Sam in Málaga

Monday- we kind of had some plans that evening so we did a little work in the morning. We found an investigator who had had been investigating for a few months a year back and stopped going. We just met her in the street and she said we could maybe pass by her house some time and talk so that's good. Then we went to the Don Quijote museum. It was very unexciting but it was free so whatever. Then we ate at an amazing tapa restaurant in the main plaza. Then we had a family home evening that evening with some members.

Tuesday- that morning we just did normal missionary stuff here in ciudad real. Lots of contacting. Lots of walking, but it was fun, normal missionary work is good. That evening elder Llavina was having stomach issues so we had to take care of that. That evening Ana and Jose needed our help with their son who had an English class soon so we gladly helped and shared a little message.

Wednesday- we had district meeting this day. It went well and we finally got to see the couple missionaries that are in our district, they sometimes can't come but they could this time. They are the best people, the Crowshaws, and they made lots of cookies. Than we went to that tapa restaurant again (my recommendation) and everyone liked it. That evening we tried visiting a promising future that we got a bit ago, and we arrived and he was there but his wife didn't want us to come in and told us to never come back. We'll probably go back. Then we had English class and it was good.

Thursday- I don't even know where to start. It was one of the craziest days of my mission. Well, Ana and Jose offered to take us to their pueblo called Pueblo Nuevo De Bullaque which is where they grew up and has a population of 200. We kind of didn't think it was the best idea because didn't seem very missionary like but they said they had some friends coming who really wanted to meet us and also we could help on the giant farm Jose works. We had a great time and their friends were really nice and even open about talking  religion with us. The big problem is, they live in a pueblo between us and Toledo, but they technically live in the province of Toledo which isn't in my mission, and the nearest congregation to them would be Toledo which is a 45 minute drive from them, so getting missionaries to teach them wouldn't be so possible. But then here's where the craziest part comes. The farm Jose works on is this giant complex of tons of farming and just thousands of acres of land and it's own Huge lake, and half of the farm is an Ostrich farm. Jose is in charge of the ostrich farm so our help was going around the hundreds of acres of hundreds of ostriches in a tiny old Land Rover and looking for their eggs. We'd have to get out of the truck run inside the fences of these fairly large cage like areas (each with about 5 giant ostriches in them) collect the eggs and run out before the ostriches noticed.  The eggs are then taken to a giant incubator where they are born, and If they are dead eggs, they are sold as decorations. I felt I would probably never get to collect ostrich eggs on and ostrich farm the rest of my life, so I did it and it was very cool. I have a video in which the ostrich did notice we took its egg and began chasing the truck. In this moment, the little kids were on board and after this moment they were not.

Friday- that morning we did weekly planning because we were busy yesterday. Then, our Scottish zone leader elder black came to be in a trio with us in ciudad real to do some exchanges. We taught Toni that night and it went really well. He really has a lot of super good questions, very tough and thought provoking, but he told us we were able to answer them pretty well. Then, he had nothing else to do so he came with us to visit our less active Nieves. She said she's been praying almost every night and she looked a lot happier than normal. She says it's been going great and that she's been reading the Book of Mormon a lot too. She was so reluctant in the beginning about praying, but she's now doing them personally so that's great. Toni definitely benefited from the lesson as well. Then I got a call from my mission president telling me I will be training a new missionary here in ciudad real so that's exciting! Elder Llavina is leaving for Elche in the east and he's excited as well. But training will be really interesting, because only three new elders are coming in, one is from the US, one from chile, and another from Madrid so there's a good chance I will be training a native Spanish speaker. I won't find out for sure until they arrive. But so, I have to go down to Malaga to be trained as a trainer Monday.

Saturday- we did some work with elder black this morning in our area. We also found out all the changes in our district and it's just here in ciudad real with Llavina that's changing and one of the missionaries in Puertollano is leaving. That evening a cold front hit and from how hot it's been, it got really cold. We just worked that evening and then that night it got crazy. Then Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid were playing in the European cup, so I can say that the work wasn't too good. It was practically a holiday with that. Most people we went to said they were busy watching the game and to come back another day.

