Temple Conference & Christmas Devotional

The mission is so amazing and it is such a great time of the year to be doing the Lord's work. We have an amazing investigator named Manuel. He is the brother of a recent convert. He is progressing so much and has gained an amazing testimony of this gospel. We are really excited and are helping him prepare for baptism on Dec 28. We are also making preparations for him to receive the Priesthood and go to the temple the following weeks. He even came to the ward activity on Saturday when his family couldn't make it. He is practically already a member. He told us Sunday: Thank you so  much for helping me with all of this. It was a really tender moment and I am so grateful for the opportunities I have ever day to bring Heavenly Father's children back to Him.

We got to go to the temple with a lot of missionaries and our Mission President and his wife last week. The Sacramento Temple is really beautiful. Before we went in we had a Christmas program and had the nativity story and music and it was just so fun. Our Mission President and his wife are the most loving and Christ-like people I know and I love being with them. They have 260 missionaries but they remember everyone's name and care about each of us. I am so thankful for them.

Other than that we have just been crazy busy lately! We have more investigators (people we are teaching) than we know what to do with. The Lord guides us daily to people that need to hear the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Here is a picture of us at the Temple Conference! 

I wish you all a Merry Christmas and I encourage you to consider what gift you will give your Savior this Christmas, knowing He paid for your gift, the gift of your salvation, with His life. Our Prophet, Thomas S. Monson, in the Christmas Devotional (can be watched here) lets us know that all He wants is our tender hearts.

Love,

Hermana Hurley 

Short, sweet, and to the point.

No time! great week! Love you all! Thanks for reading! Your Heavenly Father loves you!

Love

Hermana Hurley

Backing up a little...

A random guy I found at the CCM cafeteria who is my straight up twin!

My district in front of the CCM with one of our teachers

My zone in the MTC

So one day we are in our classroom and a bird flies into the window and falls to the ground, dazed.... so it was our pet for a while. Another day we found a random cat! It somehow made it passed CCM security. :)

So my companion and I have started a tradition of selfie sundays :) enjoy

We had a very powerful weekend! Our baptism went great! The boys, named Manuel and Jesus, that were baptized are 9 and 10 years old and they were so happy at the baptism, they were crying. We had two investigators attend the baptism as well! So that was fantastic. 

Then Fast Sunday yesterday was amazing. First of all, it was testimony meeting. And the boys that got baptized the night before were confirmed with the Holy Ghost during Sacrament meeting. They really wanted to sit on the stand for the meeting and they were allowed to do so and were shockingly reverent. I decided to give my testimony and while I was up there I wanted to encourage Manuel and Jesus to share their testimonies, because I know they are very strong. Well I had barely made it up the steps when manuel called out to me "Sister Hurley!" so i walked over and sat down next to him. He said "Now that i am a member, do you think it would be ok if I gave my testimony about how I feel?" I said of course. He gave a beautiful testimony about how happy he was to be baptized and have the Holy Ghost. He cried. I cried. Then I gave mine. It was a very uplifting meeting. Another thing that made it a great day was that we had a special Fast.

 We have a goal as a mission called White Christmas. The goal is for every companionship to have a baptism in the month of December! One thing we did to work towards this goals was we had a ward fast for the missionary work and we had barely started the fast when the miracles started flowing! The Elders found a "drop book" for our area and gave it to us yesterday. That means all the past missionaries that have taught people in Spanish at one point in the past but ended up "dropping" them because they were too busy, or never home, or not ready to maker further commitments, put their names and addresses in this book! So now we have stacks of Spanish speakers that have met with the missionaries before and their addresses! We know through that we can find at least one person that is ready to be baptized in December! Also, one of our investigators that has been promising to come to church for weeks came to church yesterday! He had a great experience! And many people he had met at the baptism the night before greeted him, which made him feel more welcome.

 And finally, last night we went to a house to drop an investigator. We thought she wasn't interested in our message because she had stood us up for an appointment and hadn't been answering our calls. But instead of dropping her, we ended up having a fantastic lesson with their whole family and adding her husband as a new investigator! I am so grateful for the power of fasting and that I know that God provides us with miracles every time we ask.

this is a picture of some of the things Manuel has given me to hang on my fridge. He says I look like cinderella so he made me a book called Hurlyrella on the Mission. It is great. My companion is my fairy godmother and I dance with my prince at the ball (hopefully that is after the mission (: ) 

also, I am teaching Jesus to play the piano. he has so much talent and play by ear, so I am teaching him to read music. He is a very good student.

this is us at the baptism!

Thanksgiving!

