Dos Semanas mas en el CCM

¡Buenos Dias a todos!

I feel a little badly about how much I haven´t written to people outside of my family... I also haven´t written many personalized letters to people within my family... I hope that all can forgive me! And for those who have been on missions please tell those who haven´t how busy you were (how busy I AM now!) I do love my family and friends, I´m just a little strapped for time.

Anyways... I got a lovely package yesterday! Thank you Mom, Dad, Mindy, Jesse, Cai and Maya for the contributions. I´ve been sharing the mints, jerky, and M&Ms with the missionaries here (there are 18 in the MTC now and there are still 8 Elders here from the St. Petersburg mission until Saturday). I´m going to send one of the packages of jerky to my German friend Elder Bäder down in the Malaga mission (it´s pretty cheap to send mail and such within Spain). He´ll be so excited to get it.

A few tid bits to share:

I got to use my design skills last week and I helped President Hill (the MTC president here) in choosing where and how to hang some photos to decorate the walls of the main hallway here. It was fun. The maintenance man (who was doing the actual hanging of the photos) took my opinion on what do so seriously... it was kinda funny to me since that´s really all it is: my opinion. Quite fun though.

Apparently the way that the Church has figured out to have missionaries stay in Spain and not have to reapply for visas every 90 days or something is to become some sort of temporary residents... I´m not sure exactly how it works... But I´ll be a temporary Spanish person for the next 16 something months (it´s crazy that I´ve already been in the mission that long).

I have an idea for all of you who read my letters: whenever you have the missionaries over for dinner, invite some less-active or non-member friends to come and meet them. Missionaries need your help! It may not lead to conversion right away, but it´s a great way to be friendly and to maybe help the local missionary work. Give it a try. If I were serving in your wards, I would love to have this kind of help!

I loved Alyn and Erin´s blog updates (they come to my email). Charlie and Charlotte are BIG! and CUTE! I wish I could give them hugs! Madi and Lia too! And I really love the bookshelf Erin! It looks like a keeper.

Mom- thank you again for the package. I was SO excited when it came yesterday. I´m sorry it´s so expensive to send stuff though... I feel badly about that part. I got a good laugh from the story about Maya stealing snacks in nursery. I love that gordita. I have a picture of me that I will send sometime soon for you to give the Bishopric to put on my plaque on the wall... sorry I keep forgetting to get it printed. It was taken on the Temple Plaza in front of one of the fountains. I´ll try to be good this week and send it! I´ve been working on a tape too, but I´m not sure when I´ll be done with it...

Mindy and Jesse and Cai and Maya- I love the pictures and the hand outlines! I´m getting quite a collection now! It looks like I got your entire family home evening activity in the mail. Thank you so much. I´m so excited for Cai to get more track when he´s three! And I´m proud of him for remembering where in the world Marti is. Your letter was so great Mindy. I feel like I know a little bit more of what´s going on in your family, now! I used to be updated just about every day and it´s been weird for me to not have that. Thanks to you to for the funny story about the kids busting out the front door. And I love what a little man Cai thinks he is! ¨Get off the computer, son.¨ ¨I coming. I coming.¨ I can just picture him doing that. I hope that you do send pictures of the newly painted walls in the living room. I bet they look great. Hey Jesse (I finally looked up your name in the Bible: Isaí!) I´m getting better at understanding Spanish, so you should write me another letter so I can see if I can get it all this time. Sounds like you two are doing a good job on the trek preparations. I wish I could be there to help you! I enjoyed my trek experiences so much and I´m glad that your trail boss wants to make it a really spiritual experience for the youth. As far as the food here goes Mindy... I don´t think I´ve really experienced much of REAL Spanish food yet. The food here in the CCM is a little modge-podge... they try to Americanize things... and we eat fish a LOT... Yesterday they gave us this orange pasta with random sea food in it- like oysters with the shells and whole shrimp who still have legs and eye-balls. It was pretty funny. It was like eating a mine field. But I must say that that was probably the strangest thing that I´ve ever eaten here. Usually it´s fairly normal. My favorite thing that I KNOW is Spanish food is a dessert called Churros con Chocolate. I´ll send a picture of me and my companions eating it when I get out of the MTC. It is this really thick rich chocolate that you dip churros into and then you drink the chocolate when you´re done. Yum! The chocolate here is amazing. The ice-cream too. And thank you for the pictures of your family. I was showing you all to my fellow missionaries and everyone agreed that I have some super cute nieces and nephews! I always knew it though.

