Familia,
¿Cómo estáis? I hope everyone is doing well. This week I got a good computer with a good keyboard. The last week the keyboard was broken and the space bar was being difficult. So, what new to update you on... Let me think...
We have a baptism next week! We´re so excited for him. His name is Daniel, and he completely changed his life around. The first time we saw him he was not very motivated. But now, he´s full of life, he loves to read the good book, and he comes to church! Yesterday at church, he was a little late, and we saw him standing outside, so we went outside and we saw him with his girlfriend. We invited them to come in, but she said she didn´t want to. He told us to wait one minute, and they were talking, so we went over and talked to a member for a bit. Then they disappeared! We freaked out, because we didn´t know what to do. We ran down the steps, (The chapel here is 3 stories) and we went outside to look for them and they were walking to the metro. I told Elder Awerkamp ¨we can´t lose them!¨¨ So we ran after them, and asked what was up, and the girlfriend said she didn´t want to go. We pleaded with her and said no we´re leaving. We asked Daniel what was going on, and he said that he was just going to walk her and come back. We said we´d wait for him at the top of the metro. It took him about 10 minutes to say goodbye to her. I´m pretty sure that she was trying to get him to come with her, but Daniel came to church. He said, I´m ready, it´s the first time I feel like I´m doing something right in my life, and I feel it in my heart.¨¨ Oh how happy we were to hear this. He really is so ready, and the gospel really changes people, just like dad said in his email to me. But, the gospel doesn´t change us, we have to change ourselves THROUGH the gospel. We have to put in our part in order to enjoy the blessings of the gospel.
That´s something that we´ve been focusing on a lot lately in our companionship, is a lot of inactivos or menos activos. We passed by a less active girl, and she said that her life was really tough, and she welcomed us in. She said she knew that this was the true church, but she didn´t want to come back to church because the road back is hard. We said we know it´s hard, but ´´vale the pena´´ (Worth the pain). So we´re going to go over to her house 3 times a week to read the Book of Mormon, we call her everyday to see how she´s going, and we´re trying to reignite that flame that was there when she decided to get baptized. She then told us of her sister and her brother in law, both of whom are returned missionaries, married in the temple, and have been inactive for years. We were flabbergasted to hear this! How could you go inactive after serving a mission? It´s easier than it seems though. I remember hearing somewhere that faith has a very short shelf life, and that you can´t continue to be a good member of the church without reading and praying and going to church. You have to constantly be fortifying yourself, constantly reminding yourself of the covenants you made at baptism and in the temple. My companions and I had a long talk about how people who served missions and were faithful in the church go inactive. We decided that if any of us ever go inactive (which won´t ever happen, but you have to have a backup plan!) that the other two of us will go over and will reignite that flame that we currently have, remind them that they know it is true, and that this is the only way. We practiced on each other too while we were walking around. It was fun.
Speaking of walking around, it is really fun to walk around here. It´s awesome taking the metro, awesome having everyone look at you, and awesome just being in Spain. We have a few Spaniards in our ward, and we had food at their houses this week, and it was so good! We had tortilla de patata, with some garlic sauce, fried pork, some other good stuff. Oh man. Napolitanas are so good. Horchata, which is like a vanilla rice drink, OH so good. The food here is awesome. In our apartment we don´t eat very well, but we´re very blessed with a great ward, who loves us and feeds us. I´m blessed to be in such a great area.
Let me tell you about a few people that we´re teaching. We´re currently teaching a sister of a Dominican member. The member´s name is Marienela, and she is the sweetest old lady. She´s so nice. Her sister is Rosalina. She just doesn´t get excited about anything. She´s been sitting in on our discussions, and this last time, I went on intercambios with a hispanic boy, Jose Antonio Hijo, and we taught the first discussion. It was awesome. The spirit was so strong, and I answered all her questions and got her to read and she said she would pray. That´s all you have to do to find out if this is true or not. Read and pray, and come to church. So we´re going back to Rosalinas house this week, so we´ll see how it goes.
Then we have Roxanna. She was baptized right before I got here. She´s 18, she´s Peruvian, and she´s fiery. She reminds me of Gabbi. She was crazy before she was baptized, and she´s still crazy now, but crazy about the gospel. My companions tell me she´s so much happier now. We still visit her to teach her the lessons again and to help her out. She´s a perfect example of how the gospel changes lives for the better.
Next we have Walter. He´s a converso reciente as well, and he´s a stud. He´s about 18, and he knows so much about the gospel. He loves me, because I don´t speak too well. He likes to teach me, and he likes to learn English. He´s not too sure about a mission, because his family is poor, so we´re trying to work on that. He´s a good guy.
One more thing. There is a man named Andrés. His daughters name was on the ward list, so we passed by, and he let us up, and he said he´s only home for about 2 hours every couple of days because he works so much, so we´re lucky we passed him. He told us that his whole family are members, except for him, because he works every Sunday. He is from Bolivia, and his whole family moved back to Bolivia except for him. He is working here, living alone for 3 years in order to support his family. He has a good job, makes good money to support his family, but he works every day, including Sundays. Why does this have to happen? He says that he knows this church is true, and wants to get baptized, but he can´t because he works Sundays. So what do we do? We invite him to request off, or find other Sundays. He was not pleased. He said his wife would get mad, his kids would starve, other stuff. We read him a scripture about do the things God wants, and he´ll take care of the rest. It´s really tough things that people have to do. The good thing is that it is definitely worth it. He said he´d read and pray, and we´re going to go back to his house every couple of days to read with him. Maybe even if he can´t get baptized now, when he goes back to his country, and he doesn´t have to work on Sundays, he can get baptized right away.
It´s funny, I´ve already been here a few weeks, and I´m already loving the people. I love the people, I understand what they go through, I pray with them, (I haven´t cried with them yet, but maybe I will), I laugh with them, I don´t understand them a lot of the time, but I love them all the more. It´s great being here.
Alright I don´t have too much time, I have to write my Presidents letter. But, I love you, I know that this church is true, and I´m excited for a baptism coming up!
Love, Elder Pericle