We have dinner with an English speaking member tonight so that will be fun to have a more traditional Thanksgiving instead of the Mexican version we had at the ward thanksgiving dinner on Saturday, which was so fun. My spanish is getting better and I really love the members here! They take care of us so much! We had to throw away a ton of food from the fridge this week because people had given us so much we couldn't eat it all before it went bad. They are great! I understand why missionaries gain weight!! Sometimes we show up to teaching appointments and they are eating and give us food. That's how Spanish speakers are haha. So some nights we have to eat two dinners!

side note. Members gave us 2 avocados off their tree this week. I almost died. I was crying with happiness while eating them. It was amazing to experience them.

Also, we got a walmart bag full of mysterious nameless cheese for quesadillas and we have been eating quesadillas twice a day because it is sooooo good!

It's chilly here but not much precipitation. We wear jackets at nights. It rained once last week which actually ended up being a miracle because people felt sorry for us and let us in and we taught a ton. Plus we have a car so we didn't even really get wet.

I am loving it here!

We have a miracle this week!!! We have a last minute double baptism this Saturday!!!! They are 9 and 10 year old boys. Their mom got baptized last year. The missionaries have been working with them for months and their mom wouldn't give permission to be baptized. We worked so hard and prayed so hard and then one night they asked us to come over and we told them we have taught you everything! do you have any questions. and Manuel and Jesus said yes! can we be baptized and their mom said YES!!!!!!!! They burst into tears. They have such a strong testimony and desire to be baptized. my companion and i cried too. It was amazing! 

I love you all!

Hermana Hurley

Trials and miracles.

Spanish is getting better for sure! Its been a really up and down week! The beginning of the week we had tons of miracles and then towards the end of the week everything fell apart. I'm finally getting what people say about this whole "missions are hard" thing. We spend our entire day knocking on doors and people are annoyed that we are there, dont want to listen, or listen and tell us to come back but arent home. we had an experience with an investigator this week. he has a baptismal date but he is kinda back and forth but we had a miracle with him and I told him give me your cigarettes and he did and he prayed for the Lords strenght. It was such a miracle. The Spirit was so strong and he was smiling so big. I have never seen him smiling like that before. I know he could feel that this was right and he felt liberated and wanted to do better. The next day I gave some mentos  and a stack of cards I made with scriptures on them to help every time he wants to smoke. then he has been avoiding us since then. Wont answer our calls or texts or the door when we are there. Saturdaywe thought we finally had him cuz when we walked up to his door we saw him watching tv. We knocked and rang the doorbell and called him and knocked more for probably 15 minutes. We could see him looking through the peephole and not answering. it was so frustrating. other things liket that happened this week when we would have a super strong spirtiual experience with people and then they would commit to living the gospel and then didnt show up at church and wouldnt answer the door when we went to their house, even when we could see them inside and waved at them. ugh. its hard. but I know that the Lord blesses us with trials to grow. I also know that satan tries his hardest whenever he knows we are about to prove to be disturbers of his kingdom so I know that good things are going to come from this. Its been hard. But my comp is awesome and we have zone conference tomorrow so we will see the mission president and I get to see Elder Barrio my friend from the MTC and he always has soemting to say to make me feel better. I dont want anyone to feel bad for me! It was a little discouraging but I am feel at peace in my heart. My Heavenly Father sent me here, and He will not leave me alone (John 8:29ish I think). I love the Gospel and I cant keep it inside of me. I was reminded of how powerful my simple testimony can be in bringing the Spirit last night. We contacted a potential last night and I could tell he could feel the truth of our message through my testimony. he committed to pray. The way I get up the courage to try to jump into the conversation and try to tell someone, in Spanish, about the truth of the Gospel, is that I picture them in the baptismal font, and the joy that will bring to there life. And thats what I remember every day.

Love,

Hermana Hurley

Buy the missionaries cereal and fruit.

Ok. I am in the field now. I have been here about 5 days and it's an interesting experience to be putting into practice what I learned in the training center the last 6 weeks. Let me just say that it is a lot different than I expected. 

The town where I live is just so cute and great. I live in a super nice small little apartment. The members feed us here so well and last night we ate with this great family and I had the best carne asada (thinly sliced steak) and it was Ricissimo!

Also, my trainer (that is what your first companion is called) is great. She is from Honduras/Panama and somehow speaks perfect English so she is a crazy amazing blessing. 

So the disappointment is that when I was in the MTC I though I was a great Spanish speaker and a super powerful teacher and I spent all my time helping everyone else try to be as great as me. Welp. Now I am in real life and I don't understand a word of Spanish all day and I even struggle to bear my testimony at the doorstep. I am excited the Lord is humbling me so I can be more teachable and get some amazing work done through the Spirit. I know he is blessing me with this experience its because I need to rely on Him more and recognize I can only do it through Him.  

We spend a lot of our time knocking on doors hoping to catch people home because it is difficult to get people to set appointments. It's pretty discouraging because we often don't find them at home or they say they are busy at that time. But then last night we were trying to contact a referral and met the ladies dad and he was amazing and really open and receptive and so we set up an appointmentt to meet with him today and I am so excited to teach him tonight!

