I will admit I have had
some lame letters lately and I will try to be better but first I just have to tell that I had a dream this week that Bob the cat got a mission call. I know not
where he was called to serve, but I just remember wanting to pick him
up and congratulate him but he kept running away because he was
embarrassed. Moving on......
Our p days have
been so busy. Especially last transfer, Hermana Lake always had loads of
errands to run so we were always running. Today, Hermana Anderson
(mission presidents wife) sat us down and told us that we all need to
spend our whole p day cleaning our apartments (which I agree with her
because I just got to this new one and it is sooo nasty) so I'm kinda
pumped to go ham and clean it all. My poor comp is sick because all of
the traveling we have done this week I'll explain that later so she is
gonna be sleeping and I'm just gonna make this piso shine. I've had some
comps tell me that I'm a clean freak? And i know you and dad would
definitely say otherwise because... you've lived with me, but I don't
know, the mission changes people 🤷♀️
This
last Monday we had zone conference which is a 3 hour trip to Malaga
there and back, so we had to wake up early and make our way down there. I
don't remember if I told this to you or not but Elder Bennesar ( a
French fellow in the quorum of the seventy) and his wife came to speak
to us! So that means the conference was all in English which was super
cool and super weird. I always love when the conferences are in English
because the native missionaries speak in English too (which they never do
even though most of them know English perfectly) and I just love it.
The natives are awesome. But anywho back to the conference, elder
Bennesar is awesome, he is just such and enthusiastic guy and he got up
on a couple of separate occasions and talked to us, but some points I
loved that he talked on were these:
▪ this work is
weird! Being a missionary is not normal business, the work we do is
definitely weird and strange and sometimes uncomfortable, and there is
always going to be a challenge, but the Lord is the master. Master of
timing, and the master of His work. If we put faith in, He will show us
results. I love that he explained missionary work as being strange,
because It is! It's so wonderfully strange!
▪ to
be open and brave with spiritual promptings, when we respond, God will
trust us more and give us more promptings. Í love when my companion will
say something that she feels like she needs to do and almost always I
have had the same prompting in my head. Companionships are so cool like
that, God puts the prompting into both of our heads for a reason, so we
can help each other out. Being open with promptings is so important.
Also
President Andrson talked so so so wonderfully about the spirit also. He
quoted Elder Rasbands ? Talk from April? I think. But he talked about
ALWAYS acting on the first prompting or thought that comes into your
mind. And 9/10 times you will be right, it will have been the spirit
talking to you. And then President talked about that one time out of ten
where we aren't right, and he got a little emotional and it was just so
sweet, I love that man. But he said that once in a while we won't be
right, but God understands and Christ offers mercy for the times we mess
up. He stressed that we cannot shrink in fear with those promptings
that come into our head, but go forward with confidence. Confidence in
God's deliverance and in Christ's mercy. It was beautiful.
Also after the conference, I got a flu shot, so that's big news. Not getting sick this winter ayyeee.
Tuesday
we had a nice lesson with Paco and Beatriz! We taught the Restoration
and everything was going really well, so we invited him to be baptized.
He said he would do that in a couple of weeks so we are gonna be really
working hard on him! They both came to the Saturday session of stake
conference in their Sunday best and Paco told us that he is really
trying to finish the Gospel Principles book so that he can finally start
reading the Book of Mormon hahaha. We are of course all over that idea.
They are really excited to have us come over and eat with them this
week, as are we.
Wednesday,
sooo Preach My Gospel came out with a new chapter 8, which is the
chapter we use to plan. So we got to use the new and improved chapter 8
to weekly plan this week and it was truly exhilarating. My companions
have also told me that when i do Weekly planning it always takes me
forever because I really like to talk about every single investigator
and really find out what they need. But it's good! But with the new way,
it takes so much longer! Haha I love that as missionaries we literally
plan our lives around these people, and they have no idea. Such a
strange work. We went to meet with Edwilder ( the less active who came
from Colombia and is just turning his life around) and his mother and
his nephew Justin. Justin Is 8 and he came out with his book of Mormon
and told us he wanted to read it. So claro we read it with him. Edwilder
mother isn't a member either but she is so sweet and stays for all of
the lessons and always gives us candy, so we will probs commit her to
baptism. But poor little Justin just wants to be baptized [we haven't
even taught him yet) haha but his grandma says he's too young. We are
really going to try to teach the whole family together, but a lot of the
time not everyone is home. Edlwilder said he is preparing to receive
his endowment and him and his brother (also less active] have come to
church every week and we are just so happy for them! They also brought
their 14 year old niece to church who is ready to take the lessons so we
will visit her on Tuesday! We are so so so excited. Milagros.
Thursday
we got back on a bus go Malaga for 3 hours and had intercambios (this
week I learned that they aren't called intercambios in English and they
are in fact called exchanges so that was fun to learn) Malaga is always
fun to go to, there are always missionaries everywhere. I got off the
bus and saw Elder Rigby from my COM district so that was cool. But yeah
intercambios with hermana Solorzano ( Peruvian, lives in Barcelona, is
adorable, speaks the most pure Spanish you will ever hear in your life)
it was fun to go with her and speak Spanish and practice it a little.
And Hermana Pickett ( Californian, super cool) we had a lot of fun with
them and they such good missionaries so we learned a lot too. And then
in the Malaga bus station they have a taco bell (!!!!) Like those don't
really exist in Spain so we definitely feasted there. It had been like 8
months since I've had taco bell. What a happy day. We got on the bus
to go back home on Friday and got back to Almeria at about 5:45. We had a
cita at 6 so we trucked our luggage across town to our cita, taught
Pilar a really awesome lesson about the Sacrament. And committed her to
come to church, she really wants to but she works every Sunday morning.
We asked her to pray to God and read the Book of Mormon everyday with
faith that God would give her a Sunday off of work. She said she would
and we said that we would too. We are expecting miracles. And faith we
do have.
Saturday we contacted some really crazy people. We always attract crazies it seems like but hey, everyone deserves the Gospel.
Sunday
we had to wake up an hour earlier than usual and go and catch a 2 hour
bus ride to Granada! We had Stake Conference. The stake is HUGE so there
were about 20 missionaries there so that was fun. Also before my
mission, people were always sassy to me and when I asked them why, they
were always like I don't know I just feel like youre an easy person to
make fun of. And then they'd usually go on and say how I'm chill and
don't get offended and blah blah blah. Well nothing has changed. I meet
missionaries, and even some members for the first time and they just
always start making fun of me! Hahahaha I don't know why I give off that
impression to people. But oh well its fun. Anyway, the conference was
wonderful. I've had a stake conference every month for the past three
months in 3 different areas. It's been awesome. Some members brought us
food and then we buzzed back to Granada and had a lesson with Ampa. This
lesson was the definition of following the spirit. We went in with a
lesson plan and threw that out the window. He needed to understand that
there was one true church and one true priesthood on this earth. He has
so much faith and he finally understood it! He understands that he needs
to read the Book of Mormon and pray to God to find answers. So that is
what he is gonna do. He also said he'd get baptized 😁.
That's a little bit of what happens with my week. I'll write more later! And send pictures Love you!
These ARE THE BEST THINGS I HAVE EVER EATEN. they're Colombian and they are balls of potato and carne goodness.
this is a weird yummy fruit called persimmon
This be my district
Intercambios with the hermanas
