12 de Augusto
Hola. Pues, se me ha ido todo y no sé donde empezar. I guess with thanks for all of your emails to me today! They were great, like always =) I am glad that my emails have had more of an effect than to merely keep you posted on what happens here, because it hasn't been that much haha. It hasn't been as terribly hot this week as it was the last. It went from pressure cooker status to oven with the door open so we get a breeze haha. There was actually one day when it rained in the morning and it was actually relatively cool the rest of the day! The work the same as usual, passing by menos activos, wandering streets, and the usual missionary vigors of the day.
So it has been a good week in Menorca here. With church yesterday. So, the week before the twins Paola and Alejandra, and one of the Nuñez twins, Nicole, went to EFY. It was a great experience for them, they each spoke about it in sacrament meeting. Each of them mentioned the increased love they felt for their families and their desires to be personally better. I was touched about how the Spirit was able to work such a mighty change in them throughout the course of one week. Our miracle, Alejandra set herself a fecha for the 24th!!! So, everyone was happy in the end. President Bladimir especially even said "mission accomplished" with regards to sending them =) I was really discouraged at the start of the sacrament meeting because there were only two people (none of the speakers were there...) and by the sacrament like 10 people came in late. We were kind of worried we would have to improvise the whole meeting haha. My lesson went well, it was fun to teach. To me it doesn't make to much of a difference English or Spanish. I communicate my thoughts just the same. It just boils down to what I want to talk about in my time haha.
We have also been passing by less actives a lot and helping them. I have seen notable progress in a few, at least with regards to understanding the scriptures we read with them and feeling the Spirit. Now, getting them to pick up their scriptures while we are away and to come to church is a different story, but they will come around. I have noticed what Sis Fugal said that it often takes people time to learn precept upon precept and line upon line; they do not just pick them each up the first time. So we have to be patient and consistent. I have had to repeatedly think to myself of Elder Hollands quote from last conference "With the only exception of His perfect Son Jesus Christ, imperfect people are all God has ever had to deal with. It must be terribly frustrating for Him, but He deals with it, and so should we!" Well, that's about it for today. Hope you have a fun week! Hasta la próxima. ¡Cuidaos!
19 de Augusto
This week I want to try to be more consecrated and dedicated to the Lord, forgetting about my own will and timeframe, and trusting in the Lord's. I'd say my desires as well, but I think those are in line with the Lords. I mean, I'm sure he would like to see lot's of baptisms and new people to teach just as I do! These desires come mostly from rereading a Neal A Maxwell talk, "Swallowed up in the will of the Father." It's a keeper =)
That's about all that I have...can't think of much else. Have a great week!
Sé que esta es la obra del Señor Jesucristo. Testifico que como en Jacob 5 que El está trabajando con sus siervos. Sé que él vendrá otra vez, ¡y pronto! Veo que está dando prisa a su obra y muchas cosas buenas están pasando ya delante de nuestros ojos. Solo tenemos que extender la mano y estará lleno de las bendiciones y milagros que Dios está derramando sobre la tierra. Podemos ser más dedicados siervos de él e instrumentos más eficaz en sus manos si nos dedicamos más a su Evangelio en cualquier manera que sea. Testifico que las escrituras son Sus palabras, las cuales nos dirigirán hacia la vida eterna y en lo que él quiere que hagamos en el parte del camino en que estamos ahora mismo. Dios habla con hombre hoy día, a todos los que le prestarán atención, y habla con Sus profetas vivientes. Qué Dios os bendiga en todo cuanto que necesitéis, y en lo que queráis también. Gracias por vuestras oraciones, ¡siempre tenéis las mías! Hasta la próxima.
26 de Augusto
So, it's been an interesting week. One of those that was long yet passed super quickly. One of the highlights was that we did an intercambio with the Ibiza elders. Elder Bozarth came here with me to do our interview for Alejandra. He said the interview went well, and that it was pretty easy. She knows the answers, just kind of struggles to do them I guess you can say. We still have to nag them a little to have them read, pray, and especially come to church (which is dumb, because they live practically right above it..). They are learning though, and especially I have noticed that Paola kind of steps up when we are teaching to explain things or instead of giving a sarcastic "I liked everything in the chapter" answer, actually digs deeper. You can tell the difference between someone who has received the Gift of the Holy Ghost and someone who hasn't, even in twin sisters =) If all goes as planned, Alejandra's baptism should be this weekend!
The rest of the intercambio went well too. We passed by an old investigator and a less active. It was actually kind of fun to serve with Elder Bozarth here. We were both thinking back to the MTC days when neither of us spoke coherent spanish and had no idea what we were doing, not knowing if we would ever get our visas and go to Spain, and here we were walking on of the islands of Spain and teaching in Spanish to real investigators haha. So that was neat. We saw success in our teaching, that they understood something that maybe they hadn't before! It was nice to have some fresh faith that wasn't trunky to leave for a couple days as well =) Their circumstances are pretty similar in Ibiza as far as tourists go, yet they have 40-50 active members that are dripping with the spirit of missionary work, so they have success. We just have to work hard I guess =)
Church was pretty good. We were the assigned speakers for sacrament meeting, and we were pretty happy because there was a little higher number than usual. I gave a talk on hearing the voice of the Lord in our lives. We have the opportunity to speak for like 25-30 min each haha. Nicole (one of the uruguayan twins who is still on fire from efy. She's given out two Book of Mormons to friends these past couple weeks =) )and Mica (her twin) came with Steve (who is working on one of his Menorcan friends with a young family. He says if this guy gets baptized, we could probably baptize the whole island with the persistent personality this guy has haha), and Angelica who usually doesn't make it, came with María Jose, her grandaughter. It was my turn to teach the class, which I was really excited to do because it was on Joseph Smith, one of my favorite subjects to teach on =) I didn't have much time to prepare because I spent most of it on my talk, but it was easy and fun to teach. My testimony was strengthened and I felt it was a spiritually uplifting class as well for the members. Poor President Bladimir is still a little down with everything. He asked that we give him a priesthood blessing after church, which we gladly did. He could use some prayers as well.
We receive transfer revelations this Saturday, which is super weird. These six weeks have passed by super fast! Today it is raining a lot, so we don't really have desires to do too much haha. But it does make it a whole lot cooler!
