Things are going well down here in
Valencia. We are finding a lot of potential investigators through knocking
doors but every time we have gotten excited about someone and they seem to be
progressing and we have set a baptismal date they fall off the face of the
earth and we can't get in touch with them which has been hard. In this last
week, we have had twice as many appointments fall through as go through and
haven't had any progressing investigators. I have really been working on being
patience, keeping a positive attitude when five people in a row will cancel on
us in a day, and noticing miracles everywhere and in everything. It has helped
a lot and I have started to really like contacting whether through street
contacting or knocking doors. We got around 17 phone numbers in a couple days.
Along with doing a lot of finding, the bishop has asked us to work with
less-actives which might be more than half of our ward so most of our lessons
that have gone through have been less-actives (they are surprisingly much more
reliable than investigators).
Our miracle experience truly was
incredible. We hadn't been able to get in contact with our only progressing
investigator. We had been so excited for her so we decided to go to her
apartment and just see if she would be there. Unfortunately, she wasn't there
so we decided to knock the building. We received a couple of phone numbers but
as we were walking down the stairs to leave the building, a man asked us where
the church was. We were shocked and started talking to him. We learned that he
had been baptized when he was 14 in Venezuela, had later graduated high school
in Utah and attended BYU for a couple of years then moved to Spain. He said
that he has been looking for the church ever since he got here five years ago
but hasn't been able to find it and has been praying to find missionaries or
someone that might know. He wants to come back to church, receive the
Melchizedek priesthood, and go back to school at BYU next year! It was the
craziest thing ever. His name is Gumer and he came to FHE with us the next
night and he bore his testimony and he is basically awesome. I'm so excited for
him. (Backing up to when we first met him) while we were talking to him there
was a guy named Luis (from Ecuador, I LOVE Ecuadorians, they are so nice) who I
guess saw how excited Gumer, Hma. Shaffer, and I were about church on Sunday
that he asked if he could come too.
Then on Sunday we were hoping to
have at least four people at church. I think there were about ten people who
said they would be there who we had either contacted or taught in the last week
so we figured four actually showing up was pretty reasonable. We got up early
to meet Gumer and Luis to go to church and they weren't home and neither
answered their phones. Trying to keep in high spirits we hoped that they had
already left since they knew the address and would already be there. It turned
out we didn't have a single investigator at church...again (Gumer and Luis both
couldn't end up coming but we have appointments with them this upcoming week
and they promised they'd come next week). I'll admit I was pretty bummed but
then Elder Olaya asked me if I could sit by this Nigerian man and translate for
them. (By the way, translating from Fast Spanish to Nigerian English (which is
VERY simple and slow English) is super hard. We have a lot of Nigerians in our
ward and I am sure that in the next couple of years they will make an English
branch here in Valencia for them, they would have enough people now but there
just aren't any high priesthood holders because none of them are married.) So I
translated for Manuel, the Elders told us he had just showed up at the church
asking for a Bible. He seems to be going through a hard time and searching for
answers. We brought him to all of the classes and he really enjoyed them. He
said they really touched his heart. After talking to him a little bit after
Gospel Principles we invited him to be baptized on June 15th. He said
"yes, but you might have to call me to remind me the day before." We
explained to him that we were going to meet with him several times and teach
him but he seems so excited. I love Nigerians! They all love God so much and
are very inspiring.
So in case this letter isn't
obnoxiously long already here are a couple of bullet points from the week:
So weird to think that I graduated
from High School 2 years ago! It feels like it was a lifetime ago!
I reread my favorite talk ever by
Brad Wilcox last week, if you haven't read it I HIGHLY recommend it. Just
google Brad Wilcox His Grace is Sufficient or you can find it at speeches.byu.edu.
It's amazing.
For personal study every morning I
read a conference talk from last October. I love it! Last semester at BYU I
used to watch a conference talk on Youtube every morning as I was getting ready
for the day. That's my invitation this week. Read or listen to a conference
talk everyday this week. They will put you in such a good mood and give you
such a great spirit to have throughout the day.
Next week P-day might be on Tuesday
because we might visit a castle which isn't open on Mondays.
Love you guys!
Hermana Tuttle
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