My Week

Things are going good in Barcelona. I have had a couple discouraging days but I think this week is looking up. We have been struggling to teach lesson, really to anyone. Pres. Hinckley in my interview invited us to teach 20 lessons...to whoever we can teach. It is going to be a little hard, but we have been making tons of calls to less active and active members. We will have 20 lessons this week, and hopefully lots of references. We also have started praying that we will find prepared people in OUR area...we find lots of prepared people who live in the Elders areas. Though they do get baptized which is the most important thing.

We had a baptism...ALBA. well it was slightly a combined baptism...we taught her, the elders taught her. She lives in the other ward, but goes to our ward! She is amazing. She has been praying for 4 years that her mom would give her permission to be baptized. It was absolutely beautiful because her Dad was able to baptize her. Her face was absolutely radiant when she came out of the water! I love BAPTISMS!!! It never gets old!

I am just so happy because our recent converts have started coming back to church! And Lina found a job! Obedience brings blessings!!

I am really focusing on talking to families this week! The time is getting short- and I still need to find my family!!! I will find them!

I love you! I hope you have an absolutely fabulous week! Take care of our health!

I love you a million Baptisms...and she is a Spaniard!

Dec 4, Dec 11

Dec 4  

   I think the biggest miracle I have seen this week is the baptismal invitation. We actually had a pretty rough week, as it goes with lessons and everything. But I felt like we worked hard to teach and find prepared people. I have been studying a lot about baptism, which has given me more desires to invite people to baptism. The more I am understanding and really receiving a testimony of baptism, the more I am feeling bold and confident in the invitation. We have been inviting all of our investigators to baptism and even though they do not always accept, I leave the lessons happy because we have testified and invited them to baptism. Heavenly Father just loves his children so much.

    We are having a baptism....Steven. It is a little sad that we won´t actually get to see it! It is fun teaching him, just because he enjoys it so much. He is so excited and talks with his Dad on the phone about his baptism almost everynight!! He is adorable!
  I have been reading the Book of Mormon in Spanish and I am now in Alma 24. I am hoping to finish before I go home- I am learning a lot of things by reading in a different language. I love the story of the Anti Nephi Lehis. I have never really noticed, when the Lamanites come to kill them, that the King-all the words he says are of gratitude. He gives thanks for the missionaries, he gives thanks for a loving Heavenly Father, for a merciful Savior, for repentance. Not once does he complain that God is letting the Lamanites come and destroy them. Now I am trying to apply that- to stand on my feet, with a heart full of gratitude for all the blessings that I have recieved this year! I love my Heavenly Father and my Savior Jesus Christ! I am so excited for this Diciembre and for all the miracles that are still to come!
   
  I am so lucky. There are so many miracles and amazing things that are happening. 

Dec 11

It is still hard for me to believe it is the Christmas season! For awhile here it was not that cold, so it did not really feel like winter! But the last week the cold has set in. We did not have heat until about 4 days ago! We have been trying to get it to work...yeah I know nothing about heaters especially Spanish ones. A magical man came and fixed it and now we are living in bliss!

Hna. Smith was sick this last week, so we spent a couple day in apartment so that she could rest. I organized a lot of things...and probably had a bit of cabin fever! There is only so much time I can devote to organizing before I go crazy! Also we had our special conference with Elder Causse of the Seventy. It was amazing! He taught us all day! It is incredible to me how he did not use notes, he was just guided by the Spirit. I had brought a couple of questions that I wanted answered and they all were answered. Heavenly Father hears our prayers!

 I love you a million hearts full of gratitude

Love, Melissa the Beautiful

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas

November 21, 2011

I honestly can not believe that Thanksgiving is already here! Today we are going to look for the American food store, to see if we can find some PUMPKIN!! This is my heart´s fondest desire this week...that and find more families to baptize!!!

  I do not know what is going on with the mail. I just recieved a package from Aunt Amy that she sent at the beginning of October...it was delivered to our neighbor. It might be something to do with the zip code... I guess the real zip code is 08013. Hopefully that will help things come better but you can just send packages to the mission office if you are worried.

  This week we are having a fireside of Past, Present and Future Missionaries. It is to help the returned missionaries in our ward have desires to still be missionaries, concentrate on our efforts now and encourage the young people to serve missions! It should be pretty amazing because President Hinckley is coming...I will be speaking as well!!! Bahaha.

