Vivo en un sueño

Sept. 16, 2013   Buenos días! ¿Cómo están todos? ¡Espero que estén bien! Pues, I´ve had a really good week! And I´ve got lots to say! Time is crazy so I can´t remember the chronological order of any of this, so sorry if it seems random! First thing, I love eating with members! We´ve had citas (just another word I will never again say in English, so just remember that it means appointment) with a lot of members this week! I seriously am in the best ward in this mission, these people are so cool! I´ll start with one of my favorite families-Santiago is the ward mission leader and we had dinner (which is rare because most of our citas are for lunch, the biggest meal of the day here) with him and his wife and 2 children. The older daughter Noelia is 15 and just super sweet and the son is like 11 or something. They are rare in my mind because they are Spaniards who aren´t converts to the Church! So the kids have actually grown up with this their whole lives! Santiago´s mother is a convert. Both Santiago and his wife have served missions. Noelia I believe is definitely considering it. And having dinner with them was so fun because we had carbonada, which I love, and because it was the first time being with members where I felt my sense of humor and personality come out in Spanish. Like, in a language you´re not completely familiar with it can be hard to feel like you´re being yourself when you can´t say what you normally would say, but there were a couple moments that night when I felt really myself and it felt really good! We have also had citas with Santiago´s mother and mother-in-law who both live in the ward, one of whom is named Nuria and her daughter was there too and we had a really typical Spanish meal of fried fish. There were a bunch of little fishies just cooked and fried. The skin wasn´t taken off and the bones were definitely not taken out. However, I surprisingly really liked it! I didn´t think I would like a food that I had to remove the spine before eating! But all the food I´ve had with members has been really good. I liked Pealla, which is a typical Spanish dish as well. Hermana Roan loves to sing and she like has been really trained so her voice is AMAZING and I´m just lucky that I squeak by on my alto line haha but really, we sound super good together so we´ve been singing for members. Nuria and her daughter were the first members we performed for and it was really spiritual and they actually both cried! And then we had a really good spiritual thought so that was awesome. Then last Saturday we had lunch with Estella and Ernesto her son (her husband was at the temple that week with many others in the ward) and her son is like a year of his mission and he´s HILARIOUS and so we were just laughing a lot and they live in a richer area and actually have a piano so I played a bit while Hma Roan and Ernesto sang and it was super fun. Ernesto also plays guitar and he sang us an original song of his in Spanish and it was super cool! My other favorite family is Oliver and Patricia and their daughter who is like 16 and they have a younger son too. They are converts but I can´t remember how long and Oliver is Nigerian and speaks English but he´s learned Spanish really well but they are so willing to help out with missionary work. We are having a Noche de Hogar (FHE) with them and our investigator, Michael, tonight at their house! And Oliver brought 2 of his nonmember Nigerian friends to Church yesterday! I was so excited! So yesterday at Church there was Oliver and his 2 friends and our investigator (also Nigerian) and then me. So I was trying to think of another time I´d ever sat right in a row with 4 Africans before. Obvously, that´s never happened! All the nations represented here are crazy! Lots of Latin Americans too. So, that covers the members. But our investigators! Well, we mostly just have Michael. He is AWESOME, he is my favorite person ever. He is so calm and patient and just has this nice easy-going manner about him and he´s so willing to do what God wants. He came to Church even though he knew it would be in Spanish and he wouldn´t understand a lot. He just has so much faith. His baptismal date is the 28th and we are super pumped and I really want to play one of my piano solos for it since he said piano was his favorite instrument. I can´t wait to tell you about how the baptism turns out! He´s so cool that I wish I could´ve been there for all the lessons with him, but I´ve only been there since Word of Wisdom on, so he was like already converted by then, but I love him just as much as I would have anyway! But we always meet him in parks and the last time he called and said he had a new park he wanted to go to where we could feed fish and it was SO cool and I have pics that someday I´ll get around to sending and the park was beautiful and we fed fish and swans and then they had other animals too! Kangaroos and ostriches (sp?)!!! Those animals weren´t like in the wild or anything, it was like a mini zoo, but we had no idea it was there. But there´s also stuff like soccer courts and basketball courts and there are parks like these all over Spain. I wish the US had parks like the parks here. It´s hard to explain why they are so different or better, but they just are! And there´s so many of them even in the middle of the city. Or maybe it´s just because so many people go and just hang out there and take walks and it´s not so much that way back home. But this week Elder Gómez and Elder Quinn helped us out and did some tracting in our area and they knocked on the door of Teresa who had apparently met with missionaries like 4 years ago and is totally interested in relearning stuff! So we met with her and she seems on the quieter side but she´s completely willing to read the BoM. The only problem is that her husband is the opposite of interested (he was drinking and smoking and shirtless and watching sports in the other room the whole time) so she actually came out and asked if it was okay to have her lessons in the house of one of the members of our Church and we´re just like...."Um, yes!!!" So basically she´s asking for a member present lesson! So we´re setting that up this week. And then we got a call from the mission office who told us that someone had called in a reference and it was in our area! It was the cousin of an inactive member living in Málaga and he said that he and his active family were visiting her and she´s interested in coming back to Church and she´s married to a nonmember and has a 2 year old daughter. So we went to visit them and it was an interesting lesson because it was a nonmember, less active member, and a family of members all in one! But basically we got to know them all and give them info about Church. She´s from Ecuador and her name is Alexandra and she was baptized when she was 15 but I guess hasn´t been super active since then. We thought it would just be her coming to Church but she brought her daughter and her nonmember husband Paco yesterday! So it was super exciting and we have a cita with them this week so I can´t wait to see what they think about everything! Those are the best progressing people right now. So, I love this city. My comp and I say to each other all the time, "We live in a vacation!" or like my email title, "We live in a dream!" Like, everyone wants to live here. If you don´t want to live here, google some pics and you´ll want to live here. This is like a California of Spain. There´s beaches and mountains (small, but still mountains!) and it´s humid and pretty hot but there´s this INCREDIBLE ocean breeze like all the time and so even though I´ve never been to a beach here (we´re not allowed) sometimes I feel like I´m on the beach. And there are palm trees everywhere, but there are also other trees that look more mainland type, so it´s like two worlds out here. But Dad, you asked how we get around, and the answer is we take the bus. Everywhere. We have these bus passes that we fill up monthly to ride as much as we want for 40 euros. If we have to go somewhere farther away like Fuengirola we use a train. Anytime else we just walk. Not too many people here have cars. Also, no one has a house. Literally the only house I´ve been to in Spain is the mission home. EVERYBODY lives in pisos. I don´t think all of Spain is like that, but here in this giant city it is. The other thing is being in Málaga has made me want a dog more than I ever have in my life! I´m pretty sure that at least 50% of the people we pass are walking dogs. And they are normally these really tiny dogs because everyone lives in pisos and they are seriously the cutest dogs I´ve ever seen and I just want one!!!! The other thing is, dogs here must be smarter than American dogs or something, because quite a few times the dogs aren´t even on leashes. They just follow the owner and the owner usually doesn´t seem at all concerned or looking out for the dog because they just know that they´ll follow. how cool is that? Also, Spaniards only drink 3 things: bottled water, coke, and ORANGE FANTA. Orange fanta is the thing here. I´m pretty sure I´ve had it at every cita ever. It´s pretty much just orange soda, but it tastes different than American orange soda. Like, instead of just tasting like a sweet orange drink, it tastes more like legit orange juice that´s carbonated. It´s super good. The other cool thing here are chinos. There aren´t any Walmarts or anything here, there´s only a bunch of little stores. There´s grocery stores and then a bunch of bread stores and shoe stores but for all the random things you would ever need in your life, there are chinos. They are always run by Chinese people, they are always open, and you can get anything there. They are organized with no rhyme or reason, they have notebooks by tape by drinks by cleaning supplies by clothes, you name it, they probably have it. It´s kind of really cool because I can´t really think of a super good American equivalent to them. I´m sure there´s more culture stuff but I can´t remember right this minute. But today a bunch of new missionaries got to go to Fuengirola and do residency stuff. After that we had lunch with President Deere and Hermana Deere and I know I said before that I feel sad for anyone not going on a mission, but now I feel bad for anyone not called to President Deere´s mission, because he is the best mission president on the planet. I love him. Our lunch conversation ended up turning spiritual and so he started telling these super cool stories and motivating us and it was just so edifying and I just know that he was called here right now for the missionaries right now. It is SO cool. Also, their son gets off his mission on Thursday! So he is flying here and they are just so excited... Also, while at the mission office today, I had FOUR letters! Three from the family! that was really awesome. Also one from Elder Twogood! And if I didn´t mention it last week, awhile ago I had a letter from the Pedersons and one from the Walkers! I thank everyone for letters, I really appreciate the support! It is soooo good to hear from everyone! Well, life is good and I´ll tell more next week! Les quiero mucho!!! Hermana Andrew         Images and external objects in this message are being displayed. What's this? Click here to hide images in this message or edit your settings for all messages.         Move to InboxTrashBillsCasey MissionLegal docsOrdersold_Inboxold_Sent [Print]     Previous Next | Back to Messages

