Airport Greetings

Dear friends and family -

Thanks soooo very much for all your love and support of Alaena during these past 18 months.  If you would like to be at the airport for her arrival, she will be stopping at the Salt Lake airport on her way home on Friday, February 28th at 1:45 pm...she will have a 2 1/2 hour lay-over:)
If you would like to welcome her home at the Boise airport - we will arrive that same day,
 February 28th at 6:15 p.m.
 
~lots of love, Mark & Caran

last email........JOSE GOT BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!! - February 17, 2014

FAMILYYYYYYYY and friends!!!

Jose got baptized!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You have no idea how happy I am. At the beginning of the week my compy and I were pretty set on him not getting baptized this week but man did God have other things in store haha.

On like a Tuesday this past week we had a cita with him and he just starts off by saying, "I want to get baptized now. I am convinced that this is the true church and that this book is from God. I know it and nobody can ever take it away from me. I don't care if people laugh at me or make fun of me. This is true and I want to be baptized this Sunday."

I was completely shocked and started tearing up while laughing with joy. It was the greatest thing in the world. We were all just having such a good laugh and cry and just so happy for him!!!! Jose has such an incredible faith. Ever since the beginning he has been all in and put everything on the Gospel first. He made God his priority and for that reason he was baptized a quick 3wks later after receiving a huge confirmation that the Book of Mormon was true. I cant get over how awesome he is!!! and how awesome the BOM is!!!!! I love it!

We ended up sharing the baptism service with another guy who also had such a strong testimony of the BOM. It was a beautiful baptism (even though my compy and I were stressed out the entire time) and I had the opportunity to bear my last testimony in spanish. It was kind of a crap testimony because they told me right then and there and then there were like 100 people at the baptism. I wanted to die lol. I just spoke about the first time we met Jose (such a funny story) and how the BOM and the Gospel is for everyone. Not just those that are Christian but for every single person.

I am so grateful for my mission. It truly has changed my life. I never knew that I was having success as a missionary until looking back now on all of the events that have happened in mission. I can see that Heavenly Father has been with me at every moment of my life blessing me and helping me be the person that I am today. I hope to keep going and share this incredible gift that the Gospel is with all of my friends.

I love you guys so much and I want to thank all of you for writing me and praying for me. I couldnt have finished without your help. See all very soon!!!

Love

Hermanita Daly

pics of Encarni's Baptism and my last Zone Meeting! - February 10, 2014

MY FAMILY!!! Clara on the far left, Jose in the back, Conchi (mom of Clara on the right), Lucia is the daughter of Encarni

same one but with Dani the bishop's son

yayyyyyy!!!!

Encarni and Jose...they are so funny, they never smile!!!! I promise that they are the most happy and funniest people ever!

all of these pics of from my last Zone meeting where i gave my dying testimony....I bawled like a baby, so embarrassing

me and my SHE's (super hermana entrenadora) love these girls

HERMANA JARVIS!!! send this to aunt christine!!!! I love this girl

 

Greatest week of my life!! - February 10, 2014

ENCARNI'S BAPTISM!!!

It was the greatest baptism of my life. It was so spiritual and the whole ward showed up and just welcomed her with so much love. She is the most popular thing of the ward now :) I didn't cry at all for the first little bit of her baptism but then her niece, Clara (coolest member ever), gave her testimony and read some emails from Encarni's awesome daughter, Desi, who couldnt be there for the baptism and I just started bawling. I was crying, Jose (Encarni's husband) started bawling and Encarni was already totally gone since the beginning of the baptism haha. It was just incredible. God has so much in store for this incredible family!! They were already talking about when their sealing date in the Madrid Temple would be and making sure that I would be there!!!!!! They are amazing. I really hope that I can make it to their sealing next year....we'll see!!

Other than that, the rest of the baptism was flawless and Encarni gave the funniest and sweetest testimony ever. I wish you could all meet her, she is so freaking funny!!! She is like the Spaniard version of me but a little more hyper and crazier haha I love her so much.

