Sunday, May 18, 2014

May 12th

Well since its just been SO long since we´ve talked I have so much I have to say to you. Okay but actually I have a lot since a lot always happens within a week here in the mission.

So super cool, at Concilio on Monday and Tuesday, President Deere only talked about the doctrine of Christ. We had a very spiritual, very cool Concilio. He kept on saying that "we live in the time of Thomas S Monson, the time of the WHOLE doctrine of Christ." I love it, in our mission, we are shifting our focus from just baptizing to working with the whole doctrine of Christ! It reminded me of the presiding bishop´s talk when he quoted that idea of elder bednar of making a list of all the members of your family and write down what the next saving ordinance is for them because that is what we are doing in our mission, with investigators, members, less actives, recent converts, EVERYONE! Also to retain the new converts, we are teaching lesson 5, the laws and ordinances, before baptism now too. This is a really cool time to be in this mission, I know that we are going to be seeing some cool growth happening in all of the units we work in.


I don´t know if I´ve ever written about C.., but I wanted to describe a little about this woman. C.. was baptized YEARS ago, she´s one of the first converts in Dos Hermanas. The cool thing is that even though her family all went inactive over the years, she is the only one that has stayed strong. Her husband never got baptized and she went by herself to activities, to temple trips, to meetings for YEARS. She couldn´t have children of her own, but her siblings were all messed up, so she raised most of her nieces and nephews. C...´s only desire was for her husband to get baptized so they could be sealed and enjoy the blessings of membership together. Finally, 4 years ago, he got REALLY sick and realized that he needed to get baptized. So he finally got baptized in his 70s and they were certain he would live long enough for them to be sealed, but sadly he passed away 11 months after his baptism, not ever having had the opportunity to be sealed. It seriously tried C...´s faith and suddenly she was questioning everything. It breaks my heart to talk to her because she says she wants to have the faith that she once did, but that she just can´t seem to do it. she still hasn´t done the work of her husband even though 3 years have passed. It really breaks my heart EVERYTIME I talk to her. I just know that once she gets back to the temple, everything will feel right again. She will feel the peace and comfort she is still seeking and once she does her husband´s work and they are sealed, she will have the closure she´s seeking.


So update on P..., we didn´t get to see his sons this week but hermana blake met with him during intercambios and she says he still won´t take a step of faith and ask which is the true church because he´s afraid of offending or losing any friendships.

Love you all! thank you for everything and have an excellent week!! 
HERMANA FOLSOM

ps today is my 11 months... TIME IS FLYING!!!!

May 3rd

Time is FLYING by! I cannot believe its already May and that we are going to skype for the 2nd and last time on Sunday. Weird. This week was nuts, but full of miracles.
On Tuesday, we went to go see P.., but he had to go so we invited him and his sons to the missionary noche de hogar that we do every Wednesday and set up another cita. So Wednesday, we get a call saying that P... can´t come, but his sons really wanted to and that they were coming on their own, but didn´t know the way. Before we had ever even taught his sons, they came on their own to FHE! Then, we had a really great lesson with them on Saturday about the book of Mormon and two of his sons accepted baptismal dates! D... is 15 and was studying for 3 years to be a catholic priest, but finally convinced his dad to pull him out because its not what he wanted. He is such a special boy and really spiritual (and knows the bible really well... PRESSURE!) He was really interested in our message and rallied his whole family to come to church on Sunday. J... is 14 and we haven´t gotten a chance to teach him yet cause he´s always with his novia and G... is 11 and he´s a quiet, interesting kid. I really think that the boys will be the key to getting P... excited again. He´s been really picking at us lately, like he told us that we don´t demand authority because we are too young and not serious enough. I got kinda sassy and told him that we may be young and not know much, but that we were called by a prophet of God and given authority by His priesthood to preach... oops.
This week, our mission did what we call Consecration Week. We all tried our hardest all week to be as obedient and dedicated to this work as we can and everybody saw miracles as a result. I really loved it and it was cool all working together to be our best. Obedience always brings blessings and miracles. I really enjoy doing big goals as a mission so we all focus on something!
We went to Valdepeñas this week for exchanges, but if you have a chance, go ahead and look up on the map how far it is from Sevilla to Valdepeñas. The answer is FAR. It takes a little over 4 hours to get there by train and there are only 2 trains that go between Sevilla to Valdepeñas, one in the morning and one at night. So because of this, we have to both go and do splits in their area, which kinda stinks for them! And it costs 35€ per ticket, one way to get there, so usually the mission buys our tickets, but the mission credit card wasn´t working last week, so we had to buy our own! And then, you can´t buy tickets that go out of Andalucía at our train station, you have to buy them online or in Seville. so we had to get up early Thursday morning and take a train to Seville and we RAN to buy our tickets to catch the train that left at 830. It was nuts. And stressful. But we did it and it was a fun intercambio al final!
Random things

