Hola!
This is going to be short because I need time to download Mormon Messages. Sorry. Also not a whole lot of exciting things happened.
I ate a few super gross things this week actually. We do visiting teaching for the ward. Don't ask me why, not exactly my favorite thing ever and it takes up a ton of proselyting time. But this week we went to visit this little old lady that lives in one of the spiraling alleyways underneath the Alhambra so I was actually sort of excited for this one. We go there and sit down and she asked us if we wanted anything, we said no but she is old and from southern Spain so she put us out these ridiculously stale cookies. Like I had a hard time chewing and swallowing them so then she asked if we wanted anything to drink. I asked for water but that just wasn't good enough I guess and she brought us out some soy milk. Like basically everyone here drinks soy milk instead of real milk so I have almost gotten used to it, but this wasn't even refrigerated. So we just sat there eating stale cookies with warm soy milk. Every time one of us emptied a glass she would automatically feel it until the entire carton was gone. It was just such a ridiculous situation that I had a hard time not giggling as she is forcing us to chug warm soy milk. I have felt sick since.
And then a few days later one of our investigators fed us Morcilla. Hermana Clark made the mistake of asking what Morcilla actually is. And we both almost threw up right then. Then we were forced to eat seconds. If I don't come home with some crazy disease I will be lucky. For those of who do not know, Morcilla is basically straight up fried pigs blood mixed. Our investigator mixed it with pears, because what is more appetizing than pears covered in pigs blood? Nothing according to spaniards.
We (the missionaries in Granada) organized a ward talent show for this weekend and it was a smash. Apparently talent shows are really just an Amercian thing because nobody had really heard of one before but it really pulled together. We even did a singing skit thing with the song "Ye Elders of Israel." I will try to figure out how to get you the video eventually. Such a blast.
It's starting to be tourist season so we are getting all kinds of Americans at church and it's fun to talk to them and explain what is going on in lessons and stuff for them. There are actually people out there in the world who understand less Spanish than me. Woot!
And that is pretty much it.
I love you!
Hermana Ashby
Monday, May 26, 2014
Monday, May 19, 2014
Somos Tres
Querido todo,
This was a long week. A lot happened but I don´t have a ton of fun stories.
Well I have officially eaten the grossest thing in my life now. We have this feeling that the members here don't really like the hermanas very much so we have been trying hard to work with them and gain their respect. So on Tuesday we finally received an invitation to eat with this one family that usually only likes it when the elders go over. So we go over and we are on our absolute best behavior and we offer to help and they won't let us so we sit at the table and wait for them to bring out the food.
They set this bowl of soup in front of Hna Muse. My first thought is, "yay I like soup," but then I look closer and saw the tentacles. This soup had octopus, squid, shrimp, some kind of shell fish and who knows what else in it. Mom, you would have probably enjoyed it. But I do NOT like sea food. Of any kind. And so I go into a panic. We have been trying to get an eating cita with this family for forever, and the first thing I do can't be refuse to eat their food that they obviously worked hard to make. Or worse, throw it up. They asked me to say the blessing and I asked that we would all be able to enjoy the food. Probably seemed like weird wording to them, but that is what I needed. I don't know how, but I ate it. Barely even chewed at all, which let me tell you, is difficult when you are eating animals whole. Eww. It was worth it though when they gave us cake at church on Sunday. Woot!
So lets see..... Tuesday we got our new companion! Her name is Hermana Clark. She is from Heber City, Utah. She goes home one transfer after Hna Muse. She is great. Hermana Muse and I were super worried that it would be not fun, and teaching as a trio would not work very well, but it is actually working out just fine. We had to pull in another bed into our bedroom and now the whole room is just one big bed. We call it mega bed.
We stopped by a members house the other day just to check in on her because she had been to the hospital and then when we were about to leave we asked if we could close with a prayer and she got upset and realized that we hadn't started with a prayer. So then she made us do two! We decided you probably can't pray too much so we just went along with it.
If you can, putting some beef jerky in the package might be nice. There is this family here that every time we go over they talk about these missionaries that brought them beef jerky from America. At least we think that's what they are are talking about. They call it dry Texas beef because the missionary was from Texas. So yeah if I brought them some they would probs love me forever.
We had a crazy amount a appointments cancel on us this week. Which means we did a LOT of knocking doors and just trying to talk to to people in the streets. Not the most fruitful of activities but, what else is a missionary supposed to do?
By the way, I am officially a real missionary now! Training is over! Go me!
I am sorry I can't think of anything else that happened. This week was snail slow for all of the people we teach because we could hardly meet with any of them. But the work is still going. The church is still true.
Thanks for all of the support!
Hermana Hannah Ashby
This was a long week. A lot happened but I don´t have a ton of fun stories.
Well I have officially eaten the grossest thing in my life now. We have this feeling that the members here don't really like the hermanas very much so we have been trying hard to work with them and gain their respect. So on Tuesday we finally received an invitation to eat with this one family that usually only likes it when the elders go over. So we go over and we are on our absolute best behavior and we offer to help and they won't let us so we sit at the table and wait for them to bring out the food.
 |
| District Numero Dos |
So lets see..... Tuesday we got our new companion! Her name is Hermana Clark. She is from Heber City, Utah. She goes home one transfer after Hna Muse. She is great. Hermana Muse and I were super worried that it would be not fun, and teaching as a trio would not work very well, but it is actually working out just fine. We had to pull in another bed into our bedroom and now the whole room is just one big bed. We call it mega bed.
 |
| "So this is supposed to be like a 12th century building with an "animal fountain" inside of it. We walk by it all of the time and we didn't realize that it was anything special until we walked by this morning and there was a huge crowd taking pictures of it. so we stopped and asked what it was and then some man told us. I don´t know how reliable this information is." |
If you can, putting some beef jerky in the package might be nice. There is this family here that every time we go over they talk about these missionaries that brought them beef jerky from America. At least we think that's what they are are talking about. They call it dry Texas beef because the missionary was from Texas. So yeah if I brought them some they would probs love me forever.
 |
| Statue of Christopher Columbus |
By the way, I am officially a real missionary now! Training is over! Go me!
