Week 38: Ciudad Real, La Mancha District
11:12 AM
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.
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