1st email from Spain

Hi mommy and daddy

It´s ok about the phone call....I was pretty disappointed. But, it happens and there´s nothing we could have done about it anyway. It just didn´t help much that elder rodriguez was calling every relative he´s ever had. haha

Anyway, my entire world has been flipped upside down since I last emailed you. Considering I no longer have a countdown clock on my computer I think I´ll take my precious time telling you too :) So last friday I left the MTC at 5 am after not sleeping all night long because I had to pack and such. Then we landed in Madrid at 7am on saturday. The flight wasn´t too bad...it was just Elder Rodriguez and I flying together. That felt kinda weird but whatevs. A nice couple we met in salt lake took us to tgi fridays when we got to atlanta. But on the flight to Madrid I had two seats to myself...so I had no problem sleeping. I´m rather used to sleeping on airplanes. haha Elder Rodriguez wasn´t as accustomed as me though.

So we got to Madrid and I was SOO excited to be here!! I was squealing from the moment I saw the temple. I´ve seen so many pictures of it so it is awesome to be here in real life. I got to go to the temple this morning and it is so beautiful inside! I love it. Anyway, so my first two companions were sisters vanhulst and kusseling. Sister Vanhulst is from Belgium, only speaks french and left for her misson in switzerland on tuesday morning. Sister Kusseling is from paris but left this morning for her mission in Russia Moscow West (sasquatch!) She was only here for a week to get her visa. She speaks really good english but it was a pretty interesting and unexpected experience to come to spain and only hear french all the time....haha but esta bien. They were really fun and I loved being with them. What was really hard about having french companions was that after an hour of being in spain I went with all of the other missionaries to the park (which is BEAUTIFUL! Not like anything I have seen before) and we were supposed to go contacting. Which is awesome! but it´s like ten million times more scary when my companions can´t help me. at all. not to mention it was my first time anyway. haha oh the adventures i´m having :) I did talk to a guy in spanglish though....luckily he spoke spanglish too. I was SO tired that day. It was crazy.

Easter wasn´t very eastery. Made me miss being home and doing easter egg hunts (brent-I heard you rocked it this year. But I feel your pain...there is no mercy in this family for people who are awesome at egg finding. similar to the no mercy for when you mess your words up) But I celebrated by wearing my most eastery dress, the new earrings mom gave me and eating the cadbury eggs sister richards gave me for the airplane, and reading about jesus :) good enough for me!

When I got here there were like 16 missionaries here: me, the district i´m in now (three american elders) elder rodriquez, a french district (sister kusseling and vanhulst, one french dude and two tahitians) and one north american district of nerdy funny white boys. but all of them left and and now a ton of new missionaries came yesterday. So now there are 24 here. about half north american and half native spanish speakers. My companions are hermana pulgar from Valencia, Spain and Hermana Farias from Argentina...and neither speak english :) but at least this time it is the language i´m trying to learn haha Pretty sure Hna Pulgar thinks I understand her more than I actually do....but I only understand like 30% at this point. Ojala it will be more than that next week!

I really feel like I've been here for forever! But it hasn't even been a week. weird. It was super weird at first to go from being around over 2,000 missionaries to just like 15. Not gunna lie, I miss the provo mtc. But the nice thing about being here is that it is very laid back. We can go out and about around madrid and it's no big deal. Also, because of all of my weird companion situations I've been a solo sister for a lot of the time...and no one even cares. In provo they have all kinds of rules for that. I can't wait to get out into the field. Watching all of the elders leave for málaga on tuesday made me so excited!! I would like to be a little better at spanish first though.....haha

Anyway, this has been the longest email of my life. Oh also, now that my time isn´t super limited if my brothers and sisters want to email me that would be alright. Especially since we don't get dearelders here. lame. Mail is much more scarce here...I got letters from trey and matt a couple days ago. it made the elders who have been here for weeks pretty jealous :)

Pues, I love you tons and tons. I hope everyone is doing well. The church is true. You know.

Olé.

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Casey Ross

First picture from Spain

Hermana Ross is in Spain!

Sister Ross called us on Friday, April 22, and said that she would be catching a flight on Saturday morning. She had about 18 hours to pack, say her goodbyes, and leave for the Airport. She arrived in Madrid Sunday morning, April 24.

Week 5 - She Got Her Visa!

Hi! :)

before I forget to tell you again...yes I got the adapter. I actually got that like the first week I was here. I just kept forgetting to tell you! Sorry. Thank you for sending it.

Ok...this week was insane. For real. First of all, I went off campus three times in the past week...and that is a big deal here!! haha going into the real world is super weird. I love the mtc. The real world is so much more complicated. Sorry about the gas prices. (one of the reasons that I had to leave was to go to the ER. Hma Shumway has been way sick and they were worried that it was her appendix. but it isn't...and she is getting better. She had to get a cat scan {pretty sure that isn't how you spell that} on tuesday when I was at the consulate. I came back to find that my companions were at the hospital...again. It's been loco.) Anyway, guess what happened monday?

