Happy Thanksgiving!!

Querido familia y amigos,

This week has been super good but as I look back on things that have happened they feel like FOREVER ago. So this was more of a highlights week rather than a go by day week so highlights:

THANKSGIVING: Happy Thanksgiving this week!!!! Last Thursday an hermana told us that it was Thanksgiving so Hermana Durham and I have been super excited because when today rolled around and we realized Thanksgiving is actually this Thursday so basically I just get two Thanksgivings this year, no big deal...neither of them with Turkey but we are thinking about eating some chicken and making a pumpkin pie from some pumpkin puret I bought from an American store a couple of weeks ago. I'll keep you informed on how that goes.

FAMILIA LOPEZ: This is the family where three of the four of them (well technically five but Lorena is underage) have baptismal dates. We have really been working hard with them to build up our relationship. We came over early in the morning on Saturday to work with them on homework for an hour to try and eliminate all excuses for not coming to church on Sunday...they still didn't come to church which was hard. The issue is that they live super far away from the chapel and they have to switch to four different metros to get there and our church starts at 9 so they just don't have tons of motivation to come but hopefully as we keep teaching them and their testimonies continue to grow they will have that desire to come to church. This week we are really going to try to get them fellowshipped in. We have a Noche de Talentos (Talent night incase you couldn't tell) and they said they would come which would be great! Any ward activity is great for investigators.

TRANSFERS: Transfers are today but Hermana Durham and I are staying together as we predicted which will be great because we are really working on our place in the ward and developing our relationship with a lot of investigators and members and it would be a really hard time for a switch right now. Plus it means we will spend Christmas together! Woot Woot! We are having lots of fun but the area is still hard and moving slow. Step by step.

CATALAN: The stake is really making a press for missionaries to learn catalan so that the Spaniards here are more willing to listen to us so a woman from the third ward has offered to teach us a little Catalan every one to two weeks and it's awesome. It's a mix between Spanish and French. I can't say much, just introduce myself and set up appointments but I'm learning and I love it!

CHRISTMAS LIGHTS: This ones short but on all the streets in Barcelona there are lots of Christmas lights and it is beautiful! I love Barcelona!

NOCHE DE HOGAR: So every Thursday we have a family home evening with anyone who wants to come in the stake center and this last week we were a little worried because when the time came for it to start there was only one person there but then five minutes later a ton of people showed up including a less active who we have been working with and a part-member family we have been working with and they all loved it! I was partners with Eliana the part-members family 4 year old daughter who is the cutest little South American girl! It was such a great night.

MIRACLE: You know the saying obedience brings blessings, exact obedience brings miracles? Well lately we have been getting a little frustrated that as hard as we are working our area just doesn't seem to progressing. Other missionaries are having such great success all around us while we are having had consistently low numbers. I started thinking about the quote: If you always do what you've always down, you'll always be what you've always been. So that was our focus this last week. To push ourselves, to fill in any holes so that we would be blessed with success in this area. Hermana Durham and I really pushed ourselves to be exactly obedient: to contact more, to not cross the street when the light is red (so hard for me and my not patient personality), to speak only Spanish out of piso, to get out of piso right on time, etc. The day after we fasted we called a less active from our area book named Cynthia. She was very sweet and invited us right over, after a great lesson with her our next visit texted and canceled on us. With an extra hour now we decided to knock the building. We ended up getting phone numbers from almost every single door we knocked and several return appointments. We have been calling the people that didn't set up appointments and we are so excited about a lot of them! It was truly a miracle! 

Wow this email is super long, sorry! But just know that I'm living it up here in Spain and you should all be super jealous. I could not be more grateful for this opportunity I have to be here and for all of the support I have. Thank you, I love you, Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Hermana Tuttle

A Crazy Week

Dear faithful readers,

Okay this week was definitely one of the crazier ones and resulted in not the highest of numbers but still a super good week.

