Maria got baptised

Hi there :) 

This is the nicest keyboard I´ve worked with so far in Spain. It´s maginificient. 

So MARIA GOT BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Finally, finally. It was amazing.She´s been so nervous for it all week. It was crazy getting everything all set up. We live on the other side of the city from the church building so we have to take two busses to get there. Well, we were on our bus when it suddenly turns the wrong way. The street we were supposed to go down was blocked off and there were police officers everywhere. We get off and it turns out that all these main streets are blocked, so there is no way for us to ride a bus to the chruch. We called the ZL´s and hurried to walk to a place where we could meet. There were people selling candles and umbrellas (it was raining) all along the way. We figure there was some sort of procession or parade. We were worried we wouldn´t have time to fill the font but we managed to get it all ready. It was kind of funny that we had no idea about the parade thing. Shows how little missionary´s are part of the world. We were so lucky to be able to get a hold of the ZL´s and that they work in the same city so we could have someone with a car. It would have taken us hours to walk to the church, and not many members have cars here. 

 It was the biggest baptism we´ve had in this ward so far, so many members showed up to support her. Her son Francisco and Hna Brown gave talks. I played the piano and tried to not mess up too much. Some members sang Divina Luz (IDK The translation in English) and I played for them. I was completely sight reading so I messed up pretty bad at one point, but considering all the factors it went pretty well.  She cried during their performace apparently. Maria is such an amazing woman. She didn´t smoke for 4 days before her baptism. She was really jittery with shaky hands and all that before, but after she was baptized and recieved the Holy Ghost she was so much calmer. She was so happy, and so was her son. She´s going to be such a strength to the ward I think, she´s already made lots of friends. 

This last week I had some time where I was very frustrated with Spanish, as always. I prayed for help to see some progress because I felt like I was not improving at all. Later that day we were giving a lesson and randomly Hna Brown turns to me with a look on her face that says ´´your turn´´. I was caught off guard because in the past I´d never given that part of the Restoration lesson. But I said a few things and turned back to her. She did that for the rest of the lesson and I was able to keep up and give a good part of it. It was an answer to my prayer. It was so small, but I was able to practice my Spanish more and say things I wouldn´t have been able to a few weeks ago. And earlier that day I bore my testimony like usual, but I really felt the Spirit as I did. Later Hna Brown told me that it was the best Spanish I´ve ever used. The Gift of Tongues is real! I still have a really long ways to go, but that helped me make it through a few more days. 

On Tuesday we had a Multi Zone conference in Málaga. The Hermana´s from Jaen came and spent the night with us and then we left early the next morning on a bus. We had to take a taxi to the main bus station because no city buses run that early in the morning. It was a new experience, I felt so rich to ride in a taxi. It was awesome to see the Hermana´s too. Hna Lyons (the blonde in the pict) are both new and we´ve become pretty good friends. 

Also, met an old friend from BYU! She was in my FHE group my freshman year. I knew she was in the same mission and was so excited to hear she was in my multi-zone group. Hna Jess Israelsen. So of course we took a picture and caught up on everyone and what they were doing. So many people from that group are on missions, and the rest are doing such fun things. It was so fun to see her, we gave each other a huge hug. Hna Israelsen and my comp, Hna Brown were in the same MTC group so they´re really good friends too. It was fun to hang out with both of them. 

The actual conference was great too. President talked about teaching to find and about staying dilligent. He talked a lot about making every hour about Christ. Even p-day can be if we have the right mentality. It was really cool, and thankfully I was able to understand it all because we had translators. The whole conference was in Spanish, but President Deere said he wanted us to get the message more than learn spanish so those of us that were new were given these little headphone things and the office Elders took turns translating. I didn´t use the headphones the whole time, but it was really nice. I felt a bit dumb, but hey, I´m new. My Spanish isn´t that great yet and I get really tired after a lot of Spanish all at once. I´m always exhausted by the end of Sunday. 

Something else President Deere talked about at conference was continuing to find as many people as we had time to. As missionary´s we often hear about the funnel of investigators. How you teach lots of people but not all of those people are ready to be baptised. So the more people you teach the more people you find who are ready. So this week Hna Brown and I set a goal of finding 5 new investigators. It´s a pretty big goal for our area. But we´ve already talked to more people today, we had people initiating conversations with us! Granted, they weren´t very interested. But planting seeds, always planting seeds. And I think it was a response to our faith. I´m positive we will be able to do it.

For P-day today the Elders and us Hermana´s went to Dominos Pizza. If you buy a certain deal you can get unlimited pizza (why doesn´t this exist in America!?), and so that´s exactly what we did. The pizza was so yummy, it was just like I like it. BBQ sauce, onions, ham, all the good stuff. There were different ones but that was my favorite. I meant to take pictures but totally forgot, sorry. I keep meaning to get pictures of the district. I´ve been blessed to be in a district of a really great set of Elders. They have fun but work hard too, which is always a good combination. And they have been so helpful with any of our questions. We make them brownies all the time to try and pay them back. Brownies are a big deal. Like, a BIG deal. Everyone, not just the Elders get excited about brownies. It cracks me up, because brownies are just an easy, catch all thing in America. But here people are obsessed with them.

I´ll let you know how our week of finding goes. I know there are hundreds of people in Granada who are searching for the gospel but just don´t know where to look. I´m determined to find as many as I can, bad spanish or no. I can feel it, this week is going to be busy. 

Love you all a lot!!! Have a great week. I know that if you read the Book of Mormon every day life will be better and happier. With obedience we can recieve so many blessings. Loves!!

h. woolley

p.s. we´re moving so don´t send any letters to the Zathuras address if you have it, I´ll give you the new one soon!