Sam in Málaga

Monday- we had a super fun p day. Us and the elders from Puertollano went to the pueblo of Daniel and Nancy to their farm. We first went on a hike to a really pretty reservoir (it's the 3rd time I've done the hike) and that was way fun. Then Daniel and Nancy made a volleyball/badmitten court out of sand in a part of their property so we had some intense games. The most intense was the Puertollano/ciudad real double beach volley ball finals. We ended in a tie because we had to take the bus back to ciudad real.. It was a way fun p day though. That evening we visited Ana and Jose for probably the last time because they're going to live in their pueblo for the summer so that was sad because they're such awesome people. We also did some other fun stuff just like walking and talking

Tuesday- district meeting went well. Then after, we went to find one investigator we had been teaching, but she went to her country for a couple months. She told us she's studying with the JWs so she doesn't want to study with us now.... That was a little disappointing. Then we went to find a different investigator that other missionaries had been teaching a while back, and we found them. It was just kind of weird, and they didn't seem to really want anything still. Then we went contacting a lot. We found a super awesome Colombian who's lived here only a little bit. He is 24 and said he really wants to come to church and would even like to do what we're doing and be a missionary! He asked "when can one be a missionary?" We answer "between the age of 18-25" and he said "good so I still have one year to be able to do it!" Awesome miracle! Then right after we found another young Colombian who said he has lots of faith in God and said he'd like to hear our beliefs. 2 great miracles within 2 minutes! Then we had a meeting with our branch Pres.  Then our friend Toni told us he's leaving for England, so we met up with him to say goodbye.

Wednesday- the morning was filled with some contacting mostly. It went well, we actually found some investigators who were being taught a while ago and just kind of dropped off the map while street contacting. They're from Peru and that's awesome. Then that medio-dia I made some brownies for the new class our branch does Wednesday evenings. After we went and visited flor and had an awesome lesson with her! Flor is just the best! Then we took the brownies to activity and taught English classes. One of the sons of flor came again and he's a really great guy so it was a great evening.

Thursday- weekly planing in the morning. Then that evening we visited some members who are actually leaving ciudad real for the whole summer, so it was more or less to say goodbye to them, because I mostly likely won't get to see them again. It was sad, I don't like saying goodbye to people. Then the rest of the evening wasn't anything too Exciting, lots of new investigators we've found for some reason are all leaving ciudad real. I guess it makes sense because vacations just started in Spain and they end in September so lots of people are headed to the beaches for this time.

Friday- we went out in the morning and did some more contacting. We actually found 3 teenagers who were really cool and interested in the gospel the most interested was this girl who's family is from Romania, which is kind of cool because I while ago I was in the mission office and I felt the need to grab a Book of Mormon in Romanian (okay there are quite a bit of Romanians especially in La Mancha, but it was still cool) so we hope to meet with her family some time soon! Also talked with a ton more people that morning and saw lots of great miracles in the work. That evening, we were able to stop by Flor's house and teach her a lesson. Then the rest of the evening, we tried meeting with some other people, but no one seemed to be home.Friday nights are like that

Saturday-that morning we taught two Peruvian references we had received from some other missionaries. Mostly, they seemed interested in doing English classes, but they also let us teach them the restoration and we were able to have a good lesson. We hope to continue teaching them and get them to church! That evening we met with flor again and it was way awesome. After, we went and kicked a football around (in our church clothes) with one of Flor's sons and it was way fun although it was just burning hot outside.

Sunday- we had a wonderful day at church. I had the opportunity to give a talk and play the piano again in sacrament meeting. I've loved that I've had the opportunity to learn the piano here in ciudad real! Piano certainly isn't one of my talents, but I'm getting better and can play a good amount of hymns now. After the meetings we ate with one of the members and had some very good Spanish food. Then we were able to teach Flor again and it was amazing. She has decided that she'd wants to be baptized this next Saturday so that's awesome! We're very excited and it's Been such a privilege to have met flor and her amazing family.

Monday- kind of an uninteresting p day again. We went to a paper store this week to see if we could get a customized stamp with all our information so We could give out lots of stuff In the streets this week while contacting and it would have all our info. We also cleaned a lot and stuff... That evening we went contacting in the streets while trying to pass by some people. No one was home, but we did get to talk to a lot of people. This one big 25 year old guy talked with us for a while and said he's lost his faith through trials in his life and we tried to explain that through prayer and the Book of Mormon he could regain that but he said at this moment he wasn't sure, but he would try. Also met a Bolivian teenager who said his family is pretty religious and he gave us his address and the phone number.

