La Chispa...aka the spark!! - Feb 25, 2013

HEYYY FAM!!!

I LOVE MY MISSION! I love it. I looooove it. I love my 2 freaking awesome trainers and I love this area. This week...nothing happened haha jk we had like 2 cool things happen but other than that, eeeeeverything fell through. We totally failed at contacting this week and all of our appts fell through, yet we had FOUR INVESTIGATORS at church yesterday!! YEAHHH MANNNN!! Love our investigators. We have like 6 faithful ones right now and they freaking rock and will totally get baptized with time. We dropped our hobo, Jose. He was just wasting our time and being lazy so we dropped him. That was fun haha. 

We had an epic Zone Conference in Malaga with like 45 ish missionaries. About 15 of those are sisters. Yayeah. Love the sisters in our mission. We are just the bomb. We rock. haha The elders...ehhh they're ok, haha jk they're super awesome too. Our mission president, Pres. Deere is the greatest man alive. Everyone says that their own pres is the best, but they lie. OURS is the best. No doubt haha. He is the most humblest, funniest, and hard working man ever. He is the man!! He taught our conference all in super adorable Spanish haha cuz we have a lot of natives that don't speak English. He taught about 'LA CHISPA!' This my new favorite word in spanish. CHISPA! Love it! haha He taught that we need to find the CHISPA...aka...find the 'spark' of the spirit. We practiced on trying to get our investigators to feel the spirit and then be like, 'dude, that's the spirit!!' We would then testify about the atonement and then invite them for baptism. It was such a great conference! We also learned about prayer and Pres would always say 'This mission is a praying mission.' We pray at least 3 times a day for the list of names with baptism dates from our entire mission which is about 150 names. We pray for them as a companionship, name by name. It's such a cool experience and it really unites our mission. I love that our mission is so united and we are ALWAYS thinking about each other and rooting each other on. Our goal is to get 555 baptisms this year. Last year the goal was like 405 or something and they ended up getting 469!!!! YEAHHHHH!!!! GO MALAGA! Sooooo we are gonna tear it up this year. We got Hna Daly on the team...so thats like 100 baptisms alone. Dang, they are so lucky.... ;) jk jk 

Anyways, so we have this freaking awesome family that we've taught like twice, Carmen and Milton with their son Mauricio. They are all from Ecuador and are super cool. They are super confused haha it's so cute. They didn't understand how Heavenly Father, Christ, and the HG are seperate beings and were just so confused. We talked about it and they kinda understood but THEN, they came to church!! And GUESS WHAT we talked about in gospel principles class, THE TRINITY! BOOOOOOM! Yeah, they LOVED IT! They were just loving church and alllll of the members were welcoming them and became BFFs with our investigators :) GO WARD! Love this ward. So, we are super excited to hopefully set some baptism dates this week with them!

Made (Madeleeg) our cute 13 yr old gets baptized not this week but the next week because there is a huge temple trip this week for the ward. We still have our 16 Marzo date for Elvira, the wife of our excommunicated dude...hopefully that still keeps going strong. And then we hope to set these 3 baptism dates!! AND THEN!! we have our cute 16yr old Jose! He didnt come to church because of other things that came up but we heard from his friend, Marco, thats in our ward that he wants to be baptized. YEAHHHHHHH!! So we will set a date with him TONIGHT! YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAHHHHHHH. Woah, so much excitement in our cute trio. So excited! 

There is the update on our epic baptizing mission here in Almería. Our super good looking trio keeps getting super creepy smiles and head nods and whistles from creepy older men hahaha seriously, like once a day we get a creeper. Oh man, so funny...ohhhhh spain, I love you. Love you too family!! AND my dearest friends :) I love the support and love I get every day!! THANK YOU for everything. I couldnt get through all the hard parts of a mission without my family and friends. Love you guys! Go feel some spirit and find the CHISPA and then go baptize someone... :)

Love,

Hermanica Daly....my nickname in the trio haha

A Wedding Reception

The MTC Visa Waiters:)

The Zone

The Trio - Hma Martin & Brimhall

Me & my Trio with Hma Jarvis & her Comp

Arriving at the Mission Home!

Relaxing at the Mission Home

The View is amazing from the Mission Home

Fav Elders Ericson & Bivens on our flight to Malaga

Arriving at the airport - Mission Pres & his wife

Leaving the MTC - LOVE Ames!

Week 2 - Spain - Feb 18, 2013

Hola Familia from beautiful Almería! 

