Leon week 5:
Transfers next week 

Adios!    Thats what they say here in spain anytime you say hello. They are a little backwards here...  Anyhow, this week has been amazing, and Leon gets prettier everyday. Well this week I had the oppourtunity to participate in my first Zone conference! Well I'm just going to start on Tuesday because we really didnt do much on Monday. We had a lot of our appointments fail us so we ended up doing a lot of contacting.

TUESDAY:

Well I woke up and could just tell that today would be a great day, and it was. Well we finished our studies and then went to one of our members, who is the mom of the family who feeds he missioaies every Sunday! Her name is Hortensia, and she is just an angel. Their whole family is like my home away from home. We shared a conference talk with her called "The Merciful recieve Mercy". It talks about the importance of forgiveness. Our Savior Jesus Christ suffered and died for us so that we can return to live with our Heavenly Father again. He sacrificed himself for us, so that we would not have to feel all the pain, and suffering that he did for our sins. That seems pretty merciful too me, so how much more should we show mercy to the imperfect people in our lives. (Sorry for the sermon). Anyways this really hit me and I really loved to share, and talk about this conference talk. I am so excited for conference, it's gunna be so good. After that we had medio-dia, and then wen back out and had a lesson with our friend Tony. Oh I found out that his real name is Kingsley, but he just goes by Tony because its easier for Spanish people to say. So we were able to share about The Plan of Salvation, which is god perfect plan for us to come to this earth, live, get bodies, and be able to overcome our sins thorugh our savior Jesus Christ so that we can live forever with the ones that we lov in heaven with God. Pretty great, right?  SO the lesson went awesome, because we teach him in english, so it doesnt take me 20 minutes to struggle through the four words I know how to say in spanish. We asked him if he would be baptized, and he said that he wantss to be baptized, and that he is praying to know if this is right for him! I can't wait to meet with him again. 

WEDNESDAY:

So we planned 7 lessons, nd at least 4 were set in stone, and they just all ended up failing us. We even had members ready to come with us to the lessons, and all of them failed, so after that we ended up running up to our friend Sandras' store. SHe owns like 3 in Leon and I think maybe 1 in Madrid. She is supr cute and her store is the most fashionista, boutique thing that you could think of. She makes me look like I'm homeless, but that's okay:) SO we were talking to her, and her friends who from what I understood is Sandra's, Boyfriend's, Cousin's, Daughter. To be fair I'm not sure I could follow that in english, but anyway.. Her name was Rocio, and she is gypsy. SO there are a lot of gypsy's here, and they are almost like a religion, but they are a very strict, and closed off ociety from what I know, but they are all very friendly. So she was telling us about herself, and hows shes like 22, and is working, and going to school. Surprisingly enough the conversation turned to religion (Get it? Because were misssionaries) and then she was telling us about her beliefs and how she not Catholic, and really needs god in her life. So after she said this, Sandra basically explained why were here and a summary of the whole Restoration, nd coverd all of the main doctrine, it was crazy!!! SHe is just our friend, and we pass by her like 1 or twice a week, but she is not a member...  She is moving into a new piso, and when she does, she said that she is going to have us over for dinner. I can't wait!

THURSDAY:

Well today we decided to go up to the Pueblo called Trobajo del Camino, and do some contacting, and do some pass-by's, which are people who are either inactive members, or old investgators. It's a pretty cute little Pueblo, its what you would imagine Spain looks like. So tommorrow is Zone conference and so tonight the Hermanas from Gijon are coming and staying the night with us. Hermana Campillo, and Maza. So we pullled all of our beds into the living room, and had a sleep over. I feel asleep at like 11:00, obviously. 

FRIDAY:

Well we woke up and made pancakes, with nutella because the don't have maple syrup here... But I definitly like the nutella. We had Zone conference and it was money. WE talked about the Book of mormon AND HOW IMPORTANT IT IS! And after that we had Noche De Rama, and like normally there are about 2 or 3 people who come, but this time there were 11 people who came, and we taught on the improtance of memeber misssionry work. IT was incredible.

