Humildad, Vacaciones, and A New Stake

I forgot to post last week, so both of Lara's emails are down below.  Feel free to skip this side note, and get to "the good stuff."  The news from The Canary Islands is that they are creating a Stake there on Sep. 22.  That's big news, because from what I understand they've never had a stake there before.  Not even when they were their own mission.  

Here's the church news article about the Canaries from 1990.   http://www.ldschurchnews.com/articles/19557/Gospel-takes-wing-in-Canary-Islands.html   To summarize the history of the church there:  the area was opened in 1978 by none other than Lara's uncle, Elder Scott Jensen, and Elder Gill.  It grew rapidly at first, and was made its own mission in 1988.  Over time, the growth slowed down tremendously, going from a peak of 18 branches down to 10 in 2006, when the mission was dissolved.   It has been a part of the Madrid mission ever since then.  So, the members there are quite excited that it is now going to be a stake.  

FROM LARA Aug 19:

Sent: Monday, August 19, 2013 7:52 AM
Subject: Humildad

I´ve just tried 5 different ways to start this email, and none of them are really working. So I´ll just dive into it. 

Harrison and Jonathan got baptized on Friday!  It was AWESOME.  But I have to back up to do this story justice. 

All week long we saw Harrison. and he was still getting places late but he was SO happy and so decided about his baptism.  All he could say was how happy he was and how he couldn´t believe that he was actually going to get baptized!  So Friday afternoon he invited us over to his house to eat for mediodia. We had never been to his house because we always just teach him at the church or in a park of wherever. We figured out on the map where he lives and it was really far away.  So we went with the elders up there.  Luckily the elders got there first and when our bus came, they were there at the stop to tell us where to get off.  As we were walking to his house, they told us to prepare for a humbling experience.  And yeah, it was humbling.  He has nothing: no running water, no electricity, not even a real roof to his house.  I almost just burst into tears walking in the door.  We had no idea that he lived like that.  He´s always so happy and content that we had no clue.  The minute he saw us come in, he just beamed and told us "This is the happiest day of my life!"  He cooked us lunch on a propane tank that he literally constructed a stovetop over out of cement blocks.  I was so humbled to see that the gospel is literally all he has and he is so, SO grateful for it. Maybe one day I will be that strong and good of a person that if I have the gospel, I don´t want for anything. I was amazed to see that.  I couldn´t believe that I was supposed to be his guide and mentor to teach him the gospel when he is so much a better person than I am. 

Then that afternoon we had his baptism.  We wanted to just bring him with us but we had to come back early to fill up the font and so we couldn´t bring him so early.  He told us that he was going to get a ride with his friend to come down at 5:30.  We made sure he had money to take the bus in case his friend couldn´t drive him  And so we sat there in the church waiting and waiting and waiting...6:00...6:15...6:30...We were helping Hermana Buhler get the food ready in the kitchen and there were extra rice krispie treats and I was so stressed that I just stood there eating and eating them.  We knew he was going to come, we just didn´t know when...and then at 6:40 he came running in the door and got changed! Everything was perfect for the baptism.  Just to listen to his and Jonathan´s testimonies at the end was one of the most amazing things I´ve ever experienced. And for once, a decent number of members came to the baptism.  Usually almost everyone there is an investigator. The members were so good at talking to and accepting them both.  I even caught a glimpse of Jonathan just sitting there and crying talking to the Buhlers after the baptism.  We walked Harrison back to the bus stop and the whole way he just kept thanking us over and over for everything we had done, which honestly doesn´t seem like much at all. 

Then on Sunday Harrison wasn´t at church at the beginning...and he didn´t come until 10:35!  (Our church starts at 10.)  So he´ll have to be confirmed next week.  Jaime´s going to pick him up at his house and drive him down so he´ll get there on time.  They´re both almost perfect people.  I´m just waiting for them to get translated.

As far as everything else... I got a pedicure on Saturday from our investigator Stella.  It was super fun and it felt so good but she was laughing at me the whole time because, as you may or may not know, I have EXTREMELY ticklish feet, and I flinched every time she tickled me, which was a lot. But now I have really cute toenails!  They´re purple with little white flowers on them. 

