I'm too lazy to write a weekly. We had a busy day at the biggest medieval fair in europe. El mercado cervantino. It was like the whole town of where cervantes lived and was pretty cool. I gave my departing testimony in my last zone conference this week seeing other missionaries is a blast. Instead of a weekly enjoy this experience i typed out about Massiel Zabala:
On one night near the end of november 2021 me and my companion were knocking doors as our day was winding down. We were in the apartment complex in our area that essentially constituted our entire missionary area. We had knocked those same doors for 4 hours every night for the last 6 weeks and contacted pretty much everyone who lived there and had recorded who lives in almost every building. So this night when we looked up a building we had certainly knocked on before we were surprised to see we'd forgetten to record what happened there, so we knocked it again.
Most of the doors were not interested or didn't speak Spanish but one of them opened up to us and was a woman named Massiel. Massiel was home alone at this point so we couldn't come inside but we talked to her about what we do as missionaries and she seemed interested enough. We talked for 10 minutes on her doorstep out in the freezing cold but set up an appointment to return later.
We came back later and once again there wasn't anyone else at home so we were stuck in the cold. We talked to Massiel a bit more and she explained to us that her father was a bishop in Venezuela. Her parents separated when she was a girl and pops went on his way in life and found the church, got baptized, and became a bishop. Massiel would visit him occasionally and had even been to church with him but was never baptized or seriously investigated the church. We invited her to come to church with us that Sunday and she said she would but that she doesn't have a way to get there unless her roomate can take her but that she thinks they'll be able to pull through clutch. Okay sounds promising!
Sunday rolls around and we are in the chapel early after ward council printing something out or something like that and it's maybe 10 minutes before church is supposed to start when we get a text from Massiel that her ride fell through and now she can't make it. We scrambled to find someone who could pick her up real fast and sent a text her that we were on the way and she said okay. Hermano Ruiz whips over there with us and we get Massiel and whip on back to the church building.
Upon entering the church building it was the most successful fellowshipping I've ever seen. Walking in through the foyer like 3 people dapped up Massiel, of course in the car Hno Ruiz was getting to know her and hermana Clements who had just been released as relief society president was right there when Massiel asked "where do I sit" to snatch her up to be her friend and sit together. At the end of sacrament meeting the ward always has first time visitors stand up. Massiel stood up to be recognized and then sat back down for the closing prayer and then got hounded by all the abuelitas and shepherded over to relief society. We honestly didn't have much to do with it and sorta just watched pieces unfold and went to help some of our other friends who'd came to church that day. I honestly don't even know how she got home but someone hooked her up I guess.
That following monday Massiel started a new job at Cafe Rio so she didn't have time to meet with us and she worked on Sunday so that sucked. When we asked her to meet that week she said she couldn't but that she'd be at our ward party that Saturday night. I'm pretty sure we didn't even tell her about that so shoutout relief society for that one. We were going to help set up the christmas party so we thought we could just invite her to go early and talk then but turns out somehow the new relief society president had gotten Massiel roped into setting up the party too?!? Cool.
Massiel somehow got to the church building like 2 hours before the party started probably right after she finished work or something and then helped set up the entire party. Then she spent most of the party serving desserts. We were in charge of standing next to the drinks trying to be helpful so we got the chance to just chat with Massiel for most of the dinner. Somewhere near the end of the dinner during a quiet lull she says she has something she has to tell me. "Elder I want to join the church and be baptized" well shoot, we can help with that. The moment ended and the night finished and we went home and I told my companion what happened because he didn't understand Spanish and we carried on.
She couldn't go to church because she worked in the mornings almost everyday but on her one day off in the week we set up a lesson to visit Massiel. This time we manged to find a member to come with us who was also from Venezuela and we had a good lesson with her. We talked about baptism and set the wishful goal and baptismal date of a few weeks from then. We kept going and meeting with her the coming days and weeks and all was well except the fact she couldn't get Sundays off. With that blow to her covenant path we had to postpone the baptism indefinitely. A funny aspect to these successive lessons was the never ending hunt for a third man to help us. We'd ask the elders quorum group chat, members, the elders quorum president, anyone, but no luck. The elders quorum president turned us to the goat Hermano Montes to set up lessons. He's who found the guy to accompany us to our first post christmas lesson. Every time we asked him to find us someone he'd say that he could come, then last minute he'd have to cancel. And bless his heart he felt so bad! But this lead us to a hunt after anyone that might be able to visit with us. We ended up asking all the members, other missionaries, some random English members, and one time a white dude who served a Spanish mission actually came with us, we even asked a different investigator to accompany us once and he said no because he didn't want his wife to get home, wonder where he was, and then he'd have to explain her that he was over at the single woman next door's house. Understandable.
When we did manage to have lessons with Massiel they were so awesome. She understood everything we taught super well and just had amazing faith in Jesus Christ. Our first lesson after she went to church that first Sunday she told us she believes Joseph Smith was a prophet. I think it was the topic of the Sunday school lesson she happened to attend and that worked out super well. She was a living example that God has angels preparing people to hear our message. Somehow someone from Venezuela in her 60's moves to Utah and inside of her first week she lives in the state missionaries knock on her door and she's ready to hear everything. Absolutely golden. The only issue was the impetuous work on Sunday. We prayed and fasted with her and she talked to her boss but things just weren't getting better. How unfortunate that someone who used to be an accountant for a bank and then started her own business was having her eternal salvation held hostage by an entry position at Cafe Rio! There was nothing we could do. And then God did something.
I'm not sure why or how but Massiel came to us at one lesson and said Laura had given her the next 2 weeks off so she could get baptized and then would let her have everyother Sunday off. Milagro!! We set the baptism for the Saturday after that 2nd Sunday off and away we went!
So eventually we get through with all the lessons and teach Massiel all the stuff. We have the baptismal interview and we're ready to go. The baptism was super sweet and really spiritual, honestly maybe my favorite of my entire mission. I was the one who baptized Massiel which was the first time that had happened and it is just always so cool to do something like that. She wasn't supposed to have the following day off so we talked with bishop and with our mission president and they signed off on having her confirmed the same day. The confirmation was truly one of the most special experiences of my mission. In my journal I wrote (Feb 5, 2022) "upon the words 'recibe el espíritu santo' it felt palpable the flow from me to her I don't know if that is doctrinally correct but it feels like I can sense the Holy Ghost going to her from me" later we had a lesson with her and after that lesson I recorded (Feb 11, 2022) "Massiel told us today that when she got confirmed she felt something she had never felt before. She said it was super joyful and peaceful and the emotion made her cry just about. No doubt it was the holy ghost and no doubt the church is true". The gift of the holy ghost was almost tangible during the confirmation. At first I thought I was just crazy, but then hearing her say those things too I knew it wasn't just me. I have 100% faith in the ordinance of the confirmation now. If that's true so is the power of the Priesthood and the rest of the church. All this experience cements another brick of my testimony that some other things lean on. And the conversion of Massiel gave me the chance to grow like this. Now I have an abuelita from Venezuala as a friend and strength to me testimony. Kinda funny how that works.
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