Okay but really can I just say I´m in love with my life? I think I say that all the time but literally...my life is the greatest. Not perfect...but perfect in it´s imperfection. Or should I say my imperfections? Haha I don´t know but I just really enjoy it!
Okay so first of all thank heavens I have Hermana Bangerter here! She is so funny and we´re almost always laughing, life is so enjoyable with her! I wish so badly that she wasn´t ending the mission so soon! And this last week we tried some of the gross oranges that grow on all the trees here (I took a funny video I´ll have to send you!...actually that might be embarrassing) and we started memorizing ´´The Living Christ´´ in spanish with one of our cute 12 year old investigators who´s doing personal progress, and we ate way too much chocolate and food in general and we made goals and just had a blast!
So yeah last pday we went to the other sister missionaries apartment, one is from Peru and the other is from Bolivia, so yeah they can cook well! and the one from Bolivia taught us how to make something i love called pan de bono. It´s just this bread this with cheese in it and it´s so good! But i didnt buy the right flour like thing so they turned out a little weird, but we still ate them! And this yummy juice they made from one of the fruits here and we sat around and played phase 10 and it reminded me of Tuesday´s with Gommie and the kids, playing phase 10..it was fun! Then we all four went to the center and went shopping and it was so beautiful and fun! And hermana Bangerter tried on flamenco dresses that are spanish and beautiful and expensive and that was fun!
Then on Monday it was Elder Rojas´ birthday, one of the elder´s in my district who I´ve known for a while now, he was my zone leader my last transfer in Almería, so Tuesday we have district meeting, and we went to the church to try to make brownies, since we don´t have an oven, but I fail at baking so they just sort of turned out, but it was fun anyway!
Then, also, before I forget, ha, yeah right like i´d ever forget but yeah Isel got baptized yesterday! And oh my, it was a great baptism! Hahaha not without it´s struggles...so anyway. With Rosi´s baptism I learned a lot, and vowed to never be so unprepared for a baptism again. So we were calling lots of members and less active people to ask them to give talks or prayers and we got pretty much everything figured out, besides someone to baptize her (but that ended up working out too because I asked one of the members to do it after church and this ward is seriously the best and so of course he was happy and willing!) but yeah, so everything was working out. Oh and I can´t forget to mention! So Isel didn´t have a job, and we were always praying for her that she´d be able to find one that was good but would also allow her to come to church. So one day last week we call to confirm one of our cita´s with her and she´s like, ´´I can´t come I´m sorry I´ll be working´´ and we were like, ´´aww that´s a bummer...wait what?!?! you have work!?´´ and we freaked out and her and us we were just all thanking Heavenly Father for that tender mercy, honestly it was a miracle! Because if she didn´t get work she would have to go back to Cuba soon! So yeah that was awesome. And anyway, her baptism, so yesterday, we left the church building like an hour late because we were talking to people and getting things figured out, then we got home, ate super fast, then ran back to the church, and started filling up the font. Well we were pretty positive that the font clog was drained and that it was filling, so we went to go start making the baptism program. Well then we go back like 25 minutes later, and the water is still in the same place! It was so sketch! And btw this is like 30 minutes before the baptism, and the font takes like an hour and a half to fill! So we got it plugged up good, and then my comp and I just started grabbing tubs or in other words, large bowls to fill water up in the bathrooms and kitchen and throw it into the font! Hahaha so then the Elders come and they´re like, ´´Hermana´s what are you doing?´´ and thankfully they started doing it too, and they started putting huge pots of water on the stove to heat them up to the water wouldn´t be freezing haha and we went to finish the program and I got the videos on the tv and ready this time (so as not to have a remote dropping battery flying accident again) and then more members started showing up and everyone was grabbing bowls and filling them up to put into the font! I personally think it was a great unity building activity. And we were like apologizing to Isel, but she was just laughing and saying it would be a great memory and that it was more fun this way, and I agree with her! I think it also meant a lot to her to see that lots of people we there to support her, and that they were filling that font just for her! It was a cool experience, and I´m just very very grateful for kind elders and amazing wards members and people who have strong testimonies of the Book of Mormon who choose to follow Jesus Christ by being baptized. We needed all of those things to pull of what happened yesterday! But really though. And it ended up being a wonderful service! This young boy in our ward said he´d play the cello for us and Hermana Bangerter played the piano and her and I sang ´´I feel my saviors love´´ and I´m not gonna lie the Spirit was just so strong and it filled my heart. So yeah, great experience! And the picture I´m sending you she´s not in white because in all the commotion of filling the font we started a half an hour late (that´s not that crazy for spain (or me) though)) and we didnt have time to take a picture of her in white! But yeah, she is incredible! Seriously, she was even just introducing herself yesterday in one of our classes, and we all had to do it, but she stood up, said her name and where she was from then started bearing her testimony and teared up, saying she felt very grateful to have found the true church of Jesus Christ. And when she bore her testimony in her baptism everyone was in tears, she just knows. She´s knows this gospel is true and you can feel it. Yesterday we were talking to her and she started crying after we said a prayer with her, I asked her what she was feeling and she just she was grateful for repentance because now she feels true joy.
Isn´t that the good news of the gospel? A message of glad tidings of great joy, through faith in the atonement of Jesus Christ, the opportunity to repent and be baptized and recieve the Holy Ghost, and live these principles again and again for the rest of lives so as to obtain a joy that can only be obtained through our Redeemer? Our sorrows and weaknesses are swallowed up in the joy of Christ, and His hand is always extended, He´s always doing His part, but we must decide if we want to use our free agency to accept that gift that He already paid for. I´m glad Isel did. One by one.
Ah, and New Years Eve! Funnest thing ever! So it was a normal day until 7pm, and then we party-ed (I think that´s a verb, right? I don´t know how to spell it! But if it´s not a verb in english that is funny cuz it´s not a verb in spanish but I used it several times with the people we saw that day ´´y despues de las 7 fiestamos´´ haha they all looked at me weird and laughed) but yeah so we went with our district to the center and walked around and looked at the pretty lights and talked and saw the cathedral and it was gorgeous! And then we went to a members house and we invited one of our investigators Killian, and he came and loved it and it was awesome! This is the family where the dad is from mexico but they lived in the U.S. so the kids speak english to us always and they of course speak spanish too. But yeah, they made us TACOS. I´ve been looking for a good mexican restraunt my whole time in spain and there arent any! So that was beast. And then we talked and played a few games and it was fun just to be with everyone, and then after the new year we had to go home, but we still got to sleep for 8 hours so that was nice!
Ah, and there are so many other miracles and stories! Next week. Now we´re going to concilio so we´re sleeping at the mission home tonight, should be fun! Love you all! And happy King´s day! It´s bigger than Christmas here I´ve heard, so everyone´s excited for that tomorrow!
Love, Hermana Miller
John 15:16
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