Until next week, you know what to do: give the kids kisses and tell ´em I love ´em. I hope Eliza is doing well and is being a good girl. I hope Spencer is learning how non-productive tantrums are. Love you familia!

Hermana Diehl

Happy Birthday... and El Elder Bednar encounter

¡Familia!

I´m sorry it´s a day late, but... ¡Feliz Cumpleaños Kori! I hope Spencer and Fred were good for you? And John too!? I loved the blog entries from Erin and Alyn about you. I say Amen to all of it. I was telling my companions yesterday about you and what a generous sister you are. You always take care of me when I come to visit. ¡Te amo muchisimo mi hermana!

I had a good day on Kori´s birthday. Elder Bednar (you know, the one from los doce apóstoles) came to Madrid. There was a three hour revelatory session (he does not like the word ¨meeting¨ because most people don´t think you have to prepare in any way to attend a ´meeting´) with the missionaries from the Madrid mission and those of us here at the MTC were invited to join in as well. It was a long question and answer session and it felt like about 30 minutes. It was amazing. He always tells people,

¨I can see you have paper to write things down. Don´t write down what we say, just write the feelings that come to your heart and the thoughts that come to your mind.¨ He said that we miss most of the best teaching moments from the spirit when we´re too busy taking copious notes.

He came and ate dinner at the MTC and I was able to sit at the table with him and his wife and talk with them for a bit (if anyone ever wonders why Elder Bednar and his wife are skinny it´s because they don´t eat very much! Las hermanas who serve us the food here just don´t believe that we all don´t want huge servings.) I asked him what we should call Sacrament Meeting without using the word ´meeting´ and he said that we should still call it a meeting but we should think of it as a revelatory experience. He said he doesn´t know anyone who would be late to a revelatory experience. I was able to tell him a bit about Cornville and he said he´s been to Sedona before so he´s come pretty close. I love telling people about my beautiful home! ´Es un pueblo muy pequeño´ (It's a very small town) I tell people in Spanish.

After dinner we were invited to attend the meeting that was for all the saints in the greater Madrid area. We sat in another room with a tv broadcast so that the people could sit in the room with Elder Bednar and his companion Elder Oaks (of the 70... not of the 12). Elder Oaks and his wife were amazing as well. (They and the Madrid mission president and his wife came to dinner at the MTC too. It was really nice to meet all of them.) This meeting was a question and answer session as well. The questions were inspired and the answers from these general authorities were inspired also. I learned so much.

Alyn- I will look for your friend Tricia when I get to Barcelona. If I´m not serving in the city I may not get to see her... but I´ll try hard! There is an Elder from the St. Petersburg mission who is from Alberta, Canada, but he didn´t recognize her picture when I asked him if he knew her... but she probably has about 12 years on him so that´s understandable... and Alberta´s a big place. I can say that I too have some Canadian friends now though because there´s that Elder and a Sister who is from a different mission in Russia staying here and she is from Quebec (she speaks French, English, Spanish, and Russian... es loca). This week three Ansianos (Ansiano=Elder) from Italy arrived, and they are going to be here for the remaining three weeks that I have in the CCM. The Portuguese speakers left and my companion Hna. Goins and Elder Bäder left as well. Changes, changes. I loved the new dresses for Madi and Lia! And even though I said this last week, Charlie looks even bigger than he did in your art museum pictures! I wish I could have seen the harness video... it looked like it had lots of funny potential. Thanks so much for sending me the blog updates. I love you.

Erin- I love the hand outline and the footprint from Charlotte! Her feet look long! She´s such a cutie and I´m glad that she likes to laugh. I think this proves that she´s my neice because I LOVE to laugh. I think I´m going to start a tape recording to send home sometime soon so maybe you (and all of my family) could do the same? It would be so fun to hear all of your voices and to hear what your kids are saying these days. Charlotte´s laughter would bring me joy! That picture where Ruth is holding her is darling. She still looks like my little button! Such a round little face and head. This MTC is wonderful. I loved many things about Provo and I love many things about this one. I feel like I get to know people on a much more personal level here (like the MTC President Hill and his wife) and it´s a bit more laid back in that we don´t have to rush quite so much here. The teachers are great in both places. I love the things I have learned. I love getting to go OUTSIDE of the MTC... which doesn´t really happen in Provo. I love the weather here much better than in Utah. It´s been warm and sunny and there are beautiful sunrises and sunsets. I´m sorry to hear about Matt´s back giving him grief again. I hope it can be healed soon!

