December 28, 2015

Hello,

One question, what happened to the rest of 2015? I feel as though this year has just flown by!!

I can't believe it was just Christmas and that January is just around the corner, that's mostly because there's no snow on the ground. In fact it hasn't been very cold at all here. I'm still not wearing tights it's that warm.

It was a busy but slow week this week. With everyone on vacation half of our people haven't answered their phones all week. Where as there are are a few that call us every day and want to meet because they don't have family here. And then there are the extra amazing people that even with their own families they make us dinner, cards presents, and make us feel loved. It was a Christmas that I will always remember and treasure. I am so grateful for everyone that is here and everyone at home who helped me have an amazing Christmas.

This week we were really busy on Monday having lessons because our pday was changed to Christmas Day. It was cool and amazing how blessed we were that day because we had a lot to do. Tuesday was pretty cool because we had an investigator that's 18 come to an activity where we watched "The Best Two Years." That was fun to watch as a missionary! 

Then Wednesday I was able to go on an exchange with Hermana Toone! I love her, and the last time we did an exchange she was the sister training leader. Now she's tearing it up in Toledo and I was privileged to be able to spend a day with her. She's a great missionary that loves the Lord and wants to work hard. I'm grateful for her example and friendship. 

Thursday we switched back companions at the Christmas devotional we had as all the missionaries in Madrid. We had a musical program, a white elephant gift exchange and   We went caroling on the steps of the temple. It was great. 

That night we headed back home to eat at a members home and then make sugar cookies and sleep in our Christmas pajamas. On Christmas Day we opened our presents and then headed to the church for a district breakfast of pancakes, fruit and Christmas candy... 

Then the rest of the day we had a lunch appointment and then we Skype at the home of a member and then we brought our cookies to the house of a member who is a single mom of four and played with her and her kids the rest of the night. It was an amazing Christmas!

The rest of the week has been slow but I am so grateful for my area, my mission, and currently I am most grateful for my companion who loves me even when I'm not perfect and who makes this time here really special, this Christmas wouldn't have been as great without her.

I hope you're all ready to make New Years resolutions!

Love 

Hermana West

Hanging out with an investigator and recent convert in the 26th, she
made us dinner and bought us a Christmas present! She is the sweetest!

The Christmas devotional, hanging out with my favorite mission friends

December 14, 2015

It was another great week here in 3rd ward...

Except that I had a sick companion... She was hit with a pretty bad flu the poor thing. 

But like a trooper we were out most of the week visiting everyone. She did awesome with a body that was not cooperating. We got quite a few lessons in and feel happy with the week. She did infect me a little bit but a cough can't stop me!

Little miracle of last week was that we received a member reference from another ward and he is awesome. He's really interested and is willing to do his part. The only thing is that he is new to the area and doesn't know how to get around very well. So it's hard to get him to church because he is always complaining how he'll get lost, we'll have to take a good 40 minutes one day to teach him how to take the metro to the chapel.

This next week is going to be awesome, with 2 almost healthy missionaries there's nothing in our way!

I hope you know that I know we have a savior who loves us, I know he lives and I know that he was born so that we can live with our Heavenly Father again. 

Merry Christmas! 

Love Hermana west 

December 7, 2015

Well, this week was awesome! We had our friend Calixto get baptized on Saturday and he is sooo happy! It was a great service, one of the people that was going to talk was super late. So I wound up giving the talk about the Holy Ghost. It was cool because last year exactly at this time I gave a talk about the same thing at Loida's baptism. It was a cool experience to see exactly how much I have grown so n the last year!

This week was also transfers, the last one until February. We are staying together and are so excited and happy. The sad part is that they are taking out the other companionship of Hermanas in the ward. They're awesome and we are going to miss them. But it's cool because one is going to the islands and the other to San Sebastián de Los Reyes, they're going to love their new areas. At the end of the day I am probably the most blessed and happiest hermana right now. Seriously though I have an amazing area, a lot of work to do and an amazing companion that is helping me become better every day. I am so happy.

This week we had the leadership council, wow, it was an awesome meeting filled with the spirit. I really enjoyed it and I'm glad I was able to be there. One really cool part of the council was that every sister I started with was there! It was a blessing to be with all my MTC friends at the same time, we got a picture and it was just such a blessing! 

Another miracle from this week, we are teaching a young man that has a less active dad and a mom that is against the church. He is not allowed to get baptized because his mom won't give him permission. It is hard for him to get excited about doing church things but last week we had zone conference and president asked that we now make seminary and institute a priority for the people we teach, invite them, go with them, he knows this will help our friends a lot! So we invited him to go to seminary and he talked to his parents and has permission to go! I'm so excited for him, I think this will show his mom that he's willing to sacrifice for the gospel.

