Week 18 in Barcelona...and COMING HOME!!!!

Hello everyone!

Today is transfer day and my family will be here tomorrow. I had a great last week with my companion Hermana Nakken and she is excited about the news that she will be getting a native spanish speaker as her next companion. Well...we already picked her up so we are all sitting here emailing together. Hermana Pazuengo is from Mexico and will be taking care of Hermana Nakken for me. I am sad to leave this area/mission...but my body tells me that it is time to be done. I just have an overwhelming feeling of exhaustion all the time now.

I am getting really excited to go do concerts in the areas that I served and to go say goodbye to all those that I came to love so much. My family will be here in less than 24 hours and I can´t believe the time is already here.

I am really short on time because I am going to the mission home for dinner with the other going home missionaries and then we have "Singing with the Angels" tonight at Plaza Catatunya. This last week has been filled with wonderful miracles...and don´t think that I am going to forget them...I took the time to write them all down in my journal. So that is my invitation to all of you. Write down the miracles that happen in your lives and hold onto them. If you don´t write it down...you are going to have a much harder time recalling what happened and why it was such a miracle.

I love you all and will see you all so soon!

Love,
Hermana Eyre

Week 17 in Barcelona

Holy! 

 

Time is flying so stinking fast I can´t even believe it! My family is going to be here in a little over a week! That is nuts! 

 

This week has been crazy busy with a Zone Conference and lots of preparations for the concerts that I am going to be giving next week and trying to juggle the struggles of our recent converts and investigators and doing all we can to find more people. It has been super busy but so fulfilling!

 

I am so so short on time this week...so I am just going to leave you all with a big hug and a kiss and say...see you soon! 

 

Love always,

Hermana Eyre

Week 16 in Barcelona

Hello everyone!

I cannot believe that another week has already passed and I can´t believe that we are already 4 days into March!!!! Our Preparation day has almost passed as well. We had a super fun and random day riding bikes around Barcelona and seeing many incredible things. I will just try to post the pictures and hope that those tell the story sufficiently. But we had a wonderful day and our legs are just a little bit tired. 

Well, this has been an interestingly hard week. We got cancelled on right and left by people after it started out as a really promising week. An investigator that started coming to church a couple of weeks ago with a member, finally was able to meet with us. Her name is Corina. She is such a sweet woman and absolutely loved her experiences at church. So in our meeting with her, she decided that she wanted to prepare to be baptized the 16th of March. So we had her, and Mariana and Edison all preparing for baptism. But the week went on and things did not keep up so promising. Since that lesson, we haven´t been able to meet with her again because she ended up cancelling on us and Mariana and Edison will just not come to church or read in the Book of Mormon. They all understand really clearly that if they want their answer so they can be baptized, they have to come to church and read in the Book of Mormon and pray...but that is just easier said than done for some people. We are going to keep working with Corina and hope that she can feel the truth of what we are teaching. She certainly has had the support already from the members. I hope that it stays that way and that she will be able to have the happiness of the gospel in her life. 

So our week consisted of a lot of ups and downs...but we are pressing forward and the Lord is truly blessing us with miracles every single day. We met again with Sara yesterday and her daughter Adriana...there are just so many wonderful people around us and they need the Gospel in their lives. I just hope that I can continue doing all I can in my last couple weeks here to help them realize what it is that they have been looking for...or what they didn´t even know that they were looking for. Keep praying for everyone...and pray for us that we will have the spirit with us strong so they can really feel the truth of what we are teaching them. I love you all and will talk to you next week. 

Love always,

Hermana Eyre

Week 15 in Barcelona

Hello everyone!

February is almost over and I can hardly believe it! This week has been an interesting one for sure. It started off as a a fairly slow week but then picked up the last couple days. We found a really great part-member family yesterday. The member is Sara and she has a daughter that just had a baby. Her daughter is not a member, and neither is her son. Sara has a really crazy life story, and is such a sweetheart. We are going to be teaching her daughter though as well as her daughter´s friend that was there. Sara actually lived through a plane crash type thing. She was flying back to her country, Ecuador, and apparently the plane quit working. The crew didn´t tell anyone anything and just said that they were going to experience some turbulance and so they should buckle up. They then emergency landed about 3 hours early in a different airport and it was apparently a rough landing. Only 1 out of 237 passengers died. But Sara suffered some internal damage from the seatbelt and had to have several operations. I don´t know what happened to the other people, but Sara suffered for a very long time from Post traumatic stress and would have panic attacks every time she went out into public or went to use any kind of transportation. She suffered for 5 or 6 years like that. Only in the last 2 or so years, she has been doing a lot better emotionally. She hasn´t been to church very much recently because she still suffers from a bit of anxiety about traveling when she doesn´t have someone with her. So we are going to be working a bit with that family and we are really excited about them.

