Week 55 and 56
3:27 PM
Week 55
Monday- we had a great p day. Unfortunately one of the
biggest heat waves of the summer is hitting Sevilla right now. But we went to
the cathedral with the hermanas and 2 members and went up the tower and took
pictures and it was way cool. We also ate fast food which I love.
That evening we worked a ton. We went to an appointment
that failed us and contacted people, but later we had a cool miracle. We
stopped by this Nicaraguan lady we had been told to stop by by our ward mission
leader and she was really receptive and really wanted us to teach her and stuff
but we couldn't enter because there was no guy in the house, so we taught her
in the door and she seems like she's going to be super super good! We asked her
to say the prayer before we went and she said in her prayer that she feels like
it's a sign from God that the missionaries have been sent to her
Tuesday- one of the hottest days I've experienced in a
long time. The city had measured outside in the sun, with the heat of the wind
(which makes it worse) about 51 C (124 F) at around 3:00. We had district meeting in the morning and it
went great. Later, when we left at around 5:00 to go work again it had cooled
down to a nice and fresh 47 C (117 F) . We carry around water bottles always,
and about an hour into being outside, it feels like we had just boiled water
and carried it outside. We probably could and it wouldn't make much of a
difference. Anyway, we taught a less active and we were able to understand a
lot better where some of his needs and problems are.
Later, we taught a recent convert here, Gabriela, and we
talked about her doing institute this year and also going to the temple. We got
home that night, absolutely drenched in sweat. But you know what, there's no
complaints, nothing will stop this work, not even extreme weather conditions!
Wednesday- it got a little bit cooler but a lot more
humid, and that Didn't help much. We went that whole morning with a member,
she's the YSA leader of the ward and a return missionary of a bit over a year,
so we had some plans to go by and teach, but they all cancelled, so we went and
knocked doors with her! We found 2 really awesome people, one family from Peru,
and one from Bolivia, and we were able to share the restoration with one of the
Bolivians. That evening we went with another YSA member who's a convert of just
over a year as well, and we had some plans that also failed us, so we also
talked to people in the street, but eventually were able to share a message
with Graci, the recent convert of a month and it went great. She's still
progressing a lot in the gospel.
Thursday- I went down to Fuengirola to renew my Spanish
residency (mine is expired now) and it was way fun, I got to see a bunch of
people from my group including my MTC companion who I haven't seen once during
the mission, Elder Whiting! Then later we had companion exchanges in Málaga
with the APs and that went well. I was with Elder Bussell who had been my zone
leader like 25% of my mission, so it was really fun to be with him again, he's
a really great guy. We taught one of their investigators who's Bolivian and
brand new in Spain, and he's having a rough time so we had a powerful lesson
about Gods ability to help us.
Friday- we continued with the exchange and the morning
wasn't too exciting, and that afternoon we left and went back to Sevilla and we
had a lesson with a member who we home teach who's going through a rough time.
Later, we visited a less active member in tres míl who's name is lady, and she
is from Sudan, and Morrison, the member from Nigeria, came with us because we
are also both of their home teachers, so we got lots of home teaching completed
so far this month! We have 8 home teaching assignments... It's great though.
While we were there, a gypsy lady got very angry at us so that was fun.
Saturday- we had mission correlation and that was good.
That evening we had our YSA mission activity and it went great, everything went
super well. Some members shared some amazing stuff, one member said "what
would happen to Ward 2 of Sevilla If the prophet all of the sudden said we
aren't going to have missionaries anymore?" I think it helped the members
realize the importance of sharing the gospel. And that was about it! Something
I also love that me and elder Reseigh do is that we always talk with someone
every time we get on a bus (and that's very often). So we have to opportunity
to talk to so many people and take advantage of every moment to share the
message of Christ. We try and not let a moment pass us by!
