It was SO FUN!!!

This week has been super fun! We've been improving a lot as far as teaching and have committed a few people to baptism :) Just not a date.... darn agency. Been getting better in many aspects though. My comp is still dead. But he has a lot of desire to finish strong. Just gotta put that into action :). He's good though. He wants to get his english the best it can be before he leaves so we've been talking in english in the piso. It's been fun that way and I speak spanish naturally enough that I don't need constant practice now. Yesterday and american family came to our ward so I got to go to Primary and translate for their little kids :) It was SO FUN!!! I just sat in the little seats and translated into their ears the whole time. The primary kids were super cute and I got to sing primary songs with everyone and draw pictures and stuff :). By far the best sunday in the mission hahaha :). I enjoy translating a lot too.


An american LDS girl saw us in the train the other day and took a picture with us and said she'd sent it to mom. I gave her mom's number and realized AFTER she got off the train that everyone changed phones. And the only other phone number I remember by heart is Greg's haha.

Saw Elder Bastian and Elder Wiley and Hermana Guerrero today! Great old friends! It was a super happy day! :) Gonna see Elder Antezana Tomorrow too!

We've had some really cool experiences this week with people and I'm really enjoying this area and the people here. I took quite a few pictures this week but don't have my card to put them on the computer. All the better email next week! :) haha Hope you all have a great week! Love you guys!

 These are so "Catch-UP" layouts from Mom.

 

This is a dreeeeaaam!

Well I'm still in Torremolinos and I have the same comp. But it's gonna be a dang great transfer!! We have solid investigators. They are super great and ready to accept the Gospel but they are just super lazy... we can only meet with them once a week if we are lucky :(. But everything should go great! I have big goals for this transfer and am shooting for a baptism!! We have at least 6 potential baptisms here. We just aren't bold enough with them. And can't meet with them haha. That's something I need to be better at is being very open and bold that the reason I am doing what I am doing is to baptize them and that they need to progress.....or else!!! haha. I just have a REALLY hard time giving up on investigators. I guess I'm just not like that.

Elder Antezana is coming to my district! It will be super great to see him again! I really wanna go on splits with him :) haha.

Elder Wiley and his comp before me baptized a man named Marcel the week before I got here so I've been really involved in teaching him and going over thing to retain him in the church. We are really good friends and I love visiting him. He is actually a pretty famous artist! he has paintings all over the world but lives very humbly in a pretty crappy piso. Yesterday he asked us if we wanted to go walk up the mountain by his house and read the scriptures in a grove like Joseph Smith haha. So we went up the mountain and sat down in a little grove and read the Book of Mormon with him for a while and just talked about stuff. It was really fun! I have pictures attached :). He is super crazy...an abstract artist. I will have plenty of crazy stories about him to tell when I get home :). I need to record all of them in my journal so I don't forget!

Well everything is going pretty normal. I need a little excitement in my life actually :). My companion loves contacting and knocking doors with me because I make it fun :). I can be a little sarcastic with people when they are dumb... for example: A few weeks ago we were knocking doors and this one door was open, I knocked and a lady said "Who is it!?" And I said that we were missionaries and such and she said "I'm asleep!" and I looked at my comp with a weird face and then said "...are you sure?...." and the lady said "Yes! I'm asleep!" and then I said "Well that's okay!! This is a dreeeaaam!" With a super 'ghosty' voice hahaha. Then my comp grabbed me and pulled me away because he was laughing so hard! :) haha. I can be like that with people like that. :) But at least it gets my comp to come contact :).

Well I'll talk to you guys next week! Love you all! Have a great week! Keep studying Preach my Gospel! ;)


Elder Marchant

AND CHURROS WITH HOT CHOCOLATE! :) I love weekly planning! :)

8 months!?!?! What the heck!?

8 months!?!?! What the heck!? I honestly cannot believe that I am a third done! But what a great 8 months it has been. :)


This week was good! My comp and I had our first real argument haha...but ever since then everything has been a lot better! We had a lesson that was just not the way missionaries are supposed to teach. First of all, because my comp is a native, he just naturally talks more. We've had a lot of lessons where he just talks the whole time, never stops. As missionaries, we need to check for understanding, ask questions, TESTIFY, and hit every point in the lessons. We didn't do a single thing. haha. We left the lesson and I just said "I'm sorry man, but we need to improve A LOT!" He got pretty fired up and I ended up getting pretty fired up but we got home and I apologized and just tried to explain that we need to get better and that I have things that I need to say in lessons. I want a relationship with the investigators. They need to feel the Spirit and if he is just teaching word for word without taking a breath, they aren't getting anything. But every lesson since then has been great! :) Almost perfect! :) haha. We have 4 or 5 investigators that are REALLY close :) so I am excited and happy with what is going on now.


We had interviews with President Deere this week and that was great :). He is gonna be an apostle :) haha. He talked with me a lot about my comp and helped me a ton. He told me to not get frustrated and that I should be happy with what I'm doing and that he and the Lord are happy as well. He told me that although I may not realize it, I am doing exactly what I should be doing and what the Lord was wanting me to do with Elder Rodriguez. That helped me a lot.


This next week is transfers. I don't know what is gonna happen. If I don't leave this transfer I am almost positive that I will be here for another 3 months. I don't care what happens. I would like to see it through with my investigators here, not like in Sevilla. But I will be happy with whatever :). If I'm blessed to leave and have a comp with drive, that would be great :). But I will do whatever I need to.


