Emily MTC Madrid Week 4

Dad and Mom thanks for your responses to my letter. I wanted to make sure you got the last letter before I wrote the next one. Dad you can go ahead and send that stuff to the Bilbao Mission home because Im leaving here on Tuesday early morning. Mom, yes I have been getting your iron pills, your so funny. But I only have like three now, not enough for my whole mission. Thank you for Tiff´s address. If you could still try and get Breanna´s and Ashley´s that would be great. I will check my email later to see if you were able to get them. If not I will try to find the mission home office address and send their letters there. I have been getting the pics. too thank you so much the house looks beautiful.

I can´t believe but I am actually starting my mission on Tuesday. Early in the morning at like seven, Elder Fowers and I will fly to Bilbao. I don´t know whats going to happen after that. I think we have lunch with our mission president and then they send us off. Hopefully they will send me off to the best trainer in the mission. That is what I´ve been praying for the last couple of weeks. I told Elder Fowers that I´ve been praying for my first comp. he loved the idea so he started doing the same thing this last week. Im not really sure what kind of sister to be praying for but I know Heavenly Father knows.

I have to of course start off with the park experiences. This last Saturday was, I´m sorry to say not any better. We talked to one lady for a little but she knew who we were. She told me that she was Catholice and we were more than welcome to visit with her but nothing about religion. She had two of the ugliest dogs, of course I think all dogs are ugly but these were especially hideous. Anyways I had to talk to her about her dogs for like ten minutes. I know this is hard to believe but I think people here are more obsessed with their animals then in the US. Its hard for me sometimes to wear my miss. tag because it scares people off. I actually really like to talk to people because I have half of mom in me but most won´t even give us a chance just to visit with them. They are so afraid that we are going to share a message its really frustrating. A couple people at the park saw us coming for them and they got up and quickly ran in the opposite direction. I can´t say that it doesn´t hurt anymore. Although I think everyday I will get better at dealing with the rejection. I don´t think it hurts me, its just hard to not want them to have what you have. We are so blessed to know the truth. I think I say that in every letter, sorry!

Some days it seems like my Spanish SUCKS but I have to admit its amazing how fast I´m learning it. Its not because of my abilities, Heavenly Father is helping me so much. President Hill told me yesterday that I need to be more confident about my Spanish. He said I´m one of the best he has heard from new missionaries. It felt good to hear that. Today I went to a shopping mall with my comp. and we both bought watches. The one Jess bought me broke too. Anyways I talked to the lady for like twenty minutes. We talked about the church a little and missionaries. She was really nice and she told me that my Spanish was really good for only being here for a couple weeks. It really is crazy I can usually understand almost everything everyone is saying to me. I can´t wait to be totally fluent.

So Dad I don´t have time to write Dansko but I think you should. I´m so mad that we spent so much money on these shoes. I haven´t even started tracting and the insides are all torn up and the first couple weeks I wore them they tore my feet up. Today I had to go buy inserts for these stupid shoes. One girl that is here right now is going home because her feet are so messed up from her shoes. I guess she never said anything and they just kept getting worse and now she has something seriously wrong. I told Sister Hill someone needs to do some research on shoes and be more specific about what missionaries should bring. Sister Taylor the doctor´s wife said they send about 6-7 miss. home a month for medical reasons. Her husband is the doctor for all of Europe.

This last week there have been two sisters here from Barcelona. I guess one of the has some major mental issues. She has tried to kill herself, so she is here to see the doctor. I think she is going home, she is from the Islands. Anyways a couple nights ago I felt like I should go into their room and talk to her comp. Her comp. is from CA and she only has two months left on her mission. I think being here away from the mission dealing with all of this has been really hard for her. Anyways I went in their room and the one that is going howe was in the shower. So I sat on the sisters bed and we just talked for like 30 minutes. I needed her and I think she needed me. Heavenly Father is so mindful of us, we just have to ask. We talked a little about the mission pres. and his wife. She said they are wonderful and she thinks they are about 45, pretty young. They had two daughters both around the age of 20 living with them but they recently came to the states for school. Good thing they are across the ocean from Logan. By the time he gets here, if he comes in 3 weeks I don´t know if it will have hit him that he cant date anymore. They have two boys at home still too.

I can´t believe brother is going in on Wed. Brother the best way to stay sane in there is to laugh. Some peopel will try to make you feel bad about laughing. Which is still hard for me to understand since part of our purpose in this life is to have joy. Anyways just ignore them and have a good time. Oh ya take good care of the sisters in your District. I love you so much and I can´t wait for you to start this adventure with me.

Big news, H. Nickolaisen got her visa along with 34 other missionaries. There have only been four of us here and now they are getting 35. Their visa system is so random! She comes the day I leave, I´m so sad. But I´m so thankful that she got her visa. Elder Fowers got a letter from one of the Elder´s in our district yesterday and I guess they all fasted together for her visa. I love my MTC district what good Elders.

Now a coupld funny stories OF COURSE. My Elder comp. Elder Fowers isn´t doing as well with the Spanish. His favorite word is preguntita, which means little question. But its a feminine word so you have to say it with an A at the end. Everyday he says preguntito and I think it about drives our pregnant teacher up the wall. I think I figured out why his Spanish is so bad though. Yesterday we were in the library organizing it and labeling stuff. Well he had the label machine and he was trying to print off all the labels for us. He handed one to me and I wasn´t sure what language it was. Sadly enough he was trying to spell an English word, cupboard and he spelled it cubberd. I think he needs to learn English before he starts trying to learn Spanish. I understand a lot because of cognates, he never gets those, POOR KID! He is at the point where he is wondering if Spanish is even going to come in two years!!!

A couple nights ago one of the teachers had us all get in the elevator. We went to the top of the building and then we had to say the first vision before we hit the bottom. I was the only one that was able to do it! GOGARTY POWER! Hey I have to get excited about something. I think Ive only been at this MTC for a couple weeks but it feels like ive been here forever. Last story, today we went to the temple and it was awesome. We first did a session and then baptisms. This temple is gorgeous. We did baptisms because the Elder from Portugal has never been. So he and Elder Fowers did confirmations and then President Hill did baptisms. I think we were really lucky to do baptisms. Its been nice to have such a small group a lot more personal and I have learned so much Spanish. Its especially nice to have such a small group in R.S. I love Sister Taylor and Sister Hill. The lesson on Sunday was exactly what I needed to hear. I wrote Sister Hill a little note and told her how thankful I am to have her here. Its so nice to be with such good women since I can´t be with my sisters and my mom.

Every time I pray at night I become so much closer to Heavenly Father. I talk to Him about everything because I can´t talk to you guys. You really learn how to rely on Heavenly Father on your mission. What is amazing is that when you learn how to rely on Him life will get a lot easier. We naturally want to depend on things that we can see, things that we don´t have to have faith in. But if we really believe that God is our Heavenly Father, that He loves us and He wants the best for us, our perspective will change. He is there although we can´t see Him and He really does listen to every single pray in all languages. Sometimes I am overwhelmed when I think about how much love He has for me and how mindful He is of me. God loves us so much! The church is TRUE!( that was for you sister)Ok well I´m headed off for Bilbao bright and early Tuesday morning. I can´t wait to see what its going to be like. I love you all so much and I sure do miss you sometimes. Thank you for the letters and for your love. Love, Em(hermana Gogarty)