Sunday- we had a sweet miracle in the morning. As we
waited for the bus, we talked with a columbian teenager and we started talking
of religion and he said he was very believing in God. We invited him to church
and he said he didn't want to because he was too tired, but later we testified
that God loves us and wants us to pray, and he all the sudden looked at the
ground for a moment, then looked back at us and said "alright I want to go
to church with you guys." He rode the bus with us and we showed him the
church. He unfortunately couldn't stay long, but we were able to pass the
reference to the other elders in the Sevilla 1 ward because he lives in their
area. Church was good.
Then we took a member to go work, but our set
appointments all failed so that wasn't fun.
Something that's been super awesome about my experience
here is that we have the opportunity to teach and meet many Africans (mostly
Nigerians). The thing about Nigeria, is that they all speak broken English, but
every single province has their own language: Igbo, Benin, Housa, Yuroba and if
you can speak even a little bit of their language, they love you. So me and
elder Reseigh have been studying lots of Igbo (because many Nigerians we meet
are from the provinces that speak that) and it's been super fun. So for langue
study, we always use some of that time to study Igbo. Here is a good Igbo
proverb for you "Huwoh onñyeh werrenti ya nurrú onya na wehyinti Nya
lafu." It means "he who hears, let him hear, but he who does not, let
him leave". Anyway, random thing to share, but I just love the African
people so much, they have such faith in God and they really respect us for
being missionaries and we respect them a ton because of how well they treat us
Week 56
Monday- we had to wake up at
5:00 am to take a train from Sevilla to Málaga for mission council. Elder Craig
Zwick from the quorum of the 70 and of the church mission executive committee
is with our mission this week so he lead the leadership training and it was way
way good, i learned a ton. We learned the importance of church and
mission councils, as well as working with church leadership better in our
wards. After, he asked me and elder Reseigh to have personal Interviews with
him and it was way cool! We got back late that night.
Tuesday- that morning it just
poured! Like, it dumped buckets, it was so nice. The heat is over in Spain!
(Knock on wood) I'm so done with the heat! Nothing too much happened in the morning,
cuz it was really raining. That evening, we had one of the greatest members in
missionary work help us, Lucero. We were able to stop by Morrison (the Nigerian
member) and he had some non member friends there. It was cool, because lucero
doesn't really speak a ton of English (mostly just what she learned on her
mission), but she really made an effort and bore her testimony and shared some
awesome stuff and it was powerful. We stopped by some more people that night
and were able to get ahold of our Chilean ping pong champion investigator
(like he's literally in Spain right now on ping pong competition, he's insanely
good) and he had some other friends there too. We invited them all to church
and they all said that they are going to go this Sunday!
Wednesday- we had to wake up at
3:40am to take a rented bus from our mission from Sevilla to Málaga for a
Mission conference with elder Zwick. All missionaries from Sevilla,
Extremadura, and Huelva took this bus. Anyway, we arrived and it was a great
mission conference, I got to see a ton of friends from the mission, including
my trainee elder Esparza and I was so happy to see him. It was amazing to hear
from elder Zwick again too. We got back that night at like 8:00, went to give a
member a blessing at 8:30, they offered to feed us, we ate, and went home and
planned, and fell in our beds already asleep before we probably landed.
Thursday- we woke up
exhausted... I don't think I had ever woken up so tired in my life. But that's
okay because God gave us some huge miracles today! Well, we had our apartment
owner come in the morning to do some repairs on some broken tiles and also put
some grout to seal cracks in our kitchen where ants kept coming from, and well,
he did a lousy job, so my companion (having worked in construction for a long
time) fixed and cleaned it all. Elder Reseigh is a very talented person. Later,
we weekly planned. That evening, we were proselyting, and talking to some
people in the street, when a random young guy came up to us to talk. Usually
when that happens, we assume they're crazy or they want to try and rob us, so
we were a little skeptical but he sincerely said he needed help and just wanted
to talk but that he wasn't going to be a Mormon or anything. We felt we should
go and sit on a bench and talk with him and he just broke down and expressed
just everything that had happened to him recently and that he was hitting his
breaking point in life. We talked with him, we taught him about the love and
mercy of Christ and what changes he needed to do in his life, and we prayed
with him. It ended up being one of those just super powerful spiritual moments.