SATURDAY:

So we contacted yesterday and got to know three people from Bulgaria, and a lady from Senegal. Crazy how many types of people are here!!! So a long story, but there was this giant womens conference of all of the north of spain, and it was the frst one that they had ever done. So after tat was over, one of the ladys got lost without a phone, and everyne in our didstrict ws calling us to try to find her, so it was like 8 p.m. and we ran to the bus station and were loking for her, and were waiting until someone called us. We enede up waiting inside the bus station and while we were there we met this couple who had just gottn married who spoke english. The husband was from the UK, and the wife was from Vietnam. They were so interested, and she wanted the missionaries number from Oviedo, because thats where they live. We were super excited, and if we had not been there, waiting for the lost lady, we would not have met them. Miracles!!! Oh and then when we were alking back home, we saw hundreds of paper lanterns in the sky, like the movie tangled, and it was way pretty!!

SUNDAY:

SO we got to teach our friends Fanny today with her daughter. Fanny is a memeber, but the rest of her family is not. SO we got there and sh gave us some juice and cake, and then looked up a bunch of karioke songs on yutube and was singin at the top of her lungs! IT was a blast, Reminded me of home... Church was really good, the elders spoke on......(missionary work). IT ws aesoem actually. Then we went to the Famiia rivera, and had dinner, and taught them about Family home evening's and their impprtance to a happy home. Ruben, the dad told me that my Spanish was way good, and i told him that lying is a sin.. But im trying to learn it as best as i can, and the lord is helping me.

Well  another awesome week! Oh transfers are on saturday, so forsure im staying in leon, but i'm not sure aboutmy companion... crazy!!!! the transfer i almost over!

PICTURES of outside of Piso and Elder gearing:

He fell asleep after teaching a lesson at members home..lol

 WEEK 4 in Leon

Aloha, can I just say that they love Whitney Houston here, this week I heard at least every song that she has ever produced twice. In the Mercadona (Supermarket), in random, and spuratic concerts they have in the park we walk by everyday, in all of the members home's, just everywhere. I just wanted you to have some background just in case I accidentally type the lyrics for "I wanna dance with somebody". It's been in my head for like three days..

MONDAY:

Alright Alright Alright, (Matthew).. Well this week has been really awesome! Okay so on Monday, after I emailed, we went out and proselyted for a little while and visited our friend Maria Dolores, which is like the cutest name ever. She is our older friend, 79 years old. Any who, she came to church with us a few weeks back, but on the same day she lost her keys. So we went to talk to her, and she said that someone stole her keys, and then opened her door with them, but didn't take anything, and left the door open. So, she was pretty freaked out. After that we went to teach a lesson with our progressing amiga Paula. She is way cool, and is 18. In our lesson, she told us that she wants o get baptized, but she has to come to church first a few times.

TUESDAY:

So, on Tuesdays we teach an English class at like 7p.m. and then after that, at 8p.m. we have a Noche De Jas, which is like a youth night. So sometimes we have like 2 or 3 youth come, and other times we have none. So last night, we had like 8 youth come, so it was hopping. It was way fun, we played ping pong, and loco uno, which is just the regular card game "uno", but renamed loco uno. Oh also it rained so bad today, like I'm talking hurricane bad. Well we walked out of our piso, and it was  soooooooooo cold. So then we walked back up, and got coats, and sweaters, and tights on, and then went out again. So we were walking for like 20 minutes, and then it was a downpour. My companion brought a umbrella, but it was broken, so we ran to a chino (a store kind of like walmart, but all from china) and bought some umbrellas. The brand is Jani merkel, which according to our elders is the best umbrella that money can buy, so we scored on that one. It rained all day, and we were freezing but we got some numbers from people that we contacted, and it was really good. Also we bought a giant jug of Colacoa, which is the equivalent of swiss miss, but not sweet, and with no marshmallows.

