8/11;

Hey Family! 

Well its certainly different working in a different companionship but same area. Its a little sad not being able to visit the people I was teaching with Hna Scattolon but I have enjoyed working with Hna Rica. There´s not a whole lot of investigators that this companionship was working with but there´s a lot of work with the less actives and recent converts. Hna Rica and I just seem to have good unity off the bat and have had some great experiences this week trying to teach and help people. I will admit its hard working in a companionship knowing that your area is basically getting closed when you leave but we are trying to work our hardest with what we´ve got. The plan is to leave everything nice and ready for the new companionship of Elders that came in last transfer to hand them our investigators that we do have. We actually are teaching a few really good people. 2 of them very close to a baptismal date. One of them is David who is a total miracle. The hermanas contacted him last transfer but he couldn´t meet with them formally because his wife didn´t like it or something like that. But they would randomly share a quick message with him and he´s actually started to read the Book of Mormon. We had a lesson with him and he straightway started asking about baptism because he says he feels so much peace when he reads the Book of Mormon. Miracle. He came to church with us too and just loved it. Every scripture that they shared during the talks he would mark in his book. So good. Definitely have mixed feelings about having to end all this in a week and a half but trying my best to not think about it. So we´re keeping busy in Leganes! 

Hna Palomino

8/4;

Hey Family! 

Wow so many emotions this week. So transfers happened... I´m in Leganes but switching companionships. Hna Scattolon is training and I am going to be comps with Hna Rica, an hermana that I started in the MTC with. We are both going home together. So we have 2 and a half weeks to whip out and work our heads off before we hand our area over to the rest of the missionaries. Crazy but hey, its the Lord´s work. Scattolon and I did a little bit of ¨cleaning house¨with our area book. Because all though we can whip out a lot of lessons, we don´t have a lot of people progressing and we are trying to do our best with what we´ve got and work hard to find more. We did have one investigator who is a leader in his evangelical church come to sacrament during testimony meeting and I swear everyone came up and bore their testimony about the ONLY true Church and it might´ve helped him. I guess Hna Scattolon will have to work with that. I´m excited for the chance to work with Hna Rica now and so happy to be able to stay in Leganes. 

So this week was Rutilio and Lorena´s sealing that I got permission to go to. I know its not regular missionary work but I just have to say that there are no words to describe how I felt in that sealing. I thought of my very first zone conference and hearing about the vision of the mission and thinking how neat it would be to teach a family that would get sealed someday and I got to see it. I saw the vision of the mission as I saw this cute family kneeling over the altar and becoming an eternal family. This family that was my very first lesson in the mission field and became so special to me. Not that anyone reads this but I felt like so many Hermanas got to rejoice over this, all the Hermanas that played a part, Wright and Judy especially. I wished they could´ve been there. I love the gospel. I am so grateful for the chance to be a missionary and teach people the way to get back to their Heavenly Father. Thats what it´s all about.

Hna Palomino

7/28;

Hey Family! 

This week was all sorts of crazy but in a good way of course. We are still just trying to power through the heat and work hard. Seriously its so hot, its ridiculous. Scattolon and I are like walking through the desert of our afflictions here. But it was a good week. We actually saw a lot of fruits from working with the members. We had a lesson with a member´s 2 sisters and his niece that he wanted us to meet. We shared the Book of Mormon with them and it was a really great lesson, the Spirit was super strong and we are having another Noche De Hogar/lesson with them this week. 3 new investigators thanks to a member trusting us with his family. We feel so honored and so grateful to be winning the trust of the ward and being able to work side by side with members like this faithful brother. We are trying to improve on our finding and organizing. Its a little hard when we have all these investigators that aren´t progressing and my companion feels too bad to let them go for a while. So it doesn´t leave room for finding new people that are ready to accept the gospel. But we are working on it, slowly and surely. She´s a lot softer than I am. And I am pretty soft, so you can only imagine. Haha I love this area and I hope that we are doing our best in our efforts to serve and love the people.Love you guys!

Hna Palomino

7/21;

What a week. First off, Scattolon and I had to go to the leadership council meeting in the mission home with President and Sister Jackson. The spirit felt there was incredible and I could really feel the love of President and the Lord for us missionaries. Our zone leaders did so well at trying to portray that same spirit in zone meeting. It was nerve wracking having to speak in zone meeting but the elders were so nice and supportive about it and I think Hna Scattolon and I did alright. We had to speak on teaching in the Savior´s way using the Spirit and love. And of course going to the temple prior to zone meeting definitely helped invite such a great Spirit. But like most missionary weeks, it had its highs and its lows. Its one of those weeks when you are trying to do your best and not seeing very many results. We´ve tried inviting with power and authority only to get denied and rejected. We have one investigator that flat out told us a piece of paper that says you´re legally married is not important and chooses not to keep the Law of Chastity. Another that says she would rather sleep in on Sundays that have to get all ready for Church. One man that won´t come to church until he receives an answer about the Book of Mormon. And another that is a leader in an evangelist church and despite having a testimony of the Book of the Mormon and the prophet Joseph Smith won´t commit to a baptismal date because he thinks it would look bad to the people in his church. Thats been our week in a nutshell. A few tears were shed I will admit but overall I feel like we are sincerely trying our hardest to do our part. Although the results were not the best, I feel at peace because I know my companion and I are doing our best. I feel like before I would´ve been extremely frustrated and disanimada but I have faith that if we continue doing our best, things will work out. Its all about faith and trusting the Lord. So despite the challenges, we are looking up. Throwing our head back and enjoying the rain. So things are good here. I truly love this gospel and getting to preach it day in and day out is nothing short of a blessing. So I´m thankful for all the days, good and bad. I love you guys! 