Monday, as you already know, was Specialized Training and it was very powerful then Tuesday was our preparation day which consisted of shopping, letter writing, napping, and basically just normal preparation day things then that night we visited the familia Lopez from Brazil. We helped the kids with their english homework for a little bit then we taught them the beginning of the Plan of Salvation. They are such a cute family! It's kind of an interesting dynamic, the mother wants her kids to have more religion in her life but doesn't want it for her, the father is so sweet and seems to be kind of interested but I don't think he understands everything we say but the mom doesn't want us to bring portuguese stuff for him because she says it's good for him to learn and then the three kids are so crazy, energetic, and cute but they don't really want to do something that their parents aren't into. It's a little tricky.

Wednesday we had a lot of people everyone canceled on us so it was kind of rough but as we were passing by antiguos (old investigators) in our spare time, we heard someone say Jose Smith! We didn't stop because we get people yelling random things at us all the time but they're just making fun of us and are drunk or something but then we realized we had passed the apartment number that we were looking for so we had to turn around, the guy seemed to be following us but this time we decided to say hi and give him a card he then got really excited and started talking to us in broken spanish (he's philipino) about how he's a member and he was so excited he even pulled over the sleeve of his shirt a little to show that he was still wearing his garments. He said he had been sealed in the temple but that he hadn't had contact with the church for several years. He wasn't able to come with us to church yesterday but I next week for sure.

Thursday Hermana Durham dropped me off at the airport to fly to Bilbao for an intercambio. They flight was breathtaking filled with green fields, white mountains, and the blue mediterranean. There ended up being a miscommunication about the time I would arrive so after waiting in the airport without a phone I ended up getting a little nervous but shortly after TRYING to figure out the payphone (I eventually gave up because I am too short to read the instructions) the hermanas got there and we had a great intercambio. Their area is called Las Arenas (the sands) and it is so cute. They live right by a big river with a beautiful boardwalk. One of the hermanas is one that I lived with for three transfers so that made it especially fun. Then the next morning I took a bus from Bilbao to Vitoria and got picked up by the hermanas there. The ride was very green and beautiful I would send pictures but they don't do it justice. I had been warned about how cold the north would be and so I had come prepared but I was not as prepared as I had wished for Vitoria, when I got there it was pouring rain=no worries I have an umbrella, then it got down to 5 degrees celsius=wish I had gloves, then it switched off between raining and snowing for the rest of the day=wish I had a hat and better scarf and boots. But despite how cold it was (p.s. it dropped down to 3 degrees around 6= 4 hours left of proselyting without a single cita planned) we worked really hard. I was so impressed and inspired by the hermanas I was working with and we ended up seeing miracles. We had a couple of bad citas where people tried to argue and ripped at our beliefs but through street contacting we found a group of 8 girls around the age of 18 that all gave us their numbers and addresses so the hermanas could drop off book of mormons to each of them. It was incredible. Then the next day the busses weren't running since it was a weekend so despite getting up early I wasn't able to make my flight so I stayed in Vitoria for a little while (which I didn't mind at all because it's gorgeous and the hermanas spoiled me) and then caught a 5 hour train ride home.

I kind of skimmed past the fact that I got to the north just in time to experience their first snowfall of the season due to my annoying habit of documenting the weather each week to you guys when I was in Valencia but ummm...it was awesome! It was FREEZING but it was awesome! Made me want to go skiing and drink hot chocolate and eat french onion soup with my family in Sun Valley not going to lie (but we made hot chocolate that night so that was good enough for the time being. hot chocolate is the best). As for Barcelona it is POURING (rain) but no worries mom, I bought boots today so I am happy and dry :)

Well this letter is already awfully long so I'm sorry if I don't give this last section as much credit as it deserves but basically we set four baptismal dates yesterday (1 is for the ward because it is an 8 year old). We went over to the familia Lopez´s house and we finished the plan of salvation and invited them to be baptized on the 7th of December. They agreed to put it as a goal but unfortunately the mom wasn’t there so we don’t know if she’ll be down with it or not. Lots of fasting and prayers. The 8 year old daughter is Mireia, her mother is a less active who really wants her to get baptized but the dad is not supportive (he is Catholic out of tradition but doesn´t believe in God) so lots of fasting and prayers for that situation as well. At the end of our lesson with her yesterday she wanted to say the prayer and in it she prayed that her father would let her be baptized because she really, really wants to. It was so sweet.