Tuesday- that morning we had some people to stop by but not too much happened. That evening we met with our Branch to go over the missionary work here in ciudad real and how we can improve it. Then one of the less active members called to have a blessing. She found out recently that she has some health issues and felt that the best way to make her feel better would be the help of God. It was a great experience and immediately after the blessing she said she felt a lot more peace and comfort.

Wednesday- we spent the whole morning doing lots of walking and talking. We got the information of one guy from Bolivia who was way nice and we were able to give him a lesson of the restoration. That evening we taught English classes and the son of Flor came and it was way good. Then we had a cool thing happen. We were about ready to just go home, but we felt impressed to go stop by the house of the Bolivian teenager we had met Monday. They let us in and we were able to teach the family which was him and his mom at that moment and they seemed interested in our message. Also the nephew of some of our other Bolivian investigators was there so that was funny.


Thursday- the morning we worked a little and then went to some members house in a pueblo close to ciudad real called Migueltura to eat for medio dia. We had some really good Argentinian food. Then we returned and went out working that evening to try and find some people, and we faced some hard rejection today but it's all good, no effort goes in vain. Then we visited our investigators Jenny, Yeranni, and Valentin and we talked about getting involved as a branch in trying to bring more people to know of the happiness of the gospel and we taught the restoration as to invite them to share the message with their friends and it went way well, they are the best people. I also made some chocolate chip cookies before and brought them for them and they turned out alright, but too much flour so the form wasn't too good. I kind of had to guess on the measurements...


Friday- we did weekly planning. Then after we went to visit a member Ana and her son Joel who live in the pueblo Migueltura (like half the branch actually lives in this pueblo) and it went really well. That family is really great and have such strong testimonies of the church. The rest of the night was just the usual walking and talking to people. Lots of our investigators were busy this week so it was a great opportunity to just get out and talk with the people and also try and get closer with some of the members. I love the members here, there may be few here, but the ones that there are are strong and understand how important their job is here in these branches. There's a great unity and bond in this small branch that I may never experience in another part of my mission.


Saturday- District meeting in the morning. After we had a lesson with flor that night and Kriss came with us and it went really well because they became super good friends and Kriss's testimony and experiences really helped flor. And flor made pie!!!! I haven't had pie in 10 months! It was a super good apple pie, homemade... I was in heaven. She also made another really good Panamanian desert which is baked banana with butter, sugar, and cinnamon. It was all so delicious. Also the kids of Flor are just so awesome, 2/4 of them said they'd like to go with their mom to church. We haven't met one of them though. Then after we played Futbol with our Bolivian friends and our good friend from English class jose and that was fun.




Sunday- it was an awesome day at church, 7 investigators were there! Unfortunately the kids of flor weren't able to make it but that's okay. We taught Sunday school class and it was way fun. I also got to play the piano in sacrament meeting and that's always fun for me because I'll probably never get offered that job again in my life haha. I always love church in ciudad real though, it's just like one giant yet small family. After church we ate in a members house and it was very good, she also had made a cake that was absolutely amazing. Then we had a very productive evening. We were walking down the street trying to find an address pretty far away. I saw the number 6 above one complex and I just felt that their was some reason we needed to go there so I checked my map and discovered there was an investigator who lived there who had stopped investigating a year ago. We passed by and he was home! He's from Equatorial Guinea (the only Spanish speaking African country) and he had moved for a bit from that house and lost contact with the missionaries. He said he'd like to learn more and wants us to go back. It was a great little miracle! Then we had a couple other great lessons that night so some amazing stuff happened!

Monday- I wish I could figure out fun things to do on p-day in Ciudad Real. But we mostly just had to do shopping and other little chores. After that, we went and visited Ana and her family to help Jorge with his English. And that was basically the night. Also the weather is already up to the 90's and up. It's supposed to start hundreds in July so I'm ready to die of heat.

Tuesday- that morning I decided to take Elder Esparza straight up contacting. We had plans to try and find people, but we mostly spent the morning contacting. I think it must've been a busy morning in Ciudad Real, because no one said they had time to talk.  That evening, we met with Flor, the Lady we found last week from Panama. She read the Book of Mormon and prayed and she says that she's agreed with everything so far. We showed the restoration video and she loved it. She also talked about her baptism and said its something she knows she needs to do. Afterward we had the zone leaders come up from Malaga so they could do our zone meeting the next day. Me and one zone leader just did our English class for the week (we couldn't do it Wednesday) and elder Esparza went with another to teach Jenny Yeranni and Valentine.

