Elder Taylor Moulton: Week 33: Snail Trains, Wheat Clog, Finding Teresa, and German Hospitality

Hola family!!

You crazies all off in Las Vegas and Utah for conference! Still
sounded like a fun time! Which hotel were you in? This week was fairly
normal with a bunch of great lessons, and our monthly zone meeting
where Elder McArthur shot us with confetti cannons(they cost like 50
cents here it amazing!). But then it got strange. We ended up getting
on the most empty and slow train I've ever been on to Manresa, I left
my planner on it, and we almost missed a lesson as we arrived 45
minutes late haha it was nuts! We had a great few lessons with Ninfa,
our favorite Colombian German woman who introduced us to her Spanish
"husband"(dang it....), and she gave us a pile of delicious potato
casserole and German chocolate(she made sure it had no gluten in it
for Elder Woodmansee! She's amazing!). And that leads us to the wheat
clog.

We had just taught a lesson to Ingrid, a younger woman who we invited
to be baptized in two weeks, when just as we finished praying, the
very uncomfortable looking Elder Woodmansee ran to the Baño, and well
long story short, that gluten and a virus going around the mission
don't go well together. He was so in pain that he just laid on the chapel
floor while calling Hermana Dayton for some advice(she just
sent us to our piso for the rest of the day, like 7 hours, so we watched
the testaments, and every other video we could find around the place -
staying in during the mission is killer boring!). So because of that,
we missed the Saturday morning session Saturday night, but we were able
to see it the next day. That is after we fixed the wifi that
conveniently died just as we got there to see conference. But thanks
to prayer and the faith of all the priesthood here in Manresa waiting
for the priesthood session, we did it! Take that satan!!

Speaking of he who must not be named, he was working big time against
us as we miraculously found this Antiguo investigator named Teresa,
who hadn't been taught but wanted to learn! We prayed to know which
door she was, since we only knew her building, and miraculously it
turned out to be the very first door we knocked on the floor we chose.
But we were barred from entering due to her absolutely nasty mean
sister and grumpy/super anti-religion father, who only wouldn't let us
in because God hadn’t answered his prayers. Hello, when the only two
missionaries in Manresa miraculously find your door out of 15,000
others, how is that not an answer? We also both had the most powerful
impression to give that woman a blessing, since she was on her death
bed. But anyways he wouldn't budge, even after basically begging him
in our rudimentary Spanish, so we called president about what we
should do since we both felt that impression. After talking to him, we
ended up praying for her to be blessed outside the door, and we had to
leave. Probably one of the most spiritual experiences we've both had
in the mission, and while it was easy to be extremely angry after
that, I know that Teresa will get her chance to hear the gospel
someday, whether from us, or other missionaries or after this life!

Other than that, conference was amazing, we ended up watching 4
sessions on Sunday because we missed the session Saturday, and one
this morning so we are all caught up! Great messages, I especially
loved the one by Dieter F Uchtdorf on Sunday, and the one by Steven W
Owens during the priesthood session. But overall a powerful and
uplifting conference! And Ninfa was impacted by the Sunday morning
session and wants to talk about baptism and temples now - heck yea!
Re-watch those talks!

Love and miss you all!

Elder Taylor Moulton