Week 68

 

Madre mia.
Natalie is cupcake master! haha i love it!
Also, Happy birthday curtis!

Well, it was another wonderful week to be a missionary.
for real.
it's the best.

As you may or may not know, the Euro cup is happening right now.....and spain is all in a tizzy because they want to win so bad. haha there is nothing more important that football. But I'm excited because today I bought a spain flag so I can hang it from our balcony like all of the spaniards do. Every game night, the streets are totally empty and literally EVERYONE is watching the game. And we always know when we make a goal because the city basically erupts with cheers and crazines. haha campeones!!!

ok so this time I'm sending lots of pictures.

We've just had investigators and baptismal dates falling out of the sky these past few days. The Lord is incredible.
Also, we started up english classes here this week. It's so fun! I've taught english classes every week in my other areas...so we started it again here, and I had forgotten how much I love it! I love hearing them speak english :) it's cute.

So we are in the last two weeks of this transfer. President Clegg leaves on friday and the new president comes in...crazy! So he'll make the next transfers. But I'm pretty sure the two of us will definitely stay together.

ok....so I'm realllllyyyy sorry but I just spent too much time trying to fight with this computer to let me send photos I don't know what is wrong with it.

Anyway, finally got some!

The one with us holding toast is because we are teaching the son of one of our members and the first time we went he told us that he had cookies for us. And then at the end of the lesson...he brought out toast! haha totally dry with nothing on it. And a glass of sprite. haha I love it. It reminded me of nacho libre. Now he gives us each a piece of toast every time we go. so I snuck a photo :)

The other photos are of our trip to the alhambra. This is me in Charles V's palace :)

lame email. sorry.

Love you!!!!

hermana Ross

p.s. hey...have you heard anything about drew fisher on his mission?

Address:
c/ Ziries 1, 2A
18002 Granada
Spain

Week 67

Fun fact #1- Granada means Pomegranete. So, in Granada, there are little pomegranete details all over the city. On fountains, street tiles and light poles...etc. It's like the theme of the city :)

Fun fact #2- yesterday was father's day! I had no idea until yesterday when the american students said something...here father's day was in march. happy father's day!! I love you dad!!!!

So, some weeks I feel like there really just isn't a whole lot to say other than, hey, life is good...and I love you.

But then, there are weeks like this one where EVERYTHING happened. So where do I even begin?

Fun fact #3- we met an italian man the other day and had a conversation with him. He was speaking italian and I was speaking spanish. And we could totally understand each other...it was the weirdest thing. But really cool :) I've done that before with portuguese people....but italian is really close to spanish too.

On thursday we had the a big zone conference to say goodbye to President and Hermana Clegg. It was the saddest thing everrrrr. I cried a lot. But that was to be expected. They both spoke to us....we watched some videos and we went through all of the traditions that they have for the missionaries when they send them home. Like, hna clegg is making a quilt and has af the missionaries sign a square...and we wrote a little letter to them and to the new presidents. Also, we each had like two minutes alone with the two of them to say bye. Who would have thought that I could love two people so much that aren't even my family....and definitely wouldn't have even met otherwise. I'm going to miss listening to and learning from President! It was sooo hard to say bye. But they told me they will be seeing me soon. That part seems even harder though. Time is going fast.

Some of Presidents last words to us were, "we are leaving spain but we aren't done yet. We will waste and wear out our lives in the service of God because that's just who we are."

Today we went to the Alhambra!!! :) It was so cool. The four of us went and we spent all day there. It is ginormous and there is so much to see! This computer is being weird so I don't know if I'll be able to send pictures of is this week. But it was really beautiful. And so full of history :) It was cool because it was like half Arabic art and culture and then half spanish with a little bit of the renassaince. It was pretty much the greatest thing! I'll send pìctures next time. Mom asked me if Hermana Roderick likes sightseeing and stufff. She does :) she wants to see all of the pretty things just as much as I do. We had soooooo much fun today!

This week we had sooo many ups and downs in the work. But all of the downs are swallowed up in the joy of the miracles. We found a spanish girl miraculously this week. The elders had given us a future....and set up a cita with them. We got to it kinda late and they weren't home (and turned out to be wrong) but when they weren't home we just decided to knock all the doors in the building and so from there, the first door we knocked was this girl. Her dad had just died and she told us that she is angry at God...but let us in :) And at that point... we were struggling. Not finding anything or anyone. But, the Lord pushes us to see our faith...and then answers all of our prayers. The girl's name is Leticia and she is soooo great! I'm excited about her.

So that is all I have time for. Sorry it's lame to have no pictures. But...if you go to the blog, you can see our zone conference! :)
ALSO, important fact. my zip code is actually 18005. NOT 18002. Pretty sure everything will get here fine either way bc hna roderick has gotten some letters....just so you know.

I love you family!!! Especially my favorite dad in the whoooooollleee world!!! :)
Being a missionary is the best.

amen.