Hna Palomino

7/7;

Hey Family!

Well another good week in Leganes. I really do enjoy this area so much and I have a good companion so I can´t complain. Our recent converts are doing great, I feel like we mostly have been focusing on them and trying to help them out. There is one recent convert from the other hermanas that is flat out going against some of the Church´s doctrine and is saying some things that is confusing our recent converts. So we have had to do some damage control but everything is fine for now. The ward is aware of the situation with the other guy so we´re kind of on the defense right now. We´ve always realized that a lot of our investigators aren´t really progressing so we have decided to leave a few of them that just aren´t ready right now. My companion is having a hard time with it but I told her its really an act of faith that someday down the road they will be prepared to hear the gospel and its just about having faith that we will find new investigators. So now we are out looking for more souls to teach! Hopefully it goes well. We´ve also been visiting with members a lot and having Noches de Hogar. The next step is having them bring their friends. Slowly but surely getting to that point where we can work together. But this is a good area and a good ward and I´m super excited to work here. 

Hna Palomino

6/30;

Hey Family!

This week was great! We had Delfina´s baptism on Saturday. It was so wonderful. She came super early because she said she so excited. And before hand, the bishop helped us clean and fill the font. I really don´t think that baptism would have gone so smoothly without the wonderful Obispo Daniel´s help to be honest! The only bad thing was that my companion and I missed when Delfina went up to bear her testimoney because we were busy trying to set up the table for the food she had brought for after. And we missed it! No one told us she had finished changing, we were so sad! But it was a wonderful service. Now that we have a total of 8 missionaries here in Leganes, we were able to pull off a decent musical number. So yes, it was great. Its nice having another companionship here because the ward is getting excited and saying things like, ¨oh that means the work is going good!¨ so hopefully that excites them to help out. 

Cool experience of the week: One of our investigators when we were sitting down to start a lesson says, I have a friend that is going through a really hard time and I think she needs a message today more than I do, can I take you to her house? And we were like of course! So we went to her friend´s house, without knowing a thing about her or her problems and simply shared a message with her and she was like thank you so much. And our investigator says, When they talk to me I feel happy and different and I just wanted you to feel the same thing. It was so cute. So we got her number and hopefully got a new investigator out of it. Finding when we teach, teaching when we find. I love being a missionary.

Things are going good here. Also trying to keep pushing forward and enjoy every minute I have left. 

Hna Palomino

6/23;

Hey Family!

First off, I´m just so happy to be staying in Leganes another transfer! Hna Scattolon gets another six weeks with me,she´s so lucky. :) hahaha. There´s a lot of good things happening here. For one, we have Delfina´s baptism this week. And she is so excited! She´s been bringing her daughter and grand daughter to church every week for about a month now. And she´s plowing through the Book of Mormon, almost done and she loves it! Just a thought but I love that we have to teach Lesson 5 now before baptism because I feel like its more special. And that way they know everything they are getting into. We have had incredibly spiritual and powerful lessons teaching parts of lesson 5. Especially when we talk about the temple. It just feels so different when you explain before baptism because then they understand that that is the goal. To endure, perserver, to progress. I love it. My companion and I have also been having really good experiences just trying to really focus in on people´s specific needs. For example, we have one investigator that we decided we needed to start our lessons with a small reading in the Book of Mormon to introduce the lesson. For example, read a few verses in 2 Nephi 2 to intro the Plan of Salvation and it helps. We read some verses, and left the rest for her to read. That way next time we can go over what she read, see if she has questions and start a new lesson. So she´s reading and understanding the doctrine in the lessons. We are just really excited for this transfer. There is power in the Book of Mormon. There is power when we follow the guidelines in Preach My Gospel and there is power when we serve with love. Es verdad.

Hna Palomino

6/16;

Hey Family!

Another great week in Leganes. Doing our best to keep up with all the good people we have been blessed with to teach. Also a lot of little miracles along the way. Last week we had a rough Pday, at least I did. I lost my flashdrive with all my mission pictures! Its a good thing I had backed it up on another flashdrive I had but still I lost everything from February until now. I was so mad!. And some of the other hermanas had some rough news from home too. So we gathered together when we came home and the 4 of us knelt in prayer to ask for the strength we needed for the week and I think it was just what we all needed. At least I can speak for me and my companion, we saw little miracles all week. Notable ones include that we had a lesson with a woman we´ve been teaching all transfer and we were thinking about dropping her for a while. Not only is she not progressing but her level of understanding is super low and we´re worried she just doesn´t get it because she´s always distracted and doesn´t pay a lot of attention during the lessons. Well we start talking about baptism and the authority that was restored through the prophet Joseph Smith and she out of nowhere says that from what little she has read of the Book of Mormon, she knows that its true because she´s received an answer and she knows that Joseph Smith was a prophet. My companion and I just honestly had our mouths drop. She said she couldn´t attend church this week but that she wanted to come next week. And wanted us to look up the information for the bus and everything. We were just shocked. And gave a prayer of thanks in the elevator on the way out. Thats basically how the week went. Good, small miracles and feeling nothing but grateful for it. We also met this guy that we had contacted about 2 weeks ago that was a little so so about giving us his number. He told us that right after we had contacted him, his ex bascially disappeared and left him with their two kids. super messed up. But he was thinking maybe he needed to turn to God for help and he wants us to meet his family, his mom and kids and share our message with them. So that was pretty cool. I´m teaching someone that speaks French again. Haha this guy from Cameroon. He´s learning spanish but its not that good. So my companion and I have been using the pamphlets to teach and we´ve learned some words that we use to teach in French. Nothing crazy but it helps. Haha and thats how things are going! Just a lot of good stuff. I´m working, I´m happy. :)

Hna Palomino

6/9;

Hey family!

