! there are so many beautiful places here to explore. yikes! so little time. and our first transfers are on December 1. I am almost 100 percent positive that i will be here for at least 4 months or so. But my trainer will probably go, which will leave me to do all the work... ahhhh!!!! then i am going to start stressing out. We had a pan carta yesterday which is where we set up a display and talk with people. it was so cold i couldn´t hardly move my mouth. and trying to speak a different langauge when your mouth won´t move is VERY difficutl. haha. needless to say, we got 3 phone numbers and maybe God is preparing these people´s hearts. who knows? our days are full of appointments. with less active members, recent converts and investigators. we have 2 hours during 2-4 for language study and lunch... but sometimes we don´t even get that cause we are at a cita.
Oh, so yesterday, the primary had a program here. i had to play the piano and it was so funny. it reminded me of you cause there was just pure chaos once again. our rama is so great. the members here have to work so hard to fulfil their callings. there just aren´t enough of them.
We are preparing 9 year old Alvaro for baptism before the end of the year!! hIS mom is less active and want´s him to get baptised. he is so great.
December 4: AHHH!!! I am left alone on the ISLAND! yes. my companion did get transfered to MURCIA. I get my new companion tonight at 8 and so I get to hang out with the ELders all day and sheesh. I am so nervous. I have to navigate the entire island all by myself. I feel so overwhelmed, but very humble that Heavenly Father would trust me with this responsibility. My new companion is Hermana Sorenson and she has been out for over a year, so i hope that she knows how to work hard and to speak the langage.
December 10: So much to say, so little time. so yes, i have a new companion. i am
doing everything. making appointments, teaching the lessons and takling on the phone (which usually doesn´t happen until later on in the mish, like 4 transfers or so), so i am super busy. but the lord is blessing me with all sorts of abilities that i never even knew existed.
yesterday we had a 10 year old in church. her name is Angela. her mom was listening to the discussions, but doesn´t really want to but her daughter is so excited and she
wants to go to allt he activities and everything. she made a ton of friends at church. it was great. the lord has BIG plans for her! One of my most favorite moments in my mission happened last night when we were taking her home. she lives far from the church and so we were walking a little bit to the bus station and the bus was coming, but still had somewhere around 10 minutes and i was sitting at the bus station and we were playing a game where you slap hands and sing a song, like patty cakes, kind of and i just felt so much peace. it seems strange, but i realized that this is the mission. just loving people. i am here on my mission to love people. and that is what i am doing. it´s great.
alvaro has a baptizme date for the 22 of dec. he is the 9 year old boy that is the son of a menos activa, and his mom helena is coming back. they are both from spain. angela is from ecuador. that is the great thing about serving in spain. it´s like i am serving in south america also cause there are so many south americans here. i love it. so much culture. alvaro told me i was the most guapa (beautiful) missionary ever. haha. 9 year olds, eh?
December 17: Guess what? We went to Barcelona again this week. For 2 whole days. It was werid though cause we got there and we had to go out and do contacts in the area called Hospitalet and it was SO different than being on the island. It was so small and I felt really clausterphobic cause all there were were buildings and people and there was no ocean there was no space there was nowhere to walk. They told me that they don´t do a whole lot of walking in that area and that the area in which i am in right now does the most walking in the mission!
What´s going on here in Mallorca? It´s FREEZING!!!! Wow. I swear I have hypothermia half of the time. Sheesh. Who would have thought that it would get so cold in the middle of the med on an exotic island?
Also, guess what? My first baptism is this SATURDAY!!! Yes, it is going to happen. Alvaro, who is 9 is the son of a menos activo and we have been teaching him and reactivating his mom and his baptism is set for Saturday at 6. Wahoo. I am so excited.
THe conference was huge! So many people were there. And get this. THe president called on 4 people (out of 70 or 80) to bear their testimonies, and of course, i was the one hermana that was picked. YOu know how much I just LOVE to get up in front of people and talk... NOT!
It´s a funny thing cause I have lost myself, literally. I couldn´t even remember how my favorite song went the other day. But at the same time I am SO aware of who I am. I am a child of GOd. I have a purpose in life. I know that I made covenants with our Heavenly father before I came here to earth. And now I am here.
