Our Friendly Neighborhood Cerdo

Hola a todos! 

We had zone conference which was great (and long). I learned a lot and it was such a blast to talk to my president and his wife! 

We have met some new amigos which has been awesome! We met the sweetest mom and her son yesterday who fed us pizza and coke (I haven't had soda in FOREVER and for some reason that coke just hit the spot, madre mía!) Ya they were super sweet and seemed really interested in our message. We also met an older shorter man named napoleon who wanted to buy us food and take us to the beach... fun times! Oh we also met a guy that invited us to his rice farm! Yay, score!! This one guy we met with asks us if the jóvenes flirt with us a lot cause we are 2 young chicas from America. We told him that it's really only the old men who seem interested which really boosts my confidence! 

It's still been really hot here but today there has been a nice breeze so I'm hoping that means that it will start finally cooling down. 

This week franco set a date for his baptism! He is so awesome and I'm so excited for him and his family! Him and his wife recently got married and they have the cutest little son! I know his decision to take this next step in his conversion will truly bless him and his family.

Ok to explain the subject of this email... we go to this park almost every night to contact and meet new people and every once in a while this pig comes and runs around the park. This pig is HUGE and it's so funny to see. I just wonder where they keep it. It probably has it's own room in a piso jaja. 

Ok so a quick spiritual thought for y'all... I was reading in Mosiah about repentance and he used the phrase "sore repentance". I really like this phrase cause when we exercise we are usually sore the next day. It can be uncomfortable but it means that our muscles are growing stronger and our body is changing for the better. When we repent, it may be hard and a little uncomfortable but this means that we are working to change into someone closer to what our Heavenly Father wants us to be. I love that because when we feel like things are too hard we need to remeber that it may hurt at first but we will always come out stronger. I know that when I repent I feel closer to christ because I am striving to let go of mistakes and learn and grow from them with christ's help. Repentance is super amazing and such an amazing gift we all have. I know our savior loves us and desires for us to come unto him because he is just waiting with open arms to welcome us and help us grow stronger. 

I love you all! Thanks for all your support! Ustedes son los mejores!! 

Adiós, nos vemos, venga, 

Hermana Ross 💛💃🏼

Zone Conference

waiting for our train in the heat of Catarroja

Our good friend Mr. Piggie 

Hermana Bates and her self portrait of me (resemblance is uncanny)

Heladoooo where a few seconds after this picture my hair was all up in that cone and it was awful…

Cool Cathedral in Valencia

Semana de Horno

Hola a todos! 

Thank you for all your prayers and emails!! They help so much! So our amigo Alexander has a fecha de bautismal for SEPTEMBER 7TH!! I'm so excited for him!! I see the joy that he has from learning about the gospel, its amazing! 

Nothing much else too exciting happened this week. Just a lot of heat. On Friday it LITERALLY felt like that moment you open the oven and all the hot air rushes out but that feeling ALL DAY! One of our amigos told us Friday was the hottest day Catarroja has seen in 100 years. I don't know how true that is but it sure felt like it. Nothing much else to report this week except that I think I am a melón addict. They have these Spanish melóns here and made mía, they are so good!

Ya that's all folks! I'm grateful for the mission and all I'm learning! The church is true and God and Christ live! 

Love,

Hermana Ross 💛💃🏼

Amigo de Oro

Hola a todos! 

How's everyone doing? I miss you all! Just a quick shoutout to my little bro Drexel! I'm SO proud of you for your decision to be baptized this past Saturday. I know this decision will bless you for the rest of your life buddy. I know that our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are super proud of you!! 

This week has been good! Hot, humid, tiring, etc... but way good! Not too much progress but the amigos we do have are solid! 

A quick miracle I saw this week was with an amigo named Alexander. He was interested in clases de inglés so we met with him for that. After we shared a message of the book of mormon. He was super interested and agreed to read. We checked up on him and he said he has been reading and had some questions. We invited him to come play fútbol with the ward and we could answer his questions there. He agreed and has a great time. He asked us what time church was and said he wanted to come!! He walked into the capilla clean shaven with a white button down and khakis!  He loved church and said he learned so much!! Next step for him I think is baptism!! So cool!! This work is true and brings so much joy!! 

I love this gospel guys, it's great. The mission is great too. I'm learning a lot. Sometimes I have these mini panic attacks where I remember where I am and how crazy a mission actually is but then I just tell myself its gonna be ok jaja.

This week I had intercambios which is where I go with another hermana and teach and learn in her area. I learned so much about finding new people so we are trying some new ideas out in Catarroja this week. We also ate with a family from Brazil and the food was SO good madre mía!! Im gonna try and collect some recipes so I can take them home and try them out! 

Today we had día de preparación because we had a zone activity! We went to Xátiva where there is this super beautiful super old castle from the b.c. times! It was wild! So cool to be able to walk around and see the history there. 

Well nothing else too exciting this week. I hope all is well! Talk to ya next week! 

Adios, chao, venga, nos vemos,

Hermana Ross 

jaydn.ross@missionary.org

The best paella I've ever had!

Hola a todos!

Everything is swell over here in Catarroja! The work is a little slow but it's ok cause we keep trying. This isn't our work, its God's and he has a plan. 

Nothing too crazy happened here this week. Just lots of trying to find new people and lots of heat. We had a little scare with our ac and I literally thought that this would be the end... this is how I die... but it's ok!  Its working now! 

This week I had the opportunity to eat with this lady in our ward and she is famous for her paella. She brought that pan out and it was almost as big as the table and madre mía that paella was perfecto!! Ya I'll probably have dreams about that paella.

This week I've been struggling to talk to people, it's scary. I've been praying for the strength and courage to just do it! I was on a bus and there was a man sitting across from me and I felt like I should talk to him. I was rehearsing in my head what I should say for about 5 minutes when he asks us if we speak English. We said we did and he started talking to us in English and talking about his life. He was super kind and lives in Catarroja too! We told him that if he ever

wanted to practice his English we give free English classes. He was so excited and said he would love that and he would bring his son too! This experience showed me that its gonna be ok. I just need to talk to people, I won't die. Ive been practicing more and yesterday I talked to a bunch of people by myself and it was good, nothing horrible happend! People were kind even when telling us they didn't want to hear us. I know that as we do the hard and sometimes scary things that God asks of us, it will become less scary and be a really good learning experience. 

I'm praying for all of you! Please keep me and the people of España in your prayers! 

Love you all! Adios, Chao, nos vemos!

Hermana Ross💃🏼💛

jaydn.ross@missionary.org