Thursday, September 25, 2014

First week in Spain

¡Hola!
Holyyyy cow! this has been the craziest week and a half of my life!! Sorry we don't get much time to email, but I appreciate everyone's emails!! and I will find some time to respond to everyones I promise! Love you all!
This has been such a humbling week for me! It has been really hard, but I have received too many blessings to count. I am constantly reminded of how I could do nothing without the Lord, and that he is always there to help me.

My adventure started off super crazy, since my flight got changed to 6:40 am last monday morning, so I definitely didn't sleep at all that night. and then I had a four and a half hour layover in Salt Lake, where I met another sister that I'd met before that's going to my mission in Malaga! Her name's Alyssa too. She's basically my favorite person.  We waited four hours till anyone else showed up, and then there were about 5 other sisters and one elder heading to the mtc! So all those flights were.. great.. and I did not sleep at all on our overnight flight, so that was two nights without sleep!
So we finally all got to Madrid!! and guess what, both my bags were lost. haha. I didn't get them for another three days. so that was fun! but luckily, sisters offered me everything I needed! but when my bags came I seriously cried cuz I was so happy!!!
So the mtc.. this one is TINY! There are only 25 of us missionaries. with 11 elders and 14 sisters. 7 are going to Russia  (which makes all us Spanish learners sooo happy that we are learning Spanish and not Russian!) and 5 that are going to Portugal, they are from Africa and they are my favorite! and the rest of us are heading to missions in Spain!! The MTC is right on temple grounds, which is SO COOL. It is literally twenty feet away from us! There's this big window by the stairs where you can see it perfectly, and it's amazing. There are only 3 floors of this buildings that we use (the 4th, 5th, and 6th) and the fourth is where our classrooms are, so we call that the telestial kingdom. The 5th is where we sleep, so that's the terrestial kingdom, and the celestial kingdom is where we eat:) haha
The food here.. is not that great. They only have one option for every meal, but they always have fresh fruit! There's always kiwi which is my fav, and this little fruit that we don't know what it is, but it's amazing. oh and theres always nutella:)
We wake up at 630, get ready and eat breakfast and then go to class from 8-1, then we have lunch for an hour, then class for 3 more hours, then we get to play sports everyday which is my favorite! so we´ve played a lot of soccer and basketball and dodgeball which is super fun!! and then we go eat dinner, and then end with two more hours of class and then go to bed at 1030, and start all over again:)



My compaƱera´s name is Hermana Lee! She's from South Korea and I absolutely love her. And GUESS WHAT. She went to BYUH too AND she was a tour guide! The same time I was there! But she was a Korean guide and worked the other shift so we didn’t know each other before but we have mutual friends. And she is the best. We get along so well!

My district is all sisters, haha that’s the first time they’ve had one with all girls here at this mtc! I love them all, they are all my best friends! Haha we have had some pretty great times, we´ve laughed together, cried together, and we taught our Spanish teachers some “American slang” that are just things we´ve made up. Like freaky creaky. Haha one our our night teachers reminds us of Olaf from Frozen, and he doesn’t know that much English, so it is so funny!! We just love them! We have the BEST teachers.

On our second day they asked us all to prepare talks, in Spanish, Yeah. Didn’t go so well. Haha and they also expected us to teach a lesson to an “investigator” on our third day, IN SPANISH. Keep in mind that they had not taught us a single Spanish lesson yet. Haha and I have no Spanish background! Shouldn’t have taken French. It was awful. And my Spanish still hasn’t gotten any better haha ;)

So every Saturday we get to take a metro to this park and start proselyting to people! It was way hard but so cool! We found a couple people who spoke English, but yeah I couldn’t communicate with anyone in Spanish! I didn’t understand a single word! Luckily my companera knew quite a bit, so she did all the talking! It was hard. And at the end all the missionaries got together and sang some hymns by this fountain. That was my favorite part! We were all just happy to get out and get some fresh air. Haha literally our whole life takes place in just three small hallways. And every Sunday we get to sing on the steps of the temple. Its amazing! A lot of people would stop and listen, and it was so cool!

Anyways, I have so much more to say but am completely out of time! Thank you for all your love! I am doing great! Its been really hard, but I've seen so many blessings too. Talk to you next week!!   Love you all, Hermana Knowles.

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

First day in Spain





hey familia!
guess what. i made it. FINALLY. haha this is the first thing they are letting us do! we havent even gotten our nametags yet! haha. i wont have pday this week, but it will be on thursdays here at the ccm!
Soo. i am exhausted! i have had no sleap for two days.. haha i took half a unisom, and slept a little but not enough, so i was super groggy afterwards! oh. and my bags are lost. and their system is down so they have no idean where they are! i was the only one with lost bags.. so i may get them tomorrow, or the next day.. or the next day. i guess we will see. so its been a frustrating two days, but also really good! and i am so happy to be here!!
Madrid looks a little like utah and idaho.. dry with sage brush! its funny! i mean we havent seen much of it yet, we havent toured any of the rest of the ccm yet either! but all that matters is i am HERE where i am supposed to be! (even if none of my stuff is here yet)
miss you! and love you! and i will talk to you next thursday:)
love hermana  Knowles