Am.. didn´t come to church again this week:( she woke up sick on Sunday morning and called us to tell us she couldn´t. BUT she is determined to come next week, so that's good! Haha yeah like you could probably tell, I was a little frustrated with P... this week. He straight up told us that he is comfortable being taught by both us and the Jehovah's witnesses and that he doesn´t want to choose and leave this comfort zone. I was like, Pablo, you have to take a step into the dark at some point, you can´t keep one foot in each room, you have to pick! But we´ll see... I love that you´ve been studying that even members should be committing to things. Its so true though! I think that often times, members get comfortable in their way of living the gospel and don´t take that step out and COMMIT to acting and inviting others. Its really not that scary, the worst part is starting the conversation
 My piso is a little ghetto but it works and its in a great location, right in the centro, by the train station and only like 7 minute walk from the church. Its just a little dirty from missionaries using it for YEARS. The work is going, we are seeing some frustrations, but enough miracles to make it worth it:) You can TAKE some of the sun we are seeing here. Its already HOT. Its getting up to 35 here (that's like 90ish in Fahrenheit) and I am dying. this summer will be HOT. I miss the temple.

All the pisos here have gorgeous flowers cascading down and the roses are in bloom and I keep thinking, mom would be in heaven here! Its beautiful.
 we went to the park of Maria Luisa in Seville last week which was BEAUTIFUL and we took lots of pictures. and on Friday, we are doing a big zone pday and we are all going to the feria of Seville. its going to be a lot of fun! LOTS of flamenco.

My scripture for you is D&C 31:3.
love you alll!! have a great week!
hyermana foolsom (i don´t even know my own name.... awk)

April 28th

Heyyyyyy family! I can´t believe it's Monday again. I feel like I say that every week. Actually it's either the week feels like a month long, or a day long. This was one of those weeks when I felt like I blinked and BOOM its Monday again. Madre mia. But that means that a lot happened this week!
First of all, Am..... CAME TO CHURCH! This lady hasn´t been to church in like 10-15 years and we have invited her to church everyweek since I´ve been here and every week before that and she always makes some excuse about something or another but on Monday we had a really great lesson with her, and we were really straight up and then told her we were going to come by on Sunday at 1010 and that she better be ready. We stopped by Saturday night to remind her and get her excited. On Sunday morning, I was a little doubtful, I´m not going to lie. So we made the walk to her house and at 1010 on the dot we knocked on her door and, to my great surprise, she opened it with her hair done, makeup on, skirt in place and book of mormon in hand! It was so beautiful seeing her at church be reunited with these members that love her so much. Everyone´s reactions to seeing her were PRICELESS. I just kept on thinking of the prodigal son coming back to that party at his father´s house. She says she won´t be leaving it anytime again soon and that she´s back for good!


So this week we had to do 2 intercambios, back to back. First, we did one with Jaén, which meant that H.Kunz came back and we got to be together in Dos for a day again. It was weird, but fun. But since the trains are weird to Dos, I was going to be without companion for 4 hours, so I went to G...´s house and she and A.. babysat me and fed me lunch. It was so funny, we finished eating lunch and then she looks at me and goes, "HErmana, do you want to nap?" Then she hands me a blanket, takes on herself and with her on one couch and me on the other, we napped for an hour! HAha it was hilarious! The other intercambio we did this week was with the hermanas in sevilla who actuall yjust opened up a pueblo like last week. It was interesting going into an area where there literally was NO work and just FIND. I was tired by the end, but it was fun really focusing all of our efforts on finding people. We saw some cool miracles during that time, and actually found 4 new investigators together. It was fun!