WEDNESDAY:

SO on Wednesdays we have district meeting with our elder's. Elder O'boyle is our district leader, his companion is Elder corbridge, and then elder's preist, and gearig are our zoneleaders. SO we had our meeting, and then normally we got eat somewhere, but instead we went to the supermarket and bought some food, and just stayed in the capilla for medio-dia. We played uno, it got a little crazy. Oh, so we met this guy named tony in the street like a week ago, and were finally able to teach him. He is this English teacher from Nigeria, and he speaks not only English but Spanish, and Italian. So we were able to meet with him, and since it was raining, we just went to Burger king and had our lesson with him, in English because apparently they speak English in Nigeria. Who knew.. SO then we went buy our friend Sandra who owns like three stores here in Leon, and chatted with her for awhile. She told me that I have a Mexican accent, I was very flattered. Then out of nowhere she invited us to come and eat with her when she move's into her new piso. SO that was a crazy miracle because we (the missionaries) have been trying to meet with her for months, and then out of nowhere she wants us to come to her house, and then she is going to feed us.

THURSDAY:

Okay, so not much happened today, we went to visit our friend Hortensia, who is a gypsy, which I'm not sure is a race, or nationality, but she is the mom to the family who feeds us every Sunday night. She is the coolest. Oh and we contacted a few people from Bulgaria, and got their numbers also, which is way cool. There are some many diffrent kinds of people here, from all over.. Oh so When I get back from my mission, we are doing to "Camino de Santiago", which is this cool trail from France to somewhere in spain. We see a ton of people from america doing it, its way cool. SO we taught PAULA again, honestly we teach her all the time, and she will probably get baptized before the end of the year, but were trying to do it before my companion get's transferred, but she has already gone through 4 set's of missionaries so we ar hoping that 5th is the charm. It was raining all day today. 

FRIDAY:

So in our branch and in Leon, there are a ton of people who are from the Dominican Republic,  and Ecuador, and Bolivia, and from like very other south american country. We also have this family who feeds us like once a week who are from Peru, and the make the best food that i have ever had in my life. We dont get fed a lot here, but when we do it sure is delicious! So we met with our friend Fanny today who is a hoot. She is just super funny, and is also from the DR. So we were sitting in her kitchen, and then she left for a second, and when she came back she had her pet rat with her. She put it on the table in front of us, and I was loving it, if you called it, it came just like a dog! It was really soft too. Man oh man, my companion was so freaked out though, it was hilarious, she was on the verge of vomiting. Bless her heart. So after that we were ou contacting in the street, and we were walking through this park, and we saw this pandilla ( a group of friends) doing Parkour, and I died.. For those of you who dont know, Parkour is when you jump of random things and say parkour. So it was a fad like in 2007, and I just thought it was funny because it as just this group of adults who were like my same age doing parkour. Spain is like america but 15 years ago. Rollerblading, fanny packs, parkour, and Whitney houston. I seriously love it her more everyday. SO about 5 minutes after the parkour episode, we were walking, and I dont know if its like a law, but every person over the age of like 40 has a cane here, like a walking cane. So we saw this old man with his cane walking, and then he was hitting this pigeon with his cane. It was the craziest thing, and then he pinned it down, and i thought for sure that it would fly away, but then he picked it up!! and then put it in a tree. I am just inspired now, i am going to catch one, with my bare hands, because if he can, i can.

SATURDAY:

Well we met with tony again, and had an amazing lesson with him. He was asking us about getting baptized, it was crazy. And that was pretty awesome, because we teach him in English, and so i feel like i can just participate more. I mean when we teach in Spanish, i pretty much understand everything that they say, but i have a very limited vocabulary, and cannot always say what i want, so it is really a blessing to me to teach like one lesson a week in English with him, because then i just feel better, but my Spanish is definitely getting better every day, and i can thank my companion for that. She is seriously the most patience person that i have ever met. Then we went to Lesdy's house and she made us some Peruvian food, and it was the best thing i have eaten since i was born i think.

