Week 35

Goodbye car.

That's ok. It was it's time. I'm glad to hear though that you are making the jeep even more chulo. haha speaking of chulo...I looooooved Adam's and Ashlynn's costumes!!! So awesome! She looks so cute in her pictures :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Natalie!!! I love you!!

Well our Noche de Hogar (fhe) that we had on halloween was a total success. We were so happy and everyone had a blast! I love this place.

So we had a super crazy experience this weekend. One of our investigators is Maricarmen...she is a friend of a member, spanish and catholic. Anyway, we have been trying to get her to church or do anything for that matter...and last week we agreed to go to mass with her saturday night and then she would come to church with us sunday morning (obviously this isn't something we do often...or ever really. I have been offered it before but it just seemed like a good idea with Maricarmen) The whole week leading up to it I kept feeling like we needed to bring a member with us. It just felt necessary. But, her member friend, Josefina was in Madrid. So we had to ask someone else....and it is a rather odd request to get from the sister missionaries, "hey so....would you be able to go to mass with us this saturday?" What? Anyway, we asked one of our most favorite members, Paula. Ok, so us, Paula and Maricarmen all meet up and start walking to the church which happens to be called Santa Maria Madre de la Iglesia...haha...awesome. And Maricarmen explains that her mass isn't the general mass, it is like a neighborhood other kind of mass? I had no clue what that meant. But we were there early so we sat in the back at the end of the regular mass and watched. I had been to a catholic funeral over the summer if you remember...and it felt the same. Empty. But I was watching all of the people there and thinking about how this is all they know...so for them, to come to church and just feel nothing (instead of stress, etc.) must be really nice. BUt, they have no idea that they can go to church every sunday and be FILLED! With joy and the spirit and love and all kinds of good things! Too bad it would have been totally inappropriate to go contacting :)

Alright, so it was time for the other mass...but it was in another room that was a LOT smaller and weirder. They had two rows of chairs all in a circle and this overwhelming mural thing of who knows what. It felt weird. There is no other word to describe it. Anyway, Maricarmen introduces us and it is obvious that we aren't super welcome (and the three of us were way past ready to leave) then one man asks us if our church is a roman catholic church. I thought that was a rather silly question. No. So then he said, oh but obviously you still believe in our head, the Pope. (obviously not) I couldn't lie of course...and I couldn't not answer. So...I looked at him and said, no. we don't believe in the Pope. But we do have a prophet. (I wish I would have said that Jesus Christ is the head of our church but...too late now) He got midly flustered. I wasn't trying to offend anyone. Anyway, some lady who was setting up flowers went off on some rant about the trinity and the virgen for a few seconds. They were some of the most uncomfortable minutes of my life sitting in there. Then that man came back and asked if we could come out and talk for a second. To make a really long story a lot shorter, they asked us to leave. They said that we needed preparation to enter into this type of mass....and said that there are some things that you just can't mix. He asked maricarmen to show us the way out. He was pretty rude. But, the three of us were relieved to not be in there anymore. We were soooo grateful to have Paula there. It was nice to have support. Not to mention she has a lot better spanish than we do :) Paula kept saying afterwards, Hermanas, God saved us! ha. and she is right :) Maricarmen didn't really know what to say...and felt bad. But it wasn't a big deal. In fact, Hna Woodward, Paula and I feel like it only strenthened our testimonies of the restored church of Jesus Christ. Especially after a fast and testimony meeting the next morning where I felt the spirit. I felt hope, peace and happiness :) It might seem kind of crazy, but I really feel like that moment was like a milestone for my testimony. I saw first hand the difference of a church led and established by men and the true church of God. I FELT the difference. I don't want this story to sound like me bagging on any other church...that isn't what I mean. I just KNOW that ours is the church of Jesus Christ! Literally!! It's so cool! We aren't trying to recreate His church. We have it!!! whoa! I love it.

