Yes, I turn 22 this week........................... let´s not talk about it. Actually we went to Toledo today.. again because Hna Olsen has never been and its her last transfer and you know I´m a saint so I went for a 3rd time. I was all excited to go to stuff I´ve never been to before but then everyone wanted to do the same old, same old. oh lets go to the cathedral, lets go look at swords. So it was fine. Haha its all good. We´re ignoring my birthday this year. I´ve told Hna Olsen all I want is a nap for mediodia that day. I´m not that hard to please. haha
Ok I have good stories. This week was insane. I just don´t even know sometimes, the Lord just has His hand all over the place but ok. First story. So we are working with the relief society to hunt down less actives and also cleaning house on the area book. Because its just a mess. So we found this MA record of a woman named Fransica and we did a nice little pass by. She is seriously the nicest lady I have ever met. We could only talk to her for a second but she invited us over for the next day. we´re best friends already. she invited me to her house in santo domingo to visit her after my mission hahaha so i might have to take a trip. And on the same day we had a lesson with a woman named Charon, an antiguo investigator and it turned into one of those bible bashing lessons that just end up super bad. but i stumped her because i´ve been studying the bible a lot lately and it was cool to be able to back everything up but i just realized those lessons are pointless because the spirit is just not there and nothing good comes from it. sure i can prove my point but if they´re not giving us an inch to testify and invite the spirit, nothing good comes from it. and a testimony has to come from faith and prayer, not logic. it just doesn´t work that way but whatever. We also found another less active that was super freaked out that we had come over. Apparently, it was her father in law´s birthday that day and her father in law was a member and she had dreamed about him the night before that he was trying to wake her up and give her some important papers. and then we came over and she was like, that is no coincidence. of course not. so she took that as a sign that we needed to keep coming over and visiting and help her come back. Yes, that sounds about right.
And then 2 firsts on my mission. I taught my first Muslim. Which I didn´t realize until after the first prayer in our lesson when he says, oh I´m not a Christian. And then it just dawns on me... oh crap. So I was like oh... I´ve never taught a Muslim. So i just look at Olsen with puppy dog, save me eyes and she just comes in like a champ and takes control. It ended up going super good and we met with him again on Saturday and he´s really reading in the Book of Mormon so we´ll see how it goes. 2nd first, I got the ¨Laban¨question. We were having a lesson with this guy Angel that is super awesome and he started reading the book of mormon at his own speed, he says and he wanted to start from the begining and he got to the Nefi cutting Laban´s head off part. And I seriously have never gotten that question and i´ve been waiting for it. 10 months later! And honestly, I couldn´t even tell you how we answered it. We basically just read it over again together and explained it and he just got it. It was so simple. There is definitely power in the book of Mormon. I love it.
Lastly, a miracle. Yesterday was one of those terrible, awful, everything is going wrong kind of days. You know all your lessons fail. Then your back ups fail. And then the pass bys aren´t home. And then one of the part member families decides to have the elders visit them instead. All sorts of just frustrating things. So instead of getting mad. I looked at Hna Olsen and said, On faith Hermana we have an hour and a half left before we call it a night, and we´re going to see a miracle before the end of the night. And randomly we see a PT Cruiser and we have this running joke that everytime we see one, it means its going to be a good night because they are so rare here in Madrid. And not even 20 minutes later, we contacted this guy and somehow it turned into a standing lesson and we gave him a Book of Mormon. It was one of those contacts that just feels different, you know? And we have a return appointment this week and seriously just turned the night around.
So in short, what did I learn this week? The Lord has His hand EVERYWHERE, you just have to be ready and willing to see it. And when you work by the spirit, you can see WONDERS. We can´t do this without the Spirit. I love being a missionary and serving and learning and seeing all sorts of good things. I wouldn´t trade it for the world. So am i bummed to be spending my birthday away? Un poco. But I´m so blessed to be serving here and wouldn´t want to spend it any other way.
I love you and miss you!
Hermana Palomino
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