Nossa, nossa, asi você me mata

Hello Fam and friends!

So this song has been stuck in my head all week so that's why I put it as the subject line. Our cute friend Sandra sang it when we had a ward Karaoke activity on Tuesday. It was super fun and our friend Leisy came as well!

Sandra is doing super bien and will be baptized si o si on Saturday! She just had her baptismal interview and passed with flying colors. She is legit my favorite. She is so prepared and has so much faith. Today we went to Segovia with her (: she loves spending time with us. We also got to eat lunch with her and a member friend Katherine who is also from Brazil. I love that I get to learn so many beautiful cultures here in Spain! We are so looking forward to this next week with her (:

Well with the start of the new transfer we have a lot of goals to be more creative and productive. We've been visiting more members and making things for them and so far so good. Usually Saturdays are pretty rough. Everyone says they can meet but then they fail on us last minute. So we decided to make handouts for the moms in Relief Society because yesterday was Mother's Day here in Spain. They turned out really cute and the members loved them. It was rewarding to be able to serve them even if it was something so simple. 

On Thursday Hermana Snyder had a last transfer training meeting of sorts so we went to Pavones, where the temple is. I spent the day with Hermana Barlow and Hermana Tyler in Barrio 6. It was super fun to get to know other missionaries more. When the meeting was ending we waited for Hermana Snyder on the temple grounds and I decided to make calls. As we were doing so Hermana Packer (the MTC President's Wife) came down from the MTC so we got to talk to each other a little bit. She told me how tired Brooklyn was from the jet lag at lunch Brooklyn told her she was almost too tired to eat haha poor girl. I didn't want to overwhelm her with all the change she's going through and just planned on seeing her later. Other missionaries started coming out  and my two companions got distracted. I wanted to go back and finish making calls when other sister missionaries started exiting the MTC building to go to the temple. At first I was nervous because I thought Brooklyn might be there but when they told us they were going to France or Portugal I figured they probably went in groups to the temple. 

I thought in vain. I looked up toward the glass stairwell only to see a cute sister missionary wearing a familiar shirt I'd seen in pictures and a blonde bun on top of her head. Then I started freaking out. I ran to my companions and explained that we needed to go but they wouldn't budge they were talking to all the other missionaries. 

I couldn't believe she was so close. Legit, the definition of my Utah-American childhood was no lie 2 seconds away from me. Shocked and excited I turned around to be reunited with my best friend in the biggest bear hug. We probably looked hysterical but I don't care. I never wanted to let go, but knew she had a Temple session to go to. I felt bad because the only words I could say were, "How are you? Are you real? You're not real!" I'm going to make a sticky note of things I should say so I'm not so awkward when we see each other again. Haha, And mom I promise I'll get pictures. 

All in all it's been a good, long, crazy, interesting and fun first week of the transfer. I hope you all are having a great day and that this week is full of sunshine and fresh air!

Loves to all! And Happy Mother's Day to all the moms that read this.

Hermana Warner

3rd time's a charm

Happy May!

WOW. All I can say is that time is FLYING! Can you believe it's already May 2017!? I can't. But hey all is well! Like I mentioned in my last email transfers are today, Hermana Snyder and I are staying together another 6 weeks then I get to toss her on the plane to the US of A. I'm so grateful that we get to be together, she is such a blessing.

This week was a lot more tranquilo than last week. We met with our cute friend Sandra a few times and she is well on track to being baptized in the next few weeks. We are all very excited :) the other day after teaching her some of the commandments she even commented, "So does our church have dress standards?" She has so much faith and truly wants to repent. She is grateful to learn the commandments and strives to obey them. She is incredible.

We also got to meet with our friend Cecilia. She goes home next month so we won't be baptizing her here, but she is doing well and has desires to take that step. We will do all that we can to help her progress and to help her family back at home have the Gospel. We teach her in the home of an adorable older Spanish lady named Pepita. Pepita grew up not knowing the truth of the gospel and is too old to grasp it right now. Every time we go we start and end the lesson with a hymn. It's beautiful how the hymns truly invite the spirit. It's interesting how the spirit changes everything in their home. With it, Pepita turns into a completely different person, so much happier and with so much more energy. I'm so grateful for the blessings of the gospel, it really does make a difference.

