Another Straight Forward Day

So missionary work has become very very straight forward for me.

My dear companion and I have it down to a science. Wake up, study, plan, and then just get murdered in the streets via rejection. Its the Best.* ( Read with nacho libre voice.) And what's absolutely beautiful, is that with every no I know that its just just showing Heavenly Father that we're willing to do what it takes. After what has felt like centuries of contacting and working to teach people we find, L......he calls us. We were in the church using the Wifi to synchronize our now online Area Book, and Elder Bown receives a call in the Bathroom, after a couple of seconds of quick conversation, Elder Bown starts yelling, "Elder Gardner!!! Get me a pen!" Jajaja, it kills me. After all this work I thought we would be doing, that it truly is the Lord that does the work, and it is his timing. L was prepared. He will be baptized and we'll be playing a musical number at his Baptism.

When we picked up our new Piso companion Elder Mendoza, we came to the quick realization that we were in the same high school at the same time, and that his brother and I are very good friends. It was such a great surprise, he acts so much like his brother; I love him already, and I can tell that I am extremely lucky to spend time with him in my mission.

Halloween apparently here is kinda a joke. You know its bad when they've already skipped from Halloween candy to Christmas decorations before Halloween has occurred. My question is why isn't anyone making a big deal about Thanksgiving. 😊 Goodness gracious Europe is missing out on half of the Charlie Brown series. That's just messed up. Columbus Day is a huge thing, and Burgos just had an enormous festival for Cid, a warrior who was born here who lead people to conquer Valencia, and he's absolutely huge here! Everyone was dressed up in medieval attire.

Quick funny story, about how I'm just a failure, we were contacting well into the cold night, and we usually try to stop everyone, and sometimes especially after a couple of hours you can get into a routine and with the help of the dark you're almost blind. So we stop this young man, and ask him "Excuse me sir, I have a question..." (all in Spanish of course) We asked him if he had seen missionaries before. He responded that He had been a missionary before... we still didn't get it... "Oh, for what church?" "For your church..." Right, we had just contacted a new member that had moved into our ward two weeks ago.... Complete Failure. It's ok, though jaja it gave us something to laugh about on Sunday.

I really am having a fun time, but a hard time here in Burgos. The people have food, water, and cell phones, what would they need of God? Their Catholic background and infant baptisms give them a false sense of security, and freedom to live without any idea of what enduring to the end means. But I love them. I think that really is why Heavenly Father sent me here. I need to learn to love those who don't want to be loved, or saved. I am grateful for this challenge, and I am determined beside the odds to improve the work of the Lord here in the town of Burgos. I love you all, and I hope all of you continue to read the Book of Mormon everyday.

Elder Gardner