I am sorry I can't think of anything else that happened. This week was snail slow for all of the people we teach because we could hardly meet with any of them. But the work is still going. The church is still true.
Thanks for all of the support!
Hermana Hannah Ashby
Monday, May 5, 2014
By Their Faith They Wrought Mighty Miracles
¡Buenas Dias!
I think I learned more this week than I have ever learned in my life. This week of consecration was really something. Through faith and prayer we saw miracles.
Last Monday after Pday (well I guess it was during the end of pday) we went to the American's house and taught a lesson to their 8 year old daughter Claire who is about to get baptized. And I had a realization. The mom (Nicole) was telling us about her study abroad she did in India before her mission and I realized that exactly a year ago I was still in high school. Like this is crazy that I am out here doing what I am doing fresh out of high school. I made the mistake of saying that out load to this family and they all just burst into laughter. Like really? You were in high school last year?! They didn't talk about anything else all night. By the time we left I was feeling a little inadequate. Like I am too young to be doing this. But that's not really true. Whom the Lord calls he qualifies, because this week was spectacular.
I think I am going to do this a little out of order to make it flow a little better. Friday night we were finally able to meet with Yasmin again. We brought Nicole and her twelve year old daughter with us because Nicole is Primary president and we really kind of wanted a mom's opinion on whether or not we were going to offend Diana by baptizing Yasmin without her. So we started the lesson (Gospel of Jesus Christ=Faith,repentance, baptism, Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end) and it was going great and Yasmin and Addy (Nicole's daughter) were really hitting it off and Yasmin kept bearing her testimony of the things that we were teaching before we even taught them and it was great and then we got to baptism and Diana walks in. Diana pulled us way off topic and suddenly everything was crazy and she tells us all these stories about her job and things that have happened since we saw her last and everything and we were worried we were never going to get to challenge Yasmin to baptism until finally Hermana Muse asked Diana how she would feel if Yasmin wanted to get baptized into our church. It was a miracle. She said she would be really happy for her because baptism is really important and she is eleven so she is old enough to make her own decision about it now. I think even Nicole was shocked. So we turned back to Yasmin and kind of told her why we are baptized and asked if that is what she wanted. She said yes. Then we told her that we are going to have a baptismal service the 11 of May and then we pulled out a baptismal calendar we had made for her and told her the qualifications for baptism and we promised that if she did all of these things she would be ready. She seemed really excited and Diana seemes happy. It was amazing. It is really going to happen.
Remember Alejandra? I think I must have mentioned her last week. But we basically didn't find her until last Sunday. We have been teaching her almost every day since and she is amazing. There was a ward barbecue on Thursday and we brought her with us. The members were absolutely amazing. All of the young adults (there is an odd amount of young adults in this ward) just kind of gathered her up with them and got her to play football and jump rope then they made her eat with them and they all traded numbers and facebook info and Hermana Muse and I were just bouncing with excitement watching it all unfold. So then we prayed about wether we should challenge her to be baptized on the 11th too and we decided she was ready. So Friday we went to her house and just started asking her about how she has felt about everything so far and she was just glowing with happiness and telling us how she agrees with everything we have said and so we did it. She seemed a little surprised about how soon we wanted to do it but she accepted. But then she asked if she wasn't ready by then if she could do it another day. We decided that that is a good sign because she wants to be ready and she wants to be baptized. It's the day that is the problem not anything else and I totally understand that. So uh.. yeah that makes two of our incredible investigators getting baptized.
And then it was Saturday night. Keep in mind these two girls have to got to church both on the 4th and on the 11th to be baptized on the Dia de Blanco. So first we call Yasmin. Nicole had offered to give her a ride but we just wanted to make sure everythng was still going smooth. But Yasmin doesn't answer the phone. Then we call Alejandra. We were more worried about her because she had told us she might not be able to because she might have to babysit her three year old brother. We told her to bring her brother but she said she would have to talk with her parents. Alejandra did not answer her phone either. Needless to say, we were more than a little nervous. We got home and we started half heartedly planning for the next day when Yasmin finally calls us back. SHE CAN COME! Woot! Then when we got off the phone with her we saw we had a missed call from Alejandra. She does have to babysit her little brother and her dad is very very catholic and doesn't want her bring him to a Mormon church. Poor girl could totally hear the disappointment in my voice when I asked her if she had any other options. She said normally she would leave him with a cousin but the cousin can't this week but she will def be there next week. We hung up and Hna Muse and I just stared at each other about to give up when we decided that we did not fast for four days out of this week for nothing! (Okay maybe we went a little overboard on fasting but this is really important to us.) So we call our district leader Elder Powell and ask him for advice. He tells us that maybe we can find a member to wait outside of the chapel during Sacrament meeting with the little boy. So we call her back and we tell her his idea and she said that she had to talk to her mom. So she hangs up again and we just stare at the phone. By this time it is like 11:15. She calls again and asks another question then hangs up again. I don't think either of us breathed. We knelt down and prayed that somehow she would be able to come. Then she calledback and guess what? SHE CAN COME! We hung up with her and just started screaming then we called Elder Powell and he said he and his companion and just finished praying for her too. It was so powerful.
