Week 50: Ciudad Real, La Mancha District

4:21 PM

Monday- we went to the hospital in the morning and it turns out my companion has tendentious which is unfortunate so he'll have to do physical therapy during the mission. Later, we met up with the Valdapeñas elders here in ciudad real to do some shopping. I just bought some sunglasses because we're now authorized to use those as missionaries. That evening we had a family home evening with the branch president and his wife and it was way fun.







Tuesday- that morning we had set up an appointment with David (Bolivian) but we arrived and he had meet. Later We saw this columbian woman struggling with many shopping bags so we offered to help her and she agreed and we walked and talked with her to the bus station. Unfortunately she lives in a pueblo called Aldea Del Rey which is the pueblo of the giant castle I went to a while ago, and that's like an 1 hour and 30 minutes away so that might not work out... But she was really nice! That evening David (Spanish) picked us up and we went to his pueblo of Piedrabuena and we taught him and his family the restoration. He had a lot of really good questions and it was just a great lesson. He said he that if he found it out to be true he would be baptized, so that'smgreat.

Wednesday- we had zone meeting that morning. Well, it is what we call the "district meeting with the zone leaders there" because our actual zone is In Málaga but it's too expensive to send us down to Málaga. It was a great zone meeting and we got dominoes buffet after. I think the dominoes was about ready to kick us out because we were all eating so much. That evening we had english class and Viviana and Mitchell and Flor came. Viviana left early so we talked with Mitchell after about the Book of Mormon and he said he's already read the introduction and we didn't even ask him to! He's such a beast! Then we had the advanced English class and my friend jose has returned from Madrid so he came and his friend, also jose, came. The friend of jose, Jose has actually been to Salt Lake City before for his work so that was cool.

Thursday- weekly planning in the morning. Then that evening we visited Nieves and she's having a rough time with some medical issues but we had a great lesson. Later we went and taught a lesson to Vivian and Mitchell and The member Kriss came with us. We had written a sort of outline for a prayer for Mitchell to use but instead, when he started the prayer, he started saying exactly what we had written, word for word memorized hahaha. Things of the mission. We couldn't stay too long but it was good for them to meet a member, and they said they're for sure coming to church so that's great



Friday- that morning we were able to teach Flor. Flor is such an amazing person, she says every night she reads the Book of Mormon, the book they use in the relief society, and the liahona. Then we went to Valdapeñas for companion exchanges. I went with elder Kroff my good old Gallego friend from my group who's been in my district almost my whole mission and we had a good time. We taught one of their less actives from Columbia and he's progressing a ton and wants to go to the temple. Then we taught 2 other less active YSA age guys, one from Romania and the other from Spain, and that also went really well. We also contacted a lot of fun people, mostly older, who said they are set on their beliefs at this point, but that we could stop by their houses for a Coca Cola some time. I love old Manchegos they're always so nice.

Saturday- we got back to ciudad real and that evening we went and visited a lot of people but everyone said they were too busy to meet so we visited my favorite man Luis. Luis is doing well and it's always fun to visit him.



Sunday- truly one of the most powerful Sundays of my whole mission. And we had the fewest people In attendance in my whole mission. All together, we were 8 in the branch and our investigators who said they'd come didn't so that was disappointing but it was such a powerful testimony meeting. First because there was a member couple (a man from Guatemala and a woman from Romania) visiting from Madrid and they  gave their testimonies. The conversion of the woman in Romania was just completely inspiring. The church isn't very liked in Romania by the government, so when she was baptized and her peers found out, she was kicked out of her apartment and fired from her job. Her family abandoned her. She said she lost absolutely all hope and felt completely alone. Later she moved to Spain where she was able to start a new life and eventually serve a mission and meet her husband. she was probably more alone than any of us can imagine but God had answered her prayers. But The best part for me was the testimony of Flor. She also got up and shared her conversion story. I was honestly just in tears the whole time because I came to realize truly how much God knows us personally. Flor described the restored gospel in her testimony as something that filled a hole in her heart. She has such a desire to go to the temple and to serve others. There's one sister in the church that's going through a really hard time right now and is very alone. After sacrament meeting I overheard Flor, who works 12 hours every day Monday-Friday to receive very little money (and she chose this job over a much better one because she would have Sundays off) who cleans her apartment all Saturday morning, who invites the missionaries or other members over Saturday evening, who has not missed a single Reunion since the day we contacted her, and who's only time for relaxation is Sunday evening before she has to go back to work late that night, offer to go over to this sister's house to make dinner for her and talk with her. I was just absolutely blown away. She truly is one of my greatest examples I know. She exemplifies Christlike attributes. She isn't just learning the gospel but she is living it to the absolute full potential. We all need to learn from this recent convert of just 1 month. Flor is truly the greatest miracle of my mission.

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