Wednesday- we had a really awesome zone meeting in the morning. Then we went and ate at a giant Chinese buffet and I guess it was nice because it was unlimited food, but it was definitely a place of quantity, not quality.  Afterward, we met with Toni. We had a lesson basically to see if he truly was interested or not. He still hasn't read and he says he's prayed but not felt anything. We tried explaining that it's because he's not doing his part by reading or coming to church, and he understood that but said he's just not sure if for right now he cares. We just told him that once he reads and wants to again learn more, we're always happy to talk, but for now we're just going to be friends (leaving an investigator is a lot like breaking up with someone) and do English class and play football on Saturday nights and he was fine with that. He said he would still try and read at one point, once he has time. Then we went and visited the Sanz family (the district president) and talked about our plan of trying to involve more of the branch in the work, so we just explained the message of the restoration and invited them to share it with their friends. We also talked about the importance of family prayer and scripture study and they said its something they want to improve. They also brought pizza, and that was bad because i was stuffed from Chinese buffet still.

Thursday- we had to go down to Malaga for elder Esparza to do his residency. We left around 1:00 and we got there and just did that and then went and ate and went to the officer elder's apartment and went to sleep. It was fun though because I got to see all the other trainers and stuff so I enjoyed it.



Friday- The day began kind of bad. We missed the metro we needed to take to go from Fuengirola ( where the mission home is) to Malaga, thus missing our train from Malaga to ciudad real by 2 minutes. Then we found out all other trains for the day were full, so we would have to work in Malaga with some of the elders there and take a train the next morning. In the morning, we went to the zone meeting here, and then we all ate together at dominoes. That afternoon, I went out working with elder Layton (he's actually from the stake of my cousins the Hughes in Gilbert Arizona!) and my companion went with the contacting machine of the mission, elder Van Lewen (my companion absolutely hates contacting so I was hoping elder van Lewen might crack him a little). Me and elder layton's plans... Contact all evening and night and give tons of Books of Mormon out. And we did. We found about 9 new people for them to teach and gave out tons of Books of Mormon, and we taught a lesson to one of their investigators! It was awesome being with Elder Layton, we talked with everyone! Elder Van Lewen wasn't able to get my companion to contact but I was glad for him to see the example of another missionary

Saturday- we got on a train early and got back to ciudad real. We got there and showered and stuff (I'll be honest, i had been wearing the same clothes for 2.5 days straight... Kind of came from an unexpected extra night in Malaga) so it was a relief. Then we went to Daniel and Nancy's in their pueblo with the family of Kriss and we had an awesome time. We took the bus up there and then they drove us home later that day. Some other members of the branch also came up, and it was funny, as we were sitting there talking, eating, and laughing together I started thinking, here we are a group of Peruvians, Uruguayans, Argentinians, Ecuadorians, my Chilean companion, and me the Gringo, and we're all in this giant farm in the middle of nowhere La Mancha Spain eating food from all those different countries and drinking Mate (basically a delicacy of Uruguay, Chile, and Argentina) and It kind of blew my mind to think about it. A year ago from now, what was I doing? I have no idea, so it certainly wasn't too incredibly memorable but these tiny little moments in my mission, I'm never going to forget in my entire life. And I also thought, what a privilege I have to be where I am in this country with so much diversity especially among South Americans who I will say are just such incredible people. I didn't get to serve in South America, but even better for me, I get to serve in a melting pot of all sorts of South American countries! I also love spaniards too, they're just Weren't any present at that time. It was awesome and Daniel and Nancy still seem to be slowly progressing in the gospel. Daniel has almost finished the Book of Mormon. They're planning on coming to church still. They still openly talk about things, and we taught a good lesson they got them involved so that was nice. It was just a really good way to end this week.

Sunday- man, what a fantastic day at church! Nancy, Daniel, and Flor all came. We had our fast and testimony meeting. Flor was the second person to get up there and share her testimony, and at the end of her testimony she said "I have the intentions of knowing the restored gospel and to get baptized." That was the best testimony I have heard in my whole mission. Not only that, but I've never had an investigator speak in testimony meeting. So cool. Then we ate with Ana at her house, and we ate lots of seafood. I loved it. Then we went and met with Flor that evening. She has 4 children, and the two youngest are twins. One of the twins had some complications with brain Tumors as a baby which resulted in some special needs, but he was the most awesome kid in the world, he was just so nice. We also met the oldest son and the only daughter, and we taught them the restoration and everything, and in the moment they seemed more curious than really interested, but we'll keep trying with them for sure. They were way nice too. And that was basically our night.