SUNDAY:

SO we went to church, and normally we go home right after church for medio-dia, and have the traditional Sunday pizza, but the cachuguays, which is our mission leaders family offered to drive us to his piso, and feed us lunch. It was awesome. And i found out that their last name was cachuguays, beaus here they just call you brother or sister, and then your first name, so we just call our mission leader pedro, or brother pedro. It's kind of cool. Oh and we visited Maria dolores again. I know your all worried, but she changed her lock, so no worries there.

Scripture study:

Mosiah 24: 14-16 (Patience)
John 17: 3 (Our purpose)
Romans 8: 16-18 (Our divine worth)
2 Nephi 31: 18-20 (The doctrine of christ)

THese are some scriptures that we shared in lessons this week, so take a look at them, they are pretty great.

Pictures Leon week 3:

Investigator Paula with sister Snyder and Sister Webster

Leon Week 3

Hello all!!!

So, this week has flow by. I cannot believe that it's P-day already!! This week was way fun, I had my first Intercambios (exchanges), which just means you switch companions for the day, and just learn from them. Okay so I just want to give a little background on everything so you don't get lost. So since we are up in the very tippy top of Spain, there are not a lot of missionaries here, because there are not a lot of people here like there is in Madrid. So, because of that we went down to Madrid to do our Intercambio. Okay so we went down to Barrio 1. For some refrence, Madrid is split up into sections, kind of. The best way to describe it is to think of New York, and how they have bouroughs, like Queens, Brooklyn, etc.. So Madrid has Barrios, which just means neighborhood. So Barrio 1 shares the very center of Madrid with Barrio 5. You can look it up, but the other name for Barrio 1 is Madrid Chamartin, and the other name for Barrio 5 is Sol, which is where they have most of the touristy spots like the Prado, or the Palace. Okay so yeah, We had to take a train down, or a "Renfe" which is the way everybody gets around here because most people don't have cars, and it's really fast! Alright now that I got all of the background out of the way, I will tell you about my week.

Tuesday 6th:

Okay, so we live right above this pharmacy, and so we pass by it everyday. So every like three days or so, my companion and I go into this pharmacy, because they have a scale, and we dont want to buy one so we just go there. So we went in today, and she weighed herself, (she lost a kilo) and we made the lady working there check us both again for the Piojos (lice). So all of the strenuous, and careful brushing and looking, my companion is finally lice free!!! Oh,and the lady checking my hair said that my hair was both really pretty, and very clean, and that if i got lice I would never be able to get rid of them because of how much hair I have. So that was cool, and terrifying at the same time. 

Wednesday 7th:

Okay so today, We went to a Pueblo, or like a little suburb of Leon. It's called Trobajo del camino, because it is on the camino del santigo, which is this trail that a bunch of people come and walk, and part of the goes through Leon. We have to gt up at 6:00 a.m. to go to the train station tomorrow.

Thursday 8th:

Alrighty, so we got up at the crack of dawn this morning, It was pretty rough. So we went to the train station and took our train to Madrid. I had aspirations to read Jesus the Christ, or some conference talks but I started on the first page, and immediately fell asleep. It's always hard to stay awake now unless I am walking, like always. Boy am I glad that I broke my shoes in before the mission because my blisters would be way worse. But yeah, so we got to Madrid and the Barrio 1 hermanas picked us up. Hna Clements & Hna Shriever. They are both way cool, but I got to know Hna Clement way more because she was my compy for the day. She is from Utah, (Big surprise there) but she was from bountiful, and Elder simmonds, who was in my MTC district and is also in my mission was in her ward, so she knew him which was cool. She goes home this transfer, which ends October 4th, and our zone leader, Elder Priest who is serving here in Leon goes home then too, but its cool though. So it was way cool, in Barrio 1, but they Hna's there use the metro, and bus system which is just insane. SO we got on the bus, and there was so many people crammed into the bus that I couldn't breath, but we only had to ride that one for like 30 minutes.. Anyhow, we met lots of cool people, and taught some great lessons, oh and I got to play with this cute little dog named Lloyd. Then we had Correlation, which is a meeting with all of the missionaries in the same area as us, and also the ward mission leader, so yeah we had one with the Barrio 1 Elders, and us, and I ran into my friend Elder Pacham, who was also in my MTC district. It was soooo fun to catch up. But yeah, and I met some Elder who is from Northern California, and just happened to know where Cobb Mountain is because he used to go hunting there, it was way cool. Then we went the Burger King, and got some Ice cream, which was bad news bears.

