Man, what a great week!

Man, what a great week!

The castle in Alcalá was super cool and I have pictures of that! We just climbed up to the top of the hill and there was just an old castle there so we just climbed all over it and played around and took pictures! It was so fun!

This week has been super busy and nothing crazy has happened. We´ve just been working like crazy. We have a big whiteboard in our piso to plan for our investigators and there is no room on it now because we have so many investigators and so much work! When Antezana left we had 10 investigators and now we have 26! We literally have no time to contact, knock doors, teach less active, or even visit members! We have a baptism this weekend! And are super excited for it! We also have 4 other baptismal dates for April. This is probably my last week in Sevilla. I will get a call this weekend and find out. I am praying to stay here. But if the Lord needs me somewhere else, then I¨m up for it! I´ve definitely done a lot here in Sevilla and made a lot of progress for whoever comes to take my place. But I´m just hoping like crazy I can stay here for 6 more weeks!!! I remember before I left I wanted to get transferred all the time so I could see different parts of Spain but all I wanna do is stay here now and finish with the people that we have! It´s gonna be a sad day when I leave. But there are even greater things coming if I do!

Everyone asks me what kind of food I like and what we eat. Mainly we just eat rice haha. With different things in it. I love Calamari and Octopus actually! I´ve really enjoyed every fish meal that I´ve had. They eat lots of soups. I like lintal (however it is spelled in English) soup. Lots of members make that. Yeah...rice and chicken about sums up the food I've eaten haha. But it's all very good! I really like Bolivian and Peruvian food too! Except this crap called Seviche. It's like onion lime fish craziness. We've eaten it twice and it's just weird but south Americans love it so I just eat it haha. The candy and chocolate here is amazing! They have these things everywhere called Chuches stands. Chuches are gummi candies and are SUPER popular and pretty darn good actually. :)

The language is just coming great now. I can talk with just about anyone. For language study I've just been starting to translate quotes and write them in my book because I can't stand just studying out of the book. You guys know I've never been one for studying :) haha. But It's all great!!! The people are awesome! Our investigators are finally getting the hang of it! My companion is probably gonna have at least 10 baptisms next month! I've really done great work here and will be happy to do it somewhere else if I get transferred :).

Their church building that the meet in each Sunday in Sevilla.

Alrighty!!!

Well, I can´t think of any super crazy stories that happened this week... We have just been working super hard and teaching like crazy! We have quite a few investigators right now! That is super great! We should be having a baptism next week as well!!! We are super excited for that! She is solid! We went over the baptismal questions with her on our last visit and we talked with her to make sure she understood everything. We said ¨What do you understand about keeping the Sabbath Day Holy?¨ and she said ¨Well, we go to church, read our scriptures and stuff. Oh and we can´t listen to music!¨ And we said ¨Woah! You think we can´t listen to music on Sundays and you STILL wanna be baptized!?!¨ hahaha. So she is great! She is 16 years old and her name is M.... Her family has been investigating the church for over a year I think and something changed in her and now she really wants to be baptized! We are praying for her and hope everything goes great! The only thing that will keep her is that her whole family is not being baptized. But we have faith that all will work out! 

We have also had the opportunity to give quite a few Priesthood Blessings this week. All of them have been truly inspired too! I am so grateful for those opportunities. They strengthen my testimony every time!

We had a crazy experience with our family from Peru too. They are the ones who had a baptismal date but fell through. We had a lesson with them and I was just getting so frustrated the whole time. I had felt like I had done everything I could with them and nothing was going right. My companion could tell I was getting frustrated and then he said ¨Do you guys not feel our love for you when we come? Especially from Elder Marchant. We love you guys and wouldn't keep coming back if we didn't! Can't you guys feel the spirit when we are here." and they all just said that they feel our love but don't know what the Spirit is like still. And then my companion said "Right now we are all gonna kneel down and Elder Marchant is gonna pray. When he finishes we are gonna stay down with our eyes closed and stay kneeling until we feel the Spirit." So we all knelt down and I prayed and when I was done, the brothers from the other room came in and just knelt down with us and started praying with us too. It was like the Spirit told them they had to come in and kneel down with the family. 4 minutes later my companion said we could get up. They said they felt it and we challenged them to have family prayer kneeling every night till our next visit. So we have been reminding them every night and we will find out how it went next time we go! HOPEFULLY IT WORKS!! :) haha.

