Hello everyone! 

This week has been crazier than usual. I went to the mission home in Fuengirola to finish off my residency, so now I am an official resident of Spain! And I had intercambios so one of the other hermanas came here to Granada and Hna Roan went to Malaga. It was crazy, but it was so, so good. But it does mean that I spent a lot of time sitting in a bus station or on a bus. So I was able to get pretty far in the Book of Mormon. We´re trying to read the whole book by the end of the year as a mission, highlighting every time one of Christ´s names is mentioned or he speaks. It´s been really cool, I´m excited to look back through and take a closer look at what he´s saying at the end of the year. 

On Sunday we had a baptism in the ward. Her name is Yolanda, she´s really quiet but super nice. She recieved a very special confirmation blessing and bore such a sweet testimony. It was so brave of her to get up infront of everyone and share her testimony, I was really proud of her. Hna Roan and I and a girl from the ward, Ruth, did a musical number. I played the piano and Hna Roan sang and Ruth played the violin. It was really beautiful, I think we´ll be doing it again. It was I need thee Every Hour. I think. I played a lot of songs yesterday, the baptism started late so I was playing prelude for a really long time. But it was a super awesome baptism, one of the most spiritual I´ve ever been to. 

I´ve really started falling in love with taking the sacrament. It becomes more special to me every time I take it. I understood what the sacrament was before my mission and accessed the blessings and lived my covenants. But something about  being on a mission changes things. I´m so much closer to the Spirit, I think I´m learning things on a different level out here. 

So when I was at the mission home we had Cafe Rio style burittos for dinner. It was so, so good, reminded me of home because Hna Deere did a cilantro salsa thing on top. So yum! That was my favorite food of the week. 

Intercambios are always kind of funny. Both times the other Hermanas freaked out over Granada. I kind of love seeing it again through their eyes. And I always get a laugh out of how many pictures they want to take. Both times the hermanas pretty much carry the camera in hand as we walk around. 

So, explaining intercambios. We have ´head´ sister missionary´s, kind of like a Zone Leader. And they just work with every companionship of sisters they are over once a transfer to help them learn and give advice on their area. They´re just more experienced Hermanas. It´s good to see how different people contact and interact, both times I´ve picked up little things. 

I got your package Mom! Thanks so much for the drops and photos and such! The photos made me laugh, they´re on my wall along with the ones Grandma Woolley sent and tylers drawings. It looks great :) This computer doesn´t have a place to plug in my thumb drive so I think I´ll send the pictures next week. 

Funny story of the week. A member (Rosario) that we visit every week is homebound and pretty old so we and the Elders have told her to call us when she needs something. The other day Hna Roan and I are woken up by our phone, and it´s Rosario. We decided to call her back later.  I get out of bed and go into the bathroom, thinking it´s time to get up. When I come out I try to wake Hna Roan up, telling her it´s time to get moving. She´s super confused, which confuses me. We look at the clock its 1:·30 in the morning. I slap the light switch in the living room and crawl back into bed without another word. Our alarm clock is on our phone so I think it messed me up. We both laughed about it in the morning, but in the moment I was just relieved that I got to keep sleeping because I was super tired still, for good reason.

I love you all a lot! Stay warm and have a happy Halloween!

Hermana Woolley

New comp from WY

I´M SO SORRY I'M LATE GETTING ON! CRAZY DAY

This week we have been knocking doors a lot. Our main investigator, Maria, got baptized and most of our others dropped us or we dropped them. I felt bad for Hna Roan coming into an area like that, but she was ready to go to work and we jumped right in. We´ve been working our way through the ward list and knocking doors in the less active´s buildings, talking to people on the street, anything we can think of we do. It´s been good, we´ve learned how to be braver. And seen so many miracles. The Lord is really blessing us for our diligence and efforts to share the gospel. 

We were walking through this area that Hna Brown and I didn´t work very much when we passed an apt building with an open door. We went in and picked a random floor and started knocking. In this building we found three people who might be interested, meeting our goal for that day! One of them, a british man named George, seemed very promising. 

We´ve seen so many other miracles besides this, it´s been amazing. Carmela, a recent member that we have been teaching how to read read in sunday school and did an AMAZING job. I was so proud of her, her skills have grown so much. I know its because she has a righteous desire so she can read the Book of Mormon. 

And I´ve been forced to learn the area really quick. We always have the map out, but I´ve been blessed to learn really fast and understand the map. It´s not a skill I normally have, so its been a huge blessing. Hna Roan have a really good system worked out where I lead us around everywhere and try to initate conversations and she does most of the talking since she knows more spanish. I´m working really hard to speak a lot and practice a lot. My spanish is already jumping which is so awesome. Like I said, blessings. 

