A Very Merry Christmas

Hi everyone!!

SO MUCH TO SAY! I'm warning you ahead of time this is might end up being a pretty long email, so skimming might be required if you don't set aside time specifically to read Hermana Tuttle's weekly novel.

Christmas Eve: A lot of eating. Between 1.50€ Kebabs with the Elders to Medioenda with the Lopes Family to dinner with Vanessa (the relief society president) we ate very well. We were worried about how we were going to fit everything in without offending anyone but everything worked out and we had a great day. Vanessa asked Hermana Durham to sing White Christmas for her mom who was in town from France. Afterwards we went home and we, along with Hermana Scoville and Hermana Liu moved all of our mattresses into the front room and we read Christmas stories until we had to go to sleep.

Christmas: We ate lunch with the Lopes family. The two daughters made us little cards and it was super sweet. I love that family so much. We went straight from there to the house of a member to eat. Luckily we were with the Elders so we didn't have to eat a lot otherwise I think I would have exploded. That night we were invited over to another member’s house to Skype with our families and eat. It was so fun to see you guys. I can't believe how different you look! I feel like time should have paused for you guys when I left. Maryann the member who is from Arizona but married a Spaniard made us chicken, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, and apple crisp it was delicious!

The next day: We had to get up at 4 to catch my flight to the islands. My voice was completely gone! I spent the day in Palma de Mallorca and even though I could barely talk I loved it and we say so many miracles. The area is kind of slow right now so we didn't have a single appointment planned and yet before lunch we had had 2 member presents and 2 other lessons. After lunch we contacted for a while, I think people just pitied my voice or maybe they thought it sounded cool because we ended up getting a lot of numbers but we felt that our time would be better spent passing by people. We ran home real quick to grab a menos activos sheet. 

While Hermana Ward was figuring that out I went through the Potential Investigators sheet and just called people. I came to a man named Ronaldo. He said that he would love to meet with us but that we had to promise one thing...that we wouldn't be scared when we saw him. I was surprised by that and asked what he meant, he said that he had been drinking. I made sure he knew what our purpose was, he assured us that he did so we headed out to go meet him. We sat down and he told us that he knew we were sent from God. He told us that he had been having a really hard couple of months and he had started drinking more and more to numb him. He said that he had had the worst day of his life and just kept asking how we knew to call him. We had a great lesson with him. He said he could feel a peace in his heart that he had never felt we explained to him that that was the spirit. We invited him to be baptized and he accepted a date for the 11th of January. He said that he was going to read the Book of Mormon and as we walked away he was hugging his Book of Mormon and said "I am going to sleep like this tonight." It was so powerful and perfect. We walked away with tears in our eyes. The spirit was so strong and it broke my heart to think that I might never see him again. That's the amazing thing about being a missionary. You feel an immediate love for people that you have never met before!

(P.S. in case you cared I only ended up being in the islands for 1 day instead of 3 because 4 of us got sick. I got a blessing though and now feeling super great so no worries.)

Second Miracle: So we had been a little worried about an investigator named Yuli. She comes to church every sunday, she is super prepared but she is petrified by water. The zone had set a goal that every companionship baptizes this month and we knew that goal was set by inspiration so we prayed and by an absolute miracle she accepted to be baptized this last Saturday. She was still terrified so the elders gave her a blessing Friday night and she was baptized the next day. It was a tender moment of my mission seeing someone overcome such a paralyzing fear for something she knew to be right. She is an amazing woman and she is going to be an amazing member.

And finally: This week Kofi from Ghana is getting baptized and we could not be more excited. He is so great that he is inviting his friends to come to church (he says our ward needs more Africans, he's the best).

Sorry this was forever long but this really was a week of miracles. I feel so blessed!

Con Mucho Amor,

Hermana Tuttle

Bon Nadal

Queridos familia y amigos,

Bon Nadal! (Catalán for Merry Christmas) Guess what! It's almost Christmas! Can you believe it?? Super weird!

