Week 32: Ciudad Real, La Mancha District
1:31 PM
Monday- wow, these next two days were incredible (not so much In reference to missionary work I'm afraid to say). We took the 7:00 a.m. train to Malaga that morning for elder Llavina's doctors appointment. Well church HQ called our mission nurses and told them the appointment had been cancelled. So we basically went down to Malaga for a p day there and boy did we take advantage of it. We rented some electric bikes and took them down the Costa Del Sur. Wow..... It was absolutely stunning and the whether was amazing. Malaga is just gorgeous. Then we went to the mission nurses' house (the frosts who both were in the medical field their whole lives) and had lunch with them and then we listened to elder frost and his "man talk" which is a 3.5 hour PowerPoint presentation he has made so that we can be true men after our missions. He also officially authorized me as mastering his shaving technique which is famous in the mission (cuz that's something he does for some reason) and now I can teach other missionaries how to shave, which is something elder stephens taught me one of my first days in the mission. Then we went to Torremolinos which is 10 minutes from Malaga to the west to elder Llavina's very first area and he visited some of his friends there (members and investigators alike). Then we went Fuengirola which is about 30 minutes west of Malaga with the four office elders there. And Fuengirola is just amazing.... I have never been in a more beautiful area of this country. I love Fuengirola. It reminds me a lot of like Laguna Beach (my cousins the Hogans would definitely love it) and also about half the population is British. There's a ward in Spanish and branch in English there so that's cool. We slept there and yea.
Tuesday- woke up and went to the mission office (2 minutes
walking from their piso) and hung out there. The mission elders all kind
of showed me what they do, and the truth was, I really enjoyed the office.
I think I would enjoy being there. Elder Llavina went to do his residency
and elder frost (the mission nurse) took me out to lunch. He's so so
awesome, elder frost is one of the funniest guys in the world. He's just
extremely smart, blunt, and quirky in his own way. Then elder Llavina got
back and we went back to Malaga where we just waited for our train. Then
on the train, the best thing happened. I don't know what the office did,
I'm pretty sure it was an accident, but they put us in 1st class seats in
the train. They served us dinner and everything and we had seats that
reclined way far. It was was fantastic. The dinner was some fish and a
salad and chicken soup and fruit and chocolate and it was all for free. We
enjoyed the train ride home, needless to say.
Wednesday- district meeting in the morning and it was
fantastic. Then our investigators who are the most amazing people Daniel
and Nancy took us out to Burger King. We taught them about general
conference and they said they'd come to both sessions being shown at the
church this Sunday. They also invited us to their house in a pueblo called Fernando
Caballero this Saturday so we can teach them more and they could
show us their pueblo. They even said they'd drive all the way down here to
pick us up. Man, I can't even express how awesome they are. Then we went
and visited Kriss with president Carlos. Carlos is just also the most
amazing guy ever, just super concerned with the branch and the members and
is always willing to help. Then we tried contacting some other reference
we've received but we couldn't find anyone.
Thursday- the morning, elder Llavina had another medical
appointment. It sounds like everything is solved and it shouldn't be a
problem. Then we taught Alisia that night. She's having problems with the
word of wisdom still but we talked about that and she has a sincere desire to
follow it, it's just hard for her. She also has a CATscan this Saturday so we hope
all is well with that. Then that night we met with Kriss's friends Ana and
Jose and their family for dinner. Once again, it sucks they don't want
anything but we still try to mix a message in there.
Friday- we first taught Lorena this morning. We were going to kind of stop teaching her because she wasn't progressing but she called Kriss asking if We were mad at her. We weren't mad at her, but she wasn't doing her part, so there wasn't much we could do. So we just taught a lesson about that. We told her if she doesn't do anything, she's not going to find out. We invited her to conference and she said she would come (spoiler alert: she doesn't). Then we were invited to Burger King by Kriss' friends Ana and her family, still not sure why they like us so much, but it was free Burger King so we were happy. Then we tried meeting with some investigators who we haven't seen for a while but couldn't find too many. But we met with the family of less active Christian but when we went in, they were a little (by little I mean really) drunk so we kind of left (and it was awkward) so yea.
Saturday- so we went to the pueblo of our investigators Daniel
and Nancy. They came and picked us up and it was about a 20 minute drive to
the middle of nowhere but it was really really cool. They have lots of
little crops and are just building everything themselves and it's really
cool. First, they took us on a hike to a beautiful lake in the mountains.
When we arrived we sat and taught them the word of wisdom. They had
already read about it and said they would have no problems obeying it. We
returned from the hike and taught them about the gospel of Jesus Christ. We
invited them to be baptized, finally. They said "of course, why else
would we be doing all this!" The only thing (and this is literally
the only bad thing that's happened) is that they don't want to put a date
to their baptism yet. They want to learn more, so the goal is just to
continue teaching them and helping them develop their testimonies. They
said they've never felt better in their life and they pray and read the
scriptures every night together. It's the best feeling ever to hear people
say that, and there's no other like it. Then we got home and watched the
Saturday morning session of conference. We also got a call from our
branch president telling us his wife had given birth that morning!
Sunday- conference wooo! It's the best. Our branch together watched the priesthood and relief society sessions at 11:00 and the Sunday morning session at 6 (time differences make stuff hard here). I really loved all the talks, especially the focus of families and temples. It's helped me realize what's most important for me in the future. Daniel and Nancy came. They especially loved President Uchtdorf. They kept asking "who was the German man, I especially liked him" they might as well be like the rest of the church now haha! But I felt like what we watched as a branch was exactly what our branch needed at this time. We need to focus more on the temple as members.
Well, it was a fantastic week and flew by so fast. I
reiterate what I say every week: the mission is the best! Being a
missionary is the best! The Spain Malaga mission is the best! (for me and
all the other missionaries here. everyone's mission is the best for them.
Although, Spain is incredible) the gospel of Christ is the best! Can't talk about conference too much yet
because I haven't seen all the sessions so I'll talk about it more next
week, probably.
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