December 16th

 

Lovely, amazing, wonderful family of mine! How is everyone doing? Super stoked for Christmas in almost a week?!?! I am!

 This week was a harder one, but it was a really enlightening week. I have never felt so close to my Savior and felt like I completely had to rely on Him before. I am so completely convinced of the amazing power of the Atonement. Everytime I think about it, I am in awe. I really have to stop and just sit in awe sometimes. There is an amazing Mormon Message about the Atonement in Missionary Work. We watched it together as a companionship last week and IT IS AMAZING! It includes a talk by Elder Holland when he explains why this work is so hard sometimes. I love what he says (you have to read this in his voice) when he says that "Salvation was NOT a cheap experience!" And then he goes on to say how because Christ suffered so much, perhaps we have to experience at least a little bit of how difficult it was for Him. I am so grateful for my Savior and what He paid for me. He knows each of us so perfectly and so personally. Its remarkable, really. I know I could not do this work by myself and I am grateful that after I have done my best that I can reach out and He´ll do the rest.

 WE ARE HAVING A BAPTISM ON SATURDAY!! Cody met the missionaries through the American branch president. He is AMAZING! The kid has already read the whole Book of Mormon and believes so firmly in what we are teaching him! He has a good heart and is putting in the right place! SO stay tuned for my first American baptism! EXCITING!

RANDOM THINGS

(Editors note: These are little bits of info gleaned from her personal notes to family members)

 

 The return of Sofie... I fell asleep while we were all talking one night and Hermana Childers goes, I think Sofie fell asleep! Hahah I may have to name one of my children Sofie one day.  

A blessing for me ....my piano playing has definitely improved. I can improv now and I can sightread almost anything (because people hear you play the piano and think you are some magic music wizard and can play/transpose anything they want on the spot.) but its been great being able to use my talents to bless people here!

 There WERE 4 sets of missionaries in our district, but the Todds go home tomorrow so now we are down to just 3. The Todds are amazing. They took such good care of us for even just the few short weeks I overlapped with them. We went over Saturday to help them clean out their piso and pack a little and it was fun, she fed us good Southern cooking.

Saturday we also went to eat at the Calzone House (its owned by the branch president´s mother in law and she´s asked that we go eat there FOR FREE whenever we are in Rota cause its good for her business) It's AMAZING italian food and they absolutely love us there, so no complaints by me! (We even share a message with the waiter:) 

 love you all and talk to you in 9 days!!

 

Hermana Folsom



December 9

Christmas tree at the Streeter's. If you look real close you will see Angel Moroni on top. 

 

Hello family!! Oh my goodness I cannot believe its only/already been a week!

Some funny  things that happened this week: We had an investigator that is CONVINCED that my name is Sofie. I have no clue where she got it! Its better Sofie than what she used to call me: Sofa. Her prayer one time went like this, "Por favor bendice a Hoffman y Sofa." Sofa in spanish is couch. I prefer Sofie!

So Saturday we went to Rota to have an American day (we only get out there about once a week, most of the time we work with the Spanish branch) and it was SO HARD teaching Americans! I was trying to explain the prayer and I could not remember how to say "Dear Heavenly Father" to save my life! We were teaching at the branch president´s house and I was like, great. They probably think I´m an idiot and can´t even speak my native language. But even though we don´t memorize the lessons, you get accustomed to saying things a certain way and so I found myself translating how I would normally explain the prayer or something as opposed to just saying it in English!

 

Our American investigators are rocking it! Cody is on track to be baptized on the 21st.  He´s 14 and is really smart. He´s almost finished the Book of Mormon! Then Jessie told us she wants to be baptized with her husband when he gets back from Training.

Also none of the piano players were in either branches in church on Sunday so I got to play for both Sacrament Meetings! And next week I get to give a talk in BOTH branches! I´m just going to write one and translate it. Oh the blessings of working with 2 branches.

The members are loving having 2 new sisters in the branches and so everyone is feeding us so we can get to know them! One day last week we had TWO back to back eating citas... BUT it's so great, we are getting so many references and really gaining the trust of the members. I´m just getting really fat in the process

 

 Most of our investigators are related to each other and are the family of this one member who is AWESOME! Our branches are so special. We found out this Sunday that at the first of the year the stake president is sending in the papers for us to become a Ward! It's such an exciting time to be here in Puerto. The members are really getting the Spirit of missionary work and its making it so much fun to work with them! We actually got to do splits this week (2 of us went to one lesson and another went with one of the Ward missionaries) and it was really cool! we want to do it again! So the work here is going good, slow at times but definitely picking up!

A little about Christmas. There are statues of Jesus and Mary here everywhere even when it's not Christmas, but now everyone has their really extravagant nativity scenes out - it's so cool! (Belén is a nativity set. Belén also means Bethlehem. cool)

I LOVE CHIRSTMAS TREES! We went to the branch president of the American branch´s house the other day and it reminded me so much of home I almost didn´t want to leave after the lesson.

Love you all!!!

Hermanas Folsom

 

December 2nd

My new address:

Avda Sanlucar Nº8, 3B

El Puerto de Santa María, 11500 (Cádiz)

SPAIN

 

Greetings from the lovely little pueblo of Puerto de Santa Maria!! Oh  my goodness, so much to say and my little frozen hands can hardly type it all!! So I am in Puerto right now with Hermanas Hoffman and Childers. Hermana Hoffman is from Nevada and has 1 less transfer in the mission than me and is half Brazilian! She went to BYU and was studying biology. And Hermana Childers is from Camas, WA!!! She has 8 months in the mission and is rockin! She went to BYUI studying photography. They are both so sweet and funny and we already get along really well and work well together. I´m really excited for the rest of this transfer!

About Pueblo, its as precious as precious can get! I absolutely adore this place! Its a city (smallish) but is a pueblo of Cadiz. The branch is pretty small and pretty great. And here´s the crazy part, THERE IS AN ENGLISH BRANCH AND THE SISTERS WORK WITH IT!!!!!!!!!!!  Church was good, weird in English for the English branch, and so great in Spanish. I´m already falling in love with the people! And we´ve already seen so many miracles here, the work is picking up apparently! we have technically 2 branches, but they are both small. The English branch has like 5 families and the Spanish branch has attendance of about 65 each Sunday. There are 2 sets of missionaries here, us and the elders, and in Rota is where the Todd´s are. There is an American military base there!  We work with them now because the Todds go home in 3 weeks. Our area is so much bigger than it was in Malaga. I was so tired and so shocked by how much walking we do at first but now I´m getting used to it (although I´m still EXHAUSTED!)

SOO since there are a lot of Americans in our area, we literally had the best Thanksgiving in the mission, I´m convinced of it! We started out at the Todd´s and they had appetizers and we played games and stuff. It was us, the Puerto elders and the Jerez sisters, the daughter of the Todds and her family who are visiting, and like 6 marines from the base. It was so much fun! And so much English. It was actually really weird cause I was going from strictly Spanish to now all English activities. I think I forgot how to English. It was a struggle. But then we went to the restaurant of the English Branch president´s mother in law (weird connection but it makes sense) and had a big Thanksgiving feast with like 25 invites! IT. WAS. DELICIOUS. And the Marines showed up to that too. One of them is a member and he brings his friends to activities like this all the time apparently. Basically it was a wonderful Thanksgiving and they gave us the leftover turkey! I think I could get used to it here in Puerto :)

Our new apartment is incredible. One of the nicest ones I´ve seen! It even has a really modern kitchen! the only thing is that its FREEZING!! But that's okay, we have a heater and have closed it off in our bedroom and we basically do everything in there now. We even did comp study in there today cause the study room was FREEZING!!! Both Hermana Childers and I are new to the area and Hoffman has been here for 2 transfers already. I actually took 2 trains to Puerto. It was crazy and a little stressful but luckily my layover was in the city of one of the SHE´s, so they picked me up and took me to their piso to hangout until my next train left, and then both my comps were on that train so we actually met on a train!