Friday 9th:

Okay so we woke up, and took one of those ridiculous buses back to the train station, and then go on the train. It is a really pretty view, It looks kind of like Texas a little bit, jut because they have lots of open fields, and tractors, but also kind of like Cali because of the Vineyards. So pretty. So after we got back we walked some, and then visited one of our friends who owns a store in the ritzy part of Leon, like a boutique I guess, but the clothes are super cute. SO she is way cool, and she had her nephews with her so i got the hangout with them, one was 7, and the other was 9. Then we did some more walking, and then we went back to the Capilla to have Noche de rama, which is like ward, family home evening. So we teach a little lesson, and then play a game or something, then eat some snacks. Its way fun. Then bed.

Saturday 10th:

Oh I don't know if i told y'all but the Branch president who is like a bishop assigned me a talk last sunday, and I finally wrote it today. It was on the Importance of the Sabbath day. We had weekly planning today, which is basically when we plan lessons for all of our less active members, progressing and non-progressing investigators. So we didn't leave the piso until 4:00p.m., bt the we went to this family who feeds us sunday night to help them paint the piso, so we were there for a few hours, which was fun. Glad I got so much practice before the mission.

Sunday 11th:

SO we went to church today, and I gave my talk, which i will put at the bottom so you can google translate it:) It was good, and I didnt even have to look at it too much, which was a testimony to me of the reality of the Gift of Tongues. Then we went back the our family's house for dinner, the ones we helped paint, and we had spaghetti. IT was way good. So the dad, he talks really fast, and he asks me questions that are really profound, so normally I have a really hard time understanding him because he uses big words that I dont think I would know in english. But at dinner I could understand everything he said, and it was just crazy..

Monday 12th:

Well we just woke up, and cleaned the piso, and went grocery shopping and then I finally made some covers for my planner, and then we made some no bake cookies with some of Elder priests real life American peanut butter. They are pretty tasty. And now were at the capilla emailing, and playing ping pong, Etc..                                                 

Okay so here is my talk:

Exodus 16: 25, 28-30

25 Y dijo Moisés: Comedlo hoy, porque hoy es día de reposo para Jehová; hoy no lo hallaréis en el campo.

28 Y Jehová dijo a Moisés: ¿Hasta cuándo rehusaréis guardar mis mandamientos y mis leyes?

29 Mirad que Jehová os dio el día de reposo, y por eso os da en el sexto día pan para dos días. Quédese, pues, cada uno en su lugar, y nadie salga de su lugar en el séptimo día.

30 Así el pueblo reposó el séptimo día.

Exodus 31: 13, 16-17

13 Y tú hablarás a los hijos de Israel, diciendo: De cierto vosotros guardaréis mis días de reposo, porque es señal entre yo y vosotros por vuestras generaciones, para que sepáis que yo soy Jehová que os santifico.

16 Guardarán, pues, el día de reposo los hijos de Israel, celebrándolo por sus generaciones como convenio perpetuo.

17 Señal es para siempre entre yo y los hijos de Israel; porque en seis días hizo Jehová los cielos y la tierra, y en el séptimo día cesó y reposó.

