Week 7 in San Sebastian

Hello everyone!!!

 

The weather here is San Sebastian is being a little temperamental, but it is still better than everywhere else in Spain right now. Things here have been great this week. We just got another new investigator yesterday that actually was already baptized a member of the church, but her records were lost at some point, so we are going to get her baptized again. She is the mother of one of our most active Young Women. Her son though, who was baptized a year ago, went completely in-active right after he was baptized, so we are hoping that through teaching his mom everything and helping her to have her own conversion again (because she has been in-active for many years), somehow, he will feel the spirit again and we can bring him back with her. 

 

Things are going well with Juan and his sister Lucresia. They really love the members which is just great because that will help them after they are baptized, but they don´t love us quite as much as the members and have a hard time wanting to meet with us unless it is for a Family Home Evening at someone´s house or something. So we are going to be having lots of Family Home Evening´s with lots of different members in the coming weeks. We are excited. 

 

Funny story of the day. We told a member last week that we wanted to hike one of the big mountains nearby, and he said he could help us get there and do it. Well...it was today...and instead of hiking a mountain, he drove us to the top of a hill....and I mean a hill. And when I pointed to the mountain that I wanted to hike and asked him how we could get there for another day, he said, "well that´s really hard you know?"  I just laughed. It is such a small mountain compared to what we have in Utah. So funny. Apparently some people think that I am crazy for loving hiking and doing hard things. That is the whole point of hiking! Because of the great reward and great feeling you get at the end. Anyways, we will be going on a hike to the top of that mountain soon for sure. When it happens, I will be sure to post pictures. 

 

Yesterday was Hermana Farrell´s Birthday and we had some fun festivities for sure. She got some crepes and ice cream from me in the morning for breakfast. (I guess that is her family tradition, except with waffles). A member made a special lunch and everything for her and gave her and even me a gift since they won´t be with me for my birthday when it rolls around again. 

 

Anyways...That is about all that is exciting that is happening around here. 

 Until next time!

 

Love you all,

Hermana Eyre

Week 6 in San Sebastian

Hello family and friends!

 

I am here in San Sebastian and it is finally a somewhat cooler day than it has been all week. Even though it keeps looking like it is going to rain and relieve us of the heat, it never does and even with the clouds, it has been just ridiculously hot and humid. But from what I have heard from the missionaries down in Barcelona, this doesn´t even touch what they are experiencing right now. 

 

Things here this week have been busy and interesting. We spent a whole day basically for our district meeting in Pamplona because the bus system was all screwed up for Semana Grande. Which reminds me....we rode on a couple of the amusement park rides that they set up for Semana Grande last Monday for Preparation Day. It was absolutely fantastic! I love things like that. Hermana Farrell got a little bit motion sick...but nothing that lasted long. We heard and saw many fantastic firework shows this week. They make quite the ruckess and are quite terrifying when we can´t see them. We found out from the members that it was actually a competition that they have here for their Semana Grande. They invite a bunch of different countries to come do a firework show and then they judge it. They night that won was Valencia. This is an area here in Spain that is well known for what is called Las Fayas. It was for sure the most incredible firework show I have ever seen. 

 

We had an incredible conference on Saturday for our whole zone with a area 70 (his name is Elder Richards) and with someone from the Europe Presidency. It was really great and we learned a lot. That also took a whole day in going to Vitoria. So we traveled a lot this week, but we learned some really great things and felt the spirit a lot. We found 3 great new investigators this week. 2 of them are thanks to the work of our great ward mission leader, Juan Carlos. We just love him and he is doing such a great job with his calling. He is a convert of only 1 year and has really learned how to magnify his calling. The people that are thanks to him are brother and sister. Their names are Juan and Lucrecia. Juan has been coming to church for a while but for some reason never wanted to meet with the missionaries. But now he and his sister are meeting with us. It is great and we are seeing miracles for sure. The other great investigator was a reference from the Sisters in Pamplona. She has come to church with us the past 2 Sundays and the ward is really doing a good job at trying to fellowship her into the ward. 

