In the hood

Cool graffiti in the hood.
Dear family and friends,

What an incredible week I've had here, my first one in Badalona! We
got here and I just decided we were going to go-go-go and we saw so
many miracles! It was amazing! My testimony just keeps growing that
when we plan and we tell the Lord where we are going to be, He puts
people in our path! I got here and we had NO visits set up and nothing
to do. So we hit the passby lists and we just went. We planned
beforehand which neighborhoods we were going to go by and I also
really asked for the Spirit to guide us and He did! We found so many
new investigators and we also found/contacted two very inactive
members that we are going to start working with. It was so funny, we
passed by an old investigator from past hermanas, Luis, and he wasn't
home. We were able to get into the building and knock his door though.
So we were about to leave but I just had this feeling that we should
knock the building, even though I really didn't want to, and I figured
we could just go try and finish the rest of the passbys, so we kept
leaving down the stairs, but I had the feeling again (and I remembered
what the Area Seventy said about how inspiration is a thought
confirmed by a feeling) so we went back up and knocked the building!
And we found a new investigator AND as we were leaving Luis, the guy
we had been looking for, popped out of nowhere when I was asking for
directions to the metro. And neither of us had ever met him, and he
gave us the directions, then we left, then he called from behind us
and recognized us as the missionaries!

One thing that's been really hard for me this week was adjusting to a
new companion. It's been really hard doing street contacts and lessons
with her because she's still so uncomfortable in Spanish, and I tend
to just take over and do everything. But I know the only way she's
going to learn is if I let her struggle for the words in the moment
and be patient with her. I'm super excited for what the rest of this
transfer will bring, I'm already learning so much about myself and how
to be a better person. I'm so grateful for the mission!

Also, being in this Ward is such a blessing. The Bishop is awesome and
I just love the people here. Even though it is super ghetto. There's
just a bunch of poor, poor people here. Lots of Muslims, Pakistanis,
gypsies, Africans, everything.

Love, Hermana Birch

We spent our Preparation Day helping someone move!