May 20th

I echo what you said to me in your letters...I can't believe a week has passed! Time is just flying on by! It is wierd to think about it all! Especially how things are wrapping up for school for everyone! It was fun to skype and see everybody. A familiar face or few =) It was fun to talk to everyone too. It would be fun to do it up at USU too. It was sad to have to push end. The family we were with had to leave and church waits for no mortal man! I always love to hear news from the home ward, I don't know why. I guess I just miss everyone there too. There are lots of great testimonies there. I would love to take some of them to visits with us here. The members here are just great though, so we get along just as well. There are so many miracles that happen in the life of each disciple of Christ.
I'm glad you received my package! What happened is I wrote it all on Saturday and went to send it, but the Correos closes early on Saturdays, so I had to wait until Monday to send it. It doesn't matter where you send it. We get stuff from the office every first week of the month when the zone leaders go up for concilio meeting with President, or when we have conferences or interviews, or if someone needs to go up to Barcelona to renew a residency card or something. Transfers too. We are in week 4 now, so only 2 more weeks. But usually once a month. It doesn't matter too much though, I can wait =).
Thanks for all your inspiring comments and prayers and faith. I am also glad that you liked the card. I wasn't sure if it would be dumb or a hassle to send, but then I thought anything is better than nothing, and really, it doesn't matter to the moms. They love anything that they get from their kids! So there you have it =) I hope it was a good day!
I did hear about Sis. Monson. Funny story (now that I tell it), the member we were eating with said "Did you hear that President Monson passed away this morning?" We were like "QUUEE'?!!" our hearts just about stopped haha. I had like 50 different thoughts about him and everything. I thought no puede ser. He looked so young and vigorous! I've always thought that after being apostle since just about forever, that he would be the prophet to welcome the Savior back to the earth or something haha. That or Elder Holland or Bednar haha. But it didn't feel right to us, just didn't settle. No Holy Ghost to testify of it's truth! We didn't even get any messages from the office! So we had them look it up and then they saw it was his wife. I don't know his wife as much, so it didn't hit me as hard, but it was still kinda sad. I hope that he does well though and presses forward! I was trying to imagine what a prophet would say to his wife as she was passing, with his family all there. Nothing came to me, but I'm sure it was profound =) We always keep the prophet in our prayers though!
We had a Special Conference this last Thursday, where the President over the Europe Area came and spoke to us, Elder Teixeira. He is from Portugal and speaks like five languages, and had super great English. It was so inspiring!
I was really touched by something Pres. Teixeira said, about how the Lord knows His General Authorities (and His servants in general, i.e. us) before He calls them. I thought to myself of all the preparations he makes, like where and when we are born, what family and friends we will have, the experiences we have, where we serve a mission, where we will study or go after, and then throughout all of this process He is preparing those who He would have be His leaders in the Church, who were actually even foreordained and chosen before even coming to the earth. The lives of the Apostles and Prophets are great examples of this to me. Also, on a more intimate scale, God knows each of us as missionaries, who we are, our faults and weaknesses, our strengths and where we could best serve in what situations, and how we will react if put into a certain situation. I have felt the Lord's hand in my life in preparing me for my mission, and His hand here in my mission. I liked what President Pace said in the beginning about how the Lord will not send missionaries who are not prepared to the field or to missionaries who are not prepared to train them. I already can sense that the new missionaries we will be receiving will be a powerful and important contribution to our goal to baptize 20 of God's prepared elect a week in the Spain Barcelona Mission. He had all of the new missionaries stand up and said he will need their help to train in September! We have lots of fun stuff coming up!
We saw a neat miracle yesterday. A man who was baptized who knows how many years ago and has been inactive came to church. After introducing ourselves and getting to know him a little, we asked him what had made him decide to return. He told us he had just been thinking one day and felt that he needed to go back. He came all by himself, something that shows a truly humble heart and courage. We asked as Pres. Teixeira asked us to do about his family (he told us to pray for the family and friends of inv. and try to get to know them to teach them. Gold digging! When you finally find gold, you don't pack up your bags and head 40 miles downstream, but you keep digging!), he said he has a daughter and his mother that are living with him right now who are not members. We have a visit with him tonight where we will hopefully meet his family and we are praying that it be a spiritual and uplifting experience for all! President Pace also testified how the Lord is working with us to find and invite people, I started thinking about that, and it touched me pretty deeply. He doesn't just send us to do the work and invitations, and then wait to see if they accept or not, and then pour His spirit on them. He is pouring out is spirit and preparing them already and as we invite them it is as if He were doing it Himself by the Spirit through weak mortal tabernacles of clay like ourselves. And then we come to love and care for them and grow ourselves =)  President Teixeira shared his conversion story about two missionaries knocking doors, seeing a light on in an apartment building next door, and then feeling like they should knock it. So they went, found the mother at home, but set an appointment later that night for when the father would be home too. They went and knocked more doors until the visit, then went back. Long story short, the dad and mom converted, as well as Pres. Teixiera and his sister. Eventually, 40 members of his family were baptized in the following 3 weeks. He said he thought about why he wasn't the first, and why it was his dad. But he said that the Lord knew that in order to get to him, he would have to convert his father first, and then look where they all are now! It was super neat.
Alas, I have no time left. I hope that you have a great week! Keep being faithful and saying prayers! They do more than you think! He who asks receives one way or another! Say hi to everyone and the fam!