We ate Guinea Pig!

What´s up guys :).


Pretty slow week. Not gonna lie :)


We ate Guinea Pig! That was pretty interesting :) haha. :) I took pictures so I´ll send them. The same family that made us Snail Soup made Guinea Pig for us :) haha. I´m a little scared for what´s next haha.


The Christmas Light´s came on this week here :) The center of Granada is SUPER pretty with all the lights!


We spent most of the week inviting people to the Christmas Concert we had at the church. The Granada Orchestra played a concert in the church on Saturday. It was really good! :) But we spent almost the whole week passing by old investigators or potential investigators and less actives inviting them to the concert so we didn´t get much else done.


This week my companion is in charge. I gave him the phone, and told him that he would be leading us in plannings and working in the area book. I feel like I´m not getting much help and he sometimes has no idea what is going on. It kind of makes sense. He´s always been companions with Leaders. I spent a lot of time thinking what I could do to get him to help me out a little more. He seems like someone who would take offense to criticism. So as I was thinking I realized that I have a problem haha. I hate asking for help. If I can do something I do it instead of inconveniencing anyone else. So I told him that I need to get better at that so this week I would ask him to have the phone, make the calls, plan, and work in the Area Book. I said I would help with whatever he needs but that he needs to learn how to do things so that HE can be a leader sometime. So all I have to worry about this week is working! :)


I have been pondering a lot this week about how to explode the area. One thing I have really learned on the mission is to always be happy but never be satisfied. I don´t beat myself up about things not being perfect but things ALWAYS must be progressing! In everything!


I listened to a talk this morning by Sister Holland called ¨Walking on Water¨. I loved it! It talked about how when Christ called to Peter on the water, Peter was able to walk on the sea for that brief moment because for that small instance, he had so much faith that he FORGOT that it was impossible. That´s what more missionaries need. Including me!! We need to have so much faith that we FORGET how seemingly impossible it may be to acheive a goal. I will be working on that a lot in the coming weeks :).


Well...sorry for preaching but nothing crazy happened this week and this stuff is what´s been on my mind :) So I shared it haha. I invite you guys to apply it to yourselves.


Have a great week! I love you guys! :)


Elder Marchant

Crap! I forgot a huge story!!! So last wednesday we had transfers. One of the Zone Leaders went home so we had to watch Elder Metcalf all morning until his comp came :). SO...we were lucky enough to have the car for the morning!


We decided to take advantage and go to a cita that buses didn´t get to. So we park the car in a line of cars on the side of the road next to a construction site. And go to our cita. An hour later we come out and there is no car!!! Instead, there is a little green sticker telling us that we got towed!!! NOT OKAY!! We had more lessons to go to and we were FAR away! haha! So we call up a member and ask if he can take us to the tow place. We called the tow place and asked how much it was gonna be to get it out because we needed it that day. 106 EUROS! Elder Metcalf had no money. So I payed to get the car out.... I am broke! haha. Luckily the mission is riembursing me and I will have money tomorrow haha. But we were running everywhere all morning! From my piso to get my money to, member´s houses to get in a car to get to the Tow Truck place, to the bank because they didn´t take card, back to the tow truck place, and finally to the bus station just in time to pick up Elder Metcalf´s companion! What a crazy morning!:) At least it was an adventure :)

 

Great week!! :) As always!! :)

Great week!! :) As always!! :) 

This week super great! :) The work is getting so much better here! :) And our district is tearing it up!! :) We got transfer calls this last week and I´m staying here until at least January 23. Maybe longer! I hope so! :) I LOVE Granada! 

We found AWESOME investigators this last week. 2 big families from Argentina we are teaching now :) and in total we are teaching 5 families! I have never taught so many familes. Always just 1 person. But I am so excited to be working with families now ! :) Especially during Christmas :) 

Speaking of Christmas! If you guys haven´t seen ¨He is the Gift¨ watch is and share it with EVERYONE! We are working here so much with this project. In Spanish it is ¨Él es la Dádiva¨ and we are showing this video to everyone and the members are helping us so much and it is so great! Also we have been able to find way more people this last week because instead of coming out and saying that we are sharing a message about religion or something we just say ¨Hey! We are sharing a message about Christmas! Can we come over for 10 minutes sometime to watch a short video about Christmas with you and your family?¨ And it is working so great! People are so much more open to the Savior during Christmas time. Take advantage of it! :) 

I sent a picture but to explain it, yesterday we went to visit a family from Ecuador. They are investigators and about the humblest, nicest, people I´ve ever met! They love us! They just won´t get baptized! YET! :) haha. But yesterday we went there just to say Hi and ask how they were doing because we missed our cita with them last Saturday because of a meeting. Well they invited us in and we had Snail Soup haha! :) It was super good! You pull the snails out of the soup and stick a toothpick in the shell the poke the snail part and then you pull it out and it looks SUPER nasty and slimy! But it is way good! :) I liked it a lot! :) So that is something to cross off my bucket list :). 

