Saga #4!!

Well, I sorta forgot to tell everyone last week but today is transfers. It just totally slipped my mind but I didn't think I was getting transferred anyway since I'm training Elder Watkins. This is my fourth transfer here and I could seriously just finish my mission here, ha-ha. I absolutely love it! It'll be really sad when I have to leave. And I know that I've probably said that about every area but it's so true. You just get so attached to it all. After walking the streets every day for a few months you just develop a love for the place, the people, the culture, and just everything! Luckily I'm not leaving though :)

This past week was soooo good! We had such a good week and had a lot of great visits with people. Our investigators are doing fairly well and there are a ton who have so much potential and who are progressing well. This past week, on top of having lots of great visits, was so full of miracles. It's been a bit tough with our investigators in the past two months to progress to baptism because something always comes up and they don't want anything anymore, they just don't keep commitments, or they just don't understand things well enough. So it's been frustrating to see baptismal candidates come and then go. But I feel that the Lord is just waiting to pour out an infinite amount of blessings on us in this coming month!

In church we had two members come up to us and say that they have family members who are coming to Spain and want to hear about the Gospel and be baptized! We have another investigator who we just found the other day that just moved into the area and came to church with a member this past Sunday. And we also have just the best people ever here! We have been so blessed this week and you know, it's been because we've been doing all that we can so that we are worthy of what the Lord does to help us in this great work. I'm sure that these next few weeks will be full of exciting updates on how things are developing :)

The other day in church we actually had something happen that almost no one expected: the bishopric got changed! Bishop Alba, one of the best bishops I have ever met, got released along with his counselors after 9 years of being in that calling. 9 years!! You could hear people almost gasp when they announced that he was being released. Even I was shocked and surprised when they said that. But the new bishop is fantastic! I know him pretty well and we're excited to work with him as well. But we will definitely miss working with Bishop Alba.

Oh! This part is so great, ha-ha. We got a reference from our Ward Mission Leader! One of his friends owns a gym and he told us to visit him there and to talk with him. But the only catch was that we had to go between 6 and 9 in the morning. So we went the other day and saw him and started talking with him. It went well and we actually went back again a different day to give him a copy of the Book of Mormon and to talk some more. Before we left though I asked him how much it would cost to come workout in his gym. He just looked at me for a few seconds in silence and said, "Nothing. For you guys, nothing." We just looked at each other amazed and I couldn't believe he said that! So I asked him if we could pay something or do something and he said, "For people like you, I won't charge anything. You give me hope for the world and help me see that there are still good people who understand that we need God in our lives. You come back Monday at 7:30 and I'll train you all." We were so happy and excited that we told the other two Elders about it and we've been going these past two days, ha-ha! It's so great! It's not the best gym in the world but it has weights and everything and he trains us a bit. He was a pro body builder and everything so he knows what he's talking about. But let's just say I'm a little bit sore and so are the other Elders, ha-ha. But it's great! Within a few weeks we'll all be ripped again, ha-ha! Probably not but that's alright. We're working on building a good relationship with this man as well and teaching him at the same time. He's got a lot of potential as well.

I think that about covers it for the week. It's been a great week and lots of fun and full of incredible experiences. I love you all and thank you for your thoughts and prayers. I can feel their power and it really does help.

I love and miss you all!

Buenos Días!!!

Hello to everyone back home! This week, to be honest, was probably the most bland and abnormal week ever, ha-ha-ha. Of course we had some great visits and we saw some great things happen....but there wasn't really anything that was incredibly out of the ordinary. The only big thing was that one of the Elders who is here with us got transferred to Zaragoza on Tuesday even though transfers aren't until the 24th. My companion had to go to Madrid for his residency stuff so I was with the other companionship for Monday night and Tuesday. We were planning Monday night for the next day when President called us and said that he had a new assignment for the other elders. He said that Elder Galán was leaving the next day and that the next Elder was coming the next day as well. So we had to find out when the new Elder came in and work around our schedule to pick up Elder Watkins, my companion, from the train station that same night and we were also going to a Zone meeting in another city so it was just a mess, ha-ha. Elder Galán packed his bags that night and didn't even get to say goodbye to anyone which was a bit sad because he's been here for almost six months and then he just got transferred like that. We lost a whole day of work on Tuesday because we had to come back for the meeting and then pick up the new Elder and then pick up Elder Watkins as well. So Tuesday was a pretty boring day minus the Zone meeting, ha-ha. But the new Elder came from the mission office and is doing great. He's from Utah, go figure, and is really helping his companion to do better. So let's hope that things shape up there :).

