Tuesday, July 15, 2014

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Paige Walton

10:38 AM (23 hours ago)
to me, Tyler, Elliot, Luke, Whitney
Welp, yet another week here in Cartagena! It was kind of a rough week. We had a lot of things fail on us and we didn´t end up getting nearly as much as we wanted done. But that´s ok, we started this week with a lot of really great miracles! 

So last Tuesday we had a tri-zone conference with President Deere and a whole bunch of missionaries and it was so much fun! I got to see a lot of friends that I´ve served with before and that was nice. I got to see Hna Flake for the last time before she goes home. That was weird. I cannot believe she´s coming home in a few weeks! That was really strange for me. But it was also really fun to see her and to able to have her here with me during something so big as the experience of a mission. Sadly, I forgot my camera so I wasn´t able to take pictures with the people that I really wanted to, but that´s ok. I´ll see them after the mission. It was a really good conference though. We talked about "Dos Veces en Blanco" or Two Times in White and how important it is to get our investigators not only to baptism but to the temple too. Our work isn´t to get them baptized, we should fight to bring them the eternal blessings of the temple as well. 

I don´t know if you remember Pepe from last week, but we found him again this week and he didn´t actually leave and go home! He´s staying here for a while so we´re excited about that and maybe we can make something happen with him. Or at least get hime "active" in activities and things like that. 

We also taught a member family that I love to death how to make brownies. Surprise! They really do love them oh so much! 

We also picked up a new area to work in from the Elders area. We rearranged our areas a little bit and we picked up the old part of the city! They´re the best parts! It´s the part of the city that makes you actually feel like you´re in Europe and it´s beautiful! We also now have the port in our area! Oh my gosh we are very excited! haha. We worked there all Saturday night and just sat by the ocean and watched the boats pass by as we made a whole bunch of phone calls. We did find some miracles. We found 2 southamerican families. We haven´t been able to get back in contact with them yet, but we´re working on it. Families are the best! 

We also had a really big miracle yesterday. We went and passed by an old investigator and we were able to teach her. She´s a young spanish woman. She´s married (big deal) and they just lost their little girl a few months ago. We taught her about the plan of salvation and it was one of the most spiritual lessons I´ve even been in. It was incredible. We asked her to pray to be able to feel the love of Heavenly Father and to know if what we were telling her is true and we´re going by tomorrow to see how it all went. She´s so sweet and needs the peace the gospel can bring her so badly in her life! We´re really excited to be able to teach her and help her find that peace. 

We also got a new ward mission leader yesterday. We´re really excited! As much as I love our old ward mission leader, he really didn´t understand his purpose so we´re excited to hopefully be able to get things going with him. The crazy part? He´s a recent convert! He´s been baptized for less than a year, but he´s incredible! His name is Victor and we love him to death! We´re so excited to work with him! 

Oh I do have to tell you though, I found out that one of the members from Badajoz passed away on Friday. His name is Antonio Martinez. He was the sweetest man and he worked so hard! He has cancer for the last little while and it finally just took him. It´s hard because he was such a good man and was doing so much good, but I guess the Lord needs more men like him on the other side. 

Anyway, that´s my week for you. Things are going good, a little slower, but good. It´s just such a blessing to know that Heavenly Father is in charge and not us. 

Oh! We also got news today from our President that a General Authority is coming in November and our mission is going to be considered for iPads! So maybe I´ll get to see how mission life with an iPad is at the end of my mission, even if it is only for a month or two. That would still be way fun! Oh how much easier it would make our lives! Haha.But I never thought I was going to see the day. Watch it actually happen right as I leave, I wouldn´t be too surprised. 

Well I love you all! Have an awesome week and keep working hard! Os amo con todo mi corazón y siempre estáis conmigo. Que disfrutéis de la semana! Hablaremos la semana que viene.

Hermana Walton

Thursday, July 10, 2014


4th of July Spain style!  Burgers, dogs, singing American songs and the Flag!


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Paige Walton

Jul 7 (3 days ago)
to me, Tyler, Elliot, Luke, Whitney
Hola! Como estáis todos? 

Well we had a pretty good week. We had a lot of citas fail on us, but we still had some pretty good ones, too. So it was ok, 

Well we are working now with a really cute girl named Xiomara. She got baptized about a year ago in ward 2 and once she moved to our ward she went inactive. She´s from Bolivia and is 18 years old. She´s really sweet and I love her! We are going to use her to help us with our investigator Sonia as well. Sonia is the one that has a fecha. We´re hoping that it will give both of them someone their age there at church and that they can help each other out.

As for Sonia, we lost contact for about a week. Her phone broke and when we could get a hold of her and set citas she wouldn´t end up being there. But we finally got back in touch with her over the weekend. She was going to come to church but then her little boy got sick and she had to take him to the ER. We have another cita with her tonight though and I really do just love her. When we asked if we could do anything for her all she said was to come by more often and oh my gosh it just reminded me of how much I love her! She really is incredible! 