Also, we started teaching this week Julio´s wife Ana.  She´s a SPANIARD.  Which is a HUGE deal because Spainards never want to listen to us. But she is one of the sweetest, most wonderful people I have ever met.  This week she was off work and she came with Julio to EVERYTHING, all the activities in the church, a FHE that we have with a recent convert and her family, the baptism, and we visited them in their house Saturday night.  She´s already been reading the Book of Mormon and she´s a good chunk of the way through 1 Nephi.  She loves coming to church because she says she just feels really good and really comfortable there, and the people are really nice. Just to listen to her talk about how she feels when she reads and comes to church, I could tell that she already has a testimony, she just doesn´t know it yet!  But she´s moving to Chile in September.  So that just means we have to baptize her and Julio before she leaves!  I´m actually pretty positive that we will. I have the best feeling around her.

And even better, two sisters in the ward with whom we have FHE on Monday nights found out that it was Julio´s birthday on Saturday and WITH ANA planned a surprise birthday party for him, which we had last night. It was one of the funnest things I´ve ever done, and Hermana Floyd and I were laughing about how all our friends here in Las Palmas are 45 year-old South Americans who we can´t always understand when they talk.  Julio was so surprised when it ended up being a party for him, because his wife had been working really hard to keep it a secret.  He thought it was going to be a scripture study class. We made a peanut butter sheet cake with the peanut butter Mom sent me and it was SO good, but then there were a TON of desserts that everyone else made and Jaime, who was there, kept making us eat more and more.  We´ve realized that American desserts are SIGNIFICANTLY sweeter and richer than Spanish or South American ones, and we´ve gotten accustomed to eating less sugar.  So we felt like we were going to die yesterday after eating so many sweet things.  And there ended up being a ton of cake left over and we didn´t know what we were going to do with it, because no one wanted to take it home and WE definitely didn´t want it, and so we started walking back to our piso with all this cake, trying to figure out who we could give it to.  Then we saw the elders walking down the street and so we called to them and made them wait while we ran up to our piso and put it in a tupperware container and grabbed them plastic forks so they could eat it on the road.  As it turned out, they ate the entire huge thing of cake in like 2 minutes while they were standing there talking to us.  It was crazy, but also perfect because we didn´t have to eat it all ourselves.

I would like to solicit your prayers this week especially for Harrison, Julio and Ana, Claudia, and Danna.  

I am honestly having the time of my life here in Las Palmas.  It´s really hard sometimes to be a good missionary, but just the little moments of seeing miracles are more than enough to make me want to do what I´m doing for at least another year. 

Venga, mis niños, (a typical Canarian farewell)

Hermana Lara Schaumann

P.S. this week we had lunch with a Brazilian family and it was probably the best food I have ever eaten in my life.  We ate a stroganoff with chicken and olives, and potato salad, and some fried shredded chicken balls.  and for dessert they made pave (I probably spelled that wrong) which is like chocolate pudding and some creamy icing thing with cookies inside it.   It was so good and again we ate WAY tooa much.  So if you ever have the chance to eat Brazilian food, take it. 

FROM LARA Aug 26:

So there´s this strange phenomenon in Spain, and especially in the Canary Islands that happens called "vacaciones."  This is when every single person goes on a 4-6 week vacation to another island or to the south or to the Peninsula.  

And that was our challenge this week!  We´ve been searching for new investigators and we´ve contacted some people but they´re ALL on vacation and don´t answer their phones.  It´s a little rough. But we worked really hard and we ended up seeing some really cool stuff. I´m just going to talk about the miracles we saw this week.

#1: We were walking around in an area called Puerto, which is close to all the shipping docks, and a lady came running after us and called after us in English.  She told us that years ago, a member of her extended family, like a distant cousin or something, was a missionary in the Canaries.  She asked if we could find out anything about her relative, and was really excited to give us her information so we could talk with her another day and help her look for this girl.  We´re DEFINITELY going to teach her and also help her find this relative of hers. 