On Saturday, I had the opportunity to play my violin at 2 different baptisms of people that had been taught by other missionaries. But one of them was a young boy named Roy that we started teaching about a month ago. He is the one that I invited to be baptized and just had an amazing experience with because he just answered with a resounding "YES". It was such an incredibly spiritual baptismal service. I played "I Know That My Redeemer Lives" with a gigantic group of missionaries singing and it was one of the moments where I felt the spirit the most powerfully in my whole mission. The majority of the room was in tears and it was just incredible. Roy gave an incredible testimony after he was baptized and it is incredible to see the change in him because he didn´t even believe in God a few short months ago when the he first met with the Hermanas in our ward.
On Sunday night(last night), I had the opportunity to play at a wonderful music fireside that the Hermanas in the other Barcelona ward organized. There were people (members and investigators), and missionaries, from tons of different areas and the spirit was just incredibly strong. I love missionary work and I love the effect that music has and how it can bring the spirit faster and stronger than almost anything! It is truly the Universal language.

Well, that is all I have for right now. Keep Sara, Adriana, Edison and Mariana in your prayers.

Love you all and talk to you next week!

Love,
Hermana Eyre

Week 14 in Barcelona

Hello everyone! Happy late Valentine´s Day, and Happy President´s Day!!!! I can´t believe that February is more than half-way over! It is absolutely nuts that time is flying so fast!

 

So, this week has been good but also kind of a downer. It was a wonderful week because we had some amazing Specialized Zone Training this week and we were able to receive tons of wonderful guidance from all our leaders. It was basically like going to General Conference, but specifically for missionaries. So it was wonderful. But the week was a little bit of a downer because Hermana Nakken was sick most of the week and it took a bit of time for her to recover from that. Being sick on the mission is the worst! But she was able to get a bit of rest and then we were able to participate in the fun activity that we planned with the ward mission leader for missionary work in the ward. 

 

The activity was a wonderfully, spiritually uplifting movie night. We watched 17 Miracles and had popcorn and drinks. There was a pretty good turnout. The biggest thing was that many members that were not very aware of all the sacrifices that the early saints made to make sure we had the Gospel, are now aware and it really touched everyone immensely. It is a wonderful movie that puts everything for us into perspective (as do all the stories of the pioneers who sacrificed so much), and hopefully helps each of us to not take the things we have for granted. I am so incredibly grateful for my ancestors that sacrificed so much to make sure that their descendants could have the Gospel and I am even more grateful that I have the opportunity to be here on a mission to show them a tiny bit of how grateful I am to have it, by sharing it with those here in Spain. We are so incredibly blessed and I hope a day doesn´t go by that you don´t think about how true that is. No matter how bad it may seem at times, we were not called to pass through the incredible things that they suffered and we should be grateful that God called us to pass through trials that he knows we can handle. 

This Gospel is amazing and God proves to me more and more every single day that this is His church here on the earth and the happiness that we can find in His gospel can only be found by those that are looking for it, if those that already have it, are willing to open their mouths to share it. 

 

I love you all and hope that you are having a wonderful week. I will talk to you next week!

 

Love,

Hermana Eyre

Week 13 in Barcelona

Hello family and friends!

We just had a wonderful week and we are happy and healthy here. It is a little sad not having Hermana Robinson around anymore, but we are doing just great because I absolutely just love Hermana Nakken. I couldn´t have asked for a better last companion in my mission. She is quite new in the mission and when she was visa waiting in Texas for 2 weeks, she wasn´t speaking Spanish at all. She is learning super fast though and is adapting to the unique change that Spain is. We are trying so hard to find some new people to teach because things have not been improving with Edison at all and Victor and Luis are still not quite ready to get married. We are a little short on email time because we are going to go with our Zone to Tibidabo...even though I have already been there...but that is totally fine because it is a really neat place and I want Hermana Nakken to get to know all the wonderful other missionaries in our zone. 

