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Hola everyone! I love you all so much! Feliz ano!! On Saturday at the park I had a really cool experience. My companion was Hermana Barbee. It was awesome that I got assigned to her, becuase I had just told my comp. that I wanted her! So I was really pumped for the park and was going to be really brave and talk to everyone. First on the metro I placed a Book Of Mormon to this young lady sitting next to me on the train. She didn´t want it at first, but I was persistent and she was super nice. So we get to the park and everyone we see we talk to. We faced a lot of rejection though and I started feeling really sad. I wanted to give up. It was really hard. I just wanted to cry. I was trying so hard with no results. Hna Barbee was really encouraging so I said a prayer in my heart and we kept walking. We decided to go on the less beaten paths of the park, where people are more at ease. We started having success. We passed this one guy sitting on a bench and when I saw him I just knew I needed to talk to him. But that made me really nervous so we passed by him without saying anything. we didn´t go too far though, because I had a tugging feeling we should talk to him. I told my comp and pointed to him. She said ok let´s go. But suddenly my stomach got all nervous (even though I´d been talking to strangers all day) and I really didn´t want to. Hna Barbee told me that we need to talk to him even more now, because if I´m getting all nervous that means something big is going to happen. I still didn´t want to. He was a young guy, blonde hair, sunglasses on, writing in a journal and he just made me nervous. On our way out of that section of the park though I told hna barbee just to pass him but luckily she didn´t listen to me and she approached him. He was very nice. He´s from Germany and got to Spain they day before to study at the university. His English was very good so we spoke in English. He was so cool!! I´m so glad we talked to him and that my companion didn´t listen to me when I said I was too nervous!! We told him about the Book Of Mormon and how it answers questions about God´s plan for us and he was so interested!! We almost left without getting his info but the Spirit told me to be persistent so I got his contact info so the missionaries serving in Madrid can contact him!! I got my first referral!! I was so happy after. I love sharing this message with God´s children. I´m grateful that God is patient with me in my difficulties and my nervousness in talking to people and gave me a comp that day that would be bold enough to follow through with the prompting we had to speak to him.

Also for New Year´s here you eat 12 grapes 12 seconds before midnight. 1 each second. Our juvas had seeds in them so it was kind of hard to eat them, but it was funny.

I finally learned the word for ¨cool¨. During one of our lessons I told the Investigator that I had a ¨fresco escritura¨to share with them. I thought that meant ¨cool¨ but it means ¨fresh¨. It was really funny. And ¨que guay¨  is what you say for cool. In case you´re wondering. OH! And I got the Christmas card mom. It made me so happy! I showed my district. My compañeras think you are cute, Tyler. And Dad you look like this Elder here. It´s really funny because you´re the same heighht, same hair, same face, same glasses same everything. Really weird. The Elders thought it was funny. 

 

Also do you love the fact that I´m BLINKING in the pic with Archuleta!? Ugh.

I love getting all your emails and pics, sorry I don´t have time to respond back to them all! But it´s the highlight of my week reading from you all!! Contact with the outside world!! Oh and one of my teachers, Hermano Ponsoda is so funny. He doesn´t really speak English. I love how he says my name. He says Hermana BEERCH. It´s the cutest thing. So now everyone in my district says it like that.
Oh we just got a bunch of missionaries from the Provo MTC, they´re going to Russia. They´re really cool. And yesterdaylots of native or proficient Spanish speakers came in for my last two weeks (their only two weeks) here at the CCM!! Crazy!! I leave January 20th for el campo (the field). My time here has flown by. I have learned so much. I still have a lot to learn though. Today for P Day we are going to the Real Madrid Stadium. It´s gonna be cool! Me and my comp wanted to go to the art museo but not enough people signed up, actually just us two signed up. So yeah. Oh the chocolate I´m holding in the pic is Milka brand. It´s really good. I think I´ve said this way too much but the chocolate here is so much better than America!! Anyways, I love you and tell me how you´re doing! Love, Hermana Birch