Finally In Malaga

Hello my lovely family!! I am doing so great. I am serving in Malaga 3!! My companion´s name is Hermana Johnson, but I´ll give more info later.

So I got into Malaga around 11ish on Tuesday, we were herded to a nearby chapel and did orientation and ate until around 5 when they finally introduced us to our trainers!! You´ve probably already seen the pictures on the blog? maybe not though...

 

 

MALAGA 3 IS GLORIOUS! Hermana Johnson rocks. She has such enthusiasm and love for this people, this area and this work it is so contagious!! She is 20 from Utah and went to BYUI before the mission. This is only her 3rd transfer, but i´m her 2nd kid already! She is awesome really and so sweet. We serve in the Malaga 3 ward along with 2 other sets of missionaries (elders). And its crazy because even with the ward divided into 3 areas, there is still SO much work to be done! Our area covers the most rundown part of Malaga, La Palma and La Palmilla. We take care not to be in that part of our area late at night just because its got lots of crime. But all is well. I am falling completely in love with Malaga 3. The members are so kind and welcoming and SO excited about this work. There are a lot of people interested too! We do make a lot of contacts, but a lot of people come up to US and want to learn more. Most of our investigators are Nigerian immigrants. The Lord really is preparing people for this gospel!!

 

Haha okay so the ward is going to be divided next week. Our capilla is already really small for ONE ward, so with two Sundays are going to be hectic. But hey, that is definitely NOT a bad problem to have, right??

There was a wedding on Thursday and I´ll send pictures. The bride was very adamant that the missionaries come because most of her friends are nonmembers and her husband too. We did talk to a lot of the people there and I got to know the ward a little better.
 

There were 3 baptisms in our ward on Saturday (none ours) but we got to sing at it. I LOVE SINGING WITH HERMANA JOHNSON!! It was fun. Hahaha it was so cool helping out at the baptism too! Hopefully we´ll be getting one too soon with one of our investigators. Its kind of crazy because here a LOT of people have stopped me and asked how they know me and members will ask if we´ve met before. I had one girl shout across the street to know my name to see if she knew me already. We must have some distant relative here that looks like me or I met a lot of these people in the pre existence. Either way, I am certain I am where I am supposed to bee right now!!

 

Basically I have never been more sore and tired before in my life, but at the same time never been so happy and at peace with what I´m doing. THIS is what I´ve been waiting for and I know I´m where I´m supposed to be doing what I´m supposed to be doing. Its not easy, but its so fun!!

Our address: (send to this if you will be sending me letters sometime between now and in 5 weeks otherwise send it to the mission home just to be safe)

pasaje saturno 2 bajo 5

29011 Malaga

SPAIN

 It really is so wonderful here. Everyday I notice something new and realized I am here in this ward, working in this specific area, with this specific companion for a reason. It is so wonderful to know that I´m where I´m supposed ot be doing what I´m supposed to be doing. Oh and it doesn´t hurt that I´m getting a nice tan at the same time (i now am wearing my watch, even when its off! hahaha). Its pretty hot, like I basically just sweat all day, but I love it. AND it makes me more motivated to get citas(appointments) so we can sit and teach people in their pisos!! Oh and they have these treats here that I think you would love, napoliteanos. They are SO good, kinda like eclairs but a little different. Oh and I will have to send you some of the recipes to try because I am absolutely falling in love with spanish food!! SO GOOD!!! We get ice cream kinda a lot here.. shoot i am going to get FAT!! I love spanish food, when the members cook for us it is my absolute favorite! Kinda funny, so when all of our investigators fail us and even our back ups, its a mission rule that you are allowed to get ice cream. We got it twice this week already... BUT its super good and super rich here. It does help the disappointment ease at least a little! Its taking my stomach some adjusting to eating at 8, then not again until like 2 but thats a HUGE meal, and then not again until around 1030. I am going to buy snacks so i won´t be so famished this week! Oh and our schedule IS different because we are in Spain. remind me next week to describe it!!

