Letter #38, 9 Months!

Hello Family!

It sounded like you had a great time this week with the Anderson party at our house, Mom´s choir, Jenna´s dance performance, Jonny´s music concert! I am bummed out that I had to miss all that! Christmastime is always my favorite at home. It is always so exciting and cozy. I thought that it was hilarious how Josh got caught sneaking into the Christmas closet! It was fun to hear that story from all of your emails :) 

Mom, that sounded fun for you to call into the mission office. I wonder who you talked to?  You could have even talked with my trainer, Elder Bird, since he is in the office and incharge of mail over there. It will be funny to see how much my speech changes by the end of the mission. 

Sounds like the Anderson family party was a hit! It is weird that I was not able to be there for that one. I had to buy myself a bag of peanuts today and now I understand why. I must have been missing the party & the "pass the parcel" game. I am so glad that you had such a great week! 

I actually wrote down what I did this week so I will start with Monday.

Monday: All of the missionaries in Madrid are doing a big Christmas concert which we are performing at today. We had a big practice with everyone and it was fun to see my mission friends. I was touched by the spirit a couple times during the practice which reminded me of the way Mom feels when she performs her amazing choir concerts. I felt like I was following in your footsteps, Mom. Later that day, we went to visit one of our investigators, Ani. She is from Brazil. The past couple of times we have visited her she has had a friend over but this time she had three. There was an older Spaniard man, Older Dominican woman, and her friend from Bolivia. After getting to know them a little bit it was obvious that all four of them, including Ani, were at a great level of spirituality. Da igaul, we taught them all the "Plan of Salvation" and we did a great job of adjusting to their needs. One was athiest, one believes that God was everything, one was kind of believing in God and Ani is just awesome but is always running around taking care of kids. It was so cool to teach such nice people with many different beliefs all at once. While I bore my testimony to them I was amazed that I was able to do that in front of people that I have never even met before with such different backgrounds. It was a cool experience.

Tuesday: We are friends with the guy that works in the churro and chocolate stand. He has been giving us free churros and chocolate ever since we met him. His name is Abraham from Bolivia. He is a really nice guy and fun to visit with, but he is always working. As of right now we aren´t realy teaching him  but we are there to keep a good image of the church so that one day, when he decides to come to church, he can remember us. There is also another family in our ward that we visit named the Minguitos, Spaniards. They are all really nice. We shared a fun lesson with them.

Wednesday: The main thing that happend on Wednesday was that we met with a new investigator named Ana. She has been actually been coming to church with her member boyfriend for the past 3 years but just hasn´t been babtized. We are good friends with the boyfriend's family, The Boriosi´s from Argentina, sshhaa. 

Jueves: I did intercambios with my Zone Leader and left Elder Cordova in charge in Arganda. It was a stress reliever to get out of my area for a day and have someone else incharge. Elder Eskelson is one of my zone leaders and he actually flew to Spain with me on the same flight. I have a picture of us at the airport! It was cool that we were able to be together for a day.

Friday: Finished intercambios and I went back to Arganda. Elder Cordova was so relieved to have me back. He told me that he is so appreciative for me and that I am willing to get him to work and for me to be in-charge. I was glad to hear that. I think I might leave and go away for intercambios more often ;) 

Saturday: There was a big end of the year Christmas party! It turned out very well. Lots of food, people, good program and everyone loved it. The Missionaries in my ward and I all sang Jingle bell rock and Venid Adoremos (I can´t remember what it is in English..) The ward all seemed to love that too. Something crazy that happened there though was that Ana, the girl we taught on Wednesday, told us that she wants to get baptized this Thursday!! That came out of nowhere! Elder Cordova and I set a goal to have one baptism this month and it is happening! We have to teach her all of the lessons but she pretty much knows everthing since she has been going to church for the past 3 years. 

Sunday: Good day at church, taught Ana again. 

This week should be fun! Tonight we are having our big choir concert and tomorrow we are having a Blitz in Arganda! Elder Cordova and I thought it would be cool if we got all of the missionaries in our district to come out to Arganda and proselyte, so that is what we are doing tomorrow. Afterwards, we are going to go hit the Telepizza for Medio Dia lunch all together. I hope that it all turns out well.  It will let Arganda know that the Mormons are here. Wednesday, I am going out to Cuenca to do an intercambio with an Elder from Italia. Look that city up online for some pictures. Some of the pisos are built into the cliffs.  AND Thursday is Ana´s babtism! 

I have been reading "The Living Christ" everyday for the past couple weeks in my personal study. It is the testimony from the Prophet and his Apostles. I have really enjoyed doing that because it has centered my life more on Christ. It shares the true importance of Christ and what he did for us. That would be a good one to read together. 

I hope that you all have a great week! I will talk to you next Wednesday on Skype :)

Love you all and have fun :)

Elder Miles