Thursday, May 30, 2013

First Monday of May 2013

Buuueenos días! Qué tál todo? I was happy to receive your emails. I'm glad that things are well, that you are all so faithful and diligent!
Elder Schinder is great. I do kind of miss working with Elder Dayes, and it is wierd to see him at church with the other ward, but Elder Schindler is a special missionary! He has a way with the members and winning over the hearts of them with their trust. He is a good teacher too, he explains things with boldness but in a way that makes sense. Super conductive to the Spirit! We are both kind of neutral and  impartial, so I've kind of had to practice being more assertive and decision making. Which is good =) We didn't teach as many lessons this past week, but we set a few fechas. We have 2 for this weekend, 1 for thursday the next week, and 1 for the 25th. There are like 5 others who we can and probably will set a fecha with soon. 
This last week we had a special meeting in Catarroja with the bishoprics and missionaries in the stake, to talk about an upcoming activity, and also how to work more unified between the wards and the missionaries. It was really inspiring and I saw even more about how great the stake leaders are. In Utah the leaders are always great, but there are lots of great members too, just a few "slots" for leadership. Here the leaders really stand out as something special. There are great things about both perspectives, and it has really inspired me in a new way. President Pace was also there, and gave a great message about unity. He also answered a question from the stake president about how our numbers were about a 100 at the beginning of the year, now were are 130ish, and by the end of the year we are supposed to have 200. The stake president then told the bishops, if you want some of those missionaries to be sent to Valencia, you need to have work in your wards! You need to be giving the missionaries references and work! That's what animates them, which helps them work harder than their own efforts, that's where success will come, and where there is success there will be sent more missionaries, and with more missionaries there will be even more success! It was an interesting insight. Joy (the mother of the two baptisms we had last week) told us in one of our visits last week about a story they had. They said when they went to be baptized (her and her husband) like 5 years ago, all they had left was 5 euros. Thats it. The bus pass was 5.05 euros. They didn't know what to do. They decided to use it, found 5 cents, payed the bus and went to the church thinking they'd just walk home or something. After their baptism, someone went up and congratulated them, and after shaking his hand left 40 euros. He tried to excuse it, but the man said they needed it. He said they hadn't told anyone about their situation. On their way back, they found a bus card laying on the ground, kind of new. (There are tons of abandoned bus cards on the ground, usually empty) They thought it had nothing, but they picked it up and tried it, and it was brand new with 10 trips on it. They said they knew without a doubt that the Lord lived, and that this was His Church, without a doubt. They have the greatest miracle stories, and their family is so great! 
This sunday was mothers day in spain, so they had the special sunday service combined with testimony meeting. It kind of went from a worship service and testimonies of the Lord to a mother worship and testimonies of moms and family, which is good I suppose, but with a couple I felt like it wasn't too focused on the Lord. What can you do though, it's one day a year and moms are really special. It was a good sunday. 
Thats about all I have. I look forward to talking on Sunday! That should be fine, around 4 or 5 here maybe. Just keep your eyes peeled =) Have a great week!

No comments:

Post a Comment