Natalie's Mission

This week has been great! Sanse is an incredible area and it is huge! And there are so many people filled to the brim with potential!  First off, leaving my trip comps was a little sad because we had a good time together, and leaving Villalba was a little sad, I still talk about it as if I live there haha but I'm really excited about the work here in sanse. Hermana barney and I started off our companionship just great by getting lost in the middle of Madrid at midnight our very first night haha and still lugging my suitcases the whole time. During transfers everything's crazy but we finally made it back to an hermanas piso to sleep for the night. Also she sings opera so I'm just living the life.  My very first cita in sanse was with a nice old man and his menos activa wife and they're hilarious. Their names are Manolo and manoli, if that wasn't a match made in heaven I don't know what is. And we're going back this week to paint manoli's toe nail...

Jolín this week has been a Russian mountain. (that's what they call a Rollercoaster in Spanish) first off, today is my last day in Villalba! I'll be heading to San Sebastián de Los Reyes tonight! My new companion is Hermana Barney, we were in the MTC together so it'll be fun. It's also the area of the mission home so you know I'll be partying with the mission president and his wife every day. I'm sad to leave Villalba and all the people there, but I know they're in good hands (the Lord's and also Hermana Fernández). Ok but the last four days was I think the first time I actually almost had a heart attack. As you know, our friend Fran was supposed to get baptized on Saturday. On Wednesday, we finished up the lessons by teaching him about tithing. The lesson went well and he was pumped to pay tithing and receive blessings. And then on Thursday morning we received a text that said, "Hola chicas, you have really helped me grow closer to God and mak...

I don't have a ton of time today and it's been a short week so it's ok. Fran's getting baptized this Saturday! We're super excited and we're in the works of planning everything. When we followed up with him the other day about the word of wisdom (he only had a problem with coffee), he said "oh ahora no me hace falta" like it doesn't bother him at all not to drink it and we couldn't stop smiling all day because we had been worrying about that for days haha. And we gave his son a book of Mormon for kids (with the drawings and stuff) and he started reading it out loud and it was so sweet and special to hear his little voice reciting the Joseph Smith story. I have so much hope for that little guy. We also taught Fran about eternal families this week, and as I was testifying about the blessings of the temple and how grateful I am for my family, I felt the spirit so strong because I know how important our families are to our heavenly father and he g...

This week has been full of so many miracles!! Most importantly... Our friend Fran finally accepted his fecha!! He's gonna get baptized on August 17th!! And that's coming up real quick so we've got some work to do haha. We taught him the palabra de Sabiduría on Monday and he read through the things we shouldn't have, thought about it for a second, and said, "the only one im not already doing is coffee but I'll start tomorrow." YES! That's what I'm talking about. We were extremely excited and were just trying to hold back our shouts of joy until he turned the corner afterwards and let me tell you it was rough but we made it.  We also had Intercambios this last week and as always I learned soo much! I got to be with Hermana Orjuela and Hermana Fernández and they are both incredible. They are both amazing at contacting in the streets and it's so much fun. And we experience a fun little adventure on the way back. Haha so we take a train from the...