P... is not doing so hot. We lost contact with him for a week, then decided to track him down, so we made the trek out to his campo to find him at home. He wasn´t at home, but on our way back, we ran into him in the street, so we went to a park to talk. He was thinking about dropping us, he says everything is going against him right now and he just needs to focus on his problems and solving them and then worry about religion. We got to have a really good lesson about how this will only help him, not distract him anymore. He said he still hadn´t received an answer between our church or the jehovah´s witnesses but he hasn´t even asked! I just am frustrated with him right now. It's rough. Pray for him, yeah?

 
RANDOM THINGS
 I GOT DEVILED EGGS!!! We ate at a member´s house in sevilla while I was waiting for h.blake to come back from jaen and they gave me deviled eggs! They are called huevo rellenos here and they put tuna in it too (they put tuna in everything here though) Haha yeah our mission has adjusted to Spain! Some elders tried to get rid of our studies and stuff at mediodia, so for a transfer they tried without it but NOBODY would let them in. It just doesn´t work to go out and work between 2 and 5. And yes, we are actually really safe here at night. Since its so hot during the day, a lot of people sleep during the hours that americans get stuff done, so they go out with their families and all play until late. Its completely normal. I mean claro, there are areas we don´t go to after dark, but most places are safe here.
I´m surprised at how fast this is all going. The other night I had a nightmare that I went home and didn´t remember the last half of my mission and I kept walking around feeling incomplete and dissatisfied. It was awful. Asi que, I am going to throw myself into these next 7 months and just SERVE. I got the conference talks and have almost read all of them! THANK YOU!! They are golden. And both my comp and i are very grateful!! I had been dying to read elder oakes´talk from priesthood about the priesthood. Whats new? I am tired. Like DEAD tired. Its hitting me! Hahaha and for the first time, I just hurt all the time. I think thats a good sign, like I´m working hard, right? Something I´m sick of are my shoes. I am buying myself new shoes today actually (SANDALS!! yay for summer)
My scripture for you is: Enos 1:27. I cannot wait for this day, when i stand before my Savior again. I really want to feel like this when I go, to rejoice, to see His face with pleasure adn be blessed to enter into the mansion of my Father. So beautiful.
everyone check out www.anothertestament.com ITS INCREDIBLE! its a photo project of 3 nephi. you´ll love it.

LOVE YOU! hermana folsom

April 21st

hELLLLLLLO Family! How was your Easter? The Utah trip? Did the Easter Bunny come and bring yall lots of goodies and happiness? Our Easter was okay but this week was actually BOMB!

To start out, it was Semana Santa, which means PASOS! It was madness here, every night there was a parade with lots of KKK looking Nazarenos and virgins and sad catholics. It was a really cool thing to see culturally, but a really odd thing to see religiously. Also, since we live in the center of Dos Hermanas, we always got stuck in or behind the pasos every night as we were going in to go home.

We saw some cool miracles this week. We had some really good lessons with Pa... and we were CERTAIN he was going to get baptized on the 4th like we had planned, but then on Saturday night, we found out he´s not legally married to his wife. Its going to be awhile now since they´ve been waiting on their papers from Bolivia for MONTHS already but I really feel like he will get baptized, it just might not be right now with us. But its cool because despite all of this, he´s really upfront with us and really understands repentance and what he needs to do. He´s a cool guy. C... and A... came to our missionary FHE on Wednesday which is a really good sign and they loved it! J... fought with all the old men there and is convinced that the elders are zombie hunters. Its great, I can really see them getting baptized!


SUPER COOL: We had the goal this week of reaching the standards of excellence for our mission and on Friday we were SO CLOSE, only like 5 lessons away from it, so we were really motivated to get stuff done! We had like 45 minutes before our next plan and all our other plans had failed us, so like good missionaries, when you don´t know what to do, we prayed. We prayed that the Lord would lead us to someone or someone to us who was ready for the gospel. We open our eyes and across the street there is a man. Then this man crosses the street RIGHT TO US. We started to talk to him and all we did was introduce ourselves when he goes, "You should come to my house and teach me and my family. I want them to hear what you have to say. Here is my address." WHAT. His name is P... and he´s dominican and super cool. We haven´t been able to see him yet, but I have a good feeling about him.


