May 12th Getting HOT

Well, its hot.It´s really hot for May. 90 degrees, in fact. And every day its getting warmer. Yum. But hey, we´re having fun out here! We went to the fair this week as a zone and we were able to ride a few rides and see all the Spainiards in their flamenco dresses and the men in their old style suits. It was a lot of fun. We all came home a little burnt (all of us forgot sunscreen) but it was still really, really fun. I´m really glad we had premission to go on a couple of hte rides.

And talking to my family yesterday-- there´s nothing better!! One hour isn´t enough time. Though I was kind of nervous because the member in whose house we were was talking to her family in Peru when we came in and had friends over. I was trying not to, but I kept checking my watch, watching the minutes tick by towards 5:30, afraid that she would forget the time. Thankfully she was awesome and all was well. And once I started talking all the friends trickled out. I could talk to you guys for hours. But that´s for when I come home :) <it reminded me how special our families are and remotivated me to try and work hard so I can help other people have an eternal family too. It´s a blessing that I want all to be able to have. 

Karina is doing well. She´s learning a lot still and is still very excited about the gospel. The ward is doing a good job of trying to help her get used to being a member too, something that I love to see as a missionary. 

Sorry its short this week, I´ve got ltos of emails and need to print some talks too for people. Love you all lots!!! Hope eveyrone had a great mothers day :)

Loves,

Hna Woolley

May 19th Watermelon is the BEST!

Did you know that Watermelon is Sandia in spanish? And that it is the most refeshing and delicious thing after a day of walking around in the sun.

...That honey mustard DOES, in fact, exist here in Spain. Score!

...The bus system in Sevilla needs some polishing. I´ve known that for a while, but you probably didn´t :)

...If you spend too much time under a tree in Sevilla, you come away covered in little black bugs that smear when you try to brush them off. Bugs that smear+white shirt= not a good combination.

.... you should double check the expiration date on all deli meat before you eat it. Learned that the hard week last week

... that after having food poisioning often your stomach hurts for a few days when you eat because its still sore. Yup. Felt like an old lady taking my gas pills. With the pills I was fine, but yes, i had food poisoning. I think its the first time I´ve ever had it. Not my favorite thing in the world.

But besides the food poisioning (how in the world do you spell that? ), things are going well. Karina is doing awesome, we taught her what a patriarchal blessing is the other day and we´re going to show her how to start her family history this week. She´s awesome, I´m so blessed to know her. I´m so grateful for the chance I´ve had to work here in Sevilla. It´s been a rollercoaster, but when is life not a rollercoaster? Thats what keeps it intersesting, right?

And having a foundation solid in the gospel is what keeps me going. Even though its hard as a missionary, yeah, it´s always going to be hard. It´s life. But with the gospel, it is SO much easier. I recieve so much strength every week taking the sacrament and remembering my covenants. And prayer. Oh wow, prayers. Without praying, I know I wouldn´t be able to do this. There are some thoughts that can only be shared with my Heavenly Father, some problems that only He can help me with. We are so blessed as members to have access to these things and to have the gift of the Holy Ghost. I´ve been thinking about it a lot the last few days and we really are so, so blessed.

Love you all. I´m praying and thinking about you guys. Thanks for all your support, seriously. I´m positive I´ve recieved help many times because of your prayers. Email hugs!!!!

Loves,

Hermana Woolley

p.s, sorry no picts this week. The computer I¨m using today is super old and dosen´t have a USB port.

..... ? I know. 

Hi there!

Well, this week was a lot of the normal missionary life. But Friday I did go on intercambios and spent Friday afternoon to Saturday morning in a nearby pueblo with a different missionary. Splits? I think thats what its called in english. 

This hermana is a good friend and lots of fun, so we had a blast. We ended up setting a baptismal goal with a man and his 9 year old daughter, which was awesome! I love the girl, she was super sweet. And funny. 

Her dad didn´t have a lot of time before going to work to meet with us. He kept talking and telling us what he thought about religon and about his life, and not giving us a chance to talk and start explaining the restoration to him. Its hard to know when to interrupt sometimes because I don´t want to be rude and we want to give people the chance to express what they´re feeling, but we also have something to share thats amazing! 

