La familia Dalton,
"We had a very interesting week--but a great interesting week! For some reason the english fast was very hard for me this time and I struggled a lot. I know how to say everything in my head, but it doesn´t come out my mouth. Common ailment among missionaries, I know. We had taught the combined lesson this week in church as well as a part of a special consejo de barrio Sunday evening. I was very frustrated with myself because I just want to be able to teach as efficiently and effectively as I feel like I can in english... but after lots of praying and reading in the Book of Mormon, I learned that right now in my life/mission is the time for learning. I am learning incredible things every day that I know are special gifts from my Heavenly Father. The teaching will come and once again, He is teaching me patience and to be grateful for the blessings that I am receiving instead of always wanting something else. I started the Book of Mormon again after Easter, but in english this time and 1 Nephi has come alive for me. I have always known the stories, but as I am reading them again, I can´t explain with words the difference. There is a hunger to learn more and I feel like I am learning to “feast” upon the scriptures on a different level than I ever have before. This is a blessing and a miracle that I need to be grateful for now. So I guess the miracle is the learning, and learning how to learn, especially by the Spirit."

So yeah, we were in Bilbao--well, I was in Bilbao. The other Hna Dalton and her trainee, Hna Robinson, have only been there a week and opened the area so basically we spent Friday visiting members--super bad idea. 5 member visits in one day?! Sure, if you wanna turn out like Aunt Marge from Harry Potter...before and after the button--popping magic.haha!   It was a lot of food. Delicious, massive amounts of food. But Hna Dalton learned her lesson--this Hna Dalton already learned this lesson, but still had to participate. Love albedrío. :-) We had a great time together and learned a lot. It was during the english fast so that was fun, too. We visited an ex-missionary (I really dislike this term in spanish, it sounds so...final...they don´t use "RM") and another less active sister. I just don´t understand how people serve missions and then become less active, but I can´t escape this situation, so I guess I need to learn from it--I WILL NEVER BE LIKE THAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ok, that´s a big promise that I am making to all of you, but now you can keep me honest and slap me five ways to Friday if you have to later in life. :-)

Today is my missionary birthday! Well, as close as you can get in a month with only 30 days. Wahoo! We are going to celebrate by eating at "Peggy Sue´s American Diner"...unsure about how american it is, but we shall see. Should be fun. Hna Maxwell told me that in 2 weeks I hit my halfway mark...yikes. Not sure how I feel about that...moving on!

We are teaching a lot and have some great investigators...just lots of people lacking the faith to take the final leap of faith into the pila...for now. That´ll change soon enough :-) Dalleli still has a fecha for the 12th of May, but because we were in Bilbao we have not been able to contact her for almost a week. She does not have a móvil (cell phone) so we have to catch her on the fijo. She did not show up for our prearranged meeting with the Bishop that she requested, or church on Sunday. But she did go to a JAS activity on Saturday. She was not able to work things out with her oldest sister, so we are still trying to help with that before her baptism. The bishop has some doubts that she just wants to get baptized to fix the family situation, but we will have to find out this week.

We had a special consejo de barrio yesterday and we came to impress with our "world-class informe de progreso" goal of the mission, typed up, with pictures and specific info and things to help. We´ve had them ready for a month, but it kept getting canceled. I am receiving the great blessing of learning how to work with the ward and how a ward is supposed to work. It is so eye-opening to be here where the church is so new and I am learning great lessons that I will use for the rest of my life, I´m sure.

I love Hermana Maxwell. We are just always happy. I admire that she laughs--a lot. It helps on rough days that I know we can laugh about something and smile. It´s the medicine to solve so many problems. She is a great missionary and person. We probably get along too well, but I am enjoying this time to it´s fullest!haha

Mom--I want to see pictures of these beautiful flowers! It got cold again here--really cold. Second winter. But it is sunny today so maybe, just maybe I´ll get to see the perfect SanSe weather people talk about. I miss RS activities and such. I never realized how important they are. We are teaching for one this week--a breakfast and then practical situations in which to share the gospel. Chloe-piñatas! I want to see this snitch! We want to make one here for 5 de mayo...we´ll see.

Yes! For Mother´s Day, the 13th--we will be in the locutorio here for Hna Maxwell at 4pm (8am there) and 4:45-5ish pm to start for me (8:45-9ish am to start for you). Does that work? What´s Connor doing? I will talk to him before then and figure it out. Let me know next week! Oh, and let me know the gmail username and password stuff again for me to log-in.

Love you!
-Hermana Dalton