And they actually came too. Alejandra left her brother at her mom's work for an hour while she was at church. Yasmin came with Nicole y familia. It was testimony meeting and all the testimonies were amazing. And perfect for our investigators. We even had an unexpected investigator show up.This old man José Rafael that neither of us really enjoy teaching because he never stops talking but I guess we should really appreciate him more. And they all really seemed to enjoy it.
So after church we got home and we started counting up our numbers for the week (Sunday is at the end of the week in the Spanish calendar). Our mission has this thing called Standards of Excellence. They are standards of things like how many lessons taught, new investigators acquired, investigators in Sacrament meeting and baptismal dates set during the week to be excellent missionaries. To give you an idea of how hard they are to reach Hermana Muse has never gotten standards of excellence in her entire mission and she goes home in a few months. And we realized that week we were one baptismal fecha (date) away from reaching the standards. We were crazy happy with how well we had done. So we gave our numbers to our district leader and went merrily on our way to visit members perfectly content with ourselves. Then a few hours later our zone leaders call and basically orders us to go make another fecha because we "have to" make standards. We decided to buck up and try. So We basically went by every single one of our investigators and nobody had time for us. Then we went by every single person we had contacted in the street that week and nobody had time for us. We were kind of disappointed but by that time it was 10:15 and we are supposed to be home at the very latest at 10:45 so we decided to just be happy with what we had and start to make our way home. And then the APs called us. They asked us what we were doing and told us that in the next 30 minutes we had to do everything we could to find somebody to challenge to baptism. We thought they were crazy. And then Hermana Muse asked them if they thought we should try just talking to people in the street or knocking doors. They said we should get on our knees and crawl to them. So that's what we did. We went to an allyway and prayed. After the prayer I turned around and walked to an apartment complex and pushed on the door and by some miracle it was unlocked. So we just started knocking doors. People we kind of angry actually that we were bothering them so late so we went back to the street and prayed again, and then we just started walking in the direction of our piso and talking about baptism. Needless to say we mostly just talked to a lot of catholics about the "original sin." We were so desperate and about to give up when we stopped this one lady. We broke the ice with her and found out she was cuban and believed strongly in Jesus Christ but she always regretted that she never got baptized. I stopped breathing. Hermana Muse pulled out the restoration pamphlet and we taught the whole lesson right there in the street. We recited the first vision and everything. We got to the part about how our church has the authority of God and asked her how important it would be to be baptized by someone who had the proper authority to baptize. She said it would be really important. So then I asked her if she would follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone holding the authority of God on the 18th of May (I just added seven to 11 right there on the spot) her response? "Claro! Bautizarme!" translated baisically she ordered us to baptize her. We did not speak the entire way walking home. When we got home we called the APs back and they started screaming. We started screaming. Elder Walker told us this was going in his journal. It is def going in mine. Then we called the Zone Leaders. A lot more screaming went down. Elder Rojas asked us to share it in our next zone meeting. Then we called our District Leader. More screaming. He told us that finding a cuban means we will have a ton of baptisms. Then the SHES called us and said the APs told them they had to but they wouldn't tell them why so we got to tell the whole story over again and told us that this was the miracle of Semana de Consagración. We went to bed happy.
This morning President Deere texted us and congratulated us.
And so now here I am on an old computer reliving it all. I hope i was able to communicate how incredible this all was. Now we just have to work twice as hard this week to make sure Alejandra and Yasmin are ready for baptism. I am crazy excited. Life is good.
Talk to you next week!
Hermana Hannah Ashby
I think I learned more this week than I have ever learned in my life. This week of consecration was really something. Through faith and prayer we saw miracles.
Last Monday after Pday (well I guess it was during the end of pday) we went to the American's house and taught a lesson to their 8 year old daughter Claire who is about to get baptized. And I had a realization. The mom (Nicole) was telling us about her study abroad she did in India before her mission and I realized that exactly a year ago I was still in high school. Like this is crazy that I am out here doing what I am doing fresh out of high school. I made the mistake of saying that out load to this family and they all just burst into laughter. Like really? You were in high school last year?! They didn't talk about anything else all night. By the time we left I was feeling a little inadequate. Like I am too young to be doing this. But that's not really true. Whom the Lord calls he qualifies, because this week was spectacular.
I think I am going to do this a little out of order to make it flow a little better. Friday night we were finally able to meet with Yasmin again. We brought Nicole and her twelve year old daughter with us because Nicole is Primary president and we really kind of wanted a mom's opinion on whether or not we were going to offend Diana by baptizing Yasmin without her. So we started the lesson (Gospel of Jesus Christ=Faith,repentance, baptism, Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end) and it was going great and Yasmin and Addy (Nicole's daughter) were really hitting it off and Yasmin kept bearing her testimony of the things that we were teaching before we even taught them and it was great and then we got to baptism and Diana walks in. Diana pulled us way off topic and suddenly everything was crazy and she tells us all these stories about her job and things that have happened since we saw her last and everything and we were worried we were never going to get to challenge Yasmin to baptism until finally Hermana Muse asked Diana how she would feel if Yasmin wanted to get baptized into our church. It was a miracle. She said she would be really happy for her because baptism is really important and she is eleven so she is old enough to make her own decision about it now. I think even Nicole was shocked. So we turned back to Yasmin and kind of told her why we are baptized and asked if that is what she wanted. She said yes. Then we told her that we are going to have a baptismal service the 11 of May and then we pulled out a baptismal calendar we had made for her and told her the qualifications for baptism and we promised that if she did all of these things she would be ready. She seemed really excited and Diana seemes happy. It was amazing. It is really going to happen.