So I was starting to think we weren´t ever going to get the chance to teach before he had to leave, when his 9 year old daughter interrupts and says ,´´ Daddy, you have to let the Hermanas teach us. They haven´t talked at all yet and I want to listen!´´ I think she was listening to the Spirit without even realizing it :) Super funny experience.

I ate my first Niepolatana (not sure how you spell that) in a while too while I was in Dos Hermanas (The pueblo) and it was fantastic. I´d forgotten just how much I love those goodies. They´re the chocolate filled croissant thingies, I´ve sent pictures home before I¨m pretty sure. Yum!! 

This week I´ve been reading Moses for my studies, and its amazing how much stuff is in there! I´d forgotten so many things in there. Like Chapter 6 is full of the plan of Salvation and the Gospel of Christ and mentions Adam being baptized. Super cool stuff. I´m really learning so much out here. All these little bits and pieces that are building up my foundation and strengthening my testimony. It´s an awesome thing. My mission is still hard and there are still days when I´m not sure if I´ll make it to that night. BUT, the good things I¨m learning and the strength I´m gaining far outweighs the hard parts. 

I think thats how we felt about life, looking down from the premortal life. We knew it would be hard and that we´d get pretty darn tired. But its worth it, and we knew it. So we jumped from the edge of the cliff, knowing that Christ´s Atonement would catch us. We put all our eggs in one basket. We must of had so much faith!! It amazing to think about. I want to have that same faith, and more. That´s what we´re all working towards, right?

Just some of what I´ve been thinking about this week. Love you all a bunch, Keep on going strong! Don´t forget to read your scriptures and say your prayers, not for even ONE day. Love ya!!!! 

Hna Woolley

Karina's Baptism

This week has been full of miracles. Seriously, I think its been the most productive and amazing week of my mission. Not only the baptism of Karina, but we found lots of new investigators and had lots of lessons and had the help of several members. Our district leader was very surprized at the jump in our numbers. I´m fully convinced its because we decided to do our very best to be obedient and follow the Lord´s commands as exactly as we could. It has made all the difference this week.

I´ve been blessed to hear spiritual promptings more and more during my mission. It´s such a blessing to feel the guidance of the Spirit. This week we were in a lesson where we couldn´t really feel the spirit for various reasons. And it was the first time I realized how much I depend on the Spirit when we´re teaching. Because in this particular lesson I couldn´t think of anything to say. Nothing. We tried to talk and share something, but it just didn´t work. In part because of a language barrier (the women didn´t speak very good Spanish, she speaks Romanian), but hugely because it was impossible to feel the spirit. It was a really good learning experience for me.

Ok, so Karina´s baptism. It was absolutely wonderful. A teenage girl was baptized the same day so we worked with the Elders to make everything all happen. Our ward mission leader was awesome too. We went to go pick up Karina and her family, as a ´´just in case´´. 

Often the week before or even the day of the baptism something happens. Satan is trying as hard as he can to stop this baptism from happening, so he does all he can to discourage it. So we went to pick her up in case she was having cold feet. We got there and everything was fine, she wasn´t ready, but it was fine. As we slowly made our way to the church, I realized that we´d needed to pick her up more for us than for her. We ended up showing up at hte church 10  minutes before the baptism was supposed to start. (Here in Spain thats not a big deal. we were there before everyone else) If we´d been waiting for her in the church we would have been freaking out, but since we were with her all was calm. 

It was a beautiful service. The spirit was strong and Karina and the girl, Maria, were very happy. It was a miracle to see Maria getting baptized too. She almost got baptized a few weeks ago but got sick and had other problems so it didn´t happen. But the ward, especially the youth, bonded together and really helped her gain the courage to keep meeting with the missionaries and get baptized. 

I have never been so happy in my life as I was watchign Karina being baptized. There is no feeling like watchign someone I love so much make such a good decision. It was a moment of inexpressable joy. I don´t think there are words for how beautiful a baptism is. When people decide to come unto Christ and make the choice to try and be better..... it´s beautiful. Just beautiful. 

Love you all so much. Remember your own special day and why you decided to be baptized. Remembering the ´´why´´ of the gospel makes all the difference. Hugs and loves!!!!

