Plaza de Espana in Seville

4 baptisms!

Hello all! 

This week nothing terribly eventful happened. It was actually kind of niice to have a more relaxed week. We did have one super crazy day though. We were so blesseed to have a day where we were completely full. When we weren´t in an apointment we were hurrying to the next one. I´ve never had a day like that before where literaly every hour was spent in people´s houses. It was such a blessing. I love those days where I just go to bed exhausted, knowing I´ve worked hard and done a good job. It´s the best :) 

I´ve been really working to try and give my all every single day. That ´´all´´ varies day by day, but I´ve felt a difference when I counsiously decided to give everything.The work hasn´t changed at all, but my attitude is changing and I´m happier during the day and learning more I think. 

This week we ate at the Relief Society presidents house. I have to say, it was darn good. Some of the best food I´ve eaten here. She gave us a lentil and vegtable dish and a salad at first. Then she pulled out these oysters and showed us how to eat them. I´ve never had oysters before but always wanted to. So fun! They don´t have a ton of taste but I still really like them. Then she pulled out this rabbit for us to try. Yes, rabbit. It´s not the only wierd meat I´ve eaten. Ate deer a couple times too. I actually didn´t mind the rabbit, the bones were just in wierd places. But it tasted fine. It tasted like chicken. Seriously, it did. Just a little stronger flavor.

This weekend 4 people got baptized here in Sevilla between the 2 wards. I am friends with one of the converts as I´ve been sitting with her in class, but the others I actually didn´t know. They were really big baptisms, basically like sacrament meeting as so many people came. It was great to see the wards supporting these people so much. 

Also, the pictures are from the Plaza de España, we visited it last week after emailing. Apparently part of one of the Star Wars movies was filmed there. I didn´t recognize anything, but I also haven´t seen Star Wars in years. 

I love you all a lot! I know that Christ lives and loves us. He only wants the best for us. Good luck with everything this week, you´re all in my prayers.

Loves,

Hermana Woolley

First full week in Sevilla

Hola! my lovely, beautiful family. So nice to talk to you again.

This week has been packed full of things. I always have to look back at my journal for the beginning of hte week because it seems so far away. It´s kind of wierd to think about.

At the beginning of the week I went on intercambios with the SHE´s (Hnas with more experience to help the other hnas.) It was super, super fun. It was exactly what I needed. We laughed a lot and I got to meet lots of cool people, eat good food, be WARM (there heater works better than ours. And they have real water pressure!), all sorts of fun things.

On my way back the SHE going back to Dos Hermanas (the pueblo) said that my companions were in a cita so they´d be late getting to the bus stop. So when I got back to Sevilla I sat down and started reading Our Heritage. And I read. And read. After like 30 minutes I went to stand in a more obvious part of the station, thinking we were missing each other. I stood there for almost 30 minutes, looking for them. I wasn´t nervous or anything, just bored. So when I got tired of standing I went and sat back down. A few minutes later they found me. They´d been looking for me for like 30 minutes and had even called the SHE´s. They´d just been looking in a different part of hte station, thinking I´d come from that side. Kind of funny, we got teased about it some. I kind of enjoyed having time to read Our Heritage, but I´m sure everyone else was stressed.

While with Hna Wilcox (the SHE) we watched one of her dads talks as we went to bed, called ¨¨His Grace is Suficcent¨¨ By Brad Wilcox. I´ve heard it before but not for a long time. It was perfect, it was  exactly what I needed. It helped me feel peace and the love of the Lord in a way I hadn´t even realized I needed. But once I felt it I realized I´d been aching for that feeling for a few days. Not that I hadn´t been feeling loved, but that talk just hit me in just the right spot. She gave me a copy of hte talk (in Spainish :) ) and I think it will be one of my favorites for a long time. 

It uses and analogy that I just love. Bro Wilcox compares grace to a piano student. Mom pays for the lessons. And mom doesn´t ask for us to pay her back, and neither does the piano teacher. All they ask for is practice. It doesn´t get rid of the debt, but it is what is asked of the student. I love this comparison to Christ and his Atonement. We will never, ever be able to pay him back. But he´s not asking us to. He´s asking us to follow his example and practice being good people. Also, the student isn´t expected to play a symphony perfectly. It´s not Carnagie Hall or nothing.  We´re allowed to hit wrong notes. We just need to keep practicing. 

I love this. Love it, love it. If you have time, I highly encourage you to read the talk. Seriously.

It´s one of those things that was the tipping point to changing something in my life. That was at the beginning of the week, adn this week I´ve felt so much closer to the Lord than ever before in my life. It wasn´t just hte talk, it was a bunch of other things leading me, but I´ve hit a point where I´ve started to really change. I´ve really decided to let God change me, and it´s making all the difference.

So, Sevilla wise, things are going good. We have been talking to lots of people and I actually know some people´s names from the ward. I love our investigators a ton! They´re all really nice people who just want to come closer to Christ. Now they just need to decide for themselves that the things we´re teaching them are the way to do so. And we need to find some more people, but I feel that like thats always the case.  And my legs are going to be SO strong after Sevilla. We walk everywhere here because the bus is pretty expensive, even with a card. So unless its more than a 30 min away walking, we walk. 

Love you all! Email hugs for everyone!!

Hna Woolley

Christmas Day!

Christmas party