Transferred!!!

Unfortunately, this entry is going to be short because I don't have much time because we have to go to a visit. But just so everyone knows, I've been transferred! I'm now serving in Mataró for about a week with a great Elder named Elder Raban until his other companion comes, and then I go up to Gerona. I miss Pamplona a tonnnnn, but I know the Lord needs me somewhere else.

This past week was great. A little sad because I had to say goodbye to everyone, but it was really good. We had many great lessons with our investigators and a ton of amazing experiences. I'll have to write them next week because I'm way short on time though. Sorry! But so everyone knows, don't send anything to the old address haha. Because I won't get it for another month or so if you do. I'll have my other address soon enough though so just be patient. If I don't write back soon, it's either because the letter was sent to my old city and I haven't gotten it yet, or it's in the mission home still. But don't worry, I won't forget about any of you :) Once again, sorry this is so short. I wish I could share all the million experiences I had this week, the emotions, the miracles, everything! But I'll have to write a nice, long email next week.

Love you all and I miss you all tons!

Prayers requested: Elder Mathews will be going for a pre-op on Thursday for a hernia repair and next week they'll schedule his surgery. Pres. & Sis. Clark Hinckley called us today to reassure us and explain the situation at hand. He said that they just had another missionary go thru a similar repair not too long ago, and that he is impressed with the staff and facility in Barcelona, which he said is almost better than some or most of the facilities in the U.S. It is also close to the mission office!:)

While this is a routine/minor surgery compared to others, we ask for prayers on his behalf and even for those who will be attending to his needs, especially with him being in Spain and away from us. We trust in the Lord and know that Elder Mathews is in good hands. We are thankful that Pres. & Sis. Hinckley can be there for Elder Mathews.

Thank you for your love, prayers, and support!:)

Sue Mathews

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!!! Hope you all had a good one. For Valentine's Day we were in Bilbao for interviews with President. It was way cool. We only had about 10 or 15 minutes to meet with him but it was way neat. I got to talk with him about things on the mission and everything and while we waited for our turn, our Zone Leaders taught us. I loved it. But let me rewind and go back to last week.

We are now in a trio!! On Tuesday, Elder Southwick went to Barcelona to pick up a brand new Elder while I stayed with another missionary named Elder Jiménez. He was great and it was a lot of fun and we got tons of work done. It was a neat experience.

Wednesday afternoon Elder Southwick and the new Elder came and we headed back to Pamplona. The new Elder is named Elder Reeder. He's from Bountiful, Utah and he was stuck in the MTC for 13 weeks! I am so glad I didn't have any visa problems. But now I'm kind of like a trainer. Elder Southwick is the real trainer but on paper it says that both of us are trainers. Kinda cool huh?

Elder Reeder is great. We all get along really well and what's even cooler is he likes soccer, too!! That makes three of us in one companionship haha. All the members think it's weird that three American missionaries like soccer haha. But it's cool.

This past weekend we had a baptism!!! Alisson was baptized on Sunday and it was one of the best experiences I've had on my mission yet. I remember when me and my trainer found her in the end of December and I remember our first visit with her. And then Elder Southwick came and we kept visiting her and she progressed so fast. She just soaked up everything and accepts everything. She wants to go to the temple someday and might even serve a mission she said. It's so cool. I can't describe the happiness and joy I felt during her baptism. She even said herself yesterday in our visit that she wants to be baptized again because she said she felt so good and amazing. I'm so grateful for the opportunity that I had to take part in teaching her. She's an amazing girl and I can't wait to see what happens to her down the road.

Now back to yesterday, Monday. After the interviews, the Hermanas that are in Pamplona traveled back to Pamplona with me and Elder Reeder while Elder Southwick went back to Barcelona for a doctor’s appointment because he had pneumonia a while back. So yesterday and most of today, it's just the two of us. I was a little nervous at first because I'm still learning and Elder Reeder is brand new and his Spanish is still getting there. But everything went really well. We had a visit with a less active member and it went way good. His wife isn't a member so we set up a return visit to talk with both of them. After that we walked around to try to do contacts, but there was like no one outside. We had no idea why and then we realized that it was the night of Valentine's Day and everyone was in restaurants or bars or inside their homes. So let's just say we didn't get many contacts haha. We had a visit with Alisson too and that went great as usual. So overall, we had a good night, just the two of us.

Today is Preparation Day since we had interviews yesterday so that's why the email is so late. Sorry if I worried any of you. Also, heads up about the coming week. I may or may not be getting transferred. With the new Elder here, there's three of us and chances are that I might be leaving. But I might not. I find out Sunday night and so I'll let you all know next Monday what's going on.

Thanks for all the letters and support :) I love hearing from you all and I hope you're doing great. Love ya!!

Spring in February??

As you can probably tell by the title, it has really been Spring here. This past week it has been at least 20ºC (68ºF/70ºF) here which is way warm for this time of year. We've just been going out in just our suit jackets and no coats or gloves or scarves. It's been awesome! We went from bitter cold with wind to this amazing weather. Hopefully it doesn't end real soon and then we get another batch of cold haha. But we'll see.

