Week 12 -- Dec. 23, 2019

Feliz navidad!! (Almost)

Hola everyone!!!!

This was a fantastic week here in wonderful España!!! We witnessed many blessings and miracles this week!! (I had to retype this sentence, because the first one was in Spanish, accidentally using Spanish, that's pretty cool)

There is so much I want to share from this week, but to save you all time, I'll try to condense it and share some stories that really stood out to me(:

So to get to a certain area of town where we have a lot of amigos, we have to walk through a tunnel, and there's always this one homeless man with a flute. The first time I saw him Elder Toro told me, "hey just walk past and don't talk to him," and i didn't like that, it made me so sad to see that someone is living a life where everyone just ignores him all day everyday. And so when we walked past and he tried to talk to us and ask for money, I just turned and said, "hey I'm so sorry I don't have anything" yeah he didn't like that very much and went off about my shoes and clothes and then was trying to follow us and stuff. Afterwards Elder Toro told me for 5 months he's been in there and just yells at missionaries and other people all day and one time tried to fight them. Well ever since then, ya we just walk past quickly. Well yesterday we were walking through on our way to an appointment and I had some homemade bread we were taking to an amiga (we made French bread this week, best thing ever), and I really wanted to talk to him because I felt so bad for him, and Elder Toro, without me saying anything said, hey I just found some extra change in my pocket (we never ever have cash or change) let's go give it to him. And we walked up and gave it to him and I offered him the bread and that's when something changed right there. Just for a moment my eyes were changed, I saw this man as so much more than just a crazy, mean homeless man, I saw him how God sees him, he is just as much a child of God as you or I am. I saw the humility that overtook him. I honestly don't know how to explain it in words, but just for a very split second, it was like time stopped and we were just overcome by happiness and love. He thanked us with absolute sincerity and we shook his hand and wished him a merry Christmas. After we walked away, Elder Toro said to me, "For five months, that man has done nothing but yelled and tried to bother us, with one simple act, everything changed." That man is no longer the crazy homeless man we try to avoid, he's the homeless man who's our friend and it's so weird to me, it was like a 20 second thing and yet I feel so much love for this man, I don't know what happened, but God opened my heart and softened his and it was an amazing experience (:

You hear it all the time, but you never truly understand how true it is, small and simple things change lives!

The other night, we were contacting and saw massive crowd of people around a building, turns out it was the big Premier of the new Star Wars!! It was so cool, they had working R2-D2 and BB-8 droids, and a bunch of people with replica costumes!! Super fun!!!

Something that I learned this week is that if you get your finger chopped off, your brain still thinks there is a finger there and you'll feel pain in your finger even though there's nothing there! Pretty interesting.

A member had a Christmas Concert and played the piano hooked up to about 40 speakers in the church and it looked like a rock concert, I still don't think I have my hearing all the way back yet, and I'm still unsure about what happened, it was definitely an experience that I'll never forget

We eat lunch with a member every Saturday, (her food is the best, but don't tell the other members I said that🤫) and a few weeks ago we were talking about our favorite foods, and I said mine was sushi. Well we were eating lunch this past Saturday and all the sudden she says, "Elder Boden I have a present for yoi" and she gave me a little thing of sushi she bought!!! Oh my gosh that was so awesome and made my day!!!

We found a new way of contacting this week, Christmas Caroling!!! We go with the hermanas and knock doors or ask people in the streets if we can sing a christmas song for them!! Its super fun!

Oh yeah also, in regards to my singing, the lady in charge of the ward choir said I was the best and literally had me sing on my own so the others could listen to how the tune of Silent Night is supposed to sound. Who's tone-deaf now Elder Cox??

There was a massive massive Party in I guess all of Spain this week, I don't know really what it was celebrating, but everyone dressed up like polygamists and got completely drunk in the streets. I literally probably saw 3000 completely wasted people that night, fun times!🤙

Now back to a spiritual note, last night we met with an amiga who has probably more faith than most people, has an incredible relationship with God, but doesn't believe that the Book of Mormon could be true. We literally talked for 2 hours with her, and it was incredible! The spirit was so so so strong!!! She is very very nice and told us she loves the hymns and songs of our church but doesn't believe in the Book of Mormon. At the end we about to leave and then I just out of nowhere had an idea. And I said, "hey let's just try something, I'm going to play a song and i want you to ignore everything that we have talked about tonight. Don't think about anything, just focus on how you feel while I play this song." I then played the song, "Joseph Smith's First Prayer" after a minute of just quiet silence I asked her how she felt, she told me very peaceful. I then asked how the Holy Ghost touches her heart, and she told me the Holy Ghost brings peace. I then explained to her that this song was all about Joseph Smith. Why would The Holy Ghost be present and bring us peace in a song about Joseph Smith and his first vision, if it wasn't true? I then bore probably the most sincere and humble testimony of my life, and I'm not even kidding. It is interesting, for those of you who know me well, you know I enjoy to bear my testimony, but never have I ever just had the Holy Ghost completely take over every word that came out of my mouth like that. Wow, who knew how awesome it would be to have the constant companionship of a literal member of The Godhead??

I love you all and I hope you all have a very very Merry Christmas!!!(:

-Elder Boden

Pictures!!

1. This is what I get for doing service