Training Round 2 in Tarragona!

Heyyyyy what's up back home?? Hope that things are great and that you are all getting ready for Christmas which is right around the corner. I absolutely love this time of year especially since it's a great time to teach people about the love of our Savior Jesus Christ. Today I got my new companion!! His name is Elder Watkins and he's from Orem, UT. He's such a great guy already and I can't wait to work with him. Unfortunately, I can't tell too much right now because I don't have a lot of time or anything, but this past week was incredible like always, ha-ha. We saw the hand of the Lord working through us to touch the hearts of the people here in the area at this moment. We are seeing miracles every day, every week, and we are so close to reaching our goal of 450 baptisms by the end of this year. As of Sunday we are at 421l so close!!!! I know that it will happen. I know that we can do it. And I know that it is the will of the Lord that we make it. Thank you for your prayers and your love. We really can feel it out here.

Love you all!!!

December!!!!!

Hellooooo! Hope that you are all doing great as we start yet another December. I, for one, am doing incredible out here. I have more than loved this past year and little bit and cannot believe that I'm running out of time this fast. This past week was a very good one as well. That seems to happen quite often here, ha-ha. But just so you all know transfers are next week...but we got a sneak peak and I'm staying, ha-ha. And on top of that it looks like I'm training again. Sounds fun right? Hopefully, it'll be another great experience and now that I've already trained once in Tarragona, I know what I can do even better. But anyway...what a week!

The Law of Chastity has been a challenge for some of our investigators. In order for our investigators to progress and eventually get baptized, they have to live all the commandments including the Law of Chastity. And, well, most of the golden people we're teaching right now are either living with a boyfriend or girlfriend or have some other problem with it. And man is it frustrating! I've never had to give so much marriage and love-life counsel in my entire life! But I know that the Lord makes a way for people the keep the commandments He gives. It may not be that person's time but we are here to plant the seed and to help them progress as much as we can. One such investigator is Pedro. He is an incredible man and is the best example of someone who truly understands what it means to repent and follow the Savior. He's living with his girlfriend and they just had two twin boys five months ago. He doesn't have work and she makes very little money. He also doesn't have papers to live in Spain legally so he can't even get married yet. But he's such a prepared man. He wants to repent, he knows he's been doing something wrong and wants to change it. He knows what this baptism will mean and he said that he wants to do everything he can to follow through with it. We pray for him everyday and hope that a miracle will occur.

Yesterday there was another baptism in our ward here and it went alright, ha-ha. The other Elders were in charge of organizing it because it was their investigator. But I found out that he actually lives in our area this past week, ha-ha. But I said, "Whatever. There's no point in really changing anything now." But I made sure that the other Elders knew where the boundaries were ha-ha. But during the baptism the Spirit was there, especially at one point when Abraham, a nine year old boy, gave his testimony. I know him pretty well because I know his family well. But my goodness, he totally caught me off guard with his spiritual maturity level. His testimony was one of an 18-year old person, no joke. His dad isn't a member but the rest are. As he was talking about the importance of baptism & why we do it, he started talking about his dad and how he was so sad that his dad will probably never take the step that this investigator was taking. In that small testimony, this little nine-year old boy taught all of us there just how much faith little children have. Of course they can be bothersome and immature; they're little kids. But inside they all have a burning testimony and enough faith to create worlds of their own. There is something we can all learn from them and I realized that I need to make sure that I focus on becoming as a child as Christ invites us to do.

Things are incredible out here…the members, the work, my companion and everything! Days come and go and some come and go better than others. But with the Spirit burning within us, there is nothing that really matters but the salvation of our brothers and sisters.

I love you all so much and can't wait to see you again. I hope you have a great week too! :)

White Christmas

Hello to everyone back home!!! This week was a great week for Thanksgiving :) Both with and without the food. The food was definitely good though and very necessary, ha-ha. Since we are four missionaries here in Tarragona and two aren't from the US, we decided to show them a little of what it's like on Thanksgiving. So my companion and I decided to make a Thanksgiving meal for all four of us. We made up a list of food and stuff we needed to buy a week before and we split it up so that we all paid equally, and then Elder Tyler and I went to work making the food. We had some whole chickens (since turkey is kinda expensive here) that were soooo good, mashed potatoes, rolls, corn, green beans, gravy, and then apple crisp for dessert :). It doesn't sound like much but we got full really fast and the food tasted so good! I never knew Elder Tyler and I could cook so well :) ha-ha. We wanted to make pie but we didn't have a recipe or time so we made something else.

