April 4, 2013

Que tal?!?!??! (that´s basically how they say how are you in spain) this week has just been another wonderful week in the lord´s hands.

Sorry I haven´t sent any pictures yet. they´ve been having trouble with the computers so hopefully I´ll be able to send some next week. I can print emails out so feel free to write long ones cause I can print them out and read them throughout the week! tender mercy! So guess where we´re going later today?? If you guessed the Real Madrid soccer stadium you´d be correct! Sweet right?! I´m pretty excited…false….I´m freaking out! It´s going to be awesome! This place never gets old. I don´t think i´ll ever get sick of this.

Spain is beautiful! It usually only rains about 3 weeks a year here and we´re in the middle of those three weeks. It´s kind of like Utah here. One second it will be pouring rain and the next second it will be sunny with clear skies. I thought i´d be super depressed with all of the rain but I actually found the opposite to be true. I LOVE THE RAIN HERE!!!! Ahhh!!!! It´s the kind of rain that you see in movies! Every time it rains I just want to run outside and play in it.

Guess what? My companion and I placed 3 more copies of the book of mormon this week! We had some pretty neat experiences tracting in the city. One cool experience was when we were walking down a street and came across this homeless man. We gave him some money and I felt this prompting to hand him a Book of Mormon. I told him in Spanish that it was a present for him. He was stunned! He kept looking from me to the book and then back at the book. He looked as if he´d never received a present in his life. Teary eyed, he took the book and hugged it to his chest. As we were walking away we turned to see him kiss the cover and open it up to begin reading. That single moment made everything I´ve done so far worth it. I could go home right now and feel accomplished (not really though cause I want to be out here). Seeing that one man come to the Savior brought me the sweetest peace. I can´t imagine what it will feel like when we commit someone to baptism.

Over the past two weeks we´ve seen a few families go through the temple to be sealed together for eternity. That´s what i´m working for. I´m here to invite others to come unto Christ so that they can be together with their families for eternity.

I´m so incredibly grateful that I got to come to the Spain MTC for training because it has helped so much! It´s such a blessing to be able to learn the Spanish i´ll be speaking here from Spaniards. It helps so much!

Another thing, I had a Russian companion this last week! It was just a temporary thing but so cool right?   She´s from Moscow, Russia and is going to serve in another Russian mission. She only knows about 10 words in English so I got to teach her some English while she taught me some Russian. Yeah, that´s right! You´re little hermana here knows some Russian now. 3 languages: English, spanish, Russian….triple threat! Actually I´m to the point where i´m so focused on Spanish that my English has taken a huge hit. So basically I can´t speak any language right now. Haha. Who knew i´d have trouble speaking English so quickly? The communication barrier with this sweet sister was tough at first but after one day we hit it off and somehow found a way to communicate perfectly. She is the sweetest and nicest girl you will ever meet! We laughed so incredibly hard together!

I LOVE MY ELDERS!!!! They are absolutely amazing! All of the missionaries here have become like my temporary family! Because the MTC is so small, everyone is incredibly close! I love it! I love my district!!!!!!!! The elders in my district feel like my brothers! They are so fun, considerate, sweet, and just all around amazing! They are absolutely hysterical!

Funny moments:

So I told you about how I told you about how people in Spain greet each other with kisses on the cheeks? Well we ran into one of our teachers out on the temple grounds and she started to kiss each of us on the cheek. It goes right cheek and then left cheek. Well one of the hermanas thought that she had it down so as our teacher went in to kiss her our hermana went for the same side and they came SOOOO close to flat out kissing each other on the lips! Ohhhh we laughed so hard!

So remember how there are 6 beds in my room. Yeah…well we now have 7 girls in my room. I really don´t think they planned out the whole cramming the mtc full of missionaries thing. We´re pretty cramped but we LOVE it! I wouldn´t trade it for anything. It just makes things more fun!

K well I have to go now but I love you all dearly!!!!! I get out into the field on April 30^th so look out Malaga! I´M Extremely happy right now! Each day I wake up and think that this day couldn´t possibly be better than the day before and every day without fail I find that it can. I love this gospel! I love my Savior!!!! “Come what may and love it”

Love,

Hermana israelsen

March 28

 I´m so incredibly happy! I´ve never felt more purpose and joy in my life! I love this work with all of my heart! I´ve been so incredibly blessed by the lord since I got here. I haven´t been homesick for a second. I mean I´ve missed you all terribly but it doesn´t make me sad because I know i´ll see you again and I know that I love you. I´m not sad because there´s no place i´d rather be right now than here in Spain preaching the gospel. I love you all and think about you all of the time but it only makes me more excited to get to work. I never thought that I could have this much joy in my life. I truly love the work. It´s hard. It´s stressful but I wouldn´t trade if for anything. It takes so much work but it´s so great! I think the thing i´m having the hardest time with is sleep. I´m sleeping fine at night but everything we do during the day just wears me out. I literally find myself fighting sleep every second of the day but that´s just me. I think i´m just still trying to get over the jet lag. Speaking of that. This Sunday Spain has day light savings and guess what….they lose an hour. Boo! Guess i´ll just have to get over it. Other than that i´ve been doing great! I´ve been really happy all of the time and even though i´m frustrated with the language I´m being patient. I know it will come with time. I´ve just been really optimistic and I know that it´s all thanks to the lord. He has truly helped me every single day! I haven´t cried since I said goodbye to you guys at the airport! Miracle right?!?!?!

