February 27, 2013

Elder Bauer, your tour guide this week on a tour of the LDS chapel in Las Palmas!

Hello Mother and Family,

Well, this week has been pretty interesting.  I´m glad that you have been doing great and that all is well over there. So, just before I start my rant on my week, I just want to tell you guys that from here on out, or after today, P-Days will be on Mondays, not Wednesdays. So, next week I´ll be writing you guys on Monday, as well as the week after that, and the week after that, and the week after that, etc...so yeah, just so you know. Now, on to my week!!

The exterior of the Las Palmas meetinghouse.

Well, my week hasn´t been too interesting for you guys as it was for me. I´ll just tell you about the cool experiences that I´ve had and hope that it would be good enough. So, mostly we are trying to change a lot of how we do things, and I think it´s been having an effect. We haven´t been able to teach as much as I´d like, but at least I can say that I will be prepared to go home, when I go home. We´ve changed a bit of how we plan and if you look at my agenda, you´ll be able to tell what has changed as far as planning. We´ve put back up plans as well as plans on every hour of the day, as well as filling up the day with things to do! I´m very proud of my agenda! And it´s all thanks to Elder Wilson, one of the new missionaries here in the island, who was AP just before. We´ve done exchanges with him, and I´ve learned a lot.

Friday was one of those days that we did exchanges and I was with him in Vecindario! I loved my time with him there and I learned a lot from him. I learned how to follow the spirit and how to work the back up plans, it was amazing!! The lessons that we had were really good and we had a great deal of unity in the lessons! At the end of the exchanges, I wanted to get feedback from him on things that I can work on, but he didn´t really have any for me in specific. I was a little disappointed, but I still learned a lot from him. I hope to be able to do at least one more exchange with him before I head out so that I can learn even more from him.

The plaque, so you know whose church it is.

Monday we had a huge miracle happen. So it all started before personal study. I noticed that I had my one card out of 20 - 45 cards with our phone number written on it. I had written our number on it a while back, and put it in my stack of cards to give it out to someone, and I had faith that it would appear when it would be the best time, for the right person. But in this case, it was the first one that I would pull out, and I didn´t think that the first person would be "the one" that would need the card. I almost reshuffled it into my pile and put them in my pocket, but had a small feeling that it would be well used. I left it there and put the cards into my shirt pocket and started studying.

At about 11am, we started walking toward the main Guagua stop, and had to take Guagua 11. It came right as we got there, which is a miracle in itself. We got on, and sat down near the back of the bus, where the chairs face the back. Not too far into our bus ride, this guy sitting on the final row asks me if I have information about the church, and I said that we did, and gave him the card that had our number on it. He thanked us, and started looking at the card. In the mean time, my companion (who was sitting next to me) took out a pamphlet on the restoration, and started writing the address of the church, when it starts, and other information so that this gentleman can get to church if he wishes. When my companion finished writing, he got up, and gave the guy the pamphlet and explained to him what it is and what it talks about.

The chapel in the Las Palmas church building

While my companion was up talking to this guy about the pamphlet, an African guy sat in the seat next to me, where my companion had been sitting. At that point I thought, "Now where will my companion sit, and what´s going to happen!" When my companion turned around to sit back down next to me, he saw the African guy sitting next to me. He just grabbed his backpack, and sat on the back row, in between this guy that asked for the card, and an African woman, and continued to talk to the guy. I then decided to make a move with the guy sitting next to me and asked him how his day went. He then told me that he doesn´t understand Spanish.  So I asked him if he spoke English. He did!!

A centered picture of the chapel in the Las Palmas church building

So we started talking, and I asked him questions, sharing the message of the restoration with him, as well as explaining what the Book of Mormon is. He got interested and I decided to leave him with a card with our phone number, but I also asked him if he wanted us to drop by some other time. So I got his number and we talked a bit more about his life so as to get to know him a bit more! When he got off, I looked back at my companion, talking to the lady in English!! I was happy and was glad that we´ve been practicing English in the piso [apartment]. After a while, she got off and we sat together and pretty much reported on what had happened. It was amazing since all three gave us their number, have interest, and are looking for something in life. It looks like this next week will be amazing!!! So, just a bunch of miracles happened in a matter of 20 - 30 minutes in a bus!! Super amazing and a great way to start the week!!!

Another picutre from inside the Las Palmas meetinghouse.

That´s pretty much all that I wanted to share with you guys!! I can honestly say that I was guided by the spirit in that occasion, and that we shouldn´t doubt. If we think it´s revelation from God, or inspiration, we can pray and ask if it is His will, and if we still aren´t sure, just act. I´m very glad that I acted and that we did that on Monday! Take care my wonderful family and I´ll talk to you soon!!

Love you all!!!
Elder Bauer