This past week was just awesome. Not just because of the weather though. We had quite a few little miracle experiences that made my journal entries a whole lot longer than normal haha. This past week, Elder Southwick and I planned to stop by a few less active members in one part of our area called San Juan. We went down the street towards the building number when we passed this one young mom and her three year old son. We just passed by and then the son said, "¡Hola!" so we decided to stop and talk. We were expecting it to be just another contact like always, but we were in for a big surprise. It turns out that she was a member! And not only that, she served a mission!! It was crazy! We started talking and she said that she served her mission in Ecuador, where she was from, and moved to Spain sometime after. She hasn't come to church in a few months because she said she's kinda lazy haha. But we had a good conversation with her and we're trying to get her back to church. She lives in the Hermana's area so we had to hand over the info to them. But it was still a really neat little experience.

After talking with her we headed down the street to do what we had planned and we got to the building. We got there and my companion asked what piso floor it was and what the name was and I told him and then all the sudden we heard this voice behind us that said, "Soy yo." which means that's me haha. We turned around and this big, tall black guy from the Congo was there. He was way nice though. We talked for a while and set up a time to visit him this next week. And if you think the success and little miracles ended there, I got one more haha. This street was just waiting for us. After talking to this man we didn't know what else we were supposed to do. We both felt like we had planned on doing something else on that street but we just couldn't remember what and it was driving us crazy. We pulled out the sheets of paper we had with us and looked at them but no one else lived on the street. But we just felt like we couldn't leave yet. And right at that moment, a young family walked around the corner. We didn't even think twice before we went up and started talking to them. They were from Bolivia and they had their young daughter who's six years old with them. We asked if we could stop by sometime and they said of course. We were supposed to visit them yesterday, but the lady called and said something came up so they couldn't but she asked if we could come another day. After we were done talking to that family we felt that we could leave the area. The Spirit was guiding us to that family. I don't know if much will come from me and my companion that will help them but I do know that we were supposed to talk to them and maybe down the road someday they'll accept the Gospel. So that's my little miracle story. It was a great experience for us and there are so many like that every day and every week.

This next week one of our investigators is getting baptized! :) Her name is Alisson and I'm pretty sure you've heard of her...I think haha. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned her in some emails. But after about a month of meeting with her, she's getting baptized on the 13th. So next week when I email, I'll have an update on that.

Yesterday was a very interesting day. It was normal at church and everything and we got to eat at a member's house and that was so good. They're a great family. The crazy part came after the meal when we were walking back home for a quick stop. We got a call from the Assistant to the President and he told Elder Southwick that we were getting another Elder with us in Pamplona! He told my companion that tomorrow he's traveling to Barcelona to pick up a brand new missionary and that he is going to be training the new Elder. I'll be up in Bilbao for a few days with another Elder while Elder Southwick is picking up the new Elder. We just got that all thrown on top of us and we've had to cancel at least seven visits that we had for Tuesday and Wednesday. We were kinda frustrated because it sorta messed up a few things. But it's exciting to get a new missionary. But we also have to figure out how to fit everything in our piso now haha. Our piso is kinda smaller so it'll be interesting trying to fit another Elder here. And then we'll see if he speaks any Spanish. I hope so. But getting this info basically means I'm probably getting transferred after this transfer. Unless they keep us three here for another or send the other Elder somewhere else. But I have a feeling I'm leaving :( I don't want to but I know the Lord guides the work here in Spain. I've gone through two companions already and I know the Lord is preparing me for something. Even Elder Southwick told me that. I don't know what but I am His servant here in Spain and I will do His will. The Gospel is true. My testimony grows everyday I'm out here.

Thanks for the love and support. Until next week...

¡Por Fin! ¡Agua Caliente!

As the title states, we finally have hot water!!! You have no idea how great it is to take a hot shower now, and to have heating in our piso. At night before bed, I can finally sit and write in my jounal in shorts and a t-shirt instead of sweats, a jacket, and a hat. But there are still some pretty big holes in the walls. I have no idea when they're gonna fix it either. But I'm just soooo happy that we got hot water and heat again. So, there's that little update.

This past week was awesome. We had Zone Conference in Bilbao which was amazing. I learned so much from that and motivated myself to work even harder if I could. I loved this conference. And at every conference we get food, usually pizza. And they had enough pizzas for every missionary to have their own whole pizza. So of course I grabbed my own. That was the first time I've had pizza in months and it was sooo good. After Zone Conference we normally would have hopped on a bus and headed back to Pamplona but I found out that I had to go back to Madrid! I traveled with another Elder, Elder Thompson, because we had to pick up our Residency Card. It was the longest train ride ever. We didn't get to take the bullet train so it took five hours to get from Bilbao to Madrid. We just sat there, ate some food that we brought, read scriptures or church magazines, and talked. But we finally got there around 2:00 on Wednesday and went back to the MTC. I'll admit that I was pretty excited to see people there again. So we got there and apparently they weren't expecting us, haha. We got there and they were all surprised and asked what we were doing there. But it was great to see our teachers again and the President and his wife. We only got to be there for a total of about an hour since we had to travel to get our stuff and then catch our train back that night but it was still nice to see them all. I got back to Pamplona and went back to work and we had a great week.

