Barcelona & Pictures!

Dear Friends and Family,

I´m in Barcelona!!!! But I guess I will get to that later.

Friday night: My teacher set up the most wonderful opportunity to teach new converts. He didn´t tell us ANYTHING about it before hand, not what we should study or talk about, not how long to take, nor their background. It was a wonderful experience. They were so good at seeming like investigators because that was what they were only a couple of months ago.

Saturday: Proselyting was much better today! We went to the park which is always a lot less intimidating than Goya because people are more likely to be with their families and just strolling around rather than in Goya where people seem to all be on a mission (that phrase might be a little confusing in this context. I mean it in a non-lds way). There weren´t as many people in the park because it was an overcast and kind of chilly day but we were able to talk to many people. We tried to never go even one minute without talking to someone and I think we did a really good job. There was a big marathon in Madrid the next day so there were a lot of people from different countries. I talked to people from Bulgaria, Venezuela, Belgium, Ireland, England, U.S., Brazil, Australia, Germany, Japan, Romania, and of course Spain. At least that is what I can think of off the top of my head. It was really cool. Despite our best efforts though and some really good conversations about the church and the reason for commandments we only received one reference and passed out one Book of Mormon. I hesitate in saying only though because it really isn´t about a quota. We worked really hard and we were able to get a lot of people thinking. The girl we gave a Book of Mormon to is from Brazil and was so sweet and so excited to read the Book so I´m hopeful she´ll find light in it like I have. There was a man from Australia that I talked to for a little bit. He was in Madrid just to sightsee and wasn´t at all interested in hearing about religion but before we left I gave him a pass-along card with a picture of the Madrid temple and suggested it as a stop of his sight-seeing tour. When I told him that it was at the metro stop Pavones he couldn´t believe that such a beautiful building that was so close could fly under his radar. He was very excited to go see it. I don´t know if anything will come from that but it was just so cool to think that there is a way to connect with everyone. I know I have a long way to go before I get the hang of proselyting but I´m starting to find ways to connect with the people through their very diverse interests. This gospel is for everyone. One last thing about proselyting: the hardest part about helping people to come unto Christ is "being content." There are so many unhappy people that we talked to that say they don´t care about happiness only because they don´t know what is possible. It breaks my heart to see people pass up such an important thing because they have NO IDEA what they are missing.

To end an awesome stay at the MTC we had a talent show, a fireside with President Jackson (a friend of my mom´s and the Madrid Mission President), and a despedida (farewell with pizza and desserts). It was really fun but I don´t have too many details to share.

We took a high-speed train (approx. 186 miles/hour) at 6 am. It was breathtaking! We got to watch the sunrise and everything was so green. When we arrived in Spain we got to go to a castle on the top of MontJieu (or something like that, it´s Jew Mountain in Catalan). It had the most incredible view of the city and the ocean (and the cruise lines which made me pretty jealous not going to lie). Afterwards we dropped off our suitcases at the chapel, went to the mission home, had a delicious lunch of enchiladas, corn, salad chips & salsa, brownies & ice cream with hot fudge. It tasted amazing!!! We did some passport stuff, took pictures with the president, got mail, got interviewed by the president, met our companions for the evening (and who we will be staying with tonight), and here we are. Mine and Hma. Hopkins´s temporary companions for the night (so we are kind of in a foursome) told us that our piso is only a couple of blocks away from the Sagrada Familia which I was pretty excited about. As we got out of the metro the two companions just stopped facing towards us, I was confused why they stopped and was about to ask "soo...now where do we go" when one of them motioned behind us. Hma. Hopkins and I turned around and I think we might have actually jumped at how startled we were. We were right next to one of the biggest buildings I have ever seen! I can´t wait to go inside (hopefully I´ll have the opportunity sometime during my 18 months) it is unreal! They said it looks like a haunted house in the night and I can totally believe it.

Random things: My P-Day will be Monday from now on, I will have an hour and a half to email, I will find out tomorrow where I am serving and who my companion is, Barcelona is so tight (in a there is barely enough room to breathe type of way) but despite the Europeness of the tiny streets and the zillions of apartments (pisos) everywhere, it is not nearly as European looking as I expected at least building-wise. Madrid looked fake because it was so European looking.

Well now we are going to the singing with Angels where all of the missionaries nearby and some of the recent converts sing in a plaza together to bid the missionaries farewell that are leaving tomorrow. Should be beautiful.