Let's organize this weeks email into sections, shall we?

Kofi: We received a reference from Elders in Sabadell about a man from Ghana named Kofi. We visited him this last week and he is amazing! He grew up Jehova's Witness but hasn't practiced for many years yet he still loves learning more about Jesus and is very Christian. He taught him about the Book of Mormon and he accepted a baptismal date for the 4th of January. He came to church this last Sunday and since we got there a little early he helped set up chairs for priesthood. Everyone was very sweet and welcoming to him and he loved it. He's coming with us to eat dinner with a member tonight and we are going to try to keep up contact everyday. He is so great and I am SOOO excited about him.

Zone Conference: You are probably getting tired of me saying this all of the time but I love getting to hear from President and Hermana Pace. We had Zone Conference this last week and it was exactly what I needed as always. We had to get up pretty early because we had to be at the church at 8 for my leadership meeting (my sweet companion sewed buttons on my jacket while I was in the meeting, I love her. She is one of the most service oriented people I know) but it was an incredible meeting. We talked about the parable of the talents and how we are given responsibilities according to our capacity and that God gives us what we know we can handle and that the difference in our reward comes from our effort not in specific numbers. It was really powerful.There is a talk by President Holland that I love where he talks about how just like a runner should collapse at the finish line because he gave it his all, as missionaries we have to give this mission our all and not be satisfied with mediocrity. Oh and side note: Hermana Durham and I got put in charge of dessert for Zone Conference, we made 130 cookies! We also got to sing Silent Night it was fun.

Intercambio in Badalona: Because it was a combined zone conference with the Badalona zone, I went straight from our chapel to Badalona with Hermanas Boyer and Tyler. It was such a great intercambio. The area was just opened last transfer and they are working so hard and seeing miracles. We didn't have any teaching visits unfortunately but we were able to serve the members and we contacted a lot. It was a lot of fun and they could not be sweeter girls. Oh and we ate with a member. So delicious but I think I gained ten pounds just looking at the food. Salad, Empanadas, Crepes (with sweet and condensed milk, totally made me miss my dad and his fudge), and hot chocolate. So good.

Christmas Dinner: I went straight from Badalona back to the capilla the next day for our Christmas dinner. I arrived in time to help them decorate and then people started coming. The familia Lopes came and we were able to introduce Zuleide and Vando to a man from Brazil and then Maria Laura to the Young Womens. After a few minutes of running around greeting people I turned around and had the best feeling come over me as I saw Pedro and Lorena running around with other primary kids, Maria Laura and laughing with the Young Womens, Vando in deep conversation with the Brazilian member, and Zuleide chatting with a member who leaves near their house. It was truly a missionary's dream. We spent most of the night dishing up food in the kitchen as the young women served it (Maria Laura included) and then we sang a couple of christmas carols with the elders, and chatted with people. It was a great night.

Lots of service: We were able to help two people move this week. One we just happened to be passing by her house at the exact right time and she was so relieved when we offered to help (Cynthia) and the other was Croni and her family. We were able to get the Elders to come with us and they were so grateful because it was a lot of stuff! I LOVE helping people move. It's the best seeing the relief that comes over their face when you show up at their door.

Member Present Sunday: Yesterday worked out so differently than we had expected. We had a lot of members ask us to come over to do various things for them and without them even planning friends showed up who we were able to teach. It was nothing short of a miracle! We met some wonderful people and were able to get a lot of great references (most of them aren't in our area but as long as more and more people are learning about the gospel that's what's important) it was a great day.

Ice Skating: Today we got to go ice skating!!! So much fun! I have missed it a ton and even though we were on hockey skates we all had a blast. Now to get skiing approved... ;)

Bon Nadal a tots i Prospero Año Nuevo (I ran out of Catalán half way through that sentence but I'm going to email before New Years anyway so I'll figure it out)

I love you all! Happy Birthday Brad and Mallory! I hope you are having a great holiday season and thanks to everyone for their Christmas cards! It's so fun to see how everyone is doing and changing.

