Monday, July 28, 2014

7/28;

Hey Family! 
This week was all sorts of crazy but in a good way of course. We are still just trying to power through the heat and work hard. Seriously its so hot, its ridiculous. Scattolon and I are like walking through the desert of our afflictions here. But it was a good week. We actually saw a lot of fruits from working with the members. We had a lesson with a member´s 2 sisters and his niece that he wanted us to meet. We shared the Book of Mormon with them and it was a really great lesson, the Spirit was super strong and we are having another Noche De Hogar/lesson with them this week. 3 new investigators thanks to a member trusting us with his family. We feel so honored and so grateful to be winning the trust of the ward and being able to work side by side with members like this faithful brother. We are trying to improve on our finding and organizing. Its a little hard when we have all these investigators that aren´t progressing and my companion feels too bad to let them go for a while. So it doesn´t leave room for finding new people that are ready to accept the gospel. But we are working on it, slowly and surely. She´s a lot softer than I am. And I am pretty soft, so you can only imagine. Haha I love this area and I hope that we are doing our best in our efforts to serve and love the people.Love you guys!
Hna Palomino

7/21;

What a week. First off, Scattolon and I had to go to the leadership council meeting in the mission home with President and Sister Jackson. The spirit felt there was incredible and I could really feel the love of President and the Lord for us missionaries. Our zone leaders did so well at trying to portray that same spirit in zone meeting. It was nerve wracking having to speak in zone meeting but the elders were so nice and supportive about it and I think Hna Scattolon and I did alright. We had to speak on teaching in the Savior´s way using the Spirit and love. And of course going to the temple prior to zone meeting definitely helped invite such a great Spirit. But like most missionary weeks, it had its highs and its lows. Its one of those weeks when you are trying to do your best and not seeing very many results. We´ve tried inviting with power and authority only to get denied and rejected. We have one investigator that flat out told us a piece of paper that says you´re legally married is not important and chooses not to keep the Law of Chastity. Another that says she would rather sleep in on Sundays that have to get all ready for Church. One man that won´t come to church until he receives an answer about the Book of Mormon. And another that is a leader in an evangelist church and despite having a testimony of the Book of the Mormon and the prophet Joseph Smith won´t commit to a baptismal date because he thinks it would look bad to the people in his church. Thats been our week in a nutshell. A few tears were shed I will admit but overall I feel like we are sincerely trying our hardest to do our part. Although the results were not the best, I feel at peace because I know my companion and I are doing our best. I feel like before I would´ve been extremely frustrated and disanimada but I have faith that if we continue doing our best, things will work out. Its all about faith and trusting the Lord. So despite the challenges, we are looking up. Throwing our head back and enjoying the rain. So things are good here. I truly love this gospel and getting to preach it day in and day out is nothing short of a blessing. So I´m thankful for all the days, good and bad. I love you guys! 
Hna Palomino

7/7;

Hey Family!
Well another good week in Leganes. I really do enjoy this area so much and I have a good companion so I can´t complain. Our recent converts are doing great, I feel like we mostly have been focusing on them and trying to help them out. There is one recent convert from the other hermanas that is flat out going against some of the Church´s doctrine and is saying some things that is confusing our recent converts. So we have had to do some damage control but everything is fine for now. The ward is aware of the situation with the other guy so we´re kind of on the defense right now. We´ve always realized that a lot of our investigators aren´t really progressing so we have decided to leave a few of them that just aren´t ready right now. My companion is having a hard time with it but I told her its really an act of faith that someday down the road they will be prepared to hear the gospel and its just about having faith that we will find new investigators. So now we are out looking for more souls to teach! Hopefully it goes well. We´ve also been visiting with members a lot and having Noches de Hogar. The next step is having them bring their friends. Slowly but surely getting to that point where we can work together. But this is a good area and a good ward and I´m super excited to work here. 
Hna Palomino

6/30;

Hey Family!
This week was great! We had Delfina´s baptism on Saturday. It was so wonderful. She came super early because she said she so excited. And before hand, the bishop helped us clean and fill the font. I really don´t think that baptism would have gone so smoothly without the wonderful Obispo Daniel´s help to be honest! The only bad thing was that my companion and I missed when Delfina went up to bear her testimoney because we were busy trying to set up the table for the food she had brought for after. And we missed it! No one told us she had finished changing, we were so sad! But it was a wonderful service. Now that we have a total of 8 missionaries here in Leganes, we were able to pull off a decent musical number. So yes, it was great. Its nice having another companionship here because the ward is getting excited and saying things like, ¨oh that means the work is going good!¨ so hopefully that excites them to help out. 
Cool experience of the week: One of our investigators when we were sitting down to start a lesson says, I have a friend that is going through a really hard time and I think she needs a message today more than I do, can I take you to her house? And we were like of course! So we went to her friend´s house, without knowing a thing about her or her problems and simply shared a message with her and she was like thank you so much. And our investigator says, When they talk to me I feel happy and different and I just wanted you to feel the same thing. It was so cute. So we got her number and hopefully got a new investigator out of it. Finding when we teach, teaching when we find. I love being a missionary.
Things are going good here. Also trying to keep pushing forward and enjoy every minute I have left. 
Hna Palomino