We also had a really cool miracle this week. We were sitting on the steps outside of a menos activo´s house waiting for him and someone walked up to us and started talking in english to us. Normally I kind of just ignore people that talk in english because they have no idea what they´re saying, but he started talking about things about the church and then in spanish explained that he knew a lot about the church. He´s from Venezuela and he had apparently talked to the missionaries there for about 2 years. He was here visiting his wife and his son, but lives somewhere else. He came to our FHE in the church on Wednesday and it was such a miracle! Sadly he went back today, but he did say that he was grateful that he found us. It had been a while since he´d been to church or talked to the missionaries and he was going to try to look for the church again where he lives now. He´s so cool! His name is Francisco (Pepe). 

Thursday the Stake President invited us all (all the missionaries in Cartagena) to eat. We went to the church and he made us all Paella and we had fun and chatted and just hung out. Then he shared a message about how even if we feel like we are doing nothing, those are usually the missionaries that make all the difference in an area. That was nice to hear as I feel like I´ve just been a "seed-planting" missionary. Which I´m fine with, but it would always be nice to feel like your seeds will grow. 

So for the 4th of July we had a fun day! We had district meeting in the morning and then we had a zone BBQ. We did hamburgers and hotdogs and all the american classics. My comp and I made chocolate chip cookies and potato salad. We also had baked beans and watermelon and then peach cobbler, ice cream, and brownies. We had a lot of fun singing American songs and just having a good time. After that we headed out to a pueblo to do a cosecha. All of the missionaries from Cartagena (16 of us) and then some members, we went on splits and went contacting to find some futures. They just opened up this pueblo this transfer so we were trying to help the elders there find some good work. My comp and I found a really promising one and a few not so promising ones. Haha. it was rough because it´s right by the ocean so not very many people were home or in the streets, just all at the beach. But that´s ok. Then we all headed back to the cena de verano where we got to hang out some more with the members and just relax a little after the long day. Haha. It wasn´t an all-american 4th of July, but it was still pretty fun. 

Well there you are! It was a pretty good week. And I hope you all know how much I love you! Thanks for being the best! Have an awesome week! 

Hermana Walton

Happy 4th of July

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Paige Walton

Jun 30 (10 days ago)
to me, Tyler, Elliot, Luke, Whitney
Hey there Fam! How´s everything going over there in the US of A? I´m hoping there are some great things planned for the 4th of July! I´ll be glad to be home for holidays like that soon enough. 

Well, first I have to share a miracle story. Last week we had a contact-off in our district to see who could find the most futures in the week. So we were talking about things and the hermanas in the other ward were feeling kind of crappy about their numbers and they decided they were going to do out in the street right then and find a miracle to invite in to family home evening. The first girl they contacted was a girl named Sonia. She´s 18 and she´s from Ecuador and has a little 7 month old baby. She talked to them and she agreed to come with them so they came back inside with a miracle! It was incredible. She ended up living in our area so we got to start teaching her. We went over to have our first cita and she had her friend over and both of their boyfriends. We asked if she wanted to invite them to come listen and the friend said she´d come out. Her name is Eliane and she´s from Bolivia and she 17. So we picked up 2 investigators that day and they are amazing! We taught them about the book of mormon and then the restauration and the second lesson we invited them to be baptized and they said yes! They have baptismal dates for the 2nd of August. And we´re so excited! They´re awesome! Sadly they didn´t come to church yesterday, but we´re working on it. 

We also got to go to the dedication of a new area/capilla that they opened up this transfer in a little pueblo outside of Cartagena called Mazarrón. It was really cool to see the work moving forward and see new places receive missionaries and it was really fun to see. I loved being there as history is being made in little Mazarrón. 

We also picked up another new investigator this week that has some promise. Her name is Carmen and she´s also from Bolivia. She is here alone with her little boy who I believe is 5 years old. She soaked up everything we told her and was very excited about the Book of Mormon. We´ll see where it goes, but I think she has a lot of potential. 

Anyway, this week we´re going to go to Mazarrón with all of the missionaries from Cartagena and members and things like that and we´re going to try to help get things going there. We´ll do that on friday. Oh! And there´s also this really fun thing that they do here called la cena de verano (the summer dinner) where all the members come to the church friday night with their food and we all each together and just talk and have fun. It´s every friday night from last week through September. It´s nice to have something fun like that to do and to invite investigators to that´s not too intimidating for them. 

Well, I hope you all enjoy your 4th of July! Have an awesome week! I love you all! 

Hermana Walton

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Paige Walton

Jun 16
to me, Tyler, Elliot, Luke, Whitney
Hey there!

Well, this week was another hard week. I feel like we always had something to do, but we really just didn´t get much done. It was kind of a weird feeling, but we had a really good day yesterday to make up for it. 

We had a really good lesson tuesday night with a menos activo and his grandma. That family has a little bit of everything. It has active members, non-members, menos activos, old investigators, people who don´t want to listen, all of it! But I love that family! It´s so much fun to be with them! We´re going to their house tonight again and we´ll see how it goes. 

We also had intercambios this week. So on wednesday during medio día I headed out and went to Alicante to be with Hna Heaton, an hna from my group. It was so much fun to be with her and to see her again! Alicante is beautiful, too! We had fun together! 

