August 12, 2013

Dear Family,

Hello again. How´s it going? We had a bit of a harder week this week. We had a lot of trouble this week with investigators not showing up to lessons. It happened a lot this week, I don´t know why. After awhile it just gets frustrating. We put in effort to plan and work around their schedule and then they just leave us there waiting and don´t answer their phone. It´s irritating. But it´s OK, this week will be better. We´re going to focus on calling people before to confirm, and on making backup plans. I´ve never really made backup plans, just contacting, but I think it´s something we need to put in practice here. 

Our other big challenge from the week was just that everyone is gone! It is August after all. At least half the people we are teaching left this week for vacation. Which leaves us with not enough to do. So we have been out in the streets as well. But a lot of the people we talk to say they are leaving too. It´s crazy! We can´t figure out how the country runs without any people! It´s all good though, we have found some new people and we are also spending time getting to know the members as well, which will bring fruit in the future. 

Last Monday a family of investigators from B6 invited us over to eat. I don´t know if you remember me writing about Eduardo and Paola back when I was with Berthon? We went and saw them and Daniela who I baptized. It was cool to see them again, but unfortunately they haven´t made much progress. Eduardo is going to church almost every week now, which is awesome, but they still aren´t married or as far as I can tell thinking about it. They will have their time, though. 

We met with Bastilio on Wednesday and taught him part of the first lesson. He seemed to like it and to understand pretty well. The problem is he works all day long during the week, so it´s hard to find time to meet with him, so his progress may be slow, but he can come to church on Sunday, which is awesome.  

We also met with Beto finally. He is super good! He´s been meeting with the missionaries for a year or more. His wife is a member of nearly her whole life. He is so close to baptism. We tried to commit him, but he says he still doesn´t feel prepared. I think he knows it´s true, but he is afraid of making the change or of the commitment it brings. We are going to keep working with him, and I know we´ll baptize him. Unfortunately he also left on vacation, so more waiting. 

So we´ve had a week of mixed emotions. Lots of "this was good, but there´s this. . ." We certainly have our share of both blessings and challenges. Which is good. That´s life. I´m really excited to work with the people we have here and see what I can accomplish in this area. I need to step it up a bit now, but it´s going to be good.

Friday was my companion´s birthday. Happy Birthday, Elder Kinghorn! His parents gave him some money and told him to take the four of us out to lunch. He decided he wanted to go do tapas, so we headed into the center, which is part of our area. We walked around for a while and ended up in Plaza Mayor. (Side fact: Dad, do you remember that movie Vantage Point? I didn´t realize before but it was filmed in Plaza Mayor) We sat down at a table outside right there in Plaza Mayor with shade and little mist sprayers and everything. It was nice. We got tapas like planned. We got: a big plate of jamon iberico (jamon serrano, but better), queso manchego (sheep cheese, which I love), pulpo a la gallego (octopus, gallician style), gambas en ajillo (shrimp with garlic sauce) and the classic tortilla española. It was incredible. I have tried almost all of those before (not the octopus), but these were the highest quality I´ve ever had. And the octopus was amazing! It was all soooooo good! And we payed for it, as you´ve probably guessed. When we had cleaned all five plates we decided to ask the waiter how much we were at and maybe get more if it wasn´t too high. He came over, figured it all up and said "You´re at 100 euros right now." Yeah, so we stopped there. Basically we all owe Elder Kinghorn´s parents some money. But it was super good. We´re planning on going to the oldest restaurant in the world next. It´s about 40 euros a person there. I´ll let you know how it goes. 

Well I better go. We´re planning on heading out to Toledo today. None the other 3 have been there yet and they are pretty excited, so I´ll be playing tour guide today I think. That PIN is just in time, I think I´m actually going to buy something today. We´ll see. Oh, before I go, can you send me Bekah´s email so I can write too? And if you could forward this one that´d be great. I can´t believe she´s all the way on the other side of the States! She is going to absolutely love it there though, I can tell. I´m totally excited for her! That campus looks amazing and just what she loves. Saludos a todos! I love you all! See you next week! 

Elder Cousins