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

Catching up....July 1

And here is July 1st:

This week we were jam-packed with lessons.  We didn´t have time to contact, even in between lessons, because we were running all over the place going from one appointment to the next.  And from the looks of it, this next week is going to be even more crazy.  

Today we´re all going to have a picnic/water fight/I don´t know what in the Parque de Retiro for the 4th of July.  It should be super fun.  Then on Wednesday we have exchanges, and I have to leave Torrejon to go to Alcala for the day.  My companion is planning on heading to Campo Real.  And Thursday we have Zone Conference in Pavones, which is where the temple is.  That should be really fun.  Friday is my companion´s birthday!  And we´ll be in Paracuellos with one of my favorite families in the ward.  Paracuellos is even further than Campo Real, so we´ll probably spend more or less the whole day there.  Aah we´re going to be busy!

Andrei finally came to church yesterday, after 2 weeks without seeing anything of him.  He found a job, which is good for him, but now he works all day every day, and it´s hard for him to even get away to go to church. He said he´s still been reading the Book of Mormon, though, which is good.

We saw Luz on Friday and she said she´s going to try to get her schedule changed to be able to come to church.  She has to come at least twice before she can get baptized, and so we hope she can come so she can still get baptized on her date, which is the 21 of July.  She has a lot of faith, so I think this should be able to work for her.  We´ll see her again today, and I´m excited to hear her news about her schedules. 

Teresa is still progressing really well.  She´s reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it, and we´re currently teaching her nephew, Joel, along with her.  They came to a Family Home Evening that we did in the chapel (and 22 people came!  3 of them were our investigators!) and Joel came to our English class on Wednesday and to play soccer and basketball with the ward on Friday.  He is 9, and he has an incredible enthusiasm to come to activities and to listen to us and to read the scriptures.  He always requests scriptures to read and study, and he has marking pencils and everything.  He's awesome.  We still haven´t gotten a date for Teresa, but we´re not sure we want to set one yet because our recent convert Alejandro used to be good friends with her and he told us of a stumbling block with her that we have to watch out for.  We´re going to talk with her and make sure things are still that way, but if they are, we´re going to have to work with her for a good while before she can get baptized. So keep her especially in your prayers.

We have new investigator named Hazzell (just say Hazel) who is Nicaraguan, and she lives in the same piso with one of the elders´ investigators.  It´s crazy because we got her reference from elders from a different area who contacted her in the metro.  I guess there´s something special with that piso.  She has good potential, but the problem with her is that she lives in Coslada, which is 30-40 minutes from Torrejon, so we can´t visit her very often because we rarely have time to go to Coslada and back. So hopefully she will keep doing well and will be able to come to church and activities. 

This past week we had a zone meeting that was really powerful. President and Sister Jackson were there, and our zone leaders talked about faith, hope, and charity, and how we can use these to be better missionaries.  They told us that they had been challenged in a leadership meeting on Tuesday to challenge someone to be baptized last Saturday.  And they did it, and the person got a testimony that the gospel is true and she´s going to get baptized this Saturday.  Our sister leaders also did this, but their baptism worked out for last Saturday.  They, in turn, challenged us to do the same thing for this coming Saturday.  And we´re going to do it!  We have 3 candidates.  

The first 2 are a mother and daughter named Clelia and Andrea.  Clelia is married to an active member and has been investigating the church for years and comes every week and has a testimony that it is true, but she´s stubborn and wants to feel specifically in her heart some magical feeling that she needs to get baptized.  We have been praying and fasting for her to be able to know that she needs to do it, and we want her to do it this week. Her daughter also comes to church, and if her mother gets baptized, most likely she will follow.  She´s 9. 

The other candidate (our backup plan) is Miguel, the husband of an active member.  He also has been investigating for years and he comes to church but he never progressed with the missionaries. He just got back last week from 2 or 3 months working in the Dominican Republic and he told us that he´s changed a lot.  He´s stopped looking for happiness in the things of the world, because he´s realized that his family is the most important.  And what more can you do to bless your family than be baptized and hold the priesthood.  His wife got her patriarchal blessing on Saturday and he went with her.  I wouldn´t be surprised if there was a promise to her that she will have an eternal family sealed in the temple, and I´m sure that if that was in there, it must have touched him deeply. 

So I solicit your prayers most of all this week for Clelia, Andrea, and Miguel.  One or two or maybe all of them are going to get baptized this weekend!  I know they are ready and I know the Lord loves them and wants them to do this, and I have the faith that it is 100% possible. And not only is it completely possible, but it´s going to happen! 