Mi Primer Area!!!

Sept. 9, 2013

¡¡Familia!!! ¡¡Y todos!!

 

Hola de Málaga! And it really is Málaga, I´m assigned right here in the center of town, not any suburb or anything nearby, but right here in the city! And I´ll tell you about everything in a second!

So, I think I´ve adjusted really well to being here! I kind of miss the MTC but really the only things I miss are the scheduled meals three times a day! But I also sometimes miss the really cool teachers and President Sitterud (he and his wife were like the sweetest people ever! And that´s one cool thing about the Spain MTC, is that the MTC president actually knows you by name! Provo didn´t have that with 3000 missionaries hahaha). And while the city of Madrid was cool, it doesn´t even compare to Málaga! But the Park we went to on Saturdays was super big and the best park I´ve ever been to in my life, so sometimes I miss that. I wish I lived in Madrid just so I could go hang out all day at that Park. But what I miss the most is the temple. The Spain MTC is the closest that anyone will ever live to a temple. Even people in Utah didn´t live as close as we did! I´ll have to show you some pictures sometime taken from the stairwell window just to give you an idea of how close we were and how we saw it ALL the time. Like I timed the walk once from the door of the MTC building to the temple door, and it was a 30 second walk. ¡Qué guay! 

Anyway, after I emailed last time, we went to the mission home and spent the night. And WOW I LOVE the mission home in Fuengirola! It´s a beautiful house and it has a great view. I wish I lived in Fuengirola but to be honest, it´s the rich part of town and so I don´t even want to know how much the Church pays for the President´s family to live there! But I don´t know if I mentioned this or anything but the President is super young and has one son at BYU,. one son who finishes his mission in a couple weeks, one daughter that´s 17 and one son that´s 14. The younger kids live here in Spain with them and we talked to them for awhile too. Weds morning was transfer meeting. And so we sat on one side and the trainers sat on the other and then we were all paired up! I´m serving with Hermana Roan in Málaga 2 ward. There are 4 wards in Málaga and the boundaries were literally all switched like 3 weeks ago so people are still getting used to everything being a little new. There are 2 sets of Elders also serving just in Málaga 2! I´ve never been in a ward where there was more than one set of missionaries! So we see other missionaries all the time, which is a lot more fun than the people out in the middle of nowhere who never see anyone, so I´m super blessed to be serving here! 

My new companion is AMAZING. I love her so much.  Her name is Hermana Roan and she will be 20 in a couple weeks and she is from Wyoming and went to a year of community college there before the mission. She is half Samoan so she is SO pretty. But we get along super well and I click with her really well. I can´t believe how blessed I´ve been with companions! I´m so worried that this streak won´t continue! But we have a lot of things in common, like food and TV and music preferences and we both feel like we´re on the same page with a lot of things. She is a really young missionary (like most of the missionaries here) and has only been out since May! So she just got down with the 12 week training program and now is training! But she does a great job and we´re both really excited for the things we´re going to see here! 

 

We moved into a new piso (apartment, but we always say piso, so I will never remember to say apartment, so just know that for the rest of the mission apartment is piso) and it is seriously one of the best pisos in the mission! No missionaries have ever lived there before but it´s big and only the two of us live there, but more missionaries could definitely fit. There are 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms (I have never had my own bathroom before!!!) and a fantastic kitchen. There´s even a small enclosed balconey thing with table and chairs and overlooks the street. I feel so blessed! I have a fantastic compañera, strong ward, and new piso. Sometimes I wonder what I did to deserve these blessings! Haha basically I just have to work extra hard!  So the next day, Thursday, I had my first meal at a member´s house! The member invited all the Málaga 2 missionaries for lunch (because lunch is the big meal here around 2pm) and so we went with Elders Gómez, Quinn, Whitworth and Oldroyd. All of them are super cool elders. But the member family was awesome, they are really strong. The parents are great members and the son actually spoke English since he served his mission in Scotland and they have a daughter serving in california (who is friends with my teacher, Hermano Tyndale! from the CCM! so that was exciting that they know him) and then a 6 year old son. Dinner was homemade pizza, so nothing too extreme like squid rings haha. but having had many dinners with missionaries back home, it was REALLY weird to be on the missionary side...But Elder Gómez and Quinn just amuse me to no end, mostly because Elder Gómez is SUPER short (like way shorter than me) and from spain, but he has a strong personality and walks fast, and Elder Quinn is tall and blonde and so it just cracked me up to see Gómez just taking off and the taller elder was the one struggling to keep up! Soooo funny.  Sunday was the first day in the new ward! It was really awesome but kind of overwhelming! We started out helping in Primary so we could play piano for them and seriously, I just can´t handle how adorable all the little Spanish children are!!! They are ridiculously cute!!!!! I am intimidated because they speak Spanish better than I do, but that´s okay because I can read better than they can! I had to help one of the read something. And then Sunday school was fun because the teacher spoke pretty clearly compared to everyone else here, so I could follow what was going on okay. But Sacrament Meeting...holy cow, I had NO idea what anyone was talking about. I couldn´t even guess what the themes of the talks were. So I´ve got a ways to go. But lots of members are having us over for citas (appointments) this week, so I´m super excited to get to know them. Hermana Roan said that when the wards split we got a LOT of really strong members, so basically we have the best ward ever and they really want to help us!    Also, I´ve taught my first lessons! And I felt like Elder Calhoun from The Best Two Years because I came all the way to Spain just to teach lessons in English...figures! There are lots of Nigerians here and they speak English and we´re teaching a couple of them. However, if I thought that speaking in English would make me understand the lesson, I was mistaken, because the accent is really thick, so I couldn´t believe the irony, that I had spent 6 weeks in the MTC praying for the ability to speak and understand Spanish, but I never dreamed that it was English that I would be praying to understand! But my ear tuned into them after awhile so it got easier, and the more we teach the more I´ll be trained to pick up their accent. We have an investigator named Michael. I seriously love this man. He´s a Nigerian and seriously the sweetest person ever! He has a baptismal date for the 28th! He is so accepting of the message! The other hermanas were already teaching him before I was here, so I´ve only taught him about the Word of Wisdom and the commandments, but I still love him just as if I´d been teaching him the whole time!  So, the computers and internet usage is more expensive here in Fuengirola than in Málaga (we´re in Fuengirola for a Pday BBQ and softball game with the Deere´s) so we´re going to get off and finish up later. But that´s really most of what I was going to say anyway and so I´ll email people individually later and then next week I can tell you more about the culture here! And the city! Take care! Send me emails! Especially mom and dad, you guys haven´t emailed me since last week??? I need to hear from you! Oh, and my address is: Avenida Manual Torres 6, 1B 29003 Málaga España   Send letters there instead of the mission home, because I only will get mail sent to the mission office when we see people from the mission office, which isn´t very often!  Les quiero mucho!!!!! Hermana Andrew

