Week 47

So, you should check out the mission blog this week! I made quite a few appearances.

One of the BEST parts of this week actually has to do with one of the elders on the blog. The picture of the two elders and one of them has a knife...well that is because elder Basurto "died" in the mission. And guess what, Elder Basurto is from Murcia! (ok, actually he is from Ecuador but his family lives here) and his name is Alberto. He is known for being one of the craziest/most obedient/hard working elders in our mission. So, hna capener and I knew that he was coming home to our ward so for weeks now we have been chanting alberto's name in our planning sessions. haha (but we really do! ha) because his whole family isn't baptized. and we want to baptize them. and want his help. Not to mention, we have been struggling pretty bad with our ward mission leader...and were ready for something new.

so this week...alberto got home!!! We were at his house the day he got home. haha sooooo excited!! and yesterday in church he got called to be our new ward mission leader! YAY!! it has been an answer to so many prayers! He even went contacting with us and knocking doors yesterday :) he's crazy excited to work. all the time. such a blessing for us. yay for alberto!

and he spoke in church yesterday and essentially told everyone that they are missing out if they aren't helping in the missionary work. and that's the honest truth.

mom told me about the ward fast you are doing for the mission work. That is so great!! It makes me so happy to hear it. The missionaries need so much help from the members. I know it because WE need so much help from the members of our ward. It is so much harder without them!! I wish I had understood all of this before my mission...but I just had no idea. Help the missionaries! Share the gospel! It will only bless your lives. I wish I could tell everyone that. Oh wait, I do. bhaha

Really though, I understand now how completely essential the members are. Everyone knows people. Everyone can meet someone new. It doesn't have to be scary...and it may be kind of hard. But missionary work isn't easy for anyone. Just have faith and love them...the Lord will help us!

Well family, I love you!! I hope you can think of someone who needs the blessings of the gospel that we have.

con amor,

Hermana Ross

Week 46

well, this week we had Hermana's conference!! It was the
BEST!!!! this picture is of me and all of the comps I've had in the field
(except for my trainer, Hermana Millán) Hermana sturgess, then me, Hermana
Woodward, Hermana Capener and Hermana Gibson. This picture makes me SO happy!!!
I love those girls. It was super good to see all of them. I about died when I
saw Hermana Sturgess...I've missed her! I've missed all of them. It was just
super fun. We reminissed on Ciudad Real. They caught me up to date on what has
happened there, and I let all of the hermanas who have served in murcia in on
the latest news. So many stories to tell :)
It was a 5 hour bus ride to get down to Málaga...but totally
worth it!! We left on wednesday morning and came back friday night. So, we
spent two nights of bliss in the mission home. LOVED IT!!!! loved the food, the
laughs, the jokes, talks, tears...you know :)

The last hermana's conference we had, I was with Hna Millán
and had only been in the field for 5 days! Basically, it was nice this time
that I could be with the native speaking hermanas too...it is so nice to be
able to communicate! We had so much fun. And learned a lot too :) on thursday,
each companionship had a topic to teach...so we all taught each other and did
lots of practice teaching and things. And we got to hear from hermana and
president clegg of course. Have I ever told you how much I love my mission
president? Everytime he speaks it changes my life just a little bit more. OH,
also, it was transfers. So on friday right before we all left, President just
announced it right there with all of us. haha

I'm staying in Murcia!!! yay! :) Hermana Capener is too.
Which means I will get to "kill" hermana capener in terms of the
mission. This will be her last transfer. It makes me grateful that it won't be
mine! But also, it means that I'll probably be in Murcia for a lot more time.
We'll see. The last three transfers have gone by so fast.

Speaking of not leaving Murcia, I am glad that I will still
have more time with Dima and Rosi :) but poor guys, they just got baptized and
now the trials are just being piled on them. Rosi's mom died yesterday...so he
is going back to bulgaria this week for the funeral. But, on saturday we
watched the Restoration video with them in the house of some members...we
watched it in Russian with spanish subtitles :) really interesting. haha It
made me think of Adam and Zach...and made me really grateful to be speaking
spanish! That language is buck wild crazy.

Other awesome thing from this week is today! Today we went
with the elders to Monteagudo! You don't know what that is...but I have wanted
to go ever since I got to Murcia so today we finally went! (I will send those
pictures to mom) It is a giant Christ statue that is on the outside of mucia in
one of the mountains. it was AMAZING!!! We had to get a bus to get there...and
then hiked up a huge mountain, then rock climbed a bit, then climbed un montón
de stairs...and finally got to jesus! We even got to touch His feet :) loved
it. It was so exciting to be there. We could see everything from up there.
maybe the coolest thing I've seen since I got to spain. So beautiful. I could
have stayed up there all day.