#2: We desperately needed new investigators, so last night we just randomly went by this one lady´s house who we had found knocking doors. She invited us in and was really interested in our message and then she came with us to the baptism that happened an hour later. So she got to meet a bunch of members and feel the Spirit and we set up an appointment to see her again on Wednesday.

#3: Also last night, we had 15 minutes left before we had to go back to our piso, and we really wanted to find and teach a new investigator.  Hna. Floyd had this idea to go to a fountain nearby that looks over the ocean, and we found a man sitting there by himself, talked to him, taught him about prayer, and set up a time to see him again.  All in 15 minutes.

#4: This isn´t our miracle, but it´s still a miracle.  The elders in Las Palmas right now have a mini missionary from Tenerife. They were teaching a 15 year-old girl who lives with her aunt, who´s a member.  Her mother is also a member, but she´s less active and she had been denying her daughter permission to get baptized.  Finally one day 2 weeks ago the mother said that the girl, Desiree, could get baptized, but she had to think about it hard and be sure it was what she wanted to do.  She originally planned to get baptized Saturday the 24th but then she got scared by the pressure from her mom and backed out.  The elders taught her on Thursday and their mini missionary, who is 16, was able to connect with her really well and told her that she knew she had to do it and she couldn´t let fear get in the way of anything.  So she decided to get baptized yesterday, Sunday the 25th.  Her baptism was SO amazing.  She basically threw herself into the water, she was so excited.  Afterwards, I gave her a little note I had written for her and she read it and just started crying and hugged me at least 50 times and told me she never wants Hermana Floyd or me to leave.  She is INCREDIBLE.  I just love her to pieces. 

Hopefully we´ll have a better week this week, and it´s the last week of the transfer.  We found out today that there are only 12 hermanas coming in, and so chances are we won´t be training down here.  We were all hanging out as a district today playing soccer and we all said that we don´t want anything to change in our district.  So hopefully President will leave the islands in peace!

Also, we´re becoming a stake on September 22!  Everyone here is SO excited!

Have a great week!  LOVE YA!

Doble Bautismo!

(quick disclaimer: when I say double baptism I don´t want you to think that we´re going to baptize 2 people.  It´s a double baptism because we have a baptism, and the elders in our branch also have a baptism.)

So our baptism is for Harrison, who is so prepared and so awesome.  When we were starting to think he couldn´t come on time for ANYTHING, he came 20 minutes late to FHE, 10 minutes late to an activity on Saturday morning, and 5 minutes EARLY to church.  He also had and passed his baptismal interview!  We were talking to him on the phone this morning and he was super excited.  He kept saying "Ever since I decided to get baptized, I´ve just been so happy." He´s kind of shy, but he gets along well with the other members at church and he says he always feels so welcome there.  Thank you, members, for that sort of caring!  I love that he can feel that.  He got the first lesson on July 14th, so it will have been just barely over a month that he´s been meeting with the missionaries.  He still has a lot to learn about the gospel, but he´s going to learn it and love it!

So Harrison is our miracle.  And if we really want to talk about another miracle, that´s what the elders got.  Their baptism is a 24 year-old named Jonotan. He´s been investigating the church for somewhere around 4 years.  And he´s just never gotten baptized.  He always had one excuse or another.  But the missionaries didn´t give up on him, and kept visiting him and helped him stay active in the church activites, especially with YSA.  So he kept coming, and one day a couple weeks ago he called the elders and said that he needed to meet with them because he had something important to talk with them about. They were understandably a little nervous but went to meet with him.  And he told them "I keep having this dream.  It´s always the same dream, and I have it every night after I´ve prayed and read my scriptures.  If I don´t read and pray, I don´t have it.  But in this dream, I´m out preaching the gospel as a missionary."

And the elders said, "Well, I´m pretty sure God´s telling you he wants you to serve a mission. Can we set a baptismal date with you so you would be able to serve?"  And so they set the date for the 24th.  But they were planning, and they knew he could get baptized right away. So they called him and asked if he wanted to change his date to the 17th. He said, "Um, I´ll have to get back to you on that."  And when the elders asked why, he said "Well, I have to pray about it and get an answer first!"  And so now he´s getting baptized on the 16th (we had to change it to Friday, but whatever) with Harrison!  It´s going to be awesome!

