July 10, 2017 ~ Transfer 8 Week 4

Hi all!

An amazing week! So my companion and I did two intercambios this week, one with the zone leaders and one with the elders in Cuenca. We actually went to Cuenca and held District Meeting there to switch it up (we've always had district meetings in Madrid and Cuenca Skypes in). We spent the 4th of July in Cuenca and for lunch we had some amazing hamburgers with just a ton of toppings. And we made some brownies. It was great. And Cuenca is a really beautiful city. Funny moment: we made pancakes for breakfast in the morning and they didn't turn out. It was the consistency of bread (we ran out of eggs). Then the syrup we put on the stove too long and so it just hardened right away. It was like eating bread with rock candy attached to it. I thought it was funny how bad it turned out so I took a picture.

And then Friday we had the intercambio with the zone leaders. We met with a ton of people and taught a lot. One of the lessons we had was with their investagator who is going to get baptized this coming Saturday. He had started to doubt whether he should get baptized or not and so it was a make or break lesson. And when we taught him he came to the answer for himself and he knew it was the right thing to do.

The weekend was super busy! Saturday we were running around. We had the do correlation with the ward mission leader and at the same time fill up the baptismal font for someone in the ward. Well... let's just say that the font fills up in 25mins and we got there at 28mins... It had just started overflowing and so we quickly got buckets to clean it up. Thankfully not too bad of a mess.

Then later that day we saw Livia, the investigator of the Hermanas (old lady). She was struggling with some bags and she called us over for some help. And she was close to tears. She said she was super tired and that she prayed for help. And she said God told her that "dos chicos listos iban a venir para ayudarme"(that two boys would come help her). And she then saw us and she knew it was the answer to her prayer. It was cool that we were able to be that answer to her prayer.

And this week we have talked with some amazing people who are searching for answers in their lives. I don't have enough time to explain well but we've talked with some great people who are super open to new ideas and to finding what is the truth.

On Sunday, we were running to everything. We had 4 lessons in the end of the day (thankfully our 5th lesson failed us). But we taught a lesson at lunch with the hermanas' investagator who is getting baptized next week (and we are teaching her two sons). There were 14 people there. It was a ton of people. But it went well. Then we met with someone who has had a really hard life. She told us the only reason she's meeting with us still is that she feels at peace when we talk with her. And then we did our studies in Parque Retiro. And then a lesson with an Italian man (we taught in English) and he's super interested in what we are teaching. And then we ran (and actually ran) to another lesson with some members and we got there 1 hour late! And the members invited a friend and somehow the friend was also 1 hour late so it all worked out all too well.

It's been a busy week. I hope I've told you some interesting stuff but it doesn't sound as good in writing. The week was a lot better than I portrayed it. I love being a missionary! Yes it's hard and we get a lot of rejection but the best parts - the little things - are what makes the difference. I felt really happy looking back on some of our days this week and remembering the conversations that I had had and the people we were able to help.

And a side note:

Funny moments: On Sunday I got to play the accordion! It made my day. I talked to a man and told him I played bass and a bit of piano and he let me have a go on his accordion. It sounded TERRIBLE. My companion got a video but after the worst part. I just went for it and it was a super ugly sound. And LOUD. I cringed. Other people cringed. But it was super cool. 

Also we had a moment where we ended up starting a conversation with someone who we found out was a testigo (JW) and they were really nice. And then right as we were finishing the conversation a car filled of gypsies pulled up and stop on the side of the street. In my mind I thought "RUN". But my companion stopped to talk with them. They just wanted to mess with us about what we believe so I wasn't too interested with talking with them. But after 5 mins we established that they weren't going to get much out of us and they left hahaha. It was pretty funny.

Until next week! Enjoy your week!

Elder Openshaw

Spain Madrid Mission
Calle Fuerteventura 4, 2, Oficina 8B
28703 San Sebastián de los Reyes
Madrid, España