Saying goodbye to everyone in Malaga was brutal. I lost it when I said bye to Estrella and her family. Such a dork. But they cried too so I don´t feel so bad. All day Tuesday I was like, this is stupid. I hate goodbyes. Why did I decide to do this! But now I'm good cause I like meeting people so I'm happy again!

 

Spanish food is bomb and everyone here is anxious to give us food! So I get fed... a lot. Hahaha one of the members apparently smacked a sister missionary Gibbs-style when she didn´t eat all her food so I´ll be sure to eat everything on my plate here... hahaha!!

LOVE YOU ALL!! Have a great week!!

Hermana Folsom

Happy 20th B-day!!!

Holy moly familia I am 20! WaHOOO! No longer a teenager... Odd. SOO old;) Hahaha still not old enough to have been a missionary before the announcement though! so this was a pretty great week!

First of all... I´M LEAVING MALAGA! I am going to Puerto de Santa Maria, its near Cadiz and apparently its BEAUTIFUL. STOKED. And... I´m going to be in another trio. My comps are going to be Hermanas Childers and Hoffman. I´ll let you all know more about them next week after I actually meet them!

SO we went to the Picasso museum on Tuesday and it was cool! Its really quaint and it was cool getting up close to the artwork. Also strange and kind of surreal being in Europe seeing originals of paintings I´ve looked at in books! So it was a pretty good pday:)

FUNNY Spanish mistake I made the other day... SO el papa means the pope and la papa means potato. Someone asked us a question about what happens when the prophet dies and she´s catholic so I was explaining the difference and I said "When the potato dies, all the cardinals come together..." Shoot. Haha she died laughing when I said that.

The package arrived on Wednesday!! And thank you!!! I´m so stoked to make enchiladas today:) I haven´t opened the post it note or the squishy package yet, I´m waiting until I have cake in my mouth to do that;) We really get so little on birthdays in the mission, so I´m milking this thing as much as I can! Haha but when we eat, we are going to put on the tiaras and dance and blow up the balloons and party! Hahaha I´ve been picking up and smelling the tortillas package all day. I cried when I first opened it and smelled it because it smells like home. I missed corn tortillas. Haha thank you for wrapping all those presents! the paper was darling and it was fun seeing presents galore when I opened the box!

 

Happy thanksgiving and happy birthday to me!

Hermana Folsom!

View from the  mountain we hiked up.

Street art

Cool passage by our apartment

 

Hello lovely wonderful family of mine! Hows yall doing?? I cannot believe its been another week already.... This week has been... fast. Hahaha I don´t really know what else to say about it!

So we were on intercambios on Tuesday and I had to host Hermana Ramsay in our area with Hermana Corral. We had the day so perfectly set, all our plans really well fixed with people that NEVER fail us. HALF OF THEM FAILED US TUESDAY! It was awful! I was like, I promise, we normally don´t get failed this much!

Okay so really sad side note, I have not met as many victims as abuse before in my life as I have met here in Malaga. So many of the people we come in contact with have been abused, men, women and children! Its really sad. It's so devastating seeing how much it messes people up.

Also sad news, but also kinda exciting, I had an interview with President this morning and he told me I´m leaving Málaga. He won´t tell me where until he makes the official calls on Thursday, but I know I´m being transferred for sure. He says I´m going to love my new area and that its really special. And I know its not Cordoba. But thats it! Hahaha so I´m starting all my sad goodbyes right now! Its exciting but sad at the same time!

Oh btw I switched pday which I´m sure you know... we are going to picasso today1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ALSO send anything to the mission home now since I´m getting transferred....

The Lord really is hastening His work. Haha I made a really lame joke to President last week in my letter to him about that actually "the Lord really must be hastening His work because this last week just FLEW by!" Hahah but really its so true, when we are busy and engaged in his work, suddenly I turn around and its Monday again!

 

I´m so super stoked for my package!!! I am pretty certain it will get here before the weekend, they usually only take 1 week. Haha the elders today were asking what I want to do for my birthday since it will be my last pday in Malaga too and I told them all I want to do is eat kebab and churros y chocolate. SO we are all going to kebab together then:) Hahaha they are so good to me:) 

 

Something that I am really learning lately is the power of the Atonement in people´s lives. My FAVORITE lesson to teach is lesson 3 because it all really focuses on the Savior and I love the part that talks about that through the power of the atonement we can be clean from sins.

I´m teaching a few Ecuadorians (is that how you say it?). Antonio is from Guayaquil and he´s a miracle. One day as I was getting on the bus, he stopped me and asked if I had something for him. I hurriedly handed him a folleto with our number on the back and prayed that he would call. The next week I heard someone calling "hermanitas! hermanitas!" IT WAS ANTONIO! He then asked for a book of mormon to read during his downtime at work! We are teaching him and he´s golden, the only thing is he works a lot and is on call a lot cause he´s a caregiver for a sick man and so we can´t see him a lot. But ecuadorians are the best.

 

Hey I got to play with Barbies last night at a members house... The grandparents had to go to a meeting and the daughter had to take a phonecall and they just all of a sudden left us alone in the room with their granddaughter so we played barbies until her mom was done with the phone call. Hahaha it was fun.

Love you all so much and don´t forget about my bday next week. LOVE YOU!!

Hermana Folsom

November 11th

Zone Conference

Las Tres Companeras

 

Well. Another week has gone by and I left home exactly 5 months from today, crazy huh? I actually cannot believe I have just a little over a year left. Suddenly I´m like, crap. I still am just like a kid in this whole mission business and I almost a third of the way done! Hahaha just gotta keep chuggin along I suppose :)

This week was a little rough. I was sick for most of it, not too bad, but enough that it slowed me down and all. My comps were good to me and its really a blessing that we are 3 now. I was physically capable of going to all the lessons and everything, but the second we would sit down, my head would start pounding and I had NO clue what was going on! SO they taught most of the lessons from Monday to Wednesday. Thursday I was mostly better and now I just have a little cough. Interesting thing about being sick on the mission, since you see SO many people give you their home remedies. I cannot tell you how many ways of getting rid of a cold I heard this week. BUT half a spoonful of honey and the other half of lemon juice is MAGIC. I took that one morning and literally instantly my sinuses cleared up! Hahaha crazy! But all is well now :)

Okay cool and crazy story of the week.... We were at this one member´s house and she was telling us how one of her 11 kids was baptized, Ana Mari as well as her son, Carlos. And literally minutes after we take down the info of Ana Mari, who happens to walk in but Ana Mari! She said she NEVER goes to her mother´s house on Wednesdays at 8, but felt compelled to go that day. She invited us over for later that week! When we went over, the second we walk in her door, she said she felt the spirit enter her house again. Ana Mari is amazing. She said that even though she physically left the church, she never stopped believing. She said she misses the Book of Mormon and that she feels like now is her time to go back to church. Then she proceeded to give us TWELVE references. Let me repeat that TWELVE REFERENCES!! She´s amazing. She´s the president and founder of a society to help people who have been victims of marital abuse because she herself was one and now she says she´s had all this experience so she can help others. She also said though that although her organization helps people, that its nothing compared to the gospel. Then, she not only came to church yesterday, but brought her friend (also named Ana) and her friend brought her two adorable sons. SHE´S A MACHINE!! Everytime I think about Ana Mari, a big smile comes to my face and I am just amazed at all the miracles that happened to put us in her path and remind her of what she´s missing.