We had a really good first lesson with Mayeriy, who is from Colombia.  She had a TON of questions and it took us forever to finish the lesson, but her questions were really good and we couldn´t just not answer them!  I´m excited to see where she progresses.  By the end of the lesson, she seemed to really like what we were teaching. :)

Funny story of the week: Mayeriy lives pretty close to us, but we didn´t leave her piso until 9:53, and we have to be back in our piso at 10:00.  So we RAN the entire way back, and we had to go through a little shadier part of town to get back on time, and some of the girls there watched us run and kind of laughed and one of them asked, ¨What happened to you?" and Hermana Floyd just looked back over her shoulder without slowing down and said "We´re in a hurry!" in an out-of-breath, kind of squeaky voice.  They probably thought we were running away from a bad situation.  But no, we were just being obedient. :)

Have a great week!

Hermana Lara Schaumann

Baptism!!

So, Jaime got baptized on Wednesday and confirmed yesterday!!!!!!  He has the biggest testimony I have ever met. He lost his job about 2 or 3 months ago just because he told his boss he was investigating the church.  But he had the faith to continue listening and learning and he found a new job and got baptized into the true church!  After the baptism, he got up and bore his testimony. No one would have guessed from listening to it that he´s a recent convert. He was quoting Elder Holland and President Monson and talking about all sorts of things in the Book of Mormon.  We sang The Lord Is My Light for the musical number because it´s his favorite song.  He LOVES to sing. Even though he has one of the worst voices I have ever heard in my life, I love to listen to him because he´s singing his testimony and he´s singing it shamelessly.  It doesn´t matter that he´s tone-deaf.  He loves singing hymns because he loves his Heavenly Father.  He is just wonderful.  We had a lesson with him yesterday after his confirmation and all he kept saying the whole time was that he was so happy to be baptized and to have the gift of the Holy Ghost and to be a member of this church. He just kept grinning and repeating "I´m really happy.  I´m so happy."  It was amazing.  I always feel the sweetest Spirit when I´m around him. 

Julio for the moment doesn´t feel prepared to get baptized because he doesn´t think he has a testimony.  He went to Jaime´s baptism (we had 7 investigators there!) and we think he´s comparing himself to Jaime, who is already perfect in every way, and he doesn´t feel THAT prepared.  He told us, "I don´t have a testimony like Jaime´s.  If I had to get up there and talk, I wouldn´t have anything to say."  And so we asked him if he knew that the church was true.  And he said "I know this church is true.  I know the Book of Mormon is the word of God.  I know Joseph Smith was a prophet.  I just don´t have a testimony."  And so we tried to explain to him that that IS a testimony and that is all he needs to get baptized, but he still wasn´t sure.  So this week we´re going to go over the baptismal questions with him and tell him that if he can answer these questions, the prophet and the Lord think that he is ready to get baptized.

Harrison is also going to get baptized on the 17th, and he´s really cool.  He´s from Ghana, but he speaks both English and Spanish, so we teach him in Spanish.  He is really eager to learn and always accepting of everything we tell him.  And it´s not just an "okay whatever you say" but he knows that everything is true.  We taught the law of chastity and he knew it was true because he hadn´t always followed it and he had suffered the consequences.  And he already lives the Word of Wisdom in every point because he´s a personal trainer and a boxer.  Cool, no?  Our only challenge with him is that he comes late to everything.  Like REALLY late. 20 minutes or so to church, 35 minutes late to the baptism, sometimes an hour and a half late to our teaching appointments.  We always teach him after any activity or church meeting that he comes to because that means he´s already there and we don´t have to wait for him.