Love you all,

Hermana Tuttle

 

 

 

MTC Excursion to Real Madrid Soccer Stadium

This excerpt is from another blog but has plenty of pictures of our very own Sister Tuttle-

All of you Soccer (or futbol as it's really called) Fans can eat your hearts out. On Thursday, preparation day for the missionaries in the MTC, we have outings in the afternoon for those that are interested in seeing some of the sights around this magnificent city. Today 13 missionaries, myself and 2 staff members took the Metro and toured the legendary home of Real Madrid Soccer. The name of the stadium is Santiago Bernabeu (sorry, I don't know what the name stands for; maybe one of you soccer aficionados can tell us).
If there are parents who occasionally check our blog and your son or daughter is not in this posting,           I apologize. I can only go on one outing each Thursday and these are the missionaries that went today to Real Madrid, so maybe next week I'll be with a different group. There are currently 65 missionaries and tomorrow 8 more arrive from the U.S., and then next week 11 from Italy. Things will get interesting because the MTC was originally built to house 72. Thus begins the wave, or tsunami, of missionaries.    It's exciting but hectic.

Leaving the MTC for our Outing.

In the foreground, Hermano Cuesca, in charge of exercise program and related activities.

 

At the Stadium.

Sister Noakes is something of a soccer fanatic, having played at the high school,

collegiate and club levels

Group Picture Outside the Stadium, called Estadio Santiago Bernabeu

 

Going into the Metro from Pavones, the Metro stop nearest the Temple.

Don't know what the artwork interpretation is supposed to be but the Sisters are creeped out by it.

 

Here we are, inside the stadium. The picture doesn't do it justice. It was breath-taking.

Notice the strange looking wheeled contraptions on the field in the lower right.

They were some sort of space age mega-lights used to enhance the growth of grass,

and they move slowly like giant sprinklers on alfalfa from one end of the pitch to the other.

I think it seats somewhere around 90,000.

All individual seats. No benches. Five levels and not a bad seat in the house.

 

 

There are long hallways filled with trophies of every size and description from the past glory days.

 

View of the Pitch from the VIP seats

 

More missionaries in the VIP seats

 

Sitting in the Team "dugout" where they sit during the game, right on the Pitch.

 

There was a life-sized team photo from last year's victorious team, so the missionaries assumed the "sitting" position (no real bench) while I took their picture.

 

There were more photos but that's probably enough to bore everyone who's either not a parent
or a soccer fan.

Last MTC Email

Hi Friends and Family,

So life is going well and very fast over in this part of the world. Not sure how it is over in Utah but I hope things are going great!...but really though, am I the only one that feels like I emailed two days ago?...weird.

So let’s start where we left off shall we? Last Thursday, post-emailing, we went to an art museum called Prado, it´s apparently the second largest art museum in Europe or something like that. It was awesome! You know what was even more awesome? I left my BYU student ID card in my wallet for some reason so I got in for free instead of having to pay $15. I was pretty excited. I´m not super into classical art but I still really liked it. It was crazy to see original paintings by Rembrandt and Goya and sculptures from the first century.

So not going to lie, proselyting is pretty stressful. I know any of you who have served missions are rolling your eyes and thinking “welcome to the mission field Tuttle” but in my defense at least when I get into the field I will be with a trainer. I love all of the sisters I have been  paired up with but they do the pairings so that those who have the most experience with the language are paired with those who are just beginning to learn it so it´s pretty intimidating to know that you are going to be the main mouthpiece for the companionship. Nevertheless, I decided to have a really good attitude going into this Saturday´s proselyting. I decided that even if all I got was rejections all day, I would work harder than I ever had and because of that it would be the best proselyting day yet. Well…Satan must have heard that because I´m not quite sure if it was the best day yet but it was definitely the hardest. I have had days when I was tired, I have had plenty of people scoff at me and make fun of me but this just felt like I was getting beaten up one side and down the other. My sweet companion just said hi to one man in particular as we were waiting to cross the street, he looked over, read my nametag then just started going off about how we should be in Mexico because people are dumber there and went on a little tangent about how we should be ashamed of ourselves and seriously I thought he was going to spit on us he looked at us with such disgust. Finally the signal turned green and the man walked away from us as if he had accomplished his life´s goal by telling off two twenty year old girls away. My companion, who is the sweetest girl and is just learning Spanish, asked me what he said and after I told her she started crying. And that was only the beginning. But that makes it sound like the day was awful, while it was the hardest it definitely had it´s upsides too. We passed out 2 copies of the Book of Mormon and several (probably 20) pass-along cards. The two men we gave book of mormons were so sweet and so excited! One was from Africa and he actually stopped us. He read Hma. Griffin´s name badge and kept saying “Memo! Memo!”  When I finally noticed that Hma. Griffin wasn´t walking with me I came back and started talking to the man. He kept saying “memo” but I kind of just ignored that and began telling him about the church. I finally figured out what he was saying when I pulled out the Book of Mormon and he pointed to Mormón and said “memo!” He was so excited to learn more about the book and he definitely made the day much better. There was also a really nice Muslim man that we talked to, he wasn´t interested but he was very sweet.

