Welcome to the weekly update from Hermana Pendleton. Featured in this week's edition are all the amigos that seem to end up in the hospital.
Not even really kidding. Luís (the one that gave us quite the scare last week) finally made a trip to the hospital and is now on antibiotics and just as old and Spaniard as ever. But we have two citas planned with him this upcoming week so we're excited about that. And one of our recent converts, Karent, ran into a table a couple weeks ago when she was with us and apparently it did some real damage because she was told by her doctor to rest and not leave her house for 10 days.
On Thursday we had an AMAZING lesson. Last week we experienced a miracle and ran into a young man on the street that we talked to a little bit and set up another time to see him. We thought for sure it was gonna fall through because he just seemed like a punk kid but boy were we wrong! There was a bit of a language barrier because his native tongue is Uolof. Yeah don't ask. But he is so excited to learn! He read the entire restoration pamphlet before we met with him and tried to understand as much as he could even though his Spanish isn't fluent. He's only been in Spain for 11 months, and let me say, if you're not a missionary, it's probably a lot harder to learn Spanish in that amount of time haha. But I think the Lord's been helping him out so that we're able to communicate with him. He doesn't have a Christian background so there are a lot more things to explain to him and he asks a lot of questions because he truly wants to learn. Before we even started teaching him, he told us that he really liked our church and he wanted to go to it on Sunday and he made sure we informed him of every single detail so that he would be able to make it to the capilla on that day. The lesson went really well and he even said the closing prayer in Uolof :) we set up another cita for Saturday night and we were really excited to see him again. We were even planning to give him a baptismal date. To our dismay, he was a no show on Saturday night and a no show at church, and we weren't able to get a hold of him at all. On Sunday night we finally received a message from him saying that he really wanted to talk to us but he was in the emergency room! Why are all of our amigos getting hurt?? But he's still wanting to learn so hopefully everything works out.
Our friend Manuel is a mystery to us at the moment. We gave him the 22nd of June as his baptismal fecha and all seemed to be going according to plan. He was really excited to go to church this week and we talked to his Menos activo son to make sure he brought him and everything. On Saturday night we ran into him in a park and taught him an impromptu lesson and he reminded us that he would be at church the next day and that we had a cita on Monday. Once again, to our dismay, he was not at church. We were anxiously glancing at the door every five seconds during sacrament meeting hoping he would miraculously appear but nada. This morning we had a cita planned with him and we had invited a member to come along. We always meet in the same place in the same park buuut he never came. Manuel doesn't have a phone but he has never missed a single cita and he is very punctual. So after waiting some 15 minutes, we decided to pass by his house but nobody was there :/ we're a little bit worried that something happened to yet another one of our amigos. So we'll see when we can get a hold of his son.
There's a family here in the Villalba ward thats literally just the best. The mom was the very first member I met here because she came to a cita with us my first day and out of the three eating citas we've had with members, two have been with her family haha. And she's already signed up for another. Also in our potluck last week, they were the only family that brought stuff to share with everyone. They know what's up. But yeah basically the reason I bring them up is because they remind me a lot of my family and they're so cute haha. There's five kids and they all just crack me up. Odila, the mom, reminds me a lot of my mom and she's an amazing missionary and always willing to help everyone out. And they have a sixteen year old son who literally even looks like Enoch to me just latino version haha. And he acts exactly the same. We have another member named Adela and she's had quite the life. She was the member that came with us this morning but when Manuel didn't show up, she invited us over for some juice (which actually ended up being coke and a banana). She lived in the united states for like 25 years so she speaks really good English. She's probably almost 90 years old but still alive and kicking. She's the perfect example of a member missionary. On Saturday we had an activity with the JAS, a few youth, and Adela to hand out invitations for the puertas abiertas that are next week for the new capilla. She made sure to remind us that we say hi to everyone to give them that friendship before we give them that book of Mormon. She also contacts everyone. Even the ones in moving vehicles. We should all strive to be like Adela.
This week as I was studying Alma 5, I came across one of my favorite verses, it says:
"Have ye walked, keeping yourselves blameless before God? Could ye say, if ye were called to die at this time, within yourselves, that ye have been sufficiently humble?"
That's deep.
Later in the chapter it says:
"Behold, he sendeth an invitation unto all men, for the arms of mercy are extended towards them, and he saith: Repent, and I will receive you."
"All you that are desirous to follow the voice of the good shepherd, come ye out of from the wicked, and be ye separate, and touch not their unclean things... The good shepherd doth call after you; and if you will hearken unto his voice he will bring you into his fold and ye are his sheep."
Are we ready to meet our maker in this moment? If we were standing in front of him right now would we feel worthy? The good news is that he wants us to be worthy probably more than we want that for ourselves. And he is always there to welcome us back or help us be a little better. I challenge you all to try a little harder to listen to the voice of the good shepherd this week.
I love you all!!
Hermana Pendleton
P. S. This week we've been playing meme tag as a district so that's quite entertaining. I also saw somebody walking their bunny. Every single person has a dog but that's definitely the first bunny I've seen.
Oh and P. S. again, I guess Manuel got to church as it was ending yesterday and so just left. And this morning he was doing his laundry. Hm. But we just met with him and all seems well haha.
Oh and P. S. One more time, life tip: make sure the lid to your water bottle is screwed on before trying to squirt it into your mouth. End result may be a sopping wet dress, a puddle on the floor, and a change of clothes. May or may not be speaking from personal experience.
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