We also got a few new investigators this week.  Cool story:  This week we went to go teach Marta, who works with her husband in the fruteria down the street. We just go in there when business is a little quieter and teach her there in the store. So we were teaching her, and in came her friend Isabel, who joined in our conversation about God, because Marta wants to believe that God exists but has never really felt His reality or existence.  So we´re talking about this when another man, another friend of Marta, walks in and joins in as well.  Marta asks "What religion are you?" and he says "I´m Mormon."  We just stared at him, not sure if he was joking or being smart-alecky or what. And then he said "I´ve ever been baptized but I have their little blue Bible and I like the Mormon church." And so we got his number and we´re going to meet with him this week. Crazy, no?

I love being a missionary and even when it´s hard, there´s always something or someone to remind me why I´m really here and who I´m really serving.

Have a great week, and remember, I like mail. :)

con mucha felicidad y amor,

Hermana Lara Schaumann

El Reino Celestial

So you all know, I have been transferred to paradise.  Literally, this place is like the celestial kingdom.  It is BEAUTIFUL.  Our piso is about a 2-minute walk from the ocean.  It is normally about 75-80 degrees and there is always an ocean breeze blowing.  All the buildings and everything are super colorful and most people live up in the hills/mountains so everyone has a view of the ocean out their windows.  It´s incredible.  

And I have to say it is really nice to be able to speak English with my companion.  We´re going to try and speak in Spanish most of the time but I needed a week break to remember how to talk to my companion in my native language!  Hermana Floyd and I get along really well and even though we´re both pretty new and don´t always know exactly what we´re doing, we are capable enough to teach in unity by the Spirit and our investigators can feel that, even if they can´t totally understand everything we´re saying.  It´s really cool to see how capable I am when I have to be the one that knows Spanish.  Neither one of us is senior companion, so we´re just being awesome over here in Las Palmas.  The elders in our branch are also from our MTC group.  Heavenly Father has a lot of trust in us to do some awesome things here.

And speaking of awesome things, WE HAVE A BAPTISM ON WEDNESDAY!!! His name is Jaime and he´s 41 and from Ecuador.  He is INCREDIBLE.  I first met him last Monday night at FHE and if Hermana Floyd hadn´t already told me about him, I would have thought he was a member.  He was quoting Elder Holland´s last two conference talks to me.  He has the strongest testimony I have ever seen in all my life. He is so ready to get baptized!

Also, we have a fecha (baptismal date, for those of you who don´t speak Spanish) with Julio, for August 17.  And to explain about Julio, I´m going to talk for a minute about the Buhlers.  The Buhlers are the senior couple here, and they are the coolest people I have ever met.  Every Wednesday for district meeting Hna. Buhler makes us American food.  And it tastes SO good just because it is American!  She is a lifesaver, seriously.  

But back to Julio.  So Hna. Buhler teaches an English class here every Tuesday and Thursday night.  About 30 people usually come. Julio was one of the first ones to come, and one day he just asked Hermana Floyd, "You guys have scripture study classes too, right?  I want to go to those."  And so the hermanas started teaching him.  He is really cool and has a really strong testimony too.  He is Peruvian and his wife is from "The Peninsula" which means mainland Spain.  He was just investigating by himself but now he´s been bringing his wife to church with him too!

I don´t have time to tell you about all our other investigators, but here´s a list:

Jaime

Julio

Susi

Harrison

Linda

Dilcia, Marvin, Georgina

Claudia, Gianni

Dora

Guillermo

Our main thing right now is to look for new investigators, so we´re going to try and work with the ward to find some less actives or part member families to teach.  Our branch has more than 600 members, but only about 120 come to church every week.

I exhort you ALL to google earth my address.  And also, if you want to send me something PLEASE send it here because if it gets sent to the mission office I will not see it for probably 6 months.  

ADDRESS in LAS PALMAS:

Hermana Lara Schaumann

C/ Leon y Castillo 111, 4ºC

35004 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

SPAIN

Cambios!!!!

I´m going to Las Palmas in Gran Canaria and it´s going to be amazing.  My companion is Hermana Floyd, who was in the MTC with me.  We were FB friends before the mission and everything. I feel so loved and known by my Heavenly Father and this change is in answer to months of earnest and faithful prayers. My companion is still staying in Torrejon with one of the sisters who lived in our piso my first transfer.  

