San Sebastian - Week Seven

HEY FAMILY! How are you all this week? It sounds like you all did a bunch of way fun fall stuff! That's cool, cuz they don't have the same kind of traditions here. Halloween isn't really a thing in Spain haha. But they have a bunch of other festivals and stuff. They find any excuse to have a party. I got your package!!! That was the best thing of my life. The skirt and all the candy made it just fine. And the Munsons survived! It was literally the best. I've already eaten a ton of the chocolate. sorrynotsorry. Anyway, this week was pretty good!

Sometimes I wish you guys could watch me through a camera to see what life is like here, haha. For example, on Tuesday we went to a noche de hogar at a members house (a Spaniard... way rare around here, almost all our members are South American) she invited another Spaniard member and a non member Spaniard friend over. We shared a message about how to know that the Book of Mormon is true and then ate dinner with them. I felt like  I was at a fancy tea party haha. First off they talk way fast, and Spaniards are harder to understand.. and second off, all the silverware was super nice and fancy and we ate fancy food haha. We had this soup in a goblet and then had quinoa (I thought of you Tyson) and some other fancy stuff. It's just funny sometimes, my comp and I will look at each other and smile. We are just two little Americans trying to be all proper in Spain. It's fun.

On Tuesday we met with this girl named Erica. I can't remember if I've told you about her yet but we found her on a bench one day and asked if we could meet with her. Apparently the elders had been teaching her a couple months back, and she wants to be baptized but can't cuz she works every Sunday (that's the hardest part of it all, no one can ever come to church cuz they always work! Even lots of the members)  so we asked her to pray for God to help her to find a way to make it to church. She gave the last prayer at the end of the lesson and it was really good, I was really impressed with her desires to follow Christ.

Thursday we ate lunch with a meenos activo named Brother West. IDK if I've told you about him yet but he's a goofy guy. You ask him where he's from and he wont tell you, he says "nobody knows, not even me!" But he's definitely from NY. All he wears is NY giants stuff haha. Anyway, he took us to get chinese food.. usually he takes us out for pizza but last time Hermana Benson got sick so we got chinese food this time. Can you just picture for a second what chinese food in Spain is like? So strange. They didn't even have soy sauce. Yeah, talk about a nightmare for poor little fras haha. JK. But really. No soy sauce? what the..

Later that night we met with a lady named Estella. She's from Honduras. Wanna know the coolest part about her? Shes got a gold star on her front tooth. I might get one when I get back. It was pretty rad. So we met with her on a bench and she took us to her piso. There we met her daughter and her nephew. It was sorta intimidating at first, but we shared a little about the Book of Mormon with them and our purpose here as missionaries. Good news is we have plans set up with her daughter (named Ludis) tomorrow to teach more! So that's pretty exciting. Unfortunately, Estella is going to her country for a month tomorrow, so we won't see her. But hopefully we can start teaching Ludis more. I think it's cool sometimes how God puts people in your path. Even though Estella won't be around, we found Ludis through her! Cool stuff.

Afterwards we had a lesson with Samuel. He was asking questions about Adam and Eve again. We had him write them down so we can answer them better for him next time. I'll be honest, I was a little discouraged during the lesson cuz I couldn't understand much, and it was hard to explain his questions in Spanish. But, I just need to remember that God knows I can't speak well yet, and I know little by little, it'll get better. I just need to be patient with myself and continue to work hard at the language. I can't wait for the day when I can speak it fluently haha. For the most part right now, I'm starting to understand a lot more. I still can't speak super well though, my comp and I try to speak Spanish to each other in the streets though. When I read, I understand almost 100%, people just gotta talk more clearly haha. It'll come though.

Ok here's a good story, so the next day we went to eat with our investigator Angelica. She was still preparing lunch when we got there and opened a container of these grey wormy looking things. I asked her what it was, with a big smile on my face, and she said something about it being a type of fish.. I still don't know what it was. Anyway, she made us her favorite salad which consisted of lettuce, hard boiled eggs (everyone loves those here....) and those slimy wormy grey things! gah. My comp and I were struggling hardcore haha. Anyway, when we were headed back home.... we both started to feel super sick. Oh my, I dot' know when the last time is that I've felt that sick haha it was so bad!!!! We were dying laughing and dying of that food... let's just say... I'm glad we made it to the bathroom as quick as we did. TMI? sorrryyyyyy.

So back to Angelica, it's sad, she too wants to be baptized but lives with her boyfriend. She has thought about marriage, but if she gets married, she wont get money from the government anymore and she doesn't have a job right now. Shes kinda stuck. It's sad, I don't know how to help. Luckily shes reading in her BOM and she comes to church fairly consistently. So we told her to keep praying, and God will help provide a plan for her. I hope I can see her get baptized.

