Chapter 2: Humilidad

Yes. I was humbled this week. Very humbled. We got one day in English, and the rest of my classe have been in Spanish with a slight English translation. No hablo español!!! It was honestly the most humbling experience of my entire life. I have three teachers Hermano Cerro (who makes me extremely grateful to not be speaking argentine spanish, I can barely understand him when he´s attempting English. haha Then Hermana Suarez who is my favorite. We call her the mother of the CCM. She´s the only one we can really understand when she teaches haha then I have Hermana Bustamante who is more like a helper than a teacher. She´s peruvian and so dramatic I love it haha. I´m typing muy rapido so excuse the accents for my apostraphes. So like I said, solomiente spanish since I have been here. I almost died for the first couple days, but I am starting to get the hang of at least a few words. On Saturday we went proselyting in downton Madrid (Am I still in the CCM??) They taught us a couple of key phrases, told us to listen to the spirit, gave us a map, and then sent us on our way. That is it. They are so into using the spirit here, that I am like ya that´s great, but it would very nice to be able to know what to say without the gift of tongues. They put us into companionships depending on skill level... they put me with two beginner students hahahaha! So you know it was rough when I was supposed to be the one who knew what to say. We came across the cutest lady who said yes I´ll take your Book of Mormon I love Jesus and we are all family!! Well, there you go. Then there was another man who said he didn´t gave time, but I told him it was a gift. As we were walking away, we looked back and he was reading it. This is going to be awesome. The Madrid Temple is so beautiful here as well. Very European. Marble pillars in the celestial room with painted ceilings and giant chandalier. So great. My companion like I said last week is incredible. We´re honestly such great friends now. I can´t even tell you how blessed I am to have her. Her grandparents work at MT TIMP temple--the Davis´s. The food is kinda sketchy sometimes. I have already lost some weight. haha But after my discovery of the unlimitted nutella, I am not sure how long that´s going to last. I love the people here. Honestly, the Spaniards are simply beautiful people. I think you are truly blessed with the love of Christ here. You see people as what they could become, and dont judge them for who they are. I love them so much. I have been humbled, but it is the best way to rely on Christ. Really, you can´t do it alone. I am still completely frustrated with the language, and we already are teaching investigators completely in Spanish. Which is totally frustrating when all you can say are stupid things. They have like spiritual thoughts and then tell us to follow the spirit to prepare the lesson...that´s great if it was in English hahaha Hopefully it will come. Thats all I have time for. Write me a lot. I love getting the letters--I can´t tell you how happy it makes me to get them. Love you guys!!!

 

Hermana Hopkins

Chapter one: The Departure March 20, 2013

Hola familia y amigos!! How´s that for Spanish? So the keyboards are very different here, so excuse me if I don't write things exactly right. We only have a few minutes to say we made it here safely.  My flight from Dallas to Madrid was not nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. The dinner was pretty good--we had lasagna. I got about two hours of solid sleep with the occasional drifting off from time to time as well. It actually went by pretty fast though. I only feel a little tired; I guess I´m used to not getting any sleep haha We honestly have the best group of sister missionaries. They constantly make me laugh!! What a fun group. I actually just got my companion, and I already love her!! We sat by eachother on the way to Dallas and Madrid. Her name is Sister Benson and we are the two tallest sister missionaries here. Go figure. haha We are in the Alma district, and we are the only sister missionaries in that one. I am also roomates with the girl that I took the picture with (Sister Noakes) and another sister I met when I picked up my visa (Sister Wirthland). In other words we have a party room that is also very spiritual ;). As soon as I walked into the MTC, I gave the Sittreuds a big hug! They send their love to everyone. It was such a comfort to see their familiar faces. I actually am understanding way more Spanish than I thought! (Not saying much, but I got around at the airport ok). My first interview at the MTC (the one before you have your interview with the president) was all in Spanish. It was slightly rough, but I got by. I absolutely love it here. The temple is gorgeous and is right outside our dorm window. It's incredible. My teacher is a cute Madrid native, and she is very very kind and sweet, and my district is incredible, and we're almost all from Utah haha. We are the first batch of missionaries (yes, we are missionary cookies) that have been able to go for all six weeks, which I am so grateful for. It's not nearly as structured as other MTCs. They told us they are never going to tell us what to say, and just how to recognize and follow the promptings of the spirit. It's provides for a much calmer and supportive environment. We've already had the opportunity to test it out--yes, within the first few minutes of getting here. haha They just put all the missionaries in the room and told us to talk with the "investigators". It was kind of exciting. :) My p days will be Thursdays, but I won´t be able to really do anything until next Thursday since we just got here and we have tons of meetings to go to. (Except we do get to go to the Madrid Temple in the morning.) In other words, this will be your email this week because we aren't getting on tomorrow. I guess Barbara's prayers worked out, and my p-day is at the end of the week. Which reminds me, please forward me Christian's email from elderchristiangraf.blogspot.com. I would love to hear about what they are up to. For P-days, our teachers take us anywhere we want to go in Downtown Madrid, so we are probably going to go to the famous museum there next week. I did get your dear elder letter via email, so don´t waste the money haha just send me emails, and I can print them I think. Tell grandma thank you for the card, and that I love her so much. She and grandpa should be getting a thank you card in the mail within the next couple of days. I love you guys soooo much and I miss you like crazy, but I truly could not be happier. What a beautiful spirit that is here in this building.

 

Amor!!

 

Sister Hopkins