WEEK 2 OF TRANSFER 2 IN LEON:

 I Couldn't think of a clever name. Well this week has been an amazing adventure as always! This last week, I made some new goals for myself; One of which was to completely stop eating dairy. Dairy makes me sick anyways so you would think that it would be easy, but everything has dairy, and it just tastes so good. Well I have stayed strong so far, and I have felt a lot better. Another one of my goals was to Memorize, and ponder on Alma 26: 12, which is a verse of scripture found in the Book of Mormon. Ammon was an ancient prophet, and amazing missionary among the inhabitants of the ancient Americas. This scripture from his experience being a missionary:

        "12 Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever."
 

I would invite you to read this verse, and to think about what that phrase means, "for in his strength I can do all things". It's true. I know without a shadow of a doubt that the lord blesses us when we follow his commandments, and exercise our faith in him by acting correctly. If you have any cool thoughts, or actually any thoughts about this scripture, shoot me an email.

MONDAY: (LUNES)

Well after we emailed and stuff, there are a few Pass-by's that live close to the Chapel, so we decided to go by them. The first lady we wen by is named Leslie, and a miracle happened once again, and not only was she home, but she let us in, and gave us food! We were able to give her a pamphlet for the Plan of Salvation, and a Book of Mormon the last time we visited her, and this time we were able to teach her a little more about why we have the Book of Mormon, and also the Plan of salvation, which in reality is the plan that our loving heavenly father has given us to have abounding joy in this life, and eternal life, and the opportunity to live with our families forever in the life to come. Pretty great I think. She thought so too. So needless to say, we had a great lesson with her, but found out that she is leaving for Norway for like a month and won't be back till Halloween. Miracles, Miracles..

TUESDAY: (MARTES)

Well today I did laundry. I've been putting it off, but it finally culminated into me washing my clothes, and folding them. I feel better now. Oh, also today we found out that were getting a new phone! Our phone is the worst. It's obviously not a smart phone, but we should be able to make calls, and text people. I don't know whats wrong with it, but it drops service in the middle of conversations, and dies suddenly. It is a very important tool to have, but it isn't useful if it doesn't work. So we call a while back to see what we should do, and the office elder's told us to try all of these things, deleting contacts, deleting old messages, changing phones to see if it was the phone or the sim card, etc.. Well finally after all of that, the phone got worse. So we called and they told us that we're getting a new phone, and I am stoked. Well, we have finally overcome the gripe, (the cold). It took a lot of soup, and a lot of emergen-c, but we did it. Well we made some English class posters a while back, and now we are finally seeing the fruit's! For our class tonight, we taught a brazileno(Someone from Brazil). He was super cool. Well, when I got to Spain, my blow dryer broke. I know, 1st world problems, but I have just been drying it naturally, which for me is a struggle. So my companion and I each bought a blow dryer from this cheap little place that we walk by all of the time. It blows:)

WEDNESDAY: (MIERCOLES)

So, this morning we called our find Maria-Dolores, and she invited us to come over for lunch, and to teach her. So we went, and had some awesome, legit, Spanish food! She made Patatas fritas(fried potatoes) and espaguetis (spaghetti) , and murcia (Pork blood sausage), these little saltine crackers with cheese and pepper jelly, and pork chops. The Murcia which really is sausage made out of blood and onions, was actually really tasty. Well Maria asked if we wanted to try it, and i told her yes, ut then y companion was so angry with me, because she didn't want to try it. SO, hilarious. Well we tried it, and my comp choked it down, but it was actually really good. Though it did have a funky texture. Afterwards we were able to share the Plan of salvation with her as well! It went swimmingly. Afterwards the Elders called us, and told us that we were having an emergency meeting with the other elders in our district from ponferrada. We ran to the chapel, and the elders told us that president has asked us to be the Sister Training Leaders for the rest of the transfer, because there are none up here in the north. Really, it just means the we helped the Elders plan the Zone training for Thursday, and then the next zone training towards the end of the transfer. After that, we passed by some people, and had some failed appointments, and then we decided to pass by Norberto and naldas house. I had only met them in the street once, but i guess that the missionaries before me taught them a few times. They belong to the 7th day Adventists, which i had seen but never really learned about before. They are very faithful, and devout in their beliefs, which i respect. WE went to see them and talked to nalda, and had an English class with her! It was a blast, and then norberto came out, and we talked to them, and then i was able to have a guitar lesson with him because he had guitar and tried to learn, but gave up. Anyway it was cool to play, and to teach him. We made an appointment to come back for Monday.

