Another Surprise

January 6, 2014


Dear Family and Everyone,

Last transfer call was a surprise because I wasn´t expecting Hna Roan to leave. This transfer call was a surprise because I´m STAYING in Málaga even though Hna Thompson is the one of us who is newer to the area! I wasn´t REALLY surprised though because I think I already mentioned that Elder Chumbipuma said that he thought Hna T was leaving. Obviously he´s not the one who decides, but ever since he said that I couldn´t get it out of my head and so I just kind of had this feeling that I might be staying. President Deere said that he just really felt that she needed to leave. So I will have 4 transfers in Málaga--6 months! At least I´m pretty sure it will only be 4 transfers here because nobody ever stays more than 6 months in one area. But what´s even weirder is that from the 8 people that were in my district when I first entered the mission field, I am now the ONLY one left from that district. I´m not the oldest missionary in the district, but I´m the oldest one in the area. That makes me feel old! And I still feel like I just got here! And in the entire Málaga zone (about 25 missionaries), there are 2 of us who were in the zone that was here when I got here. Wow. That´s WEIRD. But yeah, Elders Quinn and Oldroyd are leaving, and that´s what I´m saddest about actually because we were the only 3 that had been together my whole time here and they are like my brothers and they are both leaving because they have 4 transfers here. Not seeing them every week will actually be weirdest. But my new comp is coming! Her name is Hermana Hoffman. What´s scary is that she is in my same group, so we both only have 3 transfers in the mission, so we´re both super young! I guess President really trusts us!!! But although we were in the same group, I´ve actually never met her because she had visa issues and came to Spain later than everyone else. I´ve only talked with 2 other hermanas who have met her briefly and they both said good things, so I´m really excited! And in case anyone´s curious, Hna Thompson is going to Murcia.

But I was a tiny bit disappointed to be the one staying because I kind of wanted a change of pace, but then something happened that made me super glad to be staying. We had a lesson with Alexandra!!!! Maybe you don´t remember because it´s been awhile, but Alexandra is a menos activo from Ecuador and wanted to be active in the church again and we were teaching her nonmember husband Paco. But then shortly after Hna T´s arrival they practically dropped dead because no matter what we did we could not get in contact with them. i was super bummed about it because I love that family but had to move on. So the last time we saw them was October. Then on New Year´s Day, so almost 3 months later, we saw Alexandra on the street!!! It was literally a miracle. Mostly because at the time I still thought I might be the one to leave but Hna T only taught them once so she said she wouldn´t have recognized Alexandra on the street, but I did! Anyway, we got everything explained and it turns out she had a new phone number and she´d been in Huelva for like 2 months and her work has been crazy and Paco kind of wanted to go to Church activities but doesn´t feel comfortable going by himself. Then she actually asked us when we were coming over to visit them. I pretty much was flipping out all day. I just couldn´t believe it! So we taught just Alexandra on Saturday (Paco had to work so I still have yet to see him again actually) and she came to Church on Sunday! And we have another lesson tomorrow! So if I had to stay in Málaga just to help them and teach them somemore then I´m okay with that. I love that family!

All right, what else do I have to tell you guys? well, Tuesday was New Years Eve and it was great because it was ZONE CONFERENCE! And not just a regular zone meeting, but a zone CONFERENCE which means President Deere comes and there´s like 3 zones that all get to come so we see more people and they feed us! So I got to see Hna Roan and Hna Lyons again!!! My old comps! I love them SO much...seriously. but this time we had a talent show and Hna Roan and I performed things that we had practiced while we were comps and she´s the best singer ever so it was fantastic and other people did some stuff. It was just really good times all around. Also, ever since Hna Poulton left (she actually majored in piano performance so she´s much better than me) I´ve pretty much become the zone pianist. Which is totally fine except for the misison song where everyone´s in a circle and singing it. I´d rather be singing! Maybe I´ll make someone else play it next time :p I´ll tell you some spiritual stuff from zone conference at the end.