For physical activity on Saturday, the CCM hadn´t reserved the normal court we have so we went to a park a little further away where there was a concrete soccer court. There were 8 Spanish boys between the ages of 12 and 16 that were passing around and smoking a couple of cigarettes. We asked if we could play with them, and they said yes. We had a few more players on our team but they said it didn´t matter and it definitely didn´t! They were UNREAL! I couldn´t believe how accurate their passes and shots were and how much curve they had on them. It was really fun. So I have officially played fútbol with real Spaniards and Italians, I feel pretty cool.

We got a new roommate from Argentina who is going to Italy with 7 other missionaries that I think I mentioned last week who are from Italy, Peru, Ghana, and England. They are hilarious. I like having an Argentine roommate because she has the accent I grew up with! And she doesn´t know much English which makes it so fun because it forces me to speak Spanish all of the time and she even complimented me on how well I speak, she said she was really surprised that I hadn´t lived in Argentina for a time, which takes so much of the anxiety off of going to the field and made me feel so good.

I know this email is getting so long that I am probably chasing off readers so I´ll just mention one more thing. Sunday we got to watch Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration. It was INCREDIBLE! I had seen it before a few times but it is night and day different when you are on a mission. Watching it just made me realize that Joseph Smith really lived. I guess I had heard the story so many times that it became sort of like a tale in my mind rather than a history but he really did live and better than that he really did restore Christ´s gospel in it´s completeness on the earth. I read his history and D&C 135 afterwards and it was so powerful. I wish there was more I could read about him while in the field but unfortunately his histories and what not aren´t any of the four mission approved books (which I did just buy in Spanish because I completely spaced buying some before I came, can´t wait to start trying to read Jesus the Christ in Spanish).

I love you guys! As always, thank you for your love and support. Next time I email a big email I will be in the field…weird. Please keep me and all missionaries in your prayers. Have a great week! J

Hermana Tuttle

P.S Each Sunday night we sing in front of the temple. I don´t know who took this video it was either the temple matron or the first counselor in the MTC presidency.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuBwBJtyao0&sns=em&noredirect=1

4.18.13

Hey family and friends!

 What an awesome week! I was a little worried about my birthday. I thought that it would make me feel lonely and miss home but it was great! Obviously I still missed home but everyone was so sweet. My companion, Hma. Bracken decorated my door with Twix, then at breakfast some of the Hermanas surprised me with noise makers and a crown that my mom had apparently sent to Hma. Noakes. I probably got sung to 5 times during the day (one time was when the other zone was eating lunch, they were playing it on the piano and singing at the top of their lungs until they realized towards the end that I wasn´t even there because I was in a different zone). When I got back from breakfast, my bed was covered with twixes, balloons, and other treats  and “FELIZ CUMPLEAÑOS” hung above the window (more stuff that my mom had sent to Hma. Noakes). All throughout the day missionaries would come up to me and wish me a happy birthday. It was Sunday so it was already an awesome day but having it being my birthday made it even more amazing. Another plus of having my birthday in the MTC is that the days are super long! By 6pm it felt like my birthday had been going on for days, in fact someone asked if it was STILL my birthday and I laughed and thought about my family always complaining that I milk my birthday for all it´s worth and it goes on forever. Speaking of which, on Monday, my awesome teacher threw me a little party with cake so I did get to blow out a candle. It made me realize that, while of course I missed my family in Utah, I have family here too. In fact on the whiteboard in our classroom we wrote: My district is my family, the Lord is my light, and my family is my inspiration. That statement has become truer and truer over the weeks.

