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.