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¡Viva España! y ¡Feliz Pascua! (Long live Spain! and Happy Easter!)

This sister missionary finally made it to Spain!! It is beautiful here really. My last few days at the MTC were bittersweet; I really am going to miss the environment there and all the friends I made. But on to bigger and far better things! :) I successfully made it through my first two plane rides of my life (total flight time a total of 10ish hours) and our group of 13 landed safely down in Madrid with only two missing suitcases (not mine thankfully). President and Hermana Bussey are incredible people and I'm super excited that I get to work with them. My trainer is Hermana Ritman, she's from Surprise, Arizona and I'm in the Villalba area which is just north of Madrid I'm pretty sure and the members here are so cute. I'm finally almost over the jetlag but not quite. The first few days, I almost fell off my chair a couple of 20 times and couldn't keep my eyes open for anything, but I'm finally adjusting to the time change so that's made things a lot easier Haha. 

My first lesson in the field was definitely one for the books! We taught this man named Luis who is very old, very Spaniard, and very crazy. He apparently hadn't eaten in 2 days because he couldn't get up because he like broke his rib or something so we made him a smoothie. (But as soon as we got up to go to the kitchen, he got up right alongside us and starting bossing us around on exactly what he wanted). We finally attempted to teach a lesson. As I said before, Luis is very talkative. He talks very fast and very loud and then has to pause every few seconds to take like 10 very deep breaths and I was actually very afraid that he was going to pass out or something. I could hardly understand a word he said and neither could Hna Ritman. Basically what I got out of his yelling at us is that he doesn't understand the book of mormon at all and he thinks it's crazy. Luckily we had brought a member with us and so they had a fun little yelling session and by the end he resolved to try reading it again. He then showed us his garden, which is his pride and joy, and then gave us a little card that said we're best friends. What a guy. And what a great first lesson. ;)

In the last few days, we've also gotten to teach an English lesson to a cute member, a video call lesson to a different Luis, and the plan of salvation to a cute family with two little boys. Let me just say that the kids here in Villalba are some of the most adorable children I have ever seen in my life. And they come from all over the world. So far I think I have met someone from probably 75% of the Latin American countries plus a bunch of crazy Spaniards. 

There's this restaurant here called Kebab and I guess it's the missionary favorite so they took me there after district council to get "kebaptized." Not really sure what kind of meat they served me and they told me I didn't want to know so... 

I hope you all enjoyed your Easter Sunday! As I was studying "Come, Follow Me" this week, the Phrase stuck out to me that said: "Witnessing His death may have been a trial for some, but soon they became witnesses of the great miracle of His Resurrection." What a hard thing to go through, but what an incredible thing to witness! It was a powerful reminder to me that when things seem too hard, God is just preparing us for something more amazing than we can imagine.

I love you all and I hope you have an amazing week. Don't be afraid to share your testimony with others! 

Hermana Pendleton
(a name which every Spanish speaker looks at and doesn't even try)

Oh and P.S. my district leader is my second cousin (Elder Young) and my zone leader is a Skymountain/Quickwater amigo (Elder Muir)! And guess what mom?? I've already eaten green beans twice and not even because I was at a members house. Pure free will and choice.











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