News out of Barç!

Hello!  I have transfer news...I'm now in Barcelona! The trip from Lleida was not too exciting...just 2 hours in the train through farmland. It is a neat part of Spain that amid all of the farmland and hills and stuff, you see an occaisional little town with an old chapel or neat spanish architecture in the countryside (perfect photo opportunity, except that we're travelling at like 250 km/hr and there's a window in the way... also, today is not so sunny in Barcelona. Cloudy and almost rainy. But I am excited to not melt like I hear they will in Zaragoza!

 I am excited to serve in the main city of the mission, and I really just like the feel of Barcelona. I hear the ward is great (and big!). I'll be working kind of on the northern/eastern side, towards the end of Badalona. We also meet in the large stake center building!  So I am excited to see what the Lord has in store for these weeks to come. I am kind of sad to leave our great District in Zaragoza though ='( I am glad to see a familiar face in the new district though (Elder Alder)!  My new companion is Elder Rasmussen, from Bear River. I don't know if he's related to those in our ward or not... he seems like a fun guy though.

I really enjoyed the opportunity of training and working with Elder Loaiza. I enjoyed seeing him progress and start to become an el Faro missionary. He has a good heart and he will do great things. I enjoyed his desires to serve and help others.

As far as miracles go, I really feel like the ward is improving a lot in various things. The Bishop has been a stalwart example. Lots of simple things, like dressing up for ward council. (A sub-miracle is that we had almost all of the ward council there, as opposed to the half we normally do!) He also gave a powerful testimony and thoughts on Sunday about the Sacrament and the importance of the ordinance and the reverence and respect that he felt that the ward could improve on =) I also had the opportunity to speak on sunday and a few members shared with me they really appreciated my remarks and I'm glad to feel that I have been an instrument in the hands of the Lord throughout my mission, probably one of my greatest joys of the mission. I spoke about being unified and a more Zion-like people. In other words, my last chance to give a word or two and dar caña a los miembros! Aka no gossiping, backbiting, arguing, no lazyness, serve others and love your neighbor, and share the Gospel!

This week I am going to focus on learning the area quickly and getting to know the wonderful members of Barcelona 3. I want to look for simple ways to serve others and opportunities to serve strangers. Just support all the members and leaders and such.

Have a great week. Love you all. Keep smiling and looking forward!​

April gone already?? You've got to be kidding!

4/14
This coming week might be a toughy, mainly because it's Semana Santa, so everyone's out of work and school (don't be fooled...that's actually when they have the least amount of time to meet with missionaries...) which means drunk people and everyone leaving for vacations! That, and catholics walking around in KKK costumes...I guess that their culture/perspective is a little different here haha. [See picture attachments]

4/21
¡Hola! ¡Buenos días! This week felt kind of long actually. We didn't have a lot of stuff actually, seeing that it was Semana Santa craziness. And I didn't even do much for the first half of the week! Monday was preparation day, then Tuesday I went into Barcelona for the morning and afternoon to renew my residency card, so we didn't have much time after I got back.

So, because of Semana Santa it seemed like a ghost town with everyone on vacation or in the city center watching processions and such. So we didn't get a lot of finding accomplished like we were hoping, but we did get some visits with our investigator, David, and some members RC/MA that normally are harder to get. David is progessing a lot more, he read the Book of Mormon a little before this last time. The sad part is that everytime he can come to church he twists his ankle at work and is stuck at home...

This week I have learned something that I am going to try to do better on: being grateful like in Pres. Uchtdorf's talk. I was thinking this week while we were eating that it would probably be me washing all of the dirty dishes because they have a tendency to linger longer than we'd like...and native companions aren't the cleanest of cultures when it comes to maintaining the kitchen and piso clean haha. Or just 20 year old boys in general haha. So yeah, I was thinking about selfless service and how God blesses us when we selflessly and anonimously serve, not "to be seen of men" and how I would suck it up and do the dishes again... It occurred to my mind a thought though, "Who blesses God for the good and service He does for us?"

I've been pondering that question,  and I still can't say I know the answer. I know that blessings come from obedience to laws of heaven and from doing good, but those come from God I suppose. And knowing that God's work and glory is bringing to pass our inmortality and eternal life, His eternal posterity brings Him happiness and peace and I suppose we are a "blessing" to Him, but seeing that he created us He technically blessed Himself... So I don't know. I suppose that our thanks and glory we give to Him and praising Him are His blessings, seeing that He is in a state where He has already received the greatest blessings offered.

So I feel that we should, as Pres. Uchtdorf said, be grateful people and not just grateful for things or "blessings". It's a state of being that God is in, and that is why we should be grateful and serve and obey without really expecting to "earn" God's blessings, although they will surely come anyways and always just because God loves us and desires to bless us. And it is good that we seek blessings from God for the purpose of growing closer to Him and becoming like Him. They are His "divine favors" that contribute to our happiness.

4/28
Here we are again, another Monday! Time passed by pretty quick this week. It has been rainy all week, but in the annoying way where it rains for 5 min so you pull out your umbrella and then it stops for 5, so you put it away, then it starts again. And a lot of people don't walk around when it's rainy haha.

There was a talk last week that I forgot to share something I liked. They were 5 points about being a good worker:
1) You don't know anything that can't be done.
2) Be willing to make the difference.
3) If you're not having fun, you're not doing it right.
4) Make sure that things are done well/right.
5) You control the circumstances, not your circumstances control you.

So yeah, they're pretty useful taken from the right perspective of course. And especially in missionary work, where the work is great and the laborers are few. It requires more sacrifice and faith. And also that God usually doesn't call the prepared to serve in a position he aldready does really well, but rather someone who is there to learn, and taking into account their gifts and abilities that will be able to bless those they serve.

This week I am going to repent on seeking the voice of the Spirit more. I listened this week to the recent CES devotional that I had downloaded, about learning the language of the Spirit, and I learned some good things. And then your message in the Noticias emphasized it, so I guess it's what God wants for me right now! Not that I've been doing terrible at it, just that it can always be better =)