Something I felt I learned a little better this week was more of how the will of God works. As we were on our way from Fuengirola to Malaga on the metro thing, I knew there was no way we'd arrive on time, yet I kept praying and having faith that maybe the train would leave the station late, or maybe our metro would speed up. Well it didn't and we missed it. After that I decided to say a different prayer, and that was to understand the reason for which I needed to stay in Malaga that day and what things I could learn or do there and really, understand gods will in keeping us in Malaga. Well, my prayer was answered and later that night, I realized the reason that we needed to be there. So that was kind of cool and It made me think of Christ in Mathew 26: 39 "And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt."  Even Christ desired the contrary of something that had to happen, but what he desired even more was to complete the will of his father. So this whole experience made me remember the importance of trying to accept gods will, even if it wasn't what we necessarily wanted.

  




Monday- well, we ate breakfast with Jenny and Valentine so they could say goodbye to elder Llavina, then we got elder Llavina's bags and went to the train station and I left at 1:00 p.m. to go to my training. I arrived and we had lots and lots of meetings in the mission home in Fuengirola, (which I had never been in before) and then me and the other elder trainer went to the couple missionaries' home to sleep.


Tuesday- we just hung out in the mission office in the morning and then went to pick up our trainees. There are 7 new hermanas and 3 new elders and I received elder Esparza from Melipeuco Chile. He just got done with 2 days of traveling from the MTC in chile so he was way tired. We then went to the mission home where the new trainees received even more instruction, and I'm pretty happy to be done with meetings.



Thursday- we woke up and did weekly planning. Then we left that evening and stopped by the investigator we taught a while back Ivan but he said to come back later. We spent a lot of time walking and talking and we contacted this lady from Panama and she said her cousin is a Mormon and we got her talking and she said she'd like to meet in our church some time to talk so that's awesome. Later a bird flew by and left I big nasty present right on my white shirt so that was lame. Then we went to Jenny, Yeranni, and Valentin and we taught a lesson about forgiveness and They all really liked the lesson.

Friday- We had our district meeting and it went well. Then that evening, we tried stopping by a ton of people but no one was home, although we met this awesome Dominican lady trying to find an old investigator so that's cool. She sad we could come back another time because she was a busy. Also, We called the person from Panama we had met the day before and she said she'd love to meet with us tomorrow on Saturday. Then we taught Toni, and he still hasn't read but he has been praying. We had a lesson planned, but we kind of just had to try and help him understand the importance of reading and all the stuff we ask him to do and he just doesn't seem to be getting it, so we'll see how it continues.

Saturday- in the morning we taught the lady from Panama named Flor. She is an absolute miracle, she arrived running to the lesson which she wanted to be in our church, and some of the first things she said where how she wanted to know more about the book or Mormon and Joseph smith. We had a great lesson and answered a lot of her questions, and she said she'll read the Book of Mormon, pray, and come to church the next morning. We also invited her to be baptized And she agreed to do it if she feels these things are true so we set a baptismal date for 2 July. So that's awesome!  That evening we went and visited Nieves and the craziest thing happened that's never happened while I've been here. Nieves actually agreed to say the prayer in the lesson! She also said she's been praying and reading and she's felt a lot better in her life. We had a good lesson about what faith is. Then that evening we played football with our Bolivian investigator  and his friends.

Sunday- awesome miracles at church today. First, it started at 10:00 because we had a Western Europe conference (like general conference but just for Western Europe) broadcast from Salt Lake. It was really awesome, it was a lot about just simplifying the gospel and the importance of setting simple goals in our life in reference to living the commandments and strengthening our faith. But the best part, Nancy and Daniel came and Flor came (kind of a random first church experience, it was difficult to explain what it was to her). I honestly was just flipping out with joy, first to see Daniel and Nancy, then to see flor. We talked for a long time, and she's agreed to make some Panamanian food for us which is sweet, but the only bad part is she said Panamanian food has lots of cilantro so... I hate cilantro. But that's alright! I was so happy. Then we ate at Ana's house and she unfortunately got a little offended because my new companion definitely is a pickier eater and just not used to the food here, so he didn't eat anything. That night he was feeling incredibly sick though, and I've kind of been working him to death, so I decided We should slow things down and just let him rest, because I could tell he was not doing well...

Finally, at the end of Sunday when I was just feeling discouraged and down about my impatience and insensitivity. I will admit, Ive been a little impatient but I've just tried to always make sure at least how he's doing and if there's anything I can do to help him, and try and make him laugh and even though it's always the same answer "I'm fine" or "no" I realized that it probably helps him feel better ( I think). But To hear that made me happy. So I'd say the key to any relation with anyone is communication. Me and elder Esparza are different people for sure, but we're definitely gaining trust and even becoming better friends. I go back to some of the best advice I heard about a mission "it's impossible to hate someone who serves you so much" so those are my two bullet points with learning to love someone:
* Communicate
* Serve