Sunday- church went well and I learned a lot. Unfortunately, no investigators were there again so it was a little disappointing. Then after we went and ate at our member Ana's house and then went to say goodbye for elder Llavina to the family of the other member Ana (there's 3 in total). Then we said goodbye to the family of Kriss.

I'm going to train a new missionary! That's crazy! But I'm excited.

Monday- p day was really disappointing. Our friends Ana and Jose are from a tiny pueblo of 300 people about 45 minutes from ciudad real and the little pueblo was having its fair Friday- Monday and we were invited and there was going to be lots of free Paella but it was a holiday here in Spain so the bus station was closed. :( so we didn't do anything. That night we found some people and set some appointments up for later in the week. Also, the weather is getting a lot warmer. I can see now why people say the sun is hotter in Spain, it truly didn't get that hot but it felt just scorching some days.





Tuesday- that morning we had to do groceries because all the stores were closed yesterday so we did that and then went contacting to find some new investigators but didn't get any. That evening we went and visited Nieves. We hadn't visited her in a while and so we went and she was doing okay. She's been reading the Book of Mormon but she said she's been losing all her faith lately so we told her just to take small steps to try and regain it. We invited her to pray but she never wants to because she doesn't feel like she knows how to pray. She said she would try but would probably forget so we said we'd call her that night to remind her and we did. Then after, we went and helped our branch president load new chairs we got into the church and take out the old ones, as well as organized a bunch of stuff. He's been really trying to fix and organize our chapel so that's good.

Wednesday- we just went straight contacting all morning as well as trying to find old investigators. One guy was in a hurray but gave us his phone number. Another guy was sitting parked in his car listening to some Latin Jazz and completely rocking out in his so I knocked on his window to talk with him and he was the coolest guy! And you know why? He's Dominican! Dominicans honestly are my favorite people in this whole world. We talked a lot and he is actually apart of the ciudad real baseball team and invited us to come see a game and meet all his friends. Sounded good to me! He also gave us his number but was in a hurray so couldn't talk much then. That evening we visited with our less active Bolivian teenager Christian. Still won't come to church but we had a giant breakthrough finally with him! He said a prayer with us and told us he's been praying a lot for the people affected by the earthquakes in Ecuador. Honestly, we were so happy to here him pray and he really prayed seriously so we hope to continue with him. Then we had English class and that was good.

Thursday- weekly planning. Then that evening, we had a lesson set with a guy I met in Puertollano. He had given us his number and I had called him and gotten his address and everything. Well, he gave us a false address. Then we called him a few times and he would just hang it up, and we literally had to walk to the opposite end of ciudad real to find the address so we were a little sad. Then that evening kind of went that way... We visited a lot of people who had given us their addresses and stuff, but almost all of them were fake so that was disappointing, but I was able to find one man I had contacted this week, but he was just leaving so he said to come back another day.

Friday- we went to Malaga for zone conference. It was the best, I saw all of my good friends in the missions and we heard a lot of "dying testimonies" (the last testimony given at a zone conference in a missionaries mission before they go home) from a giant group of missionaries going home mid July. At the end of This summer, we'll have a net loss of 14 missionaries and that's a big hit on the mission, but it's okay. It was a great zone conference but I will admit, it was a little long, going on 5 hours. Also, our president's talk involved a lot of the story of Don Quixote, and to be in La Mancha while he gave that talk was a cool feeling.

Saturday- we spent a lot of time trying to contact some new people to teach just from contacting. Not too much happened this day. Then our friends Ana and Jose fed us for lunch. Then we played football that night with our Bolivian friends. As we were waiting for them to arrive, there were two spaniards playing some basketball. I decided to go up and ask if we could play with them. They said yea, and it was way fun, we completely destroyed them too. Then our Bolivian friends arrived and the spaniards played football with us. They completely destroyed us, so yea... The two Spaniards were way cool though, they were 20 years old and cousins and super nice, I was able to talk with them for a long time. I explained a little bit about us as missionaries and they said they'd like to learn more about us and see us again so that's awesome.

