Natalie's Mission

Hola hola! I don't have much to say because it's been a short week and I don't have a ton of time but I have learned a lot this week! Mostly because I spoke in church and so I did a lot of extra researching and studying haha. But it went well! They told me to pick my own topic which is the hardest thing ever actually but I spoke about faith and based my talk off the talk by John H groberg from the 1993 October conference and Alma 5. Go give them a good study :) We had another lesson with Stephen (the guy who proposed last week). We thought he dropped us when he said he was looking for a girlfriend not a church but then on Saturday morning we got a text that said, "I would like to have a talk, same place, same time." I felt like I was in a spy movie and we had no idea what to expect but we showed up and he said he wanted to learn more. So we taught him the plan of salvation and he seemed to love it and he pulled out his southern gospel preacher and it was so funn...

Merry Christmas from malaga!! Right now I'm watching the sunrise over the Mediterranean sea and it's almost 70 degrees on Christmas day. This week has been quite the week haha probably one of the most exciting that I've had and that's saying something. Ok so to start, on Tuesday last week I said goodbye to Hermana Arscott and left her in sanse to take a 3 ish hour train ride across Spain to get to malaga and my new companion hermana Rico! I walked into that train with my winter coat and shivering and I walked out with sunshine and a nice ocean breeze. I think I'm gonna like it here. On Thursday we had an incredible miracle! (or so we thought, just wait). So we had planned to meet up with an amiga to teach a lesson in front of this one hotel in centro. We were chilling there on the stairs, and this man walked past and hermana Rico said Hola. (because we say hola to everyone). He walked past and then he stopped and came back and came up to us looking very confuse...

Well today is my last day in sanse! As of tomorrow I'm gonna be a south of Spain kinda girl. It's gonna be weird because until now I have been in the same zone my whole mission but now I'm going to get to see the south! I'm going to Málaga!  Hermana Arscott and I celebrated Christmas this morning because we won't be together on actual Christmas. We turned off all the lights besides the Christmas lights and danced to Christmas music in our half asleep state before opening our stockings that we had stuffed for each other. (although having to be with you companion 24/7 kind of ruins the surprise of things but we pretend).  Yesterday we had another incredible Christmas concert to advertise the #iluminaelmundo campaign and it went really well! All of the missionaries showed up two hours before the concert and that was the first and only time we practiced everything we were about to perform. And that's how you know God really does help us out as missionaries b...

On Friday we had brunch with the German family in our ward (the elders can never remember their actual name and it gets crazier every time--it's actually just vierbuchen) and jolín it was the fanciest breakfast I have ever eaten and I was in heaven because breakfast is my favorite food! (along with potatoes). We had German croissants, toast, chocolate waffles, parfait, hashbrowns, sausage, citrus fruits, salad (who eats salad for breakfast though), portabella something or other, scrambled eggs, hot chocolate, orange juice, and cake to end the meal. Literally best thing ever. And their house was adorable! They live next door to the mission president. As we walked in I was soaking it all in. Most German Spanish house ever and everything was beautiful and their house was huge (and houses basically don't exist here in spain) and we even got to meet their maid. And their dog. They're our favorite people. We also had zone conference this week and it was sooo good! We talked a...

It's been a short week but it's been a full one! On Wednesday after temple pday we had a mini zone conference with the zone and it was so cool! We did rotations with prácticas for some different sections of preach my gospel and I learned so much!! We talked a lot about being bold and showing people that we love them. Because if they understand that we love them and that their heavenly father loves them, they'll be willing to change and they'll appreciate our being bold to help them along that process. After the incredible (but slightly long) meeting, we may or may not have finally gotten home to piso at midnight. Woops.  On Thursday we celebrated Thanksgiving at the mission home with the office elders and matrimony couple and it was incredible to eat American food! I mean I've always loved mashed potatoes and rolls a lot but after not eating them for muchísimo tiempo they were sooooo good. We also got good ole pumpkin pie from Costco and that was a dream come tr...