Her hubby, Jose, is definitely getting baptized on the 23rd....we are gonna try to secretly get him ready for the 16th and just do it haha we'll see if we have success with that. He has had huge spiritual experiences with the Book of Mormon and knows that everything is true. So, like I said, we are going to get him baptized as fast as we can....with me here!!! Hopefully :)

This past week was the best.

This week right now we are going to contact the world and find new investigators since we still dont have any. I am so excited to scream the Gospel to EVERYONE!! It'll be great :)

One more email from me next week!!!! Love you all so much.

Love

Hermana Daly

Baptism!! - February 3, 2014

Hey guys!!

We are having a baptism this sunday!!! My favorite person in the world, Encarni, gets baptized on sunday :) She is all ready to go!!! We have had a huge miracle with that family this week!!

Jose, the dad, was the one who opened the door when I first knocked their door 2months back. He now has a baptism date!!!!!!!!!!!! He should be getting baptized the 22nd....so I won't be able to go :( but im just so happy! The  Lord has been preparing this family for us. Jose was very atheist at the beginning and in ONE week he has done a full 180. He has read so much of the Book of Mormon and has a testimony of it! IN ONE WEEK! It was the coolest thing to watch. He has changed so much and now he has accepted to be baptized. I love him. He will definitely be a big leader in the church here in Spain. He is incredible. He is the funniest and most spiritual guy with a huge heart. Im going to die when I leave this family!!!! I love them I love them I love them.

I will try and get pics coming!!! 

We also had a conference with our stake and we watched a broadcast that was put on by the Area 70 and Elder Ballard!! It was amazing! I really loved it and it was so great to have Jose and Encarni there watching it too :) 

Other than that we are still lacking in the investigators department. We have been visiting the members like crazy and trying to get a ward mission plan going. Hopefully this will bring in lots more investigators down the road. 

Well family, the end is coming soon!! Im very very nervous and excited to see you all! Love you guys. 

Love

Hermana Daly

Contacting, knocking and more contacting...........January 27, 2014

Hello!

Another week that seemed to drag on for forever but it was a good week! We are still expecting to have to awesome baptisms on feb 9th!! WE ARE STOKED! I freaking love Encarni and Narchisa! It'll be great! 

This week was full of contacting and knocking and contacting and knocking and walking till our backs die. It's been hard but we are slowly finding some potentials. My compy, Hna Theoblad, is making me fat with her delicious cooking. I love my life :)The weather has been super nice as well! Like high 60s!! YEAH! Thats my winter right there. 

Here is an awkward story:

We have been trying to get together with this investigator from a few years ago and we call her all the time and she always tells us to call the next week. Anyways, after like a month of doing this we FINALLY got to come to her house. We go there and we meet some of her nieces that are like 20s and super nice and all from Columbia and then the mom was like, "ok kids, the Americans are here! Let's have english class." We were like.....ummmmm we are definitely not going to come just to teach english...that's why we have designated english classes twice a week at our capilla. We both just stared at each other like, what do we say?? Right off the bat I was like, "so we were confused and we actually had a message prepared for you guys but we can just teach a little and then share the message, k?" The mom was not very happy with me hahaha but in the end it went well and like 4 more people from their family walked in and listened to the lesson! They werent super interested but we could tell that they totally felt the spirit in our lesson. We'll see if we ever see those guys again. 

Thats our life....only teaching english class and never the Gospel haha jk jk we teach the Gospel lots ;)

Ok, have a great week everyone! sorry for never having pictures.....we never do cool stuff cuz eurpoean missionaries get gyped on money. Ive been using my own money for 2 months. Lets just say me and the financial Elder in the mission office have lots of fun chats on the phone...

love you guys!

Love

Hna Daly

Coolest investigators for our LAST month! - January 20, 2014

Hey Fam!

We have the coolest investigators. Even though we just have like 4 in total...3 in one family...they are the best and so prepared. They all came to church last sunday and the ward just loves them. Encarni and Conchi are 43 and 63 years old and they both stopped smoking! They have smoked the majority of their lives and they are 1 week without smoking. It is a miracle. Encarni has just been bearing her testimony to everyone she sees about the power of power and the Savior. She is incredible. I cry like every time when Im with her. She has made all of our members cry!! haha she is incredible.