2 de Septiembre
Hello everyone! First off, super great week! Transfer news: I'm staying here in Menorca with an Elder Alder, who just finished being trained elsewhere and has 12 weeks in the field. =) They say he's a fireball and has lots of faith. That's what we need! Elder Judd is going up to Vic.The transfer will be on Thursday this week because of the 40 or so new missionaries that President has to interview, assign, get papers for residency cards, and all the fun stuff so he's giving himself a couple extra days. October has a lot of other new ones coming too, so I might go somewhere else to be part of round 2 trainers, we'll see. Right now we focus on Menorca!
This has been a great week in Menorca, It's been sunny, but windy. The biggest miracle of this week was Alejandra's baptism!! It was so great! We prayed that the members would be available, that they would remember our invitations, and that they would have the desires to come. Result: The church was full! We had almost every seat in the chapel filled (more than any of our weekly attendance and probably the month combined haha), and a lot of less actives and non members were there! The program went smoothly, there was a special spirit there, and Alejandra seemed pretty happy. After, Mica Nuñez had planned a goodbye party for the twins since they leave for Bolivia the 15th. It all turned out pretty great!
Sunday was a special experience as well. Alejandra's confirmation went great and she was pretty happy. I decided to do Patriarch Smith's challenge as well. I went fasting to be able to gain new perspective and insights in my blessing. The fast and testimony meeting was a powerful one. After a couple people kind of broke the ice I went up after another pause to share my testimony. I don't know what it was, but I basically just felt overwhelmed as I bore testimony about the love of the Savior for us and how "we all come short of the glory of God" but how none of us come short of the blessings of the Atonement if we just reach our hands out to accept them! After finally being able to finish I sat down and the rest of the meeting was just super powerful for me. I heard the similar testimonies of members and some less actives who were touched and shared their testimonies and feelings of desires to come back, their gratitude for the missionaries (us) for passing by and strengthening them, etc. ,after who shared testimonies of similar things. Anyways, after going home at mediodía and breaking my fast I studied my blessing again. It stuck out to me numerous times as it talked to me about my testimony of the Savior and of me using it for much good in my life, in the lives of those around me, and especially in my mission. I was just impressed with how the Lord has been using me and my testimony in His purposes, and there is just no greater feeling =) I gained new insights as to the power of a personal testimony, and to why we are always exhorted to share it with others, when my intellectual/studious/engineering side of me wants to physically prove to them with common sense/science and various scriptures of the truths we teach. Which of course have their place, power, and roles, but the testimony side is where the power comes. They need to understand in their minds, by study, reasoning, and logic, and they need to feel it in their hearts, the power of testimony and the Spirit. One without the other is not enough to save us!
We learned this week of a couple more people who are making plans to leave the island or Spain one less active guy and one of the few active members, Mariana, that lady who we got lost walking to a couple weeks ago, so we really need to focus on finding some spaniard/menorcans who will stay and become converted. Steve has a couple friends who he is working with to share the gospel and introduce us to them, which we hope and are praying will come around! Also to maintain the new spirit some of the members and less actives are starting to feel!
That's about all I have. As a mission we just started to read the Book of Mormon together today on a schedule to finish December 2. We're going to be focusing on Christlike Attributes, teachings, and testimonies of Christ as well. I went and bought some supplies and made a sweet study journal for it that I will send a pic of later. I'm pretty excited for it though. Well, hope that you all have a fantastic week! The Lord has blessed me, may He continue to bless you! Hasta la próxima.
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
Thursday, August 1, 2013
Saludos desde las Islas!
Hello everybody! Another week has passed by. Kind of a long one, and I'll tell you why!
The weather has been scorching hot out here! Super humid of course. They say it has been hotter than the peninsula, which is unusual. How this missionary is feeling: a little overwhelmed haha. I guess when I imagined Menorca before I pictured a meeting of two missionaries and like 3 people in somebody's house for church. After getting here and seeing the church and list of members, I had higher hopes! Then Sunday finally comes around: It was two missionaries and like 3 people in a large chapel haha. By the end of the meeting we had around 8 though =) Then for the classes it slowly dwindled back down to 3 again. We had the wonderful opportunity of preparing talks, doing the sacrament and music, and Elder Judd teaching one of the classes. Haven't had to do any of those in a while! It was an interesting experience however. I appreciated some of President's comments to me in response to my weekly letter. I now understand a little better about what he said of the members needing love, support, and encouragement! It seems like almost everyone is going less active, moving off the island soon, or living in sin (with regards to the law of chastity...not so popular here [yet]). I think about all the work to be done, what needs to happen. I see my goals of wanting to reactivate members, baptize new converts, and seeing at least a half full chapel, and then to think of everything that will need to happen and the time it will take, and then the discouragement just hits you across the face. So, I figure I will start to study patience, faith, and charity in my studies and think about how I can develop these more strongly. I have thought of numerous examples of missionaries in the scriptures who demonstrated these and had abundant success (and trials! The Sunday school lesson was on those. Great for my first week here =)) I feel that a great amount of trust and investment has been placed in me, both from the President and from the Lord. I know the Lord knows everything here, and from what it sounds like a lot of the members have met the president and it's a branch so I assume he knows a lot about the situation. I also got the refined "don't get too discouraged here because I've seen it before" talk by the branch president. He's a good guy, but also a little discouraged =)
We did see a few neat miracles. One, we got into a man's home knocking doors. We shared a brief message about the Book of Mormon, left him a copy, and invited him to read it. Downside is he will be leaving for Madrid this week and won't return until September. Hopefully he reads and there will be potential there. Another miracle, a member Steve (from Utah, returned missionary. He went to Utah State! Graduated with a few degrees in Spanish. He's fun, just waiting here for the painstakingly huge process of getting married with a girl here. It's a long story with lots of rants of the governmental procedures haha.) was going to drive us back up to Maó and he couldn't remember where he had put his car for the life of him. We saw the bus come and so we just got onto it instead, and lo and behold we saw a potential investigator whom Elder Judd hadn't remembered! So that was neat to see.
