Hermana Bingham en España: Week 9 - A Month in Alcobendas!‏

Dear Family and Friends,

As of tomorrow, I will have been in the field for a full month. So crazy. This week had it´s ups and downs, as always. It was super rainy and freezing all week which made our contacting times a little rough, the streets were pretty empty. But that is okay, we survived. I was very grateful that I decided to actually bring a pair of rainboots, they were handy this week.

Investigators:

Karen - baptism this Saturday! She is so awesome and active in the ward already. Her and her two kids come to the activities and love it. At FHE Friday she brought delicious empeñadas (I have no idea if that is spelled right). We had a great lesson with her and she is on board and excited for her baptism. I love her so much and am super happy for her.

Magy - We unfortunately have to move her baptism back to April because she was super sick this week so we were not able to meet with her much. She is still doing great and on board, just will not be prepared by this Saturday. Next month though!

Nancy and Roger - Also doing well. They are always receptive to our lessons. They have been doing well at reading and praying. The only concern with them is work schedules and being able to go to church, so we are working on that.

Maria - New investigator with baptismal date. She has two adorable little boys. She came to church yesterday. Her baptism will be a little further out because she lives in a pueblo so Hermana clements and I are only able to go to her house once a week. But she is awesome and prepared.

Other investigators are doing well too. I think one of my most interesting lessons this week was with a man from Palestine. He spoke little English but we were able to talk about God´s love for us and families and prayer. He was actually really interested in finding out more about Christianity, he had no background with it. He is a really cool guy and although we have many differences culturally, teaching him is a great experience. I realized how much I often take for granted the circumstances I was born into and the blessing of being raised with the gospel in my life.

I also had a cool experience in English class this week. I only had two of my regulars there (normally 3) that are both Catholic. One of them brought questions we could go through and answer to practice our English. One question was ´´What is the most valuable thing you have?´´ We interpretered it both money wise and sentimental. It lead to a great discussion with them about the gospel. Most of class was filled with that, I loved it.

Elder Bohne in district meeting made a comment that ¨It doesn´t matter.´´ He was referring to the fact that we may not speak perfectly, or know everything, or be able to answer every question perfectly, but it doesn´t matter. As missionaries we are set apart to represent Christ and help others come closer to Him.

We also had an awesome ward activity on Saturday. The missionaries (mostly Hermana Pavez) were in charge. Hermana Pavez chose the theme of Lehi´s vision of the tree of life. We set the whole church up into the vision. We had an iron rod - string - that everyone was blind folded and lead throughout the church. Those who did not ever let go were led to the tree of life and those who did let go at some point were led to the great and spacious building. We then got together and talked about the experiences everyone had and symbolism. It turned out really well, even better than I thought it would. The Alcobendas ward is awesome.

1. Karen´s adorable daughter had fun with my hand