This week we were also blessed to meet and get to know a lot of the members here. We were invited to eat with a family from Utah and let me just say, BBQ pulled pork sandwiches never tasted so good. We got to share a message with them in english. It was really different but really good! They are doing all they can to help Zion grow here as well. The other day they made cookies for their neighbors and were invited to their home. Although it's simple and is often over looked it's so important that we friendship those around us. As we do so we can give them an opportunity to see how the gospel truly can bless us. 

I don't really have much more to say, but I love being a missionary! The church is true! I'm so grateful to be a part of it. I hope you are all having a great week! Good luck to all of you who are in finals! Also, another huge shout out to Brooklyn who comes to Madrid TODAY! She is going to be a fantastic missionary. Grateful to be her sister. 

Prayers and love!

Hermana Warner

Today we went to Casa de Campo with Sandra and Florinda <3

This week was CRAZY!!

Hello all! 

This week was CRAZY!! Monday was good, we were in a trio for the day and taught our friend Cecilia after Pday. It was really cool to teach her, she has told us before that she didn't know why she came here to Spain (she moved here from Columbia) but when we taught her the restoration she came to the conclusion that the Lord had sent her to Spain (of all places) to meet the missionaries and accept the restored gospel. Sometimes I get discouraged because we haven't found a lot of people who take the lessons seriously, but in this moment I remembered that God truly is preparing people, we just need to find them.

     Tuesday was interesting, we started off by dropping off our third comp in the metro to her new comp and continued with the day until we had another appointment with Sandra la Brasileña :) our member friend Thaina was able to teach with us (she speaks Spanish, English and is from BrAzil. Solid) Well, we started teaching so I pulled out my iPad. A guy came up to us when we started and asked for directions in French (we had the lesson in Burger King) He then left and we continued with the lesson. A few minutes later he came back, sat down at the table behind us, picked up his things and left. We didn't think much of it until I turned to get my scriptures out. "Uh, where's my back pack?" We all started frantically looking and remembered the guy who asked for directions. The workers said that they did see a man walking out with a blue back pack and we knew it was mine. The first thing we did was go to a locutorio to call Mom (hi mom) my mom answered. Miracle. Luckily Thaina spoke english, miracle, so she was able to get my mom to cancel my debit card from home. My mind raced to remember what else might have been of worth in my bag. The only things he was able to take was the card, some keys and my personal BOM. Earlier that day I was carrying another bag because we were in the trio, I accidentally forgot to put my normal wallet (with my transportation card, Mission card, Residency card and temple recommend) back in my backpack and I left that other bag at home. Miracle. 

After we got the card figured out we were able to go back to Burger King and have a fantastic lesson. We met with Sandra again later last week and she chose a day to be baptized.

Although we have trials and inconveniences pass in our lives, if we trust in God we will be happy. We were locked out of our Piso for a day and a half but after sending over a handyman from Barrio 4 we were able to get in and grab our spare key. Many other miracles happened last week, miracles we would only have been able to see with our trial. I know that God has a plan for each and every one of us. No matter how often we forget Him, he will never forget us.  I know the Church of Jesus Christ of LDS is the true church on the Lord today. As I read the Book of Mormon and share my testimony I feel the same spirit of peace and joy that I feel when I receive answers to my prayers. 

Thank you all for your prayers! I hope you all have a great week full of miracles!
Hermana Warner

Today we went to the Zoo!

Also intercambios with Hermana Kletzli! (On Thursday/Friday, yeah it's been a CRAZY week) I love her! She is wonderful!

P.S. Heads up! Transfers are next week! Shout out to my cute sis Brooklyn who will be leaving to the Spain Madrid MTC and the Malaga mission! Whoot whoot!! ✌️

Paella and Torrijas

Hello my dearest queridos!

