Elder Taylor Moulton: Week 17: Snakes, Airdropping, and being the Tall Guy

Hola family!!!!

Two weeks until face time what!!!???? I'm pretty pumped for that, and
to celebrate Christmas with some amazing members and people in
Valencia! Plus we have planned to go out as the six missionaries in
our ward, to go caroling in each of our three areas on different days
the next two weeks so that's going to be awesome(we’ll carry a pile of
pass along cards to be ready). Around Valencia , you can tell
Christmas is coming up since there are signs saying Bon Nadal on every
building (Valenciano for Merry Christmas), there are lights on a bunch
of balconies, and cool things is that there are a bunch of nativities
set up along the streets and in the markets, so that's been pretty
cool to see! Also the Corte ingles here is shoving ads down our
throats about Christmas sales in the metro and in the mail, since it
seriously has a monopoly in Spain making that the only department
store allowed in cities. But overall, the Christmas Spirit is here,
and we're here to make it more about Christ!

So you may be wondering why I mention snakes in a city, well let me
tell you. Snakes are the code word for the young, flirtatious, and
quite immodest Spanish women that seem to populate the metros and city
every weekend, and make it super hard to contact because they all, and
I mean pretty much all of them, want to beso us(cheek kissing). So yea
while they are very attentive listeners....., they aren't the most
productive way to spend our time, so most weekends we try to avoid the
snake filled areas of the city.

This week has been a pretty tough week with teaching, since we lost
all the fechas and progressing investigators that we had last week. So
while we were able to teach a few family home evenings and visit some
members, it's been a tough week getting lessons.

We also got a new piso mate this week named Elder Parker, who's from
England so it's been hard to speak with an American accent this week.
But he's super fun to be with, and so far we've been pretty good not
mentioning missionaries as "Americans", even if 90 percent of the
mission is American. Best quote of the week happened as we ate some
insanely hot and unhealthy fufu at an Africans house, and he, not
haven eaten fufu before(why scriptural language!!!??), set his mouth
on fire and had to eat it all to be polite. He ended up walking by us
and saying "you're a bunch of fetchers" in his pretty on point British
accent, we couldn't stop laughing after that haha!

We also found a new way to deliver book of Mormons to the hermanas,
which is to attach one, wrapped in bubble wrap for protection, to a
Mercadona bag and send it as a parachute down to the side walk from
our top floor piso. Not the most dependable way to deliver them, but
it got down to them pretty fast since they were in a hurry.

On Saturday we had sports day at Parque Oeste near our piso, and as
you all may know, I am not the most coordinated of missionaries. But
the good news is that the people there don't know that, so I always
get first picked in basketball! But I found that while I might have
some skills in basketball, I'm still a work in progress with soccer. I
kicked a ball TWICE into the side poles of the goal, from point break
range, and even then couldn't get the ball in haha. But hey I'm hoping
that by the end of the mission I'll be able to at least kick a ball in
a straight line!

It's been rough this week for investigators, but through all the small
little miracles like a less active we have making it to a sacrament
for the first time in years, to getting a call from a lady named Lola
last night setting up a visit with us, even if she was from the Elder
Mcarthur era, I've gained a super strong testimony on the love that
Christ has for everyone, and also the ability we have to see miracles
in everything we do. It took me 19 years to see it, but there's truly
a miracle in our lives every day (try it out, there seriously is).

Love and miss you all!

Elder Taylor Moulton