Let´s get down to business

Hola todos!! Como estan??

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This is our cute investigator, and her 18 year old son in the back, and her other son who is like 1 years old. Next to me is a member (he´s from Honduras, Dad), who always helps the missionaries, like literally all day every day. He´s the best. He´s literally a missionary, just without the chapa. She made us these super strange empanada type things called sitrenas or something. She´s from Bolivia. 

Transfers is tomorrow and me and Hermana Lamoreaux are staying together!! WHOO! I´m so happy! We were SO sure that I was leaving since my training is over, but President really didn´t switch around like any of the Hermanas this transfer! I´m so glad I´m staying! I love Valencia!! Our ward is amazing, during Testimony meeting there´s NEVER a lull in the testimonies. We actually sang a quartet of Mas Cerca Dios de Ti (Nearer My God To Thee) with the Elders after I bore my testimony, the bishop said we could because Elder Edwards is leaving. It was cool. 

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The other Hermanas that live with us in our piso have had two baptisms so far. Me and Hermana Lamoreaux have been working so hard and we haven´t had a baptism yet. It´s super frustrating. But we have been really good at just staying focused and doing the work. Hermana Lamoreaux is an incredible missionary, I´m so lucky to have her as my companion. 

​Doner kebab. Pakistanis here own these shops where they sell this like meat burrito. It´s everywhere, there´s like one on every corner. The meat is on like this rotating thing all day long and he scrapes it off with an electric knife and then puts it on your sandwich. Kbab is super popular, it´s like a rite of passage that you have to try one as a missionary. So I did. I´m not a fan. My companion and Patrick made me eat one though. It wasn´t good. The meat is super low quality, that´s why they cook it on a pendulum thing all day cause it´s like that cheap and it disguises the flavor or whatever- i don´t know but there´s a reason these don´t exist in the USA. Haha.

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I am literally Mulan. Listen. That song ¨Let´s get down to business¨ (is that what it´s called?) My two transfers in the field I was like Mulan in the beginning of that song. When she´s like running up the mountain with the water pail and she´s too tired so the tough guy has to take it for her. Or when she´s like trying to climb the pole with the metal things and she keeps falling. Yes, that´s been me that last 12 weeks. But the last week has been super incredible, like I think I´m finally adjusted to missionary life. Like I don´t think you can ever be completely adjusted but like, it´s normal now and it´s comfortable. And at night when we´re running to the metro so we can get home by 10 and I´m fiddling with my purse to get my wallet out while we´re running, like I´m able to keep up with my companion, and I know which metro we´re about to get on and I don´t feel lost. And like during lessons (especially the English ones) I feel like I don´t struggle as much and me and my companion take turns talking, instead of her just taking over. Like I´m not the silent companion. 

We had a really cool experience this week, I wrote about it in my letter to President:

Dear President, 

We had such an amazing week! I am learning so much on my mission. For a while I felt like I was in a slump spiritually. So this week I really focused on more meaningful prayer and I have seen the fruits of it! Wow, I love it so much. I actually have been praying to know when I am sinning, so that I can repent of it. Like sometimes I covet other missionaries´ success or I lose faith because I´m struggling with the language and then I lose the Spirit. But I forget to work on these things because they´ve become so natural. So just asking God to help me recognize when I´m doing things that will lead the Spirit away has helped me alot and I feel so much more love and I have a better vision of my purpose here for our friends who we are trying to teach the gospel. The Lord has definitely a lot of love for his people here in our area of Valencia. I can see that and I know it´s true. Something cool that I absolutely love about the mission so far, for me personally, is that so many of our friends remind me of people that I love back home or even people that I used to know. Like almost every single one of our investigators, has similar traits and qualities (physical and spiritual) that remind me of a friend I have back home and it makes me love that person that much more! I think it´s Heavenly Father´s gift to me to help me remember that He loves all His children. I love it!

I´m sure I´ll be the third person to tell you about this miracle we had, so I´ll keep it short. But we were on the metro, in a trio with Hna Reid, and we sat in front of a lady. I noticed her when we first sat down and I smiled at her and said hi. But she looked super sad, like usually people don´t look exactly thrilled when they´re sitting on the metro, but she looked kind of distraught. And I thought we should talk to her. But we were looking at our agendas and we were talking about the lesson we were on our way to teach, and I didn´t talk to her. Luckily Hna Reid is in tune with the Spirit and follows promptings, and she started talking to her. The lady was like ¨sois angéles¨ and Hna Reid was like, actually we´re missionaries from the Church Of Jesus Christ. Then the lady freaked out, like literally stamped her foot on the ground and put her face in her hands for a few seconds and was like shaking a little bit, and then Hna Reid like stood up to be closer to her, and the lady looked up at us and she was crying!! She explained to us that we were dressed in white and we descended into the metro like angels and that we were white and we were united with a heavenly sword. She kept saying you guys are angels! She was like ¨you guys are fighting God´s war¨. We missed our metro stop because we were talking to her and she gave us her number. That was just yesterday and we haven´t any contact with her since. It was super interesting, Hna Lamoreaux was like, I´ve never had an experience like that before on the mission! 

