Transfer 8 Week 4
Gran Canaria

Hello!

This week has been really fun. We are finding lots of new people to teach. We had a few lessons with our friend Jose, from Cuba. We met some of his friends (also Cubans) and now we have an "in" with all of the Cubans on the island. They are super funny, like the way that they talk and the words they use are just so different from Spanish people. It's crazy. 

 Okay so I know I never tell y`all stories from like people that we meet because most of the time it's just really weird and awkward but we met this one lady this week that was just to much. I have to tell y'all. 

Okay so, her name is Mary-Carmen. Needless to say, it is a remarkably common name. The virgin of the island is named Mary Carmen Del Mar, so every single person has Mary or Carmen or Mar in their name. So hermana maza had talked with her before and they had passed by her house a few times to get to know her, and left her a book of Mormon, but then they lost contact with her. So the other day, in the GuaGua, we ran into her and chatted a little bit and set up an appointment. So we go, and start to talk for a little bit to see how stuff was going when her cousins show up. She is from Ecuadorian new guinea, so she speaks Spanish but the have a different language there named fang. So we cousins show and and they are yelling and hugging and kissing, and then one of them started speaking this crazy clicking, language. So naturally they all started to speak it and my companion and I were lost. Then after 20 grueling minutes of "fang," they left with a few more screams and whale flop hugs. So now we were alone again and we start to teach the restoration, just kind of in like 5 minutes. So we start to talk about heavenly father, the family, but when we get to prophets... It all goes apostasy...  haha. 

So we start to talk about the priesthood and what is the difference between a normal person and the priesthood. Long story short she said that she was a prophet and that she received prophecies and would evangelize a lot of times in the streets to help people realize their sins. So after that she started to call us to repentance telling us that we are too controlled by time, and that it is a sin to have a watch and to know what time it is. So after that, we decide that it was time to take up our beds and walk. (Haha, get it? Leave?)

So as we leave I give her a hug, and a beso, when she pull me into a hug.  A hug normally last like what.... 3 seconds, a long hug like 15 seconds? So this was by far the longest most uncomfortable hug that I have ever gotten in my whole life. The many of you that know me, know that I am generally not a very touchy, huggy, person, and especially with strangers. So you can imagine my horror and we stood their in silence, only the sound of garlic flavored breath in my ear minute after minute. My companion timed it and she hugged me for 6 minutes straight. 6 MINUTES!  And what's worse is that my comapnion was dying laughing the whole time... I couldn't laugh because I didn't want to offended her. Next time, I'm just gonna bite the bullet and tell them that we have prisa.  

Then on Saturday we went and helped this really great family move, and we brought all of the elders and got it don't in about 1 hour. Then we went back today and helped them paint and clean. The moms name is Sandra and she is an investigator of ours, and we met her son who is super cool. He is 18 and just got her from Columbia, and kept asking questions and stuff. He is really cool. So we invited him to volleyball, and we will get to know him better. Now we are in McDonald's, because it has the best WITH in all of Spain writing your beloved family members and friends. 

So this week I went and made a list of the blessings that receive from serving others. Something that I was thinking about this week was how we can get more blessings from the Lord... How we can find him to his promises? So the two things that I thought of to get blessings, and to become more spiritual were: Being obedient, and Serving others. So I made a list of scriptures that tells us the blessings and the commandment that it is to serve others. 

James 5: 20

Ezekiel 33: 16

Mosiah 3: 19

Mosiah 18: 8-10

Mosiah 5: 13

D & C 100: 16

Matthew 25: 40

"The giving without calculating the cost, the fight without paying attention to the wounds; ... to work without expecting any reward other than to know that we have done your will "(" Prayer for Generosity ", 1548, in John Bartlett, Familiar Quotations, 14th edition, Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1968 , Page 1806).

Look them up, and serve. Serve, and forget yourself, your phone, your life, your problems, and think about others, and then all of the things that your going thru will seem a lot easier. 

Hey guys, sorry that I don't have very much time today but I just wanted to tell you some stuff. So on Sunday as we were in sacrament meeting, my companion got a text from president telling her that her brother had passed away. So we left church early and she has been having a really hard time. I really hard because I just don't know how to help her. Last year in the mission her sister died as well, and then she broke her knee and had to go home,and get surgery and come back, and now is going to finish her mission in less than 2 weeks and now this happened. I just don't know what to do. We have been trying to do things to keep her from thin king about it, and kinds to keep her distracted but... I just don't know. So that's kind of what's happening right now. I would love some advice or something. Today I just don't have any time to really send a good voice memos or anything but I will do it tryout the week. I love you woohoo much and I hope that you have a great week.