ALSO super cool. Remember how my ward divided? Well our first Sunday after the division, our attendance in Sacrament meeting was 78. Now, only 2 months later, yesterday the attendance was at 126! We really don´t fit in the chapel right now! Its so incredible to physically be able to see how the Lord is accelerating His work!

 

The Primary is singing "If the Savior Stood Beside Me" as the special song. The kids LOVE it. It's adorable. Also I love it when I enter the primary room (I just go for singing time then leave) and they all go HERMANA FOLSOM HERMANA FOLSOM! It's cute.

I am loving the work, loving the people and loving my comps!

Love you-

Hermana Folsom

November 4th

A mural near our apartment

We went to an egyptian museum thing... it was just a warehouse full of fake egyptian artifacts

playing weird music.

The terrific trio of Malaga 3!

 

GOOOOOOOD MORNING FAMILY!!

Hello family. So, I´M A MOM!! Sort of. Last week at the end of pday, President called us and let us know that our dynamic duo would soon become a terrific trio (my words, not his). Hermana Corral is from Cartagena and is assigned ot the Mexico Puebla mission, but is waiting for her visa and so she reported straight to our mission and we are training her until her visa comes and she can go to the Mexico MTC. So she hasn´t even gone to the MTC yet. I keep forgetting that she just barely reported on Wednesday! CRAZY! And we have no clue how long she will be staying or anything, just as soon as she gets word that her visa comes, she goes to Madrid then flies out to Mexico! So she got dropped off with us Wednesday evening!  SHE´S GREAT! She always has the perfect thing to say in lessons, she´s so nice and she´s BEAUTIFUL!

 

So I don´t remember if I´ve told yall about Ana and Andrés and his kids yet? Ana is a member and her son Andrés and his 2 sons live with her but they aren´t members. She´s a sweet lady and raised 12 great kids. Andrés, her son, is incredible. He really wants to change his life and accepted a fecha for the 30th of this month! He´s had a rough life and I am certain he will find (and is currently finding) the peace he needs in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I went to Granada yesterday! We had stake conference so we rode a bus for 2 hours to Granada, sat for 2 hours then got back in the bus for another 2 hours to go home. It was a long morning, but the conference was so good! It was ALL about missionary work and what we can all do together. Fun fact, this time a year ago, our stake had 26 missionaries, now there are 52 missionaries serving in the Granada stake! Cool, huh? Hahah the bus was half filled with just missionaries... But it was fun and a cool experience!

Well this week was pretty good, REALLY fast and I cannot believe its already Monday again! But I would rather be busy and have it go fast than have nothing to do and the week drag by! I´m tired, a little under the weather, but still STOKED to be here! Hey good news, ITS FINALLY COOLING DOWN!!!! I got to wear sweaters all week and I even busted out my boots on Wednesday! Its weird cause during the middle of the day it still gets hot, but the mornings and evenings are FREEZING because of the humidity. Oh yeah and HAPPY HALLOWEEEEEEEN!! We didn´t dress up. We also forgot to buy sweets. And people partied on our street all night so we didn´t really get sleep. But oh well!

Hey I love you all and hope you have a great week!!!!

No baptism this week and most likely not another one next week but stayed tuned for the week after! Hahaha we really are being blessed here, actually when President called to assign us Hermana Corral, he noted how much success we´ve been seeing! We really have clicked and gotten into our groove and keep getting better each day. Really its so exciting how much the Lord is accelerating the work right now! EVERYONE is getting involved!

Technically my birthday is in the next transfer, but transfer date is the 27th of November. And it takes about a week for packages just so you know.

 

Love you all and miss you all!! Anyways have a great week!!

Hermana Folsom

 



October 28

David's baptism

 

Hello, hola, bonjour, whatnot.

hahaha okay ANOTHER crazy week!! First off... DAVID GOT BAPTIZED!!!! It was crazy, we met him on the 13th and he got baptized on the 26th!! We had to teach him everything before Friday the 25th so he could be interviewed. We finished teaching him everything he needed to be taught before baptism literally minutes before he had to be interviewed! It was madness. But a miracle! He already was living the gospel standards and everything doctrinal that we explained, he readily accepted and prayed and felt like it was true! 2 weeks ago, I didn´t even know David existed and now he´s a priesthood holder preparing to go to the temple! Its remarkable, we really had nothing to do with his conversion process, we came in at the very end just to brind him the means of coming unto Christ. AMAZING!!!

Also, IT RAINED ALL THIS WEEK!! I was in heaven. I missed it so much and everytime we were walking somewhere, I had a huge smile on my face! 14 years of complaining about the rain and now I can´t get enough of it! It was nice though, I finally got to use my cute sweaters and such! But today its hot again, so back to the short sleeve shirts!

Hahha so David gave us a reference for this woman, Esperanza. The first time we call her, she just immediately starts calling us "mi cielo" "mi vida" "amor." She´s like a 60 year old Cuban woman and she´s DARLING!!  She is GOLDEN! She asked David to give us her number because she is looking for God in her life. She walked to the capilla by herself, praying for God to direct her and asking people along the way!! She´s so sweet.

So in the madness of getting David ready for his baptism, his interview was Friday night. We were a little hestitant to plan everything really fixed until after he passed, just because of how quickly everything happened. Well Friday night was the Ward Halloween Dance and I think we accidentally attended! We taught him and then had the interview before the dance so he could go, and then we wound up in the library doing the programs during most of the dance, occassionally popping in to ask members to do things:) Hahaha it was killer though! They were playing a lot of American pop music that I know and I just wanted to dance SO BAD!! So we went into the library, closed the door, and danced by ourselves to one song:) hahaha but it worked out and the baptism was beautiful, one of the best ones I´ve been to here (not even trying to brag, it really was, and not even because of us!).

 

Siestas are the best! I hadn´t done it until this week and I´m not sure I´ll ever go back to not sleeping after lunch. We just turn off all the lights in the piso and crash on the couch for like 15 minutes before studies. Also mediodia is the BOMB!!!

Funny story: We went to meet this member, Ana, and her grandsons answered the door, go wide-eyed, then get all like smooth and start winking and trying to flirt with us! Ana came up and shooed them away and I hear them running to their other cousins going "ven! ven! americanas guapas! americanas guapas!" then they all came running to look at the pretty americans at their door. hahah

 

love you all and have a great week!!

hermana folsom

October 21

I FOUND REESES THERE!!! It's like a posh american supermarket.. hahah over priced but so fun going in!

All the Hermanas in the Malaga district and Elders photo bombing us.

 

Oh my goodness this week was incredible! We basically ran from lesson to lesson and I am exhausted! But it really was such a great week. So many miracles and we are definitely seeing the blessings of trying to be as obedient and diligent as we can be.

So last Sunday, one of the recent converts in our area brought a friend, David, to church. We talked to him and he said he was interested and that he wanted to talk to us more! We have seen him a few times since and now he´s getting baptized on Saturday! David is so great!  He´s GOLDEN and so excited for his baptism Saturday if all goes well! He himself is such a miracle and we´ve had so many instances teaching him where we witness so many miracles!