All week a phrase from Elder Bednars Our Search for Happiness  has been running through my head. I don´t know it exactly, but it´s talking about missionary´s to people who aren´t memebers and it says the missionary´s feel just as awkward on your doorstep as you feel having them there. It´s so true! It´s really hard to knock on the door, and to have people be annoyed at you over and over. I would never do this for anything else but the gospel of Christ. I know this is true. My testimony has grown so much stronger, even in just this one week. I´ve become more aware of how much I love this church and know its true, because nothing else would make me talk to people like this. I´m so grateful to have the gospel and the knowledge that I do. 

This weekend we finally had Kepbap! My first time. It´s kind of like a burrito, it´s Arab I believe. so yummy! And hna Roan and I got Chinese takeout to celebrate having our first night together. As a missionary I celebrate with food a lot. Food makes everything better. And I´m here in Spain, so I might as well try something new, right?

I´ve started a miracle journal where I write down 3 miracles every day. It´s kind of a tender mercy journal too, but those are miracles often too because they come at just the right moment to keep me going. I still can´t get over the fact that Lindsay is pregnant. And tanya! The world is crazy. STEVEN!!! he just keeps almost dying. So glad he´s okay. karla must freak out. 

Sorry i was so late getting on today. The Zone Leaders forgot to tell us that another Hermana from the city over was coming for the night because her companion needed to go to the mission home. so we had to go meet the ZL´s who were very kind and brought her to our area from the bus stop (i think it was an apology of sorts) and I had to try and give them directions to where we were waiting. It was a bit crazy since none of the people involved know this area very well. I´m learning my way around, but not quite that well yet. 

We´re still working with maria and teaching her the new member lessons. besides that... not really anyone. we´ve got a couple people who we´re trying to hold on to but it´s not working that well. tonight we´re visiting a member that we practice reading with. Her names carmela, we meet with her every week. And we´ll visit Maria guzman, a member who is house bound most of the time as she takes care of her mom. we eat with her once a week. last night we visited Rosario, another house bound member of the ward with the elders. they give her the sacramement and we swap who teaches the thought ever week and then we talk with her for an hour or so. those are all members though, not investigators. but i love them all a lot, they´re all great people. 

Hna Roan is part samoan, her mom is sammoan. She speaks pretty good spanish, she is super sweet. she loves to cook and loves to eat and wants to explore every part of spain and loves granada. she wants to work hard and has lots of faith. She was about to get married when she came on her mission, but she felt like it was what she needed to do. I´m really impressed by her in that. She dressed like BreAnne, she´s very into soft pinks and maroon and whites, all those delicate colors. Princessy too.

Hna Roan and I get along really well. She´s super sweet and loves Granada. It´s like seeing everything over again to see her react to everything. So much fun, it reminds me how beautiful my area is. Hard because of the tourists, but so beautiful. I¨m so blessed to work here! Love you all! 

Hermana Woolley

We pass this monkey every day!

Beautiful Spain Granada

overlooking Spain

Transfers

Hi,

This week so much has happened! It´s been awesome. This weekend our Zone went to the Alhambra (castle outside Granada) after Zone Conference. Normally zone conference is on Tuesday and pday Monday, but we canceled both those things and did both on Saturday. The Alhambra was so. so. cool. I was dying all day. I took some art history classes my last semester at BYU and so I knew a few things about the architecture and stuff. And the view. Jolin! It was gorgeous. It´s like what you´d seen on pintrest of Spain. I´m blessed to work in such a beautiful city. 

The Alhambra also has an art museum. None of the art was super famous, but I was still drooling because it was all originals starting from the 14th century. My companion had to drag me out of the museum because everyone else was waiting for me. I could have spent three hours easy in just the museum. 

We took a bus to the right part of town and then had to walk up the giant hill to reach teh actual castle. The walk reminded me of utah, it was so green and there were little streams on both sides of the path. It was nice to have things cooled down, though everyone was definitely getting a work out! Only the Jaen missionary´s weren´t hurting (think San Fransisco and that´s what there city is like hills-wise). And all the steps in the castle were HUGE! It was like taking steps 2 or 3 at a time. I know hna brown and I are both sore, I´m pretty sure the others are too. But it was so, so, so fun. I actually felt a little bit like a tourist. It reminded me that I´m in EUROPE! How crazy is that? I´m living in one of the cities that people travel from all over the world to visit. And I get to see it all. 

This Saturday was a holiday too, it´s Columbus day or something like that, we aren´t really sure. I´m really glad the buses were working, we weren´t sure they would. But after the Alhambra some people had to go work or go back to their areas and others of us didn´t. So we wandered through downtown (my area) and tried to visist a few cathederals. They were closed, but we found some other awesome things. Like this man with like 20 Eagles and falcons in the middle of the street. They were all just lined up next to a park, chillin on thier little stands. No idea why. But it was super cool. Hedwidg was there and a Bald eagle and some other super awesome eagles. We found some cool stands with jewelery and food. Everything was being made right there. I bought a pair of earrings that I´m very excited about. 

