#5 CCM - Madrid

I had the best park day ever. I'm feeling way blessed to have God on my side and to be IN Spain and to be A MISSIONARY. THIS IS THE BEST.

This is gonna be good, I'll start from the beginning. My companion was the one and only Hermana Sinclair #blessed. We were psyched. I've been sick know for 2 weeks and I was feeling garbby Saturday morning (Park morning) so I slept all morning to be good for the park. I almost wasn't well enough to go to the park but good grief I'm glad I was able to go. SO WE pray and make our way to the park. We walked in the park and Hermana Sinclair started handing out the tarjetas like candy. And we'd say "tenga un buen dia" and we handed one to this man and woman. And the man says "thank you" so then we were like hold up you speak English and we went turned around to talk to them. The man's name was Omer and the woman was Alex. Alex was from New York and Omer was from Egypt. And they were just on vacation in Spain. We talked for a bit and they were lovely. Omer had never heard of missionaries or the gospel but Alex worked with a Mormon gal and had seen missionaries before. They were the loveliest people. Omer eventually said "okay I'm a teacher and the best teachers can deliver their message in 2 minutes talk to me" he said he was very interested about this whole missionary thing and wanted to know what we had to say. So first we asked him what he believed in. He believed in God and believed Jesus to be a prophet. So we were like Yeah! So we told him in two minutes about God and Jesus Christ and he wanted to know more. He wanted to know about the Book of Mormon and eventually we started talking about prophets somehow and I said "We have a prophet on the earth today" and at that, Alex chimed in and was like woah that's news to me! So I pulled up a picture of President Monson on my tablet and they were so awed but the fact we have a prophet. Through that we were able to basically to teach the first message to our good friends. My favorite part was that Omer was just asking us about why we lived our religion and why we were missionaries. He had so much respect for us because we told him that we keep the commandments and do the right thing because we love God not because we fear eternal damnation. He really admired that about us and he just congratulated us for the work we were doing. He congratulated us for not bashing on other religions in any way, we were just simply inviting people to come to Christ. This guy knew what was up. He was gold. I'm not lying when I say God prepares the hearts of his children to hear the truth and accept it. Alex and Omer are gold. I'm actually really sad that I won't ever see them again but I know they'll find the truth. Towards the end of our conversation he kept thanking us for our time and he kept saying he was so interested in our religion so we gave him every resource that we could, LDS Facebook pages and all. He asked us if we could sing for him and if he could record it and of course we said yes. So I asked if we could sing a song about Jesus and he said of course. So we sang them I Know That My Redeemer Lives. And he recorded us all in selfie mode with a selfie stick. It was a sweet experience. We were just in the middle of this busy park singing about our Redeemer. #gospelgoals

So then Hna Sinclair and I say goodbye to our friends and go on our merry way feeling like we were on cloud nine and I see a guy on a bike taking pictures of the Glass Palace with this huge cámara. So I was like I'm gonna talk to this guy. So I did. I put my Spanish mode on and asked if I could see the picture and he showed it to me and tbh it wasn't even that great but whatevs I'll give it to him. He started telling us how he has been in that park for 4 hours taking g photos but when he told us this, his voice was crazy weird. He talked in like a very airy huffy puffy whisper. I don't know how to describe it but it was very hard to understand his Spanish at first . We found out that he was deaf and was wearing hearing aides. His name is Alfonso and he was probably around 24 ish but we got talking to him for a while and he was so kind! Let me tell ya we definitely had the gift of tongues to be able to communicate with Alfonso as long as we did because that was no small task. He helped us with our Spanish and told us that in one more month we were going to be fluent. He was Catholic and very graciously accepted our Libro De Mormón. We wished him a good day and went on our merry way again 

We were walking down a main road when to our right we saw this group of girls all dressed like Disney princesses having a tea party. It was the cutest thing I'd ever seen in my life and Hna Sinclair and I decided that we had to go talk to them because they are living their lives the right way. So we awkwardly back tracked and came to find out that to get to that patch of grass we had to go all the way around to the other side. We almost were to lazy but we went ahead and did it. As we were just about to approach the princesses I see this guy sitting underneath a tree by himself drinking some Maté. (I don't even know if that's how it's spelled)the only reason I recognized it was because of the cup and straw was the exact same as Travis's and  I remember Travis drinking it all the time. (shout

