A Donde Me Mandes Iré Señor, A Toledo De Las Islas Del Mar....

September 28, 2015

Family!!! I'M GOING TO TOLEDO!!! Yay! Talk about a dream mission...Alcalá, Alcorcón, Tenerife, y ahora TOLEDO. I know my Heavenly Fatherly loves me! But first before I go off about Toledo....

I'm leaving Los Cristianos and my wonderful ward and people here Nothing like your last Sunday to make you miss your area even more. I love my people here. In this ward I have found: the most wonderful bishop ever (aside from Bishop Yardley of course) so service oriented and really wanting and helping missionary work succeed. I
truly learned what type of leader we should be from him. I found the woman most like my mom on the mission. Strong, faithful, and yep, tears up for most things too. Love you Mom! I've found the best "fellowship"er ever. One lady knew every less active member, their dog, and their birthdays and baptismal birthdays (this is not an
exaggeration). I've found the most giving woman ever, who always had a little gift for us almost every Sunday and spoiled us as if we were her daughters. I've found my Venezuelan abuelita. I've met the strongest examples of priesthood bearing men, each one having had to serve as branch president in one or another moment here in our little branch turned ward. And of course everything has its equal. With all the wonderful experiences and even better people I've had and met in this area, I also think I've experienced the most heartbreak in this area. Maria
didn't come to church today. She was the most invested investigator I have ever know. Of my investigators or any other missionary. Taking notes literally meant writing down whole verses. Learning family history meant researching and asking her anti-mormon brother for more details. Seeing her progress from just coming to English class to seeing her change to be the one correcting other members on the doctrine over 4 1/2 months was my miracle. I don't know what happened, but something changed. I thank Heavenly Father so much for our bishop
who invited her and us to his house to eat pizza Thursday since she wasn't responding to our calls. Yep that hurt. Pero bueno. The things we've taught her will stay. Maybe it won't be this year when she remembers how she felt, but she will. And when she does, she'll want it back, and more than having the missionaries being there
ecstatic to teach somebody so prepared. She'll have our wonderful bishop and his wife, our bishopric, the relief society president, and the members who will remember her. Who cared for her. For thank I will
be eternally grateful to this ward. 

Next up.....TOLEDO!!!! Ahhhhhhhh! Yay! Soo confession time. When I was in Alcorcón I went to Toledo. Twice. Haha. It is sooo beautiful! It is the old capital of Spain and I've actually got relatives there! Hey hey! Family history I am doing it... I mean yeah they were there in 589 ad but hey, relatives! Am I right?  It was the only city I knew of besides Madrid when I entered the field and my biggest hope was to go there. Well, maybe I didn't start there but I should be finishing there. So this is what's up folks. Toledo actually didn't have sisters missionaries before so my new compie Hna Cheret and I are gonna go in and open up a new area. Yay.... I'm all about trying everything, but opening an area wasn't ever something I wanted to do....haha. I'm not very good with rejection ( and when you open an area you contact obscene amounts and contacting contains a lot of rejection. But I
relying and trusting heavily in Ether 12:27 - "I give unto men weakness that they may be humble...if they humble themselves...and have faith in me...then will I make weak this become strong unto them." So basically this scripture=life now. This is gonna be great! There's already a companionship of elders there and the elder that's
not getting transfer called to invite us to a FHE Monday night with them. Thank heavens for those elders. So I least we'll know what we're doing our first night in Toledo. 

Onto....companions! I can't believe I haven't even mentioned the most important person that I'm leaving behind in the islands! Hna Turina. She's gonna be a trainer! Yay!!! So honestly I can't say that either of us have shed too many tears yet. She's so excited to train and I'm so excited to open up Toledo for sisters that we've both been bouncing off the walls trying to prepare everything. But I really am gonna miss this sister. Unless I end up going to Tahiti this will probably be the last I see her, which is completely heartbreaking. I have learned so much from her. All the strength she learned with the passing of her father, her unfailing patience (even when mine would fail), ease of talking to people when she contacts, and her love the she shows everyday in every way. She's great and I miss her already. I don't know too much about my new compie Hna Cheret yet, seeing as I still haven't met her. But here's what I do know. She's from Idaho and she's got 4ish months on the mission....I think. I have talked to her a bit on the phone and she sounds great, I think we're gonna get alone splendidly.

Hna Turina made me coronas for my last day. Yay islands!

The most beautiful sunrise I've ever seen in my life from the plane today.