Essentially, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the true church. I'm so happy to be a member of it. We have a living prophet and alllll of the truth! yay!!! :)

Well I love you family!!!

Oh, side note, in our english class this week I showed pictures of our family and one of the guys in our class, oscar, told me that mom looks like she could be my sister :) Everyone comments on how young and pretty mom is :)

Have a good week!

con amor,

hna ross

Week 34

I just learned a new word from your title dad. haha apparently aldea means village. You learn somethin new everyday.

Look at cute Hermana Woodward. I really like that picture of her. Also, transfers have come and gone and we didn't get a call. Yay for keeping the same companion!! I'm happy she is still here with me. Also, just so you know, the next transfers will come mid-december. Pretty sure I'll be here for that transfer too....hna woodward...maybe not. we'll see.

This week was a little bit of a roller coaster. Mainly the weekend though. Ok, so we have been working on changing the boundaries of the missionaries in Murcia because Pres wants to sent another set of elders here next transfer. Our mish is growing up so fast :) So...Hna woodward's area got cut in half. But that is fine, our area was huge before. But then on friday night we were told that they were going to split the wards and our area was going to be put into the elders ward. So essentially hna woodward and I would be changing wards and we would lose all of our investigators and have to start from nothing. again. This was pretty tough news...we were feeling like we are really starting to make progress, get to know everyone, have baptisms and see miracles...just so we could change again. So after crying most of friday night because I didn't want to leave the ward or our investigators....of course, yesterday it didn't happen. nice. So, I suppose it could happen at any time, but until then, we are just going to go on with our lives and plans and goals. Because I LOVE Murcia!!

For example, something cool that has happend to us recently: ok, so my second night in Murcia, we went to some cita that we were supposed to have...but they weren't there. So we just decided to go all the way to the top of the building and we would knock all the doors on our way down. The first door we knocked on a 18 year old girl named ariana opened up, told us that she is a little bit atheist (i still don't understand how you can be a little bit atheist...) but then let us in because she said she had just been watching the tv and some program about Jesus came on and made her start thinking about religion. Needless to say, I was sooo excited. So, we taught her a few times and it was going super great...but a couple weeks later she called to tell us that she wasnt't interested anymore. Suckerpunch. So we went on with our lives and work. But, just last week-ish, (about a month after we had seen her last) she called us back. SHE called US. awesome. and she wanted to learn more again. Obviously we were on board. Since then we have had a couple lessons with her...and we have been inviting the youth to meet her...and she is seeing what truly happy 18-21 year olds look like. It is so great!! She even went to an activity on friday with a bunch of girls in the two wards and had a blast :) nothing makes me happier than that.

We are going to mass on saturday. I'll let you know how it goes.

The weather is pretty great right now. It is starting to get kinda rainy but it isn't cold yet. But I realized this past week that I was like the only woman in the whole city that was still trying to wear my sandals. I just didn't want to let them go. Also, it was crazy...it was like everyone changed from sandals to boots and winter clothes all in one day. How do they do that? It was like we missed the announcement to change our wardrobe. Super weird. Super europe. I better get some boots or I'm going to start looking totally out of place. haha

Adam's costume sounds so chulo! haha that is so awesome!! We were going to dress up like elders tonight for our noche de hogar...but the costume part of our party got shut down. lame. but...happy halloween!! :) do you get to dress up at work dad? I bet everyone would rather have batman or nacho libre deliver pizza to them than a guy from pizza hut :)

ohhhh....the camry. that car has issues. also, thanks for sending the music!!!

