December 25, 2018 ~ Transfer 12 Week 4

Merry Christmas to everyone! 

I hope everyone has a wonderful day and week!

This week was a pretty eventful week. We are still searching for people who we can teach and how we can help out here in Ponferrada. We are trying new things and switching things up so we can do things better had how we are doing them.

Early this week we went to the food bank to see if we could volunteer there and we are able to! We did everything necessary and now have service to do every Tuesday even we can (a really slow time)! That was a blessing! I have never had such an easy time finding service and signing up for it here in Spain! And the lady helping us out was super happy.

Tuesday morning we set the goal of sharing the Christmas initiative and sharing the restoration. And we met the goal this morning! We showed the video and shared the restoration, and we got a fake number hahaha I called it and he tried to cover it up...haha but we gave him a book of Mormon and at least he walked away with that.

That night we went to an investigators' home and we taught the whole family! We were so excited to be able to teach his family! The family was so interested about what we wanted to tell them with the restoration and about how the church of Jesus Christ has been established again on the earth by a living prophet. Nicolas (the 14 year old) asked when church was even before we asked! They are a great family. I don't know if I've seen a more excited to family to hear about the gospel. And even with little kids they all were listening very intently. It was a wonderful experience and we will see how it continues.

Then we had intercambios (exchanges) with the elders in Leon. It went well, all fairly normal until the bus ride home. I stayed awake (miracle) and was finishing up some things I needed to do on my tablet. And then, when almost home (about 20 mins away), a lady hops on the bus and she sits across from us in the aisle. She's super drunk. And she sees us and says in a really loud voice "hey, you're the Mormon missionaries aren't you!" (all in Spanish). "Well I talked to some missionaries a while ago (Elder Jarvies and another on intercambios but she didn't remember that) and I want you to visit my home, here's my address and number and here's my full name". And they she told us she was looking for a new church. And she kind of went off and starting saying a bunch of things and she started singing songs about Jesus but really really loud. She also told us she wanted to be baptized in the name of the Father, the Son and Virgin Mary. Suggested "the Spirit" as part of that list haha. It made people on the bus really uncomfortable that she was talking about Jesus and talking so loud (keep in mind, this is 20 mins). And then when leaving she says to the lady sitting behind us "these are good boys, you should listen to them". It was great.

We met with quite a few (emphasis on few) of our investigators this week. I was very thankful for the help we had from the members we invited to be with us. They really helped us teach what was needed and to help relate to the investigator better than we knew how (they explained things using examples from their culture that we don't fully understand but that the investigators did understand haha). The members saved us. We had some really awesome lessons.

We were on the way to a members home and we heard revving engine noises. And really loud engines. We go up the hill and there is a rally car race going on! It was super cool! We were able to have some conversations with people about what it was and I learned a lot of new words about cars haha. And the members live right above where the track was so we had a nice view haha.

Yesterday my companion gave a talk in church and I told him about the scripture in Doctrine & Covenants 38: 30 "...if ye are prepared ye shall not fear". I suggested that he read that scripture and then say, "I know the counsel in this scripture is true because I didn't prepare my talk and I'm really scared". He went up and told the joke and nobody laughed hahaha. Most were just stone-faced. A couple of smiles but not much hahaha. I was laughing so hard because no one else laughed.

I'm so thankful for the members here who have fed us this week and who invited us over to share Christmas eve with their families so that we didn't have to just spend it alone at home. We are well cared for.

Christmas is such a special time to spend together as family and to remember the greatest gift of all, Jesus Christ. He paid for our sins and suffered so so much so that we can return to our heavenly home. We can't repay Him for His sacrifice but we can do what He has asked us to do, keep His commandments. And by keeping the commandments, continuing in faith, repenting and being baptized, receiving the Holy Ghost and continuing until the end, we can return. I know He has restored His church on the earth once again through a living prophet as He did in times of old. Here's a beautiful scripture about Jesus and His earthly ministry:

5 For behold, the time cometh, and is not far distant, that with power, the Lord Omnipotent who reigneth, who was, and is from all eternity to all eternity, shall come down from heaven among the children of men, and shall dwell in a tabernacle of clay, and shall go forth amongst men, working mighty miracles, such as healing the sick, raising the dead, causing the lame to walk, the blind to receive their sight, and the deaf to hear, and curing all manner of diseases.
6 And he shall cast out devils, or the evil spirits which dwell in the hearts of the children of men.
7 And lo, he shall suffer temptations, and pain of body, hunger, thirst, and fatigue, even more than man can suffer, except it be unto death; for behold, blood cometh from every pore, so great shall be his anguish for the wickedness and the abominations of his people.
8 And he shall be called Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Father of heaven and earth, the Creator of all things from the beginning; and his mother shall be called Mary.
(Mosiah 3:5-8)

I know that Christ knows us personally. That He suffered for us and gave us a gift so valuable that we can't even imagine it fully. He did what we could not do ourselves. I love you all and wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy week!

Love,
Elder Openshaw