6/17;

Hey family! 

Well first off I am currently sitting next to Hna Manner, the sister that visa waited in Saratoga Springs. She is serving in Barrio 8 with my good friend Hna Seastrand so yeah she is here with me for pday. :) its nice to know someone that just came from my favorite place ever. haha So to answer the question you are wondering most about... Barrio 4 is definitely a lot different than Alcala. So the part of Madrid we cover is Hortaleza. At least thats the big part of it. We have the second biggest area in Madrid but theres only like 90 people or so in the ward. The ward is going through a transition phase. Im not entirely sure what everyone means by that. But they just got a new bishopric like 2 months ago and they are trying to change things in the ward for the better. Which is cool. But that also means that they expect a lot from us. The last sister misisonaries that here about a year and a half ago did not leave a good impression on the ward so all eyes are us now. Everyone has said that. But its ok. The ward is basically all latins so they love me. Mostly people from Ecuador. Thanks for that Mom, its helping me win hearts. hahaha The elders have helped us a lot to get started. They had the members invite us to all their food appointments. So now we get fed by members like everyday. Haha on Tuesday the elders took us to a food appointment, Elder Prentell who has been here for 3 months and his companion just came down from Vigo so Prentell was just leading us everywhere because the 3 of us were new to the area. So he said it was with a less active and to not be scared but that this guy had a few different ideas about the church. So we got there and we were super nervous and we meet the guy and he was quiet for a long time and finally he starts talking and starts telling us stories about when he served a mission in venezuela. about an hour later, he says alright tienen mas preguntas para su obispo? and we just all looked at each other. And Prentell busts up laughing. HE WAS THE BISHOP. And the bishop was like what did he tell you about me, did he say I was a less active member that was crazy? And we just started laughing. It was so funny. 

Also we met someone super cool. We were going through the old investigators in the old area book and found this lady Cecelia that we went to visit. She is 85 years old, totally Spanish and met elders 20 years ago. The last hermanas left her because she was not progressing but she says its hard for her to take the metro to church since its so far and shes old. But the cool part was that she said, she had been thinking about the missionaries the last couple of weeks but did not know how to contact them. Until we came knocking on the door. She said that she had been reading the Book of Mormon and she knows now that its true. Awesome! So we are going to keep meeting with her and see where it goes from there. I love her, she has a lot of cool stories. I am super excited. 

So yeah, I like Barrio 4. I had to buy a little book with maps with all the street names because I was sick of not knowing where to go. So now my goal this transfer is learn Madrid like the back of my hand. I already have the metro down. Madrid has nothing on this New York girl obviously. 

Mom is a primary teacher now? HAHAHAHAHAHA yes! Good. That will keep you nice and young :) well I am glad things are going well at home. Dad, I started writing you a letter for Fathers day but I havent sent it yet. So I am not a terrible daughter and forgot about you. I will send it this week. I love you guys! I hope you have a good week and good luck with the primary mom. Oh man that is just too good. hahahaha thank you I am going to be laughing all week.