Remember Alejandra? I think I must have mentioned her last week. But we basically didn't find her until last Sunday. We have been teaching her almost every day since and she is amazing. There was a ward barbecue on Thursday and we brought her with us. The members were absolutely amazing. All of the young adults (there is an odd amount of young adults in this ward) just kind of gathered her up with them and got her to play football and jump rope then they made her eat with them and they all traded numbers and facebook info and Hermana Muse and I were just bouncing with excitement watching it all unfold. So then we prayed about wether we should challenge her to be baptized on the 11th too and we decided she was ready. So Friday we went to her house and just started asking her about how she has felt about everything so far and she was just glowing with happiness and telling us how she agrees with everything we have said and so we did it. She seemed a little surprised about how soon we wanted to do it but she accepted. But then she asked if she wasn't ready by then if she could do it another day. We decided that that is a good sign because she wants to be ready and she wants to be baptized. It's the day that is the problem not anything else and I totally understand that. So uh.. yeah that makes two of our incredible investigators getting baptized.
And then it was Saturday night. Keep in mind these two girls have to got to church both on the 4th and on the 11th to be baptized on the Dia de Blanco. So first we call Yasmin. Nicole had offered to give her a ride but we just wanted to make sure everythng was still going smooth. But Yasmin doesn't answer the phone. Then we call Alejandra. We were more worried about her because she had told us she might not be able to because she might have to babysit her three year old brother. We told her to bring her brother but she said she would have to talk with her parents. Alejandra did not answer her phone either. Needless to say, we were more than a little nervous. We got home and we started half heartedly planning for the next day when Yasmin finally calls us back. SHE CAN COME! Woot! Then when we got off the phone with her we saw we had a missed call from Alejandra. She does have to babysit her little brother and her dad is very very catholic and doesn't want her bring him to a Mormon church. Poor girl could totally hear the disappointment in my voice when I asked her if she had any other options. She said normally she would leave him with a cousin but the cousin can't this week but she will def be there next week. We hung up and Hna Muse and I just stared at each other about to give up when we decided that we did not fast for four days out of this week for nothing! (Okay maybe we went a little overboard on fasting but this is really important to us.) So we call our district leader Elder Powell and ask him for advice. He tells us that maybe we can find a member to wait outside of the chapel during Sacrament meeting with the little boy. So we call her back and we tell her his idea and she said that she had to talk to her mom. So she hangs up again and we just stare at the phone. By this time it is like 11:15. She calls again and asks another question then hangs up again. I don't think either of us breathed. We knelt down and prayed that somehow she would be able to come. Then she calledback and guess what? SHE CAN COME! We hung up with her and just started screaming then we called Elder Powell and he said he and his companion and just finished praying for her too. It was so powerful.
And they actually came too. Alejandra left her brother at her mom's work for an hour while she was at church. Yasmin came with Nicole y familia. It was testimony meeting and all the testimonies were amazing. And perfect for our investigators. We even had an unexpected investigator show up.This old man José Rafael that neither of us really enjoy teaching because he never stops talking but I guess we should really appreciate him more. And they all really seemed to enjoy it.
So after church we got home and we started counting up our numbers for the week (Sunday is at the end of the week in the Spanish calendar). Our mission has this thing called Standards of Excellence. They are standards of things like how many lessons taught, new investigators acquired, investigators in Sacrament meeting and baptismal dates set during the week to be excellent missionaries. To give you an idea of how hard they are to reach Hermana Muse has never gotten standards of excellence in her entire mission and she goes home in a few months. And we realized that week we were one baptismal fecha (date) away from reaching the standards. We were crazy happy with how well we had done. So we gave our numbers to our district leader and went merrily on our way to visit members perfectly content with ourselves. Then a few hours later our zone leaders call and basically orders us to go make another fecha because we "have to" make standards. We decided to buck up and try. So We basically went by every single one of our investigators and nobody had time for us. Then we went by every single person we had contacted in the street that week and nobody had time for us. We were kind of disappointed but by that time it was 10:15 and we are supposed to be home at the very latest at 10:45 so we decided to just be happy with what we had and start to make our way home. And then the APs called us. They asked us what we were doing and told us that in the next 30 minutes we had to do everything we could to find somebody to challenge to baptism. We thought they were crazy. And then Hermana Muse asked them if they thought we should try just talking to people in the street or knocking doors. They said we should get on our knees and crawl to them. So that's what we did. We went to an allyway and prayed. After the prayer I turned around and walked to an apartment complex and pushed on the door and by some miracle it was unlocked. So we just started knocking doors. People we kind of angry actually that we were bothering them so late so we went back to the street and prayed again, and then we just started walking in the direction of our piso and talking about baptism. Needless to say we mostly just talked to a lot of catholics about the "original sin." We were so desperate and about to give up when we stopped this one lady. We broke the ice with her and found out she was cuban and believed strongly in Jesus Christ but she always regretted that she never got baptized. I stopped breathing. Hermana Muse pulled out the restoration pamphlet and we taught the whole lesson right there in the street. We recited the first vision and everything. We got to the part about how our church has the authority of God and asked her how important it would be to be baptized by someone who had the proper authority to baptize. She said it would be really important. So then I asked her if she would follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone holding the authority of God on the 18th of May (I just added seven to 11 right there on the spot) her response? "Claro! Bautizarme!" translated baisically she ordered us to baptize her. We did not speak the entire way walking home. When we got home we called the APs back and they started screaming. We started screaming. Elder Walker told us this was going in his journal. It is def going in mine. Then we called the Zone Leaders. A lot more screaming went down. Elder Rojas asked us to share it in our next zone meeting. Then we called our District Leader. More screaming. He told us that finding a cuban means we will have a ton of baptisms. Then the SHES called us and said the APs told them they had to but they wouldn't tell them why so we got to tell the whole story over again and told us that this was the miracle of Semana de Consagración. We went to bed happy.
