August 5, 2013

Hello family! 

Wow, it´s been quite the week! Where to begin? So on Monday we ate with Maria and Marcos (Markito´s family) as a goodbye and then we drove down to B5 and dropped me off. I once again moved into a totally nasty piso (I´m pretty sure every piso in the mission is disgusting), but we´re supposed to moving soon so it´s OK. We´ve already cleaned it up a lot. I met my new companion, Elder Kinghorn, who is super cool! He has 3 transfers in the mission, so about 4 and half months. It´s the first time I´ve had a companion younger than me. So far it´s going really well. He has desires to work, and I really want to be a good influence on him and help him make the most of his mission. So far we get along really well! The only problem is that he went to Lone Peak, but I´m exercising my charity, and I think we´ll still be able to friends. :) 

On Monday we meet Wilmer, my first investigator here. He is from Colombia and he´s super cool! He´s 22, and he actually knows some about the church because of a member girl he used to date. He has his doubts and he feels like the church is too restrictive, but we have been meeting with him a lot this last week and he has a ton of potential. We have just been inviting him to experiment for himself, to do simple things like read and pray, and he´ll come to know for himself. It´s been going really well. He has a ton of potential! 

We´ve also been spending a lot of time in the streets looking for people to teach. It´s a lot different contacting here than in my other areas. We are right in the heart of Madrid, and we cover a huge area! (Sol is in our area! It was really weird walking through there on not a P-day) There are a ton of people here! But a lot of the references we receive live outside our area, so it´s hard to know where to contact and work. But I feel like people are more receptive here than in other areas I´ve served in, so we will definitely find a lot of work. I´m really excited to be here, to get things going more and to get to know the area and the people here. It´s so nice to back on the streets!

On Thursday we met with a reference from a different area, Bastililo. He is a Chinese man in his 20s who seems very interested. We had a short lesson with him and taught a little of the first lesson, just the nature of God. It was so interesting to teach someone who has no Christian background at all. We asked him who he thought God was and he said, "like a spirit." He seemed really surprised when we told him God was a person, with a body like us. It´s so cool to teach someone from the very beginning, in the most basic way. He said the coolest thing at the end of the lesson when we asked what his expectations are. He said, "I think believing in God will make me a better person." Wow. What a simple, pure reason to get to know God. Isn´t that really why we are all part of the Church? I was so struck by that and so happy that he already understands that. He is looking in the right place. We also met a girl from Nicaragua and had a really good first lesson with her, but I´m a little worried she´s just interested spending time with a couple of young American men. :P Awkward. . . 

Other than that lots of looking. Yesterday we set up lessons with a bunch of members for this week, so we´ll start working with them a lot more, which should help us find more people and have more trust with the ward. I was really surprised by the size of the ward. In an area with so many people you´d think it´d be one of the biggest wards, but it´s the smallest I´ve served in. There were about 70 or 80 people in church on Sunday. 

Well that´s about all the news for the week. Oh, except one other thing! I reached my one year mark on Thursday! How weird is that? I really can´t believe it´s been a year. I was talking with some other guys in my group and they were saying it´s all downward from here. I freaked out a little hearing that. I don´t want it to be over that fast! I´m just going to have to make the most this year because I know it will go way faster than the last one.

Thanks for keeping me updated with everything that´s going on at home. Good luck Bekah! Send me photos!  Send Tiff my congrats and tell her that she will be awesome! 

Well I better go. I love you all so, so, so, so, so much. Like really. A lot. :) Take care! Love you!

Elder Cousins