Well family, I love you so much!! The church is true.

con amor,

hermana ross

p.s. Shout out to Rachel- will you send me sasquatch's address? I don't have his russia one and haven't heard from him. Also, I love you and I LOVEDDDDDD the news I got today :)

Week 33

bahaha ok...I think these were some of the greatest mom and dad emails ever. Dad I'm really proud of you for putting work away for a whole week! whoa! All I know is it sounds like it was awesome! and I want to go parasailing too :)

So...essentially the life of a missionary is the best. I'm so happy to be here. I feel like just about everytime I see president clegg he says "It's a great time to be a missionary in Spain" and it's so true! haha no, really though. And here's a fun fact for ya, neal a maxwell came to europe and said about the mission work: chile has had it's time, brazil is having it's time and spain will have it's time...starting with Spain.

yeah. that's cool. but also our area 70 guy told all of the mission presidents that we are opening that prophecy right now. It's a great time to be a missionary in spain.

Remember how I told you about how Luis just showed up to church on his own? Well, Hna woodward and I realized that other people could do that too. Sooo at first we were just hypothetically talking about how it would be super great if more poeple would just come...and then we started praying for it by the end of the week. And do you know what happened? 3 random new people just came to church. Heavenly Father answers prayers :) We had a super good sunday! It was great. I love this ward so much. Also, I gave a talk yesterday...the bishop told me that I was the first person he thought of to speak (that is...after the other person had dropped out and he could only give two days notice haha) but I'm pretty sure it was one of those situations where I needed it more than the people listening did. But giving a talk here in front of a whole ward is way more scary than in front of a branch with 5 members I decided. ha. But I spoke about our baptismal covenants and how we promise to be willing to take upon us the name of Christ. In preparing for the talk, I was able to study a lot about what that means. It is a pretty big charge. We promise to honor His name and be like Him. It is something we should think about daily. While at some point I will take of the name tag...the covenant still stands. And I promised that when I was only 8 years old! :)

Next monday hna woodward and I have planned a ward family home evening/halloween fiesta! Because we are american, we feel like we have to at least do something on halloween. It's kind of a new concept here in spain. Anyway, we are super excited. I wish we could have a trick or trunk...but...that's ok. We are just going to dress up and hope people come :)

So mom mentioned about how I would know what all of the poeple in mexico were saying...but sometimes I worry that when I go home the spanish is going to be super different. Spain has a lot of different words. Luckily, I spend a lot of time with south americans...but they kind of adapt to the spain way of speaking too. haha it will be interesting. Oh, and for the record for anyone who is curious, I don't speak with a theta. (I've had a few people ask me in letters)

This is our last week of this transfer. what? This one went by SO fast! Every transfer gets faster...it's crazy!!! I can hardly believe it. I am really hoping Hna Woodward doesn't leave...but it is a possiblity. But I finally am feeling comfortable with the responsibilities of being senior companion. It has taken almost a whole transfer to feel like I can do it! But with the help of the Lord, I can.

I know the church is true! The book of Mormon is oh so true.

I love you family!!! I miss you! Have a good week!

hermana ross

Also, Sarah Grate's birthday was this past week....I doubt she reads my weekly emails...but I'll say it anyway, Happy Birthday Sarah!!!

This picture is of us and blaze and luis!

the second one is mainly so mom can see what I made :)

Week 32

Yesterday we had a stake conference so we got to go to alicante. It was super fun because Alicante is like an hour away but most of our members don't have cars...so the ward rents a huge bus and we all drive there together! haha It was super great.

This week we also had a little specialized training (you can see our picture on the mission blog if you'd like) and it was great. I love every time I get to see president and hermana Clegg. They are seriously the best!!! I love president.

Also this week I am soooo excited because of Luis!! Remember last week how I said that we got free new investigator that just showed up at the capilla (church)? He is from Colombia and has a million questions. Well...now him and blaze (the member from africa that we found) are like best friends and we have had awesome lessons with them. I have loved seeing this week how the Lord brought those two men to our path within one day of each other...and they are both here to help each other. Luis is totally getting baptized. I'm so excited it's insane! There's a few things that makes a missionary's life really happy...or at least in my life this week: an investigator telling YOU that he wants to get baptized, inactives learning that blessings come after the sacrifice of paying tithing, and seeing love at home :) we had a quite a few lessons this week that after we left we were just like bursting of joy haha it was so great. I've never been so happy before just from something like knowing someone paid tithing. The Lord is blessing us a lot...in lots of little ways.

