Wow what a week. You know, I'm getting good at recognizing the little miracles and the Lord's hand in all of this. This week also was filled with a lot of the members hands in the kitchen, feeding us. Ever since we got the members back on our side and loving us things have gotten out of hand. In the last 13 days we have eaten with members 11 of them. and 7 of those days we had at least 2 meals. It all culminated with us just about dying on Thursday night. We had 4 meals with members. One with Bishop during media dia, another after a lesson with an investigator in a member's house, then another with another member after an investigator lesson, and then in the house of the Lopez. My "gift of stomachs" came in handy and I downed 2 plates at each house and I came off conquerer. We live by the rules of 1- we eat anything and everything they put on the plate and 2- if they ask if you want more you accept it. The quickest way to a member's heart is pounding their food and we have done well. But it gets difficult sometimes. Asking for more space in my stomach is a frequently offered prayer here in B4 and that is not a joke. I have literally said a prayer multiple times and in the end, I'm alive, still skinny, and with the love of the members. Life is good.
Miguel is still doing well! Taught him lesson 2 and we gave him a blessing yesterday cause he got sick and he is just doing amazing.
Cristian is doing incredible as well. He came to church and loved it! He is awesome and is progressing so well. He should be on baptismal date by the end of this next week.
We found a new family, the 17-year-old brother is a member and just moved from Guatemala. We are now activating him and teaching his older sister and her family. She is friends with a lot of sisters from the ward so the ward is helping out a ton and I am so excited to see how things go with them. The sister isn't married and so it will probably be somewhere around a year before she can get baptized. I may or may not still be in Spain before it can happen but I'm just glad I'm a part of the finding them and helping them start on the path.
That's been a difficulty serving in Spain, where it can take anywhere from 8 months to over a year to get married. If we find out someone isn't married, I know I'll never get to see their baptism which, honestly, is really sad sometimes but it's okay because I am a seed planter and just a first guide on the path. I'm like a workhorse and I'm just here to get to work and find everyone who is ready for this message. It's hard, but so worth it. So so worth it.
Graciela is doing amazing. She is reading, praying and coming to church weekly. She has a lot of friends in the church, and her fireball character is gone. She is just so nice and happy now. She's doing amazing.
Anahi and Javier. Anahi is struggling with some things and the mother has not been very supportive of church attendance. Javier is struggling and always says, "I have a lot on my brain". I just don't know what to do. Just keep them in your prayers. I'll let you know more next week as I find out more.
The Buenos have been struggling a lot lately. We went over last night and he just let everything out. He has no one to talk to and we just talked for like an hour last night and then gave him a blessing at the end of the night. Pray for them. They are still together and plan on staying that way so we just hope to help them communicate more and start being happy.
It was another incredible week though!! I say it all the time but I love this work. It means everything to me.
So for the spiritual thought this week I wanted to talk about the Plan of Salvation. It's something that is so basic to our beliefs that sometimes we forget the value of the knowledge we have. The only thing I want to mention from the plan is our potential and how we need to remember who we are and what we have the potential to become. We lived with Heavenly Father before but we were not like Him. The entire reason we came to this Earth was to gain a body so that we could be like Him. If we can remember this simple truth, that we are on the path to godhood, on the path to become what we were born to become, we will be able to live on a higher plane than the world. Remember your potential, and always keep that eternal perspective. As we bring our thoughts to that level, our daily lives will improve, we will have a purpose in all we do, and we will have the ability to fight off temptation better. I know that we are sons and daughters of the living God. I am so grateful for that knowledge. I love you all!!!! Thanks for everything!!!!
Elder Anderson
¡El reino de dios o nada!