Also this week we visited all our young adults in our area :) Hahah lessons with them is kinda weird, you just feel like you are hanging out! We have a couple that are 25 and 26, and 21 and 18 year old girls in our areas and when we "teach" them, its so odd! Hahah but so fun! They are all so sweet and all of them are so willing to come out and teach with us, so its good! I just can´t imagine what it would be like serving in a YSA ward! CRAZY!

The Primary pianist hasn´t been coming lately and the Primary program is next week. SO I was volunteered to sub in to be the pianist. So I get to play the piano for the Primary program now... ALSO I had to give a talk on Sunday and they asked me to call everyone to repentance and pray for missionary experiences. I felt so weird from the pulpit saying that stuff, but it was my assignment! Hahah I felt like an old time minister or something, "REPENT MY BRETHREN!" Hahaha yeah... anyways...

 

Crazy week but great one! Have a good one all ya´ll!1

Con MUCHO amor, besitos y abrazos,

Hermana Folsom



October 14th

Plaza de los Tores near our apartment!

Samara's baptism!!

Good afternoon, morning, evening, whatever... to all of you! I think its probably going to be morning when you read this so.. GOOD MORNING DEAR FAMILY! How was your week?? This week was great! Really busy, really amazing!

First and foremost, with transfers being this week, we found out about our futures for the next 6 weeks on Saturday. And... drum roll please.... I´M STAYING IN MALAGA!! Although you probably already knew that from the subject but thats beside the point... but really, I´m stoked! I´m staying and with Hermana Nielsen still! We are baptize everyone and their dog this transfer! Hahaha really though I´m so excited, we work really well together and we are such good friends. This transfer has FLOWN by and I´m certain that the next one will too!

Also great news, SAMARA GOT BAPTIZED!! She did it!! We had a private, just family, missionaries and bishop baptism on Thursday evening for her. She got there and she saw the program cause we´d originally planned to sing the opening hymn, pray, then get her in the water before she freaked out even more. BUT she said she wanted to do the whole program first. So we changed it and had the testimonies and musical number first. We asked her mom, her aunt and her grandma to give testimonies and oh my goodness they were incredible!  Then Patricia, Samara´s mom, bore her testimony and shared her feelings from her own baptism 2 weeks ago. Then all of us missionaries sang I Know When I am Baptized. THEN what about made me cry. Estrella, the grandma, bore her testimony. She said that for years when the missionaries would pass by to visit her, she would tell her family not to open the door. She was so not interested in coming back, but then, one day, the day Hermana Johnson and I passed by, she said she felt like the Lord Himself was knocking on her door and she told them to open it. And now she is coming back to church, her family is reactivating and being converted and to hear her talk about the change in her home is incredible! She says that they are completely different and attributes it to the day that her Father in Heaven knocked on her door. Que fuerte! She got ALL of us in tears!

THEN the grand event, the baptism itself! We went into the bathroom to walk Samara to the font and she started freaking out again. She really never has put her head all the way under water, even when she goes swimming or in the bathtub and the poor girl was terrified! We´d had her home teacher come over the night before to give her a blessing and it helped but she was still scared. We told her to count to 10 after the prayer was over and that by the time she got to 10 it would be over. She gave us a little sassy look, said she would be doing the baptism backwards so they couldn´t see her face and that he BETTER only do it once, then flounced into the water. Haha but it was beautiful!! THEN she fainted in the water. As Elder Buckway lifted her back up, she went slack and her eyes stayed shut for a solid, terrifying 30 seconds. In my mind I was like, Shoot. We killed her. But then she shot awake and goes THAT SCARED ME! But then she was all happy and fine. She describes the experience of being like in heaven, cradled in her Father´s arms. So I guess if she feels that way... Our district leader keeps relating it to King Lamoni. But it really was a tender mercy that she was able to be baptized al final. And it was beautiful and she is LOVING it!

 

So this week was good and eventful and I expect many more like this one to follow!

Our teaching pool is actually getting really big. Its crazy we are having the problem now that we have too many people and not enough time, but we are working hard to balance things and prioritize. Our baptisms HAVE been increasing so much since we split the ward and our new bishop is so focused on missionary work. The area I´m in right now hadn´t had a baptism since March but now we´ve had 2 and 3 or 4 in the works! Really, when the ward comes together in this work, you see miracles! I LOVED that so many talks in conference focused on this because its so true! 

 

 Last pday we had a party in the chapel with our district and we were planning on just doing email in a locutorio nearby but then thanks to the LOVELY spanish custom of mediodia (really i love it 6 days of the week but pday it kinda stinks cause everything closes between 2 and 6, basically all of pday) they were all closed and we had to go back to our area which is about 30 minutes from the chapel, so we only had 45 minutes to email. It was rough, but the party was fun! We played board games. And today we are going shopping and then having a bday party for Hermana Nielsen and Elder Lopez in our district. Twill be delightful! 

! Funny story! We were singing (okay I was singing) happy birthday to Hermana Nielsen during mediodia on Saturday in our piso and our kitchen leads out to a little patio that ALL of our neighbor´s kitchens look down into. And I was singing loudly, opera style and I forgot the windows and door to the patio were open and pretty soon after I finished singing, we hear some kids from upstairs singing to her too... OOPS! Hahah it was funny though. they were singing in englsih and their accents were GOLDEN.

Love you all and hope you have great weeks!!

Hermana Folsom

 

October 7th

Tracting at the castle.

Wow sorry I don´t really have a lot of time this week, but I love you all!!

Hahah don´t worry, I´m going to write more:) So this week was CRAZY!!! A lot of miracles, crazy happenings and spiritual experiences!

 

Friday we went to visit a woman in El Palo and we weren´t quite sure where she lived, so we left pretty early to catch the right bus up to her house. 2 and half hours later we finally arrived!! We got on the bus that normally takes us to El Palo and asked how to get to the separate pueblo where she lives. We got on that bus at the right stop and it took us up and around and all the way into the campo! We go along this broken pavement road, its just us and the driver, he pulls a 3 point turn and then parks. We look at each other and are like, shoot we are going to die!! Hahah then we finally left again and he took us up and around. I had asked him to tell us when to get off for our stop and we get to one stop and he says he could drop us off there or somehwere closer, so naturally we said somewhere closer. We go to this roundabout in the middle of nowhere, literally, he pulls over the bus and tells us this is where we can get off. He dumped us in the middle of nowhere and we couldn´t even find it on the map!! With a lot of prayers and questions to nice old people we saw on the way, we finally made it to this woman´s house! Hahah it was madness! But she was so nice, so excited about church and so willing to read the Book of Mormon, so I guess it was worth it!

Also fun little tidbit, if you are ever at a lack of physical exercise to do, just dance hard to Spanish guitar music for 30 minutes and all is well! We were being good, doing abs and such one morning and started talking about how one of the Hermanas in our zone told us her brotehr used to dance hard for 30 minutes for physical acttivity, so we tried it! It worked. Hahah sorry, weird tidbit from the week.

But this week was crazy, fun and exhausting! Conference was wonderful, we even got to stay up until 12 to watch all of the Sunday afternoon one!!

 

hermana folsom

ps CONFERENCE ROCKS

September 30th

Exchanges! On the right, Hermana Poulton, me and Hermana Blake. SO FUN!

Running up the gigantic hill by our house in the mornings!!

BAPTISM PICTURES!! Hermana Nielsen, Samara, Patricia and yo!!

P-day at the castle!