December 31: What's new? I FELL OUT OF BED THE OTHER DAY. MY COMPANION AND I LAUGHED FOR LIKE 10 MINTUES. SHE RAN INTO A GLASS WINDOW TRYING TO LOOK FOR A STREET CAUSE IT WAS CLEANED SO WELL, AND WHEN WE WERE DOOR KNOCKING IN THE ¨GHETTO¨ A LITTLE BOY ANSWERED THE DOOR AND INSTEAD OF ASKING HIM IF HIS PARENTS WERE HOME SHE SAID ¨ESTAMOS SUS PADRES¨ WHICH MEANS, WE´RE YOUR PARENTS. HE WAS LIKE ¨QUE¨ WHICH MEANS WHAT? AND IT WAS FUNNY. WHAT SHE MEANT TO SAY WAS ¨¿ESTAN SUS PADRES?¨ THOSE WERE THE FUNNY THINGS THAT HAPPENED.
ROB- I DREAMED THAT I BROKE MY FRONT TEETH SNOWBOARDING LAST NIGHT. MORE LIKE A NIGHTMARE. TEN CUIDADO Y RECUERDA QUE TE AMO UN MONTON! HART
January 7: so what happened this week? we had some strange contacts. we were in the ¨ghetto¨contacting (knocking doors) one morning and we knocked on this door and this old man without any teeth answered and started chanting things and saying things like ¨sexy nuns¨... it was super strange and i wanted to leave as soon as he answered the door. we walked away laughing and were super weirded out after that. everyone here thinks that we are nuns. am I a nun?
and i can´t believe that it´s already been over 4 months. feels like just yesterday i left you at the mtc, but at the same time, i can´t hardly remember being in the MTC at all. My memory is shot. i can remember bascially the things that happened to me since i woke up this morning, and everything else is just a blur!
January 15: Transfer day and guess where I am right now??? Yep. Still sitting in the same locutorio in MALLORCA!!!! I have another six weeks to enjoy the island. We are planning on going to Valldemossa next p-day and the cuevas de drach (google them, they are way rad). I´m happy that I am still here. I was freaking out in my head the night the transfers came cause I wasn´t ready to leave everyone here on the Island. I finally know everyone and basically have every street and piso memorized on the island! haha.
Debbi, who is from England is a member here in Palma and last night she invited us to her MANSION for dinner. whoa nelly. can i tell you that her house is like the ones that you see in movies that overlook the beach and are ginormous!
Oh mom. Being a missionary great. I love what i am doing. I mean here we are sharing the most amazing message with people, and even though people don´t want to listen, as long as i do my part, God will do his part.
January 21: Buenas Dias madre mia! can you believe that i will have been out for 5 months tomorrow? wow. time flies when you are studying the gospel in a different language! haha. it has been a great week. things are SO much better. whew. it sure is true that god answers prayers. i cant even tell you how many prayers i have had answered this week. so get this. yesterday we were in the chapel making calls to people yesterday and our movil (cell phone) rang. so i picked it up and said hola soy la hermana thomas. it was our branch president asking me if i would give a 12 mintue talk in about 2 hours in our sacrament meeting cause the speaker le falló (i don´t know how to translate that to inglish... oops!) so i had to run to piso and hurry and throw something together (scriptures, translation, theme... all that jazz) in like an hour. it was my first time speaking in sacrament meeting here aside from bearing my testimony the first sunday that i was here. it was funny cause before my mission something like that would have scared me out of my medios and i would have probably peed my pants. but actually i could have gone on forever cause i was talking about eternal families and i told them i was here on my mission all because of the things that my mom taught me. i used Alma 56 when the strippling warriors talk about their mothers and how they don´t doubt cause their mothers knew. i just wanted you to know that i love you! and i am greatful that you have the testimony that you have so that i could be here today. here in mallorca serving a wonderful mission!!!
it has been a crazy week. we have been teaching a lot of new people and there is one named maria fernanda who is from ecuador who i have a lot of hope for. she doesnn´t snoke or drink and that is rare here in spain! estrella has been reading the book of mormon all by herself and she has read over 200 pages now! she loves it and we are going to work with getting her to church now! she is this cute little española who is a social worker. she has a heart of gold and loves when we come over and talk to her.