Buenos Dias

August 29, 2013

It´s weird to think that you´re all still asleep as I write this haha. But maybe you get to read it first thing in the morning! So that´s nice. ONE MONTH DOWN. I literally cannot believe it. It´s unreal. But yeah, last week in the CCM! We go to Málaga on Tuesday, and the schedule says email time on Monday, so keep an eye out for that!

So last Pday we got to go to a mall. And go shopping. And we get to go do things on Pdays here, but going to the mall for an entire afternoon was by far the most secular and it was WEIRD. It wasn´t too weird because I didn´t recognize any of the English or Spanish music but then all of a sudden one of my most favorite songs from America (Payphone) started to play and I got insanely excited and then really missed my iPod for the first time ever. And I hated missing it! Because I thought I didn´t! And I don´t as long as I´m safe in the spiritual prison that is the MTC haha (I say prison because there are bars on the windows). But yeah, it was super strange to be there in the very real world again...

So I decided that I must be one of the luckiest people ever because that night we got to watch Elder Bednar´s Character of Christ devotional that I already was blown away by in Provo! So I got to see it again! And it was just as good the second time and I got a lot out of it! And seriously, I LOVE Elder Bednar and he is actually now in my mind on the same level as Elder Holland. Like, I would be just as excited to hear Bednar speak at general conference as Elder Holland (which is saying a lot for me haha). Seriously, that talk has caused me to plan a long (like longer than my mission) study of the Character of Christ and I´ve also taken his challenge to, whenever we have a question, get a blue soft missionary copy of the Book of Mormon and read it cover to cover and mark anything that answers your question and write a summary at the back. He said if you do this over your life, you could have hundreds. Colin, my cousin, told us in one of his mission emails about that same advice that Elder Bednar gave them, so I figured that now that I kept hearing it over and over I would do it. And it has completely changed the way I read the scritpures. Read them with a purpose! When you read them with a question, everything seems different. I highly recommend it, you get so much more out of the Book of Mormon. And for all of you who may have never read it, READ IT because it changes lives and it WILL change yours.

So last Friday we got Dominos pizza for lunch. And seriously, I have never tasted anything so good in my entire life. It was literally Heaven on Earth. After all the interesting food here, having that blast from America was much needed! Next Monday, our last day here, we are getting KFC! Super pumped for that too! I can´t wait to get into the field and eat real Spanish food!

So last week in the Park was super fun! And I learned a lot! I was put with one of the new native sisters, so she spoke fluent Spanish, and I swear, if I was her permanent companion I would be fluent in a day. In just a couple hours I started speaking more in Spanish than I ever had since being here! It was incredible. Everything I´ve learned here is review so it´s really hard to see that my Spanish is improving at all, even though I know it is. Seriously, I was SOOO blessed to have an amazing high school Spanish teacher because I understand SO much. Hermana Lyons had a horrible Spanish teacher and struggles a lot. So I try and help the best I can. But anyway, the park was great. I learned 2 things. 1. Anyone can be a missionary. Literally anyone. Even a puppy. We were passing these people who seemed like they were talking and so we weren´t going to stop but then their little puppy came running up straight to us! And so we ended up talking to this girl and her mom! And they were actually Jewish, so I don´t think they´ll be converted anytime soon, but it was so funny to see this little missionary puppy (cutest puppy EVER, by the way) who wanted his owners to have the gospel :)  And the second thing I learned was that success in the park does not directly correlate to fluency in the language! I had more success (numbers wise) with girls that also struggled to speak to people than with a girl who understood 100% of what anyone was saying! It was a real lesson for me, because I worry about not being able to speak well affecting the work. Don´t worry, Heavenly Father would never let someone´s salvation depend on the Spanish ability of a bunch of American missionaries hahaha.

Also, Sunday afternoon we got to watch a really old devotional of Elder Holland titled Don´t You EVER Go Home. And boy, that was scary. he started going on about how much his mission meant to him. He kept saying "My mission meant EVERYTHING to me" and I started to panic because I´ve been here a month and kept thinking "ahhhh what have I been doing in this whole month I´ve already had?" Just kidding, I didn´t panic, but seriously, that talk was intense and it made me realized how much I need to value this time. It got me really enthusiastic though, I started thinking, "Who cares if band camp starts tomorrow in Provo? Who cares that my sister´s getting married? this is the most important thing I will ever do!" Those thoughts don´t always last really long though, but it was nice to realize that for a few minutes that I honestly didn´t care about anything else besides the mission work! But I honestly feel bad for anyone that´s never gone on a mission. The talks that we hear from the Apostles are not available to the public, they only show them in MTCs and you just see a side of the Apostles that you never see in General Conference! They are more in depth and more intense and emotional. It is SO awesome. If you have yet to serve a mission, DO IT. But seriously, Elder Holland is insane about missionary work. He started flipping out and said "I´m NOT neutral! I´m not well balanced! I am fit for psychological study!" It was so funny...gotta love Elder Holland.

Funny stuff! So Elder Ridd was complaining about the sun being in his eyes every time he looked at the teacher who was standing right in front of the window and said in Spanish, "Every morning I look at you and get pains in my eyes." And obviously he just meant because of the sun but I literally almost died of laughter...I had tears in my eyes it was SO funny because he didn´t mean it to sound that way at all! And then later Hermana Lyons was practicing subjunctive tense and said the Spanish equivalent of "We can´t be clean without being clean." and I laughed super hard at that too.

