Hola family
Pretty slow week here in Vic. But the good news is that at least it
wasn't boring. It almost never is in a small town in Spain so that's a
blessing.
We've hit a wall with the family of Geraldo. They still have the goal
to be baptized this week on Saturday, but at the last minute Geraldo
gave into temptation and went back to his old church. Since we've
taught them all the lessons, the daughters literally testified to
him this last lesson that the church is true, and he still went back,
we've enlisted the help of Melvin Marchan for this next lesson to help
him out. They're going to be such strong members, just with the way
he's asks us questions and reads the assigned chapters every lesson
helps me know that all this work will be worth it. Now it's all about
getting him to choose. With Christina and James (from Ghana, accepted
an invitation to be baptized the first time we talked to them) we were
able to teach James more about the Book of Mormon, and invite them to
church, but because of her work schedule it's been difficult to find
the two of them together. The good news is that they've still shown
desire to get baptized!
One of the most miraculous things this week happened when we arrived
at the train station a little early to visit a pueblo. We had just sat
down next to the anden when these two young Honduran women came up
and asked us where the church is. Suprised, since that question alone
is a miracle, we found out that Demarias was a less active recent
convert in Honduras, and had moved to a small town near Vic three
month ago to live with her sister. After exchanging numbers she came
to the Relief Society activity Saturday and church on Sunday, and
we're planning to meet with her and her non-member sister this week!
Saturday morning we went out with Pedro from Ecuador to clean out his
mom's new "storage unit" in the outskirts of Vic. By storage unit in
Spain, that usually means a small room in an old garage or building
with Harry Potter doors that someone built this last century. We got
covered in dust and cobwebs in the process (and rolled old tires down
the street), and then noticed a bunch of people in nice clothing
coming up the street giving us strange looks (I had on my BYU
sweatshirt so maybe that's why). We then noticed that the garage was
directly below a Jehovah's Witness chapel. They were heading out for
Saturday contacting in the streets. What made the situation funny is
that they kept sending people out at random, especially this one older
man to ask us what we were doing (they knew we were the Mormon elders).
By the end they asked us twice if we moved in right above the
chapel (with the nervous look on his face when he asked I was almost
tempted to say yes haha), but when they found out we were just helping
a friend out they relaxed. But hey now I can say we cleaned out the
Jehovah's Witnesses’ basement!
It snowed yesterday morning too! Christmas miracle! First time in the
mission too. Elder Tobias flipped out as we were walking to the
chapel.
Other than that, a normal week of contacting Punjabi people, Morracan
men, Ghanaians, and Spanish people. This last week too I had the
opportunity to make some goals for this year. After looking back at my
almost hilariously big goals from last year, I decided to head in the
opposite direction. For that my goals include drink 2 liters of water
a day, memorize one scripture a week, leave every room cleaner then
you found it, practice good handwriting for 5 minutes a day, and so
on. I've been good this year doing 100 push-ups every morning, with a
goal of 250 by July. They're little things, but it's been way better
to see the change in doing these small little things every day, and
knowing that I'm achieving my goals, and not writing down dreams. It's
like the quote I wrote on my goal book here:
Pretty slow week here in Vic. But the good news is that at least it
wasn't boring. It almost never is in a small town in Spain so that's a
blessing.
We've hit a wall with the family of Geraldo. They still have the goal
to be baptized this week on Saturday, but at the last minute Geraldo
gave into temptation and went back to his old church. Since we've
taught them all the lessons, the daughters literally testified to
him this last lesson that the church is true, and he still went back,
we've enlisted the help of Melvin Marchan for this next lesson to help
him out. They're going to be such strong members, just with the way
he's asks us questions and reads the assigned chapters every lesson
helps me know that all this work will be worth it. Now it's all about
getting him to choose. With Christina and James (from Ghana, accepted
an invitation to be baptized the first time we talked to them) we were
able to teach James more about the Book of Mormon, and invite them to
church, but because of her work schedule it's been difficult to find
the two of them together. The good news is that they've still shown
desire to get baptized!
One of the most miraculous things this week happened when we arrived
at the train station a little early to visit a pueblo. We had just sat
down next to the anden when these two young Honduran women came up
and asked us where the church is. Suprised, since that question alone
is a miracle, we found out that Demarias was a less active recent
convert in Honduras, and had moved to a small town near Vic three
month ago to live with her sister. After exchanging numbers she came
to the Relief Society activity Saturday and church on Sunday, and
we're planning to meet with her and her non-member sister this week!
Saturday morning we went out with Pedro from Ecuador to clean out his
mom's new "storage unit" in the outskirts of Vic. By storage unit in
Spain, that usually means a small room in an old garage or building
with Harry Potter doors that someone built this last century. We got
covered in dust and cobwebs in the process (and rolled old tires down
the street), and then noticed a bunch of people in nice clothing
coming up the street giving us strange looks (I had on my BYU
sweatshirt so maybe that's why). We then noticed that the garage was
directly below a Jehovah's Witness chapel. They were heading out for
Saturday contacting in the streets. What made the situation funny is
that they kept sending people out at random, especially this one older
man to ask us what we were doing (they knew we were the Mormon elders).
By the end they asked us twice if we moved in right above the
chapel (with the nervous look on his face when he asked I was almost
tempted to say yes haha), but when they found out we were just helping
a friend out they relaxed. But hey now I can say we cleaned out the
Jehovah's Witnesses’ basement!
It snowed yesterday morning too! Christmas miracle! First time in the
mission too. Elder Tobias flipped out as we were walking to the
chapel.
Other than that, a normal week of contacting Punjabi people, Morracan
men, Ghanaians, and Spanish people. This last week too I had the
opportunity to make some goals for this year. After looking back at my
almost hilariously big goals from last year, I decided to head in the
opposite direction. For that my goals include drink 2 liters of water
a day, memorize one scripture a week, leave every room cleaner then
you found it, practice good handwriting for 5 minutes a day, and so
on. I've been good this year doing 100 push-ups every morning, with a
goal of 250 by July. They're little things, but it's been way better
to see the change in doing these small little things every day, and
knowing that I'm achieving my goals, and not writing down dreams. It's
like the quote I wrote on my goal book here:
If
you can't read that it says (thank you David A Bednar) "Ordinary people
who consistently do small and simple things that are right before God will
bring forth extraordinary results". Pretty good motto I think.
I
love and miss you all, thanks for all your love and support, and happy MLK day (I
celebrated by eating a sandwich and drinking guava juice with milk).
District Meeting
A few more pics from last week
A new sweater and a haircut!
This is my first time i visit here and I found so many interesting stuff in your blog especially it's discussion, thank you. basement conversions london
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