Carta electronico 25 de marzo

3/20

Hola muy buenas! Que tal allá? Thanks for the emails! It has been a fun week here in Valencia. They had Las Fallas going all week. Pure fireworks all day long, giant statues everywhere, and the metros and buses being stuffed full with people! It made it harder to work in our area with no transportation because our area is the center of town where the roads are all blocked off and buses can't get through. There were tourists everywhere too. Yesterday was the final day, everything was shut down including locutorios so we couldn't write emails. Entonces hoy estamos aquí. They burned everything last night and today the city is back to normal por fin.We all have tons of photos. We tried to avoid some of the more inappropriate ones too, porque había muchos haha. We didn't get to see them burn though because they did that around midnight. Yesterday we went to the science museum/oceanographic that is super popular in Valencia. The science museum was neat, made me miss school a little bit =) The Oceanographic was like a mini sea world, just not nearly as big. We did see a dolphin show too =)

3/25
 I can't believe this is the last preparation day of march already. Time has flown this month! I feel like the mission offers opportunities every day to improve and grow. The scriptures repeatedly teach how the Gospel of Jesus Christ invites us to follow Him, become more like Him, and take up the crosses of this world, endure the shame of it, and this process of faith, repentance, baptism, the Holy Ghost's dailly influence in our lives, and enduring are what bring lasting changes into our lives entailing the grand fundamental change of becoming like our Savior Jesus Christ through His Atonement and grace. For this I am very grateful, and hope to offer the help to others as to how to do the same in their lives through the restored Gospel. How great the call of a missionary. Our efforts cannot be mediocre because we don't represent anything mediocre or small. We represent the Lord Jesus Christ and His message to the world, we are Him to those we talk to, and are part of the grand plan of salvation for all of God's children, to bring to pass their immortality and eternal life. I have seen it, felt it, and recognized how the Lord magnifies us to fulfill the responsabilities, callings, and things He asks us to do. He also has a plan for each one of His children that accounts for where they are now and to where they can go if they accept His help and also for where they will go if they don't accept His help. You can't wander out of the views of God and become too lost to be found =) That brings a lot of peace and comfort to me. The condition of our hearts determines how clearly and effectively the Lord can work with us and mold us, the same as if we are made of clay, stone, or mud. I feel like as we study the scriptures, really read them for understanding as to why they were written, what they are teaching, and try to imagine ourselves as if we were there next to the prophets, that we learn from them and the Spirit teaches us. We gain an increased hunger and thirsting for righteousness, and as a result of such, there is no room for desires to sin, stay where we are at, or patiently put along hoping that some wave for good pushes us along or path of conversion. We instead are anxiously engaged in progressing, drawing closer unto God, and purging ourselves of our weaknesses and infirmities, so beautifully demonstrated and expressed by Nephi in his words where he prays to God about what a wretched man he was, and giving no more place to the enemy of his soul and overcoming the flesh of the natural man. I guess to summarize all my life I have learned a ton of principles of the Gospel, where I could be a factbook or something or understand doctrines as they were taught, and here in the mission I have been starting to see how they all connect, support each other, and seeing everything as a whole, more simplified. God works in simplicity, and it's beautiful. That's why Nephi said he glories in plainness. So that's what I've learned this week =) Have a fantabulous week! Keep pressing forward, see the hidden simplicity behind the business of the world, and you will see the glory of God in a new way =) Os amo a todos y que os vayáis bien ;) (I can practice my vosotros in letters home haha)