Sunday- busiest Sunday I've had. I was assigned to give a talk, I was assigned to teach the gospel principles class, I was assigned to play the piano for sacrament meeting (if you don't know, I don't play piano at all, but I've learned a bit in the mission so I can get by) and we also had to do branch financial stuff after church. After, my branch president came up to us to thank us and told us "you will never be more needed in the church than you are now." I guess I kind of have to say it's true, but it's really a privilege to actually feel more or less needed. It's definitely something that happens when serving in tiny branch. Church numbers were few today We only had about 11 there. But it was a great day. Then after, I have unfortunately come down with quite a nasty cold so I rested while my companion did his district leader stuff. Then I sucked it up and we went and taught Jenny, Yeranni, and Valentine and it was a good lesson and everything is just kind of normal on that front.

Although I'm not seeing a ton of outward success at the moment, something that's really helped me is that I feel I can better recognize and act upon promptings of the spirit now and it's something I've been able to improve and continue improving through my mission. I had a lot of experiences this week where I felt I was guided by the spirit to just open my mouth or just go knock on some car window, and although it doesn't always turn into some giant miracle, they truly are little miracles that make me happy because I know God wanted me to do something, and i tried to do it, and I always feel good about it afterward. I'm definitely not perfect or even close to it, and there's plenty of moments where I know I should've done more, but I think God recognizes our efforts and looks to see if we're at least trying to improve. It's always more about your direction than where you are. We want to be headed towards God.

Monday- p day was incredibly rainy. We went shopping because elder Llavina's pants have kind of been warn down to nothing. I also had to buy a new belt because all mine were breaking. Then that night we went trying to contact some futures and old investigators but couldn't find anyone.

Tuesday- district meeting went well. A while back I had mentioned a restaurant called Cronicas Carnivorous which is a restaurant chain here in Spain that serves lots of food. It even appeared in the tv series "Man Vs Food." well, we went to the restaurant so elder Hanneman, the missionary in Puertollano, could do the same challenge Adam Richmond did in man vs food which is a 2KG burrito under 45 minutes. Well, he had 5 bites left and almost 10 minutes, but all the sudden he ran to the bathroom and you can guess what happened after that. He didn't win :( Then I went to Alcazar de San Juan, the city where Cervantes (the author of don Quijote) was born, for an exchange. I was with elder Miller. We first taught this new Romanian family and it was really difficult because they didn't speak Spanish too well so they definitely need some Romanian material. These people truly have faced some incredible problems, but they have a lot of faith in God. Then we taught one of the recent converts here, 11 year old Jonathan who I saw get baptized, and his parents who are just "dry members" waiting to get their marriage finalized so they can be baptized. Then we went and did tons of contacting. Found a cool Ecuadorian lady who was really nice and was willing to meet so I think she could end up being a great investigator. But that night was bad. I got a call from elder Llavina saying that Alisia called and doesn't want anything to do with the church anymore. Also, Nancy is really having some big doubts and thinking about stopping her investigation of the church. (Came second hand from a member). It just is frustrating because daniel and Nancy won't ever talk with us about their problems, they always go to outside sources, but it's okay. The thing is, we know they know it's true, they just are doubting a lot.

Wednesday- I worked more in alcazar de San Juan and then want back to ciudad real. That evening we met with Alisia and president Carlos. Alisia told us she's felt to overwhelmed by us and doesn't want to continue meeting so that was really disappointing. We went and did some contacting and got a couple people who might be interested. Then we had English class, and my good friend, the magician Jose will be officially moving to England at the beginning of June which really bums me out.