-out to you Travis) but all the sudden without even thinking I just yell across to him "ese es mate??" again I have no idea if that is even correct Spanish but it's what I said. And all the guy says is "si quieres?" he was holding it our for me to drink it ah hahaha. That's so nice. I kindly declined but we started talking to him. Here is what I know about this guy. His name is Tomas. He is 18 years old and he turns 19 on Saturday. He is from Buenos Aires Argentina and moved to Spain ONE Week ago. He came to Spain all by himself to work and hna Sinclair and I are probably the only people he knows in this country. He is Catholic and he actually practices it hardcore (which I so appreciate. I appreciate how many Catholics are here in Spain but I love it even more when they actually practice and know their religion) he has his own little religious group and with this group they study other religions. He doesn't speak English. We got to talk to Tomas for about an hour and it was FANTASTIC. I love Tomas, what a guy. He was so so so very kind to us and not just because we were girls his age. He wasn't creepy at all he was just so insanely kind. He was so willing to hear what we had to say and even asked so many questions. He expressed what he believed in in a way that was so respectful and not to debate or anything. We were Interested in what he had to say too. We got to share the first lesson with him and he thought the whole priesthood and prophet thing  was so interesting also. Something that was kind of funny was we were talking about God restoring the priesthood power through Joseph Smith and he takes the Restoration pamphlet from me and turns to the picture about Joseph receiving the priesthood from Peter James and John and in clear English says "wait hold on what is happening here???" HAHAHA HA it was so funny. 

But everything we were telling him he was just soaking it right up. We were like "Peter James and John appeared to Joseph Smith as angels and gave him the Priesthood" and he just responded "oh claro" which just means like of course. He was so Interested in the passing down of the priesthood power and authority to be a prophet. He pretty much said "okay so is this what happened? And then proceeded on to explain the entire process of restoring the priesthood" and we were like "yep you got it right on" hahaha it's like he knew more about the priesthood than we did, 😂😂 solo bromos. So then the clock turned 4 o'clock and we asked him to come listen to us sing and he did. He said he'd be in the park next week on his birthday so we will definitely wish him a happy birthday and probably just baptize him right there in the fountain. Hahaha jokes. But seriously I love Tomas. I hope he does well in life, I think he will. 

My friend Elder Perez is doing so much better, thanK you for the prayers. I love having the Españoles here they are all so awesome even though they mostly just make fun of my bad Spanish but hey it's great practice! Most of them are staying in Madrid or going to Barcelona so I'll really miss em. It's just kind of funny because I'm good friends with the Elders and the only way we communicate is through bumping knuckles and then my broken Spanish hahaha it's awesome. 

I'm excited to meet my new trainer that's for sure. I'm pumped. I'm so sad to be separated from this family that I have here and from President and Hermana Packer but I'm so excited to meet my President and Hermana Anderson. I'm so excited to go out and love people the way that I love Omer and Alex, and Tomas. I'M SO EXCITED I LOVE PEOPLE. I'm just so excited to love my investigators so much that I pray for them every night like I do for Tomas and Omer and Alex. It's all very exciting. The excitement is almost so much that it hides all of my fears and inadequacies of not knowing Spanish very well and not always feeling prepared to teach lessons to my fake investigators. But the truth is, when we were teaching the first lesson to Tomas in Spanish I just felt like the words flowed right out of my mouth and I was able to explain everything using the right conjugations and Indirect object pronouns and what not. It was seriously awesome. 

OH. I went to the doctor on Monday with my companion. We had to take the metro, yes we went by ourselves and yes we got lost, hahaha but I found out that I have bronchitis so I went to the farmacia and got 3 medicines for 18 euros and I should be healed within a week! Hahaha I've had this Nast cough for 2 weeks now and I'm finally getting the antibiotics I need so this is a happy day!! Poor president Packer feels awful that we waited for two weeks to find out I had bronchitis and I was dying but hey I'm okay! Hahaha I'm just glad that's about over with. 

