Instruments in His Hands

Mis seres queridos,

Well...we all knew this day had to come... The Hermana Tuttle-Noakes companionship has come to an end. She is off to Zaragoza to bless that part of the world and I am getting to work with the wonderful Hermana Ward who will probably be my last companion. I love it here in Sabadell. Saying goodbye to people these last few days has really helped me see why I felt I needed to come on a mission. I feel so humbled, I have so much left to learn but God has blessed me to be the part of so many people´s lives. Isn't it amazing! As not only missionaries but as anyone God puts his trust in us to be an example to people to help those around us, members or not. I wish I had time and space so that I could tell you all of the little miracles I see every week but I'll have to wait to expand them all in detail until then I have a couple of quick bullet points of people God has let me and Hermana Noakes to be a part of:

1) Joan Pau, he is still preparing for the 12th of July, we have been having daily contact with him (which is super easy because he's basically our best friend) but he just left to Italy for a two week long study thing. We didn't want him to lose his animo (excitement/fire) for the church so I thought of what my mom used to do whenever I left home for a couple of weeks to dance and the night before he left we gave him 14 envelopes, 1 for every day he would be gone with questions about the chapters he will be reading from the book of mormon. It was so fun. Hermana Noakes (being the creative one) colored the envelopes and I studied the chapters he would be reading and came up with questions and little things for him to do so that he could apply his reading. He was so excited. He talks about his baptism as a fact and is already asking us about who is going to give talks. I am so excited!

2) Orlando and Nair, a family who was less active because of some problems with other members of the church who I just couldn't love more. They invited us over to eat and Nair (who has been a member her whole life and who introduced Orlando to the church 3 years ago and has tried to keep him active but has been struggling these last 2 years) told us that she has lost her energy due to gossiping and other things and that she doesn't want to attend the church either. We shared 2 nephi 9:18 and told them that they need to be the examples that if there is any sort of contention in the church it doesn't mean they should leave it means that we need them more than ever. We were all crying by the end. They drove us all of the way to Barcelona station just to drove Hermana Noakes off. They are so sweet.

3) Andres is still coming to church and he says he really likes it and that he would love to be baptized one day. We are still working on a date with him but he and Kevin (his older brother) are both signed up for EFY this fall and we are so excited for them!

Wow, I still have so much left I want to tell you but I have a few members that I would like to write to before I get off. Just know that I feel very blessed over here in Spain and I am seeing miracles.

Con cariño,

Hermana Tuttle

P.S. oh and family I forgot to tell you how cool I thought it was that you watched the Madrid v. Madrid game. Made me feel a little bit closer to you :)

Father's Day

Dear everyone,

I just want to start out by wishing my dad a happy father's day yesterday, I hope you got my letter on time and I hope you can feel my love from the "other side of the pond." I love you so much and I owe every miracle I am seeing here to you. Thank you for supporting me and my decision to serve and for always being my hero and example. HAPPY LATE FATHER'S DAY!

The weeks just keep being more and more amazing but are flying by!!!! This week we had zone conference which was perfect. I got to spend the night in Hermana Walker (my old trainee's piso which was fun because it was her year mark, can you believe that it was almost year ago that I picked her up from Barcelona...WEIRD!!!! and we made real brownies (American mix and everything) to celebrate and it was delicious!) but anyway, the meeting was amazing! President and Hermana Pace continue to absolutely inspire me. Before and after each of the conferences they go around and shake hands/hug all of the missionaries. It was really bittersweet when a lot of us realized this is our last zone conference... can you believe it? I got to teach about whatever topic I wanted. I couldn't think of what to do so the zone leaders suggested I teach about my strongest point unity. It was so fun to study and teach about it because it really is something I feel passionate about.

I'm almost out of time (sorry I wanted to get some writing done to some members that I haven't seen for a while and email time just flies) but I do want to say that Joan Pau is still doing really well. He is staying strong and his testimony is growing more and more everyday. In church we continue to have 10-14 less actives every week and slowly they are coming back to activity. Some of them are even going out with us and the elders on visits and their testimonies are SO STRONG! I feel blessed to be a part of their lives I truly do.On Saturday we did a "rescue" activity where all of the ward council members and the missionaries went out to visit a bunch of less active families for a couple of hours. We all split up and the member I went with, Mary, and I had 3 visits! It went really well and then we had a little barbecue at the church with the six of us missionaries and 2 or 3 investigators/recent converts for each companionship, it was great.

