She got the box

Hi Daddy.

Yes I got my box!! It was so great! Thank you sooooo much!! I loved it to pieces. It was perfect. It was exactly what I needed. In fact, with everything I would pull out of the box Hna Millán would be like, wow, ella sabe. Like, your mom really knows you well. Haha duh dude...she's my mom. So thank you thank you. I was dying for t shirts. It is soooo hot here. I have no idea what the conversion is...but it's like 44 celsius and they say next month it will be in the 50s what is that in F? Also...I think it's more humid here...but let's be honest, I can't tell.
Well, I had a pretty big week this week. The father of one of our members died (he was 100 years old!) So we spent some time visiting his family. People open up to the gospel when they've lost someone. And I went to my first catholic funeral...in spanish. haha it was interesting. Jose Antonio (from our branch) is the only member in thier entire family. The funeral felt cold and empty. And impersonal. It made me sad...and very grateful for the gospel and the knowledge that we have. It actually brought me back to last summer at Corey's funeral. I can not even begin to describe the vast difference between the two. Corey's was sad...so sad. but it was so full of the spirit and of good memories of Corey. I think sometimes we forget how much the gospel is our entire life until we really see how people feel without it.

Also, transfers are this week! But I get to stay put :) I'm glad. I think I could be in Ciudad Real for a couple more transfers...but at least for this one I will. Hna Millán is going to Cadiz. I am sad to see her go...I learned a TON from her. She's been great and is a really good missionary. But she is ready to leave cr so it is good. Plus Hna Sturgess is coming!!! I'm SO so excited for her to come!! She was my favorite friend from the hermanas conference. She's awesome. and tall and from nevada and a comm major at byui :) also, we have a mutual friend from byui (brittany large) so we both knew about each other before I got here. Yes! It will be good.

Yesterday, we both gave talks, taught sunday school and then primary. We literally taught all three hours of church. It was crazy. We were so tired. But it's because it is summer so all the members are out on vacation. We almost had more investigators than members!

Speaking of which, we had a new family at church yesterday :) they are friends of paulina (our invs. that was supposed to get baptized sat. but has to get married first) and they came to church because they have noticed how happy paulina is after coming to our church and wanted to see why...it was awesome! Almost all of our new investigators are from Paulina. I wish all of the members in the wolrd were missionaries like Paulina. She's so great. And she isn't even baptized yet! But she tells everyone about the church because of how her life, and the lives of her entire family have changed after she started coming and reading the book of mormon. The Book of Mormon is true. I love it more and more everyday.

Well family, I love you so much. I am so blessed. I can't even handle how much the Lord blesses me. A couple weeks ago we had a specialized training and President Clegg talked to us about light. We read D and C 50:24 and talked about what the perfect day is... but also we talked about how when joseph smith was praying, the darkness came, and then the light. In the same way, we often have periods of time in our life where it's hard, or feels dark. But then it is always followed by light. More light than we ever had before. We just have to make sure that we are always trying to add to our light...all our lives.

good stuff.

Be good. Have fun. Be happy. I love love love you all.

Con amor de españa,

Hermana Ross

June 20

hola paco.

I'm glad that card came with such good timing! :) I LOVE YOU DAD!!!! Happy Father's Day! I miss riding in the jeep with no doors or roof with you and I miss how you make me breakfast :)

Thank you curtis for your email!! That really means a ton to me. I printed it out so I can read it again and then I will respond next week. Also, please don't feel like you guys have to keep your emails short...believe it or not I love hearing from my family.

Ok, so maybe we didn't have a boda this week like we were hoping...but that's ok. It's all in the Lord's hands. So Natalie asked me about the branch and if we do a lot because it is so small and such. The answer is, yes. and no. We do work a lot on trying to strengthen the members of the branch. That part is a lot of fun. But they need a lot of strengthening. La Mancha (my district and a province of spain...look it up) is super small in the church just in general there are three other branches each about 30 min to an hour away and their branches struggle even more than ours does. The other week the branch president in the other branch told the elders that they are his counselors. (side note, in southern spain...the church is pretty strong. They have full blown wards) Anyway, we do a lot on sunday and with activities to keep things moving...but really, this branch is so amazing. They are few but they are a really great few :) Plus, because we are so small all of the members are excited about missionary work...because they really NEED it. It's really cool. (remember when we moved to utah and that lady was talking about how utah knows about missionary work but then she went to somewhere where they had to set up chairs? welcome to ciudad real)

I busted out my sandals today mom. It is so hot here. And I already have this super cute sister missionary shoe tan line on my foot...and some blisters too. haha we walk a lot.

