Monday, November 17, 2014

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Paige Walton

4:18 AM (11 hours ago)
to me, Tyler, Elliot, Whitney, Luke
Hey Fam! 

So it was a pretty good week. We played some fútbol and volleyball last week for pday and it was so fun! I actually really like fútbol I´m finding. It´s a crazy spanish thing, or maybe it´s my young soccer days coming out again, but it´s actually pretty fun!

So on Tuesday we had intercambios. I was with Hermana Miller and we found a few really good miracles! The first was when we passed by the house of an antiguo investigator and he wasn´t there, but his wife (Macarena) and her brother (Paco) were, and they let us in and we talked to them and they are so cool and so prepared! It was a really cool experience to teach them. We haven´t been able to see them since, but we´re trying to get back there and see where this goes. Fingers crossed! Then we had another cita later that night with a menos activo (Michael) and his friend (Mike) and we were able to answer a lot of the friend´s questions and help him understand. He´s still got a lot of questions, but he definitely has a lot of potential as well. 

Wednesday morning we finished our intercambios and we knocked a lot of doors of futures and antiguos and menos activos. A few of them told us to come back another time. Especially one of them who told us to come back later that day. His name is Jose and we went back later with me and my comp. He´s the son of an antiguo investigator and he´s so cool! He´s tattooed from his neck down, but he´s so cool and so open! So we picked him up as well as a new investigator. 

Later we had english class and we taught our investigator Maria again. She´s so in need of the gospel and wants to listen, she just really has no time whatsoever. So that´s kind of hard. We squeeze every minute out of her that we can when she´s there for english class. And sometimes she stays for the noche de hogar that´s after, too. 

Thursday we planned in the morning for this week and then we had citas with the Patar family, and we´re getting closer and closer to getting them married! Then we went and saw a member family and tried to get some references from them...they´re working on it. And then we saw Mike and Michael again. Mike got his Book of Mormon and hopefully will start reading. We´ll see him again tomorrow and see how it went. 

We had coordination with our new ward mission leader that we´re so excited about! He´s seriously incredible! His name is Ramon and he used to be an evangelical pastor, but the missionaries kind of ripped him a new one and a year later he got baptized. Haha. He´s so cool! He has one of the strongest desires to be a member missionary and you can just tell that he loves this work. We´re so excited to be able to work with him. 

Friday night we were walking around knocking some more doors and we walked past a frutería (a fruit shop) and we both got really hungry for fruit. So we made a stop, and lo and behold, more than fruit was waiting inside for us. But a new investigator as well. The man that owns the shop asked who we were and we were able to explain a little to him and then to teach him a little. His name is Antonio. We´re really excited about him, too. He´s a little crazy, but that´s nothing abnormal for a spanish man. :) 

Saturday we went and visited with MariPaz and Silvia in the morning, they are both menos activas. They´re progressing slowly, but that´s ok. At least it´s something. Then we went to the Patar family later and then to a combined ward talent show. It was very entertaining. We had fun there. 

Yesterday we had a good day in church and then went to a young couple´s piso to eat. They´re so cute! He´s spanish and she´s italian and they have the cutest little 9 month old girl and she´s just the most adorable thing ever! 

So we had some really good things happen this week and we´re getting the work going a little more, which is nice. It´s still rough, but we´re getting there. 

Well it looks like we´re playing fútbol again for pday and that´ll be fun! Thank goodness it´s not way cold here. It´s been really windy the last few days, but it doesn´t seem to get extremely cold. It´s been in the 40´s 50´s lately. At least I think that´s what it would convert to in Farenheit. I´m not sure. But yeah. Haha, Well I love you all! Have a great week! Talk to you next week!

Hna Walton

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Paige Walton

Nov 10 (7 days ago)
to me, Tyler, Elliot, Whitney, Luke
FAMILY!

How´s everything going at home? The house is finally starting to look like a house so that´s exciting! 

Well we had a fine week this week. Let´s start from the beginning, shall we? So we get everything done we needed to get done and then we went with the elders to go bowling. Sadly, I didn´t know exactly how to get there, but I knew más o menos where it was. So we hopped on a bus and headed out towards that general direction. Well, then we got off on the wrong bus stop and had to hike back on the roadside and we got lost and it was just a big mess of trying to get there. Thank goodness we eventually got there. And then we didn´t even bowl...haha, we played pool instead. It was still pretty fun though. 

Then that night we went to Patricia´s house (she´s a member) for a noche de hogar. We switch off every week between us and the elders. Well when we go, there´s a menos activo that comes with us because they´re friends. Well his name is Michael, he´s from Nigeria, and he decided to make us some African food. Alright...background knowledge...spanish food is great, but it´s really not that flavorful and you will NEVER eat anything that is spicy. Even if they put hot sauce on it, it´s hot sauce made for like a 10 month old, it´s more of a flavor adder than anything else. Anyway, apparently African food is REALLY spicey because it was fish and rice and a sauce and the second you put that thing in your mouth you were dying. And I really do mean dying. And apparently he only put in less than half the spice he normally would put in. Oh my gosh I don´t know how he does it. It was really good and we ate it all, but we really just weren´t sure if our mouths were going to make it or not. Haha, Apparently I´m going to have to work on my spicy food tolerance.

