Hola my family!

Well, my Thanksgiving was excellent, but Elder Kopischke and President and Hermana Hinckley didn´t end up coming to the feast. They had other meetings they had to deal with at the last minute. But I did get to play some tennis! I played in my skirt and everything. It was amazingly tasty and the house wasn´t just on the large side… it was huge. I didn´t get very many good photos, but I did take one of the tennis court. I hope we get to go back for Christmas and I´ll try to take more of the house… it really was amazing.

This week has been so good and we´ve seen a lot of miracles. On Saturday we found 7 new investigators (that´s a lot for one day… at least in my experience). One of them we just walked into the wrong piso thinking we were going into a member´s home… and it wasn´t… so we told them we were missionaries and asked if we could teach them about the Book of Mormon. It was amazing. It was a bunch of women from Honduras who share that piso for the weekends basically and the rest of the week they all work interna taking care of grandmas and grandpas. One of our other new investigators IS a rather old Spanish woman named Rosario. She was great. We also had several people contact US on the street and tell us they want to learn more about our church. Miracles! The conference really inspired me to be more bold and I feel like I have so much more faith in the Lord to guide us in this work. I´m also really enjoying being in a trio. Both of my companions are great missionaries and we have fun together. Today we´re going to visit a science museum and a park called Gulliver hopefully with some of the Elders.

I love you all and I´m so Thankful for you. I hope everyone is studying their scriptures and applying what they learn! They really are the words of our Heavenly Father.

I love you all, kiss the kids for me-

Hermana Diehl

Thanksgiving week

Hola Familia Mia,

It´s Thanksgiving week! Here´s the story: several weeks ago all of us missionaries in Valencia were invited to a Thanksgiving dinner at one of the American Family´s houses (the Strodes). Brother Strode is in the military and they apparently have a rather large house, so they wanted to have a big Thanksgiving party and invite some of the Americans that are living in the area. So that includes the other American family in the ward (the Dixons- who are living here just because they can and they wanted to have a foreign adventure), and a family from the military that brother Strode knows who aren´t members of our church (but possibly could be soon!), and, of course, all of the missionaries. So we had this lovely party to look forward to with things from America (the military base stocks everything you need apparently) and then last week President Hinckley anounced that the Valencia zone, the Elche zone, and the Murcia zone will be having a combined zone conference in Valencia with Elder Kopischke on Thanksgiving... boo! So I called to tell Sister Strode and talk to her a bit to see if we could come by after the conference to eat some left overs or something and she said that would be fine and it was okay with her if we brought a couple of extra missionaries (the Benidorm hermanas and the ayudantes are staying the night here for another meeting the next day with Elder Kopischke in Valencia). And so I called Elder Lee (the Ayudante) and told him I had an excellent eating cita to take him to and asked him to find out if we could play some soccer while we were there maybe. He called me back and said he was talking to President about it and President wants to come and bring Hermana Hickley and Elder Kopischke along for Thanksgiving and they asked me to call sister Strode and find out if it was okay if they came too. I laughed so hard and called sister Strode... who laughed really hard. So, we are all having a huge party with the mission president and the 70. I´ll let you know how it goes.

Thanks so much for the packages Mom, Erin, and Colin! I got them all last Tuesday when Elder Jensen showed up from the office (he hauled them all here in one of his suitcases for me... it was really nice of him so I gave him one of the jerkey packages). I loved it all and I love you all. Thanks for making my November great! I´ll have to think a bit more for Christmas stuff I want...

Love,
Hermana Diehl

Barrio 2 [2nd Ward]

Oh My Family,

Guess what President did to us? He took the Elders out of Barrio 2 [2nd ward] and gave the entire ward to me and my now 2 companions. Hermana Church and I are going to pick up our 3rd companion at 6:20 at the train station), her name is Hermana Olifant... she´s been in the mission one transfer more than Hermana Church. We spent a good chunk of our morning getting everything ready for her coming. She´s a very happy person... and that´s about all I know about her right now. Veremos [we will see].

Para que sepais[So that ye know]- unless I am much mistaken, Valencia is the 3rd largest city in Spain (after Madrid and Barcelona)... and now half of it and several pueblos [towns] to the south and east of it are being covered by only my companions and I. We have so much work to do. It´s gonna be great... and probably a little stressful. With a trio we are going to be doing lots of splits like Hermana Grant and I did when Hermana Bentley showed up in Palma. We have 3 really fat and full area books...