Mom and Dad- thanks for the Valentine. I got it about 5 days after you sent it (the 7th to the 12th of February). That´s pretty fast I think! Dad I´m so excited to see the brick pathway. Maybe someone could help you or mom email some pictures? It sounds like you´re keeping busy (being a Grandpa Beebe!) Thanks for giving Brennan my address in Madrid... but people should probably start writing to my address in Barcelona starting this next week. Thanks for getting my address out there though! I don´t think any of my friends have it yet because I´ve been a slacker about writing to anyone who´s not family. Thanks to all who are helping to get things together for a package for me! I finally got the Welcome Letter from my mission president (President Waddell) and I found out more info: I won´t have to buy a bike since piblic transportation is so good here. I should´ve brought a full-sized set of sheets with me... but I´ll buy some here. I also should´ve brought some bars of anti-bacterial soap since it´s hard to find in Spain, and a good multi-vitamin to supplement my diet apparently... so if you get a chance those two things are small and I´m not sure if I would have an easy time finding them here. Thanks so much! I love you all and am grateful for your support and help. I´m also allowed to wear sandals and no nylons (YES!) in the summer months, but I´ll buy those here as well, when it gets closer to the time when I can use them (so, don´t be surprised if you see a bit of money leave my account from somewhere in Spain).

The Spanish people are so happy. They love their families and they all love children. They love to go out walking and spend time together. They love to help struggling missionaries learn how to speak their language. They love Spain and they love Spanish!

Jesse/Mindy and Cody/Emilee- hope all is well! I know you´re busy, so I just wanted to say I love you all! I love your kids too, obviously. I hope everyone actually gives their kids kisses when I ask them to! ¡Por favor! ¡Besos por las niñas otra vez este semana! (Kisses for the kids once again this week!)

I have an assignment for any of you who choose to accept it. It´s a suggestion from Elder Packer (and passed along by Elder Bednar): to really learn about the atonement, read the Book of Mormon as many times as you can in the next 6 months and then write a 1 page summary of what you learned about Christ´s atonement.

Happy Early Birthday my papa! 57 años! Right? 57? 2009-1952=57. Yep. Love you.

My address at the Barcelona mission home is:
Hermana Marti Diehl
C/ Calatrava 10-12, Bajos
08017 Barcelona
SPAIN

Once again, I send my love-
Hermana Diehl

El Parque

¡Hola Familia!

This week went excessively quickly. I feel like I just wrote to you. Anyway, I wanted to tell you all about going to the park. I think I mentioned it briefly before, but I wanted to tell you about the best experience I had last week. My companion, Hermana Goins, and I were assigned to be park companions (they switch the companionships up every week just for the park, but we got lucky and were able to go out together. We made some goals of how many people we wanted to talk to and share lessons with and give copies of the Book of Mormon to, and after about an hour we still hadn´t given a Book of Mormon to anyone. We started walking up this wide and crowded pathway and I saw an older couple sitting off to the right and Hma. Goins saw a man sitting alone off to the left. We both looked at the two options and she told me the decision was mine. I looked back and forth a couple of times and felt like we needed to talk to the young man. I´m so glad I listened to that impression because we had a great experience teaching him. His name is Fernando and he is from Bolivia and has lived in Spain for the last three years working and going to school. We taught him a good portion of the first lesson and I was able to tell him the story of the first vision and testify about Joseph Smith. He read the promise in Moroni 10:3-5 and told us that he felt really good and that he would read the Book of Mormon. We also got a reference for the missionaries who are serving in Madrid to go and teach him (I think they might be going there today...) It was amazing and I was so grateful for the chance to teach him. I pray that he will accept the gospel and I hope that I will get to hear about his progress!

Alyn- thank you so much for your letter - again! I love you and I love the way you write and tell stories. Thanks for the story about Maya too. What a funny little girl she is: up all hours of the night eating Ramen with her daddy. I appreciated the blog updates as well. I loved hearing about what Madi and Lia said at the art museum ¨What a waste of time.¨ ¨What´s the point of this?¨ (I love you girls and your excellent senses of humor!) and seeing pictures of how big your kids are getting. Charlie looks like such a little man in his trendy clothes! I never did see that Elder from Athens while I was in Provo. I made a few feeble attempts to spot him in the cafeteria, but if he had a different meal time than me my looking was probably in vain. There is currently an Elder staying in the Madrid CCM who is from the suburbs north of Atlanta though. His name is Elder Draney (which is the last name of my old roommate Chelsey) and he is serving in the St. Petersburg, Russia mission. There are currently 9 missionaries from Russia staying here right now waiting to see if their visas will get renewed. I guess Russia isn´t being very missionary-friendly these days and they make the missionaries who aren´t from Russia leave the country and renew their visas every three months or something. They get sent all over Europe and this is one of the options. The only way they get their visas renewed is if a city in Russia invites them to continue to stay. So sometimes missionaries end up having to go finish their missions somewhere else if they can´t get a city to invite them. It´s pretty stringent. I had no idea how difficult it was becoming to be a foreign missionary in Russia. I´ve been praying for them though. So... your guess for Eliza´s birthday and size was pretty close! Did you win the guessing contest?

