Day 520

hey yall so first off all. Elder phillips mom hasnt gotten back to him but im guessing we are going to keep it on the normal time and do it at 5 o clock spain time and i think that will be around 9 o clock your time. haha so we can just do that and keep it the norm .. its weird because its going to be the last time we talk until i get home. its going by so fast. so tomorrow is tuesday its my 17 month mark and i have 6 months left . the last leg of the race to speak. haha lots of work to do and a crazy ride weve been on. i still cant believe what has happened to me the changes and the blessings and miracles that have happened to me and us the last 17 months of my life. its weird to think we are already here this far and all the stuff that is to still come and happen. Well this week was good we had a good training with the president and his wife and we have a lot of work and are looking for more still haha. its weird how that works but its the life. we are having fun and making goals and working towards those life is good. i feel like our investigators arent really going anywhere but we are in that . we are looking we are contacting and knocking but there is this agency factor that just gets in the way and its frustrating but we are learning. haha we are helping our mission is having so many miracles right now its amazing we are excited. well this one is short but life is good. we will let you know soon about the time . ill let you know by next monday for sure. so keep it open as much as possible haha love you all!! keep smiling!

day 513

This week was a good week. transfers are always crazy haha because i have to do everything it feels like because my comp doesnt know anything or anyone. which is fine we did a lot of teaching which is fun. i guess. haha. we are just doing the stuff that we need to be doing. trying to get people to come unto christ and helping others do the best that they can in this life. i have seen so much on my mission and i feel so sad. that people choose to live the lives they live and not accept anything better. but its what they choose all we can do is offer it. there have been tons of miracles. dad asked if the girl on the blog was the girl i was asking about last week. it was. and yes that was us sewing as well haha. lets just say its a good thing that people dont stare at the hemming jobs and that they stand in a tank of water haha it wasnt our best job it was more of a lets get this thing done and on the road haha it was really a powerful experience though.

Well this week should be a good one we are just trying to get people to do stuff. but no one wants to so we feel kind of .... i dont know frustrated. ive been trying to figure out what it means to live up to your potential. i feel like people have said that to me a lot but... then its like i never thought much of it just trying to do my best, but seeing people here i just look at people and its like ... you have a good life but you could have a better life just give up smoking. haha AHHHH sometimes i hate agency but when people dont do things that we ask after they say that they will do it it kind of makes me think of like me... when the lord asks me to do stuff and i say ok and then i dont do it. just a lot of learning experiences. life is really good. i cant complain really its easy we get a lot of stuff done for us and we just focus on helping other people we are trying to find ways of getting over being rejected so much. english is getting hard to type and stuff. i speak so much spanglish and spanish haha it just is weird. we have the americans in our ward and i cant translate for them cause i forget words in english haha. its just funny. anyways ... may is coming up. mothers day is coming up. aka skype day is coming up. we will get details as that comes up closer but just start getting ready cause as you all know it will be the last time we talk and you hear my voice and i hear your voice until i get home. just keep that in mind . love you all have a great week!

Day 506

ok. soooo last week i didnt have much to say but this week. i hope i can get it all in! that said. holy cow! first of all. lessons are being learned over here on my part and from what i hear over there as well thats good, things are going really welll. lets just start off here. Transfers are happening wednesday we got called. i havea curse now of only being with someone for one transfer haha. its a joke though Elder Geest is leaving Alcalá he was a great comopanion and we got a lot done. The Elder that is coming is Elder Phillips, now if you go all the way back to the mtc. he was one of the kids that was in my room then. he was in my district and stuff so we are really really really really excited to be together. he is a great missionary and really fun so news to come with that.
alright so lets get to the miracle. yesterday we had this lady come to church we have been working with her since i have gotten here. she contacted the missionaries and there is a lot of .... trials with that. mainly she is just scared out of her mind that after baptism she will go start sinning again so we had a meeting with her last week and she said on sunday she would give us date to get baptized. The other elders in our district had a baptism last night and we took her too it so that she could feel the spirit and stuff, we have taken her to like three other ones as well. so at church this lady sat by her who is really bold and was like why dont you get baptized tonight?? i mean we can go fill up the font right now. haha and she was just like noo... thats weird. Well we went home and we were kind of talking about it we were worried that we would lose her so we called the other elders and were talking with them and they were like yeah go for it . suprise baptism! that would be the best! haha so we got elder geests clothes. Thanks to having a loving mother and sisters i hemmed them by hand for him (they look great) haha and we got all of the stuff ready then we started talking about faith and in moroni 7:33 and christ says if you have faith in me ye shall have faith to do whatsoever thing that is convinient to me ( bad translation im sure i only know it in spanish) and so we talked about our faith and we got down on our knees and said lord this is possible this is your call we are ready for whatever. we got on the bus and asked her if she wanted to get baptized and we said why not tonight? and she said ok. so we got there and had the interview she was really scared and nervous and the other lady that was getting baptized was like why do you want to get baptized? and our investigator told her and she was like perfect i cant think of any other reason and just so you know im more nervous now than i was for my wedding. so we got her baptized last night and it was a really really cool experience and we were so happy and the spirit was so strong and she is amazing and she will get confirmed on sunday and it was a really cool testimony on faith and how when we do all we can (even if it causes us to poke our fingers multiple time with needles cause we dont have a machine to hemm pants) that the Lord is willing to do the rest and touch the hearts of the people. there are many more miracles coming our way and we are getting in to a lot of doors and with a lot of people. Thanks for all you are doing i love you all keep smiling and keep being happy and enjoy the blessings thats who we are! love you!

