Another BEST week!

Well this week has been the best by far for the last 2 transfers! We FINALLY reached 20 lessons in a week! In this area with my companion it was a miracle!! And actually we surpassed and got 21! YES!! haha. We also had 3 investigators in church. And that's a big thing here! It has been great and I'm super excited to see what keeps happening here!


Especially because I'm gonna be training!! I'm so dang excited to train! I almost jumped and screamed when President called me and told me on Friday! Tomorrow I'm going to the Mission Home for a Trainer's Training. Then NEXT tuesday I go back to the mission home and we have orientation stuff with the new kids and have a fun "Ceremony" thing where we meet our "kids". We eat dinner there and sleep there and then leave the next day. My companion leaves in 3 weeks so he will most likely stay with us for 2 weeks and go shortly. But it should be good!


There really isn't a whole ton to report. Nothing crazy has been happening. The time in the mission is passing by so fast. I can't believe I've already been out for the time I have. Me and my companion have been getting along a lot better. I've been really happy for that. I don't know if I'm just more patient or if he is just doing better haha. But everything is going well and I'm looking forward for the good things to come! Praying hard that I can have a baptism here with my kid. Especially because I'll probably only be with him for half of his training because I've been in Torremolinos for a LONG time! haha. It hasn't seemed super long though. There's enough crazy people here to keep every day interesting :).


Well, until next week! :) Have a great week! Study your scriptures and say your prayers! And tonight is family home evening! So do an activity from Preach My Gospel :). haha.


Love you guys,


Elder Marchant

Best week in 2 transfers!!!

This week has been the best week in 2 transfers!! :) I don't think we really had an argument or anything this week! My patience is getting a work out ! ;) haha. But it has been great! My comp has been trying hard....er to get up on time and has been studying and stuff as well! So everything is okay! :) haha


I also got a day break this week and had a split in Malaga and got to go help another Elder in his area. They are really struggling so I went out there to help them find and teach and it was good to have a day of working real hard :). Also, I've been teaching the missionaries in Malaga how to play dumb schmuck and they love it! :) haha. It's so fun! I love playing card games in Spanish too! It's funner to yell in Spanish :)


This week we had the most investigator lessons than we have had in my whole time here I think! So that was awesome! We also have a baptismal date with someone and that is great:) She is old and doesn't really understand a whole lot but we have high hopes ! :) haha


I have dodged bullets with giving talks in church my whole mission and they finally caught me this last week!! Darn it! haha. I was assigned to give a talk in church like 2 days before church! But it was a good talk and I was probably the least nervous I've ever been to give one, although it's never been a huge problem for me. However, the members here don't quite have the sense of humor that we have in the States hahaha! :) I cracked a joke and everyone took my WAY TOO SERIOUS and it was SUPER awkward! haha.


It's been a good week though. Nothing crazy to report. I'm really enjoying the mission! I can't believe that I am at 9 months and that Freshie is at 11! It's going by far too fast! :) But It's great.


Love you all and have a great week! Remember to read your scriptures and study Preach My Gospel for family home evening :). And have references ready when the missionaries come over :) That would just make their day!


Elder Marchant

Staying Positive

Dear....everyone.... :)


This last week we had a Tri Zone conference here in Malaga and that was super great! Got to see some old friends and President taught us a TON of cool stuff! The focus of our mission right now is "Two Times in White" the first being baptism and the second being the temple. We are working hard with our converts to get them to the temple too so it was great! :)


Okay I'm gonna answer mom's questions right now so I don't forget.


My companion goes home in 5 weeks. It's possible that I leave here in 2 but not probable because our area is one of the biggest in the mission and there's no way my comp could teach it in 3 weeks. So I'm sure I'll be here 6 months. I'm okay with that haha. It's a very...interesting area. :) Quite a bit of crazy people and stuff to keep it all fun :)


I can't think of any crazy or fun that I've eaten lately. We just had a store open up next to us that sells products from England and America and they sell Dr. Pepper. My companion bought like 15 euros worth of it haha.