This week looks to be very busy as we are taking over all of the other hermana's people... I hope we'll come out on top!

Have a good week!

Love

Hermana west



My mtc group together again after more than a year!

We are a little excited for Christmas

Calixto's baptism

November 30, 2015

This has been another great week! Minus all the people failing on us it was a successful week, which is interesting because usually when people fail it isn't successful... But with all the people we have and good planning we did a lot of good things. 

This week we were able to meet some new people, they're great and I'm excited to work with them. They are both friends of members. The first one was a cool miracle, she was going in for surgery and her friend, a member, asked if she wanted a blessing. She said yes and this member has a non member husband who we are teaching right now so she called us to call the elders to go give her a blessing. So The four of us went and we shared a message about what blessings are and then the elders gave her a blessing of comfort for her upcoming surgery. After the surgery this week we met with her and taught her the restoration and now she is reading the Book of Mormon. Such a blessing.

The other new friend we have is a friend of another member who we met at an activity last week. We went to the member's house and taught him the restoration. It was a good lesson and the member is really excited about it.

We also had zone conference this week, it was really great and uplifting. We talked about how to work with members better . One topic that is new that was brought up is us taking our friends to seminary and institute. It is a great idea! We did it with our one friend who is getting baptized this Saturday and it was awesome. He loved it and met a ton of new friends! 

We had an amazing American thanksgiving feast after the conference. I was amazed, we are talking turkey, potatoes, cranberry sauce. It was phenomenal. I love Hermana Pack and I'm so grateful she was willing to do that for us. Hermana Larsen was also there working away, they are amazing ladies that cook REALLY well. 

The conference was on Wednesday so the actual day on Thursday our district did its own thanksgiving feast... It was great, we made rolls and pumpkin pie. We ate chicken instead of turkey but it was absolutely amazing.

It was an amazing week, we are getting ready for Christmas and the new video that came out on Christmas.mormon.org. I am so excited for the Christmas spirit, it makes talking about Christ easier.

Love you all, 

Hermana West 

Us cooking the pie and rolls

 District thanksgiving feast

 Madrid zones missionary feast

November 23, 2015

Well, another busy and amazing week. I am so blessed with the wonderful companion and area I have! 

This week we have been finding a lot of new people. We have about 6 new investigators whose wheels are just starting to turn. It is fun to teach them as well as a few people that are progressing and are on their way to baptism here soon. There are just so many people interested. In my old areas finding was hard but here keeping ourselves organized enough to contact the people as often as we should is the hard thing! I absolutely love it. 

This week we went to the temple and that was amazing as always! After the temple I went on exchanges to be with a sister in Toledo. Toledo is a very old city where the king of Spain used to live. It has castles everywhere and is very beautiful. It was a fun exchange to get to know the sister and also to see that beautiful city.

Oh ya have I mentioned that they called me to be sister training leader again? I had a break there for a couple transfers but I'm back at it again... It's fun because I get to do exchanges and have an amazing companion. 

Right now we have a friend of ours getting ready to be baptized the 5th of December. He is really cool and so sweet, he passed his interview because we were planning on having the baptism this week but they are having a stake dance in our chapel so we have to wait a week but he's excited and ready so that is awesome.

Another fun fact for the week... My companion is just about as obsessed with Christmas music as Hermana Trone was last year... So Hermana Marsh and I have been listening to Christmas music when we are at home. It's fun to bring the Christmas spirit and we have a lot of variety so I can live with it. Haha.

It's been a "freezing" 1 degree Celsius today.... Haha I tell people how cold it gets in Canada and they literally think I'm insane for living there. But I love Canada even if my American companion teases me about it... I'm teaching her how to properly use "eh" in a sentence.

This week we had an amazing meeting from elder christiensen from the seventy. It was so full of the spirit and amazing! I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was such a treat to have that meeting. It just gave me so many ideas on how to improve.

For pday today we visited Hermana marsh's old area. It was a lot of fun.

It looks to be a good week this week as well.

Love

Hermana West 

Pictures with the other 2 Canadians in the mission, Hermana Streibel
and Hermana Pilling. They are from Red Deer and Edmonton.

Also a picture with my cool companion, fun fact about her... Her
grandfather just happens to be Russel M Nelson as in the president of
the quorum of the twelve.. Ya, not intimidating at all...

November 16, 2016

Hello everyone!

Wow, what an awesome week! I just can't believe how blessed I am with
my companion and this area. I can't believe how much Heavenly Father
loves me. It's such a blessing.