    We have some baptismal dates set for this next month! It is pretty exciting because the last Saturday of the month just happens to be Christmas Eve! A White Christmas indeed! And what better gift to receive than the resmission of your sins and the Holy Ghost! There have been lots of miracles as usual- people walking in from the street and wanting to know more, people who have investigated long ago showing up at church. The Christmas Spirit is in the air!!

I love you a million baptismal fechas for the perfect White Christmas

Love, Melissa the Beautiful

More pictures

Happy Halloween...a day late

  Today we get kind of a short preparation day because...it is my duty and privilege as an 'experienced' missionary of the Spain Barcelona mission, to lead around a new missionary and show her what it is like to work hard! Bahaha. And in the words of the Assistants...to know the amazing Hermana Roberts. My fame will spread far and wide. It is hilarious that I am now an 'experienced' missionary! Surprise! It should be fun and there will be lots of miracles to be found, especially with  TWO new missionaries!! I will teach them what it means to be Amazing....bahaha.

Also I told the Elders that I was the new Assistant...and they believed me.

  I am putting all the conference talks on my mp3 player so that I can listen to them while I am getting ready! There were so many good ones in this conference!!

  This week was a lot of missionary-ness. Talking to people in the street, visiting members and seeing miracles. On Sunday one of the members gave us a reference...Member references are GOLD, so I called the man yesterday. I told him that we were the missionaries that his friend Jorge had given us his number...He said 'Is this a joke?' I started laughing and said 'No we would love to meet with you!'. He agreed and we are meeting with him today!

  I have decided that my happiness as a missionary is very much based on how much I talk to people during the day! When I am sharing my testimony, I come home exhausted but so happy. It is the best. I don´t think I ever realized how satisfying it is to share what you believe!

I love you a million member references...even when they think it is a joke!

Love, Melissa the Beautiful

CH-CH- Changes

   There have been quite a bit of changes since I last wrote. On Wednesday night, President Hinckley called and told me that on Friday I would be receiving a brand new missionary! It was a big surprise. A little bit of sadness-mostly because Hermana R and I got along so well. Plus we had just had the most amazing miracle filled day. But also excitement mixed with nervousness. Hermana R left quickly-Friday morning for Pamplona(again!) and I went to the office to be trained.

   My new companion is named Hermana S- she is from Sandy Utah and is hilarious. I am glad that the Lord blesses me with funny companions. She waited for three weeks in Salt Lake, until she got her visa. She rides unicycles and knows how to speak with an Irish accent. We may have told all the Elders that she is from Ireland... But most important she is is excited to work and has a strong testimony! We are already having a great time!

   I have had some funny experiences this past week. On Wednesday we went to a visit with the Bishop- the man had stopped some other missionaries on the metro and told them that he needed to be baptized. He lives in our area, so off we went! It turned out he lived in an abandoned warehouse...and there were a lot of shady looking people there. We had our lesson by candlelight and half way through the lesson, a HUGE rat ran across the floor. I am so surprised that I was able to hold in my screaming! He is a nice man but from now on we are meeting him in the church!

  We are teaching a man named Jesus who has a baptismal date for the 12 of November. His friend brought him to church last week- and when we invited him to be baptized, he said he would prepare to do so. It is amazing how there are people being prepared everywhere to hear the message of the gospel!

I love you a million lessons where rats run across the floor and the bishop has to hold in his laughter!

Love, Melissa the Beautiful 

October 17

Hello!

   I am doing wonderful today. The weather is gorgeous and I finally got stamps for about 15 letters I have not sent...so everything is great. I took some pretty pictures up on our roof- from the top we can see almost all of Barcelona.

 

We had some pretty funny happenings this week. We accidently left our keys in the apartment, and we really did not want to pay 50-80 euros to have it opened. We tried asking our neighbors, that have a kind of patio that connects to ours, if the Elders could climb over but they were not too keen on the idea...muy peligroso. So, we called the office Elders and they sent over Leo. He is from Argentina and knows how to repel down things- he has a harness and everything. So he repelled down from the roof onto the patio and rescued our keys. As he was going down, one of the people a floor down from us saw him and he was like 'It´s okay I am not a robber, I am just helping the missionaries.' Then he pointed up at us on the roof and we waved down to her. It turned out to be quite the hilarious adventure.