Fun fact about the Spain MTC: They play music over the intercom. It is the same everyday at the same times. The song that wakes us up is the hymn that goes "Glory glory hallelujah!!" over and over. I will never again hear that hymn in the same way because it will always mean that it´s time to wake up. Sad, because it´s not a bad hymn haha. Oh well...

So last thing: studying Spanish has made me realize how weird English is. It´s seriously the dumbest language ever. Though. What kind of word is that???? And food and good look like they should rhyme but they don´t. And they´re, their and there is just ridiculous. And we have a sound for F, why do we need PH??? These are things I will never understand...if I didn´t speak English from my birth I would never speak it, I don´t understand how anyone ever learns it!

I love you all SO much and thanks for all your prayers and letters! I got a ton this week! From Grandpa, mom, Aaron and Joseph! I love hearing from everybody, so let me know how you´re all doing!!! I will tell you a little more about my companion and my scripture study stuff next week, probably Monday.

Hermana Andrew

P.S. Someone had BETTER tell me all about band camp!!!!!

Boldness Has Power

Family! If this makes no sense I´m sorry because I´m going to write super super fast to try and get everything in! Ignore all typos and stuff!

 

First of all, I got official instructions from president on how you can find the choir singing on Sunday nights! Google: missionary couple Madrid Spain temple. It is a blog from a senior couple serving here, I think. Check it out! I´m in it! I´m in Madrid with the MTC choir!

 

So both here and in Provo I've learned a LOT about people. You NEVER know what people are going through. Everyone´s story surprises me. Both here and in Provo I´ve met an elder that has 3 older brothers but he is the first to serve a mission which would be hard, an hermana whose older brother died of brain cancer a few years ago, an elder whose older brother came home early from his mission for worthiness issues that caused tons of family problems so he has tons of pressure to stay out here no matter what, a couple elders who were inactive but brought back to the church by friends, and this one elder who has an incredible story about being from Venezuela and selling everything to be sealed in the temple and wanted better opportunities in America so the dad went ahead to work and send money and they were supposed to follow a few months later but it ended up being 7 years of not seeing their father. And I´m sure there a are a lot more that don´t get shared. Treat EVERYone kindly, because everyone has gone through something. These missionaries inspire me.

 

I´ve learned lots of really cool things about faith these past couple weeks! I really, really wish I could share everything but I wouldn´t even know where to start. All I know is that even though faith is the first principle of the gospel and everyone knows stuff about it, it´s one of the deepest, most profound principles. I could study it FOREVER and not feel like I completely understand it. It´s amazing. But what´s also super cool is that I came up with a deep faith question and decided to ponder it a little but then just a couple days later my "investigator" asked me that question in a lesson and I was startled because I didn´t really know how to answer! So I studied it for a couple days and it´s amazing how when you study for investigators you also learn for yourself. Teachers learn SO much more than the people they teach! Everyone should go on a mission just because you yourself learn so much! I have never before loved reading the scriptures so much! I really don´t know how I survived without reading them for over an hour everyday before the mission! How did I ever let anything else stand in the way of it? Everyone, take time to read your scriptures! No matter how busy you are! They are AMAZING and have SO much power in them that you need in your life!

 

So one thing I neglected to mention last week was the Parque!! Going to the park every Saturday morning is super cool because we get to test our Spanish with real people in the real world (which is a very humbling experience hahaha) and it is super scary but it´s also super awesome! So the pics you got from President should have been from the Park, and we get temporary companions there to mix up Spanish levels so none of those girls are my comp, but they are still awesome! Anyway, the first week we talked forever to this guy who spoke limited English and no Spanish.  He was from Bagdad and very interesting and so nice! We got his info so hopefully that works out. But this week we got on the metro and the very first lady we sat down next to accepted a Book of Mormon! I felt really strongly that she needed the comfort the gospel brings because she told us she was going to the hospital to visit a sick friend. The seriousness of the illness is unknown to me but still, I pray for her a lot. She seemed interested in reading and was still looking at the book when we left the metro, so we got her info too. We placed 3 Books of Mormon last Saturday and it was super fun! We talked to everybody! It gets less scary the longer you do it. Missionary work is the best! You have to be bold, but you CAN do it.

 

We also went to the Prado last Pday! That was SUPER cool for me to see a bunch of paintings that I´d only ever studied about, like Las Meninas and a lot by Goya and Rapheal (his paintings are HUGE!! idk how he did them because none of them ever would fit in anyone´s house!) and Durer. but Kelly and Aaron, our annoying TA was right, art IS a LOT better when you see it in person! Ahhhh I love living in Madrid!

 

Also, we have the coolest teacher ever! We have 3 different teachers but my favorite is Hermano Tindale. He´s been off of his mission a year now and he is British and served and has lived in Spain, so if you ever want to hear Spanish with a British accent, talk to him. He´s hilarious and reminds me the most of my Provo teachers which maybe is why I like him so much. But he´s so helpful and seriously knows the scriptures! Elder Ridd and I are convinced that he´s going to be an apostle someday haha. He is not so sure :p

 

Funny stuff: so my comp and I were teaching a lesson to an "investigator" at night and we planned on teaching the Restoration but after talking to him for a couple minutess, she starts in on the Plan of Salvation lesson. I was really surprised because that´s really unlike her, but I was excited that she was going off the Spirit so I totally went with it. Halfway through the lesson, however, she realized that she had started teaching the wrong one and I realized that she hadn´t done it on purpose! It was hilarious and I just finished up strong with the Atonement so it totally worked out, but she felt so embarrassed afterward and I just kept laughing at the look on her face! It was great...also, the Spanish natives came this week! They are only here for 2 weeks because they already speak Spanish, so they will go into the field with us. However, the elder from Venezuela in my district was supposed to be with them since he already speaks Spanish perfectly but by mistake he came here with us, so he just stayed in our class and is a huge help! But what was funny was that he really wanted to trick all the natives into thinking he didn´t know any Spanish and then slowly throughout 2 weeks "improve" until he was fluent and blame it all the Gift of Tongues. It was going to be really funny but he didn´t end up doing it (I really didn´t think he would haha).

 

Wow! I said everything I planned on saying! Anyway, I love you all! I LOVE mail! I have gotten physical letters from Mom, Dad, Grandma Miles, and Sister Clark! I LOVE it! Kelly looks great in the wedding dress! I love the way it turned out! I loved the family reunion pics! I loved the list of the "types" of personalities! I can´t believe Karina´s already started school!!!! Crazy! I feel like time should pause for you all while I´m here but alas, time goes on for everyone. Anyway, please continue to send mail and email! I promise I´ll have more email time in the field in 2 weeks! Letters take roughly 5 to 7 days to get here from the States so you can start sending them to Malaga in a few days. I read every letter I get at least like 20 times because letters here have a value equal to gold. Seriously.

 

Thank you SO much for prayers! I feel them everyday!

 

Hermana Andrew

 

Quit Worrying

Dear Everyone who reads my emails,

Hola! So, bascially, I am super sad that there´s no way I´ll have time to tell about everything I would like to tell about, but I will try!!