Also, everyone always talks about the weird food they eat on their mission...so I'm going to do that right now. I actually haven't eaten anything too far from what I've had before...but I will say that one time when we were eating Paella (a very spanish food with rice and a bunch of random seafoods mixed in) which is good! I really like paella. But there were some bright orange looking fishy things...but I ate them. Until one of them popped open and I could see it's body or HEAD or whatever it was. But it looked sick. And I had to finish eating them anyway...even though I knew I was eating the little crunchy corpse inside. But I told Hermana Millán and she didn't believe me. But I think that's mainly because she doesn't trust me when I say, ¨I promise!'' because there was a week when I thought some of the members of the branch were praying to madre AND padre celestial. But turns out they just say amado in a way that I don't understand. Anyway...that's all. Not too bad. Oh but yesterday I ate the most delicious popcorn of my life. Spain wins at popcorn. Who knew. It wasn't like kettle corn. But it was covered in sugar...yes.

Ok...so now I have the quote of the week. Not that I usually send a quote but I am this time. This is from President Henry B. Eyring. His definition of consecration and committment to the work...

"I am part of the fellowship of the unashamed. The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I won't look back, let up, slow down, back away or be still. My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, and my future is secure. I'm finished and done with low living, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tainted visions, worldly talking, cheap giving, and dwarfed goals. I no longer need preeminence, position, promotions, plaudits, or popularity. I don't have to be first, recognized, praised, regarded or rewarded. I now live by faith, lean on His presence, am uplifted by prayer, and labor with power. My face is set, my gait is fast, and my goal is Heaven. My road is narrow, my way is rough. My companions are few, my guide is reliable, my mission is clear. I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, divided, diluted, or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of adversity, negotiate at the table of the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity or meander in the maze of mediocrity. I won't give up, shut up, or let up until I have stayed up, stored up, and paid up for the cause of Christ. I must go till He stops me. And when He returns for His own, He will have no problem recognizing me. My banner will be clear!"

Christ lives! I am trying everyday to be more like Him. I know this is His work. So this morning I was going over some of my notes from the mtc and one time a genereal relief society lady came and talked to us...can't remember her name right now. sorry. But she said, well, first read John 10:27 and then John 21:17 (I hope those are right...i've realized several times after I send an email that I sent the wrong reference) and she said, When we come unto Him, He feeds us. And when we are filled, He asks us to feed others.

I love you all sooo soo much!! and I miss you bunches. Be good. Every member a missionary :) The church is true. Olé.

Love,

Hermana Ross

June 13 letter

Dad...even though I can't talk to you and the family in person to laugh at when you mess up a word...it still makes me laugh when you accidentally type something wrong. Like how you took the bed up to curtis and natalie...instead of whitney. i don't know why that's funny. but it is. I hope I make lots of typos that make people smile :)

thinking of the boys staring at mom makes me laugh so hard. Pretty sure i used to do that in the middle of the night. haha

ouch. your ankle does not sound good.

it sure is good to hear from you guys every week. I like it.

So as for me...this week has been kind of weirdly laid back because Hna Millán has been sick. We discovered that she now has a very bad milk allergy. So I had quite a bit more study time than usual this week...but the work has been moving despite sickness.

Just on saturday we got Paulina to move her baptismal date up to June 25th so it would be before we have transfers. So we were VERY excited about that! Paulina is so great. But...the problem is that yesterday we found out that she actually isn't technically married to the man she calls her husband....suckerpunch. So after an emotional lesson about the law of chastity and a blessing from President Sanz, she has plans to get married within the next two weeks so she can get baptized. It's crazy. So before transfers we will have a baptism and a boda :) all because Paulina has more faith than anyone I have ever met before. good times.

OH also, on saturday when we were with paulina we were planning the program for her baptism...and so we told her there are the prayers and a musical number and someone speaks and all that good stuff. So when hna millán was asking who she wanted to do everything...she did the prayers first (i was thinking yes, I will give a prayer, that will be good) and Paulina says hermana millan and someone else for the prayers and then ME for the talk. I don't think she really understood what she was choosing me for....and it definitely should have been hna millan speaking instead...but it's me. I don't even know spanish. It's going to be interesting. I'm going to be praying even more than usual, and I already pray quite a bit to be honest. But, this week I have been studing faith. And everyday the scriptures teach me that I have to put forth my faith before the Lord can help me (Alma 32 yo) so basically, tengo la fe! haha No really though. I've been loving my scriptures. I feel like for my whole life I never really understood them that well...and suddenly it's like I just get it. And I love it! In fact I'm almost done with Alma and I'm sad because i loved reading alma soooo much. And I used to dread alma when I was younger because it was so long and I didn't get all the war stuff...but now I don't want to put it down. I'm learning so much!