  

This week we also performed in the Ward TALENT SHOW.  I would like to call our talent Hoedown Showdown. Hermana R has an amazing talent with the violin, which just happens to involve fiddling! We decided to that she would fiddle and I would dance- all while wearing masks. One of the Queen of Spain and the other George Bush. Everyone knew that Hermana R was going to play her violin...and everyone assumed that I would be singing. Bahaha. I get up and introduce us, saying that we have prepared something very special for the ward. Then we run out in our masks, Hermana R starts fiddling like mad and I start doing some crazy footwork. It was good we were wearing masks because I was laughing so hard that I could not breathe. Then Hermana R played the Spirit of God (without her mask). It was hilarious. We are still laughing about it. I think the ward members were a bit confused but I got lots of compliments on my 'dancing'. Hopefully they will want us to teach their friends now!

  

We have quite a few investigators right now, just most of them are struggling to commit. We are always looking for people who are prepared! We got a reference from some other missionaries and when I called him he told me that he has been wanting to be baptized, that his grandma is a member and wants to know what he needs to do. Miracles!

  I love you a million Hoedown Showdowns where people go wild over my dancing

Love, Melissa the Beautiful

Roof top pictures

 

All the leaves are falling and the sky is gray

October 10, 2011

All is Well here...the weather has finally turned a bit cooler...until we walked out the door today and it was as hot as ever! Just when I pulled out the winter blankets! I have never been so excited for Fall in my life!!

   This week I went on exchanges with HERMANA P!!! It was a blast because we haven´t served together since the MTC. It was great because we both now speak Spanish. She is amazing missionary plus just a riot. It is funny because everyone one always accidentally calls her Hermana Roberts...even though we have never served together in the mission and we look nothing alike. I feel so blessed to have met so many amazing people. I really feel that I was here at this certain time for a reason. It is incredible.

Right now we are working...to find new investigators.. haha I feel like I write that every single week. We have been seeing lots of miracles. Yesterday, we were waiting for our investigators, and no one was showing up. Sacrament meeting started and I was feel ing kind of sad because no one had arrived, even though several had promised. Then as the opening song was starting, 3 of our investigators walked in! Miracles, Blessings!  We are teaching the cutest young kid from Honduras. He just turned 13 on Saturday and he is amazing. His father is a member and he wants to be baptized. He has amazing faith, and has recieved answers to his prayers. I love seeing his desires to learn and to come to church. He loves it so much!

I love you a million days of fall...with nice cool breezes!!

Love, Melissa the Beautiful

Mission Pictures!

Hermana Roberts and Hermana R

Sagrada Familia

Hermana Roberts, Random Elder, Hermana R

Hermana P and Hermana Roberts
(switching tags because everyone mistakes them for
each other. They look nothing alike!)

September 26

I am copying my presidents letter because there were some things I thought you might like...

Miracle. I feel like the miracle this week was the help that we have recieved from our Bishop. More than any other Bishop I have worked with, he truly seems excited about missionary work and truly desires to help us. We had a little meeting with him on Sunday- we talked about our recent converts and he made plans right then to go visit them. Then he was telling us about a woman he had given a blessing to and went to find out her address so that we could visit her. He is just excited about everything missionary related. He told us that we are needed at ward council...which is true because the last 2 that I have been to have been about the missionary efforts! I love this ward! It is true that when you have the confidence of the leaders of the ward, things run smoothly and miracles can happen! I hope we can spread this excitement to the whole ward!
   Hermana R. She truly is an amazing missionary, she speaks Spanish so well and has an incredible faith. I love that she is not afraid to open her mouth and speak, even when she thinks she doesn´t understand and everything she says goes right with what I am saying. I am excited to work with her and see lots of miracles!
   There were just a few investigators I wanted to talk about. We have been teaching a young man named Francis, who is from India, for about 3 months. He studied to be a Catholic priest, but then decided against it. He is probably our most consistent investigator-he has been to church about 7 times, read and prays- I just am not quite sure how to help him get an answer. He does not understand much Spanish but he continues to come to church. But everytime we ask him what he is feeling when he reads and prays, he does not have an answer. Just regular. I know he is feeling something but I just am unsure on how to help him recognize it.
  Juan Carlos, Lina and Ernesto. I am worried because their finicial situation has been keeping them from church. We finally talked to the Bishop and he is going to visit them this week, so it should all be sorted out. They are amazing though and every time we meet with them, they have more desires to learn about the gospel. Lina's sister Rosy has desires to learn as well. She currently works on the weekends, but we are working with her as well.
 