Wow that was a really long email.  Sorry. 

I love you all and I´m praying for you!  Have a wonderful week!

con un monton de fe, amor, y esperanza,

Hermana Lara Schaumann

Triumph Over Computer Glitches! From June 24

We had not received Lara's emails for today and the previous two Mondays, due to some unknown glitch.  They were being returned to her, and we weren't getting them.  Here comes the catch-up!  

June 24---

*****************************************

I had definitely thought of a lot of things to say in this letter and now that I´m sitting down to write it my mind is completely blank. 

This week was pretty good.  The temperatures cooled down a bit and we didn´t roast any time we stepped outside, which is always nice.  

We had a bunch of lessons this week with Teresa.  She is amazing.  Yesterday she made sure to arrange to have her nephew visiting when we came so he could talk to us as well.  On Tuesday we taught her the Restoration, and it was the best Restoration lesson we´ve ever taught.  We could feel the Spirit immensely, and at the end of the lesson she was looking at us, her eyes glowing, and she said that she felt so filled.  That sometimes you listen to people preach and it´s like they´re just saying words, but sometimes you listen to them and you feel full and happy and at peace, and that was how she felt with us.  

Let´s talk for a second about the Restoration video.  We love using this video because it´s powerful.  It always brings the Spirit and it always touches people´s hearts in a way that just our words can´t do.  But Satan also knows it´s powerful, and he does not like it one bit.  Every time we watch this, something bad happens.  Let´s list them: 

1) the DVD player will not function  

2) the remote control won´t let us move around on the menu screen to change the language  

3) the DVD freezes up halfway through 

4) someone rings the doorbell or comes into the room during the First Vision scene  

5) the phone rings right as the First Vision starts.

That´s what happened with Teresa.  Right at the beginning of the First Vision scene, her phone rang.  But it didn´t work because she still felt the Spirit strongly.  Haha, Satan, you can´t win.

Even though she can´t come to church very easily with her mother at home, really sick, she wants to come so badly.  She told us she was going to try her hardest to come but then her mom had a bad night and she didn´t want to leave her alone even for a little while to come to Sacrament Meeting.  

We had our first lesson with Jorge and he brought a friend with him!  And turns out his friend lives on the same floor of the same building where a couple from our ward live!  I´m excited to teach more lessons to the two of them!

And yeah, Mom, thanks for mentioning the missionary broadcast.  We don´t get to watch it until next week, so I have no idea what it says.  Now I´m going to be waiting anxiously to watch it...

A little note for all of you-- if you want me to get your letters without having to wait 3-6 weeks, please send them to my piso.  The address is

Avenida de la Alcarria 9, 1º D

28806 Alcalá de Henares

Madrid

SPAIN

That being said, we have zone meeting this Wednesday, so I should be getting all my mail from the mission office then. 

We didn´t see Andrei or Luz at all this week, because they both work all day, every day.  Hopefully we can see them!  I hate not being able to see my investigators.

Updated list of investigators--

Andrei

Luz

Teresa, Alejandra, Joel

Jorge, José

Nora

Marisol

Nefí

...and I think that´s it.  We had to drop a ton of people this week because we can´t ever get in contact with them or they just aren´t interested.

And before you ask, Nefí is the son of a less active sister in the ward.  He´s 23 or 24, I think.  We´re going to have a FHE with him, his mom, and his older sister and her family sometime soon.

Well, I think that´s about it for Torrejón.  I´ll let you know what else starts to develop this week!

con cariño,

Hermana Lara Schaumann

¡TORO! ¡TORO!

I feel like a TON has happened this week. I literally have no idea where to start. Maybe I´ll try to do this chronologically.

For transfers we had some crazy stuff happen in our district.  We now have 8 Hermanas and only 5 Elders.  GO SISTER MISSIONARIES.  Hermana Braithwaite is the new sister in our piso.  She´s really cool and fluent in Portuguese!  So she ends up speaking in Portuguese instead of Spanish sometimes.  It´s pretty funny.

This weekend is the Fiesta de Torrejón, which means that there is a GIANT fair-thing with roller coasters and a ferris wheel and all sorts of stuff and EVERYONE goes to it.  People from all over the place have been here this weekend to enjoy the fair and the festivals and free concerts and all sorts of stuff.  It´s pretty cool.  But more on that later. (Hint: look at the title of this email.)

