Paradise Revisited

Hola otra vez familia,
Here I am, another week flown by, and I´m sending home my weekly email. This past week, Elder Bowers and I worked really hard. (Dad asked me about Elder Atkin, maybe I confused you in the last email, but I lived with him for 3 transfers in Hospitalet and he was my zone leader there and he´s my zone leader here in the Valencia Zone, but we don´t live together anymore) Elder Bowers is from Vegas, and the middle of 5 children, he likes metal music, he likes computer games, and he is a goof ball. We get along well. This past week, we really decided that we were going to find some new investigators, some new people here in Alcoy that are ready to receive the restored gospel. In my Book of Mormon reading, I´ve been reading a lot about Moroni and the war chapters, and he is always preparing. ALWAYS. So we prepared a lot. We prepared in the morning, what we were going to do, what routes we were going to go on, and all this stuff. We were very obedient, we read our scriptures, we planned and planned and everything. This week, I´ve probably done more walking than in my whole mission combined. Alright, that´s a joke! But we do do a lot of walking here. It´s alright, it´s very healthy and I like to walk! So we went out, and we walked and walked and walked all week. We knocked doors, we talked to people, we preached the restored gospel, we called people to repentance! We did a lot of good hard work. And we ended the week with 0 new investigators. We taught a few lessons, but not that many. We taught 8, and the standard of excellence is 20. The people that we taught were all investigators that have been looking at the church forever. We need new investigators! Every night, we would get home exhausted, freezing cold, because it´s about 0 degrees celcius here, and plan for the next day. At night, I am so tired that I say my prayers, and get into bed and fall asleep. We are working hard here in Alcoy! I know how missionary work is. It´s tough! But it´s so worth it. My testimony has been growing, and I am so thankful for that. My testimony of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith and of our living Savior Jesus Christ is my most prized possession. I would not trade it for anything! I love preaching the gospel. In my contacts, I´ve been a little calm, and a little not bold enough. I´ve decided to be bold. When Wilford Woodruff went to England on his missions, he sure was not calm and shy, he was bold and enthusiastic! We´re going to try and really preach this week. Elder Bowers and I know that as we have faith and as we work hard, we are going to see miracles. There´s no doubt. We are going to try and be EXACTLY obedient this week. To everything. It´s going to be tough, because natural men don´t like to be obedient, but we can do it.
So yes, it was cold this week! I have my sweater, my suit, and my jacket, and a scarf and gloves, and I´m still cold! I really feel for Tyler and Chris. That´s crazy. I feel like a baby complaining about the cold! How´s the weather in Virginia?
We really have been loving the members this week. We have been visiting them, and we are really gaining their trust I feel like. We share joyous messages with them, ask about their stories, ask about their families. I´m going to start getting them to write their testimonies down. That´s a great idea. I just love the members here. They are so strong for living here, and rejecting the culture and everything in order to live the commandments of God. I tell them all the time that they are such examples and everything. I love them. I just wish that everyone we talked to, every door we knocked, every person we see, if they could all just know that we as missionaries are here to bring them the greatest message in the world, that all we want to do is serve them and help them and love them! I wish people could know that. Elder Bowers and I were talking about that a lot. We just want to love people and bring them the gospel. That´s all we want! I know in Alcoy that there is a family waiting for us to bring them the Restored Gospel and all of the blessings that that includes. I´m not going to lie, there are times when it´s hopeless, when you´ve been talking to people for five hours in the cold and no one will talk to you, but that thought that there is one family that we can love, help, serve, teach, baptize - that gives me hope. That keeps me going. One family, just like ours, who loves each other and wants to be happy and is thirsting for the truth. We´re going to find them. If it kills us! :)
So one good visit that we had this week, was with two Africans. We actually had two visits with them. The first one, we were just passing by them, because the missionaries had stopped teaching them for a while. We rang their bell, and they stuck their heads out the window to see who it was, and when they saw that it was us, boy were they so happy! They invited us up, and were very very very happy to see us and to talk to us. They speak English and are from Nigeria. They are people of great faith. They really want to follow Christ, it´s just that they aren´t married (like everyone) and so they can´t be baptized. They love the Book of Mormon. I loved teaching them, because I felt like a preacher. They truly love the word of God, and it was an example to me. We visited them one more time in the week, and it was just the guy there, and his name is Frank. He was really down, and he had been drinking a little bit. He confessed that back in Africa he was such a good Christian, and he kept the commandments and everything, but here in Spain, he got caught up in the world (now you have to remember that he speaks in very basic English). He got emotional and told us that he drinks, smokes, breaks the law of chastity, doesn´t read the good word of God as much, doesn´t go to church. He humbly asked us to help get his life back in order. We were very humbled as well, and we truly felt like servants of the Lord Jesus Christ. We´re going to help Frank get closer and closer to God. I love being a missionary and what we can do.
So, the man that typed the whole Book of Mormon on one finger invited us to come over to his house after church and to eat. He´s 91 and super old and super funny. He loves the missionaries, and he´s always telling us new hygiene things that we need to do. He winks a lot and just talks and talks and talks. We had Paella Valencia with them, and then we sang some hymns with them. I love the hymns. They´re the greatest. There is nothing like them. They touch me every time I sing.
So, last night, some Jehovahs witness guy tried to start talking to us, and he wasn´t even a good "testigo de Jehovah." He tried to start bible bashing, and I told him that if he wants to know the truth, to read the Book of Mormon. That´s all it comes down to, is that great Book. I love the Book of Mormon. I love it in English and in Spanish. It´s the greatest book there is. I love it.
So, I´m doing good here in Alcoy. It sounds like you are all doing well at home. Well, we´ll keep working hard here. Keep knocking doors, stopping people on the street, raise a warning voice and bring the restored gospel truth to the world. Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Pericle