Chapter 26: Bitter Goodbyes and Sweet Welcomes

I can hardly believe that I had to say goodbye to my wonderful area in Barcelona. I think it was definitely one of the hardest things I have ever had to do in my entire life. I feel like I was just crying all week! Since we had 44 new missionaries coming in, they had them all stay in a hotel in Barce for a couple days to get their residency all worked out. And guess who were the lucky Hermanas who got to stay in the hotel as well? Yes, you guessed it. Hermana Shaffer and I stayed in the hotel with them--I guess I got to go out with a splash! I definitely had a really hard time saying goodbye to Francisco and his family. His whole family made me a dinner the night before I left and told me they all had desires to be baptized. It was so exciting to hear, but at the same time I just wished with all my heart that I was going to be there to see it. The next day, he wrote me a letter and came and read it to me just hours before I left. I am telling you, it has been an emotional week. haha Then saying goodbye to Feily and her dad was like saying goodbye to my family in Barcelona. I really didn´t imagine it could ever quite be this hard to say goodbye to an area. (And don´t even get me started on saying goodbye to the senior couples.) But, I guess the Lord needed me somewhere else. SO Bienvenida a Castellón. It is a pretty small city (much smaller than the Barcelona I am used to) and I don´t know a soul. My companion I am training is Hermana Jarman from Arizona. She is super sweet, a little shy, but ready to get to work! She already spoke Spanish, so that won´t even be an issue either. So, we decided that the first thing to do was to start getting to know the members. I don´t think I have ever met so many welcoming people in my entire life. I called the Ward Mission Leader and he said, "Oh Hermanas!! Welcome to Castellón, and welcome to my family. While you are here, you will be my daughters, and I want you to know that you can come by at anytime because my house is your house." We went and met with him, and he is even sweeter than he was on the phone. The bishop was the exact same. Then I found out the bishop is actually the son of the mission leader, and half the ward I feel like is related to this one family. It´s super funny, and not even an exaggeration. On Sunday it was a little bit overwhelming at first: all these people running up to us wanting to get to know us in rapid Spanish. I have to keep telling myself that it will come and I will love this ward just as much as my last ward. It was super cute though, the relief society put up this pink calender to feed the Hermanas. They are very serious about it in this ward. There was one day in the entire month of September that we weren´t eating with a family, and Charo (my new favorite person) freaked out and grabbed someone and said, "It is your duty as a member of this church to serve this servants of the Lord--especially the Hermanas!". haha So, I guess my grocery bills are definitely going to go down. Then we went to dinner and to the Rojas Family. I honestly love them to death. They feed all the missionaries every week after church, and invite a couple of the ward members as well. One of them this week was Charo. Now, she was just like, "Hermanas, think of me as your new mom. If you need anything at all, let me know. I know that it must be overwhelming coming where you know nobody, so just think of me as the person always ready to help with anything." She then proceeded to go off about how the Elders should have been more helpful in telling us where we could go to visit members and less actives in our area and sat down with us with Roxanna Rojas (a recently returned missionary) and wrote down the addresses of everyone we could visit in our area and a little explaanation about them. And that is why I love working with the members! Also, the Elders gave us a sweet investigator named Geraldine. She has heard all the discussions, and is waiting for an answer to Baptism. I was trying to figure out why she wasn´t baptized yet, since she thinks it could be true and I thought about my experience with Francisco. I feel like I just met Francisco in young girl version. haha Anyway, I decided to just gain her trust for our first lesson. So, naturally we talked about our favorite food, boys and dating, and our favorite movies. :) She told me, "I have never been able to talk to the Elders like this before. Can we go get ice cream sometime?" And that is the mission work, my friends. You have to gain people´s trust! She then came with us, and brought her friend, to the young adults family home evening which she has never accepted before. I am really excited to keep working with her. I think you really have to develop a trusting friendship before you can teach the gospel, or at least at the same time. This is a gospel of love, and they have to feel that before they will join the church. Other than her, the work is obviously a little slow since we just got here, but we are praying really hard, and I am expecting some great miracles to happen. Especially with the support of this incredible ward. I love you all, and pray for me please! haha 

Les Quiero,

Hermana Hopkins