Philippians 3:2

Read it. It says... "Beware of dogs." Yesterday this scripture came to life.

We went to visit a member and its this huge house with this gate, well she lets us in and this pit bull just comes running barking and growling, and first I'm like oh whatever hola! And then it just starts getting closer and she's like no it doesn't bite...it then tries to bite my hand and I barely move it in time. Que va. So she grabs the dog and is like once he calms down so after a bit I put my hand up to his nose...and he goes nuts and tries to kill me again. So she had to carry the dog until we got inside. Scariest moment of my life. I don't know why, but it's true that missionaries and dogs are NOT friends. The bible even says it.

This week was super good! We had intercambios and I was with Hermana Steinfeldt! My mtc companion! So that was fun! And we saw a huge miracle! Do you remember I. from last week? Well Wednesday we were waiting for an investigator to meet us at the church for a cita and I. walks up so we say hi and he's like we had a cita right? (No we didn't have one until the next day) so we're like oh...yeah...okay. So we go and talk to him (our other investigator never showed up) and we teach him the restoration and he tells us he knows it's true! And that he already believes the Book of Mormon is true! So we set a fecha with him to get baptized the 7th of November! He is super prepared!

And then on Sunday we had like 4 people who said they would for sure be at church...and not one of them came :( but then we were sitting there during sacrament meeting and this young girl walks in and the bishops wife asks me if I know her I say no she must be one of the elders. So afterwards our ward mission leader brings her to us and says she lives in your area, so we talk to her and she's friend of a less active member and so she just decided to come and see what it was like! All on her own! She stayed for all 3 hours and LOVED it. She said it was filled with love and felt like we were all just a big family. :) what a miracle!

So funny story. Wednesday during English class they're asking me how to say phrases and I'm like wow they have a ton of questions this is something great! Then it turns out they were just wondering how to ask us out....hahaha took me awhile to catch on but they thought it was hilarious, and then at the end they were like "como se dice tus ojos son muy bonitos" I'm like "your eyes are very beautiful" and then they would say it back to us with these huge grins. Haha we got a good laugh out of it. Oh Africans.

Well anyways I had a great week and I hope you all did as well! The scripture I was ponderizing this week was Helaman 12:1 "and thus we can behold how false and also the unsteadiness of the hearts of the children of men; yea, we can see that the Lord in his great infinite goodness doth bless and prosper those who put their trust in him."  I really liked this scripture because I realized that it's true, the hearts of men are so unsteady we're always changing what we want, but when we learn to put our trust in God we feel his love and his blessings, his ways don't change. It's something I'm working on more is how to put my trust in God and not in man.

Love you all!

love, Hermana Ruth Terrazas

That is the Christopher Columbus statue where he left from Spain!!! How cool!

We went to barc today! And got MEXICAN FOOD! Man I've missed that stuff.

10 Months!

Hello!

Man I just feel like every month goes by faster and faster! How crazy I hit my 10 months already!

This week was a good one! And a long one! Well I got my retainer finally (from when someone stole my bag like 2 months ago) and wow it hurt! I felt like I got braces all over again! But the day we got it we stopped by the office and Hermana Een was there so I got to see her! I love being able to see old companions :)

So this week a recent convert from the Hermanas was helping us with a cita and he's from Ghana and is so funny. He's my new favorite person here. He just told me all about Africa and what countries are good and which aren't and how they tell the difference between each other. It was super fun. He also tried to teach me Twi...I think I'm just going to stick with English and Spanish.... But we were waiting and he was like "this guys from (place in Africa) but I mean...I'm not judging or anything..." Apparently there's some bad blood between some states in Africa haha and during a cita with him we're talking and all of a sudden he just bows his head & closes his eyes so we're like okay I guess it's time to start so I ask him who's praying and he just says "you are" without looking up, it was really funny. And then to close I ask him who he wants to say it and he says you & I told him I just prayed & he was like so, you're new. Haha thanks...

