Hey everyone!

Again, sorry that I didn’t send the email last week! I totally thought that I had sent it, but I guess that I didn’t. And today was super busy, so unfortunately, I don't have a lot of time to write, so I'm going to need to be super quick.

Elder Simmons and I at the Madrid Temple

Today was our p-day instead of Monday, because it was our zone’s turn to go to the temple. The temple was really great, and it was good to go back again. One weird thing though was that I got a random bloody nose right towards the end of the session, luckily none of the blood got on anything, but it really caught me off guard. After that we went and played futbol back in the pit once again for a while which was a lot of fun. Then it was back to our Piso for groceries and naps (naps because we had to wake up super early to go to the temple).

This past week has been super busy, and it has been really great. The Tuesday after p-day we had zone conference, which was awesome. It was really fun to meet with a bunch of other missionaries and a bunch of missionaries from the MTC were there, so it was cool to see them again. A big focus of the conference was about talking versus contacting. It was a good conference, and it answered a lot of questions, so that was nice.

One cool thing about the conference was that Elder Brasher was there, and I was able to spend a lot of time catching up with him. (For those not in my family, Elder Brasher is my cousin on my mom's side that is serving here with me in Madrid.) At the end of the conference, we all were able to pick up packages that were sent to us. Thanks for the keyboard, Grandma; it's really helpful! I also got a letter from Grandpa Gen-o, which was cool. After that conference, it was back to the Piso.

 

Master Chef of the ward BBQ

The next day, the other dls (district leader) in our zone came over to do intercambios (a 24 hour companionship exchange) with the zls (Zone leader), so we had 6 guys in our Piso, which was fun. Another thing that stood out was that we were able to go and do service one day which was good. We went and helped a family in the ward paint their attic room. Another thing that stood out was that we had a ward barbecue. That was a lot of fun. We were able to get a family to come that we met in the street. They just moved here from Chile. The wife is a member, but the husband isn't. We were able to help them find the church. We are just starting to teach the husband. Their names are Maria and Robert; they have a 2-year-old son, Francisco, who is super cute.

 

Service Project

Other stuff that happened: earlier this week I went on intercambios with our district leader, Elder Swanky that was good. We were in Alcorcon. We were able to have a good day and were able to teach a lesson.

I wanted to talk about one of our new investigators that is pretty cool. So last week, Elder Simmons and I are finishing up for the day, and we end up standing in front of our Piso building at 9:55 when we are supposed to be back at 10. We decide to go out and try and find one more person to talk to, and we end up finding this 25-30 year old Spaniard. We showed him the Pascua (Easter) video and talked about The Book of Mormon. We gave him a copy and set up a return appointment. At our return appointment, we walked in and started talking with him and found out that, not only did he read the introduction, but he also read the testimonies prefacing The Book of Mormon,the first 3 chapters Nephi, and the visit of Christ, which never happens. Most of the time, people don't even read the introduction like we ask them. We had a good lesson, and then we sent up a return appointment on Tuesday. Tuesday morning he called us to say that he loved The Book of Mormon a wanted to keep reading, but he also wanted to stay Catholic. It really caught us off guard. Unfortunately, I was in Alcorcon when Elder Simmons met with him, but he told me that it was a little confusing and hard. Juan likes The Book of Mormon and is actively reading it and has actually a lot of good questions, but he doesn't want to meet either us anymore. We are going to give him space for a couple of days and then try and set up another Cita, because Elder Simmons wasn't able to with him at that time. That pretty catches us up to date.

The conference talks came out in English, and I'm reading them every chance I get. There really were a lot of good talks. I'm only just starting priesthood though so I have a lot more to read, one last thing I want to mention just in case there are those who didn't know the church is doing a Pascua initiative (or a Easter initiative in English). They made a really awesome video that can be found at mormon.org, and I would really recommend everyone to go check it out, it is really awesome. Well I’ve got to go until next week!

Elder Bassett

A prank that was played on some elders. If I have never mentioned, there is a grand prank war going on in the Móstoles piso.