I don't know if I told you guys, but the girl that bailed her baptism my last weekend in Sevilla got baptized :). She was baptized the same day as the woman that I found crying in the street late that one night. I know I told you about her :). I can't remember if I told you guys they got baptized or not. They asked if I could come baptize them but the missionaries told them I couldn't. They did call me on Mother's Day though :). I am super happy for them :).


Things are going better and I'm hoping the keep going better! :) I'm excited to find out what's happening this transfer! haha. I will let you know next week! :) Love you all!


Elder Marchant

Blessings of Forgiveness....

 Derick wasn't sure about putting this on his blog but I chatted with him this morning as we were on at the same time and told him that this letter was a beautiful testimony of forgiveness and asked him for permission to post it.  I reminded him that when he was set apart as a missionary that his Stake President in his blessing told him to share his testimony in his letters home because he will touch and help those that read his letters home.  

A bit of history to what Derick is talking about...Derick directed a community childrens theater play the summer before he left so that he could earn some money for his mission.  He directed this play with the help of the High Schools Drama Sterling Scholar.  The last night of performance after the end of the play he was told that he had to give everything that he had raised for the play back to the school and couldn't keep any of it.  In the end....we were blessed from his obedience but it was tough.


So you all know about the musical and what happened and what Grandpa Evers told me the day after he gave me the blessing: that I needed to forgive and give away the money and everything. And that someone in the mission would need to hear this story of forgiveness. Well, I found at least one of those people this week. :)


A member moved here when I got here and he has always seemed super weird but when Elder Rodriguez saw him, he recognized him. Turns out that this man lived in Elder Rodriguez' house for a few years when my companion was 12 or so. Well this man invited us to come and eat with him this last week and so we came in to Malaga to eat out with him. He and Elder Rodriguez started getting caught up on everything that has happened and this guy told us that he got married years ago and this lady just married him to get papers to stay in Spain and then she told the police a lie and got this man put in jail for 2 years unjustly. I could tell that this man was very angry and emotional as he was telling us this story and I felt prompted to tell him what happened to me. I told him about the musical and what the school did and everything and he was just getting more fired up, yelling about how unjust everything was and how he can't believe anything like that would happen. But then I told him about my Grandpa giving me a blessing. I said that my Grandpa came up to my house early in the morning the next day and told me that after the blessing he didn't feel right, that he prayed all day to figure out what he missed saying. My Grandpa told me that the Lord told him that I needed to forgive the people. That it was a lesson that I needed to learn and that the story of forgiveness would bless the lives of people in the mission who needed it. This man broke down crying and gave me a hug in the middle of Domino's Pizza. He whispered in my ear that he was the man who needed to hear that story. I explained to him of the huge burden that was lifted off of me after I had prayed and offered my forgiveness. It really is a feeling that I can't even explain. This man just kept crying and crying. He asked me if I could give him a blessing. We went back to the church and I went and prayed and then gave him a blessing. It was one of the most powerful moments ever. I can't remember anything I told him. It felt like that blessing was only for him. He gave me a hug again and told me that he would go home that night and pray and offer up his forgiveness for what had happened to him. I haven't seen him since then but I won't ever forget that day! It is such a testimony builder to me of the power of the Priesthood, of Personal Revelation, and of Forgiveness. What an amazing day. :) Thank you guys for all your help during that time and thanks Grandpa Evers :) I love you all.


Elder Marchant

New Suit!!! The best members in the world gave it to me!! :)

I've begun to develope my art skills because my companion sleeps through companion study time. :) haha

And just silly pictures!

It's been...one week since you looked at me.... la la la la. Who can name that song!? :) I'm guessing probably just dad :) Maybe Tyler can because it's on the silly song CD :)

Mom, I can't remember if I've already asked you this or not but did you accept that lady on facebook named Susan and tell her to email me?

Well this week has been pretty normal again :). Well every week has been getting better with my companion and the area. It was SO dead when Elder Wiley left! Now we have a good 12-14 investigators that are actually really good! We are hoping for great things! :) Every week has been getting better as far as obedience and work ethic, I've realized as I've been doing numbers and goals every week. Nothing super eventful has happened but we are getting very close to having a few baptismal dates :). There is a lady that I've been teaching since I got here named Angeles. I don't know if I've told you guys about her or not (every week I forget what I have said) But she has a demon dog that pees all over us and destroys everything and so she won't come to church because she can't leave it at home. Well we have been having great lessons with her and she tells us that she has prayed and knows everything is true but she doesn't want to get baptized right not because when she was little her mom went behind the dad's back to baptize Angeles in the Catholic church and Angeles holds that story really close because it shows her mom's devotion and love of the Lord. She thinks that if she gets baptized in our church that it will take away from the act of love that her mom did. So this last week we talked about Temples and baptisms for the dead and that her parents can be baptized still in the correct way with the proper authority. She loved the idea of that and thought is was really neat but she said that she's gonna read and pray again. :) I guess that's all I can ask for for now :). We are praying a lot for her! There are several others as well who we have plans to set dates with as well :) so everything is going great!

I'm super excited for Tyrel! Is he learning Tagalog? I think that's what Dan learned.

Cathedral of Malaga

Malaga

Super Guapos with new haircuts!

It's gone! The shortest haircut I think I've ever had! Flippin' 5 dollar Arabian haircuts :) haha