A lot happened this week.
A little bit about piso life:
I made buttermilk syrup and we got churros =) and we got a new washing machine (we have had to wring out clothes for the past 4 weeks).
Remind me to get a picture of the Lego block pisos here I keep forgetting to get the pictures from my companion. And the schedule here is an hour behind the original missionary schedule but it goes back a half hour in winter (so instead of going to bed at 11:30pm like we were it is now 11pm).
Tuesday we taught a lesson to a less active family about repentance. We may get to baptize the mom in a few weeks, she say she was baptized before in her country (Ecuador I think) but they cant find the record. And in the past I have talked about taking bused to pueblos but that is false. The correct word is train =) buses are only in the cities and for some reason I was thinking buses were the same as trains haha. We take trains to the pueblos.
Tuesday we went to Grado (a smaller pueblo than Mieres) and it was so cool, the experience we had there. For a while we didn't feel we were guided and just couldn't find anybody who would talk to us, but we kept going. And then 1 hour - 30 minutes before we were going to catch the train I saw a street and knew it was where we needed to be. And we knocked doors which is really strange for set up of buildings here. The pisos were shorter like houses but one floor and all connected side by side. And we didn't have much success. And then this lady Maria opens the door and she has a more or less a scowl on her face as if to say "what do you want?" And we started talking with her and she says she doesn't believe in God and isn't interested. And we were about to walk away, we gave her a card with a picture of Jesus and her face lit up. And little by little she lightened up. She asked us more questions. And we saw the spirit change her heart. She told us she used to believe but she didn't anymore, but that she wanted to believe. And then we testified of the Book of MORMON and she promised she would read it. It was so cool to see her heart change when we told her about why we were there and that we only are trying to help everyone feel happiness and joy in their lives that comes from the gospel.
Rejection hurt a lot more this week because I understand a lot better what people are saying and feel their emotions better. My Spanish is definitely improving =)
A little from my journal because we were on a train...
Oct 30 2016 - Today we had a District Conference for León District with Elder Pilz as the general authority. President Pack was also there and spoke. We led the meeting in a monastery/hotel called Paradores Hostal San Marcos. It was really cool. It was a very old Spain cathedral made into a hotel but I think they may have mass in there still, I'm not sure. My notes from the meeting are in my Grey journal. To get to León, we rode a bus with the members of Oviedo and Gijon branches to León. There were two sessions of conference, one at 10am and another at noon (probably because it is so difficult for members to come to León, it's a 2-3 hour drive). And after we eat at the chapel in León. And then we had entrevistas con Presidente Pack (and Sister Pack brought my package =)).
Thankful for the food we received from the members, we were supposed to bring food but didn't have any to bring (that wouldn't spoil) so we had faith that we could find member who had enough food for us too. And there were plenty. We ate very well and all we had to do was ask =) I'm thankful that they helped us out.
This week I learned about happiness and how to live after the "manner of happiness" like Nephi. There is a great talk by Elder Holland called " The quest for happiness" from, a BYU-I talk. It explains 4 ways to be happier. I suggest looking it up because his words are a lot better than mine haha.
At the conference this week in Leon, Elder Pilz talked about two analogies.
One is about the Manhattan NY Temple. It was built by taking out the top two floors of an existing chapel to create the temple, using the existing walls as a buffer for the noise. The temple was built inside this outside shell and needed supports between the temple walls and the outside walls for support but not to many because the vibrations and noise from outside would come thru. And this is an analogy for our lives. We need to have some connections to what is going on in the world but we need to have as few as possible so that the vibrations from the world don't distract us from our life's purpose.
The 2nd, about rock climbing. And about how it's safer to follow the path others have already followed even though it is still fun and has its difficulties. When we do it properly and have a belayer to catch us, we have someone to catch us when we fall. And the Savior is the one who catches us. The man slips and falls and the belayer must use all His strength and power to catch us. Will we remember the name of the one who saved us? Will we be grateful? Will we serve him? How is our relationship with the Savior? It should be very similar to those same feelings as one who saves our lives. He has saved us from spiritual death if we repent.
I hope everyone has a great week!
Elder Openshaw
PS
I also saw Maddie Cheslers friend Darell Merrill, you will have to let her know.
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