 

Holy guacamole where to begin?!?!?! SO this was the first baptism for both Hermana Nielsen and I and neither of us were really sure of how to go about planning a service. Sure, there is a whole section in PMG about it, but that says NOTHING about clothes and arranging building stuff and everything. It was crazy. We definitely learned a lot about planning baptisms and there are a lot of things I would do differently next time. And by next time I mean later this week. But that's another story. Haha we were going insane finishing teaching Patricia and Samara everything that we completely forgot to arrange who to confirm them and we were trying SO hard to get someone in our lessons that could baptize them, but it was not to happen. Then, everyone and their dog was getting baptized Saturday and baptismal clothing was just not to be found. Until about 15 minutes before the baptism. Really it was crazy. Hahah but the service was beautiful and the elders helped us a lot and know we know!

SO about the baptism.  Samara and Patricia were SO excited for their baptisms and when they got in their clothes, they were even more excited. There were 7 people being baptized Saturday in our chapel from our district so it was a big service! Samara was 5th and Patricia 6th. They were in the front, so excited, watching the first 4 people be baptized, then the 4th man had trouble being immersed completely, so they had to attempt 4 times before it was good. And poor Samara, she´s only 8, she already was a little afraid of the water and that just tipped her over. As we are walking her to the font, she starts crying, saying she´s not ready, she doesn´t want to, and just crying. Then her poor mother was so upset and tried dragging her to the font, which made her cry worse. Then practically the entire ward was in the bathroom trying to calm the poor girl down. Finally, I made everyone leave and we walked Samara outside and Obispo Padilla and the Elders Quorum president and his daughter who is 9 came out and calmed Samara down. In the end, she didn´t get baptized. BUT Patricia did! And she loved it! And she is really glowing now! So incredible. And on Sunday, sweet little Samara told us that she wants to be baptized still, this week! Haha she´s such a mature, sweet little 8 year old! Whoo. What a crazy weekend! We were SO exhausted, emotionally, physically and spiritually by the end of Saturday night! But I am so happy for this family!!

Also, I have a Haitian mom now. Last week, a woman, Viergela, was baptized and she invited her friend, Eline, to the baptism and confirmation. Eline lives in our pueblo, so we started teaching her Tuesday. She is LISTA!! She said that at church she felt like we were the one religion she´s seen that actually follows Christ and that she feels like it is right. As we were leaving last time, she pulls us both into a big hug and said "Ahora, soy vuestra mama de Haiti!" She´s darling. And so amazing.

The other day, we were sitting at a bus stop waiting so we could go to our pueblo, and this big group of older, blonde British women come up to us and start asking us for directions. We wound up sitting there talking to them for about 10 minutes and they were hilarious! They are just older women that go travel the world together. And like half of them are named Marilyn. They were like little birds twittering on a wire. HILARIOUS!

So this week was insane, but next week will be even crazier and hopefully we´ll have another baptism this week! I hope everyone had a great week and an even better one to come! LOVE YOU!!

This is in her area!

We had a missionary activity this week en el campo. SO beautiful! We hiked and sword fought and had a dandy ole time!

 

 

Wow I cannot believe its Monday again... This week has been way too fast. I am torn between wanting the rest of my mission to go this fast or wanting it to slow down so I can really savor every moment! It was a kinda weird week, we didn´t have a normal day all week! But it's okay because we saw a lot of miracles and met some really great people!

So Monday night we decided to follow up on some former investigators from our Area Book and we found a miracle! Antonio is like 80 something and has family members upon family members that are members! He is so great and really wants to learn more about the Book of Mormon. He´s so intelligent and willing to learn. He lives with his niece, Mari, and her husband, Antonio. We haven´t met Antonio the Younger yet, but Mari is so sweet. She can´t read but she prays so beautifully and was so excited to talk about Christ with us. The feeling in their home was wonderful and they are ready to hear more now, which is so awesome.

We´ve gone to El Palo a few times this week. It's the pueblo that our area covers and it's the closest pueblo to Malaga (on this side at least). El Palo used to have a branch and a building years ago, but over time the branch was consolidated into the Malaga wards. Thanks to the Lord and our efforts, we have seen miracles there!

We met Ana a few weeks ago, but were finally able to see her this week. She´s probably about 75, she´s not just a greatgrandmother, but she´s a tatarabuela! She lost her husband about 40 years ago when he was killed in a robbery. SO SAD. When we shared with her that families could be together forever, she was so excited and touched to find that out.

So awesome. So we were following up on a name given us by the Elders Quorum president in El Palo. The address was for this street that literally on the beach. As we were walking along it, we were like, THIS IS UNREAL!! So beautiful, and so tempting :) Hahaha but it was this family, where 4 of the daughters were baptized. Pepe ,the dad, kept on telling us over and over again that we are free to come over any time and that "mi casa es vuestra casa." They literally live as close to the ocean as you can get, in the most beautiful house ever. Basically, we are going back Tuesday. Hahah I took pictures so you can see the view! BUT we are teaching one of their daughters that lives with them that isn´t a member.

ALSO, ESTRELLA´S FAMILY IS GETTING BAPTIZED ON SATURDAY!!!!!!! I am dying. I am so excited! And the really cool thing is, they are too! They keep telling us how anxious they are to start a new life, all clean. They are wonderful and the baptism is going to be beautiful!

So really, this next week is going to be amazing. I am so excited for the baptism and helping them prepare and feel comfortable. I hope everyone has a great week next week and keep Patricia, Dolores and Samara in your prayers as they prepare this week for baptism on Saturday!

(I asked her what they did on p-day.), Haha okay so last week we hiked the hill behind our piso and sat up in the mountains by the castle writing letters. I kid you not that is what we did. And today we are going to make lunch with all the elders from our zone and play futbol and chill. Its always fun and of course, email and grocery shopping. We went to the mission home to play softball as a zone and have a bbq with Pres and Sis deere and the Castillos (the office senior missionaries). It was fun!

Hermana Folsom

Letter from 9/16/2013

These are the Malaga and Fuengirola sisters at the mission home on Monday with Elder Cortes, my district leader). I am third from the right.

Becca and her new companion

 

Greetings from the wonderful city of Malaga Spain! Another week, more stories and por fin its getting cooler:) AND I hit my 3 month mark this week... WOO!! I feel like that just flew by... Pero bueno. This week was insane. So fun. So tiring. So crazy.

Thursday was CRAZY!! Every single one of our lessons was draining and it was such a roller coaster day. We had people tell us that its still "too hot" for learning about the gospel and acting in faith, but maybe later on when it cools down they will be willing to learn more

 Estrella´s family is progressing like CRAZY!! They loved church on Sunday and they are so excited to be baptized next week. I love going over and teaching them because they have such a desire to change and really want to be baptized. AWESOME!

Cool experience. Saturday, I could NOT get it together. I left the phone at home, the Book of Mormon and the address to one of our appointments later that day. It was bad. So since I´d left the phone AND the address at home, I had to try and find our way to this family of recent converts who I have only visited once and it was in my first 2 weeks here.. I prayed so hard the whole way and I can´t really remember the walk but somehow we were led to their doorstep. It was so crazy and such a miracle that we were able to find them becuase they don´t live in our area and we didn´t have the phone to call the elder´s for the address. THEN it was a blessing that I left the phone at home because my water bottle leaked all in my purse and soaked EVERYTHING! So it was a blessing that I didn´t ruin the phone! Crazy how the Lord watches out for you, huh?