That morning before I left we had a really good lesson too. We taught an Investigator named Alicia that we hadn´t seen for a while because her daughter has been sick. But we finally got to see her again. I just love her! And she loves us, too! She soaks in everything we say and is just awesome! She´s not quite ready to really make any commitments as she´s not sure that she believes that there´s one church that has the whole truth, but we´re going to keep working with her. 

I headed back to Cartagena on Thursday during medio día and we went home and then had a cita with Neli and Juanito, the older couple that had fechas. We´re working really hard with them. They really do know it´s true, and they want to get baptized, but Juanito isn´t in a physical state right now where he´s well enough to come to church, and we´re not sure that´s going to change anytime soon, so we´re going to work with the Bishop and the Stake President to see what we can do. 

We also had a Relief Society activity this week and we went and watched a movie called How Rare a Possession which was pretty cool and ate and all that fun stuff. I made brownies. And of course, spaniards will always love them. Haha, we had someone actually come to the activity, too! That was nice! It´s this really sweet menos activo that we have. Her name is Lydia, she´s from Ghana and I love her to death! We had a lesson with her last night as well and oh my gosh! She´s incredible! She bore out her heart to us and just wants to change so badly and be a better person and come back to church! She´s in the process of having a sinus operation so she can´t come, but she wants to so badly! And I just love her so much! 

Honestly, it wasn´t the best week work-wise, but we did have some awesome lessons! And this week is going to be an awesome week! 

We had a family history activity on saturday and that was way cool to go to! In case you didn´t know familysearch has a goal for the year, that every member finds one name that they can bring to the temple this year. Can you imagine what it would be like if every member found one name? Please do it! And get an extra one for me because I can´t. I´ve been really thinking about family history work and temple work lately. I´m so grateful that that´s something the church has. It´s such an important part of the gospel and I love it! Take advantage of it! Go to the temple and be able to bring your own names! It´s an amazing way to feel closer to the Savior. 

So I finally got to see the beach today! Well the water at least, it was actually a port, so no sand. But we went to an old military museum today and then went to eat and it was right next to the water. It was so fun to see! So pretty! It´s weird to be so close and not be able to touch it, but that´s ok, one day soon.

Well, I love you all! Thank you for all the birthday wishes! I hope you all have an awesome week and eat some birthday cake for me, ok? Love you!

Hermana Walton

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Paige Walton

Jun 23
to me, Tyler, Elliot, Luke, Whitney
Welp! It happened! I turned 20! Haha, no going back to the teenage years now. But hey, maybe that´s for the better.
 
Anyway, let´s see. This week was a good week! We had a fun district meeting and then ate together after. One of the elders made us all paella and we all shared the huge pan of paella, eating it family style like the classy missionaries that we are! Haha, no but it was really fun.
 
Honestly I kind of don´t remember what we did this week, so I´ll try to do my best to remember, but I´m not promising anything. Let´s see, on Wednesday night we had FHE with the ward and my comp and I had the message. We used a fun game where you have a volunteer put a lot of clothing on and then they sit down under a blanket. They have to imagine that they are in a dessert and they can´t find their way out. They obviously start getting really hot and little by little you allow them to take things off. The game ends when they think to take the blanket off, but that usually happens after taking almost everything else off. We related that to the things we have in our lives, the problems and things that we try to look for solutions for. Sometime we just don´t think to take the blanket off. The biggest and most obvious thing is usually the thing that will bring us relief. These things are the little things that we are supposed to do every day like reading and praying and going to church. We sometimes forget just how important those things are, but we need to keep doing them!
 
Then on friday it was my birthday! Haha, in case you didn´t know, and we did weekly planning for the morning and then we went to the piso of the other hermanas and we made food and then watched a movie and had fun! then we went on splits for the afternoon. I was with hermana Birnbaumer. She´s from Bolivia and she´s so cute! We had fun together, and even though all our citas failed us and we ended up just walking around and knocking doors and contacting, we still had fun.
 
My comp was so cute to me for my birthday too. We made rootbeer floats thursday night and then she made me crepes for breakfast on friday. She´s the sweetest! 
 
Then we had church yesterday and we picked up a new investigator named José. He´s got potential. We´ll see how it goes. As for other investigators, we have some really promising futures that we found this week and we´re hoping that we can get in contact with them and have some good citas this week so we´re excited about that!
 
We had a competition between the missionaries in our district this week as to who could find the most futures with both pone numbers and addresses. No we didn´t win, but it definitely helped push us to start contacting more in the streets. We found some really good people and it´s nice to finally start to feel like something might happen here. We´re in great need of new investigators as we´ve dropped almost all of the ones we had. Anyway, it was a really good way to get us going again.
 
Well I can´t really remember anything else that happened this week. Oh, this week is transfers and not much is changing. My comp and I are staying the same, but my old district leader in Badajoz my first transfer there will be coming here and will be in my same ward so that´ll be fun! Crazy how things move around so much, but you still end up seeing a lot of the same people.
 
Well, I love you all! Thank you for the birthday wishes and everything that you do for me! I love you and hope you all have a great week! Remember that your Heavenly Father loves you and I do too!
 
Hermana Walton