Well that is my week :) Now we're gonna go work crazy hard still and find more people and baptize the people we already have!!! I sent an email to my President today and said "President, I know it's not your decision. It's the Lord's. But....I would REALLY love to stay in our area 1 more transfer if He is okay with that :)." So I am REALLY hoping that I stay here 1 more transfer to help our investigators! They have gone so far and they are all SO close to the baptismal font!! I want to see them in it so bad!!! But I won't complain whatever happens. :)

Well I love you guys! We are going to a castle today! So I'll tell you about that next week! Have a great one!


Ta lo (How they pronounce Hasta Luego in Sevilla) hahaha

Elder Marchant

 Happy St. Patties Day!

I have a good excuse for being a day late!!

First off, I´m sorry you didn´t get an email yesterday haha. We had a member offer to take us to Córdoba! So we spent the day there! It is super pretty! I took tons of pictures mom! But....the Locitorio that we are in doesn´t have slots to put my SD card so...you´ll have to wait! mwahaha! But you WILL get them eventually!


Well we are just so dang busy! We have a baptismal date for that kid, Edward, that I was talking about last week! That was a miracle! It is so amazing to see how just over a week ago he didn´t believe in God at all and now he prays with us and is so sincere! So we are hoping and praying that he continues to progress and that he makes it into the waters of baptism this month!


I had an interview with my Mission President last week and that was just great. He is truly inspired of God! I had started getting to a point where I was saying so many prayers a day that they started to become so routine and meaningless kind of.... I couldn´t figure it out! In my interview, we started off by kneeling down and praying and then my mission president said ¨Well, is there anything you wanna talk to me about?¨ And I thought that there was something but I had forgotten so I just said no. Then he said ¨ ALrighty then, well I wanna talk to you a little about Prayer´ Then I remembered! And he gave me some amazing advice about how to make prayers more meaningful and personal.


On Sunday we went to a members house because we had nothing planned with investigator´s that night. So we just kinda popped in haha. The mom hadn´t been at church so we decided we´d go ask if she needed a blessing. We got up there and a girl that lives with them answered the door. She is less active and has a few things messed up in her life. She lives with this family and works. Well we said asked if sister Jesús needed a blessing and she said ´´I don´t know...but I need one.´´ She wouldn´t tell us why but we gave her a blessing and then gave Sister Jesús one after. Well after all that this girl says to us ¨Before you guys got here I was getting ready to leave. I have been facing a very difficult question in my life right now and have been praying for the answer. I was getting ready to go do something and then I prayed and asked the Lord to answer me PLEASE! And when I finished the prayer the doorbell rang and you guys came up. You said something about a blessing and so I asked for one. One sentence you said in my blessing answered my question perfectly.¨ This girl was trying to keep from crying and was so grateful and it really grew her testimony. It was an amazing experience!


Well I will tell you a little about Córdoba when I send pictures next week! Have a great week everyone! And I love you! Thanks for your support and prayers! They keep me going.


Love,


Elder Marchant

Busiest week of the mission by far!!!

