Golden Family!

Me and my favorite Andaluza

Our district las week on Mont Juic. Apparently the Elders didn't get the memo that we were going on a HIKE. Awkward.Hello everyone!

It was transfers week, we are staying together!! We are so happy!

We are teaching some great people! We are so excited! One, is the
family we teach. We went and picked them up to go to church and we got
there and they were getting ready! So we waited and played with their
pet bunnies! Then we walked to church with the dad and two of the
young sons. During sacrament meeting I taught the 10 year old son the
story of the Book of Mormon with pictures, to keep him entertained :)

Also, a lady started taking to the elders in the grocery store, and
she wanted them to come over to her house like right then, so they
went and she was so excited to have them in her house, and she showed
them her Book Of Mormon. And she said she wanted the missionaries to
come over and teach her whole family when they get home from work and
school!!! Turns out, she lives in OUR area, so we went and visited
them last night and they are GOLDEN. They dad and the son and the mom
were there. They are from Bogota, Colombia and they have heard about
the church and been a few times but they still don't know that much.
As we talked to them, I just felt like I was at home. They already had
this light and spirit in this home. It was a really cool experience.
They are super open and receptive. The son is like 21, doesn't smoke,
drink, party. (So rare here, teenagers so many times get corrupted by
Spanish culture) He's studying to be an engineer. The dad is an
electrician. He asked us if we could share a favorite verse or chapter
from the Book Of Mormon with them and explain it. I was like floored.
I was like "right now?? You would like me to share a verse with you?
Like right now? Like you're ASKING me to do it?" It was so funny.

When we are in the service of others we are happy! I'm so grateful for
the chance to testify of my Savior everyday! It's the best!

Love, Hermana Birch 🇪🇸

Press Forward

Also we did a 3k with two of the wards

Hermana Birch 🇪🇸Hola!

This week was awesome! We finally got to have a lesson with a woman I
contacted one of my first weeks here. She is American and lived in
Florida for a long time but now has been in Spain for awhile. She's
funny. She came to church, but didn't really like it! It was long for
her, also she was hungry and she said it was boring. I felt really
bad. I hope we can get her to come again soon.

Also a Pakistani came up behind us in the street a few days ago
wanting to learn more about Jesus. So we had a visit with him in the
church on Friday and he wants to be baptized! We gave him a Book of
Mormon in Urdu. He took it home and his roommate saw it, then his mom
called him all in a rage that he can't change religions. So that's
really sad for us.

But we are working still with the family of John and Lucia! We brought
a member with us to the visit and when they said they couldn't come to
church because it would be too difficult with the baby, the member
came in and said that he would personally make sure that his wife
helped her with the baby, and promised them that there are many other
mothers of young kids that manage just fine. Then they said, well I
guess we'll come!! Which was a big step for them! It was awesome!

So, all in all, a great week! Sorry, no time!

Love, Hermana Birch

Spaceships

Our ghetto area. This isn't even the bad part.Hello!

This has been a crazy week, from bible bashing with Romanians to
Christian Pakistanis contacting us in the street, to a member asking
us if angels travel by spacecraft to crazy old Spanish ladies
singing...it's been a great week.

We are seeing so many miracles! Our investigator came to church on
Sunday! His name is Diego and he really has a strong desire to learn
about Christ and what we believe in our church. Also we are teaching a
family, the mom is Ecuadorian and the dad is Peruvian. They are super
cute! Also we are working with a Chilean lady and her Spanish husband.
She's a member, but he's not. It was a miracle because he usually
hides when we come over, but he stayed and knelt with us for the
kneeling prayer!

I really wanted these two Romanian boys to just accept the Book Of
Mormon, but it didn't matter what we said, they wouldn't read it,
because they were afraid that it contradicted the Bible. It was really
really hard to let them go, because I could just see how much the true
gospel would bless their lives. But, we did everything we could. I
remember that Christ was rejected, and people even that walked with
Him and saw Him perform the miracles, wouldn't accept Him as the Son
of God.

I know that God truly loves His children. As missionaries we get to
see that so clearly, I believe that so strongly. If we have the
Spirit, we can see people how God sees them and our love for them
grows and we don't judge them.

I love this crazy area and I love this church!

Love, Hermana Birch 🇪🇸

Me and Spanish "pan"

Bike contacting

The Sagrada Familia! My first time going inside! And we got in for free because we told them we are a religious group. So they gave us free tickets and let us skip the line!!!

Me and my companion :) she changed her name to LarSON.

Hello everyone!