So, the moment mom´s been dying to hear about. Transfers. It was a funny thing. It was cool because the whole zone was together so we were able to hear about lots of people right away. usually president calls pretty early in the morning but because there are so many more missionary´s he was behind. Our area is the last area he calls so we weren´t called until like noon. The phone was passed around from Elder to elder since we were all together just to make it a little easier. Lot´s of people in our district have been here for 6 months or longer so they were all expecting calls. It was fun to celebrate with everyone as they were excited about their new areas. A lot of people got their reassignments all at once and then the rest were waiting to get theirs later. 

We were walking to another part of the Alhambra when Hna Brown´s phone rang. She froze for a second before digging through her bag. Hermana Brown and I weren´t expecting a call since i´m in the middle of a transfer. But she is leaving to Jarez to become a SHE (the new calling for sister missionary´s, kind of like zone leader) and I´m going to be with hermana Ronds. everyone says she is amazing so I´m really excited to meet her. Hermana Brown was pretty surprized, but all the Elders had been guessing we would be split up. I´d thought we might, but I was thinking it was my usual worrying self, not anything real. SURPRISE!!!! We are splitting after only one transfer. Half of my district is leaving because they´ve all been here for so long, so it will be a totally new district. We´re getting one newbie too. I´m excited to meet all the new missionary´s and sad to see the others go. it´s hard realizing that I might not see them again until a reunion after the mission or something like that. But what can you do? I´m just glad I got to get to know such great missionary´s and learn from all of them. I´m really excited and nervous for Hna Rond. It´ll be a test to see how well I know our area. Hna Brown made a cheat sheet for me the other day of all the bus routes and we´ve been looking at the map more so I can get a better idea. I´m not too worried, we have a map to carry around with us :). 

Poor Hna Brown has been frantically trying to say goodbye to everyone. It caught us by surprize that she´s leaving so she hasn´t been preparing anyone. We visited one of our old ladys last night and she starting crying when Hna brown said she was leaving. It makes me so grateful to know that I can see all these pepole again in the next life, if not when I come back to Spain after my mission. I love Granada so much, its such a  beautiful city and has such amazing people. I´m so glad I get to stay here for at least 6 more weeks. I love you all a lot!!! I´ll talk to you soon. 

hna woolley

the new dryer

New apt

Family and Friends

Hello everyone! 

Thanks for all the emails, I have a ton this week, sorry if i don´t get to everyone!

Wasn´t General conference amazing? I haven´t seen the Relief Society broacast or the last session sunday night yet, but we will. I loved it when all the members were challanged to reach out to someone by Christmas. I re-emphaize this challange. Its so important to share and helps the missionary´s so much! We´re almost starting over this week because we had to drop so many people, and we don´t have very  many references to contact. I can guarantee that the missionary´s in your area value every name you give them as something treasured.

I really loved the quote Uchtdorf said that ¨doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith¨. It´s so true. The mroe I learn about the gospel the more questions I have that I know won´t be answered easily, if ever in this life. But I´m okay with that because I have faith and trust in Christ and I know that I can keep learning and eventually I´ll get my questions answered. 

There´s this American family in the ward that had us over for the Sunday morning session of conference. We watched it live and ate dinner with them. It was so much fun, she has the best kids. Hermana Brown taught the girls how to make no bake cookies while I helped clean up. They were sooo gooood. Peanut butter here is different, it´s thicker and has a slightly different taste. It made those cookies even better. The elders were gobbling them up. All of us missionary´s were able to watch it at her house because the Nigerians she originally invited canceled last minute so there was room for everyone. 

Earlier that day we tried to make brownies but that didn´t work very well. the lights were out in our piso (apartment) that morning so our oven was too. So we went to cook them at the church before the Sat morning session but the oven waas funky and even though it said it was on bake, it broiled the brownies. So the top layer was black. But all the missionary´s and a few other friends huddled around with spoons and ate what was underneath. It was kind of like brownie soup. Not quite batter, not quite brownies. Kind of wierd, but still good.  We had fun and the Elders didn´t make too much fun of us. ;)

This week's letter is a little short but I want time to answer emails. I love you all! I´m so excited to hear more from you all! Send pictures and they´ll make it onto my wall of love with Tyler's drawings!!! And read the conference talks. You have no idea how blessed you are to be able to do that, and to hear conference in the prophets voice. It´s one of those things I didn´t realize was a blessing until I got here. There´s a member of the bishopric who is learning English because he wants to be able to listen to conference and hear the prophets voice. 

Love you all!!

Hermana Woolley