Last pday our whole zone got together and we went and rented out a court and played volleyball and soccer, it was way fun, even though I´m screaming the whole time, I´m like running towards the ball but scared I´ll actually get it haha so I´m pretty sure I just annoy people but hey, I participate! Haha. Then we went back to our church and some amazing members had prepared a huge lunch for us! With Spanish paella and salad with real salad like dressing not just olive oil (reminded me of the States!) and it was delicious and super nice of them! Then that night we all went and sang in the center of Málaga, and let me tell you it is gorgeous! Like, unbelievable. So so beautiful. But yeah, we went out to sing, and the missionaries from our ward were the first ones who were supposed to go out and contact the people in the street and start talking to them about the church. I hadn´t really talked to anyone about the gospel all day and I felt so self conscious in front of the other missionaries and I just honestly had a pretty bad attitude and after getting rejected by a few people I was like, ´´Okay Hna Bangerter let´s just switch out now´´ so we went and started singing while other people contacted. And as we were singing it suddenly hit me that this is why I´m here, to preach the message of Jesus Christ, and thankfully, God helped me change me heart and I was singing with all my heart, and then when it was our turn to contact again, even though I still wasn ´t 100% I gave my will to the Lord, and He helped open my heart and I felt the urgency of this message, and we just started contacting everyone! It was so fun! We talked to one lady who is catholic, and asked us the best questions, one of which being, ´´what makes your church different from mine?´´ Yes we can answer that question. So we told her the story of Joseph Smith and how today we have a prophet who leads and guides us. Testifying of that just filled my heart and I didn´t want to stop contacting, we just kept going and talking to people and inviting them to watch the video of ´´He is the Gift´´ and it was an amazing night!
The next day, Christmas eve, we went and saw a member of our ward who can only come every once in a while because she takes care of an older man basically all month and it was sad, she´s super lonely, so it was fun to visit her for the first time and we´re gonna go more often now.
Then for lunch, we had the best lunch! We went to Elenir´s house, one of the members, with the other missionaries! It was so much fun! Her 2 boys are around our age and they are the funniest people in the world and always give us a hard time and we just always have a party with them! We ate outside and the weather was perfect and it was a barbeque and it was fun but seriously with this weather it does not feel like Christmas! Elder Skousen was like, ´´did you even know it´s Christmas eve?´´ and it´s so funny because it´s so easy to forget! But yeah, then later that night all of us missionaries when to another members house and she made yummy empanadas (she´s from argentina so you know they were incredible!) and we sang and had a good time! We had to be home by 11, and thankfully the AP´s have a car so we can get around easier! Then when we got home Hermana Bangerter and I opened some of these cute envelopes her mom sent with quotes and scriptures in them and it felt more Christmasy, and then we talked for a long time about the future and stressed a little then read our patriarchal blessings, which made us realize life will all work out and then we went to bed haha.
Then Christmas morning we woke up like usually, at 7am and we studied and got ready and then went to the church with the other missionaries! But while we were waiting for the elders to pick us up, we were in the street, and President Deere asked us not to contact the night of Christmas Eve and Christmas day, but we saw this lady and as she passed us all we said was ´´Hola Feliz Navidad!´´ and she stopped us and started talking and gave us her information and wants us to come visit her! It was actually a super cool experience! But yeah, we went to the church, and our district apparently didn´t get the memo that they were gonna play fútbol (soccer) and so we´re there in our church clothes. But yeah, we played fútbol anyway and well...i think my sports skills are making some progress (not really) but it was fun! And we tried to make the zone a breakfast, but of course the elders called us the night before and asked us to bring what we had, and we only had 3 eggs and like 17 pieces of bread. So we show up expecting other people to have brought stuff too, but really we only had that an some pancake mix the zone leaders brought haha. So everyone got a tiny tiny pancake and a mostly cooked piece of french toast. I think we probably just made the new missionaries trunky but hey, we tried. Haha. Then after we went to lunch with some of the missionaries in our district with a spanish family and ate delicious chicken with jamón pieces cooked into the inside and mashed potatoes (which we hardly ever get here!) and it was just a delicious meal. And we ate clams...they weren´t bad but I just would rather not. Haha, my mind just cant get over itself sometimes! But yeah they were so good to us and were like ´´Papa Noel left you guys something under the tree too!´´ and they gave us all mugs with the spain flag on them! It was so sweet!
Then we went and skyped our families! ahhhhhhhhhhh It was amazing. I miss my family so much, but mostly I´m just grateful for their influence on me. Some missionaries got off from talking with their families and were trunky for home, I got off and your guys´ words made me wanna work harder, and take advantage of the short time I have left here! I love you so much and it was so good to talk to you!
So yeah, then after having all those days barely doing any normal missionary work finall friday came and we had a normal day! It was so nice and refreshing to go out and do normal missionary work again. We had an intercambio, which was fun! I stayed in our area and Hermana Smith came to work with me! We did one here last transfer too! We had a good time and we met with Obi, one of our Nigerian investigators, and after talking to him I promised him we´d go to his church if he´d come to ours the next week. And so skipping ahead a little, I went to the Shining light gospel church yesterday after our church services! Yes my companion and I were the only white people in the building. And there was a drum and they were standing up singing ´´hallelujahs´´ and the preacher was...very very loud and animated and it was an interesting experience. But it was cool and Obi said he knows we love him now, so that´s good!
Also, on our intercambio, so during medio dia (which we have from 2-3 30) after we ate Hermana Smith decided to lay down for a minute cuz she didnt feel good, then i had my hair up, my makeup faded and was writing. Well suddenly the door bell rings, and i walk to the door and there´s Hermana Wilcox and all her family! She ended her mission here in February 2014, and her dad is Brad Wilcox. Like, yes, that Brad Wilcox. Well yeah, thankfully hermana Bangerter and I had cleaned up our piso a little more for intercambios because they all came in and were like talking to us and talking pictures and I felt so gross (I had eaten garlic for lunch and had not brushed my teeth yet haha) but yeah. So Brad Wilcox and his family were in my piso for a little while on Saturday and that was a cool, funny, unexpected experience. Good little reminder to always keep the piso clean just in case another church leader walks in on any random saturday afternoon haha.
And yeah, tons of other funny awesome things happened but I´ll just keep it at that. Oh so many more...Hermana Bangerter and I just have tons of fun together I love this girl so much. Like it´s borderline too much fun together but we keep it under control most of the time. And she loves preaching the gospel and she loves the Book of Mormon. She´s teaching me so much about appreciating and using my time in the mission to the fullest, I just adore her!
But yes. Good week. Good times. I hope you all had a great week and continue to enjoy ringing in the new year!
I read a lot this week in Alma as he´s giving his sons advice, and one thing that really stood out to me is when he talks about desires (in chapter 40 or 41 of alma) and how God will reward us according to our desires. So if we can train our hearts to truly desire the kingdom of God, we´ll have desires to act accordingly. If we let natural man thoughts enter and take over our minds, naturally those will be the desires of our hearts, and we won´t desire to enter into the kingdom of God in the end. That escalated rather quickly, haha, I promise my thoughts and studies aren´t so dramatic but I don´t have lots of time on here to explain my thought process, but I invite you all (and myself) to think about that as we enter into 2015, what do our hearts desire, and how can changing our thoughts and words help us refine our desires, so we can feel the Spirit of the Lord more abundantly in our daily lives. He´s always there. He is the Gift. Free to all those who desire.
HAVE A GREAT WEEK AND #ShareTheGift o sea #ComparteLaDadiva
Love, Hermana Miller
Alma 41:27
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