September 28, 2015 Letter

Hello Family-

 Here is a typical lay out of our day-
1) We wake up at 7:30. We get out of bed. I pray, bathroom,
and exercise. I like to do jump rope, p90x or go running.
2) Then, at 8, we shower, eat breakfast, get ready and listen to a
conference talk.
3) at 9 o'clock, an alarm goes off, I get down on my knees, pray, and
then I study the Gospel. Right now I'm working on finishing the Book
of Mormon again in Spanish, I ready PMG everyday, and I do activities.
Then, our other alarm rings, and it's 10 o'clock which means that it's
time to do language study,
4) so I pray again, then read conference talks in Spanish out loud
because I'm working on my accent right now.
5) then, we leave because another alarm goes off and we're out the
door. We pray, recite our purpose, grab Books of Mormon and leave.
6) then, were either teaching, contacting, doing pass bys, making
calls, and just doing the work. Trying to be diligent, trying to be
obedient, trying to rely on the Lord and follow Spirit and not get
distracted and not get hurt when people reject you and be persistent
and use every single second of time perfectly.
7) then we come back, eat and rest for an hour, try to use that
diligently by studying and listening to talks and still talking and
being normal. And just. Trying to be good.
8) then we study as companions for an hour. That usually goes well. We
sing hymns. We read together. We practice. We set goals.
9) then we leave again. And we work. Just like we worked in the
morning. We walk the same streets, we try to talk to people, and
honestly...
10) we come home at 10. We plan for the next day. And then we go to bed.
Lots of prayers, lots of diligence, lots of work and lots of really
good things. And I'm trying to do this unwearingly, with good desires
and lots of faith. Usually it goes pretty well.

 I'm sooo happy that I'm staying in Gijon. I love the members here, I love the area. I just hope I can keep working with all my heart until the very end. I have faith in this next transfer. It's gonna be amazing, I know it is. F. should be getting baptized, and hopefully P. as well. We also had a Catholic friar come to church on Sunday and he LOVED it. He's a really great guy, his name is J.M. We were teaching him a few months ago and he went on vacations for a long time, but then he CALLED US and came to church for a lesson. He LOVED hearing about the plan of salvation and he really loved Church. And that makes me so happy. I want to leave this area feeling like I've done everything I can, and now I have more time to do that. Today has been a good day, were in Oviedo with Hermana Ross waiting for her new companion. We went shopping and it's been really nice to just do something different. I'm just starting fresh this transfer, gonna do the best I can and just get things rolling!! I know we have good things to come. I know the Lord is helping us and guiding us.

I'm so happy to hear that Parker made it!! It makes me so happy. I'm so stoked to hear from him. I love you all sooo much!! It's gonna be a great week!! I love you all so much. I know Jesus Christ lives and loves us so much and helps us in every situation I love this Gospel and I love sharing it. And I'm so very grateful to be here! Just gotta live it, apply it and go everyday. I love you so much.

Pictures:

The shoes that I literally wore out and threw away.  My companion and I both sporting blazers and my district.

September 21, 2015 Letter

Hey!! 

 This week was really good. We were out of our area for four days.  We went to Concilio and we did intercambios but ... We a) travelled to Madrid (5 hours on a train...)b) our comments were valued in Concilio. President listened to what we had to say and c) we got to help plan the zone training and then we gave it with the zone leaders. It was an exhausting, weird week and I'm so grateful to be back in Gijon doing work. But I loved experience. We talked a lot about repentance and sacrament and I understood it so much better. It was amazing. This week was a really spiritual experience during sacrament meeting for me and I was so grateful for it. It's just SO COOL that we get to do that every single week. Jesus Christ is amazing to me. The rest of the week went really well. 

Concillio in Madrid

We have a baptism coming up with F. He's awesome. He's getting a new job at the university and he's gonna be able to come to Church every week. Everyone in the branch is really excited about him, us included. He's going to be the 6th of our 5 active priesthood holders right now. It's going to be a huge blessing to a lot of people to have him around. He's a joy to teach. He understands everything, asks great questions and takes it very seriously. He's amazing. 

Paola is also doing really well. We're focusing on repentance and understanding it better with her, so that she can feel more sure about baptism. We've had some great experiences this week and I feel like I just learning so much. 

With P.-the best investigator a missionary could ask for

It's been a little hard finding new investigators but it's a huge goal that we have going into this week. My companion and I are doing great. She's an awesome missionary and just so great to be with. I love her a lot. 

