February 10, 2014

Hola, que hay? 

Wow I didn´t realize that that it was time for the Winter Olympics! I guess they do come in one form every 2 years huh? Fun stuff. This last week I realized I will still be here in Spain for the world cup. So stoked!! I can´t even tell you. It´s going to be nuts here. Spain´s so going to win! ¡Viva España! 

So the coolest moment of the week is that Joaquin came to church!!! That was so awesome seeing him sitting there in sacrament meeting when we got there. I was so happy sitting next to him all through the meeting! He had a great experience too. He just loves the church and has such a strong testimony! He especially loved how loving the people were. He ran into a woman from the church at the bus stop on the way home and she asked after his mom and everything. He said he was really impressed with how warm the people are. He loved it. I am so excited for him!! He has the biggest heart and he is so excited about being baptized. :D

Things are going well with Patricia as well. She is opening up a lot more, she is a lot less timid than before. Actually we found out that she had a bad experience with missionaries in Honduras who pressured her too much, and that has a lot to do with why she is hesitant to accept a fecha to be baptized. But she is warming up to it little by little. The only thing is that the 22 is coming up soon. But if we need to change it, no worries. She just needs to pray specifically to know and overcome her fear and she will be totally ready. And she will be a strong member. We had a noche de hogar with her and a bunch of members last night that was so much fun! I love stuff like that in the mission. 

Domi is leaving for Menorca the 18 of Feb. We are a little sad. Things have been interesting with him. At the beginning of the week we went over with a member and he was a completely different person. It was scary. He had read 1 Nephi 4 where Nephi kills Laban and he was freaking out about it. He said he didn´t want to keep reading or learning anymore. We were able to calm him down and help him understand and by the end he was his old self again. But something was off. We will do everything we can this week and then pass him to the missionaries in Menorca, but it´s a little sad. He is a great guy, but there is something he needs to overcome in order to be able to accept the Gospel. Maybe now is not the time. 

It´s definitely a blessing being able to see everyone here in Madrid. That conference was so much fun! I´m going to talk with Bea and Kancho this week to see what their plans for the temple are. Yesterday Bea finished one year as a member! Can you believe it?! One year since my first baptism! I´m so excited to see them enter the temple and take the next step. As far as I understand they are still not married because they have to work through the embassies to do it and they are from, well, very different countries (Bulgaria and Peru). I don´t really understand it well either, but everyone says it just takes a long time. No worries. I´ll be there for their sealing whether it´s during my mission or not. 

Well, that´s about all the news for this week. We had a fun p-day bowling today. There was a big group that went and I got to hang out with almost everyone from B5 that I am so close to (including Weixler and Kinghorn). Seriously, some of the other missionaries there are now some of my closest friends in the whole world. They are amazing! So it was a lot of fun to see each other again. The pictures are first of: the shirts that Weixler and I made, 2nd: my district now (minus 2) and 3rd: some of my favorite people in the world! 

Address: Calle Miami 7, 3ºC Madrid

Thanks so much for everything! I think about you guys all the time and pray for you everyday. I love you so much! Thank you for all you do! Be safe.

Love,

Elder Cousins