We get taken good care of here. There is this older American couple here who lives in Utrera and on Saturday they invited all of us missionaries over for an American Easter dinner. It was so much fun and SO GOOD eating really American food- the ham was cooked and everything! SO good adn way nice of them!

CHECK THIS OUT. I´m obsessed: easter.mormon.org SO GOOD.

To answer your question, NOTHING happens on Easter day here. Haha there were some pasos in Sevilla on Sunday mornign but we didn´t even talk about Easter at church! It was a little disappointing.  We do exchanges every week, so this week I stayed here in Dos Hermanas with Hermana Cerna while Hermana Blake went to sevilla with another hermana. We HAD some investigators progressing towards baptism all up until Saturday when everyone fell off course. I´m kinda bummed but we are working hard to find teach and baptize. We´ll see one here yet! So a view into my daily activities? Like how does a normal day go? I get up at 730, exercise then at 8 we shower, eat, get ready, write in our journals, etc and start personal study at 9. At 10 we do comp study and at 11 we hit the street. Mornings here are a little hard to get lessons, but we have some less actives that like to see us in the mornings. Its a good day if you teach before lunch. At 2 we go back into our piso and make and eat lunch, relax, write in our journals, do things we don´t have time for (a lot of times this means nap) and then at 330 we update our area book. at 4 we have language study and at 5 we are back out working. We usually teach between 3 to 4 lessons depending on the afternoon and then at 1015 or 1045 we are back our piso, plan for 30 minutes and then at 1130 its time for bed. Its a really nice schedule missionary wise. I LOVE mediodia. My favorite time of the day!


 So everything here was closed from Thursday until today so no mail yet, but I´m certain it will come rolling in today! One of my highlights from this week was on Wednesday. WE were walking by an outside cafe to go look up some less actives and we see these two older sisters who are both less active that we visit sitting at the cafe. they see us and invite us to sit with them so they bought up churros and chocolate and we taught them a lesson! Haha it was SO GOOD! Also I focused my studies on Christ´s resurrection this week and it was super cool following the last week of his life and after with it. LOVE it!


I wanted to serve a mission when Sister Garcia served in our ward when I was like 8. It really impacted me seeing cool sister missionaries. And then, when I was getting ready to go to school, nothing felt permanent or right. So when the announcement happened, I knew what I was supposed to be doing. I have seen so much joy and happiness from living this gospel, but at the same time, when I wasn´t living it as I should have been, I have never felt so gross and just unsatisfied with life. So for me, that is why I share the gospel. We have the knowledge that we will be blessed here in this life for living the gospel, and even better, we will receive eternal life in our Father´s kingdom in the next one. So when I have fears about opening my mouth, I just think, "I´ve got nothing to lose. In fact, I have EVERYTHING to share. Its their choice to accept it or not." And I´ve found the hardest part is just opening your mouth. But think about it, people already notice we are different. People are already watching us and what we do, so why not explain it to them? My scripture for you actually goes along with this. Its a story, in Acts 8:27-39. There is a promise in the intro of chapter 9 of PMG: The Lord is preparing people to receive the gospel. He will lead you to them and them to you. This eunuch was prepared and the Lord led the apostle to him and he got baptized. The lord is preparing people! I love this and love you! have a great week!


Love you all! happy easter and earth day and what not! LOVE YOU!!
Hermana folsom

April 14th

So as you could probably tell, we are solidly in Semana Santa right now. And guess where it is the biggest in all of Andalucia? YUP, you guessed it- SEVILLA! It was madness last night with it being palm Sunday. I wish I could send pictures this week, but my computer I´m on doesn´t have a USB drive... BUMMER. Some crazy semana santa facts: During the Spanish Civil War, many of the cathedrals were burnt down and destroyed, but to conserve the imagenes that they use every year for semana santa that are OLD and have been used for YEARS, they took all the clothes and gold off of the statues and then put them in caskets and walked them through the cities like it was a funeral procession, crying and weeping and wailing, and then they buried them! Once the Civil War was over, they dug them all back up and are using the same ones today. Its CRAZY! We have been seeing the nazarenes (the KKK looking people) all over and its actually really scary from an American´s viewpoint because they are carrying candles and crosses wearing these white hoods. Like FREAKY. But its cool to see these traditions. And this is the one week a year that Spaniards actually practice their religion and think about Christ so its a cool opportunity for us!

