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