Hola!
So Last Pday we played Ticket to Ride (thanks mom) and I conquered Eastern Europe. Pretty impressive, if I do say so myself.
Tuesday we finally found the piso of a reference from the Elders in Ciudad Real. They gave us an address of a family they had contacted a few weeks ago in their city but they actually ended up living here. We went to this address probably four or five times and kept finding new people to teach- but not the actual family we were looking for until finally they called us and asked us why we hadn't stopped by yet. We told them that we had, in fact we were in their building right then, they just hadn't ever been home. They said they lived in building one, we told them that we were in building one. They said to go outside to the street, we did and turned around and it turns out we had been going to building 13! That 3 had literally never been there before. We are positive about it. Then we went to the real building one and met this family. Well really just the dad and his adult daughter. They are golden. The Dad, Manuel, just started asking us all kinds of really good sincere questions and then asked, "so what happens if I listen to you today and then I pray about it, and I feel like this is the one true religion and I want to be mormon tomorrow, what would I have to do?" That one kind of caught us off guard but then we explained that he would have to get baptized and then explained the baptismal covenant and like what he would be promising or whatever and then he asked us what the difference was between our church and every other church and I said one of the main things is that we have The Book of Mormon and I pulled it out and he said, "I promise you that I will read that book! How much does it cost?" I fought the urge to tell him to slow down. First he is supposed to look at us like freaks, we are supposed to bear our testimonies and invite him to read just part of it, he is supposed to tell us he doesn't have time and then we are supposed to promise him that if makes time, only 5 minutes a day, to read just a little bit, God will bless him and his family and then he is supposed to say well I'll try and then we are supposed to leave slightly discouraged. I did not say that-- instead I told him that the book is free and then we explained it just a little bit and he told us how historically it completely makes sense that 600 years before Christ people traveled to the Americas from Jerusalem. Like he just backed us up. Then he asked when we could come again and explain when and how our church was formed. Which indeed is lesson 1, we meet with him again on Tuesday and I am excited for it.
Wednesday night, we got home and tried to open our door and the key snapped right in half inside of the lock. It was like 10:30at night and we kind of freaked out. Have I mentioned how we our literally in the middle of no where with not even members around to help us? Like the branch president has our spare key but he lives in Madrid. So we called the Zone Leaders. They didn't answer so then we texted them 911. Maybe in hindsight that wasn't the best idea, but we were seriously worried we would have to spend the night in the street. So the Zone Leaders called us and they were freaking out. They thought we were dead. Then they calmed down and told us to call a locksmith- problem: first you have to have a number to call a locksmith, know the word for locksmith in spanish, and it would have to be normal business hours- hence all the freaking out that was going on. Well actually apparently none of that is true the ZLs told us the number was probably right on the outside of our building, it's called a cerajero, and they work 24/7. They also repeated that we should never text 911 to someone. Then the locksmith came and got us in to our piso. We slept in our beds. Then we spent all morning running around trying to get a copy of our broken key. But don't worry, now we have one and the problem is solved.
Friday we had zone meeting in Ciudad Real. That was exciting. And then on Saturday we had to go to Ciudad Real again for specialized training and interviews with President. Even more exciting. And President told me that Puertollano is officially the smallest branch in the mission. That is quite the distinction.
Sunday, a senior missionary couple came and visited our branch. They spoke and taught Sunday School and we didn't have to do anything but direct the music. Now that was exciting. I forgot what it was like to just sit and watch church go on.
And that was my week.
I love you all!
Hermana Hannah Ashby
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