I'm not sure who all reads my emails but this is mainly for my byu-i roomies from the fall...This week something kind of funny happened...we were going through the area book and cleaning it out fixing it up and such. And I was going through the old informes (uhh...I don't know what they are called in english...progress report?) and found a familiar name. Elder Inama! So family you don't know who that is but, there is a guy during the fall who used to be in the ward that served in madrid. So I talked to him about spain and he showed me pictures and told me that ciudad real used to be in the madrid mission but now is in mine and he served there. But I had totally forgotten about allll of that until I saw Matt Inama's name in our area book. Super weird. It made me laugh. He was here back when our Branch President was still getting recent convert lessons. (pretty sure it's even the same piso they had. so weird.)

Anyway...I never have enough time to write everything I want to. But I love you all so much! The church is true. That's all you need to know.

LOVES,

Hermana Ross

No electricity

hey fam bam

ah thanks for the pictures of Ashlynn! they are so cute :) she is precious times ten.

Sounds like it was fun having so many people there! That's great that they could all come. She is such a little miracle baby :) they have lots of cute baby shoes here and I always want to buy them and send them to ashlyn.

So this week, we had no power in our piso for two days. It was crazy. It was out from wednesday until friday. The office elder in malaga forgot to pay our bill....stinkin elder moss. haha. We did still have water though...good thing. But we had to carry all of our food that we could save and put it in the refrigerator at the church and then eat lunch there in the afternoon. And we just bought tons of candles and put them everywhere in the piso so we could see at night and in the bathroom. It made for quite the romantic setting...haha. Too bad we aren't interested in having a romantic setting...also we would come home every night and sing 'Jesus es mi luz' while we were getting ready for bed. We were searching for the things that we were supposed to learn from having no power for two days (it makes life a little more complicated..and we had to spend most of our time those two days running errands to get the bill paid and NOT doing missionary work) but really, they weren't that hard to find. First of all, Jesus really is my luz :) it didn't really matter if I was missing something like electricity or whatever other thing. I mainly just care about being a missionary. Also, some of our investigators actually noticed our absence :) sometimes the absence of light (whether spiritual or physical) makes you realize how much you need it. I've never been so happy to shower with the lights on before! haha

Good news, I could remember my cookie recipe by heart...so I set out to make cookies for the activity we had this saturday even with the missing ingredients and all of the other ingredients looking weird. And without measuring cups. It was quite the adventure. but of course I loved it :) and they actually weren't bad! Not like what they are in america...but pretty sure it was the first time some of those people had a chocolate chip cookie in their entire lives. So they didn't have much to judge it by. haha

Speaking of the activity, it was awesome! We had a distict activity so all of the ramas in the district of la mancha came...as well as all of their elders and such. And we had SEVEN investigators come from ciudad real. We were pretty darn excited. That's the most investigators this city has ever seen... and for once, our tiny little chapel was actually full :) It was super fun. We had a bunch of musical numbers, a couple talks (the cleggs grandsons from arizona were here so they were kind of the circus act. baha) and then lots of food. Plus all of the little kids got a little missonary chapa :) and our investigator Paulina (she is getting baptized July 2nd) told us last week that now she wants to get sealed in the temple and she wants her two little daughters to go on missions too! That made us pretty happy.

So essentially, things are moving...little by little!

mom, did you ever look up the family history? about hna clegg? pretty sure we're cousins...I just want to figure out how.

Also...something kind of funny about me and hna millán is our little language barrier...because she is still learning english and I am definitely learning spanish we spend all day going back and forth. Sometimes we'll have a whole conversation in spanish, sometimes in english, sometimes she'll speak spanish and i'll answer in english or sometimes i'll speak spanish and she'll answer in english. It's a little bit crazy. I'm confused 75% of the time :)

anyway...I love you all so much!!!!

happy blessing ashlyn!

happy sleeping in my room caden and jaxen! haha

muchissimo amor como siempre,

Hermana Ross

p.s. I'm sorry there's a few people I haven't emailed back because I didn't have time...but I promise it isn't because I don't love you