Our area is very small but jam packed full of people to teach! I
haven't learned it very well so thank goodness for my companion
Hermana Marsh.

This week we had to do an exchange because we have to do them all in
four weeks in stead of six.

I am sosososo sorry. Something came up and we were running around all
day. Know I am good and love you all so much!

My companion is seriously amazing

Love Hermana west

Nov. 9, 2015

I am going to 3rd ward in Madrid! I am going to be with a friend of mine from the MTC Hermana Marsh. She is  from Utah and amazing! We are going to have a blast together! 

So the reason for the transfer is that it's from God but as well it is because they are going to have only 2 sisters in my old area. The ward was very sad to see both my companion and I leave but I know this is where I'm supposed to be. 

We had a great activity about nations on Saturday, us missionaries did a huge skit with all five of our nations. It was awesome... We played hockey for the Canada part of course.

This week was a good week, and I'm loving my new area and my new companion. I have heard nothing but amazing things from here so it is going to be great!!

I don't have much time because of unpacking and everything!

Love

Hermana West 

November 2, 2015

Hello 

Well, this week as exciting with three Halloween baptisms in our area. As you know we have been teaching Gerry who only speaks French. He was baptized on Saturday because we weren't able to find his records. So now we have all of the paper work done and he can get a calling and everything! We are excited and his Spanish is getting so great! 

This week we had a fun lunch at a members home with all ten of us missionaries! It was a lot of food and a lot of fun! I'm grateful we have amazing members that can help us and are so loving.

Today I went to the doctor and well, I had some sort of infection but it's not too bad! Anyhow, I now have a prescription for antibiotics and a cough syrup! Now I will for sure get better! Which is good because next week is a new transfer and I'll most likely get a new companion so now I can get better before my new companion comes. 

Today we also ate with a member this week, all ten of us in this area, that was fun. 

This week I received a really good email that helped me because well, missionary work is  hard sometimes. My favorite part goes like this "You will have good days and bad ones, take it all in stride and remember that even Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ could not convert everyone in the council in heaven.  They lost a third of the hosts of heaven and they were standing right in front of them." My heart yearns for these people that don't have the gospel. I know that God loves them even more than I do. I am doing my best to be God's hands and do what He would so that He will know I love Him.

This week promises to be good, here's to the work of the Lord! 

Love,

Hermana West 

Here is last weeks pday, shopping and eating at McDonald's...

When all 10 missionaries were invited to eat at a members home.

And our baptism, the larger guy is Alain a convert of 1 year and
smaller is Gerry who was baptized! They are both from the Congo and
did it in French!

October 26, 2015

This week was a good week. We have had a lot of success in meeting with our investigators that have been a little lazy in making time to meet with us. That was good.

We are meeting with a few less active families and well they're doing pretty well but one of them is moving to Peru. She has been pretty active lately so I'm worried for her and her kids but maybe them being there will be good for her to have a fresh start.

So... If we haven't heard this enough... I am sick, again! Oh man I am so done with being sick! I got a cold this time and have been coughing my lungs out since Friday. I'm taking medicine and everything but I think this one just needs a little more time to be healed. Oh well, just please pray for me!

Love you, sorry there's not much to report this week!

Love Hermana West 

October 19, 2015

Well, this week was great, especially because I´´m feeling great! Haha, it was just a bad 24 hour flu. Thank goodness I´´m done with that though.

Last Monday we had a sweet appointment with a future investigator all planned. The only problem was that it was going to be in his house so we needed a woman to accompany us. Well Mondays are a hard night to get members so we couldn´´t find anyone. The plan was to go anyways and ask him if he would mind coming down to do the lesson in a park. He wasn´´t okay with that so we rescheduled and left to find something else to do. 

About two minutes after this situation we ran into two young ladies from the Dominican Republic that are here studying. They are so amazing! They recently moved here and one of them has a grandfather that is a member! We met with her this week and she is really interested! I am so excited to see their progress.

This week we had interviews with president and that was good, it´s funny though because I see President Pack almost every Sunday. 

This week we have been preparing G for his baptism interview. Since he just has to be baptised because we can´´t find his records we don´´t have to do a lot but the language barrier is proving to be difficult. 

This week I was privileged to stay in my area on exchanges. Hermana Toone came to be with me which is so cool because she was in the MTC with me! It was fun to see her growth and learn from her because we haven´´t seen each other since the beginning of our missions. We had a miracle of a less active lady being home and available with her four kids. It was crazy in the house but Hermana Toone was just what they needed.

Yesterday was definitely the craziest though! We had stake conference in the building near the temple which is really far away from our area. Thank goodness we have the office elders that were able to give us a ride! We sang in the choir and that was really good and fun!

