Feliz Dia de St. Jordi!

Bon Dia a Tots (yes, I'm still in Catalunya so I can still speak to you in my awful Catalá),

So we're keeping it kind of short again this week because I am still behind but that's good, it keeps me from dragging. 3 things this time:

Intercambio to Barcelona: I got to spend the day with the hermanas I lived with in Barc which was so fun because it meant I not only got to be in Barcelona for St. Jordi (bigger than valentines day in Catalunya, the guy gives the girl a rose, the girl gives the guy a book. There were rose stands just LINING the streets and book stands but they weren't quite as pretty) and got to stay in my old piso for a night but I also got to see Hermana Swenson who I just absolutely love. I got to hear a lot about how people are doing and I got to help one of my really good friends from Barcelona and who has been having a hard time lately.

Next: we had concilio yesterday, time is flying! I can't believe it was already time for another! It was really good, we talked about the conference with Elder Evans and how we can improve as a mission and what we can focus on. It was very helpful and gave that added energy to try harder and be better like always. We watched this beautiful version of "Let us all press on" by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir twice (once before the meeting and then once after lunch to bring the spirit in) It was BEAUTIFUL! That song has never had more meaning nor helped me so much as it does now.

Lastly, I HAVE TO TELL YOU ABOUT JOAN PAU! Okay so I know I struggle at details of the people I'm working with. It's in part because 1) it's hard to explain a person in a couple of sentences over email 2) things change so much from week to week that it can get kind of confusing for you 3) I inherited the superstition from my brothers and am always afraid of jinxing things but he is our main investigator right now and I can't not include him. He's amazing. He's 23 and has always been a super strong catholic. He loves learning about God, that was his motivation for listening to the missionaries but now he loves everything about the church, he comes to every activity, to church, he's reading the Book of Mormon, we visit with a couple of times a week, he asks really good questions, and he is testing out dropping alcohol right now because he understands if he wants to gain a testimony of the word of wisdom he has to try it. We just finished a visit with him today (he's been investigating for about 3 months but has changed and really started progressing these last couple of weeks) and he said "When I know I will be baptized. I know I need to be baptized, there's just so much weighing on this decision, it's so life changing that I just need to receive my answer" He is genuinely searching and he has such an honest desire to know, it's inspiring. Before he said that he liked our church but he could never leave the Catholic church because it would be like turning his back on his family but now he is completely open to the idea as soon as he feels he has received his answer. I know he will receive it, he is searching so diligently and he feels loved which is one of the ways the Spirit testifies of truth, now he just needs to get that testimony of the Word of Wisdom.

So that's my life right now. Hermana Noakes and I are still having a blast and seeing miracles. I'll send pictures next week, when I have more time).

Lots of love,

Hermana Tuttle 

Because of Him

Happy Easter

Dear Everyone,

Okay so I really don't have anytime today but I just wanted to tell you about the conference this last week. So this last week was a little crazy because Wednesday I headed to Vic for an intercambio (got to be with Hma Durham again), came back Thursday, then left on Friday to the islands (Mallorca) for a conference and then came back Saturday.

Now for the conference. Elder Evans, of the first quorum of the 70 and the executive director of missionary work asked that all the leaders (zone leaders and sister trainer leaders) to fly out to attend this conference. It was amazing! I know that I say that about every conference but this one was truly inspired. He was fuerte (tough, blunt) but gave me so many things to think about not only in my mission (though certainly that) but also in life. He talked a lot about member missionary work but with that he said that we as missionaries can't blame it on the members if missionary work isn't changing while we are staying the same. We need to step it up, be better, work harder, and be completely worthy of the members trust. I wish I could go into more detail but I am out of time I will just say thank you for all of the sweet emails and Happy Easter! Hope it was the best!

Love you,

Hermana Tuttle

P.S. Spanglish translation Pautas = Standards, Fechas= Baptismal dates.