Leganes is such a busy area! But I love it. This week we put our recent convert to work with us, Jorge came and helped us out in a couple of lessons. It was so great, he´s on fire! And he´s just so eager to share the gospel with people. We are loving it. We still have a lot of people with a lot of problems and we´re just trying our best to be the best missionaries they need and help them with the gospel. We had a lot of people in church yesterday and we are so happy about that. Because its just so important for them to go and feel the spirit during sacrament. It makes a huge difference when they are actually keeping their commitments. The problem we have now is that we have people progressing but still not at a place where they can be baptized. Like for example, people that need to get married to keep the law of chastity. Thats the most common one. But I know that miracles can happen. I saw it in B1. So we are praying and hoping for that.

Cool experience, Hna Scattolon and I were in a lesson and an investigator asked us a crazy random question but we were able to answer it because we had just studied it earlier for comp study. I love when that happens. When you have an effective study its like putting it into a little treasure chest of doctrinal knowledge that the Spirit can pull out and use when you need it. I love how that works. 

Anyways I hope all is well back home. I love you all! 

Hermana Palomino

6/2;

Hey Family! 
So this weekend we had Jorge´s baptism. What a great experience. There are no words to describe the Spirit felt at a baptismal service, when someone is making their first covenant with the Lord and starting the road to endure to the end. It was such a great baptism. Jorge was just so prepared. We finished teaching Lesson 5 this week with him and got to teach him about the temple and the priesthood and he said his goal wasn´t to get baptized, his goal was to be with his Savior someday. He´s so wonderful. And he is dying to start helping us with lessons so we are going to put him to work with us this week! 
We had one of our investigators, Delfina bring her daughter and grand daughter to church yesterday. We are trying to teach the whole family but we can´t always get them all together. Delfina has a baptismal date for June 21 and her family is kind of having a lot of problems right now but her daughter said that she is ready to make changes in her life and she bore her testimony in Principios del Evangelio saying that she wanted to get closer to God. Seeing so many problems like that just makes me so grateful to have the gospel in my life and so grateful for the chance to share it with people and invite them to come unto Christ. I know that this family needs the gospel. So many problems could be fixed with the help of the Lord through prayer, scriptures and making and keeping covenants. I just hope I am doing my best to help people with that. The beauty of diligence. There´s always room for improvement and I´m striving to do the best I can. 
It made me so happy to see that Hna Olsen came to visit Saratoga Springs! haha she always said she would do it and I didn´t think she actually would. She was a great companion. I´m glad you guys got to meet her! She was a great missionary and a wonderful example to me. I just keep looking at that picture she sent me and i can´t believe it haha oh what a great suprise. 
Hna Palomino

5/19;

Hey Family!

This week was good! Leganes is ALOT different than Cuenca. For one, its a lot bigger. We literally run from lesson to lesson so we can see everyone. Its different but in a good way. There´s a lot of good investigators here, just so prepared. I´m really grateful to be here. Hna Scattolon aren´t 100% used to each other yet but we are slowly but surely getting there. She´s a good companion. A lot of energy and willing to work hard so its good. 
We put 2 investigators on date this week. Jorge for the 31st and Delfina for the 21 of June. They are both so good. Jorge is a little miracle, he just came up to the Hermanas last transfer saying that he wants to be baptized. He´s reading in the Book of Mormon everyday and we see him at least every other day. He takes everything in like a sponge. He´s one of those people that was just truly prepared to receive the gospel. It´s so great. Delfina is also wonderful. A very humble woman that is willing to follow the Lord. We also met with a man that the hermanas have been teaching for a while. He was getting ready to be baptized but in the end said he wasn´t ready to keep certain commandments so they started over teaching him everything. And he´s kind of disappeared for a while and just called us out of the blue this week. He has a lot of problems. After we met with him, Hna Scattolon were talking about how we know the gospel is helping him. Slowly but surely. And I realized, that´s kind of the point of missionary work. I know we are called to find, teach and baptize. But its also about leaving people better than what you found them. Its been a good first week and I´m so excited to be here. 
Hna Palomino

4/21;

So it was Semana Santa in Cuenca this week. Which meant a lot of processions and things but it was a good week! At first it was a bit slow. There was a lot of tourists in town and a lot of people deciding to remember that they´re Catholic and not really wanting to talk to us. But we tried our best. Hna Clay and I studied a scripture list we had of Christ´s last week so it helped keep us focused on our purpose despite the hard circumstances. And it led to a very good weekend. We found out that Marseilles, our French investigator that just recently got married in order to get baptized is moving back to France for the work season and won´t be back until December. He´s leaving May 5th. So we proposed a plan, to baptize him here before he leaves so that he can just leave a member. And he was so happy! There were actually a lot of tears of joy in that lesson. We set a plan and scheduled it with our interpreter so that we could have him ready for May 3rd. He wants us to get in contact with the ward or branch he will attend in France so that he knows where to go and wants missionaries to talk to there. So we have a plan in motion and hope that everything works out! A little miracle for Cuenca. 