I feel that I have been able to bond with a lot of people here so far, so I hope that that trust can grow into miracles soon. We'll just keep working and leave the Lord the rest!
To answer some questions: it is super pretty! And filled with tourists, mostly from England who always come up to us and ask us for directions in English haha. We had to take the train up to Barcelona, then drop my larger bag off at the office, which they keep in their storage downstairs, and then off to the airport there and we flew straight to Menorca. About 40 min or so. We live in Maó, one of the bigger cities central to buses and everything. The huge port is really pretty too, and there's usually a cruise ship or two in it.
Congrats on getting all of those Eagle projects out of the way! Sounds like a lot of work that will hopefully pay off =) And a little earlier too, how great =)
Sounds exciting about the house. I liked the great ariel view pics ;) It seems like everything is just breezing on by now! That makes me glad to hear. It looks great to me!
It feels wierd to be passing the year mark finally. I've always looked forward to it thinking how weird it will be when it passes, and here we are!
As a random sidenote, I always introduce myself and show everyone our family pic you sent me. They ALWAYS say I have a wonderful family, and a guapa madre (Looks like dad chose well!) They always say that me and my brothers look alike too. So keep being wonderful =)
Well, that's about all I have for today. Enjoy some pics of our island resort =) I can't send too many though, because this locutorio is garbage... a la proxima!
The weather has been scorching hot out here! Super humid of course. They say it has been hotter than the peninsula, which is unusual. How this missionary is feeling: a little overwhelmed haha. I guess when I imagined Menorca before I pictured a meeting of two missionaries and like 3 people in somebody's house for church. After getting here and seeing the church and list of members, I had higher hopes! Then Sunday finally comes around: It was two missionaries and like 3 people in a large chapel haha. By the end of the meeting we had around 8 though =) Then for the classes it slowly dwindled back down to 3 again. We had the wonderful opportunity of preparing talks, doing the sacrament and music, and Elder Judd teaching one of the classes. Haven't had to do any of those in a while! It was an interesting experience however. I appreciated some of President's comments to me in response to my weekly letter. I now understand a little better about what he said of the members needing love, support, and encouragement! It seems like almost everyone is going less active, moving off the island soon, or living in sin (with regards to the law of chastity...not so popular here [yet]). I think about all the work to be done, what needs to happen. I see my goals of wanting to reactivate members, baptize new converts, and seeing at least a half full chapel, and then to think of everything that will need to happen and the time it will take, and then the discouragement just hits you across the face. So, I figure I will start to study patience, faith, and charity in my studies and think about how I can develop these more strongly. I have thought of numerous examples of missionaries in the scriptures who demonstrated these and had abundant success (and trials! The Sunday school lesson was on those. Great for my first week here =)) I feel that a great amount of trust and investment has been placed in me, both from the President and from the Lord. I know the Lord knows everything here, and from what it sounds like a lot of the members have met the president and it's a branch so I assume he knows a lot about the situation. I also got the refined "don't get too discouraged here because I've seen it before" talk by the branch president. He's a good guy, but also a little discouraged =)
We did see a few neat miracles. One, we got into a man's home knocking doors. We shared a brief message about the Book of Mormon, left him a copy, and invited him to read it. Downside is he will be leaving for Madrid this week and won't return until September. Hopefully he reads and there will be potential there. Another miracle, a member Steve (from Utah, returned missionary. He went to Utah State! Graduated with a few degrees in Spanish. He's fun, just waiting here for the painstakingly huge process of getting married with a girl here. It's a long story with lots of rants of the governmental procedures haha.) was going to drive us back up to Maó and he couldn't remember where he had put his car for the life of him. We saw the bus come and so we just got onto it instead, and lo and behold we saw a potential investigator whom Elder Judd hadn't remembered! So that was neat to see.
I feel that I have been able to bond with a lot of people here so far, so I hope that that trust can grow into miracles soon. We'll just keep working and leave the Lord the rest!
To answer some questions: it is super pretty! And filled with tourists, mostly from England who always come up to us and ask us for directions in English haha. We had to take the train up to Barcelona, then drop my larger bag off at the office, which they keep in their storage downstairs, and then off to the airport there and we flew straight to Menorca. About 40 min or so. We live in Maó, one of the bigger cities central to buses and everything. The huge port is really pretty too, and there's usually a cruise ship or two in it.
Congrats on getting all of those Eagle projects out of the way! Sounds like a lot of work that will hopefully pay off =) And a little earlier too, how great =)
Sounds exciting about the house. I liked the great ariel view pics ;) It seems like everything is just breezing on by now! That makes me glad to hear. It looks great to me!
It feels wierd to be passing the year mark finally. I've always looked forward to it thinking how weird it will be when it passes, and here we are!
As a random sidenote, I always introduce myself and show everyone our family pic you sent me. They ALWAYS say I have a wonderful family, and a guapa madre (Looks like dad chose well!) They always say that me and my brothers look alike too. So keep being wonderful =)
Well, that's about all I have for today. Enjoy some pics of our island resort =) I can't send too many though, because this locutorio is garbage... a la proxima!
Transfer Day in July
Ooooooh, who lives in an island out in the sea,
Elder Coombs does!
It's humid and sunny and not very big,
Where Elder Coombs is!
If preaching the Gospel be something ye wish,
like Elder Coombs does!
Then pack up your back and hand out some Books!
Preaching the Gospel, Preaching the Gospel, Preaching the Gospel, Preaching...the Gospel!