First off I totally failed at writing any letters last pday due to some serious jet lag-ness so I am sorry that I haven´t written people in forever!! This week was awesome! We had like 4 investigators at church yesterday!!! I have never had that many come to church. Ever. It was due to some serious work and the Lord just pouring out the blessings. We have had sooo many things happen...where to begin...no idea. haha 

We have a baptism date for an 11 yr old girl, Made, she is super cute. Her older sister is 15 and she is a little less active so we have been trying to activate her while teaching her little sister. We got them both to church through a lot of hard work and taking like 3 buses to pick them up. It is near to impossible to get people to church. Seriously. The church is like 20 mins away from a lot of our investigators and no one has cars here or money. Sooooo it was a miracle to have those two sisters come to church and another 15 yr old boy, Jose. I LOVE JOSE! We met him when we were having an FHE with a member family and he was just there with one of the brothers and listened and loved our message. He is the bomb. So humble and little and so cute. Love him haha He came to church as well and we are about to set another baptism date with him as well! YAYYYYY! 

We are also teaching a homeless man...that owns a cell phone...who knows. haha anyways, his name is Jose also. I wasn´t there when my comps met him but I guess he stopped them one day and asked why they were so happy. He has good intentions...kinda. I never know what he is saying because he is always mumbling and seems drunk half the time. We taught him the word of wisdom and he is totally willing to stop smoking and drinking but still drinks. He´s cool though. It would be a freaking miracle to get his act together and do something about is life rather than complain to us about it. So we´ll see what happens with him!

FUNNY STORYYYY haha...I forget how we even began teaching this lady...but her name is...dang it I dont remember haha oh well. So we were teaching her lesson 0 which means we talk about our purpose and the book of mormon n such. We taught her right by the beach and mostly just listened to her complain about her life. Then we were like, "well here is the B.O.M..." and we taught for like 5 mins about what the BOM was. She didnt say a word and just stared at us the entire time. Then after we explained about it, we tried to give it to her and she just got up and was rambling stuff that I didnt understand and then ran away....hahaha all 3 of us just sat there and were like..."did that just happen?....alllllriiiighty then" haha it was like 45 mins of her spilling everything about her life and 5 mins of the BOM and she just walks off. haha we had a good laugh about that. Super funny. 

We also went to a reception of this couple (Cesar and Elvira) that just got married and aren´t members. Cesar used to be but got excommunicated but wants to be baptized and so does his wife. They always come to church so now we just have to teach them and baptize them. Looks like the Lord just totally gave us that on a silver platter haha. 

There are some stories for ya. Spain is still super beautiful. I still dont understand what on earth these people are saying haha. We do aaaa lot of contacting and rejection but it´s fun :) we are all still happy/completely exhausted at the end of the day. It´s great!

Lesson learned this week: BOLDNESS. My comps are the boldest/awesomest missionaries ever. They just ask people to baptize right on the bat. I freaks me out to do that because I dont want to scare people but I have seen so many miracles through it. We almost have like 4 baptism dates because we are bold and people understand our purpose and why we are there. It´s awesome. So BE BOLD with everyone :) 

LOVE YOU FAMILY!! CONGRATS SEAN AND LAURA! love you guys!! miss you all so so so so so so so soooo much!! thank you for the love and support. Have a fantastic week!!!

love love love,

Hermana Daly

ESPAÑA!!!!! - Feb 10, 2013

ESPAÑA!!!!!

YEAH SPAIN! freak. I love this place. I LOVE THIS PLACE! Why didn't I ever live here before? It's like Avatar and the Bourne Identity mixed together. Freaking LOVE IT! Seriously, go watch like the Bourne Ultimatum and the running on top of the buildings scene and that's where I'm at :) Right now I am in Almería and I am in a trio! I LOVE MY COMPANIONS! Hna Brimhall (from utah) and Hna Martín (from Madrid). Hna Martin speaks like barely any english so I get to practice spanish with her and I am pretty sure she'll be my companion, just the 2 of us, next transfer. They are both rock stars! Hna Brimhall has the best spanish out of anyone in the mission (says president Deere) and it is so dang true. She has the lisp and everything down and sounds like a native. I love the spanish here! It is still super hard to understand but it sounds a lot clearer than Hispanic Spanish. My comps both speak spanish all the time around me and I like it :)

So the flight here was the funnest trip ever, really though lol. We landed in France and it was really gloomy and ugly and I definitely didn't enjoy the people over there very much. They were mean to us while we were going through security again and they took FOREVER on my passport. They would stare at it and then me and then leave and then come back and stare at it more. I was like...ummm what is going on. Just let me through dang it! haha But it was all good. I didn't sleep one minute during the 13 hr trip. I TRIED! We landed and were immediately greeted by the greatest people on the planet...our mission pres and wife! I LOVE THEM! Funniest and chillest people ever. Super cool. 

