Elder Taylor Moulton: Week 44: Jack Hammers, Ahi de Pollo, Guadalupe, and Biking with some Swans

Hola family!

Well I'm writing this letter from a laundromat that smells like the
men's changing room at the public pool, not because this is the new
missionary hangout here in Las Arenas, but because our laundry machine
door broke this week and we’re waiting for it to be fixed. Oh also
they're doing construction in the back room with a jackhammer to add
to the experience. Anyways it's been a crazy week of ups and downs
here in the small branch of Las Arenas!

We have some great progressing investigators, including a Guatemalan
trio named Rafeal, Joel and Frederico, who we’ve given the commitment
to read and pray about the Book of Mormon, and will talk to us more
about baptism tomorrow. We also invited a Bilbao man named Ricardo to
be baptized after we taught him the first two lessons on Thursday and
Friday. He even accepted the fechas for the 9th of July, but called us
back later that day with cold feet, saying that he wants to know more
first(you've also got to read and find out for yourself!) . But besides
that, the rest of the weeks been good, we've found some amazing new
investigators, one named Guadalupe from Equatorial Guinea, who's seen
the missionaries from her piso, but hasn't had the chance to talk to
them in her 10 plus years here! We have a lesson with her tonight, she
accepted a Book of Mormon and is going to read Alma 32! Overall some
great people found here in the streets of Las Arenas! Now it's all
about bringing them to the waters of baptism!

For the menu this week, I've tried ahi de pollo from a Peruvian member
named Rosa who's going to leave to her country for three months, so we
visited her with us two and the Rhodes, the married missionaries. It's
super good though, potatoes, rice, ginger, and well you've got
yourself a great south american meal set up! We also had some delicious
roast at Manolo's, the nonmember husband of a lady in the Rama who's
never had a desire to get baptized, but who loves the
missionaries(especially us it seems like), to death! He's had a bad
week though, his dad died and we visited him and his extended family
in the funeral home to share our condolences, he really appreciated
that, especially since half way through his mom had an anxiety attack
and had to be pulled out by the ambulance workers. Not your average
Mormon funeral viewing but we brought some peace to the situation said
one of his cousins.

In life I sometimes wish that I could see my life the way God sees it.
He knows who we'll become, he knows where we came from, it'd be
amazing! Well, since that's not possible in the moment, we can do the
next best thing; to "see the end from the beginning". In the talk with
the same name from April 2006 conference, then Elder Dieter F Uchtdorf
spoke on how we can gain a better perspective on life by living a bit
more in the moment, and realizing the importance of each day! One of
my favorite scriptures of all time is in Doctrine and Covenants
64:33-34(I shared this with a Muslim teenager two days ago too named
Ibrahim) which shortened says "be not weary in well doing...out of
small things proceed that which is great". Why are we sometimes so
focused on getting someplace(like the celestial kingdom, the end of the
mission, or just to the next lesson, or so seminary in one piece) when
we forget to look around and serve/do something for someone else? It's
the little things we decide to do daily, reading the scriptures,
eating healthy foods, that over time can make a huge impact on who we
are and who we become! Seek those things which are above, and focus on
where you are right now rather than the future, and I promise you that
you'll find greater enjoyment in doing the little things in life, and
that as you do so, you'll see the "end from the beginning" and see you
goals and dreams come about!

For preparation day today we rented some bikes and biked around Bilbao
and the beautiful museums and parks! We played Mario kart with a
banana peel(we need to have fun too haha), and yea had a great time as
the six of us(Elders Reddish, Morley, Murley, Simon, me and Espinoza).
Seriously this is one of the most beautiful places in the world, just
look at some of these pics! And even better since we're sharing the
gospel!

I love and miss you all, and am so grateful for all of your letters!
Have an amazing end of summer and Fourth of July!

🇪🇸🌴Elder Taylor Moulton🌲🇪🇸