Lia- thanks for the pictures. I showed them to lots of my fellow missionaries here at the MTC. (And thanks Alyn for Charlie´s hand-outline as well. I now have Spencer´s and Charlie´s! Maybe everyone could send me hand outlines of each of my nieces and nephews? That would be fun for me.) I loved the picture of the Spain temple on the envelope too. You´re a sweetheart and I love your artistry!

Kori- I´m glad you got to go on a date (also to the art museum like the Hancocks - what a cultured family I have!) What do you do when Spencer throws tantrums? Does he every tell you that he´s mad with sign language or just with screaming? Has he been talking more yet? Sorry to hear that baby Fred is making you fatter. What a sacrifice mom´s make on their figures for these little people! He´ll be so cute though when he gets here, it´ll definately be worth it. One of my teachers has a little boy and I think she´s going to bring him here on Friday for us to meet him. I´m excited to see him because I miss my little nephews (and neices too of course, but she only has a son.)

Cody- I just want to say how cute your daughter is. She has such a sweet little face and a head of beautiful hair... unless of course it´s fallen out since those pictures were taken... in which case, she has a beautiful bald head! Pregunta: how is Eliza being pronounced exactly? Stress on the E sound (Ee-Liza) or a short E sound (Eh-Liza)? Just want to make sure I´m saying right for the next 17 months before I meet her. Thanks for the plethora of photos.

Erin- now sister, I was wondering when I was going to hear from you again! Thanks for sending the Bucket List blog. I was pleasantly surprised to see that I have done quite a few of the things on the list. Next time, yo quiero fotos de Charlotte! ¡Por favor! Love you mucho.

Madre- I´m excited to hear about what is going on back at home. Hurray for the brick pathway! Tell Dad I´m proud of him for working so hard on it... and for being such a good samaritan in the snow the other day! What goodly parents I have. I´m grateful for you both. I was thinking the other day about how many things I´m able to know about heaven and earth because of this church that I´m a part of and it made me think about how grateful I am to my parents for teaching me the truth and right. Thank you for being so faithful mis padres. And thank you for your testimony mom.

I didn´t know that Stefani was having twin girls! That´s very exciting. Tell her I said felicidades! Finally some grandaughters in the family, eh?

Well, I told you all last week about my compañerO... well he has a back injury and had to go back to the U.S. a couple of days ago to get it fixed and we´re not sure when he´ll be back. It was a sad day for my district. It feels like having a family member leave... only we don´t know if we´ll see him again. We are all so close here, all of the other missionaries were pretty sad to see him go as well. It´s going to be hard next week when my compañerA leaves to go to the field (she´s going to the Mallaga mission). I hate good-byes. I can already tell it´s going to be hard to leave Spain and leave the people. I love this work. I have so many things I need to do better, but I´m working hard and trying to do my Heavenly Father´s will. I love you all, my family. Everyone needs to give each of their niños a kiss from me, mmmmk?

Love,
Hermana Diehl

Barcelona Connection

A temple square friend of mine, Tricia Atwood Struk, who came to the MTC the same time as me, but was in the other MTC class, is currently living in Barcelona. She's from Alberta Canada. She sent me a note on facebook:

Of course I will give her a hug for you. It is too bad that we will be leaving shortly after she arrives, but the mission president here and his wife are absolutely wonderful. They are strict, but so kind. The missionaries here are great and hard working. She will be getting a new mission president soon, President and Sister Waddell go home in July (or June). The wards here are so friendly, poor, but nice.
I will look out for her.

She will like the weather here too, well it does get toasty in the summer and there isn't a lot of air conditioners in apartments, but that is all part of the fun of missions, right?

Take care,
Tricia

¡Felicidades! ¡Parabéns! Eliza is here!

¡Familia!

