Elder Taylor Moulton: Week 56: "And then he baptized three pueblos", Sprinting in the Rain, and Soul Prayers!

Hola family!

The highlight of the week was a visit from Elder and Hermana Zwick,
who speak fluent Spanish, have been mission president and wife twice,
and who's a member of the 70. He also spent 11 months of his mission
to Argentina opening up three towns, building a chapel with just his
companion and him, and baptizing all three pueblos on the same
day(1500 people or so, no big haha). So sorta a modern day Peter, but
he taught some amazing lessons on teaching, but mainly on focusing on
our personal foundations, and making sure that we are all the way
converted as missionaries the entire mission(best quote "I won't limit
my own capacity, I'll only let the Lord expand it". Boom!). Elder
Perry was a bit disappointed however with the elders that stayed the
night in our piso from Lleida who ate his cookies haha.

It rained here this week. And I mean like full western Washington
windstorm rain, with fallen trees we ran past on our run, getting
soaked during contacts with nice Peruvian people, and using our
umbrellas as a shields in front of us as we sprinted to our piso, barely
making in back in time as Elder Perry's planner goes flying into a
puddle. The plus was we found some buildings to knock, with some very
strange people inside(including a very nice Catholic man who's wife
forced him to close the door...porque?). But we made the best of it,
and thankfully we weren't in the rain too much!

On an intercambio with Elder Jacobson, the other new new elder in our
piso, we were passing by a former investigator in our area when we saw
this extremely old Spanish man named Jesus leave a door across the
plaza. So being nice people we say hello, and him being an oldee
fellow asks us to speak up. Well, he still couldn't hear us so we
ended up having to walk over and speak into his ear about who we were
and about our message. He listened but after loudly proclaiming his
Catholicness, he shuffled away, not before belting out at the top of
his lungs "Nearer my God to thee", in Basque. He was still singing as
we passed by him to leave the plaza, with his voice echoing down the
street! Pretty funny moment after being out in the rain haha! Elder
Jacobson later cut off a super loud Jehovah's Witness woman too so it
made for a pretty good day!

Those two Paraguayans from last week that we found, Melda and Selsa, are
great too! They even invited us to Melda’s birthday party in a
restaurant on Thursday, where we ended up eating fries, Jamon balls and
explaining the fall of Adam and Eve(not what we had planned, but they
and their other friends at the table we pretty open to it too!). Just
goes to show you can talk about the gospel anywhere, even while
drinking Fanta and eating Jamon balls.

Prayer works! As shown through a) finding two news twenty minutes
after praying for someone to teach, b) finding an African man to teach
after a visit firing and us praying to be sent where we're needed, and
c) praying last night for a miracle before heading back to our piso, and
finding Melda with a bag of bread for us and two old woman who want to
learn English, and who have Book of Mormons. The key to it all I found
was praying with a purpose, and acting on even the smallest
promptings, even if it means leaning on a door of a random building to
see if it would open! I'm just grateful for having a new, faith filled
trainee who's excited to work, and is grateful for any opportunity to
teach!

Las arenas is the best, basque people, rain, and all!

I love and miss you all! Thank you for all your many prayers and letters

🇪🇸🌴Elder Taylor Moulton🌲🇪🇸