We also met with a woman this week that we had contacted about a month ago. She works in one of the pueblos outside of Cuenca and only comes every 2 weeks or so. Out of the blue we decided to call her again and she happened to be in town so we had a lesson with her on Friday and gave her a Book of Mormon. We had a lesson the next day too, this time she brought her son too and had read and everything. Two very prepared people! They even came to church the next day and the branch just loved on them. It was so wonderful. The only down part is that she won´t be back for another 3 weeks. But we are going to meet with her son in between then. We are very excited! Good things in Cuenca. We are working and we are happy!

Hna Palomino

4/14;

Hey Family!
This week has been one of those HOLY COW MISSION MIRACLES week. I don´t even know where to begin. First off, we have put into effect our plan for teaching the branch members out of Preach My Gospel and setting goals with people on what to study and how to put things into effect. We are expecting good results from that. One of the recent converts that wants to serve a mission is now currently teaching US the lessons so that we can help her learn how to teach essentially. A couple of the investigators we had previously found that disappeared for a little bit have met with us again. The biggest miracle however was that Marcel, our french investigator that was gone for a month came back MARRIED to his MA girlfriend because he wants to get baptized. We got there and of course, he doesn´t Spanish and we don´t speak French so we´re kind of just signing to each other and then Ana walks in and gives Clay her phone to talk to her sister from Valencia who is the Relief Society President over there. So while my comp is talking to her, I notice that Marcel has a nice new ring but for some reason, mostly unbelief, I couldn´t remember if your wedding ring goes on your left or right hand. So I´m looking at Ana´s hand when Clay whispers to me... They´re married. They totally got married during their month long trip to France! IT WAS SO COOL! We were seriously so happy! The American that helps us out in the lessons is gone for Semana Santa but we are meeting together on Sunday to finish the lessons and get him on a new baptismal date. We were not expecting that but he is very serious that he wants to make things right and get baptized. We are nothing but grateful because this is all the Lord´s hand in this, we´ve done nothing. We are so excited to have a baptism in Cuenca! Possibly for the first week in May but we still have to work out details.
Its funny how after the trials, always come the blessings. If we work through them and try to be patient and do our best. That´s what Hermana Clay and I have been trying to do. Just be diligent despite the obstacles and somehow we got blessed with one of the best weeks we´ve had since we came to Cuenca. A lot of good stuff happening. I´m working, I´m happy, I´m doing my thing. I love you guys!
Hermana Palomino

4/7;

Hey Family!

My thoughts are a little all over the place so I will try my best to express myself. First off, I think this was one of the most spiritually uplifting General Conferences I´ve ever seen. And now I´m looking back on some of the talks I enjoyed the most and the notes I have don´t match up. I realize the Spirit was truly teaching me things that I needed to hear from my Savior. It was a beautiful experience.  I know that I will someday look back on the trials and hardships of Cuenca and be grateful for every moment but right now I have to just endure it well. For example, this week was probably one of the worst weeks numbers wise in my mission. But Hna Clay and I talked about it and we feel really good about it. Because yes, the numbers aren´t the best but we are trying our hardest. We are being sincerely diligent and I don´t come home feeling bad, I just want to keep going. There is a lot of work to be done with this branch. I know that our job is to love and help them. We have set goals to try and help the families with their Family Home Evenings and study Preach My Gospel with them. For 2 reasons, 1 being that most of our investigators come from these families and 2 we think it would really help the spirituality of the branch. Because these people need help, especially when most of them are the only example in their families of Church members. So we are going to keep moving forward and keep trying our best here in Cuenca. So this is a happy report. We are alive and well. Haha
Hna Palomino

3/24;

This week was alright. It was one of those weeks where everything you have planned kind of fails, and then so does your plan b, and even plan c so you have to improvise - using the Spirit of course. So it leaves room for miracles. We have had a lot of random chances to serve people. For example, helping push a broken down car into a parking spot for someone. We also knocked a lot of doors this week and thats always an interesting experience to say the least. The thing that amazes me about Cuenca is that honestly a good chunk of our investigators come from part member families. We visited an MA this week in one of the pueblos outside of Cuenca and we´ve started teaching her 10 year daughter. Her oldest son is baptized, he´s 18 but doesn´t have the priesthood and apparently he just got back from a vacation in Uraguay with his family that is super strong in the church over there and they asked him if he could pass the sacrament and he felt so bad that he couldn´t. So he´s now working on getting his license so he can drive his mom and sisters to church on Sundays. We visited a man and his wife that we found on the branch member list. He got baptized when he was about 20 or so back in Bolivia and his wife is not a member and wants us to teach them. So we are very excited. Hna Clay and I walked out and talked about how we both pictured them in white, with him baptizing her. And I think thats the key. Not to see people as they are but to see them as they can become. Thats the beauty of the Attonement. We can become amazing, incredible people through the gospel of Jesus Christ. If there is one thing I have learned out here its that. 

Hna Palomino

3/17;

Hey family! 

Another great week in Cuenca! We have another investigator on fecha. Elvis, the man that has gotten baptized already but never got confirmed. Well he has another date for April 13th so hopefully everything works out. He came to church yesterday. The week could´ve gone better. We had a lot of things scheduled and set up but I guess I found the downside of working with a small branch full of part member families. Everyone is essentially related in some way or another, out of our teaching pool. So we try and schedule lessons to get people a little more one on one to focus on their needs but instead they buddy up on lessons and come to someone else´s lesson because they think its the same thing. Its a little difficult because it just kind of messes up the plans we have to focus on people. But it also makes room for working with the Spirit. There´s a pro and con to everything I guess. 