There was a pretty funny experience, yet again this past week on the street. We were contacting this one woman and then our phone rang. So my companion told me to answer it since it was one of the office secretaries and so I walked a few feet away and all they wanted was my Residency card number. After I hung up this girl came up behind me and asked if we were Mormons. I said yes....why? haha. By then my companion had finished the contact and came over and we started talking to her and one of her friends. She said that she had lived in Utah, in Layton actually, for a summer with a Mormon family for a study thing. And apparently she lived not even ten minutes away from Elder Southwick's home. It was pretty sweet. But the funny part happened when the rest of her friends came out of the little store that we were by. They couldn't pronounce his name so he said that they could say "Elder Sandwich" if it was easier. And then this one girl said, "¿Eres rico?" which means, "Do you taste good?" hahaha it was so funny because of the context. It was a little awkward but it was funny just because he said his name was Elder Sandwich. But that's that funny story.

We had to go shopping late this week for food because we had Zone Conference and everything so we went this past Thursday and we got everything and we were about to check out when I realized I forgot my wallet! So we had to put our stuff down behind the register and go alll the way back to our piso, grab my wallet, and come back. I felt pretty stupid right then. And to make it worse, when we got back the line was hugeeee. So we ended up waiting another 15 minutes or so. I just hope I never forget that again.

My companion is sitting right next to me filling out his BYU application. Before his mission he went to a college in Iowa and he said that he had a pretty neat experience and decided to go to BYU because that's where he felt he needed to go. So he's been asking me for all this help with his essays and everything. It's been kinda funny to see him freak out about it all. We've revised his essays and everything and so he's gonna submit his stuff today. I might even be with him still when he finds out if he got in or not. I just think it's funny to see him going through this whole process right now.

The work is still going amazing out here. We've found so many people that have been prepared for this gospel. So many miracles happen everyday. We found this one woman on the street with her little girl and she was a member! She said she's been trying to call the church and find out when we met on Sundays but no one ever answered. Her husband isn't a member and they came to church yesterday and we're teaching him now. They're a great family and it was a neat little miracle that we found her.

Thanks for the prayers and support from back home. I miss you all and love you lots.

¡¡¡Hace frio!!!

Hola! I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying their nice warm showers. Ours is still broken. Which means we've been without hot water and heating for about three weeks now. Crazy I know. The repairman finally came this past Thursday. We thought it was only going to take about two days to fix. But when the guy came and looked at it, he said that it would take more like five. So we've been stuck in our piso every morning and afternoon while he works away at it all. He's put a few holes in our walls and had to take out some things so our piso looks all ghetto. One of the holes is from inside to the outside. So there's just this big, gaping hole letting lots of cold air in. At night we stuff a blanket in there to keep as much cold air out. But it's still so cold. It's around 11ºC in our piso at any given time. So we sit in one of the bedrooms and close the doors and keep the heater on all the time. And taking a bath is the worst because you have to get out and then walk through the freezing cold piso. But it's ok. I'm still alive and I don't have frost bite or anything.

Tomorrow I'll be able to have my first hot shower in three weeks! We have Zone Conference tomorrow in Bilbao and we're staying the night at another piso of the Elders so we can get there on time. I cannot wait for that hot shower. I've never looked forward to one more in my life. But we'll be all set soon enough in ours.

This past week has been the coldest I've felt here. It's been around 0ºC which isn't terribly cold. But its been way windy every single day. So the cold just bites through you and when you walk around in it, it's not too fun. I gotta say that I absolutely love my scarf right now. Never used one before my mission but it has become my best friend.

On Thursday, my companion and I were standing outside of the chapel talking about something when a man came up and said something in English! Usually that's pretty sweet but this was far from it. It was way creepy and just plain scary. But also funny now that I look back on it. Here in Spain it's typical for girls to give each other a kiss on each cheek when they greet each other and for guys to do it to girls. But guys never do it to other guys. But this guy came up to us and said something that I couldn't even understand and then he went in to kiss us!!!! Not just on the cheeks, but on the lips!! He went for my companion first but he just stuck his hand out and shook his hand instead. I thought the guy got the point and would just shake my hand. But then he went for me!!! I had to put my hand on his chest and actually push him away. It was soooo weird and creepy. We just said, umm we gotta go now. And then the guy went as far as to ask, yet again to me, for just one beso (kiss). And I just said no goodbye haha. It was soooo weird. But it definitely made for a really good journal entry. But that's the end of that crazy story. Hopefully it doesn't happen again.

The mission is still as amazing as ever. It's amazing at how many little things just make the mission memorable like running to catch buses, buying chuches (candy) at the stores, walking for 25 minutes trying to find a piso that doesn't exist haha. The mission is great. I've been trying to get better at taking pictures so that you can all see, hopefully, what it's like here in Spain. I absolutely love it here. I wish that I could take you all here and just show you around. But for now, pictures will have to do.

Thanks for the letters and support. I miss you all and I'll see you before you know it. Keep me updated on life back home!