Haha made you look. I really did get my hair cut though. But just two inches.  Well. This week we sucked flan, made Nutella and jelly sandwiches with our feet and stuffed 20 olives in our mouth three times. We also are now teaching Spanish to a couple Arabic people and it is a party they're hilarious. On Thursday we had a ward activity about family history and we learned that when a Spanish last name ends in -ez, -az, or -iz it means "hijo de" or son of. It's like Johnson in English- son of John. But instead of the son of John it's the son of Hernando :) fun stuff!  We put a couple on fecha for January 11 so we're really excited to keep working with them! They're also very excited and they have the cutest little family! We also had a cita with our friend Mirna and she is sooo cute. Missionaries visited her mom when she was little and so she remembers quite a bit and she has so much motivation to learn! She even set up the next cita with us. No...

This week we really got our exercise in. We ran a lot to catch trains. And that's not just your normal going for a jog kind of run, nor your 100 meter dash kind of run. It's the lopsided, try to look natural while sprinting up stairs in a skirt with an open bag on each shoulder and then get to the top and try to act like it was all planned when you actually miss your train and have to wait for 20 minutes for the next one anyways and all the people who were taking their sweet time behind you casually come strolling onto the platform and you try to pretend like you're not breathing really hard and you just wanted to be the first one so you could get a seat on one of the many benches to wait for the train. That's a day in the life of a missionary.  And I know it doesn't just happen to me because on Tuesday the elders arrived and we were supposed to meet them at the train station to show them where their Piso was and we were waiting for 2 1/2 hours before they showe...

Holaaaa! We're feeling blessed here in sanse because we got our hot water back this week! I may or may not have not washed my hair for many days because of that. But its ok becuase dry shampoo is real and it works somewhat. We also are getting Elders here starting tomorrow so we'll have a fun time showing them the ropes the next couple days. On Thursday we had a training meeting in Madrid and it was fun to see all the other companionship that are in training and I learned so much. We focused a lot on the restoration and the importance of that message. Which I mean obviously it is so important because it's what makes our church different. It's what makes our church true. But we talked about how missionaries it is vitally important that we can share that message clearly, powerfully, and with the spirit everytime. And that we know it like the back of our hand. And I think that is something that is useful not only as a missionary. I would invite you all to go back and s...

OK just to start off, I'm giving you all the heads up now. Please don't laugh when I come home with approximately 3 strands of hair because that's what it may come down to. My hair is falling out very much and it makes me quite sad. But I mean, sacrifice, am I right? We also just got done doing a tour of the Bernabéu Stadium, the stadium where Real Madrid plays, so I can't complain. Catch me in the 2021 starting line up. Let's just say I've renewed my childhood dream of going pro. Other than that, this week was CRAZY. So on Thursday after district counsel, we headed to azuqueca for Intercambios. What was supposed to be a 1 hour trip turned into almost 4. We took the metro to chamartín which is one of the main train stations in Madrid and we were gonna catch a train from there to azuqueca. It was also festivo that day so sometimes train schedules are a little messed up. So we asked a lady waiting for the train if it was the right one and she told us that...

So many little miracles this week. Me and my comp have been talking a lot about miracles this week and I've decided a lot of it has to do with the eye of the beholder. As missionaries and a lot of times as members of the church in general, we are constantly surrounded by the spirit. It's sometimes hard for us to notice when it's there because it just always is. However we are really good at noticing the absence of it. A lot of times, miracles come when we recognize the spirit is speaking to us, whether it be before the fact or after, and we act on that prompting or thought that we have. On Saturday we had a día de encontrar with our district and hermana arscott and I were not having a ton of success out contacting in the streets. We basically just felt like we were wandering around aimlessly talking to strangers (which I mean is kind of our job description- the aimlessly part just had to be fixed). But literally nobody would even let us get two words out of our mouths (also...