This week for the first time, I´ll tell you, I love being a missionary!!

Todo bien,

Hermana Birch

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Pues nada

Hola! Feliz Pascua!

¿¿Como estan??

Pues, Me and my companion are finally friends!! Our companionship was kind of flailing for a while there. We were only companions and we didn´t get along super well. As far as the work went, we did. But I´m with her 24/7, it was getting rough. I realized though, that I didn´t want this. I wanted to get along with her. And that maybe it wasn´t her that needed to change, but me. So I started praying to have charity, after reading about it in Preach My Gospel. It took a few weeks, but now we get a long so great, it´s almost weird! I love it, the mission becomes so much better when you love your companion! Who would´ve thought!!?? Haha. Sad that my training is almost over and I´m about to leave!! I´m so sad to leave Valencia 2!! This is my home! I love the people here way too much!! 

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So my legs have been super itchy lately and then it just started spreading everywhere.So we went to the hospital, turns out it´s just eczema. But it´s because the water here has so much calcium and it dries out my skin. Weird. 

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Remember when I used to be afraid of contacting? I´ve come so far from when I was in the MTC in Madrid. And we would go to the park and I would let so many people walk by without contacting them. Well we don´t do that anymore. Not when you are put on an intercambio with someone who contacts every single person on the street! Me and Hermana Reid had a miracle day, we had 7 new investigators in one day!! The goal for the mission is that everyone can get 6 in one week, so 7 in one day is a lot!! We just didn´t have any citas planned so we just hit the streets and we followed the Spirit to tell us what to say and who to talk to, it was awesome! Now I´m not even scared to contact. 

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When we´re walking on the street, anyone who walks past us we say ¨Hola! Disculpe. Somos misioneras de la iglesia de Jesucristo y tenemos un mensaje de Jesucristo y su iglesia. Usted es una persona muy creyente?¨ Basically 90 percent of the people say ¨Tengo prisa¨ (which literally translates to ¨I have busy¨) and keep walking. We just keep trying to talk to them and talk about the Book of Mormon and the Bible and how we believe in the same church Christ established when he was on the Earth. It´s kind of fun. And then if they´re still listening we ask them if there´s a time we could stop by their house and share more with them. It´s so great when they say YES! I´m so excited for all the people we met yesterday that are interested in the Restored gospel. 

A long-time investigator came to church for the first time this Sunday!! So we stopped by yesterday, and he wasn´t home, but we stayed by the timber (the thing you have to ring to get in to the apt building), and good thing because he came walking up behind us. So we went up but couldn´t go in (cause there wasn´t another woman) and we asked for some water, talked about church, confirmed our NDH (family home evening) for tomorrow, prayed and then left. I realized that we had totally forgot to invite him to be baptized!I was so upset! I knew that we could set a fecha (date) with him tomorrow at the NDH but it would be different because the member would be there and also his wife and sometimes he´s kind of shy and maybe wouldn´t accept it. So even though it was super awkward, we knocked on his timber again, we still couldn´t come in without another mujer, but we asked him to be baptized and he accepted a fecha!! It was awesome!! So I learned that sometimes the Spirit tells us to do awkward things, like go back up to someone´s piso, even though you were just there, but you just do it anyway!

My Spanish is coming along. I read the Liahona (the church magazine) in Spanish and I can understand it, it´s just hard actually speaking the language. But I know for sure that God is helping me to learn the language, as missionaries, we learn the language so quickly, people are always super surprised that I´ve only been here 3 months (well now like 4). ç

I love you all, have a wonderful Easter and enjoy General Conference!

Con amor, 

Hermana Birch

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Fwd: Valencia Fallas

​(Matilde)

​(Blessing from Nigeria made us meat pies- happened to be on Pi Day...haha)

​(Zahrah, our investigator from Iran. Always has herbal tea and treats for us)

Fwd: Valencia Fallas

 

Literally it feels like we´re in DisneyWorld!

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Fwd: Valencia Fallas

Hola familia y amigos!!

Valencia does this crazy thing called ¨Fallas¨. I really don´t understand it. But there´s fireworks going off all the time, bands playing in the streets, churro stands on every corner and big muñecas (statues/figures) in the streets that apparently are going to be set on fire on the last day. I still do not know what the point of Fallas is but it´s pretty fun! 

We had 6 investigators at church this week! It was awesome. I wish you could feel the Spirit in the room during gospel principles. The teacher, our mission leader, Victor from Nigeria, is so strong and has such an amazing testimony. He does so much for the missionary work here. The investigators were asking really good questions, and there were so many of them present, and the cr were helping too, ah, it was so amazing. 