Busiest week of the mission by far!!! Last week we had our schedule's booked all the way up till Saturday! This week we are book until Thursday already! We have made lots of new investigators who are really progressing! My new comp is a stud! We are tearing it up here!!! We have 4 baptismal dates for this month and have a goal to have 5 more by the end of the week. And have names for all of them! So we are gonna work hard, be super obedient, and love the people! I truly am "getting lost in the work". It is going by so fast!! After this transfer I will hit my 6 month mark!! That's a FOURTH done!! I can't believe it! I feel like I'm brand new still. But I have grown so much.
This week I wanna talk about 1 investigator. He is the son of the woman we found crying that one time. He doesn't believe in God at all and the Hermanas have been teaching their family but he never comes in. He doesn't like the Hermanas but I had talked with him before about stuff and we were alright friends. So the Hermanas asked us if we could go teach him. We've been to him 3 times and he has transformed!! Our first lesson, I told my companion I was just gonna pray and follow the spirit and wing the lesson. I get in there and talk with him for a while and then I think of Alma the Younger. He didn't believe in God either. In fact, he was trying to destroy the church. I flipped to Alma 36 which is when Alma tells his son, Helaman, the story of his conversion and we start reading. It was perfect! You guys should go read it! And towards the end there is a verse where Alma says that since that day his trust has been in God and that he has been delivered through everything that he has been and that he will trust in God forever. The Spirit was super strong but the kid was still not willing to do anything. We took him with us to the Plaza De Espana last P day and just tried being his friend because he doesn't have any. Then we went and taught him another lesson and it was guided by the Spirit a ton too! We talked a lot about how God loves us and faith. Then we asked if he would pray tonight to ask God if He really loved him. He promised us and then my comp said "Hey! Will you say the closing prayer?" and the kid said yeah. He said "Heavenly Father, thanks for the missionaries...I promised them that I would pray to you tonight and I promise that tonight I'm gonna talk to you. I want so bad to know if you really do love me or if you're even there. Please help me." And the Spirit was SO STRONG!! I was like DUDE!! Can you not feel it right now!?!?! We called the Hermanas and told them what happened and they were so dang happy! They said that His mom has bee wanting to be baptized but won't do it unless her son understand and approves and stuff. The 3rd visit to him he was like super happy! And this kid never smiles!! But the whole time he was so happy and we taught him the Restoration and he was asking questions and super interested the whole time! We are really really hoping that we can help him! Have another appointment with him tomorrow! :) I'll be sure to keep you guys updated!





Love you guys


Elder Marchant

Pictures: The District :)

My bed :) (made....pretty good)

and PIPAS!!! The best sunflower seed in the world!! We eat them all day long! :) 

Well Hello y'all

Well, this has been the longest, craziest, best week of the mission BY FAR!!!
Let's start with Monday... Elder Antezana's girlfriend broke up with him through Email in the middle of Emailing and well...didn't talk much for our last 3 days together. So those were long days. Tuesday. We are coming home from District meeting and all of a sudden Antezana gets a phone call. Then we jump off the bus and start running!!! I had no idea what was going on and we had been running for over a mile and I see one of my zone leaders freaking out and pacing back and forth next to an AMBULANCE!! I get there and the other ZL is sitting in the ambulance! Antezana gets in the ambulance to help with SPanish and me and Elder Bastian take a bus to the hospital and I find out that ELder Adams was crossing the street and got hit by a taxi REALLY HARD! We saw a huge bump on his leg and knew it was broken and he would probably be going home. We waited at the hospital for the whole afternoon and he finally came out WALKING!!! The doctors told him it was a miracle that his leg was not completely broken. It was crazy! Then that day we went to give a blessing to that one Less active guy that I yelled at because he we about to go in for an operation and after the blessing he was crying and gave me a huge hug and now he likes me a lot and asked me to come teach his 8 year old son the lessons so he can get baptized. That was a great experience.
Wednesday comes and we get up at 4 in the morning to walk several miles to the train station and a few blocks out of our house the wheels on Antezana's suitcase break....we dragged it the whole way. He leaves and didn't say too much and we waited for my companion.
His name is Elder Medina and he's from Texas. He was homeschooled and has a little bit of that social difference but I have learned a TON from him! He is an amazing teacher!!! And a great missionary.
I have REALLY stepped up to the plate this week. I have had to do a lot on my own because Antezana was dead and Medina doesn't know anything about our investigators, Sevilla, the members, etc... So I have had to step up and do a LOT. I have grown super much in these last few days and I know we are gonna have a lot of success here.
Dad, I ate baby octopus the other day haha. I always remember that you talked about that as being one of the weird foods you ate in Hong Kong and I thought it was super cool that I was eating it on my mission now :).