Yes, Elder Ward was actually one of my good friends in the MTC and luckily I´ve been updated pretty regularly on his conditions. When Sister Deere and the members found out that he´s my friend, they have all made a special effort to let me know, haha they even let me watch the cnn clip of his interview! What a cool missionary experience for him:) He´s awesome and if anyone could bounce back from this, its him!

SO pretty much I am doing really well! I´ll have to let you know next week what is happened with my area with the ward divisions but I really love this area and this ward. LOVE YOU ALL AND MISS YOU IN THE BEST WAY POSSIBLE!!

Hermana Folsom

Finally in Malaga!!!

Heyo familia!! I was given a few minutes to send you an email and let you know that I am in Malaga!! President and Sister Deere are so nice and we even got donuts at the train station. I'm pretty tired since we had to get up at 4:30 this morning so we could catch the train to come South. The train went SUPER fast the whole time! We averaged about 200 kph the whole time, i'm not quite sure what that is in mph but I know its fast!! hahahaha!
I find out by 5 today who my companion is, and from the sound of my interview with President, I will NOT be spending the night at the mission home and will go with my companion to my area tonight. Which means I'll be serving within about 3 hours of Malaga. WOO!! I won't get the opportunity again until Monday to email you and I'll give you my address, but only send letters there if you are CERTAIN it will get there during the transfer. Otherwise it will be kind of a pain to get to me. It feels so surreal to finally be here but I am so excited and so anxious to start working!! TONIGHTS THE NIGHT!! Oh and thank you so much for that package from your reunion!! That was such a nice surprise to come to when we got here (okay so we are doing orientation in this pretty small chapel and its so crazy how random it is on this store front!!) so thank you to everyone who wrote me stuff and thank you for that postcard (except for you, Chris. You know what you did.) I love you all and miss you loads but I know that I am definitely where I am supposed to be!
 Meeting President Deere was so cool, I felt so deeply that I am where I am supposed to be and serving with the group I'm supposed to be serving with. The whole 3 hour train ride, most of us were pretty quiet, but the second we pulled into the station, all of us started realizing we were the only familiar faces to all of us and we stuck REAL close! Its pretty funny what being in a strange place will do. I love you!! You get like a million emails from me this week you lucky dogs;)

E-mail you on Monday!!! (You even get like 3 extra days this time to send me emails!!)

Love,

Hermana Folsom (finally a real missionary!!!! Even though I'm just a little guy still....)

My district--no, we are not learning Russian

We celebrated last P-day in MTC by going to Burger King

I love my new scriptures!

We love Rexy!

(editor-It took me a while to figure out what she meant so I circled the relevant object for you.)

IT'S THE FINAL COUNTDOWN

Holy Hannah where has the time gone?? It is already my last week in the MTC and I leave for the field in a matter of DAYS! I feel like just yesterday I left for Spain and now i´m getting ready to leave for MALAGA!! This week has gone by way too fast but here are the highlights:

On Thursday, we watched a “Jeffrey Holland Classic Devotional” called don´t you dare go home. I´m pretty sure every missionary ever has seen it but it is so good!! HE is such a powerful speaker, especially when he is talking about missionary work. It really riles me up! Hahhaa but really. I love what he said and I really think this applies especially now to younger missionaries “we´ve got to be bigger, better, older and bolder!” and then he told us to grow up. Hahah! So the other day, I was talking to my companions and I said “Go big or go home right?” and one of them said “DON’T YOU DARE GO HOME” So I was like, “Guess I gotta go big then!” and that is just one example of the bad jokes going around here right now… we are ready for some outside influence of the members!!!!

Saturday in the park (seriously I always have that song stuck in my head when I talk about it!) was definitely my best Saturday so far! We actually got to be with our own companions this time and it was AWESOME! The energy going into it was so incredible. We kept on joking that we renamed the lake in the middle the waters of mormon and that we would get a chain of elders baptizing. Haha it was awesome! We talked to anyone and everyone and actually my companions and I had a lot of success. Funny story, on the way back on the metro, I sat by this lady reading something on her kindle and so I asked her what she was reading and she got really sheepish and like wouldn´t answer my question directly, saying stuff like, “that book that all women are reading now” or “you know a woman book” and I was like DEAR HEAVENS PLEASE DO NOT BE READING FIFTY SHADES OF GRAY! But she was. Haha that was so awkward and all my thoughts of transitioning into talking about the book of mormon were completely gone. So completely awkward.