THURSDAY: (JUEVES)

We woke up at 5:30a.m. and took a bus to Oviedo. We had zone training there. Ovieod is in very northern spain, and i guess it rains there like everyday, but it is really green and beautiful! We had our training on the baptismal interview questions, and also on how to become a Preach my gospel missionary. Preach my gospel is a manual to help us to become better and more effective missionaries. So for these types of training's, we also do some kind of Role Play, or practice (Practice teaching a lesson or something) but this time our role-play was to switch companions, and we had 15 minuts to hand out a Book of Mormon. There is a brand new missionary name hermana nielson, and we wet out together, and handed out my book of Mormon and almost hers in 15 minutes. IT was crazy. Then after that, we all changed into jeans and sweatshirts because its cold here, and in oveido, and then hiked up to the top of this mountain overlooking all of oveido, and a the top there was this giant stature of Jesus, like the one in San Paulo, Brazil only smaller. It was the coolest thing. Then we ate lunch up there, and had a spiritual thought. So, Hermana Maza has a bad knee, and her companion wanted to do the hike, so Hermana maza and I ended up being Companeras for a few hours which was cool. WE were able to talk to the taxi drivers were had, and also some guy who was up at the top of the mountain with us. IT was way cool. So because hermana maza and i took a taxi to the top, we got up there way before everyone else. We got to take some killer pictures, and videos, but about 5 minutes after everyone else showed up, It started sprinkling, then pouring rain. It was sooooooooooooooooo cold the whole time we were doing the spiritual thought and all that. CRazy, and then everyone else ran down, but we had to wait for a taxi, but it was fun. We got drenched. Then we finally got back to the chapel in oveido, and changed, and then Hermana Snyder, my companion and I took a train with the 4 elders from valladolid. It was way fun. We played a bunch of games, like bang. Then we got back to Leon and got three numbers and were able to hand out a Book of Mormon. Super amazing day!

FRIDAY: (VIERNES)

Today was yet again brimming with miracles! Well for starters we passed by an old investigator named Pamela, and we dropped her like the first week i got here just because she wasn't keeping any of her commitments. We passed by and talked with her, and shared a video and some scriptures, and it actually went really well, but we will see. Afterwards we had Medio-dia, and then we had a lesson with our friend named Maribel, and her daughter Emily! It went really good, because she said that as she has been reading, and praying about the Book of Mormon, she knows in her heart that it is true. That is what happens when you read and pray about the book of Mormon with a real interest to know o that if it is true, you will change you life and follow the teachings of Jesus Christ. It's like a math equation, if you add 2+2 it will always =4. The Book of Mormon is not different. If you exercise your faith by reading it, and praying about it with real intent, you will receive an answer of the truthfulness. Pretty amazing I think. So after our lesson with her, we invited her family to come to the Game night we were having. They came!!! Not only Maribel, and Emily, but also her older son alan!!! IT was seriously so fun, and there like about 25- 30 people there. I couldn't believe it. After that, the elders and us seperated our areas, and also split up the pueblos that we would be responsible for visiting. (Pueblo is like a little town, or city that is smaller that like 20,000 people). Our pueblos are astorga, benovente, bonyar, nd some other ones, that we are going to go to next week. I am so excited!

SATURDAY: (SABADO)

Today we did weekly planning, and made some chocolate chip cookies. They didn't look pretty, but they sure did taste good. Oh, I would love some new recipes because im tried of only eating sandwiches or cereal, so if you have some good, easy, and cheap recipes i would love that. Well the thing is that we didn't keep the cookies, but we gave them to our members, and so when we had  lesson with hortensia, we gave her some. WE had a bunch of lesson set, but they failed us so we got to walk around and contact up on the other side of Leon which was pretty. Then we had English class, and yet gain two new people came! They were both women doctors. I couldn't figure out a better way to say that. But they were seriously the coolest. And then we wen and had a lesson with our friend lesdy. IT was all in all a great day.

SUNDAY: (DOMINGO)

Well we asistired (attended) church today. The spirit was really strong during sacrament meeting. They talked about faith, obedience, and then the story of Noah and the ark. After church we went home, and i made fried chicken and mashed potatoes, but then after I had already boiled the potatoes, i realized that we didn't have a potato masher so i used a fork. IT was more like potato cubes. Still tasty. Afterwards we went out and passed by some people, and contacted, and then went to the Familia riveras for dinner. Really good day.

MONDAY:(LUNES)

Well we cleaned and grocery shopped, and wrote, and then after this were going to go up by the cathedral in the center of Leon to get  snow globe for my companion, because she collects them, and then to get some pastries, and maybe a few pictures.

Yep, This week has been really amazing and i truly appreciate all of your emails, and advice. Thanks. Love you!!!