First off, last Thursday night after my email we watched a devotional, an old one taped at Provo a couple years ago, by Elder Bednar. It was answering the question: How do I tell if it´s the Holy Ghost or if it´s just me? Well, that was definitely inspired or something because Dad and I talked about that just a few weeks ago and we hadn´t really come up with a satisfactory answer. But Elder Bednar said, "QUIT worrying about it!!!" He said that as long as we´re being good and keeping our covenants, everything would work out. He told a cool story about how he as a missionary in Germany once picked up President Packer from the airport and took him to a train. He felt like they should have something to eat so he gave them a 20 marc note to take with them. Then that 20 marc note ended up saving Sister Packer because they were able to use it as not a bribe, but a "righteous exchange" and saved her from her passport issue. So he used that as the prime example because he didn´t have this overwhelming spiritual prompting to do that, he was simply doing something nice. Looking back, he said there likely was a spiritual prompting, but he didn´t waste time trying to decide if it was or not, he just did something nice! I wish I could go further into that because it was amazing, but that was the gist of it.

So, I like my district! Here´s the rundown on everyone: me and Hermana Lyons, Elder Ridd and Elder Datwyler from my Provo district, Elder Bybee and Elder Landinez, and Elder Church and Elder Hendricks. Ridd, Bybee and Hendricks are going to Madrid, everyone else to Málaga. Ridd is from AZ and I´m from OH and everyone else is from Utah. Elder Bybee and Elder Landinez are my favorites and Bybee was district leader for awhile and he was the first person I felt like I was friends with here (besides my comp). Bybee is one of the few elders here who had a year of college first, and it´s surprising how much you can tell the difference in the maturity level. Not saying guys right out of high school shouldn´t go or anything, but you can definitely tell the difference. But we´ve had some funny moments. We invented a new game to play in the classroom called Markerball and basically you try to knock down dry erase markers that are standing on the table with a small foam ball. It´s harder than it sounds and strangely addicting. We challenged another district to a match and it was super fun! Also, Landinez and Bybee were about to teach a lesson and Landinez was trying to find a good scripture and he said to look up Genesis 18:9 so we looked it up (go look it up so this story is actually funny) and he goes "This is the worst scripture on families ever! How is this ever going to help anybody???" So I figured someone gave it to him as a joke and asked where he got it and he says he got it from Preach My Gospel, so we looked again and turns out he was supposed to read Genesis 18:19 which is very different! So now that´s the district joke and anytime anyone needs a good scripture, we suggest Genesis 18:9. Also, Elder Matthews is from the other district and he is a very interesting guy. Watching him snort pepper was one of the funniest things I´d ever seen in my life. Elders get REALLY bored here sometimes....

We got to sing for some Spanish children! They were the cutest things ever! They were touring the MTC or something and seriously, I must adopt a Spanish child someday or something, because I loved them...Also, we got to sing on Sunday night on the steps of the Madrid temple for anyone passing outside. Members like to come listen. The rumor is that it´s on YouTube sometimes...so you could try to find it if you want but no guarantees there.

Basically, I have ended up loving it here. I realized that all the reasons I missed Provo were little things that wouldn´t make or break my mission. So I decided to stop being selfish and realize that if there were things I need to learn here then it shouldn´t matter which one has better food or whatever (although, the food isn´t actually that bad, it´s just that one of the very first meals I had was this tuna fish sponge casserole thing. Nasty!) But I decided that I don´t like either MTC better, because there are things I like better about this one and things I like better about Provo, so I should just feel lucky that I got the best of both worlds! The only problem is things that can´t be replaced, like the awesome friends I had in my district. But oh well, I really like the people here too. I was sick for a couple days though, I had a cold. But the MTC President´s wife gave me this nasty bitter medicine stuff that ended up actually working, so I wasn´t too miserable for too long haha.

We also had a Spanish couple tell us about their conversion stories. The wife was converted and baptized in 3 days, the husband in like 4 years. I wish I could elaborate because they were awesome and super funny and energetic, but it was cool because it reminded me that I should never give up on anybody or lose faith, because even when people take forever, they could still decide on the truth.

Well I had lots more to say, but I´m totally out of time. Email is SO annoying here, but don´t worry, I´ll have tons more time once we get to Málaga.

Peace out,
Hermana Andrew

Estoy en Espana

August 8, 2013

Hola Everyone,

This is so weird, I feel like I just had Pday...because I did...everyone here is so jealous of me, they didn´t get a Pday the first day they were here and they got here on a weds too. So it´s kind of funny.

Ummmmmm I don´t really know what to say. But I did forget to say last Monday that our investigator Tomas became our teacher. He was awesome and it was really funny to say that we were such good missionaries that our investigator became our teacher!

So that´s the last thing I had to say about Provo. I wish I could be as enthusiastic about Spain as Provo...I never thought I´d ever say that I´d rather be in Provo than Madrid, but honestly, if I had the choice to go back and spend my last 4 weeks there, I would. And maybe I won´t be saying that in a few days, but that´s how I feel right now. It´s different here. It´s not very big at all but it´s still crowded because there are like 80 missionaries so there are 6 girls in our room as opposed to just 2 back in Provo. I was the last one in because those girls were all already there for 2 weeks so I got the worst bed choice (top bunk by the door) whereas I had my first pick in Provo. The bathrooms are smaller. The MTC is so small, it´s just 3 floors of a Church building. We never leave those 3 floors. It is funny though the way we were told to remember: the top floor is the Celestial Kingdom because we eat there. The middle is the Terrestial because we sleep there. The telestial is the last one because we study there haha. So I miss just walking around like we did in Provo. Also, EVERYONE here got here on the same day (with the exception of a few like me) so they have always been together and so everyone knows each other and so they are all really close so I don´t even feel like I belong here, which makes me incredibly homesick for my district back in Provo. I miss them SO much. The teachers here are natives and don´t speak English very well so sometimes don´t understand our questions which makes me REALLY miss my Provo teachers. Plus we laughed a lot more in Provo whereas these teachers are lot more serious. Because it´s so crowded my district doesn´t have its own classroom so we have to use the institute classroom downstairs but that means we can´t just leave our stuff there 24/7 like everyone else can which is really annoying. The food here is horrible. I have decided that no missionary ever has the right to complain about the Provo MTC food until they eat this food. We literally have a game here where we guess what some of the food is because we honestly have no idea. Everyone else says you get used to it eventually. And not all of it is bad, but you still only get one option whereas in Provo there were at least 4 or 5 options. But I´m hoping that maybe once jetlag wears off I´ll feel better and happier. It´s almost noon here but it´s like 2am in Provo. I am so tired. It´s really hard being here. I have never once had a day where I wanted to go home but yesterday was that day. I was on the verge of tears all day and last night I couldn´t even fall asleep very fast because I didn´t want the other girls to know I was crying when they thought I was asleep. I could really use some prayers right now.

 On the bright side, I got the best companion ever. Her name is Hermana Lyons and weirdly enough, is actually a very close friend of the hermana who was with me on the plane here. They were really excited to see each other but I felt guilty that I got to be her comp and she didn´t...but I really needed this girl. She is incredibly sweet and understanding of my scatterbrainedness and is always asking if I´m okay. She is going to Malaga too. She´s from Utah. She´s the oldest in her family of I think 5 or 6 siblings.

