Emily MTC Madrid Week 3

I don´t even know what to say for this week. Things started off a little rough on Saturday and the rest of the week just seemed to follow along that same track. This Saturday I went to the park with my new companion and she speaks three weeks of Provo MTC spanish. So pretty much she knows how to say her name, where she is from and how old she is. It was up to me to take charge with the Spanish. We were able, wait, I was able to talk to one guy the whole time we were at the park. I talked to him for a while which was good. We talked about families and how they can be eternal and I gave him the Family Proclamation to the World phamphlet. I tried to give him a Book of Mormon too but he wouldn´t take it. I thought the conversation was going pretty well and then he said, don´t you guys have more than one wife. I tried to pretend that I didn´t know what he was saying but it was pretty hard to play dumb since he knew that I had understood the whole converstaion for the previous twenty mintues we had been talking before the big question. Anyways at least he was nice to us. Everyone else saw our name tags and I could tell they were reading them and then we would say Buenos Dias. When we tried to start talking to them they would quickly turn the opposite direction and run. We may not have been able to share the gospel in the park on Saturday but hey I at least had fun making everyone take an alternate route home. Who knows if any of them got home, I´m pretty sure they were willing to take any route home besides the one we were on. My comp. must have been scared out of her mind she had only been her for a couple of days by the time we went on Saturday. She pretty much walked about 5 feet behind me the entire morning. I think she thought the Spainards were going to eat her. Anyways not the best time of my life but I´m praying that this Saturday will go better. Its hard enough to approach some random person that speaks Spanish with your companion and it was even harder to do it by myself.

I have only like ten days left here and I´m pretty excited to head to Bilbao. Can you believe that on the 16th of this month I will already be gone for 2 months. It has gone by fast but today it seems like I´ve been out for a year. Although this week was kind of hard I have learned some amazing things. R.S. was really good(I thought I would never say that) but it was only 4 of us so I don´t really think it was R.S. But anyways it was just my comp. and I, Sister Taylor and Sister Hill. We just talked for like an hour and then did a 20 min. lesson. I needed it so bad and I´m thankful that they took the time to just visit. President Hill teaches a doctrine class for us a couple times a week and they are amazing. I learn so much from him that I can´t write it all down fast enough. Hopefully some of it stays in my memory.

Yesterday My Elder Comp. and I taught lesson two together. Every week we have what they call a milestone. Your given a situation and then you prepare for it and teach the lesson. It didn´t go to well. It was hard enough to get everything out it Spanish and then the teacher pretended to be a 72 year old woman that had just lost her husband. She was Catholic and had a million questions. I knew what I wanted to say in English and I could think of great scriptures to share but I didn´t know where they were. My head felt like it was going to explode by the time we were done. The teacher that we taught only had like 15 SUGGESTIONS for us. She was pretty rough on us for our first time teaching lesson 2 but hey I guess thats how its going to be out there. I have learned so much from the scriptures during personal study. It is true they really do answer questions of the soul. During that whole lesson I could think of great scriptures to answer her but I need to memorize where they are at. Sometimes its overwhelming how many things there are to work on, to become a better missionary. Okay I´m sick of talking about all the bad things that happened this week.

Lets move on to a funny story. I don´t have as many being here because there aren´t as many people but I still have some. On Sunday the only two Elders that are here right now blessed the sacrament. Well there were only nine of us all together for testimony meeting. As they were breaking the bread they realized that there was a lot of bread for only nine people. When the tray was passed to me, I went to grab a PIECE of bread and instead grabbed a sandwhich. I looked over at Elder Fowers while I tried to slam a piece of bread, I mean partake of the sacrament. We both almost busted up laughing but couldn´t really because there were only nine of us in the meeting. I guess since it was fast sunday they didn´t want to break the bread into too small of pieces because they figured we were hungry. After sacrament we did have an amazing testimony meeting. It was one of the best that I´ve been to in a long time. Everyone of course shared their testimony because there were only 9 of us. When I got up to share my testimony as I was speaking I realized how much my testimony has been strengthened in the last two months. I´ve learned so much in such a short time and I can´t believe how much more there is to learn. I can´t believe that we are the only religion that I know of that believes that families can be together forever. I can´t imagine not having this knowledge. We are so blessed to have the truth and know of Heavenly Father´s plan for us.

