Hola from España!

Hello everybody! Greetings from Spain!

We went to the REAL Madrid Stadium last Thursday. It was so cool and it is HUGE! Everyone there loved it. Me and Hermana Costagliola *from Italy* really get along with the three Russian missionaries (two from Ukraine and one from Russia). They speak English very well.

My Portuguese friends are gone; one is from Portugal, one from Brazil and the other from Cape Verde. They wanted me to sing with them and I felt that I was one of them! They are amazing.

I have received some letters from ward members and family and also a package from one of my mom’s friends in Spain. Tell them all thank you! I would write and send letters, but stamps cost a lot and sending the letters would make me run out of money, but tell them I got them and thank them so much!

Today we are going to the Museo del Prado! I am so excited!

But just to share an experience, last Saturday, I was paired up with the one Ukranian Elder, Elder Obiukh. He knows some English, but no Spanish. So I carried most of our conversations whenever we contacted people, but he learned a few Spanish words and phrases that helped us talked to some people! Another miraculous view of the gift of tongues!

We just got some American missionaries that are going to Russia that have been in the Provo MTC for four weeks and will stay here for five weeks. They seem pretty nice.

Spain is awesome! I have been having good food here, but none of it can match up to your cooking Mamá!

My companion in the picture of the stadium is Elder Jonson. He is in my District with Hermana Costagliola from Italy.

I just got back from the Museo del Prado and it was awesome!! I don´t have a lot of pictures since you are not allowed to take pictures inside. I went around the museum with Elder Gill, from Kaysville, since he was one of the only missionaries that liked art as well.

Be safe everybody. Love you all!

With Elder Nickerl and Sister Costagliola

                                           With Elder Jonson at the Real Madrid Stadium

 

Madrid Temple

A new week and President at the MTC

We just got our new MTC President on Tuesday, President Lovell and his wife and they seem really nice! But because we got the new MTC President means that our old one left, and that was really sad. They were so nice, but I know that God has more plans in store for them. On Tuesday all the Portuguese missionaries left as well, 3 to Portugal and 1 to Cape Verde. They were my best friends here since our personalities were so much in common.

So my experience here has been really fun! After we emailed last week, we went to Downtown Madrid. We walked around on our own for a little bit and I went around with two of the Portuguese Elders, Semedo and Oliveira. We saw some really cool things. We then went to La Plaza Mayor and I have some great pictures from that! It was so beautiful seeing all the old paintings that were on the buildings and it was amazing! But the coolest thing we saw was La Catedral in Madrid. We then got an outside view of the Royal Palace and it is HUGE and BEAUTIFUL! I took a lot of pictures and they are awesome!

Also, we went to the park again on Saturday and I teamed up with the Elder Oliveira. He only spoke Portuguese but we were able to make some contacts and handed out two books of Mormon! We felt a little disappointed when we kept getting rejected by most people but when you really make a good contact then that is when you feel a lot better! The picture is with the three Portuguese Elders that became my closest friends here, from left to right: Gomes, Semedo and Oliveira. Gomes spoke English and Spanish as well, Semedo spoke a little bit of Spanish and Oliveira only spoke Portuguese but we were able to talk to each other Spanish to Portuguese and vice versa. We really saw the gift of tongues working in our favor. I was really sad when they left. At Sacrament meeting, they gave a special hymn number that they sang in Portuguese and they invited me to sing with them! So it was an honor to be considered one of them! But now we also got three Russian speakers, one Elder and two Sisters. They just barely got here but they seem really nice! 

I don't know where we are going today for a tour, either the REAL Madrid Stadium or El Museo de Prado. Tell people I would love it if they sent letters! I just got yours yesterday and I got really excited because we can get letters any day of the week! So thank you Mama!

The food here is great, some of it is Spanish, and some of it is American, but I enjoy the Spanish food a lot more! Love you all!

                      Elder Gomes, Sadler, Semedo and Oliveira

   Madrid Temple

                                     
Madrid's Cathedral / Catedral de la Almudena

 

    

Photos from the MTC Mission President

Working at the park

Singing in front of the Madrid Temple

My life in the MTC (CCM in Spanish) in Madrid

My schedule is mostly, get up at 6:30, eat breakfast, have classes until 1:00, eat lunch, have more classes until 6:00, then we have dinner, then we have classes until 9:30 then we have to have lights off by 10:30. Not really exciting but we teach practice investigators during the day for our training. And on Saturdays, we go to Madrid´s parque to do contacts and me and my temporary companion Elder Ward gave out three Books of Mormon, two in Spanish and one in English! It was awesome to do that!

I love the food! Toda es comida española! But most of the people here don´t like most of it; mostly being babies about the food tasting weird. But there is me, an Italian girl (who is Spanish speaking) and four Portuguese missionaries (three Elders and one Hermana) who eat all the food because they love it too! We´ve had tortilla, orange pork, cola cao, galletas, just typical Spanish food!

There are five people in the room, including me and we all get along somewhat. It is all really nice and quiet. My companion, Elder Jonson, is from Lehi, so super exciting. I share a room with him and Elders Nickerl, Stapleton and Ward, from California, somewhere in Utah and Arizona.

We just went to the temple today and qué bonito! Since it is right outside our building, we get to walk past it every night!  We get to go every Thursday since it is our P-day. We also have to stay inside the CCM (MTC) the whole time and when we do go outside it is with everybody. All together, we have 16 missionaries, 12 Spanish and 4 Portuguese and we´re getting Russians next week.

I have really connected with the European/Brazilian missionaries even though we can hardly speak the same language! They speak Portuguese and I speak Spanish to them but we can understand each other just fine! We make contacts every Saturday, which means we go out and talk to possible “Future Investigators” and my Spanish is already A LOT better! even though I´m still a little nervous about using it. In my district, is Me, Elder Jonson, and Hermana Costagliola, and we make a pretty good team I think! Since she speaks Italian and learning Spanish, and I speak Spanish, and Elder Jonson, well, he´s learning, we actually know how to communicate with people and talk about the gospel. But this is really fun!

We have four teachers for our district, Hermanas Suarez, Martinez y Gutierrez, y Hermano Arnal. They are really good, since they teach us how to use Spanish more properly, and I know this will sound a little different, but on Saturday, I feel like I could speak Spanish perfectly while talking about the Gospel. So overall, it is amazing here! Since it is a small group, we all connect well and it is easier for us to do things together like go out and teach people.

The CCM (MTC) President and his wife are leaving next week and we are getting a new one.

 I also found out that my mission president is leaving in a year so I will get a new one then too! It seems out of all the missionaries here, the three from Brazil (2) and Cape Verde (1) for Portuguese are going to Portugal while the one from Portugal is going to Cape Verde. Then form here, it seems only about 5 or 6 are going to Madrid or Málaga and the rest are going to Barcelona, and that does not include any from the Provo MTC or native speakers. Today in about ten minutes we are to go downtown and take a tour of it and hopefully I can get some stuff that I want/need. So I´ll talk to all of you later! Love you!

Elder Sadler

Leaving home to go home

I made it safe and sound to the MTC in Madrid, Spain!