I have eaten quite a few things here that I never did before the mission. Snails, Goat Intestines, goat in general, lamb, rabbit, wild boar, tons of different fishes. I´ve liked it all so far though :) Liver is pretty gross but eatable I guess. I really like tomatoes....I have been waiting for a long time to admit it because I knew that mom would give me a hard time. But for quite some time now, I have been loving tomatoes. I can´t believe I didn´t like them! I can´t imagine eating a salad without tomato now. Onion is awesome too! :) You can put onion in anything! 

It´s freezing here. Granada is right next to the mountain so it is SUPER cold! Sevilla NEVER got this cold! haha. I think next week we are gonna go up to the mountain and go sledding :) I´m pumped! 

Well, I think that´s about it here! :) Working hard, sore because of P90X, but getting in to shape feels great! Tired all the time. But the happiest I´ve ever been! :) Love you guys!

Best ward Ever! :)

 

 100 Montaditos Sandwich Shop :)

Pushing Hermana Nubia in the wheelchair :) 

Soccer! 

Snail SOUP! :) 

The Alhambra last week! :) 

All the walls are SOOO detailed with carvings and tiles!!

DISTRICT CHRISTMAS CARD PICTURE!!! I LOVE my District! 

and tiny toilet :)

Short note.... all of a sudden it disappeared

Gosh dangit!! I wrote this whole thing and all of a sudden it disappeared and didn´t get saved in my drafts! How does that happen!?

Anyways, really quickly, today we went to the Alhambra. It was AWESOME! I will send pictures :) I HAVE been taking lots of pictures I just can´t send them sometimes!


Today we got called by members almost every day to go help them with stuff! At first I thought it was annoying because we were missing out on so much work time but then I realized how happy I am that the members here trust me enough to call me to ask to come and help them with stuff :). I am so happy that the members trust me and like me enough here that they call us when they need help :)


Thanksgiving was great! We had a Zone Meeting and then ate Roasted Chicken, Mashed Potatoes, Gravy, Rolls, Stuffing, and PUMKIN PIE! Aww yeah! It was great! :) I LOVE hanging out with all the other missionaries and getting to know them :)


I started P90X this week as well! :) Attacking the morning has been a big focus here lately and I have felt so great getting up ON TIME and working out hard to start the day off like the Lord has asked :).


I´m getting really good at Ping Pong :) I play with the Young men here a lot and and getting super good! :) I challenge Dad when I get home!


I don´t have much time now, but that´s a quick rundown of the week. Promise a better email with PICTURES next week! :) Love you all! :) Bye!

Derick's new style...

 Sebastian in the Hospital

A photo of the Alhambra

The work is picking up again!

What an awesome week!!! :)


The work is picking up again! We found 6 new investigators this week OUTSIDE of the Ghetto and are super pleased with the work that we will be having now. We are still dovoting a lot of time to finding. When I got to this area, the missionaries had been working in the Ghetto for years. All the gypsies that live there will listen to you but they won´t progress. So it´s like all the missionaries have passed through here and just worked in there to get their numbers and lessons but no one progresses in there. So when I got here I made a goal to GET OUT! haha. The work will never grow in this area if everyone just stays there! So We´ve been doing a lot to get out and now have only 1 investigator in the Ghetto and a big number out! :) I am super happy! It´s been going slow but it´s worth it. Now missionaries will have work outside of the ghetto when they come here and the work will keep moving. :)


This week we went to Alicante for a conference with Elder Kearon from the 70. It was awesome. He answered all the questions that I had come with and left me with so many little one liner quotes! haha :) And you guys know how much I love quotes! So I really enjoyed it and left a better man and missionary. We missed 3 days of work because of traveling but it was worth it :). One of my favorite quotes was ¨Diligence starts at 7¨ because we get up at 7 in this misison. And ¨Jump out of the boat¨. Referring to Peter when the savior caught him fishing after His death. It was just awesome! :) Everything!


