Hola!! This week was really great!! We had a mission reunion in Málaga this Thursday because a representative, Elder Kearon, from the first quorum of the 70 came to speak to us!!!! It was literally such an amazing experience! He talked about a bunch of stuff (in English) the meeting took almost the whole day.  But it was so amazing! He is from England and has such a heavy accent.  It was so funny at the most random time when he was talking to us he goes "by the way if you couldn´t tell I´m a Brit".  But he was amazing! He talked about a bunch of stuff and some of the things he talked about was we CAN DO HARD THINGS, how we can always think highly of ourselves and we can´t control whether people listen to us but we can control creating an envirement for the spirit to testify!

Somthing that happened that touched my heart was we went over to the President of the Branch´s house to teach his daughter who is going to get baptized in a few months.  President has a son who is 17 named Adrian and he is so awesome!  But it´s hard for him to be excited about church because there is only 3 young men in the branch and he´s the only one above 14.  So he just doesn´t really have any friends at church.  So me and my companion have really been trying to befriend this guy!  And when we went to teach the daughter the mom told us something that he told her.  He told her that no missionaries like Elder Wilson and I have tried to befriend him like we have.  He said that we make him "feel like a normal human". So when I heard that I felt so great!!! We´re going to get him to come to some lessons with us and today we went and played soccer with him and it was so much fun!! He is so funny and he is a great friend!

This gospel is so amazing and I´m seeing miracles everyday it´s so great to be out here!

 about a 15 minute walk from my apartment!

First things first last week I forgot to send my address of my piso for mail!  You can send me mail at:

Elder Stephens

c/ Historiador Manuel Salcines #2 ¨1º2¨

C.P. 14004

Córdoba, Córdoba

España

This week has been really good!!  We have found a few new investigators which is really great!! A lot of people here in Spain work A TON and they say they don´t have any time for us to visit..  I hate it when people say they have absolutely 0 time for us to visit because I know even if you are working really hard they probably have at least 15 minutes at some point in the week for us to come by.  People here really do work a ton but literally 0 time for us to visit?? It´s hard but you know we just have to deal with it. 

But quick funny story here in Spain it´s custom to give a kiss on one cheek and then the other when you greet someone or are leaving them.  Obviously it´s against the rules for missionaries to do it so we have to keep our guard up. So no one has ever tried to do it to me until this week.  We were giving a lesson to these girls from Cuba who are studying here and it went really well.  When we go to leave I wasn't really paying attention and when I shook her hand next thing I know her face is on my face.  I pretty much just scream and jump back and say ``ahh soy misionero no puedo!!!`` And she just looked at me and gave me the weirdest look ever.  And it was super awkward and now I learned the lesson to always keep my guard up for the salutation kisses so I don´t have another awkward situation like that again.. 

But the work is going pretty good!! It´s just hard because people work so much and are hardly ever home.  But we have a few investigators and we're going to try to get them a baptism date this week! Hopefully it´ll work out it will make me so happy!

We have one investigator who really had a hard week.  His name is Herman and he´s from Africa and this week he got kicked out of the apartment he was staying at and his mom died..... So he´s really struggling and we're really trying to help him out.  He doesn't have anything to eat and nowhere to sleep and he can´t find a job because he doesn't have papers.  So he´s really struggling. Me and my companion have really tried to help him out. Our investigator Nancy gave us some bread and some other food and we went ahead and took it to Herman so he would have some food! I´m sure he really appreciated it and hopefully his life will get better.  

I love it here though and I'm having a great time!

So I´m in a city called Córdoba!  It´s amazing and there is so much history in this city! It´s awesome! In 2 sentences basically it was a city under the Roman Empire.  Then when the Roman Empire fell the Arabs came in and settled, then after that the catholics came in and retook the city. Very quick history but it´s so awesome!

My companion´s name is Elder Wilson.  He is from Brownsville, Texas he lives 10 minutes away from the Mexican border.  He´s such a great guy! He is going home after he is done training me.  So he only has 12 weeks left.   But we are really working hard.  In Córdoba it´s only a tiny little branch.  There is over 100 members but only half are active.  So we´re working hard to get the church going here!  

I love it here in Córdoba! The people´s accent here is insane.  They don´t say their  ¨s´s¨whatsoever.  So they´ll say ¨adio¨and ¨uno doe tre¨and when they try to pronounce my name they butcher it so bad.. They say it like ¨tefen¨so bad haha I want to laugh every time.

But we are working really hard and we found a golden investigator!  Her name is Nancy.  She is probably in her 40s and when she answered the door she said ¨oh my niece just got baptized in your church back in Ecuador last sunday i want to here more about you guys¨ and me and my companion look at each other and we´re both thinking praise the lord! haha but this was two days ago saturday night and her and her daughter came to church yesterday! They are so awesome and i know they felt the spirit and hopefully things will go good!! 

My spanish is going pretty well.  When I teach I´m butchering the language so bad but I´m trying so hard to speak and the people I´m teaching can see that and they really try and understand what I´m trying to say.  But it´s great i´m thankful for my companion who can translate when I don´t understand... Which is a lot because people here skip half of the syllables in every word haha but it´s great!!  By the time me and my companion are done here they´ll be 3 wards in the city!! Just kidding but we´ll make it closer to becoming a ward!