Hola Friends! This is going to be a long email since I have time, but I've had some really great experiences this week.
Disclaimer: missions are hard and what you'll read below are the best parts of my week. There's a lot of rejection, disappointment, tiredness, frustration, etc. that isn't pictured. ;)
Well this week has been a doozy! My district leader, Elder Weenig, challenged us to make last week a week of finding. The theory is that if we find investigators during the first week of the transfer, they can be ready for baptism by the end of the 6 weeks. So we're putting that to the test but madre mia is it hard. We have been working so hard but we're not getting anywhere. However, God is merciful and has given Hermana DeBoard and I several tender mercies amongst the rejection! This week has definitely been the week of tender mercies
and has taught me that God has a hand in my life.
Knocking on doors here is super hard! We don't even have doors to knock on because everyone lives in apartments so we press buzzers. I have decided that I hate buzzers. It is nearly impossible to have people let you into their homes when all they hear is imperfect Spanish over their speakers.
Tender mercy #1 of the week:
In the MTC the president always told us that every time we left our apartments to contact, we should pray to have God prepare the first person we see to listen to us. So we prayed for that very same thing to happen. And sure enough, God is good because we left our apartment, turned left, saw a lady smoking a cigarette (meanwhile I'm thinking, God are you sure?...) but we approached her and introduced ourselves and she listened to us and was super nice. She ended up not being too interested in the Gospel, but she was excited about the English classes we teach. So it worked! She listened to us and didn't flat out reject us!
After that we were hopeful for the next two hours of contacting but sadly she was the first and last to give us the time of day. The Spanish people are really closed off when it comes to religion and they put up a titanium wall after we get past the "hola, cómo está?" part of our conversations.
Last Wednesday we had 5 citas planned and all but one fell through. So that's about how our week has gone.
After another day of little luck contacting and knocking we got to a promising looking door and rang the bell of an old investigator and were about to talk to the lady who answered when a guy got out of the car he was about to pull away in and ran towards us yelling at us that no one in his entire building needed to hear about our lies. We asked him if he lived there and explained that we weren't even knocking at his door. He was pretty mad and yelled at us to leave. And of course that's when the lady on the other side of the buzzer started trying to talk to us. But the man gave us a glance that told us we'd better leave or else things weren't going to be good. So we left in frustration and tried not to be angry. As a representative of Christ I'm contact oh thinking of how He would react and what He would do. So Hermana DeBoard and I did our best to stay positive and God showed us another tender mercy! We knocked on another old investigator's door and he said he was busy but was nice enough to ask us to come back the following day.
It's spring here and by the temperatures we've been having I'm not sure I'll ever make it home alive! I am getting tan though! Also, I'm going to have some AWESOME sandals and watch tan lines by the end of my mission. It's been 85-95 degrees every day and humid. It's supposed to get up to 101 degrees today. Eeeksies. I walk about 6 miles on average (8 miles last Saturday!) and the combination of those two makes for a very tired Hermana Moore. Also any type of make up is a funny joke with how hot it is. I've stopped trying to use cover up and usually only put mascara on. From the second I dry my face, it's already sticky and sweaty. Hahaha. It's recommend that we drink a gallon of water everyday and although it's a ridiculous amount of
water, I do it easily! I wake up at 7:30 and get to bed at 11:30 or sometimes 12 or 12:30. It takes me approximately 27 seconds to fall asleep.
I forgot to say this in last week's email but I get to teach an English class here! It's a great way to contact people and to serve! Every Wednesday and Friday night from 8-9 pm Hermana DeBoard and I teach a beginner's English class. We've been teaching things like colors and weather and it's been pretty entertaining.
On Thursday we had an eating cita with the Morenos, an older wife and husband who are members. We had really good Spanish rice! And my portion was at last 5 times more than what they had. The Morenos are great and love missionary work. We barely knock doors in their neighborhood because Brother Moreno has already done it all (resulting in many close calls with the police).
Disclaimer: missions are hard and what you'll read below are the best parts of my week. There's a lot of rejection, disappointment, tiredness, frustration, etc. that isn't pictured. ;)
Well this week has been a doozy! My district leader, Elder Weenig, challenged us to make last week a week of finding. The theory is that if we find investigators during the first week of the transfer, they can be ready for baptism by the end of the 6 weeks. So we're putting that to the test but madre mia is it hard. We have been working so hard but we're not getting anywhere. However, God is merciful and has given Hermana DeBoard and I several tender mercies amongst the rejection! This week has definitely been the week of tender mercies
and has taught me that God has a hand in my life.
Knocking on doors here is super hard! We don't even have doors to knock on because everyone lives in apartments so we press buzzers. I have decided that I hate buzzers. It is nearly impossible to have people let you into their homes when all they hear is imperfect Spanish over their speakers.
Tender mercy #1 of the week:
In the MTC the president always told us that every time we left our apartments to contact, we should pray to have God prepare the first person we see to listen to us. So we prayed for that very same thing to happen. And sure enough, God is good because we left our apartment, turned left, saw a lady smoking a cigarette (meanwhile I'm thinking, God are you sure?...) but we approached her and introduced ourselves and she listened to us and was super nice. She ended up not being too interested in the Gospel, but she was excited about the English classes we teach. So it worked! She listened to us and didn't flat out reject us!
After that we were hopeful for the next two hours of contacting but sadly she was the first and last to give us the time of day. The Spanish people are really closed off when it comes to religion and they put up a titanium wall after we get past the "hola, cómo está?" part of our conversations.
Last Wednesday we had 5 citas planned and all but one fell through. So that's about how our week has gone.
