Sam in Málaga

 

Wednesday- the morning was just a meeting with our ward mission leader. Then after we did some street contacting and not a lot happened with that. Then we had lunch with our less active YSA friends Guillermo and Fernando. I think it's very hard to be a young single adult here in Spain, there's just really not many people here and going to church I imagine is a little hard when you're almost the only people your age group out with a bunch of older people. I don't know, they're definitely not less active because they don't have testimonies, they have very very strong testimonies. Both were kind of recently baptized in the church and were't supported by their families, but still had faith enough to continue. Then the rest of the night was doing some street contacting. Our zone leaders want us to try and do a lot of that.  Then we taught english classes and that was way fun as usual, and that was basically my night.

 Thursday- Oh my goodness, today was just... Wow. All morning was a huge amount of service.  First we helped a less active member move all her stuff from her old house to her new house including a washing machine!!! Then we helped member Antonio move like 45 bags of concrete down from a apartment he recently bought and is fixing up to sell and so me and Elder Stephens were just beat up today! Good thing we've been doing those body beast videos in the morning otherwise we might be a little sore. Release your inner beast!!! After that we met up with our new best friend Jose, from Guatemala.  He is working for a cruise ship and the ship is stationed here for a month.  He just walked in to the church last Sunday and was so happy to find a church.  He speaks english perfectly as well.  He was baptized at age 17 and served a mission in Peru and was a Zone Leader half his mission.  We went and taught a lesson with him to a less active and after, the moment of truth came.  We have an investigator who all his family is LDS.  His step son is serving a mission in London right now and He wants to wait for his step son to return to get baptized which is in a year.  So we had an idea to teach him about going to the temple.  We said he could be baptized now and go through the temple with his step son when he returns.  It was a great lesson, we taught well, we had awesome Jose with us bare amazing testimonies about the gospel and... our investigator just downright said no without even thinking.  We were super bummed about that.  We had prayed so hard for that lesson and really felt good about it.  But everyone has their own time.  

Friday- So the morning was our weekly planning since we were serving yesterday.  After that we went to Juani's (because we changed that as well) and I think that was the most full I've ever been so far and that's saying a lot.  Then we went and visited a less active who always promises us he'll go to church on Sunday but never shows and always has an excuse.  But he's very old and ill so we're not that surprised.  Then we went to the church to see if we could find Antonio at institute but he wasn't there.  Ever since he left for a weekend, we haven't seen him, so we have to push his baptismal date back another week.  We found out his phone is broken so we literally have no way of getting hold of him.  It's kind of frustrating.  But oh well.  Then we found out it was our Guatemalan friend Jose's birthday so we brought him to eat some Kebab which is this Moroccan food that we always eat and he's never eaten before.  Jose is the coolest, he's probably one of the best members on the earth.  Only member in his family (they all think the church is crazy) served a mission a year after his baptism, was his ward mission leader once he returned, but now he's just been working and going to church when he can.  He speaks Spanish perfectly and he says that he can't understand people here!! Hopefully that puts in perspective how awful the accent is when trying to understand in Cadiz.  There are also some very different words here or words with different meanings for Spanish.  One word could mean something completely normal here and be a swear word in South and Central America (there really are quite a few words like that here, so I've got to be careful not to use those when I get home.) 

Saturday- Today was sweet!!! So we were invited by the Margari and Enrique in our ward to go to their Campo in Puerto Real.  So first of all, a campo is basically people's cabins out here.  People have huge fields out in the Pueblos of Cadiz where they have all sorts of crops (lots and lots of olives) and houses and animals.  It's way cool and it seems like everyone has campos somewhere.  So Margari and Enrique own lots of property that they rent out to college people so they invited two of the girls that live in there to come as well so we could teach them about the gospel.  One is from Morocco and the other from Northern France.  Both of the speak Arabic (because the one from france's dad is Moroccan) and english and Spanish and French so it was a day of communicating in so many languages! We taught them all about the restored gospel and stuff and they both seem interested. We have a lot of hope for the one from France because she's never heard of Mormons before and thinks all of it is so interesting (we just need to get a Book of Mormon in French) but the one from Morocco would be more complicated... Fist of all, her family would completely disown her if they found out she converted to a Christian church.  Second, there's just a lot of complications with converting a Muslim because it can be a risk to their safety so there's just a lot more to go through with and stuff. So yea... Also, I got to drink milk they came directly from a cow.  I saw them milk it, do whatever they do to prepare it, and then drank a glass of it.  It was pretty good.  Then we got back and visited one of our less active members who is doing so great in coming back, he just has depression issues and that can be difficult.  So yea, it was an exciting day.  