Time is just absolutely flying and I hope that in this last transfer of my mission we can find one or a few more people that we can help to know their Savior better and begin to follow him in their lives. This Gospel is so amazing and brings us such a happiness that it is impossible to explain with words alone. It is only something that can be felt and experienced by actually making the effort to live it and share it with others. 

If nothing else in all the blogposts that I have sent throughout my mission, I hope that you have all come to a better understanding of that....that the Gospel is what brings us happiness and peace in this life, and nothing else can make up for it in our lives. So don´t neglect all the little things like reading your scriptures and praying and going to church....those things are so essential and if you don´t have a testimony of that, try it out for a while and test God...see if they really do make a huge difference in your lives or not. What do you have to lose?

I love you all so much and hope that you have a wonderful Valentine´s day this week and that you are thoroughly enjoying whatever snow you have or will get! 

Love,

Hermana Eyre

Week 12 in Barcelona

Hello everyone!!!

 

Time is just flying by and I don´t know where it is going! We have been just crazy busy this week with all the changes that have been happening. We took Hermana Robinson to the train station this morning...she is being transferred to Pamplona. We were really sad to see her go but Hermana Nakken and I are really excited that we get to spend these last 6 weeks of my mission together. Having a brand new missionary makes me realize how hard it was at the beginning of my mission....How frustrated I was with the language and the change of culture, and just basically everything. But those are all huge experiences that have really made me grow and I wouldn´t change them for the world. It also makes me realize how much I have change in the time on my mission. Missions are the best and I wouldn´t trade this experience for anything. There is nothing like being able to witness first hand how the Gospel changes your life and the lives of everyone that we teach. We get to see huge miracles everyday and we are just so happy all the time! Even when things are hard. 

We have been teaching some amazing people, two of which are preparing for baptism right now. One of those two we found out does not live in our area, so we introduced him to the other missionaries...that is a huge indicator of if people are really ready or not. If they are, it is not a big deal to them when something like changing missionaries and wards comes up. It is truly amazing. The other man that we are teaching right now has been trying to find which church was true from the time that he was a young man. His name is Edison and he is preparing to be baptized on the 23rd of February. Keep him in your prayers if you would. One of the most amazing and touching experiences as a missionary is inviting someone to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority...and they accept with a resounding "yes!". When they don´t worry about when it is going to be and they just immediately express their desire to follow their Savior. It is so amazing and I was lucky to see that again this week...twice. 

 

Well, I am out of time. We have a long and busy preparation day ahead of us. 

 

Love always,

Hermana Eyre

Week 11 in Barcelona

Hello everyone!

I am just about out of time...but I wanted to give you a quick update. So this last Wednesday night, Hermana Robinson and I got a call that we were going to get one of the new sisters put with us the following morning and that I would be spending my last transfer training her. So on Thursday afternoon, we went to pick her up. She is one on the sisters that was waiting for her visa like I had been and then they she got it and they shipped her right off. She came in with another sister and lots of Elders. Her name is Sister Nakken and she is from Cedar City, Utah. She just got out of the MTC like 3 weeks ago and was visa waiting in Texas for a couple weeks. She is really such a sweetheart. I am excited to spend my last transfer with her, I am just really nervous about training because it is such a huge responsibility...but I have no doubt that Heavenly Father is going to help me! So Hermana Nakken was captain of her swim team in High School and she is 21 years old. We have had a wonderful time as a trio for the last few days and we are kind of sad that Hermana Robinson will likely be transferred next week. That is really all I have time to tell you right now...but I hope you are all wonderful and enjoying yourselves with all the snow that I keep hearing about! I love you all!

Love,

Hermana Eyre

Week 10 in Barcelona

Hello everyone!!!!