Hermana Tuttle

The Odd Life of Hermana Tuttle

Buenas Tardes! (...spelling???)

Well this week was filled with all sorts of things I didn't expect.

Monday: Go to Park Guell but they just bumped the price up from free to 8 euros so instead we just had fun climbing around and getting good sites of the city with the elders from ward 1 and 3. 

Tuesday: District Meeting with Subway and Pumpkin pie from mix left over from Thanksgiving (weird combo I know but we're missionaries, the natives loved it and of course the Americans had all missed it so they were super excited). We visited Betty, she is doing better but now she's stressed about finding another job. We had dinner with our Relief Society president who is from France and had quiche which was amazing and this delicious chocolate fondant(??) that was basically a very rich brownie/cake like dessert.

Wednesday: We met with Harry, a Nigerian man that we have taught twice and is really interested in learning more but lives super far away from the capilla so we are working on that issue right now. Then we ate with Carolina and her door broke so we had to unscrew the doorknob and do all sorts of handiwork (odd thing #1). Then we met the Lopes family and because Pedro just failed a math test and I love him so much I accepted Zuleide's request of rewriting him a Catalán math test to help him out a little bit. I obviously don't speak Catalán so I just copied the test and changed the numbers and now we are working on it little by little but that definitely qualified for Odd Thing #2. Later we met with Heidi, a recent convert of Hermana Durham's who hasn't been to church for over a month, she just got her thumb slammed in a door and it broke super bad (#3) so she is out of work for a little bit which is a miracle in disguise because her husband is taking care of her (helping their relationship), she is finally getting to rest, and she was able to come to church this last Sunday!!!!! MIRACLE.

...okay I don't think I can break it down by day that would take forever and be extremely boring for all of you I'm sure... let's try sorting by category

Noche de Diversion: Altragracia came to noche de diversion in the chapel and it was perfect because Betty came with her daughter and they live super close so Betty (less active) is fellowshipping Altagracia and it is helping them both a lot. Altagracia got so excited about how she could feel the spirit super strong too which was adorable. I just love her! They went home with each other which was also super cute.

Odd thing #4: We helped set up for a 25th wedding anniversary and someone said that I wrote in cursive so I got to do all of the writing. It was actually pretty fun and was a nice compliment since I have kind of had chicken scratch handwriting my entire life but it was another thing I never would have expected to do on my mission.

Odd thing #5: Some of you may have gotten this far and thought... meh none of those are really that weird here's the weirdest: We got to a metro stop early where we were meeting a member for a lesson. It was the metro stop where Juan Carlos our churro friend works so we started to talk to him. His churro machine had broken and so we asked if we could help. I expected him to say no like everyone does but he said actually yes, can you hop in. So there we were two missionaries inside of a churro stand on wheels type thing. We ended up getting it working right when our member got there. Yay us!

Still not odd enough? Okay let's try one more time because this is WAY to long already. So a woman started talking to us on the street, she wasn't really interested but we gave her our number just in case, a few days later she called and asked if we could meet with her and her friend. We were stoked but little did we know that we would be walking into a circle of 10 women and their weekly meeting as females of their church. It was a great meeting but definitely caught us off guard. The woman who contacted us gave the sermon, we listened to gospel music as she offered the prayer, we read from the bible, it was very interesting. They were all very sweet and invited us to church on Sunday, we weren't able to go because of our church. I will let you know where things go from here. 

What I learned from this week: that God works in mysterious ways. It's so easy to question why things happen when we can't see the whole picture but if we can just recognize that our lives are so closely watched over by our Father in Heaven we'll be able to see his hand in every detail of our lives.

Basically everything has been super great and I am really loving what I am doing. I can't believe how fast time is going. 9 months!!!! Weird.

Love you lots! Bon Nadal!

