Monday, March 17, 2014

Week 17


This week was rough to be honest.  Numbers were very low.  Lots of people not showing up to lessons, back up plans not working, so we would go contact and no one would listen to us.  José we can rarely meet with, we moved his fecha to the 12th of April and he is really struggling to find time to meet.  We found some people with potential but it was just a long hard week but at the same time, I can't even describe how happy I am.  I have worked hard.  I have been trying to be the best missionary I can be and the Lord has blessed me for it.  As I  strive to be consecrated and fully committed to the work he has blessed me with the gift of tongues and also with the ability to grow as a missionary.  I feel self-sufficient, I can communicate better, I can follow the Spirit better than ever, and I have learned to take adversity head on and keep pushing through.

Monday we had one lesson with José and it went pretty well.  He has desires to be baptized but we just need to meet more.  Tuesday, helped Raquel move her mom in a wheelchair down all the stairs and then later back up.  That was quite the workout.  We taught a lady from brasil and she spoke portuguese but it was amazing as we were able to communicate super well with her.  We have been asked to commit people to baptism in the first lesson and so we invited her and she accepted, but we haven't been able to meet with her since, so we're gonna keep trying but there is potential there. The rest of the day nobody else could meet and so we contacted a lot and nothing worked.  Rough day.  We also had a lesson with a preacher from this other church.  He's great and is a lot of fun to talk to.  One day he´ll be baptized.  We really enjoy those lessons!  Wednesday we had a couple street lessons but they didn't seem too interested and we haven't had contact with them since.  We also visited Raquel and helped her with her mom again and had a lesson in her doorway because we couldn't find a man to go with us but another good thing that has been happening is I feel like I can communicate a lot better than I could a few weeks ago and I can actually participate and lead lessons so that has been a major blessing!

We've been working a lot with Luis, the recent convert, and he is a stud!  We go contacting with him sometimes and teach him other times.  He's getting ready to go to do baptisms the first week of may and he has been progressing so well!  He wants to serve a mission and it would be incredible if he did.  To leave his studies, only member in his family, his dad doesn't want him to but he is going to try anyways.  He is an amazing example to us all.  We met with him Friday and also last night (Sunday).  Saturday we found a lady in the street - we were teaching her and she's like yeah, I've been to your church a lot!  and we said oh really have you seen this book? She said yeah I have one!  So we asked what do you think of it? and she's like oh its true!  It's the word of God!  So we invited her to be baptized but turns out she was baptized in Peru and is already a member.  She is just a less active and we have no records of her on the ward list but we're going to work on re-activating her!  We also met with Davy and Lorena and they are planning on moving to Spokane Washington to live with Lorena's sister.  They talked about the culture here in Spain and how its not family friendly and they really want to leave to get to a better environment for their son.  So, good for them, but its going to be sad.  They're great friends of ours and its sad to see them leave.

I love every opportunity I have to testify of the fact that if the Book of Mormon is true, Joseph Smith was a prophet, and then testify I know these things are true!  It's the most amazing feeling ever!!  I love this work. It was a great week progression wise for me. Thanks for everything!!!  I love you all!!!

((Hugs)) and kisses,
Elder Anderson
El Reino de Dios o Nada