The Sweet and the Sour

Hola a todos! 

Que tal?! I hope your week has been great! Thanks again for the emails this week! They keep me moving forward. 

This week was good. Hot, but good. I've never been so grateful for air conditioning. Spain is super awesome there is always some amazing building or delicious gelato place wherever we go!

We had 2 amigos come to church this week which was awesome! There are a lot of potential amigos so we keep busy. I'm excited for this week because we have a lot of sitas (appoinments). We traveled to a different pueblo in our area and found some new people to teach which was great. The good thing with our area being so big is that we will always have work to do, even if it's slow moving. 

So kinda crazy story...we were walking around Catarroja trying to meet new people and my companion walks up to this man from Ghana and he straight up asks us to tell him what we believe. He starts saying how it so good to see young people teaching about their beliefs and he asks if we could sit down so we could tell him about our church. He leads us to a bench and then proceeds to ask us a bunch of questions about the Bible. We try to answer but his questions are super confusing. We try to tell him our beliefs, like he asked, but he keeps interrupting and basically starts to tell us why we are wrong. He is going ham and we just try to bear testimony but he is not having it. He starts telling us that we are going to hell. I've never been told that before, haha fun stuff. We got outta there real fast and thanked him for his time as he yelled at us. It's all good though because on the way back we met this super sweet lady and her adorable baby and she gave us her number and she was so kind to us! We hope to meet with her this week. There is a reason for everything I guess! We also bought a little cacti and named him Flabio. Good stuff, he really brightens up our piso. 

The language is coming. It's hard but I am just really trying to concentrate on what people say. I am grateful for the super lindo niños because they remind me of my siblings and cousins and they keep me going. All the babies here are presh!! You all know how much I love babies so it's the best! Also the old people are the cutest too. I can't I understand a thing they say but it's ok Haha. We were sitting on a bench in a park, doing some planning and this old man comes and sits by us and starts talking. This other old man starts walking over and apparently they were friends and it was the cutest thing cause they saw each other, got real excited, and just walked off together. Super cute! 

Pues... spiritual thought for the week:

I am super grateful for the scriptures this week. I read about the brother of Jared and how his people were tossed upon the waters as they traveled across the sea. Sometimes we are tossed upon the waters of life but we need to make sure our barges/boats are secure in what we believe in. I am grateful for the knowledge I have and that I know it with such a surety that when someone tells me I am going to hell i can brush it off and keep going. Rely on the lord in all things and he will make you strong! 

I hope you all have a great week! Please pray for me that I won't die in this heat! (Its apparently gonna be 95 all week+ humitity) I love you all! Talk to you soon! 

Adiós, nos vemos, chao!

Hermana Ross

jaydn.ross@missionary.org

We really out here in....Catarroja

Hola a todos, 

How is everyone doing? I miss you all a bunch! Thanks for the emails I've been receiving, they mean so much! I don't have much time for myself here on the mission so if I don't respond just know I appreciate you and love youuuuu! 

Pues...where do I start! My mission presidents are amazing! They are so loving and so funny! They love Spain so much and it just makes me so excited to be here! It's my 5th day here on the mish and I'm loving it! My companion hermana Bates is awesome and such a pro! We are in Catarroja, a little town FULL of pisos (appartment buildings) in our area there are about 5 little pueblos and we are the only missionaries in our area so we have a lot of work to do.  Its exciting! We are about 4 miles from Valencia but by tren it takes about 30 minutes to get there but it's beautiful! The ward is great, full of super kind people. It's hard to understand the language all the time so I just work on picking put words I do know and then I can get the basic idea Haha. 

So a little about Catarroja: 

    -Old men don't wear shirts around here 

    -It smells of smoke all the time 

    -It is SUPER hot but I've stopped wearing makeup and I bought a fan so I'm surviving!

    -The people are really humble and kind

    -There is a park on every street and there is always people using them 

    -There is a bar/ restraunt on every street and one place has the best helado!!

    -The most pisos don't have ac but ours does (halejua!!) only in the living room so we sleep there so we don't die Haha

Basically Catarroja is awesome! Its such a memorable place and I'm learning a ton! So some super cool things happened this week and I'll share just one. So there is a man named franco who is the novio of a member of our church and they have a cute little boy.  the previous missionaries have been trying to contact him for months and out of the blue he and the family call us and ask us to come teach him! We teach him about our church and the restoration and at the end he basically says he is ready to be baptized. He tells us they are getting married in 10 days so they want to wait till after the wedding. It was so awesome! I really learned tang the lord's timing is perfect! Franco neededthee lessons now because he is at a great point in his life, he knows what he wants to do, and he wants to start his family and raise them in the gospel. I just testify that God has a plan for us and he knows better than we do. Everything is in his time so we just need to be patient. I love you all! Talk to you next week! 

Adios, nos vemos, hasta luego,

Hermana Ross 

jaydn.ross@missionary.org

Catarroja

Spanish Paella

Hermana Ross and Hermana Bates

Hola, I am here!

We got to España safe and sound.  It is sooo beautiful.  We rode the bus from the airport and toured a city of Barcelona a little bit.  We ended up touring a castle that overlooked the whole city and it was beautiful.  After, we came to the mission home, got interviewed, ate lunch, and took naps!! President and Hermana Gali are THE BEST!  I already love them so much.  They are so funny and kind.  President Gali’s life motto is “work hard play hard” so I think we are gonna have a blast haha.  Tomorrow we will be placed with our trainer and assigned an area.  Ill keep in touch!  Our preparation day is on Monday!  Love you more than I can express!  Adios, te amo mucho!!

The new missionaries at the Airport

New missionaries with President and Sister Galli

The first of many meals at the mission home

Hermana Ross con Presidente y Hermana Galli

Hermana Ross and Hermana Bates (My trainer)

On the bus to Montjuic, where we overlooked the land we will serve in.

LAST WEEK in the MTC

Hola a todos, 

Pues....the time has come for me to adventure into the great unknown which is España! I am so excited and so ready but not ready at all at the same time haha. 

Nothing too crazy has happened this week. We got 4 new Hermanas and they are super sweet! I also got my visa so I am good to go! We got to travel to uvu to meet with the consulate for España and it was so strange to be a missionary out in the “real world” haha. I am so excited for Barcelona! I head out Monday morning so please keep me in your prayers. I can not wait to just be immersed in the culture and meet the people. 

This week, one of the elders in my district is being sent home because of health reasons and I feel like a part of our family is leaving. It was really hard but he is so positive and hopeful about everything. I know that God has a plan for each of us and he knows what is best for us. It can be really hard when things don’t go as planned but I know that God sees what situations will bless us most. I am so grateful for the gospel in my life. 

Yo sé que el evangelio de jesucristo es verdad.  Yo sé que jesucristo vive. El es mi Salvador y redentor.  Sé que el Libro de Mormón is verdad. Yo sé que josé Smith era un profeta verdad. Yo sé que a traves el expiacíon de jesucristo podemos regresar a Dios. Yo sé que familias podemos a juntos por eternidad. Yo digo estás cosas en el nombre de Jesucristo amén. 

Alma 22:2 “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid; for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; he has also become my salvation”

Mis Hermanas and my teacher Hermana Nelson