Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Here it is... last email from Spain!!  can't wait to have her home!

Feliz Navidad

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Paige Walton

4:26 AM (8 hours ago)
to me, Tyler, Elliot, Whitney, Luke
Wow, can you believe it? It has come down to my last email. For the last time as a missionary i will be writing home, sharing experiences, and telling you how much I love you all. This is such a strange experience for me. I honestly do not feel like it´s really happening. I had a moment that lasted about 10 seconds when I was leaving church on Sunday, but just as fast as it came, it was gone. Maybe it´s just being used to being here, but even though I know I´ll see you all this week, my mind and my heart don´t really comprehend it. 

Ok, well we´ll start out with talking about this last week. So on Tuesday we had district meeting in the morning and then we went to our ward mission leader´s house for lunch. His sweet wife gave us little christmas presents! She is just the sweetest! And then we got back to Málaga a lot later than we thought we would (he lives in a pueblo called Torremolinos) and got back to work. We had a cita later that night with a menos activa named Nataliya. She´s a really strong member from Ucraine, but is menos activa because she works almost every Sunday. So that´s hard, and we´re trying to keep her strong, we´ll see how that goes. 

Wednesday we ate lunch with Soledad and Antonio like we do every wednesday, and the rest of the day was spent walking around and trying to find some antiguos or futures or anyone that would talk to us...sadly, no luck. But that´s ok!

Thursday we did weekly planning in the morning and then we had intercambios that afternoon. It was so much fun! I got to be with Hna Bangeter, a friend of mine from the MTC that I haven´t seen for a while, so that was really fun to be able to see her and spend a day with her. We visited a few of their investigators and did our best to find our way around, as she´s only been in her area for a week, so we got lost a few times and had to whip out the map, but we made it through the day just fine. 

Friday morning I was still with Hna Bangeter, and then we switched back at medio día. Then we had an eating cita, then we had coordination with our ward mission leader, and then we had our ward christmas party. It was not so well put together, so things didn´t work out so well. But at least the food was good!

Saturday we had an eating cita and then we had a few citas with MariPaz and then with Luisa (a member). It was strange to have to say goodbye and to have to leave another area. It´s really a strange thing.

Sunday we had church, of course, and then we found a new investigator named Carmen. We talked to her in the street and we´ll hopefully be able to see her again tomorrow morning. Then we also had a cita with Michael. Oh, Michael, he´s crazy, but he actually came to church this week! So that was so nice! 

Monday we had our tri-zone chrismas conference. It was so much fun and such a good conference. We had great tallers and there was a talent show and we had good food, and it was so much fun to be with the missionaries like that one last time. When we came home from that we had to meet our Dueño (land lord?) because our washer is broken...but...we had forgotten the keys...so we had to wait for the elders to save us. It was a big hassle though. Luckily we finally got in and we´re going to have a new washer! On friday...looks like I´ll be going to a laundromat to wash my clothes this week, haha. But then we had a cita with the Patar family and then with the mom of a menos activo boy named Saul. He´s 12 years old and got baptized a few years ago. We got to meet her and shared a short message with her. She´s not super open to the gospel, but she definitely has potential. 

Well, I honestly wish I could put in words all the things that I have learned in the mission. I wish I could tell you everything I´ve felt and heard and learned. It´s an incredibly different and hard experience, but it is an incredible one, too. I am so thankful that a mission was part of the plan my Heavenly Father had for me. If nothing else, I have been converted to this gospel. I know that I have a Savior who loves me, I know him more than ever before and I am so grateful for the blessings and strength He has given me. I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the church of Jesus Christ, restored again on the earth in His great love and mercy for His children. I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior, and I know He lives. 

I just want to thank all of you individually for your love and support and letters and emails and packages and prayers and everything you have done for me during this time. I´m grateful for you all and the blessing you have been to me. Thank you for everything! I can´t wait to see you all on Skype this thursday and then to give you all a huge hug this saturday. I love you with my whole heart! Thank you again! See you this weekend! 

Signing off for the last time, 

Hermana Walton

Monday, December 22, 2014

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Paige's mission
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Paige Walton

Dec 15 (7 days ago)
to me, Tyler, Elliot, Whitney, Luke
Wow, can you believe it? It´s come down to just one more email. Well, at least there´s still that...for now. I can´t wait to see you all! But I will also dearly miss my time as a missionary and especially the incredible people that I have met and grown to love. But I´m not done yet, so I´m not going to make myself cry.

So! We still haven´t moved yet, we´re in the process of looking for a new piso. We think we´ve found one, but it´s not finalized yet, so we´re not sure. We´ll hopefully know this week. Secretly I´m hoping that it takes longer to find one so that I don´t have to move before I leave and have to pack up twice, but I´ll do whatever. Haha. 

