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 :) 

Busiest, funnest, and most successful weeks of the mission I think :)

So this week was the busiest, funnest, and most successful weeks of the mission I think :)

So last week we had a goal as a mission to find 888 New Investigators in one week. I don´t know if that is a lot outside of Europe but here, it is a lot! We ended the week with 897! :) Elder Oldroyd and I were super happy that we got as many News as we did to help with the goal. We got 10. The goal for each companionship was 9. So we were super happy to have hit the goal because all week we were trying to prepare a couple people for baptism and didn´t have as much finding time as we wanted. But the Lord definitely blessed us with some miracles and we found some great people! And have a few more baptismal dates! :)

So Saturday we baptized Alicia! :) What an awesome experience! :) She is so awesome! She lived in the US for a few years but can´t speak english almost at all but she tells us ¨You boys are my sons¨ all the time :) haha. I was so happy to have ended Elder Oldroyd´s mission with a baptism. I also got to go interview a woman for baptism for another companionship in our district and that was a really neat experience. It´s awesome to get that personal with someone and ask to hear their testimony about their experience up to baptism and she shared it with me and it was so neat :). So they were baptized on the same day. I got to conduct the service AND play the piano!!!! I have been practicing the piano a lot and I´m gettin GOOD, MOM!!!!! Elder Oldroyd usually plays during sacrament meeting because there is no one here that can. So the bishop said that I´LL start playing! I can´t wait to tell mom THAT! :) hahaha!

So Elder Oldroyd baptized Alicia and I confirmed her on Sunday :).

I also went on Splits with the Elder in my District that are in Motril. That was fun to go help out over there and get to know their investigators and members.

So I am getting a new companion this week. His name is Elder Pomazón. He is from Peru I think. I´ve met him before but don´t know him too well. So I´m pretty excited to keep groing in spanish! :) haha.

I am super gonna miss Elder Oldroyd though. He has been an AWESOME companion! We have worked real hard and gotten along very well :). He has taught me so much as well :) I am very grateful that he worked hard until the end :).

I can´t think of much else :) We went and played soccer this morning with a Less Active kid in the ward that we are working with. His name is Sebastian and he is a riot :) Progressing well too :) I´ll have to tell you guys about him sometime :)



Have a great week! :) Love all of you! Give references to the missionaries ! :) haha

Elder Marchant

Have a great week! See if you can beat MINE! :) haha.

What´s up everybody!!! :) I got all your guys´ letters this morning! Thanks a ton! I wasn´t expecting letters from so many people! It´s always a huge push for a missionary when they get letters :)


Well this week has been crazy. Me and Elder Oldroyd are NEVER home haha. We have been able to keep track of how long we are home by how many songs have played haha. We only sleep there! It´s like living in a hotel :) We have been going crazy with the schedule to try to accomodate people and we are exhausted! :) But it is a great feeling! We are really tearin´ it up here in Granada! :)


We pretty much have 1 for sure baptism this weekend! Maybe 2! :) Alicia is gonna get baptized on Saturday! I am so happy to be having a baptism the last weekend of Elder Oldroyd´s mission. The members have been so involved with Alicia. We have been having family home evenings in the houses of members and taking members to lessons and having members call to ask her how church was and if she is planning on coming again and if she is excited to be baptized. By far the most I have worked with members in the mission. And it works!!! :) Alicia can feel the love and support from everyone and it´s so easy to see how great it is to be in the true and living church of God! :)


Manny, the guy who we are helping to quit smoking, is doing super good! The box that we made him worked so well but it really was his faith and the spirit that we helped him feel that helped him. He is american so we got to listen to Elder Holland talks in English with him and I think that helped him so much! :)


This week also is the week of finding. We have a mission goal to find 888 new investigators in 1 week! It´s gonna be hard! But if we do all we can, it is achievable! We are so excited to bring more souls to Christ! :) Keep the mission in your prayers! :)


Elder Oldroyd is an AWESOME companion! We get along so good and he just keeps teaching me with his example. I´m super sad to see him leave next week. But excited to use what he has taught me to teach my next companion :). I´m going on splits to other areas in the district this week to help them out and to get to know some Elders in the district. It´ll be another AWESOME week! I´ll be sure to take my camera everywhere, Mom :).


Well I love you guys and am excited to go home and read all the letters tonight :) Have a great week! See if you can beat MINE! :) haha.


Elder Marchant

Well it´s been an AWESOME week!

Sorry for not emailing yesterday! Spain has a bit of a problem with taking a day off of work every time a saint was born so yesterday all the locutorios that we could find were closed. haha


Well it´s been an AWESOME week!


I think I told you guys about Alicia. She is the Ecuatorian lady that made lunch for our district a few weeks ago. Well this week we had a lesson with her and were talking about the Great Apostasy and we were using like the pyramid of cups and showing that when Christ and the Apostles died that the authority was taken and all the things of Christ´s church were lost. And the pyramid crashes down. Well one of the cups said tithing. And at the end of the lesson we asked her if she had any questions and she said ¨I wanna know about tithing.¨ And me and Elder Oldroyd were like CRAP!! haha why did we put that on a cup! Because tithing is a huge doubt for investigators. Well I explained to her what it was and she says ¨I know what it is. How do you do it in your church? Do you pass the plate?¨ I said that we put it in an envelope and gave it to the bishop and she said ¨okay! So I just gotta go ask the Bishop for an envelope on Sunday!¨ We were thinking WHAT THE HECK!! And she said ¨Well because I´m going to your guys´ church now, I wanna pay my tithing at your church. I know that tithing is a commandment and I don´t wanna rob God.¨ I was flipping out! haha. I said ¨Alicia, we see that you have a huge testimony and strong desires to follow Christ and his Commandments. Will you follow his example and live his commandment and be baptized?¨ And she just said ¨Of course!¨ She will be baptized on the 25th of October. RIght before Elder Oldroyd goes home :). Since then she has come to church every sunday, came to conference, came to a ward activity and has been over to member´s houses to eat with them after church. She is SUPER accepted here and we are SO excited for her!!!!


Last week we had a Ward activity of the Party of the Nations. We have 10 different countries in our ward so we all did a presentation of our countries and brought food to share from our country. We had Argentina, Dominican Republic, Colombia, Chile, Spain, United States, Venezuela, Nigeria, Bolivia, and Ecuador. Alicia came to represent Ecuador and brought food and everything. She had so much fun and everyone got to know her. Ali came too but he´s super shy haha. I made Rice Krispie Treats to represent america and everyone LOVED them haha. I wore my Knuckle Ball Jersey too :). Elder Oldroyd has pictures and I´ll send them soon.


We have a member in our ward who was really strong in the church but has since started smoking again. It´s devastating him and he wants to be worthy of his priesthood again. We have been working with him a lot. This last week we made him a kit to quit! haha. His wife, who also smokes but doesn´t want to quit, left for the week so during this week He is quitting. We are visiting him every day and I downloaded conference and lent him my pindrive for the week so he could watch them on the TV. He is doing good so far and we are super excited for him as well! :)


We are seeing some great things here in Granada! I love it! I´m super happy with what we are doing here and how hard we are working!! I can´t believe I have a year out this week! There´s so much more to do still!! :)


Love you guys! THIS CHURCH IS TRUE!!! I LOVE IT! :)


Elder Marchant

Layouts from some of last weeks pictures.