I’ll let the pictures do the talking

I´ll have to let the pictures say most of what happened this week because I am a little lost for words as to what to say. This week has just been filled with missionary work!

These past two weeks we have been searching hard for new people to teach. We baptized our only progressing investigator so we´ve been on the hunt for some more! This past week we got three new investigators and set a baptismal date with all 3 of them. We also have lots of potential investigators so the goal this week is to set 5 more baptismal dates. We think we can do it! It is gonna be good!

I am having a great time here in Alcalá de Guadaíra with my Companion Elder Barney, I love the guy, we are having a great time.

This past week, the ward had a dinner and we stopped by for a little bit to check it out. They made us sit down and as I browsed what was on the table, my eyes were caught by a strange tupperware dish. The owner of the dish saw me eyeing it and said "Elder, try one!" I said I wasn´t hungry but of course, she insisted. So I grabbed one, smelled it, and looked at it again. At this point, everyone around us at the table was watching me to see if I would eat it. I said out loud, "I dunno, I´m kinda scared to eat it" the owner then said "What did you say?" (she couldn´t hear me) and I said "mm, it smells great!" The object in my hand was a kind of paste inside of a mussel shell. I put it in my mouth and scooped out the mussel shell. It was interesting to say the least. It was a cheesy and fishy paste and then it also had little chunks inside of it. The texture made me gag but over all it wasn´t too bad!

As far as the pictures go,

This past week was 6 months for me, so as tradition goes for missionaries, it was time to burn a tie.

We had been working really hard  and decided to take a snack time break. Nothings much better than a cold coke and a milka

In Plaza de España, they are filming a new movie with the guy that did the voice of King Julian from Madagascar. So we took pictures with the set.

The last picture is in the Bishop´s office with our area book. We used that phone because we didn´t want to use all our minutes on the cell. But we were calling less actives and Former investigators! We had some pretty good success with it!

But I had a great week and am looking forward to another!

Os quiro,

Jason

"Besitos"

This past week was pretty slow as we try to find someone new to teach. I actually had to go back to Malagá to pick up some residency papers so that was a lot of fun. I got to eat lunch with the Martinez family (the family I baptized back in Malagá) and it was great to see them! They have really progressed in the gospel and are doing really well. It was such a blessing to see them again!

I ate something pretty weird this week, but thankfully, it wasn´t NEARLY as bad as last time. A member made us Duck and Fish soup. Who thinks of this stuff? For some reason, people tend to think that Europe has good food. They are gravely mistaken. But as mentioned sometime before, I can do fish filets and fish stuff, but fish soup is the bane of my existence. However, tests and trials are placed in our lives to help us become stronger! What doesn´t kill you makes you stronger right?! As I looked at my duck and fish soup I literally had this thought "I´ve basically eaten the end of the digestive system of a pig, I can eat anything!" and I took a spoon full of my soup and finished strong. Food has stopped scaring me. I can eat anything. Onions (ashley and mom) don´t even phase me anymore.

We were leaving a less active´s house this week and the grandma was there as we left. In spain, they do their salutations through the little kisses on the cheeks. They are called "Besitos" But as we were leaving the older lady, said to me, "come here young man and let me kiss you" I said "as missionaries, it is better that we just shake hands" She didn´t like that answer and said "nonsense, I want to kiss you" Thankfully, by then, the less active member intervened and explained that missionaries can´t go around kissing people! Looking back it is a pretty funny experience!

This past week we saw some divine intervention. It was pretty incredible. Elder Barney and I have been thinking of how we can help our ward. It is a pretty sad ward. There are a TON of less actives and no body is doing their callings. It´s bad. This past sunday, my companion and I had to teach priesthood lesson, give talks, and do the sacrament because the people who were supposed to do have the lesson and talks either didn´t come, or came un prepared and refused to get up. But I actually really enjoyed it. We just taught the importance of home teaching for the lesson and the talks. A HUGE problem we have is that no one is visiting each other. We truely believe that if we could just get these people to do their home and visiting teachings, things would improve x10.

But to back track a bit, Elder Barney and I were at a members house and we wanted to show a video. this video was brand new, didn´t have any problems and should have worked, but for some reason, it didn´t. We though, hm, that´s weird, alright we´ll watch the other video on this disc. The second video was just what we needed. It was the new "Only a stonecutter" video and it hit the member pretty hard. Afterwards, we asked, "whats your calling?" She said she was a visiting teacher and she felt so bad that she hadn´t been doing it after watching this video. We´ve been showing it to lots of members ever since and it has all had the same effect, it be-littles them and they feel dumb for making excuses for not doing their callings. But it was so cool to see that the direction we needed to go, came from the brand new video not working. We tried out the video later on in the DVD player in the church, and it worked just fine! It was incredible! But we have been praying and studying so hard as to what we can do to help out this ward and the answer came. It was pretty cool.

Well that´s just about it for this week! I hope you are all doing well!

os quiro

Jason

The “Special Plate”

I have two major stories to share this week. Before my own mission, the two main things I liked to know about missions from RMs was 1) about the funky food they ate and 2) about any cool baptism stories.