But then we RAN all the way down the mountain to catch the
bus again because we had plans to go to a mexican/american buffet. It was no
Aliante :) haha but it was nice to have some americanish food! It was the first
time I've had salsa in 9 months! Pretty exciting...not gunna lie. It was a
little bit of a district party because two of our elders are leaving this
transfer...elder melgarejo (our spaniard elder who is visa waiting) got his
visa and is going to puerto rico this week! So he went out with a bang by
eating a hamburger. hahaha

Well family...that's all for this week. I hope you are all
doing well! You are always in my prayers. I am loving life, loving the mission
and spain. I'm also loving the scriptures and the things that I have learned. I
know it is by faithfulness to the covenants that we have made that we can be
truly happy. And I'm grateful for Jesus in my life :)

Love you!!!

hermana ross

Week 45

ok...SUPER sorry about last weeks email. Definitely wrote it...but forgot again about the picture deal. So I just resent it to mom. Hopefully it worked this time.

So I had a couple fun food things happen to me this week! yay! I feel like everyone always wants to know about food...but the food here isn't all that crazy. or at least I don't think so. BUT this week I ate owl meat. Yep, it's true. It was owl meat in this like meat pastry thing. They like those here...it sounds sick...but it was super good! Turns out owls taste delicious. Also, Domingo, one of the recent converts in our ward taught us on tuesday how to make Paella! It was fun...and now when I go home I can make everyone THE classic spanish food. I eat paella at least once a week. But it's yummy so that's a good thing. maybe you can look it up on google or something.

Dima and Rosi are still going strong! :) The ward is doing wonderfully!! It makes me so happy! Dima already has visiting teachers and it's just been good. We hardly even have to worry about them on sundays because all of the ward members are talking to them. Talk about ideal! I love this ward. And Dima and Rosi. Even if I don't have another baptism for the rest of my mission...I will go home a happy camper. Everything would be worth it just for those two. life is good :) also, on saturday when we were teaching them, Dima told me, "Rosi, (that's my name) if I only live 10 more years or one more day, I will live with these principles for my life." She had just barely learned the word principles in spanish...haha but a sentence like that is music to a missionary's ears. They are the BEST!!!! The mission is full of LOTS of ups and downs...but right now is definitely a time of up. I love seeing how the Lord blesses us in the ups and downs. They are some of the hardest downs of all time...but the blessings and the ups outweigh it all. More than I could have imagined.

Remember that time when we had a couple weeks where new investigators just showed up to church? Well we have been having experiences like that again. It never ceases to amaze me how much the Heavenly Father loves us and answers our prayers. At church yesterday, one of the hermanos in our ward brought a whole family to church! I walked out of the relief society room and they were all standing there and Juan said, hermana, here are some investigators. So I said, ummm...OK! haha yes. :) totally ok with that. We have had lots of little miracles like that this week.

On wednesday morning we will be going to MÁLAGA!!! I'm so excited!!! We are having another hermanas conference and it's going to be so guayyyyyyyyy! It means, I will get to see all of my old companions and President clegg! Life doesn't get much better. We will be there from wednesday to friday. Essentially allll of the elders are jealous. but they get to do lots of other things that we don't. So I don't feel all that bad for them. Also this week we are going to find out about transfers. I'm praying that I can stay with Hna capener one more transfer (her last one) I don't want to leave murcia yet...but I also don't want to spend 8 months here. We'll see what the Lord decides :)

I have been reading through the conference Liahona issue (we get it late) and I have been loving it! We didn't get to watch the sunday afternoon session...and there was so much about missionary work so it has been fun to read. It is so cool that we have a living prophet and apostles of Jesus Christ.

Well I love you family! I hope you are doing well and that you have a good week! You are always in my prayers!

ole.

Hermana Ross

Week 44

(This is being posted one week late)

Hola!!

This week was AWESOME!!! seriously. It was an exceptionally great week.

First of all, we had a specialized training. I love every opportunity I get to listen to my mission president. We learned a lot about goal setting and keeping. I've decided that I need to be a goal setter for the rest of my life.

Second, it was dia de los Reyes. On the 6th they celebrate they day when the wise men came to see Jesus. It was bigger than christmas! The night before, there was like a straight up Macy's day parade going through Murcia. Or at least close to it. EVERYONE was there! It was insane. I probably would have enjoyed it more if I wasn't a missionary trying to get to a cita on time...but we couldn't because all of the buses were stopped and the main street was party central. Then on the actual day, we had a ward party and it was a blast! They have a traditional cake they eat..called Roscón de los Reyes. It is really delicious...especially since we dipped it in chocolate. yes. also, in these little cakes, they hide toys in them...but I didn't get one with a toy in it.

