Obedience Walk

OH man I am tired. 

This week it just hit me like a semi truck. I feel like my blood has become super thick or something and I literally cannot move as fast as I normally can. 

It was a good week. One of the hardest I´ve ever had. I don´t know what happened but everyone and their dogS failed us this week. Really frustrating. Walking around for hours on end knocking on doors that never open and looking for people that don´t live in the directions that we were given and contacting grumpy Spaniards can only be fun for so long!!! Hahaha. Oh man. Usually we are luckier and God lets us into houses but on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday we had only like three or four lessons in total. Saturday night we had every set appt fail us at 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 o´clock. SO that was a very long ¨obedience walk¨. It was lovely. But we did the best we could. I am trying to be super positive for my kid. But he doesn´t get down or anything. He says that he loves the mission. I think he is enjoying it. 

But we were blessed to find some really great new investigators. Six I think. Three of them were that family that I told you about. AMAZING. We are going to try to visit them tonight. We went back a few days later and the dad wasn´t supposed to be there but he was. We walked in and he had read a TON, and he had highlighted and marked and everything. He had questions about the authority and he understood and it was just perfect. I wanted to cry. Sometimes I look at him and just ask ¨are you for real??¨ Like he´s going to start cracking up at any second and be like ¨JUST KIDDING I´M REALLY A JEHOVAH´S WITNESS, GOT YA!!¨ He´s so great. He would be baptized in three weeks if it weren´t for the fact that he works as a truck driver and is NEVER home. Every ten days he is home for 1 or 2. So that´s hard. 

It seems like that happens to me always now. We have about 8-9 people that will be baptized in the next 2-5 months that could all be baptized in two weeks if it weren´t for ridiculous reasons like work schedules and the catholic church. We have this awesome lady that we started teaching this week called Germania. She wants to be baptized and so does her daughter. The problem is that she promised her exhusband and his family that the little girl would do the first comunion (catholic ordinance) and the father has already bought plane tickets and everything. She can´t be baptized because in the comunion she has to declare her faith in the catholic church as her daughter takes the first comunion, and she can´t back out of it. It´s super confusing and I don´t understand it. She wants me to baptize her before I leave. But it´s a tricky situation. So we are just praying. Then there is Trini that was ready to be baptized a month ago but still hasn´t even been to church because of work. And then there is Luis who will be baptized as soon as we get his parents´ permission. And then there is another family who finally got around to geting a marriage date set, but it can´t happen until august because it´s almost impossible to get married in Spain. So yeah. We are just here. Waiting. And I will probably leave and not see any of it. That´s ok though. All that matters is that we work and help them and love them and do the best we can right? It does hurt a little to think that I will miss so many baptisms. But I feel very fulfilled and content with what I have done here. And i will keep doing the best I can- 

Last night everyone failed us as well. And we heard a lot of rude rejections. For about ten seconds I got a little frustrated with Him. Like, ¨why can you not make this any easier?¨ But instantly I realized that He probably felt just as sad as I did about all of His hard hearted children that claim not to even believe in Him. Though it would be nice if every prepared person had a bright golden star about their head that only missionaries could see. We could walk down the street, spot a star, and go run and pounce on that prepared person and baptize them. Life would be so much easier....but life isn´t about being easy ;) We all need to grow and I understand that. 

Anyway. Last night. REAlly hard. We walked a lot but ended up finding a new family to teach right at the end of the night. From Guinea Ecuatorial. They seem to be really awesome. Ana and her kids and sister. Hopefully they progress. It was really nice of Him to help us out like that. Cause I was going on reserve fuel at that point but FINALLY someone let us in. Thank the Lord. 

I just feel tired. I pray and plead for more energy. This week was insanely hard for me. Even people that we contact in the streets comment on it. This one guy said ¨You guys are idiots, I would never join a church that would brainwash me and make me work like slaves for them while the leaders lived like kings.¨ He pointed to me and said ¨look at those bags under your eyes, you looked like you haven´t slept in weeks!!! look what they are doing to you!! Wake up!!¨ I started laughing out loud when he said that. Hahaha. oh man. It was super funny to me for some reason. But he´s right- I really do have some dark vampire-like eyes. It´s gross. I don´t have energy to work out in the mornings. I do it, but not like I used to. I just feel drained in every way. 

I am sure that it was just a bad week. I know this week will be better. I just need to pray a ton and keep going!! I really have been strengthened by grace. I have felt it. That´s how I keep going!

Anyway. Clayton is a stud for getting the part of willy wonka. what a hero. I miss that guy. I hope you are all well. Thanks for your messages. Dad and Mom. I really appreciate that. Obedience is key. The source of Christ´s power was His obedience to the Father. It´s the same for us in a big way. 

I love you all. A lot. 

Elder Sharp