Yesterday I realized just how important it is to work in strengthening the branch is. The Relief Society teacher didn´t show up so the president just looks at me and clay, hermanas will you teach? Sure. Sunday school, Gospel Principles teacher doesn´t show up. Hermanas, will you teach? Got it. Sacrament, my second time giving a talk in a month. And guess who´s playing the piano, Clay. Guess who has to lead? Palomino. Guess who can´t sing or lead? Yes, thats not a gift of the spirit sadly. Haha it was a crazy Sunday but honestly I loved it. Cuenca is such a good little place. Honestly its grown on me and I love it here. Its been a good month. Hna Clay and I are trying to work our hardest and see more and more miracles happening. 

Well I love you guys and hope that everything is going good! 

Hna Palomino

3/10;

Hey Family!

We had a good week in Cuenca. Like always. I really do love this branch and this area so much. There is so much potential and so many good things waiting to happen. And I love working with Hermana Clay. She is a great companion and a hard worker. This week we had an interesting experience. We had a first lesson with someone that we had met on the street. We got to her house for the appointment and there was a lady that was a practicing Jevohah´s Witness that had randomly stopped in before us. When the lady that was visiting realized we were Mormon, she got all huffed and kind of confrontational with us. We tried calmly explaining that we were simply there to share a message and not fight or argue but she was getting geared up for seemed like a round of bible bashing when all of a sudden the investigator said no. She politely asks the lady to leave and she says to us that we handled that very well because to her it didn´t seem like God´s message should be shared under contention and she didn´t like the lady´s intentions of fighting with us. So we had our lesson and everything went well. To me, it was just a testimony builder that this message we share, God´s message is of peace and happiness, not contention like she said. The lady was impressed by how we handled it because we really are not here to fight, nor convince. We are here simply to testify of what we know. It was a great experience.

What else. Elvis likes to bail on our lessons, punk. Marcel went to France for a few weeks for his nephew´s funeral but he says he will come back and get baptized. His fecha is still good for April, so we´re just praying that everything goes well. The branch loves me. I have to speak on Sunday.. again. Haha Presidente Vaquera said he wants us to baptize for his birthday, so obviously we promised him we would get on that. Haha I love this branch. 

Hna Palomino

3/3;

Well this week in Cuenca was great! We met a lot more members and have a good pool of investigators now. Honestly, all of our investigators have come from the part member families of the branch and area book work. We have done some street contacting but not enough. But I feel like this week we can work on that because now we have a better feel for the area and just kind of know what we´re doing now. We started teaching a man named Elvis. He got baptized a few years ago and never got confirmed, so the branch president wants us to proceed with teaching him all over again and baptizing him again but this time making sure he seals the deal, so to speak. So we are excited to work with him. He was a lot of desire, but he is very wishy washy when it comes to acting. We had one lesson with him and he failed on us the second time and didn´t come to church. So we´ll have to see where that goes. And we had a total miracle last night! We found an investigator, again through one of our less actives. He´s a friend of one of the members that just moved here from France about a month ago, he´s retired and speaks no Spanish. But he´s been coming to church and is very interested. So we set up a lesson with one of the members, he´s from Utah but he´s working here at the university teaching English and speaks French as well so we had a lesson with him as our interpretor. And the lesson went very well. Marcel brought up that he wanted to be baptized so we put him on date! It was so cool! We also had a whopping 22 people in church. 2 of which were our investigators so that is very exciting. One of our less active ward mission leader that we have decided to reactivate haha we want to have correlation so we are working with that! I really love Cuenca. Its a really great little place.

This week we also got the chance to attend our mission tour. Elder Texiera from the Eurupe area seventy came and spoke to us. It was awesome. A spiritual feast. haha we talked about our purpose as missionaries, how to recognize the spirit and finding people to teach. He said something that really stuck with me, he was talking about how we couldn´t be doing anything more worthwhile right now in our lives than serving missions. ¨The world has a lot to offer, but nothing like this¨ its so true. And its crazy to think that this week I´ll hit a year... Where has the time gone? Honestly, there is nothing I would rather be doing right now. If I could sit down and talk to me a year ago, I would tell myself to just go without any fears because I was scared out of my mind this time last year, I had no idea what was waiting for me here. But now I know, what was waiting was work. Hard work! But an abundance of blessings as well. There´s no need to fear because the Lord will take care of His missionaries, I´ve seen it countless times. I love this work, I love this gospel. I don´t care how cheesy it is to say but its true. My mission has changed my life for the better and I would never regret my time out here. I mean that wholeheartedly. Alma 26:1-3 :) 

Hna Palomino

2/24;

First week in Cuenca! Its super pretty. Super cold. Our piso is about a half hour away from everything. And uphill, so my calves are going to be fantastic when my time here is through. Haha

So this week was mostly dedicated to cleaning the mess the trio left behind. Piso wise and the area book. We have just reorganized EVERYTHING. Do you know how disgusting an elder´s piso can be? I mean I totally believe in the power of the priesthood and respect the elders but when they are in their apartments, they are not elders, they are BOYS. And I cannot begin to tell you the horrific things we have had to clean. Lets not talk about it. But yes most of our time has gone to that. Plus the area book needed work. Basically there is a gold mine of part member families here in the branch and the area book seriously had duplicate registros for the same people. Just cleaning house. That is what this transfer is all about. We have a pretty full week coming up though, because we´ve been making calls like crazy to set up appointments with Antiguos, MA´s, Part families and just member visits to really just get to know the rama and gain their trust.
Yesterday Hermana Clay and I had to give talks in Sacrament and I think it went very well. The rama took to us very well. And we are just trying to get things rolling here. Cuenca just kind of grows on you. There was 28 people in church yesterday and that´s supposed to be a very good turn out. The branch president pulls us aside and shows us the little sacrament tray and says, look we almost ran out of sacrament cups... i want 2 of these someday (because there´s only one). Hermana Clay and I just looked at each other and said Oh Yeah! Let´s get to work! 

