11/18;

Hey Family!

So yeah, I´m sorry about last week. I´m just bad with time and everything but I went to visit Rutillo and Lorena in Alcala! It was soo good. I was so happy to see them. I played with Jimena and had lunch with them and just talked forever. I feel bad it took me so long to go back and visit them but hopefully I can go see them on Christmas before we skype. The rumour is that christmas gets made pday and if thats true, I´m going to visit them and hopefully swing by Torrejon too. Transfers are this week so hopefully I stay here so I can do all that plus I´m finally getting attached to people here. But as you know, I´ve had tons of changes so far so now I just expect the unexpected. Whatever the Lord wants, I just go with His flow, ya know? Haha 

Shoot I have 2 weeks of stories to tell you. Let me see if I remember it all... OH we went to the temple last week. Finally saw the new temple movie. IT WAS SO COOL. And they let us watch it in English. That was pretty neat. Also Hna Olsen and I figured out we live like 10 mins away from the Madrid stadium but its outside of our area. We went and saw it from across the street the other day while we were contacting. We decided if we stay together next transfer, we´re going to a game. For sure! Oh did I tell you how awesome our recent convert David is? He´s bringing us references like candy. The other day he made us come to the church because he said he had to talk to us when we got there, he had a friend with him and he wanted us to give her a church tour and olsen and i just look at each other like... who are you and why are you so awesome! He got the priesthood last sunday and went down to the south to go baptize one of his friends that he shared the gospel with on Saturday. Seriously, he´s so awesome. He wants to share the gospel with his mom, thats what he´s building up to. He always asks us what scriptures he can share with her and slowly but surely is trying to work with her. OH. and i have to tell you what happened with Roger and Maria. So they´re the couple that needs to get married so they can be baptized and they´ve had missionaries come by for the last 2 years and we recently baptized their daughter Rosa, the one thats going to be a General Relief Society President someday... mark my words. Anyways, So we´ve been trying to get them on fecha because they have a date to get married but not baptism when we got here and that makes us nervous because it seemed like maybe se estaban enfriando. you know? So Hna Olsen and I planned this super fuerte lesson and watched Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration with them. And focused on how easily he could´ve just denied everything and moved on with his life but he didn´t... he acted. And so we talked about the importance of acting upon our faith and I invited them to act and set a baptismal date and they were so excited! It was a good lesson. They´re getting married the 16th and they want to get baptized that same day but we have a mission wide devtional thing we have to go to. So we put their fecha for the 20th and now we´re just hoping that the bishop lets us do it on a Friday because they have their ward christmas party that Saturday. But little details! They have a date and we´ll work it out. No pasa nada. 

One more funny story. We were having correlation this week at the ward mission leaders house. And i don´t know if I´ve told you but there´s 8 missionaries in B1. 3 companionships of elders and me and Hna Olsen. So we´re all gathered in this tiny room when someone knocks at the door and one of the elders answer it.... it was the testigos! They looked so scared. They just knocked on a door and found a room full of mormon missionaries. We just kind of looked at each other... it was really tense for a second. They left us a pamphlet and booked it out of there. Life of a mormon missionary. Its a fun time. Anyways. I hope this was a plentiful email to make up for last week. I´ll be better about emailing. I promise. I love you guys! I miss you a lot. I sent the family a letter for thanksgiving and one for grandma and grandpa. Hopefully you get it soon. Have a good week. 

Hna Palomino

11/4;

Hey Family! 

Well like I said last week we are trying to clean house over here in B1. Hna Olsen and I decided that street contacting is not really our strong suit so that we would try different ways of finding. For example, through the members! Because thats actually the way it should be, but no one seems to have gotten the memo over here. So this week we did try contacting but also visiting members to build that trust so they would trust with references and stuff and it´s slowly but surely working. We actually had a really good lesson with David about la obra misional and he´s just awesome. He´s basically been sharing the gospel while he was still just investigating. He´s all excited to share it with his friends and family. He even brought his aunt to church yesterday and we got her number and should be meeting with her some time this week. It was awesome! So we might not be contacting machines or anything over here but we are trying our best for references. 

