American breakfast mmmm......!

Hey family! What a week! 7/27/15

So, first of all, this week I got to go to the leadership council at

the mission home with the other sister training leaders and zone leaders. It was so great! First, I got to go back to Alcobendas... I really miss it! It was so nice to see my old area and everything.
Second, the Packs are the best. Seriously. They are just so loving and they have such a great vision for the mission. I felt so blessed to be
there with the, and talk about the needs of the mission and set goals and such, they're truly amazing. And to top it all off, we had American food there! I had American milk!!! It's so good! And we had pancakes for breakfast and then pulled pork for lunch and banana pudding for dessert. So good. It was a wonderful opportunity, to eat obviously, but more to learn from them and learn how to improve our mission and lead by example.

After the mission leadership council, we had our zone meetings

The crazy people in my zone!

and because I'm one of the sister training leaders, I helped direct the meeting and spoke at it too. It was fun, I thought. We spoke about unity. We shared parts of a talk given by President Henry B Eyring called "Our Hearts Knit as One". I also studied a talk called  'The Virtue of Kindess" by Elder Joseph B Wirthlin. The two were really wonderful. We shouldn't judge and we should be unified to accomplish the Lord's work. Elder Wirthlin says, "If you are criticizing others, you are weakening the Church. If you are building others, you are building the kingdom of God." It's so true! We really emphasized the point, "if you don't have anything nice to say, dont say anything at all." I too am guilty of judging others and I especially needed this to realize that this isn't a one person show, but something we're all in together.
 GREAT news :We taught M. and HE KEPT THE WORD OF WISDOM! It honestly was so surprising. He did it though and committed to one week more. He really seems to be changing little by little. What he lacks mostly is a habit of prayer. We're really trying to stress the importance of prayer right now with him. Hopefully he'll recognize the need for it and implement it.

A finally accepted a Book of Mormon and said he'd read and pray about it. We were so excited until we met the next day and he said he's praying but not reading. He's just expecting to know. He keeps saying all he needs to know is in the bible. We finally came to the decision to read 2 Nephi 29 with him. He said that that chapter was talking about people like him, yet at the end of the conversation he went right back saying, "I already have the bible, I don't need anything more than the bible." We're almost at a loss for things to say to him. 
   And what you all want to hear about. S GOT BAPTIZED! It was honestly the most beautiful baptism ever. The talks were perfect. Me and Hermana Spencer sang the first verse of Be Still, My Soul in English and then we sang the first two verses of Nearer my God to Thee in Spanish with the other Hermanas. It was beautiful. A.performed the baptism. So cute. President and Hermana Pack even came!
I wouldn't have changed anything about it. It was the perfect day.

Tomorrow is my 9 month mark in the mission and I do not feel like I've been out that long and that I can be that far along! Crazy. My birthday is this week too, but a normal day in missionary life. The one exciting part is that our normal Saturday lunch appointment, C and N (from Peru), are making my favorite Peruvian food.

Anyway, I hope you all have a wonderful week.

I love you all!