 

We spent some time this past Sunday with our recent convert Dalleli. She turned 18 on Sunday. My little sister also turned 22 on Sunday! So we were just celebrating on the other side of the world. 

 

We had our preparation day today because transfers are this week...as you must have guessed, I am not leaving San Sebastian yet. I am glad because I love it here and don´t have any desire to go back to where it is any hotter. We definitely have the best climate in the mission right now. This morning while we were running, we took some buckets with us and went berry picking. We spotted them yesterday while running. It was great fun. I don´t understand why the people here don´t go and pick them. They have blackberries everywhere...so we spent a little while doing that and got two full pints of them. They are just delicious. It is a relief to have them because they do not sell berries here...at all. I have missed it a lot. Well...that is about all the update I have for right now. Hope you all are having the time of your life!

 

I miss you all!

 

Love, 

Hermana Eyre

Week 5 in San Sebastian

Hello Everyone!

How are you all? This week has been pretty interesting. Saturday was the start of what they call Semana Grande here in San Sebastian. They spent last week setting up all these amusement park rides and games and whatnot all along the waterfront and they began Saturday night by the craziest fireworks show I have ever heard in my life. It literally sounded like we were being bombed. They had another one last night that we watched and it seriously blew my mind. Greatest fireworks show I have ever seen in my life. I cannot even understand how much money they must spend on them and they will apparently have them every single night this week. So in short, there are tons and tons of tourists in town right now. It is crazy busy.

We are trying to work a lot with in-active people right now in our ward. The first presidency has been talking about how many there are recently and we are all working on this rescue right now. We are going to go find those lost sheep and bring them back. I love working with in-actives because I love being able to help them feel the spirit again and remember the feelings that they felt when they were baptized or when they received their answer that the church is true. It is a really special feeling and really fulfilling when we see them back in church and receiving all the blessings that have been awaiting them for so long.

With this blogpost I am sending lost of pictures that I have taken since I have been here in San Sebastian. I hope you can all see how gorgeous this place is and that if you ever have the thought to visit here someday, you really should. 

Well, that is all for now. Talk to you all next week.

Love,

Hermana Eyre

Explanations of the pictures are as follows...

1 - Dalleli´s baptism

2- Miguel´s baptism

3 - the gorgeous river that runs through town that comes off the ocean or into the ocean....

4 - sunset of beach from the path we run on many mornings up above the beach
5 - me...same place, same time as #4

6 - all the women in our ward

7 - the beach from the top of the mountain, crowded to capacity

8 - better views from the top of the mountain that has a gigantic statue of Jesus

9 - Us with President and Hermana Pace atop the mountain with the Jesus statue...we like to say, well we invite people to Christ everyday, but today, we will personally escort you there. We take everyone up there who comes to visit because it is one of the best views of the city.

10 - Us with Hermana Farrell´s uncle that was passing through

11 - Our preparation day with some Elder´s that came to see the famous San Sebastian

12 - The church right next to our apartment that faithfully chimes its bells from 8 am to 10 pm...every 15 minutes...

13 - The view from the restaurant that we ate at with Hermana Farrell´s uncle for her birthday...(it was the most expensive meal I have had in my life...but I forgot to take pictures of the food/art that they fed us)

14 - the view from the top of the other mountain that I love to run to the top of on Preparation Days. Gorgeous...there is a little amusement park up there too.

15 - The Wind Comb´s. For some reason San Sebastian is famous for these scultures...interesting.

Week 4 in San Sebastian

Hello everyone!

San Sebastian is one gorgeous city and I am really grateful to have such a great environment around me right now. I really need it right now. Things here are good this week but not much of an update to give.

We just started teaching the boyfriend of one of the Young Women in our ward and he is a really friendly kid that didn´t grow up with any religious background...but he is totally open to the possibility that there is a God and he wants to find out because he has nothing to lose. We are working with a lot of less-actives in this ward and really doing our best to strengthen the ward and do what we can for everyone. There are a lot of special people here and I am really excited to be up here. That is really all I have time for right now...I will send some good pictures next week though.

Love you all,
Hermana Eyre