Hogueras and stuff

Hey everybody!
How are you all doing? Can you believe we are already at the end of June?? Literally, it is incredible how time flies. This week was super crazy, but lots of good things happened so....
Gabriel! Is Español and we contacted him about a month ago on the street, and he was really interested in English classes but isn't religious at all. So he came to English a few times and then stopped coming. So we called him to see how he was and he told us that lots of hard things are happening in his life right now and that he is confused and just needs help. We of course reminded him that we are missionaries and told him that our message can help people in every aspect of life and he said that if our message will help him, he is willing to give it a try and to listen. We were able to meet with him twice last week and give him a Book of Mormon and a chapter to read.It was honestly just incredible to see the change that happened in a month from where he didn't want to know anything to being willing to listen and give it a try. It truly is the Lords hand in His life and it's amazing! We are hoping to keep working with him to build his faith and help him see that God really does love him and is there to help.
Alex! Alex is from the Dominican Republic and is like our age. We talked to him on the street on Wednesday and since then, have taught him 3 times and he came to church! He told us that when he lived in his country, he went to church sometimes but since he's been here in Spain (3yearsish), he hasn't ever gone. But he knows that the word of God is important and he wants to keep learning about it! Woohoo!
We worked really hard this week to find and really needed to people to teach and the Lord definitely blessed us. When we open our mouth and when we follow the Spirit, he is able to put people in our paths and able to guide us to his children that he has prepared to hear the gospel.
Alright, so this last week here in Alicante was the festival of San Juan. And It. Was. Crazy. Basically what happens is in every neighborhood, they build a giant statue/wooden structure thing. And it stays up all week long, they judge them all and then Friday night, they burn every single one of them. So all week long there are streets closed, parties until 4AM, tourists and fairs and beer bottles everywhere and it is una locura! Also, the wooden statues that they make are incredibly detailed and some of them represent history, others comment on politics, etc. and they burn all of them! It's kind of sad because they are so giant and well.... Impressive. But it happens every year here. I'll send pictures for sure. (:
Anyways. Things are a bit more calm here now and back to normal. The reason I'm writing today is because we are headed to Malaga for 3 days for leadership meeting and exchanges with the Hermanas there. So.... I will tell y'all about that next week! I hope y'all have a wonderful week and thank you so much for your prayers and support and love. (:
The church is true and Christ lives and I'm happy to be a missionary!
XOXO, Hermana Hauber 🇪🇸🌴😘

They burned these incredible statues!

Bolivian dance outfits!

Wings

Hola todos!!
It's been kind of a crazy week but all good things! We had intercambios and a baptism in the ward! And some other stuff too. I don't have a ton of time today, but I do just want to share a short scripture that I read in my studies this week that I absolutely LOVE. It's in 3 Nephi 10:4-6 and this is what it says...

4 O ye people of these great cities which have fallen, who are descendants of Jacob, yea, who are of the house of Israel, how oft have I gathered you as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and have nourished you.
5 And again, how oft would I have gathered you as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, yea, O ye people of the house of Israel, who have fallen; yea, O ye people of the house of Israel, ye that dwell at Jerusalem, as ye that have fallen; yea, how oft would I have gathered you as a hen gathereth her chickens, and ye would not.
6 O ye house of Israel whom I have spared, how oft will I gather you as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, if ye will repent and return unto me with full purpose of heart.

Pay attention to the verbs in each of the verses... In verse 4 it says how often he already has gathered us. Then in verse 5, how often he would have gathered is if we would've let him. And then in verse 6, how often he still will gather us if we repent and come to him. Can you see how incredibly loving our Heavenly Father is? He WANTS to help us and gather us and nurture us, and all that he asks is that we return and REPENT with full purpose of heart.
So y'all, please just remember this.  Our Heavenly Father is there for you. He has always been there and always will be there. I promise you that if you seek Him He will take you in under his wings and help you and lift you up.
This is why I am here. To help others know this and learn to feel the love of our Savior and our Father in Heaven. And I love being able to share this message.

Have a wonderful week!
XOXO, Hermana Hauber

Pday soccer⚽️😎

These are all over the city, more to come next week!

Andres! He got baptized this last weekend

Yummy vegetarian food!

intercambios, with brownies!

Miracles!

