This week was different! Each day we had appointments that went
through, we've got this part member family on the way to baptism, and
we had eight of our friends in church yesterday! That's crazy for
Spain! We had fun too, we had a sports activity on Saturday, which
Oyer, the 9 year old getting baptized this next week, was able to
go too! He's pretty good at soccer too, which isn't much since I've
really only just learned how to kick a ball straight(yay!). We also
had success with one of our investigators, Tomas, a middle aged
Spanish man who accepted a baptismal date, but can't follow through
with it since he’ll be out of town the next 15 days. But he came to
church yesterday and liked it(he even knew about Thomas S Monson from
the missionaries 2 years ago!). It might be a crazy area, but the
miracles are in the small things!
Like, this one! We had received a reference from the elders in Bilbao
for a couple from Bolivia and Paraguay named Juan Pablo and Marisol
last Sunday, with an appointment set for this last Saturday. We had
found what we thought was their address in the next town over, but the
address didn't exist when we got there, so we called them again to
make sure. After a few spelling changes to the street name(it's Urkijo
not Urqijo!(duh? Don't you know basque haha?)), we found the
house(next door to the Rhodes(the senior missionaries here)), and had
a great lesson with them. Joan Pablo had been meeting with the
missionaries about 6 years ago before he met his wife in Bilbao, but
lost contact with the missionaries after transfers. The most
miraculous part of this was that his wife, Marisol, is actually the
sister of our haircutting investigator Miguel, who's known the
missionaries for several months now! Small world! The Lord prepares
people through so many methods! And they have a three week old preemi
son named Antoni!
Another kink in our plans was that after we lost our phone last week
on the bus, we've had to scrounge for a phone or a way to communicate
with our investigators and leaders! We had borrowed a cell phone from
a member, until he borrowed the phone for a call Saturday night, and
we hadn't seen him since! Our district leader Elder Allen got pretty
excited when we called Sunday night from Arturo's locutorio on the
landline, he hadn't heard from us in like 4 days... So we're in the
process of getting a new one from the office across the country, so
hopefully this week things go back to normal! But the good news is, we
have another reason to talk to people as we ask to borrow cell phones
across town!
Fun story, Elder Ibarra were walking down the hill of Santander after
a district meeting on Tuesday to head to Las Arenas for our
intercambio, when I slipped and fell right on my back on the wet cross
walk! We were laughing at how ridiculous I looked in my wet suit when
I did the same thing again, next to a wall and fell right into it!
Can't a man get down a hill without almost breaking a bone? Haha
lesson learned, wet cross walks are dangerous to one’s health! Also fun
fact, here in Spain the word for crosswalk is actually zebra, which
means the same thing as it looks! I love this culture!
I read this brilliant talk by Thomas S Monson this week called
"Finding Joy in the Journey". Sort of like my thought a few weeks ago
about using time wisely, he focused on us being able to find happiness
in even the most normal of circumstances. He also taught against
something I've been guilty of sometimes, which is focusing more on the
next day, than what's going on in the moment. He quotes the play "The
Music Man" when he says "You pile up enough tomorrow's, you'll find
you've collected a lot of empty yesterday's." Short but powerful isn't
it. Why wait for that "illusive moment when you'll have time for all
that you want to do", when you can do some of those things right now!?
I have less than a year left in the mission(almost a week less than a
year), and this quote really hit me, I've got some things to do! So I
invite all of you, with however many years you may have in your lives,
to find joy in the moment(like singing "this girl’s on fire" as you
take a hot shower), and live! Follow the commandments, pray for
guidance, and use this time to please the Lord! I know that as you do
this, you'll live free of regrets, and be grateful for what you've
done, rather than what you haven't done. (DC 59:21).
Overall, a busy week of tall jokes about Elder Morley from contacting,
getting bananas from old investigators, eating Membrillo(search it,
it's the bomb), and yea, this's fun! I love the work, and though this
may be the hardest part of Spain to teach in, there's still work to be
done!
Love and miss you all!
🇪🇸🌴Elder Taylor Moulton🌲🇪🇸
Preparation day lunch at Pans and Company
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