Monday, January 6, 2014

Christmas in España – December 30, 2013

This week was really great! It was SOOOOOOO good to see and talk to you guys! That was the best part about Christmas! I loved it! I understand why they only let us skype twice a year now though. It really takes a lot of energy to refocus yourself on the work because I was sooooooo stinking excited to talk to you that I thought about that a lot. I also thought about everything we talked about for the rest of that night and the day after too. Man alive, I love you guys!
 
Christmas was awesome! Never again will I have a Christmas like this one. I mean, when am I going to be in Spain for Christmas again? Anyways, Christmas was awesome because we got to spend it with some members and less active members that invited us over to eat and celebrate. We had such a great time! We couldn´t really do a lot of proselitismo (I can´t remember what that is in English... sorry) on Christmas Eve or on Christmas because people just wanted to be with their families so we got creative. We gathered all of the missionaries and went to the center of the city to carol. We were surprised how many people came to watch. It gave us a wonderful opportunity to talk to a lot of people and tell them about the awesome news that the gospel has been restored on the earth. After caroling we all went and ate churros and chocolate. AH! It was so good! That was the first time I had actually eaten those here in Europe. We´ve just never had time before. It was a Christmas that I’ll always remember!
 
This week with New Year´s Eve we got permission to join in on some of the traditions here in Spain. We get to stay out until midnight tomorrow night to eat las uvas (grapes) with the people. It´s a really cool tradition that they do here for New Year´s Eve. I´ll tell you more about that next week!
 
With it being the beginning of 2014 this week, it blows my mind to think I’ll be home this year. August 22nd seems so far away but then so close at the same time. I don´t know how I feel about it. I´ve just decided that I’m not going to think about it at all and I’m going to just enjoy each and every day that I have here and give it all that I have because like my phenomenal trainer taught me “This is the only time that we´ll have to completely exhaust ourselves in the work of salvation.”  It´s so true! There won´t be another time in my life where I devote 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to bringing others to Christ. Man, I just love being a missionary! I LOVE IT! There´s NOTHING in the world I’d rather be doing right now than this.
 
The work here is really busy! We´re always running from one thing to the next. It seems like we´re always behind on something because we´re just so busy. I love it like that!  I love the people, the ward, the missionaries, the ward, and the fact that it´s a big city! We should be having another baptism this weekend.
 
Well it´s the last week of the transfer so you know what that means: transfer calls this weekend. AH! I have a feeling that both of my companions are going to leave and I’ll be getting a new companion. I´m not completely sure but I just have a little feeling. We´ll see. 
 
If you´re having a little bit of a tougher day get down on your knees right now and talk to your Father in Heaven. Tell Him what´s going on and ask for His help. I promise you that you´ll feel a lot better afterwards.
 
Love you all!
Hermana Israelsen
 

No comments:

Post a Comment