I LOVE THESE SISTERS WITH ALL OF MY HEART!!!!! I´ve never loved a group of strangers more in my entire life! We have 6 girls to a room which is kind of crazy but I love it! I wish we could cram another six girls into our room because of how much fun it is. It´s only been a week and I already feel like i´ve been friends with these girls for years! I can honestly say these are girls that i´m going to be able to call sisters forever. I don´t know what I´d do without these hermanas! We are such a tight knit little group. We are each other`s support systems. We´re laughing ALL of the time!!! My abs literally ache at the end of each day because of how hard I laugh during the day. We´ve mastered the balance between work and fun though. When it´s time to work we put our whole hearts and souls into it and when it´s time to have fun we cry because of how hard we´re laughing. I couldn´t love these girls any more than I do! I´ve been so blessed! I´m just having too much fun to be homesick or discouraged! I love it here! I love the MTC! I love my mission!  I LOVE THESE GIRLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey just a warning…..my English has kind of taken a hit. Spanish is literally taking over my mind. I always accidentally slip in Spanish words when I write and talk. It´s a good thing though. Just be aware that English grammar is at the bottom of my priorities list right now so i´m not really going to worry about the grammar in this email.

They´re really affectionate in Spain which is something that I thought would be kind of weird for me. All of the girls kiss each other on the cheeks. In Spain you kiss their right cheek and then their left cheek (It´s the opposite in Italy apparently). I thought I´d have a hard time by it but I actually find it sweet! I love it! We all do! I thought I wouldn´t be kissin anyone on my mission…..guess I was wrong! Haha.

We started classes last Wednesday and Friday morning we had our first lesson in all Spanish. We have 2 investigators per companionship and the investigators are all Spaniards so it makes it so much more realistic. We teach both investigators every day so that´s pretty hard but also incredible. It´s been awesome to see how the spirit isn´t hindered by a language barrier. Every single Saturday we go on splits and go tracting in Madrid. You heard me… tracting. Real tracting. They took us to this MASSIVE park and just let us loose. It was terrifying last Saturday because I didn´t know the language that well and we were supposed to just find people to teach. The spirit is absolutely amazing though. I had some pretty sacred experiences. We just trusted in the Lord and we were lead to some people who were ready for the gospel. We placed 2 copies of the book of mormon and got some referrals. we got to teach 3 discussions in the park. 3 real discussions! There was this one  woman who was very adamant that she wasn´t interested but I just kept talking to her and bore her my testimony our our Savior and the Book of Mormon and then all of a sudden she asked if she could meet with the missionaries for the lessons. The spirit was so incredibly strong! We had some other experiences pretty similar to that but I don´t have enough time to tell you about them right now. Just know that I have a very strong testimony that the Lord is very involved in the work.  So I was teaching someone in the park and I was trying to say that this gospel is a message of happiness and peace but the words for peace and another word are just one letter off so I accidentally said  “este evangelio es un mensaje de felicidad y pez” which means “this gospel is a message of happiness and fish.” Whoops. My companion and I cracked up about it later!

My companion is absolutely wonderful!!! I honestly could not have a better companion! She is exactly what I need in the MTC. She´s incredibly sweet and we laugh so hard together. So pretty much the Lord just blessed my with the greatest companion ever!

My MTC president is fantastic! Just imagine if Thomas S. Monson was your MTC president and you´ve got my MTC President. 

So let me tell ya about this MTC.  There are only about 60 missionaries in the MTC right now and apparently that´s by far the biggest group they´ve ever had! There are 2 zones and 8 districts in this MTC. My district is just my companion and I with 6 wonderful elders. We´re honestly like a little family. The elders are like my little brothers. I LOVE my district! The food is great but we have fish….a lot. I am trying to make myself like it. One day I will….one day. The teachers are all native speakers from Spain and some don´t even speak English. It´s hard but so cool because the communication barrier forces us to learn quicker. We get to teach them English and they teach us Spanish! It´s so nice to learn Spanish from native speakers. It honestly makes the biggest difference! I love Spain Spanish!!! The usted form is kind of tricky cause I basically had to relearn quite a bit of my Spanish but I absolutely love it! I think it´s gorgeous! It´s just so much more fun to talk in the usted form than any other form of Spanish in my opinion. The language is definitely coming along. Last week I could barely introduce myself and now I´m giving full length lessons in all Spanish and talking to people in the streets of Madrid. I still have a long way to go but I´ve made a lot of improvement. The Lord has definitely been helping me with that.

We´re not restricted to the MTC building. We can go out into Madrid when we need to go buy something. On p-days we´re allowed to go ANYWHERE we want as long as we´re back by 6pm. ANYWHERE! I´m almost tempted to go down to Malaga for a day but I don´t think I´d have time for it. It´d be cool though. Yesterday, we went into the city and I finally got my straightener. Hallelujah! This week is holy week in Spain because of Easter.  We´re so lucky to be in Spain right now. Such a cool time of the year to be here.  

We went and did our second session at the Madrid temple this morning. We get to go to the temple every Thursday morning. The temple is literally within throwing distance of our bedroom window. The ceiling of the celestial room is absolutely breathtaking! I´ve honestly never seen a more beautiful ceiling in a temple! It´s pretty cool to walk down the same halls that grandma and grandpa walked down when they served here. I love thinking about that.

K sorry this email was so jumbled and out of order. I just don´t have time to move things around. I´ll send you a letter in the mail this next week. Love you all so much!!! Don´t worry about me for a second because I´m in the Lord´s hands and he is being so kind to me! Life honestly couldn´t be any better right now! I´ll write more later! Love you soooooooooooooo much!!!!!! Hope you´re all happy!!!! Gospel´s true friends!!!!!!!!!!  Come what may and love it!

Your Spaniard,

Hermana Israelsen