Un bebe!! [A baby!!]

Familia Mía! [My Family!]

Estoy tan feliz a escuchar las noticias del bebe! Numero 10! Felicidades Jesse y Mindy (y Cai y Maya)! [I am so happy to hear the news of the baby! Number 10! Congratulations Jesse and Mindy (and Cai and Maya)!] Speaking of the little whipper-snappers, what do they say about the baby? Hopefully Cai has enjoyed Maya enough that he´s okay with another little sibling :-) I am sad that I´ll miss being there when the little Diehl is born, but there will be 3 little news ones to greet me when I get back (and hopefully 7 other little ones and their parents and grandparents... is everyone going to be able to be at the airport?! I´ll understand if not, but I hope so.) Let me know when you know any details (gender, names you want to use, etc.)

Someone´s really gotta help mom and dad attach some pictures to send me. They keep telling me, ¨I´ll try to attach a picture¨ ¨I´ll try to get help attaching a picture¨ and... well... it never happens. I´m missing so many things in the progression of the house and yard (it´s like a growing child too... I need photos!) Thanks much.

I loved hearing your experience in the mission prep class dad. Why did you end up going to that class? Is it part of your calling or you just like it? I enjoyed the mission prep class I took... but it wasn´t based on Preach My Gospel... which would have made it so much better. Preach My Gospel really is a great manual. Everyone should study it.

I loved also to see the pictures and read the stories from San Diego trips and the goings-on in Georgia (I couldn´t watch the video of Eliza crawling... and I´m sad.) I laughed pretty hard at some of the Hancock children´s antics. You´re a good writer Alyn.

I was able to see some miracles again this week. Two women were baptized that Hermana Church and I have been teaching. They are both African, one from Equatorial Guinea (speaks Spanish) and one from Nigeria (speaks English). They are amazing and have such faith. I love the gospel so much. The spirit really does testify to people. We´re just there to share the doctrines and guide the process a little. This is the true church!

I´ve gotta go. I love you all. I´m trying to be good and work hard. Kiss the neices and nephews for me (and give the little Diehl a poke from me)-

Hermana Diehl

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