Elder Taylor Moulton: Week 37: Chastity belt, Royal Friends, Arabic, and Cucarachas in the Bread!

Hola familia!

Well I felt like we just talked haha, but it's been a pretty great and
interesting week in Manresa! We gave out five baptismal fechas, 4 are
still good because one didn't show up to church :(. But besides that,
we had some amazing lessons, found some news in miraculous ways(like
helping a gypsie family take down a fridge from the piso that they
found abandoned). Sadly, Javier, the man who we planned to baptize
this week revealed to us in the most untimely of manner, even after
the law of chastity lesson, that he is gay. Like gay. So sadly he can't
get baptized this week, but we still plan on visiting him to help him
progress to it!

This week was amazing also for the fact that while we did lose the
baptismal date of one of our investigators, we invited four more in
his place. The most miraculous of these is Ginny, a 20 something year
old lady from the Dominican Republic, who we contacted in the street a
few weeks ago and had written her number as a future. A week ago, we
found the number again and called, and she was ready to meet with us!
When we taught her, we found out that she had had a fairly prophetic
dream that she should leave the Catholic Church where she was, and
find the true church of God. She had tried out the evangelicals, but
wasn't feeling the spirit there, but soon after leaving there, she
found us in the street! Through several lessons and a branch activity,
she's grown to love church and the teachings, and she accepted a
baptismal fecha more easily than any investigator I've seen before,
because there's no doubt in our mind that she was prepared for us
meeting with her(she reads and prays daily!). I'm so grateful to be
part of the miracle of this daughter of God finding the church, and us
being able to help her on the path to baptism this month!

Speaking of chastity, we were teaching this lady named Mar(soon to be
baptized too!) the law of chastity, and began with the question of
what do you think of when you hear chastity? Well, she went straight to
a chastity belt from back in the day, leaving us dying with laughter
as we tried to explain what the law of chastity really is(it's not a
belt haha). She's amazing though, super goofy, love able, and
faithful, now it’s all about getting her to read! And she's Spaniard,
so yes!

Funny story this week about food. I was on an intercambio with Elder
Miller in Terrassa on Tuesday, having a good old time, until we
miraculously found this old investigator of theirs. Manuel, I think
that was his named invited us in, and in the usual Ecuadorian way he
stuffed our hands full of juices boxes, soup, cheese and a huge bag of
bread while we were sitting on the couch. We each picked a piece of
bread, and were eating it with some cheese when Elder Miller, with a
look of pure horror I've never seen on him before, pointed to the
paper bag, and the cockroaches coming out.... Flip! On the verge of
getting sick, we starting laughing and quickly put the bag to the
side. Thinking our problems would be over, we started eating some pork
and vegetable soup he made, and it wasn't long before I noticed the
meat was a bit chewy. We finished it fast to be able to make it to the
next visit, but not before he kept handing us more of that bread from
the bag! We made sure to tear the bread loaves first before eating it
now, but dang that was one of the craziest eating visits I've had in a
long time, and Elder Miller and I laughed so hard afterwards about
it, until it came back to haunt me later that night... Enough said
there but an interesting intercambio in the cities of Terrassa and
Rubi!

I also learned some Arabic during that intercambio! I practiced on an
investigator we have named Ahmed, but he just gave me this confused
and shocked expression after a few shots, so I'll have to practice
more later haha. Elder Woodmansee did have this fun contact though
with this morracan man named Fisle, who yelled at us in English down
this steep hill in town! We talked to him for a few minutes with him
and his drunk buddies at the bar, and found out that he's royal(sorta,
his name is), but hey now we can say we've met a famous Arab man named
Fisle!

Envy. It isn't good, and sadly I'll admit, I've been no stranger to it
during my life and mission. So have a lot of people though, since it's
something that most people don't realize that they have until way into
the future. It's the act of comparing yourself against other people,
and desiring what they have and you don't. When I came to the
realization of what envy is, I immediately began to look back at
myself on how I could change, and in the process found the talk by
Jeffery R. Holland titled "The Other Prodigal" from the April 2002
general conference. The message is simple, stop comparing and start
being who you are! The blessings and personality that God has blessed
you with will not and are not the same as the next person, therefore
there's no point in negatively comparing yourself to others, it will
only bring you more sadness and less self esteem. "I testify that no
one of us is less treasured or cherished of God then another!" I
invite all of you to take a look at yourself, who you are, what skills
you've been blessed with, and live life free of comparison and envy!
That is the way Christ lived, and the key to a happy and less
stressful life!

Overall a great week, and made better by an amazing FaceTime to the
family, especially mom! Happy late Mother's Day!

Sincerely,

Elder Taylor Moulton