NO time.....but doing good.

Sorry we have NO time but we´re doing good. 

We saw our investigator again and now she has a fecha! We were able to teach really well by the Spirit and having the member that referred her to us was a huge help! We also saw a huge miracle when she came to church and all the members (many of them already knew her) welcomed her with open arms, showed her around to all the classes, and really took care of her. Not once did we have to worry about where she was, who she was with, or how she was liking it. That is exactly how missionary work should be! We are here to teach the lessons and do the formal preparations, and the members do everything else! She should be getting baptized on August 2nd. 

We were also able to get to know a lot of the members and work a lot with them. I feel like the Lord has really blessed us to be able to have a great relationship build quickly with the members in this whitewash. They already know us and trust us and many are anxious to have us teach their friends and family!

So yeah, have a great week, love ya. I´ll send some pics from our super cool P.day.

Getting to know Vigo--with LOTS of pictures!

So first before I get extremely distracted we´ve had a good week. We definitely had more success than last week as we´ve been figuring out where everything is and getting to know our investigators (also getting a bunch of new investigators!) We met some really cool new people. 

We still haven´t been able to see M again, but we have a cita with her tomorrow so if all goes according to plan we should have her with a baptismal date. 

We met an awesome new lady named M who came to English class and then stayed after with her daughter for FHE and loved it!  She´s from Peru and she´s super nice. She speaks almost perfect English because she lived in England for a few years. So we should be starting to teach her soon, and her almost 8 year-old daughter. 

We had a really cool lesson on the street with an atheist named T.  We talked to him about prayer and invited him to pray to know for sure that God exists. He agreed to do it, so we called him the next day to check up, and he said that he had prayed and that he had asked for something to happen and it did actually happen. But then he said that he wasn´t convinced it came from God...but he´s been thinking more about it. :) It was just a cool opportunity to be able to share our testimonies and invite someone to act and know for himself.

We´re starting to work with some less-active families and getting to know the branch better. There are a lot of really strong members here.  It´s awesome! :)

Okay now the fun stuff...Today we went to a few cool places in our area and then we went to Portugal!! I have a TON of pictures so I´ll be sending them!

view of Spain from Portugal

Cathedral 

Celtic ruins on the way up the mountain

Elders with our Portuguese waitress

lunch in Portugal

A church in Portugal

Portugal across the river

another view of Portugal across the river

Portugal fortress

In a church in Portugal

Portugal in the background

atop the fortress

a street in Portugal

Add caption

watchtower fortress

watchtower peeking

Spain on the right, Portugal on the left, from a mountaintop in A Guarda

a replica of Christopher Colombus' Pinta

Lower fortress

at Playa Samil

Playa America

Looking across the bay from a fortress in Baiona

June 30

Well this week was abnormal. Good but really abnormal. 

Hna. N and I are way too good of friends...we talk ALL the time, WAY too much. We've both served in the islands and in Torrejón, so we know almost all the same members and missionaries, and we talk about them ALL THE TIME. 

This week was a lot of trying to get organized, trying to figure out who the members are, trying to find the busses, trying to find where the chapel is, going through our FOUR area books, etc. Miraculously, we didn't really get lost! We always end up finding Domino's pizza when we don't know where we are. 

On Tuesday we had a really cool experience/miracle where we were trying to get on a bus to go to some pueblo outside of Vigo and while we were waiting, we get a text from a member telling us that she needed us to meet with her friend that afternoon and teach her the plan of salvation. So we came back from the pueblo, found her house, went in, met her friend, and started to teach. Her name is M, and she's a single mother of 3 whose husband died a few years ago. As we taught her, she asked really good questions and really understood it well. We started to explain about the spirit world and she started to ask about her husband. The member who has given us the reference is the family history consultant, and she immediately started to tell her about temple and family history work. M started to cry and said she knew she had to be baptized so that she could give her husband the chance to also be baptized. We were about to give her a baptismal date, but she had to catch the boat to get back to where she lives. (In Vigo sometimes we travel by BOAT to get to parts of our area.) It was amazing and the Spirit was there so strongly!! She should be getting baptized soon. 

Funny story is that one day we were coming into our building at night and since our piso is on the 2nd floor, we usually take the stairs. We started to walk up the stairs and there was some guy laying down on the landing talking a nap! We were talking but then when we saw him we were so surprised that we just went silent, turned around, and took the elevator up. Later we realized it was a construction worker that was talking a nap in his break. Funny stuff.