All of our investigators are kinda stuck right now. We can't get a hold of Onome. We call all the time and have stopped by a bunch too. I keep praying for her, but I'm worried we are losing her. We are doing our best to find new people, but we haven't had a whole lot of success yet. We have some good stuff set up with members this week so hopefully that'll produce some newbies. Finding on the street isn't super successful. But we keep trying! Also this morning my comp and I rented a tandem bike. I'll send pics. It was a greeeeat time ahah we were laughing our heads off. They are hard to balance! People were STARING at us haha, more than normal. It was good stuff. Anyway, sorry that was a way long email. Hope you all have a great week! LOVE YOU ALL!

love Hermana Fry Fry

San Sebastian - Week Six

Hey Family! How is everyone doing this week? Also my package came! Except I guess I can't pick it up till tomorrow. BUT THANK YOU! I cant wait to open it!!

So this week was good. We ate at this guys house named AJ. He's a recent convert from Nepal. He made these sweet delicious dumplings that are called momos. I love being here cuz we get to eat such sweet food from all over the world. We also taught Samuel again (hes the 18 year old from Colombia). We taught him about the plan of salvation. He was asking a bunch about Adam and Eve.. it was a struggle. I couldn't really understand what was going on haha I still get lost in the Spanish in the lessons sometimes. But the lesson still went well. I just tell you that cuz it's experiences like that, that really help me to be humble. I always remember how much this is the Lord´s work and how much we rely on the Lord to help us. I know I can't speak the language or understand it super well yet, but I know if I focus on teaching with the spirit, it wont matter that I can't speak super well.

So on Monday I got a call that the mission was gonna send me down to Barcelona to pick up my residency card. So Thursday, Hermana Benson and I took an hour and a half bus to Bilbao to meet up with some other missionaries,.. she stayed there with another sister and then they sent five of us greenies on a 7 hour train ride down to Barcelona. It was fun to be reunited with some of my friends from the MTC again. We got to Barcelona and stayed with some sisters there and then picked up our cards the next day. It was funny cuz there was a whole big group of us new missionaries trying to navigate our way around this giant city.. but somehow we managed to get to all the buildings they sent us to. Then after we got our cards, we waited around until our train ride back. So I spent a lot of time traveling this week. The 7 hour ride back felt pretty long. But 14 hours of bonding with other missionaries is good stuff haha, we had a lot of good laughs so it was fun. It was fun to go back down to Barcelona too, but I was definitely ready to be back home by the end of it. It was fun, but the only bummer is, we didn't get to do a lot of teaching because of how much time it took so this week was sort of chill.

Also on Sunday, President and Hermana Pace came up to our ward! It was so fun to see them, I wish we could see them more often. They came up because our building is literally tiny. We have no room for people. And if we bring investigators, we have to make sure they are early otherwise they have to sit in the extra room (I think I said this before, but they broadcast sacrament meeting in one of the classsrooms on a tv) Anyway, they talked about splitting our ward into two branches that meet at different times until they can find another building. Or having two sacrament meetings. So half the ward will go to sacrament at 9, then everyone will come for the second two hours.. and then half the ward will go to a sacrament meeting at 1. Does that make sense? Hope so haha. I don't know what they will do. They had a big meeting about it with President and all our ward leaders and the Stake President. President Pace wants to bring two more elders up here for our ward, which would be awesome... but we need more space for our investigators! Anyway, who knows what they will do.

As far as our investigators.. Samuel, Angelica, AND Onome came to church on Sunday! It was awesome. We were so excited to see Onome cuz we haven't been able to get ahold of her for a long time. But she told us we can see her this Thursday. The Nigerians are so funny. If they don't have time to see you they always say "I don't have chance today" haha but you gotta hear them say it with their accents. It's way funnier. Shes great though, I just hope we can help her get back on track. Angelica consistently comes to church, she even is planning on going to a relief society thing this week, she's got good support in the ward. I just don't know what to do with her cuz she lives with her boyfriend. But we are going to see her tomorrow and lay out her options to see if we can figure out how to get her baptized.

Also this week we found some good new people! We found these ladies named Gloria and Norma. They were just sitting on a bench one day so we went to talk to them. Gloria said it was a blessing that we came to talk to her. We are meeting with them at 5 today to teach them the restoration. I am way excited. I think they could be solid investigators. We have a bunch of stuff set up with some newbies this week too, so cross your fingers! I hope they are really interested!

