31 de Octubre --Release the superhero/perfect missionary inside of you!

Hola! ¿Qué tál las cosas por allá? Well, I guess you already have told me how things are over there, so I guess it's my turn =) I just get into a habit of starting everything with that... Anyways. It has been kind of a long week here.
    We've had a few visits with some new investigators and people which have turned out well, and others we'll see where they go... Our fecha Antonio lost his fecha because he didn't come to church, and we also don't feel he is ready. Well, we know he isn't. We taught the 10 commandments, and he accepts it all in word, but won't commit to living them if the temptation comes along (specifically for the law of chastity) and we have also taught the word of wisdom. He said he will try to quit smoking, but the other things he likes and doesn't want to completely give up. And he hasn't been praying or reading. So we are helping him to see the importance and really just to feel the Spirit. It is really interesting to see the difference between investigators--some are knowledgeable, almost bible-bashing (a new Dominican that came to English class and stayed for institute, and we had a visit later in the week with him...He's one of those guys who knows like a billion history facts and what happened with people (supposedly) and sometimes make you question if what you are teaching him really makes sense (but then you think about it...our message is the only thing that really makes sense in the big picture, eternal perspective, and in general common sense and just looking at where the church is today, so then we just teach more simply and boldy!) and have doubts about authority, or some like Antonio have little experience with God or scriptures. Their needs are vastly different of course.

   As far as things in Menorca go, we are trying to figure out what we need to do and focus on. There are days when we have lots of visits and we see progress in people, and others when we are walking uphill streets all day and seeing no progress. We've talked about it a lot between us and we both sense a great feeling of apathy and lightmindedness when it comes to spiritual things and God. Satan has gotten great hold upon the hearts of many here, which makes us sad. Commandments are a difficult struggle for people, especially the law of chastity and tithing. People just don't see or feel the importance of us or our message it seems. This morning we dedicated our companionship study to finding solutions in the scriptures. We took up Pres Packers promise from Conference-- open up to any page of scripture and start reading--Answers will come. We ended up opening to Hebrews 12, Ether 4, and D&C 58, all of which directly answered the questions we included in our prayer to start our study, and the surrounding chapters (Heb. 11/13, Ether 3/5, etc.) also offered perfect insights. Now we have a more clear path! It talked about faith, running with patience and throwing off deadweights, looking unto Christ, lifting up the hand and feeble needs of others, not trading our eternal birthright for a piece of meat, "marriage is honorable", Obedience and repentance, the role of the Spirit, good things coming of God, rending the veil of unbelief, baptism, book of mormon, learning God's will, Lord's promises, humility, prayers of faith, etc. So basically lots of stuff for investigators and less actives, and lots of stuff for us! We've been giving out lots of Book of Mormon copies, so hopefully fruit comes out of that soon.

  I'm grateful for time I've had with Elder Alder so far. We both feel that although we don't know too many other missionaries, there's not many others we would rather have as a companion while we are here. We were talking the other day, we both would feel fine if we had to go home and tell people we served on a tourist island and although we didn't have tons of huge miracles or baptisms etc. we feel satisfied with our efforts and work and feel that the Lord would have us here at this time and that we are doing the right things. 

   As a dumb side note, more for my friends who saw the Avengers movie, we made some dumb analogy for how the Avengers team together demonstrate an effective missionary! This is where my email title applies =)

Ironman: effective studies, new strategies

Hulk: Self mastery, getting things done.

Halkeye: Precision hitting the weakness/putting messages into hearts of peope

Captain America: Integrity, honesty, and obedience

Black Widow: Inspired questions

Thor: Power and authority of our calling/teaching with...

Other heros: 

Batman: Submitting your will to a greater cause, sacrifice

Superman: Obedience, avoidance of evil (kryptonite=sin!)

Spiderman: Spidersense=in tune with the Spirit

Wolverine: Endure to the end!

 I would encourage everybody to go back and read President Packer's talk, "The Key to Spiritual Protection". His message has great importance and application to our world today, whether it be in Spain, the United States, or anywhere else. The scriptures really are the key to our spiritual health, our ability to discern between what is right and of God, and what is wrong and of the devil or a precept of men. We must study the scriptures every day to know what God's will for us that day is: what we should focus on, His answers to our prayers, and something we can share or apply in helping someone else throughout our day. One of the main things missing in almost all, if not all, of the less actives lives here in my mission and in the lives of many people we talk with is that they simply do not read, let alone study, the scriptures daily, especially the Book of Mormon. The principles, teachings, and commandments contained in the Scriptures are the only way to find true, complete, and lasting happiness and peace. I testify that the scriptures are the words of God written for us, in our day, and will guide us in a strait and narrow course to the promised land God has prepared for us. (See Helaman 3:29 and Alma 37) This important commandment (John 5:29/ D&C 18:1-5) cannot be taken for granted .They are the key to our spiritual protection and growth.