Sunday- so today was the regular day at church. But something way cool happened. The first ever convert in all of Cadiz was at church today. He's inactive now, but he came today. He told us the story about when the elders first found his family. They lived in rota and would bike all the way here to Cadiz to work. His family was amazed by their diligence and honestly didn't even think there was another Christian church in Spain. He was baptized at age 9 in the ocean and they would have church in a little apartment on Calle Sacramento. That is so crazy to me. This church has existed for almost 200 years yet Spain's pioneers are still alive. Spain has had religious freedom for such a short time so the church is so young. And now, he said he was a amazed to see how much it's grown here. Our teacher told him that he was basically the seed that grew into an amazing tree which is the whole Cadiz Stake and I think it opened his eyes again.  It was pretty cool thing. Also our investigator Antonio was there. His phone has been broken so we couldn't call him but all is well. His baptismal date is now the fifth of December so we could align It with the hermana's baptism as well and he's just awesome. He's read all of 1 and 2 nephi and when we taught him the word of wisdom, he thought it was great. He said he would have no problem living it. It's all been just too easy... Then the rest of the day wasn't anything too special. Mostly just waiting while elder Stephens did district leader stuff. 

Wednesday- The day of transfers.  Our morning was basically helping others out with transfers and stuff so nothing too special happened.  It will different without hermana Nelson here in Cadiz but i know that it'll all be okay.  Then for lunch we went over to our friend Luis from English class's for lunch.  He and his wife honestly couldn't be nicer people.  They made us chili and had infinite amounts of cheese and bread and drinks and kept offering us more and were so kind to us.  They even invited us over for Thanksgiving and Christmas! They are such nice people.  Unfortunately, there also could't be a more anti-mormon person, he brought out his Book of Mormon which was marked up everywhere and had tabs and everything, but all it was intended for was stuff that disproved the Book of Mormon. He's so polite though that he didn't share any of it with us, and still listened to our short message, but unfortunately, I don't think Luis and his Wife will be baptized any time soon.  Then our night was going to new less actives we found.  One was a man named Juan who served a mission in Madrid and kind of confused me.  He said he still has a huge testimony of everything in the church and the Book of Mormon, he just doesn't think members are as strong anymore or something? I don't really get it.  Then we had an appointment with Antonio with baptism date, but he kind of fell through on us.  Then that night we helped the new hermana of Cadiz, hermana Anderson move in here.  

Thursday- Today was just the normal weekly planning routine.  We weekly planned all morning and then lunch at Juani's.  It was a really great message at Juani's.  We were talking about the importance of tithing and it was funny, Juani got almost frustrated.  She basically said "I don't like it when members say that can't pay a full tithe because they're worried about being able to support their family.  Name one person that you know that keeps all the commandments and pays a full tithe, and doesn't have food to feed their family.  That person doesn't exist because God will do as Malachi promises in Malachi 3:10 that we will be so blessed, we won't have room to receive it." It changed my entire perspective on tithing.  That 10% isn't anything we earned, it's just a small portion of the 100% God has blessed us with on this earth.  So later we visited a Less active recent convert, and she said she'd come to church this week so I hope that happens.  We went to that lesson with a Young Single Adult of the ward named Fernando, who basically is exactly like my Brother James, but the Spanish Version.  He was awesome and helped us out and also introduced us to another Young Single Adult named Guillermo that's a little less active, and we got him to promise that he would go to institute tomorrow.  Then on our way home, there was an enormous protest about women abuse or something going on outside the main government building in the central of Cadiz so that made it a little difficult to get home, but we eventually did.  

