Week 6 in Barcelona!

Merry Christmas! Feliz Navidad! y Bon Nadal!

 

That is english, spanish, and catalan. I don´t know anymore....sorry! Well...we had a good but very busy week this last week. We were trying to juggle all our investigators and everyone else that we teach on top of trying to make sure that our concert was going to go well and have a good turnout. Well, the first part did happen. The Christmas Concert that we organized and played went quite well. It wasn´t perfect and that couldn´t be expected, but it went very well and the most important part is that the spirit was very strong and we had a great time celebrating the true spirit of Christmas through music. The second part....well...we didn´t have a very good turnout unfortunately. We did our very best to advertise it well and the Elders from the other ward also told a few people about it....but in the end, not many people came. But we did have a few of our wonderful investigators there and they were able to benefit immensely from it. President and Hermana Pace (our mission President and his wife), came and spoke at it and we were so incredibly grateful for the love and the support that they showed us. Our bishop came and he loved it....and then he reprimanded the ward a bit in church yesterday for missing out on incredibly spiritual things like the concert we gave and also a concert about the life of Joseph Smith that happened last Sunday. Hopefully they start coming out to things like that and make a good family activity out of these things in the future. 

 

Well, two investigators that we have right now that are making the most progress are Alberto and Victo. Alberto has made incredible progress in getting over smoking. He used to smoke a whole pack every day and he has been down to about 2 cigarettes a day most of the time now. He is going to try and make it 0. We are so proud of him and all the work he is doing. He really does know that everything is true and he has really felt the help that a priesthood blessing has been giving him. Then Victor and his girlfriend are really praying about a date to get married so that he can get baptized. They know that the way they are living is wrong. They feel it and they want to change it. So they are praying to have the courage to set a date and get married. They just both have a fear of getting married and we are hoping that they will be able to overcome it. 

 

Well...keep them both in your prayers if you would. 

 

Well I am out of email time and I get to talk to my family tomorrow! Merry Christmas to you all!

 

Love,

Hermana Eyre

Week 5 in Barcelona

Hello everyone!

 

Feliz Navidad! It is an incredible time of year here and we are going to just have a wonderfully busy week. Transfers were supposed to happen this next week...on Christmas day actually...but President made the really smart decision to make it a week earlier, so that all the missionaries going home will be able to be home for Christmas instead of having to travel home on Christmas. So not many changes have been made in the whole mission since it is so close to Christmas. Just basically the necessary changes to accomodate the incoming missionaries have been made. My wonderful companion Hermana Robinson and I are going to be together for another wonderful transfer. 

 

There is not a whole lot of time for me to give you an update of things right now, but I want to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! We have our Christmas concert that we have organized this next Saturday and it should be wonderful....we just need a good turnout at the concert. Well...I love you all and will talk to you next week.

 

Love,

Hermana Eyre

 

 

Week 4 in Barcelona

Hello everyone!

Happy Holidays from Spain!!! Even though it is not quite the same without the snow, there are some very festive things about Spain during the Holiday season. Many of the streets have lights of all different kinds of things, like trees, gifts, stars, ornaments, and many other things, that hang over the streets...and so when you are driving, or in our case walking, there is just a long street with tons of Christmas lights and I think it is super neat. Sorry...that was a really long sentence. Well, in addition to that, we live about two blocks away from the Sagrada Familia, which happens to be one of the neatest things to go and see in Barcelona. It was designed by Gaudi and construction is still going on and who knows when they will actually be done with it. But...anyways, the thing that is very festive about that is that it was all lit up red the other night. But in addition to that, on the square that is just south of the Sagrada Familia, they have all these stands set up for Christmas. They have thousands of different nativity sets and individual pieces, as well as many had made decorations that are all really neat. There are also stands with candied apples and many other neat treats like cotton candy and gummy candy. So something that I have found out here, is that Spain is very well known for their gummy candy and their nativity scene´s...so if you are ever in Spain in the month of December, you should really check this out. 

A really interesting tradition that they have here in Spain is what many people do instead of a tree with presents underneath. It started when there were many people that couldn´t afford a tree and presents and then it just took off as a fun tradition from there. They get this log (can really be any size...even down to the size of a waterbottle), and they paint a face on it and prop it up with two little feet. Then on Christmas Eve, the children beat the log with a stick until they are just tired out. Then the next morning, the log poops out candy for the kids. Super interesting tradition...but I think it sound like a good way to get your kids tired out on Christmas Eve and get them to bed early and sleeping well. 

