We had some good experiences this week. A part of the missionary schedule is weekly planning. Its a struggle sometimes. 2-3 hours of planning + goal setting is tough. Our weekly planning day was pretty nice outside and we live in an apartment building that flows into a little wooded area. Best weekly planning decision I've ever made was to go on a walk and plan in the woods on a fallen down tree. Our planning was much more fun and we were also accompanied by 12 large white tail deer.
Elderly missionaries are pretty awesome. I think they play a super important role that we can't always fill being 18-26 years old. We ate a dinner with a less active and her family was in town. They're from Honduras and prepared some delicious fried plantain topped with some ground beef, cabbage, and some pico-de-guyo, and a tomato sauce. After the meal Sister Pectol turns to me and asked Elder Magalei and I, being as we were on trade-offs, if she could share the spiritual thought. Hermana Pectol doesn't speak spanish, so I translated for her. It really was a touching moment. People tend to look towards older people for advice as they've definitely just had more experience than a 20 year old missionary can have. Sister Pectol shared a really simple thought that very clearly was exactly what the Honduran sister needed to hear and the spirit made that abundantly apparent. Its really good we've only had fantastic Senior couples serve in the Spanish branch because they're such good examples and really make me want to go on a senior mission.
Santiago probably is one of my favorite people we are teaching right now. I've learned a few things from the short time I've taught him. The first time I meet him was on a trade off with Elder Guerrero a while ago. In that lesson he was drunk, vulgar, and crude but wanted to listen and was interested in what we had to share. Time goes by and eventually tells the missionaries never to come back, ever. He wasn't sure if Joseph smith was a prophet or if the BoM was the word of God, oh and he definitely didn't want to give up coffee or alcohol. Fast forward a few months he calls us asking us to come back, that was back when we were a trio with Elder Magalei. He had been reading bit by bit and was working on giving up coffee, his language was significantly cleaned up and he just looked a lot better. We've been teaching him for like 2 transfers and as of late he finally knows the Book of Mormon is true. Truly he is a really good guy. The problem is he just has a problem with about everything related to commandments and actually obeying them. The Book of Mormon has helped him make a lot of changed is his life already just by reading it with real intent. Even though he really struggles with alcohol he knows what changed he has to make and more or less how to move forward, and we've really been with him every step. The next big step for him is involving his wife more. He has been super hesitant to involve his family because of really bad experiences he's had in other churches, but at this point he has gained enough of a testimony to know its something he wants to involve is family in. Santiago is super hesitant and his wife doesn't like us...yet. The whole process so far really has shown me that, first off sin isn't a good thing, but if we're trying our best God will know and see that and bless us for that.
We also saw lamb of God this week. Super inspiring! We went to Kalamazoo for the performance. Throw back to last year.
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