Thursday, April 25, 2013

Week 6 - Last week in the Madrid MTC!


¡HOLA Familia y Amigos!
 
So are talking a train to Málaga on Tuesday morning! I can´t believe it is coming to an end so quickly! We will be told our new area assignments and trainers either on Monday or Tuesday :) This week was much better than last week! Let´s see, after I emailed you all last Thursday we went to the Prado Art Museum and I got in for free because I still had my BYU ID, which was nice! And I finally got to see Bosch´s "Garden of Earthly Delights" and Velaquez´s "Meninas" but other than that I am not so into pre- and renaissance art. That evening we watched a Elder Holland devo too which was way good.
 
On Saturday we proselyted in the park. It was so beautiful and wonderful and reminded me of Hyde Park in London sooooo much. The park is huge so all of the missionaries in our zone could spread out and since everyone is just relaxing it isn´t as awkward to make contacts. But on the way there we gave out two Books of Mormon on the metro! I was paired with two other sisters from my District (Hermanas Flake & Nielsen) and it was a perfect balance! Hermana Flake is happy and friendly and I did a lot of the talking but Hermana Nielsen is good too so that helped and her Italian came in handy at one point too. We met the nicest girl on the metro, she seemed genuinely interested and I think she actually might read the Book of Mormon we gave her. We got her contact info so hopefully at some point she starts taking the lessons. We stayed on the metro an extra four stops to talk to her and on the way back to the correct stop for the park we met another man that we gave a Book of Mormon to. So great! Starting out this good before we even get to the park was such a blessing and boost to our spirits.
 
While in the park we really only had one man turn us away but he wasn´t mean about it and in Spanish he was like "you´re all very beautiful but go away I am having a relaxing day" hahaha it was way funny. We talked to another family that was so precious and we gave them the Family Proclamation to the World and talked about the BOM and the dad seemed interested in eternal families but the mom said they were strong catholics and we didn´t end up getting them to take a BOM but they were nice. The last elderly man we talked to we had about a 30-40 min conversation with. He mostly did a lot of talking about the park and his family and at the end we gave him a BOM, got his contact info, and I got to bear testimony to him so that was cool. At the very end our zone met up at a busy area by the water and sang some hymn and talked to the people who were watching. It was such a good day! But this Thursday we are at the Goya again...hopefully it goes better this time.
 
The days feel much shorter here than they did in the Provo MTC. Probably because we don´t do much studying here haha. Hermana Johnson and I are going to try and focus for the last five days even though it´s distracting here. The lessons we are teaching to our progressing investigators are going really well and we barely have any problems with our Spanish (well comparatively haha). One of our teachers (funniest & best teacher ever) told both of us that at our level we should be fine and fluent in 6 weeks once we are immersed in the field and he said 3-6 months for everyone else so that made me feel way good! And in the temple today I did the whole thing in Spanish including the last part and the worker complimented me on my beautiful pronunciation (sorry for the bragging, but it makes me happy)! There is still a ton of vocab I don´t know obviously but as far as gospel goes I am doing fine. The weather is perfect here right now. Sometimes it gets a little warm in the middle of the day but overall it´s beautiful. I just got out of the temple and we got a short tour to see the baptistery and sealing rooms. That temple is so beautiful and I am so blessed to be so close to it! We are going to try and go to Primark (they have one here!!!!) and maybe the park today for the last P-day since there aren´t any excursions planned but we´ll see. I think we might be allowed to email once we leave the MTC and get our assignment but I´m not sure, so maybe expect an email on Tuesday, or around then maybe? I´m pretty sure we don´t get to call but we do for Mother´s day so when I get details about that I´ll let you know.
 
So there is a mission blog being kept up by an elderly missionary couple here and I can´t see it but apparently they put up a lot of pictures of us MTC folk so you can check it for pictures of me and put them on the blog or something if you want (mom). But only if they are good pictures ok? Haha.
 
Also if you are wanting to send letters or packages send them to the mission home in Málaga since I will be there on Tuesday.
 
Love you all and thanks for the emails
Hermana Thompson
ps- PICTURES BELOW are of Hermana Johnson and I in the park, Hermanas Nielsen & Flake & I in the park (proselyting comps!), and the Madrid Temple from the view of our MTC building :)







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