So, my companion´s name is Elder Simon. He is from Argentina (the South part, I´m not exactly where from, but his city´s name starts with a c I think) and it took me about a week to understand him due to his accent. In Argentina, instead of saying, for example, tortilla, they say tortija. It was nigh impossible for me to understand the words he was saying, let alone the fact that he was speaking Spanish. He loves Ironman (the superhero) and basically everything to do with Marvel comics, and absolutely hates DC comics and superheroes. And he hates the heat. When he left Argentina, it was snowing, and he got here and its 90-95 everyday, so I´m loving it, but he´s dying. He also got sunburned, and I didn´t, which I thought was weird because he´s brown and I´m white. He constantly refers to himself as a Lamanite and I am therefore the Nephite, I just hope I´m a Nephite during a righteous period.
This week, we knocked about 1,000 doors, that´s not an exaggeration. But we found several people that said we could come back, and a couple actually let us into there homes for a few minutes. There was this one Muslim guy, who barely spoke any Spanish, and he let us in, gave us some dates and some fried peppers (I only ate the dates cause I knew what they were) and then we tried to talk to him and I had to translate the muslim man´s spanish to Elder Simon and vice versa. We went back to give him a pamphlet in Arabic, but he didn´t answer his door. We´ll probably stop by the next time we´re in the neighborhood.
The biggest thing that we started to do this week, was to visit all the members. ALL of them. I gave a talk last week about Elder Andersen´s talk from last conference, and we are checking up with the members to see if they have prayed and done as Elder Andersen asks us to do. We are also making a greater effort to try and contact all the Menos Activos in the Lorca Branch (There are about 150 on our records) and see if we can´t help them remember why they joined the church or remind them the reasons that they should´ve joined the church for. One Less Active member is Anthony. He is from Ghana and has been a member for about 3 years. About the time that I got to Lorca (about 3 months ago) he stopped coming to church. He was without work, without a house and fell in with the wrong crowd, and started having problems with alcohol and smoking. I met with him this week, and talked to him about the Word of Wisdom, Law of Chastity and Law of Tithing, and Church attendance, and he understood them all (which is a miracle in and of itself because most of the time, my African brothers don´t understand anything the first time I teach it to them) and as he said the closing prayer, you could tell that he was repenting and trying to do better.
I found out something very sad about our African members this week. There are several African churches here in Lorca, and the preachers in those churches tell their members to not associate themselves with the Africans that attend our church. The members of our church of African descent literally are without friends here in Spain. I can´t fully describe the situation in words, but it´s horrible that they have to live through this, but their faith is so amazing. They understand that Christ is their Saviour and that this is his church. They attend the church even despite the racism that takes place within the walls of our own church. How faithful!
Investigators: These first 3 have been handed to us, and are the fruits of the hard work of members and/or missionaries. It is great to have this hope that I am hopefully planting seeds that later someone will be able to reap the reward and joy from.
Pilar (and her husband): These two Ecuadorians have been attending church for the past 13 years, but have been unable to be baptized because they were not married. They have two sons, one, named Kevin, is a priest and is a great guy, the other is named Anthony (I think) and he is about 10, and it also a great kid. They recently went to Ecuador for a vacation/to get married, and are now ready to be baptized. We are currently in the process of reviewing the lessons with them, and organizing a baptismal service.
Jessie: Also from Ecuador, her mother, Paquita (also Fransisca) is an endowed member of the church, and Jessie has been assisting since before I came to Lorca. She told us this week, that she believes the church is true, she just needs to gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon before she gets baptized. I thinks that´s great. She´s reading the Book of Mormon in English and she´s currently in 1 Nephi 1:9. When she told us that, the only good thing I could think of was that at least she knew exactly where she was in her reading. We are going to work with her to help her gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon as we reteach her the lessons.
Juanjo´s French professor (I don´t know her name either): Juanjo is a 18 year old member of the church, soon to be a missionary in Greece. His professor has been studying the church by herself for the past 3 months and has read all of the Doctrine and Covenants and knows the church is true and wants to be baptized. The only problem is that her husband is a little against the church, so we can´t go to her house to teach her, and I don´t know how he would take it if she was baptized. But I have faith the Lord will bless her with a way to join the true church.
Nancy and Luis: Someone that we actually found/were guided to. Nancy is a mother of 3 and Luis is her 13 year old son. We have only met with them a few times, but they are willing to read and pray, and let us into their house. More on them to come...
That is about the extent of what has happened this week. I love you all and pray for you.
All the best (as my African brothers always say)
Elder Garrett B Turley
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