Sabadell is Miracles + a lot of flour

Hi Familia! (Spanglish, I'm getting pro :)

Wow I love hearing from you guys. I can't apologize enough for ow long it takes for me to write back to your sweet letters, cards, or emails. I'm trying to catch up but I'm struggling. I'm so sorry but I love you lots and I REALLY appreciate them.

So I am absolutely loving life right now in Sabadell. It's gorgeous and the ward is just absolutely amazing. Hermana Noakes and I are just having an absolute blast! We have seen so many miracles and I feel so blessed. I want to put a dent in emailing back to the sweet birthday notes I got so I'm only going to write about two things: 1) the string of miracles we saw yesterday and 2) my birthday surprise. Hold me to it!

1) Yesterday after we visited an awesome man from Nigeria we were heading to another visit and I felt to ask this 19 year old kid who (no offense) kind of looked like a punk and was sitting and spitting out seeds on the sidewalk the quickest way to get to the place we needed to go. I hesitated for a minute but when I second guess stuff I figure it's just Satan saying that because he knows it's someone good and it totally was. After he told us how to get where we are going we tried to give him a card and he said "I know who you are, you're mormons, I'm mormon too I was baptized in 2009 but I haven't gone for a few years. Long story short he's coming to church this Sunday and he's super excited. Then as we were walking away thinking about that miracle a group of people who were all smoking besides one girl passed us. We heard the girl say Joseph Smith so we turned around and asked her how she knew about Joseph Smith, she said she is from Ecuador and her whole family are members except her. Long story short we are visiting her this week. Then as we kept walking this woman and her daughter were just staring out their window and asked us who we are. We told them we are missionaries and long story short we gave them a Book of Mormon and we are visiting with them this week too. Then we found a family of 5 on a bench and got to talk to them about our beliefs a little bit and pray with them, long story short we have a return visit with them on Tuesday. Long story short: There are so many amazing people who are ready to here this beautiful message but we can only find them when we are pushing ourselves (as Hma. Noakes and I have been really trying to do here these past two weeks in Sabadell), being obedient, and talking with everyone. None of the people we talked to yesterday looked like the stereotypical "golden investigator" but as a missionary I have been so blessed to be able to see people a little bit more like God sees them. And I love imagining all those people dressed in white :)

2) So today when I got outside (all showered, ready, and in a cute outfit for my birthday etc.) the Elders were outside waiting with like 20 waterballoons, a whole tupperware of flour, and shaving cream. I got DESTROYED!!!!! Like destroyed as in even though I have washed my hair twice and spent like 30 minutes brushing through it, as I am typing this email I am still pulling out little chunks of flour. It was hilarious though, as they were dousing me and we were taking pictures afterwards several cars stopped to see what was going on. We would explain that it was my birthday and they would just burst out laughing and then say "felicidades" it was hilarious. I'm going to get the photos from Hma. Noakes and send them next week. Be SUPER excited :) (I don't know what's up with all of the smiley faces today, probably because it's my B-day)

Well thank you for everything! I love you lots. I feel super old but super feliz. Have a great week! Enjoy la semana santa y feliz easter! (pascua)

Hermana Tuttle

Una semana súper llena!!!!

Hello everyone!

Wow what a week! In the best way! I am so happy over here in Sabadell. I absolutely love it! My district is great and we have set some great goals. Hermana Noakes and I are excited to be together and I can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for us together. We are just having a blast...and trying to stay focused... we get a little distracted during planning because we just love to talk so much (first time I have been in a two person piso, I have always dreaded in living one for fear of a lack of conversation but I can assure you that is NOT a problem for H. Noakes and I) I could go on forever about all of the things that happened this week (like always) but I'm going to do bullet points and TRY to keep it brief (bless my heart, I just want to detail EVERYTHING to you guys. I struggle)

