For this last week, I decided to do more a journal approach where I type in my notes what happened each day so I don't have to spend a long time writing a group email and I remember more of what happened. If you all like this more let me know!
Today is Tuesday, we had district meeting in Catarroja and then we came back to Gandia. We passed by a family from Romania who have been meeting with missionaries for a long time and are the nicest people. We passed by without telling them before and they immediately gave us this soup from Romania that was super good! We talked for them a while and they told us basically their whole life story and their story with the church and it hasn't been easy at all, but wow they're such an amazing family. Tomorrow they leave for Romania and they're going to be married and work on their visas to live in Spain. Its all paperwork so they can come back to Spain and get baptized, they're truly amazing, in the one hour I've known them I feel so attached. I left that home just feeling just wanting the best for them and just loving them. I feel so blessed for the life I've been given and I'm honored to help them come to the gospel and feel true joy that's within. After that we stopped by a woman's house with her daughter and tomorrow she has to go to court for personal reasons so we gave her a blessing that was so powerful. We then finished in the house of a member who made us tortilla de patata which was super super good. My companion shared with them a message with folding paper that honestly was super cool and I need to practice to use later. It was about Christ and about how we need his help in our lives and its through him we have life and will be resurrected.
Wednesday, we ate with the bishop who made us pork ribs and lamb liver with a salad of rice and vegetables, super weird meal but he's a super funny man and we had a lot of fun. We then went to a lesson with a friend we had to stop teaching. She was not keeping her commitments and wasn't progressing so we had to stop teaching her and it's very sad but she took it well and we hope that with future missionaries she will progress more. Then we taught English to a Brazilian couple who don't speak Spanish or English. It was fun like I got to practice my Portuguese and I basically understand all they say. We are going to meet with them on Friday to have a lesson about the church this time. They're a very humble couple and truly I'm hoping to work with them and see where it goes. And that was it, its Halloween and it's not really a Spanish holiday but very young children still dress up and go around and all the youth go out partying, lots of drunk people in the street which was fun.
Thursday we had weekly planning and then a lot of lessons set and everyone fired on us so we were left with 6 hours of nothing to do.... so we decided to talk to some people and find a lesson super quick. We met with a homeless man named Stephan who is amazing. One of the nicest men I've ever met. He is from Belgium and walked to Spain. He has traveled all over Spain and Europe walking. And now he's staying in Gandia with some more work and success and he met with a member who referenced him to us that we visit him. We did and we taught all of the first lesson and he loved it. He actually started sharing some of the lesson before we taught it, like the story of Joseph Smith he somehow already knew which was incredible. He had never met with missionaries before and so all of it was new but he took it so well. After that we went to Good Burger which is basically like the in and out of Spain. They have super good burgers and so we enjoyed they're 2 for 1 price on Thursdays! We met with a member and that was about it. Today is all saints day in Spain which is basically the day of the dead that they so in Mexico so no one was in the street and almost all the stores were closed. It's interesting the different holidays here, they have lots of new ones for me to learn and they are all very traditional.
Friday was another day without a lesson. We set up some visits and they all fired so we did lots and lots of contacting people, to switch it up a little we went to the beach part of Gandia to contact which was beautiful but a bad idea because there were way less people so it was a bust. We ended up returning toGandiaa city and finishing up the day. Not every day Is successful or fun, that's the mission and the important thing is to keep the energy up and start new the next day.
Saturday we had two visits which was amazing, it was a very good day. We had some contacting in the morning and we found some people to teach and we invited some friends to church and then we met with a man named Edwin English and then shared a quick message which was a video from the section in the church app gospel library in the video section under Mormon beliefs. The video we shared talks about what happens after we die and he liked the video and we hope to share little by little more of the gospel with him. Then we met with some recent converts and talked to them about fasting which we do Saturday night and Sunday morning and a little about starting their family history to help them take family names to the temple.
Sunday is always a rough day, we go to church and then all afternoon we don't have much to do. There's always less people to talk to but today was one of the better ones to say the least. After church we only had one visit and it was with a member. She made us a few empanadas and some freshly squeezed grapefruit juice. If you don't know already grapefruit is super super bitter and this woman didn't put much sugar in the juice so it was super strong. We both had full glasses of the juice and the member had to leave the room to take a call and while she was gone I dared my companion to chug his glass and he did and he almost threw up it was so funny. His face was just priceless like the stereotypical I ate something sour face. That was super fun and then we went contacting and we contacted a man dressed up in like I would say dwarf clothing and he was just coming back from a huge role play thing with like swords and shields and arrows and stuff it was so crazy. We talked a while and we played with his sword and shield and then out of nowhere he starts questioning us about the church and our beliefs and he seemed super interested and we're gonna meet with him sometime this week.
This last week was rough, one of the hardest in a long time and it's been hard adjusting to this new area. The work is different. I love Gandia like a lot, I could spend a long time without a problem but some of the ways we work are different here. We contact a lot, in Manacor we would contact a lot as well but not as many people. There are twice as many people here as in Manacor and so we have to contact a lot and its draining. It's not easy to talk to lots of strangers about religion especially here in Spain. We get a lot of bad rap from people here. I had one man pull me and my companion aside today and say what we're doing as missionaries is the worst thing in the world and that we are worse than Hitler.... it's not easy and keeping animated is hard as well but I know God knows what we go through and he has blessed me with "tender mercies" as it says in the Book of Mormon to help me get through.
Thank you for all your prayers they go a long way and please send emails! Love you all have a great week.
Elder Keith
1. Selfie with the new dress sweater
2. I now have a mate cup which is a drink from Argentina. I don't drink it often but now maybe I'll try it a little more now that it's getting colder.
3. Super good lighting on this cathedral so I took a picture.
4. Went to the good burger, basically like the in and out of Spain.
5. Beautiful mural. It means everything will end ok.
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