Well I had a lot of pictures but didn't bring the cord to upload them so I promise that next week will be a post FULL of pics from the MTC and the first couple weeks in the field!

I love you all! I really appreciate you letters!

Invite your local missionaries for dinner and send them leftovers to take home and buy them cereal and fruit! Also GIVE THEM REFERRALS!!!!!!!!! Tell them about friends of yours that might be looking for the truth of the Gospel. And offer to go on appointments with them. We might have to do our lesson with our new investigator on the doorstep tonight because we need a member to come if we are going to enter his home.

Ok Im out

Hermana Hurley

El Campo!

Hey! I am in Sacramento! I will have my P-Days on Mondays from now on usually. I have met the Mission President and had some orientation classes. I will be staying at a members home tonight and meeting my companion and going to my area tomorrow! Its really weird to keep trying to speak Spanish to people and to be back in America. Its so so so nice.

Love you all!

OK, super cortito

Ok so I have to minutes to write this.

Fantastic week. I have one week left before I go out into the field!

Best thing ever happened this week.

Our amazing teacher Hermano Tapia brought his secret girlfriend who we love so much who is a teacher at the ccm too (we figured out they were dating last week...they have been official for 1 month) and something weird was going on that day because he brings her all the time but they had just come from this big teacher devo and he was being super weird and then we realized that he was about to PROPOSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND HE DID RIGHT THERE ON THE SPOT!!!!!! needless to say we got absolutely nothing done that day in class but it was the most amazing thing ever and we were all so happy.

The Church is so true. I am dying to share it with the world. Cant wait to get out in the field but I am gonna miss these people so much!!!!

Love you all!

Hermana Hurley

Emily is so cool.

 Buenos Días todos! I am doing great in my mission. These last two weeks I have hit my stride. I am adjusting to the schedule and don't feel tired anymore. Spanish is going great, through the Spirit of course. Honestly they don't know what to do with us intermediate level Spanish speakers, they haven't actually taught me anything new. But the gift of tongues is real and amazing. My compañera and I work so well together and with the Spirit, especially during lessons. We always know when we need to teach something different right before we enter a lesson or most of the time once we are actually in a lesson we totally change the game plan without a second though. The definite highlight of my week- WE COMMITTED BOTH OF OUR INVESTIGATORS TO BAUTISMO! It was the most amazing experience and honestly the happiest I have ever been. The Lord´s work is amazing. Fetching amazing. The most fulfilling thing in the world. Our teacher, Hermana Haws is amazing and she left yesterday to go back to Provo. Also one of the districts in our ward left yesterday. It was so sad, to start saying goodbyes already. I cannot believe that will be us in two weeks. Going out into the field. I am so excited and so ready to go, but it will truly be so hard to leave these people. This district is straight up amazing, I could not love these people more.

Anyways, something interesting Hermana Haws talked to us about before she left was marriage which was super interesting. So everyone knows the stereotype about Returned Missionaries, that they always come home and get married right away because they are like on the hunt or something. She said its because after the mission,you cant stand going back and learning about math or law because you are like this stuff doesn't matter. I could be saving souls. And that's when you realize that the only thing that is going to be as meaningful as your mission is marriage. Like literally your spiritual progression is damned until you get married. And marriage is the only thing fulfilling enough to make you feel like your doing something real with your life. That's intense business right there. So I will no longer judge those people. Crazy huh?

Another cool thing is that we performed a musical number in Sacrament this week and we are going to perform it for the whole MTC on Sunday at Devotional. You know I love music so much, so I am the self-appointed assistant choir director haha. The best part is when I informed Elder Barrio that I was gonna be the assistant choir director he was so nice and now he consults me on every decision with the number and he is just great at humoring me. It is an amazing arrangement that he composed himself that is a mix of Where can I turn for Peace and Abide with me in Spanish. It is awesome.

Well I am outta time again!

Love you all!

Hermana Hurley

Third Week's the Charm!

Hola todos! I have just completed my third week at the MTC which is crazy because I feel like I got here yesterday but I also feel like I was born here.

This week was the absolute best week so far. Last Tuesday evening we watched a Broadcast from the Provo MTC from Elder Holland. Elder Holland is my favorite because he is so straight forward and blunt. But this was unlike anything I had ever heard. He really emphasized the fact that as a missionary I am representing the Church and Jesus Christ. He was extremely direct in letting us know that in no way would it ever be acceptable to forget that and come short of the expectations that the Church leaders and Lord has for us. He said- People of the Church look to you. The Lord depends on you. Don't you dare let them down.

