Picture Monday!

my comp took this because it looks like i don't have legs? idk.

plaza major.

creepy fat spiderman who then hugged the little hna.

hna wright and en la plaza.

palace in toledo.

i'm a little in love with the streets and how they look. ok?

sister missionaries at the temple. #thuglife

toledo.

more of toledo.

hna wright and i in toledo.

hna seastrand and i in toledo.

toledo was my favorite.

got amelia's package and cried when i saw the ranch. YOU'RE THE BEST.

before we found out about transfers. LOOK AT ALL THE LOVE IN OUR COMPANIONSHIP AND NOW SHE´S GONE. ok sorry. i´m just bitter. its ok. 

i love alcala though with all my heart. and the sky just looked awesome on saturday.

4/29

Dear Family,

This week has been........... crazy. Last week we went to Toledo and  got back super late and only had a little bit of time. But today I´m having a relaxing pday and staying here in Alcala haha. First of all, Madrid is crazy beautiful. We went to la puerta del sol, plaza mayor, some big cathedral and then the palace. I was in love but then we went to Toledo and I loved that even more. Haha its all castely and super cool. And they sell legit swords and weapons. I almost bought a suit of armor... you know for contacting and stuff. But I figured I´ll wait till I go home so I can get off the plane in a full suit of armor. Its metal so I can put my magentic nametag on there. When you see this knight coming towards you. Oh its just Hermana Palomino. No big deal. Haha but I´ll send pictures of the places I went. 

So this week we had intercambios for one day. All six of the Hermanas that live on my piso basically just switched companions for the day. I went to Torrejon with Hna Vouemba from France and I loved it. It was nice to learn from someone new and see how they do things in another area. But it also made me realize I totally love Alcala, it already has a piece of my heart. 

So to my great relief, I´m staying here for another transfer. Hna Wright however is not. This morning I put her on a train to Alcorcon on the other side of Madrid. Basically instead of staying with my trainer for 12 weeks like normal, I´m getting another trainer. Hna Wright is going to finish training someone who´s companion just finished her mission and then they get a new one from the MTC tomorrow so they will be in a trio. I might have cried a little. Its ok. I love Hna Wright and learned so much from her. But I feel extremely overwhelmed. My new companion, Hna Judy has never trained before and she´s the new one to the area. Its going to be ok though because I already know her because she was living in the same piso just a different area and she´s awesome. The thing that has me nervous is that I´m the one that´s familiar with the area and the people. Basically the Lord is asking me to step my game up. I have to take more charge and help this Hna get acustomed to the area and the people. Thankfully she´s been here on intercambios before but still, I´m really nervous. I think I can do this though. If the Lord and President Jackson think so, then I think so too. My companion and I can do this. :) 

One of our amazing investigators, Mike the one from Nigeria met with us yesterday to say goodbye to Hna Wright and it was one of the coolest experiences I have ever had. He was saying so many beautiful things about how she´s needed in her new area now and how she will be blessed because we are doing the Lord´s work. He then said that before we went to Madrid for General Conference he prayed and asked the Lord if the Church was true and he felt it during conference. Basically he´s known this whole time that the Church is true, he just wanted to know more. When he gave the closing prayer as we were leaving, he prayed for Hna Wright to continue doing good things in her new area and to continue doing the Lord´s work even after she goes home. He then asked the Lord to ¨strengthen Paloma¨ (what he calls me) and I just cried and cried. I´m turning into an even bigger baby out here. 

I love to hear that everyone is doing so good. It makes me feel so happy. I´m so jealous you are going to New York though! How are the Yankees doing? Am I allowed to ask that? Dad, go to a game for me. Keep me in your heart haha 

Oh yeah.......... Mother´s day. I´m supposed to ask you what time works best for you. Its an 8 hour time difference. So I´m 8 hours ahead of you. I don´t know how daylight savings time works out here. Europe is weird. But ok we have church until about 2 our time and that´s 6am for you. So anytime after that. You have to decide. And send me your skype info so I can see your lovely faces. Sound good? 

