Photos May 2013

First Monday of May 2013

Buuueenos días! Qué tál todo? I was happy to receive your emails. I'm glad that things are well, that you are all so faithful and diligent!

Elder Schinder is great. I do kind of miss working with Elder Dayes, and it is wierd to see him at church with the other ward, but Elder Schindler is a special missionary! He has a way with the members and winning over the hearts of them with their trust. He is a good teacher too, he explains things with boldness but in a way that makes sense. Super conductive to the Spirit! We are both kind of neutral and  impartial, so I've kind of had to practice being more assertive and decision making. Which is good =) We didn't teach as many lessons this past week, but we set a few fechas. We have 2 for this weekend, 1 for thursday the next week, and 1 for the 25th. There are like 5 others who we can and probably will set a fecha with soon. 

This last week we had a special meeting in Catarroja with the bishoprics and missionaries in the stake, to talk about an upcoming activity, and also how to work more unified between the wards and the missionaries. It was really inspiring and I saw even more about how great the stake leaders are. In Utah the leaders are always great, but there are lots of great members too, just a few "slots" for leadership. Here the leaders really stand out as something special. There are great things about both perspectives, and it has really inspired me in a new way. President Pace was also there, and gave a great message about unity. He also answered a question from the stake president about how our numbers were about a 100 at the beginning of the year, now were are 130ish, and by the end of the year we are supposed to have 200. The stake president then told the bishops, if you want some of those missionaries to be sent to Valencia, you need to have work in your wards! You need to be giving the missionaries references and work! That's what animates them, which helps them work harder than their own efforts, that's where success will come, and where there is success there will be sent more missionaries, and with more missionaries there will be even more success! It was an interesting insight. Joy (the mother of the two baptisms we had last week) told us in one of our visits last week about a story they had. They said when they went to be baptized (her and her husband) like 5 years ago, all they had left was 5 euros. Thats it. The bus pass was 5.05 euros. They didn't know what to do. They decided to use it, found 5 cents, payed the bus and went to the church thinking they'd just walk home or something. After their baptism, someone went up and congratulated them, and after shaking his hand left 40 euros. He tried to excuse it, but the man said they needed it. He said they hadn't told anyone about their situation. On their way back, they found a bus card laying on the ground, kind of new. (There are tons of abandoned bus cards on the ground, usually empty) They thought it had nothing, but they picked it up and tried it, and it was brand new with 10 trips on it. They said they knew without a doubt that the Lord lived, and that this was His Church, without a doubt. They have the greatest miracle stories, and their family is so great! 

This sunday was mothers day in spain, so they had the special sunday service combined with testimony meeting. It kind of went from a worship service and testimonies of the Lord to a mother worship and testimonies of moms and family, which is good I suppose, but with a couple I felt like it wasn't too focused on the Lord. What can you do though, it's one day a year and moms are really special. It was a good sunday. 

Thats about all I have. I look forward to talking on Sunday! That should be fine, around 4 or 5 here maybe. Just keep your eyes peeled =) Have a great week!

30 de Abríl

This was a great week for us in Valencia! We had 2 baptisms, the two kids from that family. They are so great! Their family is already one of the strongest in the ward haha. It turns out that the dad didn't get his name presented so he couldn't receive the priesthood in time. Elder Dayes baptized one of them and I the other, a neat experience. Victor the Ward Mission leader did the confirmations on sunday. There was every companionship set up for the 27th with a baptism, but a lot of them fell through, so it only ended up being us, the elders from barrio 1, and the pueblos like castellón and such. It was a good week for the mission, we had 25!!! baptisms and 23 were confirmed. We reached our weekly goal for the first time this year! Woo!! We had a super great lesson with them yesterday and watched the full version of the Joseph Smith video, and they loved it. My testimony of Joseph Smith as a true prophet of the Lord was strengthened and felt the Spirit bear powerful witness to us all. It was a great experience! One of their friends who we've been teaching said she'd come to church and didn't (because she slept through the alarm she said) but when we stopped by later in the day Clemxynn and Joy had already been there for a few hours to see why and had been talking about the message which the youth we brought along with us shared, all uncoordinated. We all saw the Lords hand in this and they were pretty convinced that God wanted them to keep following this path!
We've had lots of 'heated' scriptural disscussions with the Testigos, 7th day adventists (who believe the sabbath should still be on saturdays) and some who knows whats. It motivated me to study pretty diligently in the Bible and I've been compiling lots of scripture lists. Things like that drive me crazy, people teaching that the scriptures say this or that when its a bunch of balogna.(Hows that for English spelling?) We had a referral to visit a family of Testigos who the member says he works with and would accept us in. Well, he accepted us in his house and was super nice and friendly, just that he wasted like 2 hours of our time in a pueblo that takes 45 min to get to trying to convince us that Jehovah is God the Father and Jesus is different, and that He doesn't have a body, and the whole 144000 saved thing, etc. So we tried to explain a few scriptures, but he wasn't really interested in changing, so we kinda just gave up and left. So we try not to be too hard on those children of God, because this guy was pretty nice, just pretty deceived by slights of men. They avoid missionaries like the plague though, and always give us weird looks. The seventh day Adventists basically agreed with a lot of what we teach, except they are so caught up with the Sabbath on Saturday that they don't care to talk about anything else, and don't really believe in priesthood or prophets. So I guess you could say I've been gaining lots of cultural experience.
Elder Dayes is being transferred to Barrio 3 as a zone leader, so I will be getting a new companion today, Elder Shindler. I was a little disappointed to hear because we've been doing great together and having fun, but I hear good things about my new companion too, and I'll still see Elder Dayes a lot. I'm out of time now, but I hope you have a great week!