This was super intense, and although of course I have been truly making an effort I realized it wasn't good enough. He referenced another talk he had given and let us know that we have to be our own first covert. If I want my investigators to pray harder, the Lord wants me to pray harder. If I want others to gain a firm testimony of the Book of Mormon, the Lord wants me to strengthen my testimony of the Book of Mormon. So I really took this advice to heart and it resulted in my best week in the MTC so far. Throughout the day we practice teaching each other and take turns being the investigators and the missionaries. Some of my most powerful experiences this week have been from pretending to be an investigator and truly trying to feel how that person would feel. So as I imagined feeling alone, or imagining not having the Light of the Gospel in my life, it is really evident how powerful the Spirit can be when the missionaries teach. I have had so many experiences this week of people saying exactly what my companion or I needed to hear to help us with something that had been on our minds. several times a day the Lord sends me someone to tell me His will. It is incredible to hear these missionaries so in tune with the Spirit that they communicate with me what the Lord needs me to hear. I had a really special experience as well where I got to be that person for another Elder, as the Spirit let me know that there was something that he needed to hear, I tried to talk with him. What amazing power we have as missionaries to be the Lords messengers. I know that I am called of God for His great purpose, I could not be more grateful to be here, with the people I am blessed to share this experience with. Through more exact obedience and through diligently struggling through the long hours of study, I have been able to receive more personal revelation from the Scriptures than I have ever experienced before. I have felt the Spirit stronger and stronger until it is truly a burning feeling within me, just like the Scriptures talk about. I cannot keep this message to myself, I cannot keep my testimony inside of me. I am halfway through my stay at the MTC and although I am enjoying it so much, I am dying to get out in the field and start contacting every person possible to let them know of this Gospel.

I love you all. Please support me in sharing the Lords message to His children. Go out with the missionaries. Talk to everyone you meet. Members are much more effective missionaries than us full-timers because your example and friendship is what will connect them to the Church and your testimony will impact them more than ours ever could.

Until next week,

Hermana Hurley

Week 2!

What up my admirers! I am having a great week at the CCM. Did you see the world report in between conference about it? If you didn't check it out and see what my life is like every day! [You can find it here] The second week at the CCM was so much better than the first! I am not sick anymore and we are teaching investigators (slash our teachers pretending to be investigators) and spanish is coming along great! We have a new teacher for the afternoons and that's a lot better than just unstructured study time, but he is Mexican and does't speak English so sometimes its a struggle but it is suuucch good practice. For all of you that were worried about me and my so-called "boy crazy problem," I would like to report that our teacher is very attractive but although I struggled the first day I have overcome any sort of boy crazy behavior and I wouldn't know the difference if he was an attractive latino or a crazy weird person haha. So just so you know. I am great at being a missionary haha.

I love my district more and more each day. We played volleyball together for 2.5 hours today and it was so fun, which is something I just never say about sports but it is awesome because they cheer when I touch the ball and then today I hit it OVER THE NET and they went crazy and the hermanas all ran and jumped on me and hugged me because it was a huge accomplishment. I spiked it a couple more times actually and anyways I rock at volleyball now... as long as I have Elder Lund to run for it every time I hit it the wrong way. He has my back.

General Conference in the CCM was amaaazzziing. We were all in a  huge auditorium and it was such a great atmosphere. People got excited when popular hymns got sung and you should have heard the cheers and enthusiasm during Called to Serve. So cool. Also people would fist pump and get so excited for favorite speakers. Everyone was just so excited to hear the words of God through our Prophet, Apostle and other Church leaders. My favorite was probably D Todd Christofferson and not that he just said women are awesome, though as an hermana I really feel like we get treated like we are amazing every day by the Elders, but because he said somethings that really touched me about the importance of divine qualities that are different between men and women, and how that makes us a complementary pair as men and women.

We also have just way too much fun here, which is something we have just come to accept. My companion is crazy and our roommates are Hilarious too. There is Hermana Lees who is just so beautiful and hilarious and then there is Hermana Flamm who we call Grandma and she is just a running stream of talking all the time and at least 5 times a day we are crying laughing from her super long and dramatic stories that aren't that funny but she is just so adorable and crazy in the way she tells them that we just die laughing. She told us a joke she made us about a talking camel and it was so stupid but we were rolling on the grass laughing... the guys were in Priesthood session, so we decided to act it out. I was the talking ant... it was quite a ridiculous sight to see. But then when the guys came out we totally pulled it together and had a super amazing district conference review/ testimony meeting. that's how we roll.

Well Mexico weather is crazy because it's been nicely cool in the mornings and warm during the day until yesterday it was coat weather and today is the hottest it has been so far.

Well I am out of time! I love you all and I love the Lord!

Hermana Hurley.... formerly known as Emily <3

Us with our teacher 

 Me with my companion

 Other girls in the district

 Us playing volleyball

Week 1!

