Week 7: BATer pray for us

Hola hola hola!  
Not sure if this is week 6 or 7 but I'm calling it 7. Also, this is going to be a super long email, so I'm sorry and if you want to just look at the pictures I won't be offended haha. 
This week (or week and a half I guess) has gone by in such a blur, but it also feels like I've already been here forever. 
I guess I'll start with the end of last week: my park companion was Hermana lighten and we had a good time in the park. On Sunday, we had a testimony meeting in the afternoon and that was really nice, we also repeated a few of the musical numbers from over the weeks so it was fun to see those again. Then on Monday we had some in - field training (just like talking about getting to know people in the field and things) and also had time to pack. All of us were definitely a lot less thorough packing up to leave the MTC than we were when we packed to get there. 
Tuesday morning, we woke up at 5am, ate a quick breakfast, and were on our way to the train station by 5:45. Brought back memories of early morning seminary... Seminary is awesome but I definitely don't miss waking up hours before sunrise. A lot of people were kind of sad /crying because they had to say bye to their friends who are going to different missions, but even though I loved the MTC I have to say I definitely wasn't sad to be leaving and so I wasn't one of the people crying haha. 
There were 18 of us on the train going to Málaga. We all had really good intentions to make up for lost sleep on the train, but we ended up just talking the whole time. The ride was about 2.5 hours long and mostly just going through farm land. We did see that super famous all - white town in the distance though! 
As soon as we got off the train we saw President and sister Andersen waiting for us along with the office couple and about 8-10 other missionaries. We all rolled our suitcases to one of the Málaga churches (there are two) which was about a ten-minute walk. This church is interesting because the chapel doubles as the gym (it has all folding chairs) and there is no carpet in the whole church. Also, the church is just at the end of a row of stores in the middle of the city so it doesn't even look like a church from the outside. 
We also met up with one other new elder at the church, I can't remember his name but he went to the Provo MTC. We had a sort of orientation presentation thing and all had short interviews with President Andersen and then after a few hours we all moved so that we were only sitting every - other chair and the trainers (who had also been in a meeting, just in a different room) came in and sat behind us. Then they went in alphabetical order and announced who was companions with who. This meant that I was at the end, of course haha. Reminded me of elementary school. 
ANYWAY, they finally said my name and my companion and we stood up and hugged and took a picture by the map and then went to sit where I'd been sitting. 

My companion is Hermana Johnson from Grantsville Utah and she is AWESOME. We've only been together like a week and are already friends. She graduated in 2016 too but just worked until she left for the mission in December. So she's 4 transfers ahead of me.

She's a super awesome companion and we get along really well. She's only been in the area for one transfer so we've had fun exploring it and trying to find different members houses.  

Hermana Johnson has a tiny little ruler she uses when she underlines things in her scriptures and now I think I need to find one too. She knows how to cook chicken, which is good because I realized that I don't know how to cook any meat. So, we've had pasta with pesto and chicken a few times. She also brought up descendants, the Disney Channel movie (she did, not me!) which was funny. She couldn't remember the word they spell out in that one song (ridiculous) but we're good now haha. She said she likes having me as a comp because she's only had senior comps until now and they never knew any of the more recent movies like Moana. 

Another thing about Hermana Johnson: SHE ALSO LIT EASY MAC ON FIRE! I'm not the only one!!! We've been trying to talk only Spanish when we're out on the street (which is actually easy after about 5 minutes) and I was telling her the story in Spanish and halfway through she stopped me and said she did the exact same thing. Forgot to add the water. She DID catch it before it burst into flames, but she said her house was still filled with smoke. Anyway, I'm so glad I'm not the only one. 
Our area is about 30-40 minutes by bus from Málaga. We are the only missionaries in Torremolinos. Our church is actually the one where we had the orientation thing, and we get there by bus. There are two elders also in our ward. The ward normally has 40-50 people there which is pretty good. It's backwards (sacrament last) because we share the building with another ward. 
The city is definitely a tourist town, but it is BEAUTIFUL. Flowers everywhere and an ocean breeze (you can actually see the ocean from most places, including our bedroom window!! Sunrise over the ocean is a pretty nice way to wake up). Unfortunately, it's really humid and pretty hot, but thankfully our apartment has air conditioning which is super nice. 
Our area actually includes a boardwalk along the beach. However, one rule in the mission is that we're literally not allowed to set foot in the sand. So we won't be going in the ocean anytime soon haha.  The pictures below were found on the internet by my mom.