 

From Elder Oaks:

“Let us have the courage to defy the consensus, the courage to stand for principle. Courage, not compromise, brings the smile of God’s approval. Courage becomes a living and an attractive virtue when it is regarded not only as a willingness to die manfully, but as the determination to live decently. A moral coward is one who is afraid to do what he thinks is right because others will disapprove or laugh. Remember that all men have their fears, but those who face their fears with dignity have courage as well.”

  That's about all I have. Hope you have a great week! Keep being such wonderful examples and followers of Christ =) ¡Qué Dios os bendiga!

 

14 de octubre de 2013

Bon dia a tots, ¿com va? It has been a great week here for us. First off though, transfer news! *Drum roll* I'm going to Menorca! I'll be with Elder Alder. In other words, nothing happened =) We didn't even realize it was transfers haha. We got called Saturday night, and they were like, "Hey, so I've got transfer news" and I was like "What transfer news? Oh, that transfer news!" And we're both staying. Actually, our whole zone pretty much stayed the same except for Elder Bozarth, who's going to Hospitalet, and an Elder in Mallorca. So yeah, we're pretty excited to have another transfer together! Especially now that we are starting to tear up Menorca a little bit =)

 I have been relistening to General Conference and we have been sharing talks with the members in our lessons, and we have seen miracles and softening of hearts! I love General Conference. It is amazing to see the Lord work in people, and to work through us to do it! General Conference nailed every doubt/excuse/problem/situation that we have here in Menorca, so that is great. Like all of the Sundy talks are just perfect for rebuking less actives with love and the Spirit, and the words of the living prophets (that scripture about the word of God being sharper than a two-edged sword...yeah, it's true  And the guilty do take the truth to be hard, because it cuts them to the center! See 1 Nephi 16:27/2 Nephi 9:30 something). It has been a good system for us to start with a prayer, read a couple related scriptures, have a little discussion/bear testimony to invite the Spirit, then show the conference talk, then bear testimony again.

  We have been thinking between how we can help some of these people who it seems we have been working with for forever now, thinking if we should kind of leave them or keep working with them. We came to the conclusion that we were going to start sharing bold, powerful messages and basically give some of them the sink or swim, fly or die concept. And it's kind of worked! We shared an excellent message with Percy and Yamile, based off of 2 Nephi 2:27/Alma 34:31-34ish and then talking about repentance, coming to the Savior, and how today is the day of our salvation, and immediatly the great plan of redemption can be brought about in us. We don't have to wait for some future day! Then we showed President Eyring's sunday talk to them. The Spirit was strong, and they both felt the power of the message. Percy is reading in the Book of Mormon, almost done with 1 Nephi now, and it seems to be going great.

7 de Octubre

General Conference was really great. I had brought a paper with some 6 or so questions, and every one was answered in just about every talk haha. Then after taking all of my notes I colored and highlighted
answers/points by colors as I reviewed my notes. It was really neat to see how this process has consistenly worked for me! It is so true..write down questions on a paper, take notes, y che! Ya lo tiene.
It was a little sad though, we had invited like 15 people who said they would definitely be there, some just 30 min before it started we saw them in the street and reminded, and they didn't show... it ended
up being us, President with his family, and Carmen and Francisco, who enjoyed it a lot =) We are probably going to print out a few talks for people to read, because this conference was just pinned on the head to
all of what Menorca needs right now! I heard them address almost every single excuse, problem, or doubt that we see and hear every day. The Saturday morning and Saturday afternoon (which we watched sunday
morning) we watched in Spanish, which for me is pretty much the same as far as understanding, but much less in spiritual power...hearing the real voice is so much better, and native tongue of course.
Everyone went home after that, and Elder Alder and I watched the Priesthood session and sunday morning in English. We still have to watch the sunday afternoon, which I'm downloading today to listen to.
I think the Priesthood session was my favorite or the Sunday morning, but all the talks were great. I really enjoyed President's Uchtdorf's talks, they were just magnificent. I liked Richard Maynes talk too,
about building spiritual stamina. Elder Oaks was just super bold. I love it =) I really enjoyed Pres Monson's sheep herder analogy too.  I was inspired by the way that Elder Alder takes notes and learns effectively from the Conference, from PMG, scriptures, etc. and is a very organized student =)

