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Paige Walton	Apr 28
to me, Elliot, Tyler, Whitney, Luke

Hey there! 

So we had a really good week this week! We had our district meeting here this week and the ZL´s were there too. They were so sweet! They wanted so bad to help us get something going here, so the entire district meeting was helping us. We asked our ward mission leader to come and help us out and the ZL´s did President´s lesson for getting references that we learned in special training conference a few weeks back. It went surprisingly well and we got some awesome new references. After that we were walking the Cáceres missionaries to the train station for them to head back to their areas, and there was a man that stopped us in the street. He apparently had been contacted by missionaries before and wanted to know when we could meet with him. So we have a cita with him this week and we´ll see how that goes. 

After that we traveled to Sevilla. We had intercambios (exchanges) so we had to meet the sister training leaders in Sevilla. I went to Jerez with Hna Cameron and Hna Herrera stayed in Badajoz with Hna Anderson. It was nice to get out of Badajoz for a little while, but I missed it a lot more than I thought I would. I was good for me to recognize that I do still love this place. So we got to Jerez at about 9 that night and still had an hour and a little bit to go out and work. We were supposed to have a cita, but she wasn´t there, so we spent the rest of the night contacting and trying to find antiguos and menos activos. Then we went home to their piso to plan for the next day. I was sitting down, well in the process of sitting down, when a gecko scurries out from under the desk! Oh my gosh! It was huge! I´m really bummed I didn´t get a picture of it, but we were a little bit in shock. Haha, we had no idea what to do. We spent a good amount of time trying to get it out of the piso, but it was a big sucker and was super fast too. We finally got it out into the hallway and calmed down a little more. We decided to try to put it in a box and take it outside so it wouldn´t come back in or go into the neighbor´s pisos. We were trying to get it in when it escaped and ran under the neighbor´s door. Haha, woops! We quickly shut the door after that and started laughing so hard!

The next day we had a pretty good day. We had a few citas, but a lot of them fell through. We got some cool futures though so that´s always nice. There were a lot of miracles that happened in Badajoz while I was gone though which was so nice! That´s one of the best things about intercambios, they usually spark something good. 

On Thursday we traveled back to Sevilla and then back to Badajoz. That night we spent about an hour making phone calls trying to find some citas. Everyone wanted to meet with us, but at all the wrong times, haha. So that was frustrating, but we did get some good citas for this week, so that´ll be nice. Then we went to the house of a YSA member. She´s so cool! Her name is Betty, she´s from Taiwan and is here studying music. She´s a piano major and she plays incredibly! It was fun to get to know her better. She´s a really cool girl. Oh! We also got a really cool phone call from our ZL´s that day. There is an investigator that lives in our branch boundaries (even though it´s really not that close to us) that a companionship thought in Sevilla. They taught him lesson 0 and he accepted the challenge to get baptized. He´s really excited and we´re trying out best to find a way and a day to be able to go out there and meet with him. 

Friday we found some good new futures. We went to a house to knock a door of an antiguo investigator. When we got there, I realized it was the same house as an investigator that we´re trying to drop. haha, we decided to try it anyway. The antiguo turned out to be his mom, and we got to meet his sister too. They´re both really cool and I can see a lot of potential from them. Then later that night we were walking home and there was a group of 12/13 year olds walking down the street. One of the girls was  like "Hey look! Testigos! (Jehovah´s Witnesses)" We politely corrected her. As soon as they heard my gringo accent, they asked where I was from. When I told them I was american they thought it was the coolest thing and they came over to talk to us. They asked a little about the church and then told us "maybe you guys could teach us a little about your church someday!" Of course we said yes and got the phone number of one of the girls. 

Saturday we had coordination meeting with Dani, our branch mission leader in the morning, and then we had an eating cita for medio día with a family that lives like on the other side of the city than the capilla. I wasn´t feeling up to walking it that morning, so we decided to try the public bus system for the first time. ha, yeah, bad idea. It took an extra hour between waiting for the bus and actually getting there. Haha, yeah learned my lesson, even when I´m not feeling it, don´t take a bus for the first time if you don´t really know where you´re going. We got there just fine, but a little late. Then we had a few more good citas that night and then headed home. 

Sunday we had church of course in the morning, and then we had another eating cita with a member. So we got there as fast as we could, ate and then headed home. We then had a cita with Mariana and Marta, the mom and sister that we found on friday. It was an awesome cita! We´ll see where it goes. Marta, the daughter, is 22 years old and she really surprised me. She asked if she could say the prayer at the end (ok, someone asking to say it is a really big deal!) And then we had a movie night in the church for an activity right after that. We invited her and she without hesitation joined in. So we took her with us and she seemed to really enjoy herself. Thank goodness the other YSA members were there. There are a few girls of that age in our branch and they were all there and they welcomed her so well! I was really impressed. They even asked her to go out for a walk with them afterwords, but she had to be home. So we took her home and then headed home ourselves. It was a really cool day. Yes, of course it wasn´t perfect, but it was a pretty good day. 

This week we´re also doing something as a mission. We are doing a week of consecration and perfect obedience. We´re expecting awesome experiences and even more miracles to fill this week! I´m so excited! It´s been a while since I really felt like I was doing something here in Badajoz, but things are looking up again. I´m excited to have a week to give even more of myself to the work, and then test the Lord. I have no doubt that it´s going to be a great week! 

Well thank you all for your love, your prayers, your support, and your examples. Keep up the good work at home, look for opportunities to share the gospel, they´re there. It doesn´t mean you have to give a book of mormon away, just share a little part of your testimony with someone who truly needs it, and someone who truly wants to know. You´ll be blessed, I promise! I love you all! Have an awesome week!

Hermana Walton