Fall time

1st- new haircut! I got my haircut by a member my last day in Palma and this is the 3 of us that were leaving the island with a couple of the Palma members (Victor and Irene)

2nd- my new companion Hermana Church and I

3rd- hopefully this will suffice for a picture that Alyn requested for the blog… I´m not in it though, sorry. It´s of the Plaza de Ayuntamiento… I think.

Oh My Family,

There really is a lot of work here in Valencia. It´s great. We are trying to keep track of everything and everyone. It´s been getting chilly here so I´m not sweating in the streets anymore… I´m shivering at bus stops now… I blame the skirt. I do wear a jacket, mom, don´t worry.

I got the letter from the Hancock family (thanks to all of them!!!!) I really was excited that Charlie said my name. I think my jaw dropped and I stopped walking for a second (I was reading in the street… which is actually quite dangerous with the light posts and such… yes, I have walked into one).

I am printing out a bunch of your letters to respond to. I just never have enough email time. I love to read all about what´s happening, so thanks for the continued blog posts informing me of your lives (not too many from Jesse and Mindy… but I hear bits from mom and dad of what´s happening with your family…)

Here are a few of the CDs I´m allowed to have for the big 8th-of-November-celebration package:
Mormon Tabernacle Choir:
Come Thou Fount
Called to Serve
Consider the Lillies
Love is Spoken here
Praise to the Man
Christmas Albums
Other religious (but not show tune) CDs
Also I can have BYU Chorus and Orchestra CDs
Also classical music
(If you can´t tell I´m reading this from the list we were sent with the music guidelines.)
Anything is good with me. I just want some tunes.

We currently have 5 people with baptismal dates. It´s amazing. I´m so excited for each one of them and I love, love, love to see their desires to change their lives and be worthy to be baptized.

I miss you all and love you. (Thanks Hermana Grant for being faithful to your old companions! I´m writing a real letter to send to you with ¨el clarin¨.)

Hermana Diehl

chapel in Valencia

https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?ll=39.47256%2C-0.355704&spn=0.003975%2C0.006866&hl=en&t=h&msa=0&z=17&source=embed&ie=UTF8&mid=zTGrbsMHMSpk.kkEWKcvZD_eU

Here's a red pin indicating the building where those 2 wards meet.  If you click on "view chapels in valencia on a larger map, you can then drag the little orange man from the zoom bar, to the street, to see a full screen of the street view, and even zoom in on the sign for the church.

I wonder if any other missionaries are assigned to those 2 wards...?

LOVE

Mi Querida Familia [My Beloved Family],

Valencia is a beautiful city. There´s so much work to do here... I feel a little badly because I was in Palma doing a lot of what we like to call ¨finding activities¨... which means a lot of time in the streets and not a lot of investigators... and I switched areas with Hermana O´Neill (she was here in Valencia and went to Palma... so everyone there is asking where I went and everyone here is asking where she went)... and I feel badly because she inherited my beloved Palma with lots of ¨finding¨ to be done and I inherited her beloved Valencia with lots of investigators and recent converts... I was thinking about it though, and I think that one of the reasons that I love the mission and I love Palma so much is that I sacrificed a lot there. I really put my blood, sweat, and tears into that beautiful island. I learned how to speak Spanish there. I learned how to recognize miracles there. I learned how to love the mission there. And I am so happy to be in Valencia. It´s a place of miracles too.

I am serving in the Valencia I and the Valencia II wards (right now we go to 6 hours of church on Sundays... we´re thinking of ways to get around that... but we have investigators in the both wards.) Barrio I [ward I] is really strong and large. Barrio II [ward II] needs more help- but I feel at home there because it´s more like Poniente. I taught gospel principles (Fasting was my topic and I didn´t know I was teaching it until about an hour before church started) and led the music in Sacrament meeting... my first week there. It was fun. I was able to bear my testimony in the 2 barrios [wards] and lots and lots of people gave me la bienvenida [the welcome]. It´s great to be here. We don´t walk nearly as much as we did in Palma. We use the metro and the bus a lot. I like the metro because it´s easier to talk to people (aka contacting) than just stopping people in the streets and at cross walks.

