El Dia de los Reyes Magos!!

 January 6, 2014

Well, its 2014!!   I'm in Spain!!

Haha this week has been crazy hard and rough with all the holidays and festivals here in El Ferrol. The Spaniards do it big!  Just a little cultural fact for you all:  Spain has a holiday on the 6th of January every year called El Dia de los Reyes Magos. It actually consists of 3 days, starting with a huge parade in every city on the 5th, present opening on the 6th and then a day of rest on the 7th. Its pretty huge here and I have some pictures from the parade last night. It was off the hook.

Well I left my last agenda in the piso because we just started a new transfer but I'll try to remember what happened as best as I can with my terrible memory.

Monday we played volleyball with Wendy and Guillermo again and a lot of other members showed up so it was awesome!  After P day ended, we had a lesson with the Calderon family and taught about the Restoration again and answered some questions they had. It was a great lesson and they are like our best friends.  After we went to a members house named Armando, a Cuban, and we ate some food there which was bomb.

Tuesday I honestly do not remember much. What day was that? Oh yeah! New Years Eve!! Thats why I didn't remember it. There was noooothing to do!! We had a dinner appointment though but before we went and had a lesson with Jacobo and had a good lesson with him.  After medio dia, we tried to make brownies and it absolutely faaaiiiillled.  We are no Betty Crocker over here.  After that mess, we headed to Ada's to eat and had fun with their family. They are so awesome and it was a fun night. We had to be in the piso at 10 of course which was weird for New Years eve, but I slept like a champ.

Wednesday was difficult too. The bus system all changed up so getting to A Coruña was difficult. We couldn't get there until 1:30 but we had a great district meeting and our last one with all of us together.  After, I don't have a clue what we did besiiiiiides that we saw Zorkan in the street and talked to him a bit. He's still stressed so we decided to do something nice. We didn't want to have another baking accident so we put together some stockings with some nice cards and candy to cheer him up. He really enjoyed it and he was really grateful.

Thursday we planned the week which went well! Not exactly sure what we did after but  Oh we had english class too!!   And then we had a lesson with Antonio after. He is doing good and continues to read and study alot. His wife is still sick but he is praying for her and so are we.

Friday... hmmm... Friday.... Sometimes I feel like Dory from Finding Nemo. I'm pretty sure we had a lesson with Irina's son, Leonardo. Let's just say the guy is golden. And when I mean golden, I mean he explained the Restoration to us in English kind of golden. He is so ready and we gave him some scriptures to read.  He loves speaking english with us even though he's from Cuba and understands everything!

Saturday morning we had a lesson with Jacobo. Picture two american missionaries fighting against the wind and rain in northern Spain with our umbrellas almost being torn apart to get to Jacobo's house.  Satan was really working on us but that lesson was amazing and we answered a ton of his questions and he told us that he has felt the Spirit while praying.  He's awesome.  After medio dia we walked a member named Andrew to where a ton of branch and other members were playing volleyball. We had a few lessons to go to but we came back and played with them later on that night. In the mean time we found two new investigators! One is named Flor from Columbia and the other is Flabio from Peru! Flabio is Flors friend and he is super ready for the Gospel!! We taught them both and Flor is a little less interested but Flabio is awesome. We even had Flabio say the opening prayer and it was really good.

Sunday was sweet! We had a few investigators in church and after, we went to Irina's house to eat.  After medio dia, the parade was about to start so we tried to contact a bit and got a reference from a cool guy but no one wanted to talk pretty much. The parade was sweet and long and after, we had a lesson with Leonardo again on the Plan of Salvation. We did it in english again and he basically explained the importance of the resurrection to us haha. We invited him to be baptized and he said yes!  Still trying to find a date that works for his family but he is way ready. During his prayer he said "Thank you for sending me my friends, my new friends and for helping me find your church. The real church. Thank you also for the opportunity that I have to get baptized..." It was incredible and I had tears in my eyes as we said goodbye.  He is unreal and so awesome!!

Well thats about it. We were so tired today that we just slept for like 3 hours. The work continues!!  Onward Christian Soldiers...

Love you all!

Elder Franklyn