Week One Madrid MTC

Hola mis amigos y mi familia!

They only give us an hour to type these things so I'll do my best to give details and still email everyone back.

So our P days are on Thursdays, So this is our first one woo !!  I can read my emails every day from 6-6:45. So email me any day of the week and I'll be able to read it! I can't answer (till Thursdays), but I can read it!

Wow so much has happened haha I feel like starting at the beginning is forever ago.

So I flew to Madrid woo! And I got my companion-her name is Hermana Clark. She's fun, we get along really well. My roomies are Hermana Storheim and Hermana Barlow which is so fun I LOVE THEM! Also I knew Hermana Barlow from BYU so it's just a blast.

So some MTC details:

1. We have been asked to read the entire Book of Mormon  before we leave here. Which is easy since we have an hour every day to read.

2. So this is really cool. There are only 42 missionaries in this whole MTC and we all arrived on the same day. So it's super small and we all do everything together and we all know each other. It's awesome. And very different from the things  I"ve heard about the Provo MTC. But it's cool there's a small group from Brazil (yay mom and Jeremy! YOU WOULD LOVE THEM THEY'RE AWESOME!!! And one's from Recife Jeremy!) And a sister from Portugal and a sister from France. Way cool.

3. Sundays- we have to prepare a talk in Spanish every week and on Sundays our MTC president calls on people to give their talks and people to translate. I didn't have to go last week thankfully, although I did have a talk written on the purpose of a missionary.

4. THE FOOD IS AMAZING! It's  all super healthy. I've had pea soup (lol family and Sarah), lots of fish, chicken, churros, lots of chocolatey things, everything is so good. There hasn't been one meal I don't like. Also I eat two kiwis with every meal and they're bread is absolutely amazing. I love it.

5. The Parque de Retiro is the park we go to every Saturday at 4 pm to proselyte in. It's a little smaller than Central Park, but imagine something like that with really pretty buildings and statues and fountains and green grass. It's amazing. More details on that to come.

6. Every day from 8-12 we have to speak in only Spanish and our lessons are in all Spanish. I'm getting really good at understanding, I can pick up everything in our lessons it's awesome!

7. Every P day they take us on an excursion to downtown Madrid!!!!! I AM SO EXCITED ABOUT TODAY!!!!! We're gonna go get churros and hot chocolate from somewhere today. PUMPED!

Okay so the park. That was so cool. We get a different companion for our park proselyting and I was with Hermana Holtry. Keep in mind that at this point I had only had one Spanish lesson. So it was super scary to try to talk to people when I didn't speak Spanish, but Hermana Holtry is way good so it worked out. We passed out cards and talked to a group of people from Belgium who actually spoke English thank goodness. I bore my testimony on the book of Mormon and told them to read it. 

We also met this guy who goes to the park at the same time every day to feed the birds there. He spoke no English but Hermana Holtry and him were having conversations about the birds. He gave us some peanuts and let us feed them too. It was cool. He loved us. So we talked to him about the church a little bit but didn't even think to get his number. So this Saturday we're getting it. Yay happy!

Also every day we have a lesson with our "progressing investigator". All of the teachers act as an investigator that they met on their missions. So it's actually real people that they're acting as. And we have to teach them in Spanish. It's so hard. But last night my companion and I had the coolest experience. The two lessons before last night were kind of rough. We would plan our lessons in English and then write out the Spanish translations, but it just wasn't going well.

So then last night we made our plan and then decided not to write any Spanish down and to just let the spirit take it and let the Spanish come as we thought of things to say. We said a prayer and said we'd act in faith and just let the lesson go how He wants it to. And it did! WE talked to him for 30 minutes in all Spanish. I understood everything he said, and I understood everything Hermana Clark said and I was even able to talk too. Gift of tongues. AWESOME!

Also every day we have an hour to do a physical activity. Our options are gym, soccer, basketball, or volleyball. We alternate between gym and soccer. Soccer's cool cause it's like a 4 minute walk from the MTC and it's in this pit that's covered in graffiti. I have pictures that I'll send. But it's super fun and the locals come and play. 

Also on P day we go to the temple! The worship is in English and most of the workers speak English. The temple is just feet from the MTC. So that's fun we can see it out our window. 

Okay I'm probably forgetting so many things but that's all I got for now haha.

So my district has 8 people in it (4 elders and 4 sisters). All of our classes are just with that group of 8 so it's super nice to learn Spanish in such a personal setting. I LOVE all my teachers.

Also I've never been so busy or exhausted in my entire life. We get 8 hours to sleep and the days are 16 hours long with something happening every hour. No free time ever. It's hard and I'm having a hard time staying awake when we have personal study or big group meetings. It's just so hard. but I've also never felt the spirit so often. Every day feels like Sunday and I LOVE IT! They split up the Spanish lessons with gospel lessons and I love those. The spirit is there and I just feel so good. Ah I love it.

Also I was thinking the other day-Ya know I love the Bible. I love the things that we can learn bout Christ from it. It is the word of God. But isn't it so cool that there are multiple sources we can turn to to learn about Jesus Christ and His gospel? The Book of Mormon testifies of Christ, it is a book that, like the Bible, gives us more information on the things that Christ did. It is another account of Him and His miracles and His interactions with people. The Bible and the Book of Mormon go hand in hand. It's awesome and I just want the whole world to read it and learn the things that I've gotten to learn from it. So all my non-mormon friends-get on it. You don't have to be Mormon to learn from the Book of Mormon and I know you all love Christ and would love a chance to learn more. :) I love you guys.

MUCH LOVE FOR EVERYONE! And happy valentines day!

Hermana Johnson