Well, here in the great mission of Madrid, Spain, transfers have come around again. Before today, there were 4 missionaries here in Salamanca. Me and Elder Calder, and Elder Robertson and Elder Santiago were working separately here. Today Elder Calder and Elder Robertson left for new areas in Madrid, and Elder Santiago and I are companions. So I ended up moving areas; I moved all the way to an apartment that was a 15 minute walk away. It's going to be a good transfer. Our area used to include a city called Zamora, about 45 minutes north, but now 2 other missionaries are opening it as its own area. It's exciting for the missionary work and the church here. And now, Elder Santiago and I will be handling all of the work in Salamanca itself, which will be quite a task. I won't complain about having too much work to do, though.
Since my companion left today, these last few days have consisted of goodbye visits, goodbye meals, and goodbye pictures. I already know it's going to be hard when I go, because it was hard enough for me to watch Elder Calder say goodbye to so many people that we've grown to love so much.
We've been getting a lot of good work done. We have two new investigators that we're meeting with, Cristian and Mauricio. Mauricio is Colombian and is here studying at the university, and Cristian is Peruvian and is working as a doctor in the hospital. We had two really promising first lessons with them in the last week. One of my favorite things to see as a missionary is when people discover the Book of Mormon for the first time and they have a genuine interest in reading it and learning more. I love being able to help them grow in their faith and to learn about the restored gospel. The spirit I feel is always a personal testimony to me that it's true.
We also had some success with an Ecuatorian family that we've been working with for a while. The father, Benicio, has been inactive for 30 years, and the mother, Susana, was baptized last October in Ecuador. They have 6 kids, and two of them are here with them in Salamanca. We've been working with the two kids, David and Susana, to try and baptize them, but they've been meeting wth missionaries for over a year. We usually are able to go over at least once a week to visit with the mom and David, but Benicio and the daughter Susana work a lot. Benicio had never visited with us, until last week, when we passed by and he invited us in and we were able to share a quick scripture with him. Then when we met with the mom and David, Benicio was there as well, and since we first passed by they've started reading the Book of Mormon as a family. It was a huge miracle that we got to see.
The pictures I'm sending are of a bunch of people here. We have Harold and Evelyn with their four kids Esteban, Camila, Guillermo, and Luis Eduardo, the family from El Salvador, then a bunch of people who are good friends with Tiago, the branch president, and the non member family that lives with him, Felipe (our convert) and his fiance Denise, and then everyone who came to church on Sunday.
Have a great week, everyone!
Love,
Elder Dobbs
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