Also, the branch president's wife calls me "Brave" because I have red curly hair like Merida. And another sister walked into the chapel when we were waiting for a lesson. When I stood up to say hi to her, she looked at me in shock and said "¡Que grandote! ¡Que horror!" which basically means "You're so tall! What a nightmare!" That made me laugh quite a bit.

Port in Vigo

District in Vigo

view of Vigo

We are really excited and we have a lot of good ideas and goals to put into practice here. I will continue sharing experiences and stories as we go meeting more people. The hermanas that we're whitewashing out didn't have a whole lot of investigators, so hopefully our combined new energy can change that!

June 23

So remember how I always try to predict transfers and I never get anywhere close to what's actually going to happen?

Well, it happened again. 

And you will never, ever, ever, ever guess where I am right now.

In this mission, hermanas either go to the Islands or to the North. There are some who never leave Madrid their whole missions. And those who go to both...well, they're few and far between.

So yeah. I'm in VIGO.

With Hna. N, who I've known forever, who was in the Islands the same time as me. She was MTC comps with Hna. F.

I'm in Vigo.

(for those of you who don't know where Vigo is, itś in the north of Spain, right above Portugal. It's built around an ocean inlet and it's ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL. Prettier than Canarias, by far. And it smells like the ocean again, and it's not hot. I'm in love.) 

I'm still in shock...and I've known for a few days now.

We're whitewashing, so we have no idea where anything is, again. It's fine though, because we have a senior couple here that can help us figure that out. :)

I'm also SUPER tired because we had to get up at 4:30 in the morning to finish packing and get to Chamartin to catch our 7-hour train to Vigo. It was super fun, we rode up with Elder H, who also served in the Islands, and Hna. S, who'll be serving here close by in Pontevedra. We talked literally the whole 7 hours and also sat their open-mouthed gaping out the window because it's so beautiful here.

So yeah, Hna. Orrego is now comps with Hna. F. It was SO hard to leave Alcorcón, I was crying pretty much all day yesterday and so was everybody else. Everyone's doing great there, I'm excited to see how it keeps progressing.

It was really sad though because I didn't get to say goodbye to M, she's in Murcia for the week, but I talked to her on the phone. :) Probably better that way because I would have BAWLED.  N is still doing awesome, always comes to church, and he's understanding Spanish so much better now. And we found a cool new Cuban family, the mom came to church and it seems like she really enjoyed it. 

So yeah I don't really know if we have investigators or anything, I'm sure we'll figure it out quickly. MY comp is awesome and we've been laughing pretty much all day long. We've also been playing spot-the Africans-and-Latinos-from-our-window. It's a pretty cool game. 

Love you all! Have a great week!

June 16

This week I had another intercambio with Hna. O.  It was a lot better than the other intercambio we had back in March.  And again, we stayed up ALL NIGHT LONG talking about the mission. It was a blast.

This week we had a huge miracle which was that M CAME TO CHURCH!!!!!!! We have been fighting and working to get her to come and she never does because something always comes up or she´s sick or she has to take care of her mom or she has to go count votes for the government and if she doesn´t go she´ll be sent to prison for 3 months to a year... (true story, she showed us the letter and everything) but this week we prayed really hard and had a good solid lesson on the importance of keeping the sabbath day holy and especially we talked about the sacrament. It was so cool to see that as we just read the scriptures (3 Nephi 18) she really could feel the influence of the Spirit.  The thing she´s always saying is that she understands everything (which she does, I´m pretty sure she understands the doctrine better than I do...) but she doesn´t feel it.  And as we were reading, she just started to smile and said "Oh!  I have to be at church, especially for the sacrament, to be able to have the Spirit with me!" and we also talked about planning ahead of time, like doing necessary cleaning/work on Saturday, going to bed early, setting out and preparing clothes to wear, etc. And it worked!  She came! FINALLY!!