Things are going well in a trio. It definitely has it´s perks, like that fact that we can go into any house at anytime. That´s really nice. But there are things that are hard, too. But we´re doing just fine. Hna Becerra is from Bolivia and lives in Barcelona. She´s really sweet. So things are going well on the companionship front. 

Let´s see...what happened this week. Well with transfers we had Hna Pérez come stay with us on tuesday afternoon and then she stayed the night with us because she couldn´t get to her next area quite yet, and her companion had also left the area to pick up her new greenie comp. So we went to the Patar´s house and had a little birthday party for Lucas, one of the sons. That was fun. They are such incredibly humble and sweet people! I love them so much! I wish getting them married wasn´t such a hastle. But that darn Satan always seems to wiggle his way in there right when we think we´ve found the answer. But we´ll keep trying. 

Wednesday we dropped off Hna Perez and picked up Hna Becerra and then we had noche de hogar in the church. 

Thursday we picked up two new investigators, Juan Antonio and Francis. They are roommates and both from spain, but are very different in age. But they seem to be interested, so we´re excited to be able to work with them. Then we went and met a member who has to work almost every weekend so she can hardly ever come to church, but she´s so sweet! Her name is Nataliya, she´s from Ukraine and she´s so humble and sweet. 

Friday we had some really good citas as well and we also did a little of piso hunting to try to find a place to live, haha. I´ll let you know what happens next week. 

Saturday we were supposed to play fútbol but we got rained out. It´s been raining all weekend long. Rain + cold + skirt = COLD SISTER MISSIONARIES!!!!! haha, but we´re surviving. We had some good citas that afternoon though, too. So things are going a little better in the area. It´s still slow, but it´s slowly picking up a little, too. 

Yesterday we had church and then made brownies for a member´s birthday. We had to go out to a pueblo to visit her and bring them to her. We were there waiting for the bus and all of the sudden my companion had to go to the bathroom REALLY bad, so we sprinted (literally) back to their house so she could use the bathroom. This made us miss the bus and then we had to wait for the other bus, and we ended up spending the entire afternoon waiting for the bus to come and take us home. 

Oh hey! I hope the missionaries there have done a good job of promoting this video and that you´ve all already seen it, but there is a new video for christmas from the church called "He is the Gift". You can find it at christmas.mormon.org and it´s really short, like 3 minutes, but so powerful. I invite you all to watch it and to share in on facebook and to invite others to watch it. Enjoy it and feel the power of Christ in your life during this christmas season. He really is the gift.

Well, I love you all! I hope you have a great week and I hope to hear from you all one last time next week. Love you!

Hna Walton

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Paige Walton

Dec 8
to me, Tyler, Elliot, Luke, Whitney
Hey there! 

So we´ve had an interesting week. It´s been full of craziness and lots of changes. So first of all, we will be put in a trio this wednesday with Hna Becerra. So me and two native comps, haha. Should be intersting! No, it´ll be good. And it´s only for 2 weeks so it´s not a big deal if something goes bad. 

The other big news! We have to move pisos! Haha, yeah...we had our carbon monoxide alarm go off the other morning (aparently it happens in this piso every winter once a year sometime in the morning) and nothing has every happened, and it hasn´t gone off again, but just to play it safe we have to find a new piso. So that´ll be fun, house hunting! Haha. It will be rough to have to pack up just to move to a new house and then pack up again to come home. But that´s ok, it´ll be kind of fun to have a new piso, too.

Well let´s see. What happened this week...haha, we had another sick week. We both got pretty sick on tuesday night and especially all day wendesday. Luckily our new mission nurse took good care of us and we´re feeling a lot better, but it´s also FREEZING cold here now with the humidity. And my companion has a bad knee and sometimes has to take a break for that. So that´s put a damper on us too.

But we weren´t sure that the hermanas were going to stay in our area. It was possible that president was going to close our area, but then at the last minute he changed his mind and now it will stay open. Honestly, I left my agenda at home and I really can´t remember what happened this week, so I´m sorry that this is short and kind of dry, but know that everything is good here and that I love you all! Also, I´m collecting things to bring home, so if there´s anything that anyone wants from spain, let me know so that I can get it for you. 

I love you all so much! I´m getting more and more excited to see you all, but I also know that I´ve got 2 more good weeks of work ahead of me. Pray that I can work well and stay focused. I love you all! I can´t wait to give you all big hugs in a few weeks
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Paige Walton

Dec 1
to me, Tyler, Elliot, Luke, Whitney
Happy Thanksgiving! 

Yeah I know it´s a few days late, but that´s ok. So first off I just want to thank my awesome family for all the sweet emails and pictures that were sent. I LOVED opening my inbox to see all those emails. It really did just make my day, so thank you for those. 