We have this WHOLE week booked with appointments because when Medina came I decided to start at ground zero. Antezana didn't leave me with a whole lot because he always visited the same people. So we have been contacting like crazy and have a ton of new investigators! We've had quite a few very funny experiences with these different people too haha. I have recorded them on my camera because that's the only way to quite understand :) You'll have to wait another 19months.. :) SOrry! hahaha. But everything is WONDERFUL!!! We have a baptismal date for the end of march so hopefully that all goes through :). Love you all and I will be working hard this week to have more great stories for next week! :)


Elder Derick Marchant

Member Family from Bolivia

The guy I yelled at :)

Transfer Week!!!

Transfer week is so dang stressful! haha. Waiting days for President to call is just nerve-wracking! But all is well here! Elder Antezana is leaving :( which is sad. But he's going to be companions with my best friend from the MTC! So that's awesome for both of them! My new companion is Elder Medina. He is coming on Wednesday. It should be great! We are gonna tear it up here!!! He is from Texas. But his parents are Mexican. He didn't know any spanish before the mission though. He's been out for over a year though I think so we should be able to get along well with the language and he will be able to help me teach some of our investigators in English.

It's been a pretty uneventful week. We've worked hard but there aren't any crazy stories haha. Our investigators aren't progressing very well. They are kinda lazy. But I'm gonna figure out a way to help them realize the importance of the Gospel! Honestly, Elder Antezana took over lessons a lot of the time and I missed out on saying some things I felt prompted to say. That's one reason I'm excited to have an American companion. We will both teach equally. I'm very excited for this next transfer! We are gonna work super hard! Be super obedient! And be SUPER positive! :) It's gonna be great!

I've lost 38 lbs. Give or take haha. Finally found a scale in one of the member's houses. So that's good! :) haha. I feel better! But it also could be bad....I might have Spanish girls gathering around ;) haha. My clothes are all huge but I found a lady in the ward that can take my pants in so next week I will be taking some to her.

Mom, I forgot to take pictures of our Church but I will do it this week! :) The guitar guy in the store has always had people in there every time we've passed so we haven't done much more with him but I think Elder Medina plays! So maybe... :).

As far as food goes...I've only eaten 1 really nasty meal which I've already talked about I think. The food is really good! It's fun because there's lots of South Americans and stuff so we get to eat food from Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and places like that as well as the Spanish food. I've only had paellalla (honestly don't know how to spell it) once and it was gross...but I've been told that usually it's amazing so I guess I just had a bad batch haha. There is this food here called a Kebab. I sent a picture home of one. They have this meat on a spit and it rotates around an oven thing and they like shave the meat off and put it on a sandwich or in a tortilla with lettuce and yummy sauces. It is so good! :) When you first get to Spain your companion takes you to be "Ke-babtized" as they say hahaha. I haven't been to tapas bars or anything like that because my companion was from here so he didn't really care about the cultural things. So hopefully I will be able to try more things now :).

Mom wanted to know what we do on Sundays. Well, it's a pretty normal day. We get up and study and then we go to church. We come home and eat and study more and then we go out and teach but I'm companions with the district leaders in our area so on sundays they call and do numbers for a couple hours in the piso so I just study more or play guitar :).

Everything is going great! Still loving it and learning tons! Learning lots of profound doctrine as well... :) haha. Love you all and I miss ya, but this is worth it by far!! :)

Elder Marchant

PS... Pictures
*One is of the lady and her sons that we found her crying in the street that one night and now she is taking lessons and coming to church.
*The other is of a family in our ward that helps us all the time with missionary work.
*The other is of the Kebab meat and the guy shaving it off :) YUMM!

 Hanging out on Valentines Day!