August 15th

Well this week has been quite good. Just another good hard week of work. The stories.... well.... they'll come, and the ones I have from this past week are probably not the funniest to share, since they are mostly inside jokes, but I will see what I can share!

First, every Monday night we have a Family Home Evening with the Branch President and his family. We do it without fail, and this last Monday we invited our recent convert. Now, President Montes was feeling in a singing mood, and so..... We started with an opening hymn, and then he said, "Yeah, yeah yeah, let's sing another one.... Brother León, what is your favorite hymn??" Okay, awesome. Let's sing that one!!! Tonight, is going to be a night of singing and glory to God. Elder Hatch and I then look at each other and are like, "Ummmm.... oh boy....." We sang every one's favorite hymn, including the missionaries. We opened with a hymn and a prayer, sang 11 more hymns, then ended with a prayer. I don't think I have had my voice hurt so much in a long time. Then our recent convert said, "Man, this is awesome. A FHE with all hymns, and how about next time we do one with all scriptures!! Then another one we will do one with all prayers!!!" Hmmm, I don't know how that would work..... Well, luckily, the wife of President Montes said, "Prayers?? Maybe.... instead.... we can do... umm... testimonies??" He agreed to do that instead. Whew.... saved.

Afterwards we all went to get ice cream, and I made the biggest mistake!! We NEVER go out to get ice cream, and so I needed to this opportunity for all I could. The ice cream parlor was filled with a great aroma and just amazing amount of flavors. Sadly, I decided to go for the.... horchata. Worst. Mistake. Ever. It is like a milkshake with Cinnamon and other type spices. Basically, I wasted the only time I had ever gone into that ice cream shop for a disgusting drink. I was so disappointed. If you are ever in Spain. NEVER order horchata!!!

We then had a great district meeting Tuesday and it was a lot of fun. Telepizza (a local pizza chain) has a deal where medium pizzas are only €5 each. So..... Call em up Tuesday morning!!! We would like 8 medium pizzas please!! They didn't open for another two hours, but they agreed to open up for our order! haha. We then all wore blue, and so we decided with the elderly missionary couple that we had we would all pose for our District Christmas card haha. It looks pretty good if you ask me. The La Mancha district is going places!! We also just got three new missionaries in our district, so the family is growing!!

Then, yesterday, for church, I realized how much small branches rely on missionaries. Technically, the branch president doesn't have any counselors, and so when he is gone we are the acting branch president. Also, President Montes, no fault of his own though, is not the most computer literate and so I also act as the branch secretary and I use MLS. I don't know what it is called in English, but it is the program to track all of the members and tithes. So I also count and send off the tithes. I don't know how he ever managed in the past so I have been trying to teach him how to use the system more and more so he can become more self reliant. Basically, just a lot of work these past few days.

Now, today is a festival day so a lot of stuff is closed. It looks like a nice rest day in our piso! Well, stay in touch all!! Thanks for everything!!
Love,
Elder Steven Card