I love you guys! Fight the good fight and keep the faith :)

4/21/13 --

hey family.

i haven´t gotten ANY letters in the mail. just the first one from you guys 5 weeks ago. everyone just emails me. haha but letters would be nice. i have like no time today because i just got back from toledo and we got back late. i love spain mom and dad. its so great. its beautiful.

ummmm bad news, the investigator Jose isn´t getting baptized on the 27th anymore. word of wisdom... he doesn´t think he can stop drinking. he doesn´t even want to try. its bumming me out. we fasted and prayed so hard. i still have faith he can do it though. we are trying to set a new date and help him get there because he does want to be baptized. 

i got to go to the temple this week and i received a lot of revelation. it was super cool. the lord is taking care of me. being a missionary is the coolest thing. i´m not discouraged. faith is looking forward. 

I love you guys. I´m so sorry this is so short. I will write more next week when I have more time. I have to go to teach english now. hahaha 

4/15/13 --

Hey family. I wrote Rosa last week, I hope she got it. I´ve been praying lots for her and I hope she gets better quick. I miss our ward, latins are just so much nicer than the Spainards. But its ok, I´m charming my way into their hearts, slowly but surely.
Dear mother, let me answer your questions because I know you worry a lot about these little things. I DO MY OWN LAUNDRY. Shocker, right? And I haven´t ruined anything. My whites are as white as snow. I promise. We don´t have a dryer though so I have to hang everything to dry which is super annoying but hey, we deal with it. Also, it might interest you to know that I wash the dishes ALL THE TIME. Very unlike I was at home with the dishes...  I love doing it now, it relaxes me. Haha the other hermanas struggle with keeping the kitchen clean so I just do the dishes all the time because I´m an angel obviously. Also my companion is teaching me how to cook. Hahaha yes finally. Nothing fancy but we´re not starving either. Just basics like pasta and rice. On Sunday, I cooked after church to end our fast I made rice with un huevo frito y salchichas. Nothing fancy but I´m trying. Also, I learned how to make la tortilla de patatas, its my favorite thing out here.
Shoot I feel like I had a lot of awesome things to tell you about this week but I forgot. I usually write them down. Today I´m going to Madrid to go site seeing and shopping and stuff. It should be fun. Oh, remember Mike the investigator from Nigeria? He´s getting baptized on May 11. He´s super awesome and goes out of his way to meet with us whenever, I´m so excited for him. He came to a baptism that the Elders had on Saturday and he really liked it. There´s this Mexican family that we´ve been teaching, Rutillo y Lorena. They were my first lesson here in Alcala. When I got here at 7 and I had to run to their house at 7:30. Rutillo was baptized when he was 14 and was active for a couple of years and then stopped. Lorena isn´t a member and they have a 5 year old daughter named Jimena who reminds me so much of Jalyssa. Anyway, we had a super cool lesson with them this week. We watched the Resturation movie and had a mini testimony meeting. I shared how reading the Book of Mormon together with my family really brought us together and how the gospel just blesses families and then I gushed about how much I loved you guys. It was adorable. Hna Wright and I were vibing with the Spirit and then we asked Rutillo, why he got baptized in the first place and started crying and told us his story and the Spirit was awesome. We invited them to pray as a family about the Book of Mormon and then... They totally came to Church yesterday! We´ve been trying for weeks to get them to come and they finally did and they loved it. I´m super excited to see them this week. I have a good feeling about them.
Also I finally found a Colombian family that loves me and will make me Colombian food. I almost cried I was so happy. We visited them yesterday and we´re totally best friends now. Its fine.
well I love you guys a whole lot and I love hearing from you every week. It always gets me motivated for the next week. This week we´ll get to go to the temple and I´m super excited, its been like a month and I miss going every week. Because temple oridances is what its all about. I love this gospel and I love being a missionary. I say that a lot but I really do. I MISS YOU GUYS A LOT BE GOOD AND STUFF AND THE CHURCH IS TRUE.... OBVIOUSLY.  :)

Stealing the other sister's beds on April Fool's.

Hna Wright and I pulling pranks.

Hna Wright and I stealing beds.

Hna Seastrand and I at conference being dorky.

Hna Wright and I with Mike.

My attempt at trying to take more pictures with my companion. I'm the worst at pictures.

An actual piece of the Berlin Wall from parque de europa.

This was from the last night at the mtc with hna peterson and hna seastrand. I don't think i ever sent it but i love them. Hna peterson is in barcelona now.

Elder Perkis and I in the MTC.