Other than the blessing of food, we were are so blessed to have some great visits this week. We were able to have quite a few investigators come to church and one of them has a goal to get baptized on December 17. He's such a great guy. We were also extremely blessed to see one of God's children enter the waters of baptism this past Saturday. Jeremías is a young kid and we were originally teaching his dad since he's not a member either. The mom is and she wants more than anything for her husband and children to get baptized so that they can someday be sealed as an eternal family in the temple. Walter still has a few obstacles that we need to help him overcome and we're not sure what's keeping him from progressing. But he finally gave his consent to let his son be baptized after going months without letting him. It was an incredible baptismal service and the Spirit there was so strong. There was a good turnout from the ward and the members and Walter felt the Spirit there. You could see a change in his countenance during and after the service. While I was getting back into my suit after the baptism, Walter came up to me and said something that impacted me a lot. He said, "Thank you for all you've done for me and my family and especially my son. You know that you have to stay in contact forever now right? You're basically part of our family now." It meant so much to me because if you knew Walter, you'd know that what he just said really came from his heart. I knew that they enjoyed our visits because they tell us once in a while, but I never knew of the depth of the love that we shared for each other until then. They truly are my family. Even though I'm half Filipino and live in Fairport, NY and they are from Bolivia and live in Reus, Spain, they truly are my brothers and sisters, and I love them so much. The work of the Lord does that to you, ha-ha. When you selflessly serve others and want the best for them, you forget yourself, your own comforts and hungers and pains, and then you only care about them. You develop charity, the pure love of Christ and nothing else in the world matters. I remember days where I've been really hungry, hot, cold, or in pain. But as soon as I visit someone who has a whole lot less than I and who doesn't have the knowledge that I have of the Gospel, all of that disappears.

The Christmas season is upon us and with it comes so many wonderful things: the lights, the music, the food, friends, family, service, and the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. The world may tell us with its fancy and flashy lights that all Christmas is about is gifts and fancy things. But we know as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that Christmas is so much more. It is an opportunity to spread the "tidings of great joy" to the world that we have a Savior who died so that we may live again. It is an opportunity to renew our dedication to serve and love others just as Christ did. And it is a great opportunity to share the Gospel with those who don't have it. So get to work! Open our mouths and overcome our fears. As Elder Holland said in General Conference, "Open you mouths and speak miracles." I know that as we do it, we truly will see miracles because I have seen soooo many here on the mission. Every baptism of a child of God is truly a miracle and our mission has been blessed to see 398 of them up to this point. Every mission is different and the cultures as well. Some missions have a higher baptizing rate than others. But no matter the number, the fact is that there are children of our Heavenly Father waiting to accept the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. Right now we are entering the last month of this year. As a mission we set a goal at the very beginning of this year to reach 450 baptisms. And for our mission, I think that's a record high. If not, it almost is. But right now we are at 398 with four weekends to go. President has asked us to invite our friends and family to join with us as a mission these final weeks of the year so that we may be blessed with an outpouring of the Spirit so that we can accomplish this goal. We know that we can do it. And I know that we can, too. And I know that there is power in prayer. So if there is anything that would mean more to me this Christmas, it would be to achieve that goal. And that comes through united prayer. So that's my Christmas wish from you all back home. Even though we set a number as a goal, every number is backed by a name, a person, a special child of God. And I know that just as Alma prayed for the success for himself and his brethren on their own missions, we too can pray for success and the Lord will grant it to us. We will have a White Christmas with 52 more sons and daughters of God dressed in white, entering the waters of baptism. And as it says in Mosiah 18:35, "And they were in number about four hundred and fifty souls."

Thank you for you prayers and your love. I love you all and miss you so much. Talk to you next week!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Just had a good week and looking forward to another one. And on top of that it's Thanksgiving this week!!!! Even though Thanksgiving is non-existent here, the four of us are planning on making our own "Thanksgiving Meal". And we're going to pull out all the stops, ha-ha. Minus turkey because that's pretty expensive here. And probably not some pie since it's not that common here so we'd have to make it allll from scratch and we just don't have that amount of time. But it'll still be way good I'm sure. I'll be sure I send pics home about it :).

But where do I start? This Saturday we have another baptism of a young kid named Jeremías. He's so great too. We've been teaching his family for quite some time and his mom is a member who’s recently began coming to church again and his dad isn't a member. We've been working with the dad mostly but Jeremías has been listening too and said that he wanted to be baptized, ha-ha. So with the permission of the parents since he's underage, he's getting baptized this week! We're excited for him and such a great kid. He loves church and loves reading the scriptures with his family and loves it when we come over. I'm going to miss their family soooo much when I leave. Hopefully I still have a few more months here in Tarragona. On Tuesday we had a great visit with a man named Pedro. He was a contact we did on the street last week and his story is actually really neat. Last week when we had all our visits fall through we knelt in prayer to ask the Lord to guide us to someone who was ready and prepared to receive the gospel message. We both felt prompted to go to a certain part of the city and we knew that the Spirit was guiding us so we talked with as many people as we could on the way. Of course there were a few people that didn't want anything like always. But we found quite a few people that said yes and one of them was Pedro. We were walking down a small street and he was sitting on some steps looking the other way. We took about three steps past him and I just felt that we needed to go back and talk to him so we did. We got his info and he said we could pass by. Well, Tuesday we heard his side of what happened. He said that while he was sitting there he saw us go by and he said that when we took those few steps past him, a thought came to him that said, "They're going to turn around and talk to you." And right as he thought that, we turned around and came towards him, ha-ha. We shared a brief message about who we are and what we share and he accepted the invitation to be baptized on December 17^th! It was incredible to hear his side of the story and to see just how prepared he really is. The Lord truly does guide us when we come to Him in humble prayer. I've seen it over and over again on the mission and it never ceases to amaze me.

