Wednesday- my train left at 12:40 so I had some more time to finish packing and do a nice deep clean of the piso before I left. Elder Mitchell will be with elder Yates, a missionary from my group, but the Provo MTC, so that's cool. So i Arrived to Ciudad real, and I was In culture shock all over again. I got out of the huge train and it was freezing and everything looked so different than Cadiz! I saw my good bud and new companion elder Llavina and we walked to the the apartment. The apartment is seriously so so nice compared to Cadiz, it is like a mansion in how nice it is. It has all sorts of cool stuff and the best part is it has heating and hot water! So I'll just describe my situation here in ciudad real. We are apart of the La Mancha district which includes 3 other cities in the province. Ciudad real is just this quiet little city with lots of  normal stuff. The people here are mostly fairly young families because this place is a lot like Madrid but with a lot less people and zero tourists. It's nice and cheap to live here and there's really nothing cool to see, It's just a quiet little (and cold) community. The culture compared to Cadiz is night and day. Cadiz was the big loud party city with lots of tourists and beautiful beaches and museums. Here, the people are quiet and fairly serious and there's really no purpose to come here other than to live. But I really like it so far. It's just so calm here and the Spanish is about 100X easier to understand than Cadiz. Like I've felt completely fluent here, but in Cadiz I felt like I only understood about half the time. We have around 15-20 members in the branch. (The majority of which are South American) our little chapel is just the bottom area of a building right in the center of town (next to a really cool looking Catholic Church actually). We have a really cool branch though, all the members are way nice and because there's so few people, it's like a big family. It's kind of funny to think that just my family on my moms side would have more people than the branch of this entire city. We went and visited a member from Peru here named Kris and her two kids. She's the coolest ever! Then we went and tried visiting some investigators we have here but most people didn't answer.

Thursday- we did some weekly planning in the morning. We have some really good work happening right now, quite a few baptismal dates and some solid investigators. Apparently the problem lately is that people just haven't been answering. But after that we met this awesome lady named Alicia from Dominican republic. The missionaries met her last week in the street.  I have decided that Dominicans are just my favorite people ever! They are all so sassy And funny and dramatic, it makes lessons so fun! She wanted to learn more about the church because she has lots of friends back in her own country who have said bad things about the church. She said she thought we didn't even believe in God! But we taught her just the basic stuff and got to know her a little more. She is so excited to learn and has so many amazing questions and she said to us (in Spanish of course) "mmmmhmmm I'm coming to church for sure!" So that's awesome. Then we went and helped some of Kris's friends with their English because they have an English exam for their work soon. Then we went and taught another members friends kid some English because he had a school exam the next day. We taught them a little bit of gospel but they didn't really show much interest.

Friday- we had a meeting with our ward mission leader Luis. He's way interesting... But way funny. Then we went and contacted some people in the street and tried visiting some investigators. After, we went to our Venezuelan investigator, Ronald. He is about the only non Catholic person I've ever really taught in my mission so it was interesting. We showed him the restoration video and he loved it and said that everything just made sense to him at that point, and it was like God opened his eyes. He finally understood Joseph smith and the Book of Mormon and the restoration so it was cool to see that. Then we went and met with a less active names Nieves, and she hasn't come to church in forever and has some issues with depression. But she was at the same time really funny. She said she was a huge Barcelona fan and I decided a while back that I would be an Atletico Madrid fan as to avoid contention between Real Madrid and Barcelona fans. She said if I was a Real Madrid fan, she would throw me out of her house (I couldn't tell if she was serious or not) but I told her I was an Atletico fan and she said she could tolerate that. It was funny. But we taught her a lesson and invited her to church and she said no... We asked what was holding her back. She just said she doesn't want to. Soooo... I don't know.

Saturday- The morning, we just did a lot of attempting to get ahold of people and lots of street contacting and nothing too special. Then we went to our investigators Jenny, Valentine, Yerani. They have been basically members for a year now, but they aren't baptized because they don't want to get married. The daughter, Yerani, wants to wait for her parents to be baptized so it's just a little frustrating with them right now.  They've been coming to church for over a year and even have callings, but they just won't get married (even with two kids) but that's okay.  It was a lot of fun and I had some really good Dominican food.  Then we went and played Futbol with some of our investigators from Bolivia.  They are way cool.  And a super cool miracle happened.  This 16 year old kid who is Chinese but has lived in Spain his whole life came to play Futbol with us.  We invited him to come to the church after the game for an activity that was going on and he got to know the branch and he seems like he will be super promising.  This whole thing has just kind of reminded me of Javi from Cadiz so far, a young kid I met at soccer, members befriend him, the next step will just be coming to church.

Sunday- My first time in church here.  We are the Sunday school teachers for the branch so I had to prepare the lesson this week to teach.  It was a really neat subject about Nephi 12-14. We had Alisia, our investigator at church and she really enjoyed it.  There were about 8 adults in church, so that was good.  I got to meet everyone, I guess the good part is, the names haven't been difficult to remember! Haha, I honestly love serving in such a small branch, it's so fun and it's like a big family.  Then after, we had some meetings with the branch president who's really cool.  Then we went and ate at the house of a member who has been feeding the missionaries every Sunday afternoon for about 18 years.  The food was so awesome.  Then we went and taught a new investigator who is from Bolivia.  Back in her country, her daughter was just about baptized in our church, but her mom, the investigator we are teaching her right now, wouldn't let her.But we are working with the Mom right now.  She just has problems with the Book of Mormon.  We asked her if she had read it, and she said no. That's why you have a problem with it! You've got to read it first before you just immediately go judging it.  Then you've got to pray about it, and then you will know it's true and everything else will fall into place.  She's going on a long trip back to Boliva for a bit, so we gave her the Book and told her to read and pray about it while she's there. All in all, It's been a super fun week.  I miss my friends in Cadiz so much, and honestly, I got a little homesick for a bit.  Not homesick for home, but for Cadiz.  I missed all my friends there.  But Ciudad Real has been just as amazing, and I already love it so much.  I just love the mission so much, I wouldn't trade it for anything.  The experiences I have, the people I meet, and the miracles I see, the mission just truly is the best.  And Spain is truly one of the best places ever, I just love it so much.  I have nothing else to say other than I love the mission.