     This has actually been a very interesting week, a very long but good interesting week. We started off with a full day of intercambios with Hermanas Christensen and Rivera, I got to go with Hermana Rivera :)

     This was her first intercambio so I wanted it to be super special. We got to share the #PrinceofPeace video with a lot of our friends here in B9. I love going out with the new missionaries, they always fill the day with energy and faith. I'm so grateful for the time I got to spend with Hermana Rivera, she is a true example of faith, hope and enduring to the end. She is incredible.

     On Wednesday we met with Mari Luz for the last time. She will now be working with the Hermanas of Barrio 8. She is amazing and I look forward to seeing her baptism photos in the next few weeks.

     On Thursday we had a super awesome ward activity! No one really had work or school so a lot of people came. We prayed that the members would invite their friends and.... THEY DID! Well, Annalise did and three of our investigators came. So HUGE success! We will be meeting with Annelises friend again on Friday. The activity was super fun, we just played a ton of group games outside and ate the most authentic Paella, made by our Stake President from Valencia. It was solid. And so good. Sandra came which made me so happy. I love her so much and we will finally be teaching her with someone from Brasil this week so that she can understand better. Yay!

    Then on Friday we had interviews with President Pack. He is incredible and I'm so grateful for the opportunity I have to serve under his direction.

Well this week has been fantastic, I really don't have anytime but just know I am happy and well! I hope you all are as well. I'm so grateful for the opportunity we had to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He is our Savior and redeemer. Because of him we can truly have divine happiness and Joy.

Let us celebrate always these incredible three words.

He is Risen!

Love you all! Have a great week!

Hermana Warner

Paella with Sandra

Temple day!!

Wow! So much has happened in the last week and a half I can't even believe it! Well I guess first things first... 

On Tuesday we had Concílio, which is just a leadership meeting in the mission home with President and Hermana Pack. I loved it so much! We are making a lot of goals and plans as a mission to be the best we can be. While i was there I was reunited with my cute MTC friends Hermana Duffin, Curtis and Campbell. It was really nice to see them after a year!

On Wednesday we had intercambios with the cute Hermanas from Leganes. I got to be with Hermana Jarman because I went with Hermana Webster last transfer. Hermana Jarman the CUTEST! #shoutout This is her first transfer but she is already killing it here on the mission. I wanted to give her the best intercambio experience so we focused on inviting people to be baptized and different finding approaches in the street. The lessons we originally had planned failed but we still had the goal to invite people to be baptized, so we passed by our friend Mimi, we met with her a while ago but she hasn't is been able to set a day to meet. And guess what! She was there! We read together in the Book of Mormon I nudged Hermana Jarman and she flawlessly invented her to enter the waters of baptism and Mimi said Yes! we finished the night sharing the #PrinceofPeace video (look it up atMormon.org) and made our goal to talk to more than 25 people (:

The next morning Hermana Jarman and I went out again with the goal to find a new investigator and invite them to be baptized. Again the plans failed but God put us in the right place at the right time and we were able to talk to Lusmila. As we were about to share a scripted with their in the street she was like, "Hey I live pretty close we can go sit down and be more comfortable." Uh, yes please. Idk how it is for all you cute other missionaries but that NEVER happens. Legit the first time with me. Anyway, miracle, we taught her the first lesson and she too accepted the invitation to be baptized. I know that if we work our hardest and do all we can do the Lord will bless us with success. This experience also really strengthened my testimony of prayer. God can do so much more than make us feel good about ourselves, he wants to bless us with miracles, we just need to be worthy and ask for them.

Tô finish the week we had GENERAL CONFERENCE!!!!! Oh my heart, y'all just need to watch it and read it and listen to it all over again. I especially like the talk of Elder Rasband and Uchtdorff. Also the prophet has spoken. Read the Book of Mormon everyday, there are so many promised blessings as we do so.

Today we went to the temple so we didn't have Pday on Monday. I'm so grateful for the temple and for the opportunity I have to go there often. It doesn't matter what language it's in or where in the world you are, this is truly Gods Church. (Today we got to have a session in Portuguese)

Overall this has been an incredible week. I am so grateful for how aware and loving our Heavenly Father is for each and every one of His children. He's full of Grace and forgiveness. This is Christ's true church here upon the earth. He has called a living prophet to lead us in these the Latter-days. I am grateful for his love.