Friday- So this morning, we went to another city or Pueblo that's apart of our area called Puerto Real to have lunch with the second counselor of the stake Antonio.  The family was very nice, and we tried doing some work there as well. Puerto Real is completely different than Cadiz, so it was kind of weird.  Then we returned to Cadiz that evening and met with Javi, our 17 year old investigator.  Man, all these Jovens though, they can difficult.  Unfortunately, I don't think they take us very seriously, and they only care about Futbol and las chicas.  I guess that's what you'd expect from a 17 year old in Spain. But we met his friend Fernando, who is a way awesome guy.  He's also a joven of 15 years, but he's way nice and he seems to be really interested because he says his family is non practicing catholics (which is just about all of Spain it seems) but that he really has faith in Christ.  And we explained some of the Book of Mormon to him, and he seemed to think that it would make sense that God would not only speak to people in Israel but in other parts of the world, so he wants to learn more.  Hopefully we can get him to church (and maybe Javi if he would agree to wake up earlier than noon, man kids these days). Then we met Antonio and brought him to our stake Institute class taught by our stake president, conveniently in Cadiz, and he seemed to like it and enjoyed talking with people.   We just need to meet with him more so he can receive all the lessons and start making changes in his life.  The worst part was he called on me to answer a Question in institute!! I didn't give the most amazing answer, mostly because of the fear of messing up my Spanish in front of all the cool institute people, so it was way short.  But yea, so that happened.  

Saturday- unfortunately we had no Futbol in the morning, so we just did lots of street contacting. We met many people, most of which were not very interested. Then later that day we just did a ton of door knocking. We knocked on the doors of an entire building near our church and figured by the end of the night, we knocked probably around 70 doors in total! We did get about 8 people who were interested by the end of the day so that was cool! I will say, that was an exhausting night. Then on the way home, we ran into our favorite hooligans from my 2nd or so week here. They were super nice again and wanted us to come by another time to their little hangout place and talk. It's so interesting how the people you expect to me mean or robbing you end up being some of the nicest people to you. A mission can truly change your perspective on who people really are. How people treat others becomes much more important to you than how they look or anything like that. You start to remember that God "looketh upon the heart, and not the outward appearance" 

Sunday-  so today was just normal church as usual. Unfortunately, Antonio was in Jarez this weekend so he couldn't come which was sad. But we did have a less active we we've started visiting show up. He's way awesome, he served a mission, but he just sort of fell away from church after. Always said he had a way strong testimony though. Then after church, we ate at Milagros and Guillermo's house and they were super spiritually amazing as usual! Then we were asked by another less active in the ward to come to her new house and give it a blessing, so we went with Juan ferrezuelo and did that. Then we just went to see if we could pass by our Dominican investigator who we found out returned on Monday but she wasn't in her house. Then we went to follow up on some people we talked to yesterday but nobody was home which was strange for a Sunday night. 

Monday- So it rained like crazy today so we were stuck in doors.  Our district came and hung out with us at our ward.  We have an awesome Fooseball table in our ward in the basement, so I played that with everyone and beat just about everyone, almost complete blow outs every time.  Yea, I'm a little prideful about my fooseball skills, that's something I need to improve on.  Not being so prideful in Fooseball. Haha just kidding, I probably never will. There's only one person I know right now that can beat me, one of my best friends Elder Durfee in San Antonio. But luckily I'm keeping up practice and i don't think he is so I'll be able to destroy him when we return. Hopefully you're reading this Elder Durfee... I also got my first Spanish hair cut.  There's basically one option you can get as a Spaniard male, and that is really short on the sides, and long on the top.  That's not even what I asked for, that's just what they do no matter what.  But I really like it, although it's a little bit chilly to have now that it's cooling down. After P Day, we met with some less actives and talked about plan of salvation and that went pretty well.   

Tuesday- Our morning wasn't super busy, just some less active visiting and attempts at contacting. But we had a great night. First was going to the house of one of our new investigators. She's very old and I'm not sure if she's all there. She started getting very upset at the fact that the world doesn't give Spain its credit for finding the Americas... I'm not sure if we will continue with her or not. Then we had an amazing lesson with our Investigator Antonio who has a baptismal date. We did it over at Juan and Jessi's house both who are return missionaries so the lesson was absolutely amazing. Antonio really likes the Book of Mormon a lot. I think he's worried a little about his Catholic family and what they'll think but It doesn't seem to bother him much. 

