that's great!

Baptism this week. Sonia was baptized on Saturday and it was amazing. She bore her testimony after and talked about how the first time she saw missionaries was years ago in her pais which is Bolivia. At first she didn't want anything to do with the church, but little by little her heart changed and she worked with missionaries until she was ready to be baptized this Saturday. It made me realize we are all a team here in missionary work, and I feel so privileged I was the missionary who was able to finish teaching her, and see her take that step in her life.

The best part of the week to me though was last night. We received a call from a recent convert named Molly. Molly is from England and moved here about a year ago. Molly NEVER comes to church and hasn't wanted anything to do with the missionaries lately. Last night she called us over and by chance we happened to have our last hour open. So we ran over to her house. At first we just joked and got to know her, she made us quiche with Cesar salad as we talked about anything under the sun. And then the real question came up: why aren't you coming to church Mollie. She told us her story of the trials she faced after her baptism and how it was easier to run from them rather than face them. There was a pause and I asked her "why did you call us tonight then?" She paused looking down twirling her fork smd then said "it's kinda weird but I just felt like I should" hermana storer smiled smd said "ohhhh so you had a prompting" Mollie looked pretty confused so we explained to her he Holy Ghost and how it worked. She couldn't believe that the host ghost would actually send her promptings still. There was a pause smd then I asked her "so Mollie, do you want to come back?" She looked down again and explained how she did want to, but she was afraid. She didn't feel like she could. We talked for a moment about personal experiences as well as shared the story prodigal son and how his father "saw him while he was still a far distance off" meaning aaaall that while, the father had waited for the son to come back, and then rejoiced when he did.. She looked at us and quietly said "so.... how does one start to come back then." "Prayer" we answered. The spirit was so strong at that moment and we explained the steps of repentance. All of us were in tears. She told us that she could feel the spirit, and that she felt like this conversation was suppose to happen. We said goodbye, and promised to come back next week.

Some of my fav people here: Erika from Ecuador, she previously has had doubts about the Book of Mormon but has been feeling a lot of peace from it lately and had a FECHA for the 12. 

George from Ghana. LOVE HIM. Just the biggest heart. We teach him in his African bar. Two white girls preaching the gospel surrounded by all these people speaking Twi. Just the best experience. 

Brother Richards: member from Nigeria, he always gives us planners or cookies or juice. He's always worrying about us and making sure we are well taken care of. 

Morgan: our American friend living here, (my age) she invites us over for peach cobbler and chicken nuggets and it's a little taste of America here in Spain. 

This week was so amazing and such a great reminder that God is in the details of our lives, no matter who we are or where he from he cares about us and knows us perfectly.

Love you all

"None of us will ever be too lose that we cannot find our way back to Christ through his atonement"

Valencia!

VALENCIA
I can't express how amazing it is to be here. Valencia is just a
quaint city with so much charm and spunk. Not even a year ago I was
here for "las fallas" for my study abroad and now I'm literally walking
the same streets teaching the gospel. The lord is just the best.
What can I even say? This week has been action packed! The work here
never stops. My companion is Hermana Storer a tiny little Ecuadorean
who lives in Florida. She's an amazing worker and I LOVE HER. She
didn't have a companion aaaall last transfer and had to work with
members for six weeks. Crazy right? Needless to say I don't think I
can do any wrong in her eyes because she is just thankful to have a
companion that actually stays with her for the day haha. Anyway this
week I met a man who thinks he is literally the black Jesus. He told
us of how the Gentiles from the bible are actually Nigerians and that
his apostles are back in Africa hard at work. He's also in the process
of "atoning" for me right now (poor guy that ones gonna take a while)
but he told me that I shouldn't worry because from what I could tell
I'll be saved, hallelujah.
The ward is amazing. Baptism this Saturday more news next week.
Miracles everyday.
So happy to be here and I LOVE the mission
Xoxo madd

Transfers

The goodbyes begin with  Dayana

Natalia and her mom

Perla actually someone shorter than Maddie

good friends- rat pac

African dresses made with love

And end with Hermana " Holly"

Hermana Holly and I sat next to the cell phone waiting for it to ring Saturday  night at 10:00. I was feeling a mix of emotions, mostly sick to be honest haha. Transfers can be the most nerve wracking thing for me. 10:30 passed..then 10:45. Thinking it would be a while till they got a round to us, I jumped in the shower when I heard the familiar sound of the elevator style music go off, and my companion scream "HERMANA" from the living room. I jumped out of he shower pulled on whatever I could find and ran to the couch where we quickly looked at the phone and saw that president was calling. 

When the president calls you know there are going to be changes. I immediately felt even sicker. Hermana Holly picked up the phone and talked to president for a couple minutes before she hung up and grinning from ear to ear announced she would be training! And what about me? We waited five more minutes until the phone ran again. This time for me. I answered to hear my district leader Elder Campbell on the other end. "Do you know where you're going Hermana Cragun?" "Ummmm no" I answered back. "Well neither do we" UGG THE WORST. My district leader is aaaaalways doing things like that haha well after a lot of persuasion he finally confessed that he did know....

VALENCIA!!!!!!!!