Hna Palomino

2/17;

Hey guys,

Crazy week. So we had transfer calls on Saturday. Olsen is going home and I´m going to Cuenca.... A branch like 2 hours outside of Madrid. My new companion is Hna Clay. She´s going home in June I think? Maybe I´ll finish her off too. Haha but yeah. There´s no hermanas in B1. They just closed us. And I´m going to an area where I have to whitewash Elders out. Super weird. Well off to Cuenca I guess! I´ve heard a lot of good things and I´m excited to get to work and see some miracles! I will admit, it was very upsetting to have to leave B1. I really didn´t see it coming and I probably was a lot more upset when transfer calls came than I needed to be but that next morning before church, I started studying the book of Job in the Old Testament. Now from what little I have read, I have a feeling I´m going to love Job. He lost pretty much everything and still remained faithful. Its funny because one of the things I always admired about Hna Olsen was her faithfulness. Something I think I needed to learn from her. So although I am a little heartbroken to be leaving, I have to just trust in the Lord and know that if I stay faithful and just work hard, His divine purposes will come to pass. 

We ended our time in B1 with one of the most waited for baptisms, ever. I remember crying bitter tears when Roger and Maria backed out of their wedding and then to see them finally enter those waters of baptisms and be crying tears of pure joy was the best thing ever. It was probably the best baptism ever. We FILLED the chapel with members. That never happens. But for them, of course :)

Hna Palomino

2/10;

Hey family.

So this week will be mine and Olsen´s last together. Super sad but... we do get to have a baptism to end our time together :) Roger and Maria are getting baptized on Friday. They passed their interviews yesterday. Everything is set. Now we just need to make it to Friday. Haha but they are very excited. Its been a long time coming. We were over there last night putting the program together and they are so giddy about it all. I feel giddy for them too! And I´m so excited that Hermana Olsen will get to finish her mission with this baptism. 

We had a really great experience this week. We were talking about we don´t have too many crazy stories but...  As Hermana Olsen and I were getting on the bus on Saturday, a woman stops her and says Is that the book of mormon? Pointing to a copy that my companion had in her hand. And she just says, yeah. The lady asks her if she has more and Hermana Olsen tells her well, you can have this one! And the lady starts explaining that she has looked for the book of mormon because she´s heard a little about it but she has never actually gotten one. She said that she sees the ¨chicos¨all the time but never ¨chicas¨and she felt shy asking them for one. It was so cool. She was holding it like she had just found gold or something. So obviously, we got her reference and should be meeting with her this week. I just love good stories like that. Its a big testimony builder that yes, there are people that are out there looking for the truth and we have it! And what a blessing it is to share it. Seriously how many times have we heard that the Lord is hastening His work? It wouldn´t make sense if there weren´t so many people out there prepared and ready to hear the message of the Restoration. And I can testify to that. This gospel changes lives. Ours is not a passive faith, the Lord requires our hearts. If there´s one thing I´ve learned its that. The Lord wants your heart, your willing and obedient heart. D&C 64:34. I love my Savior and when I´m out in the pouring Madrid rain because I accidently forgot my umbrella at home, and some investigator has just failed us, or someone promised to come to church and we just sit there waiting and waiting and they never come, I remember that I´m doing this because I´m trying to give the Lord my heart and do my best. I´m not perfect but He just wants me to try. So thats what I´m doing and every crappy day, is worth it when we have those tiny victories of people passing baptismal interviews, people stopping us and asking for a Book of Mormon. Thats what its about. I´m so grateful for everything that has happened in the last 11 months. Thats cheesy, thats cliche but its true. 

Hermana Palomino

2/3;

Hey Family!

So.............. you´ll never guess where I just came back from. ROGER AND MARIA´S WEDDING. YES. Thats a real thing. I spent my Pday at the registro civil and watching our investigators finally take that step and legalize the situation haha THEY´RE MARRIED! Tonight we´re going over there to officially give them a baptismal date. Although they´ve bascially decided the 14th. 2 days before the transfer ends and Olsen dies. But yeah we´ll officially work it out tonight. I am SO excited. We had one of the other hermanas that taught them before us come too since she´s just serving in Alcala. It was so good. I´ll send pictures but yeah. Its been such a good day! A miracle if I´ve ever seen one. We found out on Wednesday that they prayed about it again and decided it was time again. Hermana Olsen and I have prayed so hard for them to finally make the right decision and we are beyond happy to have finally been able to see them do it. 3 years investigating and now they took their big step towards baptism. Now we are just praying that everything will go well until that day.
Other than that, everything else is still going pretty good too. We have some pretty good investigators, that just need to start coming to church so we can get them progressing and working towards baptism. We had a hard time with getting members to our lessons and actually had to cancel a few lessons because we couldn´t find women to come with us to teach men. It was rough. In fact, we had a member just flat out not come or ¨fire¨ us for one lesson. Its been rough. But we are still trying. Its just always the same people that help us, which is great but we could use more help around the clock, if that makes sense.

