#IDontEvenKnowAnymore

Hello,
     It's not really hot anymore. I don't even understand but something about clouds from Africa and storms from the north. I don't really know what to say. I am just tired.

For Pday we went to the Torre de Oro

     We are teaching this girl named Paola and I really like teaching her. She is 20 and her questions like make sense to me. They are the same kinds of things that I would ask if I didn't, you know, already know. The story on how we found her is really cool as well. A few weeks ago we didn't know anybody or any thing in our area, so we picked a handful of names and addresses that the elders left behind and we went out and hunted the addresses down. There was this one old teaching record of this old investigator named Stanly and one day we knocked on his door. This woman answered and she acted like she expected us. We asked for Stanly and that confused her. She asked if we recognized her #no. #awkward. She said she had been at church on Sunday. She's a member and she just moved here from Ecuador. Magali is her name. We had both been completely distracted on Sunday and had completely missed her. She invited us in and introduced us to her non-member friend Margarita and daughter Paola (see above). Well we asked if we could share a message with them now that we were there and all, and they agreed. We had a super spiritual lesson about The Book of Mormon. It was way cool. And they agreed to let us come back later in the week.
     We have now visited about four or five times. Mostly we just teach Paola now. Magali told us she had been praying for a way to share the gospel with her daughter because she knew that she wouldn't listen to the missionaries if she had been the ones to invite them. But this was perfect because we didn't even know the mom before we randomly went to their house. I don't know what happened to Stanly, but by small and simple things great things come to pass .

Well that's all I have time for. I love you all
Hermana Hannah Ashby

Pedro and Me

Pday at the Torre de Oro

Us and Carmen, an Australian/Spanish newly baptised member that lives in one of our pueblos

Enviado desde mi iPad

La Sartén

Hi,  
     It's really hot here. But like really hot. I'm dying. They call Sevilla "la sarten" or "the frying pan" because it is just so dang hot. And our brand new piso doesn't really have air conditioning. Death. I've invested in water bottles (many) and fans. Like the classic Spanish hand fans. That's what all the women in Sevilla are doing
these days.
     We had zone meeting. Hence the pictures. We are all very modern now with our iPads. It's super weird. I don't even bring scriptures around with me anymore. My bag is a lot lighter.
   
 I also went on intercambios this week. Last intercambio of my life (hopefully). I normally really hate intercambios, but I actually had a lot of fun this time. We found a few new investigators and took a ton of selfies. At the end of the day Hna Hurtado wanted to celebrate everything so we went to buy chicken and the lady at the counter was asking us about who we were and telling us about how missionaries used to visit her when she lived in Ecuador and then she gave us her number and address. Miracles come in the weirdest times and places.

We are actually doing really well in this new area. We have found a total of 10 new investigators this week. Not bad.
     Okay I've wasted a lot of time.
   
 Thank you everyone for emailing me this week. It was way cool to hear from you during the week. I love you all and I pray for you daily. Have a good week and keep updating me on your lives.

Love,
Hermana Hannah Ashby

La Mudanza

     Hey, guess what! I'm sitting here, writing you all from McDonald's.
What? How is that possible? Unless, wait, I have an iPad. That's
right. I have joined the ranks of those who have technology.