January 28: Hola mom! I just cried this morning when i found out that president hinkley passed away. i was reading a talk from the ensign when elder christofferson called and hermana sorenson picked up the phone. he said i´m afraid we have bad news. president hinkley passed away. and then i couldn´t study and i was so happy at the same time cause he is walking down celestial lane with his cute little wife and they are so happy together! that is why i was happy. but its true. he is MY profeta! He was an amazing man and i am going to miss him.
so what did happen this week? we had another pan carta this sunday and i talked with some pretty weird people. one man from germany. he clapped for us when we sang. haha. some catholic priests were arguing with the elders. that was pretty funny.
last night we ate again wtih the queirolos. they are all going vegetarian! haha. hermana queirolo made lasagna with soy protein for me. i think they think that i am their daughter, cause they are always spoiling me. they are one of the strongest families that i have ever met. great people and they are from chile. we are also going to be eating with a family from the dominican republic this friday. she is making me this super rico tomato medeteranian type dish that i am so excited for.
February 4: we went to valldemossa today. absolutely amazing. wow. beautiful. google it.
we taught a lesson in pants! we went to do a service project and the member was sick so we just taught a lesson in pants. i felt so comfortable. i wonder if people would be more receptive if we wore pants all day long?
we had an awesome cita with this woman named irma. we were teaching the plan of salvation and we were talking about how our family members are waiting in the spirit world to recieve the gosple and how we will see them again and she started crying and said you mean i am going to see my sister again? it was so great. it´s moments like that that make the mission completely livable!
we were able to see preident hinkleys funeral via satelie. i cried. i will miss that man. wa´snt he great? for sure he was my prophet.
on sunday there was a baby blessing for a recent convert. her baby is almost a year old and it was amazing to see the elders and the branch president blessing that adorable little life. she is the little african baby. the spirit touched my heart and i wished that every baby in the world could recieve a blessing like that. esosa dressed her in a beautiful white dress and did her hair in little palm tree bunches.
February 11: so guess what? we had another investigator in church and she seems really good. her name is nadina and she is from argentina. it was really a miracle how we found her. okay, here is the story. once day about 2 weeks ago, we were early for an appointment, so we decided to knock a building to get some of our contacts done. but, we didn´t have enough time to finish the entire building, so we took the elevator up to the third floor and knocked the first three floors. then, just the other day, we were in that area again and needed to go do our contacts, so we picked another building to knock. my companion thought that we had already knocked the building that we were knocking, but i was sure that we hadn`t, so we agreed to knock the building. turns out that yes, we had already knocked the building. BUT, this time we found Nadina.
when she opened the door she had green paint all over her hands because she was painting her house. we gave her our usual introduction: Hola, somos misioneras de la iglesia de jesucristo de los santos de los ultimos dias y queremos compartir un mensaje de jesucristo porque hoy en dia hay un profeta en la tierra y la iglesia de jesucristo, que ha sido restaurado otra vez en la tierra... (basically, hello, we´re missionaries from the church of jesus crist of lds and we want to share a message about jesus christ. today, there is a prophet on the earth and the same church that jesus formed when he was here on the earth has been restored). anyway. she said that we could come back the next day, but she didn´t give us her number because she would FOR SURE be there (how many times has that not been true on the mission??? ). So, we wrote the time in our planners and left.
The next day we call up Luzmilah, a member who lives close by from ecuador and ask her if she will come with us to bear her testimony about the book of mormon and joseph smith. she says yes, so we pass by and pick her up the next day. so the three of us go back to the house of Nadina and i push the button at the bottom of the building so she can let us in. Silence. I push it again. Nothing. So i start pushing other peoples bells so that someone can let us in and we can just go knock on her door (someone has to let us in at the bottom of EVERY building and usually people don´t let us in unless they know who we are...) anyway, someone let us in and to make this super long story short, she wasn´t home. go figure, right? we have a member and the investigator isn´t home. So, we tell Luzmilah thanks for coming and continue doing our contacts in another building.
