Happy 4th of July!

Okay, there is pretty much no better place to be on the 4th of July than with the Tuttle family. But with that in the back of my mind, I decided that I would make Valencia, Spain the second best place to be. So after getting dressed in red, white, and blue, Hma. Shaffer and I decided for companionship study (where we always sing a hymn and then recite something like a scripture or our missionary purpose) we were going to sing the national anthem and recite the pledge of allegiance. We of course stood up and put our hands over our hearts and then for the pledge we called a couple other elders who are super patriotic and recited it with them on speaker phone. But that of course was not enough for Hma. Shaffer and me. We went on to sing America the Beautiful, My Country 'Tis of Thee, Proud to be an American, and Independence Day. It was so fun! We then decided that for medio día (lunch) we were going to have hamburgers, mashed potatoes, chips, and other American food. But then, an American family in a different ward in Valencia (reading our minds I guess) invited us over for lunch at their piso. I was totally going to take a picture of all of the food when we got there but then realized that that would be super weird and pretty much all of you saw what the picture would have looked like a few days ago. But basically I got to eat hot dogs, potato salad, frog-eyed salad, chips, chocolate chip cookies, watermelon, etc. It was amazing! I love the Wardell's they are the greatest!

So Manuel continues to be absolutely amazing! We met with him last week to do the "recent convert" lessons with him and afterwards we asked him if he had any friends that we could share the gospel with. He then went on to say that friends are people who talk about the gospel with you, that friends don't let friends drink and they don't talk about smoking, so God, Hma. Shaffer, and I are his only "friends". That being said he did end up telling us he wanted to meet with a few people he knows he just doesn't call them "friends." He is so precious! I remember the week before he got baptized an elder asked him if he was excited. He said "I will be the happiest man." He brought an umbrella the day of his baptism even though it was a sunny day because he didn't want ANYTHING to keep him from being there. It's amazing how much I have learned from him.

I have been so lucky to have grown up in the church all of my life and yet I learn so much from my investigators and the recent converts here. I'm impressed and inspired by their faith. Here the same people clean the church every single week. There is one man who is at the church cleaning or repairing or setting up or filling the baptismal font or whatever it may be nearly every day of the week and he is a recent convert. 

Princess is getting so excited for her baptism this week. She even made us African dresses. I love her! She is another person I am so inspired by.

Today we went to Oceanografic (kind of like sea world) for preparation day, it was great! I will send pictures next week. There was a dolphin show and a shark tunnel which were super cool!

I love you guys thank you for all of the prayers!

-Hermana Tuttle