Thursday- did weekly planning. Also, Daniel and Nancy had a get together in the morning with Kriss, and aren't really thinking they want much to do with the church at this point. They said they will meet with us for a tiny bit Saturday morning before our activity but it's not looking too good right now. Then that evening we just worked to find new investigators like crazy and didn't find anything. Then we met with Jenny, Yeranni, and Valentine, the "dry members." They might not be dry soon though because Jenny and Valentine  are maybe working towards getting married soon to get baptized, after more than 1 year of investigating. Yeranni goes to the Spain EFY this August too so that's awesome. We had a great lesson with them, and were able to help them with some questions that recently arose. But we needed it, because me and elder Llavina were I think more discouraged than we've ever been, this news really Helped our spirits.

Friday- spent all morning contacting and talked to a few nice people and got ahold of some recent references. Then that evening we continued contacting, and got with a future we recently contacted and were able to teach him in his house. He says he's really felt like he's needed something more in his life because all he does is work and doesn't feel good and wants to find more to life. We helped him understand that it's through Christ that will happen. He seemed very interested in finding out and accepted reading the Book of Mormon and praying. And was a good lesson and he may be a good investigator (we have very very few at the moments so we are extremely happy with whatever we'll get). Spent the rest of the night contacting and found some families that seemed interested in learning more and we got their information.  News got worse with Daniel and nanny. Our branch president tried calling them just to see if he'd be able to talk with them and maybe fix some things, but they declined to meet with him.

Saturday- we had an activity with Jenny, Yeranni, and Valentine and Daniel and Nancy and the family of Kriss. It went well, except Daniel and Nancy don't want to talk about their doubts right now with specifically us but from what we're hearing from others, they are a little hard hearted right now. It kind of is really bad right now because this all has been second hand Information because they don't talk to us about these things, and there's honestly 2 sides to the situation. 1- they think they'll hurt our feelings, 2- they don't want to accept what we're going to say, and we're not sure which. All we know is they probably won't come to church Sunday. The rest of the evening, I kind of took a nasty sunburn and wasn't feeling too good so we had to take a little break.

Sunday- we had church and it was a little rough. It was the first time ever for me in ciudad real without any investigators in church. Daniel and Nancy didn't want to come today and none of our other investigators couldn't come. But it went well. I really liked something my branch president said though, it made me feel better. I went up to him after we had been waiting outside the door before church and we walked in and I said "looks like we're going to be few in numbers today president" and he just looked at me with a big smile on his face and put his arm on my shoulder and said "elder, it wouldn't matter if it was just you and your companion and me, the important part is that we're here and regardless of numbers, we're going to feel the spirit." I still can't say I've met someone with more faith in my mission than president Carlos. Such an awesome guy. The rest of that day was the regular numbers stuff of the mission for my companion and I studied lots of gospel. Also, we made cookies again.

Well, I'll be honest in saying this week was really rough, and it's come through the sadness of investigators decisions. Daniel and Nancy Truly had become more than just our investigators, they were such good friends and really took care of us missionaries and more importantly, their progression was just unbelievable. I truly thanked the lord every single day to be teaching them. Unfortunately their doubts have kind of taken over and until they resolve them, We don't know what'll happen. I don't feel like it's the end quite yet, there's always hope and I still feel like one day they will find out. When that is, I don't know, but we'll just do our best for now and when they're ready, we're ready too. Also going to miss Alisia a lot too. She was the funniest lady and she too was really progressing. So, needless to say, and I'm not going to lie about it, it was really hard this week with these investigators dropping us. But it just adds to my testimony, because I know as Jeffrey R. Holland said "the path to discipleship is not an easy one" and I'm sure glad it's not. If it was easy, it wouldn't be true. But I personally think that in the end, life is a tons easier if we follow Jesus Christ, and it's been a testimony I've developed through my mission experience.

