Request from Elder Mathews' parents: Please pray for Elder Mathews' and Elder Parry's safety. Thank you!
Another week has come and gone and it was a muchhhh better week than the past few.:) This week just flew by and we actually had some good visits and saw some more success this week which has been amazing. I guess I'll start with yesterday since it was the best day, haha. Yesterday was incredibly full. We were running from church to a visit and then another visit, back to church for a fireside, and then to another visit in a neighboring town. What a day! But the best thing that happened was that we set two more baptismal dates with two amazing people. Angelita and Lady were old investigators in the past but they couldn't meet a whole lot so the missionaries dropped them. Well, we decided to try them out and we got in with them. Angelita is a friend of one of the members here, Juana, who we visit a lot because her husband-to-be is a non member and investigator. So we brought them both to help us out on the visit and I'm so glad they came because they were able to help support and answer some questions that Angelita had. The visit was amazing. I felt the presence of the Spirit so strongly and originally we weren't even thinking about extending the invitation to be baptized. But I just felt that I needed to. Especially to Angelita. She at first said no because she was a little nervous and scared because it's hard for her to come to church on Sundays a lot. But I just felt driven to help her with this. A scripture came to my mind in Mosiah 18 about when Alma is teaching the people at the Water's of Mormon and he invites them to be baptized as well and I shared it with her and asked, "What is keeping you from being baptized like these people? You know that this church is true and you know the happiness it brings. So what is holding you back?" She thought about it and said, "I'm not sure to be honest." After bearing testimony, I again invited her and told her that we are here to help her along the way and to help her realize that she is ready. And after the second time, they both accepted. It was an incredible visit mostly because I haven't had a visit like that in a little while unfortunately. But I know without a doubt that the Spirit of the Lord is preparing people everywhere to hear the gospel and we only have to find them.
The rest of the week was pretty crazy as well. On Thursday we left our piso and it was sunny and great out. We went to a visit, left, and it was cloudy and windy. We didn't think much of it until it started to sprinkle. And then it started to pour, hahaha. We didn't have any umbrellas because it was sunny when we left so we were kinda just walking in the rain. Usually I'd be a little upset that I got caught in the cold rain, in church clothes, but for some odd reason I just had a blast! I was just singing "Called to Serve" as we were walking and I was just in the best mood ever!:) But it wasn't fun walking back home that night because we were wet, haha. We went to a visit that we had with Juana and Nestor and they saw us all soaking wet and gave us a towel to wipe off a little, haha. And then they gave me another white shirt to put on! I was wetter than Elder Parry so he just wore the same clothes. But it was so nice of them and totally not necessary, but I was thankful still :)
On a little less of a happy note, this guy we've been avoiding finally found us. Bleh. There's this guy named Chaz who's from Nevada that lives in Mataró and he works here doing something that I don't know what. But Elder Raban and his former companion found him one day and after talking with him decided that he wasn't a good guy to be honest. He was more interested in trying to test our faith and take away our testimonies than to investigate the church. He's marked in our phone as "Chaz. DONT ANSWER!" lol. And he's tried calling a few times. But we just ignore his calls and stuff. But finally the other day, Friday I think, he found us in the train station. And long story short he set up a visit for Wednesday and he told us he'd send us the address via texting. We're just thinking about not going because we just don't feel good when we're around him and I don't want to play with things like that. But we'll see what happens.
Some of you may remember that I said that people mix us up with the Jehovah's Witness people. Well, the other day we were walking down the street when this guy stopped us and said he wanted to ask us some questions about what we believe. He said he was Muslim at first and started talking to us and asking trivial questions to us about God and the Bible and why we preach. I didn't think he was Muslim at all and it turns out he wasn't, haha. He later said, "By the way, I'm a Jehovah's Witness." The questions he asked were worded and formed to make us look worse than them. But to be honest, he sorta failed...miserably, haha. He would ask a question, wait for a little for my response, and then without letting me finish, say something and pull out the Bible and prove how he's right and then move on to some other random question without letting me answer again. I've come to realize that people that try to disprove the church and everything we believe will go to any lengths to do so and that they have no fixed or set way to do it. The questions they may ask are so random, so trivial, and are all over the place and when you disprove them and shut them down, they don't know how to respond. But man, it was quite the experience! And instead of taking my testimony away, it strengthened it because I know what I know because of the testimony which I have developed. And I know these things because I know we have a prophet today that speaks and reveals God's will again. I know the church is true and I want you all to know that. So when someone tries to question your beliefs, just share your sincere testimony because that is one of the only things that they can't take away. It's something that we give up by choice.
