Week 26: Ciuadad Real, La Mancha District
9:17 AM
Monday- another
pretty regular p day, other than a lot of missionaries were having problems
sending emials so if you didn't get one and were
expecting one maybe, that was why. But we are at the Chinese restaurant of the family of our investigator named
Toni. Then that night we met with
Ronald and it went really well.
Tuesday- we had district meeting in the morning. One of the elders from Alcazar had to do their residency in Malaga so we were in a Trio the whole day with Elder Alvarez from Chile. He was way cool, and he was actually just called to go work in the mission office so he'll be going to Malaga to do their next week. The district meeting went well, and after we went to Burger King as a district. Then as our trio we went out and did some working and contacted quite a bit but without much success. We then finally were able to visit a less active from Bolivia named Christian. He's 17 and is the only member of his family. We taught his older sister as well and that went well. But the biggest problem is just he's kind of lazy... Doesn't really want to come back to church because it's too early in the morning. But he loves working out and boxing so we had a push up contest (elder Llavina won) and then christian had some boxing gloves and wanted to take turns punching each other so we did that and that kid has a good punch. But we were really happy we could finally meet with him and his family, we are really going to try and work with them more and get them to church!
Wednesday- we had the Alcatraz elders stay
with us the night. The morning, we had quite a few plans but they all
failed on us so it was a lot of street contacting and walking around
trying to find less actives or old investigators. We did get one future
from the street, a girl from Bolivia named Paula. She apparently
investigated the church some time ago, so that's cool. You know to be
completely honest, when we're street contacting, if we see someone who
looks like they're from South America, we'll usually go to greater measures
contact them. Usually they're more receptive. Then we met with Alicia and
it was an interesting lesson. Her problem is that she wants to just
know everything all at once but she still doesn't have that foundation
of the restoration yet to build it on. It's hard to explain prophets
and the word of wisdom without someone really understanding where
those things come from and it really all is based on the restoration.
Then we met with Ronald and it was another interesting lesson. Our
topic was prophets and he didn't seem to like the idea of that too much.
We tried explained it to him but he kept going off topic. We told
him that in order for him to know if everything we are teaching is
true, he has to pray and read the Book of Mormon to know if it is the word of
God like the bible. Our plan is to give him a little time to do that and
go from there. Then we taught English class and our favorite magician was
there and did another insane magic trick for us! Also we taught him a
little gospel.
Thursday- weekly planning in the morning. Then really
all of our night plans fell through. We had a lesson planned with an
investigator and a member lined up and everything but he called last
second and cancelled on us. It was sad. But then the member Ana invited us
over to her house where she lives with her brother and his family (all
very Catholic)
to have a family home evening. But we realized we couldn't go because she
lives in a pueblo of ciudad real and we aren't allowed to have rides with
people of the opposite sex alone in a car. But then we had the awesome
idea of inviting less active Christian from Bolivia! He said he could and
even invited a friend, Jose Esteban from Columbia. We went there, ate some
very Ecuadorean food, and had a family home evening and it was awesome.
Ana's family isn't interested but it was good to have Christian there and
his friends.
Friday- we had a meeting with the king of swag, ward
mission leader Luis. Then we went and did some street contacting and
talked to a lot of people and were rejected by most... But that's okay!
Then elder Llavina was awesome and took me to my favorite restaurant in
Spain, Foster's Hollywood. Then we had a meeting with Luis from
Dominican Republic. He wants to be baptized Saturday! Awesome
miracle happened. He's been really working on getting his nationality,
and he's really been trying to read the Book of Mormon and pray a
lot. He's come to church frequently, overcame his word of wisdom issues, and
feels that this is the true church. With all that, he passed
his nationality test! He's taken it a few times and failed but he
passed this time. He knows it was because of the help from God and
because he's tried to change. Man I just love Manuel he's so cool! Just
such a chill
and down to earth guy and Just wants to find God in his life. Also, he has
such a good relationship with the branch president and frequently meets
with him because he knows he's called of God and can help him.
Manuel, just a super golden dude. I pray all will work out for him. Then
we went to Kris's house because they had done some stuff for my birthday.
Paula (the daughter) she made me a cake and they got me a sweatshirt and
stuff for my birthday too! They are seriously the best people in the
world!!! Mission birthdays are fun, because they're basically just normal
days so the little things mean the world to you.
Sam with his dad
Saturday- pretty rough day but that's okay. Okay, maybe
it wasn't the worst but it wasn't the best. The morning, all of our plans
failed so we went to the park to talk to people. It went okay, I guess. It
was just sad because almost every person we talked to said they
are atheist or agnostic and that they don't even want God so why
would they meet with us. But 3 people gave us their phone numbers so
that was good. We talked to a lot of people though... If we saw anyone
with a stroller or with a kid playing on the park we would Just go
straight to them. We tried to really use the eternal families tactic.
For medio dia we went eat with the family of 3 investigators (who
have investigated and come to church for over a year) and their
situation is just confusing and really nothing we can resolve as
missionaries. But that night.... Every plan we had set with investigators
failed on us. And to add on that I forgot the keys in our apartment. And
to top that, our owner couldn't come until 11:00 at night, so we were
just waiting outside our apartment for a long time. It was a rough day.
But you know what, that's alright, it happens.
Sunday- well when one says God answers prayers in his
own time and in his own manner, I testify that it's true. Manuel came to
church, and was even early. We gave him a white shirt and tie and he was
extremely grateful. Also, Toni came but unfortunately we haven't taught
him anything and his family is Chinese (he was born here) so he has
zero Christian background. The only thing he knew about us (which was
very wrong) was that Mormons aren't allowed to have girlfriends
or boyfriends... I don't know where people go their information,
like that doesn't make any sense. But he knows very little so he was
just really confused the whole time. We really are going to try and
teach him. But the best part today was some members here Carlos and
Anita.They both served missions and are a recently married couple with
a baby on the way. They both are just so nice and spiritual
and understand missionary life and really just talked us up a lot and
were so excited that they saw us as such enthusiastic missionaries
trying our best. We really needed that because our enthusiasm hit rock
bottom this week and we were feeling terrible Saturday night. We were
super down so We needed that a lot.
What Sam deemed "apostasy"
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