Llamado a Servir en España: Toma, Toma, Toma, Toma!!!!!! :)

HOLA mis amigos y mi familia,

How is everyone doing this week?? I can´t believe school is now in session for basically everyone!!! I can´t believe it has been a whole year since I started my freshman year at BYU. I hope everyone is loving school so far and I would love to hear all about it when you get a chance!

So this past week was full of milagros y aprendiendo (miracles and learning)... como SIEMPRE (like ALWAYS)! The title of my post "toma, toma, toma, toma!!!!" is what they say here when something big or miraculous happens. It translates to mean "take that" but in a good and nice way. Heavenly Father has miraculous ways of helping us learn important things. I learned this week that I love my area so so much and I need to be more grateful for my time here! I went to another sisters area for intercambio (exchanges) yesterday and everyone we tried to contact either got mad at us or shook their head and said, "tengo prisa"... haha everyone says that... meaning "I´m in a hurry". It was really weird for me to see because here in my area almost everyone we talk to either invites us to come to their home, asks how they can learn more about the church, or kindly says that they are not interested. It is crazy that places even 20 minutes away from an area can be so so different! I am so spoiled or really just so blessed! But I love it all the same because it is the Lord´s work and I've learned as we trust in Him we will be led to find His children who are prepared to hear the gospel!

I think the biggest milagro from this week was Audrey´s baptism! WOW! It was incredible!! Let me start with the small miracle and then I will share experiences from her actual baptism. On Thursday night we were getting really really excited because Audrey´s baptism was supposed to be the next day... Friday. However, Audrey doesn´t have a phone so we can´t call her to make sure everything is ok ever because she just got to Spain 3 weeks ago. So we just pray that everytime we set a cita with her she will just show up... and so far that has worked. Well, we didn´t have an appointment with her on Thursday night because she had work. But we felt like we needed to go to the church. We weren´t exactly sure why. So we went there and found our recent convert, Gabriella, running towards us in the church with Audrey. We were so excited (and confused) to see them both. We smiled really big and asked them both how they were and Audrey said, "muy muy muy muy muy malo" (really really really really bad). WHAT???? Audrey is never sad or upset or anything! We were both very surprised! We came to find out that she had been crying basically all day because someone in her work was leaving for a vacation and she needed to cover their shifts and one of them happened to be right during the baptism. I started to cry right then because I knew that it was Satan trying to get her to not be baptized. But with someone as strong as Audrey that wasn´t going to happen!! We all went into a room and prayed together and right after the prayer we talked about changing the time of her baptism. We talked to Obispo and then changed the day to Sunday right after church! It was all perfect again. We shared scriptures together that night about how Heavenly Father has a perfect plan for us. It is a plan that we don´t always understand but we just need to be patient and trust in him. (Mosiah 4:9).

Sunday was her actual baptism and it was AMAZING!!! Presidente and Hermana Dayton came and we had 65 members from our ward there (president counted). WOW! That never ever ever happens. Another miracle -changing the date to Sunday allowed all those members from our ward to be there. Hermana Lee and I sang I Know That My Redeemer Lives for her and at the end she looked up at us and smiled and did a big heart sign with her hands for us. SO sweet!!

Obispo baptized Audrey and the spirit was so strong. Alex, our recent convert, gave a talk about baptism and OH MY GOODNESS... It was INCREDIBLE. I have never heard a talk about baptism that was so well prepared. He is going to be such a good leader one day and missionary. Audrey was SO happy after her baptism. She was literally jumping up and down and just glowing with excitement and the spirit. I love her so much and I am so happy we were able to help her take a step closer to returning home to her Heavenly Father and Savior. She is now preparing to go to the temple on September 25th with the ward to do baptisms for the dead, along with our two other recent converts. I am so happy for her.

We have had a few problems with people being obedient in this past week here in the mission. Which doesn't ever happen because El Faro is exactly obedient always. But sometimes people forget which is why we have the Atonement and repentance. Anyways, I just want to challenge you all to be exactly obedient to everything we are asked to do and live your life as if the Savior were right next to you everyday because He truly is. I am so grateful for this church and the opportunities we have to learn and grow and be better everyday. I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week.

xoxo,

Hermana Eyring

Random and funny things:

1. Helaman 10:4 is a really good scripture and you should all go read it

2. THE BYU GAME. (lots of exclamations here) WOW. It was so much fun. I think I already sent pictures. It was fun to be with lots of missionaries, members and investigators from all over Barcelona. ALSO... BYU won in case you were wondering. Guess who I found there?? Elder Bronson!!!! He is doing so great. We sang the fight song together with Hermana Dayton since nobody else knew it haha. I am so happy that He is in my zone. I will see him again tomorrow for zone enfoque.

3. Don't ever go to doctors in Spain. I went this past week and she just made everything a whole lot worse. Luckily my mission president is a doctor so he gave me medicine and made everything better.

4. Yesterday while I was running to catch the metro on intercambio, I saw Elder Merrill...remember - my travel companion. It was so fun to see him again. I have definitely missed having him as a zone leader from the CCM. Also standing next to him was his companion who I think he was on intercambios with too. He looked so familiar and then we finally figured out that He went to Viewmont and we had hung out a bunch of times before. Such a small world. His name is Elder Brog. Fun to see him again.