Well, there you have it. My highly creative parady of Spongebob's themesong about where I've been transferred to! I'm now in Menorca, a little island out in the Baleares. It's just that. I've been told there are like 40 members on list, and like 15 actives. Before the branch president used to be gone so the missionaries had to do just about everything, but I hear he quit his job and has time on sundays now, so now we only do almost everything haha. The reputation of the islands is basically a prison sentance. Confined to an area with little work, super expensive stuff, and low standards of morality! Needless to say, President only sends people he trusts I got a personal phone call from him transfer night to "prepare" me. And, now I see why! It seems pretty easy to get depressed or discouraged out here haha. It's like all tourists, or people who work in tourist industries and don't have much time, rumor has it. So we'll see! Basically we're just going to turn it from a branch into a ward haha. We'll show Menorca what's boss. Also, I only got to bring one of my two suitcases, because travelling out to here is kinda expensive. So I had a little sorting to do, what is essential, what is not. Luckily, I could just leave all of my winter stuff iin one and take all my summer stuff in the other! My new companion is Elder Judd, from Sandy Utah. He's really nice, kind of quiet like me =) A big change from his last companion I hear. We pretty much own the island to ourselves, so that's another big change. We've made good use of my frisbee today =)
So that's where I'm at. I had no time yesterday because I was in a train or airplane or some station pretty much all day. It was kinda hard to say goodbye to Valencia. Especially with some of the members. I'll send a few pics. The Hermana's had a baptism, and Elder Schindler exercised his priesthood in baptizing him, and I in confirming him. That was a neat experience. In case you are wondering, he insisted on wearing the gown instead of a shirt, who knows why.
I'm glad mom had a fun birthday. I had heard about that video here, a member showed us the trailor for it. It looks pretty interesting. The Mormon Tab concert sounds super great. I would have loved to go! Hope you enjoyed some of it for me. Best of luck to Kyle too...he's had a super rough time!
Sounds like trek was lots of fun! I think they purposefully chose a spot with lots of cow pies and bugs to afflict you haha. You should have prayed for a flock of seagulls to deliver you! I'm glad you learned lots, trek was a fun experience for me as well. Get a feel for the early saints, and I can only imagine Zion's camp too.
That was a really neat miracle about Ethan's experience. Tell him to stop living on the edge so much! I liked dad's experience about the scripture and feelings. I hope that you didn't wet yourself haha I ride trains every day, but I've never seen a place where cars can cross the tracks...so I don't know if there's too many accidents.
It is really weird to think about how I am almost at my year now. I have thought about what happened a year ago every now and again. It makes good testimony for teaching the plan of salvation! It also makes me ponder the purposes of the Lord. As for the mission, lots of crazy things have been happening. They made two new zones. A lot of missionaries from my group are starting to become district and zone leaders and ayudantes to the president. Training too. Elder Bozarth will be our district leader here in the islands. Our district is us and them two out in Ibiza. We get to do our district meetings over Skype it sounds like. In September we'll be getting 40 new missionaries it sounds like. Quite a few! We'll see what happens!
It was fun to hear about all the new mission calls and news. That will be pretty crazy! Did you ever get a hold of Kaleb's address/email?
The home building seems to be putting along. That's pretty exciting. Gayla reminded me that school starts up pretty soon. It was hard for me to believe that! Better enjoy your last month of summer!
Well, I gotta go. Love you all! See you later! Have a great week!
Elder Coombs does!
It's humid and sunny and not very big,
Where Elder Coombs is!
If preaching the Gospel be something ye wish,
like Elder Coombs does!
Then pack up your back and hand out some Books!
Preaching the Gospel, Preaching the Gospel, Preaching the Gospel, Preaching...the Gospel!
Well, there you have it. My highly creative parady of Spongebob's themesong about where I've been transferred to! I'm now in Menorca, a little island out in the Baleares. It's just that. I've been told there are like 40 members on list, and like 15 actives. Before the branch president used to be gone so the missionaries had to do just about everything, but I hear he quit his job and has time on sundays now, so now we only do almost everything haha. The reputation of the islands is basically a prison sentance. Confined to an area with little work, super expensive stuff, and low standards of morality! Needless to say, President only sends people he trusts I got a personal phone call from him transfer night to "prepare" me. And, now I see why! It seems pretty easy to get depressed or discouraged out here haha. It's like all tourists, or people who work in tourist industries and don't have much time, rumor has it. So we'll see! Basically we're just going to turn it from a branch into a ward haha. We'll show Menorca what's boss. Also, I only got to bring one of my two suitcases, because travelling out to here is kinda expensive. So I had a little sorting to do, what is essential, what is not. Luckily, I could just leave all of my winter stuff iin one and take all my summer stuff in the other! My new companion is Elder Judd, from Sandy Utah. He's really nice, kind of quiet like me =) A big change from his last companion I hear. We pretty much own the island to ourselves, so that's another big change. We've made good use of my frisbee today =)
So that's where I'm at. I had no time yesterday because I was in a train or airplane or some station pretty much all day. It was kinda hard to say goodbye to Valencia. Especially with some of the members. I'll send a few pics. The Hermana's had a baptism, and Elder Schindler exercised his priesthood in baptizing him, and I in confirming him. That was a neat experience. In case you are wondering, he insisted on wearing the gown instead of a shirt, who knows why.
I'm glad mom had a fun birthday. I had heard about that video here, a member showed us the trailor for it. It looks pretty interesting. The Mormon Tab concert sounds super great. I would have loved to go! Hope you enjoyed some of it for me. Best of luck to Kyle too...he's had a super rough time!
Sounds like trek was lots of fun! I think they purposefully chose a spot with lots of cow pies and bugs to afflict you haha. You should have prayed for a flock of seagulls to deliver you! I'm glad you learned lots, trek was a fun experience for me as well. Get a feel for the early saints, and I can only imagine Zion's camp too.
That was a really neat miracle about Ethan's experience. Tell him to stop living on the edge so much! I liked dad's experience about the scripture and feelings. I hope that you didn't wet yourself haha I ride trains every day, but I've never seen a place where cars can cross the tracks...so I don't know if there's too many accidents.
It is really weird to think about how I am almost at my year now. I have thought about what happened a year ago every now and again. It makes good testimony for teaching the plan of salvation! It also makes me ponder the purposes of the Lord. As for the mission, lots of crazy things have been happening. They made two new zones. A lot of missionaries from my group are starting to become district and zone leaders and ayudantes to the president. Training too. Elder Bozarth will be our district leader here in the islands. Our district is us and them two out in Ibiza. We get to do our district meetings over Skype it sounds like. In September we'll be getting 40 new missionaries it sounds like. Quite a few! We'll see what happens!
It was fun to hear about all the new mission calls and news. That will be pretty crazy! Did you ever get a hold of Kaleb's address/email?
The home building seems to be putting along. That's pretty exciting. Gayla reminded me that school starts up pretty soon. It was hard for me to believe that! Better enjoy your last month of summer!
