Elder Logan Hendrix: Week 10: Roasted Almonds for Salvation

Elder Hendrix and his district at the Renfe.

The Hermanas in our district have been teaching a mom and her 10 year old son for a few months now. They're so solid and so ready to be baptized! So they had a baptism date for a few weeks ago, but the night before the baptism, the son broke his leg playing soccer or something. So he was getting a surgery that week, so they changed it for two weeks later. So then came the night before the baptism, and he found out he can't get the cast wet. So they postponed the date again. Well this past Friday, he got the cast off, so we had planned everything for Saturday. Hearing this was so exciting! They want to be baptized so bad and they're so ready! So Elder Gustafson and I headed over to the church Saturday morning to fill the font.Then we got a phone call. The kid had just left a doctor appointment where they put this gel stuff on his leg that he can't wash off for 48 hours. So we called the the mission President to see if it would be ok if we wrapped his leg in saran wrap or something so it won't get wet. It took a few hours to get a hold of him, but we finally did, and he said yes. So we immediately called this family to tell them we're good to go. Well, the metro decided to stop working when they were on their way to the baptism. So they were stuck forever... So long story short, the baptism still hasn't happened. But I know that it will! Sooner or later!!

We had a fun activity this week with the youth. It was called "Como un Misionero", where the youth got to see what missionary life is like! So first, we watched a few videos from The District, then had a competition. A typical morning for a missionary starts with waking up, exercising, eating breakfast, and then studying. So the guys and girls had to race each other to see who could do it the fastest. So first, they had to do 20 curls with a dumbbell, then put on a tie (girls put on a skirt and a cardigan), then peel and eat an orange, then open Preach My Gospel and memorize the 5 lessons in order, then run to the other side of the church to recite them, then the next person in line starts. The guys won, they killed. But it was so much fun to watch! There were 6 guys and 6 girls. After that, we had a reflection. And then Elder Gustafson and I took each of the youth out contacting
on the streets for 20 minutes. It reminded me a lot of my mini mission back in May. Some of them were way nervous, after a few tries at approaching strangers, they built more confidence! It was awesome seeing how just 20 minutes of proselyting changed these youth. For many of them, this was the first time they had had any interaction with missionaries. They had so much fun! A lot of them made comments about how cool it is to just open your mouth and get over any feelings of discouragement, and that once you do it, you start building more
confidence. And then you want to do it again. We had such a good time!

Here's another cool story! So there's this guy who works at his nut stand in the Plaza Mayor in Torrejón. And I've probably bought roasted almonds from this dude at least 10 times. They're amazing. And he's got peanuts, almonds, cashews, everything. Anyway, a few nights ago when we were on our way back to piso, we passed the nut guy, and obviously stopped to buy a bag. We talked to the guy for a while as he was packing up his stand for the night, and he asked about us and who we are, etc. We talked about being here in Spain to teach people about Christ and such, and we ended up teaching him the entire first lesson. And he totally wanted to hear more! We had to leave before we hit curfew, but he gave us his information. He lives in Madrid so we passed his number to the missionaries over there. He was such a cool guy! AND he gave us FREE nuts! Random contacts out in the street can be so amazing! It's the coolest feeling ever leaving a lesson we just ran in to. And I know that teaching by the spirit is what makes these types of lessons successful. We may have not have felt prepared to suddenly start teaching, but the spirit was prepared!

I love the food here still!! There's a really good dish here called tortilla de patatas and its soooo good! Look up a recipe or something and make it. The members here serve it with almost everything. The ice cream here is sooo cheap! I can buy a 2 liter thing of ice cream for 1.50. And it tastes so good! The major brand, Dia, tastes just like Bluebell. Speaking of which, is that stuff back in the market in America yet?? Someone update me!

Well as always, thanks so much for all of your support! I love and miss all of you! Have an amazing week!
Elder Hendrix