We set a baptismal date for Luz! She wants to get baptized on July 21.  The only challenge with her is that she works almost every Sunday. so she can´t come to church.  The rule is that an investigator has to come to church 3 times before they can be baptized.  With her, we might be able to do it with 1 or 2 times because she was married to a member in Columbia and investigated the church with him, so we´re thinking there might be a different rule for former investigators.  Hopefully yes.  She has a testimony of the Book of Mormon and of Joseph Smith and she loves to read and talk to us about the importance of our faith.  Her 4 kids are still living in Columbia, and one of the main reasons she wants to get baptized is to set an example for them so that they might develop the same relationship with God in their lives.

Andrei is still progressing really well.  He said that he´s cut down dramatically on the amount he smokes but he still hasn´t been able to fully quit.  The cool thing is that we found a member in our ward who was smoking but had to quit in order to get baptized, and we´re going to have him talk to Andrei.   Andrei is awesome and is almost halfway through the Book of Mormon now.  We took him to the temple on Saturday and walked around and he absolutely loved the spirit of peace and calm that surrounds it.  He said that he really wants to go inside because he can imagine how much more peaceful it will be within the walls. His baptism is still set for September 15.  

We are totally stuck with Nora, though.  It´s sad.  We had a lesson with her and invited her to pray about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith and she was like "I don´t feel like I need to pray about that because I don´t doubt that they´re true."  I tried my hardest to explain the difference between her thinking the Book or Mormon is a good thing and Joseph Smith is a good man and KNOWING they´re from God through the power of the Holy Ghost, but she´s Nigerian and stubborn.  Mom, you were asking about Nigerians?  They are going to be the death of me.  They are always very welcoming and will invite you into their home and listen to you, but they NEVER want to get baptized because every Nigerian I have ever met "was baptized like Jesus in a river and I don´t need to be baptized again because the person that baptized me was a priest in my church and so he had authority from God."  I love their faith but their stubbornness and unwillingness to pray and ask God if they should be baptized again or if the church is true KILLS me.  So I hope that one day Nora will have the desire to pray about the church, but for now, we can´t force her to do anything.

Also Mari and Mayelin don´t want us to come visit them again.  That was sad.

But we got a new investigator named Teresa who´s Domincan (I LOVE DOMINICANS.  They are super awesome and ALWAYS believe and practice their religion and they're just super cool, even if their accent can be really hard to understand.) She is AMAZING.  She´s 45, and she spends all her time taking care of her mother who is 72 and has had Alzheimers for 10 years.  She can´t talk or move and she has no facial recognition of anyone or anything and it was so sad to see her.  I almost cried.  But Teresa has an incredible faith in God and she´s seen His help in her life so many times when she was feeling depressed or discouraged with her mother´s consistently worsening condition.  We read Alma 7:11-13 with her.  It was wonderful to listen to her and to feel her Spirit of Christ-like sacrifice.  I´m excited to teach her more, especially the Plan of Salvation!

One cool little miracle is Jorge.  He just got here to Spain 2 weeks ago and he´s here just for vacation for 2 or 3 months. He came from Columbia and he was taking the missionary discussions there but he had to leave and he didn´t know how to get in contact with the missionaries.  He asked where the church was and said he wanted to come and he also agreed to meet with us tomorrow morning.  I think he can fit a baptism into his vacation schedule, no? :)  I love that we just "happened" to run into him.  Heavenly Father definitely knows what He´s doing in this work.  Talk about the details of our lives.

This week the weather was HEINOUS.  It was hot.  When I say hot, I mean 100+ degrees every day from 1-7 pm, not a cloud in the sky, the sun beating down on your back for 8 hours straight.  A few people told me Spain was hot, but they didn´t specify what "hot" meant.  It´s AWFUL.  And apparently it hasn´t even started to get really hot yet.  It´s apparently going to get to 113 in July and August.  CAN´T WAIT.  And the cherry on top is that I´m allergic to my new sunscreen also so I have nothing to protect my skin from the sun.  I´m pretty sure I am SUPER tan relative to how I was when I left.

One more thing I feel like someone should have told me is that dryers don´t exist in Europe.  All our clothes have to air dry on a drying rack in our piso.  Not that I can do anything about it, but I would have liked to know.

Bueno.  