Well, I gotta go. Love you all! See you later! Have a great week!
Monday, July 8, 2013
Buuuenas tardes! 8 de Julio
Hello to all. First off, it weirds me out that we are already in July, and that my year mark is in a few weeks! It's hard to believe, but hey, it's got to kick you in the butt sometime.
Another cool miracle, we had 7 investigators in church this week!! A romanian, Christian, and his wife that our romanian member invited, they are progressing pretty well actually. We actually found them after church last week, and Elder Schindler taught them during the week while I was on an intercambio up in Castellón Tues-afternoon to Thursday morning. (Side note about the intercambio: It was fun. I went up with our District Leader, Elder Farah. They had practically no visits, and the ones they had dropped our visits, so we pretty much knocked doors the whole time. Like 200. And guess what I learned! There's a better way. President Hinckley wasn't lying. We had no "visible success". Maybe someone will call in 5 years or something. But yeah, I realized after doing that I thought back to the broadcast, and it made us think that the Apostles don't really want us knocking doors if we can avoid it. Hence the new technology finding coming soon! Maybe ten or even 5 years ago, the world was a much different place. Today, especially here in Spain, the last thing people want is two younglings knocking on their door to teach them about Jesus. Hence, there's a better way! Members!! Woohoo! Plus, they already have some background on us if they have a member friend, they are more willing to listen to us, whether out of interest, or just to listen for their friend who asked them too, and then after they feel something. And they have a support system/teacher. And many more reasons why it's so much better! It's easier on us too =) On a different note, Castellón has no bus or metro...we walked a lot more than I was used to in the heat...that wasn't fun. It was fun to get to know the other Elders in Castellón though!
Anyways where was I? Oh yeah, we had Angelica and her elderly mother, a referral received from the Hna's of our ward. She is from Ecuador. She has a fecha for the 20th! We'll see how that goes. Also, a new inv. that our romanian member invited. He is from a country in africa where they speak french. He speaks a little spanish but that's about it. He also has no home, and is living in the park. I don't know how our romanian friend who barely speaks spanish himself met and invited this guy to church, but he was there! Also, our inv. Peter from Nigeria brought one of his friends, David. Nicu didn't make it, we have to see what is up with that. He has been progressing a lot lately. We did give a blessing to him. His sister ended up not wanting one at the moment. He likes reading the scriptures, he says he almost cries whenever he reads, and he asked us why. Dude, we taught you about the Spirit last week, remember? Well, that's Him!
Today we went out and visited an old monestary. Out in Simat de Valldigna. There weren't any nuns or monks there anymore...they're kind of a dying breed. Nobody is joining their ranks anymore...at least the Church of Jesus Christ keeps growing! It was neat, after we went on a winding canyon road that made me think of Utah.
Also, on Saturday, there was a conference for priesthood holders where we listened to the stake leaders and our bishop. They gave inspiring counsels and I always love listening to their heartfelt and inspired testimonies and the examples of the lives that they live.
Well, that's about all my news for the week! Thanks for all of your prayers! I have been reading a little bit of that book you sent, I really like it.
It's interesting to see how we often categorize the gospel apart from our lives, and subcategorize the different programs in the church. Really, it should be our life and it should be simple. Sharing the gospel is as simple as living it. It is so great to have the opportunity to teach and see the changes in people's lives. I know that the Holy Ghost works with the hearts of people to bring them unto Christ. Whenever we teach, we feel the Holy Ghost because we are in the mindset of receiving Him. Why not always be in this mindset? That is the key to having the Holy Ghost as our constant companion. We simply need to be inviting Him with our thoughts, our actions, and by being worthy. And praying of course =) With the Holy Ghost as your companion, you are essentially "walking with God" and all things will be for your benefit. We learn more, we grow more, we become something more. Keep seeking the Holy Ghost in your life, and you can't go wrong!
I love you all, keep being great!
Another cool miracle, we had 7 investigators in church this week!! A romanian, Christian, and his wife that our romanian member invited, they are progressing pretty well actually. We actually found them after church last week, and Elder Schindler taught them during the week while I was on an intercambio up in Castellón Tues-afternoon to Thursday morning. (Side note about the intercambio: It was fun. I went up with our District Leader, Elder Farah. They had practically no visits, and the ones they had dropped our visits, so we pretty much knocked doors the whole time. Like 200. And guess what I learned! There's a better way. President Hinckley wasn't lying. We had no "visible success". Maybe someone will call in 5 years or something. But yeah, I realized after doing that I thought back to the broadcast, and it made us think that the Apostles don't really want us knocking doors if we can avoid it. Hence the new technology finding coming soon! Maybe ten or even 5 years ago, the world was a much different place. Today, especially here in Spain, the last thing people want is two younglings knocking on their door to teach them about Jesus. Hence, there's a better way! Members!! Woohoo! Plus, they already have some background on us if they have a member friend, they are more willing to listen to us, whether out of interest, or just to listen for their friend who asked them too, and then after they feel something. And they have a support system/teacher. And many more reasons why it's so much better! It's easier on us too =) On a different note, Castellón has no bus or metro...we walked a lot more than I was used to in the heat...that wasn't fun. It was fun to get to know the other Elders in Castellón though!
Anyways where was I? Oh yeah, we had Angelica and her elderly mother, a referral received from the Hna's of our ward. She is from Ecuador. She has a fecha for the 20th! We'll see how that goes. Also, a new inv. that our romanian member invited. He is from a country in africa where they speak french. He speaks a little spanish but that's about it. He also has no home, and is living in the park. I don't know how our romanian friend who barely speaks spanish himself met and invited this guy to church, but he was there! Also, our inv. Peter from Nigeria brought one of his friends, David. Nicu didn't make it, we have to see what is up with that. He has been progressing a lot lately. We did give a blessing to him. His sister ended up not wanting one at the moment. He likes reading the scriptures, he says he almost cries whenever he reads, and he asked us why. Dude, we taught you about the Spirit last week, remember? Well, that's Him!
Today we went out and visited an old monestary. Out in Simat de Valldigna. There weren't any nuns or monks there anymore...they're kind of a dying breed. Nobody is joining their ranks anymore...at least the Church of Jesus Christ keeps growing! It was neat, after we went on a winding canyon road that made me think of Utah.