I hope you all have a fantastic week!!!

Loves and Besos

Hermana Warner

Intercambio with Hermana Webster, Jarman and the Snyds 

My granddaughter Hermana Santoyo, My daughter Hermana Davis and me :)

 #cheesygenerationspic

Shout out to Elder Cummings! He's going to kill it in Russia

Hermana Duffin Curtis and Campbell

Zone Conference

Pumped for conference

Hello to all my friends!

So we have a standard in the mission to have 25 contacts (have meaningful conversations with people) everyday for each missionary. When I was in Villalba it was great and came pretty easy I'd just go up so some random person tell them a little about me and the gospel, they'd either say no or give me their number and I'd move on to the next random person. Anyway, I don't know why but I hit a little wall here when I came to Carabanchel. I still usually get it but it's been more difficult. I've been really working on the quality of my contacts and it's really been paying off. We have been finding incredible people and the Lord has continued to bless us in-spite of my short comings. All I can be is grateful for his grace and his love.

One of these contacts name just happened to be Maria. We made a smoother approach by asking her for directions. She kindly looked it up on her phone for us and walked with us a little ways up the road. As we were walking and getting to know her a motorcyclist started the motor and reved the engine. We were pretty close, shocked Maria and she tripped over a loose brick in the road. It was actually a pretty bad fall and kind of scary. We helped her up and walked her to a bench to calm her down. Hermana Snyder started talking about her family and the conversation lead to our beliefs and the Book of Mormon. She told us how she was currently in a religious crisis and didn't really trust churches. We gifted her a Book of Mormon and invited her to learn more. I don't know where it will go but I know that everything happens for a reason. The Lord provided us a way to serve and to sincerely share our testimonies in a more natural setting. It was just the kind of experience I needed to motivate me to continue to talk with everyone.

We also met with Mari Luz this week. She is a woman of incredible faith. We had the opportunity to fast with her on Sunday that she will be able to go to church every Sunday and keep the Sabbath day holy, we are meeting with her again on Wednesday. She is doing really well and is excited to hear the prophet speak on Saturday.

Well, all in all this week has had a lot of ups an downs but it definitely ended on a high note. I'm so grateful to be a missionary here in Madrid Spain. I know it's where the Lord wants me to be and that he is preparing the people here to receive his Gospel. I hope you all have a wonderful week and that you have a fantastic conference weekend!

Besos!

Hermana Warner

Mari Luz and Hermana Snyder <3

Snyder w/ Warner Take Two

Transfers week! But nothing changed, our elder friend from our district is leaving but Hermana Snyder and I are staying together! We honestly weren't expecting it at all but we are so so SOO excited to be serving together another transfer here in Carabanchel. We have a few baptisms scheduled and we are looking forward to the miracles that the Lord has in store for us.

One of our sweet miracles is Mari Luz! She is progressing so well and has a baptismal service set up for her in April. It's really incredible the faith that the people have here. Many of the people we meet with move here for work to send money back to their families. I've only been here for a year and I miss my family a lot. I couldn't even begin to imagine living 15 or 20 years hundreds of miles away from my favorite people. But here they do it. They truly love their families and sacrifice a lot for them.

This week we really have been trying to meet more with the members in our area. So on Sunday we passed around a calendar for people to sign up to feed us. They are religious when it comes to feeding us and they feed us a ton. But hey! I'm not complaining! We got to eat food and get to know people from Bolivia, Peru, Russia and Ecuador. Our best friend Grace also took us out for an American burger.

This week we also had to say so-long-for-now to a few of our friends. It was really sad and hard but the Lord has called us to search the elect. We extend the invitation and it's their choice to accept it or not.  

I'm so grateful to be a missionary! I know that this is the Lords work and that This is His Gospel. We've had our tough times this week but I know that all will be made right as we do our best and PRAY! 

I hope you all have had an incredible week and that this week is even better!! 

Hermana Warner

Carabanchel District March 2017