On Sundays, they have got to be my favorite! I love the devotionals and the firesides, but like I think I said before, my favorite time is singing hour!! I look forward to it all week! I love just singing my little heart out. And elder Sullivan picks songs that have really fun soprano parts. I didn´t realize how high my range was until I looked around and no other sisters were singing up there with me. Elder Sullivan stopped and commented on my “powerful soprano” and I turned beet red and could not formulate a coherent sentence. Hahah I was so embarrassed to find out I was just jamming and nobody else was with me! but I continued to sing and sing loud and proud! So its ok I supposeJ

With this being our last week here, we are finishing up lessons with our “progressing investigators” and it’s a little bittersweet. it is making me so excited for next week getting to go out and actually teach!

On that note, today being our last pday here we decided to celebrate it with BURGER KING! How American are we?? But we luckily missed the really… interesting… squid meal that the rest of the missionaries enjoyed!

So I know mom will probably be freaking out for info, so i´ll tell you what I know about Tuesday. I leave at around 6 in the morning and I am taking a high speed train straight to malaga where I meet with my president at around 10, then have lunch and orientation and meet my trainer and then we are all shipped out to our areas! If I can, i´ll let you know more info because I have some time to email Monday MAYBE.

So I have a few requests: JOKES. I AM SO JOKE DEPRIVED! Just stupid, silly ones please! I love jokes and I keep retelling the same ones hoping they will stay funny (so far not so good). ALSO would you send me the living Christ? I cannot believe I didn´t bring a copy… And one final request, I finally figured out who grandma has been talking about. Hermana Findlay is from uncle kent (I think)´s ward and she is my roommate but is going to Barcelona.

OH AND LOOK AT PAGE 107 OF PREACH MY GOSPEL I SWEAR IT IS BATES FROM DOWNTON ABBEY

LOV EYOU ALL AND MISS YOU ALL!! Stay strong and be good!!

Another week in the MTC

HAPPY THURSDAY!! Its eveyone´s favorite day of the week again, or at least I hope so since it means you get letters from your favorite sister missionary;)

Anyways this week has been really short… I ENTER THE FIELD IN A WEEK AND A HALF!! This is so crazy how quickly this is all happening. I feel like I just left yesterday and now we have our last full week next week!! Alrighty so my highlights of the week:

My companionship was assigned to be the Sister Training Leaders over the MTC last Thursday night. Basically our duties involve making sure the sisters are happy and healthy and then relaying any messages from President Sitterud to the sisters. We thought that this wouldn´t be too much, just you know making sure we talk to the sisters and it seemed like it was going to be pretty uneventful. The first day in our new assignment, one of the sisters sprained her ankle really bad during an excursion and its actually really swollen and the whole side of her foot is bruised! Then another sister had an appendix scare a couple nights ago, so we spent most of that evening with her. Its crazy! Haha never assume something is going to be uneventful… But really it’s a cool assignment because we get to interview with all of the sisters individually this week and its really such a fun and cool experience. Spain is getting some really STELLAR sister missionaries! Even though the purpose is to check up on them and see what WE can do for THEM, more often than not, the sisters are asking US how we are doing and seeing what they can do to help us! Seriously its awesome. Hahaha and we all get along super well! Last Thursday night we had a nails night before bed. It's so fun being all together and knowing every single sister here!

Saturday in the park, and Thursday was the 4^th of July! (sing it with me…) Hahah but really Saturday was awesome! We were led to 2 different people who were totally prepared to hear our message and very anxious to know more. One man even asked us questions that we could answer with the Plan of Salvation and it really touched him, I could tell! A funny story from Saturday though, this old man saw me and my companion  and he got so excited to hear we were American. He kept on telling us how pretty we are and how it was a pleasure to get to see us! Hahah then he starts pulling out pictures of these young men in US military uniforms and is asking us if we think they are handsome. Turns out his grandsons are coming to visit from America next month and he thought we would be PERFECT to set up with them!! Haha old men matchmaking in the park…

This week was HOTTTTTT!! They wouldn´t let us go play futbol outside on Saturday because of the heat wave, so we went to the stake center and played volleyball and basketball with the members. This one little boy kept on following me around and they just all wanted to play with the missionaries! It was so fun interacting with the members and made me so anxious to get out in the field!!