Also, on Saturday, there was a conference for priesthood holders where we listened to the stake leaders and our bishop. They gave inspiring counsels and I always love listening to their heartfelt and inspired testimonies and the examples of the lives that they live.
Well, that's about all my news for the week! Thanks for all of your prayers! I have been reading a little bit of that book you sent, I really like it.
It's interesting to see how we often categorize the gospel apart from our lives, and subcategorize the different programs in the church. Really, it should be our life and it should be simple. Sharing the gospel is as simple as living it. It is so great to have the opportunity to teach and see the changes in people's lives. I know that the Holy Ghost works with the hearts of people to bring them unto Christ. Whenever we teach, we feel the Holy Ghost because we are in the mindset of receiving Him. Why not always be in this mindset? That is the key to having the Holy Ghost as our constant companion. We simply need to be inviting Him with our thoughts, our actions, and by being worthy. And praying of course =) With the Holy Ghost as your companion, you are essentially "walking with God" and all things will be for your benefit. We learn more, we grow more, we become something more. Keep seeking the Holy Ghost in your life, and you can't go wrong!
I love you all, keep being great!Wednesday, June 26, 2013
June Updates!
Hola queridos afeccionados de mí! 11 de Juno 2013
This has been a good week. First off for the news, I am staying here in Valencia with Elder Schindler! Not much changes with us, but they've opened two new areas in our zone, and almost every companionship is either training or will begin this transfer. Us, the zone leaders, and the other 3rd ward elders that live with them are the only ones not training right now, but I think our turn comes in September with the tidal wave of new ones. Elder Pérez in our piso will be training, he's excited and we're excited for him. These last two transfers were a rough companionship for him, for the piso as well. His companion that left is a different kind of unique...from what I've heard he's had quite a few different companions and areas if you know what I mean. Hopefully he likes the new one. Elder Pérez will be a great trainer. He's hoping to get an American so he can practice his english more! (We've been teaching and helping him these last couple months ).
That's super funny how Grandpa ran across one of the missionaries I knew in Ogden! And that they still remember me! Also that they were able to contact some old friends from the mission! That is so neat! I hope I can do that someday with someone here in Spain...hooray for technology!
Oh, and just a random thing. It's starting to get super hot in Valencia...maybe all those people weren't overexaggerating after all! Pero he aquí, tenemos aire condicional en nuestro piso!! ¡Qué bendición! Working during the day is a little more discouraging then the usual woes though haha. At least everyone offers us water in all the visits! I think it's just the super humidity though, because in the pueblos further in it's not so bad.
17 de Juno
Hola qué tál a todos! How goes things on the stateside front? First off, happy late fathers day! They celebrated it a while back in Spain, if they even celebrated it all haha. Here everybody is a father and yet not at the same time if you know what I mean haha so they don't really celebrate a fathers day as big as there.
So, this last week we had Zone Conference. It was really good. I always love any opportunity to listen to Pres and Sis Pace, and the ayudantes are just fantastic as well. The zone and district leaders gave a good little message too. The zone leaders kind of cheated because they used a clip of an Elder Holland MTC talk, but they still gave a good tie in/application They talked a lot about following the Spirit, using personal study time, and using love to cast out fear. It was all really good and super inspiring.
There were a couple of good miracles we saw. The first one: We were teaching the Plan of Salvation to a family. The husband is receptive and always animated, but doesn't talk much during the lessons. The wife is a little more questioning, and always has a question or few =) We were going along, teaching and answering questions, and it was going fine but with a few bumps. As we were teaching about the Atonement she asked us about what it is like for us to share the word, to be rejected a lot (ever since we met her she has been really interested in what we do as missionaries and why we do it). As we talked about how even though it is difficult to be rejected, we have our testimonies and that doesn't change anything about why we are here. We shared about how even though Joseph Smith was persecuted, he was faithful. We talked about how the path of discipleship is never easy. As we started to talk she had a change in countenance, but neither of us thought much about it. As we finished she told us about how she felt something, like a deep guilt or that she had been contributing to some of our opposition, but then as we talked about the Atonement she said about how she felt a change, and felt calm and peaceful and interested in our message. From there she told us a few stories that had come back to her memory about some experiences in her past. It was neat to see how the Spirit works with each of our investigators in unique and different ways tailored to them!
Another story. We were on the bus, standing in the aisle. A lady sitting in one of the chairs pointed to us and said something. We thought she was pointing to something on the wall or behind us at first, but after a little realized she was pointing at my agenda. I had put one of the Faith in Christ pass along cards to the back of my agenda so that Christ's face would appear above my chapa. She said the picture caught her attention, and that when she saw us she felt something special, different. After talking with her for a little bit she told me that she always sees the youth of today running around obnoxiously or doing things that she doesn't like, but she sure noticed and felt a difference with us! I left here with one of our cards with Christ on it and invited her to church or to call us. We hope and pray that she will have the desires to come or to call us!
So yeah, that's our week! Elder Pérez's new companion is Elder Shelley, from Salt Lake City area. He's really funny and a neat guy. It makes me smile to see how I probably used to struggle with the language like all of these new missionaries haha. They will catch on though. They all have their firey spirits and faith! Well, have a fantastic week!
24 de juno
We've been trying to contact more, which has been good. We have talked with a lot of people and placed a ton of Book of Mormons to people. Funny story though, a member actually found one on a bus stop bench after the activity on Saturday. We know exactly who left it there too, that punk. Oh well,we did our part! Hopefully nobody else ditched their free books.
So I mentioned an activity. We did a Puertas Abiertas(Open house) activity of our church building and invited tons of people to pass by and walk through, and they had little posters and people to talk about the various organizations and beliefs of the church. It was really neat,and everyone who walked through seemed to like it. The members liked being a part and walking through the streets and getting a little taste of what we do as missionaries! And getting rejected too...builds Christlike character!
Tell everybody thanks for the birthday wishes! I'll let you know how it rolls over I guess. First one away from home! I think I heard dad say once after a while they just start to blow by like another day. I guess once the numbers get big they're harder to keep track of and less significant,because they don't bring any changes like the younglings' do. But now I can say I've lived a score of years though!
