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Should I have said yes??

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 confused and asked if we knew each other. And we said no but we're missionaries maybe you've seen us before. He told us all about his religious beliefs and told us that he's a man of God and he wants to come to our church and if he likes it maybe he'll stay there forever. He also said that we were just so beautiful and he couldn't stop looking at our faces it was like there was just a light shining from us. We informed him that it was called the light of christ. (oh and he speaks English so I was really struggling because I don't know how to speak in English). Needless to say we were pumped to teach this guy! And al final our amiga didn't even come so we knew that God helped us set that all up so we could meet him. 

He came to our ward Christmas party on Friday and told us that he loved it! On Saturday we had a lesson with him and taught him the restoration and it went really well! The first time me and hermana Rico taught the restoration together and it was the first time I've taught it in English but it all went really well! We invited him to be baptized and he said that he could probably see that in his future. Then the exciting part came next... He took a little pause in the lesson and started to ask us about the church's standpoint on relationships in and outside of the church. Oof. We weren't entirely sure where he was going with this, we were still hoping for the best. But the next words that came out of his mouth were: "I would like one of you to be my wife." wahoo! We got proposed to on the coast of malaga with a perfect ocean view by a sophisticated European man so I mean my future husband is gonna have some tough competition that's all I gotta say. And the only decision left to make was whether it was gonna be me or hermana Rico. Nah just kidding we maneuvered ourselves out of that one and we planned to pass him to the elders so they can teach him haha. He told us he would be at church the next day and we parted ways good friends. On Sunday morning we received a text from him that said, "I won't be coming today. As a man of God, I am looking for a girlfriend, not a church." well dang it. But I think that's the end of the story for now. We will see. It was quite the exciting time though. 

Anyways so much happened this week and I don't want this email to be a complete novel so I'll briefly explain a few of them. 

-We convinced the wifi technician to take a folleto from us after he told us he saw dead people and that he got kicked out of our church once. 
-we did a hygiene kit service project with the stake and españoles have zero organization whatsoever 
-the bathroom door broke and I got stuck in there for a solid 15 minutes until we pushed and shoved enough that it broke a little more so I could escape and now we can't close the bathroom door. 
-we ate with some members at the capilla and they told me I was eating cat. Still not entirely sure if they were lying or not. 
-a Russian guy contacted us in the street and we actually had a really good conversation. I got to show off my like 3 Russian words that I know lol
-our water got shut off on Sunday and we were so desperate we seriously considered breaking the snow globe to be able to wash our faces. After one night of fending for ourselves, we went to stay at another hermanas piso so we could shower and when we came back Tuesday morning we had water again.
-last night we ate a very Spanish Christmas eve dinner and I ate shrimp for the first time in my life. Also me and hermana Rico got matching Christmas pajamas. 
-this morning I opened the package from my family and we took a nice long walk by the sea because we didn't have anything else to do to celebrate haha. 
-had a six course English Christmas dinner and I am currently stuffed to the rafters

Basically it has been an incredible week and I'm so very grateful for all of the opportunities and adventures I have every day! I hope you all have an incredible Christmas and remember the reason for the season! I can't remember if I've already mentioned this scripture so woops if I have but my favorite Christmas verse is 3 Nephi 1:13-

"Lift up your head and be of good cheer; for behold, the time is at hand, and on this night shall the sign be given, and on the morrow come I into the world, to show unto the world that I will fulfil all that which I have caused to be spoken by the mouth of my holy prophets."

He came! And how blessed we are to have that knowledge and be able to recognize all the blessings we have because of him! I know christ loves celebrating this season with us when we celebrate it right! I hope you all have something to give him today. And I hope it's a continuing gift that doesn't stop giving because that's what he did for us. 

Love you all and feliz navidad!! 

Hermana Pendleton  





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