Speaking of weeks: Just 1 ½ more!!! It´s almost time to start sending letters to my mission home. I´ve learned so much here and I love all of the missionaries but I am excited to get out into the field. My Spanish is still far from perfect but I know it will get so much better when I have to speak it all of the time. Hma. Leavitt (my companion) is already off to Ukraine! I am so excited for her! She is going to be an amazing missionary!

Proselyting this week was wonderful. We went to the park again and I handed out 4 copies of the Book of Mormon and about 30 pass along cards and 5 The Family: A Proclamation to the World. We, Hma. Muse and I, talked to a couple from Switzerland for a while which was awesome because it was the first time I have been able to talk in English to someone while proselyting. We talked to them for about a half hour. They were holding pretty fast to their beliefs that there can´t be one religion for everyone but by the end they were really curious and they wanted to read the Book of Mormon just out of curiosity because the man is a scriptorian. Unfortunately, we didn´t have any English copies but I explained to him how to get it online. There were two older women sitting a park bench that we talked to who were not interested at all because they were hardcore catholics. I gave them pass-along cards in case one day they wanted to learn more and one of them women said thanks and said (just as a small comment before she said goodbye) that she did like one thing about our religion which is that we pay tithing like Abraham did. I began to explain to her that we don´t think that catholics are wrong we just don´t believe they have the gospel in the completeness. That they are lacking very important elements of the church Christ established, tithing as an example. She ended up being very interested and we gave them both a copy. We also gave another old woman one and she kissed me and my companion on both cheeks she was so excited. As we walked away, we saw her hunched over with the book only inches away from her thick glasses, reading. It was such a sweet picture that it brought tears to Hma. Muse´s eyes and mine.

 Thank you for all of the birthday wishes! I love hearing from you guys whether by email or letters! Oh and don´t worry about the length of emails, I can print them off so that I can read them without using my computer time. But my replies will be very short, sorry. But please know that I really do read them all and greatly appreciate them!!!! I love hearing that you are praying for the missionaries, I know that I definitely need those prayers and it lifts me up to know I have people asking God for strength in my behalf.

As a quick last note, I love the temple! Can´t believe I only have one more time to go for 18 months. It has been such a blessing to have the temple right out my window. If you picture my parent´s house it´s literally the distance between the house and the shop (the detached garage) so close!!! Please visit the temple often, appreciate it , take advantage of the wonderful opportunity you have to live within hours of many.

I love you guys!!!!!

 Hermana Tuttle

 

 

Happy Birthday Sister Tuttle

"Love you Shannon.  Happy Birthday.  Thank you for choosing to serve a mission.  You are a great example and blessing to us all." -Matt

"Just like Dill Harris in To Kill A Mockingbird, you're little but you're old.  Happy Birthday, Foo.  Work hard and enjoy this special time of your life.  We miss you but imagine this birthday in Spain will be one you won't forget.  Love ya."
- Jeff

Happy Almost Birthday to Me :)

Dear Family and Friends,

So how’s it going? This week I still have the same companion but 8 more missionaries are coming tomorrow (no big deal that we are already past capacity) so I’ll probably get a new companion tomorrow or at least it’s a possibility, and then Hma. Leavitt (my current companion) will be leaving next Wednesday to Ukraine.

So proselyting this week was really good. Scary and stressful as always but whatever, it’s kind of what I signed up for. I was paired with one of my old roommates who I absolutely adore! She was the spirit and I was the mouth (surprise, surprise). It really was incredible how she would suggest we go down dark and creepy alleys and I would just go along with it and then we would end up walking next to a woman and end up giving her a Book of Mormon, or one time she pointed two girls who were smoking and looking all rebellious and mad at the world and whatever and said we should go talk to them. I knew we would get shut down but let’s face it you’re pride as a missionary goes right out the window the first day of proselyting so whatever I just went along with it. They were so curious, we talked to them for quite a bit and gave them a book of mormon, they began to flip through it so excitedly that we gave the other girl a copy too. We gave away three other books and like 30 pass along cards but in the interest of time and your attention span I will save the details for my journal.

Conference was awesome! We were able to watch the morning sessions live (6pm our time) then we watched the Saturday Afternoon and Young Womens sessions for church on Sunday and then we are watching the Sunday afternoon session for devotional tonight.

Today for P-Day our excursion was to the Real Madrid stadium. It was amazing! We got to go down to the field, through the hall of fame, into the locker room, into the press room, etc. It was a pretty cool tour.

