Adoring the Spain Barcelona Mission

Ok, you are all the best and made me feel so loved with all of the birthday wishes! I don't have time today, but I will try to respond to everyone next week!  Today has been crazy because I have been traveling all day to my new area- Pamplona! It is in the north of Spain in pais Basco and is gorgeous, but also even colder than Catalunyia (pray for me!!). Pamplona is where they do San Fermin/the famous running of the bulls, but it is only during July. I think they knew better than to put me here during the running of the bulls because I would probably do something stupid (like try to outrun a bull) and end up dying hahahaha. But anyway, I was heart broken to leave Hermana Halls and all my pals in Martorell, but asi es la vida ["such is life"]. I really was hoping to stay another transfer in Martorell, but I guess God has other plans for me!   They just opened this area like 2 transfers ago.  My new companion is Hermana Espinoza from Monterrey Mexico!! I am so stok...

So, apparently abrigarse is a word. If I had a euro for every time one of the members flipped out and told me "Hermana! Hay que abrigarse! Tendrá frio!" Haha, they are all so worried because I am never dressed for the cold. (I am from California and I don't own winter clothes.... What can ya do??) I have now inherited about 10 abrigos (coats) and quite a few neck warmers, hats gloves, etc... jajajaja bless their little Spanish hearts. We have been meeting with an adorable little family these last few weeks. The woman is a less active member and her novio is not a member but wants to get baptized. They have a darling son and I just love them. The only problem is that they are not married yet... we are working with them on putting a ring on it so that someday they can be sealed in the temple and be together forever! They have started coming back to church and I am so stoked for them!! Today we went to Barce once again because we are obsessed. :) We went to a raw vegan cafe ...

Other than the fact that I had to wear tights for the first time in my life, this week has been fabbbb, Haha!  All of a sudden it is freezing cold here and I am so not prepared for it! Luckily someone left a huge parka coat in our piso and I have been wearing that everyday. My comp is from AZ and we are both such wimps when it comes to cold, jajaja. But it is fine because our piso has heating (so blessed!). The bad news is that all of the locals say it is going to get even colder... pray for us! Yesterday we taught a house full of Nigerians--well actually I should say they taught us.... They ended up doing most of the talking, haha.  They are very passionate about Christianity and pretty much ended up giving us a summary of the entire bible with a lot of hand motions and drama added in. They ended by telling us that it would be very great if we could tell President Trump not to go to war with Korea (because apparently that is happening ??)... haha ok, we will put tha...

So probs the most important thing that happened this week is that I got a Ghana name. It is super bizarre- in Ghana whatever day of the week you are born on determines your birth name (so yeah...they only have 7 diff names for each gender). Since I was born on a T hursday , my name is "Yaa". My comp was born on a Sunday so her name is "Afia". They all end up with nicknames, of course, so that they can tell each other apart, hahaha.  I adore learning about different cultures and their customs. I have learned some more words in Twi (native language of Ghana), and I can now say "How are you?" and "Holy Spirit" (obvi two vital things when you are a missionary, haha). Forget Spanish... I think I'm going to start focusing on learning Twi!!  Other than being obsessed with Ghana, I adore being a missionary. It makes me so happy to be able to bring the hope of the gospel into people's lives. There are so many people searching for truth and mea...

Another stellar week here in Mart. We do so much everyday, but as soon as email time comes I cannot remember anything!  One of the highlights was dinner with the Africans. Sometimes we cook for them in the church and sing African gospel rock songs. My comp brought her guitar and one of the Africans started serenading us with a song called "Blessed assurance...Jesus is mineeeee." hahaha I LOVE AFRICANS! I don't member the rest of the song, but he assured us that he would give us lessons sometime,  jajaja.  We also had a Halloween party in the church this week. Spain is very serious about their holidays and everyone came dressed up as a vampire. Idk what the deal is, but for some reason everyone here is under the impression that you have to dress up as a vampire-- it's the only option! So all of the little kids and babies came with crazy face paint and fangs... no time to mess around with princess costumes! This week we had another noche...