Pautas: So even though two days were not super helpful this last week due to transfers and then Saturday and Sunday we were in the church most of the day due to General Conference we were so excited to be together that even though this area has been a little dead lately we decided to try to hit pautas. Sunday night all we were missing was one member present and one fecha. We grabbed a member after conference and because we didn't have a ton of time before we had to head home we just contacted the only man around the church we could see. He was a Spaniard and was smoking and looked as if he wanted nothing to do with us but we ended up having a GREAT conversation with him and gave him a Book of Mormon. We didn't get the fecha so we didn't hit pautas but it pumped us up for next week

General Conference: Amazing. Cool experience about this was that with the Sunday Morning session which we watched Sunday at 6 because we are 8 hours ahead so many people came to the church to watch it. More than any other session and the internet connection failed so we couldn't watch it. Luckily a member had it on her phone so we just listened to it. It paused and stopped a lot but what was amazing to me was despite the quality, no one got frustrated, no one left, and even more impressive no one spoke. It was the quietest of all the sessions. Everyone was trying so hard to pay attention and grab what they could. It was beautiful.

Concilio: Yesterday we had concilio: BEAUTIFUL! Cool story about this: We did something we have never done before. President started the meeting and then said "lately we have really been stressing to the missionaries the importance of talking with EVERYONE to find new investigators, So we were thinking, if we are telling the other missionaries how valuable it is then we need to practice what we preach. We are going to assign you companionships and send you out to find people for an hour and a half." So that's what we did.We saw so many it was UNREAL!!! H. Nuñez and I found several new investigators for the missionaries in Barcelona in just 40 minutes (excluding travel time), we gave out Book of Mormons, cards, had lessons in the street (two of which were with people who had talked to missionaries before but had lost contact and that we were able to set up return visits with. It was great.

Last but not least: Interviews (ya, I wasn't kidding, this week was PACKED). Today I had my interview with President. What an amazing man. He asked me how my mission is going and let me just preface this by saying I don't cry I always feel guilty because all of the companions I have do while I could count on one hand how many times I have cried on my mission but today when President asked me how my mission was going I got teary-eyed! I told him it was great but going way to fast. We talked about some wonderful experiences I have had on the mission and it just is hitting me more and more how much I have loved this mission. I still have a little less than 5 months left to change lives here in Spain but I can't even explain how weird it is to think that I only have one interview left, Valencia was YESTERDAY! Any of you returned missionaries or parents I'm sure know exactly what I am talking about when I say time is the weirdest thing in the world.

As always I failed at keeping this short. Sorry. Lots of stuff to say. Well I love you like crazy!

Hermana Tuttle

...i just realized next time I write you I will be 21...EW!!!! talk about time trip! Ugh. I'm in denial. Soy vieja.

Transfers!

Dear everyone,

I AM THE WORST!!!!! I am so sorry! For some reason I just assume you guys can read my mind sometimes and it wasn't until my mom asked why I had a BBQ farewell last week that I realized that I hadn't told you that transfers were coming up. I have been in Barcelona for 4 transfers/6 months (can you believe it??? I feel like I just wrote to you guys saying that I had been transferred from Valencia!) so I knew that I was going to get transferred in this one (4 transfers is pretty long for sisters) so then it was only a matter of when. This last saturday we got the calls. We usually get them at night but President called me in the morning...weird right? And so here is where I drop the big news! I'm sure you've heard by now that they just opened the Bilbao mission back up in Spain (if you haven't heard I'm sure you will this weekend) ... we have been hearing about it for a while and that preparations were being made and everyone has been kind of anxious to find out if anyone is getting mission transferred. President may have already emailed you about this but I just thought I'd make sure you knew I was one of those who got mission transferred. I am now going to serve in Santander about an hour west of the city of Bilbao!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Okay let's be real, I am the worst liar ever so today is so not my holiday but I hope I got at least one or two of you ;) lie: Bilbao did not open up again. Truth: I did get transferred to Sabadell!!!!!!!!!!!!! I know that won't mean anything to you, but it's a city in Catalunya pretty much still Barcelona but on the other side of the mountain which means LOTS OF CATALANS!!!! I'm stoked!!! This is my time to really learn catalán. But the most exciting part guess who is my companion!?!?!? This name won't mean much to a lot of you but it is no other than my best friend in the mission, the girl I said goodbye to my family with, who I flew over with, who I roomed with in the MTC, who decked out my room for my birthday, etc. etc, HERMANA NOAKES!!! Ya we are going to have soooo much fun! All that being said though I can't even tell you how much I am going to miss Hermana Swenson. In these last two transfers she has become a sister to me. I already miss her like crazy. But on the plus side an Elder from my ward here got transferred to my ward in Sabadell and he is going to be companions with my old zone leader in Valencia Elder Glenn so I will know a few people which will be fun.