Hola todos! So I'm one week in at the MTC (CCM en español) and it kind feels like it's been a year! I love my compañera, Hermana Zollinger. She and I are just way too much a like for anybody's good. Haha you should pity our district, which consists of another set of sisters and two more sets of elders. Can you imagine if you had to deal with two of me? She's hilarious and just the best, and we share a room with the other two hermanas in our district, Hermana Flamm and Hermana Lees who are both amazing as well. We spend a good amount of time laughing, probably too much since we have been read several scriptures about the sin of excessive laughter.

So these crazy Mexicans here set off fireworks and cannons all hours of the day and night. It was so hard to get used to at first but now I am so used to it. Funny how that is right?

The food here is pretty good actually! Totally mexican, so it's good practice. One day they had carne asada and almost everyday they have homemade corn tortillas. So bien! Also rice and beans with every meal so that's pretty mexican too haha.

The days are super long and exhausting and the first couple were especially difficult! We had an amazing day on Sunday though and our spirits were totally lifted and we really bonded as a district. The key to success here is that we are here for a gran purposito, or a great purpose. We have to remind each other everyday why we are here and that we are in the Lord's hands or this would be impossible. We have one investigator named Josuae and he's great. We are all so excited to get out in the field and get to meet those people who's hearts are prepared by the Lord for us to invite them to Christ! My Spanish experience has been really helpful and probably the only reason that this experience has not been entirely too overwhelming.

So our days are basically just 16 hours of studying the scriptures and Spanish, with a couple of gym time or meal breaks. That's pretty intense slash impossible to focus for that long so we have to do some things to break it up-

One of my favorites is that we all really like to sing in our district, so Elder Ward will usually say ok guys if we focus on finishing this task then we can take a break and sing.

Another thing that I apparently like now is Volleyball. If you know me well you know how I feel about sports--not so great. But it's a highlight of the day cuz we get in comfy clothes and we get to joke around and be outside in the beautiful weather and it's great. We are getting better to, I actually hit the ball over the net yesterday! So that's awesome. The first time we did it was rough and no one could hit it over more than once or twice but Hermana Lees said: Guys we are gonna get so much better by the end of six weeks, this is just the before shot!

I really loved that and that's my new motto for the CCM, anytime I am feeling down or discouraged I just remember that I am gonna keep getting better at studying and teaching and Spanish and that this is just the before shot.

Well I have like no time to write about everything but I'm doing great and I love you all and thanks for reading and for the positive thoughts and prayers you are sending my way!

Love

Hermana Hurley

I Will Go Where You Want Me To Go

I only made it one month blogging in Spain. After my bag/camera was stolen I gave up on a lot of the documenting goals I had and just lived it up. I've been back in the US of A for almost 6 months now and although I will love those people and cherish those memories forever, it feels like a million worlds away.
In 6 days I'm off to my next adventure, which also happens to include international travel. However as I prepare for this one, I know that it will be a polar opposite experience to my Study Abroad.

On September 25, 2013 I will report to the Mexico City Missionary Training Center to begin my 18 month mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. After six weeks in the MTC I will be preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the Spanish language in the Sacramento California area. This is a video that is a little glimpse of what I will be doing! A day in the life of a Mormon Missionary:




A few people have asked me why I want to go on a mission. I'd like to share a little bit of history behind making this decision.
I cannot remember a time that I did not cling to a 10 year life plan. I cannot remember a time when a mission was not nestled securely under the "Age 21" spot in that plan.
Everytime that I doubted that a mission was right for me, the Lord always brought me some sort of experience to reaffirm my knowledge that I am meant to go on a mission.
Most of these doubts revolved around the fact that Sister Missionaries were able to serve missions as early as age 21. However I was going to be able to finish my Undergraduate studies at age 20 and I was not sure how to fill that gap in time. I did a lot of worrying about timing, and a lot of revising and reorganizing of my 10 year life plan.
Then, in October of 2012, the leaders of our Church made an amazing, history changing announcement. The missionary age requirement was lowered, for Sister missionaries to 19 years of age. This was an answer to my prayers, and undoubtedly the prayers of thousands of Sisters around the world. It is an amazing and exciting time to serve a mission. Upwards of 50 new missions have opened up since that announcement. For the first time in history there are more sisters in the Missionary Training Center in Provo Utah than Elders. They opened a new MTC in Mexico City, where I will be attending in a week. I will be in the third set of missionaries to go through training at the Mexico MTC. Missionary work is picking up with more enthusiasm than ever before.
I began preparing for a mission wholeheartedly. However, questions of timing and doubts of my purpose eventually filled my mind once more. I decided that I didn't think it was a part of what the Lord had planned for me to serve a mission. However, in the same hour that I vocalized this decision for the first time, to not serve a mission, I received a letter from a friend who was serving a mission at that time. He hadn't heard from me in months and had no idea of the thoughts and feelings I had been having about a mission. And yet, somehow his letter directly addressed everyone of my concerns, reasons and excuses for not serving a mission. It was as though he had listened to the conversation I'd had only minutes earlier. The Spirit of the Lord testified to me in that moment that a mission is exactly where my Heavenly Father wanted me to be.
That experience was nearly a year ago, and I have had similar ones time and time again, always reminding me that whatever God has planned for me is so much better than the crazy ideas I get in my head sometimes. As far as my current feelings, I have to admit, I'm not 100% sure. I am not nervous. I am not even really excited yet. It doesn't feel real. But I do, for sure, feel ready to go. I got my call several months ago and I have had way too long to think, worry, stress and agonize over my mission. I have talked myself in and out of it and really struggled with the decision to go, even after my call came. I thought that these struggles would lessen once I got my mission call and things were set. I will testify that they got harder, and I truly struggle against the Adversary in his efforts to prevent me from serving. I never expected to feel doubt after my call was here and everything was official. That's how Satan works though, I believe. I believe he is desperate for me not to go on a mission because of the people I will touch. I believe that the Gospel of Jesus Christ can bring a soul more joy and peace than any earthly substance or activity that exists. My Spiritual experiences and testimony are what have carried me through my emotional rollercoaster of a summer and have brought me to where I am now.
 One week away from leaving for the very mission that I have prepared for my entire life.
 So now you know how I came to a place in my life, when asked the question: Where in the World is Emily Hurley? I can definitively say: I'm exactly where the Lord wants me to be.