   I am trying to focus on the blessings that I have. I am a little sad about Hermana S going home, and just sometimes missionary work is hard-emotionally. But I was reading the part in John, where Jesus Christ goes to raise Lazurus from the dead. In 11:41 he says, 'I thank thee that thou hast heard me'. Jesus Christ, a perfect person, thanked his father in everything. I need to thank my Heavenly Father because I know that he has heard me, in every moment. I love Jesus Christ and I hope I can be more like him.
Have a lovely week!!

It kind of gives a good run down of my week! I am trying to be a strong senior companion. Being with a new missionary has help me realize how much I have learned...not just Spanish wise but in the spirit. I truly love being a missionary. I don´t think I want it to end. Even though I am tired pretty much all the time, and sometimes it is just heart breaking but there really is no other joy like serving the gospel. I can not believe I almost let my opportunity pass by. I am so glad I didn't.

I love you a million service activites that build more than just playgrounds!

Love, Melissa the Beautiful

September 12

This week started out well, then got a little sad but then got better again. We started out the week really strong, lots of lessons and a baptism scheduled. But on thursday she texted us and said that she was going to a job interview and that if she got the job, she would be working on the weekends. She said she would call us the next day to let us know. We prayed and fasted but the next day she called and said she had decided to take the job and that she would not be getting baptized. We were devastated because she is an amazing woman and we had had some powerful spiritual experiences with her. Then all of our other investigators just kind of dropped off, said they couldn't meet or wouldn´t be coming to church. Then somehow all my pictures got deleted from my camera...so all my pictures from Benidorm and my first few weeks here, gone except the ones I had sent you. Everything just seemed to be going awful.

But we just kind of gathered our courage, and have been trying to be a positive as possible. Things don't always go exactly like you plan. But we had some miracles happen. A woman came to our English class on Saturday, then stayed for the Relief Society activity, and was at church yesterday! All without us doing a thing. Then I contacted a woman on the metro Saturday night, we invited her to church and she came! Heavenly Father is always looking out for us. He knows exactly what we need. I have been taking a lot of comfort from the hymn Scatter Sunshine! Read it! It is beautiful. I want to be a Sunshine Scatterer!!

And also a birthday shout out to my kindred spirit, my bestie who shares my name, Miss Melissa Wilding. I love you - thanks for being hilarious and a great example! Dance and eat lots of cake!

I love you a million sings of Scatter Sunshine- scatter smiles and sunshine

Love, Melissa the Beautiful

September 5

Well we are just working hard! We have another baptism for this weekend. Her name is Julia and she is from Peru. She has been kind of unsure about if she wanted to be baptized but we had an amazing experience with her on Saturday and she is fully committed to being baptized this weekend! Barcelona truly is a place of miracles!

This week was amazing because....this young woman in our ward, Milicenta, called us on tuesday and asked us if we could come to the church because one of her friends wanted to learn more about the church! So we met Victor. He is amazing. He is 14 and in 2 days he reading the Book of Mormon through Jacob. He said he did not sleep because he just wanted to read. He also gave up soccer so that he could come to church on sundays- all this after our first lesson. It is amazing when the youth are involved in missionary work. The YW´s president told us that Milicenta was talking with Victor one day and just felt prompted to invite him to church. He accepted the invitation and now we are teaching him. Miracles happen when members share the gospel!

I am loving all my experiences. It is something to be a representative of Jesus Christ- to have people view us as that is amazing. I was reading the talk from the YW´s Session by Sister Dalton about being guardians of Virtue. She talked about how we need to look to the temple and cleave to our covenants. I love my temple covenants. It is something that we want each investigator to do- look to the temple, to make more covenants with God, that will lead us to his presence! God loves us!