That's right....I got my visa!! heeyyyyyyy!! :) It was the biggest surprise of my life. Really though...I was planning on being here for another three weeks and just leave around the time the rest of my district does. But, Heavenly Father knows how to keep me on my toes and always has. So Tuesday I went to the Spanish consulate and got my passport back and such. I still don't know when I am leaving though...which is weird because EVERYONE else tthhat I have known to get their visa late for spain left at least within 48 hours. One elder in my zone left within 10 hours. But they are just leaving me hangin. I'll let you know. I think....i have no clue. But it does mean that I'll probably be calling you in the next few days. I remember mom's celll best...but which phone would you want me to call? You can just dearelder me today so I know what you think. So even though I'm just floating around not knowing when I leave...I'm totally ok with it. I love it here so much. Plus I am so sad to be leaving my district y mis companeras. But prayers have been answered!! :) Thank you for them. I am guessing I'll leave sat? who knows. If not, then they are waiting to send me on tuesday with the elders from the new district that are going to spain.

Now the realllllly cool part about this week is that Elder Scott came and spoke on tuesday!!! IT WAS THE BEST THING EVER!!!! He is the only apostle that has come since january so I was very blessed to be here! He said so many amazing things to us...and he's so cute. I got to stand on the curb and wave bye as he drove away. But he couldn't stay to shake our hands. He did give us virtual hugs though :) It was such and intense talk. He confered the gift of tongues to all of us who were learning a language (or actually he said, "striving" to learn) but it was sweet cause he was like, By the power of my apostolic authority I confer upon you the gift of tongues. It was sooooo cool. It felt like there was this huge tsunami wave of the spirit that passed through as he said it. He also said we'll still have to study :) but we'll find that it will be easier. I'm sure you can imagine how many prayers that answered! Also, at the end he bore the most amazing testimony of Jesus Christ I have ever heard. He said, "I don't believe that Jesus Christ is a glorified ressurrected being, I know He is." I wish my email could do the moment justice. But it won't. That moment was so incredible. Really one of the top 3 most amazingly spiritual experiences of my life. Oh, I love it. Pretty sure I didn't stop crying from the moment he walked in until wayyyy later that night. haha good stuff.

So essentially I'm having the time of my life. And eating way too much ice cream. It's a little terrible.

That's great that you could paint grandma's bathroom....didn't you just paint that? And that's true dad, your skills are pretty legendary. haha Thanks for giving everyone the blog address mom. I hope everyone is doing well! I love you so so so so much!! Pretty sure I get to talk to you very soon :)

Se que Jesucristo vive y nos ama.

Love,

Hermana Ross a.k.a. going to spain really soon face.

District 35B - THE BEST!

Week 4 in the MTC

It's so crazy that I've been here four weeks. Part of me feels like it has been 3 months and the other part feels like I just got here. Time is super weird in the mtc. Pretty sure the past four weeks have just been one reallyyyyy long day with a few 45 minute naps and a lot of mediocre food. Speaking of food, we discovered last week the beauty of eating at the temple. It's the best thing that has happened to us (sort of) something about eating somewhere other than here is very exciting.

Today, my companeras and I get to go on a field trip! :) actually we are just going to the sister missionary mall cause hma shumway needs some shoes...but we are peeing our pants of excitement. Yesterday I was thinking about how in four weeks of the mtc I have learned more spanish than I did of 4 years in school. It is pretty wild. Plus, the spanish I learned then was useless stuff like "where is the library?" and "I walk my dog to the park" but now the spanish I know is the kind that can change people's lives...for eternity. and bring them to christ. So amazing.

That's pretty sweet that pres. kimball came when you were here dad! On tuesday, Ronald A. Rasband came. That was pretty sick. He is the guy that gave the talk on how mission calls are made. He had a powerful testimony. But we haven't had anyone from the 12 come...although there are rumors every week. haha

