Natalie's Mission

Well, I've gotta say, this week has been one for the books. It's very weird to think that it's over. I don't think it has hit me yet, and I don't think it will till I'm all the way there, but every last second counts. The week has been filled with lots of milagros and lots of lágrimas. We got to visit lots of members and people that I've worked with during my 9 months here in Málaga and we had some good last moments. One of the hardest Goodbyes was the menos activa Roxana that we've been working with. I've seen her go through so much progress and lessons with her have also been very testimony strengthening experiences for me. When I told her I was leaving, she instantly started crying and ah it just broke my heart. It helped me realize part of my purpose for staying here in Málaga for so long. If all I did was help her, it was all worth it. Just now as I'm writing this, the "I found my friend" story comes to mind if you know it. If not,...

This week we just did a nice little tour of the south, which was very nice because all the other cities aren't as hot as malaga plus all the other hermanas pisos have air conditioning haha. We went from malaga to fuengirola to ronda to Jaén to Granada and back to malaga. And when we finally stepped of the bus back in malaga, the heat hit and humidity hit us harder than ever and we had already started back on filling those lakes just on our short walk back to piso. I love Málaga. On all of our very long bus rides we got very hungry but you're not allowed to eat on the buses because of Mascarillas. And the only food item we ever had was Pringles because it's the only good thing they sell at bus stations, so we would just slide one under the mask and into our mouths every few minutes when nobody was looking so we didn't starve to death. We really know how to do things right. When we were in Jaen on intercambios, we visited this cute member family. And like I said, they wer...

This week was a partyyyy! On Tuesday, our favorite members, Ana y Fernando, wanted to take us to their favorite buffet in fuengirola, but when we got there, the original buffet no longer exists, but in its place was a sushi buffet haha. So we went. First time sushi eater here. But my dear sweet little companion helped me pick the things that weren't gonna kill me so I very much appreciated that. And then Ana just Had to buy us these little owl family souvenirs with their names as the parents and me and Hermana Larsen as the children hahaha (pictured below) they're so sweet.  We had a Cita this week with an amiga named Joy. She's an amiga of the malaga 2 hermanas, but they're both Latinas and Joy doesn't speak Spanish so we're helping them out. She's so sweet. They had planned to teach her about. she evangelio de Jesucristo, the pasos that we have to take in this life, and invite her to be baptized. We started talking about the first paso, faith, and I asked ...

A nice little heat wave from Africa came in the last couple days. In the form of very very hot wind. But it did take down the humidity levels from our normal 85%. So instead of sweating lakes all day, we are sweating slightly smaller lakes. Feeling very blessed. Except for actually not having the humidity for a day felt very strange. I felt like I was about to shrivel up from dehydration. Vamos a ver what utah does to me haha. But it's been a really good week! We had two intercambios which means a week full of parties and lots of lessons and lots of learning. Always so much fun. We have a friend named Sebastián and we were finally able to meet with him in person to give him a book of Mormón. He was so excited to have one and right after the lesson he was gonna head to the beach to lay out and read the book of mormón. But we ended up giving him two books because he wanted to share one with his mom as well. Que máquina! We also met with our friend Fredy and he came to church yesterda...

This week was super good! About 5 minutes ago we were playing soccer on a cancha across the street from the Capilla and the police came over and kicked us out because apparently that's not allowed anymore. I don't know how these Spanish people are going to survive without their precious fútbol. Buuut other than that unfortunate news, this week was very full of lots of meetings. But really good meetings! On Monday we had the STL meeting and it was SUPER good. Hermana and president Bussey are incredible teachers and I learn so much from them every time. We talked a lot about how many possibilities there are right now and how we have burned those old boats and we're building new ones (if you know you know). And we got to have a partyyyy with everyone in the mission home. And then the next day we had consejo and it was also like always amazing. And super fun because we had a fun little reunion with all of our mtc district that's left in Spain! The first and last time in the...

Hey! So today I literally have no time! But the week was good! We found some GOLDEN amigos, my comp played every hymn for church on her violin and we got stuck in an elevator for like 15 minutes with zero lights and 9% battery and now we're in Madrid in the mission home and it's a PARTY! Sorry I can't say much but I love you all have a good week! Hermana Pendleton 

Well it's been another good week! I've realized I say that at the beginning of every single email I'm pretty sure haha. But I guess it's just because it's all good. Can't complain. We were able to visit a lot of members during the week because it was the end of the transfer and we thought I might be leaving... but surprise! I'll be doing one more here in Malaga! That'll be transfer numero 6 and 9 months! The members have started telling me that I should go talk to the ayuntamiento about becoming an official adopted daughter of Malaga. I'm down.  But every time we visited a member it was kind of weird because we weren't sure if it was goodbye or not so it was just an awkward well see you later but I'll let you know because maybe bye forever. But luckily it's not goodbye just yet. I'm really excited to stay here for a little longer because there's still so much work to do!  Last Monday and Saturday morning we had split intercambios ...

Not gonna lie, i completely forgot that the fourth of July was a holiday this year. My comp kept having to remind me.  This week has been pretty tranquila, we got to visit quite a few members, we're trying to make the rounds just in case i leave next week, because my comp doesn't know a whole lot of people. Oh and we found out that we're starting church next week! Very limited rules and all that. Basically just women without priesthood holders in casa and missionaries but it'll be good! Oh and one of the members made us masks so that's cool! Also we have a fun little thing going on where all of our amigos are giving us referencias! Que máquinas! They're just showing up to our cutas with their whole family or with a couple friends in tow so it's been super cool to get to know all these other people! I'll keep you updated on what happens with them. Well if I'm still in Málaga that is. Our fiend Álvaro brought his friend Jesús and he was just bashing us...

Heyyy que tal?! Sorry I didn't write an email last week, i had two pdays yet there was zero time. But the last two weeks have been really good! So flashback to two weeks ago, we were finally able to meet with María in person! So good. We went on a little walk by the beach with her and halfway through we sat on a bench while she went and layed down, let a wave wash over her, and then we continued on. We were hoping to give her another baptismal Fecha but we don't think she's quite ready yet, but comin up here soon it'll be back!  We also had zone conference, which was amazing as always and then later in the week us and the zone leaders gave our talleres. Nos tocó chapter 1 of preach my gospel which basically means it was our job to help everyone remember how great it is to be a missionary and access the incredible power and opportunities that we have. Not a hard job. We compared a peasant flavored bag of chips to missionaries. That's how we get people hyped up around...

This week was fueguísima! So many milagros!On Monday and Tuesday we started out the week and the transfer with leadership meetings which were incredible as always, and we got lots of ánimo and new ideas to work with this transfer, wahoo! On Wednesday we had a special noche de hogar with our barrio to animar them for our día de encontrar that we had this Saturday and that went well! We made some funny videos because claro our job as missionaries is to humiliate ourselves all the time to get other people pumped up! Love it! On Thursday we had a milagrazo! So we received a reference for somebody that wanted us to teach english to their 5 year old daughter. So we set up a Cita and we went to visit them and first off, cutest little 5 year old of my life, but she's got an attention span of a solid 0.8 seconds. But we walked in and she was shy for about 5 seconds before she just popped off and started bouncing off the walls. But she invited her friend over and we (very patiently) taught t...