We've visited a few members and investigators this week. A lot of people are out of town. But we visited Norma, an older woman, and her family, who are all from Argentina and members. We ate lunch with them on Friday and it was super fun even though I didn't really know what any of them were saying haha. We also ate dinner with Lorenzo and Inma, two recent converts to the church. Inma talks SO fast. Aka, I had no idea what she was saying. But afterwards Hermana Johnson said she still only gets 75% of what Inma says, so I don't feel too bad haha. Everyone here has folding fans they carry around everywhere and when Inma saw that I didn't have one she gave me one of hers (apparently, she has a lot) which was super nice. It's pink because Hermana Johnsons is red so we can match. 

We also visited Hermana Blanca, who's this old lady who doesn't come to church much because she's not able to walk very well. She's anyways just sitting outside her piso with her walker. 
We also taught an investigator, Angelica. She's from Russia and is also learning Spanish so that's kind of tricky. A Russian accent in Spanish sounds pretty funny. On the bright side, she speaks slowly. We got to teach her about faith. 
We've done a LOT of walking this week. Luckily, I like walking and have good shoes!
On Saturday there was a barrio 1/2 combined ward party! The theme was Christmas in July and it was super fun. The main part of it was dancing which was definitely different than ward parties in the states haha. The missionaries (10 of us total) were just awkwardly standing on the sides haha. But it was still super fun. Me and Hermana Johnson probably rolled out and baked about 100 cookies in the church kitchen.

On Sunday was church. I'm still not sure what the first lesson was on, the next lesson was on service and then in sacrament meeting I got up and introduced myself in Spanish and bore my testimony. The other two elders in our ward are also new so they did that too. Hermana Johnson had to give a talk, but she did a great job. Starting next Sunday, I will lead the music every Sunday in sacrament meeting. There is one woman who plays piano and organ so I guess if she's ever gone I might end up doing that too. 
On Thursday, we were contacting in an area that Hermana Johnson didn't know as well, and we reached a place where we could either go right or left. We felt like we should go right, so we did. At first the road was empty and we were kind of confused why we felt like we should go that way, but then Hermana Johnson realized we were in front of a less-active, Giovanna's house. She had tried to visit her a few times before but she was never home. But we rang and she answered the door and let us in and we were able to give her a quick lesson. She said she hadn't been to church in years but might be able to come this week! So we are going to stop by again this week. She even said the closing prayer at the end of the lesson which was super awesome! We watched the video that's just narration of a father talking about his kids (with like video clips of the kids at home) that then turns to talking about heavenly father's love for us. If you haven't seen it you should, it's really good! 
One more thing about this week: we have had four (four!!) BATS in our piso. The word for bat in Spanish is murciélago. We both know that word very well now. 
The night before I came, one was trying to get out of the bathroom vent. They got it out and released it into the wild. 
Then on Wednesday Hermana Johnson opened the bathroom door and a bat flew out and into her bedroom! 
We looked really hard for it... But can't find it. So... 
Then during study on Thursday morning, a bat crawled out from behind the cabinet in the family room. We caught it in what is now called the bat bucket and released it. At that point, we called the dueño and told him about our issues. Except we couldn't say Murciélago clearly enough, so we told him we had a pájaro de la noche (bird of the night) problem. Gotta do what you gotta do. 
On Thursday night another bat was trying to get out of the vent, but by this point we had covered  the vent with a bag and so we just hit it through the bag and it went away. 
So now we're keeping our bathroom door closed. 
Hopefully the dueño is bringing us a new vent today or tomorrow. 
Spanish is coming along, I feel like I can speak pretty well but it's definitely difficult to understand people. Hermana Johnson is really good at understanding though. But I've got my fan and a good pair of shoes and we've got our vent covered by a bag so we're all good!!!
Have a good week! Spain is a little crazy but it really is great, the people are incredible and I know that I'm exactly where I need to be. 
Love, Hermana Walker

Made it to the mission home

Holly made it to the mission home in Malaga and got a new companion Hermana Johnson.  Her first area is Torremolinos which is just West of Malaga.  Her new email day is Monday.  

