Good News and Strange News!

Good news first! Do you remember the Ghanan, John?  (He first mentioned him here.)  The guy with a heart of pure gold in Algeciras. Well, he was progressing super well while I was there, and continued to progress really well with Elder Bird and Elder Allan. He went to church couple of times, loved it, and has been studying the book of Mormon as well as the Bible to find his answers. And he got his answers!  John got baptized!!!  That makes me so happy, and now he is working with his wife and kids towards baptism, and eventually towards becoming sealed in the temple for time and all eternity.

Now time for the strange news... John got baptized in 1998. Now, here is the story behind that. Well, actually, I don't know his story before that. I just know that since then, he has gone into several month long comas. And he has problems remembering everything that has happened to him. So, from some time after 1998 till 2014, he had forgotten the covenants that he made at baptism and went on a search to find the true church. He went to every evangelical, catholic, protestant, and methodist church, but there were things in every church that bugged him and stopped him from uniting himself to them. Then, in February of 2014, two Mormon missionaries knocked on his door, and began to teach him. Then the promise in John 14:26 was fulfilled. 

      It reads

But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

The things that he heard from the missionaries struck a chord in his heart. He searched for answers and he found them for the second time.

Imagine the surprise when Elder Bird recounted this story to me this week. He told me that it went down like this...(already knowing that John's dad supposedly was baptized many years ago, as he told us last transfer)

----Elders with President Deere about to try to set a baptismal date with John----

John--  'Brothers, I need to tell you something. You will never be able to baptize me. I have said that many times. But it is not because of any doctrinal issues, or doubts that I have.  You see, I was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the year 1998.'

----Stunned looks on their faces----

President Deere-- '(very pensively) Hmmmm... Then it is time for you to bring the blessings of the Gospel to the rest of your family.'

And the excitement doesn't end there!  This week we made friends with the pastors of the Evangelical Church in Los A, and this Saturday they had a big theater production, and invited us to be VIPs there. Just imagine two Mormon missionaries walking into the ghetto-est of the ghettos to go attend an evangelical meeting.  And I have to say, it was awesome. And a bit crazy. Super loud music, lots of smoking, lots of AMEN, HALLELUJAH, GLORIA A DIOS, BENDECIDO SEA TU NOMBRE SEÑOR!!!!!!    I feel like I lost a bit of hearing that night. But, now we have solid contacts in Los A, and everybody there loves us.  Si Dios quiere, we will baptize their pastor, haha:)

And one last thing, this week I have really been playing my violin a lot more. We saw a bit of a move about Los Mormon Boys, a group of missionary performers in Argentina in the 60's. So, with any luck, we will be able to do something like that here. There is such a rich background of music here in Southern Spain. I would love to just jam on my violin with a group of gypsies singing flamenco. And Hermana Andrew and I played I know that my Redeemer lives. In church. It sufficeth me to say that many many eyes were teared up. 

Anyways, I hope you all have a great week!! Not much time today for personalized emails to everybody, but I hope that you all have a great week, and be the men and women that God would have you be.

Os quiero mucho!!!

Elder Oliver

ps. This week I learned how to read Hebrew... It's a little tricky, but seriously cool:)