Transfers!!!

Transfer week is crazy because the whole week your just stressing about Saturday night (that's when we get the call) but it's also super fun! This week was a good one! I love the mission. I had a hard day but hey, who doesn't? So I had a quick second on the metro cried for like 2 minutes and then moved on. It was such a good week I don't even remember what happened.

Well first things first. I'm staying in Valencia!!!! My new companion is Hermana Graham she was in my Zone in Barcelona and is AWESOME!!!! I am so excited to work with her!!!!!! Seriously so excited. It's gonna be great! Hermana Een is actually going to exactly where she was, we're just trading companions. haha. Hermana Graham is a sister training leader which means every first week of the month my preparation day will be tuesday so I'm gonna be writing on tuesdays more frequently because she has conselio. Hermana Een is also going to be a sister training leader! I'm super excited for her! And Hermana Lamoreaux is going to train again!!! Woo!!!! So that's the exciting news!

Sunday was Elder Ochoas last Sunday in the mission which was super sad but we did a musical number in church and it was super pretty! Our district. Also our ward when missionaries get transferred all line the halls after church and sing God Be With You Till We Meet Again...super cute...super awkward as well haha but it was super fun. And then this other missionary song that isn't in english which is super depressing because it's my favorite. Then we took lots of pictures together and said goodbye to like everyone!

Honestly this letter is going to be short because I just can not remember anything that happened, except that it was a good week full of miracles! OH! So one day we were teaching this guy God's Will (thats his name) and we were sitting in the hallway teaching and he was sitting in his house (it was a little awkward) but he was all worried cause the neighbors but one comes home looks at us and goes come talk to me tuesday about your church at 4 okay? And we're like uhhhh can it be a different day? And so we set up a cita and he gives us his number and everything!! And then he's like do you have something for me to read so I can prepare? OF COURSE?! Coolest thing ever. Blessings of being obedient :) So cool. Also after explaining the whole Restoration Gods Will is like so you testigos...and we're like no we're actually not the testigos...it was a little awkward but it's all good.

We moved our fecha till the 7th of June instead of the 31st but Carla who is amazing and just has to get divorced said the papers should go through!! And spain just passed a law where bishops can marry!!! This is  a HUGE deal. Such a miracle here. Insane!

I love you all! Your great! Have a good week! Sorry this letter is short and probably doesn't make much sense...but I love you!!!

love, hermana Terrazas :)

We made elder ochoa a tombstone cause he's dying :)

This morning!!!

Saying goodbye to hermana een and birch!

the valencia hermanas at the train station! half are leaving!!!

Hola!

Hola!!!

Well where do I begin?! This week was crazy. CRAZY. SO much went down. Okay maybe not that much but it felt like it.

Monday! We hung out with Stephanie Smith (the people we skyped at) and she took us to The Good Burger (I was in heaven). It was just like home. The burgers were delicious she was super sweet! I've seriously been craving a burger for like 5 months now ( Michael I expect burgers when I come home okay?!) so that was delicious! Then we went to Ladrou or something like that which is a porcelain muesam thing thats super famous in Spain! It was so much fun!

Then that night we went to visit D.. He is an antiguo from our area book that we decided to talk with again! One of the first things he said is that he wants to be baptized!!! We kept teaching and then went to set up the fecha and he was like "Tomorrow?" WHAT?! That was crazy. We said no because we still have to teach him...anddddd he doesn't speak much spanish only french. So thats a little bit difficult but we have awesome members who help! So the goal is that he will be baptized The 31st of May :) He walked to church yesterday (he lives super far) AND didn't get home from work until 11 in the morning. That is dedication!!!

Then on our way home from him we were on the bus back to piso and the heater is on...it's like super warm here...so that wasn't fun and then one stop a TON of old people get on. We're talking the entire bus is sardine packed. With the heater on. I've never seen old people so close to starting a riot. They were all yelling at the bus driver and all unhappy. We were a little bit afraid for our lives haha. But then some random man just turned it off in the back. So that was nice! We were DYING!

Wednesday we had Specialized Training! SO GOOD! I love President and Hermana Pace SO MUCH!!! It's unreal. President thanked me for my faith and for the faith of my family..so thanks ;) And he told me "I'm so glad we didn't do something crazy like send you home" Me too. Me too. Then he like called out while he was teaching about how we have a miracle he was like "Do you know we saw a miracle here?! Hermana Terrazas is sitting down and then she's going to go work!!" Some people were super confused haha it was great. And super awkward.

Then that night before our Noche de Hermanamiento we had some time so we were just contacting in our area by the church and this lady stops and talks to us and is just going on about her life (she already has a Book of Mormon from a long time ago) and then she's like do you want to go sit down and take some juice or coffee? But we only had 15 minutes until it started so I was like well we don't really have much time and I told her & she was like well then you have 15 minutes...I'm like okay yes so we went. We were 40 minutes late to Noche de Hermanamiento and we had to teach. Sorry Elders. Haha But hey we got super good juice and postres!