But no complaints. We are just so happy to be serving in B1. I have 2 more weeks before Olsen dies. Its a little sad. She´s been my longest companion but all things come to an end. But yeah good things happening. I love you guys. I love being a missionary and I love the gospel. Good things are ahead :)

Hna Palomino

1/27;

Hey family,

Have I told you lately how much I just love you guys? But for real. It was definitely weird not being there for my birthday but its all good. It was still a pretty good day. We had zone meeting the day before so I got mail and Amelia´s Christmas package. Haha just in time for my birthday i guess. One of the hermanas in my zone, Hna Schone made me cookies. It was awesome. And the day of, we had pretty good lessons. For medio dia, the b5 hermanas Frost and Crandall took me out for ice cream. Which was super nice of them. And Johnny from Torrejon called me and read me what you said for my birthday on facebook. haha so thank you. 

Ok so I thought last week was good, but this week was better. Seriously, we just keep seeing more and more miracles every week. We found 5 new investigators this week. And really good ones too. One of them is this guy from Peru that is a karate and tae kwan do instructor so he´s super intense and has super good questions and its really fun to teach him. One of them is a man from Morrocco, he´s a non practicing Muslim and he´s so cool. We found a Book of Mormon in Arabic for him. Somehow Hermana Olsen figured out how to find 3 Nefi in there so we could share a scripture with him. It was so awesome. And then 2 from yesterday. A lady that comes to church with her cousin every week and wants to get baptized so we started teaching her. She´s a little shy but super nice and very receptive. And then a nice lady from Santo Domingo that did a report on Mormons for school a long time ago and wants to hear from us, really what its all about. Haha that was actually a really great lesson. She did a report on Mormons and had no idea what the book of mormon was. Toma! Haha it was a very good week. We also had our investigator Gaby FINALLY come to church. Oh man that was an emotional struggle. Haha but she made it. She could only stay for sacrament but thats ok. She´s a little miracle. She is an former investigator from like 2006 or 7. And what happened is that our elders found her while knocking doors, had no idea and passed us the reference since she´s a woman and its just hard for them to meet with her because she can only meet in the mornings and they have a hard time finding men in the morning to take with them. And we magically found her registro. The missionaires had dropped her because they just thought she was ready to progess but seriously its a different story now, she´s definitely more ready to accept it now. And she showed that by coming to church yesterday. She like cried through the whole thing. And after she told me, I really needed that today. Thank you for bringing me. I just gave her a huge hug, because I love moments like that. Freak, I love the gospel! 

And last night, we had our little fireside we were planning to get the members stoked on missionary work. We had some talks, testimonies, videos and in the end President Jackson spoke. It was all super spiritual but there was like only 6 people there. So frustrating but we are trying! I just wish I could somehow make everyone understand or just feel what I feel sharing the gospel the joy that comes with sharing it so they can just GET IT. Honestly I can´t think of a better way that i´ve strengthened my testimony than by sharing it. But I guess we have to keep trying. Keep on keeping on! 

Hermana Palomino

1/20;

Familia,

Yes, I turn 22 this week........................... let´s not talk about it. Actually we went to Toledo today.. again because Hna Olsen has never been and its her last transfer and you know I´m a saint so I went for a 3rd time. I was all excited to go to stuff I´ve never been to before but then everyone wanted to do the same old, same old. oh lets go to the cathedral, lets go look at swords. So it was fine. Haha its all good. We´re ignoring my birthday this year. I´ve told Hna Olsen all I want is a nap for mediodia that day. I´m not that hard to please. haha 

Ok I have good stories. This week was insane. I just don´t even know sometimes, the Lord just has His hand all over the place but ok. First story. So we are working with the relief society to hunt down less actives and also cleaning house on the area book. Because its just a mess. So we found this MA record of a woman named Fransica and we did a nice little pass by. She is seriously the nicest lady I have ever met. We could only talk to her for a second but she invited us over for the next day. we´re best friends already. she invited me to her house in santo domingo to visit her after my mission hahaha so i might have to take a trip. And on the same day we had a lesson with a woman named Charon, an antiguo investigator and it turned into one of those bible bashing lessons that just end up super bad. but i stumped her because i´ve been studying the bible a lot lately and it was cool to be able to back everything up but i just realized those lessons are pointless because the spirit is just not there and nothing good comes from it. sure i can prove my point but if they´re not giving us an inch to testify and invite the spirit, nothing good comes from it. and a testimony has to come from faith and prayer, not logic. it just doesn´t work that way but whatever. We also found another less active that was super freaked out that we had come over. Apparently, it was her father in law´s birthday that day and her father in law was a member and she had dreamed about him the night before that he was trying to wake her up and give her some important papers. and then we came over and she was like, that is no coincidence. of course not. so she took that as a sign that we needed to keep coming over and visiting and help her come back. Yes, that sounds about right. 

And then 2 firsts on my mission. I taught my first Muslim. Which I didn´t realize until after the first prayer in our lesson when he says, oh I´m not a Christian. And then it just dawns on me... oh crap. So I was like oh... I´ve never taught a Muslim. So i just look at Olsen with puppy dog, save me eyes and she just comes in like a champ and takes control. It ended up going super good and we met with him again on Saturday and he´s really reading in the Book of Mormon so we´ll see how it goes. 2nd first, I got the ¨Laban¨question. We were having a lesson with this guy Angel that is super awesome and he started reading the book of mormon at his own speed, he says and he wanted to start from the begining and he got to the Nefi cutting Laban´s head off part. And I seriously have never gotten that question and i´ve been waiting for it. 10 months later! And honestly, I couldn´t even tell you how we answered it. We basically just read it over again together and explained it and he just got it. It was so simple. There is definitely power in the book of Mormon. I love it. 

