Monday- This p day wasn't much too special. Just kind of relaxed and emailed and went and looked in some stores and stuff and not too much happened.  In January, there will be enormous sales called Rebajas and I'm waiting to buy some nice Spanish stuff then.  For now, I am waiting.  After P day, our investigator Antonio who was going to be baptized this Saturday called and said he couldn't be baptized this week, didn't give us a reason why, and told us to call him in the morning.  So that was unfortunate.  Especially since tomorrow I will be with my zone leader who is supposed to conduct his interview. Hopefully that will still work out. So we went and taught a less active family and showed them the new LDS Christmas videos and that was great.  We talked about the importance of Christmas. Unfortunately, people here don't really celebrate Christmas as big. It's much more about "Tres Reys" or three kings which is January 6^th so I don't know... But Christmas is very important because of the birth of the Savior Jesus Christ and that's what we try and teach.

 

Tuesday- So today was the day of Splits for me.  But in the morning, me and Elder Stephens taught some people we had met a while ago and it was amazing.  These people are so nice to us, but they have nothing. So we taught them, and eventually the lesson turned into the entire plan of salvation and it was a great lesson.  We hope to meet with them more.  Then the Zone leaders arrived, and I stayed here in Cadiz with our new zone leader Elder Blussell and Elder Stephens went with Elder Alexander to Jerez.  Elder Blussell is absolutely amazing and probably one of the best missionaries I've seen yet. He works incredibly hard and obedience is absolutely priority or him.  I mean, nobody can be 100% obedient but there’s basically Ammon, and then Elder Bussell.  It was stressful honestly, having to lead the entire area. But everything went well, and we had some good lessons.  We visited a less active and she said she didn't really want missionaries visiting her anymore.  So Elder Busell asked if before we left, that we could give her a priesthood blessing.  It was really amazing and we told her that she is always loved by this ward.  And while we were in the streets, Elder Bussell would make us contact everyone, and it was amazing what happened.  We found a lot of new people we could hopefully teach and taught many people in the streets.  Just goes to show you, you need to talk to everyone as a missionary, you never know what will happen. The Lord is always preparing people.

Wednesday- Finished up my splits that morning, I've never studied so hard in my life, I have to admit, this split with Elder Bussell was stressful for me.  I was trying so hard to prove I could handle myself, and maybe I made it more stressful than I needed to. Sometimes you just have to take a deep breath, have faith, and go out and just work and look for unplanned opportunities to talk to people.  And Elder Bussell is a way nice guy and probably one of the most spiritual missionaries I have ever met so many amazing things happened, just with people we talked to in the street.  It was a fun day and we eventually went to teach a less active.  While at the end of the lesson, a huge group of people walked in who I guess were relatives or something and Elder Bussell looked at me and said "Elder, we need to go." I was way confused but I listened to him and we left.  We got out and he told me that they had met those people in Jerez before and that they had threatened them quite a bit if they were to try and talk to them.  I don't know what would've happened, maybe nothing, but I trust that Elder Bussell knew what he was talking about. Then elder Stephens returned and we had a good night of visiting people and trying all the new things we learned on splits!

 

Thursday- so today was way fun. The morning was weekly planning and we finally for the first time in a while had to actually cook ourselves because we didn't have a eating appointment during medio dia! But that was okay. After that, we went and met with our friend Milagros who is this older lady who can't come to church, but we are like the only people who ever visit her. We haven't seen her in a while, so when we walked in, she was almost in tears with how happy she was to see us. She said that she thought we had abandoned her and we weren't coming back. We felt so bad. But we talked about Christmas. Then after her, we visited Fernando who is a YSA and the only member of his family. We
were able to teach his brother a little bit and he said it would be okay if we talked with him more. Then after, we met with Javi. Javi liked church so much that he said he was going to buy a white shirt and tie the next day. That was way cool. So we will teach him more and invite him to be baptized soon. Then after, the missionaries from Algeciras/Gibraltar had to come sleep over in our place because we have zone conference in Sevilla tomorrow and our train leaves at 6:45 so that was a way way fun night.

Friday- zone conference!!! So we went on our 4 hour train ride with all our zone (San Fernando Zone) to Sevilla with the Sevilla 1 zone and Sevilla 2 zone. Our special speaker was a Seventy Elder Laimer from Germany. It was one of the most spiritual meetings I've ever had. And I got to see many of my friends from the MTC. It was super fun. I wish I got to see more of Sevilla, we were sort of on the outskirts so it wasn't the super amazing Sevilla you usually hear of. The meeting was essentially how repentance is just an action that leads to change and How There's a difference between testimony and conversion. A testimony is the feelings and knowledge. Conversion is the willing to act and change. So a testimony is developed by conversion and conversion comes from having a testimony. They are different, but work perfectly together. I also talked with some the coolest couple missionaries, the mission nurse and his Husband Elder and sister Frost. Elder Frost is famous for having Shaving be basically a hobby. He knows everything in the world about shaving and he takes it extremely seriously. In the mission, all elders must be taught the true order of shaving by someone who elder frost has "certified" to teach it. So he has started me on the course of true shaving.

Saturday- today was the day of finding out about transfers! So elder Stephens is leaving and going to Alicante and I'm staying here in Cadiz! My new companion is Elder Mitchell and "greenie breaking" me and Elder Stephens is going with Elder Howard and "Greenie breaking" him. So we've essentially switched companions. Elder Howard is from my group, but he went to Provo MTC so I don't know him. The sad part about all of this is that my training is being cut off by 2 weeks! So I officially won't be a trainee anymore with two weeks that I never got to learn so that is pretty crazy! They had to make this last transfer only 4 weeks and the next 8 because they don't want people going home on Christmas Eve.  Then we went to teach Javi, and Javi was excited because he bought a new church shirt and pants, and we also showed him how to tie a tie.  Then we gave him some ties we found in our piso. Then we just had a normal medio Dia, calling everyone because this whole zone is being switched upside down with this transfer! Then we went and taught Guillermo, a less active Young Single Adult. And then, since it's Elder Stephens birthday tomorrow, we went to the best burger place  (and most expensive) in Spain called Foster's Hollywood. It was probably the best burger I've ever had.

Sunday- Elder Stephen's last Sunday here, so lots of the day was just saying goodbye to all the members here.  It was sad, but that's okay. But we had three investigators at church this week and that was way cool! Javi came in his knew white shirt with his tie al tied and stuff, it was great.  Antonio came and we talked to him about his baptism, and he said that his parents are super against it, so that's some work i'm going to need to do when Elder Stephens leaves so that's going to be difficult.  Then later that day, we wrote our testimonies in a Book of Mormon and gave it to Javi and he is way excited.  He said how much he loves being with us and that we're his great friends and he is going to read the book of Mormon.  And the next lesson before Elder Stephens leaves will be when we drop the baptismal question so that will be fun. Then we went and had a family home evening and there was one of the less actives that we've been trying to meet there so that was awesome! So that was Sunday.