Here is Sister Israelsen's first email:
I LOVE THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I´ve
just been having the greatest time ever!!!!!!!I honestly couldn´t be happier! I haven´t been homesick at all.....I mean I miss you all terribly but I´m
having way too much fun to be sad!
Yesterday I traveled with two elders and three
other sisters all the way to Madrid. Absolutely adore them all! we had such a blast
together!
So yesterday after I went through security I went to our terminal to meet up with the
other three missionaries. When we got there I realized that I only had a ticket
to get me to texas so I kind of had a mini-heart attack for a second. It was
fine though cause i just went over to customer service and they gave me my
other ticket to get me to Madrid. next up. By
the way, thanks mom for the tip on asking the flight attendants for our own
rows. The flight to Madrid was an eternity long but we made
arrangements so all six of us got our own rows in the back. Anyways, the flights
were kind of long but luckily we slept through most of them. We got here to
madrid at about 10 am Madrid time (4am utah time).
Oh oh oh oh i almost forgot!!! I taught my first
lesson!!!!!!! IThey separated us on all of the flights so we had to sit alone. I was sitting
next to a girl from Mexico and a woman from Colorado. I was just making casual conversation with them and asking them where
they were headed when somehow the subject changed to how I was going on a
mission. The 17 year old girl then told me she was a recent convert to the
church and wasn´t sure she would want to serve a mission because it was too
hard. We talked for a while about the blessings of missionary service and
why I´m here and at the end of our conversation she said she was going to go
talk to her family and her bishop about maybe serving a mission at age 19. Awesome! The best part is that at the end of the conversation the other woman leans
over and asks if I was really going on a mission. She then asked what a mission
was. Best opportunity ever right? Well I then explained to her about what a
mission is and what we do. She asked what the purpose was and I told her that
we really want people to know that they have a loving heavenly father who is
aware of them which then sparked a conversation about god. we talked for about
an hour and she said "I think it´s really noble what you´re doing. there´s
also something different about you." We then talked about the scripture in Matthew that says "Let your light so shine...." So basically I just
gave her the first lesson right there on the plane by myself. It was the
coolest thing ever!!!!!
I have to get off of the computer in a minute but I´ll write again on thursday. I just want you to know that I´m so incredibly happy here!!!! I know that the lord has some pretty incredible experiences planned for me in the coming 18 months. I already feel like 18 months isn´t going to be long enough! I don´t want to leave! I love my mission! We got here a day early so we´ve just been able to explore spain and walk around the temple. they´re letting us just relax and hang out together. I´ve become so incredibly close with my district and we haven´t stopped laughing since we left the airport. I LOVE THIS!!!! I love the people!!! I love the message!!! I love Spain!!!! I´m here!!!!
They also tested me on my Spanish and put me in
the intermediate class so we´ll see how that goes.
Sorry this is so jumbled. I´m just so incredibly
tired because none of us slept on our flights and they want us to stay up until
tonight. Ya for 36 hours without sleep!!!
Well as I said I´ll write again on Thursday. Just know that I´m incredibly happy and that I´m not homesick at all so don´t
you worry. I miss you all of course but I haven´t cried since i said goodbye to
you all. The Lord truly does protect his missionaries! I´ve seen it a million
times these past two days. I´m so happy!!! Gospel is true my friends!!! I´ll
write you a better email on Thursday when I´ve had more sleep. Love you all
dearly!!!!!!!!!
Come what may and LOVE it!
Hermana Israelsen
Come what may and LOVE it!
Hermana Israelsen
