Almeria 04/19/11

We´ve had a good week this week. We did a lot of findings. We had one really good experience. We had this "menos activo" lady named Soledad come to Church with her husband who is not a member. It was her first time going to church in Almería after many years.

We visited them yesterday (Monday) and It was probably one of the most spiritual lessons I´ve ever taught. She is from Peru, and she has a really powerful experience of how she and her mom found the church in Peru. She was under 8, and the missionaries taught and converted the family but somehow they couldn´t be baptized. So the family, with time lost contact with the church. Later on, they moved to Lima in hope of finding the church. After years of searching and by some miracle, they finally found the church and were baptized. This lady Soledad, went on a mission in northern Peru. After she came back home from her mission, she became a teacher for the MTC in Peru. Then she came to Spain and became distanced from God and the church. While in Spain, she met her husband Javier (which is another long and crazy story.) But, Javier has always been curious about the church and has asked her questions about it. He really wanted to know. She showed him the Temple when they used to live in Madrid.

I´ve never met a man more prepared and ready to receive the gospel than this man. Javier understands everything, and his goal is to be baptized and be sealed to his wife in the Temple. His first week coming to church, we talked about tithing and fast offerings. He liked it, and participated more than the whole class. He works at El Corte Ingles (I call it the great and spacious building). He´s so good, I almost wonder if the ward is pranking us with this golden investigator.

Javier said he felt so good when he was at church or when talking to us. He wished he had the gospel in his life before, then he felt bad that everyone in the world wasn´t feeling the same feelings he felt. He´s gold but the only problem is that he lives far away, and he can only meet with us in the mornings.

We have so much work as well in other cities that it feels like we spend a big quantity of our time riding the busses!! Anyway, I don't want to complain, we´re happy and feel very grateful for everything the Lord has blessed us with.

My companion and I helping Fransico Angel out of his house so he can attend Church.


This picture was taken at 2 children's (8 years old) baptisms. The famillies had a get together after. It felt like being at a wedding ceremony than at a batism. There were so many people and lots of food to eat. Everyone devoured the food!!

This week, we expect to see the streets filled of people celebrating "Semana Santa" which means "Holy Week". Everyone said "Semana Santa" would be crazy. This is one of the largest celebration or processions (religious parade) in Spain.


Tens of thousands of visitors from Spain and all over the world will crowd the streets of Malaga during the entire week of "Semana Santa" to experience this exhibition of the Catholic Faith.


There will be parades of large flotillas and decorated tronos (thrones) that carry images of Saints or depict scenes from the Passion and Death of Christ.


It has been normal thus far. We haven't seen any crowd yet. Also, we weren´t given any special guidance or rules by our mission President, so we´re treating "Semana Santa" like a normal week.


The ward will be going to the Temple during "Jueves Santo" on Saturday. I haven´t seen any processiones yet, but I´ve seen some people with their idols. It's really a big deal here. I´ll probably see more idols this upcoming week than anytime.

We visited a spanish refuge that was built during the War (see pics below). It was awsome!