Wednesday- We started out the morning with a less active member, and then we did some door knocking In this way way nice building and had a lot of people say they were busy but we could come back later so we will do that. Then we had lunch with a way way nice family in the ward, the Martinez family. Then that night we did some more contacting, and then we had dinner at the Ferrezuelos house. Just to clarify any confusion, a lot of the  ferrezuelo family is in our ward. Juani is the mother of them all, then Antonio the first counselor is one son and Juan a ward missionary is another son and them and their families are the best people ever. So Tuesday was dinner and a lesson at Juan's house, Wednesday was dinner and a lesson at Antonio's house, Thursday is always lunch at Juani's house. So as you can see, we spend a lot of time at the Ferrezuelos. They have another son Enrique who is way cool, he loves traveling around the world and backpacking through countries and we see him occasionally, and then they have another daughter who actually lives in salt lake! 

Thursday- Today was a pretty good day.  So we get warm water through this big old canister of gas called Botano that is hooked up to basically everything in our house, and we ran out about Sunday, so we've had no hot water for a few days, so it's been "man showers" for me and they've been rough. We would order some every day and the company would say "Oh it'll be there before 11:30" but sometimes the work ethic here isn't absolutely amazing so it hasn't ever come then.  But since we had weekly planning we finally were here when it arrived which was about 1:30 which is definitely not before 11:30 but that's okay! So I'm very grateful to finally have hot water again.  So this afternoon we ate at Juani's and it was very good, but my stomach nearly burst as usual.  Then we had a lesson with some less actives who were very nice. Then we taught another less active who is going to be receiving a calling pretty soon, which is awesome!! but she had some guy there from Puerto Real working on her house and he actually listened to our lesson.  He's not very interested though, he said he's more of just a believer of the things of the "Mundo." Which is sad because the things of the mundo aren't good things.  Then the rest of the day was trying to visit people who said to come back later the past couple weeks, but nobody answered.  

Friday- So we had an awesome zone meeting in the morning.  I was recommended by my district leader to sing in a quartet of four elders because I guess people think I have a good bass singing voice, so I got to sing bass for a musical number of "Brillan Rayos de Clemencia" (Brightly Beams our Fathers Mercy) and it was a very good arrangement.  That was very fun and it was my first ever singing performance in my life.  Then at the end of the zone meeting, we sang, as always, our mission Anthem "O Vos Los Llamados" and my district leader played piano, my zone leader played guitar, and I played my 36 Euro clarinet thing that I bought and we sounded way good, I can't even lie. It was way fun.  So I had lots of musical numbers this zone meeting, I loved it.  Then we met with David, our "Rescued" member which means they were inactive and we were a part of their reactivation process. He's doing so well, and he's our ward assistant clerk and works super hard.  His wife and daughter aren't members and don't really want to learn, so we're trying to help him with that.  He seems to be doing super awesome though.  As they say here a lot in Spain "Poco a Poco." Then we had an appointment with a less active and his non member girlfriend, but they cancelled which was disappointing.  Then we had another appointment with Antonio with a Baptism Date, but he had choir practice that went a little late so we couldn't meet with him because it ended up being too late when he got out of practice.  

Saturday- Today we found out all about the transfers coming up.  My district is being split in half so it's me and elder Stephens, the Hermanas in Cadiz, and the Hermanas in San Fernando so we're the only elders in our District! So elder Stephens is our district leader.  Then we got new APs now i think but I'm not sure and a new zone leader.  Then Hermana Nelson from Cadiz is going to be a sister training leader In seville so she's leaving.  So then we played futbol this morning and it was very fun.  Then we taught a lesson to another less active member and he was a little difficult to deal with but that's okay.  Then as we were walking and trying to contact we came across our friend from english classes Luis and his friend Ricardo.  They asked us to sit down and talk and even bought us some cokes.  We sat and talked with them for a while about church and religion and stuff and they also told us a lot about their lives in the Spanish Military here.  Unfortunately, they aren't interested in the the LDS church though.  But we talked about a lot of things and it was very interesting.  I told them that they are my new Spaniard Grandpas because they are really really nice even though they don't want anything.  Both of them invited us to come by their houses sometime and they'd feed us so that was cool.  Then we met Antonio and brought him to a Young Single Adult activity that was going on tonight and then we had to go because of time, but I bet he's really enjoying it.