Then, on saturday, we had a BAPTISM!! yay! Dima and Rosi are so cute! They were soooo happy! and I was too. although they don't look like it in the picture...I don't know why people don't smile in pictures here. Anyway, the elder that is with us is Elder Forrest, our zone leader. He baptized Rosi because when we were teaching them, Rosi wanted to stop smoking (before we had even told him he had to!) and asked for a priesthood blessing. So, the zone leaders came and gave him a blessing. after that, Rosi stopped. He told us that after Elder Forrest laid his hands on his head...he didn't have a desire to smoke anymore :) and that was after over 30 years of it. He knew it was a miracle and so he wanted Elder Forrest to baptize him. So tender. Their confirmation was incredible too. Pretty sure Dima was crying for two days straight. It just never ceases to amaze me how much the spirit breaks language barriers. The ward is so excited to have them...and they are excited to go to the temple! :)

and now, today Hna Capener and I went to La Iglesia Fuensanta. Or in other words, this huge, ancient cathedral that is up in one of the mountains on the edge of the city. I have been wanting to go there for forever because I always see it from the bus. It was such a cool adventure. It was a baby hike to get to it...and then we could see the whole city from up there. It is days like this that I remember that I am in Spain. SO cool!! The history here is so amazing. Everything is old and like it should be in a history book.

It was kind of funny because there was a little souvenier shop up there and the lady was trying to figure out what we were and was like naming nun places to figure us out after she saw our tags. Then when we said we are missionaries she said, "oh...did you see the virgen when you came in?" Yeah lady, we saw your virgen shrine alright. haha my goodness. I really do love spain with all my heart. Actually, pretty sure there are a lot of things that I've gotten just so used to...that I forget that America doesn't do things that way. But that's fine.

The church is just oh so true!

Welp. I love you so much! I hope everyone is doing well.

con muchiiiiiisimo amor,

Hermana Casey Ross

Week 43

bahahaha oh man dad. I am crying from laughing so hard. that was so funny.
"I hope you have a week filled with pisos" means "I hope you have a week filled with apartments" hahhahaha :) yes. but appointments...would be "citas" no pasa nada

Happy New Year!!!
Best decision I have made so far this year: cut my hair. We went to day and cut our hair. So I just chopped it all off! I'm so glad I did.

Grandma sent me a few pictures of christmas (thanks grandma!!) looks like I missed out on TWO silly string fights (what the?) and the scavenger hunt...which is also always fun. and I saw mom's paper elves...so cute mom! But it sounds like everyone had a really fun christmas! We did too. and new years too. I've never eaten so much in my whole life though. The picture of us on the couch is of us, Josefina and her daughter Estefania on christmas. I love them!

New Year's eve (or nochevieja) we spent the first half of the afternoon eating with Dima and Rossi...eating like 3 different kinds of Bulgarian plates. It was so fun!! They are the best. Dima says she will come to my wedding. haha I wish. We found out that they got married after TWO WEEKS of knowing each other!! crazy! And they say things move fast at byui...my goodness. But now they have been married 28 years! They are fun. Also, we had to teach them tithing after we ate...and they just ate it up and said, where do we pay? :) love it. They are getting baptized this saturday....woot woot!

Then we went back to Josefina's house (where we were for christmas day) for the rest of the night. All 6 missionaries again and eating even MORE food. kill me! But it was a blast. The rest of New Year's was pretty laid back. We were sooo tired. So me and Hermana Capener went home and went to bed. We got in bed like right at 12 and just heard all of the fireworks :) then the next day at church the elders showed us the video of their new years celebration they had in their piso. haha silly string and all!

The tradition in spain for new years is that at 12 o clock everyone eats 12 grapes. One for every month of the year! Also, here, the holidays still aren't over because the 6th is el dia de los reyes! I know I told you guys when I called...but the day when the kids get presents is on the sixth....because the wise men bring them!

Good news. Remember how last week we went bowling for p-day? Well, for what I am pretty sure is like the first time in my life...I broke 100! haha yes!! and I even beat the elders. It was pretty exciting.

That calling is right up Curtis' alley!! haha that's good. How did your talk go dad? I'm sure it was great. That branch probably really appreciates someone else speaking in sacrament rather than them again :)

anyway....I love you!!! Have a good week!

con amor,

Hermana Ross