One of my favorite things every week is music hour on Sundays. Elder and Hermana Sullivan (they have the blog) were both in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir (him for 18 years, her for 8) and so he conducts our missionary choir and she accompanies. I LOVE IT!!! It really is my favorite time just getting so sing and make music! I´m the highest soprano so I get to sing above everyone else and it just makes me so happy. Haha I feel like such a dork, but I smile the whole time and I look forward to it all week! Then, we go outside and perform our music which is also so fun because all the senior couples and members come out to listen to us and even some nonmembers come out and the Madrid missionaries talk to them!

Lately, a lot of youth groups have been coming through and taking tours of the MTC during their temple trips and the MTC presidency LOVES to show us off! We have a little music set put together so we sing for them, and then President Sitterud likes to show off that his missionaries know Spanish, so he has the Intermediate missionaries bear their testimonies and guess who is the one sister missionary he decided to pick on? Hahah no but it was fun getting to talk to the youth and explain to them why I wanted to serve a mission.

The MTC is incredible, I haven´t reached that point where I am just sick of it yet, but its probably because we get a lot of opportunities to leave and do other things. BUT I am getting more and more excited each day to go out into the field and start using what i´m learning.

MTC Week 3

My district!! Left to right: Elders Jackson and Quesne, Hermanas Bennett, Folsom and Schone and Elders Whitworth and Nielsen

The view out of the window on our floor. SO PRETTY at night!!

My lovely family!!!!!

How is everyone doing?? HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!

This week has been pretty good, actually the weeks have been flying by lately! I don´t know why people feel like their mtc time drags on, I feel like I just blinked and I´m halfway through!! My Spanish is coming.. Haha seriously I think I was called Spanglish speaking cause that’s the only language I´ve been learning here at the MTCJ

Okay highlights of the week:

Saturday in the park! I was paired with Hermana Nikogosyan, she is from Southern Russia and will be serving in the Ukraine Kiev mission. She is 25 and ROCKS! She said she always wanted to go to Spain and has always felt drawn here, so Saturdays in the park are like her 2 day mission to Spain!Her Spanish is awesome! There were times when I would look to her to find out what someone was saying! We had so many awesome experiences during the 3 hours we were together! Last week I REALLY wanted to get referrals (like the info from the people) but even though I asked everyone I talked to for their info, I got NONE last week! Then this week, Hermana Nikogosyan and I prayed to be led to people who were prepared and we got 2 referrals!! One of them was a man there with his little girl and we were just talking then out of the blue Hermana Nikogosyan told him that families could be forever and he got so excited and wanted to know more! We got his info and gave it to the Madrid missionaries. Its amazing that we get to have experiences like this in the MTC!!

Last Thursday, we went to the Prada Museum and its was super interesting! I got to see so many paintings that I have read about or studied in school and I got to stand inches away from the original! My favorite was Las Meninas by Velasquez. It was HUGE and breathtaking! Also they had one room that was an old Roman cathedral recreated in the room. It was beautiful. It was cool that so much of the artwork was about Christ. It was beautiful. Really cool experience

If any of the Farners are reading this, pay attention here: MY LIFE HAS CHANGED! Who knew that all I had to do was go on a mission to enjoy playing sports?? I played futbol on Monday with my whole zone and I had this moment on the field where I had to decide, do I want to spend the rest of my life being that girl that doesn´t try and runs away from the ball in sports, or do I want to turn over a new leaf in the book of Hermana Folsom and try? And try I did. I´m not going to pretend that I was good by any means but I played and I enjoyed myself!! I even assisted (note assisted) in a few goals! THEN yesterday, I played football with some of the girls going to my mission! IT WAS AWESOME!! I haven´t had that much fun playing a sport before since like EVER! We played touch and it was so good and I even scored a touchdown! Yes sir, ladies and gentleman I present to you the new Becca Folsom! Now I just have to decide if I like playing futbol or football more (feel free to roll your eyes at that bad joke).