So for New Years Eve we went to Emilio and Maribel´s house with Elders Chumbipuma and Quinn. We´re not actually allowed to have more than one set of missioanries at a member´s house at one time but we didn´t have anywhere to go so the zone leaders gave us permission! Mostly because we weren´t allowed to proselyte so if we weren´t there we would have just been at the piso anyway...but it was really great! Maribel cooked this AMAZING dinner. There was this roasted lamb with this incredible garlic-ish sauce on it and MASHED POTATOES. I literally thought I was going to die of happiness. When was the last time that I had MASHED POTATOES??? Actually, I had some at Thanksgiving, but those were made by Americans for an American holiday, so it´s not like a member from Spain has ever fed us mashed potatoes. Either way, it was just incredible. Then for midnight, Spain (I don´t know if other countries do this, but at least spain does) has this New Year tradition with grapes. Instead of counting down to midnight and then screaming like in America, they wait until midnight (and I don´t remember counting down at all) and then on the TV (which showed what was going on in Madrid) they had the campanas (bells) strike 12 times (because it´s 12 o´clock) and every time the clock strikes you have to eat a grape. so basically you try to eat 12 grapes (to represent 12 months) in 12 seconds. It´s so stressful! Oh my word! And if you don´t eat all the grapes, however many you have left is the number of months of bad luck you have. Hna T is having 5 months of bad luck. I´m not really sure how to count mine, because they were all in my mouth, but it definitely took a couple minutes to get them all down, especially since most people don´t actually buy seedless grapes here (so they´re really annoying to eat) and you´re laughing the whole time too. It was fantastic though and a tradition that I might make my family try sometime!

Also, I know that most of you are back to regular life, but the holiday mood is still here in Spain. However, that ends today because today is the last holiday: 3 Kings Day! Today is traditionally the day they give presents, but most people now just do it on Cmas. But today is still a holiday where there are lots of parades and the 3 kings (3 wise men) throw candy to everyone. We were at a member´s house in a pueblo Churriana yesterday when the parade went by and so we went out and watched for awhile and it was super cool! And we got enough hard candy thrown at us to last until I come home from my mission haha. Also, I may or may not have been hugged by a man, even though I´m a missionary. I´m not sure though because he/she was dressed in a Minnie Mouse suit. So you would think it would be a girl, but Hna T thinks that only a guy would randomly come hug two girls. But who knows!

The weather here has gone crazy. For a couple days it got REALLY warm, and it was great because how many times in my life will I walk around in the middle of January and be too hot for my coat? so it was like 75 degrees (by my estimation) for a couple days but then just overnight it DROPPED and yesterday was super cold and today has been pretty chilly as well. I´m personally hoping that it gets warm again!

All right, really quick I´ll tell you some cool stuff President Deere said. His talk was about the Atonement. If any of you are wondering if there´s anything better than listening to the coolest mission president ever tell you a bunch of his insights of the Atonement, I´ll tell you, there´s not! But anyway, his first point was about D&C 45:3-5. Everybody needs to go read it. It´s amazing. But Pres Deere is a lawyer so he asked, what do you do when you are defending someone? You talk about their good qualities. You mention all the good things they´ve done. You talk about their intentions and their heart and how they tried but just messed up a little. But Jesus is a different lawyer. He defends us, but not by doing those things. If you read that scripture in D&C, you find that He defends us by stepping in front of us and saying, ¨It doesn´t matter what they´ve done. Look at what I´ve done. I´ve paid for them. Hermana Andrew is clean because I suffered for her.¨ And I wish I could elaborate more the way Pres Deere did but it´s truly incredible the way Jesus paid for our sins. Incredible. But more than just paying for our sins, it takes us higher than that and makes us holy and perfect in Christ. Pres Deere said that Moroni 10:32 doesn´t say perfect LIKE Christ, but perfect IN Christ. We don´t have to be perfect right now, we just have to keep trying and accept Jesus´s sacrifice for us. I wish I could share more but I´m out of time!

Got all the letters from the Primary! LOVED them!!! And I got Cmas cards from the Dones, Winslows and Drakes. Thanks so much!!! Take care and make 2014 the best year ever!

Hna Andrew