So...just something that I know is that Heavenly Father knows us PERFECTLY. He knows what we need in terms of blessings but also in terms of trials. He gives us trials to prepare us for bigger things. But everything depends on our obedience through these trials. If we are willing to be faithful and maybe make some sacrifices, he will answer our prayers. Or...we can choose to get upset. and stay that way. I know He loves me. He prepares all of us for bigger and better things. Listen to how cool my mission president is - :)

"Every time we yield our will to Christ's, I believe that something divine happens within us. We become more and more like Him. He is our leader and He will prevail in this world. When we learn to apply our whole hearts unto Him, something happens within us. Through His atonement He begins to change us. He not only helps us to see our potential, He helps us understand that it is all possible. He doesn't just forgive our sins, He shields us against them. He helps us understand and have faith in the glorious blessings He has in store for us.

I believe that when you read the scriptures and survey the lives of the noble and great ones of previous gospel dispensations, you are not reading the lives of the extraordinarily talented. You are reading the lives of the extraordinarily OBEDIENT. They all started with no greater advantage or genius or strength than most of us. Somehow we view these men as prophets from the time they were born, where in fact they arrived at that point through countless sacrifices and countless events in their lives where they "...yielded their hearts unto God" (Helaman 3:35)."

Also, this week we have had an even bigger emphasis on the Book of Mormon in all of our lessons because we learn more and more how amazing it is. The Book of Mormon literally can answer any question or any doubt that we have! It is so cool! READ IT!

And we found out that there is a big zoo in alicante where you can ride elephants. I want to go.

Week 31

well. i guess i'm 22 now. whatevs.

I got my package the day before my birthday :) It was super awesome! thank you family, grandmas and friends for all of the birthday love! My birthday was super great! In the morning the elders ran over on all of our morning run to deliver the letters for me that got sent to the mission home so I could get them on my birthday. such nice elders! nothing like letters to brighten a missionary's birthday :) and as you can see, I chose to eat chowmein on my birthday! yes. I don't know who's idea it was to send me that but it was genius. Also, Mariela, our investigator that got baptized last week made me a cheesecake and they sang to me in spanish and english! haha it was so fun. It was just a super good day. Now today there is a joint bday party for me and one of the other elders with the jas (young single adults) so that should be fun too. I don't know that I really used my birthday power that much...maybe I'll use it today at the party. Except it is elder corradi's actual birthday...no importa :)

One of the coolest things that happened this week was saturday we were out walking to the bus station when this black guy came up to us and asked us if we speak english. duh. and then he told us that he is a member of the church and has been praying for a way to find the church here! and then he saw us :) so cool. He just got here tuesday and is going to live here 8 months because he is teaching english. He's from the Ivory Coast and has a really great british accent. Anyway, that was super fun for us. He doesn't know spanish so we were a little worried for how he would do in church...not understanding anything...but he was a champ. It was testimony meeting of course so he came and asked me if I would go up and translate for him. So I went up there with Blaze (yeah. that's his name) and he bore his testimony in english while I translated it into spanish. It was kinda funny. Everyone loved it. The whole ward just loves him now even though he can hardly communicate with them. It is really amazing how much of a bond the gospel creates.

It did kind of make me realize how I actually do know spanish. when did that happen? It's the first time that I have really had to translate for some one. Also, did you know that Elder Scott does his own voice over for conference? I have been telling our members because it makes a difference to be able to hear their real voice.

Also, we were blessed with another miracle yesterday. We showed up to church with Blaze and there was a guy there named Luis who told us that he is an investigator and just moved from Almeria. and he lives in our ward boundaries. Hello free new investigator yo! It was crazy. Such a blessing. You know, sometimes we do all we can to find people and search for the people who are prepared and then after all we can do, the Lord just places an electo on the church doorstep. sweet.

