Emily - Vigo Week 5

1.19.08

Hello My Family...
Well I think I got all of my Christmas mail at conference yesterday. It seems to take a little longer for my mail to get to me, here in Vigo. On Saturday at district meeting H. DuVall brought me a package from Cristina and Jared. THANK YOU! Then at conference I got more letters then I have received in my whole mission. The Elders were a little upset. They kept looking for letters with their names and they kept finding letters with my name. HAHA! I got letters from Ash, Sister Emmel, Bro. Chambers, and Sister Reed. Then a couple of the hermanas that I have served with sent me a couple letters. It was fun to hear from everyone. I also received the Christmas letter from Grandpa and Grandma. I liked seeing pictures of everyone. Grandpa said something in his letter about how Im the favorite grandchild and so he started putting fifteen extra dollars in my account. Dont tell anyone else in the family.LOL!
Yesterday you obviously didnt get a letter from me. I was at zone conference in Santiago. About two hours away in train. I always learn so much and I like how President always applies what we learn to our lives as missionaries and our lives after the mission. IT was sooooo good to see everyone. Its funny because they have kind of become like family. I saw the hermanas from A Coruña and an Elder that I hadnt seen since my first area. It was nice to chat and laugh. We all walked to a cathedral after the conference and took some pictures. Every once in a while I just have these weird moments where I think about how crazy and random it is that Im in Spain as a missionary with a bunch of people that I didnt know a year ago. Talking with that Elder from my first area, made me realize how much of my mission already seems like a dream.Time just keeps passing by.
On Sunday I had one of the best experiences I have had in my whole mission. Remember Manuel Santos the really smart man we are teaching. He had a friend move in with him this week. She is there to kind of help him cook and things like that. Anwyas her name is Ana and she is from Colombia but lived in Portugal most her life. She came to church with us on Sunday. She has had a hard past according to Manuel. I was happy that she came to church but then started feeling a little uneasy when we talked about baptisms for the dead in RS. They invited us over for lunch and I wanted to talk to explain everything and answer all their questions so we went. She had no knowledge of the church as far as I know. I prayed really really hard that Heavenly Father would guide me and help me know what to say. I felt like there was a lot to explain. I started talking about the Word of Wisdom. Ive never done that in a first lesson before. Manuel is a big wine drinker. I read the promise from DC and explained to him that it didnt matter to me what science has said. I believe in a prophet and with faith I followed him and I have been blessed. I shared a couple personal experiences and just really tried to open up to him with my heart. He tries so hard to explain everything with science and the spirit just quiets him as I speak. As I finished explaining the WOW, he looked at me quiet and said you have opened my heart hermana and I want to continue learning. I did a brief overview of the first and the BOM to try to help Ana figure out what was going on. I felt so connected to her. As I talked to her about the restoration and why Im here to share this message, I felt the spirit very very strongly. I was almost in tears. I looked at her straight in the eyes while I bore my testimony. She just started crying. Everything about the message was familiar to her. It filled a hole in her heart that she didnt know was there, I watched it happen. I know she is one of the women from my blessing. We go back on Wednesday to teach the Plan of Salvacion. She gave me a big hug before I left and couldnt stop saying thank you. It was so nice to hug her. She was prepared to hear the gospel and I think she will help Manuel a lot with his faith. I watched it kind of bother him that we felt this special bond of faith. Wow anyways incredible experience. Manuel joked with me as we left and said that I never stop preaching. I just touched my heart and told him that its all that I am and I cant help it. He just laughed and said I know, I know.
We also had a not so good experience this week earlier on. A really wonderful lady from the rama is going through some major problems right now. We stopped by because we wanted to practice teaching and she unloaded. We made some food for her and her kids and helped her pack up. Its a long story but Im thankful Heavenly Father guided us there so we could help her.
I know that Heavenly Father loves us. I know that Christ is my Savior. I know that this is His church because I cant deny what I feel as I testify.
I love you all so much. Thanks for the prayers and love!
I got my one year letter. We wrote ourselves when we first came in and then we get it at one year. It was soooo weird.
Love,
The Sister