Hermana en España: Happy Thanksgiving!

December 1, 2014

First I want start off and say....Guess where I'm sending this email? Not a locotorio like usual! A house! Well an apartment of some of the temple missionaries (the Waites) who invited us over to eat Thanksgiving dinner with all the temple missionaries and now we're getting babied. Emailing on laptops and everything! The people here are so wonderful!

This week was fabulous! It was missionary week here in Alcala and all the seminary students got their calls to their countries and everything. Then they also were able to go out and help the missionaries this week as well. Awesome! So incredible! We have such wonderful youth here! One of the mornings we also woke up at 5:30 (versus the normal 7:30 we wake up at) to go talk to the students in seminary.

My miracle this week: Came in the form of a bus. When we were going to the seminary Tuesday morning we were a little behind. The buses don't run very frequently in the mornings and we waited for our bus for 30 minutes, there were 5 more minutes left before we were supposed to get there. I was panicking. You know how much I hate being late (huh, Dad;) ). So I said a prayer and I looked up from saying it and boom! The bus was coming right around the corner!

My regret for this week: Man I wish I had stuck with the piano. Thank you Rachelle Holbrook for doing your best. I can read the notes, but having my fingers play them would just be so nice right about now. Every time we go anywhere with a piano I immediately start practicing!

My sharing moment: Mom, I shared that missionary CD you sent me with a lady in our ward whose son is leaving in a week or so to go serve his mission in Ogden, Utah and we listen to the "We Want To Thank You Mom" song when I brought it over to her house. She cried. I cried. We all cried!

Our Thanksgiving with the temple workers today brought our grand total of Thanksgiving dinners to a solid FOUR. Holidays are so much better on the mission. Except the missing family part. BUT... I wasn't even homesick on Thanksgiving day! We ate with all the 4 companionships and 2 matrimony couples in Alcala and right after we ran to an appointment. There wasn't even time to be homesick!

CPoE: This week the crazy person of Espana is me. Yep... we were chasing down this man who we thought was our 11 am appointment and finally I hollered his name "Immanuel!" He turns looks at us (at this point I've realized he's not our investigator), and says "How do you know my name?" Us: "......O.o......Uhhh we've got a very important message for you. Can we get your number and share it with you one day?" It worked! Booom!

Investigator: J. He's awesome and can meet with us as often as we like almost! Lemme tell you how much I love that! He's got some awesome questions too. He's from El Salvador and is attending the university in Alcala right now and I am sooo excited for him!

I love you all soooo much!

Un besito,

Hna Finch

PS....Annnnd we decorated for Christmas! Yay!

So, McKenna's Mom here. I decided to start asking 5 questions a week that McKenna can respond to. Just to help us here at home get a better idea for what she is really doing on her mission. I love that girl, but for being an English Sterling Scholar...she doesn't really say much!

1. What has been your biggest challenge this week?

Biggest challenge this week...well ya see....It's been super rainy lately and I had bought some boots a couple months ago and they've been great, but they aren't really holding up with all this rain and walking so the soles and tops have started to separate and let just say that the water hasn't just been staying on the streets. I got so sick of wearing wet boot (and we haven't had time to go buy new ones that I've started wearing my flats again). So it's been a little cold the last week, but hopefully sometime during medio dia this week we'll be able to go get some rain boots.

2. Where do you do your shopping for groceries?
Most of our shopping for groceries we do at Mercadona. It's kinda like Joe's back home, just with Spanish food and the makeup section is huuuuge!!!!! There's also cute little fruterias everywhere that have a bunch of fresh fruit and veggies. I still can't decide if the food there is FDA approved or not....

3. What is the most common food you are fed?

Most common food....right now it's cocida and I can totally see Grandma Schmutz making it. It's basically chunks of meat and bone and garbonzo beans and noodle thrown into a stew and cooked. Also Spanish tortillas. I've got the recipe and I'll try to make it for you guys when I get back from my mission. But if you don't wanna wait I bet you can find a recipe for it online too!

4. Do you set your alarm clock or wake up on your own? What time do you get up?

Since there's four girls living together right now...First Hna John's alarm goes off 5 minutes early and then mine goes off right on time at 7:00 and we go to bed at 11:00. Later than we could stay up on school nights, but oh how I wish we could sleep in later! In the summer we would wake up at 7:30 and go to bed at 11:30. Almost midnight!dnig

5. What do you love about where you are living?

Alcala is bomb. Seriously! This is the most amazing area! It has a ton of history and isn't just some new city, but it dates back to the time of the Romans! There are plazas with stories of how the Romans beheaded 2 children who wouldn't deny God and the Cathedral here holds their decapitated skeletons. There's also an arch bishop or bishop or something in Alcala and there's only a few of those all over the world so that's another thing I need to do some research on!

Merica!