So, last week, on Monday, we met with Josefina, a new investigator. She is cool - just doesn't have a lot of time (single mom) so we are working with her. Then we met with a less active family that was cool - just got offended when some other missionaries didn't show up for a couple eating appointments. But, they like us so I'll be glad to eat with them.
Tuesday was fun - we did a lot of pass bys from the branch member list to get to know a few. It's not working all that well, but it gives us places to go to talk to people that we normally don't go to. Then later, we met up with Sunsoles and Sandra, our most promising investigators.
Wednesday was fun - Elder Strong did a really cool district meeting on teaching with simplicity - it was good and fun. Then we grabbed some food and went on intercambios with the Zls. It was fun. I was with Elder Irene, an awesome guy from Wyoming (I think...).
Thursday we finished the intercambio and headed back to Aranjuez. Then we met with Yurleidy and talked about the importance of reading the Book of Mormon and coming to church. Then we met with Sunsoles and Sandra again.
Friday - I don't remember what happened, so yeah, I guess it was a great day... Saturday we played fútbol with all the priesthood groups and the sisters. Well, to put it simply, the team with all the missionaries kicked butt, so yeah, that was fun. All the members were surprised that we could beat them so easily. Then we went to a members house and she opened her mission call and is going to Chile. Then we met with Sandra and Sunsoles again, but with a member who just got back from his mission (Ireland and Scotland mission).
Sunday - none of our investigators came to church. Monday, for lunch, the sisters wanted to go eat out, but we were like, no, that's expensive. So we told them to bring a couple things to the church and we made them lunch and surprised them with how good it was. It was super basic - just pasta and I also made some banana bread with chocolate chips. Well, they really liked that, too. In the afternoon most of our lessons failed so we passed by Sandra and Sunsoles to see why they didn't come to church - also to drop off some chocolate chip banana bread. They said they didn't know Americans could make anything other than brownies... ;) So, as to why they didn't come to church – well, there is apparently a member or two sharing some deep doctrine and, well, doing a really bad job of explaining it. They are also adding in their opinion and teaching false doctrine. So yeah, it was annoying and took a lot of time and work explaining what is what and what is true. So yeah, we had our hands full. My advice if you want to explain something about the gospel - just refer them to the missionaries or just explain it super simple. As members we often want to share all we know about a topic, but for an investigator, just keep it simple because they need it that way. Then we brought Sandra with us to English class and played a fun game for English class. It's one where we have a list of phrases and words for a topic and someone thinks of one of them and if you say it, then they dump a half full cup of water on you. And if you say a word that has been said, they also dump it on you, so it was fun. There was a new guy that came and he got the water dumped on him like every third time. For the last round he filled up the cup all the way, so it was funny.
Tuesday we didn't get much done - just talking to a lot of people and traveling to Madrid. And today we played fútbol and went to the temple.
Highlight of the week was skyping my family for Mother's Day and expressing my love to my mom in my heart because I forgot to do it in words... you got to give me a break! In my mind, Mother's Day was the Sunday before... :/
So yeah, a lot to write. Hope you all take care and here are some photos.