Story number 1

Javier Blanco is the ward mission leader. He is full gytano(gypsy) and his wife is half. They live out in the middle of nowhere on his farm.  Every other friday, we take an hour bus up to Sevilla, then catch another hour bus out to the closet town where he lives and he waits for us there, where we ride in his car with him another 20 minutes to get to his house.  This past friday, we took the long journey out and after getting to his house and settling down, his wife had finished preparing the meal.  She handed us all our bowls and began scooping the soup into our individual plates. After she scooped mine she said "oh, you get the special one." I didn´t pay to much mind to it and we said the prayer and began to eat.  The soup had garbonzo beans and some kind of meat it wasn´t too bad, just a little rubbery.  I had a large chunk of meat in my bowl and I just hadn´t worked my way to eating yet. When I was about half way finished, I heard the phrase that I hate more than anything in this life.

"Do you know what you´re eating?"

NOOOO! That phrase is worse than finger nails running down a chalk board.

I said no and before he could respond I ate faster so I could get as much down before he told me what I had been putting into my mouth.

"Pig intestines" He said.

I had a big spoonful in my mouth and it was so hard to finally gulp it down. At this point I realized why I had the "Special Plate."

My companion looked at my plate at the larger chunk of meat and laughed out loud and said "You´ve got the sphincter!"

Yes. On my plate, I had the sphincter.(if you don´t know what the is, check it out in your nearest anatamy book)

All I had in my bowl at this point was this chuck of meat. I´m not going to describe it too much, but at the top of it, it had a circular top. I took my spoon and put it in the middle of the hole and cut it in half. Everyone at this point was watching me to see if I was going to eat it.

I took a deep breath, grabbed a piece of bread, put one half of the sphincter on my bread and ate it. I remember just praying that this aweful body part from the pig wouldn´t kill me or at least I wouldn´t be able to taste it. (But now that I think about it, I should´ve just prayed for deliverance! haha) But I slowly chewed it then did the same process with the other half.

I ate pig intestine soup and on top of that a sphincter from a pig. I love the mission.

Ok, now for story number 2!

This past month and a half we have been working with a man named Pepe (José) and this past saturday was his baptism. I can´t even describe the enormous change that we witnessed in this man. In our first meeting, we asked him to say the closing prayer and in it, he basically cursed God for his aweful circumstances and blamed him for forgetting about him. A little bit about Pepe, he has been looking for work since February and at the first meeting(first week of July) he told us that if he didn´t pay his rent by the first of August, then the owner would kick him out.  We met with Pepe 3 times every week to teach him and talk him through his struggles.  When we told the bishop about his situation, he gave us specific direction not to mention that the church gives economic help to its struggling members, he wanted to make sure he was investigating for the right reasons.  We heeded his council and continued to teach him. Pepe has had a very sad past, he was arrested about 20 years ago and served several months in prison because the police mixed him up with someone with the same name (Everyone in Spain is named José) and every since then, things have just fallen out of sorts. His family wants nothing to do with him and he literally has nothing.

We worked so hard with Pepe. This past Saturday was his baptism and it was an AMAZING experience. My companion baptized him and on sunday I confirmed him (I had never given a blessing before and on top of that it was in spanish!).

On sunday, after the confirmation and the Sacrament, Pepe bore his testimony and it was so powerful. He told us a story from this past week, about how the Lord answered his prayers.  Like I said before, if he wasn´t able to pay by the first of August, he would be kicked out. He got kicked out. He has been living in an abandand house these past 2 weeks and literally has nothing. But he told us that after our lesson on thursday, he was thinking about how nice all the members at church look with their white shirts and ties and he would love to look like that. Once he was a member, he wanted to look is best. He told us that he prayed to the lord that if it was his will, that he could somehow find a white shirt and a black tie (he said black ties were his favorite) to wear for the sunday after his baptism.  My companion and I live in a missionary house where missionaries have lived there forever and things get left behind, like shoes, shirts, ties and whatnot. So as a little gift, on Friday my companion and I put in a little bag two white button up shirts that we thought would fit him and gave it to him after our meeting. He was so grateful and we could tell that he was getting really excited.

He then told us how on his walk home, he was praying and thanking the Lord in his heart,  about how he just got the two white shirts, and now all he could use is a black tie. Less that 5 minutes after thinking this, he saw a little black tie on the curb of the street. He was telling this story in sacrament and testified that he knew for a surity that God lives and blesses us because he loves us. It was amazing to see this man, who a month ago cursed God for his poor economic standing, was now praising the lord and rejoicing even though he had much less(in material matters) than he had before. And Pepe is so right. God knows us. He loves us and only wants the best for us. People can change as they use the atonement of Christ and I feel so blessed to have had the chance to witness it personally. Pepe continued to say how he had nothing, and now, the hermanos(us) had given him everything.

