Grape Harvest

Its been another week of work! Unfortunately Gloria didn´t come to church this week, but when we called her later that day she was sick, so that was a relief. We were a bit worried.

This sunday was very unusual. All the men in the branch had to work because its the end of hte grape harvest and its hte last minute rush. So the only men with preisthood in church yesterday were the elders. So one leaded and the other presided, one played the piano ( We´re going to switch off) while the other broke the bread, one blessed and hte other passed the sacrament. The new elder gave a talk and so did I. There were some women and youth missing too so we went and taught the only YW. Us and the elders taught her so that it woudln´t be just 3 of us. Interesting stuff happens when you´re in a branch.

This week we saw an amazing thunder storm. Its the first one I´ve seen in months so that was really great. Thankfully we were in our apartment for the night when it really started up, and we live high enough that we could see it over hte building in front of us. Very awesome.

In the mutual we put on every week the Branch President brought the video they´d made of EFY and we were able to watch that with the youth. It was so great to see, but I can tell I´m a missionary. Because at first every time I saw girls and guys hugging I felt like that wasn´t appropriate. Until I realized that that was me being a missionary. I have to admit, I was slightly  horrified that I´ve become that awkward missionary. So watch out when I come home, cause this girl is going to be one strange RM.

The Branch president also asked the elders to teach seminary. All the members live in an other town thats about 40 minutes away, and the only family that lives here in Valdepeñas they both have big callings (RS pres and 2nd counselor and Ward mission leader) so they can´t really handle any more. They´re only going to teach it once a week in the afternoon because of the rest of the work we have to do, but at least the youth will have some kind of seminary. They don´t always have it here in Valdepeñas, sadly.

Hope everyone has a good week and learns lot! I´ve been really learning how to teach more slimply and clearly with our investigators here. Lots of them need to be taught very simply. Good practice for my kids I guess.

parts from my letter:

The Gitano family is doing good. This week is the aniversary of family members that were murdered so its going to be a rough week for them. But last night the widow was smiling which surpized me because all month she´s been kind of sad. so that made me happy. its not just them that are outside all the time, its spainish culutre. it cools down at like 7 and everyone goes outside to talk in the park or sit infront of their house. they´re houses are fine, nothing fancy but not trash. but that level is defeintately different here, houses are less here than in the states.

im on my off month for iron so in oct ill start taking it again. im going to get a mircoderm cleansing one of these pdays because i did an english translation service thing for the man that owns the store and when i wouldn´t accept any money he offered a discount. and hna ancalle, who is a nurse, recommended these natural pills that im going to start today that are from a plant that will help my hormones regulate more so that should help too. im trying to fix the problem as much as possible. yes, send the pills to the office. thanks!

No, just i teach English, Hna Ancalle dosen´t know English very well. but both elders are american now and they teach the weekly class more than i do. im not a huge fan of teaching English. 

Lots of loves!!
Hna Woolley

Miracles

The miralces just keep coming. We´ve been so blessed here in Valdepeñas. A couple of weeks ago I talked about a woman we´d lost contact with and then ran into 3 times in a row? Well, she´s come to church both weeks. And has decided to be baptized! We are so excited for her!! And she´s so ready. She Is such a good person, has me really excited. She´s named Gloria.

Besides that its been a pretty normal week. We´re teaching more and more. One of my favorite things about Valdepeñas is how many friends we´ve made here. Last night we went and talked to all of our eldery friends we´ve made. I love seeing their faces light up when we come close. Because they´re all pretty bored and lonley, lots of them are solo. Several times this week people have been all, ¨´why haven´t you passed by lately? I was thinking about you?´´. Its so, so nice to feel loved like this. Dosen´t happen very often as a missionary. :)

And even though we aren´t teaching all of them (yet) offically, we´re always looking for ways to talk about religion with them. I´ve really come to learn that if you do it natrually the results are so much better. People actually want to listen. Thats why its so important for members to help, because its so much more natural for you to share your beliefs with a friend than to have us go knock their door. So don´t be afraid to share your testimonies! I´ve heard lots of stories from you guys sharing your testimonies with people and its awesome, I LOVE it. And Heavenly Father does too.

Love you all so much!!! Have a good week.

Hna Woolley

Week of Festival of Wine

I feel so humbled by what we´ve seen this week. It was a huge lesson for me that the Lord is in control of His work and is going to lead us always. 

This week has been the festival of wine. And all 4 of us missionaries here in Valdepeñas were a little worried about how the week was going to be. But we went out and worked and saw more miracles in one week than I´ve seen in my whole mission. 

We found new people to teach. One of was a woman I´d met with Hna Rocha but we´d lost contact with her. We saw her 3 times this week and then she came to church with us. Something has changed and she is so ready for the gospel.

We went looking for an old investigator that we had her building but not her apartment number. We were tocing people to see if we could get in the building and look at the mailboxes for her name. And someone opened the door for us, without questions or anything. When we looked at the boxes there were a bunch on one floor without names so we decided to go knock a door and see if they knew her. We toced a few doors with no answers, and then a door opened and this girl answered the door. When we asked for the old investigator she said, Oh, that´s my cousin. We went in and taught this girl who seems like she´s going to be an awesome investigator. And then when we went back for the second cita, she wasn´t there but the old investigator was, so we were able to have contact with them both!

We found people in home and found futures that were awesome. The youth still came to the activity we do every week even though everyone was out partying. The miracle about this is that the majority of the teens who come aren´t members. We even had 2 new kids come, who also came to english classes the next day, and THEN came to help us clean the capilla the next day, AND to church. They´re muslim. But they´re  hungry for good friends and infulences, and their parents love us.

