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
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