crazy times and crazy people

Hola everybody! I never know how to start off these posts, I guess I'll just say that I can't believe it's been so long since I posted last. I look back at everything that's happened and all the things I've done and I am so grateful to be here. It's February now which is so crazy. I can't believe we've been here a month and have two months left. I've already been here a third of the the time that I'm going to be here. Time is such a funny thing to think about. On the one hand I cannot believe I've only known the people here 1 month. I feel like I have known this group for an infinite amount of time. I love them and I have some best friends that will be in my life forever. It's already so normal to live here with Encarna and go to school here and walk around Alcala. On the other hand I remember getting here like it was yesterday, I still feel new at the language and I haven't gotten to know many people at Church yet. All in all I can already feel that I'm not going to want to leave this place. I'm in love with Spain and with these students and professors and family that I'm here with.
Speaking of, I want to tell you a few stories about some of the crazy people I'm here with. Starting with my roommate Kaitlin.

Kaitlin and I are soulmates. It's as simple as that. I've never become faster best friends with someone in my life. I'm really blessed to have her and I couldn't imagine sharing this experience with anyone else. We are together literally 24/7. A few weeks ago our group did a 5 day trip to Andalucia in southern Spain. We had different roommates each night. Although we saw each other basically all the time we still missed each other haha.
The other day we had the house to ourselves and we were in our room jamming out to some T-Swift. We were dancing on our beds and belting out the song "22" by Taylor Swift (attempting to sing the lyrics in Spanish) when Encarna busts through the door. We almost died of fright. Then we almost died laughing. Encarna was saying "Estais locas!" and laughing at us.
This fun little anecdote leads me right into the next. A few weeks ago on a Saturday a few of us went into Madrid to see some sights and walk around. We saw a crowd of people outside a hotel and I asked them why they were waiting. The girls answered "Porque Taylor Swift esta aqui."
MY WORLD STOPPED TURNING.
As many of you may know, I am quite the Taylor Swift fan. I have all of her albums and know every song by heart. She is by far my favorite artist and way up there on the list of favorite celebrities.
Next thing I know, we have joined the crowd standing outside the hotel in a bitter cold wintry drizzle at 8:00 at night. Our little group of Americans got the entire crowd singing Taylor Swift songs in the rain. We were cold, we were wet, we were having an amazing time. Apparently she was here to film a TV show that night. I had heard some speculation that she might not come out the front door where we were, and instead might go out the back where her car was parked. My friend Andy and I went around the back to scope it out and got there in time to see three black cars with darkened windows slowly roll out of the hotel, drive 2 feet in front of us and turn down the street. In other words, although it was too dark to see in the windows, I was within 2 feet of Taylor Swift that day.


Fast forward a few weeks. We traveled to the South of Spain to the region Andalucia. We went to the cities Sevilla, Cordoba and Granada. It was beautiful warm weather, there were orange trees everywhere and we saw Christopher Colombus' tomb, la Mesquita and the Alhambra (I'll write more about those later). However, no post titled "crazy times and crazy people" would be complete without a story about our night in Cordoba.
After a long few days of touring and walking we found ourselves in Cordoba, after an amazing day through la Mesquita, with no plans! We decided upon the Arab Baths that we had seen during the day. This turned out to be in the top 3 best decisions I've ever made in my life.

The next two hours consisted of alternating between hot, warm and cold baths, a steam room and a massage. This is a very healthy detox and the most relaxing experience of my life. We left feeling perfectly balanced and smelling of incense and orange blossoms.
The night was beautiful so we decided to go out to the ancient Roman bridge that joins the old town Cordoba and the more modern city.




