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