Also this week something I've noticed my whole mission finally clicked. The difference between city buses/bus drivers and pueblo ones. The city ones are just normal men and if there is music it's so quiet you can barely hear it. Pueblo buses are just crazy. The bus drivers are usually hippies, and the music is loud and just anything goes. They're these little buses and the bus drivers just go fast and crazy. It's the closest we get to a roller coaster ride on the mission. I love pueblo buses. Even though sometimes I fear my life, it's all good.

This week when we were at a Locultorio printing off something the guy final,y asked us who we are and with what group so we explain what missionaries are and everything & then he just goes oh okay...well this is free and gave us free gum :) I love nice people!

We had two huge miracles this week! The first is N., we contacted her last thing one night and she seems super interested so we set up a cita and we met with her she's our age, and is just golden! During the lesson she stops and says "is it okay with you if next time I bring my boyfriend to listen as well?" Uhm YES! She is definitely prepared. And then there's I.. So Saturday we had a cita and we brought a member with us. Well the cita fired and we couldn't go contact (I'll explain later) so we didn't know what to do so we walk out of the building and he stops and waves this guy over from across the street, and then turns and tells us that this is his friend and he's been talking about the church with him and wants us to teach him...so the guy I. comes over and before we can say anything the member says I want you to invite him to church (in front of him) so we laugh and I'm like hey we have church tomorrow! You should come! He said maybe, but then left. Well Sunday, HE CAME! That like never happens!!! And the best part he's been there before!!! And said he'd start going again!!! What?!? Miracles!!!

Okay now I'll explain the not being able to contact thing. Well lately my knees have been getting worse but I've still been able to work, well Saturday we had ward sports, and we all we played is rapido where you just shoot the soccer ball in the goal, and I thought it was fine because I wasn't running & i don't kick with the bad knee. Well after my knees hurt, and then as the day goes on it gets so bad where I just could not walk. At all. I would try and have to stop after 2 steps...which was okay because we had a day FULL of citas so if I could just manage to get there I could rest for 45 minutes, well every. single. one. Of the citas fired...so we didn't know what to do seeing as I could not walk for 5 hours contacting. So we called a President and he told me I had to not use my legs for 3 days...he said "you can get up to go to the bathroom or eat food but besides that you do not use your legs. You can go to church if you want, but that's it.....and never kick a soccer ball again." Yes sir. So we're hoping after these 3 days they'll be feeling better. Which I'm sure they will be!

As promised last week, my scripture that I ponderized this week was Alma 57:27 "Now this was the faith of those of whom I have spoken; they are young and their minds are firm and they do out their trust in God continually."  When I read this scripture it just stuck out to me. Then the more I thought about it the more it meant. I thought of it as explaining the missionaries here in El Faro, a lot of times people are so surprised at how young we are and what we're doing, but it's because of this faith and trust in God that we're here for a year and a half or two years.

Anyways, that was my week! I hope you all had a wonderful week!

I love you all!

Love, Hermana Ruth Terrazas

Martorell/General Conference

I hope you all watched and LOVED General Conference! I know I did! We went up to hospitalet to watch it (the stake center) so we got to watch it with the missionaries in our zone. They always play it in English in a different room for missionaries and investigators/members (there are a lot of Africans in Spain) I LOVED conference! So here in Spain Saturday we watch the women's broadcast and Saturday morning(that ones live) and then on Sunday we watch Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning (live) and as missionaries we can't watch Sunday afternoon because it doesn't play until after curfew. So today for preparation day me and Hermana Reid made for French  toast (we don't have a waffle maker) and went to the church and watched conference! I loved it! I can't pick a favorite talk but, I think the best thing was all the invitations and challenges we received! So mom mentioned this to me and I was thinking the same thing, we should all share our scripture every week, I'll put mine up every week and share my feelings about it and then you all can do the same :) also mom sent me the pictures of all you watching conference in your homes and it made me SO HAPPY to see my family and even better, them all watching conference. One quote I loved was "family is the center of life and is the key for eternal happiness". I love my family!