Yesterday, we did an English fast as a district. We started at 6:30 and for every English word we said, we had to do either 5 pushups, 15 seconds of plank, 10 sit ups or 15 crunches. Lets just say my arms and abs are SORE today!! Hahaha but it was really effective! It was nice doing it as a district so that we could support each other and hold one another accountable. I was surprised at how easily I was able to communicate. My problem wasn´t in expressing myself, but in exclamations or things muttered under my breath. Haha "Holy Hannah" was my vice yesterday! THEN during actividad fisica, we all just gave up and broke our fast. But we decided we are going to do this every Wednesday (haha all 2 we have left!) so i´ll let you all know how next week goes!

SHARK MEAT IS REALLY GOOD!! It is really tender and we had it fried and I loved that it was crunchy on the outside and so tender on the inside! So pretty much I ate a baby shark on Tuesday.

SUPER FUNNY: We were running out of time in one of our lessons so we decided to just leave her the scripture we were going to read together for her to read on her own. So we were going to read 3 Ne9 and I think verse 17 and in a spur of the moment decision, we just told her to read the whole chapter. Then, we were reading the chapter later and realized it was the destruction chapter!! Hahaha so we were more than a little relieved when she said she didn´t read! THEN when we were talking to the other elders that teach her, they were so confused! They had asked her to read 3 Ne 11 and she had read 3 Ne 9 and they couldn´t figure out where she got that from! They had to spend about half of the lesson calming her down and letting her know she wasn´t going to be destroyed! Hahah we could not have planned that better! Such a great mix up!! We were laughing so hard my abs hurt when we found out!

TIPS FOR FUTURE MISSIONARIES: memorize D&C 4 in your mission language BEFORE you report to the MTC. It took me a week to memorize it! Actually memorize it in your native language and then memorize it in your mission language, because i´m sure it would have been easier for me if I had already memorized it in English first… ALSO for sisters, if you are going to buy flats and then put inserts in them, buy the inserts first and then bring them to try on your shoes! When you buy flats first, you don´t usually take into account that the inserts will actually take up space in the shoe.. Haha I just had to break them in and now they are good, but it was kinda painful at first!

 

For the Fourth we are getting KFC from Pres. Sitterud and then we are having a Simon Says competition later on with prizes! Its funny though because 6 of the missionaries here aren´t from the US and they can´t understand why we are so excited and keep saying MURICA! Hahaha oh and we got to go on a tour of the temple from the temple president´s wife today! It is so beautiful.

Dad, I think of you every time I use your hymnal (which is a lot because they make us sing all the time for anybody that comes to temple square). I´m singing a musical number at the fireside on Sunday (I know that my redeemer lives) and I got to be the pianist in church last Sunday! That was cool to do that!

