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
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