Day 499

hey so this week was good we met weird people we are just trying to do what we always do. life is good we are having a district p day. we are going to go to the nike factory today and look around and then go bowling haha we are excited haha. Semana Santa was better last year than this year cause we were in a city and now im just in a pueble but its still pretty crazy haha they just worship idols and get drunk and then say they beleive in God and everything so we say let us share a message about him and they say no. its been frustrating but life is good we are happy i guess. we are going to have a day full of contacting this friday its turning into a real big project im kind of really excited to just have a whole day of just contacting. i think too many people get caught up in teaching and working with people that arent progressing and wasting time. but we are excited. life is good. friday will be a big day. this last week not much has happened we found a guy that has a ton of potential we are actually really excited for him. i dont have much to say this week. be happy be healthy and we will talk next week! love you all! haha keep remembering who you are and what you stand for (for mom)

Day 492

SSSSSSSSSOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO... im super tired. haha i feel like i always am and even when nothing is going on i feel like there is always tiredness around me. This week was a rough week it felt like we did a lot but we just got failed a ton and a ton. it kind of felt like a week where we did missionary things not necesarily missionary work. Which is hard to seperate the differnce but i dont know. anyways. Conference was amazing i had a great time listening to the Apostles and Prophets. I had Tons of questions and it seemed like they all got answered in the first session hahaha so we wrote more and have recieved tons of inspiration. we are learning a lot about the atonement . we had a sweet experience last night after conference, one of our investigators Linda iwas there with us at the sunday morning session (which really was at 6in the afternoon) and we gave her a paper to write stuff down she ended up writing down 4 full pages of inspiration and things she liked, right after she said she had way too much to work on to get baptized, she has been hiding a couple doubts from us and we have been trying to get them out, fasting and praying, so we just didnt leave her alone until she told us. 10 at night on sunday on a park bench the truth came out and now we can really help her progress, she has been struggling with some stuff for many years, we were able to get her to understand how important prayer is in her life and how through christ all things are forgiven, it was a really spiritual experience and super powerful to see that mighty change of heart that is talked aobut in mosiah, we were walking home and talking about the day as a normal activity and i told Elder Geest that the thing we just witnessed and were a part of will probably be more powerful and more gratifying and special than any baptismal ceremony that we would be a part of for the rest of our mission. So many people get caught up in the baptisms, that, in all reality. isnt something that we can control or promise will happen with anyone. i think that people need to be more focused on the repentance adn the willingness of using the atonement of christ in our lives and in the lives of others. Elder Geest told me that one of his questions that didnt get answered in the Conference was about the Atonement, there were many talks about it and there will be many more but i feel like its one of the things that you can hear all day but until you experience it or see the works in the life of another person it doesnt have that lasting impression. Like President Monson has said in the opening of the conference if there is anything that needs to be changed in your life change it. if there is anything that you need to do, Do it. there is nothing more important than the Gospel and the atonement is the center of that gospel. Have a great week. i hope a big egg laying rabbit comes around to greet everyone and give some chocolate haha i will be trying to not get yelled at or have rocks thrown at me or anything while semana santa goes on.. it started yesterday so news to come on that. Have a great week love you all!