OH wierd connection, Hermana Nielsen´s aunt and uncle are the Hickman´s in our stake (Graham). Crazy, huh? AND Sister OHara just moved into their ward in North Salt Lake. This girl is crazy connected to me! But can I just take a moment and say how much I love Hermana Nielsen? I would not have been able to make it through this week without her and laughing off the scary/crazy/stressful moments! Okay I´m done now :)

So this week was long, fun, crazy, but so wonderful at the same time. I feel like I am really getting to know the members now and our investigators are doing well. Thank you all for your love and prayers and know I am praying for yo uall back home as well:)

 

 I wanted to share with you my experience this week from applying the Work of Salvation broadcast into missionary work. Our new bishop has really adopted an attitude of missionary work and the blessings for our ward from focusing on this are showing! The ward council is working together to welcome in our new members (we have 14 planned for this month!!) and its so wonderful to see the ward being run the way the prophets and apostles have been telling us to run it. Its cool seeing how much better the work can go with the whole ward involved! Really makes me excited and feel not as overwhelmed with all the work we have to do!

 

love you all and miss you and have a great week!!

Hermana Folsom



 

Letter from 9/9/2013

Preparation Day going toFuengirola

 

Heyo fambam!! Another week has gone by, holy fast! Can you believe that Thursday, it will be 3 months since I reported already? 1/6th of my mission, gone. Holy guac. But its been great!

So this week, Hermana Johnson left and Hermana Nielsen came! She´s from Salt Lake City, she´s 20 and she´s AWESOME! I haven´t laughed as much as I have in the past 5 days than I have in so long! We get along really well and teaching with her is super fun. I am really hoping we will be together for at least another transfer because so far so good! Really, she´s aweome and already love her so much. Its been interesting getting a new companion so soon, its really testing my knowledge of the area and the people since I´m having to show her around, but I know a lot more about this area than I thought! And with the changes, now our district is HUGE!! We have 5 companionships. We all traveled to Fuengirola together today and I was like, Holy Hannah. But its so fun!

Estrella, the gypsy family that is like all women and all less active, they are our miracle family! I love my gypsy family here, they are so loving and so excited about the gospel. Everytime we go over, they have another family member there that they want us to meet and teach. We now have 4 baptismal dates for their family and more coming, I´m certain! The whole family committed to coming to church next week too.. Presidente Muñoz, the ward mission leader, jokes that after we reactivate/baptize this family that they are going to HAVE to build us our own chapel because the ward will be too big to hold all of them! Its so great and I love going over to teach them. They love reading the Book of Mormon and sharing their testimonies with the members of the family not familiar wiht the Church. My favorite moment from last week was when we invited Corral, one of the grandkids, to offer the closing prayer and she was uncertain and all of a sudden EVERYONE started explaining and offering help and testifying about prayer. Such a great family!

Funny story, we were talking to this man at his door and all of a sudden the door opened and his daughter walks out with a sheet over her head, waving her arms around and holding a pencil like a wand. And this was right after he was telling us how so many of our celebrations come from Paganism and how witchcraft is of the devil and stuff and he looked SO embarrassed when his daughter did that! It was so hard not to bust up after that!

I have officially arrived. Wednesday I couldn´t go to FHE because I was picking up Hermana Nielsen from the train station. On Sunday, ALL the Nigerians (our most faithful Noche de Hogar students) came up to me and said they missed me on Wednesday! I am officially cool. I can die happy now. Hahah but really, I love the Nigerians here, they are such good people and have such a close, family centered culture.

So overall, all is going well. I am disfrutando my time with Hermana Nielsen and we are working hard to prepare Estrella´s family for baptism. We are keeping busy and loving the work. I cannot believe its already September! Oh and on that note, I was cold for the very first time this week since I´ve been in Málaga!! It rained and I actually wore a sweater!! Fall has arrived :) I love you all and am praying for you all!! Stay cool and have a great week!!

Love all of you and enjoy your week!!

Hermana Folsom



 

Greetings from Malaga! I am going to stay here next transfer!!!! WOOO!!! BUT Hermana Johnson is leaving me:( And Hermana Nielsen is coming to finish my training. She´s been out about 4 months and from everyone I´ve talked to, she is SOLID! I´m super pumped! I´m definitely going to miss HJ but Hermana Nielsen sounds cool and I think we will do a lot of great things here in good ol´ Málaga 3.

Holy hannah this gospel is perfect. The more I study it, the more I am convinced that only a perfect God could make it. Every single thing is accounted for and all is balanced and fair and perfect. Seriously,Heavenly Father is the best. I am in awe of how perfectly things work out when we are doing His will. I love this gospel and I am so grateful for the opportunity to share it with His children here in Málaga.

I love that you sent something bout the Atonement being for everyone because thats really been the focus of my study this week. I´ve been studying a lot about mercy and justice and I´ve discovered Alma 42 is golden. It's really remarkable how perfectly balanced the plan is. Were we only to be judged by justice, nobody would receive eternal life, but were we only to be judged by mercy, it wouldn´t be fair. As I am studying mroe about the Savior and the Atonement, the more Ï come to realize applying it is a daily thing that every person should do.
 

The biggest miracle this week is named Dolores. We were visiting this Gypsy family which is very menos activo. The grandma, Estrella, is in her 70s probably and she has 8 kids, almost all of which are less active, or never were baptized. Her youngest daughter, Patricia, lives with her and was never baptized and her oldest daughter, Loli, goes over everyday with her daughter, Dolores, and granddaughter, Island. So we go over to visit Estrella for the first time and turns out she really wants to come back to church, but she can´t walk and has no way of getting to the chapel! And as we are teaching this family, they are all getting so excited about the gospel again. Loli told us that she looked up the videos on YouTube that the missionaries showed them when she was little and they were all baptized and she just cried and cried because of the feeling she felt! THEN her daughter, Dolores, asks us a million questions and wants us to teach her more, and said she would be baptized September 21st!! I am so excited to see this family come together and all come back and hopefully be sealed in the temple. Its such a miracle that we met all of them and they are prepared to come back at this time.

ALSO ANA MARIA SAID SHE WANTS TO BE BAPTIZED!!! Remember my Polish friend? She told us after church yesterday! I was so giddy!

 

We took over teaching Palma´s mother in law, Ana, this week and let me tell you, that woman is a gem! She buys special treats only for the missionaries and she has such a tender heart. She holds that family together single handedly. She cracks me up, such a typical Spanish woman, and she is really earnestly trying to know if this is the true church. She came to church for the first time yesterday and said she felt really peaceful and tranquil there. Good sign, right? Haha but Palma is doing well, I love having her in lessons with Ana because its like having a member present. She explains things to Ana and testifies along with us. We are really working with this family and I really love them so much, they are like my malagueñan family.

 

Anyways I´m excited for my new companion, sad to see HJ going, but ready for this new adventure and finally working in our area! Its really beautiful and it's the historic part of the city, so you could probably look up what some of it looks like, Plaza de la Merced and the castillo and everything. Its beautiful and there is work to be done!

Roman ampitheater in our area... like right down the street from my piso. Pretty cool, no?

 

 

One things a lot of Malagueñans say is that malaga doesn´t take care of its history, which is sad cause there is a lot of Roman history here, it being one of the oldest ports in Europe. Pero bueno... Its still beautiful, especially the part I´m in now.

 

Okay my nerd moment, I was on exchanges this week, and the hermana that came to my place with hermana johnson is named hermana brimhall and she wrote me a note and signed it HB, but it looked like HP with her handwriting and I got SO excited thinking Harry Potter wrote me a note.. alas no!

My ward is smaller now, I really have no clue how many members, but we usually have around 100ish membesr at church on Sunday. They just divided the wards so its smaller now. But it's good cause we are getting to know the members. Yes I get enough to eat, maybe a little too much but that's okay!! One of the members feeds us every Thursday after weekly planning and her maid cooks like a BOSS so I´m content:)

Love you all and thank you for your love and support!!