Sunday- This morning was Ward conference so I got to meet all the stake presidency.  We have an awesome stake president and everyone gave great talks.  We had two investigators at church which was great and Antonio was one of them.  He really likes everything it has been way easy so far. Too easy... Hopefully he'll be just as receptive to everything as we continue teaching.  Then we had meetings with the ward mission leader and that was good.  And not much really happened the rest of the day.  

This week was great and it's hard to believe I'm already done with one transfer.  It's been a very good and challenging one, being trained and opening a new area but it has definitely been fun.  I absolutely love being on the mission and I wouldn't choose anything else.  There's no better way to learn about life than being thrown in a new country, put with some other random person and told "go preach the good word, and we'll give you the tools to do it." It's absolutely amazing.  

Tuesday- So our morning consisted of having Correlation with our ward Mission Leader. Our hope is to get some of our newly reactivated less actives some callings, so Antonio said he'll talk to the bishop about that.  Then we had an absolutely amazing lunch with Milagros and Guillermo who are absolutely amazing people and their food was just amazing.  They served a mission together in Madrid about 10 years ago.  Our objective when we meet with members is to strengthen their faith, but I'm pretty sure in our lesson with them, they strengthened ours.   She basically told us that she has always been active since her baptism.  She said that when she was 32 and converted, she was converted.  Nothing was going to break her faith.  And it's because she does just all the simple things.  She reads the Book of Mormon daily, and she's always prayed and always attended church, and nothing has shaken her faith.  I think there'e something we all can learn from that.  Then we did some contacting and got some promising new future investigators!!! Wooohoooo!!! Luckily, even though our area is Casco Antiguo, we also have a little bit of Puerto de Tierra which is honestly where it seems most our success happens.  Then we met with a Less Active member and his non member wife, and they were just a little difficult... but God loves them so we love them too.  

Wednesday- So we had district meeting today in the morning.  Unfortunately our district leader, elder Holeman, is still super sick so my companion Elder Stephens lead district meeting today. We each gave talks on one christ like attribute that was meaningful to us.  I chose patience, because it's something I need to work on.  Then we had a lunch appointment with an awesome member and the food was way good and it was paella!! Then we did some contacting but couldn't find anybody who could meet with us, so we did more door knocking.  That was pretty fun.  We got the door slammed on our faces a couple of times, and honestly, I loved it! I felt like a true missionary.  We made a game to see how far we could get with talking before they slammed the door.  I think the shortest we got was "Hola, que tal Ho...." 'SLAM!!' It was funny.  Then we taught english classes and that was way fun as usual. Then our appointment that night fell through so we had to contact some more. And that was basically our night.  

Thursday- Wohoo!! We found out that we actually have a pueblo (village or small city) in our area now. It's called Puerto Real. So during our week we have to figure out what work we'll do over there because there's quite a few less actives and previous investigators who live there. So this morning was Thursday meaning lunch at Juani's!! It was great as usual, but then our lesson after with her ended up being extremely powerful from the stories she shared with us.  This week we focused on the importance of the Book of Mormon and we've heard some amazing stories from people as a result.  It truly is an amazing gift that we have.  Then the rest of the day just fell apart for us.  Everyone called us saying they couldn't meet today so we had nothing the rest of the day, even all our back up plans failed on us.  So we did so much proselyting and knocking doors.  And we received nothing from it as well!! I know I may sound frustrated, but truthfully I'm not.  It was honestly a super fun day.  I learn so much from trying to talk to people and Elder Stephens lets me take the lead on a lot and it's honestly fun.  And we always get at least one funny story from it.  And I was proud of us, because we kept knocking and kept knocking until the very last minute of the night.  We never gave up!!! Just like Aaron in the Book of Mormon.  We hear lots about Ammon and his work with King Lamoni and his Father, but all we really hear about Aaron is that he didn't have much success and was bound in prison and beaten. So i'm pretty sure it could've been worse for us! :) 

