"Why Not?"

October 21, 2013

Dear Familia y todos,

Heyyy! ¿Qué tal? I miss you guys! I am always hoping that all of you are doing well. Anyway, I have a few things to say about this week!

First of all, my new companion! Like I said, her name is Hermana Thompson and she has been on the mission for 7 months. She has only served in Benidorm this whole time and was very excited to come to Málaga. She is a first for me in many ways. Like, she´s the first comp I´ve had who also goes to BYU! She went for 3 years before the mission and is studying art education. So she´s also the first comp I´ve had who is older than me (she turned 21 in June). She is the first comp I´ve had who speaks better Spanish than me. She has the typical Spain accent down, people ask if she´s from Spain and/or tell her she speaks like native. It´s amazing. However, the accent still sounds weird to my ears because it´s not the Málaga accent. I hear a billion different accents everyday so I don´t think I am actually picking up any certain one. Most of the time I´m just trying to make what I say sound grammatically correct, nevermind the accent! But she knows plenty of grammar too, which is great. I do miss Hermana Roan a lot, just because we became so close, but I can tell that this will be better for me because she´s much more experienced and just knows what she´s doing and we are much more obedient about following the schedule (not that we weren´t obedient before, but we might sleep in a few minutes or talk instead of study and we should have done a lot more with the maps and area book that we didn´t do) so I feel more productive and just like a better missionary. At first I was worried because the first day or two seemed awkward, but then I realized that Hna Roan´s personality makes ANYone look like a quiet because she´s literally the friendliest, most outgoing person in the world, so after I just had to stop comparing and be more patient and realize that she is still very friendly, just not to Hermana Roan´s level. In fact, I think she´s a lot like me in certain ways, but ways that are hard to explain. it´s interesting. But Hna Thompson also went to both MTCs, like me and also likes Provo better. Although, I ended up liking the Spain MTC and she still hates it, but at least it´s something we have in common when most people only have gone to one or the other. But all in all, we work well together and get along and now that the first week is over we´ll definitely end up good friends because we´re now more comfortable with each other. I don´t know how I keep getting lucky with my comps though. Because I´ve had four and i am friends with all of them! I keep crossing my fingers that my luck doesn´t end!!!

Anyway, another thing i wanted to share was the activity Maria Angeles did in sharing time yesterday. she was talking about missionary work and she had a bag of gummies that represented the gospel (so of course the kids got ridiculously excited) and let them all look and smell it but for a couple minutes wouldn´t share it with them (and she was hilarious, you all need to see her teach, she was literally born to be a Primary President, she´s the best one I´ve ever seen) and after awhile the kids all practically attacked her for the gummies (I wish missionary work was really like that when we walk out the door every morning) and so I just thought it was a really good analogy. If you had a really awesome candy (or whatever you love) that was your absolute favorite and you ate it every single day and just reveled in how amazing it was, wouldn´t you want to share it?? Wouldn´t you tell your friends, ¨Hey, check out this awesome candy, it´s my favorite!¨ Would you not tell them because YOU thought they might not like it, even though you can´t ever know what candy someone might like? Would you be too scared to tell your friend that you have a new favorite candy? Of course not! So why can´t it be the same with the gospel? You never know who will like it! You never know if the Gospel might become someone´s new favorite candy! You have something SOOO incredibly great: the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ!!! It´s better than any candy! We should all be excited to share it with anyone who doesn´t know! So I know I also have a long way to go because I am still scared of stopping people on the street, but I hope that this can encourage both me and you to be more enthusiastic about missionary work. Another thing that helps me is thinking about after I die and wondering ¨After I die am I going to wish I had talked to less people? Am I going to worry about whether the people looked busy or looked unfriendly?¨ NO. I am going to wish I stopped every single person in Málaga. So I personally need to just get rid of my self-consciousness and do it. It´s easier said than done, but we´ll see how it goes. the Lord is hastening His work! And I don´t want to get left behind so I want to do my part!

I also wanted to explain my title. Every time we teach Michael, we want to commit him to something, right? And no matter what we ask, whether it´s paying tithing or coming to Church or reading the scriptures, he always says the same thing: ¨Why not?¨ (In a cool Nigerian accent too, of course). At first it bugged me, because it didn´t sound like a serious commitment! To me it sounded like the equivilent of ¨Sounds like a good idea, I´ll try it if I have time¨ kind of nonchalant and noncommital answer. However, I have grown to love it. Think about it. Take scripture study for example. Why not read your scriptures? Why would you not want to gain more spiritual insights and get more blessings? What do you have to gain by NOT doing it? Nothing! There is no truly good reason for not reading scriptures or obeying any of the commandments. So to you all, I say Why not? Whatever is holding you back right now, however big or small it may be, just ask yourself what you gain from not doing it. When you really really think about it, the commandments make sense. Don´t miss out on those blessings!

So a cool thing happened to me yesterday. I was sitting in Sacrament Meeting like normal but I started feeling homesick. And I´ve never really been homesick in my life and it wasn´t a big deal and I´m totally fine, but I just started thinking about how much time I still had left on my mission and it felt like forever. And I just missed my old life where I could understand Sacrament Meeting, where I could go to Church and not stress over whether investigators would come or not, where I could go to Church without worrying about talking to everybody I needed to talk to, where I could come home and just read a book or take a nap, and I missed Sunday dinner with my family where I can understand perfectly what everybody says and feel truly comfortable. But most of all, I was just tired of being a missionary because that nametag is quite the burden sometimes, because it means that every single thing I do represents the Church and it can be a serious responsibility! But then after Church the prayer I hadn´t even said was answered when a woman named Nuria last minute invited us to dinner at her house in Churriana. And I knew the family but had never eaten there before even though i had always wanted to and the reason it was an answer to my prayer was that they reminded me of my family! They are strong in the Church, the mom in RS President and the dad in the Bishopric and they even have 3 kids! A daughter who is recently married (like Kelly soon will be), a daughter my age who is away studying at school somewhere (and I´m away in Spain) and a son about Karina´s age who is also the last kid left at home and has 2 years left of high school. The married daughter and husband live nearby and they came over too and so the way the family interacted and just the way they made us feel really comfortable just made me feel almost like I was with my family again. It felt a lot like when my family had the missionaries over, except this time I was the missionary! But seriously, Heavenly Father knows us really well and He knows what we need at certain times. There was a reason we hadn´t eaten with them until that day. So that just helped me feel much more motivated for the week and really relieved my temporary homesickness. It was a mini miracle!

It´s finally gotten cooler. We can wear cardigans sometimes! Especially at night! Other than nights and early mornings, still no signs of fall! So crazy! Got letters from Dad last week and today and a letter from Joseph today too (I´m working on a letter for you! Sorry it´s taking forever! haha). And I kept forgetting to mention this, but shoutout to my awesome roommate EA who had a birthday this month! I thought about you on the 8th and wished you well! I would love to hear from you! I miss you so much and have things to share with you that only you will truly understand! Don´t worry if it´s short!

Well, that´s about it. Everyone keep being awesome! Hasta luego,

Hermana Andrew

Michael's baptism

Only sign of Fall!