Week 23

Minneapolis in March

Vosotros estáis bien.. ¿¿mande??

Hola mi familia! ¿Comó estáis?

Man, I absolutely love being able to speak Spanish in America. ¡Es una mezcla del mundo! We get to hear a smorgasbord of accents and slang from other Spanish speaking countries. For the most part, our Spanish most closely resembles that spoken in Mexico. But we got to meet with our amigo de España, Douglas, and he tries to teach us some Spanish from Spain! He claims it's the "español correcta" hahaha! So, this week we've been joking around and using our Ethpaña lisp and vosotros form. It's so funny😂. -Hence the title of this week- lol. Any input on what Spanish is the "true Spanish"?? Let me know what your opinion is.

This week has been great! On Tuesday, we had a crazy good evening. Last week we took out a member with us to visit some investigators and they all ended up falling through! We felt bad because he took time out of his busy college-student schedule to help us, but it ended up not being a great night. So, we had the impression to make it up to him. We invited him to have dinner with us with a less active family, Las Candelas. And let me tell ya, Hermano Candela is the best chef in the ward… by a landslide! Oh my goodness, we hit the dinner jackpot!😂 We got some of his famous BBQ chicken, and it was mind-blowing! And a cool miracle that happened -- an investigator that we taught about a month ago that we haven't been able to contact also came to the dinner!! So, we had a member, less-active members, and an investigator all there, and we taught a really powerful lesson on the atonement of Jesus Christ. Not only did we testify of the healing power of the Savior, but the Candelas also helped us in the lesson and bore amazing testimonies of how their lives have been changed through repentance. What an amazing experience!

This week we also had some fun exchanges. I got to go running with Elder Farrish from St. George for the first time in forever! It was a little crazy since it was 4 degrees outside, and by the time we got back, our beanies and face masks were frozen over. Then on Friday I got to take Elder Chen from Taiwan around new Brighton! He's hilarious, and we love teaching him English. We had a blast.

On Monday night we had a perfect lesson set up and an awesome couple in our ward named the Newtons were set to to come out with us. The wife served her mission in Peru and speaks Spanish and the husband served in Italy and speaks Italian but knows a bit of Spanish. We were super hyped to take them teaching with us, but the appointment we had set fell through! That's when back-up plans save our lives. We visited a less active Hispanic family that we've been working with for a long time and haven't made any progress in coming back to church. And it was such a powerful lesson! Brother Newton bore an incredible testimony to them, encouraging them to go to church and receive all the amazing blessing that come from it. Even though it was in simple English, the warmth from the Holy Ghost filled the room. They finally opened up to us and committed to go to church! Just goes to show, it doesn't matter what language you’re speaking, if you teach by the Spirit you will touch the hearts of many! 

We are still pumped for our investigator Elmer's baptism this Saturday! We met with him on Sunday and now all the details are in place. This will be a double baptism with the sisters as well! It's been such a miracle to see the Lord helping us along with the work. Elmer does have lots of opposition at school, but his faith is very strong. We just pray that this week will go well and everything will go smoothly!😊 can't wait for this week! Hope you all have a wonderful week as well! ¡La iglesia es verdadera!

-Elder Bolinder