Hola familia y amigos,
This week was much better. Still hard, we had a
baptism fall through last minute. I don´t really want to think about
it. Basically he really wants to get baptized but he has Muslim friends
and they do not and they are talking bad about him and so he cannot get
baptized in this situation. We really thought he would get baptized,
everything was going so well, but now he won´t answer the phone.
He stopped answering his phone the day before his baptismal
interview and we spent 2 days tracking him down when we didn´t have
lessons. We finally found him and he explained that he cannot get
baptized with his friends talking about him like they are. He looked so
sad and hopeless. It was hard, because he was so set on getting baptized
and so excited. I have hope for him in the future though. He did
not get baptized this week, but he is in the Lords hands, and I have faith that
he can get baptized someday.
I have really learned a lot about
faith this transfer, huh? And enduring. Because the blessings
always come. We have another investigator that is pretty set for getting
baptized this week, the 20th. This is Justino the investigator we
tried to baptize over the weekend like 2 weeks ago. He finally felt
his toque (like a knock or touch) that he has been waiting for to tell him he
is ready. He came to church on Sunday and really seems excited for
saturday.
PLEASE pray for him this week that
he can continue to feel that he should get baptized and that he can have
evenings off from work so that he can meet with us and have time for
a baptismal interview. And we extended a baptismal invite to someone
who has been meeting with missionaries for 2 years and she accepted saying she
had been thinking about baptism!
We also continue to find more
people to teach. Vallecas is a great area with many people ready to
accept the Gospel. We are working really hard and really well in this
trio. I love my companions very much with how well we get a long and the
amazing work we have done this transfer.
Next transfer I would not be
surprised if we had a baptism every week. We had planned originally on
baptizing 5 of our investigators this transfer, and while that did not happen,
we realized that all 5 of them are at the point where they want to be baptized
and so a lot of that will be happening next transfer.
We really do work well together and
I hope that can last as long as possible. We make a good team.
Intercambios were really good this week. We did them twice.
With both of the B6 hermanas. I spent a day with Hna. Stepp in my
area. She is so sincere and servicable. I also spent a day in
Barrio 6 with Hna. Smith. She is wonderful. I LOVE going back to
barrio 6 for intercambios. I lived in that piso for 2 transfers and really
enjoyed everything. It was fun to spend the night with my girls again and
to walk around my old area. I LOVE the mission and I LOVE Spain.
What else happened this week? We have no AC in our
piso. We are dying of heat. But we are going to buy fans today
because the mission will reimburse them! August is coming up and so a lot
of people are out of town. We have one investigator who has been out of
town this whole month and gets back early August.
People here know how to survive heat. They carry
around abanicos (fans, like you would see Mulan use) the ones that fold
out. I bought one and it has saved my life. hehe. They also have
shutters that they use to keep it nice and dark in the piso so the sun doesnt
heat everything up. And if you freeze a waterbottle half full then it
stays cold longer. But still not all day.
Also one day it was raining and the rain evaporated almost
as quickly as it landed on the hot pavement. I got water on my shirt but
didn´t bother to change because it dried by the time we got to the bus stop
about 3 minutes from our piso. IT´S HOT! I feel like I am
melting. I am very excited for it to cool down. The other day it
was like 41. I think that is in the 100´s but I am not sure....
This weekend there are going to be like 9 baptisms. We
are having a baptism at 6 and just baptizing everyone. One area is having
5 baptisms, we are having Justino, and a few others. The work is
progressing.
We are expecting 7 Hermanas this upcoming week and 13 the
next transfer. The Lord is hastening His work.
Our investigators our progressing very well. We need
to start finding, because of those that we teach regularly, 4 of the 5 or 6
have baptismal dates or have explicitly said yes I want to be baptized.
The best of this was with Mauro. He is 26 and just super prepared for the
gospel. He has always agreed that our church was good and he has
seriously been considering baptism, but it wasn´t until recently that we helped
him understand that this is the true church when we asked him to specifically
pray and ask if he should be baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints. He prayed and of course he got an answer. Now he just
wants a little time to talk to his family and learn a bit more. I think
we will give him a fecha next time we see him (he works a TON) for mid august
or early september!
We still haven´t seen the worldwide broad cast.
Unfortunately, it´s not really a thing here. Nobody really knows about
it. We told our bishop and he hadn´t heard. And so he said he would
wait for the Stake president to do something about it. He is a good
bishop, but when it comes to things like this, the people don´t take
initiative. I hope the members see it soon, because they need to help
us, the work would go soooo much better! Maybe this week!
Things are going really well!
Con amor,
Hermana Olsen
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