September 11, 2017 ~ Transfer 10 Week 1 ~ Training

Hi all! 

This week has been crazy. So Monday through Wednesday I was still in La Coruña with the zone leaders. Some crazy days in Coruña. And then finally we got home Wednesday night in Lugo.

So, I'm training =) super excited to help my companion learn how to do things and how to be a missionary. He's really teaching me more than I think I'm teaching him. And my new companion's name is Elder Gil and he's from Colombia. So we are talking 99% of the time in Spanish haha. He does speak a little English and is practicing with me during language study. Also, he already has 2 months in the mission (he was visa waiting). I'm really just training him on how to do things here in Spain as a missionary and finishing off what's left of his training.

Thursday we were so tired. After him traveling for 24+ hours and me waiting in Coruña we were beat. And that's right when a member called us to help her gather her potatoes because she needed help. It was a lot of fun and good hard work. They had a tractor that pulled up the potatoes and then we gathered them in buckets. It was pretty cool. I felt bad for my companion because literally on is first day here he is doing some pretty tough work while he's just exhausted haha. But we survived.

Then we had some issues with were the branch had a meeting or broadcast that was going to be shown and we didn't have any equipment or means to make it work...and so it took a while fixing that issue...thankfully the issue was solved when no one showed up to the meeting haha

Saturday we then went to Isidoro's home to help him out but we didn't get to do much service. We also brought Octavio an investagator along because he wanted to come. It seemed odd to me because I didn't think he knew Isidoro but Isidoro was fine with it and it all went well. We cleaned out one of the super dirty rooms in the back of the barn with all these different gears and parts for a tractor I believe. Isidoro is so awesome, he just has so much faith. Right now he's preparing himself to go to the temple.

Okay well I wasn't originally going to share this story but I feel to share it now so I'm going to. I said in La Coruña there were some pretty crazy days we had. Here's the craziest story we had this week from La Coruña (from my journal):

"After P-day we had a lesson in the park near the bridge where the drunk guy slid down the pole last Thursday with a dominicana. She's in her 20s and is super nice. She asked about like how people treat us and we told her the truth, that they treat us not so well. And she was surprised and felt bad for us. And we went on with the lesson. And another investagator came up to us to say hi (by chance he saw us, we didn't plan it) and Elder Maldonaldo started talking to him and teaching him on another bench. Five minutes pass by. And then all of a sudden we hear a huge shatter, almost like a glass bottle broke and it splattered in between our bench and Elder Maldonaldo's. It was an egg that was thrown at us! A man threw an egg at us from the 4th floor of a building (that was a good distance away). The egg splattered all over, it got elder Maldonaldo the worst. But if he hit one of us it would have hurt. The egg didn't splatter, it shattered, it was thrown from so high up. It went everywhere. And I was quite upset but I smiled my way through it. The man was looking at us from the window with binoculars (and obviously it wasn't the first time he had thrown eggs at people). But he looked at us and put a thumbs up like "did I get you?" And then told us to go away. It was super crazy. It was a little scary. And so we went to a different location. After that it was a really really good lesson and she enjoyed it a ton, the restoration made sense to her (this was a first lesson with her). She wondered why we get treated so poorly and then the egg was thrown haha. Quite crazy."

So the biggest emphasis I want to make with this story is that there is opposition to all things. We were doing something good and someone didn't want us to succeed - opposition. But the truth is that in the end good always will win, even if it doesn't seem like it might. Even with the opposition we faced we still taught the lesson and we had the opportunity to help this lady come closer to God.

1 Timothy 4: 10 -For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.

11 These things command and teach.

12 Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.

Well, besides being super tired and trying to fit in all our studies for training there isn't a whole lot that is new. I guess that's what happens when you are out of your area for the whole week haha.

Have a great week!

1) my companion and I at Isidoro's

2) us and the hermanas after gathering all the potatoes

Elder Openshaw

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