 

We had some cool stuff happen this week, the coolest being P.... We FINALLY got to meet with him on Friday and we taught him the Gospel of JC. We laid it out for him simply what it was and then started going in more detail with each point. After laying it out, he points to faith and goes, "I have this, but I need to work on strengthening it. Repentance, I feel like I have fully done this, with every fiber of my being. Now all I need to do is baptism and confirmation. Then, once I´ve done this I just need to endure to the end and keep doing all of this." I was like, well. Guess we don´t have to teach this lesson then! Hahaha but really he was super open and up front with us about his concerns and it was a really spiritual lesson. He says he feels like he is almost to the point of receiving his answer but that he wants to go ahead learning with us and integrating himself into this church. AND HE FINALLY ACCEPTED A BAPTISMAL DATE!! It was our 4th time inviting him to one and he finally accepted one for the 4th of May. I feel really good about him and how he´s progressing. SUPER COOL.

RANDOM THINGS  

I got a cool letter from Sister Forneilus this week about things she wished she had known while she was on her mission. One of them was not to just be patient with your companions, but to LOVE them. I think this is probably one of the things I need to work on still. I still have moments when I´m just DONE with being with someone 24/7. Its easier being a SHE because we do intercambios every week which really helps me appreciate my companion, but its still something I think I need to work on. It was nice to hear that little reminder from a member from our ward!

I did notice the HARRY POTTER stamps and LOVED them. My comp has the theme song and when I heard it the first time, I was about ready to cry. I love that kid.

I´ve already planned though that I want to make a typical Spanish meal for all of you when I get back too. It will be fun. I love that thought about the Atonement. Since its Semana Santa, we´ve been sharing messages about Christ with EVERYONE we talk to and its a good way to introduce our church right now. Easter really is my favorite time of the year because we get to take a break and think about Christ and His atonement. We were talking to some Evangelicals yesterday and they asked why we didn´t have crosses and it was cool to testify of the living Christ.

The cups thing is that you build Christ's church with a base of his 12 apostles. So you put 12 cups in a line of 2X6 and then Christ taught the gospel so you put the 5 cups on top with faith, repentance, baptism, HG, endure. Then you do 4 big commandments on top and then the next line is read, pray, go to church. and then the top 2 are revelation and authority and then Christ goes on top. Then, when he dies, you take him off. then you explain that the 12 apostles died so you slowly start taking them off until the whole church falls. APOSTASY. Then you build little churches with parts of the truth, but none are the same, full church. Then you explain the restoration and rebuild the church, but on the back of Christ´s apostles are pictures of the 12 apostles today, and then where Christ was before you put the prophet and then Christ goes on top of it all. its cool to visually see the restoration. I like IT!!

Okay katie it was 27 degrees last night at 9 here. Ïts been in the 30s this week. Do you know what that is in Fahrenheit? I´ll tell you. HOT. That's what it is- HOTTTTTTTT! I am already melting and the best is still yet to come. Hmmm stories from this week? So you know how its a rule that missionaries can´t swim? You also know how at the mission home there is a pool that we always take pictures around? So Monday night was freaking hot and we were all standing around talking and one of the hermanas goes, I wanna swim. So we all knelt by the pool and splashed our hands in it and were like, "WE ARE SWIMMING WE ARE SWIMMING!!" Missions do weird things to you.

John 19:19-22. From studying these verses and reading the account of Christ´s trial multiple times, I am a firm believer that Pilate knew of Christ´s divinity, especially given his response in verse 22, that rather than putting that Christ called himself King, but that He actually is. I love it. And I love you! have a great week!
Love you all loads and miss you tons! have a great week!!
And happy semana santa:) and EASTER!

April 7th

HELLLLLLLLOOOOOO FAMILY!! wow another week has gone by and I´m only 6 days from turning 10 months old... MY MISSION IS GOING BY TOO FAST!

