Week 48: My family is in Powell Again 🙃😒... I'm Working Hard in Spain 💯

Dear People,

Good day to you all... I apologize in advance for the lengthy email 😬just too much to say. Another good week tho!

Tuesday - we had district meeting with our new district that morning. It's so weird cuz we have 2 new missionaries who just came from the MTC and they don't speak any Spanish at all hahaha. It's funny to hear them try and talk and then whenever something is said they look at you like, "What the heck did he just say?" I feel like I was in their same shoes just yesterday but at the same time it feels like it was soon long ago. I told them to be patient and the Spanish comes. The gift of tongues is real and it's extremely helpful haha. That night we met with our homeboy Santi and his cousin Ana and we played soccer with them. Ana lives in a different city and she was just here visiting, so we are hoping that when she gets home the missionaries will be able to get in contact with her. Get this - one of the Elders serving where she lives is my MTC comp Elder Hildebrandt (😃😄😃🙌🏻🙌🏻😃👍🏻😀👏🏼😄👍🏻😃😀😄👌🏻😃😃) so I'm hoping he sticks with it and baptizes her! :)

On Wednesday we had our last lesson with Ana before she left the next day. We went to our JAS Center and played foosball and ping pong for a little bit and then we had a way good lesson with them about the gospel of Jesus Christ. These kids are freaking geniuses. They understand the gospel and everything we teach them better than anyone I've taught in my whole mission lol. They're keeping all of their commitments, coming to church, coming to all the activities that the ward has. It's incredible! They ask questions and you can just tell that they really do want to accept Jesus Christ into their lives and follow his example. They both real really good about their baptismal date that's coming up on the 6th of next month! It will be complicated with Ana leaving but Santi will most likely be going for a swim that day. 😉 After that, we went over to the Palominos and I gave our investigator Hernan a blessing because he and Prescila are trying to decide what will be best for them on whether or not he should move out, get baptized and then get married, or wait to get married, then get baptized. We found out yesterday that I guess the blessing worked and they are starting their papers to get married and going to be doing that hopefully within the next month! :)

Thursday we were supposed to do our weekly planning session but it was supposed to be wayyyy hot on Friday so we decided to switch those around. We went and worked during the morning and then during Media Dia we ate with the Garcias. :) They're still cool, genuine, good caring people just in case you were wondering. That night, Ana was leaving back home so we went over to the Palominos again and they were all there. We played a couple games and hung out with them for a while until they had to leave. Once they left we stayed over there and talked with Monica (the mom), Vanessa (the daughter and Amicone’s future wife 😏) and Diana (daughter) about Hernan and Prescila’s situation and just about all sorts of things. (Including me hooking Trev and Vanessa up... I'm a match maker from 6000 miles away 😂) Then after that, we met Aaron and we all went and played soccer again. Our team balled out as usual 💯!

Friday - Fridays are always the days that I can never remember haha. Like I said, we changed our planning session to Friday because it was supposed to be way hot that day so we figured we'd not get way sweaty and so we planned that morning :) then we made some baller burgers. I felt like I was back home eating some In n Out. Haha! WAY kidding! Not even close but they were way good. Then we went out and worked. While we were working, we got a call from our good friend Elder Fillmore who finished his mish like 2 weeks ago and he was like “Hey! I'm in Elche and I'm like dude I wanna see you hahaha so we met up with him and his family and hung out with them for a little bit! He was in my first zone and we got to know each other pretty well haha. Turns out his family knows my home boy Grant Hawkes so that was cool :) I miss Grant.. But seeing Elder Fillmore with his family gave me more hope that one day maybe I'll be able to see mine again! 😂😂 I miss my family. So yeah, that was fun and then after we went to a ward party that was a total bust.. There was like 25 people there hahahah.

Saturday was a pretty good day. We got a call from a less active and that wanted us to help make some cookies for a birthday present. So we went that morning and it turned into me and my comp just making the cookies hahaha. We had to call another member because the oven didn't work so we went over to Jose and Encarni's house to use their oven. I've mentioned them before, but they're converts of like 2 years ago and they're the greatest people ever. So cool, so nice. Just, all around genuine people. Hahahahaha. I make myself laugh sometimes. :) Anyways so we was bakin them cookies and Encarni was like yo you guys dig that pollo asado and I'm like mmmm hecks yeah we does and she's like gnarly wanna eat some and I'm like mmmm checks yeah we does. So we spent medio dia with them eating some decision chicken and it was delicious. And the conversation totally went just like that just FYI. Thennnn that night we went to a town outside of Elche called Crevillente (the place that I hate cause it looks like it's where Osama Bin Laden lived as a child and also where I wrecked my forehead on the invisible bar that was hiding behind the cloth thing that I still don't know how it happened 🙄) to help Hernan move stuff from their old house into Prescilas dad’s house. They're living with Prescila’s mom as of now while they figure all the stuff out. David’s death made them not want to live in their old house anymore cuz of the memories :( so we helped them move. 5 stories, no elevator. It was just not that fun to be honest. I felt like I had just come in from halftime because I was sweating so freaking much! Holy crap it was so hot. It felt good to help them again tho. :)

Sunday - pretty good Sabbath day. Santi, Prescila and Hernan were all in church with us. Santi is so funny. He was like talking to us in between classes and he's like, “Oh crap guys! Gotta get to class! I’ll talk to you guys after!”. Then he ran to his class! Ahh, I love it. He asked to see the baptismal font and he's like I hope I can get in there soon. It was so cool! He's such a stud!! After church we went and ate with Jose and Encarni again. We had spaghetti and
meatballs and it was way good. Then everyone else who was there left and we stayed and she wanted us to try and see if we could start teaching her 18 year old daughter. So we are hopefully gonna have a family night sometime this week with her. :) She's the only one in their family that isn't a member so it could either be really hard, or really easy. I'll keep ya filled in on that! 👍🏻 Thennnn, that night, we went over to the Palominos again and had a lesson with Hernan
and Prescila about following the prophet. :)

Today, I FINALLY got my jerseys that I ordered from a guy here! I ordered them like end of May and they're just barely getting here. They were worth the wait tho. 😍 I'll send you guys pics next week 💯

I hope you all have a great week! You'll hear from me next. :) Hope you all had a grand Pioneer Day!! Shout out to my fam for going to Powell again and not inviting me! With all of MY friends!!!!!! 🙃🙃 Hahahahahahaha ahh Powell... I miss Powell.. Ohh and shout out to the TIO Beedub for his cumpleaños today!! Have a good one, old guy 😉

I love you all!

Representin'
Elder Tanner Brady Hammond lll