I am just so happy I could die.  Scott, I want to know exactly where you were in the Canarias.  I´m super excited.

If you sent me a personal email this week, I can´t answer it right now, but I´ll get back to you either when I get to the islands or next week.  

WOOHOO I AM SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!

muchisimo amor,

Hermana Lara Schaumann

Later that day.......;)

So as it turns out we´re here at the airport 2 and a half hours early, and so we´re going to email again now.

Our week was pretty good.  We were a little stressed about transfers, but it still went well. 

Nothing really exciting or important happened to the weekend.  On Friday we had a lesson with a new investigator named Paola who is from Columbia.  She has a friend who lives in the US in Iowa who speaks Spanish, and she was asking if I knew him.  She met him because she is a professional cake decorator and she was trying to order a cricut machine from the US, and he was the employee who could speak Spanish and talk to her.  She was explaining this story and told us that he knew Spanish because he had served a mission in Argentina. Of course, we asked if he was LDS, and she said she didn´t know.  She got online and sent him a message to ask him, and he is!  She has had wonderful experiences with him and even without talking about the church specifically he has been a great missionary in her life.  Hopefully she will continue to progress well!

Saturday was a fundraiser barbecue for the youth to raise money for EFY, and before it even started we had 2 lessons with other new investigators.  Rafael is Spanish (which is a big deal because we NEVER teach Spaniards) and he told us he feels like his life is missing something.  He´s ready to change and learn and do what he needs to find the emotional, spiritual, and temporal stability he´s lacking right now. I felt a wonderful spirit in our lesson with him.  The other new one is Javier, and he´s from Ecuador and is super curious to learn about everything.  I hope he will be willing to put in the effort to actually gain his testimony, because he was a little wishy-washy on that. The barbecue was SUPER fun, and our investigator Andres (the 17 year-old) was there helping out the entire time.  He is a great kid and hopefully he´s going to get baptized in August when he turns 18!

After the barbecue we had a baby shower for a recent convert and after that we went to Jhony and Alba´s house, where I made rice krispie treats that turned out blue-green because plain white marshmallows are not sold at Carrefour. But it still tasted the same, so I consider this a job well done. We were there late at night, and we were waiting to find out about transfers.  We were all super nervous and pacing and we kept waiting and waiting and the email didn´t come. Finally the food was ready so we all sat down at the table and were ready to eat (keep in mind this is at 10:30 at night and that is a normal mealtime here) and the phone rang.  We said the prayer and then Elder Baker told us about transfers.  I was really nervous because I had been praying really, REALLY hard for one specific thing this transfer, and I was scared that I wasn´t going to get it.  He started out and he was joking about himself and his companion, like "Elder W is going to...Coslada, San Fernando, and Torrejon!"  So when he said "Hermana Schaumann is going to...las..." I was expecting some joke because I´ve only been in Torrejon for 2 transfers and I wasn´t going to leave.  But then he said "Las...Palmas" and I just about fell out of my chair.  Hna. Vouemba was in Las Palmas before she came to Torrejon and so I knew where it was. Then he didn´t know who my companion was and I had to call the zone leaders to ask them.  It took like 20 minutes to get in contact with them.  It was crazy.  But then I found out that I´ll be with Hermana Floyd and it´s going to be awesome. We´re going to have a crazy time. I AM SO EXCITED.  Jhony and Alba were super excited for me.  They are so great.

On Sunday the whole ward was shocked that I was the one going and not my companion, but they were all sad to see me go.  Mom, if you have a bunch of friend requests in my Facebook from people in Spain, please accept them for me. :)

Sunday we had a lesson with Teresa.  I had already planned what I wanted to talk about, and so we read scriptures about the love of God and I bore my testimony to her that she is important to God and that He loves her and we love her and even just in thinking about her we know she´s important to God.  I had never felt the Spirit so strongly in a lesson, and I don´t think she had either.  She´s usually pretty quiet and relaxed, but as I was asking her questions and sharing my testimony, she just started to bawl.  She just sat there crying and crying and I knew she could feel what I was saying and she knew it was true.  We set a baptismal date with her for August 18th, so hopefully that will go through.  It was awesome and exactly what I needed to feel satisfied leaving Torrejon. 