Oh two more funny things, sorry. Number one I already can´t speak Enghlish anymore. The other day after I taught lesson two with Elder Fowers. We went back to our classroom and I was so frustrated and I threw my hands down and said, I´m going to go freaking out! Also today is p-day and so my comp. and I ran some errands. We accidentaly go on the wrong bus(actually she said it was the right one) and ended up being on the bus for an hour before it took us to the right spot. That story isn´t funny yet but hopefully it will be in a couple weeks after I leave.

Okay I´m done venting now sorry. I have thought of a couple things that I would really appreciate having sent to me. Mom I know you have loved having that cookbook and your welcome to have it but could you send me another one. Also, I could really use one of those exercise bands that has two handles on the end. We can have our MP3 players if you could find mine in my stuff and Sarah could load music on there. Find out by other miss. what is allowed and fill it up with music and send it to me. Then I will buy speakers to plug it into. That is one thing I have missed and I think would really enjoy is just having some music in my room. My fan worked for a little while after I super glued it back together and now its dead. I really liked it because it was small. I looked today and couldn´t find another one. If you happen to find one will you send it to. The last two things that I need our addresses. On my cell phone if you could call Ashley Yates family and get her address and call Breanna Tycksen´s family and get hers also. I have two numbers in my phone for them make sure you call the home phone that I have for them. I would really like to write them but I don´t have their addresses. Oh also just to let you know I transferred 200.00 dollars from Ameritrade.

Have you heard anything about Hermana Nickolaisen´s visa? Jess if you see her tell her that I love her and I am still praying for her visa. Also, tell her that I sent her a letter today. I wish she was here right now, I miss her. Okay sorry that was a lot of things but I made some goals for exercising and those are a few things that I need to help me keep my goal. Elder Fowers helped me make an exercise plan, he really likes biking and running so he had fun putting together a plan for me.

Dad: Thanks for your letter and thank you for always being so real in your letters. I probably am to honest sometimes in mine but I know you enjoy that. You may have sick patients that hate you but I have a whole country of Catholic Spaniards that hate me. The YM are lucky to have you. Sometimes I wish I could just call you guys and visit for a little while. This week I´ve had a lot on my mind but I think I´m getting better. I love you guys so much!

Mom: I got your letter and the house looks great! Thank you for writing me all the time. I love your letters because they are just your random thoughts. I always laugh so hard when I read them. You know how we were on at the same time last week, I knew we were. It was weird while I was writing for some weird reason I counted out the time and I could just picture you at the computer. For some reason I was just thinking about you while I was writing it was weird. I guess its just our mother to favorite daughter connection. Oh ya to answer the question about the food, no me gusta. They eat a lot of carbs and at most meals there are no vegtables. But all the cooks are from different countries so actually most of the time we aren´t really sure what we are eating. I am excited to make my own food in Bilbao.

Sister Sarah: hopefully you get my letter this week, I sent it about 6 days ago I think. I don´t know if you got my e-mail. but anyways I love you so much and I wish you could be here with me. Write me more you lil brat!O

kay well I guess I better go. I could probably keep typing for hours with everything that is going on in my head right now but I need to finish my laundry and all that crap. Thank you for being such an awesome family. I love you guys so much and I try to not think about you all the time but sometimes its hard not to. Good thing the gospel is true other wise I would just come home. I just read back through my letter and I don´t know if its a good idea to post this one. But hey you know what I´m in Spain right now so if any one has a problem with what I said I don´t really care because I´m half way around the world. I will try to write a more uplifting e-mail next week. I love you each one of you with all my heart. I know I don´t always respond specifically to your letters all the time but I do read them and most of the time I read them a couple times. I pray for you everyday! I love you!Love, Em (Hermana Gogarty)