Chapter 42: 12 Grapes

I hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas holiday! I know that it was a Christmas that I will never forget. All of Christmas Eve I was making Oreo truffles (thank you Laurie Petersen-your truffles are officially world-famous haha) with the Elders. We made about 300 truffles to pass around to the members, less actives, and investigators as we carolled to them. It was really fun! That evening, we celebrated the “noche buena” with one of the families I am really close to, and it was a feast! They ordered in a turkey just for us. You can´t really find turkey here in Spain since the special or traditionial  “Christmas food” is more seafood. They were so cute! Then on Christmas our district got together in the church and had a big Christmas breakfast and listened to Christmas music, afterwards, we went out and continued our carolling fest, and went to a member´s house for dinner. Really, I feel so blessed to have these great members here. Then I got to skype home, and oh my goodness, it felt unreal!! It was almost like being home for Christmas seeing everyone´s faces. I can´t believe that in 9 months (well less than that now) I will be home again. But, we don´t need to talk about that now. However, I had a not so great Christmas present that arrived to me in the form of a text that evening. Remember my “Island Carol” from last summer and the horrible intercambio experience? Well, I had a real scroogey moment when I was told I would be doing an intercambio the next day with the same training leader. NOOO!! Haha I was not happy. First of all, I didn´t get any heads up, and I wanted to have some good appointments for when she comes, and it was the day after Christmas. Really?? Is anyone that cruel!! Luckily, God´s got my back. I don´t know why I worry. We had a really productive day. In fact, we had so many appointments, that we had to have members come with us and do splits. We were really blessed. The rest of the week we thought would be really hard, but actually it ended up being really productive. I was really shocked. I guess everyone was really tired from the holidays and decided to stay home. J Well, we saw a lot of Christmas miracles. (Like people we have been trying to get a hold of for months now were at home and ready to accept the lessons.) We had four miracles that come to mind.

1.  We met with Ana and her son was there and finally accepted to listen to us. His friend, Adrian, was there as well, and he was the most prepared twelve year old boy that I have ever met. He said he wanted to learn more and would ask his mom permission. It was seriously just a beautiful lesson we had with them explaining why Christ was important in their lives. I love how the gospel is for everyone—young, old, big, and small.

2.  We also had the opportunity to meet with Hussian this week! My favorite Muslim investigator. Honestly, I was so excited. We met with him, and he said, “I am on the road....what´s the word again? Hmm...I have the faith now in Christ....I saw this on a television program....” and by this time we were like, what? Haha But he continued, “... Oh! That´s it! I am on the road to conversion.” I was really excited. He just soaks up everything he can about Jesus. He is reading the Bible and the Book of Mormon side by side for the first time in his life, and he loves to talk about how it all just makes sense that Christ is the savior of the world. He said, “I wish I could just open the eyes to my people, the Muslim people, of the beauty of this message, the divinity of Christ, and that he is the Son of God and suffered for our sins. Except, they are just too afraid to listen to it.” I was so touched. He really is one of my favorite investigators (I know, you probably shouldn´t pick favorites, but I do)

3.  We were going to Grou, a little pueblo on the beach outside of Castellón to go visit some people that the mission leader wanted us to meet. We ran back to piso to grab some extra Books of Mormon, and the thought came to me to bring a Romanian book of Mormon. I thought it was such a strange idea since we were going to go teach some Colombians, but I followed the prompting and grabbed the Romania Book of Mormon. When we got to the house, the lady we were trying to meet wasn´t there, but the owners were there. They were Romanians. I almost freaked out right there, but we gave them the Book of Mormon, and explained about the history of it. I am not sure how interested they were, but it was really cool none-of-the-less.

4.  Cathy and Tony are just so wonderful. They are progressing so much!! They are going through a really hard time though right now. They told us that his mom left him when he was 9 years old. About five years ago, he lost his job and recently, Cathy had an operation and can´t work. So, they are really struggling financially. Tony´s mom came back into the picture and is trying to get custody of their precious daughter Gemma because they can´t support her. We are praying so hard for them. They told us they are going today to get the papers filled out to get married. We had a family home evening with them and the bishop´s family yesterday, and Cathy just said, “I just want my family to be brought up in this church; I want a family for the eternities.” I didn´t get to pay a whole lot of attention to the message though, unfortunately, because Gemma was playing hair salon with my hair. She is just too cute I couldn´t resist! Haha But I really love my little Spaniard and Romanian family. Not to mention, I am going to have a lot of fun planning a wedding here. J

This week we are preparing for the New Years. We pretty much are spending New Years Eve and New Years day with members, and it will be so fun. My companion and I bought our non-alcoholic Champagne to get ready for the celebration. Also, a tradition they hold here in Spain is that with each of the 12 strokes before midnight, you eat a grape. So, get your 12 grapes ready, and Happy New Year!!

¡Les Quiero!

Hermana Hopkins