Oh, one funny thing I guess. After conference, we were talking with President Bladimir. He suggested that we start visiting a few pueblos on the other side of the island to see if the antiguos or menos activos there would be interested, because things are going a little slow on this half. We just kind of joked, “let's just pack up our bags and start anew in Ciutadella! If all the hundred less actives here don't want to go, we'll just go to the other end closer to the members who do come! (President lives in Ferreries and Francisco in Es Migjorn).” But there might be a grain of truth to that. We should just start telling people, look if you don't want to come to church, we're out of here and then you can drive an hour to get to church when you
change your mind and want the blessings of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, then maybe they will come =)

 Well, thank you for all of your prayers...they work! ¡Que todo siga bien!

30 de Sept Updates

Sept 30th  
   Hola! Haha this time we are writing in the morning, so you can have it by 7:00 am! I too can hardly believe that September flew right on by. It feels like it just started! We're already halfway through the transfer and it felt like we just started. Time is just a weird thing I guess.Hopefully I didn't forget anybody in my growing list of people haha. And hopefully you have time to read all of my rambling =)

       So, this week for us. We didn't have much time from Thursday to the end basically, because of all of our traveling and the District Conference for the Islas Baleares, but those probably helped me more than earlier in the week =) We did a lot of finding activities too, so key indicators weren't as high but we feel satisfied with our efforts this week.  Lots of door knocking, street contacting and being rejected =)

      First off, I loved the opportunity we had to work with President Pace this past week. We were in companion study at 10:45ish when President calls us. He said he had just got in, and asked if we would like that he come out with us, or that he not bother us and read letters. We said “Of course you can come!” We both learned a lot from his example, and saw great things with his faith and his influence here, especially with some of the people! We had lots of fun. It was one of those experiences where you hear about it from other missionaries but don't think you'd think to ever experience often! We had various contacts where President just did a perfect job. We ended up finding like 5 new people haha. Our visits cancelled on us so he had a lot of time to walk him around Mahón. When we had nothing to do we went to go visit an antiguo investigator, and another investigator of ours answered their door! We had lost contact with him because he moved and never answers his phone, but then there he was! We were teaching him a message when the antiguos, his sister and her husband, got home and we taught them too! Then they invited us to stay for lunch =) President was there for a visit with Fran too, and it was really powerful, and helped him a lot. Then President met with Steve around 3 and we went back to prepare for our flight. We invited Fran to the District Conference Saturday, and he came to the adult session, which was nice. He said he would make it to church, but he never did...

      Zone Conference was a wonderful experience. I loved the Spirit that I felt throughout the day. I always love learning more about the Book of Mormon and I want to start using it more powerfully in my efforts. I loved the discussion on testimony and felt that mine has grown. I was impressed by the new way of planning that Hna Pace introduced and I have already see how much it will help me. It resolves problems I have had with keeping track of everybody! We also have a great zone and it was nice to be edified by each other.

      This past week I have been studying and memorizing various quotes, scriptures, and the Articles of Faith in Spanish. The goal came from rereading a talk by Elder Scott about scripture study and he encouraged the saints to memorize scriptures to be a friend in time of need and to become a powerful instrument in the hands of the Lord. It has been a large resource for me in my work and in my life. I have seen this promise come true and already have had numerous opportunities to use them =)

      I was impressed with our District Conference, about President and Hna Pace's teachings on the Book of Mormon, working towards our goal of becoming a Stake, and the testimonies shared. There truly have been miracles in the islands!

      I love working with Elder Alder. He is a true Preach My Gospel missionary and loves to study from it. He works hard, we have fun, and we work well together. We both have similar goals to work towards, and yet at the same time have strengths to help the other to make a "complete" companionship.

