#63

So....I love Dos Hermanas! 

Surprise, Surpise. The Lord knows what we need better than we do. If I didn´t already know that before this last transfer has been just another testimony to me of that truth. I love this little town! Ah, it seriously is the cutest. I´ve always served in places with big buildings, but here in Dos Hermanas there are lots of little houses, and the biggest buildings only go up 2 levels! And it´s just little and cute and the most spanish place I´ve ever served in. It kind of stresses me out because there are tons and tons of little streets and I don´t know how i´m going to learn it, but I figure I´ll eventually get it with time...

So yeah. And Hermana Read. So basically it´s the best thing ever because I thought I knew her sort of well, and I already really liked her and had hoped to serve with her one day, but I actually came to find out that I didnt actually know her and I love her more than i ever thought I would! She has so many similarities to Taylor S. and ah, it makes me so happy! Several times a day she reminds me of Tay and I am just having a blast with her. And it also doesn´t hurt that she knows spanish perfectly and she´s helping me out with mine! I may have never had a native companion but i get american companions who know it well and can explain to me why things are the way they are so that´s a blessing! 

So last week was full of hard goodbyes and food and fun! On pday we went and ate at an american restaurant here and it felt like we were in america, except for that there werent as many options and it was more expensive...I´m not going to say anything negative about spainish restaurant service but...let´s just say I´m grateful for america and for real hamburgers and for options and for free refills. :)

But we had fun, i was there with some of my very best friends. 

For the last couple weeks of last transfer, I don´t know if i ever mentioned this but we went several times in the mornings running to a fútbol field to play soccer with the elders for exercise time!  It was so fun, they are a trio, elder Lindley, Martín, and Alomia, so we were allowed to be with just them. So Hermana Jones and I got really close to them, we would eat lunch together lots and play soccer lots of mornings and so it was hard to leave them! But yeah, on the last morning there were lots of missionaries in Málaga, because all of the trainers came in early, so we all ran to that futbol field and there were like 17 missionaries playing soccer at 7am. It was awesome! 

Then the rest of Tuesday morning we went in and met the new missionaries, ran from cita to cita saying goodbye to people. It was crazy and there wasn´t time for all of it but we got almost everything done that we needed to. I still hadn´t packed and it was like 12 hours before i needed to leave. Needless to say I stayed up all night long packing and writing notes to people that i´m pretty sure didnt even make sense because i was half asleep the whole time..but yeah, anyway, by 9 the next morning we had headed out! (I left like tons of stuff in my piso because I knew i´d be coming back to málaga soon). But yeah, went, said goodbye to people at the train station, cried a little and asked the natives why they have to live in spain and told them to come to America, said goodbye to Hermana Merrill (so lucky to have served by her for 6 weeks!), and got on a fast train to Dos Hermanas! As i got on i just wanted to sleep, but i sat next to an italian couple and we talked in english for a while, then i slept, but when i woke back up we talked some more, and it turns out she went to an LDS baptism for a boy in her school when she was 8! How cool is that? and so i asked if she´d like to talk to the missionaries in Italy and she said yes! So yeah, I have to pass her information over, but it was way cool! And I thought about Lucia and told her I had a friend there haha. 

The train ride didn´t last very long at all and I got to Dos Hermanas in like 2 hours! It was nice though because I got there right before medio dia! So i had time to rest and unpack and we went to the grocery store. Our piso isn´t too bad! I have my own bathroon, we share a shower but it´s so nice to have your own bathroom! And they just moved into this piso recently, like a couple months ago, so it´s nice and not cluttered.  This building has an elevator, and it doesnt actually work most of the time but thankfully it worked for my first day (that´s the only time we´ve taken it actually) and it got my suitcases upstairs, so that was a tender mercy! 

This place also has a terrace, so even if my comp doesnt want to run outside i can run out there! It´s lots of little circles but hey, I´m sweating so i figure it works haha. 

Dos Hermanas has a new church building as of a few months ago, and it´s literally the nicest church i´ve ever been in! IT HAS CARPET. I never see carpet in Spain. It´s awesome. And there are some military families that come to our church, so they´re american! It´s weird talking to americans at church, it just doesn´t feel normal...but it´s fun and i like the variety of americans, spanish people, and south americans. Not many nigerians though..yet. 2 days ago we were teaching this nigerian man, and his friend walked by, we asked if we could give him a book of Mormon. He said yes and gave us his number. Then yesterday, we went to teach his friend again, and he was there and he was like, ´´did you bring me my bible?´´ and luckily we were close to our piso so we ran back and got him a book of mormon in english! 

We explained it to him and he loved it! He has lots of good questions and we´re really excited, so i´ll keep you posted on that. 

We´ve seen lots of miracles already, and have talked with lots of cool people! This place hasn´t had a baptism in like 2 years or something, but last week Hermana Read and her old companion baptized the son of a woman who was inactive for like 20 years! He´s 14 and so cute! This ward is awesome, and we have lots of support. Also our ward mission leader is like the best in the world. I´m so excited to work with these people. Haha, also, funny story, so we go to these one investigators´ house, and we´re talking for a while, then this guy walks in and they´re like talking in the corner and we hear the investigator say something about ´´they´re missionaries dont worry they´re not going to say anything´´ and then they exchanged money and some green stuff that I´m pretty sure was meth haha and then we just continue talking about the book of mormon. They kept asking us questions about our lives and how we stay chaste until marriage and we talked about how we don´t date while we´re in the mission. But yeah apparently i didnt make that point clear because at the end i asked the drug dealer guy if he wanted a book of mormon and he said yes, so then i asked for his number and they all just start laughing and my comp is like ´´they think you´re asking him because you´re interested in him´´ and i´m like, ´´we want your number so we can talk about...the book´´ but apparently i said ´´book´´ with a weird intonation and it sounded even more sketchy than before and they were just all laughing and i´m pretty sure they were high, but we just walked out. Haha, the gospel is for everyone but yeah...not every moment is the best time to try and share it with them i think. Haha

But yes, I´m very content and happy here! Well i´m actually back in Málaga right now for concilio, so that´s fun! Spending pday here. But yes, i love Dos Hermanas, i kinda got sick after my all nighter, and have been constantly having a runny nose...but i´m getting better now! And the weather in Dos is great! It´s already getting really hot during the middle of the day, so i´m scared to see what the spring brings haha! 

Love, Hermana Miller

Alma 19:33