Monday- we went to a Turkish restaurant for lunch where we heard a less active works so we could eat and maybe meet her. Apparently she was sick and wasn't able to come that day so that was a downer, and the Turkish food wasn't bad, but elder Llavina hated it. Then we played some more volleyball and it was fun. That night we went trying to find some futures we got off of contacts but our appointments failed us.

Tuesday- the morning we had some set appointments too but they also all failed us, so we did some contacting. Ate with a member for lunch. Then we met with Toni that night and taught him a little bit, but he was kind of being difficult to teach. Then, we contacted more and met a big group of exchange students from Ireland, and we helped them order ice cream by a translating for them. First group of more or less tourists I've ever seen here in ciudad real. Needless to say, they were kind of bored of ciudad real (I'll be honest, it's an uninteresting city but I love it!) and excited to go to Barcelona. They had heard of the Mormons and said they even had Mormon friends so that was cool. We invited them to learn more from their friends and they said okay.  Then the zone leaders from Malaga drove up and stayed with us for the night for our district meeting the next day

Wednesday- we had our district meeting with our zone leaders there. It was good. Then we all ate together and the mission paid for us! Then we had some appointments set up with this really promising Dominican lady we had contacted, but she failed us. :( also had an appointment with the guy who last week contacted us and wanted to learn more, but he also failed us. :( then we taught English class and it's been disappointing because our amount of English class people has really dropped, so something I'd like to focus on is trying to get more people to that because good work can come from that.

Thursday- the rain started... And it rained and it's going to rain until next Tuesday. But it was way cool, Daniel and Nancy wanted to take us to a famous castle and one of the oldest and most preserved castles in Europe. It's from the 13th century, in a area called Calatrava and It was built right on a mountain so it was way cool. More importantly, we were able to talk lots and lots about the gospel.They asked us tons of questions and we for the most part were able to answer them, but Nancy is just so excited for her baptism. She goes to Argentina to visit her mom in 2 weeks but will return and be baptized soon after. Daniel wants to finish the Book of Mormon still, but said will for sure be baptized. That afternoon, we did lots of attempting to find old investigators (that's our focus this week). We worked a lot but didn't find anyone, but we were bale to clean our area book a bit (part of that goal). That night, Ana and Jose invited us to eat real quickly.

Friday- we met with our branch president all morning because he said he'd help us with our area book. We called tons and tons of people and even got ahold of 2 people who said they'd have interest in meeting with us again. Also, organized the area book a ton! Then we ate with our branch president with his wife and mother in law and father in law (all are members except the father in law). We had some lamb legs. They were good but difficult to eat. Then that night, we tried going by some old investigators where the register of them was only addresses and found a lot of People had moved. It was raining hard and I didn't have my umbrella so it was cold.

Saturday- the morning we did weekly planning. Then we went and helped with a primary activity for the district that was in the park. We talked to some people in the park too, and got rejected a lot but that's okay. Then we taught tony a little bit. It was the first lesson where I felt he was serious. We finally found a way to make him actually open up. He said at one point in his life, his grandpa got really sick. He said he was really sad so he decided to try and see if God would help, so he said a simple prayer that his grandpa would be okay. His grandpa turned out okay so he felt God could be there. But since than, he's felt that because of what other people tell him, he thinks religion is just invented to get gain. We were able to talk to him a lot about that, then he just started asking tons and tons of questions about topics of the plan of salvation then the restoration so we just challenged him to meet with us more, read the Book of Mormon, and pray and come to church. He said he'd do 3/4 (all except the church part because he hates waking up early, teaching teenagers a lot of my mission, this has been a problem always) but we took it as progression. If we teach him more, I feel he'll want to come to church, he just doesn't understand much yet so he gets confused.

Sunday- church went well. Daniel and Nancy were in the church before every other member. We actually didn't have to do anything in church today because all the teachers were there and we didn't have any tithing to do. So we went and ate at Kriss's with Daniel and Nancy and I was able to talk to my parents with all them! We Skyped them and me and elder Llavina convinced Kriss and her Family and Daniel and Nancy to sing Mother I Love you to our mothers with us! It was awesome! Then it all went bad. We got an email later that night from Nancy that she wants to postpone her baptism for some things that have happened, but still wants to meet with us. We met with our branch president to talk about it and that was the night.

