The
Christmas countdown is now at 35 days.
This
week flew... most weeks fly. We had intercambios (exchanges) this week, which
was way good. I went with Hermana Pickett to a teaching appointment with this
super cute couple. The husband is from Spain and the wife is from some country
where they don't speak Spanish. They were super friendly and I guess it's a
custom in the wife's country to give a LOT of food to visitors, so we were
eating nuts and crackers and bread and she just kept pulling out more and more
food! We were teaching and then all of a sudden the wife (who's muslim) whips
out her Quran and starts reading to us from it! First in her language
(arabic?), then in Spanish. Meanwhile we're sitting there, our mouths full of
almonds and pecans, trying to chew and swallow so we can move on. She read like
two pages before we were able to get a sentence out haha. That about sums up
that cita, eating almonds and reading the Quran. But intercambios were really
great, and I learned a lot from being with other missionaries for a couple of
days.
Update on
Jonathan: he can't come to church until the end of JANUARY because he has to
work literally every Sunday until then. And his wife doesn't want to go without
him, and neither does Matei... so we're a little bummed. But they're still
reading every day and Matei is burning through the picture Book of Mormon,
which is good. We heart-attacked their door and copied some scriptures from the
Book of Mormon in Romanian to put on the hearts, which was a struggle but ended
up good in the end... we think. Hopefully it's legible. We don't speak
Romanian.
On
Thursday we had a noche de hogar (family home evening) with Yovanna, her kids,
and her husband! It was awesome! Yovanna was in charge of the spiritual
thought, and we left it up to her to decide what she wanted to talk about. We
watched a video she found about how families can be together forever, and then
read a few verses of scripture, and basically she called out her family and
said they need to go to the temple and get sealed or they won't be able to be
together after this life. WHOA! GO YOVANNA!!! And then they all talked about
the steps to get to the temple, like going to church every Sunday and things
like that. We also played charades, which was super fun, and then ate peanut
butter Hershey kiss cookies (from us) and polvorones (from them) for a treat.
Basically, the best noche de hogar ever.
For the
past few weeks, Hermana Encarnación and I have been planning a Christmas
concert with all 3 Málaga wards to kick-off the Christmas initiative this year
(it's called #lighttheworld in English, and the new video and everything come
out the 25th of this month so mark your calendars!). It's been a lot of work,
finding people from all the wards to participate and getting invitations and
things. Well on Sunday we brought a (pretty cute, if I say so myself) brown
sign to put on the table inside the doors of the church that says
"Concierto de Navidad" (Christmas concert) really big and then some
of the details--you know, to get the members all excited. But awkward, because
on the bus into Málaga on Sunday morning, we were holding this Christmas
concert sign and someone tried to give us money! "No, it's okay."
"No, I insist!" We kind of looked at each other. "Is it because
of our sign?" "Yes!" Oh no. "No, this is a sign for a
Christmas concert at our church! We're not asking for money!"
"Oh..."
Kind of
awkward. We tried to give him a pass-along card, but he wasn't interested.
This
was our first Sunday with the new, big ward! It was great. We finally have a
ward mission leader!! He was the ward mission leader in Málaga 1, but he got
moved to our ward so now we've got him. Not sure if/when they're going to find
someone to lead the music in sacrament meeting... but I don't want to do it
anymore! Actually, I haven't wanted to do it for the past 17 weeks, either.
Still holding out hope. But we've got a ward mission leader, so hey.
The big
miracle of Sunday was that Yovanna actually came to church! She hadn't come in
a while. And not only Yovanna came, but her two teenage kids came too!! Did
they have the time of their life? Probably not, they're teenagers (I guess I'm
a teenager too...). But did they come? YEP! We were so excited when they walked
into church!!!
This coming Sunday
we'll get phone calls to know what will happen with transfers (the 29th), so
I'll let you know what the news is with that next Monday.
I was
reading this week in the book of Mosiah (one of the books in the Book of
Mormon), when it's talking about the prophet Alma and his people. Basically,
they were in bondage to these really bad guys, and they prayed to the Lord for
help because they were suffering a LOT. I really loved what happens in a
response to their prayers. "And now it came to pass that the burdens which
were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did
strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did
submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord." The Lord
didn't take away their trials and their burdens, but he DID give them the
strength that they needed to be able to face their problems. I've been trying
to pray less for my problems to be taken away and more for the strength I need
to face them, and I really can see a difference. We can learn so much from the
scriptures!
Side
note: One thing that some of our investigators this week were surprised to find
out was that in our church, we don't just believe in the Book of Mormon. We
believe in the Bible (the Old and New Testaments), AND the Book of Mormon
(Another Testament). The Bible takes place around Jerusalem, the Book of Mormon
takes place among the ancient inhabitants of the Americas. We talk about the
Book of Mormon so much because it's the "keystone of our
religion"--we are the only church that believes the Book of Mormon to be
the word of God, so basically if the Book of Mormon is true, then this is the
true church of Jesus Christ. There are so many different translations and
interpretations of the Bible (a person can point to a verse and say it means
that the Lord's day is Saturday, while another person can point to a different
verse and say that only 144,000 people will be saved). The more I learn about
other religions here in Spain, the more I see the need for the Book of
Mormon--another Testament of Jesus Christ. It states so clearly the doctrines
of Jesus Christ, and together with the Bible we really do have the fulness of
His Gospel. If you haven't read the Book of Mormon, I would encourage you to
read it!
Love,
Hermana Walker
No comments:
Post a Comment