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