Hna Lamoreaux and I after church realized that we just needed 1 more new investigator and 1 more member present lesson to hit pautas (goals)! I had prayed earlier that morning and then again before we left that we would find a new investigator. I was thinking it would take a special circumstance to get a new because it was already 7pm and we were about to visit an investigator, not much time to contact. On our way to that lesson though, someone in the street asked us for directions and we started talking to him. He was SUPER nice, probably the nicest and most humble person I´ve talked to in the street. We testified and set up another appt (we´re soooo sad he´s not in our area) but he was the New we needed!! And then after the lesson with the investigator (not a mbr present) we ran to a recent convert Matilde, who´s ¨son¨is not a member and we were going to try to get our last member present that way. But he wasn´t there!! I was so sad! Before we got there we tried calling a bunch of members to see if they could come with us last minute but nobody could, for backups. So we sat and had a lesson and prayed with Matilde. After we said the closing prayer David came home!! So we had a member present and shared pretty much the same lesson again and then prayed with him! We hit pautas for the first time!! 

I love Hermana Lamoreaux so much. I can count on her to back me up when we are contacting and in lessons, it´s the best. Last night after we hit pautas, we decided to go visit a MA with our last 40 minutes. He wasn´t there (or probably sleeping) but we had passed some girls on a bench on the way there, and I told my companioin that I wanted to go contact them. So we walked back over to them. They are 20 and 22 and really funny. Have no religious background at all but they accepted the pamphlet, and a return visit and we prayed with them. It was really awesome. So we got two more new investigators! I love that God puts people in our path that we can talk to, we just have to have the discernment and faith to do it!

Some funny things;

- because of fallas, everyone is getting drunk and partying. well we got on the metro to go to church Sunday morning and there was throw up all over the metro. and then there were these two drunk guys pushing eachother around and security came. exciting.

- this week everyone wanted to feed us when I was NOT hungry. and they always give us meat and I have to force it down.

- we celebrated pi day in our piso. we made a pudding pie and a boxed cheesecake and then ate it. so fun.

- rafael (blessing´s husband) rode his bike to church in his white suit. what a champ!!

I love you all, love your emails, think about you often and can´t wait to Skype you for Mother´s Day!! (Literally I´m counting down the days) 

Also you guys should ask me questions so I can know what to write to you about. 

Con amor,

Hermana Birch

Fwd: Zone photo

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Spanish food! pt 1

A miracle this week!! We were stopping by to visit our investigator, Juan. We had a member with us, Hermana Nalbundyan (her younger sister is serving in the mission right now). She served her mission here a few years ago. She is amazing. She is from Armenia but has lived in Spain most of her life. So we´re in the stairwell of  Juan´s apartment and a younger lady passes us on her way up the stairs to her apt. Hermana Nalbundyan says hola, buenas, to her and then blurted out ¨do you speak Armenian?¨the lady stopped, turned around and turns out she is from Armenia as well!! They started talking really excitedly together in Armenian and me and Hermana Lamoreaux just look at eachother not understanding a word but like, what just happened!? Hermana Nalbundyan followed a prompting and turned a friendly hello in a stairwell into a NEW invesigator! Her name is Lillit, she let us into her apt and we visited her and her mom, prayed with them and set up a return appt. And we now have given them a Book Of Mormon in Armenian and invited them to read! It´s the unexpected things, the promptings that we courageously follow, that will bring miracles. This is the Lord´s work, we just need to obey the Spirit or else we never would have found Lillit!

Also we have a family from Iran that we are teaching. They are super sweet. It´s a 16 year old son and his mom. We are going to keep teaching them, we have a book of mormon for them in Persian. She gave us some green tea and muffins. The green tea....mmm we´re still not sure if it had caffiene in it...?

Also our fecha, Juan from the Dominican Republic, is still progressing. Slowly but surely. He actually couldn´t come to church this Sunday so his fecha has to be reset but he wants to get baptized!

We gave Sara and Javier the audio of the Book Of Mormon hoping they´ll finally read/listen on their own. If they don´t then we might have to drop them :(

This week was the week of trying lots of new foods!! We ate at a member´s home, she´s from the Dominican Republic. It´s so fun being a missionary. People really really give their very best to us, and treat us really well. They set the table really nice and use their fine china when we come over to eat with them. We´re so spoiled. 

She made us fried yucca (super good), baked yucca (weird), and then marisco which is like this huge paella type dish except there´s like shrimp with their eyes and legs and everything. It was definitely an experience. Once again, my companion wins for being able to eat everything on her plate! And then yet another spanish dessert where they cut up fruit into teeny pieces and then serve it in a really really sweet liquid.

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