Monday, October 27, 2014

Last full transfer!  only 61 more days!!!!  Best Christmas present ever!

Happy Halloween!

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Paige Walton

5:37 AM (4 hours ago)
to me, Tyler, Elliot, Whitney, Luke
Hey Fam! 

Alright, so first things first. Transfers! Well, Hna Andrus will not be going home like we thought last week, but she will be going to the office to be the first office hermana! Haha, that way she´ll still be able to be here and do things, but will also be able to give her feet some time to heal. 

As for me, I´ll be getting my last companion this week. And I´m getting another native! I´m so excited! Her name is Hna Rocha! I know nothing about her...so I´ll have to tell you all that stuff next week. But I´m really excited about having another native comp. It´ll give me that last chance to get better at spanish! I do know that she´s young in the mission which I´m also excited about. She can give me some more animo to keep going everyday. So I´m excited about all that.

Well, this week was another piso week. We went to IKEA last week for p-day! Such a cool place! Who would´ve thought that my first time there would be in Spain? But we picked up all the magazines we could as we walked through and designed our dream houses this week. Haha, yeah...that´s how bored we got. But that´s ok.

We also got to go to Fuengirola on Saturday. That´s where the mission home is. We went so that Hna Andrus could talk to President about all the feet stuff. Haha, it was really fun to see them though and talk to President and Hna Deere. They are so great! I just love them! 

We also had a ward activity this week. It was an activity about all the countries we are from. So people made food from their countries and did cultural things representing their country. We made brownies and the other elders did ice cream cake and then all the missionaries got up and we sang the national anthem. Haha it was pretty funny and we had a good time. 

Well, it´s going to be an interesting week. I´m super excited to have a new companion, but I´m also a little nervous to have hna Andrus leave. It´ll kind of be like starting from scratch for me. I don´t know the area that well, We don´t really have much work, and I don´t know the members that well either. So it´s kind of going to be like an easier version of opening up an area, but hey, if the Lord thinks I can handle it, then I´m sure things will go just fine. It´ll be like my last little challenge, so here we go! Pray for me! Haha.

Well I love you all so much! Have the best week! Happy Halloween! And happy birthday, Daddy! Love you!

Hna Walton

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

(no subject)

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Paige Walton

Oct 20 (1 day ago)
to me, Tyler, Elliot, Luke, Whitney
Welp, believe it or not. This week is my 15 month mark as a missionary. Oh my gosh that´s a long time! It´s so crazy! It´s been an interesting 15 months, full of laughs and giggles and crying and chocolate, haha. No, it´s been good. Thank goodness once you get away from the bad, all your left with are the good memories. 

But we do have some exciting news this week! Do you remember Ana, the 17 year old investigator that was a reference from her missionary friend in Greece? Well we set a fecha with her! For now it´s the 8th of November, but it will probably have to be moved because we forgot that was the weekend of Stake Conference -- way to go hermanas! Haha, woops! But she really is incredible! She can be a little flojo and hard to get in touch with sometimes, but our citas with her are always super incredible!

So let´s see...we finally figured out what´s up with my comp! We went to the pedoligist´s office and she had Plantar Fasciitis which basically means that the muscle in the foot that gives us and arch has been overworked because of bad walking habits. So what´s the solution? Lots of rest...haha, oh well. We´re going on intercambios this week so that will be good to finally get us some good work. 

I had to give yet another taller in District Meeting this week. Haha, I guess I´m getting my fill in now so that I don´t have to do it later. No, it was fine. I just don´t think I´ve ever given more than one or two in an area before. 

So there´s really only one thing to talk about if we spent almost another whole week in piso. FOOD! Haha, we made some really good burritos yesterday and they were so good! We were not expecting them to turn out so well, but they were delicious! We also had a member family bring us food and the Dad was a chef so that was really good food. We also ate a lot of bananas at coordination meeting this week. Haha, long story, but yes, it happened. 

We also had a really cool experience last night! We went to a park and were waiting for our menos activo to come so we could teach him. And we go to sit down on the bench and what´s sitting right there beside us? A HUGE SWAN! It was so big! And it was just sitting there, so we went and took pictures with it. Then another one that was in the water hopped out and joined his friend on the sidewalk. So what else would we do with out new-found friends besides give them names! We named them Gus and Julie. There were also 2 more in the water that wouldn´t do anything besides eat, so we named them after our little brothers...Elliot and Henry. Haha. Sorry guys, no hard feelings. :) 

What else do we do in piso when there´s nothing else to do? Well, movie marathons of course! We made a movie marathon of the life pf Kirby Heybourne. It starts with The Singles Ward (pre-misison  life) then The Best 2 Years (his mission), then the RM (post-mission), then the Singles Ward 2 (more post mission) and finally One Good Man (his life in the future). Haha. Oh man, it was interesting. We really were just so bored. But that´s ok.

So this week is an exciting week for us as a mission. We´re doing another week of finding. Our goal has been upped a little more than last time. This week we have a goal of 888 new investigators (9 per companionship). We´ve got some good plans for the week and some intercambios and member splits and all that good stuff planned, so it´s looking like it will turn into hopefully a better week with some good work. It´s also sad though because this is my last week with Hna Andrus. Yep, that´s right, another transfer has come and gone and we´ll be receiving transfer calls this weekend. It´s always a hard thing, but it can also really be a good thing. I´ll let you all know what the future holds for me next week.

Love you all! Have the best week!