Well this was my first week in Martorell! The areas good, with conference I didn't get to meet all the members but we ate with the bishop so I got to meet his family and I've met others just around town and the few we've visited. They all seem great! Well as of now Martorell doesn't have much but it has SO much potential. I love that I have a companion who is equally dedicated to being exactly obedient. It just makes the work that much easier. We contacted basically all week and saw HUGE miracles, like huge. We said that no matter what we would have 8 new investigators(that's the goal for the mission each week) and we did! Sunday morning we had 5 but we're blessed to find 3 more! One of them is an older man who I went to contact but didn't hear me (he was turning) so I kept walking but my companion retried and he stopped, so I ask him if he believes in a God and he tells me no, but as we keep talking he tells me he has faith in a God but that God doesn't love him or care about him, that he knows he's his child but God doesn't care to listen. It broke my heart, so We bore our testimonies about how God is listening and he said well he's never sent me any sign and that's when I said, "well he did, because we're here." He kind of chuckled and said maybe your right. We were able to set up a return cita with him although he refuses to tell us his name..haha oh those old Catalan men. It was such a miracle for me! I've never been able to be that bold but because I could just feel such love for this man it wasn't boldness it was love! Another miracle is Peter. So after conference we had a cita in our area, last thing Sunday night(usually those nights are filled roaming the streets stopping every person you see because there's only like 3) so we went to "Peters" house and a woman answers, well it turns out she's an old investigator and her 2 children. We taught them and they were so excited we came back! They didn't know why the missionaries stopped visiting them. We're not sure if Peter gave us the wrong address and led us to them or if maybe he does live there, but either way it was a huge miracle!

Well I love you all and hope you have a great week and apply the teachings from Conference! Tomorrow morning I will pick my scripture and next week I'll share it and I'll be waiting to hear yours!

Love, Hermana Ruth Terrazas

She bought me chocolate :) this companionship started out on the right foot.

Goodbye Granollers

Yup, I'm being transferred. We kinda already figured, but I had the hope that maybe I would stay one more. I am going to Martorell! It's kinda funny I have now served 45 min to the west of Barcelona, 45 min to the north, and now like 45 min to the south...they just really want to keep me around! Haha but I knew if I'd be transferred I'd stay close. Anyways, my new companion will be Hermana Reid. She actually lived with us in Terrassa my first 2 weeks of the mission and then we went to the Valencia zone together at the same time! It's kind of nice to already know who my companion is and what she's like!

Well this week was crazy. We had Zone Conference which was super good! I love conferences in the mission. They're definitely one of the best parts. Especially testimony meeting. Missionary testimony meetings are the best. After that I had an intercambio with Hermana Lamoreaux so they was super fun!

So on Friday we were out working and my throat hurt but I just went bought some cough drops and we kept working, well then Saturday morning I woke up and boom. Tonsillitis. I have some great luck. Saturday I felt like death. I basically slept the ENTIRE day. And then Sunday at church everyone was like "ohh....your sick..." Thanks you noticed? Haha.

 Man this ward is SO hard to say goodbye to. I feel like every ward I just get closer to and love more and more. I feel like my second family is here in Granollers. I remember when I got here thinking that I hoped I got transferred soon and was not looking forward to my time here, somewhere along those first few weeks everything changed and I became unbelievably close with the people here. It really was so hard to say goodbye. Hermano Merchan in our gospel principle class asked me to bear my testimony and before I did he told me "Hermana although maybe you didn't have many numbers here you planted seeds, and we'll take care of them. But most important you taught us all, you shared your love and we learned so much. I learned things from you I will keep forever." It was the sweetest and then in consejo when I told them I was leaving bishop got up grabbed one of the young adults there and said "give her a big hug for me" and then she gave me the longest hug. I am so grateful for the love I have felt from this ward. Afterwards all the women stayed to watch the Relief Society broadcast and Maria deal Angels came and sat down by me and told me how it would be so weird for her to watch this in Spanish because she always watches conference in English. Soooo we went to another room and I got to watch it in English :) I was a happy camper. But when we were watching during one of the songs she turned to me and said "I'm sure your moms thinking of you right now, and she's really proud of you." It was a tender moment.