On the other bright side, I am in a district with Elder Datwyler from my district who came on the plane with me, and Elder Ridd who was in my district and came last week. Elder Ridd told us he knew we were coming since last week. My question is...why didn´t they let us know??? Weird. So at least we´re keeping District 41-C alive :) The problem is Elder Ridd wasn´t in my district long enough for me to get close to him and Elder Datwyler is so quiet that I never talked to him very much so I still REALLY miss my district. My new district is cool though.

Some of the elders here are funny. Yesterday I laughed really hard when one of them (not someone in my district, just another elder) was talking about some sister who had left the other day who apparently thought he was an immature gringo. So I asked what he did to make her think that. He said he snorted jello. but he said it in this really nonchalent voice and it was just really funny. Also, I loved the Madrid temple and had a small miracle when I asked Heavenly Father to help me stay awake and I did. It´s beautiful and it´s RIGHT outside our windows. We are up high in this building so we have an amazing view of Madrid. We aren´t stuck here too, which is cool, like my comp and I went to the store during exercise time yesterday and just looked around and bought chocolate. SO weird to just be able to go around. We´re going to the Futbol stadium this afternoon so that should be fun.

 Don´t worry about me too much, I think I´ll be okay once I´m not jetlagged and have been here more than 24 hours.

I still can´t believe I´m in Spain...so weird.

 

Hermana Andrew

 

 

Hey, I´m back! If we wait in line, we are allowed to use our other half hour of computer time. It´s not that we can´t have a full hour, it´s just that there are too many missionaries for all the computers so we only get a half hour at a time. I didn´t have much else to say, but my comp came in so I figured I would too. I hope you don´t worry about the last email, I´m not actually that unhappy, and I feel a lot more awake now that it´s after lunch so I´m in a much better mood. I know I´ll adjust eventually, yesterday was just really hard. Also, I was going to send something to Mary but the "compose" button doesn´t work on this computer, so I can only reply to people that have already emailed me. But I´ll just have to write Mary an actual letter or something. I was just going to let her know that I was in Spain. By the way, I don´t really need anything, so I´m not implying that you need to send me a package, I´m just saying that if you ever do send me a package while I´m in Spain, be careful about what you send because if it gets stuck at customs and they have to check it, it costs a lot of euros for us to receive them. So yeah...I would just avoid it haha. besides, we´re allowed to go to the grocery store next door so it´s okay, there´s not anything I need that I can´t get here anyway. But yeah, the grocery store is super fun because it´s Spanish! and it´s weird being a foreigner. I just realized I´ve never been one before! but my comp and I were walking around talking in English and I wondered if other people thought of us in the same way I thought of foreign people back in the States...weird!
Anyway, feel free to update my FB status with my new address. Also, don´t worry about any mail that got sent to Provo before I left - they told me it would be forwarded here.
We get to take the metro to the futbol stadium in a few mins! I´m so excited to explore more of Madrid! The weather here is super nice, kind of like Provo. I thought it was supposed to be humid here but it´s actually not. We have the best views ever in this building. Madrid is such a beautiful city!
Email me or write me a letter soon!!!!
Casey

My "Finest Hour"

August 5, 2013

Hello Family! And everyone else!

So I tried to attach some pictures but I am horrible at computers and couldn't make it work...so I will have to get one of the elders to help me next week because I don't want to run out of time for the actual emailing!  Anyway, I forgot to explain my title last week, it was a quote from one of the devotionals, as is this week's title!  But I'll talk about that more later.

So last week might have been the most interesting email from the MTC, because not much has changed, but I do have a couple more things to explain about how the MTC works! Sundays are very different. The day starts out normal with study time and breakfast, but then we have Relief Society which is a huge group of all the sisters here. It's not regular RS because it's more like a devotional, they just get someone to speak to us. But we get to watch Music and the Spoken Word if we get there early :) The elders don't ever get to watch it haha. But then we have more district meetings and lunch and stuff, and then we have Sacrament Meeting with our zone. Our zone has 4 districts in it, all Spanish speaking and going to lots of different missions. One of the districts is leaving tomorrow and we get a new district in our zone on Weds so we won't feel like the newbies anymore! Sacrament Meeting is mostly like normal except for every missionary has to prepare a talk in Spanish and then you find out if you're speaking when they announce it after  the Sacrament is passed. It's quite amusing, especially because our district was told that none of us would be chosen for our first week here, so we got to watch everyone else. and of course, that led to me telling my companion some Hunger Games jokes, "It's only your first week, Hermana, they're not going to pick you!" and then someone else said that if it wasn't Sacrament Meeting someone should yell after the speakers are announced, "I volunteer! I volunteer as tribute!" Unfortunately that would be rather unreverent. I think it would be hilarious though! And then after that we get to walk around the temple for a while and then have dinner and go to choir and listen to the Sunday night devotional. then they show movies/old amazing talks given by Apostles at the MTC and you can choose which one you want to watch. By movies, I mean Legacy and the Joseph Smith movie. However, it's funny how excited we get even over a Church movie! The MTC is a weird place haha. But yesterday was Fast Sunday. So we didn't get breakfast or lunch, only dinner, so it was a 24 hour fast, but it actually was one of the easiest fasts I've ever had. I attributed it to feeling spiritually full but then realized that every other fast Sunday I'm just at home usually around my kitchen where the food is. But here we are only around food in the cafeteria and we didn't go in the cafeteria at all until dinner, so that's probably why it was easier...but last night was an amazing Sunday devotional given by Jenny Oaks Baker, daughter of Elder Oaks and famous violinist. She did speak about spiritual gifts, but she played tons of musical numbers for us and had her 4 children all under the age of 12 play for us too (SO cute!). Kelly and Aaron, I couldn't help but think of how you both would have loved it, she is an AMAZING violin player! It was so relaxing to just be able to sit and listen to some music after a week of long days and lots of classes.

The other thing I realized about the MTC this week is that they lied to me! They said that if you make it past the first Sunday it gets easier. Well, I must just be really backwards from most people because after that first Sunday all the initial excitement had wore off and we were getting used to the schedule and it was easier to be annoyed with my comp after a whole week and it was easier to just get more frustrated in general about planning lessons and whatnot. I actually had a really hard day on Wednesday. However, we have incredible teachers who answer all my prayers and a loving Heavenly Father who is not leaving me alone in this! So after Weds it got a lot better again and I had a great few days, I just love it here. :)

