Hola queridos aficionados. Hoy es el día de escribir! It has been an interesting week. We didn't have much work or progress in our area though, being in Palma for a lot of it. We had Zone Enfoque (Focus) on Wednesday, and then Interviews with President on Thursday, and we stayed the night there and didn't come back until late Thursday. But we saw lots of good things Saturday when the Gardners (Senior couple in Palma) came for piso inspection and helped us with a lot of visits! We were able to take them to see lots of less actives and a couple of our investigators, namely, Yamile/Percy/Angelica, Ruth, Miguel/Alejandra, Luis/Maruja, Fabiola, and then also yesterday to Steve/Maca/Nicole. The Gardners really helped us and touched a lot of these people in new and unique ways. As they come and work more in Menorca I see great things happening, and hopefully as well some progress in our efforts!
I really enjoyed Zone Enfoque about fasting and having the Spirit. There were lots of good things to learn and try to put into practice, particularly in the fasting part =) I realized that my fast could be a lot more meaningful than it has been recently. I had also recently read a quote on lds.org about planning and the Spirit:
“If you plan well, you will have promptings, elders and sisters, telling you the things you should do, and you’ll have some promptings telling you things you should not do. The power of this work is when we get to the point in our relationships with Heavenly Father that we know the voice of the Spirit, and we know it so well that we know exactly what we should do” (Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, devotional address at the Provo Missionary Training Center, June 25, 2002).
So that's the goal. I really want to focus on deepening my relationship with the Spirit and to really learn how to obtain guidance from on High. Like President said in our interview, my experience here in this special place will be a great blessing for me in the future, and I want to be able to say that I learned how to obtain answers and guidance from the Spirit during hard times from my mission, and here in Menorca has been and is a great opportunity to do so. I also really appreciated some of President's comments and the scripture story from 2 Kings that he shared. It has always been one of my favorites, and bringing that to my memory has expanded my vision. Actually pretty much all of my interview was talking about various people we are working with and pretty much nothing about me haha.
Nov 11th
Pues, no puedo creer que ya es el 11 de noviembre. How fast time flies! Except for this week. Someone must have dropped the clocks in vats of cold tar or superglue, because the time here passed very slowly this week...
This has been a pretty difficult week here in Menorca. It has been rewarding as well though! Looking back and counting up all the visits that had fired us, it was at least 15+. We did have a good amount of other lessons though. And so we spent a lot of time in the streets, knocking antiguos and such. We actually have started to teach a couple antiguos, Felipe ( a young brazilian guy. we've taught the first two lessons and read a chapter), Patrocinio (a 66 year old crazy spaniard lady who came to church on sunday. We're not sure how she liked it or what she thought though. She only told us she wasn't sure if she was going to continue or not, and that she left "agotada"...). We taught a few others, but they weren't too interesting in learning more.
Well, as a random sidenote, today is super windy here. The tourists are mostly gone now, and the streets are pretty empty, in a sad, lonely way haha. And the bus schedule for missionary work is terrible! Oh well, we're getting by. We fly into Palma again on Friday for specialty training,which should be really good. That's about all I have for this week. Have a great day and have a fun week. Badup badup badup that's all folks!
Nov 18th
We should write our own book of Lamentations!
Hola! Buenos días. So, as you have already probably read my subject, you are probably thinking of what kind of a week we have had. Wondering what it means. Wondering if we had success or difficulties. Wondering if we are doing well or depressed. If we are prophetically inspired or just aspiring... well, the answer is yes! A little of everything. It has been a pretty good week with lots of ups and downs.
We had a pretty average amount of lessons, and I would say that they went pretty well. I do feel like we've read the first few chapters of 1 Nephi a lot recently though =) Which is good. It is a sign of slight progress!
Another up of the week was the specialty training, like usual. I always love those kinds of meetings and finding new things to apply and adjust. I appreciated the comments on teaching the restoration, I feel like it was really good. I applied from it more of teaching people, not lessons, to find their concern and hit it instead of focusing on what I think are the most important points for them to learn. We always try to get through the whole lesson so that they understand, which sometimes puts us into teach-the -lesson mode. So we are going to work on teaching ASAP (as simple as possible =))
Yes, transfers are coming up a week from tomorrow. I have almost completed by third transfer, almost 4 months here. So by normal standards that's maybe one more transfer here, but then again I haven't heard of a missionary being in Menorca longer than 3 transfers, they tend to change a little quicker. Whatever President feels though. I would like to stay in part for Elder Alder, we have a great companionship. Also we are finding some news with lots of potential. Then on the other side, it is getting cold here, there are less and less people in the streets and I hate door knocking in Spain, so I'm not sure how our strategies will have to change. And working with a few of these duds for so long is wearing my patience and making me frustrated. I am starting to develop a large pet peeve for two faced people who never keep their word or commitments...There's a lot in the world haha.
Nov 26
Hey everybody! I am going to start of with a scripture:
"As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country." (Prov.25:25) So here you have it! We'll get down to the big stuff first. It feels like so much has happened that I for sure will probably forget something. But anyways. As you probably already guessed, and how mom has the spirit of prophesy, I have indeed been transfered: To Zaragoza! It's a giant city towards the center of Spain with a river running through the middle of it. Yes, it is very beautiful. And just as cold and windy as Menorca was!
Kind of some interesting news as well. Menorca will now have 4 elders on it! President called us on Tuesday to tell us and all week we were dividing the area, making lists and maps, looking for a 4 man piso, and such. We found a super great piso that I was excited to move into. We had planned on me taking one half with a new elder and E. Alder the other. Well, transfer calls said otherwise! We saw President in the office today, and he said he wanted to keep me there, and probably would have for another 4 months, but he said I have other work the Lord wants me to do. So here I am!
Since I thought that I was staying, I asked that the Gardners bring my coat and long sleeve shirts to me, so they had them in Palma with them. Luckily a few Elders from Mallorca flew out about the same time and they brought them to me! Actually, Elder Biddle came from there to Zaragoza with me, but with another companion in the other ward. I am here with Elder Wiscombe (from my MTC district!!) and Elder Dixon (a new missionary of 6 weeks that we are tag team training I guess). They are super great =) Also, Zaragoza is my first area outside of a catalan speaking dialect, so everything is in spanish! That makes things easier haha.
President Bladimir seemed excited to be getting two other elders. It was hard to say goodbye to his family, and Steve and his. They are doing great though!
As for the hundred push ups, I worked my way up to doing 80 or so consecutevly ( I can't spell that word anymore), which meant sets of 30-50 and doing like 300 every other morning. Then I called it good and stopped doing it, and now I can probably only do like 50-60 haha.
No, I had not had heard anything about the Philipines. THat is pretty crazy! I know like two people I think who are still there. Hope all is well!
Well, I'm out of time and that's just about everything from my list today. Have a great week! Keep being great! Hope that you all have happy holidays and eat lots this week =) ¡Un abrazo!
I don't have anything unpacked so I don't know where my cable is, but here is a pic of our early thanksgiving we had =)