22 de Abríl

Hola mí familia buena! It was nice to hear from you as always. I guess I'll start by answering questions. We as missionaries ask the people who they would like to baptize them. We kind of encourage a ward member to do it, usually the member that has fellowshipped them the most, someone who is their friend and they will always be reminded of their baptism each time they see them. A lot of people, as much as they love the missionaries who baptized them, forget our weird american names and often a lot of their special day. With their fellowship the one who baptized them, if they go inactive their fellowship can get on their tails. So yes we baptize, but more often a member does it. It's better that way =) Noeli's family are all members, just a few are less active. Jeffrey and Stefanie are preparing to be baptized this Saturday. Yesterday their dad Clemson (we found it wasn't Klifson haha kinda hard to understand people when they say their names sometimes) received the Aaronic Priesthood and he will baptize them on Saturday. We had the goal that each companionship will baptize someone this Saturday in our zone, and so far it looks pretty good. There are 14 or so with fechas for Saturday! Caroline has a
fecha for the 2nd of may, we'll see if she's ready or not. She's in the process of moving out and lots of stuff and is having a hard time, and hasn't been reading the Book of Mormon which she obviously needs to do before getting baptized. A friend of Joy's, Isoken, and her son Michael, have fechas for the 4th of may. We also have been picking up a lot of new investigators, we have a list of about 12 or so that we plan on teaching and setting a baptismal dates.
Yesterday was our ward conference, so the stake came and taught the classes and the Bishop and Stake President spoke in sacrament meeting. It was neat because we never really see the stake people much, but they are so great! The stake president gave an outstanding talk about tithing. It was the perfect balance of rebuke (I guess its a hard commandment for people in Spain to live...go figure) and promised blessings and emphasis on the Lord and building his kingdom. It was so great! We also had two new families show up to church with friends. A Bolivian family with 3 young girls, and a couple from Ecuador. We're going to go visit them this week. We've had another week of miracles!
It sounds like a fun experience with Ethan's ordination. Congrats! I hope he had a fun birthday. Last hope of America sounds like it was fun too. All of those patriotic songs. All I hear here is the Mo Tab America cd on my ipod =)
It is super sad to hear about a new bishopric! We already had the best one! It's always a hard change, people naturally get attached to their great leaders, but the Lord calls whom He wants called and at the right time, so the following are always great. It would be neat to have Joseph Smith to have been the prophet for a long time, but the saints needed Brigham Young. And consecutively we can learn so many great things from each prophet, a different perspective or focus. The Lord has His purposes =) Let me know what happens!!
I'm glad to hear Jacob Eddington did well. He's great =) Hope he gets out to Perú super quick!
I thought is was funny that you got denstist reminders for me. Kinda funny that you say that, because one of those would be nice! This last week we bought like a kilo and a half of Spanish chuches (candies) to teach tithing and the word of wisdom to Jeffrey and Stefanie. So we've had lots of junkfood =) The water here in Spain has a ton of calcium or something in it, so we buy drinking water or use a filter. It still makes your teeth feel wierd after brushing and supposedly makes some of your hair fall out from showering in it. I haven't noticed though.
 We press on in the work of the Lord!
Have a great week!