So I know it´s only noon here, but we already had THE COOLEST P-DAY EVER.  As part of the festival of Torrejón, they have a running of the bulls and a mini, gore-free bullfight.  And what did my district do?  WE WENT TO IT!  I have a handful of pictures that I can send you.  It was SO cool.  The running part was a little anticlimactic, because there were only like 4 bulls so it wasn´t really dangerous at all, but the bullfight part was AWESOME.  It was in the Plaza de Toros, which is basically like a rodeo stadium, and the people who want to participate go down on the floor.  Then they release the bull, and it runs around charging whomever.  The people try to get it to charge them, and they have the red flags and stuff too.  There were a few guys that jumped over it (the bull).  It was SUPER AWESOME.  There was an ambulance there but nobody got hurt.  The people were pretty smart and if the bull was charging them, they jumped over the wall.  We felt so authentically Spanish.  It was awesome.

Well, I think that´s all.  

Keep Nora, Andrei, Luz, Teresa, Jorge, and all the others in your prayers.

Love,

Hermana Lara Schaumann

Iron Chef (sort of..)

Apparently, Lara got to be an Iron Chef, and the surprise ingredient was liquid cream instead of sour cream.  And salsa instead of green enchilada sauce.  It wasn't quite what she meant (or wanted) to use, but it all worked out.  One of many ingredient substitutions she will be using for the next year and a half.  

Many wonderful blessings.  We LOVE the family who is taking special care of her there!  

************************************

I will definitely be praying for you even more than usual.  I absolutely know that Heavenly Father has an important plan for all of you and that´s what He´s working on here.

I learned this week that the more difficult the situations we are in, the more Heavenly Father is showing us that He trusts us.  He wouldn´t put us in a situation that we didn´t have the ability to overcome.  I love having that knowledge, and it blesses me immensely. 

Oh and nothing happened to me for transfers.  Still in the same area with the same companion.  We were freaking out a little bit on Saturday because we ran into EVERY investigator we had taught the whole transfer on the streets, and thought that maybe it was a sign that one of us was going to leave, but it wasn´t so.  And I´m glad.  I LOVE this area and I would be really sad to leave.

This week I had a really wonderful experience on Friday.  There´s a family in our ward who just got baptized in December.  The parents are Jhony and Alba, and they have two daughters, Karen (13) and Aitana (7).  I think I already told you a little about Aitana´s birthday party that we went to a couple weeks ago.  Anyway, Jhony has a tradition that every missionary who serves in the ward has to come over and make lunch (which is the huge meal here) for his family. We give them a list of what we need and they buy the ingredients. So, being new, it was my turn to cook.  I decided to make enchiladas, the same kind I always make, because I know how to make them without a recipe and they´re really easy.  Only they don´t have the same things here in Spain as they do in the U.S.  So I made enchiladas WITHOUT enchilada sauce, sour cream, or cream of anything soup.  And they tasted just fine.  In place of enchilada sauce, I used "mexican" salsa with some water to thin it out and some fresh tomatoes.  In place of sour cream or soup or whatever, I used CREAM.  Like half and half. How did this happen?  Remember, my companion doesn´t speak English.  I was on the phone trying to translate my grocery list and I was trying to explain what sour cream was and my companion was like "That´s nata para cocinar" and so I told her to get that.  Which is NOT sour cream at all.  Oh well.  It worked, and I was really proud of it.  The whole family told me it was really good, and I hope that wasn´t just to be nice.  They ate a TON of it, though, and so I think they really did like it. Jhony is super funny and he said "When you first started, I didn´t have any faith in you.  But you did a good job.  This is delicious." 

The elders were there too, and Elder Cardwell made this blackberry tart that was FANTASTIC. 

The cool experience, though, was after we finished eating and the elders shared a scripture.  Jhony started talking about how much the missionaries here had blessed his life.  He said that when the elder who baptized him left, it was really hard for him.  But now he almost looks forward to transfers because it´s amazing for him to see how different each of the missionaries is and how they have all given up this time in their lives to serve the Lord. Then his wife said how grateful she was for our sacrifice and how much her family owes to all the missionaries they know.  I got the best feeling listening to her, and she started crying and her husband started tearing up and I couldn´t help but smile because that´s why I´m here.  I´m here to serve the Lord and I´m here to bless people´s lives. I love Jhony and Alba.  They´re maybe my favorite family here.  They are so cool, and every time we talk with them, I get re-energized to be a better missionary.

Keep praying for Nora.  Her mom died this past week, and it´s hard for her, but we got to teach the plan of salvation and she was grinning the whole time.  I love that lesson. It is amazing, and I knew she could feel the power of it.

