Week 33: Ciudad Real, La Mancha District
10:38 AM
Monday- it rained all p day. The city began to
even flood a little bit (not much, just a couple of inches or something)
but so as a result, we spent a very uninteresting p day in the church and
in our apartment. Bought some groceries... Yea. That night... I
honestly don't even remember, so it must've not been too exciting.
Tuesday- well, in the morning we watched the
rest of conference we hadn't seen. It was incredible, my favorite ended up
for sure being Jeffrey R. holland from Sunday afternoon or Bonnie L.
Oscarson Sunday morning. President Monson's talk had an enormous
impact on me as well. I think it just made me realize how much I love the
prophet and his 12 apostles. I mean, you look at the bible and the amazing
things the 12 apostles did then, especially like Peter and John, and you
see the ministry of the 12 on the earth today and it's the same and
they're equally impressive. These men are 12 apostles and we have a
prophet and I don't think we recognize that nearly enough! It's just
awesome to think about for me. Well we then went to visit Christian the
less active Bolivian 16 year old kid, who We continue to visit at
least once a week out of love because he sure likes to frustrate us but
we must remember we're "on the rescue" and "it's never too
late and our examples make a difference" (Mervyn B.
Arnold,Saturday afternoon session). Then we tried contacting some
references but couldn't find anyone home.
Wednesday- morning we had a meeting with the ward mission leader because we weren't going to be there Friday as normal. Then we ate with one of the members in the ward with a 16 year old son who comes to church every week but I think more out of obligation so we want to try and influence him more so he can go on a mission. Also, they live with her sister and her family and they don't like our religion but really like the people. Also there was a very negative less active who lived here but now lives in London who was visiting and she was quite rude to us if I might say, but that's alright. We tried teaching a lesson but it just wasn't the best, everyone just kind of brought out their phones as soon as we said lesson time besides the member of course. The worst, absolute worst worst part was that the food was full of cilantro and people who know me well know I hate cilantro. I know hate is a strong word, but it is the only good word that describes my feeling for the terrible herb of cilantro. I'm just glad I didn't serve in South America only for that reason. Cilantro doesn't like me. But I ate it all very very painfully. Then that night we taught English classes and that went fine. Then we tried contacting more references but no one was there.
Thursday- weekly planning. Then we had a lesson with Alisia. Poor lady, she has to go in for her CATscan and she's been in a lot of pain lately. She's really struggling with the word of wisdom but she continues to try. We pray for her a lot and continue trying to help her but she's struggling. Also she hasn't been able to read because her eyes have been all puffed up from allergies and she can't see well. So she's just having a lot fighting against her. We had a good lesson though and we promised her that if she just kept trying and turning to the lord, she would be able to overcome her physical pain. She always tells us that During the sacrament she feels like all her pain goes away during that time. It's absolutely amazing. Then our friends Ana and Jose (the members friends who don't want anything but sure love us) invited us to a quick dinner and that was nice.
Friday- all of the La Mancha missionaries we got to go down to Malaga for a zone meeting. It was a great zone meeting and then we ate in a Thai noodle restaurant and it was just completely amazing. A little expensive... Then we had exchanges with the zone leaders. I went with elder black. He's way cool, he's from Scotland too so it's always fun talking with him because he's so Scottish haha. We taught a lady from Haiti but she had some really bad leg pain so we couldn't stay for long. The rest of the night we kind of had the "dirty work" of nothing but contacting some old investigators and future investigators.
Saturday- woke up and went with my other zone
leader Elder Verela and it went well. It was a fun exchange and I learned
a lot. The zone leaders are funny guys. Then I ate Taco Bell!!!! There's
one in the train station. Then we took the train home and went to do our
weekly family home evening with one of the families that's struggling in
our branch and we went with branch president Carlos who poor guy was
more tired than I've ever seen. He's been busy with branch work, a
brand new baby, and a very emotional wife who just gave birth, and a
mother in law very sick in the hospital, and a bored father in law so
he doesn't sleep much. Still willing to help though. It went well.
Then we had an appointment with a reference we were given from Paraguay
but she never showed up :( we called Alisia to ask about her CATscan
and she answered all laughing and happy because they found that
her problem isn't very grave and that there are easy solutions and she
was all happy and said how it was just like we had promised her, that
the lord would help her. We told her it wasn't our promised, but a
promise directly from the lord. She was so happy and excited to see us
at church the next day.
Sunday- church went well but it was just pouring all day. Every time we return from Malaga, it always rains, it's like our curse. But Daniel and Nancy and Alisia were all at church and they really enjoyed church today. Unfortunately two of our branch members are really sick at the moment and when you're in a branch of about 10 adults and 5 adult investigators, the absence of anyone makes a difference. Also our secretary and Ward mission leader (both were Luis who is now a district counselor) were released so we're without a ward mission leader now and we were basically made the ward secretaries which we're happy to do. Basically means we do the tithing and other branch Finances and so that'll be fun (guess I should've learned more from my dad when he was my ward clerk). We helped with that after church, and Then after we went to visit a member who didn't show up today to church and she answered but it kind of sounded like she was making excuses up on the spot so that worries us but we'll see. The rest of the night was lots of numbers and stuff by my companion and his leader responsibilities so I just studied a little. Also was just raining like crazy and is expected to through Tuesday.
Not really the most exciting or news breaking week. Just went out and worked and some weeks you see results, some weeks I just feel it's a test to see if you're willing to work, and I'll be honest I was a bit down on excitement this week what not with the rain and difficult circumstances to meet with investigators. But something cool did happen. The sister we ate lunch with said her family who has never liked Mormons has really come to like us and is starting to always ask her to invited us. She said she was really grateful for our influence in help her family open up to the gospel a little more. She said she really feels that this is the start and that little by little they will eventually come to be willing to be taught. May not be soon, but one day. That was nice to hear. Mission is still the best!
Sunday- church went well but it was just pouring all day. Every time we return from Malaga, it always rains, it's like our curse. But Daniel and Nancy and Alisia were all at church and they really enjoyed church today. Unfortunately two of our branch members are really sick at the moment and when you're in a branch of about 10 adults and 5 adult investigators, the absence of anyone makes a difference. Also our secretary and Ward mission leader (both were Luis who is now a district counselor) were released so we're without a ward mission leader now and we were basically made the ward secretaries which we're happy to do. Basically means we do the tithing and other branch Finances and so that'll be fun (guess I should've learned more from my dad when he was my ward clerk). We helped with that after church, and Then after we went to visit a member who didn't show up today to church and she answered but it kind of sounded like she was making excuses up on the spot so that worries us but we'll see. The rest of the night was lots of numbers and stuff by my companion and his leader responsibilities so I just studied a little. Also was just raining like crazy and is expected to through Tuesday.
Not really the most exciting or news breaking week. Just went out and worked and some weeks you see results, some weeks I just feel it's a test to see if you're willing to work, and I'll be honest I was a bit down on excitement this week what not with the rain and difficult circumstances to meet with investigators. But something cool did happen. The sister we ate lunch with said her family who has never liked Mormons has really come to like us and is starting to always ask her to invited us. She said she was really grateful for our influence in help her family open up to the gospel a little more. She said she really feels that this is the start and that little by little they will eventually come to be willing to be taught. May not be soon, but one day. That was nice to hear. Mission is still the best!
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