We then went straight to the mission home and the whole ride there we were just like..."woahhhh! OH MY GOSH! we're here!! It's so pretty!!!" We were pretty much crying with tears of joy and amazement. We drove with Sister Deere and she was just laughing the entire time at how blown away we were. The mission home is also freaking gorgeous and the pool is even prettier than the pictures! All of us new missionaries stayed the night in the mission home and I didn't sleep at all :( We got our comps and then all left the next morning to our areas! 

We had another 5 hr bus ride to our area and then had to haul my suit cases like 10 blocks to our little piso. It is super cute yet we live like pioneers haha. We shower with a bucket and it is warm water for like two seconds so I don't wash my hair very often. You have to like turn the gas fire thing on to make hot water. And there aren't dryers here but I expected that. No bugs though! Not yet...haha we'll see when summer hits. It's pretty chilly here and windy. The people are SO CHILL! They are just normal and do whatever and are pretty quiet. The entire world smokes. I saw a naked guy´s butt on the way to Church. We had to like run up this hill for 20 mins to Church because we missed the bus. We take buses almost every day and they drive like NY taxi drivers! They are nuts!! People just drive wherever. There are no laws, you just drive and try not to hit pedestrians. Suprisingly enough, there are never any accidents. 

The members here are super cool and there are so many different races and cultures of people here. There are people from Ecuador, Venezuela, Columbia, Argentina, then black people that speak spanish! I was blown away... and chinese people that speak spanish too. What is goin on in southern spain. Super weird lol I don´t know if I have met an actual Spaniard yet. I probably have, but I honestly can't tell. I'm still keepin my eyes on the watch for Nadal the greatest tennis player ever. He totally lives here. That's what Hna Martin said so I'll find him and baptize him :) flirt to convert! hehe...jjjjkkk

It is super funny trying to contact people on the street. I did it my first day in the field and almost had success yet it was kinda creepy. Hna Martin and brimhall tried to run people down but they got away and then I just said hi to this guy and he immediately payed attention but probably not in the way that I wanted him to....if you catch my drift..so hna martin and brimhall jumped in and just gave him a pass along card and we ran away. Weirdo... Other than that, people really reaaally don't like to hear what we have to say. They just immediately run away and it is super amusing :D

We mostly have lessons with recent coverts who are also less actives. It's super sad. They have like 23 of these people that were all baptized in the last year and already fell away. We are just trying to get  them to Church and trying to baptize theire boyfriends/girlfriends. We have one investigator (Carmen from Ecuador who looks Chinese) that is a referral from a member and I invited her to be baptized last night!! ...she said no...lol well she just said that she was already baptized blablabla the usual. But she is super cool and really likes us so we'll be able to keep working with her. 

Soooo there is Spain for you in a nutshell...sorry that this is super random and not very spiritual. I'm still in the oh-my-gosh-this-place-is-so-sick stage. I'm sure I'll calm down and actually focus on why I'm here soon haha These people are the best though. I love them already. I cannot WAIT to get this language down. I feel like that will neeeeevvvveeerr happen haha but I'll keep goin. 

Thank you all for the love and awesome letters while I was in the MTC. I was so surprised to get letters there!! I love you all so much!! Here is my new address for the next 6 wks and possibly more...

Hermana Alaena Daly

c/o Hermanos Pinzón

60, 2B

04005 Almería

España

If you never know where to send stuff because I moved during transfers or whatever, here is the mission office. But ONLY send here if you are not sure. It will take forever to get to me when you send it this way...but here it is just in case...

Hermana Alaena Daly

Paseo Jesús Santos Rein 2, 3º D-E

29640 Fuengirola, Málaga

España

LOVE YOU GUYS! I definitely do not miss the US...yet lol Come to spain! It is the beeesssst. Have a great week! Be good people. Preach. Yeah. Boom. Missions. Yes. I miss pizza. We eat lots of bread. It's good though. Meat, kinda gross. LOVE YOU!

