Monday, April 21, 2014

La Semana Santa (Holy Week)

Happy Easter one and all!!! Hope the celebrations were grand and I would like to point out that Spain knows how to celebrate!  One complete week of celebrations! One full week... we need to step it up a bit.
So we started out Easter with m&m pancakes... (thank you mom for the m&ms and the Easter chocolate... kind of against our diet but we ate it anyway ;)) :) and we had a wonderful day of Church- investigators came, some random people from the street showed up, just wonderful. Actually there is a story with that. 

So I was in Relief Society (Sacrament is last, Relief Society is first here)... and I decided to sit by someone I didn´t know (which is basically everyone here.. :) but I chose well... the member next to her asked if I could translate the meeting into English for her, so I start talking to her--it is her first time in church and she just decided to come in to see what we believe. :) Awesome!!!  So the meeting starts and I am translating.  (which, sidenote, is a lot more complicated than you would think, because they say something and then you translate, but as you are talking they are still talking- so you have to talk and listen and switch languages all at the same time. haha)  But it actually was really fun, and it just took a bit to get into the groove of all the multitasking. So the meeting was great, the spirit was strong, all went well.  At the end of the meeting I turned and started talking to someone else, and when I turned back around the lady that I had translated for was speaking Spanish to someone. Say what?! haha  I was like, ´Wait, you speak Spanish´... haha ´I just wanted to make sure I was understanding everything´... hahaha funny, funny,  She´s not actually in our area, but we passed off the reference. :)


On Tuesday we got to go to "T"'s sealing!!!! It was so beautiful! Let me tell you a little about "T"... so she is just the cutest member in Las Palmas and I love her to death. So about the same time that Maddie got engaged, "T" got engaged... and all my sisterly excitement about a wedding was poured out on her. haha  It was often the joke that I was more excited for her wedding that she was! So she always would help us with English classes and I would help her plan her wedding. :) fun fun fun, and so even though I´m going to miss TWO WEDDINGS!!!!!!!!!!!! (shout out to NICK and MARCI who just got engaged!!!)... I got to go to the sealing and be a part of one wedding at least! :)  It was incredible, and the spirit was soooooo strong! I am so happy for them!!! :)

Alrighty la obra misional! 
"E"- We have had a few things set up with him and he has failed us a few times... (kind of understandable because he is 16 and it was basically a party week this week)... but there was one day that he called us... we pick up, a little confused, hoping everything is ok... and he said ´Hey... do you have time to meet today?´and just set up his own appointment. :) Great spiritual lesson!!! He really has so much desire... just a typical 16 year old boy!
"A"- So we are visiting this family, the mom and children are members and the dad is just a little hard hearted. He has learned about every church and his beliefs are kind of a compilation of everything.  He has a hard time with the concept of faith. So most times our lessons are us attempting to bring the spirit and him giving us hypothetical situations.... fun.  But we went over this week to have an FHE and the lesson started out fine- scriptures, testimonies... but it was just the same old, same old... and then the wife bears this amazing testimony that completely changed the course of the lesson. She just kind of called him out for having a hard heart ´we have 3 living beautiful children. Our daughter was cured from bone cancer... What more miracles do you want. Our life is a miracle. What more do you want´... man oh man the spirit was soooo strong... and his attitude changed. He started listening to us... it was incredible. The power of a testimony! :)
And the weekly update of my street stories: :)
-So there is this older Spanish lady waiting for the bus who was holding a big potted flower.  So I sit down next to her and comment on how I like her flower... :) and she just went on and on about this flower and I was just nodding and smiling... and then she was like, you know what I´ll give you a branch and you can grow your own plant too... ´Umm, no I´m ok...´ ´no really.... here´and she rips off a whole branch of her flower and hands it to me... ´ummm thanks...´ and then she proceeds to tell me all the steps I need to take to grow it.  Then we moved into the conversation about the temple gardens... and the temple... and the gospel. :)
-To some it is fascinating that we speak English... so we were talking to this guy and he wanted to practice his English.. He asked us ´do you like futball?´... ´ummm yeah sure´.... ´or do you prefer to dance´and right after he said this he broke into this intricate Spanish dance step (like Flamanco style), ending with a clap and everything... ´hahahaha  Yeah we love futball, we just love it so much´.... we are soooo awkward.
-We were leaving the chapel from a lesson and found two men standing looking up at the temple... so we stop and start talking to them. They had come just to see the temple. Awesome. We´re thinking it is this big miracle as we start to give a temple tour. haha  Well turns out they are very, very Athiest and kind of just wanted to argue.  Wow it was just an adventure...It is sad when people don´t recognize what Christ did for them and what we can become through Christ. 
I was thinking about that a lot due to the fact that it is Easter and all, and I am just really grateful for the Atonement and for the mercy of God that we can return back to his presence because of what Christ did for us. I will always ´Stand all amazed´. It makes all the difference to be completely focused on Christ during the Easter Season. I loved it!
Also "A" (from Las Palmas) is getting baptized this week! :) He is my miracle story and I´m soooo happy for him!!! :)
Well I love life and hope you all do too!!  Love you lots!



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