Transfer week! 2/22

Weekly!!!! So this week was transfers week and guess what happened! I'M STAYING IN BARC with Hermana price! Yeahhh, I'm honestly so excited for this transfer. And this means that I'll be staying here for at least two more transfers, you know why? Because as us missionaries say it, "I'm killing Hermana price" this is her last transfer in the mission so I'll be the one sending her home! I'm very excited, we've seen some great progress in this area together and I know we will continue to see much more growth.
So something that we came up with as a companionship, during our planning last week we got some revelation flowing was "el hábito misional" or it's our plan to get all the members missionary minded. But before I get into explaining it, this Sunday we had a missionary devotional in our ward and President and Hermana Dayton were able to come. We all brainstormed as a district and came up with it last minute, it was a really big success. We printed out mission call letters for all the members and wrote, they were called as missionaries in the mission of Barrio 2 of Barcelona. When all of the members came in we gave them all name tags or chapas and we had a sign up that said "bienvenidos al CCM" or "welcome to the mtc" and we split everyone into groups and taught them all a way that they can share the gospel with their friends. Afterwards, President Dayton spoke and the whole thing was a big success. Now for the hábito misional, we have done some research and decided that it takes 21 days to start a habit, so we looked up 21 Scriptures that talked about missionary work and we are challenging all the members to write down a list of people they know, pray for them daily and read the Scriptures. I’m very excited about it and I know we will see lots of miracles. I love this ward so much. #barrio2
And now for our investigator Ana. Wow, she is absolutely incredible. We had another visit with her on Tuesday and we asked her if she had read the Book of Mormon and she started saying sorry cause she hadn't been able to read that much and then she opened to page 20!!! It's a miracle if we can get most investigators to read the introduction of the Book of Mormon so we were very happy. We taught her the restauración and the spirit was very strong. I'm very excited to continue to see her progression because she has all the desires to really know if this gospel is true.
Well family and friends I am doing really great, I love being a missionary, it is such a blessing to he able to be apart of this great work and see the hand of the Lord in every moment of everyday.
Les quiero, que tengan una buena semana!!
Hermana Bangerter 

Oh sweet Barcelona 1/15

Hey hey hey it has been another amazing week here in Barcelona Spain. Oh I love that name. Haha anyway I have a miracle story for you all. As you know we have been working really hard with the members here, we have also been praying in every single prayer that we can find the people of Spain who are ready to listen to this message. I'm sure you have noticed, most of the people we teach are not from here. Well, we have seen an absolute miracle this week. There is a man in our ward who got baptized over 40 years ago, he was active for a while and then went inactive for 31 years. About a year ago he started to read the Book of Mormon again and he said his testimony has just grown from there, he has been coming back to church for about a month now. We were able to meet him through our English classes that we have every week and he is a very intelligent man who knows anything and everything about the gospel. Well, this week he sent us a text and said he would love it if we met with his 84 year old mother and start teaching her about the gospel. They have been talking about the church for about a year now and he said he felt she was ready to meet us. Well, we met with her on Tuesday and it was incredible, her son was there with us bearing his powerful testimony the whole time, and this woman, Anna has all the desires to really know if this is the true church of Jesus Christ. It was such a miracle and I am so excited to continue to teach her this gospel!

This week we had our district meeting on a Monday (it gets changed every week with being in the district with the office elders) anyways, it was such a spiritually uplifting meeting and I know it was all inspired. The two topics were first, grace, and the second joyful diligence. It went along so well, because as missionaries or even just as people we tend to beat ourselves up for the things we lack and we tend to focus on what we haven't done or all the negatives of life. But that is not what grace is about, God does not ask us more than we can do, it's grace that saves us from our own persistent self criticism. As we strive to be diligent in all things, we can have joy in doing so if we continue to have faith to know that His grace is sufficient. I just want to end with a scripture that really stood out to me this week, it's:

 
D&C 123:17 Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed.
As we strive to cheerfully do all things that lie in OUR power may we have faith that His grace is sufficient.

I love you all and I hope you have a great week!!!
Hermana Bangerter 

The bunkers is one of Katies favorite things to do in Barcelona 

Power of fasting 2/7

Well another week has come and gone. It has been so full of miracles and there are a few stories that come to mind that I would love to share with you! So first off, I want to testify of the power of fasting. My companion and I have been struggling to know what to do with an investigator who has desires to be baptized but works every Sunday and is unable to attend church. We decided we need to fast about him and as soon as we finished our fast, we were at a member’s house and our investigator came up and the member said exactly what we needed to hear to be able to help our investigator in that moment. It was also a testimony to me that we cannot do this work alone, we need the help of the members. I have seen this a lot in this transfer, there are many many miracles when members and missionaries work together.

My second miracle story. About a week ago my companion and I were walking down the street when I suddenly felt like a was being pushed, I looked back to see who was pushing me and there was no one behind me. I quickened my pace for quite a while just feeling like someone was pushing me along. After the feeling went away I turned to my companion and told her what I had just felt had happened, feeling a little confused. As we crossed the street talking about what had just happened, I suddenly saw an investigator, Gustavo, from my last area. In Sabadell he had very suddenly moved one day and we weren't able to get in contact with him and there he was in my new area. It was such a miracle. It was a testimony to me that there are angels surrounding us and guiding us in this work. God's hand is in every little detail of this great work.

On Monday we had our zone conference and it was absolutely incredible. Hermana Dayton talked about how we can live a positive and successful life and she talked about how the way we think about ourselves and our situations has a much larger impact than we think. We must think about ourselves in positive ways and with confidence that we will have a bright future. It was crazy cause I had actually been thinking about that a lot this week, about Courtney's little science project in 5th grade and all of dad's great lectures about using “I am” and “I will” statements. I have been trying to focus on these things this week and Hermana Dayton just said exactly what I needed to hear. True inspiration. It's very true, there are power in our words and the way we think, it tests our faith a lot of the time. We must stay strong to the goals we set and speak and think positively because it has so much power.

Well today we went to tibidabo as a district and it was soooo pretty. I'll send pics! I love you all!