More than 1 month in the field!

Thanks for those who emailed me! You´re the best!

Last p-day after my email we hiked up to a little tower that overlooks all of Benidorm and the coast. Seriously incredible. I think we might just have the prettiest area in the mission. It was so nice to be able to hike and just enjoy nature. Although the next few days I had to recover from the use of extra energy haha. On Tuesday we went on exchanges with the sister training leaders. I took a bus to Cartage's and got to be companions with Hermana Nelson who will be done in two months. She is so amazing and I learned a ton from her about contacting and teaching on the spot. As soon as I met her in the train station amazing things started happening. A girl from the states ran up to us and asked us for all our pamphlets and then as we were waiting for our next bus we taught a full 40 min lesson to a couple from Peru. The on the bus another lesson with a younger girl who was so nice. She talks to everyone easily and people want to talk back. The whole time I was like uhhh this girl is a machine. I was with her until the next afternoon and then returned to Benidorm feeling like I could talk to everyone and teach in Spanish. She´s from Utah and so it was SOOOO nice to finally ask every little questions I wanted to in English. And I finally could express all my thoughts and concerns in English. Everyone tells me how well I am doing with Spanish but I still feel like I know nothing in comparison to my comp haha. But it is coming more freely and I get more comfortable as the days go by. But everyone is sure to remind me of how timid I am all the time...I am working on that too. 

On Thursday we went to the funeral of one of the convert´s wife in our branch. She was one of the people we were visiting in the hospital with cancer. She was a Adventist so their church directed the funeral. They read a lot out of the bible and sang songs and said prayers but the whole time I never felt anything of the spirit. The people were nice and meant well but I knew that something was lacking. The family is strong and faithful and I loved seeing all the members come together to support one another. Times like these make me so grateful for the Plan of Salvation and temples. 

On Friday we had a special zone training with the President Deere and the APs. It was so nice to see the mission president and during my interview I told him the full story of my trip to Javea to visit the family of the Lewis´ mother. I could tell he was really excited about the whole thing and how inspired it all was. I had been wanting to go back to Javea and see them again and so I asked him about it. He said that even though it is farther away and costs more money and time to get there that we should follow the promptings and go back if we can get an appointment. So that is the plan! I am really just so excited that he is encouraging it. So hopefully soon we will be calling them to see if we can go back this week or the next. Our mission president is so great and I love his young enthusiasm for the work. 

Remember the investigator, Felisa, from Africa that came solo to church and how she kinda fell off the face of the planet? Well apparently she was out of town and we finally got in contact with her and taught her again and set a baptismal date! It is set for June 8th but we are thinking it´s a little too soon so we might move it to the 15th. But she came to church Sunday and is so sweet. Antonio our other investigator with a date is really busy so I don´t know when he´ll get baptized...hopefully soon, I´ll keep you updated. 

Sunday was great! Five of our less active members we have been teaching came to church! It was also testimony meeting so I loved hearing all the members share. It´s a small branch but everyone is so willing to get up and speak and their words are so sincere. June is the month of invitation in Europe so we are trying to get all the members to get involved. Anyway, hope you all are doing well and keep praying for me and missionary work in general! 

Love you all,

Hermana Thompson

ps- pictures:

hermana martín and i at the top overlooking benidorm

our bathroom door broke and i got stuck for a while...we had to squeeze in and out of a little slot all week haha

and the view of the coast!