The rain is Spain does not stay mainly in the plane!!!!  :)

Paige Walton	5:12 AM (6 hours ago)
to me, Tyler, Elliot, Whitney, Luke

Hey Fam! 

Well, it was a raining and windy week here in Badajoz. Winter in Spain mean wet season, which mean a whole lot of rain. There hasn´t been a day in the past few weeks that is hasn´t rained a little bit, and then there are somedays where it´s just a huge down pour. And then throw some wind in there, and I´m talking huge gust of wind that depending on which way you´re going you´re either being forced to run or it takes about twice as much effort to walk forward, and it gets a little chilly here lately. haha, we´re thinking of going and investing in some rain boots today. But the weather here is a little crazy. You know me and rainstorms. I´m usually really excited about them! But when you have to be outside in it all day walking around and your citas fall through and there´s nothing else for your to do, it´s not quite as fun as I remembered it being, haha. But that´s ok. We´re getting through it. 

Anyway, so let´s see what I can tell you about this week. Well let´s start with Tuesday. We had a good cita with Gladis, and then at the end she told us that she picked up a new job, so she´s basically working 12 hours a day and doesn´t have any time to meet with us now. So that was a bummer. We then walked outside to terrential rain and tried calling Fransisco to see if we could get a cita with him. He told us that he´s getting another operation on his leg and that he doesn´t really have a desire to meet with us right now. So there went another investigator in the space of 30 minutes. Meanwhile we´re out walking in the rain to teach this little family english. When we got there, the mom looked at us and then ran to get us some dry pants and sweaters and socks so that we could put our skirts, socks and shoes on the heaters and try to get them a little more dry. After that we looked outside, and very hesitantly decided to brave the storm. That was quickly changed when we went outside. Our umbrellas were useless because of the wind, and we were just soaking wet and had nothing to do for the rest of the night. And after the day we had, losing all of our investigators, we went home and called Hermana Deere to get some mommy advice and just let all of our frustration out. We definitely did feel a little better after that.

Oh and by the way, Maria wasn´t progressing or reading, and we really didn´t feel like she was going anywhere, which after 2 years with the missionaries is kind of a bad sign, so we dropped her on Tuesday too.

It was a rough day, but we tried to keep our spirits up as much as we could. We were blessed on Thursday with a new investigator. Her name is Fernanda. She´s spanish, Catholic, and seems almost golden. We´re very excited to work with her, and we´re extremely thankful for the blessing that she was for us this week.

On Friday we went to Sevilla, again, for zone conference. It was fine, nothing special. But it´s always fun to see and talk to the other missionaries in our zone too. Then we traveled back that night and went to a members house. In Spain when the 8 year old members are getting ready to get baptized, the missionaries teach them the lessons. So we went to a member´s house to begin teaching their daughter, Carmen, the lessons. They´re awesome! I love that family. They´re definitely my favorite family here in Badajoz. It´s a mom (spanish) and the dad (mexican) and they have a 10 year old boy and an 8 yeah old girl. I just love them! They´re great. Then after the lesson they invited us to stay and eat pizza with them for dinner. 

Saturday we went out to a pueblo and spent the day with the cutest member couple! They are from England, so that was weird but nice to have a cita in english. And they´re adorable! They´ve been married for about a year now, and they´re younger. The girl is 24 and the boy is 25 I think. We had so much fun with them. We went with the elders too because the pueblo is way far out there and we can´t go very often, so when we do go, we all go. They made us some really good Phillipino food! It was so so good! Then we went home and made a whole bunch of cookie dough. We´re going to bring the members cookies and try to butter them up a little bit and get some references from them and get them much more excited and much more involved in the work. 

We had a cita with a menos activo family last night. They´re awesome! They have a very interesting story, but we´re very excited to work with them too. The cita went well and they invited us to eat on friday, so that´s always a good sign! The dad is from Congo and they´re going to make us african food which we´re both way excited about! So I´ll let you know how that goes.

What did I learn from this week? Even when life throws storms at you, you´ve just got to keep working. That´s all you can do. There will always be miracles and blessings at the end, but you can´t get to them if you don´t keep going and working. I´ve learned so much lately about the importance of the atonement and the love our Savior has for us. Everything He did for us, He did purely out of love. Why would we ever reject such a great love?

So yeah, that´s been our week. Haha, it´s rough, but there´s a lot of potential here too. We´ve just got to find it. Well I love you all lots. Thanks for your examples, support, and love. You´re the best! Talk to you next week!

Hermana Walton