Best Week Alcoy had ever had

Dear family,
This past week in Alcoy was without a doubt the best week that Alcoy has ever had. It was an absolutely incredible week. We had great member support, a TON of visits with people, and miracles left and right! We ended the week with 24 visits, which I don´t think has ever happened. We were so busy all week, and as a result I´m very tired, but very happy. We worked so hard this week and the Lord really really blessed us. It´s a great work. Elder Bowers and I both went to bed so happy last night, and so tired. This Chinese kid, named Alex, who is 23, we had a visit with him in the house of a member and we watched the Restoration DVD in Mandarin, and he loved it and said that he is like Joseph Smith, and that he wants to be baptized. We invited him to be baptized on the 9th of April, and he accepted. He was almost crying. He felt the spirit, and we did too. A Chinese person in Spain! The Lord works in mysterious ways. The members house who we were at were a really fun family, and they have two girls, age 9 and 6, and they are just off the wall girls, talking so fast and running and screaming and laughing. Alex loved it, even though he couldn´t really understand them. It was the first time that he went to a Spaniards house. He really did love it, and he is very excited for his baptism. We made him a plan of everything that we are going to teach him, and we wrote that he has to read, pray, and come to church, and we wrote it in Chinese (thanks google translator), and he loved it. We decided that we´re really going to go over the commandments well, so that he understands. The first lesson after he committed to be baptized, we talked about the word of wisdom, because he has a huge smoking problem. Everyday, lots of cigarretes. He told us that his friends wants him to stop smoking, he knows he wastes money and that it´s gross, but he told us that it´s not possible. He said he won´t stop smoking and he doesn´t want to lie. We were kind of bummed, and we prayed about it a lot after the visit. We decided to go ahead and make him a plan, which will permit him to smoke 3 cigarretes a day, then 2, then one, and then none! We bought him a TON of gum, and we prayed a lot about it, and the next time we had a visit, we presented all of this to him, and we really just tryed to show him that we love him and that we know this is what God wants him to do, to quit smoking. He was very touched, and he said, you know what, I can stop smoking. He committed to follow the plan, and so we´re going to see how it goes! We are really just trying to love him. Love can work through the language barrier. It´s a great work.
So on Wednesday, we had a visit with this woman Esmilva, who I have told you about before. She´s from Ecuador and she´s so nice. We have been talking about baptism with her forever, and on Wednesday, she said she would tell us on Thursday if she would get baptized. Thursday comes around, and she told us that on Saturday she would give us her final answer. She has two daughters here in Spain, one that lives here in Alcoy, and one that lives a little farther south and comes to Alcoy on the weekend. They both want her to be baptized. So on Saturday, we went to a members house, and we ate this food that Esmilva prepared us, and it was fish head in a peanut butter sauce. Oh the experiences of the mission! We ate it, and then we talked about repentance and a change of heart, and we showed her a picture of baptism in the gospel art book (incredible book) and her daughter was there and she saw it and she got a little emotional and told us about a dream that she had, and about a baptismal "pool" she called it, and that her mom was in it, but the daughter didn´t enter just yet. She then bore her testimony and said that she knows that all of this is true, and that the church is true, and that she will be baptized, but not yet because she hasn´t been taught enough. She told her mom that she was ready, and then Esmilva accepted to be baptized next week! She said that she´s in this for real and that she´s excited, and received her answer. Miracles! We are very excited for her baptism, and so is she. I´ll let you know how it goes.
Another really fun investigator that we have is Angelina. She was GOING to be baptized next week, but the week after she committed to be baptized, Satan hit her hard with everything that you can imagine. Angelina is an absolutely incredible woman, and she will be an incredible member of the church. She talks SO MUCH, and we could spend HOURS over there listening to her stories and to her talking. She said that she doesn´t feel that she´s ready for baptism next week, even though she already knows everything and knows it´s true. She´s a little overwhelmed with everything that is happening, and so we asked her if she wanted to keep going towards her goal, and she said absolutely, but at the moment she doesn´t want to get baptized next week. She said in the future that she will be. She comes to church and loves it, and she gets her husband to come as well. She´s excited for general conference to come up, and so am I! I´ll let you know more about her when more happens.
So basically, this past week was just a joy. We had great spiritual visits, really loved the missionary work, and worked super hard. We were going to achieve all the "points of excellence" as they´re called, and we were going to get 4 new investigators yesterday at 8 o clock at night, the last visit of the week, but they ended up standing us up, so we sat down on a bench, and were going to call it a night, but instead we called some people to see if we could go over, and we called a few people and they said they´d rather us come over during the week. The last call we made was to this woman named Michelle from Kenya. She´s a great woman, and she´s so nice. She lives here in Spain with her little 4 year old girl that only speaks Spanish to us. Too cute. We called her, and she´s really tough to visit, because she works so much. We had one visit last week with her and we talked to her about the Book of Mormon. So we called her, and she said hey do you have time right now? Of course we have time! I told her that we would be over in 10 minutes, and she told us to hurry. The problem is, we were CLEAR on the other side of our area, and it was easily a 25 minute walk. So what did we do? We speed walked/ran as fast as we could. I loved it, I felt so good getting some excercise in. We made it in about 13 minutes (yes, I timed it), a record time, and when we got there, Elder Bowers was about dead. My poor companion! He was really dead. I felt so good though. We talked with Michelle about the Book of Mormon, answered some of her questions, and said a prayer with her. It was great getting that final lesson in. Working hard right up until the wire! So good.
So yeah, miracles exist everywhere, even in Alcoy! Our Zone leaders couldn´t believe what we did, neither did the Assistants. We get asked, how did you do it? I don´t know, the Lord just blessed us! It was really a joy to be a missionary this past week. I love it.
It sounds like everything is going really well. Alex and marathon dance, Gabbi and Mormon Prom, Annie and Soccer tryouts, Izzy and taking care of Stella I guess. Let me know how soccer tryouts go! And don´t worry if you don´t make it. I didn´t make soccer OR basketball in middle school. Sad stuff. That´s okay though, it all works out for the best!
The mission is great, life is great. Keep on smiling over there in Virginia. The weather was a little warm this last week, and I already started sweating. It´s going to be a sweat fest here in Spain in a few months. Can´t wait!
Much love,
Elder Pericle