 Hilarity ensues as we find a vending machine room that had the most random assortment of items including an item that each person had been searching for that day. Cough drops for Sarah, turkish kebab sandwiches for Steffany,  and phone minutes for Kaitlin, although I've no idea who the pink haired troll dolls were meant for. We deemed this the Room of Requirement.

 I was the only person who had not found an item that I needed, so I declared that what I needed was a group hug. This quickly transformed into a circle of swaying and chanting, for no apparent reason except that anything is possible after Arab baths. Upon the discovery of a sign that read "24 hour video surveillance" we ran out of the room dying laughing and with pretty sure feeling that we would end up on YouTube. We spent hours on the bridge and it was one of the best nights in Spain.





We went to Barcelona this week and had an amazing time. I fell in love with the city. The trip was fantastic until the last night. Despite multiple warnings about pickpockets, and my many precautions, my bag was stolen. This was extremely traumatic. It had my credit card, a lot of cash, my camera (with a couple hundred photos) and my smart phone and journal. It was the only point in history I've ever had that much on me to be stolen in one place. I never have that much cash or my credit card in my bag, and I always keep my camera and phone in my pockets. However a series of unfortunate events led up to everything valuable that I own, financially and sentimentally, being in that bag. Now it's gone. I spent a few hours in the police station trying to file a report, it was really frustrating and I was really struggling. When I got back to my hotel at midnight I found a pile of treats on my bed with tons of notes from my group. I burst into tears, and I have never been more touched.

Another sweet story I want to share was about Valentine's Day. I don't have pictures from this one because they were on my camera... that's now gone. On Valentine's Day we were in Barcelona, it was a fantastic day. We went to La Sagrada Familia (my favorite place in Barcelona), went to the beach and finished at Hard Rock Cafe. There are two boys in our group and at the end of the day they surprised the girls with a rose for each of us. This was the sweetest gesture and I don't think they realize how much it meant to us. They are some of the best guys I know. I always feel cared for and protected by them and I'm so glad they are in our group.

This morning, before we left Barcelona, we wanted to go to the beach to see the sunrise. When we woke up it was cloudy and raining. It had been a rough night for some of us so a few opted out and went back to bed. This is the group looking pretty rough at 7 am today.

















Some of us headed to the beach, and although it was too cloudy to see the sunrise, it was a beautiful start to our last few hours in Barcelona. 

We even did some Yoga before we headed back on the all-day bus ride for Alcala, which has quickly become home.

When I came on this trip, I was prepared to love Spain, the language, the culture and the Spanish people. I knew I would enjoy my travels and my learning experiences. 

I was completely unprepared to fall in love with my group, to become a part of the Knapp family, to make new best friends, to trust and love these people that a couple of months ago I knew nothing more about than their names and majors. 

  All I can say about these crazy people is that there is no one else I would rather share these crazy times with. 

Livin' la vida loca

Time for another post folks! It's been a week since my last one and we've done so much!

 Church on Sundays is interesting, super difficult to keep up. Kait and I have decided to study the lessons during our nightly scripture study in English and Spanish the week before in an attempt to have any clue as to what is being discussed.

However I really love Sundays because after Church we go to the Knapp's house for devotional and it's always really beautiful and filled with the Spirit. Yesterday especially may have been one of the most Spirit-filled days of my life. I was in charge of the spiritual thought at devotional which began a discussion with Kaitlin that lasted the afternoon. I love talking to her and we had amazing conversation yesterday. Then at the Knapp's, everyone shared thoughts and experience that brought tears to my eyes. As testimonies were shared the Spirit blanketed the room. The theme of our program is to remember gratitude, and I for one could not be more grateful to be here. I could not have asked for a better roommate, group of students, professors or host family. I'm filled with love for everyone and awe that I have the opportunity to be here and know all of them.

Mondays we have our religion class with Area seventy Faustino Lopez. It's absolutely amazing. Our first class was about looking God's hand in our lives. It fit perfectly with our program theme and our devotionals. He is a real blessing. 

After class we had Family Home Evening with a few students from our group. My "family" decided to go to Tapas for our first time! Tapas is a very Spanish tradition, to go out and order drinks and they bring you a light meal. People eat them as snacks, appetizers or for dinner. 

PICTURES

Drinking out of our glass Pepsi bottles!








My tapa, a tuna sandwich!

Tuesday we went to a Real Madrid soccer game, which was pretty fun- even though I had a cold. I'm not that into sports but apparently it's a huge deal.

We spent the rest of the week doing classes, homework, going shopping (there are once a year sales going on in every store!) and going on adventures in Madrid!

One of the days we went into Madrid because it was Saint Anthony's day, which apparently means there is a parade and a Priest blesses hundreds of pets!!! We wanted to buy a pet and get it blessed but it didn't end up being practical so we just watched. This is the priest waiting to bless the animals.

