#that is literally THE furthest away from madrid. sure. why not.

[widevibratobitch]

4 am. been writing and studying maps of spain and 16th century europe and trying to make sense of whatever bullshit schiller came up with and also trying to somehow connect the play canon and opera canon for the last 4 hours. i REFUSE to reread those 3000 stupid nonsensical clumps of letters that are now sitting in my google doc. it makes no sense. i cant read i cant write im gonna go climb a tree and stay there.

#so carlos was supposed to get on a ship in cadiz. schiller could choose literally any other port city in spain and he chose the one #that is literally THE furthest away from madrid. sure. why not. #oh also researching how fast one can ride on a horse is hell. #i might just throw it all away. throw all that useless knowledge into a dumpster and set it on fire #because it is literally of no importance to that fic in the first place #its just background. just exposition. it DOESNT matter. #anyway i have all the dialogue written already. had it for like. half a year already. #but writing around that is the nine circle of hell. #anyway. carlos cries a lot in this one lol #oh also #im getting my don carlo tattoo in two days. or tomorrow actually cuz its already tuesday now #its gonna hurt like a motherfucker. and then the next day im getting my wisdom teeth removed #this week is a festival of pain #anyway i could go to sleep now. BUT. #theres no guarantee that ill wake up early enough and i have to be in wroclaw by 2 pm so i gotta catch the train early enough #so yeah. guess SOMEONE will stay up all night writing fanfiction and feeling like shit and hopefully make it in time for class #in a city 200km away

[snsmissionaries]

3/8/19 -- Sister Nicole Ritman, Spain, Madrid Mission

Creepy Clowns and a Change of Towns 🤡

Subject Line: H Mecca and I have found the clown from "IT" in Spain--we're convinced. I've attached a picture so you can all be freaked out too. The "change of Towns part" is that tomorrow I'm going to Collado Villalba! Probably none of you have heard of that town so to make it sound cooler, I'll just say I'm going to the famous town of Segovia, because my area is right underneath it. It's the furthest north Hermanas can get in misión Madrid (the northern coast is all misión Barcelona) so it'll be quite a change from Málaga! I will be greenie breaking again (first transfer out of training) but unlike H Orjuela they aren't a native Spanish speaker so for the first time my Spanish will be expected to be better. I'm a little concerned but mostly excited 😄

 ¡Hola a Todos! 

 So highlights from last week and this week:

 *Intercambios: Last week I spent the day with Hermana Willden! It was super fun because we taught an object lesson on faith together for their weekly ward activity. Somehow I've gone through half my mission and had never seen the lesson where you burn the tea bag but it's my new favorite thing now. We also went to a panederia, ate coconut rolls and dulce de leche croissants (I've realized I'm going to miss Spanish pastries a lot when I come back. Especially cabello de angel) set goals until the next intercambio. Normally goals just weigh me down but for some reason I love the ones we set intercambios. They literally changed my mission (dare I say my life) last time and I am also super excited for the ones I just set and they have been going pretty well so far! Goals that you actually like, I am learning are the key to live. There is only one thing more satisfying than improving yourself and that's helping someone else to. And that's why the mission is so awesome because you get to do both!

 *The Virginia Reel: I made the mistake of mentioning that I have danced swing dance and square dance and country line dance before because the Relief Society commissioned me to teach them American pioneer dances for their big anniversary of the Relief Society coming up. I won't be here for the big activity but they had me do two practices. They were literally so, so excited (I've never seem them so hype before, not even exaggerating) that I couldn't let them down. The first practice everyone was too busy sewing their pioneer bonnets so we didn't really do anything. The next one we spent almost half the time trying to get the video to work and it didn't. By that time it was the end of the stressful day and I was just feeling annoyed and the last thing I wanted to do was try to translate the dance moves into Spanish and try to direct a group of people, but once we started dancing, it actually was super fun! Not a lot of people were there because they had a temple trip and a youth campout but there was enough to help the people learn at the big activity now that I'm gone. At the end they asked us to give a spiritual thought right that second and I saw the slight panicky look on my comps face because she was trying to think of something that related to the activity. Well suddenly an idea came to my head and I whipped open Doctrina y Convenios and read the verse that mentions my direct ancestor Shadrach Roundy and talked about him and his pioneer spirit of sacrifice (he crossed the plains several times to help families come to the West) and then said that I have pioneer blood in me, but really everyone in the church has a claim to the pioneer legacy and heritage. It was kind of a nice moment for me personally to remember that even when things are going wrong, we can still find joy and fun. And that's exactly what the pioneers did except for on a scale 100000x bigger than just Hermana Ritman in her moment of stress. 

 *Mi amiga: Saying goodbye to my amiga who I got to teach and see baptized was definitely an emotional moment. She made sure to feed me more delicious Dominican food before I left! (a mash and mixutre of meat, bananas/plantains, onions and cheddar) I wrote in her note "I'm not sure what I did in my life to deserve the privilege of being able to be your missionary, but I will always be grateful for that." I'm going to miss her a lot. 

 *Bomb Lessons: Hermana Mecca and I had a specific focus this week on trying to bring a stronger Spirit into the lessons we teach and we were blown away with the blessings. The first memorable lesson was with one of our newer amigos (one of the very very few contacts I've initiated that actually agreed to meet with us jaja). We taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ and by the end, we felt that he understood on a deeper level and that we learned even more about him. The second memorable lesson was right after church. We didn't have time to plan a single idea of what we were going to say (not recommendable--it's just that English class was canceled) so we 100% had to go off of nothing. We ended up teaching only prayer, but literally I have only seen a more significant change from the beginning to the end of a lesson once before. At the beginning he was filled with fear and worries and stress and was feeling down but by the end he was literally so happy and filled with hope. I know this wasn't me or H Mecca, but the kind of change that can only come from the Spririt. He prayed for the first time in his native langue of Quechua and it was just a  beautiful. In both of the lessons, we have never taught more unified, effectively or naturally. Literally it felt so good and satisfying I can't even explain. I'm determined to constantly try to keep it up especially with the change of companionships.

 Overall, I am sad to be leaving Málaga, but at the same time, not sad at all because I feel like I've done my part, have my fondest memories, have grown so much personally and have been able to see the change the gospel brings into others lives more than ever. I am excited for Part III of the adventure! 

 Os quiero, 

Hermana Ritman 

  Creepy Clown

Teaching the Virginia Reel to the women in Relief Society