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.