This morning President Deere texted us and congratulated us.
And so now here I am on an old computer reliving it all. I hope i was able to communicate how incredible this all was. Now we just have to work twice as hard this week to make sure Alejandra and Yasmin are ready for baptism. I am crazy excited. Life is good.
Talk to you next week!
Hermana Hannah Ashby
Monday, April 28, 2014
Bendiciones
Hola!
So we did intercambios again this week with the SHEs in Málaga. I can´t actually remember what their official title is anymore, but yeah. This time Hna Flake came here with me. I was super nervous that I wouldn't be able to get anywhere by myself but it turns out Grana was actually Hna Flake's first area too. It was fun to hear her stories about the members and everything and I actually had planned on visiting her favorite member that day anyways. It was a lot of fun and I feel like I learned a lot from her in just that short amount of time. She also showed me where to find the best ice cream on the planet. Like literally it is so good. I have been there twice now with Hna Muse. mmm
Yasmin came to our Noche de Diversión this week! We made temples out of marshmallows so of course she had fun. Then afterwards we gave her a tour of the Stake Center. When we walked into the chapel and turned on the lights we could all feel the spirit so strong. I finally broke the silence and asked Yasmin how she felt when she was in that room and she said she felt so much peace and like she couldn't think any bad thoughts at all. Then we showed her the baptismal fount and she got really excited and asked us all kinds of questions about our baptismal service. Hna Muse and I were planning on challenging her to get baptized on the 10th this past Friday but she was grounded and couldn't meet with us. and then she was supposed to come with us to church on Sunday but her mom called us Saturday night and apologized but she wasn't going to let Yasmin come with us to church either because she wasn't being responsible enough at home. But Diana promised us that she would let her come with us next week and we are meeting with Yasmin again tomorrow. As long as her mom is okay with it we are thinking we are going to challenge her to be baptized on the 11th instead. Both of us really feel like she is ready.
So we are all cutting this Día de Blanco thing a little short. Especially since to get baptized an investigator first has to attend church twice so we basically have no one. So Hna Muse and I are thinking of throwing that out the window and changing it to a White Weekend. Why limit ourselves to one day, right?
Okay here is another cool story: We had a lesson with this inactive member mom (Glenda) and her 16 year old daughter Romina (who has not been baptized) on Saturday. We taught the Restoration lesson and it went really well and we were closing up and then Romina asked if she could ask us a question. She said she thought she was watching a documentary and she found out that heaven was a tree. We just looked at her like she was insane and we asked what documentary she was watching and then she changed it to saying she must have read it in the bible or something about a spititual tree that everyone has to get to and eat from to get to heaven. And so then we asked where she read that in the bible (cuz it isn't anywhere I have seen ) and she told us that actually it was a dream that she had and she just wanted to know if we knew what it meant. She continued to describe that in her dream there was a ton of dark fog but then a big glowing tree and a straight path to this tree and people kept getting lost in the fog but it was everyone's goal to make it to the tree so that they could go to heaven. Hna Muse and I kind of just looked at each other because we had literally just been studying Lehi's Dream that morning during comp study. Hna Muse opened up her scriptures to 1 Nephi 8 where she glued in a picture of Lehi's Dream and then Romina's eyes got really big and she just kept saying "That's my dream! That's my dream!" So we told her what it was and where she could read it. Then she said to us "So, if my dream was in this book than that means this book is true and that means listening to you two is the true path that I need to follow, doesn't it?" We were like "Uhhh yeah. Exactly." I am not making this up. She had Lehi's Dream. She is getting baptized. Eventually. Just wow.
Last night we had an amazing lesson too. We had an appointment with this lady who canceled on us (of course) so we were going through are list of possible future investigators and just kind of knocking doors when we remembered that we had forgotten to call this girl we had met on the street a couple of weeks ago. So we call this girl (Alejandra) and she tells us she had tried calling us before but the number she had was wrong but she really wanted to meet with us that night. That is weird because people don't normally try calling us, let alone asking us for an appointment! Obviously we didn't have anything better to do so we went to her apartment. We had inconveniently given away our last copy of The Book of Mormon to this guy earlier that day so we didn't have another one to give her and teach her about (that is normally our first lesson). So we decided to go with teaching her the Plan of Salvation. She was extremely receptive to everything we said and asked really thoughtful questions about it and agreed to everything we said. So then at the end we told her about the Celestial Kingdom and how we will be with our families and Heavenly Father there. And she really liked what we were saying so I decided to go for it a challenge her to be baptized. And she accepted right away!!!! We didn't give her an actual date because well.. the 11th is honestly a little soon and to commit her to it after the first lesson but fingers crossed. We meet with her again on Thursday.
Which brings me to another amazing miracle. Yesterday started the week of Consecration for my mission. We are all consecrating absolutely all of our work,time, and efforts to God this week. The Granada district will be fasting twice and we are all going to be exactly obedient (that includes not saying fetch). And Hna Muse and I have already had something amazing happen. Starting tonight, We have an appointment every single hour possible this week. We are completely booked. We are thinking about taking out medio dia to fit more people in. This has never happened to me before. Remember that week when Hna Parrilla and I only had 5 lessons in one week? well we already had three yesterday. This is insanity. Semana De Consagración = Semana de Milagros all leading up to our fin de semana blanca. I am Pumped.