Saturday on our way into Madrid we stopped to see the Temple. We went inside the Church building next door to and stumbled upon some missionaries teaching English lessons and ended up helping out! It was so much fun. It gave me a lot of respect for people trying to make out what I'm saying when I'm struggling through Spanish. I'm so grateful for all the people, especially my host mom and Roberto, who are so patient with me and work really hard to understand what I'm attempting to say.

We had double Family Home Evening this week, Monday we went to the Madrid ward FHE. It was really fun! Everyone spoke English! There were people there from England and Germany.
Tonight we went to our ward FHE and met some new people and played games. It was great!

A quick glimpse into my home life here in Spain:
Encarna and Roberto are honestly amazing! I feel so blessed, I couldn't have asked for a better family. She loves to sit and talk to us when we get home. I know it's not easy to understand our Spanish but she listens and eventually figures it out. She loves it when we tell her about the things we did or people we met. She took us shopping yesterday and we all bought clothes and dessert and just had so much fun. She is still pumping us full of food and supplying us with way too much sugar. Since they are on a diet she makes us keep the junk food in our room. This a serious problem because we have burned through an embarrassing amount of chocolate. This was all under our bed last week. (Most of it is gone now. Honestly horrifying. When we run out we don't plan to tell her because we absolutely cannot continue this trend.)

This was last week but two Saturdays ago Roberto walked us around Alcala so we could get our bearings. He is so sweet and patient with us, but he is also hilarious. Kait taught him the "banana" game. So they kept punching each other when a yellow car passed. I stayed out of that one. It was hilarious because when he walked us back to our starting point I was turned around and he kept trying to explain where we were. It was quite the process and when I eventually got it he grabbed me and yelled "POR FIN!!" (finally!) 

Then he went home to study. He's thirteen but he is so mature! His mom leaves for work at 5 am and he gets himself up and goes to school himself. He is really responsible.

However, one night when Encarna went to her night classes, the true thirteen year old came out in Roberto! He went super crazy and locked Kait out of our room. Then he turned off the power in the house and busted into our room wearing this.


                                     

It was psycho but he is so funny.

And on that inspiring note I bid you adios! 

Madrid

Yesterday we went into Madrid for the first time! It's about a 30 minute train ride from Alcala. It's amazing! We went to a beautiful, ginormous, famous park. They have some beautiful monuments, including the only statue of the devil in the world. Also, a huge pond in front of a bunch of statues that no one really knew the history behind. But we got to row boats in the pond and it was so much fun. The weather is pretty good, a little chilly but it's ok because no one is out and it's so nice to not have to worry about big crowds. For pictures of Madrid you can see my Estoy en Espana album on facebook. We also got to see the Plaza Mayor which I was extremely excited about because I had presented on it in my Spanish class and I didn't know that's where were going and when I walked in I recognized it and like freaked out. It's just a square with shops and a statue and it's only really used for like big public events and concert and hanging out. Anciently it was used for royal coronations and bullfights and "autos de fe" which were punishments carried out during the dark days of the Spanish inquisition (copy and pasted from my research my friends). After that we were free to do whatever we wanted. We ended up staying together as a group and wandering and checking out shops. They had a huge Sephora which is so funny because before I left I stocked up on my Sephora essentials and then they had one here. Guess I'll just have to buy more ;)
We wandered until we stumbled upon China-town and then we were like ok lets go back. We ate Golfres at a street stand which are just waffles you can get chocolate or jam or whipped cream on.

That's Kate and I eating them. Chocolate and whipped cream on ours :)

Then we figured out how to go back to the train and got home! Once we got off the train it was pretty rough trying to find our way home again. We made it but it took way longer than it should've. Today Roberto is gonna walk us there and back so we know the "mas directo" (more direct) way. 

Then we came home and had chicken and bread with blue cheese for dinner with an orange for dessert. Have I mention we have had an orange for dessert for lunch and dinner every day except for the one time it was yogurt? Which is fine by me because the oranges are from Valencia and literally the most delicious thing in the world. 

Today is Saturday and the first day we had no set plans. I slept til noon which is amazing because I've been exhausted in all our adventures this week. I woke up and we ate lunch (hamburgers and salad, orange for dessert). Then we spent a while showing Encarna pictures from Madrid and that turned into pictures of friends and families and pets. Todo. 

Really funny because when she saw the pictures of our group (specifically the boys in our group) she got crazy excited at how guapo they are. Jumping and hitting us and screaming "Son muy guapo!!! Son muy attractivo!!! Que suerte!!!!" So basically she thinks they are very cute and we are really lucky haha. I told her there were just two and she pointed at Kate and I and said "Perfecto. Para ti y para ti." Essentially: one for you and one for you. Hilarious.

Today we don't have tons of plans so we are gonna take it easy and go out and walk around Alcala!

Hasta luego!