Hey, so I just remembered, that I have been forgetting to fill you in on many big and exciting events that have been going on of late.
First of all,
Stake Conference! Stake Conference was super fun. I got to drive the whole way (it was pretty far) to Granada and we listened to many fantastic talks by the Stake Presidency and President Deere. And, best of all, I got to see some of my fellow missionaries from the MTC at the conference! I haven't seen them since we came to the field, so that was nice to chat for a few minutes and catch up. Then, I drove all the way home, while everybody else slept... Grumblegrumblegrumble. That's all right though, I just listened to a bunch of McConkie talks.
We are focusing really hard as a mission and as the Stakes of Southern Spain on integrating the members into our work. We have been having a bit more success lately with our young men and getting them to be part of missionary work. However, we can't tell if they are really excited about missionary work because of the success that we have had of late, or if they are just excited that there will soon be a few more young women in the ward, haha.
We have been having some difficulties lately trying to get a hold of our friends with baptismal dates. Things just keep getting in the way of being able to see them, but we have decided to call them to teach them. We have been keeping near daily contact with all three of them for the last week and a half, but as the baptismal date looms closer we are starting to get more and more worried about if they'll go through with it or not.
This last week we had a fantastic HUGE zone conference in Málaga. Half the mission was there, and we were privileged to have Elder Patrick Kearon from the first quorum of the Seventy address us and give us a really good training. I learned so much from him. And more importantly, I felt the Spirit so strongly in that meeting. This is God's work, and he has been helping us to become the best we can be, so as to become the most effective missionaries possible. I was also called to play a musical number in the meeting, so I recruited Sister Fulsom and Elders Hampel and Mercado to jam with me. We performed ''Gethsemane'' by Sally DeFord and wow, it turned out super well, despite our lack of extensive preparation (they gave us about a week to put something together).
After the meeting, I met a bunch of other elders that play violin and other assorted stringed instruments, so I'll be praying that they get transfered to the district of Fuengirola so we can do some duets and stuff like that. In fact, one of the violinists was the Elder that was trained in Torrevieja by Elder Larios right when I went to Algeciras, so that is cool.
This week hasn't been the fastest week ever, but we did find a good crop of new friends to teach and guide them towards eternal life.
Speaking of which,
on Wednesday, we were walking along the streets of one of our pueblos, and a man seated at a bar calls us over, and asks, ''Are you the JWs?'' in English.
''Nope! We're the Mormons!'' His eyes got all wide (however, he was a little tipsy) and he said, ''I'm a Jew. I'm from Berlin. I am not practicing any religion, and I have never been baptized. I am a free bird.'' I checked his German, and sure enough, he is German, so that led me to believe that he was telling the truth about the other things too. Then he tells us something rather surprising. ''I want to become Mormon. I want to get baptized. It is good that we are in Spain, because if we were in other parts of the world they would cut your f------ heads off.''
That was surprising. Haha, about baptism and about terrorism. Anyways, he asked what it took to become Mormon, and then looked at his cigarette and his glass of alcohol, and said, ''I probably need to stop this, don't I?''
So, it was a great week. We got the guy's number, and we are going to meet with him this Wednesday (because the last appointment we had, he was wasted when we got there).
I love missionary work. It is seriously the best. I love you all! Tell all your friends about the gospel!
Os quiero mucho!
Elder Oliver
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