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.