Other cool things that happened this week. The best thing, I FOUND A PLACE THAT SELLS RANCH. The elders took us after district meeting so to celebrate we went and had pizza with our ranch. That was probably a bigger highlight of my week than it should be..........Oh a family invited us over for a comida on Halloween and it was awesome, they gave us candy :) On Friday we had a dia de las naciones. Basically just another party in which everyone brought food from their country and it was pretty cool. Hna Olsen actually made sloppy joes for the American table and I made banana bread. And then all the elders and us did a skit entitled ¨Querido Juan¨ which is basically exactly what you think it is. We did a musical number about a missionary that gets dear johned because our ward mission leader thought it would be hilarious. I´ll see if I can send you guys a video. Haha it was pretty funny. OH something awesome that happened. So my good friend Hna Seastrand is actually serving in Alcala right now. She was in a trio but then President made her train a visa waiter who is going to some Utah mission at the end of the transfer. So she´s basically building another area for the hermanas. And she was asking me what people I had taught when I was there that the other hermanas weren´t teaching anymore. So I gave her some names and last night she told me that they found the Dominican family that I loved that totally disappeared after my first transfer. They are back in Alcala and now the hermanas are teaching them again! Its so cool. They asked for me and Hna Wright so that was pretty cool. Also I´m emailing you right now from a little pueblo outside of Madrid called Aranjuez we decided to visit for Pday. Its super pretty here but super cold. I´ll send pictures! 

Mom, I forgot my coat size. I´ll send it next week with Rutillo and Lorena´s address. I´m giong to Alcala next pday to visit them. Dad, I´m so sorry the red sox won the world series. That makes me very sad. I´m so sorry about Hno Reyes but he´s in a better place now. What a blessing to know about the plan of salvation and know that he can be with his family again. Just one of the reasons this gospel is so great. But still I will keep them in my prayers. 

Well its getting colder and this little missionary is about to hit her 8 months. So crazy. I miss you guys a lot but I´m loving my time here. Really. I´m so lucky to be doing what I´m doing. The blessings are all over the place :) I love sharing the gospel with anyone that will listen. Its changing my life. I hope everyone has a good week. 

Hna Palomino

10/28;

Hey family! 

So Rosa got baptized this week. Yes, the super smart 8 year old that I´m sure will grow up to be a general relief society president or something haha no... but really. She´s wonderful. The district leader that interviewed her said that she was more prepared than most of the adults he´s had to interview. I believe it. Haha our goal this week is to get the parents on fecha. So we´re praying super hard for this one. 

Honestly this week has been a blur other than that. Hna Olsen and I have both been sick all week. We´re feeling a lot better now but yeah we´ve been super sick. Change of weather and all that I´m guessing. But its all good, we decided this week to just clean house with the area. Pretty much all of the investigators that the other hermanas left have disappeared on us. So we´re going to start fresh and hopefully get some fresh blood in here. I mean... new people to teach. Haha sorry that just sounded bad but yeah! We´re going to work on some hardcore finding. 

Well sorry to keep it short and sweet. There´s just not a whole lot to report on thisend. Sorry! I´ll be not sick this week and write a more quality email this next week. Be good and i love you guys! 

Hna Palomino 

10/21;

Hey Family,

So this week has been... crazy to say the least. White washing an area is super hard. Even harder when we can´t reaad the handwriting on the teaching records to see where everyone is at. Not to make a dorky sister missionary joke--- but i legit need a urim and thumim for this area book. (laugh) anyways but its been good. My new companion is an angel. And we haven´t met a ton of the ward members but the ones we have are awesome. Theres definitely a lot of work to be done.

We had a baptism yesterday and one on Saturday. Yesterday this really awesome guy from Ecuador David got baptized. Super ready, we really only had a pre interview with him and then just the day of his interview but he´s great and we´re excited to keep teaching him as a recent convert. Funny story, so I´ve never had to fill up a baptismal font before. Because we´ve always had super awesome ward mission leaders that do it for us but here in B1 we have to fill up the font. So we thought well since the B5 elders that we share a capilla with have a baptism on Saturday... might as well leave it filled for us right. No, bad idea. The water was super cold the next day. We left the hot water on an hour before the baptism and me and Hna Olsen were using little cups of hot water to mix it in with the cold water. I almost fell into the font like twice. NO big deal.

Our baptism on Saturday is going to be an 8 year old girl named Rosa, whose parents have been investigating for like 2 years but haven´t been able to get baptized because they´re not married yet. But this girl... oh my gosh. I feel like she should be teaching me. We go in there and we were told we had to go over everything from the start and just make it real simple. My comp is all nervous because she´s never taught children and I´m like Olsen, i was a primary teacher.. no pasa nada. Holy, no. I have never had an 8 year old argue deep doctrine with me. I was trying to explain the apostasy and she cuts me off by saying that not all the apostles were killed... what about Juan the Amado and I think i literally said what are you. Hahaha So yeah, that was this week in a nutshell.

Well thanks for all the good news, the good vibes and the love. I miss and miss you guys all the days of my life. HOping to make you proud. Remember to be good and read your scriptures and all that jazz. Have a good semana :)

Hna Palomino