Hello everybody!
We have had so many amazing things happen this last week! I hope I can transmit to y'all some of what I experienced and felt even though I can only use these words on the page. But here goes!
We started off the week at consejo on Monday and Tuesday in Fuengirola. And to be honest, it was one of the most spiritual meetings I have ever been in. We talked a lot about how every missionary is CALLED to the same thing. We are all called to be representatives of the Lord and we were all set apart and have been given the same power and authority to just BE MISSIONARIES. However, apart from the calling, we are all given different assignments. Some of us are assigned to serve in Utah, others in Germany or Africa or Brasil. Some are assigned as trainers or zone leaders or assistants or senior companions... but that doesn´t in the least bit change the fact that we all still have the same calling. I don´t know if y'all get what I´m saying here, but the point is that nobody is better than anybody else. Also, if y'all want some good reading material, read the conference talk called Truly Good and Without Guile from April 2015 by Michael T. Ringwood. It is fabulous. Okay, I'm stepping off the soap box.

All of the Hermanas ay consejo with Pres. and Hermana Andersen❤️

Something else cool that happened this week was with an investigator named Rita! She was a reference from the elders who had contacted her and we passed by her house several times and she wasn't there until one random time when she just was! (Perseverance folks, it pays off.) She let us in and we taught her about the Book of Mormon and she loved it! I'mma just say what I said last week... This book is true and it is powerful and just read it and you will feel that too! But anyways, we taught her twice last week and then she moved to Tarragona for the summer soo.... hopefully missionaries there will teach her!

Another miracle this week was Nelson! he is someone that we were teaching until about a month ago when he just stopped coming to english class and we didn´t really have contact... but we had a lesson this week! And man oh man is he so prepared. We had an awesome lesson with him about the Doctrine of Christ and the importance of putting God first in our lives. I don´t know how often we will be able to meet with him, but he at least answers our phone calls now so we have contact fairly frequently. (:

One last awesome thing from this week. Sooo... as a district, we set the goal to get 80 futures in one week. That meant at least 16 for each companionship. Sooo.... we were kinda doubting at first because we were out of our area for 2 whole days. But as we went through the week, we made it to Saturday night and had 11 - only 5 short and one more day to work. So Sunday afternoon, we went out and we just talked with everyone! And I promise you, the people we found were miracles. The Lord literally put people in our path. Whether they were walking the dog, listening to music, sitting on the curb, or standing in their doorway, they were just there and they wanted to learn more! Y'all miracles are real. We found the five futures we were lacking and I know it was nothing we did. The Lord put the people there and then gave us the strength and the confidence to open our mouths. It was incredible. So now our work for this week is contacting them again and... teaching them! Updates will come next week. (:

Alright, that´s about it for this week. We are learning and growing and doing all that we can to help this ward here in Alicante. I have reached the realization that I really no longer am in Utah, nor Badajoz because being near the beach means it is humid and my poor little body just doesn't quite know how to handle that. #alwayssweating #ilovehumidity

But I love being a missionary and love sharing this gospel with everyone! I hope you all have a wonderful week!

XOXOXO, Hermana Hauber😘🇪🇸☀️

ice cream for p-day!🍨

Shadowy picture of us and the zone leaders!
One is from my group!

Hermana Whaley and Hermana Asay

Every month after zone meeting, we raid Domino's. They are so patient (:

One of the elders made us cinnamon rolls!