       So, spiritual message/thought of the week. Our Book of Mormon reading is coming along just wonderfully—except that I’m falling behind. There’s just too many Christlike attributes and things to mark! I really loved the Words of Mormon this last week though.  I was impressed about how he was writing as he witnessed the destruction of his entire people, not just their general apostasy, or contentions, or laziness. Pretty fuerte. I guess compared to that teaching a once believing but generally atheist community who want little or nothing to do with God or people who have fallen away by laziness is the high way haha. That, and we still see miracles and progression here, whereas Mormon knew that this would be the end. And he just had to leave his set of records which he had been working so hard with in the ground, or rather to his son who would leave them in the ground and hope that they wouldn’t be found and destroyed. But like he says: “And I, Mormon, pray to God that they may be preserved from this time henceforth. And I know that they will be preserved; for there are great things written upon them, out of which my people and their brethren shall be judged at the great and last day, according to the word of God which is written.” He chose the things which he was impressed that we would need:

“5 Wherefore, I chose these things, to finish my record upon them, which remainder of my record I shall take from the plates of Nephi; and I cannot write the hundredth part of the things of my people.

 6 But behold, I shall take these plates, which contain these prophesyings and revelations, and put them with the remainder of my record, for they are choice unto me; and I know they will be choice unto my brethren.

 7 And I do this for a wise purpose; for thus it whispereth me, according to the workings of the Spirit of the Lord which is in me. And now, I do not know all things; but the Lord knoweth all things which are to come; wherefore, he worketh in me to do according to his will.”

I was really inspired by how King Benjamin, with the prophets, were able with “all the might of their bodies and faculties of their whole souls” and by preaching the word of God with power and authority, using much sharpness because of their stiffneckedness, were able to permanently establish peace again in the land and drive out their enemies and the false prophets. I guess in a nutshell, with the work of the community to change the culture, word of God which leads to a permanent change of behavior and characteristics, and with lots of hard, diligent efforts, peace and righteousness were established. And that leads into King Benjamin’s amazing discourse and gives us (the reader) greater understanding as to the character and background of King Benjamin, which is why I think Mormon commented on him. We had a little “fun” I guess you could say by “using much sharpness” in teaching the Law of Chastity to Percy and his partner. It went pretty well, as the Spirit and strength of the Lord backed us up, but they even said it was pretty direct and fuerte. Good, just what we wanted =) And they still accept us back. So that is my goal, I am going to become a more bold missionary and use my understanding of the scriptures to expound hard and clear doctrine to investigators and members, with love of course =)


For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, cut the Spirit of God.
Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Cor 2:11-14)

I also have been reading the CES devotional talks by Elder Oaks and Pres Uchtdorf, and the talk Absolute Truth, by Pres Kimball. All excellent talks. That false doctrine SATURATES this country haha. Relative this, depends on that, etc. and estoy hasta las narices con eso jaja. So I've started to memorize a few of their analogies and quotes to teach more effectively. It is true, there is absolute truth, whether people believe it or not. 10 times out of 10 we've seen that it's obvious these people are less active because they stopped studying not just reading the scriptures, especially the Book of Mormon, they've not prayed sincerely in who knows how long, and they haven't been to Church to renew that Spirit in a while either. The basics are key. The door closes every day and we need to re open it. Satan tries to get you to throw the key away, ignore it, lose it, have someone steal it, whatever it takes so that you don't open and walk through that door. I've also been prone to feel similar to these scriptures in Helaman 12:
4 O how foolish, and how vain, and how evil, and devilish, and how quick to do iniquity, and how slow to do good, are the children of men; yea, how quick to hearken unto the words of the evil one, and to set their hearts upon the vain things of the world!
5 Yea, how quick to be lifted up in pride; yea, how quick to boast, and do all manner of that which is iniquity; and how slow are they to remember the Lord their God, and to give ear unto his counsels, yea, how slow to walk in wisdom’s paths!
6 Behold, they do not desire that the Lord their God, who hath created them, should rule and reign over them; notwithstanding his great goodness and his mercy towards them, they do set at naught his counsels, and they will not that he should be their guide.

Well, that's about it. This week we are starting English classes, being more exhorting in regards to teaching our menos activo men, and searching for families!! Some of these Menos activos we are going to bother until they either ask to leave the church or ignore us consistently haha, maybe then they will come to church! Yesterday was Carmen, Fransisco, Nicole Nuñez, and a miracle that her mom came. Basically only to rant about problems she has with the in-laws haha. But oh well...I did better at piano this week since we practiced a little. Except for the surprise change to the opening hymn he through out without even realizing it until we told him after haha. Good thing I've had lots of sight reading experience!
  We are having a blast and working hard in a spirit of obedience =) Elder Alder is a super fun guy. We are doing great. We're more and more like each other as we get to know each other more haha. Well, thanks for all of your prayers, keep them coming! We need Priesthood here. We just keep trying to the work in the Lord's way and time I guess.

2 de Sept. Updates

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.

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!

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!

Birthday Pics