Thursday we did intercambios! My sister training leader this transfer is Hermana Jimenez. She's a native and I LOVE her. She is so great! We worked in her area which is super nice because they're piso is known as "the pijo piso" which means like super rich/fancy so that was fun! But thursday it was like 110 degrees it was a record in Valencia and there was crazy wind and it was hot wind. It was...miserable. We thought we were going to die. And every single cita fired. So that was great haha but we just bought ice cream and drank lots of water and it was fun! We had a miracle! We visited this lady they contacted in the street and she only spoke english so I would talk and she would talk back then I would translate for Hermana Jimenez and then she would talk in Spanish and then I would clarify in English. It was fun! Well we invited them to the English bapitsm and she sat up all fast and goes "your church does baptisms? I want to be baptized, I've been waiting for this and it just clicked when you said that! Can I be baptized?" .....well I mean if you insist! It was crazy! Then Hermana Jimenez just hears baptism and is like que? que? So I explained we have to teach some more but yes yes she can! It was so amazing!!!

Saturday- A. came to the baptism and the whole time I'm like wow this is so good like he's going to love this! He's a super stubborn old man who told us he won't get baptized because no one can tell him what to do and he can go to this church without getting baptized haha...yeah it's super fun. but he came and so afterwards we're like what'd you think. He said it was boring and doesn't bring him joy. Well...okay then. haha

Sunday- the most stressful day of the week by far! So basically all our citas fired on us and we were sad cause a lot of people who said they'd come to church didn't but then this lady comes up to me and goes "I'm the one you called this is my son!" We've had an investigator going to church for probably a month and a half and we didn't know. We thought she was a member! Dumb. So that was funy/frustrating to find out. Then that night we had a cita with this girl Sara on a bench and at the end I asked her that if God answered her prayers and she found out this was true if she would get baptized and she looks at me and goes "hombre, claro" (man, of course) WHAT?! So that was exciting! Except she's leaving the country :( only for 3 weeks!

So yeah that was our week! Sorry this is super long! Just a lot went down! It was a super good week! We find out about transfers on Saturday!!! How crazy!

 I love you all have a good week!

Love, Hermana Terrazas

ps. this is stephanie! 

And then me and my companion on the roof of a building!

Pueblos!

This is what our pueblos look like! Still buildings! But this is what I mean when I say pueblo. It's not the greatest view of it all but its good enough!

Me skyping!

The piso in barcelona with like a thousand hermanas!

A.s new puppy who I'm in love with!!!

5 Months!

I hit my 5 month mark! It seems weird since I've been telling people 5 months for awhile. I can't decide if that feels like a long time or a short time. Depends on the day. Haha.

This week was WONDERFUL! First of all I got to see you guys and that just made me so happy! I'm so glad we got to Skype! It was so much fun! I love you all tons. I think I did better with the crying this time right? I promise I don't cry that much normally its just when I see your faces. It was super awkward cause the Elders were over at the Americans skyping as well and so I get off and I'm crying and they both just look at me and are like "uhhh...are you okay?" haha but I got over it pretty quick and it was good to be with S. and D. and the Elders! More people to distract me. We had an amazing dinner S. was making while we Skyped! Also apparently when Dad said that President thinks a lot of us too Elder Davis in the background went "so does their district leader.." He's our district leader. haha So it was definitely easier this time than in the MTC! I was the only one who cried which was super lame. But it just means I love you more than they love their families right ;)

The second reason this week was so amazing was because I got to WORK! Ah it felt so nice. And like nothing had changed. Like those 3 weeks of piso never happened. On Monday we took a train to Barcelona we sat by districts on the train, it was super fun! Mostly the 2 old elders who are about to die just told us mission stories and we laughed. They bickered a bit and complained about being hungry a lot. So we gave them our food we actually ate before. We felt like mothers.

In Barcelona I got to stay with Hermana Schmidt and Wiseman who were both in the MTC with me! SO MUCH FUN! There were 14 Hermanas in one piso...it was madness. There were 9 mattresses on the floor and 2 couches so we all just crammed there and it worked. I probably only slept 2 hours but it's all good.

The conference was phenomenal! JOLIN! Elder Dyches (member of the 70) and Elder Allen (In charge of the Europe missions) were there and it was so amazing. We all thought it was just going to be about Ipads but NO it was so spiritual! A lot of it was about the atonement which was super cool and then a lot about being an agent vs. an object. Something that will stick with me forever. It was very interactive! I also got to see all the missionaries like Hermana Stanciu and my old district which was super fun and members from Terrassa which was the best! I love them so much. I just couldn't even handle my love for them. One of them told me to talk to President to send me back haha I told her I'm working on it.

So my goal for this week has been not to pop my knuckles...not only because it's a bad habit but pretty sure I was starting to get arthiritis or something..but after a week of not popping them I'm golden! And super proud of myself!