After the church meetings the bishop met with him and explained how the church was going to help him with his ecomomic situation. We were waiting so we could walk home with him, and when he came out of the bishop´s office, his face was stained with tears, he ran to us and shouting, "they´re going to help me pay for my house!" then immediatly he said "Which room can I pray in!?" we were a little taken aback because it happened so fast and said "uh, any of them I guess."

Working with Pepe has been such an incredible experience.

People can change with the power of the atonement and they DO! I am so grateful for the Lord Jesus Christ and this opportunity I have to help people come unto Christ.

Os quiro,

Jason

Me at "Barrio Santa Cruz" and it is an incredible old town in Sevilla and we could reach out and touch the ways of the narrow passage ways!

Me in the middle of the busiest street we have here in Alcala during mediodia (the time everyone takes their nap) As you can see. There is NOTHING going on during nap time

The 3 of us at the Baptism: Elder Barney, Pepe, and Me.

Dollar Store Ties, A Breakup, A Baptism, and Corndogs

My week:

The week was pretty good. First of all, last p-day we found a nice dollar store and loaded up on cool ties. I bought three of them. One is baby blue pink and white. It reminds me of a 50s diner joint, its my favorite, the other two were just plain solid colored. Nothing else too exciting there. But I wrote down some events throughout the week so I could let you all know how things are going.

- We broke up with Cesar. We have a less active family that we have been teaching and their little family is just about broken. It is the saddest thing. But this last meeting we had with them, Cesar, the dad, told us that it would be best if we didn´t come back any time soon. Elder Barney and I´s hearts just dropped. He gave us all his reasons and said, don´t come back any time soon. We tried to talk him out of it and have a FHE the following week, but they wouldn´t have it. Afterwards, Elder Barney and I were talking and how we both felt like we just went through a break up with a girlfriend. He broke up with us, but we tried to continue to do stuff together. hah.

-They have wild cactus( I guess all cactus are wild) here that have a really sweet fruit. A member gave one too us and it was very sweet. Very tasty.

- BAPTISM! This Saturday! 7:00! we are very excited. On Friday, he, Pepe, told us that if god didn´t show him a miracle in the next week, he wouldn´t be baptized. We told him, it doesn´t work that way, and the next day in church, he finally stayed for the whole 3 hours(before, he would stay an hour and a half and then leave), but he told us that he felt happy and he hadn´t felt like this ever. We said, "well there is your miracle" and so he is satisfied with it. haha, But we are very excited for all of it. We have been teaching him for the last month and it is just going to be great! Baptisms are the best!

-Corndogs. There is an American family that goes to our ward and every so often they will bring us American food from the base. So yesterday my companion and I broke our fasts to Corndogs and Rootbeer. God Bless America.

BIKES!- Today was probably the most fun Pdays I have ever had! A member took us out Mtn. Biking today and it was a BLAST! So fun. We got to see the history of Alcalá de Guadaira and I had no idea how rich it is with history. We saw ruins of a Roman Acropolis, some tombs and a way cool castle. It was a mtn bike ride and a tour of the history all at the same time. The Computer I am using is way slow and so I am unable to send pictures, but next week I will make sure to update you all with the pictures I have taking!

Thank you so much for you love and support!

Os quiro!

Jason

Olive Trees

My week was pretty good.

We do so much in a week that it is hard to remember everything that we did!

This week was filled with lots of work and lots of being in the sun! I would have to say that I am rocking quite the farmer´s tan right now, it is very attractive to say the least.  I´m a little lost for words this week so I would like to share a few things I have learned or at least come to realize more fully.  Everything points to Christ. Everything can bare witness to the truth (just like how I shared in that one talk with the Krispy Kremes being like the gospel and whatnot..haha).  This week I learned something pretty cool about Olive trees.  Olive Trees are filled with symbolism to Christ but I have learned of some more!  Olive trees are very important to spain and olive oil is called the "Gold of Spain" (it sounds better in Spanish) But I learned, first of all, that olive trees can live for hundreds of years.  But as they die, green shoots begin to sprout out the ground where the dying tree is and if they are properly cultivated, within 15 years the sprouts will be full grown, fruit producing trees.  This points to Christ. This phenomenon points to Christ in that he died, but was resurrected and lives on today!

Another thing I learned is the importance of Home Teaching.  Not gonna lie, I always hated home teaching. But now I see how important it is!  Right now we are working with a less active family who are having a lot of problems, marital problems, going to church problems, just lots of problems.  We have been talking to the members about them for the entire month and we, the missionaries, are the only ones who have visited them.  They´ve completely stopped coming to church and their little family is falling apart. It is just heart breaking to see this family break when all they need is a little help.  We can only do so much. Missionaries come and go. But the ward members will always be there.  The mom told us that the reason she goes to a different church is because she actually has friends there. It is just so sad. It is so important that we reach out to the less active members and befriend them!

Well not too much else is going on for us. We have an investigator with a baptismal date for the 13 of August. We are working hard with him. His name is Pepe and he is a great guy.  I´ll have to comment on him later because I´m running short on time.

But I love and miss you all and I am so grateful for all of your support!

Os Quiro,

Jason