Hello hello!!!
Wow! Every week there is SO much to say, and seriously NO time to say it all!
Also, real quick...I got your awesome Birthday package!!!!!!!!!!! It MADE my day!!! I LOVED it!!! Thank you so much for all of the letters. Dev...I loved your version of Spanish cake :) And Aubs and Mal! Ahhh! I love you and miss you. Also..Mal and Aubs, I got your other letters in the mail too! Thank you!!!! Also, grandpa Kartchner, I did get your letter in the mail here this last week, thank you SO much! I am sorry I haven´t had a ton of time to respond yet, but I really appreciated your letter, so thank you! And thank you for your help with my Spanish questions.
So...I´ll start with the investigators :)
Consuelo - wow. Consuelo. She is one of the craziest funniest people I´ve ever met in my life. She has been literally wondering on the streets since we´ve been here, she´s been looking for work, living in and out of the Red Cross homeless shelter here. So, it was great because she had time to meet with us almost everyday. She committed to be baptized a couple of weeks ago, but we weren´t sure if she would truly be baptized on the date (which was supposed to be this last Saturday). Turns out she found a job in Toledo, and is now living there. We passed her name over to the Elders there (Elder Dampt from out stake is one of them), so we are hopeful that they will continue to work with her and help her prepare to be baptized.
Marino!!!! Marino is THEEEE cutest old Dominican man EVER! He´s preparing to be baptized on March 22! We are SOO excited! It has been amazing to watch him grow in his knowledge of the Gospel. He started out just interested in hearing what we have to say....to now...having come to church for 3 weeks in a row, and fully participating in Sunday School every week! We also met with his wife, Ana, last night for the first time. She is always working and we were finally able to meet with them together! After we taught Marino the Plan of Salvation last week, he wants his whole family to be baptized and to reach that sacred goal of living together for eternity as a family! He is SOOOO cute and SOOOO sweet! I just love this old man. And he´s always been so complimentary and patient with my Cave man Spanish. He is just a big teddy bear! Actually...he´s pretty skinny, but he´s just so cute and such a happy, fun-loving guy. When we had the lesson last night with Ana, his wife, we felt the Spirit so strongly. I felt like it was one of the first times where I have felt somewhat confident in teaching in Spanish. I started the part about Joseph Smith, talking about how God has restored his Gospel back to the earth and given him the priesthood authority to act in his name, and as I taught the first vision, I know that Heavenly Father was helping me to find the words to say. There is NO way I would have been able to say it all by myself and the Spirit was very powerful in that moment as we talked about the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Restoration is everything! We extended the invitation to her to be baptized, and asked her that if she came to know for herself that this was true, if she would be baptized. She said that she would read the Book of Mormon and think about it. I sure hope we can continue to teach her and find times to meet with her. There family has been being prepared to accept the Gospel in their lives, I know it.
Friday - yes, we have an investigator named Friday. I can´t remember if I told you that last week. But, he´s this cool African guy, that is a friend of Juliet (a girl from Nigeria that was baptized a couple of weeks ago). There really are so many Africans here! There is even a small part of town that every body calls, ¨Little Africa.¨ We had a short lesson with Friday the other night, and we invited him to come to church, but he never came! It really is the worst, when people say that they will come to church and then they never show up. We are hoping to have a fun family night with Juliet and her family tonight and we are hoping that Friday can come to that too. We will see.
Judith - ok, this lady is the daughter of a menos activo here (I think they are also Dominicano). She has 7 kids!!!!!!! That is super rare here! They live really far away though and they don´t have a car, so it´s going to be a challenge to get them to come to church. This lady was super funny too. We walked into their house, and she´s just chillin on her couch, smacking her gum, watching TV, drinking her coke. She reminded me of "That´s so Raven." She looks like her and acts like her too haha! Anyway, she had all of her kids come in to meet us, we had a short lesson with them about the importance of prayer. We didn´t have a ton of time, but it was a really inspired lesson! We both went in, not really sure what we would teach them or talk about with them this first time, because we knew that she was kind of already familiar with the church. This thought came to my mind that we should read the scripture in Alma 37:36-37, about counseling with the Lord and praying to Him for everything! She loved it and she ended up telling us about this story about how she was living on the streets, literally, with her family just a couple of years ago. She said that she remembered that she prayed to God for help every day and that one day it just all worked out. She attributed all of it working out, to God, for helping her figure it all out. We said a prayer with all of them at the very end. They were adorable :) We hope that we can keep meeting with them too every week!
Guess what? Did I tell you that I got a violin here from the mission home?! They have 2 here and they let me take one of them to bring to Torrejón! I played a musical number with my companion at a baptism this last weekend for a guy named Frank, from Africa. And then they asked me to play it at a big Relief Society Activity...it was the Anniversary of the Relief Society! They loved it!! (see the pictures...the guy getting his face painted is our ward mission leader, Ricardo). And then this weekend they are having a talent night in the ward, so I´m going to play the fiddle or come up with something for that too. I´m excited!
I have gotten to meet so many other native missionaries here in the Madrid area. There are 2 native sisters that I just LOVE that are in my zone, Sister Sanchez and Sister Vargas. I love them! They are so cool and so sweet! I really hope I get to serve in an area with them sometime and get to know them better. Also, Dad...I met an Elder Del Amo from Seville...do you know/remember any Del Amo´s?
Anyway...I´ve gotta go! But, I know the Lord is blessing me with so many tender mercies every day here. Even though, I don´t know Spanish, and I´m still trying to figure out what´s going on all the time, the Lord is blessing me everyday. He always provides a way for us to accomplish what He needs us to accomplish.
Hope you all have a wonderful week! Love ya!
Hermana Carroll
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