Sorry this email is all over the place but just know that I am so grateful to be here, I truly feel that Hermana Noakes and I are getting to be instruments in the Lord's hands here in Sabadell. I have never felt so in tune to the spirit in my life. This week I went on an intercambio to Zaragoza and they had set up all of the hardest people for us to visit (and rightly so because intercambios are a great way to get another missionary's opinion) and I found myself praying so hard at all times just hoping I could help these people that I had never met before and I can testify with all of my heart I felt the Spirit speaking through me more than any other day in my mission, in my life. Every visit we left and I couldn't even remember what I had told them, the things I said to those people we were blessed to visit that day weren't my words at all. It was a very humbling experience.

I love you all so much and hope everything is wonderful.

Hermana Tuttle

Chef Tuttle .... NBD

Hola!

You guys are never going to believe this...I like cooking....WHAT!?!?! It's true. This week we did a lot of cooking and I'm starting to catch the fever. For example in one day we went over to a part member family's house and made pique macho with them. It's a super fattening but absolutely DELICIOUS dish from Bolivia. It's basically just french fries, pieces of meat (chunks of beef), onions, tomatoes, hard boiled eggs, and sliced up hot dogs with ketchup, mayonnaise, and mustard on top. It's amazing! Anyway, so I learned how to do that on Friday and then we had to go to the church to help set up for the activity we were hosting that night. The idea was pancakes (not common here and one of the elders came up with a really good recipe from scratch. No bisquick here) so I got put in charge of making those and I made about 150 pancakes throughout the night as people were eating and playing. It was super fun. 

Andres- He is the little brother of a reference named Kevin. We have taught Kevin a few times and then finally last week we got Andres to sit in on a lesson. He said the closing prayer and even though he was nervous it was beautiful. We then gave them both a little bit to read and Kevin unfortunately didn't do the reading but Andres, 14, read what we gave him and then 2 more chapters from 1 Nephi. He and Kevin have both been super stressed with exams and everything so we haven't been able to visit with them much but then guess who was at church yesterday! Andres! He seems to really be curious about why we are so happy and I am so excited to see how things go! He has a baptismal date right now for the 21st.

Today we went to the zoo which was super fun and the other day I donated blood. Woot woot! Oh and we hit pautas again. It's been a REALLY good week :)

Lots of love,

Hermana Tuttle

Prayer Works

I am just LOVING LIFE! Really though, Hermana Noakes and I don't even feel worthy of all the miracles we are seeing each day! I wrote to you just a few days ago so you know most of what's happened this week but I have two great things that happened.

One: we were blessed to hit pautas!!!! We got 12 members present, 3 fechas (baptismal dates), and 7 new investigators. Such a blessing, this area is growing and we are working with some absolutely amazing people. Speaking of amazing people:

Two: the highlight of the week...one of the highlights of my mission. So you know how I have told you about Joan Pau? he's reading and coming to church, loves the activities, loves all of the members. Great but he just hasn't felt like he's received an answer that this is God's church and that the Book of Mormon is His book yet. We have been trying to think of how to help him recognize the spirit when he mentioned how stressed he is with school and everything. We told him if he needed, the elders could give him a blessing of comfort. Well Thursday night he came early to the noche de hermanamiento and got in a good conversation with the elders about how God often asks us to take a leap of faith and then confirms it to us. After the activity we went into the bishops office and the elders gave him a blessing, the spirit was more powerful than I have ever felt it! The blessing was beautiful, he was blessed with the gift of discernment and clarity. Afterwards we stayed silent for a minute or two and then Joan Pau said that he felt different, that he felt a spirit more powerful than he had ever felt before. We talked to him about how that's the answer that he has been waiting for. The spirit was so strong that after we talked about how he was feeling and how he needs to record and always remember how he feels we invited him to be baptized again and for what I hope will be the last time we need to and he said YES! but not just "we'll set it as a goal and we'll see" but an actual yes! He gave the closing prayer and thanked God for the clarity he had found and after we again stayed in silence for a little and then Joan Pau said "you guys NEED to keep doing this. You NEED to keep working so people can feel what I am feeling right now. They need to know that there is more." We were all bawling. It was beautiful!

This week 11 less actives in church! Woot woot! They are starting to turn into active members now!

Well I'm a little resfriada (congested) and wet from a water fight today but I'm basically as happy as can be! Hope all of you are too (happy not congested and wet)!

Hermana Tuttle

P.S. I can't tell you enough about the power I have seen from prayer and fasting this week. EVERYTHING we have seen this week is an answer to our prayers and EVERYTHING we have asked with faith and with obedience and hard work behind it we have received. Down to a lost flashdrive and up to the change of heart to a friend we have grown to love so much over the months.