So Elder Ridd left for Spain, so we thought we would be even, but we got a new elder in our district! He was brought in from one of the beginning Spanish classes. He was too advanced so they put him with us in intermediate. His name is Elder Patey. He's honestly one of the most interesting people I've ever met. Everything he says surprises me. For example, he also speaks Portuguese because as a teenager his family lived in Portugal for 4 years, he's been spear fishing in Africa where they almost ran into this huge whale which would have destroyed their boat, he's ridden on other whales on the beach of the Portugal islands he lived on, he lived in Costa Rica for a couple months for a study abroad, his family now lives in Utah and they live in Elder Holland's home ward (Elder Holland was literally at his farewell talk--talk about pressure!!!) and he also used to live on the same street as President Monson. He has also visited a ton of other countries, but seriously, every time that elder opens his mouth my life seems more and more boring! Haha just kidding, I love my life. But wow...some people have definitely had some interesting experiences. I also am loving the other elders in my district. They feel like my brothers and since we all spend all our time together, we're all super close! Elder Olsen is absolutely hilarious! For example, he let me go first at the drinking fountain and so I tried to think of the Spanish word for "polite" so I could call him that but couldn't remember and so he said, "I'm pretty sure it's guapo." If you don't know what guapo means, go look it up and then you'll understand why it's funny. And there have been so many other funny moments that I would try to explain but it probably wouldn't come off as funny since I'd guess it's a "you'd have to be there" kind of thing. Also, Elder Conklin is seriously coming out of his quiet shell. and literally EVERYthing he says makes me laugh. Mostly because he says it with such a straight face. Very dry sense of humor. For example, our teacher was asking us questions like pretending to have problems that regular people might ask the missionaries. He asked something like "what can I do to fix the problems in my family?" and Elder Conklin said, "Tiene que ser perfecto." (You have to be perfect). We about died of laughter and now that's the joke, that we have to be perfect and we are always throwing that back in his face and it's great. Also, Elder Neddo's sister gets married next week and so Elder Conklin wrote her a letter asking her to wait for him (totally just being funny since he doesn't know her at all) and she actually wrote back to him and it was hilarious! She's obviously not waiting for him, so I jokingly suggested that I had a sister getting married, but not for a few months so he might would have more time to convince her and he said he couldn't take anymore rejection. It was great hahahaha.

The MTC is a time warp. Seriously. Time has no meaning to me anymore. Weekends have no meaning to me anymore since our schedule is no different than the week. It's so hard to remember the day of the week or the date. I was thinking about my time in the MTC and thinking wow, it's almost over but then I realized we've only been here a week and half...and I was shocked because I thought we'd been here forever! Being in Ohio seems a lifetime away. Being at BYU seems a lifetime away! I thought it would be weird being so close to BYU but the MTC is a bubble so I don't think about it very much. Literally every minute of every day is scheduled for us, so everything seems like one long day! Also I never got the chance to reread my last email, so I apologize if I repeat anything. I honestly don't remember much of what I said last week...

So, we had an amazing devotional last Tuesday! It was by Elder Richards, former member of the Seventy. I'll just type up a few of the notes I took: "What you will do in the next 18 months will echo through the eternities." Preach My Gospel was designed behind the veil and put together here. Satan does NOT want me in Spain (so I'm going to do my best to make him very angry! haha). Video clip from Elder Holland: missionary work is so hard because salvation isn't cheap!!! Why should it be easy for us when it was never easy for Him?? The Atonement might help us more on our missions than it helps our investigators. Winston Churchill quote (go look it up!!!) about our "finest hour" and how we'd better be prepared and qualified. (obviously this quote was not about missionaries but change some words and it totally applies!) We can't have Jesus's name only on our nametags, it has to be on our hearts. Also, he said how cool would it be if someday we filled the ENTIRE Marriot Center. And I personally thought, what if they're already filled? There is so much missionary work going on in the Spirit World that I would argue that we are a VERY small portion of the missionary force. That thought is SO cool.

Well, I'm almost out of time, so I guess that's all for this week. Thank everyone SO much for any letters! They are great! Dearelders and snail mail we get to read every day and emails only once a week with very limited time so send letters if you can!

Les quiero mucho!

Hermana Andrew

I'm not just going on a mission; I'm becoming a missionary

July 29,2013

Hola familia!!!!!!! And everyone who will eventually read this!

First of all, DISCLAIMER: I know that some of you who read this won't be members of the LDS Church! So unfortunately you might not understand a lot of the Church terms I use in my emails. I unfortunately won't have time to explain them all! So I have to write like everyone who reads this is a member of the Church and if you ever have any questions, feel free to ask my parents and sisters who would love to explain anything for you!

 So, I think I was born to be a missionary. ME ENCANTA EL CCM (MTC in Spanish)!! This place is the happiest place ever!!! the Spirit is incredibly strong and everyone is helpful and there is such a power here that is hard to explain! I no longer even care that I didn't get my visa in time to go straight to Spain, and my comp and I actually have started hoping that we get to stay here the whole 6 weeks! Anyway, I have SOOO many things to tell you and it would be so hard to do it chronologically so I have decided to have different categories!

MTC In General: Like I said, this is the best place ever and I was right to be upset that my report date was so far away because I must have subconciously known what I was missing! I LOVE being so productive for literally every waking moment of the day! My life has never before had so much purpose to it! I'm already scared about feeling completely lost with what to do with my time after coming home from the mission because there is always something to do here, and the best part is, it's all focused on others which is amazing. Everything we do is to prepare ourselves to invite others to Christ. I also have realized that I know more people here than I thought! I keep running into new people I didn't know were here, but also some I did know were here. I've seen Elder Welch (who is from my stake and said "that's so weird!" when I mentioned that i had seen and talked to his father just 2 days previously), Elder Schindler from BYU, Hermana Withers from BYU freshman ward, Kelly's roommate Catie, a girl from my La Jolla ward, and a guy who was in my social dance class last semester and probably some others I can't think of. I also know a few workers in the cafeteria. Oh, and Kelly and Aaron, while doing service a guy totally recognized me from our humanities class! Haha he said he hated that class so much and thought the TA was crazy. I said we had similar feelings :p

Companion: Mi companera is Hermana Jarman. She is 19 and from Arizona and went to a year of college at ASU before coming on the mission. She is the 10th of 12 children (WOW) and is the first girl from her family to serve a mission although she has 6 older brothers who have as well. She has never lived away from home before so I'm her first roommate :) She is AMAZING and I feel like I've known her forever!! She is sooo motivated and is always wanting to teach and is so excited when our lessons go well and she doesn't like to waste time (which is good; neither do I!) and she loves speaking Spanish (she took some in high school) and has such a strong testimony! She likes to plan a lot and so our lessons are always very thought out. I can't explain it, we just get along really well and from many conversations, i can tell we are very similar-minded and think the same about a lot of different things. Neither of us are very quiet so we both speak up quite a bit in class (much more than the elders! ha!). So my companion is not a problem for me, but it has taken a while to actually get used to having a companion. I have never in my life been with someone 24/7 and it's WEIRD. I like to be a convenient person, so it's really hard that I can't just be like, "okay you run and grab your bag upstairs while I use the bathroom and then we'll meet up here." Nope, we have to take the time for both of us to do both. So in that aspect it's a little annoying, but I know it's Heavenly Father's rule so it's for the best.