I love you all and miss you! Don't forget to write me!
Hermana Hannah Ashby
Here are some pictures from Semana Santa! (Holy Week)
So we did intercambios again this week with the SHEs in Málaga. I can´t actually remember what their official title is anymore, but yeah. This time Hna Flake came here with me. I was super nervous that I wouldn't be able to get anywhere by myself but it turns out Grana was actually Hna Flake's first area too. It was fun to hear her stories about the members and everything and I actually had planned on visiting her favorite member that day anyways. It was a lot of fun and I feel like I learned a lot from her in just that short amount of time. She also showed me where to find the best ice cream on the planet. Like literally it is so good. I have been there twice now with Hna Muse. mmm
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| A "live worm" vending machine |
So we are all cutting this Día de Blanco thing a little short. Especially since to get baptized an investigator first has to attend church twice so we basically have no one. So Hna Muse and I are thinking of throwing that out the window and changing it to a White Weekend. Why limit ourselves to one day, right?
Okay here is another cool story: We had a lesson with this inactive member mom (Glenda) and her 16 year old daughter Romina (who has not been baptized) on Saturday. We taught the Restoration lesson and it went really well and we were closing up and then Romina asked if she could ask us a question. She said she thought she was watching a documentary and she found out that heaven was a tree. We just looked at her like she was insane and we asked what documentary she was watching and then she changed it to saying she must have read it in the bible or something about a spititual tree that everyone has to get to and eat from to get to heaven. And so then we asked where she read that in the bible (cuz it isn't anywhere I have seen ) and she told us that actually it was a dream that she had and she just wanted to know if we knew what it meant. She continued to describe that in her dream there was a ton of dark fog but then a big glowing tree and a straight path to this tree and people kept getting lost in the fog but it was everyone's goal to make it to the tree so that they could go to heaven. Hna Muse and I kind of just looked at each other because we had literally just been studying Lehi's Dream that morning during comp study. Hna Muse opened up her scriptures to 1 Nephi 8 where she glued in a picture of Lehi's Dream and then Romina's eyes got really big and she just kept saying "That's my dream! That's my dream!" So we told her what it was and where she could read it. Then she said to us "So, if my dream was in this book than that means this book is true and that means listening to you two is the true path that I need to follow, doesn't it?" We were like "Uhhh yeah. Exactly." I am not making this up. She had Lehi's Dream. She is getting baptized. Eventually. Just wow.
Last night we had an amazing lesson too. We had an appointment with this lady who canceled on us (of course) so we were going through are list of possible future investigators and just kind of knocking doors when we remembered that we had forgotten to call this girl we had met on the street a couple of weeks ago. So we call this girl (Alejandra) and she tells us she had tried calling us before but the number she had was wrong but she really wanted to meet with us that night. That is weird because people don't normally try calling us, let alone asking us for an appointment! Obviously we didn't have anything better to do so we went to her apartment. We had inconveniently given away our last copy of The Book of Mormon to this guy earlier that day so we didn't have another one to give her and teach her about (that is normally our first lesson). So we decided to go with teaching her the Plan of Salvation. She was extremely receptive to everything we said and asked really thoughtful questions about it and agreed to everything we said. So then at the end we told her about the Celestial Kingdom and how we will be with our families and Heavenly Father there. And she really liked what we were saying so I decided to go for it a challenge her to be baptized. And she accepted right away!!!! We didn't give her an actual date because well.. the 11th is honestly a little soon and to commit her to it after the first lesson but fingers crossed. We meet with her again on Thursday.Which brings me to another amazing miracle. Yesterday started the week of Consecration for my mission. We are all consecrating absolutely all of our work,time, and efforts to God this week. The Granada district will be fasting twice and we are all going to be exactly obedient (that includes not saying fetch). And Hna Muse and I have already had something amazing happen. Starting tonight, We have an appointment every single hour possible this week. We are completely booked. We are thinking about taking out medio dia to fit more people in. This has never happened to me before. Remember that week when Hna Parrilla and I only had 5 lessons in one week? well we already had three yesterday. This is insanity. Semana De Consagración = Semana de Milagros all leading up to our fin de semana blanca. I am Pumped.
I love you all and miss you! Don't forget to write me!
Hermana Hannah Ashby
Here are some pictures from Semana Santa! (Holy Week)
Monday, April 21, 2014
Semana Santa
´Sup!
This week was not as exciting. Time is actually going by really fast. I hope that that is a good thing.
We got five new investigators by Tuesday and we were psyched but then once again every single one of them dropped us by Sunday. We are suddenly having crazy success finding investigators... but keeping them is a problem. Nobody likes commitment. I am willing to take advice here.
Another issue that we had this week is Semana Santa. Okay really it was super cool. Basically, because it is Easter week, all of Spain was out on the streets and there were parades every day and just lots of festivities. But all of that is sort of an issue for missionaries who are trying to visit people. Nobody was home all week, including members. And contacting was awful because, well, normally everyone here is an unpracting catholic or catholic by tradition but they are suddenly very practicing during semana santa. It might also have something to do with the alcohol that was being sold on every street corner. Apparently the celebrations are one of the biggest in Granada. Claro.