So, about two days ago, we were in the area and decided to stop by and just see if she was home. Miraculously, she´s home and she invites us in. we teach her the restoration and she is just eating up all our words. Turns out she is catholic, but doesn´t believe in it cause it´s such a cold church. and... SHE WANTS TO COME TO CHURCH!!! so when she says this, i am like freaking out in my head cause she wants to come to church and she is going to bring her little son and all. so, on sunday we passed by to pick her up, and sure enough, SHE WAS HOME! and she LOVED church. and even more amazing, is that it turns out that she has a really good friend who is a member, but inactive IN OUR RAMA!!! and they are going to walk to church together next sunday. oh man. That was all heavenly fathers work. I take no credit cause everything worked out so well. Its like she has been waiting for this her entire life. and here are 2 young strangers who showed up one day at her door and opened the gate to the happiness that she has been waiting for all her life.
It´s amazing. And i feel so blessed that the lord trusts me to be ablt to work with her and help her through her journey in life! It´s amazing. I wrote like 3 pages in my journal last night. haha. but yeah. we have another cita with her tonight and we are going to teach the plan of salvation (my absolute favorite lesson). and the elders are going to come and give her a blessing cause her husband is super depressed and can´t hardly get out of bed, which will be another obstacle that she has to overcome. but i hope that God has been preparing his heart too. I hope one day they are sealed together forever as a family... okay, well enough about that. i just spent basically 10 mintues of my 30 translating my thoughts back to english to be able to write that little story! ahh! so much to say, so little time.
November 26: What a crazy week. so many things happened. so it was thanksgiving, eh? all the members wanted to celebrate with us since it is an american holiday. so we drove to the other side of the island (it only takes an hour) and we ate with a less active family. turkey, corn, potatoes... even a very warped pumpkin pie (they don´t have canned pumpkin here!) It was so great. I was so full after we ate. blah. and then just last night we had another thanksgiving feast wtih another family. they are
really great. they are the Queirolos and they are from chile and oh my goodness. i can´t even tell you how great the food was. they made me a special vegetable soup that was so great.
so you wanted to know what we do on pdays... we just catch up, buy groceries, laundry, roam the city, write our families, and EXPLORE! there are so many beautiful places here to explore. yikes! so little time. and our first transfers are on December 1. I am almost 100 percent positive that i will be here for at least 4 months or so. But my trainer will probably go, which will leave me to do all the work... ahhhh!!!! then i am going to start stressing out. We had a pan carta yesterday which is where we set up a display and talk with people. it was so cold i couldn´t hardly move my mouth. and trying to speak a different langauge when your mouth won´t move is VERY difficutl. haha. needless to say, we got 3 phone numbers and maybe God is preparing these people´s hearts. who knows? our days are full of appointments. with less active members, recent converts and investigators. we have 2 hours during 2-4 for language study and lunch... but sometimes we don´t even get that cause we are at a cita.
Oh, so yesterday, the primary had a program here. i had to play the piano and it was so funny. it reminded me of you cause there was just pure chaos once again. our rama is so great. the members here have to work so hard to fulfil their callings. there just aren´t enough of them.
We are preparing 9 year old Alvaro for baptism before the end of the year!! hIS mom is less active and want´s him to get baptised. he is so great.
December 4: AHHH!!! I am left alone on the ISLAND! yes. my companion did get transfered to MURCIA. I get my new companion tonight at 8 and so I get to hang out with the ELders all day and sheesh. I am so nervous. I have to navigate the entire island all by myself. I feel so overwhelmed, but very humble that Heavenly Father would trust me with this responsibility. My new companion is Hermana Sorenson and she has been out for over a year, so i hope that she knows how to work hard and to speak the langage.