My compa and I with our youth group in Gijon

Oh, also, just a heads up, I got proposed too. There was this member in B8 that fell in love with me and when I got to Madrid for Concilio, he was there at the train station, waiting for me. He gave me a shirt that he made with a picture of us on it and gave it to me, drenched in his cologne. And he was wearing the same one. And then he gave me this letter and told me I had to wait until I got off the mission to read it. Naturally, I read it later that day. He told me he wanted to marry me and that he was waiting for me to finish the mission. It kind of freaked me out, honestly. So I got permission from President Pack to email him and tell him no. It was sort of a fuerte email. But it had to be done. Anyways. 35 year old Ecuadorian men on the prowl over here in #españa. It was an incredibly uncomfortable situation. But it's ok now, I think. 

 I know that Heavenly Father lives and LOVES us. I feel like He has really answered that prayer for me this week. I know that Jesus Christ was and is His Son and that we need Him always, everyday. I know that the love of God should be the reason for everything that we do and say and think. It's a high goal, but He can help us reach it. I know that this is the work of the Lord. I know it. I'm so grateful to be here, and so humbled by it. But I know it's true and I will keep on going. I love you all so much!!  I love my mission and I love all of you!! 

September 7, 2015 Letter

Hey!! 

This week has been long and slow and grey. We did intercambios with the Hermanas in Oviedo on Tuesday. That honestly really threw me off. I was with an Hermana that was struggling with her companion, who is a really good friend of mine. I was trying to help this Hermana and be her friend while still being an example but I left the intercambio feeling like I had sort of let my standards of obedience down a little bit in the effort to try to help her and make her feel loved and everything. I should have been a better example, and the situation caught me off guard. I prayed about it and then called Hermana Pack, the mission presidents wife. She helped me and I decided that I needed to call the Hermana that I did the intercambio with and just talk to her a little more. So I called her and talked to her about some things that had stood out to me from the intercambio and some things that I felt like could help her with her obedience and everything. It wasn't an awful intercambio. It was really good, and she said she felt lifted at the end of it. I just felt bad that I lowered my standards to help somebody feel more comfortable. I did it with good intentions but I didn't feel super great afterwards. I was grateful to be able to call her and talk about it. It taught me a really good lesson- never lower your standards, not ever!! Always stand up for what you know is right. It's something I want to do better at. My accountability is to God, not to anybody else. I'm grateful for the lesson learned, though. It reminded me of a line in my patriarchal blessing- it said that before this life, I was a friend to all and determined to follow the way of the Lord. I thought of that after the intercambio and realized that it's possible to do both. Be a friend to all but ALWAYS follow the way of the Lord. I promised myself that I would do better and make a greater effort to be exactly obedient, especially in the small things. It's a goal that I have for the rest of the mission. 

We weren't able to meet with a lot of our investigators this week. It was a little bit hard, but we have been making an effort to work more with the members and it's been awesome. Slowly but surely. There was a day this week when I literally felt like the adversary was attacking me so obviously. I was struggling during studies with tiredness and ended up reading an article in the Liahona about Joseph Smith with some information that I didn't know about him before. It was a little bit troubling for me, not a lot, just kind of weird. Then, we went to contact and we met a man that had been a member of the church in Ecuador and he got baptized in the Evangelical church here. He was bashing on the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith and it was sort of hard to hear. Super sad. I felt sad for him. Then, next person we stopped SCREAMED at us about how  Joseph Smith wasn't a prophet of God and how we're all confused. So weird! Everyone else said no. Like always. But it was just the weirdest chain of events. I felt really down and it was hard for me to hear all that on the same day. And then we found out that the mom of some of the youth in our branch got baptized in the evangelical church and that was really hard- they got sealed in the temple three years ago and she just got really confused. I went to bed that night and just cried- mainly because I just felt so overwhelmed by the whole situation with this mom. It was just such an obvious attack on my testimony and it was weird. But. I know Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. I know it. My testimony of him is just as strong as ever. Anyways. Just a weird moment. 

We also got to go to a futbol game with the Browns!! It was awesome, I loved it. I'll write more about it next week and send photos, I ran out of time today. 

I'm so sorry I ran out of time!! But I love you so much!! I'm doing great and loving the mission. I miss you all so much. But things here are going great. Send me pics throughout the week. I love getting them!! Love you!! Read alma 31- two types of prayers. 

Love,

Hermana seeg