Monday I had to say my hardest goodbye, Dari, Romane, and Dylan. Dari is a recent convert who is 14 years old and I just love her! We go to their house every Monday night to have a lesson and dinner :) I am going to miss all the laughs, jokes, and food. Haha. They made me a cake with a candle and everything :) also they gave me an anklet which is super pretty! I feel like Dari is the little sister I never had. Oh and of course her baby brother Dylan :)

I'm sad to be leaving but excited to go to a new area and meet more amazing people! I know for sure I will be visiting this family of mine here in Granollers. I'll send pictures :)

I love you all and have a great week!

Love, Hermana Ruth Terrazas

Ps. I'm sending this this morning and then I'll get back on later to email more with my new companion.

I forgot!

So this week was a weird one so one day we were contacting and this man kept trying to kiss us! And then got mad at us because we didn't want to haha like the first time he tried and we backed away and then got mad that we didn't like him and we explained we're missionaries and he kind of calmed down and then like 5 minutes later tried again. So we just walked away. In the moment it was super annoying, now looking back it was super funny.

When we went to eat with one of our members she decided to give us a law of chastity lesson for when we got home....haha talk about awkward. But super funny!

I'm sure there's more but I can never remember, anyways until later :)

Barcelona and Badalona zones :)

Oh yeah we had a birthday party for Elder Deleu!

Julia and Ana :)

Dixiana and Mateu :) her parents live in Martorell so I'll see her!

Dari ❤️

Maria deal Angels :)

Yes that says my name...haha I promise they don't call me that but she said "Terrazas" wouldn't fit and then Romane said "yeah and my hand would cramp trying to write all that!" Haha

Dylan :)

My companion

Almost all the hermanas who got transferred!

Hermana birch is now going to be the companion of Hermana Canales!!! (Hna birch is in my group and I lived witness her in Valencia and love her!!!)

One More Week!

Hello!

This was a good week! Next week is transfers and we're both nervous because we have no clue what's going to happen...we have the same amount of time here soooo we could stay together which we both want haha or one of us is leaving...Hermana Canales thinks I'm leaving but I'm not sure. Honestly, when I first came to Granollers I thought I wanted to leave shortly, but now after 3 1/2 months I've come to love it here. I love the members, and I love it here. I have learned so much here, probably more than in my whole mission. And I've grown as well. But we'll see what happens.

Well this week was super good! We were in the street contacting people basically for the whole week but it was fun and we have a couple people really interested! So last night we had a cita with a woman from our area book and she lived in a little pueblo. So we went and it was an HOUR to walk...an hour. And the best part the whole time...uphill but not just a hill like straight. We were joking "so the doctor said not to walk uphills or stairs...so what do we climb a mountain for an hour!" So yeah we thought that when we got there she wouldn't be there (that's about how the mission usually goes) but she was there and super interested! She visited the church in the U.S. With her sister and the visitors center and loved it!!! I'm super excited to visit her next Sunday but the only down part is that walk again...

So this week our zone had a goal to find 8 news, and Sunday night at 8:50 we only had 5 and we sent our numbers in and Elder Deleu called and said no you have 15 more minutes I'm not sending in the numbers you can find 3, so we were super pumped and went and found 3 people in 15 minutes!!!! It was so exhilarating! It was like an adrenaline rush haha so that was a huge miracle!! And I know it's because this week we decided that if we wanted to see miracles we had to be EXACTLY obedient (not that we were ever disobedient) but this week we did everything we could and we saw miracles!

I love my mission, I am so happy I made this decision to serve the Lord for 18 months it is definitely the best decision I have made and every day I'm more and more grateful.

Have a great week!

Love,
Hermana Ruth Terrazas

Our lovely district :)

hospital gowns: at least their modest!