Hmm what else. Last pday we went to on this like ski lift think over the city of Madrid and that was pretty cool I guess and then we visited this ancient Egyptian Temple thing that was a gift to the Spaniards I think IN Toledo. I send pictures of that. Today's pday we are just getting our Visa Residencies which is super lame but it's aight. I'm A RESIDENT HOW COOL. 

I'm almost outta hereeee hollaaaaa!!!It's super crazzyyyy but 'ready. I think I'll email ya on Monday just to say that I'm leaving the MTC and that I probably wont be able to email again until that following Monday. so you might not hear from me for a while but its all right! there's only like one month til Mother's Day I think! wahhoooo

okay that's all for now

Brazos y Besos Hermana Rust the third

My district with our fave Hermana Expósito! She served in Temple Square and definitely knows Erin.

haha cute

Companion love

This is the ski lift over Madrid

Typical pose in front of some historical place that I can't remember hahaha 

#4 - CCM Madrid

Hola hola hola bienvenidos a mi carta!
I am in my 5th week and I only have one more week here?! Say what? I don't know to feel scared or ecstatic. I love this CCM and it's like I can't believe that's is more to my mission than this. But I am so excited to get to where I finally belong.

 I'll just start from day one this week I guess, so Thursday for p day we went to the temple as per usual. It was the first session we have ever done in Spanish, because the Russians are gone so we can finally do that. It was awesome. One of the new Español Elders was endowed that Thursday because he didn't have the opportunity to before. Poor guy was/is on crutches because he got hurt playing fútbol his first day here. His name is Elder Perez and he doesn't speak a lick of English. I know he's having a really hard time here so I've tried to make an effort to talk to him and be his friend because I know he could use it, and it helps my Español! He is a really quiet guy so our convos can be a bit awkward because my Spanish is not stellar but you know me, I just thrive in awkward so I push through. But thru those awkward convos we have become great friends! He even made up a handshake for us 🙌🙌 if I could ask you to keep my good friend Elder Perez in your prayers, I would feel so much better. Muchísimas gracias mi querida madre y familia.
And for p day we went to this Naval Museum which was cool I guess hahaha. It was about boats. We are only allowed to take pictures on P day so I can some pictures from last pday.

SATURDAY AT RETIRO PARK!! I was companions with the lovely Hermana Hargis and it was her first time at the Park and she was awesome!!! Wow I was so proud of her. She just got out there and got it done. Cool story. So President Packer was really stressing to us before we set park goals that when we set these goals prayerfully we are making a commitment to God. He says "I know we say that numbers don't matter but when you are making a commitment to God, they do".  If  we are intending and trying to hand out as many Libros de Mormon that we had set goals for, God would bless us to be able to hand out those LDM/ referrals or whatever it may be. President Packer just wanted us to take our goal setting seriously because we were committing numbers to God. So my comp and I decided we would set our goal for 2 LDM. Our zone goal for LDM was 44. That's a good goal. So as my Hermana Hargis and I were gathering our supplies we needed for the park, we brought way more than 2 LDM. I felt really strongly to bring a French book of Mormon, and we also brought some English ones. We were able to give out our Spanish LDM to these two really nice young men from Africa. They sell t shirts at the park and good grief they were the nicest guys. I always feel a bit intimidated to talk to people who are around my age but they were awesome. Ones name was Musta, he told me he would go home and start reading the book that night! When we left, we realized that Musta's first language was French, not Spanish. And I totally had a French Book of Mormon that I could've given him, I had just forgotten. I was so bummed because I know he would've preferred that. Also it was time for us to sing at the park and we didn't have time to go back and give him the French Book of Mormon so I was really feeling bummed about that. I felt like I had missed my prompting from the spirit to bring a French BOM. BUT Hermana Hargis and I had the privilege of contacting while the choir sang. We were able to give out another English book of Mormon. And then the very last person we talked to was from Morocco. He spoke French. He wanted a Book of Mormon. I had a Book of Mormon. And it was in French. I seriously was so ecstatic. GOD WAS DEFINITELY LOOKING OUT FOR HIS SERVANTS. I'm so grateful the spirit led us to the people that we were able to talk to. We were also able to give another English BOM to a gal from California. We exceeded our goal! It was an AWESOME day at the park. Seriously  it was a blast. And then on Thursday nights we have park devotionals, and those are the best part of the week by far. Everybody just bears their testimonies about experiences they had at the park that week. So after everybody was through, President Packer gets up and says "I don't know why, but I feel like I need to do this. Everybody close your eyes and one person from your companionship hold up on your fingers how many BOM you gave out." So we did that. And then he says " okay open your eyes." (President is a really emotional guy, kind of like President Eyring, but when he said this his voice was all choked up). "What was the Zone Goal for BOM handed out?" We all say 44. and then he says (still choked up) "Well today as a zone, you all handed out exactly 44 Books of Mormon".  It was mad!  He was right! He told us if we honestly made a promise with God, He would provide. God provides for us. Some companionships weren't able to meet their personal goal, but throughtout the whole Zone, God provided a way for us. It was incredible. SO that was a good time.

