Elder Taylor Moulton: Week 34: Greasy Chicken, Preaching in the Square, 'He's Seen Dead People', and a Castle on a Cloud

Hola mi impresionante Familia!

This was a strange week as the subject line shows. Add to that finding
out that Elder Woodmansee's anemic, and yep this week was one for the
books. But the big plus was that Ninfa brought her 12 year old German
speaking daughter Victoria to church, and she's reading the Book of
Mormon! That family's going down as soon as Ninfa puts away the idea
that prophets are unnecessary for our day... Kinda key haha! But we
also lost another fecha, Patrick, who disappeared after us giving it
to him, the third in the line of the 'fecha curse of Manresa', because
they all disappear haha it's so nuts, Satan’s a real party some days.
But we do have Javier now on one, a little goofy Spanish man with a
high voice and weed blankets, he's great!

We had probably one of the most miraculous lessons this week on a park
bench in Plaza San Domingo, right in the middle of town with a Spanish
man named Miguel Angel. We had written down his number a few weeks
ago, and messed up one digit, so we thought we had just been given
another fake number. But then, last week, we found him again on this
completely random side street with his sister, got his real number,
and had a cita with him on Friday. When we got to the bench to teach
him, we found his mother there also named Montse, who was excited to
hear about the church also. As we began talking, Miguel angels wife
and baby daughter came up and sat down also, along with his father,
Miguel. Then followed some brothers before we were teaching 7 the
restoration on a park bench on a fairly busy day in Manresa. While it
was a bit terrifying having a bunch of people stop and listen from
behind the family too, we taught the whole first lesson, and now we're
going to meet with them all again tomorrow, since Miguel Angel was
doing a 50 km walk event yesterday. And the crazy thing about this is
that Montse was friends with Toni Garcia, the member we were with,
since they actually are neighbors! All this because we found this man
on a random street at mediodia to help correct the incorrect phone
number we had, that we almost got crossed out! God has a way of
correcting our mistakes and making it up in the end!

Another fun lesson, we found Angelo our New York/Greece/Venezuelan
investigator who's had a crazy past, with I kid you not, real
experiences of seeing stuff from the other side(and not the good
kind). It was pretty spiritually intense though, because after telling
these stories to us, and us leaving him with a prayer, he suddenly
wasn't so against the idea of there being a god! Heck yea the spirit’s
real! Now we just need to make sure he doesn't beat anyone up on the
street, he's a bit on the rough side. But he speaks English and has a
cat named 'awesome cat', so he's a keeper!

Last night the Garcia family fed us some deliciously greasy Spanish
chicken called Pollo a'laste, which is code for cold, delicious, and
slippery chicken that has yet to have cause problems in our bodies, so
it obviously wasn't tainted! But it was super delicious, and they're
our go to source for members that will help us, so we've made sure to
get to know them!

Also today we spent the day visiting this castle called Castellet
south of Manresa, up on this super high mountain! We brought food so
we sat and ate way up above the valley. Not a bad way to relax after
another not so boring week!

I studied humility this week, because, well, we could all use a bit
more humility in our lives. While there are the famous scriptures such
as Ether 12:27 or the one in the New Testament about the camel and the
needle, the one that I found that impressed me was in Doctrine and
Covenants 64:34- which says that the "willing and obedient shall eat
of the good in the land of Zion" as in those who are humble and are
good followers will receive the blessings of the church and the Lord.
What impresses me the most about the scripture was the fact that it
didn't say that only the best and the cleanest and the strongest of us
would receive the good in Zion. No, instead only the willing and
obedient will be able to reach this place of blessing. I've applied
this by listening more closely to my leaders, District, Zone or
Mission President, and acting straightaway on these, rather than being
prideful by doubting them or talking against them. Just as Elder Owens
said in conference a few weeks ago, the best leaders and people in the
world were always the best followers, especially Jesus Christ. So I
challenge all of you to write down what our leaders say, whether it be
your bishop, Sunday's school teacher or yoga instructor, and do it!
The blessings are in good supply for the humble and willing in this
world!

Overall, a fun, emotional, tiring, and busy week, and a sad one since
we had to drop a few of our investigators, but good since we found
ones that are more interested for this week!

Love and miss you all!

Elder Taylor Moulton