Well, things here are crazy busy. We are finding lots of new investigators and many people that want to be baptized, but many of them are overcoming some really hard things. Some need to get married before they can be baptized, but are lacking the motivation or resources to do that. We have a few that are life-time smokers and coffee drinkers and are really struggling to let those things go. But we are doing our best to help them get rid of those things and to get married, cuz they really have the desires to live better and happier lives and want to get baptized. But it is definitely going to take a lot of work. Our investigator Alberto finally came to church and we were so so excited about it. He was able to get a blessing from the Elders after church to help him overcome his temptations and continue preparing for his baptism. But keep him in your prayers, as well as our new investigators Victor, and Luis...both of whom need to get married before they can be baptized. 

Well, we are still seeing lots of miracles here and we are working hard for the Christmas concert that we are organizing. This ward is great and I just love my area and my companion! It is going to be a great holiday season!

Love you all and talk to you next week!

Love,

Hermana Eyre

Week 3 in Barcelona

Hello Everyone!

Sorry that I didn´t have a chance to do a blog update two weeks in a row. Things have just been pretty busy here. We are busy trying to find new investigators and we have been seeing lots of miracles in regards to that in the past couple weeks. One of the really neat things that happened was that we were able to get in contact with this recent convert that the sisters had been trying to get in contact with for the whole last transfer. He is a young boy about 14 years old and his dad is actually a member up in San Sebastian. We thought that we were going to be meeting with an investigator but when we showed up, she was on her way in as well and she explained to us that "he doesn´t know that you are coming..." We thought that she was talking about her husband or something that was a member or something...but then it came out that it was her son and that his father is a member and lives in San Sebastian. So when we walked in, I was surprised and excited to see that it was Stephen. He had spent the whole summer up in San Sebastian with his dad and had been very active up there, but when he came back to Barcelona, for lack of support, he stopped coming to church and the sisters could never meet with him. I got to know him pretty well up there and he really liked spending time and meeting with us up there, so it was a real miracle that I got sent here. Everyone had been quite worried about him, but since he knows me and we got in contact with them, he expressed that he really wants to come back to church. It was a huge miracle and God just working his magic as always. He loves each of us so much and is always doing whatever he can to make sure that we don´t get lost.

Another incredible miracle that we had was when we were calling all the investigators that are in our phone. My companion is also quite new to the area and so she doesn´t know who a lot of the people are either. So we were calling all the investigators and trying to set up appointments with them and it didn´t seem like we were having much success...until Amalia answered the phone. She is a really sweet woman from Spain that has met with the missionaries quite a few times. She knew who I was the second that she answered and was so grateful that we called her. She had been preparing for baptism several times before now but kept being held up by her smoking problem.  But she told me on the phone how she really really wants to get baptized and she knows that is something that she needs to do and asked if she could start meeting with us again and prepare herself for baptism. She said that she is going to move to London right after Christmas, but she figures is she needs to, that she can continue with the missionaries there. We have met with her several times and she wants to prepare to be baptized on the 22nd of December. She has a lot of things that she needs to overcome first, but if she puts her mind and heart into it, she can and will be ready for baptism on that day. Keep her in your prayers.

Hermana Robinson...my companion...plays the flute and we have already had the opportunity to play together a few times. But the thing that we are really excited about is that we are going to have a Christmas Music Fireside on the 22nd of December as well. We are organizing it with our ward mission leader and we are very excited because it is going to be a good way to get people to feel the spirit really strongly and enjoy the spirit of Christmas. It will be a very good thing that the members can invite their friends to and even invite people in off the street.

Well, that is about all I have time to tell you about right now. I hope you are all having a wonderful holiday season in preparing yourselves for Christmas. We certainly are and are preparing to see even more miracles here during this month.

Love you all,

Hermana Eyre

Week 1 in Barcelona

Hello Everyone!!!!

 

How are all of you? Things here in Barcelona are going well so far. We really have a huge area (population wise)...and it is a little bit intimidating. We have a gigantic ward and the church that we attend is the stake center and it seems bigger than pretty much most of the stake centers that we have there in the states....I am sure that is not true...it just seems like it after coming from our tiny little church in San Sebastian. 

 

So the greatest news of the week is that I absolutely love my companion. She is such a sweetheart! Her name is Hermana Robinson and she is from Gilbert, Arizona. She likes to run which is just a heaven sent for me and we get along just great so far. There are so many things I admire about her and I am really grateful that I will likely get to have her for 2 transfers since this next transfer is during Christmas and she only has one transfer in the area anyways. 

 

We definitely are going to have to do a lot of finding this week and in the coming weeks because we have basically no investigators, because they just baptized the investigators that they had before I got here. But we have already found a couple people this week. The person that I would love for you all to keep in your prayers is named Alberto. He is from here in Barcelona and he actually came to us. He met with the missionaries a few years ago but still wasn´t ready to change. He really has the desires now to change, but he has a lot of obstacles that he is going to have to overcome and he is going to need all the strength he can muster to overcome his challenges. So keep him in your prayers. We also found another girl whose name is Elizabeth. She just showed up at church on Sunday and it turns out that a member invited her to come a few months ago and she finally decided to come, even though her friend was not there and is actually currently inactive. She is such a sweetheart and the ward got right in to fellowshipping her the moment that she walked in the door. She actually does not live in our area so the Elders are going to continue teaching her, but I hope to see the great things and change happening with her. 