Friday- So this morning wasn't much.  We tried doing some contacting and we found some new futures that said we could meet with them later that evening.  Then something funny happened.  We were outside a less actives house and we knocked, but no one answered so we tried calling him.  And so we called him, and we could hear the phone ring in the house, and then he picked it up!!! So we could hear him through the phone and through the door, and he outrightly told us that he wasn't in his house at that time and couldn't meet with us!!! Haha, we just laughed about it and went and did something else.  Then we had lunch with our member friends Juan and Jessi, and that was great as usual.  And it was awesome, they invited us to go to Morocco with them this Monday for our P day! We basically knew that we wouldn't be able to, but they insisted that we call our mission president anyway, so we did and we got the answer we expected. President Andersen told us "You know elders, I'm going to probably have to say no on that one." :( But that's okay. :) And then later that day we met the people that we talked to earlier and basically their entire apartment.  It was super fun.  They were way nice and thought my Spanish was miraculous for only being in Spain for 2 months.  So that made me feel good! :) And we taught a lesson to them about the Restoration of the Church.  It's hard to tell if they're really interested yet, we'll what happens.  But man, the Word of Wisdom is a problem here in Spain... And then we met with a less active and that went well. We talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and it was a great lesson.  

Saturday- As usual, we played futbol this Saturday.  And great things happened! First and leas important, I scored the game winning point!! It was so funny, I scored it and my entire team came and lifted me up in the air and began throwing me in the air yelling something I didn't understand! It was so funny and I was so confused because I had no idea that it was the game winning point... But it was great! Second, we met a lot more new people in this game today that are friends with Javi, so we'll see if we can meet with them too.  Last, one of the guys named Antonio said he would come to church with us tomorrow! We even called him and he seemed excited and was asking what he should where and where and when we would meet so we could go together.  So that's awesome.  Then we went and celebrated halloween during Medio Dia.  We went to burger king and bought some pumpkins and carved them.  And that's about it.  Halloween isn't super popular here.  The catholic archbishop of Cadiz came out a while ago and said that Halloween is bad so it's not really big here.  Even some of the LDS members aren't a fan of it... Then we met with some more people later that day and less actives and stuff.  Then we had an appointment with the Cowen family and they are so so awesome.  They gave us lots of candy as well for halloween and that was super nice of them.  

Sunday- Most amazing day of my mission so far!!! First, our friend Antonio attended church with us!!! And he had lots of questions and really enjoyed it, so much, that he wanted to meet with us tonight and talk about it.  So we invited the best ward missionary in the world, Jose who really helped a lot in the lesson.  And at the end I invited Antonio to be baptized and he said Yes!!! We set a date for November 28th.  I can't even begin to express my joy for this moment.  I am so thankful for God providing this miracle for us.  Me and Elder Stephens have prayed and fasted that we could find someone that would accept the gospel.  And who would've known that it came from playing Futbol Saturday mornings with a bunch of people.  It's funny, that's where a lot of our investigators are coming from.  We also that day had a great lesson with a less active member in the ward.  He suffers from depression that is on and off and he said he had a really bad week this week.  We taught him about faith because he feels like he has very little of it anymore.  That pained me so much to hear that.  So we really are going to try and help him regain that faith and hope in the gospel.  

This week turned out to be absolutely amazing.  I'm so excited that the lord has provided me and Elder Stephens the opportunity to have a date for a baptism.  It just goes to show, if you ask the lord with faith that you will receive what you need, and have patience the lord will provide in his own time. To be honest though, not an ounce of my faith would be tested if I never get a single baptism on my mission. Yea, I'd honestly be a little disappointed.  Not in myself or the Lord, but disappointed that people chose to reject the gospel. You seem to learn in European missions that no matter how good of a teacher you are or how strong you may bring the spirit, everyone has their agency.  So i guess the key is to never be disappointed in yourself.  As long as you try your best and continue in faith, the lord will do what's best for you.  But there are people waiting to know the truth.  We just have to keep looking.  

My Spanish Haircut