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

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Paige Walton	Wow, can you believe it? It´s come down to just one more email. Well, at leas...	Dec 15 (7 days ago)
Wow, can you believe it? It´s come down to just one more email. Well, at leas...

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

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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