Hola a todos,
Yes, way--it´s preparation day here so I get to write again...and more importantly you get to read again!!!!muahahaha We just went to the Madrid temple--it was amazing. The session was in spanish! We all had headsets in english if we wanted them, but I didn´t use mine. It was the best. Then we took pictures--President Earls says he will be emailing them out soon so you´ll get to see them. I have no idea what they look like so no judging. haha Yesterday we had interviews and I loved talking to Pres. Earls. What a great man. He had great advice I still need to write it down. He also told us, "We are going over to the temple at 7:30 in the morning so meet in la sala sacramental. But if you are here at 7:25, I´ll tell you things you didn´t know about the temple until it´s time to go." ahahaha He is so funny, but serious about being funny. It´s hard to explain. Needless to say, we were all there early and learned some new things.
We were supposed to go sight-seeing in downtown Madrid for the rest of the day, but I guess some bigshot Spanish consulate officials are coming to see the campus and why we as the Church and missionaries need visas for Spain, so we switched afternoon schedules with tomorrow--classes today and the rest of preparation day tomorrow. Not really sure what to expect with the tour and such, but we´ll just see and behave. haha
We have two teachers here--Hnas Suarez y Martinez. They are both from Spain and only speak a little bit of english. I love their accents! I´m going to do everything I can to pick it up! haha (And it is SO nice to finally have some feminine teaching power represented! Lemme tell you!) My companion for the week is Hna Gonzalez. I met her in the Provo CCM. She´s from Florida, but her parents are from Colombia and she´s bilingual. We get along really well. Unfortunately, she´s serving here in Madrid so I probably won´t get to see her again :-( The only other missionaries here are a district of 5 Portuguese speaking missionaries going to either Portugal or Cape Verde (2 Elders, 3 Sisters) Interestingly, they are all either from Portugal or Cape Verde, but not serving in their native country...ya, figure that one out. ahaha My comp speaks a little portuguese and the rest of us can understand quite a bit, but communicating with them is somewhere between interesting and frustrating. ahaha There is lots of smiling and hugging with besitos (between us sisters that is!) What else can you do right?
So, ya, I´m very excited for Zaragoza. My teacher told me it´s a great area and very beautiful, but that´s what everyone says about everywhere in Spain, so I think I´m safe whereever I end up in each transfer. haha Saturdays here the "whole" CCM (that´s in quotes because they only get somewhere between 1-30 missionaries here at a time) goes to a park downtown to proselyte. I´m kind of upset that I won´t be here to do that because I´m the first to leave and heading out Saturday morning, I believe--apparently someone in the mission wants the long-awaited Hermana Dalton. ahaha I´ll do my best not to shatter their high expectations within the first 5 minutes :-/ ahaha, but no guarantees.
No, Mom, I didn´t get the package before I left and they even brought the mail/packages early that day which hasn´t happened before. Sorry. I told my companions that they could take what they wanted and put the rest in the package I left for them to send to you. I´m sure they would love and use whatever you sent.
Well, I´m not sure what else to say since I just wrote you. haha I will definitely have tons to say next week right? haha I should get preparation day on Monday so talk to you otra vez in like 4 days. This is fun, we should do this every week! haha Thanksgiving plans sound great--eat TONS for me, especially the candied yams! haha I actually got sweet potatoes on one of the flights over here. That was a pleasant surprise. I haven´t heard anything about the holidays over here yet, but I´m sure someone will fill me in soon enough.
OH! I have a story. Slightly crude, Mom, my apologies, but it really happened exactly like I´ll tell it so just imagine experiencing it firsthand!...So we had our first gym time yesterday, but the "silly" Elders took all the balls and left for the park without us! We saw them walking down the side of the road from our window, so we went after them to get a basketball because I really wanted to play! (obviously!) Well, the directions we were given to the closest park were something like this, "And if you want to go play futbol or basketball, the portuguese missionaries can show you". Well, they were nowhere to be found, so we wandered for a little while, found a different park and then noticed that we didn´t have any time left so we started back. While waiting for a red light at a crosswalk, I happened to look to my right and see an old man looking a little sketchy close to the bushes. I did a double take and noticed that he was DEFINITELY going to the bathroom not 15 feet away from us, into the bushes right off the sidewalk of a main, BUSY street with people EVERYWHERE!!!! I gestured to my companion what was going on because the words weren´t coming yet and we both just kind of stared at each other for an awkward amount of time...Then we busted up laughing. I didn´t know what else to do. When we got back (and I reamed the Elders for leaving us AND taking all the balls!!!!) we swapped stories. They got to play futbol in a public stadium! One Elder said, "I played futbol in Spain in a stadium! Welcome to España!" I said, "I saw an old guy "watering" some bushes. Welcome to España!" :-) I´m sure you can picture me telling this story and the delivery :-) ahaha It was, well, a rather unforgettable experience. 'You´re not in Kansas anymore, Dorothy.'
Oh, and we had some...interesting food for lunch yesterday. My comp called it "morsilla" I believe. It was basically--are you ready?--coagulated blood and rice shoved inside intestine. Sounds five star right? ahaha Apparently it´s a popular dish. Yes, I ate it. Yes, it tasted pretty good. Yes, I burped it up all day...Welcome to España! haha I´m sure it wasn´t our last encounter with each other. Gotta love the mission. But in general, the food here is like 100x better than Provo. It´s great and the yoghurt and pudding is to die for! The yoghurt tastes like you are actually eating the fruit! The coco (coconut) is my favorite. Someone mentioned chocolate-dipped churros downtown and I am going to be all over that tomorrow. I am SO excited. For every morsilla, there´s got to be at least 10 kinds of dessert foods I´ve never had right? Muahahaha Bring it on!
Well, hopefully next week I can finally start writing you about people that I meet instead of food. It will be great to start that part of the mission finally. haha Have a great weekend and I can´t wait to hear about it soon! I love you all more than I can express with words. You are always on my mind, in my heart and a part of my prayers. Les quiero!
Con amor,
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