December 10: So much to say, so little time. so yes, i have a new companion. i am
doing everything. making appointments, teaching the lessons and takling on the phone (which usually doesn´t happen until later on in the mish, like 4 transfers or so), so i am super busy. but the lord is blessing me with all sorts of abilities that i never even knew existed.
yesterday we had a 10 year old in church. her name is Angela. her mom was listening to the discussions, but doesn´t really want to but her daughter is so excited and she
wants to go to allt he activities and everything. she made a ton of friends at church. it was great. the lord has BIG plans for her! One of my most favorite moments in my mission happened last night when we were taking her home. she lives far from the church and so we were walking a little bit to the bus station and the bus was coming, but still had somewhere around 10 minutes and i was sitting at the bus station and we were playing a game where you slap hands and sing a song, like patty cakes, kind of and i just felt so much peace. it seems strange, but i realized that this is the mission. just loving people. i am here on my mission to love people. and that is what i am doing. it´s great.
alvaro has a baptizme date for the 22 of dec. he is the 9 year old boy that is the son of a menos activa, and his mom helena is coming back. they are both from spain. angela is from ecuador. that is the great thing about serving in spain. it´s like i am serving in south america also cause there are so many south americans here. i love it. so much culture. alvaro told me i was the most guapa (beautiful) missionary ever. haha. 9 year olds, eh?
December 17: Guess what? We went to Barcelona again this week. For 2 whole days. It was werid though cause we got there and we had to go out and do contacts in the area called Hospitalet and it was SO different than being on the island. It was so small and I felt really clausterphobic cause all there were were buildings and people and there was no ocean there was no space there was nowhere to walk. They told me that they don´t do a whole lot of walking in that area and that the area in which i am in right now does the most walking in the mission!
What´s going on here in Mallorca? It´s FREEZING!!!! Wow. I swear I have hypothermia half of the time. Sheesh. Who would have thought that it would get so cold in the middle of the med on an exotic island?
Also, guess what? My first baptism is this SATURDAY!!! Yes, it is going to happen. Alvaro, who is 9 is the son of a menos activo and we have been teaching him and reactivating his mom and his baptism is set for Saturday at 6. Wahoo. I am so excited.
THe conference was huge! So many people were there. And get this. THe president called on 4 people (out of 70 or 80) to bear their testimonies, and of course, i was the one hermana that was picked. YOu know how much I just LOVE to get up in front of people and talk... NOT!
It´s a funny thing cause I have lost myself, literally. I couldn´t even remember how my favorite song went the other day. But at the same time I am SO aware of who I am. I am a child of GOd. I have a purpose in life. I know that I made covenants with our Heavenly father before I came here to earth. And now I am here.
December 31: What's new? I FELL OUT OF BED THE OTHER DAY. MY COMPANION AND I LAUGHED FOR LIKE 10 MINTUES. SHE RAN INTO A GLASS WINDOW TRYING TO LOOK FOR A STREET CAUSE IT WAS CLEANED SO WELL, AND WHEN WE WERE DOOR KNOCKING IN THE ¨GHETTO¨ A LITTLE BOY ANSWERED THE DOOR AND INSTEAD OF ASKING HIM IF HIS PARENTS WERE HOME SHE SAID ¨ESTAMOS SUS PADRES¨ WHICH MEANS, WE´RE YOUR PARENTS. HE WAS LIKE ¨QUE¨ WHICH MEANS WHAT? AND IT WAS FUNNY. WHAT SHE MEANT TO SAY WAS ¨¿ESTAN SUS PADRES?¨ THOSE WERE THE FUNNY THINGS THAT HAPPENED.
ROB- I DREAMED THAT I BROKE MY FRONT TEETH SNOWBOARDING LAST NIGHT. MORE LIKE A NIGHTMARE. TEN CUIDADO Y RECUERDA QUE TE AMO UN MONTON! HART
January 7: so what happened this week? we had some strange contacts. we were in the ¨ghetto¨contacting (knocking doors) one morning and we knocked on this door and this old man without any teeth answered and started chanting things and saying things like ¨sexy nuns¨... it was super strange and i wanted to leave as soon as he answered the door. we walked away laughing and were super weirded out after that. everyone here thinks that we are nuns. am I a nun?
and i can´t believe that it´s already been over 4 months. feels like just yesterday i left you at the mtc, but at the same time, i can´t hardly remember being in the MTC at all. My memory is shot. i can remember bascially the things that happened to me since i woke up this morning, and everything else is just a blur!