With Hna. O we had another lesson with her where we started out talking about the priesthood but then we ended up talking about how to feel the Spirit, because she was still saying that she didn´t feel the truth in her heart. I told her that I know she has felt the Spirit because in the 3+ months I´ve been teaching her, I´ve seen her change a lot, and I´ve seen her bear her burdens with more ánimo and grace. I reminded her of all the times we´ve come to see her and she´s been really happy and full of energy even though her life if difficult and she has a lot of challenges. I told her that THAT is the Spirit, that gives us energy and life and strength even when we are surrounded by problems. And it was amazing again! When we got there, she was a little tired and discouraged, but when we left, she had an extra skip in her step and she was beaming. I love teaching her because I can see the calming and fortifying influence of the Spirit so clearly as I serve her and help her understand the gospel.

I love being a missionary and I love the Spirit, who really is the teacher.

Fun fact for all you prospective missionaries: 

Before you go on a mission, you see the missionaries and you think they know everything. You think they just glide through the streets finding people who are going to get baptized 2 days later. You think they must not ever get tired or nervous.  You think they know exactly what they´re doing all the time.

hahaha LIES.

The more I´m out here, the more I realize that none of us really have any idea what we´re doing. The majority of the people we find don´t even give us their real number, much less agree to meet with us and MUCH less get baptized. We don´t know anywhere close to everything about the gospel, we don´t speak the language, we get lost, we get tired, we get nervous, and we make a ton of mistakes. Basically we just fake our confidence, and the Spirit makes up for the rest. 

The thing I´ve learned is that being a missionary has nothing to do with ME. I only try to strengthen my testimony, love the people, and live worthy to have the Spirit with me. And it´s amazing that it works. And it works really well. Somehow people still love us and listen to us and get baptized, because they can feel that Spirit.  No one can convince me that the success I´ve had on my mission has ANYTHING to do with me. This is the Lord´s work, and he permits us to do it with Him. And the biggest miracle is that our fake confidence becomes real, because we are worthy to represent the most incredible and perfect being who ever lived, even Jesus Christ. I love Him, I serve Him, and I do as He would do. I am so grateful for this privilege I have to represent Him. 

Hermana Lara Schaumann

June 2

Don´t have a lot to say this week. 

Our investigators are doing pretty well, normal bumps and problems, but all okay. M is still awesome and sometimes I really think I´m here in Alcorcón for her. 

I´m really happy, love my companion, love the investigators, and I love the work of God. 

I seriously don´t really have much else to say besides that this is the church of Jesus Christ and it is the true church. I know that without a doubt. 

Have a wonderful week!

Hermana Lara Schaumann

May 19--I Would Walk 500 Miles

A ver.

So first off, my companion is from Chile/Argentina (she was born in Argentina, moved to Spain, and then moved to Chile. Her mom is Argentinian and her dad is Chilean.) her name is Hna. O. She´s super cool and a really good missionary. And she doesn´t speak any English, so I´m teaching her English during language study. :)  It´s a little hard with our Nigerian investigators, but they speak enough Spanish that we can teach more or less in Spanish and then if they don´t understand something I just say it again in English.

We have an AWESOME investigator named N from Pakistan who´s come to church twice and loves everything we teach him. He doesn´t speak Spanish really well, he speaks a little more English but he´s asked us to teach him in Spanish. He´s been reading the Book of Mormon online in his language (Urdu) and he loves it. He is super nice and super cute. So we have a cita with him tonight we should be giving him a baptismal fecha! 

M is also doing pretty well, she still has her two obstacles of not coming to church and smoking. But she LOVES the Book of Mormon and loves the things we teach her. Hopefully we will see her tonight and also get her back on fecha!

R and G--lately R hasn´t been coming to church nor have we seen him this week. So hopefully we can get things going with them. We really want to challenge them to read the Book of Mormon every day as a couple--I really feel like that could save their relationship.  I am so grateful for the opportunity to teach them because I´ve learned a ton about what I do and don´t want to do when I´m married. Both of them are always so focused on the problems of the other one that they can´t or won´t take the time to do the right things themselves. It´s really sad but I know that the gospel is the only thing that could help them. 

This week I´m not really sure what happened, but we ended up walking a TON every day. Usually we don´t walk around all that much but this week things kept failing us at the last minute and we ended up walking to the very ends of Alcorcón and back. My poor companion is exhausted. 

So things are looking good in Alcorcón, we just have to keep finding more people who are going to do their part and get the ones we have moving!

I love you all, have a great week!

Hermana Lara Schaumann