Jan 26 2015 email

Well, maybe you've already seen pictures of my new area on the internet. Maybe you already can see the difference between Mazarrón and Marbella. They are very different. For example, the main business in Marbella is selling high price goods to rich foreign tourists. In Mazarrón, the main business is picking tomatoes. Everybody here is a tomatero, and those who aren't, are unemployed. There really is nothing to do here in Mazarrón other than visit the mines or travel to the port.

Did I forget to mention that it is cold? Wow, it is super cold here. I can't ever seem to warm up. It is humid and super windy all the time, and today is the first day since I have been here that I have not been frozen. However, we do have a couple of portable heaters that we carry with us everywhere we go in the house.

A nice change over Marbella, is the chapel. We live on top of it! Which is kind of cool. We don't have to drive half an hour to go to church. However, the heater doesn't work so we bring down our little heaters to try and heat up the chapel. Do you know what's cool? and scary? I am basically the branch president here. We are a little extension of the Cartegena 2 ward, and Elder Quispe and I take turns doing branch president duties. This Sunday we had an attendance of... 7 in total. Quite the surprise to me. The first thing I thought was, wow... These are going to be a long 6 months.

However, the missionary work is going really well here. Thanks to several amazing elders since they opened this area 6 months ago, this place rocks. There are tons of people to teach, and everybody is pretty friendly. It helps that this place isn't very big, and everybody knows where the chapel is. This is a really small town. Word gets around fast.

Yesterday we were knocking doors and an African opened the door and let us in without a word. That made us a little suspicious of something wrong, but he led us to a room where we taught a whole group of Malis about the restoration. We'll be coming back on Tuesday with a pamphlet in French for them.

Elder Quispe is awesome. He has almost 4 months in the field, and he is a convert to the church of about 1 year and 4 months. He is awesome. Very mature, a very hard worker, very funny, and very obedient. He is a great missionary. I'm looking forward to being his comp for the next 3 months out here in tomatolandia.

Random coincidence. In November 2013, while I was in Torrevieja with Elder Rodríguez, we got a phone call from a member family that wanted us to buy and deliver flowers to their cousin that lived there for her birthday. We did what they asked, and then we were able to teach that family there. They are some of my good friends from Torrevieja. Funny thing, that member family that called us lives here in Mazarrón. It was pretty cool-funny realizing that. 

Anyways, I hope to be able to make a lasting difference in this area and in the lives of those that live here. Pray for me, pray for Elder Quispe, and pray that the hearts of the people here will be softened to our message.

Thanks!

¡Os quiero mucho!

Elder Oliver