#selfie

There are so many restrictions on here that really I can only email, study Spanish, read scriptures, and watch Mormon messages. But it is pretty much literally the coolest thing I have ever done. Yesterday we taught Sunday school with the online manual and a video. And we taught an investigator a lesson using the kid's pamphlets app. Everyone thinks we are really cool now. We have become way more exciting all of the sudden.
     Ooo another thing, I can now read my email whenever I want. I can only reply on Monday, but I can read it whenever I want. So you should all send me a bunch of emails throughout the week so that I can feel cool every time I go to the church or walk by a McDonald's.
     Well anyways about transfers. It has officially come to pass. We are #whitewashing (I have an iPad, that's earned me the right to use hashtags)(are hashtags even like a thing anymore? Are they even a fake thing? #outdated)) Triana. This was probably the most tiring week of my life. But hey, you should all Google search Triana. It's pretty cool. And the part of the centre that we have has all the cool old
stuff. I mean, that also means all of the touristy stuff, which means
all hotels no apartment buildings, but, like alls good.
     We had to move pisos from the other side of the city. What a pain. And
this "new" pisos is the most chungo piso that I have ever been in. The
beds are basically in the kitchen. The pots and pans are stored under
the sink (where the mold grows) and the bathroom door doesn't open.
Oh, it closes just fine, the problem is opening after it's closed. We
have each locked ourselves in the bathroom like five times. But it's
okay, because we figured out that if the companion that is not locked
in the bathroom hands the companion that is locked into the bathroom a
knife through the window in the kitchen (yes, there's a window from
the kitchen to the bathroom) the one that's in the bathroom can jam
said knife into the crack between the wall and the door handle and pry
herself out. These are the kind of skills I am developing on the
mission mom and dad.
     Needless to say my new companion and I have had some really good
bonding experiences.
     Hermana Seoane is super Spanish, but don't tell her I said that. A
couple of members freaked because she is from the same town as Franco
(#googleit) but hearts were healed after she declared she always liked
South America more than her own country. #imayneverunderstandspain
but I like her. She cooks well and likes to contact. All I could ask
for in a killer.
     We've had a few serious miracles happen. Yesterday alone we found four
new investigators. (People that the elders didn't know before.) It's all
very exciting. I am being forced to work hard until the end.
#exhausted
Well love you!
Hermana Hannah Ashby

Italica

Salutations,
     Okay stuff that has happened. Let's see. We actually have more than one investigator now. I know, crazy stuff.
      After a successful classic gifting of American cookies, we have started to evengalize our neighbours. They actually are taking it pretty well. Manuel and Manuela. We have had three real lessons now and the last time they asked us to please continue to come (we had a good time lapse between visits and I think they got worried) and they literally said they were very interested. Now you don't really hear that very often coming from peoples' mouths. Even from those that actually are interested. They did however say they would probably never convert but you know that's what they all say.
     We contacted a man (German) on the street a few days ago and he had us come over to his house a few days later and it wasn't a fake address or anything. He and his wife (Jessica) and their four small children sat and listened to us explain The Book of Mormon. I am so exctied to be teaching a family. German's whole family our members in Ecaudor apparently and he used to play basketball with the Elders as a little boy. They were very attentive listening to us and had some great questions. They are kind of a miracle actually.
     Pedro is still going strong. The treatment is making him quite sick but he has seen some major improvement. He can now put his legs in the water up to his knees. Miracle. We all just keep praying.
I have to go right now. Time is cut short this week. I love you all so much.

Hermana Hannah Ashby

Agua

To All Whom It May Concern:
     It is ridiculously dificult to send pictures here. I realize that have failed miserably and continue to fail in sending picutres, but know thaat I put in a good effort every Monday.