Hermana Walton

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Paige Walton

Oct 13 (8 days ago)
to me, Tyler, Elliot, Luke, Whitney
FAMILIA! 

Wow, well this was an interesting week. My comp has been having some foot problems and so we spent about 90% of our time in piso this week. Haha. Lots of movie watching and pillow talks and naps and deep doctrine talks (haha, classy missionaries) and all that. It was kind of a nice little break, especially becuase we really just don´t have anything in our area right now, but at the same time we got so bored! Haha, thank goodness your package got to us, Mom. We had fun in our coloring books and with the pasta, so thank you for that! 

Well, let´s see, aside for going a little stir-crazy and having some very interesting experiences with my comp in piso, it´s been a pretty boring week. So let´s see if I can scrounge around in my brain for some good stories. Oh! Yep, there they are!

So Friday we had zone meeting and it was a really cool meeting. The zone leaders also asked me to do a musical number. That was kind of fun. It was really late notice, but I was still happy to do it. I sang "I Can Only Imagine" and it turned out pretty well. It was fun to sing again, too. It had been a while. 

So after the meeting we all went to Domino´s pizza like we usually do for endless pizza. Well, we´ve got all 22 of us just sitting out there on the street under the little sun umbrellas and then a little drizzle started...and then the little drizzle became rain...and then the rain became a thunderstorm. Haha, and being the missionaries that we are, what else would we do besides take it all in! We were all soaking wet, but we were singing and laughing so hard and just enjoying the rain (and our pizza). Everyone else was looking at us like we were crazy, but we had so much fun! It was so fun! 

We did finally have a few citas that we could go out for on Saturday though. That was nice. We had 2 really good citas. One with the Patar family. That´s the family that we´re trying to get the parents all their papers to get married so they can get baptized. Then we also had a cita with 2 menos activas and one of them says she still has a testimony of the church! Man, that was a load off our shoulders. We weren´t really sure, so that was a really good thing to hear. 

Other than that, it was a pretty uneventful week. But we´re going to try to get back to work this week so hopefully I´ll have something to tell you all about next week. I love you all! Have a great week! And FELIZ CUMPLEAÑOS MAMASITA!!!!! TE QUIERO UN MONTÓN!!!!!! 

Hermana Walton
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Paige Walton

Oct 6
to me, Tyler, Elliot, Luke, Whitney
Hey Fam! 

Well, yet another week here in Málaga. It´s very different than what I had imagined I was coming to. We really don´t have much work at all right now. We spend a lot of time in the streets walking around, knocking doors, trying to find old futures or antiguo investigators, it´s not doing much for us though. But that´s ok. I´ve been through it before, and we´re going to get through it again. 

So the week started out in an interesting way, haha. We went to a noche de hogar at a member´s house and got some references and we´ll see where that goes. I´ll let you know if something happens. So we shared the message and then we ate and then we went home and when we woke up the next day we were both just feeling really strange. It was not good. As the morning went on we just kept feeling worse and worse until we decided it was better for us just to stay in that day. Haha, so we watched lots of movies (mission appropriate ones of course) and slept a lot. 

Wednesday we had an eating cita with this adorable older couple. They´re so cute! She´s one of the first members here in Málaga and he´s not a member. But they´re hilarious and we had so much fun with them. Then we had english class that night and then noche de hogar which was really fun. We played scripture jeapordy which was interesting but fun. 

Thursday we had a really strange cita. Haha, we went to a family´s house were all the kids are members and the parents are trying to get married so they can get baptized. But we went over there and we were just expecting a normal lesson, but all the sudden it was them and all of their family and we were all eating and it was strange because they were all speaking romanian because that´s where they´re from. I felt like a new missionary all over again, I had no idea what to do! And I couldn´t understand them. It was so interesting. We tried to talk to some of them, but then they all just disappeared into the kitchen. At least the kids stayed and talked with us...it was just strange.

Friday we had district meeting and my comp and I gave a taller (talk) about the baptismal interview and how to prepare our investigators for it. That evening we had english class and there was one guy that was there and he was telling us all these places he´s traveled to, it just made me want to visit everywhere! I hope I´ll get the chance one day. And then halfway through another lady came in and we were talking about traveling and all that and she just starts ripping on the US and how she thinks it´s not a civilized country and all that. Haha, it was actually just pretty funny. Some people will believe anything they watch on tv, especially the bad stuff. 

Luckily we had so much good to watch on tv this weekend! Oh conference! I love it so much! I especially love it as a missionary, it was sad to think this was my last one. But I really loved the women´s session. I think that was my favorite part this time. But it was so much fun! Watching it with all the missionaries. We watched in english but ran back and forth between that and spanish for the native spanish speakers. That was so cool to be able to hear them speak in spanish. 

So between one of the sessions I went on splits with the sister training leaders and we taught a lesson to their recent convert who had just gone to the temple the day before. He´s this sweet, humble man from Nigeria and I have never felt the spirit more strongly in a lesson. His experience at the temple was incredible and he just was so converted and prepared and you could just tell the testimony he had was so deeply rooted inside of him. It was really cool to see. It was one of those moments that I remembered the reason I´m here. 

So how´d everyone´s answers in general conference go? I got mine. It´s a cool thing, personal revelation. There are so many great blessings we have, and I think that´s one of the coolest. An opportunity for us to be able to personally receive answers from God. It shows just how much he really does care about us, that he knows our problems and that He will take the time to answer us when we´ve done our part to ask. 

Well, I love you all lots! Have a great week! Keep working hard and know that I love you! Talk to you next week!

Hna Walton