After another day of little luck contacting and knocking we got to a promising looking door and rang the bell of an old investigator and were about to talk to the lady who answered when a guy got out of the car he was about to pull away in and ran towards us yelling at us that no one in his entire building needed to hear about our lies. We asked him if he lived there and explained that we weren't even knocking at his door. He was pretty mad and yelled at us to leave. And of course that's when the lady on the other side of the buzzer started trying to talk to us. But the man gave us a glance that told us we'd better leave or else things weren't going to be good. So we left in frustration and tried not to be angry. As a representative of Christ I'm contact oh thinking of how He would react and what He would do. So Hermana DeBoard and I did our best to stay positive and God showed us another tender mercy! We knocked on another old investigator's door and he said he was busy but was nice enough to ask us to come back the following day.
It's spring here and by the temperatures we've been having I'm not sure I'll ever make it home alive! I am getting tan though! Also, I'm going to have some AWESOME sandals and watch tan lines by the end of my mission. It's been 85-95 degrees every day and humid. It's supposed to get up to 101 degrees today. Eeeksies. I walk about 6 miles on average (8 miles last Saturday!) and the combination of those two makes for a very tired Hermana Moore. Also any type of make up is a funny joke with how hot it is. I've stopped trying to use cover up and usually only put mascara on. From the second I dry my face, it's already sticky and sweaty. Hahaha. It's recommend that we drink a gallon of water everyday and although it's a ridiculous amount of
water, I do it easily! I wake up at 7:30 and get to bed at 11:30 or sometimes 12 or 12:30. It takes me approximately 27 seconds to fall asleep.
I forgot to say this in last week's email but I get to teach an English class here! It's a great way to contact people and to serve! Every Wednesday and Friday night from 8-9 pm Hermana DeBoard and I teach a beginner's English class. We've been teaching things like colors and weather and it's been pretty entertaining.
On Thursday we had an eating cita with the Morenos, an older wife and husband who are members. We had really good Spanish rice! And my portion was at last 5 times more than what they had. The Morenos are great and love missionary work. We barely knock doors in their neighborhood because Brother Moreno has already done it all (resulting in many close calls with the police).
On Friday the 10th I hit one month on my mission! Yay! 17 more to go!
Friday was also zone meeting in Alicante. Our zone has about 30 of the closest missionaries and meet every few weeks to talk and learn together. We left Friday morning and took a 45 minute train to Alicante where we ate breakfast and then had the meeting. We talked about planning and about how a goal without a plan is useless. We plan so much here and set so many goals. At the end of the meeting we sang the mission hymn! "O vos los llamados" I'll be sure to sing it lots when I come home. :) you can also find it on YouTube if you search Spain Malaga mission and the song title.
After the meeting we all went to Dominos for 7 euro all you can eat pizza. And it turns out I can eat 7 pieces of pizza. That turned out to be a mistake because we had to sprint 10 blocks to catch our train.
After we got back from Alicante at around 5 we had an incredible (yay tender mercies!) lesson with our number investigator Marina. She is a single parent with 3 kids and has been taking lessons for a while. She had a baptismal date for a while but was feeling pressured so other missionaries took it away. She only has two lessons left and I feel she's really ready for baptism. She loves coming to church and has really become part of the ward. People at church really care about her. We had planned to teach her the law of chastity lesson but when we got to her house we didn't feel it was right with her kids around.
We felt we just needed to answer her questions and calm her doubts. So we did. We just had her ask us questions. She started out asking questions like what do dreams mean and at that point I was a little
worried about who the rest of her questions would be. I knew that we wanted to talk about setting a new baptismal date so I prayed silently. I've never prayed so hard in a lesson before. I prayed that she would feel the Spirit and that she would ask a question about baptism. It was amazing! She opened her mouth to ask a question then closed it with a confused look on her face. Then she asked the question I had prayed for. She asked what a baptismal service was like so we explained a little about that and then we talked about preparing
to be baptized. She interrupted us and said, Hermanas. I know what you need to do for me so I can be baptized. We were happy to listen! She wants us to go over all the lessons briefly so she can make sure she
knows and believes everything. I assured her that she doesn't need to know everything and that she knows a lot more than she thinks she does. We talked about goals and she agreed to put July 9th as her baptismal date!
Last night we met with a less active member who dis-activated a week after getting baptized. Williams is 17 and kind of a punk. Hahaha. We talked to him for a long time and just got to know each other. He didn't get baptized for the right reasons and I really want to help him love this church as much as I do. I know it can help him a lot in his life.
Things I learned about Spain this week:
1. Spaniards love ROUND ABOUTS. They are everywhere and I don't think you could drive for 5 minutes without hitting one. The roads here are really narrow and most of them are one ways. Even though I have an
international license I vow to never drive a car in Spain. Drivers are crazy here-- even more so than Utah drivers.
2. Don't even THINK about knocking on doors during mediodia (Spain-wide nap time). People don't want to be bugged and cities turn into ghost towns. All the little shops close down from 2 until 5:30.
3. I should've appreciated carpeted houses more. Carpeting in houses just doesn't exist in Spain.
Favorite scripture of the week: Mosiah 26:20
"Thou art my servant; and I covenant with thee that thou shalt have eternal life; and thou shalt serve me and go forth in my name, and shalt gather together my sheep."
This is the scripture that was an answer to my prayers about serving a mission. The Lord has promised me eternal life if I follow Him; the least I could do is help others come to have the joy that I have. So that's why I'm here in Spain!
I love you all, thanks for all the emails throughout the week and for your love and support.
This is hard work, but I know it's the Lord's work!
Love, Hermana Moore
A picture from last week eating at the pasta buffet place. This is one of my favorite pictures from my mission so far. I also love how accurately it portrays our relationship with Elders Pesce and Weenig.
We're really close and we love our time together but we still follow the mission rules to a T (note: the visible force field in between Elder Weenig and I). Hahaha. Also, we took this before we went outside and got all sweaty.
Completossssss
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