Well this week was amazing!!! We have been working a lot with a few investigators who are slightly progressing but its been slow. First, we have Andres, he has a baptismal date for the 15th of February and he is slowly progressing. He is very logical and is struggling recognizing the spirit but he´ll come along. Monday we taught him about his relationship with the Savior and how through the Savior and His atonement we can be healed of anything and He knows everything we feel. His dog died last Friday and he was really struggling so the lesson on the Savior had an impact on him and it helped, I think. We got into his house and watched How Rare a Possession and testified of the Book of Mormon on Wednesday. Thursday he accompanied us to a less active lesson because we needed a male to be able to enter her house and we talked about prophets and they got along really well so we may have accidentally played match maker with one of our investigators. whoops. Then Friday we taught him the Word of Wisdom and he said he had already given up smoking 4 years ago and no longer drinks, so he's been well prepared. We just need him to gain a testimony. We give him chapters to read every night and so if he's diligent with his reading and praying he will receive an answer.
We've also been working with Davy and Lorena. Lorena is a member and Davy is not. They live in the piso above us and we visited them Wednesday night and she asked for a blessing because she's had problems with her legs and then we talked about the priesthood and it was a powerful lesson. We went over to lunch the next day and talked about fasting and started a fast with them. Problem was though we went over to visit a member later and without warning they brought out a bunch of food they made. I'm sure the Lord understood. We made it like three hours in the fast. but it counts if you just restart the fast after you eat, right? We then met with Davy and Lorena last night and watched How Rare a Possession (about the Book of Mormon) and talked about our `stories´ of gaining our testimonies and were working with Davy to find his. He´s starting to have more and more interest in the church and wants us to come over every day at noon to teach him English, and more about the Book of Mormon and the Bible. I'm super excited!!!
We have 3 others. Eliot, who we met while eating with members last Sunday. We taught him the restoration last night and he is going to be a solid investigator we feel. He was very receptive and he's a great guy! We also have Christian who won't come to church but he reads the Book of Mormon daily and listens to it all the time. We may be dropping him because he won't come to church and he just is not progressing, but we´ll keep working with him as long as there is some sort of hope.
Daniel. He has been reading but he is an active Catholic. He's 15 and says he doesn't have a testimony of either church but he loves the Book of Mormon. We´ll keep working with him but we haven't been able to get into his house lately. It's been tough. Last is Leslie. She's 11 and her older brother is Luis, the one who just received the priesthood a couple weeks ago. Leslie is progressing but her parents won't let her be baptized and we may have to drop her if they won't let her progress any more.
The work is hard here and when we contact it's tough but it's worth it!!! I love this so much!! We had intercambios (exchanges) this week and I went with the district leader in Lugo, it's a sweet town!! It's got this part in the middle that's got this wall around it and the inside is like this super old city, it's way cool!!! But the thing was our district leader only spoke Spanish so that was tough, but it was a great experience for me!!!! I was able to talk a lot more than I thought I could. On Wednesday we had zone conference in Santiago. I saw Elder Cahoon!! That was so cool being able to talk to him.
As to the answers to your questions. We buy Spanish meats and bread and then other than that it's just a lot of pretty normal foods. We don't really buy anything too crazy. We make a lot of sandwiches with the Spanish bread and meats and we warm up pizzas a lot. hahaha We eat on our own a lot but the members feed us sometimes. Not too much but the people upstairs, Davy and Lorena, they feed us a lot and bring us food. They're amazing!! The nicest people. Siesta (medio dia) is from 2 to 4 for us and like 2 to 5:00-5:30 for all the people in the city. We just go to our apartment and eat, study Spanish, and relax. Because all other missionaries in the world have two separate hour blocks for eating during the day we just have siesta with the two hours for us from 2-4. The city just dies from 2-5. Spaniards aren't awake in the mornings. We walked to church at like 9 yesterday and the whole city was a ghost town. Nobody was out. So that's why our times are different. I love it though!!!!!
I'm glad you got to go to President and Sister Sitterud's homecoming!!!! They were amazing and yeah! President Sitterud came and spoke to our rama (Branch) my first Sunday here! Your prayers that the language becomes easier is being answered. I'm understanding more and more every day and it's getting a little easier to talk, but it's still super hard and I'm struggling but it's coming! Faster than I thought it would. Thanks for all the prayers and all the emails of support. I love you!!! Sorry I can't reply to everything but I love hearing about how things are at home and what things we have going on. Love you!!!!
For this weeks spiritual thought, in my studies this week about the spirit I learned something I'd never thought of or connected before. The connection between the Holy Ghost and the atonement. The Holy Spirit acts as a cleansing agent and so does the atonement. They work together. As we bring ourselves closer to Christ and truly repent through his atonement then the spirit will be more abundant in our lives and will cleanse us with the strengthening power of the atonement. AS we pray and ask for help, through the Holy Ghost's comforting power and strengthening power, we can receive strength and comfort through the atonement. The atonement and the holy ghost work hand in hand as we renew our baptismal covenants weekly and they cannot exist without each other. (see 3 Nephi 27:20) I love you all!!! Thanks for everything.
con amor,
Elder Anderson
El reino de dios o nada
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| P-day in A Coruña |
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| This one is to show that everything here is wet and Elder Vasquez fell! Elder Gentry is in the back! |
