"I am electricity!!"

Hola a todos! 

This week was pretty good! We met a lot of kind people. To explain the subject of this email...we met with a man and his family to teach them English. We were teaching the verb "to be". We taught them how to say their jobs, he is an electrician. We went around in a circle and introduced ourselves. He said, "hi my name is ----, I am ----- years old, and I am electricity! He was so proud of himself and I had to bite my tongue so I didn't laugh jaja. Good times. 

This week I have been learning to be patient. I just want to have something to do all the time and have someone to meet with all the time. This isn't realistic because people need to progress and move at their own speed. I cant control others so I just need to be there to offer my love, support, and testimony. When people are ready to learn more about their savior it's an amazing experience to be able to be apart of. You see the peace that comes from knowing that we have a loving Father in Heaven and a Savior who knows us perfectly. 

This week, I've also realized what an impact one kind person can make. We honestly had a hard couple days. People can be really mean... on Sunday we decided to stop by an older couple in our church and share a little message with them. They welcomed us in and made us bocadillos (sándwiches) and postre. They talked to us about our week, our amigos, and our families. They gave us encouragement and advice that really helped us. We walked out of their home so happy and ready for the week ahead. This experience showed me that I just need to be kind no matter what! We dont know who is having a bad day or who might need some extra comfort so just be kind all the time. 

I'm truly grateful for all of you! Thank you for your prayers and emails!! Have a great week!! 

Our amiga Sol who painted our nails😍

Hermana Bates y yo

Bomb poke bowl

Me with some artsy tile

Milagros Pequeños

Hola a todos! 

Como estamos? I miss you all! Estoy agradecido por sus correos electrónicos y sus oraciones! Gracias! 

This week nothing too exciting happened. Most of our amigos are doing great! We had some good sitas and some discouraging ones también! Spainsh is hard guys. Its been hard to speak this week. The mission can be really hard sometimes. There is always a sense that I'm not doing enough or living up to my full potential. I know that we all feel that at times. It's hard and discouraging. I know that as we push on, it will get better. 

I was having a hard day this week. I felt bad about myself and I was frustrated with our amigos. I just kept working though. We kept walking and eventually those feelings went away as I kept doing what I was supposed to.

I have realized how grateful I am for the little milagros I see everyday. They aren't really miracles but they are things that make me happy and so I call them that. This week I saw a super cute baby, a puppy in a baby shirt, and heard Thrift Shop blasting from a car #milagros! It really is the little things that we all should focus on to help us keep going. We cant have a crazy amazing experience that makes us feel like everything will be great everyday but as we seek out those little blessings we will find the joy and strength to push on. 

I know that my Heavenly Father helps me recognize those milagros pequeños everyday. He wants us to be happy. He loves us. 

The mission is amazing, Spain is amazing, the people and the things I'm learning are amazing! I really love it here! 

I'm grateful for all of you! Have a great week!! Remeber that God and Christ live and love you! 

Nos hablamos, adiós, chao,

Hermana Ross 💛💃🏼

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

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