I am just super exhausted today and honestly don't know what to write.
But it has been an incredible week. I feel the Spirit so strong
sometimes, it's like how I feel when I'm at the temple. I love it. I
look forward to church and sacrament meeting like I never have in my
life. I really have felt like I'm coming closer to my Savior and it's
hard to describe but it makes me so happy.

This week we were walking at night in the ghetto, and I saw a guy
about to ride past us on his bike and I stopped him and he screeched
to a halt! We shared with him our message about Jesus Christ and set
up a return visit. He was a great young guy from Guatemala. We even
said a prayer with him. It was so funny to stop someone on their bike.
I know that the Lord puts people in our path and we have to be bold
enough to open our mouths and find them!

Also we had a ward activity this week because everyone had the day
off. We went to a park and had a barbecue. I bought two huge jump
ropes and we did double Dutch with everyone, it was super fun! This is
a great ward.

Please continue to pray for the missionary efforts. There are so many
people that are being prepared to accept the gospel, but they struggle
with temptations and difficulties and we need to pray for
opportunities to help them come unto Christ. I know that the Lord
works through us if we make ourselves available to it :)

Also, other super funny thing about this week: apparently it's a thing
here to have pet birds. But not only do you have a pet bird, you put
it in a little portable lunch-box looking thing and carry it around
the city. And when you reach a nice park, you unzip the flap on the
lunchbox and let your bird get some sun. It's so funny. I'll have to
get a picture sometime. Yesterday we saw an old man with three!

Lots of love,
Hermana Birch

Bring it on!

Went to the Rambla today! Best piso mates ever:)) my companion is the one on the right

Some say, "I do not like to do it, for we never began to build a
temple without the bells of hell beginning to ring." I want to hear
them ring again. -Brigham Young

I LOVE this quote by Brigham Young. I think of missionary work.
Literally nothing about missionary work is easy and Satan is at every
side trying to thwart and destroy the family and religion. But I want
to be like Brigham Young and say BRING IT ON!

My testimony of the gospel grows everyday, and it has grown so much. I
just think of my belief in Jesus Christ before the mission, and then
now, and it's incredible. And I am so excited for General Conference!
What a treat to hear the words of the apostles and our prophet as they
speak to us about Christ. I love this church. I have faith that this
is the only true church and that it was restored by Joseph Smith. I
would say I know, but if I know, then I don't have to have faith. And
my faith is what keeps me anchored. There are so many things I don't
know, but I know that Christ is our Savior and that He lived and died
to fulfill the glorious Plan Of Happiness that has been prepared for
us so that we can be happy with our families forever.

This week in Badalona was pretty exciting.

Number of times we got yelled at by drunk men: 2
Number of time guys were being inappropriate on the metro: 1 (and that
was enough)
Number of times we got sung to by gypsy kids: 1
Number of times a drunk guy stalked us/made faces at us through the
window of a store: 1 (and it was one too many)

I tell you these things because I think it's funny, not because I want
you to think I am going to get mugged, we are actually very safe ;)

Lots of love, Hermana Birch

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!

Gypsies!

Yep that's right, I have been transferred! So sad and so hard to leave my favorite and the most beautiful area of the mission, and guess where I got called to go, Badalona! Which is the most ghetto area of the mission! It's famous for singing, cat-calling gypsies (that are notorious for being homeless, lazy, and drunk). So, that's comforting. Haha, I really am exciting to be here though. I'm finishing the training of my new companion! So she's only been out on the mission for 4 weeks, because this was a short transfer! But she's awesome, her Spanish is already so good, and she seems like an awesome missionary already, I think she came pretrained. ;)

It's so weird to be back in a big city, with a metro, 4 girls in our apartment, 2 wards that meet in our building! It's going to be awesome!

This last week in San Sebastián was so great! I was so nervous all week that I would be getting transferred! I have like a curse, I never have very long, like more than 2 transfers in an area anymore. Also I've had like 5 companions for just one transfer! It's so weird! I think it's because I just get bored, I need that change to switch things up. (Or maybe I'm just an awful companion and no one can handle me for more than 6 weeks...) But change makes me thrive! So I'm so grateful for the chance to grow and change this transfer!

Saying goodbye to everyone was so sad. I only cried a little bit though!

I love the mission so much! I got to talk to some missionaries who have been serving in my old areas today on the train, and I got to ask about my recent converts and my investigators and it's so hear that everyone is doing good! The gospel really has changed these people's lives!

This is Sonia, I taught her in Valencia, she got baptized a several weeks after I left, and apparently she's still going strong and coming to church every week! I love the gospel!

Love you all so much! The church is true, I've never been more sure of it in my life!
Hermana Birch
Hi everyone! This has been a crazy day! I woke up at 5am to take a 7
hour train from Bilbao to Barcelona! Insane!