 

Greetings from Barcelona! Things are just about to get pretty crazy here in the Spain Barcelona Mission. As with me and Hermana Robinson, we are lagging a little bit because we are having a very hard time finding new investigators. But the thing we are not lacking in, is finding enough less-active members to visit. Our list gets longer everyday and we can´t ever seem to find enough time to go and visit them to bring them back. So...the great news is (even though it means lots of craziness in the mission), we are receiving 18 new missionaries next week...which is the week before transfers...and 20 new missionaries the week after, which is the week of transfers. We are going to be getting quite a lot of Sisters, and the rumor is is that they are going to put 2 more Hermanas in our ward. We are not exactly sure what that will mean...it could mean that we will both be training or it could mean that we are getting another missionary in the mission with a trainee. All we know is that things are about to get crazy here. We have to find a new apartment this week that can fit 4 sisters...plus keep up with all the work we have, so it is going to be crazy here for a little while. 

 

But all I can say is that prophesies are really being fulfilled right now and it is amazing to watch. At our women´s conference last week, we talked a lot about how God is really hastening his work here in Europe, but especially in Spain. That has proved to be true by all the inspired goals that each of the wards, stakes, and the mission have made. For instance, one of the goals of our ward here in Barcelona this year, is to be able to split the ward into two wards by the end of the year. It is entirely possible because we have enough members to do that...we just have to re-activate a lot of people. But that is the goal...and then we find out that we are going to get two more Sisters in our ward, which is exactly what we are going to need in order to go and find all these people and bring them all back. This is just one example of all the amazing things we are seeing that are being fulfilled before our eyes, and I feel so privileged to be able to be a part of it for a short time longer. 

 

Well, as for us...I had the misfortune of getting food poisoning on Saturday and I was up all Saturday night just vomiting...so it was a pretty wretched night. Then we got up in the morning and went to play in our Sacrament meeting. It went quite well and people seemed to love it. I had to spend the rest of the day resting because I was so exhausted that I could hardly breathe. But I got a good nights sleep last night and I feel back to normal today. I would rather have food poisoning over the flu because it goes away so much faster and you don´t feel the same kind of sick as with the flu. 

 

So...funny story for the week...On Saturday, we had our English class that we teach at the church. We have been having a very good turnout for the class every week which is nice...but anyways...After English class, we rehearsed the musical number for Sacrament meeting with our pianist. We had planned plenty of time to do it, but all of the sudden, Hermana Robinson was like, we need to go. So we finished rehearsing real fast and then took off to get to our next cita. When we were leaving I asked her what time it was and she said that it was 8:15. Our next appointment was set for 8:30. So we thought that we really needed to hurry. So we basically ran to the appointment and got there in about 25 minutes. The women was not there when we arrived. It was just her daughter at home. So we thought we had missed her, but her daughter assured us that she would probably be home soon. So after sitting there talking to the daughter for a little while, Hermana Robinson looks back down at her watch and realizes that it is only 7:50. When she had told me the time at the church it was only 7:15. So we arrived for our appointment about 45 minutes early. You could say that that is not that funny...but the fact that this is about the 4th time that she has read the time wrong, it is pretty funny. She learned that instead of just reading the minutes on her watch, she needs to read the hour as well. So that is our funny story of the week! Oh and if you want one about me....maybe it is possible that the food poisoning threw off my depth perception...but I totally got hit head on by a bike while we were running this morning. I was running towards the bike and was going to go to the right but then she changed and wanted to go that way and it just went back and forth until we were trapped and ran into each other. We were both hardly moving...but it was funny nonetheless. 

 

That is all I have time to share with you today. I hope you all have a wonderful week!

 

Love,

Hermana Eyre

 

A really neat fountain in a gorgeous park near the zoo (Hermana Robinson calls it the Atlantis fountain)

Me on a mammoth statue in the same park by the zoo

All the Hermanas that attended our zone enfoque (not the Hermanas Conference)

Alberto´s Baptism (President Pace, Elder Rios, Alberto, Hermana Robinson, Me, Hermana Pace

Our district biking the coast...minus one Elder that didn´t make it into the photo

My yoga photo without the Elders

my yoga photo with the Elders

Us with Johnny (a member that always helps us with appointments) before moving to Sweden

The sunrise from our apartment the other day

Hermana Robinson & I with Elder Schwartz before he left for a new area

Our preparation day biking along the coast

Hermana Robinson & I playing with Hermana Pace at the Mission Open House

The Hospitalet Hermanas reunited at the Sister´s Conference