I can never remember if I have talked to you guys about certain people or no. But I wanna talk about Sebastian :). He is a Less Active kid from Chile. He is 20. He came from Chile when he was 12 years old because he had a tumour in his leg. It got taken out but he´s had problems since. His leg quit growing and it always hurts him. His passion is Soccer. But he can´t play well because of his leg. But sometimes we go play with him and invite investigators so that he can play with people. Well he is getting an operation this week and will never be able to play soccer again. So on Saturday we had a Goodbye Game. His last game. We had a ton of fun and a lot of people came :). It was super neat and really special for him. We get along really well. He speaks english and he always talks to me about stuff in English. We are really good friends :) And he is going to church and institute and preparing to get the Melchisedek Priesthood. I love him! :) He is so awesome! :) I will send some pictures this next week :) I just don´t trust these computers in these sketchy little Locutorios.


I love the mission :) I love the relationships we build with people; members, less actives, investigators, or just people we see all the time in the neighborhood. I love helping people and especially helping them feel the Spirit and seeing the changes it makes in their lives. My testimony grows every single day! :)


Elder Marchant

  

I love it too much I guess :) haha.

I hate how fast the mission is going!! I feel like I just got here! And I have 13 months already! I love it too much I guess :) haha. It´s so great!


We are still having a hard time here in my area. Nothing is going quite how we would like it to. Trying to figure out what it is I´m supposed to be learning here. But I know I´ll get it if I keep doing all I can and praying with faith. :). We will meet with someone and set a baptismal date on the first lesson and all of a sudden, they don´t want anything anymore! They seem golden and then we get dropped! haha. But we must be digging for gold in the wrong places :) haha. It will get better :).


So I had a really neat experience of going to a town called Motril to do a couple baptismal interviews. Last transfer I went on splits out there and taught a man who didn´t believe in God and didn´t have faith. I did his baptismal interview this week and got to listen to his testimony. It was so neat to see how much he had changed in just a few weeks and to hear all the things that happened to help him change and increase his faith. So many miracles had happened and now he and his wife are getting baptized :). That was a super neat experience :).


So President Deere emailed me last week and said that big things have been happening in Granada lately and that I should take some time to think about what kind of goals I can help make with the District to acheive awesome things until the end of the year. So I sat and was thinking about it and I read a quote from Elder Richard G Scott that said something to the effect of ¨In order to reach goals that have never been achieved, one must do things that never before have been done.¨ So I printed that out for everyone in the district and I asked the district to think of something that has never been done in their areas and what they are gonna do that´s never before been done to accomplish it. So I am super excited to see what each companionship is gonna do. :)


We had a goal last week of 25 references. We got 14 but that is the most I have ever gotten in one week before! Probably more than I´ve ever got in 1 month! So I was pretty pumped. The sad thing is that I think almost all of them live in the other Missionary´s areas! hahaha. So it´s still going rough here :). I talked to President about that in my interview with him this week and he said ¨Well, at least you know you can do it and how to do it now so that you can keep doing it!´ That was nice :) haha.


My comp is alright. We get along pretty good but he doesn´t like small talk too much. He just kind of does his own thing in the piso and he walks a lot slower than me outside so we don´t get much getting to know each other done. But we are working hard and we are obedient so that´s what matters right now. But if we are together another transfer, he´s gonna need to open up a little bit or I´m gonna run out of things to study haha :).


My companion has been taking pictures so I had him forward them to me and I´ll send them :).


This week we are going to Alicante to see a General Authority. His name is Elder Kearon. I met him in the MTC. But I am excited :). Hoping that he will tell me something that I can apply here to get the work going.


Should be a great week :) Won´t get a lot of work done because we will be out of our area for 3 days. But I´m excited to learn something that will help me out over here.


Well, that´s all folks. :) Have a great week and I will tell you all about our eventful week next week! :) Loveyou !


Elder Marchant

My Good pal Carlos dressed up like a Pirate for Halloween and wanted to take a picture with me :) I love carlos! He is the son of a member :) He always loves it when we visit :)

P day on my birthday with the district!

My Birthday cake!!!

My friend Manny is an artist and he gave me a painting of a bull :) IT is awesome!! 

Making Empanadas with Alicia :)

I think Heavenly Father wants me to do something I´ve never done and use my head more.