We cut our hair today! (Just the ends) and got cool watches from McDonald's

Noche de Culturas

Well this week we had our culture night! (I'll send pictures later) it was super fun! We got there early to set up there were 9 or 10 different countries! USA, France, Honduras, Argentina, Ecuador, Colombia, Spain, Bolivia, Venezuela, and we had more countries in our ward but they couldn't come! We watched a video before about all the countries, has a message and then went to eat! I made banana bread and it turned out super good! I was scared cause it was my first time making it but it was good! I had lots of arguments because they kept trying to call it cake...its not cake. Also everyone complained that I didn't bring hamburgers haha but all in all it was a super fun activity! We had two investigators come and I think they liked it!

Since Wednesday was my 9 month mark I took the traditional pregnancy pictures, I don't know why but it's a tradition in our mission for the hermanas to take pregnancy pictures at 9 months haha so I'll send those later :)

This week was a little difficult work wise, basically all the people we had just fell through and we either couldn't get in touch with them or they didn't want anything and then the whole week we were street contacting or knocking doors and we just had zero success. We don't know what happened, Sunday night we still had 0 new investigators for the week and I was just praying to find at least one person, so we went to one of our pueblos to do some pass bys and we decided to talk to every single person, even if they looked scary, or busy, and after probably 30 people we found a guy named C.!!! And he's been to our church before! So that was a huge miracle. But this week we're ready to just contact the heck out of Granollers and find people! R. (our fecha from before) told us on Saturday that she still wants to be baptized but can't because her husband doesn't want her to, he had been trying for a long time to get her baptized in his church but she said no, and so she said if she were to get baptized in our church it would start a huge fight and possibly end their marriage. So obviously that can't happen, we're hoping with time he'll lighten up and she can be baptized.

I'll send some pictures now! Love you all!

Love, Hermana Terrazas

9 Months and a Dream!

Hi family!!

I hope you had a great week! :) can you believe it!?! I'm at my 9 months! It doesn't seem real. I still feel like a baby in the mission haha but it really is crazy that I'm at the half way point. I love my mission and wouldn't trade this experience for anything! Everyday I grow to love it more! I'm so grateful for the things I've learned and the people I've met. If there's one thing I've learned it's that thinking makes all the difference, whether it's positive or negative. If you think positive things will be positive, if you think negative things will be negative! It seems so simple but it's so true, the days where I just am so negative in my thinking are terrible but the days where I'm thinking positively despite the circumstance are the best days! Another thing-- about the hard days. Me and Hermana Canales were talking about this and I've come to a conclusion, that hard days build character and testimony. A lot of people when we tell them about our schedule say "well yeah but who's in your piso making you do it who's checking in on you?" And when we tell them no one, that we just do it, that they trust us they're always super shocked. Because it's true we technically could just go to piso and no one would know but we don't! The mission, and especially the hard days, build us to be honest to have character! One time President Pace told me "if you didn't have a testimony you wouldn't be you wouldn't be doing this" and it's so true! That this is hard, a lot of days are hard but because I have a testimony I'm here! And it grows everyday!

Well this week was super good! I had my first dream in all Spanish!!!! That was super exciting!!! I don't remember exactly what about...except that I woke up in the middle of the night super excited because it was in all Spanish, then I went back to bed haha

We have an activity Saturday for different cultures! Everyone is going to bring a dish from their country! We have 10 different countries in our wars! Spain is such a mixture of people! I'm super excited :) I'm still thinking about what I'm going to bring...if you have ideas send them to me...please :)

This week we set a fecha with Rosa!!! She's an investigator who we couldn't meet with for a couple weeks and we went Saturday and she wasn't there so we left and then she called us half an hour later and said she had left for a bit and lost track of time and asked if we could come back right then! So we went and we watched the Restoration with her and set a goal for her to be baptized on the 19th! I'm super excited for her! It was funny we invited her to the activity just to go and she was like okay oh I can bring this and this! Haha she's perfect!

We had Enfoque de zona this week and so I got to see Hermana Lamoreaux! So that was super fun, also I got a letters from the young women in the ward! Please tell them all thank you and that I loved
them :)

Well I love you all and hope you have a great week! :)

Love, Hermana Ruth Terrazas :)

The Cataluyna flag with candles!