Hermana Elizabeth Christensen

Skibby sent us the following email on Monday, October 23, 2017, from her new area in the Canary Islands. She also sent some photos, but some of them were from taken in Madrid, just before she left.

Date: October 23, 2017 at 4:34 AM

Subject: I am the newcomer

Hello from Gran Can!!

I'm still in Spain, but it feels like I have traveled miles across ocean or something. This place is not Madrid. But I don't mean to say that it is greener than Madrid. It actually looks like we're in the middle of a desert in Arizona. But I can't see very clearly because there's always red hair clouding up my vision. Every day here is Windsday. It makes it hard to plan the calendar. I'm just kidding, it's beautiful here, a little bit humid, and a lot more windy. I left Madrid right before it started to get cold, and now I'm in perfect weather.

I was really sad to leave some people, but it's ok, because they are doing great. Here is a little update on a few:

1. Carmen is preparing to get her endowments. She'll go in November.

2. Mercedes -- when she came to conference, she heard Elder Nelson's talk about the bom and she kept whispering things to me about it. She reads it a lot. And she finds peace when she reads it.

3. Adrián -- Hna Koeber and Eckel taught him the word of wisdom and he went to church yesterday.

4. Carolina went to church yesterday.

Now, here is what happened after I arrived.

Tuesday night I arrived on the islands. I met Pedro, who was baptized 3 months ago. We talked about family history work. Pedro is really cool. He drives la guagua and loves missionaries. He had always avoided talking to missionaries until one day a little voice in his head told him to stop. So he did and he took a card, later decided that he wanted to learn more Christ, called the missionaries, and has never left since. He is a changed man. He is working because he decided to fast and pray about getting a job. We have a poster board of a picture of Jesus and we use it to go talk to people. So on Saturday, the four of us went and talked to a lot of people.

We went to a pueblo and passed by to see if anyone was home and on the way we saw somebody moving couches. We asked if they needed help and he said, "no no it's fine, but go inside, my wife's in there". So she got us some water and asked us what we were all about. Her name is Maria Jesus and she likes learning about religions. We talked a little bit about our purpose and the book of Mormon. She said she would read it and we might see her this Wednesday. It was a miracle for us because she was so willing to listen and we have never really been invited to anyone's home like that.

I met George and Isaac and Peter. They are from Nigeria and Ghana. George was baptized a little while ago. Isaac and Peter are investigating. Peter officially welcomed me to the island. Peter has really bad cataracts that are making him go blind. So, he's waiting for an eye surgery to be able to see. We took him to the store after talking. He holds onto our backpacks and we guide him.

We were walking around a park on Saturday, looking for some people to talk to. We passed the basketball court and turned the corner to a darker part that had a terrace. There was a circle of jovenes and Hna Wihongi said, "doesn't look like there's anything good happening over here," and a few seconds later we heard "dunn duh duh dunnn" and the circle all dropped down really low and then started moving in synchronization. It took us about 5 seconds to realize they were dancing!!! They were really good too. Apparently Kpop is the best kind of music to have choreography to. We applauded afterwards and then they taught us one of the songs. So we learned to Kpop dance. I also learned that you should never judge a book by its cover.

I got to see the bishop and a lot of members. I'm excited to be here and be able to work with Hna Sam y Wihongi and be in Vecindario. Yay! Sorry for the really long email. Hope you have a great week!