I just recieved a phone call from one of the ayudantes [helpers (aka assistants to the mission president)] and my new companion is having a bit of a crisis and won´t be here until tomorrow. Her current companion was also leaving their area to go to work in Elche and they were waiting in the train station (after missing their first train) and Hermana Jackson (hermana Olifant´s current companion) had her bag stolen with her wallet and scriptures and things. So, it´s been a bit of an odd transfer.

Isn´t Hermana Hinckley great mom? I love her so much. She´s a great missionary and she takes good care of all of us. I´ll let her know that you were happy to get her phone call. She talked to me just before she called you to let me know she would be phoning you and to tell me happy birthday.

I´m sad to be leaving behind some really great investigators in Barrio 1 [1st ward]. We´ve spent so much time working with some of them! There are so many miracles happening in Valencia and in the whole mission. We had a mission-wide fast to be able to reach our mission goal of 400 baptisms this year and the two weeks following the fast were the most productive ones in the whole year for baptisms. The gospel is true! This is the best work ever.

I loved seeing those cute Hancock kids today. Charlie Crocodile is getting so BIG! I wish I could´ve been at his party- what a cake! Give that boy a kiss from me.

So what happened with the castle in Xativa? Closed on Mondays. Luckily we have an Elder here that speaks really good Spanish and is good at getting people to help him because we got in anyway after he had a little chat with the gardener... sort of. We got to enter in the gate and take a few pictures. But we didn´t get to explore at all. We´ll have to go back a preparation day when we aren´t dealing with transfer mess and preparation day is on a Tuesday.

Well my family (and friends who are reading this)- I´ve gotta go. I love you all. I know that this is the Lord´s work and I´m so happy to be in it. I love Valencia. I still love Palma, but now I love Valencia too! Take care of each other.

Hermana Diehl

Lladro!

¡Familia!

Thanks for all of the happy birthday wishes! It was a weird birthday... actually it didn´t feel like my birthday at all. I went to church (twice) and ate some sweet chocolately things. But not very many people knew that it was my birthday, so there was no big song and dance routine. My companion did put some candles in some of the sweets we were eating and sang a solo for me... and she has a headcold right now so I laughed through the whole thing. One of the Elders asked me how old I was turning and when I said 23 he said, ¨Antingua.¨ Muy simpatico, no? ['Ancient.' Very nice, no?] It was kinda funny. Today we´re going to visit a castle called Xativa (Alyn here: google map it, and you can click pictures of the area.) that´s a bit of a trip in train, but I´m excited to see something new even though the trip there is a large chunk of preparation day.

I wanted to send some pictures from last weeks preparation day. There´s this porceline factory called Lladro (pronounced Yod-row) and there are some really beautiful, intricate, and expensive pieces. We got a tour of the factory (a very small part) and then we got to view the gallery and some of mis compadres [my associates] bought some stuff to send home. There are some really nice things... but every time I picture a large, fancy nic-nac sitting in mom and dad´s house it´s easy to talk myself out of dropping the hundreds of euros on one. If anyone wants me to buy them one feel free to put the money in my account and let me know which one you want. They´re pretty famous. There´s a small shop that´s like a factory outlet as well: the things that are going out of style or slightly messed up for some reason. These pieces are cheaper, but still rather pricey.

This week we spent a lot of time walking around looking up inactive members. We made a huge list of names and addresses and went by quite a few of them. Barrio 2 [2nd ward] is trying to figure out what happened to all of their members before the end of 2009... so we´re helping them a little bit. It did mean we had to put some of the investigator and recent convert visits on the back burner though. It´s so hard to do every aspect of the work all the time. Balance is not my forte. We have some good progressing investigators, but some that were progressing are struggling a bit. That´s how it goes. Ups and downs. There´s lots of speculation about what president is going to change in the mission next transfer because we´re losing 11 missionaries and only getting 1 new one... which means he has to close several areas... again. I´m not a big predictor (is that a word?), so I´m not too hung up about it.

Mom, to answer your question about working at the polls... I´m not sure I´ll be able to. I´d like to, but I´ll probably have classes I´ll need to be attending. I guess just tell them I can´t for 2010 and maybe I can take it back when I know my school schedule. Thanks for being my mom and taking care of my mail for me.

