over Oviedo, and he'll be training a brand new missionary! He's been
in the mission for 4.5 months, all of them with me, and now he'll take
over the area. I'm super excited cause he is SO ready.
As for me, I will be headed to Alcalá de Henares, a pueblo in Madrid.
It's in the East zone, but I don't know much more than that (haven't
seen the map yet). All I know about my new companion is that he's
Canadian and he'll be going home the same time I am, but I don't know
him because he visa waited. In other excellent news, in Alcalá live
TWO senior couple missionaries. I am now three for three in areas with
senior couples. I've been told that they'll give us food, which can't
be a bad thing. I've also been assigned to be District Leader again,
which will be great - I have learned a lot in that position, and I'm
excited to keep helping out.
Our last week in Oviedo was great! We did our best to finish the
transfer strong, and the week ended, of course, with a ward party. It
was the fiesta del sombrero and we danced to a bunch of music I
couldn't recognize and Elder Weiss and I wore these big sombreros like
in the Three Amigos. We were the life of the party, even though we
didn't dance with any girls. (Rules, etc. They don't prohibit dancing
en sí, though) And while we were there, we had a really cool
experience. An awesome returned missionary, Taily, brought her younger
sister and her younger sister's boyfriend to the party. And I
introduced myself and my companion, and he was a cool kid. All we knew
at that time was that his disbelief in God had been affecting
negatively on the girl, and she was confused and wasn't sure about
meeting with us because of him. So Elder Weiss started chatting about
life and Switzerland and stuff and getting to know him - show that
we're real people, you know? Which is always important. But then,
Elder Weiss slowly and surely started directing the conversation
towards our missionary purpose.
I was in and out, because I was waiting for transfer info and I had to
call the district and talk to the APs about being district leader and
such, so all I heard were bits and pieces. Part the conversation went
something like this:
"Do you believe in God?"
"No."
"Why?"
"I believe in people - in myself and what I can do, in like how man's
spirit is unconquerable. I really only think about science." (Typical
teenager answer)
"So what do you think - why are we here? Where did we come from?"
"Well............"
And then Elder Weiss started from the beginning and explained exactly
where man's spirit comes from, why it is unconquerable and why we need
Christ to become perfected. From what I heard and what he told me
later, it was a discussion worthy of the scriptures as someone
previously hard in the mind started to wonder and then, at the end,
ask questions. I know it sounds cheesy, but I was so proud of him! I
hardly helped, and the guy gave Elder Weiss his number to meet later
this week! Which is good, cause we still suffer for the need to find
new folks to teach.
We had a couple other funny teaching experiences that go in similar
vein. A man stopped us late
at night when we were running late to get home and said,
"Do you believe in Dios Todopoderoso"
"Yes"
"Will he save us?"
"That depends on whether or not we want to be saved."
I was going to continue and explain what I meant by that, but then he
patted me on the back and said, "You answered correctly" and then he
disappeared around the corner. And then there was Enrique, who told us
all about the five elements, (air, fire, "la nada", earth and
watermelon), went on about how all religions worship God so why all
the fuss, and closed his crazy rant about science and molecules and
anti-facism with the following: "I guess all I'm really trying to get
at is that, if we're God's children and all, he should have a plan for
us to become like he is!!" After stunned silence that THAT was where
he was going, I explained that was the crux of our message, and he
gave us his number. If you wait long enough and listen with intent,
there's usually something about which you can testify. But still
pretty weird. Almost as weird as the lady who looked my companion in
the face as we were walking down the street and said, "Y si te
crucifico yo a ti, ¡¿Que!?" Like a water off a duck's back, he just
gave her a thumbs up and a big smile.
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| Stewart's new area NE of Madrid |
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| Dress ups - Missionary Style |
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