Congratulations Cody and Emilee on finally getting to meet Eliza! I started crying when I read ¨Eliza's birth story as told by her father.¨ Bien hecho Emilee! According to one of the Brazilian Elders that is here in the CCM in Madrid, ¨Parabéns¨ means Congratulations in Portuguese... so hopefully that is true and I didn´t misspell it or anything. I am so excited that she´s here! I kept telling everyone I talked to this week that I probably had a new neice and I wouldn´t even know it until Thursday. Eliza was born just after I started my personal study on Monday morning here in España. I was thinking about the three of you (I didn´t know what Eliza would look like but I was thinking about her!) all week, and wishing I could be there to see what you did when you became a papa and a mama and got to hold your daughter for the first time. Don´t worry, I´m really happy to be where I am, but I love meeting all the new little people that get sent to my family and I felt a small twinge of wanting to be somewhere else. Give that little girl a kiss from me and tell her that I love her. She looks beautiful and I would love to have some more pictures of her por favor! That´s so nice that Emilee got to celebrate her first birthday as a mom already! I hope it was a good day for you Em!

What town exactly was Eliza born in? I like to record the births of my neices and nephews in my journal and include the town, county, and state (like it´s a pedigree chart entry). I have all of the other details I wanted from the emails. Thanks for sending the updates and the pictures mom, Alyn, and Cody! I didn´t get to see the cell phone picture, but I got the two attachments with the birth story.

Also Cody, have you gotten to share the gospel with that man in your lab yet? Be brave; you know how important the gospel is. Maybe you´re this man´s chance to hear it.

And Emilee, thanks for the encouragement to not waste any time! This is the Lord´s time and I´m just here to do what he needs me to. And I´m trying to write down as many good experiences as I can in my journal so that I can remember them in the future when I think back on my mission. I´m very busy, but I need to leave time to write down the important things. I appreciated your letter so much.

Mom- Sundays are nice here. We have a district meeting that´s like Sunday School first, then all of the Hermanas meet for Relief Society in the apartment that the CCM (CCM means MTC in Español) President and his wife live in here in the building. Then all of the missionaries and some of the leadership here at the CCM have a sacrament meeting together. Last week was Fast Sunday and it was excellent. The spirit was so strong. The amazing thing to me is how the spirit works. I felt it the strongest when a Brazilian Elder bore his testimony in Portuguese and I only understood about 8 words (most of them being ¨em nome de Jesus Cristo, amen¨) and also when an Elder who is from Utah bore his simple Spanish testimony. He´s having a hard time with the language, but as soon as he started speaking I felt the spirit so strongly. I love how the Lord works through simple means and humble people.

Sorry I forgot to tell you that I ran into Sister Call in the Provo temple! It was nice to see her and that was sweet of her to send you a note.

Will you tell the Phelps family that I said ¨muchas gracias¨ for their generous contribution to help me on my mission. It makes me feel so good to know that the people back at home are helping me... necesito trabajar con más diligencia! I´m so glad to hear that Brother Phelps was able to go to the temple again! I love the Temple. I just got to go myself this morning. They´ve been doing English sessions for us with some of the missionaries and Spanish people wearing headsets to interpret into Portuguese or Spanish.

I cried again when I read about Ethan Ellsworth passing away. Your cousin Cory and his wife are such good people. Heavenly Father knew he could trust them with the challenges of having to see some of their children´s mortal lives come to an end before their own. He knew he could trust them with those choice spirits. I can´t even imagine, but I know that the Lord knows how they feel and that through the atonement the pain of that loss can be taken away.

I wanted to write so many things. About my friends here at the CCM (there are some great Brazilians, an Elder from Portugal, an Elder from Germany, and the one I mentioned before from England... I love to see the world wide church!) I wanted to tell more about going to el parque on Saturdays and getting to contact real, live potential investigators (it was amazing to testify to people in Spanish and have them understand me!) And about what Madrid and Spain are like a little bit more... but I´ve got a lesson to prepare for Reunion de Distrito el Domingo. Oh here´s a fun tid-bit to close with: my teaching companion here at the CCM is an Elder. Elder Green from Spokane, Washington. My normal companion and his companion are in the same district that´s been here for three weeks longer than we have and they teach together when we do simulations... so we get to work together as well. For everything else I´m with my Hermana companion, but not for teaching. I never thought I´d have a compañerO!

I love you all, talk to you next week,
Hermana Diehl

MTC Photos

Pictures of Hermana Diehl at the Provo MTC with my friend Lyndsay Thompson who met her there. Notice the "dork dot". Doesn't she look cute!