I hope that all goes well in the move and that you don´t have a hard time with the move!! Everything seems to be working out super well with everything that has been going on!! The closing on the house, the selling of the car, just amazing the miracles seen!!! It reminds me of a poem that I´ve heard and read recently and I´m pretty sure that you guys have heard of it too, but I just want to share it with you. It´s called Footprints:
One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord.
Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky.
Sometimes there were two sets of footprints,
other times there were one set of footprints.
This bothered me because I noticed
that during the low periods of my life,
when I was suffering from
anguish, sorrow, or defeat
I could see only one set of footprints.
So I said to the Lord,
"You promised me Lord,
That if I followed you,
you would walk with me always.
But I have noticed that during
the most trying periods of my life
there have only been one
set of footprints in the sand.
Why, when I needed you most,
you have not been there for me?"
The Lord replied,
"The times when you have
seen only one set of footprints,
is when I carried you."
Super cool and true what that poem says!!I know that the Lord has carried our family through this hard time and that we were watched over and that He wants us to be happy! I have seen it on the mission with certain difficulties that have happened and that I have always been safe. It´s just awesome all of the miracles that we have seen!! Now, on to my week so that you know what I´ve been up to here in Parla!
Thursday was weekly planning session and we thought about everyone that we had as of that moment and tried to think of the people we should be leaving for a different moment, but nothing really worked. We´ve been finding a lot of people to teach, but we haven´t been able to teach them a second time which is pretty bad, but that´s fine. We´ve been teaching Melisa, a less active 17 or 18 year old girl, as well as Otilia, and as far as investigators, Vincent, the Nigerian, Ana, from Columbia, and those are the only strong ones. We also found Emanuel, a 17 year old kid from Bolivia, and he believes more in science than in God, but he´s expressed that he wants to know if God does exist so we´re helping him. Not much, but enough to keep us busy.
Friday, we visited with Ana and she´s having doubts about a modern day prophet, so we´ve invited her to pray about that and see if she gets an answer and told her that she will so we´ll see what happens. We also had Noche de Hogar [home evening] which was pretty good so yeah! Saturday we passed by everyone that we have received in the past few weeks to see if anyone would open the door, but we had no lessons that day. We contacted a lot, and contacted references that we´ve received from the street and the office, not much else. Sunday wasn´t much better as far as lessons or anything else. We contacted no one and received one, but Otilia, the Portuguese speaking lady that I keep telling you about that never really comes to church and hasn´t shown much esfuerzo [strength] to get to church, but she CAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! =) =) =) =) =D =D =D =D =D I was SUPER HAPPY, but seriously, very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very VERY VERY HAPPY when she came to church!!!!!! Elder Simmons did help out with a suggestion that he made to us, which was to give her small compromisos [challenges] like read and pray. She could pray pretty easily, but since she has bad vision and doesn´t have to great of reading glasses, she couldn´t read the small print in the scriptures. So you know what I did, when I was in Pavones, I went to the Distribution Center and bought a copy of the triple combination, but not just any copy, but a HUGE one with HUGE print so that she could read!! And you know what, she has been praying and reading!! Super cool, and that just made my week!!! She even brought her sobrina [niece] from England and she liked it too so there´s hope there!!!!
Monday was a pretty cool day!! We had four lessons pretty much without trying and it was great! We finished the Plan of Salvation with Vincent and invited him to a baptism in Leganes that Elder Simmons and Elder Alvarez are having and he said that he´d try to go so that´s hope!!! I´m pretty sure that he´s sincere too so he´ll try to go if he can. We then saw a referral that we got from the office, but then that just turned into bashing with the lady´s husband. Not the coolest lesson ever, but it took the whole time that we were there for him and for us to figure out that the person we were looking for, was there so it was pretty frustrating, but we got a return visit for today. We then saw Melisa to see why she didn´t come to church, but she just didn´t wake up on time so yeah. We then saw Otilia and she´s doing great!! She´s more full of energy so she´s doing great!!
Eating at district meeting
Tuesday was a fun day!! District Meeting was a testimony meeting pretty much and we ate as a district like usual and the Hermanas [sister missionaries] made three huge Spanish tortillas, a fruit salad, and brownies!! We then took District pictures and one of the pictures has a story behind it. So this member from Leganes drew a picture of 7 Disney Characters and Hermana Frandsen put our names next to the ones that she thought went well with us so yeah!! We then took a picture of us posing as our character, hehe. We then had Emanuel and Manuel, the less active from Cuba and ate with him. Super cool day!!
The missionaries in the district posing as Disney characters. From L to R: Hermana [Sister] Farias as Pocahontas, Alex as Arthur (the one that pulls the sword out of the rock) Elder Alvarez as Baloo (the bear in the Jungle Book) Hermana [Sister] Carter as Cinderella, Elder Soriano as Mowgli (the kid in the Jungle Book), Elder Simmons as Peter Pan, and Hermana [Sister] Frandsen as Tinker Bell.
Today we went to the Mission Home and had an activity there! We took the Renfe [regional commuter train system in the Madrid area] from Parla, one end of the line, to Alcobendas/San Sebastían de los Reyes, which is the other end of the line. I got super office trunky just walking around my old area again! We went to a Churreria to get Churros con Chocolate for Elder Simmons! We then went and got a bus to Fuente del Fresno, which is where the Mission Home is! Let me just say that this P-Day Activity at the mission home was much different than the ones with President Watkins. President Jackson was there, and he had P-Day clothes and his wife was there too! They played Tennis together, and then Elder Foster and Elder Forrest (my wonderful ex-comp) played against them, and lost like crazy!! The Jacksons are really good at Tennis!!!! I played Fútball [soccer] a bit and was shocked at my hidden goalie abilities! We then ate lunch and President Jackson was at the grill, grilling hamburgers and hot dogs!! It was super cool!!! Then near the end of the activity President Jackson gets his accordion out and plays a song!! It was AMAZING and super cool and funny and fun!!! I had to take a video of him playing. It was cool!!! Now we´re back in Parla.
President and Sister Jackson grilling hamburgers.
President Jackson playing the accordian.
How´s everything over yonder? I hope all goes well with the move!! I´ll talk to you again when you guys are in Texas!! Take care, be safe, and I love you all!!
Elder Bauer
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