So something random that I think will interest mom is that we get gigantic cockroaches here! It is so sick. they come into our piso. They are like mississippi/africa sized ones. Like last night we had one and there was quite a bit of screaming and running around with a can of cucaracha spray. no bueno. We didn't have bugs like that in ciudad real...I think it is because we are so much closer to the ocean here or something. I don't know.

ok...I have to comment on some of these things. winco in vegas? what? that's the best! hello gummy bears. also, mom, you would like to know that one of my favorite things about Hermana Woodward is that she is totally fine with christmas music in october. we were so meant to be friends. and nixon is SO cute!!! He looked so handsome for his blessing :) that's so great. and I LOVE the story about caden :) and I learned from natalie today that genny is going to byu-i!!!! awesome!! it's the besht.

Well family, I sure do love you alot. Good luck with all of the new babies and potty training stinker babies. Have fun on your cruise mom and dad!

con amor,

Hermana Ross

Week 30

Happy birthday little baby parker!!!

Oh I love my family. I miss you all. I thought about you too during conference. But I try not to think about it too much...it sounds like caden is growing up so fast! i miss him.

So Saturday we had a baptism! For real this time! :) Have you ever heard of Murphy's law in relation to the week before a baptism? ha. yeah. But it's ok. Mariela got baptized. That's all that matters. She is great! I'm so happy that I could be here for it. I wish I could claim her as mine...but she has been an investigator for over a year...and I showed up just at the right time! It was such a great baptism. Watching her go under the water made everything so worth it. (that is her 2 year old daughter nataly :) in the picture too) Oh also, the musical number was me and two elders singing I like to look for rainbows. None of us can sing. It's fine....it went fine. Everything's fine. haha

I'm so excited for birthday power! I'm not sure what I'll do with it...I'll probably do some contacting :) we'll see. Maybe I'll get crazy and teach some lessons. Do you think birthday power works during a lesson? Maybe I can birthday power people into reading the Book of Mormon. awesome.

Conference is the best. I didn't want it to end. I lovvvvvved it! Plus our bishop is so great so he set it up in english for us. It was like heaven being able to sit there and listen to apostles of God for hours...in english. Also, I got to watch priesthood session! bahaha It was my first one :) but to be honest, that one was one of the sessions that I felt was most directed at me! Because there was so much about mission work. I may not have the priesthood but I do have the same call the elders do. Anyway, conference was incredible. I didn't get to watch the sunday afternoon session because it starts at 10 at night here....how was it? (also something kind of funny about it being in english is that every once in a while one of the members who knows some english would come in and listen to it for a bit in english and then ask us questions in broken english. It was like an english class or something. haha but then it made me realize what I must sound like to them...haha oh jeez.)

One of the repeated things it seemed to me this time was the scriptures. It is so important that we are in our scriptures everyday. The will tell us EVERYTHING that we must do. What more could we ask for? Also, something I loved was actually in the relief society session from Presidend Uchtdorf. He said that we can't forget the "why" of the gospel....when we understand why we comitted to making this a part of our lives, it stops being a burden and starts being a joy, beautiful and sweet. We are trying so hard here to help people see the why and to help the members remember why. We need good members who remember the "why" and who are willing to love others enough to share it. After all, we learned that "perfect love casteth out all fear"

Also, there were so many messages of our relationship with Heavenly Father. Reminders that we are His children and that He loves us. That we matter to Him. I think that's so great :)

Well, I'm so glad you had a good conference weekend too...now we just have to act on what we have learned! I'm so grateful to be a missionary. I love it everyday!

I love you so much!!!

con amor,

hermana ross

Week 29

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CADEN!!!!!!!

(and dad and whitney!)

I love you!