Hermana Tuttle

Tis' the Season

Bona Nit (ya, no clue how that is actually spelled. It's Catalán)

Wow, if my dad or brothers knew how much attention me saying that I am sick got me I would never hear the end of it! Thank you for all of your concern and well wishes. I am doing much better. My throat is still raspy but doesn't hurt so hopefully that goes away and that I didn't actually mess something up but we'll see...

This week has been great!...besides the being sick part. I have a few stories in particular to tell you:

1) Renier: Renier is part of a part member family. His mom and older brother are less actives and his mom's boyfriend who lives with them is not a member but is as sweet as they come and the cutest dad to their four year old daughter who I have mentioned before. So lately we have been helping Renier get ready for his baptism (he is 8) and this last lesson we asked Luis (the boyfriend) again why he doesn't want to get baptized and once again he brought up the marriage thing but this time as opposed to other times Croni, the mother was there, and we were able to get the white elephant out of the room by asking what's impeding them from getting married. She just said that they would in the future but not now to which Renier spoke out and said why don't you get married now? Croni then seemed surprised and asked him if that's what he wanted and he said ya. After a little bit more talking we dropped the subject for now and then asked Renier to say the opening prayer. In it he prayed that his mom could get married. So cute! We all chuckled a little. Then afterwards we talked a little more about it and how fun it would be to have a little wedding and that we would make chocolate chip cookies (that they love) and then out of no where Renier folding his arms, closed his eyes, and started praying again. In his prayer he again asked that his mom could get married. When he finished and looked at him a little confused he said "that time was for the cookies."

2) Augustine: This week we also had a very bittersweet experience. Friday night our ward had a few baptisms that we were able to sing for, we had hoped to stop by Betty and Augustine afterwards. We have been teaching them for a while, Betty is a less active member who lives with and cares for an elderly man named Augustine who is not a member. We have loved to go over and visit them and were excited to visit them again. 

Unfortunately, getting everything back in order after the baptism took a little longer than expected and we ended up not having time. We called Betty Saturday morning to ask if we could visit them then but she said it wasn't a good time and that after mediodía would be better. A few hours later while we were in the church for English class Betty called us. She was crying and said that we couldn't come over that night, when we asked why she said that Augustine had just passed away. We were both taken aback, we asked what we could do but after she assured us that she would call if there was anything we hung up and just stood there for a minute to catch our breath. It was then that I really realized how much we loved him and how grateful we were for the chance to get to teach him. As missionaries we have hard days, we have days where no one wants to talk to us, where people tell you they have changed their mind and don't want to receive the lessons anymore, where all of your visits cancel on you but I have never felt so fortunate in my life. We don't have a ton of people to teach right now (a condition we are working hard to improve) but I feel so blessed to have the people we do. My dad always told me before the mission that soon I would love people with all of my heart who I didn't even know at the time. That's such a beautiful part of missionary work. We get to feel everyday a part of the love God feels for each of his children. I feel so blessed to have taught Augustine and while I already miss him a lot, I know that he was missing a lot of people and that it was a happy reunion in heaven. As my mom says, "thank heaven for heaven." I know that the plan of salvation is true, that death is not the end and that we will see those we love again. And like I said a few weeks ago, I am so grateful for this knowledge.

3) Primary program: Sunday was the primary program. It was SOOOO cute! A few highlights: One little boy who only had one line to say, started saying it over confidently, got a little jumbled on the words and then said "Ay!" he thought for a second, put his elbow on the pulpit and rested his head on his hand (the thinking pose) talking to himself until finally someone came up and told him but it was absolutely adorable. I won't consider myself a spanish speaker until I use "ay!" as my form of exclamation. Another was a kid who kept waving to his dad and then finally half way through the program just yelled "Papa!" A few kids walked straight passed the pulpit and had to turn around a lot of them got off the pulpit and after a few steps realized they didn't say "in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen" and ran back just to say that. The last one I'll mention was when they sang "I want to be a missionary" and I looked around at all 5 of the other missionaries in the congregation who couldn't help but smile and some were even bobbing along to the music. All the boys had paper ties on and the girls had paper bows and then they all had paper name tags. It was great. Sometimes it's surreal that I am on my mission right now. Oh and they NAILED "A child's prayer" I was very proud.