Well last week we had one of the best pdays ever! It was so much fun! We rented bikes and rode along the coast . It was the best weather and so pretty! Our area of Málaga really isn´t an attractive part, so it was really nice to see the beach and the center and all the beauty that Málaga has to offer. It really is a beautiful city. Then we had a noche de hogar with the Patar family. And we´re working so hard on their papers to get them married. We think we got it figured out, we´ve just got to get them to Sevilla so that they can do what they need to do and be done with it. But we´re getting closer and closer. 

Thursday we had a fun thanksgiving feast with all the missionaries in Málaga. We made mashed potatoes and it was so much fun! Lots of fun missionaries and lots of good food. Then we spent all day on Friday cooking another thanksgiving dinner and setting up and cleaning for our ward activity. It turned out pretty well. All the food was gone, so that´s always a good sign. There were about 50 of us and it was a nice turn out. We did both burn ourselves though. Haha, it was pretty sad, but we´re ok and nothing has to be taken off, so I think we´ll live. No it really wasn´t that bad.

Saturday we headed out to Torremolinos (a little pueblo) and ate with our ward mission leader and his wife and grandson. He´s a really good man. He´s from Argentina and has the coolest conversion story that I´ll have to tell you all one day. But we´re so grateful that he knows what he´s doing in the work and has such a desire to grow the work here. Later that night we had a really cool lesson with a menos activo named Michael. He´s Nigerian so we taught, excuse me, I taught, in english. Haha, that was kind of weird. My comp didn´t want to talk in english, so she spoke a little in spanish and then I filled in the gaps that he didn´t understand and kept going. But it was a really powerful lesson it was so nice to actually see him be effected by a lesson. He´s a good guy, he just has to do something with the testimony that he has. 

Sunday was church as usual. We had an investigator there that we´ve been fighting to get to church for a while now. Sadly it didn´t go so well. But hopefully she´ll come again and it can be a different experience. Oh how I hope for that. Later that night we had ward council.

Well, it wasn´t an extremely exciting week, but it for sure was a week full of rain and wind! Oh! And they turned the christmas lights on! So I´m pretty excited about that. I just love christmas with my whole heart. And I´m also excited for what this christmas will bring. The best gift of being home with my family. I´m so excited to see you all! Just a few weeks away. Don´t worry, of course I have my trunky moments, but I´m still working hard. 

I love you all so much! Thanks for keeping me updated and I so hope that things go well today at the funeral. Tell everyone hello for me. Love you! Talk to you next week.

Hna Walton
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Paige Walton

Nov 24
to me, Tyler, Elliot, Whitney, Luke
Hey everyone! 

Well, it´s been an interesting week for us all, hasn´t it? Losing a loved one is always a hard thing, especially someone like Papa. He was just such an incredible man. But I´m glad that he finally gets to be back with his sweetheart and that they can be happy and healthy together. I hope you all are doing ok back home. I hope you find joy in the memories and not swell on the sadness of the loss. That´s what I´m trying to do.  

Anyway, this week was an interesting week. I have a pretty nasty cold and it kept me in for a little while. Dang spanish weather. About half the country gets sick when the seasons change because it´s such a dramamtic change. Hopefully I´ll get better soon. I´m hoping to be on the tail end of it. 

We did have something really cool this week though. A member of the European Area Presidency, Elder Patrick Kearon, came and spoke to us as a mission. Wow. That was incredible. It was a huge conferece with half the mission and we got to hear him and his wife and the Deeres speak. They are all just incredible! Everything that I needed to know and hear was mentioned. He spoke (obviously) directly to our needs as missionaries and talked about repentance and forgetting about the past and getting better everyday. Hna Deere talked about how we all have those feeling of inadequacy and not being worthy and that being that hardest part of missionary work, but we all have them, and unless they are pushing us to be motivated, they are not coming from a good place. We can´t dwell on those things and we have to look to God to help us. Elder Kearon talked a lot about the missionary process and how to better find and teach and baptize. It was really just a good meeting. It was also really fun to see a lot of old missionary friends, some of whom I haven´t seen in a while and some of whom I won´t see again until post-mission life. 

Well, honestly there´s not that much to tell you about this week. Haha, between being sick and the conference and Papa´s passing, there wasn´t much that happened. So I´m sorry this is so short. But just know that I´m doing ok and trying my best and that I can´t wait to see you all in a few weeks. I love you all and am so incredible thankful for the family that my Heavenly Father has blessed me with. I´m so grateful that we know that there´s more after this and that this isn´t goodbye. Although there will always be times when we are seperated from each other for however long the amount of time, it is nothing in respect to the eternity that we all get to spend together. You are the best family I could´ve asked for and I love you! Thank you all for the blessing you are to me and the comfort and the love you are to me, too. Talk to you all next week!

Hermana Walton