I hope it is appropriate for me to express my love to the Johnson´s before I close this email. I will write something longer when I have tissues nearby but I couldn´t send this without expressing my gratitude to God for getting to be friends with the Larry Johnson. I love you so much Pudsy. Forgive me for not writing more but I only wrote two lines and I´m already a mess. Your family is always in my heart and will surely be in my thoughts and prayers.

I love you all,

Hermana Tuttle

P.S. Transfers are next week. I´ll write on Tuesday. 

Missionary Brain

Dear patient family and friends,

Bless my heart I forgot to send the main email again. Here's what happens: I write the main email first but I always just save it in drafts so that if I think of something else while I'm replying to email or writing to President I can just add it to the main one but then there's that awkward moment when I just leave it there. Sorry!

Anyway this week was crazy! Monday and Tuesday were super good. We had made it our goal to have 12 lessons with a member present this week (the standard of excellence for our mission) and by Tuesday night we already had 5! We were so excited! We didn't end up meeting our goal unfortunately (we did get close though) in part because I had intercambios with the sisters in Sabadell so I was gone for two days and Hermana Durham went with the Hermanas that we share a piso with to work in their area but that's okay. We have a great week planned.

One of the lessons we had last Tuesday was a pass by with a part member family (the mom and son are members but they are both not active). Part way through the lesson the son came home (who I had never met). He's a big kid who I thought could pass as 20 but is in fact 14! He had an earring in each ear and I'm going to be honest my first thought was that he was going to ignore us or scoff and walk straight to his room but he did the exact opposite. He smiled and greeted us and then pulled up a chair and participated in our lesson. At the end of the lesson before we even asked if we could come visit them again he asked if we could come over next Monday to do a noche de hogar because all of them would be home. We of course accepted and last night we went over and it went so well. I love the family and the 8 year old son is getting baptized on the 30th hopefully. Now we just need to work with the dad who is super sweet but the issue is that they aren't married. Stay tuned.

Intercambios were great! Can I just tell you how complicated travel was though? So the hermanas I live with dropped me off, I realized I didn't know what stop to get off and I didn't have a phone, on the metro I asked someone to use their phone...shot down...try to use my deductive reasoning to figure out what stop to get off...nothing, ask another girl for her phone: success (in the nick of time too because I got off like three minutes later), ended up getting to the place 40 minutes sooner than the hermanas thought, waited on the outside platform for 40 minutes at 9 at night until I decided to go out of the station and look to see if they were there, couldn't leave because I was out of the zone, the hermanas show up and ask how to help me leave, the worker said that I needed to pay 50 euros because I was out of my zone, luckily I pulled the dumb american card and it worked and we were good but it was eventful, the next day when I went to the other hermanas piso I got on the wrong train so a 5 minute ride turned into 40 minutes then the next day to get home the hermanas told Hermana Durham the wrong stop so once again super excited and nerve-racking and an hour of unneeded travel. It definitely made me appreciate phones.

But really that was just the crazy part, I really did love my intercambio. The two companionships I visited in Sabadell were wonderful and the area is gorgeous. The first hermanas I visited (one of which I lived with for three transfers in Valencia) live in this beautiful mix between Park City and stereotypical Spain. It's got lots of cute street shops and the roads are all cobblestone and while there's people there it doesn't have large apartment buildings and it's just a really friendly feel. The second hermanas I visited work in the mountains and it has a gorgeous view and we had a lesson with a member and it was the first house I have visited in Spain! It had a little yard, a little pool, 3 stories, a fence, a piano, and a fireplace! It was beautiful! Overall, ya, loved my intercambios.

On Sunday, I got asked to teach gospel doctrine class last minute about the spirit world. I was super nervous but I somehow filled up the whole time and it turned out well. It was actually a really cool experience, afterwards an investigator who has been super hard for missionaries to set up appointments with asked me if we could teach her because she said she never felt the spirit stronger than she did in that room. We are super excited to begin teaching her. Stay turned for that as well. That night there was a despedida (farewell, the do them at night here rather than in Sacrament meeting so that the parents can also speak) for two youth who reported to the MTC today. It was so cute! I'm very excited for them! It's such a surreal experience to think that I was giving my farewell talk 9 months ago! Back in February and now it's November! Crazy!

