Called to Serve : Week 1 from Azuqueca de Henares

Hey hey hey,

So I'm in this new area with this missionary who has three months in the mission and is already like the next AP with how awesome he is. He literally goes for it so hard. It's super super cool to see someone so young in the mission be so dedicated and committed to serving the Lord. Elder Barnes is a pretty sweet companion.

Azuqueca is literally Utah. I felt that way the first Sunday. A little backstory on Azuqueca taught to me by Elder Bennett. Azuqueca is basically the same thing as Utah because all the mormons from all of Spain moved here when the temple was close because property was cheap and it was close to the temple. It's super awesome though. It's a really small town but a huge ward. The spirit was incredible in that meeting as the chapel was filled with faithful members there for all the right reasons and intentions.

The work is going really good here right now. We have a couple really solid investigators with some serious potential and desires to progress. Our buddy Iván who speaks literally 11 different languages and has lived in 36 different countries and has read the Book of Mormon like 80 times and has been a member of like every church there is besides ours, came to church this last week. The members really dug him and he said that he really felt the spirit of God there, so we are hoping to have a really good lesson with him this week with some big commitments. We also have a couple solid people I don't know super well yet who are on the banks of the river Jordan at the moment. Knock on wood for me but we have a lot of hope right now. It's going to be a long battle to help everyone though.

Today we had a sweet p day. I went back to parla to see some old friends I know from my time there and it was awesome to see them. My favorite part was going over to Francisco's again. He told us some pretty awesome stories from the past, we listened to some Spanish Flamenco music together, and we admired all the little things he has in his house. That man will forever be my hero. He is such an example for me and for the members of the Parla Branch.

Some of the funny things that happened to me this week. We were in this house the other day eating dinner and I looked down and saw this turtle on the ground. I asked the members if it was a real turtle and they were like yeah! Did you know that you can domesticate turtles and keep them as house pets? NEITHER DID I. They told me it didn't have a name yet so I thought maybe they had just gotten it. Nope, been there for 6 years now and is basically the 5 year girls equivalent to a dog. It follows her around, sleeps with her, and lives in the house. Turtle-ly rad! Another thing that happened this week is we went to this American shop in Parla where I had asked them to order hot cheetos and root beer 6 months ago. Guess what, my order got there today! We bought a ton. The sad thing is that I left it all in the house of some members in Parla that we visited. Dang....

Welp, that's the report troops, tune in next week!