Please note: This is Kathleen' mom posting her letters. She doesn't have access to Facebook.
It´s Spring in Spain! It´s been a little rainy, but I do like this weather. It´s not too hot, but I only need a raincoat! I wish you could all experience it too!
First off we visited one of the women in the ward this week. She´s very nice and very worried about our safety. We talked for about 30 minutes about how we need to stand next to the wall in the metro because the world is full of bad people who will probably push us in front of the train. Also, we need to not talk to men... Also gypsies might steal our bags if we´re not careful... Also, she says "Hi" to the whole family!
If it makes you guys feel better, we feel really safe in this city -- along with 90 percent of it´s population. We recounted this story to a member we went contacting with about all the people who might knife us while we´re proselyting and his response was "Wait... In this city?" (Really, Madrid is pretty safe).
At the beginning of this week, we saw an incredible miracle. A few weeks ago, we contacted a woman in the street a few weeks ago that appeared a little surprised when we started talking to her. We got her number (which we thought was fake until she picked up the phone), and we visited her last Monday. She cancelled on us a few times, but we finally went to her house to teach her.
We usually start a lesson off by asking why someone is interested in meeting with us, but before we could ask, Jeni burst out in tears and told us that she had met with the missionaries four years ago because a friend invited her to church. She said she had never been to a church that made so much sense to her, she had felt good and wanted to keep talking to the missionaries, but she eventually lost touch with her friend and the missionaries. When we found her in the street she was really surprised to see us and really excited to meet with us again. In the meantime while she was looking for the church, she had a baby, Ms (who is too cute).
For a while and had visited priests and other churches to try and find someone who could help her. She said she just never felt the same as she did when she was at our church. We invited her to be baptized and she agreed. :)
More about Jn and how awesome she is. When I met her she was a recent convert who wasn’t coming to church very much. She just didn’t seem very comfortable. For a while our approach was simply asking her why she wasn’t coming to church and sharing scriptures with her. For obvious reasons, this wasn’t very effective. We decided instead to start teaching her to teach the missionary lessons. All of the sudden, she changed dramatically! She´s going to church and mutual and going with us to lessons. Every time we visit her, she asks us if she can teach us.
Often when you need to teach something, you learn the most. In Jn´s case, not only has she learned, she has really embraced the Gospel. Her testimony is very strong, and she is an incredible example for her family (at the age of 17, she´s the only active member in a part-member family). She taught us the Plan of Salvation the other day and it was practically perfect, and I´m so proud of her.
This is probably the most satisfying moment of my mission. When she was teaching us, I felt the impression that the Lord was really pleased with the work we were doing with her. I know that these experiences will help strengthen her testimony and help her remain active the rest of her life. If this is the only thing I really accomplish in my mission, I can be happy with the time I spent here. We prayed with her at the end, and she became a little emotional. She had really felt the Spirit and had said that she really appreciated that we were working with her to -- in her words -- "prepare her for her future."
We also taught a man named M this week. He´s from Mali and seemed less-than-excited to meet with us the first time. His friend, Ad, is an investigator who asked him to come listen to us too. We got his number and called him again, this time he seemed much more excited. We asked him why he wanted to meet with us and the first words out of his mouth were "Because when I met you in the park that day, I know that what you were saying was true." He kept asking us how he could know and receive answers from God. He is very excited to meet again.
We also met with a man named Billy last night. He is Muslim and from Africa. He really wants to follow the commandments and even has a strong faith in Christ. We were SUPER late to his lesson, it was raining, and people from another church were proselyting in the area. But we could tell he was golden from the beginning because he STILL waited to meet with us. He had incredible questions and kept telling us how he needs to read and pray in order to know what was truth. He LOVED the first lesson as well because it satisfied a lot of his questions. We gave him a Book of Mormon and he kissed it. He wants to invite a friend to meet with us next time.
I´m running out of time to write, but remind me to tell you about one of our members, Ls, next time. We have some great stories about him and he is easily one of my favorite members. He´s an angel!
I love you guys so much! Have a great week!
Love,
Kathleen
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