15 de Abril

Hello to all! This has been such a great week in Valencia!! We went to work! Elder Dayes is a beast at contacting everyone, and we found 7 new investigators! We also had 6 at church, so that was a great blessing. There are Standards of excellence, kind of a weekly goal that we work for with our numbers, and we hit 4 out of the 5, something you only see in a few companionships each week. It was great =) We also had the baptism of Noeli, a 9 year old from the Dominican Republic that we've been teaching. It was such a great service. A special spirit of humility and family unity was there with everyone. Hopefully we will keep up the great work! Klifson, Joy, and their kids are doing great. They learn impressively quick, and love the church, feeling the Spirit, and reading the scriptures! Joy already invited a friend to come to church, who brought her 12 and 6 year old sons! It was so great. Also, Caroline will be moving out to live alone with her kids, the man doesn't want to be married and they've had a few arguments lately, so that like sealed the deal, and she could be baptized on the 27th or the 4th. It's just great!!
Thanks for the emails. That's so great that my brothers are getting close to their eagles. Get em done!! Haha dad should just make a pinewood derby for old times sake  It is wierd to think that one year ago I was opening my mission call. It was wierd to be in the same place in December too haha. I hadn't even thought about school and how its almost over. That was probably the wierdest realization I had after reading that. Before I know it I'll have to be registering...time flies!
I'm glad the Sunday School class went well. Doctrine and Covenants is so great. A special book of scripture unique to our day. I'm in like section 50 in spanish. It's a little harder to read than the book of mormon in spanish, but by the end I'll have lots of great scriptures marked to use =) Using the scriptures is really the best and only way to teach. We can say what we want and they can take or word for it or reject it.We talked yesterday with a joven from California doing a masters program in music here, and his friends have been missionaries and he's talked with them before. He seems to have learned all the pieces, but can't connect them and has lots of questions. He asked the other missionaries why his other baptism wasn't "valid" and of course they told him that his priest had no authority. He asked us the same question, we answered basically the same way, but read in Acts 19 about people having been baptized by John, the prophet who baptized Jesus Himself, but Paul baptized them again under the new authority he had been given with the established church of Jesus Christ, and it made all the difference in the teaching and how he took it. The scriptures have power =)
 Have fun at hope of america--last time! También, cumpleaños feliz a Ethan!!  Su regalo:
Also, enjoy the snow! We got none of that here!

8 de Abril

Hola buenas a todos! This was a super great week! First off, I am now with Elder Dayes. He has been the office secretary for the past 6 months, and so was kind of excited to leave, and doesn't know what to do with so much proseliting time to fill! And not having to stay up until 2 to do numbers was great for him haha. He is from Arizona.  He's a great missionary, always talking to people, something I'm not as good at so he's a good example haha.
General Conferece was so great! We watched them in the Church. The 10 am session was broadcasted live here at 6 pm. On Sunday we watched Priesthood at 11, Sat afternoon at 2, and then sunday morning live at 6. We never got to see sunday afternoon, where I figured that Elder Holland, Oaks, and Christofferson would all speak, some of my favorite speakers! So we'll have to download it and listen to it at home. It was so great though! Me encanta los discursos de Pres. Eyring, and his testimony--super fuerte!!! I love Tad R. Callister, and he gave a great talk. Elder Packer and Elder Ballard gave really good ones too. I noticed the same theme with almost all of them--family relations, priesthood blessings, obedience to commandments, missionary work, and standing as a witness in all things. Quit being super flojo about it all! You have a testimony, show it! I think that is why the Savior condemned hipocrites so sternly. Everything about the gospel is intended to help you become something, to be someone, not just do or not do things. Something hipocrites profess to be but aren't. It also seems like there are some hard times with testimony trying experiences that we have yet to face, and so we need to start now being a witness and having our answers ready! It was funny, we as a piso were trying to guess where the new temples would be announced, I joked about one being in Utah again, and what do you know! The Rio temple should be super neat too. It will be so great to hear one of these days a Barcelona or Valencia! There are a ton of missionaries too, I can't believe it! So amazing!
We had a great miracle this week. Our Ward mission leader had reffered us to a less active family who the parents were baptized about five years ago, but then stopped coming after a trial and went back to the catholic church. Elder Dixon and I passed by once, taught about living prophets, and they accepted us to come back. The second visit we talked about the Book of Mormon, how it can bless our lives. They opened up to us in that visit and told us that the reason they stopped coming was because they didn't feel like they had testimonies of the Book of Mormon, and when their kids would ask them questions, they felt embarrased that they didn't know the answers and couldn't give a good example and so they taught them what they knew, catholosism. We invited them to read the Book of Mormon, told them we would help, and teach. They accepted. We passed by and left a kids book with fotos and copies in Spanish and English so that they all could read, and were super excited. They expressed to us their desire to try to come back into activity. The man, Klifson, has been sick but was able to make Saturday's General Conference session, and loved it, especially the talk by Elder Ballard. The Sunday session the whole family was there with our ward mission leader and they all loved it. They are super excited, and we will hopefully see two baptisms from their two oldest kids who have not been baptized. They are so great! They speak spanish really well for most africans we've seen, so thats great. The kids are a lot more fluent since they go to school and have friends here. We don't really translate for people, they want to try to get headphones, for sure have them study scriptures and books on their own. We'll have to see what they want to do. There were just a few points or power phrases that I loved out of each talk, and then we downloaded conference today to listen to the last session. That's the highlight of my week, can't think of much else to say. Have a wonderful week, be happy, apply, ponder, and live the teaching of the prophets! Don't miss me too much  You're always in my prayers! Have a fantastic week.

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)