04/08/13,

oh man did i miss you guys during conference! we watched the saturday mornng session at 6pm our time saturday night. we had our investigator jose (who gets baptized on the 27th) come and watch with us. also the dominican family we´re teaching that i love, lenin and sulai with their 4 month old baby girl and get this.. the family we are teaching invited 2 of their friends to come and they loved it and we are going to be teaching them this week! so many miracles happened on saturday i can´t even explain. conference is just the best. i heard carolina´s dad translating! i got so excited! oh the sisters in my apartment all went crazy and made tons of sweets. we had cinnamon rolls and my companion made trifle. which was basically diabetes in a bowl. it was so good though. and we all ate with our investigators after the session. it was a great day. 

on sunday, we went to the stake center in pavones, which is where the temple is. we went at like 10am to take our nigerian investigator, mike to priesthood session... so i watched priesthood session. haha that was a different experience. no one kicked me and hna wright out so we stayed and watched it the whole thing with him. haha after that mike was going to leave but he decided to stay with us and watch the saturday afternoon session that we watched at 2:00pm on sunday and then he liked that so much that he stayed and watched the sunday morning session at 6 to 8. we don´t get to watch the sunday afternoon, i´ll have to wait for the ensign for that one. but it was so great! he stayed with us all day! he said it was a great experience and that we have a lot to talk about this week when we meet. we also gave him a temple tour, where we go around the temple square and talk about some of the symbols and stuff that are there, oh man it was such a great experience. i love the temple. i love the few times i get to see the madrid temple, its beautiful. 

in between sessions, everyone hangs out and just catches up with all the other missionaries. my companion and i ended up giving our lunch away to all the hungry members and other missionaries. i saw a lot of the teachers from the mtc, it was really the best day ever. it was just a great week, we used conference to testify about prophets and how blessed we are to have modern prophets. i love the gospel and conference and the temple and just everything! ahhh i love it. 

can i just say how much i love my companion hna wright? she is seriously the best. our study time in the mornings is so great because we both get so excited and pumped for the day. this week was a little hard in the sense that a lot of our investigators bailed on us. on friday, ALL 5 OF OUR LESSONS BAILED ON US. i was so frustrated. and my angel of a companion is just so patient and loving and did not let it get her down. i need to work on that because i get really mad but i usually just find a quiet spot to pray and get back into it. i have to serve my heart out because i know this message i´m trying to share is true. like president uchtdorf said ¨with christ, darkness cannot exist¨ i have to go bring light into people´s lives, that is my calling. and i love every second of it. 

i love you guys and i´m praying day and night for you and trying to serve with all my might and all my heart so that the lord will bless you. i hope its working. :)

4/01/13 --
this week was semana santa. holy cow that was an experience. i got to see a procession on thursday. it was so weird. they walked through la plaza de cervantes and carry this huge jesus and virgin mary and they have like these crazy kkk hoods but in purple and they drag crosses. it was just crazy. it gave me a super weird feeling. but the next night we had an easter concert at the stake center where the temple is and it was so different. just the spirit there was so much prettier and happier. i got to see a lot of the other missionaries in madrid and teachers from the mtc. we brought this family we´re teaching and this new colombian man we started teaching this week. 
by the way, thanks dad for being colombian, THERE ARE SO MANY COLOMBIANS HERE AND THEY LOVE ME.
anyways, we got to walk around the outside of the temple after and show them and tell them why temples are important to us and it was a really neat experience. i love being a missionary and i love seeing the madrid temple. 
for easter, we had dinner with a dominican family we´re teaching and the food was so good i almost cried. I MISS MOM´S COOKING. i just miss good latin food. i mean sure the spainards food is good but i´m a latina and i needed my arroz con friojoles y una buena carne. so i had a great easter. haha
i´m so happy for this knowledge of the gospel that we have. what a blessing it is to know about the attonement and celebrate his life. not his death. we celebrate because he lives, not because he died. that was our message all day. i love having the blessings of the gospel and knowing that our family can be together forever. its awesome. 
how many families are going to the celestial kingdom? just one, because we´re all part of god´s family. (lame missionary joke, i´m sorry)
i love you all. and i miss you so much. but i wouldn´t trade this for a second. thanks for loving and supporting me. have a great week. :)