Also on Sunday I really wanted to see Gaby before I left but it was getting late and I had to go pack, so we were going home, and I ran into her and her parents in the Plaza! and so I got the chance to say goodbye to them.  It was awesome. Definitely an answer to prayers!

Anyway, I´m pretty much out of time, but here you get an actual update, and I will write you again with Hermana Floyd in Las Palmas!

WOOHOO!

la misionera mas contenta y animada en el mundo,

Hermana Lara Schaumann

We can't do this alone....

We had a lot of lessons this week, again, but we didn´t get ANY contacts.  2 for the whole week.  I was a little ashamed to tell that to our district leader. But it was okay because we had 10 lessons with members present.  I increased my testimony of inviting investigators to ward activities.  We had a lot of investigators that came to our Spanish cooking class or our FHE and it was really cool. 

But what I want to talk about today is Carmen.  I don´t know if I´ve mentioned her before or not...sorry, I´m just going to repeat her whole story. 

Carmen is Spanish and a less-active sister who went less active 10 years ago when her husband suddenly died.  He wasn´t very old but he suddenly got sick and while the doctors were still trying to figure out what was wrong with him and were assuring her that he still had a while to live, he just suddenly died. She lost a lot of faith in God and was also offended that the members of the ward didn´t come to visit or help her, and so she just stopped coming. My companion found her on the ward list with her old companion and started to visit her.  She was always nice and receptive, and knew the church was true and liked to listen to us, and would sometimes come to activities, but didn´t really have interest in coming to church.   Then for the summer she started to have more time for us to come by and so we came more often to answer her questions about her scripture study and to talk with her son, who isn´t a member.  Then 3 weeks ago I looked over in church and there she was, just sitting on the front row.  My jaw hit the ground and I think I might have smacked my companion in the arm kind of hard.  We were shocked because we hadn´t invited her or anything.  She just showed up.  She only stayed for Sacrament Meeting but still.  It was amazing.  We went to visit her a few days later and she just said that she had realized that she can´t do this alone.  Just her faith and scripture study aren´t going to save her.  She needs to renew her covenants and be strengthened by the other members in the ward. It was amazing to hear her say that and to see her faith.  She´s been coming to church still and yesterday stayed the entire block.  We got to sit next to her in Relief Society and it was the best feeling in the world.  She´s also really excited that we are teaching her son and I know that she wants so badly for her family to come back to the church.  Her older kids are also less active and she feels responsible for having pulled them away from the church.  But every time we´re with her, I just know that they´re going to come back.  Her kids will see her example and remember what it feels like.  Her son will get baptized.  She has so much faith that the miracles are going to flock to her. I have been so blessed for seeing the miracle of her change of heart. 

As for other news, nothing much different with our other investigators.  Transfers are next Monday, so Sunday we´re going to find our what our fates will be.  And we get to do it with Jhony and his family!!  One of the Elders in our ward is the district leader, so he has to go to check online what the transfers are before he can call us to tell us.  And Jhony has internet, and he invited us all over for a dinner/FHE/transfer surprise at his house on Saturday night.  And he had the presence of mind to invite an investigator!  I cannot even put into words how much I love Jhony and his family.  They are the best.  I am so excited.  And I sort of accidentally volunteered myself to make rice krispie treats for it.  At least they are ridiculously easy to make and I can´t mess up the recipe.  And they have butter, marshmallows, and rice krispies in Spain. :)

I love you all and I hope you have a wonderful week. 

Keep Carmen and her family in your prayers! 

-Hermana Lara Schaumann

Back Up to Speed...July 8

And finally, today's email:

As predicted, we had even more lessons this week than last week.  The weird thing was that I didn´t feel like we had more lessons. A lot of our appointments fell through and we were lacking in our daily goals.  But as it turned out, we had 3 more lessons this week than last.  I don´t understand anything. 