Monday, President Packer´s son and wife and kids came to the Madrid MTC! so we got to meet his adorable grand kids. One of them, Lucy, was actually baptized on Monday in the Madrid Stake Center right next to our CCM and she invited us all to be there. so that was really sweet. We got to go to her baptism instead of going to a grammar lesson. #win.

This week we've learned a lot of new grammar concepts and its been exciting! We have two investigators now, the lessons are going pretty well I think. There is still a bit of an issue with the language barrier, but I'm getting by I think. I've learned so so so much about teaching and loving people, not lessons. Its been an awesome experience. I still have some studying to do but I cant wait to get out there and do it for real. JUST !12 MORE DAYS good grief.

Love you lots, Hermana Rust the 3rd

The sun in Spain is like blazing bright and hot. It's the weirdest sensation. So that's why we are so red and our eyes are closed. I adore this Hermana. Gonna miss her lots and lots and lots because she's going to Madrid. 

Hermana Sinclair and I doing a typical sister missionary pose in front of the Catholic cathedral. We were supposed to go inside of but it was closed.

 A really bad pic of my family here in Spain matching with our floral every pday 

#3 Madrid

 I'm in my 4th week! Good grief. I need to work hard and learn all that I can so that I'm ready but I'm so excited to actually be out there with my trainer learning to be the best disciple of God that I can. I love the CCM but I can only hope that it gets better you know? Haha. I know it does. My Spanish is doing okay! I know a whole lot of vocabulary and what not but I'm just not the best at speaking sentences. I am learning how to abbreviate in Spanish though so that's good! Instead of "I'm hungs", I say "tengs hambs". Lol it's been a good joke in our district. 

 HOLY COW I love my district. What incredible people. I have so much love for those people. I guess I have to because I spend basically every hour of everyday with them in our small little classroom. We are so supportive of each other and we really help and learn from each other. It is absolutely insane how close our whole zone has gotten in just 3 short weeks. It is definitely a missionary thing. I don't know it seems impossible to have these people that you love like your own family after just knowing them for 3 weeks. We are all so close and everyone is so sweet to each other. We frequently discuss how we know that God put us all here at the same time and that we are so grateful n that everyone made the decision to be here. I cant help but feel that we all knew each other so well in the pre-mortal life. I can imagine us all there saying "I see ya in Spain" it sounds so cheesy but it's something I can definitely see. President Packer has even made some comments about it. We have such a good and valiant group here. I know God put me here in Spain, to be companions with a Portuguese/Brit who has taught me so much. And also to be companions with a Brazilian whom I adore with all my heart. The three of us from three different nations were able to come together in Spain and learn to know and love each other in just three weeks. It's inspired. 