Valencia is right on the border of the mission. It's the farthest south our mission goes and it is known for being "on fire". Probably because it is hooooottt there for most of the time, and because the work there is just unreal. The minute he told me I was going to Valencia I started screaming. I couldn't believe it.

The next day I started my packing and started planning who I was going to visit to say my last goodbyes. All that adrenaline began to wear off, and as I packed my bags and wrote in my journal Sunday night, I realized just how much I loved my little city of Sabadell and how many special people there were here I was going to miss. As I prayed that night for all the people who had me during my time here I began to cry realizing just how much I loved them and was going to miss them.

I passed by Perla, a mom from Honduras who is probably the sassiest and shortest human being I've ever met. She's been a member for a while and she has always been so good to me during my time here. She has made remarks to me such as: "Hermana I think you have gained weight" or "Hermana. You are crazy" or Hermana I'm not going to miss you Hahahahah but that is  . Under aaaaall that sass you find the most loving humble human ever who is sooo faithful to the church. And as we hugged goodbye she told me that she really would miss me and her house would always be my home if I wanted to come back.

I passed by Natalia and her mom, two of our closest friends here in Sabadell from Brazil. They have the biggest hearts and strongest testimonies. I went by Patricia and her daughter who is my age, Lucia. Lucia and I are born on the same day and we just clicked from the first time. We've decided we were twins, separated at birth. I love them soooo much. I'll miss all their laughs and style. Lucia is trying to decide if she wants to study in the U.S.for a year. I hope so because if she did I would cross seeeeas to see her again.

I went by my best friend Jeffrey's house hahaha just thinking of him makes me laugh. Jeff has the most style and sass out of anyone. He is famous for always saying in his thick Peruvian accent: "Hermana, por favor" or "siter (just like that) puh-lease" to any of the sarcastic comments I make. when I walked in he had the table lined with treats and cakes. He had printed out pictures of the infamous "ratpac" as we called ourselves (Hermana Holly Jeff and I) and had written captions on the back of them. Hahaha I love that kid.

But the hardest goodbye went to my girl Dayana. Dayana is 16 from Bolivia, I can't explain it but we just clicked from the first time. We eat with her family ever Saturday and basically always find ourselves in tears for, laughing so hard. She's truly become a little sister to me. As I went by that night to say goodbye, she met us in the doorway and said "Hermana no no you can't go." And burst into tears. We sat hugging and crying before we had to leave. I love her more than words can describe and just thinking of her crying pulls on my heart strings.

This week was packed with other events, such as getting African dresses and saying goodbye to our friends from Nigeria who I won't forget. They call us the "white Nigerians". Meeting a lady from the ward who was once the strongest member and leader. And has now lost her testimony and doesn't believe in it anymore. Eating fufu and spicy rice, trying food from Honduras, sitting in the house of Graciela who I met my first week on the street who I felt I should talk to and clapped her hands exclaiming she had been looking for the missionaries... We sat talking about faith and prayers and I felt like both of our prayers had been answered that day long ago.

Sabadell.. I couldn't have asked for a better place to have began my mission. Testing and trying, but in the end so rewarding. The people here will ALWAYS have a special place in my heart and I'll never forget them. I love them all so much and am so grateful for the moments I had with them. It's  bittersweet and hard to express the feelings I have right now, as I get ready to board the train to my next adventure.

Onto the next chapter of my mission: Valencia

huge miracles and fufu

Eating African fufu

  It's currently raining and Hermana Holly and I are snacking on crescents and hot chocolate that we bought to use the cafe wifi. No complaints though, I could live off European hot chocolate for the rest of my life. This week was aaaaaamazing. 

I wish I could write everything that happened this week but I don't have enough time :(

Some of the highlights from this week though were that we saw a huge miracle with Carlos, the dad of my fav little C, he ended up completely opening up to us.  He had so many questions and a lot of heart ache and  we were able to teach him bits of the plan of salvation and the entire lesson of the restoration. That night he committed to baptism, and for the first time we knelt as a family and prayed. Even more amazing was that Carlos offered the prayer. When he finished he was completely different, and kept saying how hot he had felt. It was a 180 degree change.

We also got to eat with my fav African family! Peace and destiny (Africans names are the best). They're from Nigeria and made us traditional fufu. What they didn't know was that thanks to my friend Cam,who served his mission in Africa, I was already a fufu expert and got to show off my fufu eating skills. The only downside to this experience was that we dipped the fufu in turkey gizzard which was very much gross, hahaha. But we had so much fun with their family.

This week a testigo ( Jehovas witness ) stopped us on the street. At first he asked us very innocent questions about the church, and then by the end was basically telling us we were liars condemned to heck. At that moment I was ready to just prove the truth of the church. But then I heard the voice of my stake president in my head. The night I had gotten set apart he had stopped me and said' "if anyone tries to fight you about the church, bear your testimony and leave it at that." So I basically bit my tongue, we bore our testimonies, and we left at that.

I'm grateful for inspired church leaders, apostles and a modern day prophet. I know the same church Jesus Christ once established has been restored on the earth.

Love you all and hope you had a great Halloween cause we sure did here!

Xoxox 

Hermana Cragun