Week 5: 5 days left

Hola hola hola!!!

Five days left!!! This week we've only been speaking Spanish all day and it's crazy how fast we're all growing! And it's hard switching back to English at the end of the day haha. But I wish we had started this earlier because it's awesome!

Since I finished the book of Mormon a few days ago, I've been reading the book of Mormon again but in Spanish. It's really interesting reading it in Spanish because I have to focus on every word - I can't skim over anything. And so, I was reading in first Nephi chapter 17 and these verses that I hadn't really noticed before stuck out to me (it's Nephi talking):

50 And I said unto them: If God had commanded me to do all things I could do them. If he should command me that I should say unto this water, be thou earth, it should be earth; and if I should say it, it would be done.

51 And now, if the Lord has such great power, and has wrought so many miracles among the children of men, how is it that he cannot instruct me, that I should build a ship?

The idea of these verses is pretty awesome. God can do EVERYTHING! It was by the power of God that the red sea was parted, that Lazarus was raised from the dead, that the earth was made. So, Nephi has it right: if Heavenly Father's power can do all these incredible things, of COURSE he can give Nephi the strength and knowledge he needs to build a ship. And just like Nephi, we can apply this knowledge to our lives. Through God we have the ability to teach a good lesson or be more patient or have charity or do anything!

Sorry I'm turning into such a missionary haha.

Moving on...

On Friday I think, somehow that Spiderman TV show on Disney XD came up that we used to watch with Dad and Nathan sometimes, where they're all teenagers. And then I was trying to remember the name of one of the characters and I COULD NOT. I enlisted the help of a few elders and they knew who I was talking about but none of us could remember the name of the guy and it was kind of driving us insane. Anyway, we eventually got a teacher to look it up for us-the guy’s name is Nova. It really doesn't matter but definitely is one of the problems of not having internet access, since that was kind of making me crazy for a solid six hours.

Also, will someone look up the history of Johnny Appleseed? I have no idea how he came up but yesterday we got talking about him at lunch and are REALLY curious how real he is. President looked him up and says he is real but that's all he told us. Like was there really someone named Johnny Appleseed who went around planting apple trees and wearing a pot on his head?? SOS. (Holly’s mom sent her info about Johnny Appleseed already)

On Saturday, I was park companions with a sister named... Actually, I don't know her name. Her name tag is in Russian and I definitely don't know Russian. She is from Ukraine and going on a mission to a different part of Ukraine. She definitely doesn't speak any Spanish but has amazing English. It was super awesome being her companion because she is willing to just go up to everyone even though she doesn't know the language! And miraculously we were able to meet several English speakers who were really interested and really nice. The sister I was companions with was also just incredible, she's a convert who joined the church when she was about 18 (I think she's a little older, like 21 now) and has such a strong testimony and wants to share it with everyone! She also lives in the city and apparently bikes to the country where her parents live a few weekends every month... Which is about a two-hour bike ride each way! Anyway, it was really cool being her companion for a few hours.

Today we became official residents of Spain! We went and picked up our residence cards, then went back to the plaza mayor and went to a few stores. It was nice to be able to walk around in the sun for a while.

Our park companions this Saturday are just our normal companions (I'm pretty sure), so that will be cool to be able to be in the park with Hermana Lighten. Then we have Sunday and Monday and we leave Tuesday! It's crazy to see how fast the time has flown by. In some ways, it feels like I've been here for two years and in others it feels like it's only been 2 days. And I love the MTC and all the people and the teachers and the amount of learning and growth that we have all had in just a month and a half, but I'm also super excited to get into the field and get to experience being a "real" missionary with a new companion to work with and new people to meet. So, the next time you hear from me will be when I'm somewhere in Southern Spain! Have a great week!

Hermana Walker

Picture of us in the classroom: Me, Hermana Lighten, and Hermana Barton

Picture of white board with vocab words I wrote and illustrated.

Picture of us in the rows on the bus: That was on the way to the residency appointment, I guess the subway doesn't go there so they had a bus for us to take.

Picture of the six girls, me in my floral skirt and black shirt: that was today

Picture of the wrists: We all got bracelets today!

Week4: Christ is at the command and we should not fear

Hola Hola Hola!!