Later, we ended up finding 3 Bolivian teenagers in their house. We had met one
brother knocking some doors a week ago, and we stopped by and his brothers were
there too and let us go in and teach them quickly. It was very cool. Then we
taught Graci, the recent convert, that night and it went well.
Friday- that morning we did lots
of contacting. Met some awesome people though, hope someone can become an
investigator. Then there was a missionary who had served here 15 years ago and
he was passing through Sevilla and wanted to take us out to lunch. We weren't
opposed... We ate in a super Spanish restaurant. I had 5 fish. And it wasn't
like a fish fillet, it was just 5 medium sized fish, Heads and all, looking
right at me. It was very very good though. That evening we had good lesson with
a girl on the bus who's from Sevilla, but was studying down at the university
of Cadiz, so it was fun to talk all about Cadiz with her and stuff. She seemed
way open to our message, so we hope it turns out well. Then we taught a Nigerian
man in tres míl, while we were knocking some doors (not always the best idea,
but we decided to do it). He basically wanted to argue the whole time, and I
believe he's the first atheist Nigerian I have ever met. Anyway, it was
annoying, so We just got up at one point and said thanks for everything, and we
hope that you're happy and call us if you need anything. Later we had a family
home evening with a family in the ward, and they invited two non member
friends. One was incredibly receptive!!! She doesn't live in Sevilla, but she
lives in one of the pueblos fairly close to where there's a church, and she
sincerely has a desire to learn and loved our message. The other was actually
from Milan Italy, and wasn't as receptive, but hey, I'm teaching someone from
my cousin Will's mission so that's cool!
Saturday- we had correlation
with the ward mission leader. He was gone in Málaga for 2 months for some
medical stuff but has returned and wow... his name is Manolo and he's just
absolutely amazing. We would talk about some progressing Investigator and he'd
ask "when would you like to have a family home evening in my house with
them? I'm available at any point." Or we'd talk About a less active and
their problems and he'd ask "alright I'll give them a call today to try
and see when I could go visit them with you guys this next week." While he
was out of town he called our recent converts on their birthdays, and organized
what we could do to revise the ward mission plan in missionary work. Just a
complete machine of a member. Later we taught a less active teenager who's the
only member of his family named Yesus, and at the end we invited him to come to
church and he said he would and we organized how he could get there with the
ward mission leader Manolo. Then we went to a baptism of the other wards
because they wanted some help with their musical number. It was great.
Then we met quickly with the bishop and his family and They are great
people.
Sunday- church was so awesome.
Every month, the missionaries are in charge of sacrament meeting. This week, I
gave a talk and we also had a musical number of "Grand Eres Tu" (how
great thou art) and I played clarinet and the bishop's daughter who also played
clarinet played with us, and the other missionaries sang and it went very well.
There were tears in the audience! Then, me and my companion taught primary, and
that was crazy! But it was fun. In the Sunday school class, we had a super
great class. There was the hermans new investigator who's from some African
country that speaks French. Anyway, he's been here for a little time and
doesn't speak English or Spanish, so we can't talk with him at all. (One of The
hermanas (as in the missionary) that found him is from Paris so she is the only
one who can). But every time we see him, we just always are all bros with him
and we speak our very little French that the French hermana teaches us. But he
just always smiles when he sees us and he's super cool, and man, he's going to
get baptized I hope. In the class he bore his testimony in French and the
hermana translated and it was a very powerful testimony. Unfortunately, we had
no investigators in church but we had a less active young man Yesus who we
brought and he passed the sacrament so that was awesome!
Well that was the week. I'm just
loving the mission a ton, I never get bored of it. I think every day of how
much the mission truly means to me, and the people and the places that I serve.
I love knowing that what I'm doing truly can help any person. The gospel is
really a medicine for everything and will help all those who accept it.
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