Well, I'm going to be honest, I had a rough week, but that's okay. One thing that has helped me through everything is one of my favorite hymns "How firm a Foundation." Whenever something difficult is happening, I always think in the 3rd verse "fear not, I am with thee, oh be not dismayed. For I am thy God and will still give thee aid. I'll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand. Upheld by my righteous hand." As I sing that verse to myself,I truly feel the Holy Ghost, and I remember that I do not walk this path alone. 

Monday- p day, we set up a volleyball net in the courts of Kriss's buildings complexes and played lots and lots of this 1 on 1 type volleyball thing in the morning. It was fun, and I won against elder Llavina lots and he only beat me once and elder Llavina doesn't like to lose ;) nothing like 3 transfers together to figure out most things about your companion. I'm quite impressed with us, not many missionaries go three transfers together it's pretty rare, and we haven't killed each other yet so we must be doing a good job. That night we wanted to pass by some people we've talked to but nobody was home, and that was basically our night. 

Tuesday- we had our final district meeting with this district. We will have a change of missionaries in Valdapeñas and Alcazar de San Juan. My good mission friend from my group elder Kroff from Galacia is coming to Valdapeñas so I'm happy for that. Then that night we met with Alisia and the worst thing happened In a lesson in my life (not really but it was kind of bad on our part). We were watching a video about commandments and Alisia is a very very dramatic lady and so something happened in the video which made her jump back very fast so me and elder Llavina just began laughing really lightly and I had to put a Book of Mormon in front of my mouth because I was laughing so much. Then we saw each other and we were laughing and just couldn't stop laughing (luckily she never noticed) and our member present was laughing too. Then at the end of the video, the member just burst out laughing and said her friend sent her something really funny, but yea, it was just bad because we were all laughing uncontrollably. But Alisia is doing alright... Still word of wisdom issues and she just doesn't seem to ever understand what we teach and isn't willing to make steps to baptized so we aren't sure where she'll go. We'll keep trying though, we don't feel we should give up. That was the most exciting thing that night.

Wednesday- in the morning we helped all the missionaries with transfers get transferred and all the New missionaries coming here and stuff. Then that evening we went contacting. No one we talked to wanted anything but this guy contacted us and said he's trying to learn more about the purpose of life but he didn't have time then so he gave us his information so that's awesome. Then we had English classes and something awesome happened (but it kind of made me feel bad). Toni the Chinese teenager who's amazing at football came and we showed him at the end a video that explains the purpose of missionaries. At the end he asked "why don't you guys do that?" and we're like "we do!!" And he replied "why haven't you taught me then" and we said "well we tried but you weren't taking us seriously" and he said "well I didn't know you were trying to teach me!" Then he asked "so if I were to get baptized, I could be missionaries like you guys and do that?" And we replied "YES!" So he told us he wants to be taught more and come to church. Kind of made me feel bad though because clearly we didn't clarify our purpose in the beginning with him so our bad... Yea I'm not a perfect missionary at all... I'll work on that one though. Working with lots of teenagers my whole mission I've never been able to figure them out with teaching super well. But so yea, we're excited, he just doesn't have that solid Christian background like most people so we'll need to really teach basically in the beginning. He's incredibly smart though so he'll figure it out.