So the beginning of this week was full of goodbyes and eating citas as Hermana Kunz made the rounds of the ward and our investigators. My favorite one was Monday. We spent pday over at Ricardo´s where we played games and then did a Noche de Hogar (FHE) because it was his family and all the missionaries. It was so much fun! We had a water balloon fight, a flour fight, played volleyball, jumprope, cooked together and had a really good message at the end. Going over to Ricardo´s is always crazy. I forgot my camera cord today but next week I´ll send the pictures of our flour fight. IT WAS MADNESS!

Hermana Blake got here on Wednesday and it is like a dream come true. We both said that we have really good feelings about these next two transfers together and that we are going to help each other reach our full potential as missionaries now. I love her so much and since she got here, we have been working HARD and seeing cool miracles!

Wednesday evening, we went over to see C... and her kids A... (16) and J... (4). They are columbian and were a referral from a family in the ward. We had taught them a few times but not until last time did they really show any real interest in our message. This time, we read 3 Nephi 11 with them and as we read about and explained baptism, C..., who has been catholic her whole life, totally loved it. As we read about how baptism should be done, she looks at me and goes, "This isn´t how I was baptized. I wasn´t baptized by immersion. But it says in the scriptures that this is how Jesus wants us to be baptized. What do I do?" And then as we read about Christ giving Nephi the priesthood, she goes, "Who else has this power?" SHE IS GOLDEN. When we invited them to baptism, she just goes, "Claro. Write me down for the 26th." OH MY GOSH! And then she explained why A... needed to be baptized too and so basically we are having a baptism on April 26th. They are amazing. I am PUMPED!


THEN if that little miracle weren´t enough, on Sunday morning before conference, we went to go teach this gypsy family that Hermana Kunz and I had found and we taught one of the best L1´s of my mission. Susanna has 3 kids and her husband is gone most of the time except Saturdays. She really understands why this is the restored church, we "built" up the church using cups to explain it and she just really got it. And then she was like, "Why don´t we have this church today?" She´s incredible. She LOVED the first vision and said that it must be something really important for both the father and the son to appear to joseph smith, therefore this was something important for her to listen to. AND THEN SHE ACCEPTED A BAPTISMAL DATE FOR MAY 3RD. I am on cloud 9 right now, really. Such a miracle filled week :) AND conference on top of all of this? I am so happy right now.

RANDOM THINGS

 Haha actually this week L... decided she is going to start teaching us Chinese! I know how to say I, you, and he/she. She´s doing good, slowly but surely understanding still. And actually we had a really good lesson with P... this week with the bishop´s wife. They live pretty close and she explained perfectly what he needed to hear. He won´t commit to a date until he feels like this is the true church but he won´t DO anything to find out yet! She really hammered in the importance of reading and praying an shared her own conversion story. SO GREAT. And as we were walking out of his gate, there was a man at the gate and he goes, "HEY! MORMONES!" I look up and it was Wilbur, one of the Bolivian members here who met Pablo through a friend and didn´t know he was investigating the church. The Lord is placing a lot of members in this guy's path, just kinda forcing him to accept it:)

We work with the Moron military base so there are like 2 American families. I just can´t seem to get rid of the military on my mission! Haha.. I know H.Blake cause we have been in the same zones our whole missions and are just like best friends. She goes to BYU too and is from Utah. Right now her family lives in Alpine but she grew up in Bountiful. We are thoroughly enjoying ourselves:) Hermana Kunz went to Jaén which is weird cause I´ll do intercambios with her in a couple weeks.. And I LOVED Pres Uchtdorf´s talk. He speaks so eloquently.  Oh my gosh momma H.Blake is artsy and loves music so we´ve just been singing and talking music all week.


They show the women´s broadcast Saturday at 4, then Saturday morning is Saturday at 6 (live) then Saturday afternoon is shown Sunday at 2, priesthood is Sunday at 11, Sunday morning is Sunday at 6 (live) and then Sunday evening is Sunday at 10 (live). We had permission to stay out for the last one, but we opted not to because we had to get up early to go to Malaga today anyways so we missed that one. I loved all the talks and especially loved how much they emphasized family prayer, scripture study and FHE. Also sharing your testimony. That was cool. I LOVED Elder Ballard´s invitation to read PMG as members.

well i love you all and hope you have great week! un besazo muy fuerte:)

hermana folsom!