I love you all! I hope you have a fabulous week!!!

I love you a million youth who love to read in the Book of Mormon

Love, Melissa the Beautiful

August 15

   Wow the baptism sounds like it was AMAZING!!! I am a little sad that I was not there but I can imagine that it was the happiest experience.. That is wonderful that so many people were able to come! I love the pictures. She is looks so beautiful in her dress. AHHH I LOVE SARAH ROBERTS. She is my example.

  Barcelona is pretty much my dream come true city. I am in love. I have not seen one thing that I do not like, and that is the truth. Not only is Barcelona lovely and historical but it is a city of MIRACLES!!! We have absoluely amazing investigators, the members are loving and supportive, and people accept baptismal dates right in the street! I love it! We are teaching this absolutely enchanting family from Honduras- Juan Carlos, Lina and Ernesto. It is fun to teach them- when they have a question, we just open the Book of Mormon and it answers their questions. Lina said to us 'that is why I love this book, it has all the answers!' They are getting baptized on the 27 of August. 'Una familia Dios me dio'

I am slowly getting over my mortal fear of...talking to people on the metro. I have no choice because we are on the metro all day. But I just smile with my brighty whiteys and hand out tarjetas. Being a missionary is amazing. I love seeing people change, I love feeling the Spirit, I love feeling the love that Heavenly Father has for each one of us!

I love you a million lovely Barcelona tree lined streets!

Love, Melissa the Beautiful

The only thing I would change is the mosquito that is infesting our apartment. We look like we have chicken pox.

Barcelona!!!

The big news is that...I got transferred!!! To BARCELONA!! To be with none other than..my favorite Elf Queen Hermana R!! I actually asked President Hinckley if he was joking when he told me, it is pretty much a dream come true. We live about, literally, a minute from the Sagrada Familia. I am so excited to be here, a little nervous because Barcelona is huge, but I am feeling like this is a tender mercy for me. This is HermanaR's last transfer, so President told me I really need to get to know the ward and the area! I never thought I would get the chance to serve here in Barcelona actual, entounces, I am very happy.

Today has just been a crazy day of 5 hour long train ride and dragging my suitcase through Barcelona. My big suitcase actually broke..the wheels on the back just kind of shredded away, but luckily I was able to borrow one from Hna. M.

This week was actually pretty amazing. We were able to set 2 baptismal dates. One with a man named Wilfrido that we met while passing by old investigators. He had met with the missionaries when he was young, about 25 years ago, but was never baptized. He is amazing and very prepared. I feel like he teaches us quite a bit. We also set a baptismal date with a woman named Marlane- she was a contact that I made with Hna. M about 3 weeks ago! I am very happy about the way I left Benidorm, there are so many people there just waiting to hear the gospel.

I am so excited for this transfer, just excited about the work in general. This last bit has been difficult for me but I am excited for this new start. I love being a missionary!

The hardest part about leaving Benidorm was saying goodbye to Ovidio. He helped us all day Saturday with our visits- he was even giving out tarjetas to people in the streets. Going to the temple has made all the difference for him- He is so much happier and sure about his testimony! I am excited for him to go back to Bolivia and share everything he has learned with his family. He is a changed person because of the gospel!

just send mail to the office until next week

I love you! And I can not wait to see pictures of Sarah's baptism next week!!!

I love you a million views of the Sagrada Familia

Love, Melissa the Beautiful

Pictures

Me making biscuits

Me with Ovidio

Me with my suitcases
(and my beautiful mom made skirt!)

Me and my MTC companions today after
almost one year of being in the mission.

July 18

This week has mostly been spent looking for new investigators...we did some walking around Benidorm with the giant Libro de Mormón to attract some people. When you are walking around with the gaint book and set it down right in front of people, they are more likely to stop and listen. It was quite fun.

Valentin has kind of disappeared- hopefully we will get to see him this week. And Stella, I love her but she just has to make up her mind. So we are still on the hunt for a family.

The best of all news is that my recent convert, Ovidio, went to the temple on Saturday!!!! I AM SO HAPPY!!! He told me that the inside was how he imagined heaven would be like. He is growing and progressing- it is amazing to see the changes he makes everyday, how he is growing stronger and stronger in his testimony! He is the best!

