Week 60 - Spanish missionary training and finding those who are lost

This week was a pretty good one! It was the last week of the transfer so I was notified on Saturday that I'll be getting transferred and I will be a District Leader in my new area. We'll see where I go tomorrow, but regardless, I'm sad to leave this area and my companion. I'm looking forward to new experiences in a new area.

Sadly, this week we weren't able to meet with S. and A. They've been really sick and haven't been feeling well enough to meet with us, consequently, we will probably be moving their baptismal date to the next weekend. 

On Tuesday, we had a Specialized Spanish Training at the mission home. It was a training for just the Spanish Elders. It was fun to see all of them and to catch up. We were there with Pres. Cleveland, Juan Carlos, and his dad. We also had a skype training by a former member of the Quorum of the Seventy, Elder Lino Alvarez. Elder Alvarez talked mostly about our purpose as missionaries and how to better fulfill that purpose. Later we had several other trainings by Pres. Cleveland, the assistants, and the Zone Leaders about other facets of missionary work. After all of it we went to a Chinese buffet (for some reason missionaries here like to eat at Chinese buffets a lot), and then returned to our areas. 

Tuesday night, we were knocking doors in an apartment complex and we found ourselves talking with a Mexican man from Guanajuato named L. We talked for a little bit, and at first I didn't think we had any hope of teaching him anything because he didn't seem interested, but after talking to him for a bit, we talked with his wife, G., and they let us in and we ended up teaching their whole family of 5 about the restoration of the gospel. The lesson was great and we had a return appointment on Friday but sadly I wasn't there because I was on the other side of the city on exchanges. I heard the lesson didn't go too well, and they didn't end up coming to church, but hopefully E Shepherd and his new companion can meet with them soon. 

We were tracting on Wednesday and we found this 22 year old guy named J. He said he didn't have time but that we could come over the next day. We went on Thursday and when we were talking to him he told us he had a brother on a mission in California. That was when we found out he was a inactive member who moved from Kentucky and that he had actually been calling the church and leaving messages asking for missionaries to come over. We had just randomly knocked on his door! He said he wants to get back into church and eventually work towards serving a mission like his younger brother. We told him that is a good idea and we visited him a couple more times last week, but he wasn't able to come to church. 

Well that's pretty much it for this week. I'll let you know where my new area is when I can! I got the backpack, thanks Mom! I love you!

Elder Thayne

Elder Thayne and Elder Shepherd - peace out!

Saying Goodbye to M and her grandson T