MTC Week 2

Mi familia amada!!
How is everyone doing?? Good gravy it feels like its been both forever and no time at all since I left!! Seriously, I´m sure I will say this every week, but spain ROCKS!! It is so fun and so beautiful!
So, last Thursday, we went to the center of Madrid, called El Sol. Okay basically ridiculously beautiful. Haha it was super cool getting to see these places that I´ve been hearing about in Spanish and history classes for years and I stood there!! We took the bus into downtown which was cool cause we sang hymns and then also got to see the sights as we drove. We were dumped at a fountain and statue of… Okay I honestly have no clue. But the bell tower is super famous when they ring it every year? Haha then we went to the plaza mayor where the kings and queens used to behead people. YUP! History is pretty cool I guess J Then we walked and walked and walked and went through more plazas and beautiful streets until we got to the palace and cathedral. Which were huge and beautiful. And then my camera died. Haha then we walked through gardens and looked at statues and then we went back to the starting point and we had 45 minutes to just go and explore! We went and got super delicious ice cream and then stopped in and looked at some shops. Its so busy and so cool. Hahah actually funny story: I was walking with Hermanas Schone and Bennett and we were in a hurry cause we were going to be late for the meeting point and this man stops in the middle of the street and starts waving excitedly at us, shouting MISIONERAS!! QUE BONITA!!! Haha we waved back and he just laughed. I´ve heard seeing missionaries here as a member is like seeing an angel walking down the street, but I didn´t believe it until it happened to me!
I think I already said that on Saturdays we go to the Parque Retiro to go contacting? So I was in a threesome for this Saturday (You get put with different sisters who are in your zone, I think to mix up the intermediate and beginner classes) and so we were talking to these two gentlemen at the beginning of our three hours there and I asked them if they had heard of our church. This one man started pointing at us and said something really fast about “tres mujeres” (three women) and I was like, yes! We are three women! And he looked at me incredulously and said something else and then I realized, he was talking about polygamy and men with three wives.. Hahaha yeah I had to clear that one up real quick!! But the park is beautiful and its cool getting out and actually putting what we are learning to use! I love it!
My companions rock. We all have the same sense of humor, which is a blessing and we spend about 45% of our day laughing. Haha Hermana Bennett put in her letter to the president that we get along mostly, except for the fact that every night we each go to different corners of the room and don´t talk for hours… Oh wait that’s probably because we are sleeping!! Haha but I love it and laughing helps to keep us from going CRAZY!! Its awesome here, but it’s a lot to take in and be thinking about all at once, all the time!
A pretty regular day here goes like this: We get up, get ready, go to breakfast (usually boiled eggs with some sort of pastry) and then we have classes and teach “investigators” until lunch at 1. I can usually tell when lunchtime will be because when my stomach is hurting and grumbling so bad I can hardly stand it, we still have two more hours of class J Lunch is nice because it’s a full hour, its like our mini siesta and we take advantage of using that time to not use our brains! My district is usually the first ones to arrive and the last to leave at meals! After lunch we go back and have about 3 more hours of classes, then PHYSICAL ACTIVITY! We love going outside! The elders usually go play futbol in the fields next door and the other sisters usually either play futbol or volleyball. We´ve joined them a few times. But we love to go running around the area we live in. I had forgotten how much I love running until I was cooped up inside all day! Hahaha so hopefully i´ll lose weight rather than gain it in the MTC!! Then after that we have 45 minutes to shower and prepare for dinner, then 45 minutes for dinner. It’s still taking some adjusting to lunch being the biggest meal of the day and dinner being relatively small (for example one night all we got were 3 deviled eggs and a small salad!). After dinner we go back for 2 more hours of classes and investigators practice and we usually get a snack (THE PASTRIES HERE ARE BOMB!) and go back to our rooms at 9:30 and lights out at 10:30. We stay busy, but I prefer it that way!
On Sundays, we have meetings upon meetings upon meetings, but my favorite part is the evening. We have a fireside (these past two Sundays we had area 70s come talk to us) and then we go outside on the steps by the temple and sing! Its AWESOME singing together! I LOVE IT!! On that note, the Sullivans, the couple that are in charge of music, have a blog and put up videos and pictures of us singing! I have no clue how to find it, but google Sullivan, music, Madrid, CCM or MTC and you are bound to find SOMETHING! But be warned, I look kinda scary in some of the pictures they´ve taken (they hung some up in the hallways).
So I guess I should explain a little about our investigators. Each of our three teachers act like an investigator they´ve taught and we teach 2 of them everyday (except Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays). Its cool getting to practice and its nice making these silly mistakes NOW rather than in the field! What has surprised me is how REAL our investigators feel! Sometimes in our lessons, I forget that they are our teachers. Really its crazy but so cool! Haha one of our investigators has a baptismal date!! We get new investigators next week though (guess I got transferred or something!!)
Funny phrase, “es la leche” means that’s awesome!
Oh and I went to the temple today and it was awesome! So beautiful and we even got to do it in English!!
sister!!
Hahaha I love you all so much and thank you for your emails!! I love you all and miss you! Hopefully I can send more pictures later!!

Hermana Folsom