Working Hard!

Hi everyone!

 It´s been another week in the mission, working away and playing hard. We work really hard here in Spain, but we know how to have a lot of fun too.

We are still struggling to find people to teach. No one seems interested and we´re still learning how to look effectively. Our whole mission is really young, almost all the missionary´s have been out less than 6 months. We had specialized training with President Deere this week and that was one of the things he talked about. With all the new missionary´s doubling the number of missionarys in our area this year, we are finding a lot of new investigators and future investigators, but not very many of them are getting baptized. He talked about how this is because we´re still learning how to teach well. So hopefully our numbers will jump dramatically in about a year when we all have a lot more experience. I´m really excited for it :)

Earlier this week Hna Roan and I were struggling because we felt like we weren´t making any progress. So we set a goal to talk to as many people as we possibly could in one day. We prayed really hard that night as we were planning and then that morning. We prepared and practiced and did our best. And just like he always does, the Lord blessed us. That day we were only 5 short of our really high goal and got in the door with 2 people. One of them was an old investigator who just really needed some love that day. The other was also an old investigator. He said it was such a coincidence we stopped by because he´d just been thinking about the missionary´s. He´d been traveling a lot when the missionary´s met with him last and didn´t really have time to talk to them, but now he isn´t traveling as much. We set up another cita with him on the spot and he seemed really excited. Unfortunately, he wasn´t there when we stopped by, but we´re thinking its because he´s so busy (he said he was super busy) and we´re working on getting another one with him. But even if things don´t work out perfectly with him, that day was exactly what we needed to keep going. It really meant a lot to both of us, we went home so happy. It felt great to know we´d done absolutely everything we could do that day. We´ve been feeling that way a lot lately, which makes our lack of ´´success´´ easier to push through.

This Halloween was so wierd. It kind of doesn´t exist here unless you´re 6 or 23. The young adults all go and have a giant party and the little kids sometimes trick or treat. THe missionary´s and ward missionary´s pulled together a ward Halloween party that turned out really great. We put together a haunted house in the garage under the church and in the church had a dance/food hang out party thing. THe missionary´s were in the haunted house but after wards we went up and we were able to get some references from the members and meet some less actives. It was really a fun activity. After the party the missinoary´s all went to to get kebap together. It was so sweet, some little kids were trick or treating and one elder went into a store we were standing by and bought them chu ches (gummy candys). Sadly they moved on by the time he came back out, but it was still nice of him!

This week we ate dinner with the bishop and his family. They live in a pueblo a few minutes outside of Granada. It was SO beautiful. The pueblos are what people imagine when they think of Spain with the narrow streets and all the buildings white with red roofs. It was a lot of fun, they´re a really great family. Theres a girl our age who is fun to talk to and her younger sister just fell in love with Hna Roan. Hna Roan sang a song in Samoan for them and they LOVED that. Apparently the bishops wife has always wanted to go visit that part of the world. I loved seeing all the fall trees too. This area kind of looks like Utah in some parts, it was nice.

We had Stake Conference this weekend too. It´s here in Granada so we didn´t have to travel. But the other city´s all take big busses here. And the Saturday night session was broadcast from Malága. We couldn´t get the big screen to work that night so the few of us that were there huddled around a computer. The 8 missionarys made up half the people there that night. But it was awesome to see so many members in one place on Sunday! It turns out there are 52 missionary´s in this stake. So many!

María, our recent convert, and her son Fransisco came. It was going to be a really good thing for her, but then she got mad when the bishop couldn´t leave right away and take her home (he gives her a ride every week to church). I talked to the ZL¨s about giving her a ride but they had an apointment to go to and couldn´t. So she got pretty mad and stormed off to take the bus. It was a frustrating situation. I was very much so in the middle of two groups where I understood both sides and didn´t really know how to find a happy solution. Hna Roan and I are going to talk to María about this week and try to help her understand better. She was worried about her autistic son she left at home with her 21 yr old son and didn´t really understand why the bishop couldn´t leave right away. It was an unfortunate situation that Hna Roan are working on clearing up.

It was a good week! I´m really learning how to be dilligent and patient. I´ve really been blessed to serve in such a beautiful area and meet so many interesting people. I know this gospel is true. I feel so blessed to be able to learn so much. The learning curve is so sharp out here! It´s really kind of exciting. I love this gospel so much. If theres one thing my mission is doing, its strengthening my testimony. I know I wouldn´t be able to do this without Christ. He his my rock and he is my salvation.

2 Nephi 2:22

Love you all!!!

Hna Woolley