January 15: Transfer day and guess where I am right now??? Yep. Still sitting in the same locutorio in MALLORCA!!!! I have another six weeks to enjoy the island. We are planning on going to Valldemossa next p-day and the cuevas de drach (google them, they are way rad). I´m happy that I am still here. I was freaking out in my head the night the transfers came cause I wasn´t ready to leave everyone here on the Island. I finally know everyone and basically have every street and piso memorized on the island! haha.
Debbi, who is from England is a member here in Palma and last night she invited us to her MANSION for dinner. whoa nelly. can i tell you that her house is like the ones that you see in movies that overlook the beach and are ginormous!
Oh mom. Being a missionary great. I love what i am doing. I mean here we are sharing the most amazing message with people, and even though people don´t want to listen, as long as i do my part, God will do his part.
January 21: Buenas Dias madre mia! can you believe that i will have been out for 5 months tomorrow? wow. time flies when you are studying the gospel in a different language! haha. it has been a great week. things are SO much better. whew. it sure is true that god answers prayers. i cant even tell you how many prayers i have had answered this week. so get this. yesterday we were in the chapel making calls to people yesterday and our movil (cell phone) rang. so i picked it up and said hola soy la hermana thomas. it was our branch president asking me if i would give a 12 mintue talk in about 2 hours in our sacrament meeting cause the speaker le falló (i don´t know how to translate that to inglish... oops!) so i had to run to piso and hurry and throw something together (scriptures, translation, theme... all that jazz) in like an hour. it was my first time speaking in sacrament meeting here aside from bearing my testimony the first sunday that i was here. it was funny cause before my mission something like that would have scared me out of my medios and i would have probably peed my pants. but actually i could have gone on forever cause i was talking about eternal families and i told them i was here on my mission all because of the things that my mom taught me. i used Alma 56 when the strippling warriors talk about their mothers and how they don´t doubt cause their mothers knew. i just wanted you to know that i love you! and i am greatful that you have the testimony that you have so that i could be here today. here in mallorca serving a wonderful mission!!!
it has been a crazy week. we have been teaching a lot of new people and there is one named maria fernanda who is from ecuador who i have a lot of hope for. she doesnn´t snoke or drink and that is rare here in spain! estrella has been reading the book of mormon all by herself and she has read over 200 pages now! she loves it and we are going to work with getting her to church now! she is this cute little española who is a social worker. she has a heart of gold and loves when we come over and talk to her.
January 28: Hola mom! I just cried this morning when i found out that president hinkley passed away. i was reading a talk from the ensign when elder christofferson called and hermana sorenson picked up the phone. he said i´m afraid we have bad news. president hinkley passed away. and then i couldn´t study and i was so happy at the same time cause he is walking down celestial lane with his cute little wife and they are so happy together! that is why i was happy. but its true. he is MY profeta! He was an amazing man and i am going to miss him.
so what did happen this week? we had another pan carta this sunday and i talked with some pretty weird people. one man from germany. he clapped for us when we sang. haha. some catholic priests were arguing with the elders. that was pretty funny.
last night we ate again wtih the queirolos. they are all going vegetarian! haha. hermana queirolo made lasagna with soy protein for me. i think they think that i am their daughter, cause they are always spoiling me. they are one of the strongest families that i have ever met. great people and they are from chile. we are also going to be eating with a family from the dominican republic this friday. she is making me this super rico tomato medeteranian type dish that i am so excited for.