Well, I'm not a man of many words and it appears I've run dry. Have a great week, keep working hard, thanks for the prayers and wishes! May the Lord bless those who have blessed me! Hasta la proxima.
This has been a good week. First off for the news, I am staying here in Valencia with Elder Schindler! Not much changes with us, but they've opened two new areas in our zone, and almost every companionship is either training or will begin this transfer. Us, the zone leaders, and the other 3rd ward elders that live with them are the only ones not training right now, but I think our turn comes in September with the tidal wave of new ones. Elder Pérez in our piso will be training, he's excited and we're excited for him. These last two transfers were a rough companionship for him, for the piso as well. His companion that left is a different kind of unique...from what I've heard he's had quite a few different companions and areas if you know what I mean. Hopefully he likes the new one. Elder Pérez will be a great trainer. He's hoping to get an American so he can practice his english more! (We've been teaching and helping him these last couple months ).
That's super funny how Grandpa ran across one of the missionaries I knew in Ogden! And that they still remember me! Also that they were able to contact some old friends from the mission! That is so neat! I hope I can do that someday with someone here in Spain...hooray for technology!
Oh, and just a random thing. It's starting to get super hot in Valencia...maybe all those people weren't overexaggerating after all! Pero he aquí, tenemos aire condicional en nuestro piso!! ¡Qué bendición! Working during the day is a little more discouraging then the usual woes though haha. At least everyone offers us water in all the visits! I think it's just the super humidity though, because in the pueblos further in it's not so bad.
17 de Juno
Hola qué tál a todos! How goes things on the stateside front? First off, happy late fathers day! They celebrated it a while back in Spain, if they even celebrated it all haha. Here everybody is a father and yet not at the same time if you know what I mean haha so they don't really celebrate a fathers day as big as there.
So, this last week we had Zone Conference. It was really good. I always love any opportunity to listen to Pres and Sis Pace, and the ayudantes are just fantastic as well. The zone and district leaders gave a good little message too. The zone leaders kind of cheated because they used a clip of an Elder Holland MTC talk, but they still gave a good tie in/application They talked a lot about following the Spirit, using personal study time, and using love to cast out fear. It was all really good and super inspiring.
There were a couple of good miracles we saw. The first one: We were teaching the Plan of Salvation to a family. The husband is receptive and always animated, but doesn't talk much during the lessons. The wife is a little more questioning, and always has a question or few =) We were going along, teaching and answering questions, and it was going fine but with a few bumps. As we were teaching about the Atonement she asked us about what it is like for us to share the word, to be rejected a lot (ever since we met her she has been really interested in what we do as missionaries and why we do it). As we talked about how even though it is difficult to be rejected, we have our testimonies and that doesn't change anything about why we are here. We shared about how even though Joseph Smith was persecuted, he was faithful. We talked about how the path of discipleship is never easy. As we started to talk she had a change in countenance, but neither of us thought much about it. As we finished she told us about how she felt something, like a deep guilt or that she had been contributing to some of our opposition, but then as we talked about the Atonement she said about how she felt a change, and felt calm and peaceful and interested in our message. From there she told us a few stories that had come back to her memory about some experiences in her past. It was neat to see how the Spirit works with each of our investigators in unique and different ways tailored to them!
Another story. We were on the bus, standing in the aisle. A lady sitting in one of the chairs pointed to us and said something. We thought she was pointing to something on the wall or behind us at first, but after a little realized she was pointing at my agenda. I had put one of the Faith in Christ pass along cards to the back of my agenda so that Christ's face would appear above my chapa. She said the picture caught her attention, and that when she saw us she felt something special, different. After talking with her for a little bit she told me that she always sees the youth of today running around obnoxiously or doing things that she doesn't like, but she sure noticed and felt a difference with us! I left here with one of our cards with Christ on it and invited her to church or to call us. We hope and pray that she will have the desires to come or to call us!
So yeah, that's our week! Elder Pérez's new companion is Elder Shelley, from Salt Lake City area. He's really funny and a neat guy. It makes me smile to see how I probably used to struggle with the language like all of these new missionaries haha. They will catch on though. They all have their firey spirits and faith! Well, have a fantastic week!
24 de juno
We've been trying to contact more, which has been good. We have talked with a lot of people and placed a ton of Book of Mormons to people. Funny story though, a member actually found one on a bus stop bench after the activity on Saturday. We know exactly who left it there too, that punk. Oh well,we did our part! Hopefully nobody else ditched their free books.
So I mentioned an activity. We did a Puertas Abiertas(Open house) activity of our church building and invited tons of people to pass by and walk through, and they had little posters and people to talk about the various organizations and beliefs of the church. It was really neat,and everyone who walked through seemed to like it. The members liked being a part and walking through the streets and getting a little taste of what we do as missionaries! And getting rejected too...builds Christlike character!
Tell everybody thanks for the birthday wishes! I'll let you know how it rolls over I guess. First one away from home! I think I heard dad say once after a while they just start to blow by like another day. I guess once the numbers get big they're harder to keep track of and less significant,because they don't bring any changes like the younglings' do. But now I can say I've lived a score of years though!
Well, I'm not a man of many words and it appears I've run dry. Have a great week, keep working hard, thanks for the prayers and wishes! May the Lord bless those who have blessed me! Hasta la proxima.
Thursday, June 6, 2013
IIIIIttt's preparation day!
So, we ended up changing our preparation day to Tuesday today at the last minute so that we could go see an awesome castle in a pueblo called Xativa for the last prep. day of Elder Tirado who goes home next week. Transfers are next week so I'll probably be writing on Tuesday again. I'm sending a few of the tons of pictures I took! It was really neat. Also, I attached some pictures of recent baptisms! Caroline's was this last Friday. It was super good, and we had Akim, one of the great African members in our ward, baptize her. The service had lots of unexpected stresses to prepare, but now we all have testimonies that God answers prayers and helps us! Also, Istoken and Michael did get baptized in May. I attached their pictures too. Their baptism was so great! One of the most spiritual experiences/baptismal services I have had in the mission. Everyone comments to us about how solid and great all of our converts are, which is a good sign!