We also had an awesome noche de hogar (FHE) with all of our investigators and a few members. Our recent convert, Gracia, was there too!!!! I havent seen her in soooo long! (She's in the other ward) I love her so much. It was the funnest night ever. Lots of spirit felt and the funnest game ever that involved chocolate....I'll have to teach it to you all when I get back :)

I love my compy, Hna Theobald. We are going to kick some butt this last month together.

I hope you are all searching for people to share the Gospel with. Im currently reading THE GREATEST BOOK EVER!!! It's called The Power of Every Day Missionaries by Clayton Christensen. Greatest book ever. I hope I can be the greatest member missionary after the mish. READ IT! It will blow your mind. 

Love

Hna Daly

Awesome week!! - January 13, 2014

Hey guys!

K, sorry this will be a short one! but we had an awesome awesome week! Our freaking awesome family is progressing lots and came to church and they just love it! And then our cute romanian girl also came! It was a great sunday and the ward accepted them suuuuper super well. We are really hoping and praying for them to be baptized before I go. I love them SO MUCH!!!

I just love Elche. So much. This place is the best and Im super glad it's my dying area. Me and my new compy, hna Theobold are doing some awesome work right now.

We have had the most powerful lessons this last week that I have ever had on the mission with our investigators. They just need to be baptized. They are all so incredible.

Ok, I have to start doing some BYU stuff. LOVE YOU GUYS!

love

Hermana Daly

pics from Day of Kings - Jan 6, 2014

me in Murcia!! so pretty

our district is so dumb haha we always get lost!

we took the funniest little bus ride of our lives

THE ELEPHANT right outside our piso!!! 

that's an elephant with the black king on it hahaha

compies!! this was during the huuuuge parade party

el roscón!! suuper delish. the famous bread treat that they eat for the reyes

part of the family that we are teaching! also the other Hermanas and Clara in the front!

pure chocolate mmmmmmmm you eat this with the roscón :)

Feliz Dia De Los REYES!!!! - January 6, 2014

yuuuuup it's Jan 6th...aka like the biggest fiesta you have ever seen! Ok, really last night was the biggest fiesta of my life. It was like Christmas Eve and New Years Eve mixed together....so huge. THERE WAS AN ELEPHANT right outside our piso just parading down the street!!! Like, what?! It was the funnest party I have ever seen in Spain. It just made my love for Elche that much stronger. I love Elche SO MUCH! I have some sick pics comin soon. Basically they just celebrate the 3 kings. One king was black and riding the elephant and then two others were just white...how boring...riding the camels. They had such an awesome drumline just pounding it out and dancing like fools. So funny. I have some super cool videos. They just had thousands and thousands of people in the streets with their kids picking up all the candy that the kings and other performers throw at them. Loved every second of it.

We also had a huge party in Murcia with 60 missionaries and Pres Deere and Hna Deere. Also so much fun. We did a talent show and ate tons of good food and had the most spiritual conference I have ever had. The main topic was the Atonement and I LOOOOOOVE the Atonement!!! It is like the greatest thing to study and to understand. I just cant get enough of it. It was amazing. The talents were also hilarious. I never knew that natives could act!!! haha it was so funny. 

On the work side....we are still working strong with our investigators. We are teaching a whole family now!!! That one aunt of Clara we found knocking doors, yeah we are now teaching her family. I love them so much. We just havent had much working time due to the milllions of fiestas that are going on but we are going to work hard with them this week!!

Transfers....so depressing. I freaking LOVE Hna Hubbard and she is leaving me! Im super sad. Hna Theobald is coming on Wednesday to be my compy. I never like changes lol we'll see how they go! 

LOVE YOU GUYS! Keep spreading the Gospel and reading those scriptures!!!! If you arent reading your scriptures and praying, you won't have a desire to share the Gospel :)

Love

Hermana Daly