I hope everyone took full advatage of their birthday power! haha that story made me laugh dad...that is awesome.

Ok first of all, I'm really stoked to see that natalie has really been getting into the cupcake spirit :) those are SO cute! also...I like how Ashlyn's flower is bigger than her head. haha so great. I can't wait to kiss those little babies.

So here I am in MURCIA!! getting transfered is crazy town. This has been one of the most stressful weeks of my life. hands down. It was SO hard to leave Ciudad Real!! I didn't want to leave at all. Last monday we had a noche de hogar (FHE in spanish) with the branch combined as a going away party for me and hna gibson so that is what the picture is of. So I kind of think that for a 21 year old girl I've moved around a bit even just with in college and things....but those were some of the hardest goodbyes of my entire life. It was so sad. I just don't know that I will ever see them again. It's sad. But I love that place. I felt so much love from the members there....and we had such a fun district. Somos La Mancha!!! :)

But, now I am in a WARD! my mind is spinning from trying to remember everyone here. I'm used to going to church and being able to say hi to every single person there with in 5 minutes :) But I'm really excited to be here! Murcia is a pretty big city (at least compared to Ciudad Real...but not like Madrid or anything. maybe you can look at a map) there are two sets of elders here as well...which is kinda fun too. I'll probably be here for a while. Speaking of which, here is my new address...use it!

C/ Acisclo Diaz 7, 2a

30005 Murcia

España

My companion is Hermana Woodward. She is from Spanish fork ish utah and has one less transfer in the mission than I do. So...I am the senior companion. She is really great! I love her and we get along well. We are a super young companionship...so we are still learning...but it is also good because it means that we aren't set in our ways. We are ready to do things new and fresh! Also, we are having a baptism this saturday! Isn't that exciting? I certainly can't claim it as mine...but I will get to reap the benefits of a lot of other hermana's work :)

I am SO pumped for conference!! I can't wait to here the words of the Lord's apostles and prophet. Because of the time change, I don't get to watch the sunday afternoon session...but I will be watching the sunday morning session at the same time as you guys! :) I hope everyone goes to conference prepared with questions and hearts ready to hear!

3 Ne 28:34 our mission president told us that we should view the conference not as the church's conference, but as the Lord's conference. I like that.

can I just tell you something funny that me and hna sturgess were doing for the last week when I was there? Actually probably two weeks. It was just that funny :) we were making meat before milk jokes alllll the time. They kill me. It makes me laugh so hard! Maybe only missionaries will think this is funny but it is my favorite thing. We would joke about if in our street contacts we started out by talking about Kolob...or temple reccommends...or one of my personal favorites, the pearl of great price. haha "so we learn in the book of moses that adam actually was the first prophet. *start singing the prophet primary song* oh right, you don't know about the book of moses. ok, so we have three extra books. One of them is like from a mummy tomb...but wait, let's start with the book of mormon. Ok, so there was this place called Hill Cumorah and an angel told joseph smith to go find some gold plates..." maybe if you remind me when I get home I can tell you some of them. it's pretty fabtastic.

also...that's so crazy about those kids!! what hoodlums. and no...I haven't called wells fargo yet. I just can't seem to find time for it. It is such a pain. But i'm going to try and call today.

Well family, I love you so much!!! I miss you. I hope you have a good week and conference weekend! I can't wait for me and parker's birthday :)

LOVES!!

con amor,

Hermana Ross

Week 28

Hola!!

