Week 29: Bienvenidos 2018

Hola hola hola!!

We finished our Christmas day last Monday eating with some members. The food we ate was AMAZING--turkey AND ham, if you can believe it. And they gave us more American breakfast cereal. We're loaded. It did take an hour to walk to their house and an hour to walk back afterwards, BUT it was worth it!

A picture from the Skype call with my family

Our delicious Christmas dinner.

On Tuesday we had district meeting. Afterwards we made "Christmas smoothies." Word to the wise: Christmas smoothies are a bad idea. The freezing-coldness of smoothies at the end of December just isn't super fun.

On Tuesday night we visited Isabel again. Her husband is still recovering from his surgery but he is doing well.

On Wednesday Hermana Matsu woke up with either a really bad cold or the flu-- we're still not sure which it was. Anyway, we had to stay in all day Wednesday because she was pretty dead. So while she slept I cleaned the piso, read the scriptures, read the book "Our Search for Happiness" (would definitely recommend), and we called a bunch of people. Sometimes as missionaries we kind of wish we could have a break, but I have to say that after Wednesday, I prefer working and having things to do than staying inside all day.

Thursday we did mostly inside things, like weekly planning and then English class and noche de hogar at night. We didn't want to be out in the cold for long, because we wanted hermana Matsu to get better fast so she could have a good last couple weeks of her mission! On Friday morning we had a meeting with bishop, then visited Manuel B. He gave us more weird food, including an old thing of lettuce. He also gave us these chocolate truffle things that are way too addicting.

Also on Friday, I dropped one of our glass plates on my toe. Broke the plate, and bruised my toe. So now I'm walking around on January 1st with sandals because closed-toe shoes hurt my toe. Fun times. I feel kind of ridiculous walking around in sweaters and jackets and sandals. I'm just glad it's not super cold this week!

We went and knocked doors on Saturday morning. Normally Saturday mornings are pretty slow, but we actually found several people who were interested in having us come back another day! So that was great. Then in the afternoon we went to fill the baptismal font for the baptism of a little girl that night. She's the granddaughter of a couple in our ward and she's living in Alemania with her family but a lot of her family lives here so they wanted her to get baptized here. One weird thing, turns out the bishop of my ward in Málaga is her uncle (I think?) so him and his family were at the baptism! It was fun/weird to see them in Puerto. 

On Sunday we had church like normal, then went back to our piso to do some studies and then we went over to a member family's house to eat. It was really fun and afterwards we played a couple games with their kids.

We had permission last night to stay up until midnight, so we did the Spanish tradition of eating 12 grapes in the last 12 seconds of the night (don't ask) and then watched some very underwhelming fireworks in the distance out the window of our piso. Not the most exciting new year, but it was still fun haha.

I finished the Book of Mormon this week (and started it again), and I decided that I really just love the Book of Mormon so much. The last prophet to write in the Book of Mormon is named Moroni, and he gives us what is the most amazing promise ever. He promises that if we read the Book of Mormon and pray about it, we can know for ourselves that it is true by the power of the Holy Ghost. 

"And when ye shall receive these things (these things=the Book of Mormon), I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.

And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things."

We aren't going to explain why our church's interpretation of xyz is correct, and we won't pull out books on Ancient America to prove that the Book of Mormon is historically accurate. As missionaries, we invite others to know for themselves, by asking God, if what we are teaching is true. I have done this, and I know for myself, and I am so grateful for it! And I promise that if you will read the Book of Mormon and pray to know if it is true, you can know, too! Hope you all have a great week!

Love, Hermana Walker

Here are some pictures from the mission Christmas Party that were recently posted on the Malaga mission blog.