Thanks for the niece and nephew stories. Cai can use my room whenever he wants. I want to see the halloween costumes! I saw the Whitmers and the Gammons... but that´s only 2 out of 5. ¡Venga! Mas fotos por favor. [Come on! More photos please.] I´m glad to see we had 2 tinkerbells in the family. A blonde one and a brunette one. Perfect. I´m trying to picture how Eliza was a ghost and I´m drawing a blank. Did you just cut two holes in a pillowcase and stick her in it? She´s too little for a sheet.

I´ve been officially invited to a big Thanksgiving party with the American families in Barrio 1 [1st ward]. I´m pretty excited for it. Mostly because I love eating. But I also think a day of giving thanks is a very good thing. Although it should be every day, no? I´m thankful today for my food. And my family. And my friends. And Spain. And the mission.

I haven´t gotten my birthday packages yet, but it´s okay. I´ve always liked celebrating my birthday for the whole month anyways. I´ll let you know how excited and happy I am when they come.

Love you,
Hermana Diehl

p.s. I only attached one photo, sorry...

Work

Mi Familia,

I´ve had a request to give more details about the work that I´ve been doing here in Valencia.

Hermana Church and I are working in two wards (Barrio 1 and Barrio 2 of Valencia), so we pretty much run around like crazy all day every day.

We have a lot of recent converts that we visit between the two wards... like 12 or 13. Some of them speak English (Nigerians) and many of them of course, speak Spanish. I love teaching in Spanish and I feel weird teaching in English because I am forgetting the gospel words in English. Luckily I have Hermana Church who speaks English way better than I do.

We have a lot of investigators as well. Many of them are family of our recent converts. The friend of a recent convert wants to get baptized as does the daughter of another. It´s amazing. I love being a missionary. It´s so stressful sometimes, but that´s my own fault. This really is the best work ever.

We are trying to help Barrio 2 get organized right now... lots of confusion in that ward. But I love organization, so it´s good.

We went to the Lladro factory today. I´ll send pictures next time. Love you all,

Hermana Diehl

p.s. kiss the chillens for me

Computer Time Limit

Here's the reply I received from Hermana Diehl re: how much time she has on the computer, and her mail preferences. (She's been receiving blog posts from her 5 siblings via email.) (bold and large font emphasis mine.)

I am replying to this immediately to not forget and to get it done before I get distracted by all of the blogs. I´m sort of joking when I say that, but some weeks the reason I don´t write much is because I am reading a lot of blogs. But I love them so much. I don´t read ALL of them... but if my siblings and nieces and nephews are featured I like to see them. I don´t really know what to tell you, but I don´t want to encourage less bloggage, because with the blogs I am able to save the pictures... when people attach pictures to emails they send me I have to delete them because they are too big for the email service the church lets us use.

I have 1 hour to email, but I have to use 15 minutes of it to email my mission president my weekly report (they just switched to emailed reports instead of handwritten).

I would LOVE to get more snail mail letters with real printed out pictures that I can show people. People love to see pictures and I love to show my family to everyone (and I would love to show my HOUSE if anyone would send me photos of it...)

I will include more details of the work here [in Valencia] and possibly to a comparison to Palma in my family letter that goes to the blog.

ooooooooOoooooooooOooooooooo

Only 45 minutes to read (4-7 posts/emails) and REPLY.

She'd really love real pictures and snail mail. I doubt she's receiving much real mail at all. I'd like to record the dates she is sent snail mail, so we can collectively attempt to send her at least 1 real letter / week.

She enjoys the pictures we send. I propose we each limit ourselves to 1 email or blog/week, so we don't monopolize her precious 45 minutes with the minutia of our lives. One way to easily do this: put your own email address in the "email blog" box, not hers. Then you can decide which post to forward on to Hermana Diehl. We may even be able to delete extra verb-age & pictures, if desired, before forwarding.

If we continue to flood her inbox, the letters she sends will become even more brief.

If it takes only 5 minutes to open and read each email, that's already 20-30 minutes of her 45 minutes gone. I personally would like to savor my letters a bit more than that! What luxury to spend 10-15 minutes reading a snail mail.

Maybe we should alternate weeks... Alyn/Kori/Jesse one week and Cody/Erin the other week... I don't know! That sounds complicated. But it would leave her with 30 minutes to reply, rather than 15.

Any discussion or ideas?