Has the heat hit over there yet? This last week has been a scorcher. I was thinking about it and i am really stoked to get to have a non-stop sauna on the home stretch to burn off some of the cushion i have built up. You know, pross-cushion. Makes sitting and walking through big crowds a lot less painful.
I will get you the pictures of my john the beloved impression next week.
Call time, whoo! My companion is getting his call at 700pm our time. That stands unconfirmed. He has a really big family and we want to allow for some buffer so i was thinking 900 or 930 my time. If that gets in the way of church you could even push as far as 1000ish. We go to bed at 1130. So let me know which works for you. They are all good with me. It is the same number as Christmas = 627486512. As always i will let you figure out all the codage so i don't mess us up.
Wow, that pretty much does it for the business. Okay then, lets get to it.
I have two occurrences of note. I will tell them in reverse order. One comes from Saturday and the other from Sunday, and you were paying attention when you read the previous sentence that means i will start with Sunday and then tell Saturday's. "Why?" you might ask. Well, i am not really sure, the recent one is just fresher in my mind so i want to spit it out quick. Plus, i think the Saturday one is more of a mission nature, so we will count it as the grand finale. "Why is he expounding on such a useless explanation?" you might ask. Well, i would ask the same question. That is why we get along so well, you and i (consider the you to be the Spanish vosotros so that you can all be included).
Also may be for the lack of info i have to share this week. Sorry, it is rather warm in this cyber spot and i think my brain is sweating.
On to Sunday's happenings. We have been pushing way hard to work with the youth of the ward. They are super sweet but the adults treat them like crudloads (to be honest, i don't even know what that means, but it came to mind, and as always happens, what come to mind comes to pass). Our big focus right now is to find families and replacements (young dudes that will go on missions after baptism). We decided to go right ahead and start working with the possible ward replacements. We play soccer ever Saturday with them which is sweet. I have discovered how to deceive them into thinking i have talent. I do either one of two things. 1- play goalie. In Spain there is no public grass, so everyone plays on concrete mini courts. The goals are small and i am big. Whenever anyone wants to shoot a just gently lay myself down in front of them and make the save. That is the first mode of deceit. Next up. 2- move and flail arms a great deal while running. I have come to find that the added movement adds a great deal of trickery to one's level of play. These have both worked wonders for me and have gotten me into their circle of trust. Their families were pretty excited about that so they invited us over to eat empanadas. I refused to let them feed us empanadas unless they agreed to teach us how to make them. They agreed. It was awesome. I am know capable of making an Ecuadorian cheese empanada. Now for the point of all this. While we were finishing things up. The young men of the ward had successfully been gathered together and to pass the time pulled out the karaoke game they have for the xbox 360. When i walked in, cooking apron and all, they jokingly asked me to give it a try. I looked them in the eye and with the speed of a snake strike snatched the microphone right out of their hand. This game was legit, it rates you and everything. They carefully picked my song and set me loose. The performance left all of us breathless. They gave me complicated by Avril Lavigne so that was my excuse. But as for them, they saw me take that song out for a stroll through the park and even gave it a goodnight kiss, and not only that, the game gave me a big bang rating. I don't even know what that means, but apparently it was good because we have now become their idols. They kept saying, "Elder Carr, eres una maquina, tio." I love the Spanish culture. Had i known the path to the trust and heart of a Spanish joven was a simple stroll down karaoke lane i would have taken these kids out for a walk along time ago. So, the big news is that we are in. I will keep you posted.
On to Saturday's happenings. The week was a pretty rough one. It happens. No biggie. Saturday was one of the happiest days ever. I love how much Heavenly Father loves giving us presents. On Saturday there were 3 baptism in our ward. Cicilia, Guadalupe, and Luis. They are all so amazing. They are all such miracles. It seriously was one of the most amazing tender mercies of my life. As always happens, there are those feelings i have and i think just about every missionary has when things go tough about not being sure if I'm doing enough. You know, not really sure if there is that much change being made. It is a nasty temptation, but it happens. It was a tough week so i was getting some thoughts like that and i just had to keep telling myself, "Self, shut your mouth, you know you are working hard. Quit thinking it depends on you." Then Saturday came and it was incredible. Cicilia is a woman that was walking down a dark street on my first night in the area. I saw her and thought that it would be weird to talk to her because it would probably freak her out. We passed her and i just felt the strongest feeling of "who cares?" I stopped and ran back to get her. Funny because this actually freaked her out more. She tried to get away and almost ran, but as soon as had made my move toward i felt so strongly that she needed to hear something. So i told her that. She stopped, turned around slowly and i told her she needed this message. She asked me what it was and i just said the first thing that came to mind. I told her that she would be able be with her family forever. She started to cry and said that her husband had died just a little while ago. It was an incredible experience. It freaks me out to think what would have happen had i just kept walking. It is really sad to think of those i have let walk by. Pretty good motivator to do better. Guadalupe is her daughter and is now preparing to serve a mission. Luis is an old Spaniard man that was investigating the church 10 years ago but as soon as he started to get interested his father died and he lost contact with the church and God. 10 years later he ran into missionaries and asked them to pass by him, but they could never get in contact with him and lost his info. I was flipping through some old numbers we had lying around and i saw his name "Luis Conejo" and i thought, "that name is sweet, we have to go by him." Elder Wallace found his info and made it happen. He is so cool. Then when we got home that night i got word that a kid named Michael Alvarez had been baptized in Aranjuez. He had moved in while i was there and i got to get his info when his member family introduced him to us. He said he wasn't interested and i just called him a liar. When i asked why i told him that he didn't even know what he wasn't interested in. He was in the middle of making some big changes and he was looking for something more. We started teaching him and he totally got into it but had to leave because of a new job. Apparently he just got back and was baptized soon after. It was such an amazing weekend.
As you can imagine, life is good.
Stay true, don't turn blue, i love you,
Elder Sky
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