Sister Ivy Carlson - Madrid Spain Mission

Hola a todos!! How are you all? Espero que todo esté bien 😁 I can't write a ton this week because we just hit phase 1 in Spain, so we can leave! We're chilling at the Sister Training Leader's piso right now! We're going to have a sleepover tonight, so it's pretty exciting to  have some human interaction from someone that isn't my companion for the first time in months 😊  It's been 90 degrees every day here! The weather went from cold and cloudy to blistering heat real quick.  Just in time for us to go back outside RIP  Things are good here and we're going to be transitioning back into "normal missionary life" little by little! Facebook men are still interesting, and one of our less active friends answered our video call while he was smelling flowers in a field! Also one of our friends we were teaching sent us a text that said: "I'm not interested in your message, sorry"!! It broke our hearts but it's ok! We're thriving ...

Hola!! Ok so right after I sent last week's email about James being fuerte and progressing towards baptism, we called him randomly that day and he told us he doesn't want to be baptized. Rip. But it was interesting because he was kind of mumbling when we asked him what his doubts were. I know he knows it's true. We explained that we usually have trials right before we make a good decision (like baptism), and we answered his questions. He said that there wasn't any historical evidence of the book of Mormon like there is for the bible, he grew up in Peru but never learned anything about Nephites or Lamanites. We explained that, but he was just kind of off the entire time. He feels the spirit when he reads but I guess he's going to investigate other churches to see if he feels the same feeling. He was looking on the internet for answers (worst idea) and found some "anti" literature of course, instead of coming to us. I asked him if he prayed about his doubts ...

Hola a todos! How are you all? Espero que super bien!! Ok, exciting news- we can go outside!!! A little bit! The government put out a schedule for everyone, so from 6-10am you can go out and exercise, 10-12 elderly people can go out for a walk, 12-8 kids can be outside, and 8-11pm we can go out again and exercise/walk! We've been going out twice a day for two days and it's heaven. I'm finally getting to see some of Mostoles and it's been so fun.  Our friend James who has a baptismal date is still excited and progressing! He might be moving back home to Peru in June, so we're hoping to be able to get the Capilla (chapel) open in time to meet his date of May 16. Heavenly Father has a plan and we've already seen so many quarantine miracles here, I'm sure everything will work out the way it should! Also, we're teaching a girl named Cherry from Taiwan! She lives in Madrid! She's learning Spanish, we teach her in English, and she prays in Mandarin. She...

Hola a todos!! I don't have much time, but how are you all? The quarantine just got extended again until May 9th!! Woo! If they add three more weeks, I'll complete my training in quarantine. Que bendición! We have a fecha!! Our friend James wants to be baptized and we set up a date! Miracles only come after the trial of our faith, and I was definitely being tried. But I know that God's timing is perfect and that as long as we keep striving, we'll see that our efforts are not being done in vain. We had our sacrament meeting over video call yesterday, and not even the bishop showed up. Just James! But it was great. We taught him about service, which is really relevant right now with all of the service being done around the world to try to make this crazy situation better. Acts of service aren't in short supply, and we can all do a little bit to bring hope and happiness to the lives of others! That's all I have time for but I love you all! Stay tuned for ...

Hola!! This email will be pretty short, lo siento! I don't have too much time! I'm thriving! Kind of. We're staying busy and using technology to find and teach, which is great, but it's definitely hard staying here all day every day in our one-room piso. The quarantine just got extended for a few more weeks too, so we're reevaluating everything haha. We can do hard things, and we've already been seeing miracles as we've been doing the work this way! Heavenly Father creates the path, and He won't ask us to do anything we can't.  I don't know about you, but general conference was exactly what I needed! I was so inspired and uplifted by the messages we heard. I loved the themes of hope and healing, as well as hard work and change. This is our time and our chance to gather Israel in creative ways we never have before. People's hearts and minds are opening to this message, and now is the time for action. As much as the adversary is t...

Hola a todos! How are you all? It seems like the situation changes every day with everything going on in the world. We are staying in Spain, and my mission president said it would be more dangerous if we went home than if we just stay where we are. Luckily over the past few weeks, we've kind of learned how to work in quarantine and we're staying pretty busy. We usually have 5 citas every day, and we're slowly meeting the members of our ward and our amigos! Also, I have a new trainer! I was with my trainer for about 5 days but she ended up going home because of health issues. It was pretty hard on me, but my new trainer and I get along really well and we're both new to the area! So it's an adventure 😁 My companion and I wrote notes to stick on some of our neighbor's doors because we can't go out and meet people in the streets, so we take all the excitement we can get. Also, we've met some of them and they're awesome! One of them, last week ...

Hola a todos! It has been an insane week and a half. I didn't have a p-day on Wednesday because I was on three flights to Spain! I've been here since Wednesday and got quarantined after about 2 days. I saw some of Spain at least! The flights were long, and I didn't get much sleep. It was a 7 hour time difference, so the first few days here I was dizzy all the time, and falling asleep during meetings. We had to go through security before every flight, so it ended up being three times. Que bendición. We made it to Madrid alive and met our mission president and his wife. They're seriously the best. Also, the mission office is on the grounds of the Madrid temple! It's so beautiful. We got oriented the first day and slept in the mission home that night. The next day we went back to the office, had some meetings, then met our trainers after lunch and went to our areas! My trainer is Hermana Andros, and she's from Massachusetts. It's so beautiful here! My a...