Carta electronico 25 de marzo

3/20

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

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

Carta de 13 de Marzo

Hola mi buena familia y amigos! Lot's of crazy news! It seems like big things happen every week now. Anyways, to start, you're probably wondering why I'm writing on a Wednesday. Well, we moved our preparation day to today because we're going to see a bullfight!! At 5:00 =) We are all pretty excited. We also played a big zone basketball game this morning. Our district was me, Elder Dixon, Elder Biddle, and Elder Farah, This last week we had zone conference in Valencia and it was so great. He talked a lot about having a vision in mind, goals to achieve it, and making plans to achieve those goals. The planning part is always the harder part that most people forget. It was super good though. Hna Pace talked about a training for mission presidents recently where Elder Holland talked about a lot of things. One of the things she passed along to us was having a a more personal experience with the Book of Mormon.all of us being 6'2-6'5 and so we were giants =)
Yesterday in Castellón I prayed to read something in my studies that I could share with somebody else. I read from about Mormon 8 to Ether 5 and learned lots of things for myself but wasn't sure what I could apply to an investigator, mostly all deep doctrine stuff haha. We passed by later in the day by a lady who mentioned to us that she didn't like to read in the scriptures because they were written in the past and she felt that things have changed, culture is different, which is true, but that the scriptures didn't apply. The Spirit brought to rememberance something I read from Moroni, about how ¨he said "I write unto you as if ye were present, yet ye are not. But Jesus has shown you unto me, and I know your works." And so we were able to teach about how the scriptures, especially the Book of Mormon, were written for our day. So that was neat.I was impressed by reading how Mormon mentioned that ever since he was young he grew up watching wickedness all around him. Kind of like our day, or walking around Spain seeing wickedness everywhere haha. I saw evidences of how he was prepared by the Lord. He was of a sober mind and quick to observe and learn to take up the records of the people and scriptures. He was a man large in stature to gain the love and admiration of the people to become a leader. The Lord used him as an instrument to be a prophet to the people, even though they used their agency to ignore God and his teachings. As they saw the destruction of their people, standing on the hill Cumorah looking over hundreds of thousands of his people dead, he still mourned for them and how they had fallen from such greatness, because of his charity that was in him. Moroni even watched the death of the 24 remaining including his father, and alone survived to hide up the record and fulfill the Lord's purposes. He states "The eternal purposes of the Lord shall roll on and all of His promises shall be fulfilled." He didn't know how or when, but saw our day and worked together with the Spirit and Jesus himself from time to time to carefully prepare the Book of Mormon, write what he was commanded and leave out what the Spirit restrained him from writing, even though he expressed desires to teach us them, to try our faith in applying what we have already been given.

March 4th Update

Lots of fun stuff happening here! I love Valencia, it is so great!! The city is super pretty. Most of the buildings look more Spain-like, and aren't as dumpy. The streets are bigger too, so the buildings are more spaced out and it feels less cramped. The weather is super nice normally. The first few days were pouring rain all day, and it was cold! It was like 40 F, but the humidity and wetness made it a lot more cold. After the storm, it was back to normal Valencia weather for this time of year-65 and sunny! Perfect weather =) Today it is cloudy and might rain, but it's not really cold. The food is good too. It depends on who we eat with, if they are spaniard or foreign. The most famous Spain dish is probably paella. It's like a rice and seafood mix. Valenciano Paella is usually made with rice and rabbit or chicken, which a lot of people like better, or sometimes is made with noodles. Pasta is pretty popular too. Chicken, rice, and bread are mostly what we eat-its perfect for me! They have lots of good little snack foods too. Napolitanas are basically croissants stuffed with chocolate and are delicious. Donuts, bread, and similar things are always in bakerys. You can buy un barro de pan like 2 feet long for like 30-50 cents, and throw on some olive oil or nutella spread and you're good to go! They have this hamón stuff, kinda funny. It's basically a raw pig leg that's salted/prepared than buried underground for like 5 years, and somehow throughout the process it is fine to eat. It's like a rubbery piece of bacon basically. It's actually pretty good, but I don't think worth the money to buy, so we just eat it when members have it. Spain food is usually pretty plain, so that's fine by me =) When we eat with africans or south americans is when it gets spicy or decorated. We have an appointment with a Bulgarian couple this week-supposedly last time they had a wierd pig ear dish...we're kinda worried about that :)

We have seen miracles in finding a few potentials. We met a man, Luis, as we knocked on a door, it was opened with a rope strung up to the top floor through the middle, which was kind of wierd. As we were going up the stairs, we met Luis in his door, talked to him for a little bit, and went into his home and shared a quick scripture message. We left him with a Book of Mormon and invited him to church, although he wasn't able to make it. We also have received a few referrals from the Sister missionaries who were here before, and met a man, Elijorson, who had a fecha and basically has a testimony, but is struggling financially and is still un poco duro with a few doubts because of the whole situation. A couple days ago he called us out to the pueblo where he lives, and while waiting for him there, we contacted two young chicos playing guitar on a bench. We talked for a bit and ended up leaving them with Restoration pamphlets and Book of Mormons. THey expressed some interest and we think that there will be some good things happening there with Israel and Manuel.
We always get lost in the city. It's also gigantic and there is like 30 different bus lines to hop back and forth between, and a metro. I applied for an all in one travel card, but I can't pick it up until tomorrow so I've had to use the 3 separate for bus, metro zone A, and metro Zones AB to travel out to the pueblos. We cover downtown Valencia and some pueblos outside of Valencia to the northwest.  This week they start las fallas. It's a huge annual celebration where they put up tons of decorations, build giant statues and then at the end of the celebration they burn them! Apparently they are spectacular, ands its like the best time of year to be in Valencia.

Keep cultivating faith in the Lord and grow closer to Him, His yoke is light and burden is easy. There are days when I'm a walking zombie but yet somehow have the energy and little bit of motivation to knock a few more doors or contacts! That for sure doesn't come from myself-my thoughts are about falling into my bed during those times haha. I am in 3 Nephi in my Book of Mormon studies, I've been reading through marking references to 'power', and there is a lot about the power of God/heaven in the Book of Mormon! Time after time missionaries and prophets receive extra powers or the Spirit works powerfully through them to do the will of God, and it inspires me to be a more powerful missionary. With the power of God, all things are possible! I was really impressed reading about the early chapters of the Savior's administration as I carefully read them, usually I just kinda speed read because I've read it a hundred times, but that's a habit I'm trying to break =) Reading the D&C in spanish has been neat too, except there are a lot of unfamiliar words so it's good language study =)
Well, I'm out of time, keep being awesome and inspiring! Thank you for your prayers, I'll try to send more the other way to balance the score a little haha. Love you all!