I haven't seen monkeys. There really is only 2 areas in the mission that are near Gibraltar. I would love to go there! But we'll see!


Most of our investigators are really lazy...as in we only meet with them at most once a week :(. They are all really good! But not progressing because we can't meet with them enough. And because we live really far from the Church. (I am SO wanting to have an area with a Church IN it!)


We are not teaching the Romanian kid anymore that sold coke at the beach. He moved back to Romania because he wasn't making enough money selling coke on the beach :).


Today we went to Ikea with the Hermanas for P day :). We have an Ikea in our area and so we went there and played around and ate a bunch of 50 cent hot dogs :) It was pretty fun! :) Also I found a cow and rode it...and milked it.


This week has been better with my companion. He's just as dead but we've been blessed with having a lot of lessons this week so we've had stuff to do and haven't been walking around with nothing :) so that's helped a lot! Still don't have any baptismal dates or anything. The area has a lot of potential but we just aren't reaching it yet... but soon we will! :)


Have a great week!

Teaching a lesson with President Deere!

We had the great opportunity to teach a lesson with President Deere this week! My second time and boy was it great! I never remember what I have told you guys ever but we have an investigator named Nicolas and he is the brother of the Stake President in Sevilla. We´ve been teaching him for about a month and he´s super great! We challenged him to be baptized last week and he accepted but didn´t accept a date. Well I had been talking to President Deere about him because he is good friends with the Stake President in Sevilla. And President Deere asked me if he could come to a lesson with us. Well we had one of the most spiritual lessons ever! We read 1 Nephi 3 when they´ve gotta ¨go and do´ and they go get the plates and fail the first 2 times. Well we explained a lot and talked a lot and the President Deere shared about how he was called to be a mission president. He had been a lawyer and had a great practice and everything was going great and then Elder Oaks called him one day and asked him to come up to his office, asked him to be a mission president here. He talked about having to leave everything behind, take his kids with him, he was the only one who spoke spanish. He has to start all over when he gets home again. Then he said ¨that´s how all this applies to me. I have done what the Lord has asked me to do because I love him and am so grateful for all he´s done for me. Now, Nicolas...how does this apply to you?¨¨ I LOVED that question! The spirit was super strong and we talked with Nicolas more about everything and talked about baptism again. He said that he is pretty scared and that he still wants to read but he knows that all of this is true and WILL be baptized when he feels ready. I learned so much from President Deere! He is so great!

Me and my comp are struggling a little bit. He is very ready to go home and I´m getting to the point in my mission where I just have so much desire to work hard and baptize. I´m getting pretty frustrated and losing my patience. I always thought that I would be able to handle anyone but my patience is being tried this week.


We write President Deere every week and he very rarely replies to us but this week he wrote me an email and just said ¨Thanks for letting me come to the lesson with you.¨ Then he sent me another one that said ¨ Elder Marchant, By the way, you are a super missionary. I was so pleased that your Spanish is so developed. Of course I am not surprised at how committed you are, I could see that from Day 1. Also thank you for giving such a good experience to Elder Rodriguez.¨ It was just a little note but it was exactly what I needed to hear today. I just feel sometimes that he doesn´t see that I am a good missionary because of the numbers we report and our obedience report every week. It´s never high because...well it´s a companionship deal. And I sometimes worry that President doesn´t see what kind of missionary I am. and I´ve really been struggling with my comp. So I was just very happy to get that email from him. Glad to know that he knows that I´m doing my best.


Everything is going good. Pretty stressed out. But I have good friends in the mission that I can talk to when I need and it was good to get emails from people. Missions are rough! But they really are rewarding.


Love you guys and hope you all have a great week!


Elder Marchant

Photos:

Lorenzo wore a white shirt and tie this week to church!! Usually wears this weird pink shirt hahaha! 

REAL PAELLA!!! From INMA!!

and HOORAY for European Shorts!! haha. I will NEVER be able to find shorts or pants here!

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