Anyways I love all of you and love mondays:) Have a great week everyone!!

Love,

Hermana Folsom

A Fair and New Investigators

 

Oh my dear heavens it is already week 6! My first transfer is almost done... Wow this is madness. I hope that the rest of my mission doesn´t go by this fast otherwise I will blink and it will be over! I am loving it still and we are definitely getting into a rhythm here in the centro.

SOOO our crazy goal for this last week! 555 new investigators as a mission, whereas the most we have ever gotten in a week was 236. AND the outcome is.... 558!!!! It was an amazing, miraculous week really and I don´t think I have ever prayed so often before in my life! But it was wonderful really.

To describe my week, I would relate it to Ether 12:6, you receive no witness until after the trial of your faith. I started this week super excited and with a lot of faith that we would be able to get 7 new investigators this week, I was really excited to get started! Then Monday night, all of our plans failed us and then all of our backups failed us. And I swear we knocked the doors of every single person in our area book! I was dead tired but it was just Monday and I knew we could get new investigators the rest of the week. THEN Tuesday night all of our plans failed us again. AND all of our backups. We walked even farther and knocked even more doors on Tuesday than we had Monday. We talked to everyone we saw and we prayed all evening. It was a really rough day. Wednesday we were all talking at FHE with the other missionaries and it was really hard hearing about all their success stories and knowing we still had 0 news, and we were starting to get down, but we decided to keep working. AND WE RECEIVED A MIRACLE!!! Thursday we had FIVE new investigators!! I know that we needed to work hard and put in our effort so that the Lord could bless us and that He led us to these elect. From then on, the rest of the week went amazingly! We finished with 10 new investigators this week, higher than we were expecting! It really was a week of miracles and faith and trusting in the Lord.

On Monday we went to the Feria for pday and it was okay, but watching the flamenco dancing was so great. Our new area was the hub of feria and so it was hard to work at nights because there were a LOT of tourists! Our street at night was buzzing with people all week. But it's cool because a lot of people dress in traditional flamenco clothing for feria so we saw the coolest clothes all week! My favorite is when the kids dress up, so cute :)

One of our new investigators, Kingsley, is awesome. I swear he is going to be a bishop or stake president someday. He is so faithful and really solid. His one hangup is that he prefers baptism in natural waters rather than in the baptismal font. BUT I have no problem with that because that means we get to have a baptism on the beach :) He´s Nigerian and I just love Nigerian English. It really is different. My favorite thing he said was, "Kingsley you are a king!" He has such hope and knows his divine nature, its a miracle we met him! Actually it was because we were on a bus we take a lot and we missed our stop somehow. We were really worried about making it home on time and I joked to Hermana Johnson that I guess we were just going to have to have a lesson in the street so we had more time to get back when this man stopped us and asked if we were missionaries! He´d met with them before and wanted to meet with us again! Such a miracle we met Kinglsey!!

We went to the home of a less active woman and she has 5 daughters and 3 sons and a few of her daughters were over and they all only have daughters too, so I was in a home of all women. It really made me miss home and my sisters! There was one moment when I asked them a question and all of them started talking at once and I was like, "Am I at home right now??" hahaha so great! I´m excited to go back!

 

A parade during the fair right outside our window.

 

 It is really multicultural here but I love it! I´ve met people from all over and its so fun hearing different people´s stories. Its a little hard sometimes though because we switch between teaching in English and in Spanish and my brain is so confused when I go from one phone call in English to our Nigerians to another phone call in Spanish to our Spaniards! Hahah but its fun. Unfortunately, we had to hand Francisco off but he still will call us occasionally and tell us about his progress. hahah apparently Pres Deere was out with the elders when they taught Francisco and he raved about his "angeles" and how we are the best missionaries here. No complaints coming from me about that :) Palma is really making progress. She´s gone 3 days without smoking and she really is a changed woman. She´s happier and has such a hunger and thirst for the word of God. She really is an elect lady and I feel so blessed to be able to work with her. I think she teaches us more than we teach her! I absolutely adore her.

Anyways I love you and have a good week!!! Be good, do good!

Love you all and know I am praying for you!!

Hermana Folsom

Sois Mis Angeles! (you are my angels)

First package from home! I can get mail-hint, hint!

My new address:

C/La Victoria No. 64

BLK A 1oG

29012 Malaga

SPAIN

Hey familia!!  Not going to lie, this week was pretty hard! I started out the week going to Fuengirola for residency (which was awesome by the way, homemade food by Hermana Deere and time to talk to other new missionaries about their experiences, it was cool!) then Hermana Johnson and I got to work in that new area finding people and setting up stuff for the elders. We had a lot of miracles with finding and new investigators, so that was so great!

All week we have been running into this man, Francisco, and his son, Jose. Seriously we did not go a single day without seeing them! Even as we started teaching them, we would still run into them as we were on our way to other teaching appointments too!! The Lord REALLY wants these two to have the gospel I guess!! hahaha even they started commenting on how "somebody up there wants us to meet!" Francisco started referring to us as his "angeles" because every time he would think about us, we would show up! They are such good people and so ready to hear the gospel now, I am so grateful they were put in our path and we were able to start teaching them.

Since they are both men, we can´t go into their piso without another woman and one day we just could NOT get a member to come to our lesson! We called EVERYONE and nobody could come. We stopped by Francisco´s piso to tell him that we couldn´t go in and when we told him about the situation, he said no matter! We would have the lesson in the plaza outside! Hahah so while we were teaching them outside on a bench, this woman walked up and asked me what church I´m from and when I told her she got SO excited and asked if we could come by and teach her! If we hadn´t been on that park bench we would have never met Nicole! Obedience really does bring blessings!

Nicole is wonderful. She´s in her late twenties, from Romania (but her Spanish is better than ours!) and she has the most beautiful little 5 year old son.  It was such a miracle meeting her and really I know that she was prepared. Its cool seeing the Lord´s promises come to be!

Spain is so funny becuase really everything shuts down in August! It's DEAD everywhere but in the centro or at the beach. And yes, its is HOTTTTTTTT here!! I get out of the shower and stay wet all day from sweat!

Then here comes the hard part, we´ve been working hard in this new area all week and then Friday afternoon the elders called us all together and said they think it would be best if we just started working in our new area now and that we should switch pisos. SO Friday night we packed up our piso and switched with the elders and now we are working closer to the beach, in the center of the city. In under 2 weeks now, I have worked in 3 different areas!! Hahaha so crazy... But its been hard because just as we are starting to see success and the fruits of our labors, we move areas. So its been frustrating these past two days but I know that this week will be amazing. Look forward to hearing about LOADS of miracles because we are really going to have to rely on the Lord this week. Our mission made the goal of 555 new investigators this week and the most ever done before is 236 in one week so this is the perfect week to start in our new area because we are really going to work hard to get new investigators!

Overall though, I am settling in and the language is still coming. I can understand our Chilean district leader now, so I know I must be improving! I love this work and I love this gospel and seeing how it can help people! LOVE YOU ALL!!

Oh and by the way, Elders do NOT know how to clean! We´ve been slowly cleaning the piso because it is GROSS!! But also HUGE!!

I think I will be here for awhile but we will find out in two weeks with transfers! But we are all pretty certain I´m staying in Malaga. So you are pretty safe sending stuff here.

 

 love you all!!!!!