Sevilla 1

     Well, the feria was sweet. Everyone was dressed up in fancy flamenco dress and riding horses and dancing and eating paella. And drinkng and smoking, of course. Probably the most Spanish experience I have ever had. We even rode on a ferris wheel and got an amazing view of the whole city. It was really spectacular.
     So I have a cool story about real missionary work and stuff. I would have shared earlier, but it is kind of delicate and I wasn't really sure where this was going to lead.
     We have an investigator whose name is Pedro. The story goes that when Pedro was a baby he had a bunch of weird sicknesses like polio and stuff and at three months old he went into a coma-like thing. He stayed in said coma for eight years. He was in a vegetable state. Then nurses who didn't really know what they were doing (imagine medical care 60 years ago in europe, I shudder) put him in a bath and turned on the hot water. The water reached almost boiling temperatures and severely burned young Pedro. And Miracle of all miracles, Pedro screamed for the first time in years. Well fast forward Pedro is confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life and is entirely unable to touch large quantities of water without going into epileptic fits, but otherwise has very little problems later on in life. He becomes a psychologist, gets married, has two sons: all is good. Until He runs in to the mormon missionaries - Now this is about 25 years ago. The missionaries continue to teach him off and on for years and he goes to church pretty regularly. Only problem, he can't get baptized without touching the water.
     So I get here and he is our only investigator and naturally his story fascinates me. But the more I teach him the more I kind of doubt that he has an actual testimony. Like, I knew he liked the church, but I didn't really think he knew it was true and kind of doubted that he really would get baptized if he could. So we decided to put him to an ultimatem: he gets baptized or we stop teaching him. I realize that probably sounds bad without all the details and the missionary aadvise of being bold and dropping investigators who don't progress. But we felt like it was time. We asked him if he believed that this was the true church. He said yes. If Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. Yes. If he believed in miracles. Yes. If he would be baptised. And he agreed. April 25th. We were shocked. And then we terrifiedly promised him that if he would put is full effort in that God would open up a way for him to be baptized. Then for the next few weeks we very solemnly prepared Pedro to enter the waters of baptism.
     We re-taught him all the lessons, we talked him through the interview. He set up appointments to meet with doctors to find out what the worse that could happen would be . He assumed death, but he wanted to know for sure. Okay, insane I know. But honestly I was surprised it was going so far. So we decided to call President. He discussed it with us and advised us to proceed with caution, and to follow the doctors' advice. and to offer him a priesthood blessing. Wednesday we roped the Elders into coming to a cita with Pedro. They gave him a beautiful blessing and promised him that God would help him follow his commandments.            Thursday morning Pedro recieved the results from all the tests the doctors had run. Today, Monday he is going to start a 40 day (notice the symbolism) treatment program. He will go to a center with a pool every morning at 6am. He will recieve some heavy medications and be heavily montiored but they predict that he will indeed be able to touch water normally by the end of it all. He is puting in the effort and the solution will come. What a relief. So the new fecha is June 7th I think. What is the Sunday forty days from today? I think it's the 7th. Well, anyways. He could use your prayers.
     And there is my life. Keep you updated. Have a good week.

Love,
Hermana Hannah Ashby

Feria de abril de Sevilla

Hannah was not able to write this week (20 April 2015) because of this festival in the city she is in. Check out this website for a few more details, and enjoy these pictures of things she might be experiencing while doing the work of the Lord:

El Arie Sevillano

Dear Todos,
     Either my life has gotten very boring or my perspective has changed. I need to start looking for cool things that happen so that I can write exciting letters.
     We just spend a lot of time walking around trying to find investigators.

     This guy contacted us on the street a couple of weeks ago and wanted to meet with us, so we set up a time and place but he didn't show--so then we kind of forgot about him... awkward. But then he called us this week, apologized and set up another meeting. We met with him and the lesson actually went really great and he swore he would come to church, but then he didn't. We called him and found out he doesn't actually even live in our area. He lives in one of the random Pueblos that we don't actuallly work in. So off to the Elders he goes. It was a cool experience though. He'll probably get baptized or something.
     My companion has decided to define me as an old native elder. Soooo if you have ever wondered what kind of missionary I am... that's it. I'm not sure how I feel about that.
   

 It's transfer week but nothing is happening to us.
     I just read over this email and I sound depressed or something. I promise I am not. I am very happy... I just can't think of anything to say.
     Sevilla is really pretty. Especially as the weather warms up. Spain thrives in the summer. The people all open their doors and sit on the proches and sing and gossip. There are orange trees and daisies everywhere.

It smells almost overwhelmingly of orange trees and incense (a nice catholic touch). Oh, but don't forget the cigarette smoke. I've almost become immune to cigarette smoke. I don't usually smell it anymore. But I know that it is there :)

Well. Sorry for the uneventfulness. Being a missionary really is the best thing ever.
I love you!
Hermana Hannah Ashby