Hna Woolley

Week of Miracles

It´s been a week of miracles for us. And I´ve really been blessed to have my faith strengthened in fasting too. The ward is doing a 40 day fast and this weekend all the missionarys in the mission did one too. We´re having a special week this week where we are trying to be perfectly obedient, we´re calling it the week of consegration (or however you spell that in english). Sacrificing those things that we have a hard time giving up in a n effort to turn our missions over to the Lord even more. It´s barely started and we´ve had miracles!

We found a family from Romania and there´s a couple in the ward that speak Romanian and so we can teach them.

We got a hold of a less active that wasn´t answering her phone.

A less active we´ve been working with for months came to church this sunday, and a different woman the sunday before!

And the biggest miracle of all, Karina. She had decided earlier this last week that she didn´t really want to get baptized, that she wasn´t ready. We´d been talking about the 3rd of May as her goal and she in the end decided no.

This Sunday the principles of the gospel class was giving by the ward mission leader and was on covenants, specifically the Abrahamic covenant. The spirit was really strong as he talked and, not knowing Karina had dropped her baptism date, talked to her directly about getting baptized ont he 3rd. During the end of the class I had the impression that we couldn´t leave the classroom without talking about baptism again, that we needed to talk about the 3rd. Just as I turned to Karina Hna Cerna came over (she´d been sitting with someone else) and started the conversation I´d been promted to have too. I don´t even remember what was said. Except for Karina saying, ´´ I don´t know if its the right choice, but I´ll be baptized on the 3rd´´. 

I couldn´t stop the big grin from spreading across my face. I have never felt such excitement and joy for somone in my life. Turns out she´d woken up that morning thinking ´´why don´t I get baptized?´´ and the lesson by the ward mission leader helped give her the last push she needed. So, so amazing to see the Lords hand. I can´t believe I´m so blessed to be able to witness this special moment for Karina! We still have work to do, but she has lots of support and love of hte ward and the Lord. 

Talking to some other members in the ward, turns out that we weren´t the only ones that had been fasting for Karina over the last few months. I was touched to see that this family cared about her so much, I´m so glad she´ll have friends when the missionaries leave. It´s important! When we leave if the investigators and converts don´t have friends, they´ll feel alone and lsot and probablly leave the church. So please, if you see someone new or someone sitting with the missionarys, talk to them! The missionaries can´t do it all :)

Love you all! Thank you so much for all your prayers and love :)

hna woolley

p.s. mom, my memory card freaked out and i lost a bunch of photos. thankfully the majority were on my other card, but i don´t have any photos to send. I´ll try and buy a new card soon hopefully. 

Easter

Well, it´s raining again. Spanish springs are just as unpredictable as Utah ones. Because just a few days ago it was in the mid 80´s. This week with the Semana Santa it´s been interesting. But good! We´ve got some great people that could become investigators from this week. 

Monday last week when we came home one of the Semana Santa processions was going down our street! We went inside and watched it for a few minutes. It was the only procession we saw, but we could hear others sometimes as we were walking around. 

And Karina and her family are really progressing. The other day we taught her what a family home evening is and then the next day brought The Testaments to watch with her family. Her son Edward, who never talks to us very much and has only come to church once stayed to watch the whole movie! I expected him to stay for only the first few minutes, but he watched the whole thing with us. It had me really excited. And Karina is really trying to learn and do the things we ask her to. She really seems to understand what we´re teaching her, which is always a great feeling. 

As for strange things this week, teh birds are going crazy. Seriously. All the little sparrows just fly around in circles above the street we live on. In the morning as I´m eating I¨ll just watch them fly circles around eachother. Sometimes they swoop down into the street but normally they´re higher up. I´m pretty sure they´re twitter-pated.

Love you guys a lot! Hope you are still remembering what we learned in General Conference a few weekends ago and remembering why this last sunday was so special. All week we´ve been sharing 1 Nephi 21:15-16 with people. You should read it and really think about it, there´s lots to learn :)

Hugs and loves!

Hna Woolley

Rootbeer Floats!

Well, it´s going to be an interesting week. This week is Semana Santa, or the Holy Week. It´s a big Catholic celebration of the last week of Christ´s life. And the biggest place for the parades and everything is Sevilla, so pretty much everyone in Spain (not really, but close) will be here. 

My leaders told us to set as many member citas as we could and be in the street as little as possible.

It´ll be an interesting week.

But, this last week was good too! Saw a bunch of little miracles, like all the crosswalk lights turning green just as we walked up so we could get home in time. And love from the ward and lots of people.

