Hello everyone!!!
How are you all!?!! Well, I am being transferred for the first time since I got to Spain and I am so nervous, sad, and excited all at the same time. Things were great here this last weekend. We had two baptisms of two of the most incredible people that I have ever met. Their names are Karen and Sebastian. The AP´s had been teaching them before and then they moved into our area about two weeks before they were baptized. It is really incredibly how much you can come to love people in such a short time. They really have truly incredible testimonies and really understand things of the Gospel, the scriptures, prayer, etc, etc, really well. I feel very privileged to know them and to have participated helping them take such an important step in their lives. President and Hermana Pace came to the baptism and I can´t even begin to describe how much I love them. You can literally feel love radiating from them to everyone around them, and they were so attent to greeting everyone. They give real, sincere compliments to everyone that they talk to. It is really inspiring and I am really looking forward to what they are going to bring to this mission for the next 3 years.
Well, this last weekend, I got to go on my first companionship exchange. I went to Sabadell to be with Hermana Goodman, and Hermana Rejon came to be with Hermana Stephenson. I was a little stressed to be doing a companionship exchange right when we were in the midst of playing for a baptism...but it turned out alright. It was super stressful...but it was good. I had such a great time with Hermana Goodman in Sabadell. She is a hard-working missionary and I sincerely hope that I get to be companions with her. It also prepared me for the news that I was getting transferred. In going and working in a different area, I became really excited to be able to go to a new area and get to know new people. We all found out while I was there who was getting transferred and whatnot. I am headed off to San Sebastian. It is up north!!! I am way excited to be able to be escaping the heat a little and apparently it is absolutely gorgeous up there!
I am really excited! I leave in about 2 hours.
Well, even though the baptism was a little stressful because things weren´t all the way planned out on everyone´s part, it went really well and was fantastic in the end. The water for the font wasn´t heated so they were baptized in cold water...but at least it was super hot outside, so it kind of made up for it. Hermana Pace is a fantastic pianist and was able to play the piano for us last minute when we asked her when she arrived. I somehow was assigned to play the piano without knowing it and I really can´t play...so she really saved me. I was also able to play my violin at the baptism. I just am so grateful that I brought it with me. It is such a foolproof way to bring the spirit into a service.
In the end, I am so incredibly sad to leave this area because I really love the people here so so much!!!! But I know that there are more people to find in other parts of Spain and I am ready to go find them.
One last really great experience I want to share before running off. So there is this recent convert that we have been working with and who helps us with tons of our visits. He has had such a hard time with not smoking since his baptism and has relapsed several times. He also had to wait before he could get the priesthood. He was really sad about this on several occasions, because our two converts from the last two transfers really wanted him to baptize them...but he couldn´t because he couldn´t get the priesthood. So at the beginning of this last transfer, we made a deal with him that we would never cross the street at the crosswalks when the light was red if he would promise not to smoke at all. It seems like a very strange thing to be making a deal like that...but it really made a difference. At first he didn´t believe that we were holding up our end of the deal and so he kept relapsing, but finally, he realized that we really were waiting at every red crosswalk, even when we were in a serious hurry. This really had an effect on him and he really made the commitment to quit. He received the priesthood about a week and a half ago.
When we were in sacrament this past Sunday, I did shed a tear or two when he stood up and was able to help the other priesthood holders in the passing of the Sacrament. His life has literally transformed in the time that I have been here. He was baptized about two weeks before I got here to Hospitalet, and everything about him has changed. He glows and there are several members who have mentioned within the last week that they thought he had years in the church. His countenance and his heart have truly changed.
Being a missionary is absolutely incredible. There is no better feeling than to watch people´s lives be transformed by the Gospel.
I love you all. Talk to you soon from San Sebastian.
Love,
Hermana Eyre
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