Sister Pires (my Brazilian companion) left this week 😭😭😭 oh how I will miss her so. She is the most feisty and sassy girl but she has the biggest heart filled with love for others and for the gospel. She's incredible. She speaks English very well and I think she definitely has the gift of bearing testimony because even in her second language she can express her heartfelt testimony so incredibly and she does it frequently. I love her. She says she is going to move to the US so that we can live next to each other. Bless her heart. I hope she does because I want everyone to know her. She will whip everyone into shape, let me tell ya. So now it's just Hermana Dos Santos and I. It's funny because she's the oldest out of us all (21) and I'm the youngest sister out of us all. I can so tell that our companionship was made straight from God's hands though. We are all kinds of different but we really even each other out. I adore her. It is crazy how different we are but how well it works out for our companionship. She relies so heavily of the Spirit and she is so good at recognizing the spirit in everything she does. I love it. She kind of reminds me of Riley Fulmer. Like a lot. Not the crazy funny side of Riley, but the other side. Haha I don't know. Oh and since the Russians all left this week too, (tear, they were  awesome. I miss them for sure too) sister Dos Santos and I are the new Sister Training leaders here in the Madrid CCM. And our elders in our district are the Zone leaders. Nefí District representing 🙌  our job is to like attend meetings and what not but mostly it is to love all of the sisters and go and be friends with all of them and if you know me, you know that is right up my alley. That's the best job I could ever ask for! I love the dear Hermanas here. Seriously the kindest and most humble girls I have ever come I to contact with. I've been sick these past couple of days and I have one Hermana that comes in at night to lather me up with essential oils and others often come to ask how I'm doing. They're so sweet.  As I learn about them and their families and some of their humble circumstances I am so amazed. I have learned loads from them. 

With the Russians leaving, we have gained 11 new missionaries. These missionaries are all going to one of the 3 Spain missions but they already speak Spanish so they only have to be here for three weeks.  4 sisters and 7 elders. One sister came from Provo because she finally got her visa.  And most of them do not speak English so we've been trying our hardest to be speaking Spanish 24. /7. It's been hard but it's good for us. The new sisters are awesome. They're going to make incredible missionaries. The 2 that don't speak English are from Argentina and Bolivia but currently live in Spain and one does speak English and is from New Zealand! The two South Americans are so sweet even thought they always make fun of how bad my Spanish is hahaha. But I told them that I like giving kisses so they always kiss both my cheeks when they see me. It makes me so happy! I love it and I've only known them for one day!

 We said goodbye to the Russians and my dear sister Pires 😢. And Elder Barrios. I don't know if I ever told you about Barrios. But he came the same day I did and is from Paraguay going to serve in Portugal. He and sister Pires kind of stuck together. They were the only two In their district and they acted like an old married couple. They fought so much and it was soo ooh funny. But Elder Barrios only spoke Spanish and Portuguese. No English. But man he was the funniest person I had ever met in my life. The elders all just loved him so much. He left his trademark here, whenever something good happened, and EVERYTIME he got done bearing his testimony, he'd put his arms up in the air and yell " ALLELUIA" and then we'd all repeat it. Seeing him say goodbye to all the elders was sooo sad. Seriously all of these 18, 19, 20 year old men were bawling their eyes out. I'm not lying when I say that we all got so close here.  So now that he is gone, President Packer initiates the ALLELUIA. It's so great. 

This has been the weirdest week. I've been down this week with who even knows what it is. Nothing serious, just coughs and headaches and fever and what not. Hermana Packer ( presidents wife) is so awesome. She has cabinets full of medicine and just takes so much care of me. So I'm recovering. It's just difficult because we have 2 investigators a day now so I've been missing some lessons. Ugh stress. The more I'm able to study the lessons the smoother they go. The lessons are getting easier to teach the more I do it. A lot of the time I just can't retain what I am supposed to talk about next. The more I study the easier it will get. But they are going well! I enjoy being able to teach people. Its good practice! The days all run together and I can't even remember the things that I did or what happened. Hahaha I'm sorry. We kind of just do a lot of the same thing everyday.

 Let me tell you, my fútbol is getting better. Because I get to play soccer in Spain EVERYDAY.. in SPAIN. I mean I'm still awful but I'm a lot less scared of the mean elders who try to take the ball away from me so that's a plus. 

I'm so grateful for this CCM! The teachers here are sent straight from heaven. I love them all so much and I know they love me too. They're angels. Almost all of them were converted from Catholicism and I wish I had a way to thank all of those missionaries that taught each of these hermanas y hermanos because I am so grateful for them. This is the best place on earth with the best people around. 