Hermana Folsom



Malaga-week 3

Heyo familia mia! Holy guac is time moving like crazy here!! I cannot believe I am already halfway done with my first transfer!! Its so exciting but so scary how fast its moving! This week was definitely a hard one, but not for lack of work but for the circumstances right now! I´ll explain later... Here are the highlights of each of my days this week:

Monday: We had our first lesson with Ann  and her "marido" Unna  and their beautiful baby girl, Sarah. Oh my goodness if there ever were golden investigators these would be it!! Unna was SO excited to read the Book of Mormon and he has a million questions. He says that every night before he goes to bed, he reads the scriptures, sings hymns and prays. When we brought Ann a Polish Book of Mormon on Thursday, the look on her face was priceless and she was so excited!! She is so great, having a hard time leaving the traditions of her childhood but is eager to follow Christ. When we committed them to baptism, Unna said "for real."

Tuesday: We visited Juli in the hospital. She has so much faith and we talked about Christ and His role as our Savior and Redeemer and she bore the most beautiful testimony about trusting in Him. Those Romanians are such good people! It was hard seeing her deteriorating (they think this is the last stretch before she passes away) but she has so much faith and really trusts in the Savior.

Wednesday: SOOO this is the cause of this week being so hard. With the ward changes, our area was split in half and all of our investigators are in Barrio 4, but we are being moved to Barrio 3. So we´ve been redrawing boundaries and exchanging investigators and pretty much opening new areas. Wednesday was district meeting and we spent a lot of time going through our Area Book and getting everything organized for sometime this week when we hopefully move into our new apartment and start working in our new area. Its such a weird transfer and its my first one!! Its hard leaving our investigators and starting anew after all the success we´ve been having lately.

Thursday: We had a special training for the Malaga districts and it was fun getting toknow the other missionaries in our area and meeting some other sisters finally! Oh and we are teaching a Nigerian (scratch that... WERE teaching) woman and her daughter and her daughter´s friend. The girls are 7 but both want to be baptized when they turn 8 and Hope, the friend, really wants us to introduce her mom to the church. She´s so cute, we taught her how to introduce the BoM with the pictures in the front and she practices it and is SO excited to show her mom!! We´ve got our little missionaries helping us :)

Friday:  We went for our final lesson with the Romanian kids.

Saturday: We started working in a newish area and we thought it was going to be such a hard day, but we had such random accidental successes all day! So great and we accidentally found an old investigator! The Lord rocks. Really.

Sunday: I had to translate Sacrament meeting for one of the recent converts and it was so hard! I was basically just giving him summaries because they speak so fast and slur their words here! But it was kinda fun at the same time.

So this week was a really great, really difficult week and a really strange transfer! I am excited to just get in our area and start workign their and stop this weird in between state!!

 

So my day goes as follows: We get up at 730, exercise, get ready, eat and start personal study at 9, then at 930 we start companion study and at 1030 we do training for an hour. Then we leave the piso at 1130 to start working! At 2 we come back to the piso for mediodia. We have an hour and a half to make and eat lunch and get things done that need to be done (SO NICE, I write in my journal but other missionaries siesta during this time), then we finish personal study at 330 and update the area book at 4. from 430 to 530 we do language study, then head out to work! if we are not in a lesson, we have to be back in the piso at 1015, but if we aren´t we are back by 1045. Then we plan for 30 minutes and are in bed by 1130. That's the summer schedule for training, but in the winter everything is just earlier by 30 minutes and without training you just leave the piso 30 minutes earlier in the morning and after mediodia. MEDIODIA IS BOMB! And if we eat with members, even better!

 THEY HAVE DORITOS HERE OH HAPPY DAY!! Haha or maybe not so happy day... I´m gonna get fat. And nutella here is cheaper than pb. definitely gonna get fat. !!We cook together so we share food and the cheese here is so much better. I actually have started drinking coke too cause its the beverage of choice here and when you are thirsty, even that brown poison tastes good!!

 BE GOOD DO GOOD AND BE AN EXAMPLE ALWAYS!!!

love you all and miss you!! be good do good!!

hermana folsom :)

Rincon de la Victoria. So beautiful. (part of her area)

Week 2 in the field

Hola familia mia! Its your favorite missionary again:)

This week was so good, but so fast! Hahah the hard pace of missionary work finally hit me and Saturday I was EXHAUSTED!! But in the best sort of way. Its getting hotter here, hard to believe but I am loving it all the same! Its funny because different people keep calling us and asking how I´m doing but really i am loving this. I have waited since October for this and I´m finally here!!

I thought I would give you a little synopsis of all our investigators right now, so here we go!

Happy is Nigerian and she has had the saddest life, contrary to her name. She is about 26 and has 2 little girls but the government took them away because she couldn´t feed them. Her "marido" lives in Switzerland and only pays enough attention to her to send her money for rent. She can´t understand why any of this happened and it breaks my heart. She has a baptismal date, but fails us a lot so we´ll see how it goes with preparing her for it!

Then the Romanians. They are a family but the adults have said that they don´t want to change, they are really Evangelical Christians. BUT the kids (there are 3 over the age of 8) have all said that they know that this is the true church and that they want to be baptized in it. The only problem is that their church preaches that its an abomination for children to be baptized and so they think it would be a sin for them to be baptized before the age of 16. We are working with them right now. Seriously those little Romanians capture the hearts of everyone they encounter. We brought a member to one of their lessons last week and by the end, she was talking all about what she was going to do for that poor family. Its the grandparents, a few aunts and uncles and 8 cousins living in one piso right now and one of the little girls´mom is dying of cancer. We don´t know how much longer she has but I would be surprised if she lives longer than my transfer.

Tina and Peggy are a mother and daugher, she´s from Nigeria but Peggy was born here. We are just waiting for her to get her papers so she can get married to her "marido" and get baptized. They are so sweet! Its funny because sometimes we have to teach two lessons, one in English for Tina and another in Spanish for Peggy. They are sweet and have given us a LOT of references already!

THEN our miracle Saturday. We had a cita set up with a future and we tried so hard to get a member there since his wife couldn´t come, but nobody was free Saturday, so we had to cancel. It was really sad and really disappointing. And even though Hermana Johnson was way crushed, she was determined to keep working (she´s a great trainer!) so we went to Tina and Peggy´s and wonder of wonders, WE GOT TWO NEW INVESTIGATORS THERE!! It was amazing! She had a friend, Ana Maria, over and this lady is so prepared. She knows everything and is super excited for us to come back! She´s from Poland and speaks a little English and even less Spanish so its a good thing we have the Spirit so she can understand!! Hahaha! We´ll see how teaching her goes today! Oh she has the most beautiful baby girl, 4 months old! Peggy was holding her and saw me making faces at her, so she tried to hand her to me, but when I told her I couldn´t hold babies as a missionary, she looks at me and goes, "just take the nametag off!" hahaha what a demon! And so tempting... BUT I´m obedient :)

 I think the hardest thing is that we are serving in a really poor area and the stories of these people just breaks my heart. The other day we sat in a lesson with Happy while she just cried and cried about her babies and it broke my heart. Both Hermana Johnson and I just lost it in that lesson. I can´t imagine going through what these people go through but i know that the gospel can help them, if they let Christ in.

So the ward split on Sunday and our area straddles the divide. Actually it cut most of the missionary´s areas so they are redrawing the malaga areas this week. I should hopefully find out tomorrow what area we will continue working and what area goes to the elders.

 

I really am enjoying it here, Hermana Johnson is great and super chill and we get along really well. I´m definitely going to get fat from all this ice cream people keep giving me and I´m trying not to let my obsession with Spanish tortilla show out because I really don´t want to get fat. BUT SPANISH FOOD IS BOMB!