Well I think that's the main points of the week, if I forgot anything in the words of Mitch Hedberg "I will write it down, or if the pen's to far away, I will convince myself that what I thought of ain't [important]"

Love you so much! Hope you’re enjoying the holidays despite the Jazz being a little rough. Can somebody do something about that by the way?

Hasta la proxima!

Hermana Tuttle

My Home Away From Home

Bon Dia!

Just a heads up I have been pretty sick this week (hence why the email is coming so late) so this email could go one of two ways: 1) it could be super boring in which case you can just skip to the end and then next time you see my mom I give all of you permission to still say, "she sounds like she is doing well" and/or "I loved her last email" or 2) it could be even better than normal due to the fact that I am on cold/flu medication...we'll see

Despite being several thousand miles away from home we had a great Thanksgiving and I hope you all did as well! I'm lucky to live with great cooks and so for our dinner we had chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, corn, rice (oh how I love Hermana Liu), pumpkin pie (I helped make), pumpkin cookies that my mom sent. All in all it was a success. And it was bring your own drinks, we were laughing about what our drinks say about us. Feel free to guess which one is mine. And the picture of the leaves is another idea my mom sent, I cut out leaves and then we all wrote things we were grateful for on them. It was super cute. 

Another highlight of this last week was the ward activity Talent Night. Every organization had to do 2 numbers. As La Obra Misional we did the opening act which was comedic sketch (yes, I know I'm not funny but the Elders made up for my lack of "talent" in that aspect and it turned out really good). The Relief Society did a Bollywood number to Jai Ho. It definitely made me miss dance and the Smiths. They did a great job! They have been practicing once a week for a long time and each of them was decked out in Indian garb, it looked great. The young men, young single adult (JAS) men, and the missionaries did a mission themed Hacka. One girl did a little dance to Tik Tok by Keisha (so weird to hear that song again). Basically the whole thing was just awesome. I love my ward!

Our relationship with the Lopes family is growing leaps and bounds. We dropped their baptismal date but now they're setting up visits with us and they really do want to learn more. They know we are serious about baptism and they want to be baptized they just don't feel ready. They are adamant about us coming over on Christmas, it's adorable. Oh speaking of adorable, we went over there the other day and Maria Laura (12 years old) came out with a paper name tag on that looked just like ours but said Hermana Lopes. It was so cute! She then told us that she wouldn't tell us her first name until we get baptized (we tease her and say we'll tell her our first names when she reads for two weeks straight, when she gets baptized, right before we get transferred, etc. It kills her but we don't want the relationship to become too casual). They could not be a cuter family. They even offered to let us use their phone to call home on Christmas, we thanked them but told them we are allowed to use skype and that way it's free. She said "okay well if you ever need to call America for free let me know, I bought a card so that I could call to Brazil and it turns out I can call everywhere in the world all the way to the third degree of hell but I can't call Brazil." It was HILARIOUS. I love Zuleide.

Concilio yesterday was great but it was hard. I'm having to say goodbye to people who have been such strong influences on my mission now and it's getting harder and harder. Ugh it scares me to think about how it's only going to get worse. 

Basically I just love what I'm doing. Being sick is the worst because for the past couple of days I have had to spend a lot of time inside and I just want to get out. I'm sorry this weeks email is so late but next week will be right on time. Hope your having happy holidays and I would just like to publicly say Happy Birthday to my two Grandmas: Tuttle (the 2nd) and Hanson (the 3rd). How blessed I am to have such great role models and even though I didn't get to know my Grandma Hanson very well, I know what a great influence she was on my mom and for that I will forever love her and be indebted to her.

Have a great week! Love you all!

Hermana Tuttle