Sister Tuttle's Mission: Living by La Sagrada = AWESOME!

Dear Friends and Family,

I am finally sending pictures (most are actually from this week). I don't know if they'll be all that exciting to you guys but trust me, it was hard to choose the select few I am going to send. I've got tons of pictures (no worries mom) I wish we could use dropbox or something so I could give them all to you but let's be real, they are probably a lot more exciting for me than you guys.

Anyway, lots to catch you up on. 1) My companion's name is Hermana Durham, she is from Salt Lake and she is a doll and hilarious! We get along great and are always laughing our heads off! She has only been in the field for 6 weeks (and she was with 2 experienced missionaries in a trio so she kind of just followed) so neither of us know what's going on in our area right now but it makes for a lot of great adventures! We didn't have any investigators when I got here so we have been doing A LOT of street contacting, knocking doors, and passing by antiguos (old investigators) we haven't seen a ton of success yet but we see miracles everyday and we are working super hard. One day we came home so exhausted that we didn't realize until the next morning that we fell asleep with the light on, window open, and on top of our sheets. Got to love the mission life!

Interviews were this last week and Stake Conference which was great! I got to see President and Hermana Pace Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday which is always great. I learn so much from them and got a ton of great advice. There were a couple of highlights from stake conference that I wanted to email you guys 1) during the adult session a man talked about the Widow's mite; I have heard that story many times obviously but I never thought about it in regards to mission work. I'll be honest, it's hard not to compare yourself to other missionaries but that story helped so much. I might not be able to speak the language or teach or contact or whatever it might be as well as other missionaries but the great thing is that this mission is between me and the Lord and all that matters is that I give my all. 2) In the general session on Sunday, President Pace spoke; he asked all of the missionaries from the congregation to come stand in front of the pulpit. It was the coolest picture as 40 missionaries (Barcelona and Badalona zones) walked through the aisles up to the front. Everyone was gasping and taking pictures (...got to love Spain). When we were all up there he said "these are YOUR missionaries" he then went through each of the wards and had us raise our hands for what ward we were in. It was a great way for people to recognize who are the missionaries they can go and talk to, especially after transfers.

Okay so basically a lot of cool things happen this week but none of them require a lot of explanation so excuse my brief explanations of the following:

Okay so literally everyday there has been something going on at La Sagrada Familia. It's awesome. We do a lot of proselyting around there so it's cool to get to see the festivals and hear the music (one night a live band was playing Rocking in the Free World and the next night some Simon and Garfunkel was playing on the loud speakers). One night for breast cancer awareness La Sagrada was lit up pink. It looked really cool. Then yesterday they were having this big catholic ceremony and they had a bunch of people carrying this casket looking thing (but like 6 times the size of an actual casket) with an enormous sculpture of Jesus. A band of trumpets and drums were following them and then a statue of the Virgin Mary and a bunch more people carrying banners for their provinces or something. This man next to me had something to do with the whole thing. He said it was a once in a lifetime thing, that they had a bunch of important Catholics all around Spain at this mass in honor of Holy Week (which is in April obviously but they decided to do it in October so they could combine all of the provinces I guess not entirely sure)

Anyway, it was a great week. I love the people, the missionaries, the area everything but we definitely have our work cut out for us. But who doesn't love a challenge right?

I love you guys lots! Have a great week!

Hermana Tuttle

The missionaries leaving valencia + Mama Africa