Excerpts from September 15, 2014 Letter

Well my week was the best week I´ve had so far! It was the last week of the transfer and we definitely didn´t crawl to the finish line, we raced! We had such a successful, happy week this week. I loved it so much. 

Later that day we had our first lesson with V.! He came to church and Noche de Hogar last week, but I was a little bit nervous to start teaching him because I didn´t know how much he would undertand or even like the lessons.  But mom, he LOVED it. Holiene. He loved it so much. We have all the folletos in Romanian (we haven´t been able to find a Book of Mormon yet, but hopefully we will this week), so we read them with him, us in Spanish and him in Romanian. He LOVES it. Loves the Gospel. We talked to him about God and Jesus Christ and how they are our family and how them love us. We also talked about how we can see our families again after this life, which he just loved. Both of his parents are dead and it really affects him, I think. But he understands now that he can see them again, and that just made him so happy. We asked him if he would like to be baptized and he immediately started crying. He wants it so bad! We gave him a fecha and he´s planning on baptism on the 18th of Octubre. If we can get him into the waters of baptism sooner than that, we will, but for now, that´s his goal. Since then we´ve finished teaching the first lesson and he just loves it. He always tells us that he feels emotion in his heart, in his very broken Spanish. But he just loves it. He cries during every lesson, and Hermana Fuller and I cry too. He´s our miracle here. He´s trying so hard to find a job, he only has one pair of clothes, and sometimes he has to sleep at the park because there is no where else to go for him. But I think finding us and finding the Church has been his miracle, too. He came to Noche de Hogar again on Saturday and we gave him a little picture of Jesus and wrote him a note about how we loved him and we are grateful to be his friends. When Hermana Fuller gave it to him he almost started crying and said "Nobody has given me a gift like this before." Like, it was just a dumb little note and a picture of Jesus, but it meant so much to him. He´s had such a hard life- it´s so humbling to hear about what he goes through on a daily basis. On Sunday we were planning to meet him where we usually do and walk to the capilla with him for church, but he wasn´t there. So we ended up just leaving so we wouldn´t be late, and we were kinda worried about him. But he showed up after Sacrament meeting and stayed the whole time! It was just so cool- we´ve talked about him a lot as a companionship and we both feel like he loves us and the other missionaries, but he LOVES church as well. He doesn´t just come because we are there, he comes because he feels something there. And that is so special to see. So V. He´s amazing. I´m attaching a picture of him at the bottom! 

On Thursday, I went on splits for the first time ever! Hermana Fuller went to Barrio 6 and the Hermana Training Leader, Hermana Hadley, came and stayed with me. We had three appointments and correlacion, which is where we meet with the ward mission leader and tell him all about our investigators and how we are doing that week. So it was my job to know where to go for all of the appointments and to do correlacion all by myself, since obviously, Hermana Hadley doesn´t know any of our investigators. I did it! I did it all by myself, all in Spanish, and I found all the of the investigator´s houses AND I lead all the lessons. It was such a miracle. I didn´t think I was going to be able to speak that much Spanish but I totally did. Hermana Hadley told me that she was super impressed with me. She said that she would have never guessed I was in my first transfer if she didn´t already know, based on how well I did with my Spanish and with teaching and with everything. She taught me a lot and it was a super good experience! I was grateful to get Fuller back, but now I know that when she leaves in 6 weeks, I will be able to do this without her. It was such a boost of confidence! I still have sooooooo much to work on and to learn out here, with language, missionary work, EVERYTHING, but I know that as long as I work super hard and rely on the Spirit, I´ll be just fine! 

On Saturday, as you can see by the pictures, I cut all my hair off. I officially have a true pixie cut and I actually am in love with it. Short hair trumps long hair and it feels so good to have it cut!! Anyways,  back to missionary work update. 

On Saturday, we also found out about transfers and everything. I was so scared that Hermana Fuller would get transferred but she wasn´t! Our whole district is the same except for Elder Diaz leaving to Barrio 4. So all is well. Yesterday we have FIVE investigators at church. FIVE INVESTIGATORS AT CHURCH. It was the coolest, best thing ever. I was so excited about it. K. is still coming every week, V., N. (our little girl that we teach), W. and J.L. came! We found a member with a car that was willing to pick him up and he picked him up and he CAME!! It was so great and he LOVED it. He came up to us after Priesthood and asked us what a priesthood blessing was and how he could get one for his health. It was so cool. So that night, in our weekly Sunday lessons with them, we brought Elders Lloyd and Elder Nash with us and they gave both the JL's blessings. It was so spiritual and really amazing. They blessed them with the health and strength to be able to keep coming to church and to be able to follow Jesus Christ. Ahh. So cool. They loved it and J.L. #1 loved Church and they invited us to come eat with them next Sunday. So that will be really fun. They make me SO HAPPY every week we get to see them. So yeah! That basically sums up my week, and the end of my first transfer in the mission field!! So awesome. 

I´m doing really well! I miss home a lot and sometimes it feels like I can´t do this for another year and a half, but then a miracle happens and I remember how cool it is that I´m out here and how important this work is. My companion and I have so much fun while working super hard and being really focused. I´m so grateful for how good of friends we have become. Spanish is still coming, slowly but surely, and I´m starting to feel a lot more confident when I speak and I am able to understand a lot more. Reading the Book of Mormon in Spanish every day helps so much. I´m on track to finish by Christmas! I love you guys all so much! Fall is coming in and that makes me miss the pretty Utah mountains and all the leaves and trees and beauty. But Spain is beautiful too, in it´s own way. I love it here, so much. I feel so blessed. I am so blessed! Being able to share the Gospel with other people in this beautiful place in this beautiful language- it´s a really huge blessing. Onto the best transfer EVER!! Can´t wait!! I love you all so much!! 
Love, 
Sam