The rest of this week was cold and normal. We found out yesterday that the girl who was going to get baptized here in our area is moving to Barcelona so she won't be getting baptized anymore which is sad. But she said we could pass her info on to the other missionaries in Barcelona. So there's a set of missionaries who are just about to inherit a very prepared person.:) It was a little frustrating because we had four people who were looking great to be baptized on their scheduled dates and one by one they've been falling through. It's been tough because we've been doing all we can to make sure that things go well, we've been working hard, and been doing what we feel we should be doing to continue the success here. But sometimes the Lord puts a little trial in our path to help us realize that He's the one in charge and to help us realize that He knows how we can help even more of His children come unto Him. I'm not sure why our investigators just stopped progressing all of a sudden. But I do know that the Lord wants us to learn and to do something with it all. Things overall are still going well though. I love being a missionary and I could probably be one forever....with a two week break every two years maybe, ha-ha-ha. But I know that what we do out here is the best thing that anyone can do. Yes it's somewhat of a sacrifice. But as I've been out here, it honestly doesn't feel like it's that much. It's the best :)

I love you all and miss you lots. But I'll see you all soon!!!

New Year, more success

This week was such a good week. I feel that as we start this new year in the mission that the Lord has soooo much in store just waiting for me out here and for the rest of this mission. I started the week going to a special conference from Monday night until Wednesday afternoon and the meetings were incredible. We talked about things in the mission, how we can improve, we talked about our success from last year and what our potential is this year, how we can involve the members even more, and pretty much everything about missionary work, ha-ha. The Spirit was the biggest thing though. You could feel the presence of the Spirit so strongly in that room of 40 or so missionaries so strongly. You could leave the room and come back, and just get hit by a wall of something and it was the Spirit! As we set goals for this next year and as we talked about what the Lord has in store for us, I learned so much and I left that conference so excited to go work again. The Lord truly is preparing His people and all we have to do is follow what he tells us so that we can find those prepared people. Even though I left with that excitement and drive to work again, I just happened to get sick, ha-ha. We missed half a week of work because I was gone and my companion went to another area to work with a different set of missionaries and then we got back, worked for a day, and then I got sick. Great luck huh? Luckily I was able to go back and work after about a day and a half even though I might not have been 100% allright. But I didn't really care, ha-ha.

We've been seeing some great miracles and some amazing success out here. We have four people who are preparing to be baptized this month and we're really excited for them. We were going to have three get baptized this next week but we didn't feel that they were ready so we pushed back the date a week. They feel more comfortable about it and so do we. I'll let you know next week about how they're doing :).

Yesterday, Sunday, we were in a meeting with some members and the Bishop came to us and said, "Elders, there's a young woman who just walked in looking for a church." So we pretty much jumped up from excitement but he said that he was going to go talk to her a little bit and then he'd come and get us. So eventually we went to meet her and she's incredible! She said that she saw the church name on the building the other day and wanted to come to church but came late and missed the meetings. She said that she's looking for a church that has the truth and that she wants to learn more. We have a visit with her tonight and she's excited to learn more. Unfortunately she lives in the other Elders' area :( But that's how the work goes. I feel that they need a little bit of help anyways. They've been struggling a bit with investigators and things.

Tonight Elder Watkins, my companion, is going to Madrid to finish his residency stuff so that he can stay here in Spain legally. Originally they told me I was going with him too and I was really excited but at the last second they told me no, ha-ha. But that's ok. He gets back late Tuesday night. I'll just stay here working with the other Elders on exchanges. Hopefully I can help them learn and improve. The weather here has been about the same: cold but not too cold, ha-ha. It's right at the point where you need a coat but at the same time you don't. So it's allright.

I hope things back home are going well and that you're all safe and healthy and happy. Good luck back at school with studies, ha-ha. And I miss you all and love you lots!!

