Email 41 - A Good Week Here in Madrid

This was a little scene we ran into outside of the train station. We were with Carlota, and Hna P said she´d love a picture with them. So Carlota just walks right up and asks them to pose with us. Hahaha. So much for trying not to look like tourists.

And no, we´re not sure what it was for, but that´s traditional Spanish dress, so maybe they were just trying to keep tradition alive ;)

"Our little Forget-me-nots that Mom sent. Finally growing!"

"This is one of the best purchases I´ve ever made. I love these pants!"

"And my cute comp :)"

Hi family!

First off- we got our first news on the Mothers´ Day call today, and President said that they´re planning on having us make the calls on Sunday, the 11th. Maybe I can get permission to go on Google+ so we can get Mike in there too :)

Anyhoo, it was a good week for Hna P and I here in Madrid :) Nothin´ too crazy going on, but Sunny is doing great, and we´re working on finding new investigators again. We have a handful that are doing pretty well, but there´s not as much progression as we´d like to be seeing, so we´re trying to find as many newbies as possible. 

One of them is named R-----d, and we found him in the records we've got in the piso. He´s from Honduras, and he´s already got a testimony of the priesthood! He´s very religious, and knows the Bible super well. He used to be a member of one of the churches that doesn´t like our church very much, but he explained to us how he spoke to one of his old pastors and explained how he´s searching for Christ´s true church, and he´s pretty sure he´s found it. He went to the Priesthood Session of General Conference and LOVED it. He said his old churches could never have claimed an authority like the one we have here. :)

And thanks for the meal advice, Mom! Although, you´re correct, with the culture here, it´s true that I won´t really be able to apply much of it. What happens here is that you´re given one full plate- and you´ve got to clean it completely (with bread to wipe it clean and everything), and then they bring out a second full plate that´s usually twice as big, and you´ve got to clean that sucker, too.

Yesterday we were fed something similar to the pig stomach we ate the other day (Hna P said it was a part of the pig´s back), and one of the poor Elders we were eating with just hurled it right up. Poor guy. We were able to cover for him and say it was because they´d just been running all over the place so the member wouldn´t be offended. Haha, ridiculous. I love, love love being a missionary, but being able to control what/ how much I eat will be a welcome change someday! That, and pants.

Anyways we had a lot of neat lessons this week. Everyone we teach has doubts and questions and problems, and the different ways they all go about resolving them is really interesting- and it helps us figure out how well they´re progressing. 

For example, S----o, an African guy we´re teaching, is struggling to understand that only one church has the authority of God to perform sacred ordinances and direct the Lord´s kingdom on Earth. As a result, he´s stopped reading the Book of Mormon.

A----a´s boyfriend didn´t want her to have any association with the church. As you all know, her solution to that was asking us to come over every morning to read with her to strengthen her testimony. (She´s been keeping us updated on the situation there, and she told us the other day that her boyfriend told her he was pleased by her membership in the church and supports her 100%!)

A----o has a misconception of a few different doctrines, including what he´s heard about baptisms for the dead. That halted his progress completely until he stepped back and saw how much his faith has grown and how much happier he´s been since beginning to meet with us.

C-----a (cute little lady, recent convert of the Elders) lives far away from her family and was recently told awful gossip about her husband. Distraught, she prayed, flipped open the Bible and read a verse that basically told her to trust in the Lord and not pay any attention to the crazy things she was hearing.

Regardless of the problem, the Gospel´s always the solution! And prayer´s the very best place for everyone to start :) And the answers from the Man Upstairs always come- you´ve just gotta know what to look for :)

One thing we´ve been using lately to teach that concept is the story of the Brother of Jared. This guy was following the Lord´s instructions exactly, and still ended up with 3 big ole problems with the boats he was building:

1. No light

2. No way to steer

3. No air to breathe!

After praying for guidance, the Lord basically sent him these answers:

1. Make these specific changes in the boats to have air.

2. Don´t even worry about steering, I´ve gotcha there.

3. I trust you to come up with a way to have light. Keep me posted on your ideas.

Those are the 3 basic ways answers come- and it´s really fun teaching this lesson because there´s always a little *click* in there somewhere - when the person suddenly recognizes an answer they've already received.

And even though the third kind of answer can be the hardest- we always invite those we teach to read Ether 3 to finish the story and see what a HUGE blessing/ miracle those kinds of answers can be :)

Answers come, folks!

I hope you all have a good week :) Thanks for the updates on everything back home- I expect updates on Mike´s wedding plans to continue! :) And I can´t wait to get to hear more about it all in person in a couple of weeks!

Love you tons!!!

-HCL :)