3 Nephi 18: 3, 7-8, 11-13

3 Y cuando los discípulos hubieron llegado con pan y vino, tomó el pan y lo partió y lo bendijo; y dio a los discípulos y les mandó que comiesen.

7 Y haréis esto en memoria de mi cuerpo que os he mostrado. Y será un testimonio al Padre de que siempre os acordáis de mí. Y si os acordáis siempre de mí, tendréis mi Espíritu para que esté con vosotros.

8 Y sucedió que cuando hubo dicho estas palabras, mandó a sus discípulos que tomaran del vino de la copa y bebieran de él, y que dieran también a los de la multitud para que bebiesen.

11 Y siempre haréis esto por todos los que se arrepientan y se bauticen en mi nombre; y lo haréis en memoria de mi sangre, que he vertido por vosotros, para que testifiquéis al Padre que siempre os acordáis de mí. Y si os acordáis siempre de mí, tendréis mi Espíritu para que esté con vosotros.

12 Y os doy el mandamiento de que hagáis estas cosas. Y si hacéis siempre estas cosas, benditos sois, porque estáis edificados sobre mi roca.

13 Pero aquellos que de entre vosotros hagan más o menos que esto, no están edificados sobre mi roca, sino sobre un cimiento arenoso; y cuando caiga la lluvia, y vengan los torrentes, y soplen los vientos, y den contra ellos, caerán, y las puertas del infierno están ya abiertas para recibirlos.

Hola así que estaba esperando no tener una discourso hasta que realmente aprendí a hablar español, pero parece que no es el caso. pero mi tema de hoy es en el día de reposo, y para mí lo más importante acerca del día de reposo es la cena santa.

el día de reposo es para nosotros. como las escrituras dicen en éxodo 16.

¿por qué tenemos el día de reposo? estamos bautizado por lo que puede convertirse en limpio de nuestros pecados, sino porque no estamos perfecto, hacemos errores. debido a la gran misericordia de Dios, que nos ha dado la Santa cena, o de una manera podemos ser limpio de nuestros pecados cada semana, al igual que estábamos bautizado de nuevo. tenemos el día de reposo para que podamos ser santificado a través del espíritu Santo, o en otras palabras, estar limpio de nuestros pecados continuamente. como la escritura en éxodo 31 dice.

el señor nos ha dado el día de reposo para nosotros recordar la promete que hemos hecho con él. pero, participar en la Santa cena no es un momento de experiencia, pero es algo que hacer durante nuestras vidas. como las escrituras dice en Mateo 5: 48.

el señor ha mandado a ser perfecto, pero ¿cómo podemos hacer esto? bueno por nosotros mismos que no puede, pero la Santa cena es la forma en que Dios nos ha dado a seguir su mandato. de acuerdo con 3 nefi 18.

cuando nos participar en la Santa cena nos prometió siempre es el espíritu de ser con nosotros. cuando nos siga las mandamientos de Dios y recuerde siempre él, estamos en su Roca. sé que cuando nos esforzamos para seguir sus mandamientos manteniendo el día de reposo vamos a cambio en la mejor las personas, y será bendecido con la paz en nuestros hogares y en nuestras vidas, y se sentirá el amor de Dios tanto que vamos a nunca puede decir que nos sentimos por sí solo, porque los brazos abiertos, y su corazón está lleno de amor para nosotros.

Okay, now are some thoughts and observations that I have about spain.

So medio-dia is a real thing, all of the shops, and restaurants, and stores close from like 1:30-4:30. Also there Is no one in the streets because thats when everyone goes to their houses and takes naps.

They dont have brown sugar, or chocolate chips here.

All of the old men have these little gold bar things that hang from their belt loops, its kind of cool.

No one wakes up before 10:30 in the morning.

When the people see my companion and I walking down the street, the full blown stare us down. At first it kind of freaked me out, but now its just normal. You know how when your a kid and your mom tells you not to stare at stranger, here their moms stare with them, but its kind of funny.