Con amor, 

Hermanica Ross

Week 66

This week was the feria in Granada. It is called Corpus. So...that comes from Corpus Cristi. Which means the body of Christ. But, naturally, the festival has lost basically all of the religious significance. haha It was kind of crazy town. But it was fun. It wasn't quite as drunken as some of the others I've been to...but also this city is A LOT bigger than my last areas. It was fun though because everyone dresses up in flamenco dresses to go to the feria. Loved it! Here in Granada it was mainly the little girls...all of the little girls and babies had the super bright flamenco dresses on with matching jewlry and giant flowers in their hair. It was basically the cutest thing I have ever seen! We got to see a little bit of the flamenco dancing too....but not a whole lot because we were working...claro! And we kind of tried to stay away from the party. But that meant that the rest of the city was basically deserted! It was crazy. School was out half of last week because of the feria...but everyone goes to the fair grounds.
But this past week in Granada has been one of those like wake up moments where I remember "whoa. I'm totally in spain right now" haha sometimes everything just gets so normal that I kind of forget and I'm just working and living. But, Granada is so beautiful that I remember on a daily basis how cool it is to be here! Plus we get lost on a regular basis...but end up finding pretty things in the city! haha
This week we are saying bye to president and Hermana Clegg :( thursday we are going to Málaga for their farewell zone conference party. I'm sooo sad. But it's ok. I'm sure their grandkids are going to be really happy to see them!
So, this week we have been doing a lot of contacting again. But, we've been blessed! So much! One day last week, we spent basically the whole day out in the street....with not a lot of success....but then on our way home, we got a little lost (as usual) so we asked a lady for directions and then ended up talking to her about the gospel a little (duh) and we went on saturday to teach her, her husband, and her two teenage daughters. That's right....a FAMILY!!!! We are so excited for them. The mom's name is Elena. And we feel like she was sent from heaven. I hope they feel the same way about us :) blessings blessings

We have a ward here. So, the elders are in the same ward as us. Actually, the two of us gave talks yesterday. Saturday night late, the bishop texted us to tell us that we had talks on sunday. haha I looked at hna roderick like, "welcome to the mission!" ha. But we were grateful for the opportunity to talk to the ward. We have such a great ward! I love them so much already! And we have lots of eating citas this week....so we'll be able to get to know them better. Not going to lie, it's been weird meeting new members after being so long in Murcia (and I do miss them) but it has been a lot of fun! People tell me their names and then I sneakily write it down in my agenda....because there's no other way to remember! haha

Also, on saturday, we went to Santa Fe. It is a pueblo in our area and we have some people there that we were trying to visit. But it was cool. It is the original santa fe....but it made me sing the newsies song while I was there. haha but I guess that is where christopher colombus got his permission from the queen....to go discover america on accident. So they have tons of christopher columbus stuff and really cool old buildings :) haha oh and this picture is in santa fe. we took pictures by this statue because we were really excited to see a statue of jesus!

That's about it i think....I love you! I hope you have a good week.
Have fun at girls camp natalie!!!! have fun with the dutch oven dad! :)

LOVE YOU!!!

hermana ross

c/ Ziries 1, 2A
18002 Granada
Spain

Week 65

GRANADA IS SO COOL!!!!
this is a picture of hna Roderick and I in front of our piso with all of our millions of suitcases (as you can see, I am traveling in style with my Mercadona bag)
We got here wednesday afternoon. It was sooo sad to leave Murcia...and Hermana Nelson. I already miss having her as my companion. She's just the best hija anyone could ever ask for!
But the change has been good. It is rather refreshing to be in a new city with new things to see and people to meet. The city is incredible!! It is soooo pretty! And yes, it does have a lot of history! It's pretty exciting. It was the last moorish kingdom in spain...and there is still a lot of influence from it. We are hoping to go to the Alhambra soon. It has certainly been an adventure! I'm used to knowing every nook and cranny of Murcia...but Granada is HUMONGOUS! for real. And we only have half the city....but our area is still crazy big. But that means we have lots to work with! We are loving it so much.
Ok so, it is like Murcia where we share the city with the zone leaders....the only difference is that Granada only has one ward. So the four of us are in the same ward. But having them here has actually saved us a lot because they already know the members and stuff We are working on it :) poco a poco. Yesterday was super fun to meet the ward and see the capilla (it is the stake center...so it is also ginormo. I feel like with every area I go to....everything just gets super sized! haha) The members are so excited to have us! they were all coming up to me to tell me how excited they are and talk about how it has been so long since they have had hermanas. Our ward district leader is a rockstar. Recently returned missionary....kind of like Alberto! except spanish. But I told the ward on the pulpit yesterday to expect miracles. That's what I'm expecting!

Hermana Roderick is from pleasant grove utah. She was hna nelson's comp in the mtc...so this is her 3rd transfer. We get along really well...so I am happy to be with her!

We are trying to figure out the whitewashing business. Because it is such a big area....we've just been contacting a lot. Most of our members live in little towns around the city. So we've been throwing down solid 5-6 hours shifts of contacting. But I like it :) It's been really fun! And we even had a little family that we contacted on friday, come to church yesterday! Bendiciones!

Something kind of funny though has been the piso. It is DEFinitely an elder piso. We got there and there's like random little toys everywhere (who has time for that?) and there wasn't a single bowl in the whole kitchen...yet they left boxes of cereal and milk. What have you been doing elders? eating cereal on a plate with a spatula? haha I wouldn't be suprised. I've gotten a pretty good kick out of all that :) But i know the two elders who left. They are good boys and good missionaries. They have seen some really cool miracles in the past couple weeks. In fact, last sunday they had 2 miracle baptisms that got our mission to make the goal of 50 baptisms in may! I guess President Clegg told them that he doesn't know why this change was happening bc they are doing so well....he just felt that it was what he needed to do. And he did say that the ward seems to miss having hermanas...and that was true!
Also, we've been meeting tons of Americans! It's been so fun! I LOVE the spanish people....but sometimes it's just a blast to meet some american kids. Some of them have been contacts in the street but also there is a big group of kids from Southern virginia university to study spanish...so of course they are all members and will be coming to our ward every week!

I love you family! Thank your for your love and prayers!!!

LOVE YOU!!!!

Hermanica Ross