Thanks for all the cards and support. I have been feeling a lot of love coming from all sides. I am the luckiest girl in the world!

I love you a million accepted baptismal dates, where people say 'I will'

Love, Melissa the Beautiful

June 28

Yes it was transfers...I am still here in Benidorm with my companion. I got the package of Liahonas...I loved them. Thank you so much for sending me the things I ask for. I love the pictures, they made me so happy.

Yesterday, as we were walking down the street, I saw a woman with her teenage daughter. I realized that the daughter had Down´s Syndrome and I just knew I needed to talk to her. I got so excited that I barely knew what to say...it came out mostly 'your daughter has Down's Syndrome, so does my sister!' We talked a bit and I started crying- because he daughter, Natalia, had such a spirit about her. It reminded me so much of Sarah. I was just smiling at her and she was smiling back. We have a visit set up with them for Thursday, so pray that all goes well!!

I love you a million families, with girls like Sarah, just waiting for me in the street

Love, Melissa the Beautiful

Father's Day

  I am doing good today. I just sent you a couple of photos...I hope you like them! My week was okay. We had zone conference, which was of course amazing. I gave my testimony in SPANISH! It turns out I have learned some things while I have been here! As usual when you baptize someone, and you have been focusing all your attention on them, then you realize that you have not been looking for other investigators...AHHH! So we are again on the hunt for people who want to listen to our message!

We had an activity on Saturday near our apartment. We took our giant Book of Mormon out with lots of pamphlets and our bright, smiling faces. There are always a lot of people out on Saturday, shopping and such, so it is the perfect time. We had decided only to talk about baptism and how we have the authority from Jesus Christ to baptize! That kind of talk always stops people in their tracks! It turned out to be a lot of fun, we talked to quite a few people and even got some references. The member who was with us also had a great time. He thinks we need more young men in our ward, so he was stopping all the young men he saw and giving them pass along cards. It is true...sharing the gospel is fun!

Last saturday we got to help with the young women´s activity. They made us this giant flower headbands, representing the different values. I was Faith! Which is good because it is the Christ like Attribute I am focusing on this Month... 'I am a daughter of my loving Heavenly Father. I have confidence in his plan of happiness, which is centered in Jesus Christ my Saviour.' I loved being with the Young Women. They are so amazing and working so hard to be good examples!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GIDEON!!!!

And Happy Father´s Day to all the incredible Dads out there! Your work is not unnoticed!

I love you a million young women's activities, dressed in flower headbands and being faith!

Love, Melissa the Beautiful

Ten Month Pizza

To Baptize Is To Have Fun

The best news of the week....OVIDIO WAS BAPTIZED!!! My heart literally wants to explode from the happiness and joy I feel. I might even write a haiku, that is how happy I am. We actually made a whole event of his baptism.. Yesterday was stake conference so our whole branch rode in a bus to Valencia, enjoyed stake conference, took lots of photos, got back on the bus, drove to Gandia, ate delicious food, Baptized Ovidio, back on the bus once again for Benidorm. It was possibly one of my favorite Sundays ever.

Ovidio is incredible. He came up out of the water just smiling. He bore his testimony about how the Book of Mormon has answered all the questions he ever had, how the branch is like his family and how he has come to feel the love of Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father. I love him. The Gospel changes lives. Words can not even express how beautiful amazing wonderful lovely this baptism was.

This week I am doing exchanges once again with the hermanas in Valencia. It should be a good time. I love being able to learn from different sisters. Plus we have a new hermana, and she is darling, so I am excited to get to know her!

One quick hilarious story...we went to a members house to eat. The member had a whole chicken that needed to be cut up, that Hna. N offered to cut up. It was kind of making me sick because I could hear the bones snapping, so I was making faces. The member asked me what I was going to do when I was married and my husband wanted chicken. I said 'well if he wants a whole chicken cut up, he can cut it himself'. They all stared at me in disbelief and then started laughing. The member told Hna. N that she would probably be the one who gets married because she has these domestic skills... Bahaha apparently knowing how to make oragami hearts, knowing all the songs to the Music Man, and making a mean carrot cake do not make for good marrying material. 

I love you a million Sundays of traveling and baptizing!

Love, Melissa the Beautful