Hermana Brown takes Spain!

September 1, 2014

It was a pretty good week like always!.. we saw so many miracles!

On Monday we played basketball and invited a few of our investigators from Nigeria. They really liked it I think. It was a lot of fun, really hot, but fun! After, we just hung out at home. I wrote you another letter, and I FINALLY got stamps today. Last Monday the place was closed when I tried to buy them. We taught a few people, Micheal, our recent convert, and he is just doing so great. I really am so grateful for him. He´s incredible and I can see so many great things happening in his future in his family, church and life. We also got to see Cinthia and she doesn´t really want to get baptized right now. She said she wants to wait until she is like 40 so she doesn´t make more sins. We tried to explain it to her.  After that, we saw Milagros and Marislay. Marislay is super awesome. She said she wanted to come with us to teach one evening. She has suprised me so much. I love her to death. Then we had a noche de hogar with Lucy and her family. It was really good. We talked about the atonement. We had 3 glasses and 3 knives and the glasses were in a triangle and you had to form the knives so that you could make a strong foundation. We talked about the three parts of the atonement. After the lesson, Magali (the 21 year old girl) asked us.. ´´Who decided the topic of the lesson?´´ We responded telling her that we had both thought of it. She said, ´´I was just thinking about that before you guys came over´´ It was pretty cool. While we were eating, Lucy, the mom, made a napkin rose for Elias (8 yr old) and he grabbed it, turned around and quickly said, ´´¿te cases conmigo?´´ (means ´´will you marry me?´´ It was so cute, I didn´t really know what to say. He is the cutest little boy in the world.

Tuesday we were planning on doing intercambios with one of the Málaga companionships and then they called us and told us that they were getting a new companion. We had to postpone it, but that´s okay. We had correlation with our mission leader and he bought us waffles with nutella stuff on it. It was so so so good. Then we had district meeting and I had to give a talk. It went really well I think. That afternoon, our mission leader came with us. We taught Jenni about personal progress. She was really excited! Then we went and saw Michael and talked about the priesthood. (It was in English, so I taught a lot of it) then we went and saw our Nigerian family. (also in English, but not too bad because we watched the Joseph Smith video) That was a really sad lesson. We talked to them about reading and praying to know if it is true. They said they would, then we talked about baptism, and they said even if they know it´s true, they would never change. It´s sad, because I know one of the girls has her answer. After that, we went and saw Milagros and Miriam. We watched a video, then we talked to Miriam about still listening to us, even though she´s not ready to be baptized yet. She really appreciated it I think, and now it´s not as awkward. 

Wednesday we had a great morning. We saw Natalia, and she is great! We talked about the restoration and she is reading a lot in the Book of Mormon and said she liked church. Then we went and saw Edith. She is kind of driving me crazy. All of this crazy moving stuff and trying to get help from the bishop, it´s nuts. Then we taught another lesson, then ate with Alicia. It was good, Pasta stuff. That night, Marislay accompanied us and we taught Houssain. He said he wants to be baptized. He just has to be taught little-by-little, he used to be muslim. Then we had English class and it was super awkward. They just talked mostly about politics again, pretty much every time they speak, it´s about things like that.

Thursday we ate with Milagros and then we had our interviews with President. It was a good interview. He told me that I was doing a great job, and then told me I would be in Málaga one more transfer then asked me how many I had after that. I told him only 2, he said, ´´oh.. how are we going to get you to train again?´´ He said, ´´I hope we can, but you might just be a leader the rest of your mission.´´ I´ll just do whatever, I love my mission. I would love to train, but I would also love to continue being a SHE, it´s all great! Then after that, we saw Jenni again. She had read all of the things we left with her. She is super excited and is doing so well. Then we went up to see Loli, just an old investigator. Then finally, we were able to see Hakim. As we were waiting outside of the church, there was a crazy man that kept asking us where he could get help. He was nuts, luckily there was a member there. The lesson with Hakim was good. I hope he can get progressing like he used to and get baptized. 

Friday morning we saw Natalia again and had another great lesson. Then we went and saw Edith and taught her the word of wisdom. She´s fallen again into a few bad habits. After that, we had specialized training with President Deere. It was good, it was about finding. I liked it, then we did intercambios with Fuengirola. I went there with Hna. Folsom. She is awesome! She´s my sister too (: Hna. Johnson started her training, and then Hna. Nielsen finished it! She´s such a great missionary. I learned a lot in the intercambio. She´s helping a lot in Fuen. She´s making a big difference. That night, Elder Olsen called me and told me that they had found a family for us to teach. They are from Chile and they are awesome. A mom, dad, and 3 kids over 8. (: It was cool, because for the past week or so, all of the leaders in the mission have gotten a text every morning of one companionship in the mission (zls or shes) and today everyone was praying for us.

Saturday I came back and we ate at Elenir´s. It was such good food. Ah man, she made mashed potatoes that were so good. She is such a great cook. Then that evening we saw Michael and talked about the law of chastity. He remembered all of it and told us how happy and calm he is especially after he broke up with his girlfriend. He is so happy. I love it. That night, we practiced a song to sing in the baptism for Sunday.

Sunday was a day FILLED with miracles. Even though I woke up feeling really sick, but we went to church anyway. We invited the Nigerian family to come to church. As we were waiting outside, they came. All of the girls and the mom, and they stayed for all 3 hours. They liked it I think. We ended up having 10 people in church. The chapel was FILLED with people. We had an attendance of about 180, which is incredible. We brought in about 15 extra chairs, and there still wasn´t enough room for everybody. I felt so sick during all of the meetings, but I stayed until it was over. Then the a.p´s took us home and then Elder Rojas asked if I would like a blessing. Elder Olsen gave me a great blessing and then they left and I just threw up for about 5 hours. It was not very fun. Then we had the baptism. Nayara, a little girl that we had taught, was getting baptized. I was just praying and praying that I would feel good enough to make it through the baptism and one lesson we had that night with the Chilean family. Wow, it was incredible how I felt great as soon as the baptism started. I played the piano for our musical number. We sang ´Nearer my God to Thee´ and we sang in parts for the first verse then the second verse we sang a'capella and I sang tenor, it sounded good. Then the last verse I played an octive higher - it sounded really good I think. After the baptism, the Castillos brought us to our lesson with the family. It went great. They want to be baptized. (: I´m really excited to teach them more. After the lesson, we went home and my body hurt so bad. It was hard to get to sleep, but eventually I did. Hna. Castillo told me to sleep in, I did and it was really nice. It was weird, but I feel quite a bit better today.

Today we have concilio. It´s going to be weird without Hna. Johnson and Nielsen. But, I´m excited!

I love you so much!!! (: