Monday, April 21, 2014

"Just kidding" (April 14 & 21, 2014)


[At a time when he know Suzie was on-line and, after initially telling Suzie that the Baptism they'd been planning/working on for weeks had fallen through, he followed up with this:]

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just kidding. the baptism went really well. we met with "I..." every day during the week and she came to the baptism really excited. i included a pic. also right after the baptism the city was having a Ku Klux Klan rally/adoration of Jesus party. Very spiritual. I put some pics in the dropbox. I was able to baptize "I..." and "L...." so that was really cool. We had a really good program, a lot of the members and family that spoke talked about the temple which was awkward because we hadn´t taught them about the temple. The aunt and sister-in-law of those being baptized bore her testimony and said that she had had a dream the night before that the whole family was in the temple in switzerland, so that was really cool. We had a really bad week lessons wise, but it ended in two baptisms and confirmations. That was really it. We spent all week preparing for the baptism. Elder Marchant sang I need thee every hour. "I..." took my towel on accident when she left the water so that left me without one.
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now that its getting hotter there are a lot more people here. we spent a lot of time outside of our area last week, but this week we should be working here more. we need to find people still. it says the package is there. we went to fuengirola to play softball as a zone so i probably could have gotten it today, but i will be able to get it on friday.

the new comp is good. a lot of people think i´ll leave after this transfer but i´d be ok staying i think. i do feel like ive done everything i needed to here. thats what is tough. i joked around with elder marchant that after these baptisms i was done here. but i think we can still get one more baptism before the end of the transfer which is mothers day.

o yeah there is a sister missionary here named hermana bangerter that is family friends with the calderwoods.

April 21st
Yeah it was a pretty slow week because every night people were out watching the holy week celebrations. i got the package on friday so i´ve been eating the candy, thanks! the new comp is good. the transfer has been going by really fast. i went to nerja this week and he was able to figure out the area by himself. it was fun holding a lacrosse stick. it was weird seeing it. i thought for a second about the significance of the moment. i wanted to take a pic but i forgot my camera. for easter dinner we didnt have anything. after church yesterday the missionaries in the building all had a lunch, so hermana flake was there too. we ate some ham we bought at the grocery store, and some other people made sweet potatoes and rolls. it was fun. have you seen the video, "Because of Him", that the church made? its really really awesome. we´ve been showing it to members this week. its super cool. 

nothing too exciting happened this week. a lot of catholic processions. we went and taught "I..." and "L...." and the family about temples, and they were really excited. i dont really know how to explain eternal families very well but they were really excited. maybe in a year i´ll come back and can go to the sealing...

sorry thats it...boring semana santa week

"...Con muchas ganas de bautizarme" (April 7, 2014)

New comp is good. He speaks spanish really well and is a good missionary. The members and stuff seem to like him a lot. My spanish is fine. I can usually understand everything or at least pretend like I do. It´s not something I have to worry about too much anymore.
 
celebrating the warmer weather - inside (?)
 So Monday our mission president texted us saying he wanted to have a lesson with us and "I..." on Thursday. 'I..." had to work but we scheduled one with Lorenzo who also had a baptismal date for the same day. The lesson went well, but "I...´s" mom and dad told us that we were going to have to move the baptism back 'because "I..." had smoked a few times and drank coffee'. We said ok, we were going to have a lesson with "I..." the next morning so we´d talk then. But the lesson with president went well. Very spiritual. We talked about the importance of the priesthood and the holy ghost.

with Elder Marchant and 2 new members
   Then the next morning we had the lesson with "I...", and she told us right when we got there that she wanted to move the baptism back a few more weeks. We were a little bummed but said OK and moved into the lesson. We talked about being free from bonds and stuff like that. Then we read Alma 36 together and we didn´t notice at first but she started crying like crazy. We talked more about the importance of baptism and stuff. She just kept crying and crying because she said she had never felt any of this before. We decided not to have her cry anymore so we started to end the lesson. I asked her and her father when they thought they´d be ready for baptism. I started naming dates, April 19, April 26, May 3...and "I..." just says "the 12th". And I said, "what?" because the 12th of May is like a thursday. And she says "the 12th. Next week. I´ll be ready." So we were really pumped about that. We told her we were going to make sure we see her everyday, and the next day we went to see her at work and she said she felt really really good "con muchas ganas de bautizarme" which means like a lot of excitement to get baptized. She said the lesson we had with her was a beautiful experience. She didn´t come to conference which was annoying but she watched a bit of the relief society online and said she was crying. I made a mistake of saying we could meet with her anytime today and she asked to meet in the middle of P-day so we´re gonna have a weird P-day today...
Missionary March Madness?

Yesterday morning we had the priesthood session, but then all the 30 missionaries in Malaga just stayed in our capilla and all day they were showing the sessions of conference. so we watched 4 sessions of conference yesterday which was a ton. we got permission to stay and watch the sunday night session at 10 pm. but the last train to torremolinos leaves at 11:30 so we only saw the first half of sunday afternoon. But it was a pretty fun day in the capilla. we all had brought food and had a missionary party. 

the rest of the week was pretty normal. elder marchant and i are getting along well. he´s a good missionary. we had 3 terrible weeks before, and our area seemed so dead, but now it seems to be picking up. 

