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