Saturday, December 21, 2013

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
 

Monday, December 2, 2013

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!