I want so much to respond to all of the letters and blogs I read... but I really have no time. Happy Birthday to the October people! I can´t believe my little Maya is 2! And my little Cody is 27! How fast they grow.

I just want to remind you all that the 8th of November is fast approaching... I love the 8th of November. If I had to choose anything I wanted to do on that day it would be to open a package with: a new skirt, some nice black gel pens, some new nylons (not that I like them... but I have to wear them...) some of that apricot face wash that doesn´t exist in this country, some M&Ms and jerkey, some approved missionary Cds (I´ll have to let you know what they are... the list is short, but also forgettable...) and I can´t really think of anything else...

I love you all. I´ll try to respond to more questions next time. Kiss the chillens for me.

Hermana Diehl

Valencia!!!

Woah Mi Familia [My Family]!

I am sitting in a locutorio [internet cafe] in Valencia. I have sat in this locutorio before because I came here with Hermana Grant (and the rest of the Palma zone) for the Waddell´s last conference. But now I am sitting here after dropping all of my stuff off in my new GRANDE piso [BIG apartment]... because I live here now. The piso [apartment] in Palma really is the smallest in the mission, and I don´t think the Valencia piso [apartment] is the biggest in the mission- but it is meant for 4 hermanas, so there are 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms... and way too much ¨piso trash¨['apartment trash']. Don´t you worry I´m gonna take care of it pronto [soon].

On Sunday night my district leader called us and told us that the transfers were the most boring he´d ever heard. There was only one person leaving and it was Elder Reynolds from Manacor (we knew he was leaving earlier in the day for some reason... no puedo explicar, porque no entiendo como [I can't explain, because I don't understand how]). He asked me how I felt to be starting my 6th transfer in Palma, and I said ¨Good. I really am never leaving.¨ And I don´t remember what he said next, but something to the effect of ¨Well, I hope you´ll be happy in Valencia because that´s where you´re actually going!¨ I yelled real loud... something about why did he feel he had to lie to me every transfer... I don´t really remember that part either. It´s true the elders love to tell the hermanas lies when they call us with the transfer news. Pero bueno [But oh well]. He told me I needed to call the President´s secretary to find out the flight information, but to wait until tomorrow because he was really busy that night.

The next morning (Monday) I called and was informed that I had to fly out in six hours.... I was quite surprised because usually we fly out on Tuesday. So I called the other 2 elders that were leaving to see if they knew (they didn´t...) and then arranged for someone to take us to the airport and to be Hermana Bentley´s companion until her new companion arrives. I was pretty sad because I had planned on saying good-bye to a whole bunch of members that day and I only got to visit 2 people. One of them was Maria and she had written a letter for me and letters to give to Kori and Cody (I´ll get them in the mail soon I promise). She cried and it made me want to cry. I don´t know how to leave an area! I don´t know how to enter a new area! I´m so inexperienced! But my new companion (Hermana Church from Fresno, CA) has got some great ideas and we´re going to do our best. This area is booming in baptisms right now. Hermana Church started her mission here (she´s starting her 3rd transfer right now) and in her 2 transfers she´s had 5 baptisms! Wow. I´m so excited. I just hope I don´t ruin anything... luckily it´s in the hands of the Lord right? I´m gonna do my best.

I loved conference. I had written some questions I wanted to ponder during the conference and I found a whole bunch of answers in the very first 2 or 3 talks. It was amazing. We ALL need to be better missionaries, no? :-) I´m workin´ on it.

I liked the great blog entries. Lots of cuties again.

Hey, here is the address to the blog that President and Hermana Hinckley have for the mission in case you don´t have it:
thespainbarcelonamission.blogspot.com

I think they emailed the address to everyone´s parents... but nobody said anything, so I assumed you didn´t have it.

I have so much more I want to write but I have so much to do!
I love you all (and I love to tell you like Elder Bednar told us to!)

Hermana Diehl