 

We have been focusing a lot this week on visiting less-active members and trying to find all those that still live around here and there are many more to find. Many are just waiting for someone to reach out to them and show them that they care and that they haven´t been forgotten, by the members, or by God. I want to invite each of you to reach out to those you know that have gone inactive that may just be waiting for that invitation or that visit to show them that they are not forgotten and that they are important. We need them and our Heavenly Father needs them. Take that advice from Elder Ballards talk in the last conference...find a way each day that you can perform some small act of service for someone (member, less-active, or non-member). It may not seem like much in and of itself, but if we all do that everyday as members of the church, the effect on the world will be incredible and people will start to recognize that love of Christ through us. 

 

I love you all and will talk to you next week. 

 

Love,

Hermana Eyre

Week 18 in San Sebastian and transfer to Barcelona!

Hello everyone!!!!

 

What an incredibly fantastic week it has been!!! Saul got baptized on November 7th and was confirmed a member of the church on Sunday, November 11th. His baptismal service was so special and it meant the whole world to me to be able to see his baptism and confirmation before leaving my beautiful, most favorite area ever, of San Sebastian. Which brings me to the second part of my news. I got transferred. I am now serving in the Barcelona 1st ward. I have heard really great things about it and it will be interesting to be back in Barcelona again. This will likely be my last area unless something wierd happens. So I am excited to be in a ward that I have heard so many great things about. 

 

It was incredibly hard to say goodbye to all the people in San Sebastian. I definitely was sad to say goodbye to the people in Hospitalet when I left there, but it was nothing like it was to leave San Sebastian. Those people are like my family and I would be super sad to leave them even if I was going home to my own family. But I will get to go visit them when my family comes to pick me up before I go home. I enjoyed my time up there like nothing else and felt incredibly privileged to have seen all the miracles up there. There are so many things that I will miss about that place, not the least of which is the incredible scenery and the cold weather and the list just goes on and on. 

 

So Saul was confirmed on Sunday and the primary also had a primary program on Sunday that was just absolutely incredibly cute. It was a good note to end on. Seeing Saul get confirmed though just topped the cake. I got pretty teary-eyed and am so excited that their family can now start preparing to go to the temple!

There is no better way to leave an area and a wonderful time in your mission.

I don´t have much more to explain than that...I think the pictures will do most of the talking. So enjoy. 

 

Love you all and talk to you soon!

Hermana Eyre

Week 17 in San Sebastian

Hello everone!

 

This is likely my last week here in San Sebastian...at least it feels like I am going to be transferred this next week...but we will see. If that is the case, I am really sad to go because I love this area with all my heart! The people are fantastic as well as everything else. It will be a good week regardless though. Saul is still going to be baptized on Wednesday and we are just absolutely thrilled about that! It will be a really neat baptismal service because all his kids and his wife are going to participate in the program. He is incredibly prepared and is a perfect example to me of how Heavenly Father really does not need us in or to do his work. He is the one that touched Saul´s heart and he has made all the changes necessary to take this step of baptism. We just taught the lessons (even though he already knows everything because he has been an investigator for 6 years). This is God´s work and it will never be any different than that. 

 

I spent this last week in Bilbao on companion exchanges. It was a very long exchange, (5 days, which is very unusual) but I really had a good time and learned a lot. And my companion here in San Sebastian, Hermana Lichfield, totally knows the area and the ward here well enough to show it to the next missionary that is going to come up here. We have actually been hoping that they will send another companionship up here to help with all the work. While we don´t have tons of investigators right now, the ward is just overflowing of less-active members that we are trying to visit and are more than willing to meet with us, but we just don´t have sufficient time to meet with all of them. 

 

The weather has still been changing here quite drastically. It was pretty cold and we thought we were headed into winter, but then this whole last week it was quite warm and it just barely started cooling off again. The leaves here are starting to change finally...but it is not quite the same as Utah. We were grateful for the change of daylight savings, because now we are not running in the complete dark. 

 

Anyways...enough of my rambling. Things are going well here and I am looking forward to seeing what the next transfer is going to bring me. Thank you all for the great support that I receive from you. You all mean the world to me and everything that I hear from each of you just keeps me going out here. This is the most important work and I feel privileged to have the opportunity to be out here and participating in it. If any of you reading this have ever wanted to serve and are on the fence about it...come out and do it! You will never regret it!

 

I love you all!

Talk to you next week!

 

Love,

Hermana Eyre