WARNING: Not a Novel (you're welcome!)

Hi friends and family,

Okay I don't have a ton of time so this will be a quick version of the week

Today was concilio (leadership council) and as always it was amazing! It was super weird to think that this is Hermana Shaffer's (my trainer) last. She is going home on the February 18th (yes I do remember that that's my parent's anniversary) transfer along with 2 other sister trainer leaders. I am going to miss them all so much but especially her. It's weird to think how fast the time has gone by since she and I became companions on May 1st. Crazy! Anyway, back to concilio: 

So this week we had to move back Josef's date for baptism to February 8th because he is out of town this weekend but he is still very excited about getting baptized and Kofi is even more so. In fact we had to make sure with Josef one on one if he was doing this for him or for Kofi but he said he is doing this because he really wants to change his life and he wants to be baptized.

Familia Lopes on the other hand... we taught them the word of wisdom on Tuesday which we were super worried about because we already knew they didn't agree with it but it actually went okay and they committed to live it however we weren't able to visit them again this week so we knew we were going to have to push back their baptism but unfortunately last night when we visited them they said that they just don't want to be baptized right now, they do in the future but that they came to this country for school and church is just not what is important right now. It was super hard and we will still continue to visit them once a week to read the book of mormon with them because we know that as they really develop the habit of reading it the desire to be baptized and become a part of this will come.

Altagracia is also progressing super well. She loves everything! We taught her the word of wisdom and law of chastity and everything made perfect sense to her and she is really excited to get baptized. The issue is that she is out of town every weekend but we are hoping she got the address for the church in the place she goes and that she was able to go yesterday. If so she can get baptized the 8th as well if not we'll have to push it back.

Harry has a baptismal date as well for the 8th (because we are having a countrywide conference this weekend so we can't have baptisms until the 8th) and he seems to be doing really well. Every lesson we have with him goes great.

Last thing: Languages, this week I have learned a little bit of Russian from the cutest member family (who part are inactives) and albanian from a member and his friend who we are teaching. I love missions, you meet so many cool people from all around the world with such interesting backgrounds.

Well I think those are the main things that happened. Still super happy and just loving life here in Barcelona.

Hermana Tuttle

P.S. the Mujeres Jovenes had Nuevos Comienzos (New Beginnings) this week. Made me miss Young Womens so bad

Anyway, about the week!

Bona Tarde a Tots,

I'm going to just warn you right off the bat this email might not be as long as the rest because I just realized that the little messages my family sent me on an SD card are not only sounds (as they played on our little dvd player) but they are videos! So I have been watching those for a little bit and I absolutely love them! Thank you so much everyone! Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas to you too! (a little late but I've heard that so much in the last 10 minutes that I felt like saying it too) This holiday season could not have been more amazing. Thank you to everyone for making it so special for me despite how far away I am. I'm getting around to the thank you notes but please be patient with me. Anyway, about the week:

We have been working with a man named Alberto who is from Barcelona and was baptized last year but went inactive around September. He is amazing. He has gone through so much and made so many sacrifices to be a member of this church and I am so amazed. When he was baptized his family said that he was disgracing the family and that if he joined the church they would no longer consider him a member of the family. As he was telling us this sad story he just said "I knew I was doing what is right and I told them that I wasn't trying to hurt them but that this church is true and I couldn't deny it." He always tells us that the trials he has gone through since his baptism has just proved more and more that this church is true otherwise Satan wouldn't have tried so hard to lead him astray.  He hasn't been able to come to church because he couldn't afford a metro pass so we helped him come to church and I wish you could have seen his face when we told him that we would help him and then when we visited Saturday evening he told us that he already had his white shirt ironed and ready to go. He was so excited. One day when he was having a hard time this week, we felt prompted to share with him Helaman 5:12 and he was really touched, he stared at it for a little bit and just said "this scripture was written for me." It just affirmed to me how in any moment of hardship the scriptures really can speak to us. They were written for that very purpose. If we don't use them to get advice and to grow then they are a waste, they have no purpose.

Another cool experience this week was when a metro contact actually called us and asked if we could meet then when we went to visit her on a bench she told us that she invited her friend. We ended up teaching them both and they were both GREAT. Oh and funny story the friend ended up being one of our investigator/really good friend's aunt. Which we didn't find out until Juan Carlos (investigator) invited us over to eat and asked his aunt if she could come to because he knows that we need a third woman. Small world.

Hermana Swenson went to a restaurant called Creps de Barcelona for lunch one day this week. It was delicious! I got a smoked salmon with cream cheese crepe. Ya I'm living the life. It didn't help much with the diet we started last week but...meh it's worth it ;)

Oh that reminds me, Hermana Swenson and I started this diet thing where we get points if we do certain things like drink a certain amount of water, eat a certain amount of fruits and veggies, exercise no soda, no treats, etc. and you keep track of the points each day and we are doing a little competition it's super funny.

The familia lopes have a baptismal date for this week. We are teaching them the word of wisdom tomorrow, they already know about it and they are not super accepting but if we can help them understand why it is important than I know they will be ready this week otherwise we will have to push it back but either way please keep them in your prayers. Thank you (Vando "Vandoo", Zuleide "Zoo-lay-gee", Maria Laura, and Pedro (Lorena is 7 but you can pray for her too)

Thank you for all of your love and support. This email turned out longer than expected as always. Sorry, but your sweet for reading/skimming it :)

Lots of love,

Germana Tuttle (I think that's how you spell it in Catalá not 100% sure)

This mission thing is awesome. I highly recommend it!!