And...we didn´t end up having a baptism yesterday.  It ended up being that we really wanted it but it was for us more than for the people who are getting baptized.  I had to put into perspective my motives for getting this baptism and realized that Miguel couldn´t be entirely prepared in that time, and it would end up being too rushed and not the way he needs it to happen.  We think Miguel should be ready by this coming Sunday.  He has a lot of interest and he´s reading and progressing well, and he has wonderful questions, but our lessons with him are SUPER hard because his two little boys who are 5 and 1 are ALWAYS in there playing and crying and screaming and it is SO hard to feel the Spirit and to know what to say to him.  He was going to pray this weekend (and I hope he did!) to ask specifically if Heavenly Father wants him to get baptized.  I feel confident that he will get that answer and be prepared to get baptized this weekend.  

As far as Clelia and Andrea...it would be nice if we could actually have a lesson with them.  She always tells us that she doesn´t have time.  I just want to bear my testimony to her.  That´s it. I´m praying that she will let us in this week!

My exchange was a little taste of heaven.  Hermana Judy is the best teacher I have ever seen teach.  When she introduces the Book of Mormon to someone or shares her testimony or even just talks to them, her whole face is lit up with love and happiness.  What we were teaching was the love and reality of Christ.  The words literally flowed out of my mouth in a way I had not experienced before.  I felt so happy and refreshed.  I felt free to bear my heart and to show the people we were teaching that this is real and true.  I wanted to talk because I wanted to add my witness to what Hermana Judy was saying.  At the end of the day she told me I was a very good teacher and I felt so flattered to hear that praise from the best teacher in the world.  Also, Alcalá is really pretty and I loved getting to know it a little better. :)

Thursday we had Zone Conference and it was INCREDIBLE.  At the beginning we all got to stand up and sing The Star-Spangled Banner and it was awesome.  Truth is I really miss America sometimes. :)  The theme of the conference was miracles and I felt so strongly that we are entitled to them as servants of the Lord.  We got to listen to a few missionaries share miracles that had happened to them and it was amazing.  Not surprisingly, I cried pretty much the whole time. We started and ended the conference watching a clip from the John Tanner story, the part at the beginning when he wants to get baptized but can´t because his leg is seriously damaged and he can´t even walk.  Of the two missionaries teaching him, the one who invites him to get baptized is initially dissapointed when he says he can´t get baptized, but his companion recognizes that this is an opportunity to work a miracle.  He asks him if he believes that Christ healed the lame like it says in the Bible.  He then bears testimony of the complete restoration of the gospel, and asks John Tanner if he believes that this healing power is a part of the restored gospel and if he has faith that he can be healed.  John Tanner´s eyes get wide and he says "Yes.  Yes I do."  And then the missionary stands up and commands him in the name of Jesus Christ to get up and walk.  And he stands up and throws aside his crutches and walks across the room.  I started crying so hard at this because I could feel that that power is still the same today as it was then.  We still have the power to heal and change lives and work MIRACLES because we have the power of God in His restored gospel.  This is REAL.  It is.  I know it with every fiber of my being and I cannot deny it. 

The rest of our investigators are progressing decently, nothing too dramatic, and I don´t feel like they´re ready to get baptized quite yet.  Keep praying for them, especially for Miguel, Clelia, Andrea, Luz, Teresa, Hazzell, and Andrei.  I´m sure they will get baptized sometime soon. :)

I surprised my companion with a birthday cake and ice cream for her birthday on Friday and we had a good busy day.  Saturday we really had a party and birthday lunch with Jhony and Alba, who are still my favorites.  I love listening to them and talking to them.  They know the gospel is true like I know it is true.  They are an incredible family and every time I talk with them I have this desire and the faith that one day I´m going to find a family like theirs to teach the gospel to and to baptize.  I know I will.  I love this work so much. I can´t even express how much I love it or how much I love my Savior.  He is REAL and I LOVE HIM.

Have a wonderful week!  Hopefully this email will actually go through... :)

con un testimonio inquebrantable, 

Hermana Lara Schaumann