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.