My District: Hermana J and I are the only sisters in our district. The rest are elders, so it's weird being around so many guys ALL the time but the guys are the best so it's totally fun! The weird thing is that not everyone in our district is going to the same mission (Spanish districts are like that quite a bit). In fact, everyone except for me and Elder Datwyler are going to different missions! Elder Neddo and Elder Olsen are the elders we usually end up hanging out with the most. They are both from Utah and are both going to Mexico (I don't remember all the different Mexico missions, there are so many that it is hard to keep track of who is going where). They are hilarious and they are really great companions and they could have been best friends forever except they only met a few days ago! My companion is going to Barcelona, Spain, obviously, I'm going to Malaga obviously. Then Elder Harvey and Elder Conklin are both going to Mexico There is something about Elder Harvey that I just find adorable! He's also one of my favorite people to talk to! He's also a beast at volleyball, probably because he's so tall and he played in high school haha. Elder Conklin is much more quiet but he's one of those quiet people that when they do say something, it's hilarious. Like the other day we had a debate about whether it's "Books of Mormon" or "Book of Mormons" and he said "I think its Ofs. Book ofs Mormon." I was extremely amused! Then there's a trio of elders. Elder Datwyler is going to Malaga with me but he's pretty quiet too so I'll have to get to know him better so we can be friends in the field too. Elder Ridd is our district leader going to Madrid Spain (literally just found out from Neddo and Olsen that Ridd just got news like an hour ago that he got his visa! He leaves for Spain in 2 hours!! What the heck??? Now Hermana and I are scared, we could leave at anytime! Wow! They only gave him a couple hours to leave, I guess they don't waste any time!) and then Elder Cavazotti (Italian pronunciation) is the only stateside elder in our district going to St George Utah, Spanish speaking (weird because he lived in Utah since he was 6! He was born in Brazil and speaks fluent Portuguese so his call was defnitely surprising to him!) His Spanish is sometimes difficult to understand because it's so Portuguese-ish hahaha. Oh, and I'm the oldest person in the district! Hermana is 19 and all the elders just graduated high school! So crazy!

With brings me to...Spanish. El idioma celestial. I love Spanish SO much. Learning it is fantastic! And I have been soooo prepared because of Mrs. Martin in high school and BYU which has amazing language classes. Those together make me easily the best at Spanish in the class. I'm really really not bragging when I say this. In fact, I wish I wasn't the best because it's annoying to go over easy stuff when i want to practice teaching in Spanish, but at least it's an intermediate class! The rest of the districts in our zone started as beginners so all of us are already better than them too. But we've already taught our "investigator" in Spanish twice and it went SO well and I am more confident about Spanish than ever before. Even though I'm no where close to being fluent, I can always somehow say what I want to if I think about it hard enough. I gave a prayer in Sacrament Meeting yesterday and my zone was blown away...and my branch president said I speak just like a native. It was quite funny! My favorite moment ever in Spanish though was when Hermana and i were pretending to be investigators for Neddo and Olsen and they were getting to know us and Hermana instead of saying "Mi mama es enfermera en Africa" (My mom is a nurse in Africa) she said "Mi mama es enferma en Africa" (My mom is a terminally ill person in Africa). It was funny, but i laughed so hard that I started to think we're literally going crazy in here. We sit in class allllllllll day pretty much, so I think things are funnier than they usually would be. I should send a picture of my schedule sometime, but basically it's class class class. In fact, my schedule is literally the same for the next 5 weeks so this might be the only interesting email you get from me since everything else will be the same until i get to Spain :p

Spiritual: Wow. If you thought EFY was like being sprayed in the face with a spiritual firehose, then the MTC is like standing under a spiritual Niagra Falls. Like, it's amazing, don't get me wrong, but sometimes you actually can become really spriitually drained and so 10:30pm-6:30am sleep schedule is basically the best thing that ever happened to me. I wish I could take all day and explain about all the wonderful things I've learned but I can't. So I'll pick something that stood out to me more! I think what stood out to me most was the very first night we were here we went to these "Teaching Experiences" where we had 3 different scenarios with actors that were playing investigators really convincingly and we all got to raise our hands if we had something to say in the discussion but sometimes the narrator would take a moment to interrupt and talk about it. Basically, I expected to get a lot of teaching skills or something, but the VERY first thing they wanted us to consider was "What does Jesus Christ think when He looks at this investigator?" This was before we even talked with him at all. We knew nothing about him. And I learned zero teaching skills that night, but what I did learn was that it's about PEOPLE. I learned to observe and consider their needs and try to learn as much about them as I could even if without asking a lot of questions. And so I did learn teaching skills, because those skills make you a good teacher. This gospel is just incredible.

Food: It's really weird being on the receiving end of the cafeteria! But I still like the food and I make sure to make my tray really easy for the employees to clean up haha. In fact, I like the food better now because I get whatever I want, not just the random leftovers they sometimes fed employees!

Well, i only have a couple more minutes. I wish I could tell about our lessons and how I memorized the First Vision paragraph in Spanish just to share it in the lesson and it was REALLY powerful and I also want to share about the devotional we watched from Elder Bednar on Christmas Day a couple years ago because it BLEW MY MIND and seriously makes me want to be a less selfish person and get rid of that natural man. But yeah, time's up so I'll talk to you guys next week! And I just got a letter from home that my DL just delivered to me so I'll read that right now!

I LOVE YOU! The mission is the best! Everyone should go on one!

Hermana Andrew

 

 

Farewell!

So on Wednesday, July 24th I will be leaving for the Provo MTC! Until my visa comes and I can go to the Madrid MTC, this will be my address:
Sister Casey Lynn Andrew
SEP04  SPA-MAL
2011 N 900 E Unit 235
Provo UT 84602

I would love to hear from you! My parents will be updating this blog with my weekly emails home! They will also update my address!

I am incredibly excited to have been called to serve this mission. I know I will grow in new ways and become the person Heavenly Father knows I can be.  So for my first post, I will share the last part of my farewell talk and my testimony. Enjoy!

Lastly, I just wanted to share one of my favorite stories that I’ve heard all year. To me, this story truly describes the purpose of missionary work. I heard the story from someone who had heard it in a Sacrament Meeting. There was a missionary who was just getting ready to receive his mission call. The night before he opened it, he had a dream about the pre-mortal life. In this dream, he was also waiting for a call, but it was a different kind of call—a call to Earth. A friend of his was also waiting with him. He did not know this person on Earth but in the pre-mortal life he knew that this was an extremely close friend. Both men received their calls. The man telling the story said that his call said that he would be born in the United States where he would be free to practice his religion and into a family that had the true gospel. His friend, on the other hand, got a call that said he would be born in the poorer country of Costa Rica. He was told that he would not be born into the gospel and that his life would be difficult. In his dream the man promised his friend that he would find him in this life and bring him the gospel. Then he woke up and later received his mission call. He was called to labor in Costa Rica. A ways into his mission he wrote to his home Bishop and what he wrote in the letter was, “I found my friend.” This story gives me chills every single time I think about it. Sharing the gospel is not simply about finding random strangers who need to hear the gospel, it’s about finding our friends, our brothers, our sisters. These are people we already know and love. We must be willing to take the truth to them.

I want to share my testimony that I KNOW that this is the one and only true Church on the Earth. I know that in no other place can we find such great happiness. It doesn’t mean life is easy, it just gives us an eternal perspective that helps us better understand why we pass through sorrow and hardship sometimes. I know how incredibly blessed I am to have the gospel in my life and I am so humbled that Heavenly Father has asked me to assist in the work and to teach His children. I know that through obedience to the commandments comes blessings. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and that following its teachings brings you closer to Christ. I know that Joseph Smith truly saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and restored the true Church to the Earth. I know that President Thomas S. Monson is the prophet today and is the Lord’s mouthpiece. I know that Jesus Christ died for all of our sins. Above all, I KNOW the Lord lives today and that He loves each and every one of us.