So we have this investigator that I like to call our eternal investigator. She is this old spanish lady named Araceli. she has been visited on and off by the missionaries for (get this) 18 years. And I totally get why nobody has officially dropped her. She totally has a testimony and she reads out of the Book of Mormon when we ask her to and she comes to church every once and a while and everything. But she refuses to pray. I think her problem is that she just is afraid that we are right and she will have to do something about it. So everytime we go and visit her we do it with the intention to drop her. She doesn't want to change and she has her agency. But every time we go, we either have a really spiritual lesson and she progresses just a tiny bit or she buys us something. This time she gave me a spanish grammar book from the sixties but our lesson was kind of a mess. She told us that there was no possible way that she could believe in Adam and Eve. So I asked if she had prayed about it. Of course she hadn't. So I pulled out a scripture. Well, I had read this scripture in my personal study earlier in the morning (in english)and it talked about praying but I couldn't really remember exactly what it said. and so I pulled it out and skimmed through it in spanish and it seemed good enough so I had her read it. But About half way through I realized it says something about people not praying and not receiving answers because of the hardness of their hearts. SO AWKWARD. But then she finished reading and I didn't know what to say and I just felt guilty (even though it is totally true) and she turned to me and just said, "That's true I have a hard heart. That's why I haven't received answers." This is me. Welp... yeah. So we called her the next morning and she had prayed and she said she felt peaceful. So I geuss we arent going to drop her yet.
Yesterday I heard the best talk of my life. It was the bishop's daughter's first talk (she just turned 12 this week) and it was probably 1 mintute long at most and it ended with "este es mi testimonio y yá está" which means "this is my testimony and that's it" and then she sat down. She said a lot more than I could've in Spanish.
We visited Yasmine last night por fin. I really think that she is going to be baptized in the near future still. I have never seen someone with a stronger desire to know the truth. She is so precious.
This morning we just kind of wondered through the city and it was pouring rain. But it was fun.
And this this lady was trying to get us to rent segways and so she let each of us take a turn riding one. soooo much fun. I think I might actually rent one one of these days....
So thats it!
Love
Hermana Ashby
This week was not as exciting. Time is actually going by really fast. I hope that that is a good thing.
We got five new investigators by Tuesday and we were psyched but then once again every single one of them dropped us by Sunday. We are suddenly having crazy success finding investigators... but keeping them is a problem. Nobody likes commitment. I am willing to take advice here.
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| Hannah's "chapa" in front of the Alahambra |
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| Granada |
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| Hannah and Hermana Muse in their new Easter clothes that they bought at the "Chino" |
Yesterday I heard the best talk of my life. It was the bishop's daughter's first talk (she just turned 12 this week) and it was probably 1 mintute long at most and it ended with "este es mi testimonio y yá está" which means "this is my testimony and that's it" and then she sat down. She said a lot more than I could've in Spanish.
We visited Yasmine last night por fin. I really think that she is going to be baptized in the near future still. I have never seen someone with a stronger desire to know the truth. She is so precious.
This morning we just kind of wondered through the city and it was pouring rain. But it was fun. And this this lady was trying to get us to rent segways and so she let each of us take a turn riding one. soooo much fun. I think I might actually rent one one of these days....
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| Trying not to slip |
Love
Hermana Ashby
Monday, April 14, 2014
Creo en El Sol
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| Hannah's first district |
This week was just a roller coaster. So much has happened but I don't even know what to write about.
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| The fountain around the corner from their piso |
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| Hannah's poor sunburnt legs |
So now for a funny story. We were studying one morning and our doorbell rang. Well, that was weird because we are missionaries and we are usually on the other side of the door. I didn't even realize we had a doorbell until then. I looked at Hna Muse expecting her to go answer it because I don't speak Spanish but she just stared at me like you can do it so I grumpily shuffled around the corner and opened the door and this little old NUN was standing there. I was in shock. She said "somos las hermanitas de las pobres" and then something about wanting money so I said "somos las missionaras y no tenemos dinero." Her eyes got really big and she pointed to the picture of Jesus Christ that we have on our door and asked me what it meant so I told her that it is JesuCristo and I turned around to show her another picture that we have on our wall and she pushed her way into our apartment. I repeat, the nun was in our apartment. She went strait to our table with all of our pass along cards and just started sayin "que bointo, que bonito" and proceeded to take one of every single pass along card. I mean, some of them it made sense that she would like them because they had pictures of christ and say things like "faith brings hope" but she even took the ones that have a picture of Joseph Smith and say "the truth was restored spring 1820" sort of an awkward thing for a nun to want, but whatever. Then her companion comes into our apartment and looks at all of our stuff and they both just say "que bonito" over and over again and FINALLY Hna Muse comes in and her faced just looks soooo confused and then the nuns leave. Hna Muse asked "what in the world just happened" it feels like a crazy dream. That was the morning the Mormon missionaries had Catholic nuns in their apartment.
Now I guess I'll say what happened when we tried to go visit Orlando again. Orlando was the man that approached us on the street. SO we went back to his little spot and he had a friend there. His friend told us that Orlando was busy so we thought maybe we could teach the friend. Well the first question that we asked him was if he believed in God. He just looked at us and said he believed in the sun and then tried to tell us about the special powers that the sun has. We nodded and told him to tell Orlando that we stopped by. He was just a little much.
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| The river just outside their piso. |
So we basically have to start over this week. We really need miracles if we are going to have 3 baptisms on the 10th of May. I don't even know where we are going to start. But that is okay. Heavenly Father is preparing people.
Now I am officially out of time. Write you next week.
Love Always,
Hannah
Monday, April 7, 2014
Estamos Aquí en Graná
Queridos Todos,
I had a realization this week. I am not in Granada (she said in a very thick American accent) I am serving in Graná. I don´t know how I missed that one. I LOVE when the locals cut off the ends of their words. I even have a hard time not laughing when people tell me they don't have time "pá ná." Fetching hilarious.
