Chapter 29: Cumpleaños Feliz

I have officially entered the Roarin´ Twenties! Watch out Spain!! Haha I think I am aging a lot faster here, because I don´t think I have ever felt so tired in my entire life!! But thank you all for the birthday wishes. It was a really special day. Everyone kept telling me to enjoy my one and only birthday in Spain, and the ward members definitely made sure I did just that! The morning of my birthday, one of the girls called me to ask if I could come and help with a musical number that the Young Womens were doing the next day. When I entered the chapel, they all started singing my favorite hymn "Come Come ye Saints", and when they finished they broke out in “Happy Birthday.” I turned around and they had made a giant cake out of my favorite Spain candies!! It was so sweet!! It was truly a memory that I will hold very dear to my heart for the rest of my life. Then for lunch we ate with a really sweet family who, for my birthday, tried to make some American food which consisted of french fries, fried chicken, and cheesecake. It was super funny because they forgot the candles, and so she came out first with this big table candle, and we were just laughing so hard! One of the daughters found a "18" candle, and we all joked that I had lost a year instead of gaining a year. Then, all of our actual missionary work that day went down the tube! All of our appointments cancelled on us! Rotten luck! So, we spent the night contacting and knocking doors. Definitely not my ideal way to end a birthday night, but I guess you can´t have everything. So that was my birthday! Also, the young adults threw me a little birthday party for family home evening on Sunday night! Complete with a giant cake and 20 candles this time. I really love this ward! As for the work this week, it was definitely better! I have mentioned Hussan, our Muslim investigator before and he is slowly becoming my favorite investigator! I have never had to teach someone completely about Christ before, and it´s incredible to see how a little bit of faith completely changes your countenance! He just glows when we talk about Christ! It´s like he is a little child learning something incredible for the first time! It cracks me up too that his roommate is such a bitter "Catholic" (I am fast learning that when people say they are Catholic, 50% of the time they are atheist). And they just debate about Christ´s role in their lives, and our investigator seems to have so much more faith then this self-proclaimed Catholic! But slowly yet surely, we are going to break down her walls as well! Then, we visited the Spaniard three amigas, as I call them, and they just make me smile! They are the most loving and open people I think I have ever met! Every time we come over they are just so open and welcoming! They want their daughter to start coming to mutual activities, so that will be great to see. I really hope that the ward members can really reach out to them and show them what it means to be true disciples of Christ. Also, MYGL CAME TO CHURCH!! I was so excited when he walked in the door, and I think all the ward members practically were climbing over themselves to meet him. It´s a very rare thing to have a true Spaniard as an investigator. We will meet with him tomorrow, but I think he enjoyed the spirit there. After church, we have the opportunity once a month to visit a pueblo about 2 hours away, and it was so weird! It felt like a family road trip with the bishop, ward mission leader (who is the bishop´s father), two of the elders, us, and a recent returned missionary, Roxanne, all piled into a van! The weird thing though was the scenery! I thought I was driving through Utah! The pueblo was really dry, cool air. I thought for sure we had driven to Utah! haha But it was really sweet. There are three families out there that can´t make it to church every week, so we do a sacrament meeting with them once a month since they aren´t quite big enough to make a branch. It was sweet and simple. I really love the work here in Castellón! It´s very diverse here, and our investigators are from all over the world (Romania, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Peru, Spain, etc. just to name a few) and I just love them all! I don´t know how much success we are actually having, but I know that I will never forget this feeling of love that I have the opportunity to feel with the people that I am serving here. Something that I will never forget!!

Les Quiero!

Hermana Hopkins