#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.)