So...last night in the trc we had an awesome times ten lesson!! I was so happy afterwards. In fact, I don't know if i've ever been happier in my entire life. (see D&C 50:22 and my patriarchal blessing for more info) Anyway, we were supposed to teach the plan of salvation and we were planning on doing it in spanish. But, right before we felt like we should speak english, so we did. Turns out the guy we taught had no clue what was going on...and hadn't read the teaching record. We aren't sure if he is a member or not. Either way, if he is someone who volunteers, he totally broke roll and started venting to us about how his wife is pregnant and they are having all of these struggles and he wants 7 kids...and it was just so weird. Not what we were expecting at all. But, the great part about being a missionary is...even though the three of us had no clue what to say, the spirit filled our mouths and we were able to help him. Hma richards pulled john 16:21 out of nowhere...and it made him cry and he was like thank you so much. Anyway, maybe you had to be there. haha but the spirit was SO strong. And we were really able to help him and teach him...not a lesson. Also, it probably is most likely that he is a member but we were able to help him as a member while teaching him as an investigator. Pretty cool. I haven't stopped smiling since. I love missionary work :)

oh! also something really funny that happened was that last night when we taught daniel, we start out speaking spanish to practice certain voacb things. THis week we were supposed to talk about our families. So i had our fam picture and was trying to tell him taht my two sisters are pregnant but I accidentally conjugated my verb wrong and said WE are pregnant. hahahaha so he was like, you're pregnant? haha no!!! it was super funny though. Especially since the word for prego is embarasado...so usually people mess it up by trying to say they are emabarrassed. I was aware of that. I just can't conjugate :) good times.

I'm glad you got my pictures! I'll probably send some more a little later. As I'm sure you can imagine...I take a lot of pictures :) I'm glad curtis and whitney have such a cool house! It will be nice to have a yard. Utah houses are so great. But you already know that. Yay for the car staying in the family!! I love that car. and ashley and brent. These are good things.

I love you so much. I hope everyone is doing well and doing good things. If you listen to the holy ghost he will guide you to people who need your help.

ole.

Love,

Hermana Ross

p.p.s. My life is full of typos right now. Plus as i learn more spanish the more my spelling goes down hill. all of the times I made fun of people (sorry curtis) for not being able to spell is coming back to bite me in the butt. I can't spell prophet correctly at all anymore. It always is spelled with and f now. profeta. crap.

This week was so jam packed of awesome. First of all, conference was BOMB. Being in the MTC makes conference like a million times better...and it was already pretty great before :) but it is just cool to be here watching conference. It is a pretty special place. Also, I think maybe this is the first time in my life that I really got something super significant out of every single talk. Man, it was so good. Plus, because there was so much conference we had a super chill weekend. One of my favorite talks was Elder Bednar's talk about revelation. I've learned so much about the Spirit since I've come here...I know I always had the spirit with me before but I don't think I truly understood the power that comes from using the gift of the holy ghost...which i've had for 13 years and I'm just now using it to it's potential. We got the most beautiful snow on sunday.

So...something funny about the mtc is that you kind of will go crazy if you can't laugh at things. Or find dumb ways to entertain yourself. I'm sure every rm in the world knows what I mean. Anyway, our district is super great and after conference on saturday we invented a game called bear n a ball...and it consists of a hot pick bouncy ball and a paper cup. you want to play don't you? hahaha it is the simplest game of my whole life but it is SO FUN! we even create a bracket when we play. haha it's the best.

Did you get to watch the special about the mtc in between conference sessions? maybe it was just in utah? ksl did it. But it was pretty cool...and totally the story of my life right now.

As far as spanish goes...it did help to have my little high school background. But...it still isn't like i'm super far ahead of anyone. Also, any success that I have had in spanish has not come because of me. It is because of my calling, my amazing teachers (hermanos Gillon and Willardson...we have the best teachers in the mtc. for real) and because of the spirit. Otherwise I couldn't do any of the things I do. We taught a lesson in spanish yesterday that went really well. It was the first lesson that I left feeling really good about. It was really exciting :) I was so happy. It was Brittany, one of our progressing investigators (played by my teacher...but it is so real. not role play at all)

Also this week...we lost three of our elders :( two of them, Elder Jensen and Elder Monson left for the Guatemala MTC on tuesday. It is so exciting for them but a sad loss for us. Elder Monson was my favey. Then last week, Elder Ball got a new call and a new district because of health issues. That was a way hard loss too because he is hilarious and such a good missionary. But it's also pretty cool cause his call got changed from chile to richmond, va which is where his companion in our district is from and where brittany (our investigator) lives...so he's already got some sweet contact hook ups. We are excited for him. So now we have 5 hermanas and 4 elders. That pretty much never happens in the mtc! It's so crazy! We got a new district in our zone yesterday. Two of the elders are going to malaga :) no hermanas in their district though. lame. So now there are 5 in our zone going to malaga. I'm the only hemana I know and there isn't anyone in my district going to spain...they are all going to california (grandma's mission!) idaho, or chile.

the food....gets old. but there is food EVERYWHERE here. I've heard stories before...but I had no idea.

my hair is scraggly 95% of the time. I get to straigten it like once a week and I feel really fancy when I do. It's all about the little things here :)

I love you so so so much. I hope everyone is happy and doing well. I pray for all of you individually everyday.

I can't wait for the kelley baby :)

olé.

Love,

Hermana Ross

p.s. i take adam´s advice to take naps on pday. it´s the best.