No body has air conditioning here, or dryers, so they hang their clothes up to dry out of their windows.

Oh, the side walks are really wide here, its like a little road.

Well thats it folks, Love you a ton and can't wait to here from you all.
Thanks so much for writing me!!!

MORE PICTURES!!

Second week in Leon

Hello all!  

Okay so I finally remebered my journal this time, so we are going to have details today! So just a quick overview, I'm just going to go day to day, and then maybe at the end I will have some thoughts or something. Yeah, that sounds good, and missionary like:)

MONDAY:

Okay so after I emailed y'all on monday, we had a lesson at the chapel with one of our friends ( a person investgating the church). She is really cool, we will call her Mary jane. So yeah we had a lesson with her, and after we made S'mores, kind of. We had scentless candles, and nubes ( marshmallows), and these like choclate cookie things, and it actuall worked really good, and was way fun.

TUESDAY: 

Okay, so can i just say tha the days go by so fast here.. IT'S CRAZY... So today, a bunch of people/ appointments fell through on us, and there are hardly any people in the streets because it is august, and apparently every single person in spain goes on holiday for the whole month of august. So we decided to walk to on our members homes, but she lives in a pueblo, which is kind of like a suburb of a city but smaller, nd way far away. Oh by the way, I clocked it and we walk like 12-15 miles a day here, so a lot... but its not tooooooo hot, so its okay. 

WEDNESDAY:

Okay so today we visited on of our members, who lives really close to us, and her and her family are just the absolute sweetest!  So i had met her like a week ago, and we taught her a lesson on Temples, and how its the next step for her to strive for.  So she told us her conversion story and it was just amazing, I was basically crying for the time  I walked in until we left. Good thing that I drink lots of water. Any how, I was able to bear witness about how important the temple is to me. I am just really grateul that i had the opportunity that I had to us the 8 words that I know in spanish to help her to feel Gods love. Then we went to visit this oother lady who i had never me, who was just really cool, and super knowledgeable about everything, kind of a cool visit. Oh so before the Mission I bought some sandals, and I'm not sue if you know, but i'm not who you woud call a sadl person, anyway, I took a chance and bought some, and wore them for the first time today, and let me tell ya, it was rough.. Like I said, we walk a lot, and they were new... but man did they look fresh! Worth it.

THURSDAY:

Well it is officially september, also I would like to fromally apoligize for my spelling in my emails, It makes everyone cringe a little bit, but what can I say.. Public school failed me. Or I am just to lazy to change it beause I dont have spell check. Man it just feels like yesterday that I was in the states, hanging out with my friend(s), (as if there is more than one), or jut kicking it with the fam, but I have waited to be here for a long time, and I am just so grateful for the oppourtunity I have to be here, helping people to kow what I know. I LOVE the people here sooooo much, especially our little flock here in Leon, they are all just so loving and welcoming. So today we were supposed to have a lesson with this guy, but we can't go into a mans apartment without another girl their, so we tried to get a member to come with us but we couldent get ahold of anyone, and so e called him to see if he could meet us at a park, and he said he doesnt leave his house. Ever. Not because he can't, but because he doesnt like too... I thought it was realy funny, but that is just how people here are, STUBBORN! Maybe thats why I am here, becaus I fit right in. SO a few days back we were knocking doors and met this old lady, we will call her mary-kate. So we were able to finally teach her a lesson, and get to know her a little bit, and she is just like my NANA, like exactly, except my nana speaks french, not the espanol.. But it just made me a little homesick, no like crying or anything, actually it just made me think of just how much i miss all y'all, but also hw grateful I am to meet all of these people here that remind me y'all. Anyhow, she told us that she is not particularly religious, and is happy with the way her life is, and is not planning on changing it, which is understandable, especially when your 79yrs old. But I have high hopes that she will have a change of heart, because I want so badly for her to know the sweet, and precious parts of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Oh also we met this guy who works at a mattress store today and got to talk to him too. The peple here are just sooo cool.