Now time for a bit of a crazy story. Saturday morning Elder Tyler and I had just finished doing some exercises and stuff in the morning like always when Elder Saldaña ran in our room and said, "Did you see all that?” We looked out the window and there were tons of flashing lights and sirens and black smoke. So Elder Tyler and I ran downstairs to see what it was and an apartment of a nearby building was on fire! And it wasn't any small fire either. It was the top apartment of the building and the fire was totally eating up the building. The fire department took a bit of time to actually do something but they eventually got it put out. But man that was a crazy fire. There were a few explosions from inside but as far as I know, no one was hurt. But it was a crazy way to start the day, ha-ha. But yeah we had a great week and I know that this is the Lord's work. I can't do anything without Him and I love this mission so much. And it's going by way too fast.

I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving and give thanks for the many blessings that we have been given. Talk to you soon!!!!

Kicked in the rear

Well, we sorta got our butts kicked this week, ha-ha. It was looking like a good week to be honest and we were excited for our visits and everything. But one thing after another just didn't go right: we didn't have any minutes on our phone and for some reason it's taking too long to get more from the office, visit after visit fell through, and we had no idea why all this was happening. But after lots of personal prayer and just thinking, I came to the conclusion that my companion and I were probably getting a little too cocky with ourselves. As we know, the Lord likes to humble us. And that's pretty much what happened this week, ha-ha. More than half our visits fell through and we had no idea what to do. One day after six visits fell through, we had no idea what else to do. I turned to my companion and told him, "Let's go pray." and he just asked me where. And I said that I wanted to go somewhere a little secluded where we could kneel down and pray vocally. It was around 8:15ish and dark out already and we went to a big park and found a little area off a path that was secluded with trees. We both knelt down and prayed for help and guidance. I said a prayer first and then my companion said one and afterwards we both sat in silence just listening for the promptings of the Holy Ghost. After about a minute we both looked at each other and said what we felt we should do. And we both felt that we needed to head in a certain direction towards a certain house. We didn't know why but we went and did everything we could on the way to find whoever the Lord was going to put in our path. We talked to about 10 people on the street in the span of 15 minutes and about 6 of them gave us their information and a few of them were actually great contacts. I don't know how any of these people will turn out, but I know that both my companion and I were prompted to go that way and to find the children of God who are prepared to receive the Gospel. I feel that throughout the week we became a bit more humble and we began to rely on the Lord more. And to bless us for doing that, the Lord gave us a huge miracle. It actually started when I first got to Tarragona. We received a reference from the office in a town called Tortorsa which is over an hour away on train, and we never would have gone there if we didn't get this reference. Long story short, the reference doesn't exist. But we had found a few inactive members that live there and we decided to pass by and we set up a few visits with them. One of them was a woman named Patricia, a returned missionary. She was so excited to see us and she asked when we could pass by. She said that when we come by that she'd bring a friend to the visit. The first visit we had to do splits because the town is so far away and we needed to have a few other visits. But Elder Tyler came back that night and told me that the friend of Patricia (Maribel) was a golden investigator. We just had another visit on Sunday and she is incredible! She asked how she can know the true church and that she wants to be baptized in the true church. And we taught the Restoration and she just ate it up. She said it all made sense and she said everything was clear. During the visit when Elder Tyler was testifying about something, the impression came to invite her to be baptized. I pushed it away the first time because I told myself, "She lives too far away. She probably wouldn't even come to church." But the impression came again and this time even stronger. As I started talking again the feeling spread from my chest outward until it filled me and I knew that I needed to invite her to be baptized. And she accepted without thinking. She said, "Yes! I want to be baptized." We set the fecha for December 10th originally but as she looked at her schedule for work and stuff she asked, "Can we have in November 27th?" I was totally caught off guard, ha-ha. Unfortunately, she can't because she needs to come to church but as we kept talking we realized the 10th wouldn't work either. So we set the 24th of December, a white Christmas for her. She said that she's so excited to learn more, to read the Book of Mormon, and even said she'd take the train to Tarragona to come to church on Sundays. She's so excited for her baptism and her friend said that she'd be there the whole way at her side. The true miracle was that we were led to Tortosa by the Lord. He knew that we'd never go there unless we had a good reason. And that reason was the reference from the office. Even though the reference didn't exist, someone else did who was and is ready to hear the Gospel message. This work is incredible! There is nothing better that you can experience, and I just hope that when I get home that I can continue to share the message with others.

I love you all and hope you've had a great week. Enjoy the leaves!! He-he!