Also keep praying for Andrei.  Hopefully we´ll have a tour of the temple grounds with him this Saturday!  We found out that the date he set for his baptism is September 15, which seems really far away, but he still needs a little time to prepare and to quit smoking, so I think it will be right for him. 

Another new (to me) investigator that we taught this week is Luz.  My companion was teaching her before, but she works all the time and it´s really hard to get in to see her.  She is amazing though.  Her husband in Columbia was a member and she took the discussions years ago with him, but didn´t feel prepared yet to get baptized.  She understands the scriptures incredibly well and analyzes them like she´s already a member. Now if we can just get her work schedule to let us bring her to church...

We also met this week Mari and Mayelin. They´re from Columbia and Mari recently got really sick and almost died, and for that has just started coming back to church.  We´re excited to keep teaching them and to see how they progress.

Well I think that´s it.

Have a wonderful week!

Hermana Lara Schaumann

I found some hypoallergenic sunscreen (at least I think it is) and I got a bottle, but it´s OUTRAGEOUSLY expensive.  So hopefully it works and I´m not going to burn and die.

Battle for the bouquet?

Man I don´t even know where to start.  We had a ridiculously slow week in which we were working our hardest to have lessons and make contacts and didn´t have or receive ANY.  We called every current and former investigator but either they were busy or they never answered the phone.  We didn´t find a single new investigator either.  It´s kind of discouraging to look at our numbers for the week but it´s good to know that we were working the hardest possible and that it isn´t our fault.  

The thing that´s been the biggest challenge for me is that I have a clear image in my head of who and what I want to be.  I can picture myself being this incredibly powerful missionary and then I go out and start to work and I´m just not that.  It´s been SO hard to recognize the  progress I am making when I´m still falling so short of my personal goal. But with Heavenly Father´s help I´m starting to recognize the things I´m getting better at even though I´m not where I want to be with the language or with contacting or in teaching lessons. It´s hard for me because I have a strong testimony of the power of silence and of waiting and letting the investigator think and feel the Spirit but my companion hates silence and always starts talking if it´s more than a few seconds. Because of that I hardly ever talk in lessons or in contacts, and I want to, but I would rather have the investigator feel the Spirit than listen to my words. We´ve been trying to get a balance down, and it´s improved, but we have a ways to go still.

Today for P-day we got to go to the mission home for a barbecue and party with all the missionaries in the Madrid area.  It was super fun--we played frisbee and ping pong and I got to catch up with some of the elders and sisters I knew in the MTC. I was so blessed to be a part of an amazing group in the MTC.  Seriously, we have some powerful missionaries.

Andrei is still progressing and doing well.  He found at least a part time job which is good for him because he has work but bad for us because he has less time to meet with us.  The thing we learned, though, is that he smokes, so we´re working on a plan to help him quit.  He´s still learning a ton and loves the gospel, and we also found out that he set his own baptismal date without us saying or doing anything about setting a date!  He won´t tell us what it is, though.  We´ll see.  He came to the baptism that the elders in our ward had yesterday and seemed to really enjoy it. Keep praying for him!  I know he´ll get baptized but it might be a while.

Funny story for the week: A couple got married this weekend and we had their wedding reception in the church on Friday night.  It was crazy because they got married really suddenly because the groom´s papers came through and they could finally get married in Spain.  So everything was pulled together in 2 or 3 days. Anyway the story is that we all got up for the bouquet toss and Hermana Vouemba was standing towards the front of the group of girls. So she throws the bouquet and suddenly I watch and this other sister from the ward and Hermana Vouemba are both on the floor.  The other lady got the bouquet and Hermana Vouemba just sat there, startled, for a few seconds. What happened was that Hermana Vouemba wasn´t even doing anything--the other lady just really wanted the bouquet and so she shoved her out of the way and onto the ground. Yesterday the WHOLE WARD was like "Hermana Vouemba, we heard what happened to you!  Guess you really want to get married!"  She was so embarrassed but it was HILARIOUS.

So anyway, pray for Torrejón!  We need to find some new investigators that will answer their phones and have time to meet with us.

Tomorrow I think we have exchanges and then we get to go to the temple Wednesday morning.  I´ll have to let you know how all that goes next week!  Transfers are on Monday so we find out on Saturday who stays and who goes. 

THANK YOU, family, Rachel, and President Barrow for your letters!  I loved coming out of district meeting with all of them and it made my day to read them and see pictures.  The pictures are all over my wall! 

Best of luck to you all!  I´m praying for you!

Con cariño,

Hermana Lara Schaumann