I can hardly even remember the beginning of this week. Lets see.... I went and had tapas with Hna Parrilla! You just go into a restaurant and tell the waiter that you want tapas and they just bring you out random miniature dishes until you tell them to stop. My favorites were these chicken on a stick thingys. My least favorite was the rabbit. That's right I ate rabbit. Except I didn't know I was eating rabbit. I asked Hna Parrilla if it was pork or something and she said she thought it was chicken and it was obviously not chicken to me so I told her she could have the rest and then later on I asked if it was rabbit and she was like "oh yeah that makes sense now! I love rabbit!" Crazy spaniards :P
So then on Wednesday Hna Parrilla was gone and Hna Muse came. Just incase you were wondering I was indeed able to find our piso from the bus station. Every thing else I found with a map. Hna Muse is great. Shes a super hard worker. Honestly kind of the oppisite of Hna Parrila. She is going to take some getting used to, but I think that we are going to have a ton of success this transfer. I can just feel it.
Our ward wants so badly to be two wards and they all expect the missionaries to start kicking it up and have a like a million baptisms. Our ward mission leader decided to set a Dia Blanco for us. He wants each companionship to have three baptisms on May 10th. We are going to fast every Tuesday for it and ask a different family every week to fast with us. I am super excited. Miracles are possible.
Speaking of miracles who watched Conference this weekend? I know I did! Conference was Amazing! The Saturday morning session I watched live and in english on a computer in the chapel at like 6 pm. then we had to wait to watch the Saturday afternoon until 2 the next day. There is an American family temporarily living in our ward and they invited all of the missionaries over and we ate classic american food and watched Conference in english. You have no idea how comforting that was. And it was probably my favorite session. Some super fuerte talks. But Hna Muse and I couldn't watch the next session in english because we brought an investigator with us! Sacrifice right? In fact, our investigotor called us TWICE to see when it was. I honestly don't know what made her suddenly so excited but it was a miracle. I even understood most of the talks. I love Conference. Sunday night we got special permission to stay up in the capilla to watch the last session. But about ten minutes before the computer crashed with some kind of crazy virus. All of the elders were surrounding it and trying to figure out what was happening. They spent probably 45 minutes there until finally I was just like "why don't we pray?" They all kind of turned around and looked at me and I said "um we are missionaries. We are supposed to pray" we all got down on our knees right there and prayed. Then we stood up and sure enough the computer was working. Not going to lie, we were all in shock. Everyone highfived me. Prayers are answered.
And that's pretty much all I have to say right now. I am still loving Graná. After we left the American family's house we overlooked the city ( they live on a mountain) and Hna Muse said "we live in the coolest city in the world" And it's true.
I love you and miss you!
Hermana Hannah Ashby
I had a realization this week. I am not in Granada (she said in a very thick American accent) I am serving in Graná. I don´t know how I missed that one. I LOVE when the locals cut off the ends of their words. I even have a hard time not laughing when people tell me they don't have time "pá ná." Fetching hilarious.
I can hardly even remember the beginning of this week. Lets see.... I went and had tapas with Hna Parrilla! You just go into a restaurant and tell the waiter that you want tapas and they just bring you out random miniature dishes until you tell them to stop. My favorites were these chicken on a stick thingys. My least favorite was the rabbit. That's right I ate rabbit. Except I didn't know I was eating rabbit. I asked Hna Parrilla if it was pork or something and she said she thought it was chicken and it was obviously not chicken to me so I told her she could have the rest and then later on I asked if it was rabbit and she was like "oh yeah that makes sense now! I love rabbit!" Crazy spaniards :P
So then on Wednesday Hna Parrilla was gone and Hna Muse came. Just incase you were wondering I was indeed able to find our piso from the bus station. Every thing else I found with a map. Hna Muse is great. Shes a super hard worker. Honestly kind of the oppisite of Hna Parrila. She is going to take some getting used to, but I think that we are going to have a ton of success this transfer. I can just feel it.
Our ward wants so badly to be two wards and they all expect the missionaries to start kicking it up and have a like a million baptisms. Our ward mission leader decided to set a Dia Blanco for us. He wants each companionship to have three baptisms on May 10th. We are going to fast every Tuesday for it and ask a different family every week to fast with us. I am super excited. Miracles are possible.
Speaking of miracles who watched Conference this weekend? I know I did! Conference was Amazing! The Saturday morning session I watched live and in english on a computer in the chapel at like 6 pm. then we had to wait to watch the Saturday afternoon until 2 the next day. There is an American family temporarily living in our ward and they invited all of the missionaries over and we ate classic american food and watched Conference in english. You have no idea how comforting that was. And it was probably my favorite session. Some super fuerte talks. But Hna Muse and I couldn't watch the next session in english because we brought an investigator with us! Sacrifice right? In fact, our investigotor called us TWICE to see when it was. I honestly don't know what made her suddenly so excited but it was a miracle. I even understood most of the talks. I love Conference. Sunday night we got special permission to stay up in the capilla to watch the last session. But about ten minutes before the computer crashed with some kind of crazy virus. All of the elders were surrounding it and trying to figure out what was happening. They spent probably 45 minutes there until finally I was just like "why don't we pray?" They all kind of turned around and looked at me and I said "um we are missionaries. We are supposed to pray" we all got down on our knees right there and prayed. Then we stood up and sure enough the computer was working. Not going to lie, we were all in shock. Everyone highfived me. Prayers are answered.
And that's pretty much all I have to say right now. I am still loving Graná. After we left the American family's house we overlooked the city ( they live on a mountain) and Hna Muse said "we live in the coolest city in the world" And it's true.
I love you and miss you!
Hermana Hannah Ashby
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