April 25, 2012

Elder Torres, a new convert, and Elder Wride

Madrid from the freeway

Parque Europa

New camera

Hello my family,

We´ve spent a lot of time in the office recently just because people have to come back to Madrid to get their residency cards, and Elder Forrest has had a long list of things to do so yeah. Crazy stuff so here it goes.

So Wednesday of last week, we ended the day teaching Beatriz, some Spainiard lady, since she said that she was interested in learning more about the church. We´ve met with her before because she goes to every English Class that we have every Thursday. So we decided to pick back up with meeting with her, and I must say that she overdoes it on looking up information on the internet about the church. She always runs into anti-Mormon stuff and she invites us to listen and discuss afterwards about it. This time, I´ve had enough with that, so I simply told her, after Elder Forrest and her talked a bit, that if she really wanted to learn and know if the church is true, to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. I also read from 2 Nephi 33:10 to clarify on if she believed in the words of Christ, she would believe in those words. Then I also read to her 2 Nephi 33:2. So basically I told her to soften her heart, and believe in the Book of Mormon. It was pretty good I think. Thursday has been uneventful, but also fun! We had Javier at 7:00, which was a pretty good lesson on the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and it was all good!! At 8:00 we had English classes, and Beatriz wasn´t there so I was hoping that I didn´t offend her so yeah. I got to teach a bit of it and it was fun to do that. We then had a lesson with the Portas family.

Friday was pretty fun! We had Efrain at 7:00 and Family Home Evening at 8:00, and may I say that it was the most interesting Family Home Evening I´ve ever had here. Beatriz came and Alberto, the recent convert, came and at the end of the message, while we were all eating refreshments, Beatriz got up and started singing a song in English. Now, that´s not quite the wierd part, Alberto then get´s up and starts dancing all crazy too!! We were all dying laughing just because that´s not usually what happens. Anyway, Saturday we had Nany in the morning, then Alberto. We got Alberto a triple combination and he loved it! He was excited to have it and is reading it right now. We then went to a baptism that Elder Wride and Elder Torres had and it was great! Alberto went and Beatriz went as well. Natalia, a Dominican 19 year old girl, was the one getting baptized and it was a good experience. We then pulled Beatriz off to the side and talked to her about baptism, and she said that she didn´t want to meet with us to get baptized, but she wanted to meet with us to be with my companion. Somehow I knew it, but we´ve dropped her, and I don´t plan on teaching her again.

Sunday Natalia was confirmed by Elder Torres and that was about the most exciting thing that happened. Monday we had a lesson with a new investigator which was awesome!!! We then went and helped Nany move to a new piso [apartment]. We stuffed the small Opel Corsa with suitcases and bags, and the Ovards and us drove to her new piso. She´s working at the house of a different person so that´s why she moved there. Super nice piso too!! We then had a less active family, the Matos family. They always feed us, and they gave us Dominoes BBQ Pizza. Yummy!!! Tuesday, or yesterday, was death for us in the office. We had a lot to do and it was just CRAZY!!! We did have Alberto and he made us lunch. We taught him about the Priesthood, and it was a good lesson/lunch. We then went back into the office until 8:00 and had Ward Council at 9:00. Today I got a new camera since my old one is kind of broken. Not broken in the sense that it can´t take pictures, but that the battery compartment doesn´t close and stay closed. I like my new camera though! We also went to a grocery store called Carrefour, and WOW!!!! It´s just like a Walmart!!! Super crazy awesome!!! It was HUGE!!! Different sections and everything. I was just excited when I was in there and so yeah. We also did a mini road trip since we got lost 2 or 3 times. We tried to get to Torrejon, but we ended up in Fuenlabrada. Let´s just say that, Torrejon is on our side of Madrid, and we crossed Madrid, from North, to South. It took so long to finally get there. We went to Parque Europa which was cool and it had stuff from Europe in there, like famous monuments, but miniature. How has everything been?

Elder Bauer