More questions:
From dad:
Are you walking as much as
you did in Castellon?: Not as much, but we have a TON of hills. It gives my calves a good workout every day,
especially when we are running home and it´s 9:55pm and we have to be home by
10pm. Exact obedience stuff, no biggy.
Is the bus service more
reliable there in your area?: Yes, and
it uses the same card we use for the metros, but we don´t use it that often
because we walk mostly unless we are late.
How far are you from the
mission home?: We were just at the
mission home and picked up some letters this morning because Elder Streiff had
to go a doctor’s appointment and picked up my letters! one from mom, erica, and one of my
companions. It´s small, only town small
floors of an apartment building, but in the richest area of Barcelona. A rumor has it that our mission home costs
more to keep it clean plus own it than it took to build the Madrid
temple....weird huh. No but it´s like 40
minutes by metro, so not too bad.
How are your investigators
progressing?: We have these two domincan
Republic investigators who accepted a baptismal fecha and the wife is really
good and reads and the husband is normally gone. The only problem is that they are not
married, I think, but it´s weird because they have 6 kids. The family a proclamation to the world..... We had this other couple who is from
Peru. The husband is a less-active but
coming back, and the wife´s a catholic but has a strong interest in the
church. She reads and prays. We have been teaching them, but had to pass
them off to the Hermanas because they live in their area, but again not married
(the family a proclamation to the world......really.....just get married!!!) We have another good part-member family. A less-active father but not coming back as
much as the other guy (he´s from ecuador) and the wife is an investigator who
wants to get baptized (she´s from the dominican republic) but AGAIN NOT MARRIED
(THE FAMILY A PROCLAMATION TO THE WORLD!!!!!!!!!!). But other than that we have just some flaky
people who just don´t do a whole lot other than listen to us, but don´t act
upon anything we teach.
Does Spain have a change
of time in the spring as we do here?:
Yes, we are an hour back but will change in the spring for daylight
savings. It´s very sunny in the
morning, its´s good for basketball and
running!
mom´s question:
I have a question this
week: Do you ever do FHE with
investigators?: All the time. the members want us to have FHE with them, but
it´s a little hard to arrange them but yes we have them a lot. They are a lot of fun. If you have some ideas that will help, please
send some. Some of the members here have
a notebook that they write down all of their FHEs since the dawn of time. It´s a great idea because they really make
FHE an importance in their lives because it’s a way we show the Lord our love
and obedience to his commandments to have a wholesome time to share love and
the gospel within our own home. Have FHE
with another family in the ward if you can´t by yourselves.
Well those are the
questions for this week.
We had a really good week
this week. We had 27 lessons. 20 or more are really good. We find a lot of new investigators here. Elder Streiff and I have come to a conclusion
that new investigators are the fuel in the mission. They go through the teaching machine and turn
into progressing investigators or get spit out as interigators and go into the
area book for other missionaries to teach, but we have quite a few good
investigators right now.
We got 2 new Hermanas that
are white washing (I believe it´s called "pink washing" if you’re a
sister.) because of the mini transfer
because of last transfer because of tension in the last pair of sisters. But these hermanas are the best. The senor is 1 transfer behind me, training,
a sister trainer leader, pink washing, and doesn´t speak perfectly. Many people don´t have faith in them because
of the area they are in. They say that
their area hasn´t seen really any growth since the ward split last summer, but
I know that they are going to beat the odds.
Last Preparation day we
went hiking in the mountains. It was nice
to wear shorts. Today we went to
hospital because Elder Streiff has some really bad acne problems. The medicine is destroying his face, but he has
a good attitude with it. We get the same
question every week. "what happened
to your face?" or for me "why didn´t your dad teach you
spanish?" questions that are so annoying,
but whatever.
This week we have our
mission conference with a member of the European mission presidency. I´m so excited to listen to a great talk!
Well family, I have to get
off soon, so I´ll leave you with some thought that have been on my mind. I read a great talk by Elder Oaks this week
in the Liahona called " stand as witnesses of God". It was a really good talk. Sometimes we fall in this trap of trying to
be religious, politically correct and try not to offend anyone, but we need to stand
in the faith of Christ and do what we can to spread the gospel in both our
public and private life. Satan is trying
to hide the presence of the hand of the Lord in our lives by trying to use
politics to hinder our public speech. I
loved this talk.
Also I have to share my
testimony of prayer again. I have talked
a lot of prayer, but It is more than a commandment. It is a spiritually renewing process. When I pray it is a literal communication
with God, the creator of your spirits and our father in heaven. I wish more people know that they can use
this moment. We have both morning and
night to speak with him to receive his guidance and direction that we need to
receive peace and security in a world of changes and demoralizing standards ( I
know because I can´t walk down a street without seeing very inappropriate
clothing and language, and sin looking so appealing like smoking and
drinking.) Prayer is my favorite thing
right behind the Book of Mormon. If you
want to speak to God, pray. If you want
God to speak to you, read the scriptures)
Well family, I love you
all and pray for health and blessings to you all personally in my prayers. I know this gospel is true and the love the
savior has for me "he´s crazy for me" (institute joke).
Les quiero,
Elder
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