We had a miracle! We have an investigator H. who's only 10 and not really progressing. Well we decided to pass by and her family had a friend over! The minute we walked into the room he was like hey I know your church! I used to take the lessons he just went on about his missionary and then we sit down and he goes "whats the class on today" haha it was so cute! We just read because we've been trying to get H. to read and it was Mosiah 3 which was PERFECT all about the atonement. We asked H. what she got out of it and He raises his hand and we're like yes? And then he describes perfectly about it and what it means and I was blown away! And he was like "I don't know if thats right or anything" And we were just like actually thats ...perfect. He's amazing! We're excited to see him again! We're also going to try to find his missionary. It's a work in progress.

Bad news...we found out M. and A. (our recent convert) are moving to barrio 2 :( NOOOO. But we worked out with the other Elders that they can teach the other family and M. but we'll still visit A. so it should work out perfect. They're going to help us help them move so they can get to know them and it will be a good hand off :)

This week has been great and I'm so excited to be working again! That was a long 3 weeks but I definitely learned a lot and grew so much closer to my Savior! Remember when you feel like no one understands, he does. That is so comforting! At times I couldn't express my frustration and just sadness to anyone because I knew they didn't understand. But there were many times I went to my room and just prayed and prayed and the peace and love I felt everytime never failed. There's always someone who understands! How great is that?!

Well I love you all have a FANTASTIC week and remember that missionaries are there to help members not the other way around ;) ...but I mean you should still help them..haha

Love, Hermana Terrazas :)

Hermana Wiseman from the MTC and this is Maria from Terrassa :) She is the cousin of B. my recent convert and also a recent convert from the Elders there :) Her and her mom were there and told me I can stay with them when I come back to visit :) I love her SO MUCH.

Guess What...

....we're getting IPADS!!!! Tonight we go to Barcelona to have this huge conference with the ENTIRE mission to be trained on how to use our new Ipads :) We probably won't get them for a week or two depending on when they come in!! But still super exciting! And I'm staying in Hermana Schmidts piso so I get to see her again :) I'm super excited!!! Besides the fact that I'll have to stand for a good majority of that 4 hour conference...

Well this week we were in piso again. Yet again. BUT Wednesday night President called me and was like just trying working tomorrow for the night and see what happens. We're gonna push it a bit. Which I am TOTALLY fine with. But then it was hurting pretty good so he told me to rest on Friday and then Saturday try working for just 3 hours because the thing is the church won't let me stay here if I can't work. So this is kind of like make it or break it time. Saturday was even worse than Thursday. I was having shooting pains up my spine and it was not good at all. So that was super bad news. But then Sunday (I didn't work but I did go to all 3 hours of church) I felt much better and today it's pretty good too! So I'm hoping thats a good sign :) I would be okay with working with pain except for the fact that I'm afraid if we don't let it heal then it will just go back to where it was and I'll have to take time to heal all over again. But the doctors in Germany should have my X-Ray by now and hopefully by tomorrow we'll hear what he says about it.

BUT! When we went to send my X-Ray to the mission office we found a miracle! We walked in and this lady looks at us and goes "Mormones!!!" And we were just like uhhh yes... (second person within 20 min to contact US) and she said she used to go to our church in her country but couldn't find it here. It was her turn so she asked us to wait for her so of course we did and then we talked got her number and address and left. She lives in the other Hermanas area so we gave it to them and they visited her yesterday and first lesson she asks "So what do I have to do, when can I be baptized?" SO COOL! The Lord really is watching over his work and it gets done how he wants it to. Just think if we didn't have to send my X-Ray in we would of never met her :)

So we did Member splits this week so Hermana Een could work! It was super fun to get to know some members better :) both who stayed with me had served missions and it was super fun to reminisce with them. Also one of them (in the other ward) when I told her I only had 5 months in the mission she was like "Really? Your spanish is so good I thought you were going home! You spoke it before your mission right??" So that was a good feeling :)

I got to go to Zone Enfoque this week (every month the whole zone meets to talk about goals and what not) but I was told I had to stand during it. I was getting some weird looks. Well when we go up to put our goals on the board we have to say our name where we're from, and what makes us happy. Well I said "Because I'm on my mission!" my companion says something little and cute and then looks at me and goes "I'm happy because I can sit down" haha half the people laughed/gasped and the other were like "What...?" Because they had no idea about me. So that was funny.

So we don't have much time to work but I swear we have the most self sufficient investigators! They're both older men and they both come to church every week and read the Book of Mormon without us really even meeting with them! Also one of them A., was like "Que debo hacer?" from the folleto and I was like si ir a la iglesia and he goes no "leer en el libro de mormon" I was like ohhh yeah...do that. It was super funny.

An old lady offered to give me her cane as well! Guess I looked that desperate or something...

Well thats my week!!!

I love you all and I'll SEE you next week (SKYPE!)

Love Hermana Terrazas

I got to see what my back looked like! In Spain doctors don't keep files of things they give them to you because its personal and everyone should be they're own keeper. So they just give you your X-Rays! How cool!

I forgot to mention that Hermana Een drew and I colored a bunch of pictures and then we taped them over the artwork in our piso for when the other Hermanas came home :) This was the one of me! Also me reading Jesus the Christ...