FRIDAY: 

Okay, The Outbreak..
So my companion the last couple days has been complaining of an itchy head, like really itchy. Well at first I thought that maybe it was dandruff, and so we bought some Head & SHoulders, ad tried that for like two days, and that didnt help, so then she was telling me about the statistics of sister missionaries getting lice because of all of the diffrent houses, so then she psyched herself out and made me check hr for lice like three times! 
( let me just insert here that i am not a nurse, I dont know what lice looks like, and i told her that but she insisted that I look)
So that was two more days, and then we woke up today and she just couldent take it, her head was really itchy so we went to the pharmacy below our piso, and aske the lady if she had shampoo or somthing to help her, and she asked her some questions and then she checked her hair, and immediantly told us that she was lice positive...

Well, here I was thinking that i was only scared of cockroaches, how wrong was I..

Well we bought some stuff to put in her hair, and she put that in the kill them (the lice), and then I was the one who got the job of brushing them out.. Great.. But i prayed for strength, and the i wouldent get freaked out, and it worked for he most part. So I will be brushing out her hair, and checking for the lice for like a month..   As for the moment I do not have lice, and I am taking all precautions to protect myself....  But i feel really sorry for my poor companion, she was pretty freaked out, and i cant really blame her. SO after that episode, we had a comida, or like a lunch appointment with on of our members, and it was sooooo good, and then we had Noche de rama which is like and activity where we or the other missionaries teach a little lesson and then our branch, ( like two other people) eat some food. So after that we went and contacted in the street, and found this super sweet lady from columbia and was able to get her info, she was way cool.

SATURDAY: 

So after our studies and medio-dia (nap time) I went through my compnions hair on the hunt for piojos ( the lice). After that we went and vivsted our old friend mary- kate again, and talked about why my comp and I were here, serving missions for our church. I know for most people it is kind of weird to go preach to random people in the street about Jesus, but the truth of the matter is that he is our Savior, and he is the way that we can be clean from our sins, and pains and afflictions, and live with those we love in heaven forever. Any way we were able to talk to her about that, nd about our families and friends. She told us that she wants to beive, and that she really admires us for our faith, and we told her that the way to know what we know, is to read that little blue book, and to ask god in sincere prayer if what wehave taught her,a nd what she has felt is true. She is changing, i can tell just when I see her face, and look into her eyes, her heart is being softened. Being a missionary I soooooo cool. Oh so also here, no one can pronounce my name, and they insist on know my first name, and i tell them and they dont know how to say it, and then I say "Like taylor swift", and then immeadiatley they all know how to say it.  SO tommorow is fast sunday, which is when we go without food or water for 24 hours. So we started right after medio- dia ( lunchtime) and will fast until medio-dia tommorrow. So we were fasting for our friends (investgators) and for them to have desires to change, and progress. It felt like I swallowed a jar of cotton balls, but its worth it. 

SUNDAY:

So today was sunday! The best day of the week except for all of the others. SO we walked over to mary-kates piso to walke with her to church, and i totally thought that she was going to be too sick to go, but she was fine, and so we walked to church, and then while we were in sacrament meeting, three othe of our frineds showed up to church also! God answers prayers... So that was way cool, and then aftr church we broke our fast, and i have never in my life drank sooo much water before, and every sunday is pizza day, so we mae our pizza and is way incredible. Also we went by one of our members homes and finally was able o meet with her, she has been out of town like everyon else here, but she way way cool, and super funny. All in all a great weeek.

Oh also on sunday, i taught my first Gospel doctrines class, and attended my first testimony meeting. Everyone that I talk to asks me where I am from, and then i tell them Texas, or the Celestial kingom, and they say, "Oh, that explains the mexican accent", so ive been working on that, but i can definitley tell that my spanish is improving everyday thanks to the lord.