Last Saturday, the hermanas in my district and Sister Pires (before she left) sang a special musical number at our Post-Park devotional (sorry I didn't write about the park, nothing huge happened this week, but it was still very enjoyable. somehow I talked to a woman who only spoke  French  so that was crazy weird. I don't  even know French.) but anyway we sang I Need Thee Every Hour. Hermana Ruotsalainen ( from Finland) sang the first line in Finnish, and then Hermana Dos Santos and Sister Pires sang the second line in their native tongue, Portuguese. and then we all joined in on the chorus in English. and then the second verse was all Spanish with sister Sinclair and I singing Alto and the third verse was English, a Capella,  and Alto. Not gonna lie, it sounded really good. It was nice. I've been thinking about that hymn a lot because I sure do need Him every hour. There is not a thing here in the CCM that I could to without the power of Heaven. Just simply reaching up to Heavenly Father in prayer can bring miracles. Also this week I learned that being charitable better puts you in a position to call down the powers of Heaven. That's from President Monson's talk in the Priesthood session I believe. But that's amazing!! I never thought about that before, I love that, Charity is a powerful gift to have.

I don't feel any stress here. Like I am doing completely fine. And it kind of worries me hahaha. I had an interview with president and he asked what the hardest thing was for me here and I honestly didn't have an answer! Like sure the language is hard and the studying and the teaching but I never get down on myself. I always just assume I'm doing fine. Like I know I have loads of improvements to work on, and with the Park Saturdays, I haven't had a whole lot of great experiences but I don't feel bad about it! It is kind of hard because as I talk to some of the other sisters they do get hard on themselves and it's hard for me to relate and try to help them as a sister training leader. I guess I'm just saying this to confirm that I'm still Happy Go Lucky Hannah. I still have all the self confidence in the world and I'm still okay. And I'm grateful for that. I understand that it gets hard, but I think I'm ready. I just need to work harder.  

In case you are wondering, yes I totally speak Spanish with a "Lisp" which its actually not a lisp its only a lisp if you use the "theta" on the S´s. Which I definitely do not do. Hahah just the Z´s and C´s. But yeah just a fun fact.

 I love you!

Amor, Hermana Rust

I can get mail here!

Sister Hannah Rust

Spain Missionary Training Center

4A. Planta

Calle del Templo N° 2

Madrid

28030 Alicante

Spain 

This is my district! From left to right

Hermana dos Santos 

Hermana Ruotsalainen 

Me

Hermana Sinclair

Elder Rigby

Elder Wilson 

My two companions and the other two girls in my district in front of the temple. 

This is the pit where we play fútbol every day. It's awesome. I love this place!

I miss sister Pires so much!! She's probs already doing great work out there in Portugal.

.HERMANA SINCLAIR!!

We look stupid because we're trying to be serious but I love these people.

#2 - Madrid MTC

Saturday at the park was lit. I was companions with a sister going going to Russia from England who knows zero Spanish and ironically enough, the first person we talked to only spoke Spanish. We were talking to this woman for a whole HOUR. GOOD GRIEF Maria. That's her name. Her name is Maria. Any who... she's this old bird woman who feeds the pigeons everyday and yes, it did remind me of the woman on Home Alone, thanks for asking. Maria is Catholic and she's said we both believe in God and Jesus which is true but she said that we are polygamists. Lol it took me the longest time to figure out what she was saying " un hombre por muchas mujeres" lololol. So I said noooooo. And she kept asking, "are you sure?" hahaha. I think I finally got the point across to her with the fluent Spanish that I speak. 😉  Then my swag comp pulled out a Spanish version of The Family Proclamation. And it actually helped her understand!   Good stuff. She was very kind.

 And after that we talked to a Filipino man named Brian who moved from San Francisco to Sweden to marry the love of his life, a French man. So yeah. He was seriously the nicest guy. We left him with a pass along card. We left everyone with a pass along card and just told them "Feliz Semana Santa, Jesús vive!" we didn't meet our goals or give out any Books of Mormon or referrals but I didn't feel bad about it. I still felt successful. A lot of the time missionaries feel so unsuccessful all the time but I love what President Packer told us, "you're successful because you showed up. You all showed up" I'm successful!!  he's a blessed man. I'm pretty sure he has all the standard works memorized. I would bet money on that.