I feel like everyone can always improve their faith in some way, me too especially! This week in an eating visit a member told us about an Elder that was here a few years back that she was just so inspired by. She said that he had a spirit about him that she was just so sure was that of the Saviors and she always left edified from his presence. She always commented about how he always had halos in pictures, idk about that one though, because we never actually got to see a photo...I was really inspired by that though, that we can really be a representative of Jesus Christ up to the point that people feel they are in the very presence of something holy. It really inspired me to try to be that kind of missionary and to fulfill our purpose. Obviously there is a lot of things I need to improve in, repent, and diligence on my part, but I was really inspired to try to become something greater.
This last weekend we had Stake Conference here in Valencia. We held it in La Palacía de los Congresos, a big fancy shmancy building so that we could fit the whole stake with Valencia, Gandia, Catarroja, and Castellón. Saturday evening was a really good session, and the sunday general session as well. We sang in the choir to help out the lack of men, I think by the end of our missions we'll all be pro singers! I love it though, especially the Spirit we feel and how much the members love to hear it too. President and Sister Pace came down for it too, and as usual gave downright amazing testimonies and messages. The members love to hear from them, and as missionaries we always just get so inspired and animated by them! I always feel a special spirit around them. We also had the amazing blessing to hear from two Seventies! One was a quieter guy who spoke about doctrines, used lots of scriptures, and a few deep doctrine topics, so a lot of people said he was kind of boring but you know me, I loved it! The other one, Elder Reina, was just great. He always had everyone laughing, but what he said also taught some amazing spiritual lesson, so as people remembered what he said because it made them laugh, it teaches a principle that they can apply and improve in. Everyone loved him the most. He is from the Canary Islands though, and had an accent that us gringos had to focus in on a little harder, and Elder Perez (from Chile) couldn't tell me half of the words I asked him about haha. It was super great though. They spoke a lot on inviting others and rescuing the lost, tithing (again I know! It must be an important principle or something...maybe that is the answer to the crisis in Spain! He mentioned that blessings of tithing not only bless the tither, but the nation he lives in too, that was kind of neat) and about being more diligent in our personal discipleship. One of the funny things he said: (using an imaginary situation, in a whiny voice) "Pues, mis maestros orientadores no vienen a visitarme." E. Reina: "Y mi qué? ¡Vete y vistar alguien y rescatarles! Eso solo es dos más horas que tenéis para la obra misional!" (Well, my home teachers never come to visit me." "And me what? Go and visit someone else and rescue them! That's just two more hours you have to do misionary work!" We have already been rescued, we're in the fold already! Go and bring someone else! He also talked about an acronymn, JOY (Jesus, others, yourself/Jesús, otros, yo). When it is in order, you have plenty of joy! When it's the other way around, you've got something wrong haha. He also had an interesting diagram about families being the basic unit of everything, and I wish I could explain it to you but it's kind of hard without drawing it as you explain it... All in all with lots of other great stuff it was a great conference! The Stake Presidency here in Valencia is just one of the best. They always give such inspiring testimonies and just seem to be some of the strongest members the Church has to show!
Hope all continues to go well and that you see that life is full of blessings!
I feel like everyone can always improve their faith in some way, me too especially! This week in an eating visit a member told us about an Elder that was here a few years back that she was just so inspired by. She said that he had a spirit about him that she was just so sure was that of the Saviors and she always left edified from his presence. She always commented about how he always had halos in pictures, idk about that one though, because we never actually got to see a photo...I was really inspired by that though, that we can really be a representative of Jesus Christ up to the point that people feel they are in the very presence of something holy. It really inspired me to try to be that kind of missionary and to fulfill our purpose. Obviously there is a lot of things I need to improve in, repent, and diligence on my part, but I was really inspired to try to become something greater.
This last weekend we had Stake Conference here in Valencia. We held it in La Palacía de los Congresos, a big fancy shmancy building so that we could fit the whole stake with Valencia, Gandia, Catarroja, and Castellón. Saturday evening was a really good session, and the sunday general session as well. We sang in the choir to help out the lack of men, I think by the end of our missions we'll all be pro singers! I love it though, especially the Spirit we feel and how much the members love to hear it too. President and Sister Pace came down for it too, and as usual gave downright amazing testimonies and messages. The members love to hear from them, and as missionaries we always just get so inspired and animated by them! I always feel a special spirit around them. We also had the amazing blessing to hear from two Seventies! One was a quieter guy who spoke about doctrines, used lots of scriptures, and a few deep doctrine topics, so a lot of people said he was kind of boring but you know me, I loved it! The other one, Elder Reina, was just great. He always had everyone laughing, but what he said also taught some amazing spiritual lesson, so as people remembered what he said because it made them laugh, it teaches a principle that they can apply and improve in. Everyone loved him the most. He is from the Canary Islands though, and had an accent that us gringos had to focus in on a little harder, and Elder Perez (from Chile) couldn't tell me half of the words I asked him about haha. It was super great though. They spoke a lot on inviting others and rescuing the lost, tithing (again I know! It must be an important principle or something...maybe that is the answer to the crisis in Spain! He mentioned that blessings of tithing not only bless the tither, but the nation he lives in too, that was kind of neat) and about being more diligent in our personal discipleship. One of the funny things he said: (using an imaginary situation, in a whiny voice) "Pues, mis maestros orientadores no vienen a visitarme." E. Reina: "Y mi qué? ¡Vete y vistar alguien y rescatarles! Eso solo es dos más horas que tenéis para la obra misional!" (Well, my home teachers never come to visit me." "And me what? Go and visit someone else and rescue them! That's just two more hours you have to do misionary work!" We have already been rescued, we're in the fold already! Go and bring someone else! He also talked about an acronymn, JOY (Jesus, others, yourself/Jesús, otros, yo). When it is in order, you have plenty of joy! When it's the other way around, you've got something wrong haha. He also had an interesting diagram about families being the basic unit of everything, and I wish I could explain it to you but it's kind of hard without drawing it as you explain it... All in all with lots of other great stuff it was a great conference! The Stake Presidency here in Valencia is just one of the best. They always give such inspiring testimonies and just seem to be some of the strongest members the Church has to show!
Hope all continues to go well and that you see that life is full of blessings!
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