After we ate lunch we went to visit a less active of ours that is sick and took the elders so they could give him a blessing because his hip has been hurting. It was fun because they brought the ukelele and we sang a lot, the member loved it"

After that everything failed on us so, we were out contacting when suddenly it started raining really hard! We got soaked and stopped by a members house. She then insisted we get changed into her clothes so that we wouldn´´t get sick, it was funny because the outfit didn´´t go perfectly but I´´m glad we have people that love and care about us! 

I love you, and hope you have a wonderful week!

Hermana West

Stake conference at the building near the temple, we took advantage
and took pictures with our investigators and a recent convert. Also
our friend Hannah that is nannying in a house in our ward, she helps
us out a lot when she isn't working, she's great.

Oct. 12, 2015

Well, this week was a really good week until yesterday, I felt really sick and had to go home early from church. 

So basically I was in bed all day yesterday and well I at least made it out of my apartment to go shopping and now writing so that's good. 

We met a really sweet lady this week, she's half canarian half spaniard and is a bit crazy but she's cool and came to church! I'm excited to meet with her his week and bring her closer to Christ.

Other exciting things... It's stake conference this Sunday and I have to sing in the ward choir. Also my companion has to play the violin for it! Anyways should be good, I'm excited. 

Happy Canadian thanksgiving! I'm sure I'll celebrate American thanksgiving like I did last year so I'm not too upset I don't get to eat turkey today. 

I'm still really tired so I think I'm going to sleep for the rest of pday so I can get out and work his afternoon.

I love you and hope you have a great week!

Love

Hermana West

Oct. 5, 2015

Wow, general conference this week was amazing! I was able to watch all of the sessions except for the Sunday afternoon session. I was just blasted with the spirit and was able to feel at peace. 

This week a lot and a little happened. A lot because I got sick... It was a cold that got the best of me for 2 days but I feel a lot better now. Then after I was better we had district meeting with all 10 of us. It was great and I really felt the spirit. Afterwards we went out for Chinese food. That was really good but... That night my companion woke up at 3 am and started vomiting. That continued for all of Saturday until 6 pm when she was well sort of better and we went to the chapel to watch the Saturday morning session live. She probably shouldn't have gone but we made it there and home without any sickness!

But this week we did find a new investigator! He is really cool and knows a lot about the bible, he has a lot of promise and is genuinely interested. I'm excited to work with him more and I'm grateful for the blessing of having someone else to teach. 

This conference I think my favorite talk was the one by elder uchtdorf in the women's session with a parable about a girl and her great aunt. It was really cool for me to see the things he wasn't saying in the story.

I'm grateful we have prophets and leaders who guide us. I hope you had a great week.

Love 

Hermana West 

Sept. 28, 2015

Well, it's official I'm going to be in San Sebastián de Los Reyes another transfer with Hermana Harper. We received 42 new missionaries into the mission this transfer so almost everyone is training. It's going to be crazy and new for a lot of people this transfer but it's great!

We're really excited that all four of us Hermanas are staying here! We get along well and it's been really fun.

This week we were able to go to the temple! It was so great, I'm so grateful for the opportunity we have to do that. 

We've been having a lot of succes with the less active members we've been working with. They seem to be progressing towards reactivating. 

I have to tell you about G though. He is from the Congo and here in the refugee center. He is great but only speaks French and well that's it. He's learning Spanish and English right now... Here's to the 9 years of French I took, it's finally kinda starting to pay off. Haha not really, my French is horrible but it's good enough that I understand him. He's been a member since 2000 but was in Switzerland for 8 years really far from the church so hasn't been in a long time. We are reteaching him all the lessons and it is going great! 

This week is going to be awesome, we're going to have 2 more elders come into our area and that's going to be fun. I hope you have a great week. Love you

Hermana west

We got to go to the temple. All four of us are super close, it's a
great district.

A family home evening.... We were in charge of the lesson

Sept. 21, 2015

Everything is good, last week was a lot of fun. It was cool being. In the mission home for pday last week was really fun. This week we got to hang out with Hermana Larsen! We made sandwiches and banana splits. I love her, I'm so grateful I get to serve around her again. this week we had an open house of the chapel. It was well planned and great but no one came, not our investigators, no friends of members, there were only members... But it was only the first time. So, maybe next time it'll be better. This week we had zone training and that was really good. We went to a chapel in another town. Named Azuqueca. It is HUGE and it has pews... It was like being in a chapel back home. I loved it!  We found a former investigator that is now pregnant, I think with this change in her life she may be more open about the gospel and changing in regards to it.  It's been pretty slow here but I'm glad I get to be here.  Thanks for everything, I love you all! Hermana West

September 14, 2015

Alright, so this week is Hermana pack's birthday. (The mission
president's wife) She has to cook for all the leadership tomorrow so
we're here at the mission home helping out. She's awesome so it is a
lot of fun but I don't have a lot of time because we have a lot to do.