This past Tuesday the last of the five Portuguese elders left. He is the one who has cerebral palsy and who had been struggling with health issues, and in the end they decided he had to go home because it was just too risky. We had a going away devotional for him on Monday night and he sang a song and bore his testimony. It was very short but the spirit was so strong. One thing he said that really struck me was "Christ is at the command and we should not fear." Coming from someone with so many issues but who still has so much faith and joy, that was just incredible. He also talked about how you can be a missionary, on a mission to share Christ's love and message, for your whole life. You don't need a nametag to spread the gospel.

Also, the gift of tongues (el don de lenguas) is so so real! The CCM teachers are fantastic, but it really is hard to teach three years of Spanish in six weeks. And as I've been sitting in grammar lessons I'll remember the exact lesson from Spanish 2 or whenever and remember the examples that my teachers in high school gave and I'm able to remember and learn things easily. Faith can do anything and everything!! 

This week my park companions were Hermana Forsyth and Hermana Curtis. We had a really great time in the park. First we went into this peacock garden that had AT LEAST 100 peacocks just walking around all over!! One of them even had all its feathers out. It was pretty awesome. We talked to a few people in there, then we left and went back into the main area of the park. Hermana Curtis saw a man sitting on a bench who she felt like we should talk to, so we walked up to him and talked for a minute but  he said he wasn't interested. So then we were confused why we had felt prompted to talk to him-- until we suddenly saw a man sitting one bench away who we hadn't seen before! We talked to him and he was actually from Argentina, and he was super nice. He said he didn't believe in God but just because his parents hadn't, and he was really interested in what we had to say. We had a good conversation and were able to give him a Book of Mormon, which he said he would read! So that was super exciting.

My district definitely had an in-depth discussion of the different Disney Channel movies the other day. We decided the worst movies are Cloud 9 and Radio Rebel, and the winners are Sky High and High School Musical 2. Most of the elders in my district have little sisters so they know a lot more about Disney Channel movies than you would think haha.  Photo of my district.

For P-day today we went to the royal palace and a beautiful cathedral and then we got Italian ice cream and finished off visiting an ancient Egyptian temple with a beautiful view!

My metro ticket for some reason didn't work, along with about 8 other people's tickets. Hermana lighten had already made it through onto the metro with the rest of the missionaries, so we split up and she went on her way with the companion of another sister who's ticket also wasn't working. The 8 of us, with some teachers, waited around in the metro for about 20 minutes before giving up, buying one-way tickets, and following behind the rest of the group. We caught up to them in the cathedral, but until then I went on an emergency exchange with Hermana Glover from my room (her ticket didn't work either)! She's super cute and we had a fun time together. She's going to Madrid.

We didn't get to go into the palace since we're, you know, not Spanish royalty (jk, I think you could get in but you had to pay), but we did get to go into the cathedral. I LOVE the old cathedrals we get to visit! They're so beautiful, with old pews and stained glass and beautiful statues.

Then we got gelato, which was good because it was HOT today! And it was also good because...gelato. Super good.

The ancient Egyptian temple was a little underwhelming to be honest, but it was still cool.

And just past the temple was this lookout point with the most beautiful view ever! We could see the whole city!

And there was a road of parked cars underneath us that reminded me of that scene from lalaland.

Last thought from this week is about prayer. Have you ever heard the primary song "children all around the world"? It talks about the different languages children speak when playing to God and I realized a few nights ago how true that song is. Every night all the sisters gather in the hallway to say a group prayer and that night the sister from Ukraine said the prayer. None of us had a clue what she was saying in the prayer but we could all still feel the Spirit! It was crazy to think that there are people all over the world praying to the same God in their own language and feeling his love and support. He really loves ALL his children!

I've been here a month, and I can't decide if it feels more like 2 years or 2 days. But the time is flying by, I love the MTC but I also can't wait to get into the field! My only worry is that I might melt in the southern Spain heat. But overall it's been another great week, I'm glad to be back in air conditioning after our P-day excursion, and I'm sorry this email is so long!!

This picture of the Madrid temple at night was taken from my bedroom window.

Love, Hermana Walker

Holly's 3rd week at the MTC

Hola!!!

Another blur of a week... none of us can believe we're already halfway done with our time here!