Everything is going well, its been getting kinda cold here lately, I think I'll be up here for the next two transfers (hey I already made it through my first transfer!) so I might need to buy some thicker clothes. Who knew Spain would be cold? Anyway, I love the work! Its super fun. I love being here. I have never felt closer to my Savior. We have been so blessed to continually find people to teach. The Lord is really hastening His work. Anyway, I love you all! Sorry it wasn't a super eventful week,.... agur! (PS that means bye in basque) yeah. Don't worry I'm learning two languages like a champ. jk. Basque is impossible haha. I'll stick with Spanish for now.

LOVE YOU ALL!

Love Hermana Reid

San Sebastian - Week Five

Hey family! How is everyone? Mom, HAPPY BIRTHDAY THIS WEEK! I'm glad my letter came!!

Did you all love conference? Man, I was just eating all of it up haha I loved it. So since the hours are different here we watched Saturday morning session on Saturday night (along with the relief society broadcast) and then Sunday we got to see the Saturday afternoon one and the Sunday morning one. Bummer is, we didn't get to see the Sunday afternoon one.. but hopefully I get to see it eventually. I am always so obsessed with conference talks these days. We have a bunch of church magazines in our apartment so I probably read two or three talks a day during meals and stuff. So I was pumped outta my mind for conference. AND IT WAS IN ENGLISH. Thank heavens, it was so nice to watch it in English.

I totally thought it was interesting how much they talked about keeping covenants. It's true though, we are so blessed when we keep our covenants. I of course loved President Monson´s talk on enduring through our trials. It's so true though, we have trials to help strengthen us. We couldn't progress if not. I have seen that so much already since being here. If there hadn't been hard parts along the way, I wouldn't be able to progress. I have such a testimony of going to the Lord in prayer when we struggle. He is ready and willing to help us if we just ask for it. Another thing I really liked was the quote that says  "doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith." So simple and so true. GAH love conference.

Anyway, this week was good. One cool experience we had was with an investigator named Christina. She's from Spain (say whaaaat?) so cool cuz most people here don't want much to do with us. Anyway, shes been struggling along, especially with prayer. She gets so nervous and always refuses to pray with us. I think it is because it is so unfamiliar to her. She feels like she doesn't know how to do it right. We have even practiced with her a bunch, but she won't budge. This last time though, she FINALLY prayed! It was way cool. She was incredibly nervous though, I think it is just really out of her comfort zone. It's sad to think that people don't know about the blessing of prayer, ya know? There is SO much power in prayer. Sometimes I just want to pray forever haha. It just feels good. Anyway, we were really happy. The bummer is, shes outta town this week so we can't go see her but we will keep with it when she gets back.

Another cool thing this week was that we were looking through our list of less active people in our ward, people we could go visit and we found this woman named Soledad. Shes from Chile (hollllaaa for a dollaa honey boo boo) .. (I'm so embarrassed I said that, but it's all for you tytybtwizzle) Anyway, she's so sweet. She's such a strong person, and could be so strong in the church, but she got divorced a few years back from her husband and doesn't want to go to church alone. I think she is worried the people will judge her for it. It's sad. She is active in every other way, she is doing it all, except church. So I'm excited to work with her and help her get back on track. That's something that I've learned about being out here is that it's not all about just finding new people to teach, sometimes you've gotta take care of the people you've got. There are a ton of less active people in this ward that need a lot of help. The hard thing is, the economy is so bad that people are always working. Everyone works Sundays. People just have to work whenever they are needed otherwise they don't work. It makes things more difficult.

Hermana Benson got sick this week. I heard there's some weird virus going around haha. A bunch of the missionaries have gotten sick (don't worry Mom I'm being really careful) But we stayed home all day Friday cuz she was way sick. It was nice though to get some good study time in and stuff. It was kind of a slow week this week though. Conference took up a big chunk of our weekend and then with other meetings and stuff we had during the week, we didn't have that many lessons. Our investigators are struggling a little bit though. I don't know what it is, but lately they are all having trouble progressing... but we are doing the best we can to press forward with it. Oh also Onome.. I don't know what happened, but after the baptism Saturday, we have had zero contact with her. We have called so many times. She lives far though, so it's hard to stop in and see her. We just called this afternoon though and she finally answered, so maybe we can help her. I have been praying so much for her. She really needs the gospel in her life, I just hope we can help her get back on track. Anyway, the work here is good, I hope we can continue to find more investigators and help the ones we have to progress more! I just have to remind myself, I've just gotta do the best I can and not worry about the rest. I am excited for what this next week will hold. I love you all so much! Have a good week!

besos for dayzzz

Hermana reid