Send it to the mission home. I´ll get it eventually. but i cant think of anything i really need. the little picture book domineau sent me is breaking. maybe one day you guys can make another. but with more photos of all the fam, and cato...

love ya


Calvin

"New Comp this week..." (March 31, 2014)

Electric Scooters on P-Day
I wish I could accurately explain how big of a miracle we've seen here in Torremolinos! The daughter of a non-member father and inactive mother has stopped smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee since the day we taught her the Word of Wisdom will be getting baptized in couple of weeks. Her father (who [didn't really like] Mormons before we came) has a baptismal date for the same day, her mother and grandmother are reactivating themselves, and a long-time friend of the family who has been inactive for decades came to church yesterday because she couldn't believe that this was all happening. And to top it all off the extended family have strengthened themselves an unbelievable amount. 
 
I wrote that to someone else but copied it to you. "I..." is going super well. She´s not smoking or drinking coffee, and although it´s a struggle she knows it´s for the best. 

Elder England is leaving for Torrevieja
Other than that it was a really slow week. All of the blessings of missionary work are going towards "I...", and so everything else has been terrible. All of our other investigators have been flaking out on us, and we´ve had a hard time finding new ones. It´s ok, new companion this week and we´ll start fresh. His name is Elder Marchant or something like that. He has 4-6 months in the field. He´s been in Sevilla. I´ve heard he´s nice. I saw him once at a meeting and he sings REALLY good. He made an impression on me with his voice. Elder England is going to Torrevieja which is in the East. I went there once to visit someone in the hospital when I was in Crevillente. Also this woman I taught twice a week for my whole time in Crevillente ("C.....", dominican) finally quit smoking and got baptized last week. That was super cool to here. 

with Elder Vosters (on his way home)
Thursday we had a meeting with President and three zones were there. Elder Vosters was there so it was fun to see him before he goes home in a couple days.

That was really it. At church Yesterday a [less-active] sister came to see the family that are investigating and she hadn't been in a church for years, but i talked to her for a bit and she said that they sang her favorite hymn in sacrament and she started crying a ton. She said she was actually [formally out of the church] but I don´t know why. She said she has no problems with the church. Now she just has probs with herself because when you have a lot of knowledge God expects a lot from you, and she has a lot of knowledge but didn't live up to the expectations. But she asked for a blessing of health and asked me to do the anointing and the stake president to do the blessing. It was cool because the stake prez had absolutely no idea who she was, or that she was a member that [been out of the church], nothing. yet, in the blessing he basically told her everything that I would have said, knowing her past and her problems. It was really cool. Then after we got to set apart the new Elders Quorum President, who´s a really cool 24 year old guy who just got married and has a baby. He served his mission in Italy.

Then last night we went and watched The Prophet of the Restoration with "I..." and the kids. The kids were wild but it still went well. "I..." really liked the movie. O yeah and at the lesson on Thursday "I..." prayed out loud in front of us, finally. It was a really good prayer too. I was very happy.

That´s it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As far as favorite scriptures, I share Alma 7:11-12 a ridiculous amount. Also Mosiah 2:41.

Mountains to Climb (March 17, 2013)

Birthday cake with friends and Elder England
That´s nuts about the airplane [MH370]. 

Transfers are in 2 weeks but I´ll be here for at least another 2 months. Elder England is leaving. 

Yeah, I´ve seen “mountains to climb”. I watched it last week actually. really good!

Last P-day we went and stuck our feet in big bowls of water and fish ate the dead skin off our feet for a half hour. It was pretty fun but we chose the wrong bowls and the fish weren´t as hungry as in other bowls.

We had a lesson with a woman and gave her a baptismal date. She is sincerely reading and asks good questions, the problem is that she just got this dog that is about 4 months old and is just the worst dog in the world. It literally doesn’t stop biting, jumping, peeing, barking the whole time we´re in the lesson. I won´t describe all the ways I want to deal with that dog. So it´s really hard to get anywhere in the lesson because the dog is always messing with stuff and we have to stop. But she has a baptismal date for the 30th. I think it might be hard getting her to church the first time. But she doesn´t really have any other problems.
A message for the Missionaries who like to climb this peak just above Malaga

I had a good experience that God answers prayers. We were having a terrible week as far as amount of lessons because we were so busy preparing for the ward activity Saturday, and Thursday night we only had 2 hours to work because we had to go to Málaga for a baptismal interview and then had to stay and eat at a members house. We were really stressed but before we left the house I said a private prayer that we would work hard for those 2 hours and have success, and it was incredible. We ended up having some really good conversations with the first people we began talking to, and then two times while we were walking someone came up and asked us who we were and we talked with them for about 20 minutes and had lessons with them and got their info. It was really cool. 

The view from the climb.
Saturday we had the activity that we as missionaries planned. It was a bunch of “minute to win it” games set up around the church. We all worked hard getting it set up but only about 35 people showed up...and they were pretty much all primary kids. We did everything we could to get the whole ward there, so it was pretty disappointing. But the people who came had a really good time. The ward needs a lot of help to get more involved. So now we´re back to the drawing board.

That´s the week pretty much

Love ya


Calvin