Lastly, a miracle. Yesterday was one of those terrible, awful, everything is going wrong kind of days. You know all your lessons fail. Then your back ups fail. And then the pass bys aren´t home. And then one of the part member families decides to have the elders visit them instead. All sorts of just frustrating things. So instead of getting mad. I looked at Hna Olsen and said, On faith Hermana we have an hour and a half left before we call it a night, and we´re going to see a miracle before the end of the night. And randomly we see a PT Cruiser and we have this running joke that everytime we see one, it means its going to be a good night because they are so rare here in Madrid. And not even 20 minutes later, we contacted this guy and somehow it turned into a standing lesson and we gave him a Book of Mormon. It was one of those contacts that just feels different, you know? And we have a return appointment this week and seriously just turned the night around. 

So in short, what did I learn this week? The Lord has His hand EVERYWHERE, you just have to be ready and willing to see it. And when you work by the spirit, you can see WONDERS. We can´t do this without the Spirit. I love being a missionary and serving and learning and seeing all sorts of good things. I wouldn´t trade it for the world. So am i bummed to be spending my birthday away? Un poco. But I´m so blessed to be serving here and wouldn´t want to spend it any other way. 

I love you and miss you! 

Hermana Palomino

01/13;

Hey Family! 

This week was pretty good. We met with a lot of people for 2nd and 3rd lessons which we were struggling with last transfer so we are very excited. Now I feel like the challenge is getting everyone to church. We are trying hard and doing what we can. This week was probably the hardest we tried to get a lot of people to come to church. We had about 6 people that we had committed to coming but last minute they just bailed on us. But we are still trying! 

We have this one investigator. Rosmari. She´s super cool. We found her through the area book. The hermanas first found her in 2007 and taught her like twice and then never came back because schedules just didn´t work out or whatever. But we called her up and she was super excited to meet with us. She didn´t really understand everything the first time the hermanas came by, it looks like. So Olsen and I have decided to just take things slow and make sure that she understands everything. And its just been driving home the point of teaching people not lessons. Because really, thats what we are here for. To help people come to Christ, even if it means going super slow with all the lessons so that they get it. But as long as they get it and understand why they have to have their own personal relationship with their Savior then I´m doing what I am supposed to. 

Also we have a new ward mission leader and he is getting work done! Its awesome. We actually have a fireside planned out with him to get the ward all stoked on missionary work for 2014 and President Jackson might even make an appearance. So good things are happening here in B1. 

hey I´m going to actually send pictures this week. Sorry I´ve been slacking. But please enjoy my adorable face. Haha I love you guys! Be good. Thanks for being so wonderful and all that. Les echo de menos! 

Hna Palomino

01/06;

Hey Family!

First off, we had transfers this week. And........................... I´m starting my 3rd transfer in B1 and I´m still with Olsen. Which means... Its officially my longest area and I get to kill Hna Olsen! Hahaha i love to tell her that. She gets to spend her last transfer with the most adorable missionary ever. Me, of course. How lucky for her. Haha I was starting to get nervous this week since I´ve never had an area for this long and this last week we saw some pretty good things. Despite the fact that everyone was gone or busy with fiestas and all that, it was still good. IN fact we had an emotional breakthrough with this less active family that we visit. We decided to read The Living Christ with them and we were there bearing our testimonies and then they did and the Hermana shared a very spiritual experience she had and we just had a such good lesson. She was crying and we ended it with singing Yo Se Que Vive Mi Señor. And the best part, she´s been coming to church the last 3 weeks and just yesterday after the lesson we had had earlier in the week, her husband and son came too. It was such a neat experience. Also, Less spiritual but still funny experience. Remember that time that Hna Olsen and I knocked a door right in the middle of a Testigo´s lesson. It was SO awkward. But hey, at least they were super nice. But we just had to book it out of there before things got weird. haha 

Really i love my mission. I´m very grateful to be here and to have the sacred calling of preaching the restored gospel. I´m excited to see what this transfer has in store. and yes 10 months... so crazy. i can´t even believe it. 

well i miss and love you like always. its the birthday month, so i hope you guys do something fun for junior and will and carolina! one less cake without me there huh? haha but thats fine. have fun. be good. all that. ya tu sabes. 

Hna Palomino 

12/30;

Hey there family!

Sorry to be on so late. Hna Olsen and I went to visit Johnny and his family in Torrejon with Hna Vouemba and Phillips that also served there (Phillips served there while i was in Alcala and well Vouemba was my comp) so it was like a nice little Torrejon reunion. It was super fun. Vouemba cooked and we just hung out and talked. It was so nice being back in Torrejon with people I love. I´m probably the weirdest missionary ever. That uses her pdays to go back to her old areas to visit members but its whatever. I love them alot. 

We had a very good week with a lot of finding. We seem to be finding a lot of people to teach but then when it comes time to have the second lesson, they just don´t follow through. But thats ok. We are still trying and working hard. 

We had a good lesson with Roger and Maria last night. We read Family: A Proclamation to the World and just read it and talked about it part by part. And it was very spiritual. We invited them to pray about a new date to get married and baptized. But not to just wait around, but to make a decision and then pray about it. So we are hoping for the best. We will continue working with them. Tengo fe que todo saldar bien! But really. 

It was so nice to talk to you on Christmas. THANK YOU SO MUCH for the packages and stuff. I guess you must love me after all. Haha But yeah! Do me a favor and tell the ward thanks so much for the sweet package and letters and emails on christmas. Just a whole big thank you and virtual hug to everyone. I seriously know the best people. So thank you!

Hna Palomino