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 :)