So now I have three new investigators (I imagine I mentioned in my last email that both of my old investigators committed to be baptized). You might be wondering (but probably not, that’s just a transition) why I have three investigators this time. It’s because they also want me to teach with Hma. Leavitt so she has the experience of preparing and teaching a lesson with a real companion and not just teachers. It’s actually really nice because we teach in English since she doesn’t know Spanish and I don’t know Russian. It makes me so jealous of English speaking missionaries.

I am so sad to hear about Gus. I love him so much and I am so happy to know that he is running around in heaven seizure free.

Well I have to go, sorry this email is so short but I’ll hopefully have more time next week life is just kind of packed. I really appreciate the letters and the email I’m sorry if it takes me a little while to reply back but I promise I am reading them. I also don’t have time to send pìctures but maybe next week.

Make it an awesome week!

-Sister Taw-tel (how every spaniard pronounces my name)

Insert Cool Title Here 4.4.13

Wow! What an amazing week! So you know how each week thus far I have written to you about a new companion? Well I figured I´d keep up with the tradition I have set and let you know that I am not in a trio anymore but have a new companion who is going to Ukraine speaking Russian. She is from Provo but because she has lived in Ukraine most of the last decade, she is fluent in Russian and will only be in the MTC here for two weeks. She is an absolute doll and we get along fantastic! With being her companion I got moved into a room with her and her two Russian teachers so I don´t understand much of what is going on most of the time but I absolutely love the language so I don´t mind just listening to them.

Update on how long I am staying here in the MTC: NO IDEA. The President met with us and said that our Mission Presidents are aware of us three and that they are excited to have us but that they don´t know how soon they can take us. The President said it could be next week or it could be at the end of the six weeks but either way I am totally happy. I love it here and don´t feel nearly prepared enough to enter the field. I have so much to learn!

As I believe I mentioned in my last email I have two investigators that Hma. King, Hma. Bracken, and I teach every day. We just had our last meeting with Carlos last night and he accepted the invitation to be baptized! Which is a big deal just so you know because he is an evangelist and it is so hard to teach him because he is always using the bible to prove us wrong or saying that The Book of Mormon can´t possibly be right because there is stuff in it that isn´t in the bible. Finally two days ago I just told him that we could argue with him until his ears fell off but until he opens his heart to the Spirit and chooses to believe that this actually could be true we aren´t going to get anywhere. We bore our testimonies to him and the Spirit was so strong. I just realized that it might sound weird that we can feel the spirit so strong when the person we are teaching is actually our teacher but when we teach them they are our investigators, we pray for them all day long, we prepare for lessons all day long, and we care about them with all of our hearts. It´s amazing how helpful it is to take this opportunity so seriously.

Proselyting went okay this week. I was paired up with Hermana Smith. We proselyted in El Parque del Retira. It´s a huge and beautiful park with a lot of atheists and catholics. We had a lot of contacts, passed out a lot of cards, two book of mormons, and one of the book of mormons was a reference. I´ll actually tell you about that a little bit. We sat down next to her on the metro, her name is Christina, she was very sweet and asked us a lot of questions. She started asking questions just to be polite but then she really seemed like she wanted to know more. When we gave her the Book of Mormon she kissed us on both cheeks (very common here) and began flipping through it. We then asked her if she wanted to know more and she filled out the whole reference card. I´m pretty excited about her and I hope everything works out for her.

I´m really sorry for the lack of letters. We really have NO time to write them, we are supposed to only write on P-Days but with excursions and Presidency meetings and random other stuff time is limited. I hope to find time and get some letters out next week because I finally was able to buy stamps this week (because last week was Holy Week so everything was closed). Please know that your letters are VERY appreciated though.

Okay I have a couple more minutes so I really want to tell you about physical activity. Basically it´s the highlight of the week. Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays we have physical activity and we (Hma. Noakes, Hma. Bracken, about 10 elders, 2 teachers, and usually one or two random friends of the teachers who are Italian and are basically pro) go to the soccer field and play. Knowing that I absolutely suck at soccer (and basically anything that requires coordination) I hope you will all appreciate how awesome it is that I blocked like 10 shots on goal, got a header, and all the Elders were super mad at me afterwards saying "Tuttle! Why are you always in the way of my shots?" because I dominated as a defender. I was pretty excited! Anyway I have to go talk to you soon!

Love Always,

Hma. Tuttle