February 17, 2014

Why do we have so many holidays? Just to get out of work, right? Not in the mission. . . :) 

So I´m having a pretty hard time focusing today. I´ve had these really annoying allergies on and off for the last few weeks and today they came back in force. I say this just as disclaimer so that if this email seems a little weird you know why. 

Ok, first of all. I know I´m not like, the fútbol guru or anything, but I LIVE in Madrid and I can only think of 3 teams in la Liga. Real Madrid, Atlético de Madrid and Rayo Vallecano. . . If you can tell me the fourth team and what neighborhood they are from I´ll be very impressed. ;) People do always ask what team you are for. I always respond Madrid, obviously. :) 

Pues, not a lot new from this week. The coolest experience was when we took Patricia to the temple to do a tour. It was a very spiritual tour, especially when we talked about how families can be together forever. You could see how much she wants that. Sitting in the waiting room of the temple at the end we just talked and she opened up to us about her life. About her doubts and worries, not just about the church, about everything. It was really cool to see how the spirit just put her at ease and we were able to talk with her. I´ve never heard her talk so much, she is usually so timid. She also told us there straight up that she wants to get baptized. After the tour we went to a baptism there in B6. She loved it. She kept saying afterwords that she felt good. She said that she thinks the the nerves will always be there, but that doesn´t mean she isn´t going to get baptized. She is so much more excited for her baptism this Saturday and much more sure about it, I think. Which is good. I´m pretty excited too. :)

Joaquin sadly couldn´t come to church this week, again because of his mom. She woke up late so he couldn´t get her all set up before he left. He also had a bad experience this week when he had to leave her for longer than he wanted to to go do something. When he got home she was really upset, to the point of almost leaving to go look for him. We could tell he was pretty worried by that and that he just doesn´t like leaving her at all. So we tried to help him raise his spirits a little and encouraged him to stay strong in his faith. It was sad to see him down in the dumps. Usually he is so happy and always focused on the blessings in his life. 

Finally we did have a new investigator come to church, which was awesome! Bryan is 16 and really wants to find friends who are good kids. We taught him and his mom about 2 or 3 weeks ago when she called us, if you can believe it! We haven´t been able to meet with them since but yesterday Bryan called to say he wanted to go to church. His mom couldn´t come because of work, but Bryan seemed to have a good experience. He was a little bored by the end of sacrament meeting (heck, I was too) but he really liked the young men´s class and left with some of the kids at the end of the meetings. Hopefully these good experiences will cause him to have interest in the doctrine as well so we can teach him. 

We are still looking for new people to teach. It´s weird, it´s easy to get references here, but none of them turn into lessons. Everyone in the district is having the same issue. But they will come. The Lord has always blessed me with people to teach when I keep working. Here will be no different. Just got to put in practice all that patience I´ve learned in the mission. ;) 

That´s the news for this week. Just doing the work and loving it! I love you guys too, even more than a million heart-shaped chocolate dipped shortbread cookies! :D (Any chance of me receiving a million heart-shaped chocolate dipped shortbread cookies? :P ) 

I hope you all have a wonderful week and don´t forget that I think about you and pray for you everyday. Thanks for everything! 

Elder Cousins