February 4: we went to valldemossa today. absolutely amazing. wow. beautiful. google it.
we taught a lesson in pants! we went to do a service project and the member was sick so we just taught a lesson in pants. i felt so comfortable. i wonder if people would be more receptive if we wore pants all day long?
we had an awesome cita with this woman named irma. we were teaching the plan of salvation and we were talking about how our family members are waiting in the spirit world to recieve the gosple and how we will see them again and she started crying and said you mean i am going to see my sister again? it was so great. it´s moments like that that make the mission completely livable!
we were able to see preident hinkleys funeral via satelie. i cried. i will miss that man. wa´snt he great? for sure he was my prophet.
on sunday there was a baby blessing for a recent convert. her baby is almost a year old and it was amazing to see the elders and the branch president blessing that adorable little life. she is the little african baby. the spirit touched my heart and i wished that every baby in the world could recieve a blessing like that. esosa dressed her in a beautiful white dress and did her hair in little palm tree bunches.
February 11: so guess what? we had another investigator in church and she seems really good. her name is nadina and she is from argentina. it was really a miracle how we found her. okay, here is the story. once day about 2 weeks ago, we were early for an appointment, so we decided to knock a building to get some of our contacts done. but, we didn´t have enough time to finish the entire building, so we took the elevator up to the third floor and knocked the first three floors. then, just the other day, we were in that area again and needed to go do our contacts, so we picked another building to knock. my companion thought that we had already knocked the building that we were knocking, but i was sure that we hadn`t, so we agreed to knock the building. turns out that yes, we had already knocked the building. BUT, this time we found Nadina.
when she opened the door she had green paint all over her hands because she was painting her house. we gave her our usual introduction: Hola, somos misioneras de la iglesia de jesucristo de los santos de los ultimos dias y queremos compartir un mensaje de jesucristo porque hoy en dia hay un profeta en la tierra y la iglesia de jesucristo, que ha sido restaurado otra vez en la tierra... (basically, hello, we´re missionaries from the church of jesus crist of lds and we want to share a message about jesus christ. today, there is a prophet on the earth and the same church that jesus formed when he was here on the earth has been restored). anyway. she said that we could come back the next day, but she didn´t give us her number because she would FOR SURE be there (how many times has that not been true on the mission??? ). So, we wrote the time in our planners and left.
The next day we call up Luzmilah, a member who lives close by from ecuador and ask her if she will come with us to bear her testimony about the book of mormon and joseph smith. she says yes, so we pass by and pick her up the next day. so the three of us go back to the house of Nadina and i push the button at the bottom of the building so she can let us in. Silence. I push it again. Nothing. So i start pushing other peoples bells so that someone can let us in and we can just go knock on her door (someone has to let us in at the bottom of EVERY building and usually people don´t let us in unless they know who we are...) anyway, someone let us in and to make this super long story short, she wasn´t home. go figure, right? we have a member and the investigator isn´t home. So, we tell Luzmilah thanks for coming and continue doing our contacts in another building.
So, about two days ago, we were in the area and decided to stop by and just see if she was home. Miraculously, she´s home and she invites us in. we teach her the restoration and she is just eating up all our words. Turns out she is catholic, but doesn´t believe in it cause it´s such a cold church. and... SHE WANTS TO COME TO CHURCH!!! so when she says this, i am like freaking out in my head cause she wants to come to church and she is going to bring her little son and all. so, on sunday we passed by to pick her up, and sure enough, SHE WAS HOME! and she LOVED church. and even more amazing, is that it turns out that she has a really good friend who is a member, but inactive IN OUR RAMA!!! and they are going to walk to church together next sunday. oh man. That was all heavenly fathers work. I take no credit cause everything worked out so well. Its like she has been waiting for this her entire life. and here are 2 young strangers who showed up one day at her door and opened the gate to the happiness that she has been waiting for all her life.
It´s amazing. And i feel so blessed that the lord trusts me to be ablt to work with her and help her through her journey in life! It´s amazing. I wrote like 3 pages in my journal last night. haha. but yeah. we have another cita with her tonight and we are going to teach the plan of salvation (my absolute favorite lesson). and the elders are going to come and give her a blessing cause her husband is super depressed and can´t hardly get out of bed, which will be another obstacle that she has to overcome. but i hope that God has been preparing his heart too. I hope one day they are sealed together forever as a family... okay, well enough about that. i just spent basically 10 mintues of my 30 translating my thoughts back to english to be able to write that little story! ahh! so much to say, so little time.
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