2012!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy 2012!!!! I can't believe another year has come and gone and that this same time next year I'll be home! It kinda scares me actually, ha-ha. This past week was so good! We had some incredible visits and some amazing things happen to us. It's been a little harder to get visits during the holidays but we've been blessed to reach most of our goals and to see a lot of success here. We have three people preparing to be baptized on January 14th and all three have been miracles. Ana and Karla found us on the bus and we started visiting them and they accepted the invitation to be baptized on the 14th. And then yesterday we just invited another daughter of God to be baptized. Her story was actually really neat. A few weeks ago right before Elder Watkins came to replace Elder Tyler, we were going home on the bus and we saw this girl about our age sorta looking at us from the opposite end of the bus. I turned to my companion and said, "This is kinda awkward and creepy. That girl just keeps looking at us." And then about two minutes later she got up and came over to us and sat down and asked, "Are you the Mormon missionaries?", ha-ha. And that's how we started talking. We found out that she was moving in with a member family and so we asked if we could start visiting her to let her know more about what we do and what we believe. She was a little hesitant and we didn't get to set up any visit but then we saw her at the Ward Christmas Dinner and we talked to her and then she came to church two days later. So we took that as a sign that she was beginning to be interested. Ever since then we've been visiting her and last night we had another visit. At the end of the visit we invited her to follow the example of Jesus Christ by being baptized and she said that when she knew that these things were true that she would. We invited her for the 21 of January and she sorta said that she wanted to read the whole Book of Mormon first and that she needed to know everything and said no to the 21st. Instead of giving up we talked a bit more and shared our testimony and then invited her again for the same day. She sat there thinking in silence for a moment and then said, "Ok...but can it be the 14th instead?" ha-ha-ha! It totally caught us off guard but we told her yes. But the only thing is that she will have to do a few things to prepare herself and she told us, "Don't worry. I'm going to read the Book of Mormon, pray about it, come to church, and meet with you so that I can be ready"! It truly was an incredible visit and it was amazing to feel the Spirit of the Lord work on this young woman who has been prepared to receive the Gospel. Little things like that just make the mission. It's everything that a missionary thrives off of, ha-ha. Miracles like that is a common occurrence in the mission field. I remember my last email I told you all that we were one shy of our goal of 450 as of last Sunday. But this past week we reached our goal and even broke it by one. 451!!!!!! We were so happy that we were acting like little kids, ha-ha-ha! The four of us Elders were just celebrating, laughing, and kinda almost crying, ha-ha. But I know that it didn't happen without the Lord's help. The only way we could have ever have accomplished this lofty goal is with His guidance. I know that the Lord blessed us here in this mission and that he has even more in store for us. When Spain was first opened to missionaries there was a very large "harvest" of members and the majority of church leaders here in Spain came from the 1970s. There was a time period of about 20ish years where things kinda slowed down. But the second harvest is here. And it will be so much bigger than the first. The work of the Lord cannot stop or be impeded. People may try as they will. But they will never stop the truth from going forth to the ends of the earth and I've been blessed with the great opportunity to be a part of it. I love this work and this church and I know that it is the only way to return back to our Father in Heaven.

I miss you all and I love you all and wish you a fantastic New Year!!!!!!

Last Christmas on the Mission

I hope that you all had a great Christmas because I know I sure did :). It was a week of success, of lots of visits with our investigators, lots of cold weather and a tonnnn of food. No wonder they say that you get a little fatter during Christmas time, ha-ha. Christmas Eve we ate with a member family and some other members and we had some incredible food. Some fish, meat, potatoes, shrimp, and I have no idea what else, ha-ha. It was really good. Then Christmas, after going to church, we ate with another family for lunch and the four of us missionaries brought something. I brought rolls that I made (that actually turned out pretty good), my companion brought a salad he made, another elder brought some really good rice, and then the other brought drinks, and the family provided the turkey and a few other things. It was a really good meal, lots of fun, and we had a good time with them. After that we had yet another visit with a different family. But this visit went a little bit different, ha-ha. We get there and knock on the door and the husband answers and it's all dark inside their home. And then he says that the circuit breaker blew out, ha-ha. So there was no electricity there. We went in, he called an electrician to come fix it but it never got fixed while we were there. Luckily they had a gas stove and stuff so we still ate well :) But after eating two meals on Christmas and only within a few hours of each other, I did not want to eat for the rest of the week. I still don't, ha-ha. The members are so great here. I'm gonna miss them after I leave this area.

For those who remember that I mentioned something about our mission goal in a previous email, I have the update about how we did this year. Our goal of 450 baptisms seemed incredibly high for us because we haven't had that as a mission in about 20 years. So we all thought that it was a very lofty goal. But after receiving notice from the mission office we reached.......449......One short! BUT! We were also told that there will be two baptisms and confirmations during this last week of December. Sooooo that puts us at 451!!!!! I know that it hasn't happened yet, but I know that with continued prayer, it will happen. Thank you all so much for your thoughts and prayers because they truly helped us as a mission to reach our goals and to do even better.

I hope that you all had a fantastic Christmas and that this next week as you celebrate the New Year you all have fun but not too much :) ha-ha. I miss you all and will see you soon!!!