Love the greatest spain sista,

Hermanita Daly...everyone calls me Dally...great.... :D

Made it to Spain!!!! - Feb 7, 2013

I made it to spain!!!! IM HERE! ohhhh my gosh, this is THE MOST GORGEOUS PLACE OF MY ENTIRE LIFE! holy heck. I cant breathe it is just unbelievable. MIssion pres and his wife ROCK! coolest people in the world and suuuuper chill. The travel was super fun and I have the coolest friends ever...that are elders haha they are freaking awesome. Anyways, I get my companion in a couple of hrs and I am super stoked! I am exhausted and cant wait to just die and sleep. I am at the mission home right now and we are about to eat dinner and have a chill night and just go to bed here at the home. looooove it! SO BEAUTIFUL! I love spain. I love spain. I love spain. anyways, just wanted to email you and let you know that I am alive :) I will write on monday!! 

Love,

the happiest girl in the entire world

Hermanita Daly

I GOT MY VISA!!!!

BUENAS FAMILIA!!

YEAHHHHHHHH!!! That's right! I got my VISA!!! heck.yes. It's about time! But yeah, I'm stuck in the Provo MTC for SIX DAYS! I thought it was going to be super awesome, but then, I realized that everyone is like 12 yrs now and super hyper. I never realized how hyper and brainwashed everyone is in the MTC. Was I seriously like that?? haha I also saw my dearest AMY SCHRADER!!! I got put into an advanced spanish district with HNA. SCHAFFER!!! Love that girl...anyways, so I am in a class with bi-lingual people that are from all over the world. They are way nice but they hate the MTC more than anything and they want to leave haha. Good thing that they only have to be here for like 2 1/2 wks. Anyways, so the three sisters in this district LIVE with Amy and I was like, "WHAT!!! Show me where she is RIGHT NOW!" hahaha we had an epic reunion of laughing and screaming and hugging and jumping up and down and more screaming. It was the greatest :)

It was suuuuper sad saying goodbye to everyone in AZ!!! For reals. I was saying goodbye to all of our investigators and some of the members and they were just so unbelievably sweet and wanted me to visit them after the mish and were sad to see me go...awwww...presh. The hardest part was saying goodbye to all of the kids that are ages 8-11. Some of them were investigators and others were just recent converts. They were SO SAD to hear that I was leaving. They kept hugging me and were like, noooo don't leave! It was so adorable :) I also got to say goodbye too all of the sisters at the VC, including my precious french comp, Hna Sordes :) She goes home from her mish in like a couple days! It was so great to see everyone before I let. I have met so many incredible people in AZ and I am SO GRATEFUL for the experiences I had there. I am super super suuuuuper excited for my next mission in Spain.

Let me just say that I think I win the award for the craziest mission ever :D I went from the MTC to the Mesa Visitor's Center to being a full field sister on bike then back to the MTC and then I'll be flying to PARIS!!! and then finally to SPAIN!!! Yup. I win. Coolest/craziest mission ever ;)

I also bore my testimony during our district meeting yesterday in front of all of the cool bi-lingual people and I was just amazed at how much I have improved since the MTC. I never realized how much I have been blessed with Spanish till now. I now feel awful for all those times that I complained and said that I wasn't getting any better. I can now understand most of what people say and I can bare my testimony without freaking out! So cool.

Well right before I left my area in AZ, we had a million miracles. Hna. Sanchez was saying how she has never seen so many miracles until our last week together. We pretty much have reactivated a less active family of 4 and we found a family of 4 that is progressing a lot and will probably be baptized in the near future (the one with the dream from last week). We have also seen the progress of our sweet Jorge who should still be getting baptized on the 16th of February. We just had so many amazing lessons with him and he has changed SO MUCH! He is so ready for baptism and we are just so thrilled! I am super glad that I was able to see those miracles before I left :)

Everything has fallen into place and it just keeps confirming my testimony that Heavenly Father really does have a plan for every single one of us. We may not see what it is right now but we will be able to see with time and patience. Looking back, I can see all of those blessings and I feel terrible for not recognizing them sooner. I am so grateful for my mission!!

I love you all and thank you so much for all of the prayers and love. I have been so blessed because of you guys. I will call mom's phone on Wednesday around like...2:30-3PM?? I'm not totally positive. We go from SLC to Paris...13hr flight blech. And I think we land in Paris at 11:35 AM...Utah time? dang it, sorry I shouldve brought my flight plans with me while I wrote this. I will try to call you no matter what right when I get to the airport on wednesday in SLC. LOVE YOU GUYS!

Love,

Hermanita Daly