So many miracles. There´s even more that I could say. But I´ll leave it there so I can answer the emails I have. But its just awesome to see the hand of hte Lord in His work. Before the week started we were hoping to be transfered out of the area for the week. But the Lord showed us that we are in our areas at this time for a very specific reason. Thus, feeling very humbled and grateful for the chance to be an instrument in his hands. IT makes me want to improve and become the best instrument I can be. 

Love you all! Have a good week.

Hna Woolley

Kelsey and Hna Ancalle in Valdenpenas

two weeks of letters

Well, I have the results of my blood test. I am very low on iron. Like, super low. So I´ve been given what I´m calling my iron ´´shots´´. They aren´t a shot as in injection, they´re like a shot of tequilla. Its a liquid instead of a pill that makes my tongue feel funny and tastes like cough syrup. But it should help. One month on, one month off to give my body a break until I come home and get another blood test to see how its all going. 

Whew! Everythings good :)
Had an amazing miracle this week. We passed by this man we had in a list of names from the missionaries here before us, named Antonio. He´s about 50 and lives by himself, spent most of his life taking care of his parents who were very sick until they died. Very kind man. 

So we´ve stopped by a few times to talk to him and on Friday we invited him to church. We explained a little bit about what it is and where, etc. He seemed interested a little, but nervous. It was interesting to watch the Spirit working, because both Hna Ancalle and I felt like we needed to wait for him to decide if he felt like he could come. He had to think for like 3 minutes, when he finally said that he would come if we came to pick him up. Of COURSE!  I love picking up investigators sunday morning. Something you have to realize here is we had never taught him a real lesson since we can´t go into his house alone, only talked to him about who we are, etc. Intro stuff. 

And guess what. He was waiting for us when we showed up yesterday morning. He was waiting outside, and we were a little early. That sort of thing NEVER happens in Spain, everyone is always late. We´d shown up early thinking that we  would need to help him get out the door. Nope! And the branch was awesome with him, everyone came up and said hi. And the principles of the gospel class was charity, nothing too heavy for a first lesson. And we taught the lesson this week, so he´s a new investigator! First time I´ve had someone become a new investigator in church. It was pretty awesome, a huge blessing and miracle from the Lord. It was a reassurance to me that yes, keep looking. Keep going through the area book and those lists of people. He´s not the only investigator we´ve found that way here in Valdepeñas. 

So yeah, awesome miracle of hte week. And I´m doing good health wise too, which is awesome. That should be uphill from now on. The Lord is just blessing us so much here in Valdepeñas! It´s amazing. And I know its because we´re trying to work our hardest and be obedient, even though its hard. Cause somedays, (most days), it´s awfully hard to get yourself to go outside when its 95 degrees and all you´re going to do is knock doors for 5 hours. But because we did it and showed our faith and desire to share this gospel, the Lord is blessing us. 

Love you all. I hope you can see those blessings in your lives as well. If not, keep looking! I promise they´re there. And you´ll see them even more with obedience and faith.

Email hugs,

Hna Woolley

You know you´re a missionary ( In Spain) when....

-Your feet are bigger than they were a year ago becaues they´ve swollen up some

- Sleep is priceless

- you´ve got legs of pure muscle

-you cross the street just to walk in the shade

-You´re using a plastic waterbottle thats a little  too old. But just a little.

-you have no shame praying in the middle of the street after a miracle

-you have to say ¨NO, we aren´t Jehova´s witnesses.´´

- you have spiritual highs after lessons.

-you freak out at the sight of American frosting in the grocery store. (There´s food from all over South America here, but nothin´ from good ol´ ´Merica)

-You see miracles every day

-Prepare a sunday school lesson over the phone with the Elders in 5 minutes Saturday night. (Sometimes we don´t have any prep time to teach or give a talk)

- Can´t have a normal conversation that dosen´t lead to doctrine.

-you check the mailbox everytime you come into the building, even though you already checked it this morning and know there aren´t any letters.

Yup. That´s pretty much it. We´re living it up out here in Valdepeñas. Working hard and loving the people and learning lots. Hermana Ancalle is teaching me so much, especially about how to teach better.

I got my ´´trunky papers´´ this week, basically a letter from president reminding me to work hard until the end and little chores I have to do before the end of my mission. Everyone dreads getting this letter, it means your old (in mission time). But I´m determined to work hard until the very last day, I would hate to find out in the next life that I missed helping someone that desperately needed us.

Don´t ever deny those spiritual promptings that come. Thomas S. Monson has shared a story with us about that, if you remember. And those times that I haven´t talked with someone, I have those people´s faces graved into my memory. Its one thing I´ve really tried so hard to learn out here. I¨m still terrified to talk to people often (especially calling people. my least favorite thing to do), but I¨ve learned that if I don´t overcome that fear then those people will continue to be lost and feel that thier prayer wasn´t answered. When in fact, it was, I just didn´t do my part. The Lord needs us!! He needs us to answer other peoples prayers. Heavy, right? Worth remembering. Its something I´m still working on and I know I´ll have to fight off that fear every day of my mission. But it´ll be worth it. It´s always worth it. So listen and then take that step before fear can tell you it wasnt a prompting, etc.And I promise you´ll feel so, so good. There´s nothing like the feeling of following a prompting and seeing the result.

Love you all so much!!!! Hope you have a good week.

Hna Woolley