Laughing all the way 🎅🦌

This is an apt title: we (or maybe just me) go "laughing all the way" hahaha  Christmas time is nearing and here in Sanlúcar we never hit sweater weather. It went from fire to water so we've been rocking the umbrellas and enjoying the rain. 

Funny things in church on Sunday. My companion forgot his name plaque, and I was wearing two (one on my suit and one on my shirt) and so he borrowed one and no big deal. We both gave talks, so Elder Dougall really drove the point home with back to back talks. Keep in mind we've both been here 3 months and an active member asks my companion his name and he says Elder Dougall. Without flinching the member says "ok" and moves on. Three minutes later the same member asks my name and I say Elder Dougall and without flinching he says "oh right, of course". I don't know who the blame falls on, but one of us (or both) is quite forgettable. We're really not leaving a mark on this branch. Leaving the 2nd hour I watch as the bishop's wife snacks on little pieces of hard broken bread. I was gonna ask where she got the croutons from, but I make eye contact with the other American that comes to our ward and I say "is that the sacrament bread?" We both just didn't know what to say  It didn't get better when my companion after says "Oh no worries, I used to do that all the time" The correlation committee needs to come take a stop in Spain. 

We have a wonderful district right now made up some hilarious characters. We have a district leader from Finland who is mild as Saltines and leadership style quite similar, a new missionary who is hilarious, a chilean American, a bit of a caveman from BYU, a sharp witted spaniard, 2 older missionaries, one like my grandma and the other who's a little sour, a missionary who doesn't know how to keep his mouth shut, and one who looks so angry and doesn't say a word. Guess who I am. This doesn't make much sense but in our district counsels I am absolutely crying it's so fun. 

I did an exchange with Elder Koistinen last Friday. It is an odd thing, that some people in the mission seem to follow us around and others we never see again. There might be a cliche lesson in there about making the most of things or something. 

I have been listening to lots of BYU talks and turns out I have the sense of humor of Rabbi.  I'm not sure what it is about their wit, but I'm convinced president Holland may have been one. We gotta baptize more Rabbis. 

Last week we had Zone Conference in Sevilla. It was wonderful to be together and I enjoyed playing the piano for the musical number. In fact, there was an hermana from Encore there who sang so it was just like the old days. Here were some good thoughts

- A testimony requires sacrifice and work. Are you willing to pay the price?

- Él que abarca mucho aprieta poco

- Lets get to know God speaking to Him, not on the internet

- The gospel is wonderfully simple and simply wonderful (la frase se traduce a español facil!)

- The wheat and the tares grow together

Our President shared a story of when his testimony was wavering. He was concerned and disappointed by wickedness in the church. Not a word I usually use. He was serving as a 70 in the Europe South Area. He was seeing and dealing with murders, violence, sexual crime, and frankly other wickedness within the very church that claimed to be "The Church of Jesus Christ" How could that be? When we read the parable of the wheat and tares let us not assume that the church is the wheat and the tares are the world. Now wouldn't that be easy. Everyone with a Draftkings account to the fire. But, the reality is the wheat and the tares will grow also within the Church. Don't let that surprise us. It is a not an Us vs. Them battle either within the Church or outside. May we only do our best and let God take care of the rest. Woah that rhymed 

Elder Dougall