We had zone conference this week and I got to see Elder Sykes who was in my district when I left Granada and now is in my zone here. Super fun to see him! There´s a married couple set of missionarys who are in our zone as well, and they were given root beer as a gift (from the military base near by) and shared it with us as root beer floats! So yummy! So american! My comp doesn´t like soda at all so she didn´t like hers. I drank it for her :) It was such a treat and so very kind of the couple. They´re some of the nicest people I´ve ever met, so sweet and trying so hard to learn spanish. 

Karina is progressing decently. She came to church and made it earlier than normal so that was good. We had some pretty spiritual lessons with her, we watched Elder Bednar´s three videos on revelation and the light of Christ with her. I always feel the Spirit so strong when I watch the church´s videos. The people that make those really know what they´re doing, I´m very grateful for them. 

We´re trying to help Karina resolve a few of her doubts about the church and strengthen her testimony. But, as I´ve been learning my whole time here in Sevilla, it really is between Karina and the Lord. We teach her what we can and try to help her recognize the Spirit. But it´s up to Karina (and each one of us) to build our own faith and testimonys.  

You´d think that as a missionary I would have a rock solid testimony. And in some things, I do. But I´m also learning how to build my testimony while I¨m out here. And it´s been a great experience. I am so much stronger in the gospel than ever before! It´s like a tree- I have the trunk and the main branches strong and sturdy. But I´m building the little branches right now and strengthening the foundation I already have. It´s how we build that seed of faith into a tree, one little branch at a time. I´m so grateful for the opportunity I have to build up this foundation and all the new growth too.

Hope you all have a good week! You are in my prayers and thank you for all of your prayers and support. I really appreciate it and can feel all the love from back in the States :)

Loves!
Hna Woolley



Last Week:

Ok, strangest week this week. First off, we had this random giant rain storm. Just like 2 days, but it just rained, and raijned, and rained. Unfortuantely, I was outside a lot one of these mornings so my feet got very, very wet. But hey! I´ve got my new comp, Hermana Cerna. And she´s great! And I´ve already learned tons of spanish. Seriously though, I´ve had people telling me my spanish is better, and its only been a few days. I think that means my spanish wasn´t very good before. Gives me lots of room for improvement.

But saying goodbye to this last district was really hard. We had a goodbye testimony meeting the tuesday before everyone left for district meeting and it was rough. I´m really close to everyone in that group, and 3 of them left, including my companion. I´m still getting used to not having them here. I realized that my heart has grown bigger and more open. Which is great! It´s what I´ve been asking for working towards. But loving people more also means being more heart broken when they (or you) leave.

But like was said in conference (I forget whose talk it was), goodbyes aren´t for forever with the Plan of Salvation. They´re just interruptions. Gotta say, that was for me. So much of this conference was awesome! I was writing investigators names next to my notes and staring things left and right. I think tomorrow for personal study I´m just going to be studying my notes. 

We watched the womans conference session and the first Saturday one on Saturday. The womens conference was so awesome, right! I loved the videos. All the missionarys from Sevilla and the pueblos really close by came to watch it together. In the chaple it was shown in spanish but upstairs in the institute room they havae a TV and we watched it in english. I went on splits with some other hermanas so our comps could watch in spanish and us in english, so it worked out well. with the two streams sometimes it cut off or got weird, but it was worth it. Most left after two sessions, but a few of us stayed to watch the last session at 10 pm. (We´d gotten permission from president) So at midnight when it ended we slept over at the hermanas of the other ward´s piso because its much closer than ours. 

Karina didn´t come to any of the sessions, which worries me. She didn´t come to church last week either. But we´ll see her tomorrow and figure things out :) We had another investigator in church though, named Nayeli. She´s friends with a member in the ward and we´ve had a couple FHE´s together. 

Yup. That´s my week. Super wierd. Spend all day wednesday in a train station with other missionarys waiting for our comps (had to be comps  with an herm from another city and the station was too far away to go work. Long story), watched more TV in two days than I have in 6 months, ate lots of sweets (so many chu ches!!) and slept in a rickety bunk bed. Good stuff. 

Love you all a bunch. Hope you got something out of conference and got a few questions answered. I love being able to listen to the Prophet and the Lord´s apostles. Such amazing men of faith.

Loves!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hna Woolley