another great week!!

Monday- 

We started having FHE´s with part member families and less active members. Today, we had one with a family from Ecuador. Their names are Ramiro (nonmember) and Angela (member) and they have 4 kids: José (member, 11yrs old), Alex (member, 9yrs old), Miguel Angel (3yrs old), and a baby girl that I never can remember her name. It´s hard to teach this family, because Ramiro isn´t a member, but doesn´t want to be taught formally, so we will go and start teaching his family something super basic (like obedience) and then they (they being both Ramiro and Angela)  will start asking questions about the Book of Mormon and about the way the church is organized, and what we do as missionaries, but then when we testify and try and commit them to do something, they don´t really want anything to do with it, and stop listening. So it´s a challenge to teach them, but we are getting better, and apparently Ramiro didn´t even use to listen or talk to the missionaries, but now he says hi to us in the streets and everything, and he´s even started coming to church more regularly that some of our members.

We also visited a member named Tuga Licha (he´s from Ghana and he´s about 32). He is a super strong member, and I love him to death. We talked about Enos and how after we have felt the effects of the Atonement, a natural result is to feel the desire to share the Gospel.

Tuesday-

We had a lesson with a Less Active member named Alberto (19) and his younger brother who isn´t a member yet, Romel (16) about the plan of salvation. I think they are from Ecuador, but I´m not sure. Alberto´s a good kid, it´s just tough for him to get to church sometimes, and he´s having trouble getting rid of his earings, but more on that to come.

We also had a lesson with an investigator Nancy (from Ecuador, 40ish) and her two sons, Anderson (14) and Luis (13). They are a good family, but it´s hard to get all of them together at the same time. We have taught them the Restoration probably 6 times, and we are finally ready to move on. It´s been a good learning experience on how to teach people, not lessons (PMG chp 10).

We also had a lesson with some members who are some of the only Spaniards in our branch. Their names are Juan Jose, Providencia (Provi for short) and Juan Jose hijo/Jr. (or Juanjo for short). They are great, Juan Jose is the Elders Quorum Pres. and Provi is the Relief Society Pres, and Juanjo is the Gospel Principles teacher (he´s also 18 years old and is going to Greece on his mission in 2 weeks).

Wednesday-

We had a lesson with Jose and Stiven in a park. Jose is a non member who has to get married before baptism and Stiven (11), his son, is a member who we are reactivating. I think they are also from Ecuador.

We also had a lesson with a member, Georgina, from Mexico. And she let us know why she is a vegetarian. You all would be proud of me cause I kept my mouth shut. She taught us that when we eat meat, we partake of the carnal instincts of animals, and the natural man gains strength over the spirit. Yeah...

Thursday-

We had a lesson with Fernando (9) and his mom Carmen. They are from Ecuador, and he is getting baptized this Saturday, the 24th, and asked me to perform the ordinance. I gladly accepted. I hope his mother will follow him into the waters of baptism soon.

We had a lesson with Samuel Ogbor (Nigeria, over 40). He is the 2nd counselor in the branch presidency, and loves to mention that "nothing can shake (his) faith" and I believe it. He´s a strong member.

We had another lesson with Alberto, about piercings. We taught him house his body was a temple, and set a date for him to get rid of his last earing (He has already taken off 3 or 4 others and decided not to get tattoos, so he´s trying, he´s almost there). Today, was the last day to wear his earings, so I hope he´s following through with that. His phone is broken, so it´s hard to get a hold of him. He also lives 15-20 minutes away in bus, or a 45ish minute walk (unless we walk at my pace, then we could get there in 30ish min). Unfortunately, his little brother, Romel wasn´t there, but we are going to teach him soon, and reactivate his desire to be baptized (his dad wouldn´t let him 2 years ago when his brother did for whatever reason).

Friday-

We had a special training in Murcia (one of the major cities in our part of Spain). Hermana Deere taught us about the parable of the talents in the bible. And President Deere taught us about asking inspired questions in lessons and learning how to listen to both the investigator and the Spirit, because that is how we will know what to say. It was a great training.

That night, all our lessons failed us, so we were walking around contacting in the street. Nobody wanted anything. We found this 20 year old guy sitting on the sidewalk and I asked him if I could sit next to him. He said yeah, so I sat down and started talking to him about the Plan of Salvation. Then his girlfriend showed up and he had to go, but I hope that those seeds we planted will start to sprout sooner or later.

Saturday-

We went over to Felix (60ish, Ecuadorian) and taught him and his son Carlos (19ish) and his daughter (12ish). We were going to drop him this lesson because he doesn´t want to change anything in his life, but when we walked in, his son, Carlos, asked us if we brought another movie (the last time we watched "Our Heavenly Father´s Plan" and he liked it) and said he really liked the last movie. We asked him what he liked about it, and he said he liked how it talked about the Purpose of Life, and how we are never alone. I hope we can continue to teach him by the spirit.

Sunday-

I continue to play the piano in sacrament meeting. I continue to practice the piano so that I can try to help and bring the spirit to our meetings on Sunday, and I get better every week.

We had a lesson with a couple from Ecuador, Pilar and Danielo, who have been attending church for 13 years and just got married so they are now ready to get baptized. They have a 20 yr old son Kevin and an 11 yr old son Antonio (I think) who are both members and their family is awesome. I didn´t know they weren´t members until 2 1/2 months into the mission. We reviewed all 4 lessons and the baptismal interview questions with them during Sunday School, and they are now choosing a baptismal date, and will be baptized within the next month.

After church a man named Nikolas came to the church building. He is from Romania and is 45 or 50ish. His 15 month old son had tuberculosis about 2 months ago, and Elder Oldroyd and I went to the Hospital and gave him a blessing. Well, he´s better. I don´t know if he´s cured or what, but Nikolas said that the doctors said that the baby, Silvu, his body took the medicine very well and now he no longer needs to stay in the hospital. And he came to pay his respects to God. We will be trying to work with him in the future.

That´s been the week.

It´s good to hear that everythings going good back home.

Have a great week!!

Love,

Elder Garrett B Turley