So as you know....I completed 6 months this past week! Crazy! Is the time going by fast for you guys too? It's a little ridiculous. But we celebrated by eating ice cream with our best friend member, Denis. Also, there just happened to be some kind of catholic church party thing going on for some reason...so we got to listen to some flamenco while we ate :) it was a party. Those guys have mad guitar skills.

ok so BIG news! Just like I said, I'm totally getting transfered. In two days i go to Murcia. WHAT? I knew I was getting transferred....but I hadn't thought of Murcia. Except, Hna Millán did always tell me that I just have the face to serve in murcia. whatever that means :) but it's crazy because hna gibson is getting transferred too! even though she just got here. she is going to cádiz. hna sturgess is going to stay here and train again. We weren't expecting all of that so when president called us on friday we could hardly sleep because we were freaking out. haha

I've only ever known ciudad real! so it is going to be an adventure. My comp will be hna woodard, the only hna in the mission that I haven't met. Also, I'll be the senior comp....what? but she is only a transfer younger than me. I really hope her spanish is good....or else it's really going to be an adventure. ALSO, as you know, ciudad real is teeeeeny tiny. Like, we had 12 members in church on sunday but in murcia there is a WARD!! I'm so excited! And they said that it is a really big city. There is three sets of missionaries just in the one city. That's crazy to me! The closest missionaries to us in the la mancha zone are an hour away. It is going to be sooooo different. But so good.

I am super sad to leave here though. I love love love this city and I love the people here so much. Not to mention...leaving Hna Sturgess is going to be the worst. I've spent every second of every day with her for the past three months. We have the same brain wave. I'm going to miss that a lot! a lot a lot.

This week just flew by because of the specialized training and p day being switched and all that jazz....so I don't have much to say. Sorry. All I can even think about is how I am leaving and have so much to do before wednesday morning! But yeah, I'll send you my new address next week.

I love you all so much!!! ¡Que tengáis una buena semana y os quiero muchísimo....pero muchísimo muchísimo!

con amor,

hermana ross

Week 27

Hi family.

soooo....sorry i forgot to tell you last week that we had a specialized training yesterday so my p day got switched to today. So thus the late email. But I have to say that the past two weeks I have just had an outpouring of emails and letters. THANK YOU to everyone so much! It is so nice to have so much support. It really makes a difference...and I really do appreciate it. I'm so grateful for the great family and I friends that I have! I love you all!

Today was SO fun! I know mom and my sisters have asked me if I do anything other than play basketball on pdays...haha and so today I can say yes!! Today I got to go see the molinos! (windmills) If you know anything about Don Quixote de La Mancha....you know about the windmills that are here :) and I've wanted to go see them the whole time....but they are kind of far away and closed on mondays (our normal pday!) So today the Cleggs were nice enough to drive us out to see them! They are the most famous windmills in Spain. In Consuegra. The zone leaders live super close so they drove out and played with us too! It was such a blast!!! So we saw all of the windmills, got to see how they work, took lots of pictures and also went inside the castle that is there. Oh ya know, no big deal, I just spent the whole day in SPAIN in a CASTLE on my MISSION. whatevs. That kind of stuff just never stops being cool. I took so many pictures. It's the first really like sight-seeing super spain thing I've been able to do...loved it!

Ok....so I had, or WE had, (because everything I do is a we...haha) quite a powerful experience yesterday. First of all, during our specialized training President said a lot of really cool things of course (have I ever bragged about my mission president. he's the best. no i'm not biased. but really.) and answered a lot of prayers for me. One thing he said is that when we bear our testimonies and feel the spirit, that is the Lord telling us that our work is accepted and that He loves us.

So later in the afternoon we had a cita with a really nice spanish couple. We were pretty excited for it and we got in and sat down and got to know them, you know...the usual get to know new people kind of thing....and found out that the man was an evangelical pastor. The evangelistas are known to be bible bashers. And it didn't take long before they were trying to turn our words around and trap us. He was actually really rude. And he said flat out right off the bat that he has read the whole book of mormon and thinks it is fiction. It was the first time that I had really been put into a situation like this. I mean, obviously I've met people who are against the church, or argue or rude or whatever...but never in teaching appointment in someone's house like that. And never in such a direct way. It was obvious the only reason he had invited us over was because he wanted to tell us we were wrong. His mind was already made up. I wouldn't trade this experience for the world. I can't even explain the feeling that was there. The spirit guided us so much. We were given our words. We didn't get upset, try to fight or even pull out a scripture to prove them wrong. It was so amazing to be able to look those people in the eye and bear my testimony with all my heart and have the spirit confirm at that moment that what I was saying was true. That the Book of Mormon is the word of God and that I am a daughter of God. And then knowing that being able to feel that way meant that my work had been accepted by the Lord and that He loves me. There's just nothing better. We left with nice feelings between us and them....and we just felt so uplifted and supported. Turns out this man has a history with the missionaries of course...but sadly I think he is more used to the missionaries giving a better reaction. I love being a missionary. I know this is Jesus Christ's church. What a great thing :)

