Martorell is a tiny little pueblo about 40 minutes outside of
Barcelona. I just got here and the piso is so cute! I love it! and to
top things off, my companion is awesome!! It's Hermana Porter from my MTC district!!! We spent 6 weeks together in the same
piso and district! I am honestly so excited. I’m excited for a "new"
start and to meet new people. It's also a branch of about 100 people.
It’ll be interesting to be in a branch instead of a ward. Also, I went
from one of the biggest areas to one of the smallest!
All the changes are exciting though. Transfers really are awful though
because my bags are as big as I am! Luckily there are Elders and
friendly people of Spain to help me. There is a lot of work going on
right now in this area too, so I’m excited to jump
right in to things and see a new way of mission life. I know Hermana
Porter and I are going to have a lot of fun together!
As for a few more shout outs from Christmas...
-Tasha Petroff is engaged??? Congrats!! That’s so exciting!
-Tanner Kirk and Russell Reeve your Christmas card made me laugh so hard. Thank you for including me in that!
-Thank you Newsom and Anderson family for including me in the
Christmas cards as well. It’s always fun to hear how everyone is doing
and how the lives back in Danville are.
-Aunt Michelle the card was so cute! I loved the quote and the
pictures. It was a beautiful display of Christmas and the true meaning.
Well as for last week, it was Dia Del Reyes which is the holiday of
the three kings. Here they have Christmas, December 25th, which is more for toys and
games from Papa Noel. Dia Del Reyes is when the Three Kings come to your
house and bring gifts that are more valuable
like clothes or money or things like that. They have a huge parade and
fireworks and a pastry that they eat. Whoever finds the "king" inside
their piece of cake is the king and gets to wear the crown for the rest
of the day. Elder Sorenson won the crown.
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| Rachel doesn't usually take photos of food in her mouth. This is the Spanish Tradition of the 12 Grapes on New Years Eve. The tradition consists of eating a grape with each bell strike at midnight of December 31. According to the tradition, that leads to a year of prosperity.[2] In some areas, it is believed that the tradition wards away witches and general evil.[2][3] |
It
is a very cool thing to see and be a part of different cultures and to
experience holidays in a different way. I haven’t even had time to be
homesick because there has been so much going on! The members really
spoiled us! I really am going to miss the members
so much in Valencia! I have never been so spoiled in my life. The
eating citas really aren’t going to happen anymore. The rumor is that
Valencia really is the only place where the missionaries get fed every
day. The only thing about that is last week I ate
stomach....it was interesting to say the least! I love trying new
things though. OH and we did the grapes for New Years, but we did it
with the California New Years at 9am because we were asleep at 12pm. So I kind of celebrated with all of you!
I have already made so many memories on my mission. There are
families that I am not going to ever forget!!! I love this mission.
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| The Gordillo Family |
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| Hermana Sonia - Bishops wife |
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| The Mambos Family |
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| Rosemary & Manuel |
I
Some
memories are a little different though ha. Last week we were knocking
doors because we needed to find new people. At one
door a young guy opened probably about 18 years old. He was on the
phone so he took the card and shut the door. As we were turning to walk
away, he opened the door, crumpled the card in my face, and threw it at
my feet. Why did he need to waste that effort?
Just throw it in the trash next time hombre! haha it was funny. Then as
we were looking for open doors of the buildings, Hermana Alatorre was
telling me a story about how she was contacting one time and none of the
doors were open. She yelled into the sky
saying something like, "God I have faith, I'm cold, and we’re doing
your work. Please let this door open.” As she finished saying that,
the door clicked open. The crazy thing about this is, as she was telling
me this story, the door she pushed as an example
to her story CLICKED OPEN!!! It was so crazy! At that moment that I
realized that God has a sense of humor. Door contacting is my favorite
because I never know what is waiting in store for me behind the door. I
really love it.
Well there’s not much else to talk about haha. Last week was a
little crazy. Hopefully I will have so many new investigatores next week
to tell you about! Mom I have a song to look up for you. It is called
Bless My Son. I don’t know who sings it, but it
makes me cry and I think of you every time! Also, I loved the pictures
of the Rose Bowl. It looked so fun! Wish I could have been there! I
emailed Miranda about her mission and she told me she goes to the MTC
again tomorrow
for 3 weeks and then shes headed
back to Florida! She is excited and ready. I am so proud of her and her
courage to go back out. She is such a great example to so many people.
I really loved skyping all of you! People in my ward commented on
the pictures! They thought the pictures of the skype were awesome! Good
work Kel for putting them up there.
Also, my bishop’s wife told me I have to
come back with my family so she can meet the people who raised such an
amazing daughter! good work mom and dad :)
Well I love you all and can’t wait to hear from you next week. I’m glad everyone got my letters! My new address is
Avenida de Montserrat 59-61 1,2
Martorell, España 08760
Con Amor
Hermana Barker
More photos of the people I love!
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| Iona Gordillo |
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| My best buds - Benji & Belen Mambos |
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| It's hard to say goodbye! |
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| Mama Africa |
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| Our Missionary Cheer |
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| District Missionaries |
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