This week was really good. We have had a lot of success. We found a
lady from the Dominican Republic that is really nice. She has two kids
and has a lot of promise. She just is really busy so it'll be a chore
to find time to meet with her.

I love being a missionary. It's such a great experience and I'm
grateful I am healthy enough to do it.

Today is going to be a great day as a lot of my friends that are
serving in the north of Spain are coming in for the leadership
conference tomorrow and I'll be able to see them today as they are
going to work with us in our area.

I love the Lord and you guys, thank you for writing me every week and
supporting me on this journey.

Love
Hermana West

Sept. 7, 2015

Alright,

I apologize for not writing much the last couple of weeks, they have been kind of slow but I will write quite a bit now to make up for it. 

This week was an exciting week mostly because there were no festivals!!! It´s amazing how much more productive a week is when people aren´t constantly thinking about their parties! 

We had a great family home evening with a family from the ward. They have a six year old and a nine month old. It was fun to get to know them better and bring the spirit. One of my favourite parts about being a missionary is meeting faithful members in another part of the world.

Tuesday was a day of failed lessons... oh man, I just don´´t like it when people lie right to my face!!! It drives me crazy when people say yes I´ll meet you here at this time that day and then don´t answer my phone calls and don't show up! Oh well, that is my life.

We had a great zone conference this week! I think there are very few places where I have felt the spirit as strong as I have felt it at zone conferences. This week they talked a lot about working with the spirit and members. As missionaries we have numbers that we use to help us make goals. Sometimes being a missionary you can get caught up in the number game and forget your real purpose. I was blessed during this conference to feel at peace with the fact that even though my numbers haven´t been good recently I am doing the work the Lord requires of me. 

Hermana Pack gave a great talk about how we need to be full purpose missionaries, involving ourselves in all parts of the work of salvation. 

A quote I really enjoyed was "Missionaries are NOT marketers, they are builders of wards and branches." How true, really our message when people want to hear it sells itself, we are not here to put glitter on it and make it more appealing, our message is what it is, God and Jesus Christ love us so much that they have given us prophets and scriptures so that we can learn about the atonement of Jesus Christ and live with God again. 

During the conference we were also able to watch "Meet the Mormons."  That was a fun treat as I haven´´t seen a movie like that in a VERY long time! I really liked how it showed how the gospel helps normal people with normal problems, that gospel is for everyone.

I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior. That I can repent because of what he did. I mess up a lot but I know that I can be forgiven of my sins. 

I hope you all have a wonderful week back at school! 

Love Hermana West

Last pday we went to lunch with the other Hermanas, they´´re sso great. Brazilian buffet. Such good food!

August 31, 2015

Alright. This is going to be short and quick. Sorry I've been
struggling coming up with what to tell you it's been a slow week.

So With the festivals basically everything smelled like pee in the
streets... Really gross.

There were tons of people in the streets but they were either with
their family or drunk... So contacting wasn't very effective.

We did a ton of area book work and found some cool people, we have
appointments with them this week.

I went on exchanges and saw the running of the Bulls! So Spanish.

I'm good and healthy. Just trying to find new people.

Love you,
 Hermana west

August 24, 2015

The festivals are starting... And we all know what that means in a small town in Spain... A running of the Bulls!!!!! Haha no worries I will not be participating but the route is all set up with the fences in the streets. The whole town is getting excited to go to the fair they have set up right across the street from us! Also apparently on the Main Street they have a water fight every night at 10pm... Now our job is to avoid that area at that time this whole week! 

This week has been fun, really different from my old area but I like it! It's smaller here so I don't have to use public transport as much!! That is a good and bad thing, it's really hilly here so here's to getting back into shape!! 

I have been learning all of the people we're teaching here, one is a lady and her daughter who are just so great! They have been investigating a while but haven't been able to come to church the last few months. They came yesterday though so that is a great and sign that they're progressing. 

We are also teaching this lady who has a little daughter and is from Germany. She has been investigating a long time and is going back to her country on the 8th of September. She is so cool and I'm excited to work with here for the next couple of weeks.

This area is amazing, we have a great ward mission leader who is really helpful and the members are so willing to help us it's amazing! I am so grateful I get to be here and I am so grateful I get to be a missionary, I love seeing so many miracles every day!!!

Love Hermana West

 Me and my new companion Hermana Harper!