well fam bamily, I hope you have a great week! I love you so much!!!!

olé

con amor,

hermana ross

Week 26

Hi dad!

Where do you get your spanish? is that coming from an online translater? Because....it's...totally awesome. haha

Welcome home Jacob!!! :) I probably definitely absolutely will be like that girl in your ward. I already feel it coming. I bet your lesson was really great dad! You should come here and teach in our branch too. We could really use more gospel doctrine subs :)

Ok...so one of the weirdest things that has happened to me so far on the mish was on saturday. But first you should know, if you don't already, that spanish culture is to give people a kiss on each cheek...rather than like a hug or whatever. So I kiss a lot of people everyday. haha except we only give the besos to women obviously and the elders don't do them at all. Just handshakes.

We were out and about looking for some references and then in one of the buildings we were in we just decided to knock doors (not something we do often...it is way easier for someone to shut the door on you than it is for them to walk away because I can just walk with them! haha) and the first person that opened his door was this really old, small man. We started talking to him and apparently the Jehovah's Witenesses had been by just a few hours earlier and left him some of their little magazine things that they love so much. He told us he is a widow of over 9 years and when we told him a little bit about the plan of salvation, he told us that his two sons talked him out of the thought of ever seeing his wife again. How sad. Also, this man was a little crazy...like not fully functioning enough for us to teach him for realsies. So, Hna Sturgess asked him if we could some in and sing a song for him. That way we can leave this man with something of the Spirit in his life...and maybe we could one up the JW's as well :) baha. Anyway, we went in and sang Families can be together forever and were planning on singing one more but as soon as we finished the first one he got up SO FAST and came right to my face to give me kisses. My automatic reaction when a man tries to give me the besos is obviously to pull away and tell him that sorry, as missionaries we can only shake their hand. But he just was so happy and excited after our song that he went a little crazy and kept trying to kiss me or more like attack me! He went a little crazy. So I had to completely push him away and just grab his hand and shake it. I felt bad...because he kept saying, 'I just want to show how grateful I am'. But it was really scary! Both of my companions stood right up when it happened and we just left. I've never had a 90 year old man try to kiss me before. awkward. Maybe he had never felt the spirit like that before...

I'm not sure if that story makes sense.

Anyway, this past saturday the temple president of the Madrid temple (my favey temple ever) came to La Mancha just to speak to our little district. It was so cool! We didn't get to listen because we had to be with the kids....but it was a really great experience for all of the members. The Moore's are really amazing. They are just so full of energy and happiness. I love it. They kept telling us over and over, You sisters are doing so great! I just can't imagine a better trio! This is the best work in the world isn't it? and it really is :) That temple serves people from so many different languages. English, portuguese, french, spanish, italian, russian...cool huh?

Actually, something really cool about spain and especially Ciudad Real is how we get to teach people from everywhere. I have investigators from Bolivia, Peru, Spain, Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico (not many of those), Colombia, Argentina, Uruguay, Romania and more! :) So we have been experiencing culture from lots of places. I love it.

Welp. The church is true. You are the best fam ever. Thanks for supporting me. I love you all so so so sososo much!!! Have a good week!!

Con amor,

Hermana Ross