Thursday- weekly planning in the morning. We've got to find some New people to teach (catch phrase of my mission). Then we went to Daniel and Nancy's in their little pueblo or Fernana Caballero so we took the bus there. We got their and helped them do some stuff to their house. Last time was a chain saw, this time was a drill. Then we taught them... A ton. The most important part came when we went over the baptismal questions because they're still timid about setting a set date of baptism so we did that and had a fantastic lesson. One problem they've been having is that they are searching too much for physical signs of evidence or things like that. Unfortunately, true conversion doesn't come like that, it comes from the spirit and the desire to want it. We read one of my favorite scriptures Matthew 7:20- Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. Simple yet powerful, because if you're feeling good in church (which they are) if you feel good when you read the Book of Mormon ( which they are, although Daniel admitted that he feels he is studying it more intelligently than spiritually) and most importantly if you feel it could be true, then it's time to start doubting your doubts before doubting your faith. It's like being blind and lead to an apple tree. The second you partake of the fruit, you will know it's and apple tree, but before you have to have faith that it's an apple tree maybe because the person guiding you told you so, but you aren't going to know for sure until you eat the fruit yourself. God has the ability of making us see and putting a giant sign on the apple tree saying "apple tree" but that would mean we lose the initial faith part of it. In the same manner, if God wanted, he could give us tons of physical evidences of the Book of Mormon or whatever, but if he did, we'd lose the trial of our faith in reading it and feeling it's true by the spirit. Honestly, it was one of the most powerful lessons I've ever had in my mission. And in the end, we set a date of baptism!!! For June 1 so wooooo!!! I'll be here but elder Llavina won't so...I don't know we're just happy we got that step out of the way

Friday- pretty regular day, with some contacting in the morning. We met a cool Dominican lady and she seemed pretty promising. Talked to plenty of people too, so it was good. Then that evening we had a family home evening with a family of the branch and president Carlos and it went well. But then me and elder Llavina were in short sleeves because it was warm earlier but it just started pouring completely down on us!!! Buckets of rain, and we had no umbrellas and we were kind of on the frontier of the city so we got soaked.

Saturday- we decided to go in the morning and buy some stuff for Mother's Day and give each mom in the branch a little Mother's Day treat in church Sunday (because Mother's Day in Spain is the first Sunday of May) so we did that and also went to buy a cake and flowers for Nancy because it was her birthday Friday. Then Daniel came and picked us and the family of Kriss so we could pass the day in their house our in Fernan Caballero. When I say Daniel and Nancy live in the middle of nowhere, I mean the middle of nowhere, their property is gigantic, and there are hardly any people near. The tiny city itself is only 1,000 inhabitants and their house is pretty far from it. But we had a really good day and were able to talk a lot about the gospel and Kriss was there to help them solve a lot of their doubts so that's good. We took a big hike too, and I don't know why, but I've come to develop a love of olive trees in my mission. It all started in the MTC when my district did a service project one day and we did a lot for the olive tree that stands outside the Madrid temple to make it more beautiful and I just thought it was way cool. But anyway, we got to walk through a grove of just acres upon acres of gigantic olive trees and I felt very much in Jacob 5 of the BOM. Never ending olive trees, I loved it. The day was great though.

Sunday- Happy Mother's Day in Spain! Church was good and it was testimony meeting and Nancy and Daniel loved the testimony meeting, and I could tell they wanted to go up and talk but they've told us they fear public speaking a lot. But they were crying the whole time and so happy. Nancy announced to everyone about her baptism but Daniel admitted to us he doesn't quite feel ready yet and is fine that his wife gets baptized then but wants to wait himself. I think the problem has been is Nancy usually takes over the lessons and we are able to resolve her doubts but Daniel is a little more quiet and timid so he hasn't really asked us too many things in reference to his doubts. Nancy is going back to Argentina for two weeks and we feel we'll be able to work with Daniel a lot then and maybe even help him out a lot with his fields to gain more trust and relationship with him. But I'm saying, these converts will be some of the best converts in the world, they are just so incredibly devoted, and their hesitation about baptism is good because they understand just how serious they need to be in order to make this change in their life. It's not just do it, and when it's not as pleasing anymore to you, you can just leave, they understand it's a covenant with God so that makes me happy. Then after church we helped with branch finances, then ate in the house of Ana's with practically half the branch and did some numbers stuff and Llavina did district leader stuff. And that's my week! Good week!