Well this letter is already super long but I just wanted to mention briefly Specialized Training that we had yesterday. It was the Barcelona and Badalona Zones which was fun because I got to see Hermana Bracken from the MTC and some friends from Valencia. It was such a great day and the spirit was so strong. We had a testimony meeting at the end and I have never seen so many missionaries in tears, it was really sweet. 

Especially when this sister missionary who has been really sick, and is staying in the mission home indefinitely until she can walk well again after being in the hospital for almost two weeks, bore her testimony. It was beautiful.

Well, os quiero like crazy y os echo de menos un montón! Que tenga una buena semana!

La Hermana Tuttle

Happy Halloween

Feliz Noviembre!

I am not going to freak out about how it's already November because I feel like I do that every time a month comes and goes but can you believe how fast the time is flying? It's preparation day again already! Crazy!

Updates from Barcelona:

We have been getting super close with the bishop and his wife, they are so sweet and are always inviting us over to eat or to do a noche de hogar (FHE) in their house.

We visited a less active member named Betty on Tuesday and it went really well. She lives with and watches over an older man named Augustine and even though he's not totally there he really liked our visit and has such a sweet testimony about God. We read a few parts of 2 Nephi 4 with him (so weird spelling Nephi instead of Nefi by the way) and he just started crying and bearing his testimony about God. It was so sweet and I think he and Betty are going to come to church this next week (she hasn't been coming because of this job but he said he would love to go too so fingers crossed!)

We had our monthly zone meeting on Wednesday where the leaders teach about what they learned in leadership council and I was assigned to teach about the obedience part of concilio and I actually got pretty nervous! In Valencia it wasn't that hard but here it's a little more intimidating when you're supposed to be teaching the ayudantes but I think it ended up going well.

Thursday of course was Halloween and it was so great! We passed by a friend of ours who owns a churro shop and we scared him and said trick-or-treat and gave us a free bag of these funyon chip type things (because the bag wasn't full enough to sell but whatever it was still super nice), we wore black (I had an orange scarf), Hermana Scoville's mom sent her pumpkin cookies which I have been craving so much so that was awesome along with kit kats and twix's dressed up like mummies for each of the four of us that share a piso, and there was primary halloween party which was about the cutest thing ever (p.s. you know that your bishop is awesome when he knows and sings every word to thriller despite not knowing english while judging the primary costumes parade, it was hilarious). Basically it was a pretty successful halloween.

We had some really good lessons with the Lopez family (an investigating family from Brazil); Heidi, Ariadne, and Carlos (a part member family, who by the way fed us hot dogs with ketchup, mustard, and mayonnaise exactly how I like them, it made me super happy);Pati and Mireia (another part member family); and Yudaili (the sweetest and happiest woman ever!) and I am really excited about them, we have appointments with all of them this week so I'll update you.

Okay but now the highlight of the week: fast sunday. I always love fast sundays but this one was especially amazing because we were doing a mission fast and as always we saw so many miracles. One of which was 6 investigators at church (which I have only gotten a few times in the 6 months I have been out), and another was when we went to pass by a few investigators who have fallen off the face of the earth, they weren't there but as we walked away a man said "Hola hermanas!" We didn't recognize him but it turns out he is a member in our ward but hasn't come to church in three years. He is amazing! We taught him a lesson and he said he'd come to church this sunday. I wish I had more time to write out all of the little tender mercies we saw but I'm running low but I will say: fast sunday miracles really do exist, I see them every single month.

It's been a great week and I absolutely love what I am doing. I hope you all have a great week. Thank you for everything and happy birthday to my brother Big Chief! Love you!

-Hermana Tuttle

New address (or you can keep sending them to the office I go there about every two weeks):

c/ provenca 501,1-1

Barcelona, 08025

España