Elder Taylor Moulton: Week 70: Preachers, Fried Chicken, Recliners, and the Mammans are coming!

Hola family! Merry late Christmas!

Well, a lot happened this week. The week went super well for it being
the week before Christmas! We ended up inviting 6 people to be
baptized this week, four of which accepted and now we are helping the
family of Geraldo to be baptized the 14th of January. The only thing
they need help with at this point is leaving their last church
behind (since he was the pastor there) so for that he's going to have
to take a leap of faith, and we're going to pray for a way that this
can all come about smoothly. Besides that we had two miracles, Evelyn,
the mom of the part member family we found two weeks ago, gave her
first prayer with us (she offered, apparently she hadn't prayed out
loud in years). The other miracle is Judith, a less active who's
coming to the noche de hogar (game night) this Friday, and who we found out lives
with 10 members of her family in the house and nearby. She's super
great, she's from Columbia, and we hope to have a lesson with all of
them this weekend.

For some reason we encountered about every preacher in this city this
week. A preacher couple who just wanted to argue (an Ghanaian
couple, party), the pastor of another Christian church, another who
owns the African church under a members house (he investigated the
church years ago and says he stopped because "it says in the
scriptures "you cannot serve god and mammon"", with him thinking that
meant Mormon. I'll give him a bit for that, pretty clever. They were
prowling, and I don't think coincidentally President Dayton talked in
our Christmas conference about how to answer hard doctrinal questions
without bible bashing. Good to know if you ask me!

I also took a five minute break in a recliner while waiting for a
member before Christmas Eve dinner. Shout out to Abel for that, Elder
Bowles and I ate Christmas cookies, and it was perfecto.

For Christmas we spent the noche Buena (Christmas Eve) with the ward
mission leader and his family, Christmas lunch with a Bolivian couple,
and Christmas night with Geraldo, his daughters, a recent convert
family and President Godofredo our branch president and his family.
Also good to know, alcoholic chocolate exists here in Spain. Look at
the bag next time! It was a different experience though to spend the
day contacting the empty streets, passing by members to wish them
Merry Christmas and singing a lot. There's no better way to spend
Christmas then serving. Or translating the talk of a Ghanaian member
for the congregation into Spanish.

To make this last week here with Elder Bowles fun, I checked off
my bucket list the following experience. Picture this. After receiving
two full Nigerian suits, eating freshly fried chicken (it's was soooooo
goood), French fries, juice, listening to the family speak over us in
their tribal language, all while we watched the restoration video
super loud. I love Vic.

My spiritual thought to you this week is this. After all we've done
now to remember the Savior, what will you change this coming year to
become more like him? Will you be more patient? Will you pray twice a
day? Will you serve a meal to a family in need? Will you try to share
pass along cards or Mormon messages with your friends? Will you pray
for ways to become more like the Savior every day? I know that as we
try to become more like him, that 2017 will become an even bigger
blessing for you and your families!

Also my new companions Elder Tobias, from Sao Paolo, Brazil. Doesn't
speak much English. But he's fun and is into working hard.

Love and miss you all!

🇪🇸🌴Elder Taylor Moulton🌲🇪🇸