I Love Being A Missionary

Friends and Family,

I love being a missionary! You get to see so many miracles. But in reality, I don't know if I see that many more miracles than any of you but rather, that missions teach you to recognize and appreciate the little miracles that happen every day.

Our miracle experience this week was with Princess. Early last week she waved us down in a metro station. She explained to us that her aunt was baptized in Nigeria last November. Her aunt, Nekpen, had been through the temple in Nigeria to do baptisms and would go to church whenever she was down there but she hadn't been able to find the church since she moved to Spain. Princess was very insistent that we call her that very day. We did and set up an appointment for last Thursday. She is amazing! She is so enthusiastic about the church and because of that Princess wants to start learning more. She came to Stake Conference and absolutely loved it. We are very excited. We have an appointment with Nekpen and Princess this Friday after Princess's exams and we are going to talk about baptism. Fingers and arms crossed!

Things are continuing to go well with Manuel and we are still planning on him being baptized June 15th. We are really striving for the standards of excellence this week (mission goals for each week that are pretty high but definitely possible with hard work). We are trying to fill up our week with great appointments. We definitely have a lot of work to do but we are motivated and praying very hard to reach our goals this week.

As always, my companion is amazing and we are doing very well down here in Valencia. We are at a very similar level as far as being able to speak Spanish goes which is fun and I think has strengthened our companionship because we are able to learn from each other. She is much more fluent in the scriptures than I am which is inspiring. I am reading in the Book of Mormon every day and writing down references that I think could help present and future investigators so that, as my mission progresses, the Spirit can use that familiarity to inspire me to read certain passages with my investigators.

On Wednesday and Thursday Hma. Shaffer and I had companion exchanges which means that on Wednesday Hma. Shaffer went up to work with our Sister Leader Trainer Hma. Rivera and her companion Hma. Noakes (my first friend on the mission) came down to work with me for a day, then on Thursday Hma. Shaffer and I switched places. It was so funny spending a day with Hma. Noakes. I love her and miss her a ton! Then on Thursday I got to travel 3 hours by train to Barç all by myself. It was fun to work with Hma. Rivera and to learn from her and I got to spend some time with Elder Thorpe (who is doing awesome, I'll send pictures next week) but I definitely missed Hma. Shaffer and Valencia. It's so interesting how attached to your area you get.

We had stake conference Saturday and Sunday, we got to see President and Sister Pace which is always amazing. Elder Reina and Elder Ruiz de Mendoza spoke to us (I believe one of them is a general authority of some type). They were amazing.

Today for P-Day we went to this really cool castle in a place called Xativa (not the city center Xativa which is a little confusing) it was apparently built in 200 or 300 B.C. or something absolutely ridiculous like that. It was really cool. Can't believe next P-Day (which will again be on Tuesday) is transfer day! These six weeks flew by!

Sorry I have several pictures from this last week but my computer doesn't have a USB port so you'll have to linger in suspense until next week. Oh and the place I was jumping in front of in last weeks photos was Las Ciencias. Basically what Valencia is famous for. They are these 4 huge buildings surrounded by water. They are gorgeous!

Love you all! ¡Tengan una buena semana!

-Hermana Tuttle