On Thursday we had interviews with President. Oh how I love that man. There are so many missionaries out there that don´t get the best mission president, but I hit the jackpot! He really is the best. He has such an incredible love for every single one of us. He treats and knows us all as his children and will do anything for us. He´s such a good man. It was weird to have my last interview with him though. I walked in and he said, "Well, i´m sorry it´s going to be short this time, but we´ll have a nice good long one next month." It´s so weird! Obviously I´m excited to come home and see all of you guys again, but I really will miss this place. I´ll miss being surrounded by strange spanish culture. I´ll miss the stinky streets. I´ll miss the incredible people that I´ve come to know. I´ll miss hearing spanish everywhere I go. I´ll miss being able to teach people the gospel. It will be strange. I know I can still be a part of this work, but it´s not the same. 

So after interviews we took our ward mission leader´s daughter out with us for the afternoon. We were on the bus on our way to our first cita for the evening and as we were getting off the bus I totally biffed it. It was so bad! I don´t know how, but somehow I legitimately fell out of the bus and ended up on the ground. Haha, yeah...,my clumsiness still comes out every once in a while. 

Friday we had zone conference. It´s so much fun now that we have the biggest zone in the mission. There are 40 something of us and it´s crazy! We´re double the size of some other zones. It´s fun to see old companions and other missionaries that I´ve served with and finally be able to see them and talk to them and serve with them again. Afterwords we went to Domino´s again, thank goodness it didn´t rain on us this time, although the skies looked like they could have. 

Later we went to mutual with the youth and taught them how to share the gospel with their friends. Hopefully they´ll find some good opportunities and will feel a little more comfortable doing it. We´ll see.

This weekend was Stake Conference for us. We spent Saturday evening at the church for the adult session and then bright and early Sunday morning we went to Granada for the general session. It was a fun bus ride there as it always is with a bunch of missionaries traveling together. But the bus ride back killed us as we were surrounded by little youth in the back of the bus who wouldn´t shut up! Haha, I mean I guess it could´ve been worse, but they were pretty bad. I really hope I wasn´t like that when I was younger. I´m not starting to understand the adults never wanted to sit by us in the buses...shoot! I´m becoming one of the annoying adults that doesn´t like the loud kids! Oh well, I´ll survive I think.

Well, that about sums up my week. We´re going to start preparing as a mission for the visit of Elder Kearon, a member of the 70, who´s coming and we´ll have a huge meeting with him and half the mission on the 20th. The other half of the mission will meet with him on a different day. But we´re excited to see what he´s got to tell us. The youngsters in the mission are also excited as this is probably the visit that determines whether we will be getting iPads at the beginning of the year or not. 

Fam, I love you lots! Have a great week and keep on keepin´ on. Love you! See you all in a few weeks!!!!!

Hna Walton

Monday, November 3, 2014

We got to Skype at 4:00 am this morning!!!  Such an unexpected treat!  (no subject)

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Paige Walton

5:44 AM (9 hours ago)
to me, Tyler, Elliot, Whitney, Luke
Hey y´all! 

So that was kind of a fun little surprise to be able to skype with you this morning! Sorry about all the BYU crap, but it was fun to be able to see your beautiful faces, well as beautiful as we all get that early in the morning...sorry again! 

Anyway. It´s been a good week! We played softball last pday as a zone and had hotdogs and potato salad and all those good american things! Sadly, my comp ended up getting a virus and was home sick monday night and all of tuesday with the stomach flu...haha. Oh boy. But she´s good now. 

Then we had transfers on wednesday. We went and dropped off Hna Andrus to catch her train and then I went and picked up my new comp. She´s so cute! She´s from Peru but she lives in Tarragona, a city on the northern coast of Spain. She´s been out 6 months now and she´s awesome! I´m really excited to be able to work with her. 

So on Wednesday we had a really cool miracle at english class. We only had one student this week. Her name is Maria and she´s Brazilian. Anyway, we started class and all the sudden she asked us a question about the church. Happy to oblidge, we jumped into a religious conversation which became a lesson and now she´s an investigator! She doesn´t have a lot of time, so it´s really hard to see her, but she´s great and so in need of the gospel in her life. She´s also so prepared. So we´re really excited about that. 

Thursday we did our favorite thing...weekly planning...and then we had a cita with the Patar family. And they found out that the paper they´ve been waiting for to get married, they don´t need it anymore! So they have a cita with the govenmental people at the beginning of December to get things going to get married! We´re so excited for them! 

Friday we found another new investigator! She used to talk to the missionaries, but then they stopped going. But she´s super cool, too. Her name is Carmen and she´s from Paraguay. She´s pregnant (about  7 months along) and was kind of sick the day we saw her so we didn´t stay for very long, but we´re hoping to get back in there this week. She´s really sweet and it´s definitely good timing to get back in there and have her talk to the missionaries again. 

Later that day we went to a primary activity and helped out a little there for Halloween. 

Saturday...my comp got sick! Haha, yep, that´s right. Haha, she´s fine now and says it´s something that happens whenever she changes areas, but it was just slightly ironic to me. Haha. But that´s ok. Things are going well now. 

Anyway...that´s my week for ya! I hope you all have a great week and know how much I love you! Thanks for all you do for the missionaries there are keep going with sharing the gospel! I love you all!

Hna Walton