Bon dia per tots!

First off: Bless my heart for sending so many emails last week, transfers totally got me scatterbrained, my apologies for taking up your inboxes just a cry for attention I guess ;) Second off: I am just loving life right now. Seriously I am so so happy. I hope all of you are too. So I'll try to keep my email a little more focused this time around just know there were a lot of amazing things that happened this week but the things I HAVE to tell you about are: Harry, Interviews, and our crazy Saturday.

Harry (from Ghana): So Hermana Swenson and I taught him earlier on in the week, we talked about baptism and he really had a problem with the idea of being baptized a second time (he was baptized catholic as a baby) we set a baptismal date and told him that before that date we would do our part by teaching him everything he needed to know and if he did his part of reading, praying, and coming to church we need he would receive his answer. He accepted but we were a little worried. A couple days later we taught him again this time along with teaching about the necessary authority of baptism like we did last time we talked about the gospel of Jesus Christ (faith, repentance, baptism, Holy Ghost, and endure to the end) and as we talked about baptism we talked about how this time it is completely his choice and it will be a day he will remember for the rest of his life and he will feel completely clean. We normally don't emphasize that a lot because we don't want to offend people but were totally guided by the Spirit and it made sense to him and the lesson ended with him saying that he really wanted to be baptized now, that he truly felt everything we were saying was true, and that he would be ready at 8:30 sunday morning for us to go with him to church which before he really didn't want to do because it's so far away. Sunday we went with him and he absolutely loved it. Kofi was great at fellowshipping him and afterwards we taught Kofi, Josef, and Harry a lesson. Josef asked some difficult questions but Harry kept asking if he could answer them and he did amazing! He seemed more like a member than an investigator. He was exactly what Josef needed. And then we asked Kofi how he feels now that he is baptized and he said that he is happier than he has ever been and that he has completely changed his life. Harry asked him if he truly felt he had the Spirit of God with him and Kofi said yes, that as long as he is doing what is right he can feel it and he never wants to lose it. It was exactly what Harry needed. Funny sidenote: Harry got a text during sacrament meeting from a friend that said "LOL since when did you start going to church." He changed so much in just this week and it's amazing!

Sorry I got carried away, I'll try to keep these next two short

Interviews: Wow, soooo powerful. President Pace is incredible! We were originally only supposed to talk for 10 minutes but we got carried away and ended up talking for about 35! He always has such great advice and is so encouraging. I am so lucky to have a President where he genuinely loves every single missionary here and he has a way of making every one of us feel like we are the best thing that ever happened to this mission.

Our Crazy Saturday: In the simplest terms ever: Saturday= great lesson with Harry + three people that contacted us (asking for one of our cards) + an indian man taking us to get hot chocolate as we taught him about the Book of Mormon + doorway lesson with a girl from Barcelona + tear filled lesson with a family on the street + a couple of super interested bench contacts + great lesson with Patti y Mireia + running into a metro contact from a week ago who really needed someone to talk to + a race with the elders to see who could get the most phone numbers in the last 30 minutes before we had to be in piso when our last cita fired (we won 6-1 no worries, they bought us KFC today for the prize) + a total of 10 phone numbers in one day = an amazing day to be a missionary.

Les quiero un montón! Gracias por todo el apoyo!

Hermana Tuttle

Feliz Año Nuevo!

This is definitely one of those so much to say, so little time moments (plus I forgot the list of things to talk about at home, surprise surprise) so just go with it:

Kofi got baptized this last Saturday! It went perfectly! He was so excited and his friend Josef came! We were able to get all of the members who speak english involved and the whole baptism was in English. It was really touching not only to see these native spanish speakers giving talks and prayers in a language that they aren't super comfortable with but also to see how many members who don't know any spanish come with the foreknowledge that they wouldn't understand anything just because they knew Kofi was getting baptized and they wanted to support him. What a miracle!!!! Kofi was so prepared. When it was his turn to bear his testimony in the baptism he started by saying "this is the happiest day of my life." We started teaching him a couple of weeks ago and he has not only come to church every week since then as well as to every activity we have invited him too but he invites his friends. We taught Josef, Kofi's "very best friend," after church on Sunday and he accepted a baptismal date! We asked him where he lived so we could pass on the reference and it turns out that he came from an hour and a half away but he said "it is no problem, it is worth it" which I thought was very inspiring.

Transfers. Saturday night we got the sad news that Hermana Durham is off to Vic (close to France). I am going to miss her like crazy. She is amazing and we get a long super well. It was a hard goodbye. My new companion's name is Hermana Swenson. I have done an intercambio with her so I knew her before and she is as sweet as they come. We have very similar tastes in movies and such from what I know so far and we both can't whistle so we already can tell it is going to be a great transfer. Super excited.

Random Note:

I got two huge spider bites a week ago on my arm and they swelled up to the size of ping pong balls, it was pretty funny/kind of scary/itchy. But no stress they now just look like little mosquito bites...and I am still without super spidey powers...lame.

Can't remember the other things I wanted to mention and I am almost out of time so if they are all that important I will write about them next week. 

Lots of love!!!

Hermana Tuttle