General conference!! It was way too good. I can't wait to go back and read all of them again. I so loved Elder Nelson's talk about Jesus Christ and everything that He is. And all the blessings we receive if we only put our trust in Him. I'm so excited to dive into The Living Christ and get to know my Savior better. I know if I do so, it will help me in all my missionary efforts. 

On Sunday we had a devotional about the first two sessions of conference. It was probably my favorite MTC experience so far. We talked about highlights from conference and somehow we got on the subject of death. To my surprise President Packer was asking about our experiences with death. Some shared some really sweet stories about friends committing suicide and finding peace again. Others about how they have sisters they've never met but they know they will meet them one day. It was so sweet. And Packer gets so personal and blunt about everything which I love. He basically looked those people In the eye and said through the Jesus Christ, you won't feel pain because your friend committed suicide and you will be able to see your sister one day. And just talked about the literal events of the atonement. It was so real and the spirit was testifying to me and undoubtedly to everyone about Jesus Christ.  And then we watched the new Easter video and everything g just came right together and there was so much peace and happiness. It really was marvelous. I never wanted to leave. I loved that experience. Sundays are my favorite! Then we sang on the temple steps again and this time we sang called to serve in Portuguese wahoo. And then we watched women's conference and Sunday morning live!  Which was actually Sunday at 6 pm for us. Haha weird. I REALLY REILLY enjoyed all of conference, but I left my journal in my room and I want to talk more about the talks that I enjoyed but wow I can't remember anything here.

The days are so packed with things and they just seem to all run together. Seriously it's the weirdest thing. I couldn't even tell you what we did yesterday.  So sorry about that.Also something funny happened. So on Sunday we were praying after choir practice and a Russian sister was saying the prayer and she talks really quietly. And of course she prays in Russian and I can't understand a single thing she says. So my tactic is just to always listen for the "Amen" okay so I heard the amen and I said "amen" really loud and the poor girl wasn't done with her prayer and everyone was laughing during the rest of her prayer. At me. Embarrassing but whatevs. Anyway, yeah I love Sundays, they really are a day of rest. We keep the Sabbath day so holy here and I like that.  They're so nice. 

Mmmm what else. OH! ON Saturday we were teaching a fake less active member who had a problem with smoking. My comp and I both thought that we should talk about the enabling power of Jesus Christ and then share with her the Easter video. WHICH IS SO GREAT. So we talked about how Nephi was able to loose the bands when his brothers tied him up because he prayed for strength to do so and basically we told her that if she sincerely asks for strength to get over this smoking, she can do it. So even though it was a fake investigator, while we showed that video she just started bawling. And then after, the fake investigator turns into a real person again and coaches us. Ours was our choir teacher, she's great. Instead of coaching us she just thanked us over and over again for the message we shared with the actual her. She said she knew it was inspired of God that we were chosen to teach her and that we really followed the spirit when we taught the fake less active. It was a really cool experience. If there is one thing that I have the strongest testimony of, it's the enabling power of Jesus Christ through His atonement. I love Jesus Christ and I love that He lives! I know He does and I receive strength from Him and from Heavenly Father so often. Especially here  in the MTC when I need it to learn Spanish, and wake up early, and teach lessons. Very grateful now and forever. 

That seems to be all I can remember right now. I'll send some more pictures from my first Pday because I don't think I took any Last Pday hahaha whoops. Last Pday was pretty lame because we just went and got residency visas. I'm a resident of Spain now kind of!!!! Very exciting. I'm here for the long run.

*additional comment from Lorri,  Hannah's mom.  Hannah didn't send pictures like she promised :(  She must have forgot!  And in an email to me she included this statement:  "Also please put publicarlo on the blog for Lindsey to write me hahaha. Also do you know if Con got his call? Def want to hear about that."   (Just putting that out there for you both.  You can email her any day.  She gets to read her email daily, but can not respond until her p-day which is her Wed., our Thurs.)