June 29th, 2015 Letter

I'm so glad that you got to go to Navuoo. I really am, that's such a cool and special experience. It sounds like it has been a really good time. It's always fun to meet missionaries. I love it, and I am one! There's a special spirit that comes from being a representative of Jesus Christ. I bet they do love their mission, as does everyone. My companion and I were talking about it this week- really, the mission we are called to is perfect for who we are. Like, could you imagine a better mission than Madrid?! I'm in Europe, but speaking Spanish. We wake up late and go to bed late, and have a 2 hour break right in the middle of the day. There's people from everywhere, all around the world, and there is basically three different missions in one, all in Madrid, with the North, the Islands, and Madrid. We have big, mostly clean and really safe cities. We have a temple. It's such a perfect place to serve. I love it here so much. And Parker will feel the same about Lithuania. And everyone feels that same about wherever they serve. It's really cool.

Beautiful Gijon!

We also heard about the Supreme Court decision when one of the elders in my area received an email about it from his mom this week. It was interesting to hear about. Kind of made me sad, but we all knew that's how it would end up. It will have sad effects in the future of our country, but we just have to always remember that when the last dispensation started, it was prophesied that the greatest good and the worst evils that the world has ever experiences would begin to take place. So no matter how dark it gets, there is always light to counterbalance it. We have gay marriage, but think about how many more people today have the chance to experience temple marriage, thanks to the hundreds of temples that we have and will continue to have, as well as the missionary work that is taking place in places that have never been touched by the Gospel, up until now. It's always like that. Just remember in 2 nephi when lei talks about opposition in all things. We just have to keep looking for, finding, cultivating, and being grateful for the good things in the world. There's a lot.

 I went on intercambios on Tuesday with Hermana Freestone. She's being trained in the area right next to Gijon, Oviedo. She's 23 and just really awesome. I liked it a lot. We taught this guy named J. M., who is a Catholic Friar who has a lot of questions. He stopped us at a park and we met up on Tuesday. He has really good desires, and we're seeing him tomorrow, so it'll be cool to see how it goes. He's Spanish and 63 years old. I'm so interested to see if he progresses. I can see it being that he accepts everything, knows it's true, but that it's hard for him to change. But I have faith! He's really really cool.

On the way to change for intercambios, I saw this young, Spanish looking guy on the bus and I had a really strong feeling that I needed to talk to him. It was a little bit scary for me, because I've never been good at talking to young, attractive people, much less as a weirdo missionary, but I prayed to God to give me the chance to talk to him, and as we were getting off, he looked up at me and said, in English, "hi!". His name is T. and he's actually from Portugal. We got his information and we met on Saturday in the park. He's a really active member of a different church, but we explained our message and he looked like he had a ton of questions. So he asked if we could meet the next day, and we did, and he came with a list of stuff that he found on the internet about Joseph smith. So he started firing questions at us, and we answered,  but finally, we just said, look, T. We can sit here and talk about my religion versus your religion all day long. But how bout we just get to know each other better? He then told us his story about he found God, and the lesson changed. We were able to get him to commit to reading the Book of Mormon and to continue to meet with us . It was really cool. We'll see how it goes. We've been having a hard time setting up second lessons with people. They're all really busy. The Peruvian family being one of them. But we'll see them this week. It's just little by little, but we're going. We feel good about what we've done and were continuing to rely on the Lord and try to do and be better every day.

Gijon is wonderful. I'll send you some pictures!! We're doing well. There's not much more to write, honestly. Just at the grind! Our new president comes this week. I'll let you know how it goes, I love you all so much. Proud of you and grateful for all that you do. The Gospel is true! I know it! Love you.

My nice new mumu!

Meditating by the ocean