Other exciting news: This week our zone was on such a high from so many companionships hitting pautas last week that they decided to set the goal that every companionship hit them this week. We worked so hard!!!! It was amazing! We prayed for each other in EVERY prayer and I felt so unified. It took me back to December when we prayed that each companionship would have a baptism and it happened (which is still a record). On Saturday night Hma. Swenson and I hit them and so Sunday was all about making sure that the other companionships had the support they needed to hit it. In the end 7 of the 9 companionships hit it. 1 that didn't missed it by one baptismal date but had 37 lessons!! and the other missed it by one person in church but had 31 lessons! Keep in mind a good week is like 24-25 lessons. Every companionship hit the pauta for member presents and for new investigators. It was AMAZING!

I won't tell you too much about goodbyes because I'll start to cry, I'll just say they have been sweet but rough. I have felt so loved here and I couldn't be more grateful. I can't wait to come back one day with my parents to see all of these people again.

This morning we went to see the sunrise for Hermana Liu's last day in the mission with President at Mount Tibidabo. GORGEOUS! He asked me to come over so that he could show me where Sabadell I asked him if there was anything he needed from me there, he said just use your talents. Then we all started walking back to the van when he asked if I could stay back and talk to him for a bit. He explained to me why I had been called there and what the area needed from me. It was so powerful. I know I've been called where I need to be right now and I can't wait to get to Sabadell this afternoon and start working. 

Real quick: Nuria's baptism was BREATHTAKING. I will send photos ASAP (hopefully today) she is so happy and I am so happy for her. I love her with all of my heart. Before she entered the font she was crying and her mom asked if she was second guessing her decision to be baptized she said no, that she just felt so happy. Afterwards she said "I want to do that again." So sweet. Another cute story about that is she knew exactly which elder she wanted to baptize her, when we were all in the church a week ago for an activity I encouraged her to ask him if he'd do it, she wanted me to go over with here so arm in arm we went and she nervously asked this 6'3 elder (keep in mind she's 8 so he's huge compared to her) if he'd do it, he then got down on his knees so they were eye level and said "Nuria, may I baptize you?" she excitedly nodded her head as he smiled at her and said that it would be his privilege. It was so sweet and it made Nuria feel like a princess which is exactly what she deserves. I'm going to miss her. Oh and real quick: Marlene who left the church 15 years ago and has now come back let me call her mom to tell her that Nuria was going to be baptized. She bawled and bawled and just thanked us so much. I can't believe I have had the privilege to be a part of reuniting a family. A daughter who was lost and a granddaughter who is the only one not baptized in the whole family.

Edgar is a new investigator who when I invited him to be baptized he thought about it for a moment and then said yes, when I asked him if he would prepare to be baptized on April 12th he said "yes I'll prepare the best I can" he then committed to come to church, read, and pray. I'm sad I won't be here to see how he does but it was so amazing to find someone who we barely knew trust that we were messengers of Jesus Christ right off the bat and accept our invitation to be baptism. 

Sorry this is forever long, lots to write. Happy April Fools! Sorry I didn't warn you this would be coming a day late.

Hermana Tuttle

pictures: my district last week at the BBQ and Nuria's baptism

Here's a map showing where Sabadell is so you can have a better idea of where Sister Tuttle is!