Well, this week was good. Still struggling here. We have had a total of 8 investigator lessons in the last 2 weeks I think. It´s just been hard lately. I keep setting up appointments with people and then they aren´t at home. Then I call and they don´t answer. I have become a super ¨Pesado¨ missionary. I can´t think of a word in English close to pesado. Pesado is a word that describes a kid that asks ¨Are we there yet?¨ over and over again. Kind of like irritating but it just means that you just keep doing something very heavily I guess haha. I will knock on someone´s door 5 times before I leave and then I will call them 3 times at least haha. I just want a Yes or a No! haha. I hate these ¨Oh, I´m busy¨ or ¨Oooh, the soccer game is on¨. I have just gotten to the point where I will get a yes or a no! So I´m not wasting my time going to people who aren´t interested but won´t tell me. But everything is good! :)


I think Heavenly Father wants me to do something I´ve never done and use my head more. So I was thinking about what we can do here that´s never been done. We have a goal to receive 25 references in a week. We sat down and created a lesson plan and we are focusing this whole week on references. It really is the only way I think that this area will grow again. And it´s how missionary work SHOULD be done. References from members. We are making plans to have Family Home Evenings in member´s homes and having them invite friends and I am super excited to see what we can do here. :) Hoping, praying, and working hard so that it works :) We got 4 references in one lesson last night! :) So I am pumped for this week!


Today, I didn´t want to do anything too crazy for my Birthday :). I just wanted to get the district together and all go eat somewhere and hang out. So that´s what we did, and I got a Birthday Haircut! :) haha. I love haircuts now! It´s turned out to be a pretty good day :) I hope to find mail in the mailbox when I get home! :) haha!


We had Stake Conference this week and Málaga is in our stake so I got to see Elder Cowley and a ton of missionary friends and all the members from Malaga came too! :) It was so much fun to see everyone and hug everyone :). Also, LORENZO GOT THE MELCHIZEDEK PRIESTHOOD!!! :) I was SOO HAPPY! :) I can´t believe it´s been like 7 months since his baptism and that he´s progressed so far! A few more months and they can go get sealed in the temple!


Yesterday, a member invited me over to their house for dinner and they had made me a birthday dinner and a cake and everything! They are from Chile and I love Chile food! :) We took pictures so we will send them soon :) When I get my SD card situation worked out.


Another great, full of new experiences, week and another one coming this week! :) The mission is great! :) Love you guys! Thanks for the Birthday wishes! :) And the love!


Love,


Elder Marchant

New Companion!

New transfer!


It´s been a pretty rough week. I don´t know what happened but ever since Elder Oldroyd left, no one is home, and no one answers the phone. I feel like we have been walking the streets for a week. Pretty frustrating but there´s gotta be a reason. We´ve been finding more people and are looking forward to new things here.


Our whole district is tearing it up here though! We ALL have baptismal dates and are SUPER excited! We are doing SOOO GOOD right now! I hope to be doing baptismal interviews every week this transfer!!


I miss Elder Oldroyd so much! He was such an awesome companion!


My new comp is from Peru. His name is Elder Pomazón. He is 27 years old. He´s a good guy! He´s fun and has a good attitude and cooks good :) haha. He constantly quotes the Bible to people and that´s kinda weird, especially because it´s like the same 5 scriptures and they usually don´t apply to what we are talking about haha. But whatever floats his boat :) haha. We will do good though :)


Last P-day me, Elder Oldroyd, and the Hermanas bought hippie pants and after District meeting right before Halloween we dressed up in our hippie pants and wore mustaches and took pictures haha :) I will make sure they get to you :) (Camera still is broken)


Looking forward to lots of miracles this week though :) Thanks for being involved in the missionary work! Keep it up!!! Because the Church of Jesus Christ IS TRUE!!! I see it more and more every single day :)


I love you guys :)


Elder Marchant

To answer your questions


I love Latino food :) Any food from South America is SUPER good! :) Chile, Argentina and Colombia are the best :). I love Spanish salads though :)


It´s getting cold here. There´s snow on the Sierra Nevada but not here. It gets real chilly at night though.


We eat all over the place. I almost never know where we are going to be eating on any given day :)



We had family night with a member the week before Alicia´s baptism and took Alicia there. We had 5 countries at one table! haha. The member and her daughter are from Colombia, her husband and his son are from Spain, Alicia is from Ecuador, there were 2 French foreign exchange students staying there and me and elder Oldroyd from USA!!! We had to take a picture :)