On Saturday, my park companion was sister Parkinson from my room, and we had such a good time! Everyone was really nice to us (MIRACLE) and we were able to talk to a lot of people. One guy we said hello to but it seemed like he was kind of doing things so we started to walk away, but then he stopped us and we were able to talk with him for a while, give him a Book of Mormon, and get his contact information for other missionaries who actually speak Spanish to contact him. It was super cool! Before going to the park, we had prayed to be able to find someone who was interested and even though we kind of chickened out with this man, the Lord was able to pick up the slack and help us out. It was a super neat experience.

All the missionaries in the group with the blue books--that's a picture of a picture of us singing in the park! Every Saturday we're there for about 1.5 hours, then gather together to sing by a big fountain.

The picture of me and Hermana Parkinson and a random lady. A teacher took the picture, and the woman was someone we were talking to in the park. She wasn't interested, but she was super nice.

On Sunday was fast Sunday, which is a little different here than in the states. Because lunch is the biggest meal we ate lunch on Saturday then fasted dinner Saturday and breakfast Sunday and then ate lunch on Sunday. A big group of elders did a musical number at the beginning of church and it was really good, then all the Portuguese elders bore their testimonies and then everyone else who wanted to.

On Tuesday, the Portuguese elders left. They were always so funny and full of the spirit so they're definitely missed.But later on Tuesday the native Spanish speakers came! There are seven Hermanas and I think about that many elders too. Most of them are from the states and learned Spanish from school or living in different countries and things, but a few are true native Spanish speakers and there are a couple who don't speak Spanish at all. The missionaries from Spain/Latin America are all very good at fútbol, and all the missionaries in this new group are super nice.

ALSO Tuesday was the fourth of July! All the sisters went all out with the red white and blue, the elders all wore red ties with their navy slacks and white shirts, and we convinced our teacher to let us sing America the beautiful for our opening hymn once. We also ran into two sisters in Madrid on our way to the drugstore after lunch, and they were decked out too. A couple visiting the temple from the states took a picture of all of us (my roommates and I, plus the two sisters in Madrid) in our red white and blue. Our teachers all thought we were ridiculous but brother Rodriguez played along and stuck one of those mini American flags behind his name tag.

T

I also ate squid! Actually, I'm pretty sure it's called calamari. I only ate a little. It was fine but not my favorite. 

Also this week, we got two new investigators! We're always busy planning lessons now since we teach them four days a week, but it's been super neat getting experience teaching new people. Me and Hermana lighten love being companions but agree that it will definitely be easier to teach lessons when we're with a senior companion who really knows Spanish haha.

This week or possibly next weekend, a group of four sisters is performing come thou font of every blessing/if you could hie to Kolob medley that was apparently originally sung by a group called Elenyi. I'm accompanying on piano and the arrangement is so pretty! It's been nice having something different to play since until a few days ago the only things I'd been playing were straight out of the hymnbook.

Here is a link to the song Holly will be playing.  

https://youtu.be/9Z3pjXmNq2g

For p day today we went to the plaza mayor. It was super pretty but SUPER WET! We were there during the middle of a thunderstorm! Me and Hermana lighten were able to find good skirts to buy, and we liked looking at all the beautiful old architecture.

I found this picture of Plaza Mayor on the internet-so it isn't showing the rain

Looks like Holly's raincoat is coming in handy

Random picture of the building that's not really a building: it was a building under construction but the cover they made for it looks like the building does (according to our teacher). I thought it was kind of funny... and actually really impressive. 

This afternoon we're going to the temple, which we're excited about. Then we'll have a half-hour of glorious free time, dinner, and an old devotional from the Provo MTC before bed.

The picture of all the little drawings--those are sister lighten's! She watercolors and does cute quotes and things for everyone! She's so talented! The Mosiah 2:17 one is for me :)

Notebook: the first vision in Spanish. I wrote it out during a devotional.

I took a picture of the Amulek district (Holly's 8 person class) constitution! the punishment for this week is the first vision in Spanish... in a corner.

I can't really remember anything else from this week, so I guess that's it, but it was definitely a good week! It's so awesome being able to feel the spirit all the time and we love hearing stories that our teachers tell us from their missions. The church is so true, and I know this is where I need to be! Next time I email I'll have been here for an entire month! 

Hope you have an awesome week!

Love, Hermana Walker