Week 40: Ciudad Real, La Mancha District

8:09 AM

I caught our dinner!

Haha just kidding I didn't catch anything.

Jose from English class-- he's moving to England :(

"And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men."

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.