And then my phone rang so we did some teamwork

The Life

Hi y'all!
This week was transfers! Nothing happened with me and my compi - we are both staying together for one more transfer and at the end I will have to send her home.... But we still have 6 weeks until that happens! So.... On to other things. (:
We struggled as far as finding investigators to teach this week, but we did see some miracles as well! A couple weeks ago, we met a couple on the street - he is from the US and she is from Colombia - and we were able to meet with them and share a little bit about the Book of Mormon with them. They are both very religious and very active in their church and also studying and so it was hard to meet with them, but this week we saw them again! We went to their house and they told us that they had started reading the Book of Mormon! And the guy had a list of questions that he had from his reading. We got to talking and ended up having a super awesome discussion. The girl told us that she really just wanted to find truth and that she feels like she has found truth in her church right now, but that it is important to her to know if what we are sharing is the truth also - she is so humble and willing and ready to learn and it is incredible. And her husband.... Well, he has a few more doubts but as we read in the Book of Mormon and the bible together, I just felt this overwhelming sense of peace. I know that the Bible is the word of God and the Book of Mormon is also. And no matter how many little problems one might try to find between the two, that they truly work together and that when we let them, they help us understand the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. So anyways, that was a miracle to be able to teach them again!
Another little miracle we saw was that Saturday, we went to the church during mediodia to start setting up and getting things for the activity ready. And when we got there, some of the less active JAS(YSA) were there because they had been playing soccer. We went and said hi and got to talking and they introduced us to their friend, Fatima, who wasn't a member. So we sat down and had a lesson with her right there! It was awesome to listen to the boys bear their testimonies and want to share the gospel with their friend. Aaaand.... they all came to the activity and to church the next day! It turns out she lives in the elders area, but it's all the same work and I'm super glad we got to even teach her once.
Something else really cool that we had this week was a Día de las Naciones activity! We involved both wards here in Alicante and asked members to bring food from their countries for everyone to try. It was a huge success! We had a lot of people and food from several different countries! And we even had 15 non-members who came! It was a huge success and a great opportunity for the members to meet investigators and also to bring their friends to meet the missionaries.
To finish off the week, Sunday was like a "stake conference" for all of Western Europe! It was a broadcast of leaders from Salt Lake and also leaders here in Europe and I really enjoyed it! Elder D. Todd Christofferson spoke to us and talked about how as members of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and even as human beings in general, more important than what we do is who we are. Just think about that... The point of this life isn't to get rich and famous and travel the world and DO things. It is to learn and progress and develop attributes of our Savior Jesus Christ and live in such a way that we might live with him again someday.
Alright, I'll wrap up. I'm doing well and I hope y'all are too! Have a safe week and remember to do the little important things like read your scriptures and say your prayers and just be good people like y'all are. (:
Lots of love,
Hermana Hauber (:

I love Columbian bakeries

United States! We dress accordingly

Transfer day!

The birthday of Kevin, our converso reciente!

Bolivia! Dia de las Naciones

The cool hats from the Bolivian dancers!

( No Subject )

Hi yáll!
I don´t really have a lot to talk about this week... Sometimes you just have weeks where it feels like all of your investigators fall of the face of the earth and you don´t have contact with anyone and you aren´t able to teach anyone and well... that happened to us this week. But... we made it through. And we finished off the weekend with an awesome zone conference and intercambios and stake conference.
Since the worldwide training in January, our mission has been really focused on Teaching Repentance and Baptizing Converts... so they talked about it again during this conference. I love this new focus because especially here in Spain, and well, I´m sure in any place, we see baptisms, but many quickly become inactive and fall away. Soo... not that we are baptizing people that are already converted to the gospel, but rather people who know that conversion is a lifelong process. and that while baptism is essential for our salvation, so is continuing forward and enduring to the end.
To add onto that, during the stake conference, the stake president really focused on how this gospel is a gospel of action. That when we start of running a race, we continue running and continue working hard to reach the finish line and don´t get distracted or just lay down and take a nap or something. It doesn´t quite work like that.
Intercambios this week were really great, we had them with the Hermanas from Crevillente. One of which was my SHE for a transfer in Sevilla and the other is my "sister" because Hermana Watson trained us both.
One last thing, while we didn´t see many investigators this week, we did have the chance to see one. Nila is from Venezuela and is reading in the Book of Mormon. We took one of our recent converts to the lessons with us and they got to talking about how they feel when they read in the Book of Mormon and Nila described how she feels warm and peaceful and just as if somebody were right there with her during the time that she reads and it was incredible to feel the spirit so strong during that moment.
Even though she isn´t ready to accept baptism or progress in that way, that lesson was a huge testimony to me that the BOOK OF MORMON IS TRUE. Y'all, it is real and it is so true. It changes lives and it brings happiness. I have a firm testimony of this. If you haven´t read it, READ IT. and if you have already read it, DO IT AGAIN. It has changed my life and I know it will change yours.
I love you all!!
Hermana Hauber

Making arepas!

cute pedicures! Our investigator did them

My first Alicante district!

With my CCM teacher last week

Her cute family let us eat with them

Our investigator, Janet before she moved to Cadiz

Lots of goodbye pictures

My sandal broke...

all better #tapefixeseverything

Zone conference!!

Intercambios. Me, Hna. Judy who I LOVE, Hna. Malterre-
my sister in the mission, and my comp!