August heat

August has begun and the heat seems to have cranked up a bit. This past week was a bit on the warm side to say the least. Got lots of sweating done and ice cream and popsicles have never tasted better, ha-ha. Even the people who live here complain about how hot it has been. Hopefully it doesn't keep going up. This is about the peak month for heat so there's some hope that we've reached the hottest part, ha-ha.

This past week was great apart from the heat. Our meeting this past Monday was incredible like always and I left rejuvenated and ready to work more than ever. President Pace, our new mission president, is doing fantastic. He's such a great person and I love working with him. He makes you feel important and that you matter which I think some missionaries need to feel right now.

We've seen some incredible miracles here. One of them with a young woman named Kimberly (ex Elder Corbitt knows her well, ha-ha). When I first got here to Badalona we taught her a bit but after a while we stopped teaching her so that maybe in the future she would be prepared to receive the Gospel message. Well, not too long ago we saw her at church again and we set up a visit just to see how she was doing. And she's doing incredible now. She's expressed her desire to be baptized when before she wasn't sure at all. She's obviously had a few doubts and worries but we've been able to help her to know how she can overcome those doubts herself. And the best part is that she's learning and recognizing how to do so through prayer and scripture study. She's currently preparing to be baptized on the 25th of this month and she seems a lot more excited and determined this time. So that's just one little thing that we're really excited about at the moment :).

We did an exchange this week which went great as well and I got to work with an Elder from Finland! Crazy huh?? I got to know him a bit and to talk to him about his life and things back home. He's a pretty big Elder too: tall and just big, ha-ha. He's got a great heart and I'm glad that I got to know him a bit better. The culture is definitely different though, ha-ha. The Olympics aren't too terribly big here. I see people watching it now and then but a majority of the people whom I've visited or talked to don't really watch it. Kinda strange. But every now and then we walk into a home and we have to ask them to turn off the TV so that we don't get caught watching too, ha-ha. Talk about a huge temptation! But everyone knows that we can't watch it during the mission so they all cooperate so it hasn't been that bad.

Life continues on and I'm loving it. We've been blessed in the work and we're so excited for this month. We've got lots to look forward too :). I love you all so much and hope that things are going great. As summer winds down make sure that you take advantage of your free time, ha-ha. Hasta la próxima!

Short on Time!

Unfortunately I don't have a lot of time to write at the moment so I'll write quickly. This week was definitely nothing like I thought it was going to turn out to be, ha-ha. It started out really well and we were seeing lots of success and lots of little miracles all over the place. We did exchanges with some other Elders as well and I was here with another Elder who's from here in Spain. I've known him for quite some time now and it was a great experience to see how he has grown and changed over the course of his mission. We met an old investigator that he had in a previous area but now lives here in Badalona. Small world huh?, ha-ha. We met with her and her husband who are both from the Dominican Republic and they fed us a great lunch. They were really friendly and open and were excited to have a return visit set up. They're a young couple who have a tonnn of potential and I feel that they can progress really well in the next week or two. As we were ending the exchange, Elder Call and I were coming back to our area and when we got home I just started feeling sick, crashed on the couch, and fell asleep, h-aha. That was Thursday and we didn't leave our apartment to do anything until Sunday when we went to church and then after that we came back home and I went back to sleep. It was definitely not fun at all. We had to cancel a bunch of our visits and rearrange a lot of things since we couldn't leave our apartment for a few days. But now I'm fine and ready to work again :). Those few days of rest did a lot of good. Today we have another meeting so that's why I'm really short on time. But just know that things are going soooo well here. This work is just phenomenal and I love it to death.

I love you all so much and I'm glad to hear about you all every now and then. Enjoy summer while you can! It's going by way too quick :) Hasta la próxima!

Hola!!!!

Hello everyone back home! I hope this finds you all safe and sound and that you´re all enjoying your summer. Everything is going great out here in Badalona. Summer is in full swing and the sun is shining and the heat is just great :) ha-ha.

It's been a great week full of learning opportunities. We didn't have a ton of lessons and it was a little rougher with some investigators but I in no way feel discouraged or feel like we didn't work hard. It's something really important that I've come to learn. Earlier on in my mission I used to think that if I didn't have a big teaching pool and if I wasn't teaching a lot of lessons each week, I wasn't a very good missionary. But as I've learned and grown out here, I've come to realize that that really doesn't matter. What truly matters is your own personal dedication, your diligence, your faith, and the amount of effort you put into the Lord's work. And if you do all of that, the success will naturally come. And I feel that even though this past week wasn't our best, I feel like the Lord is pleased with what we've done. And that's all I can ask for :).

Last week I said that we had a man preparing to be baptized for this weekend but we just got news a few days ago that he won't because he has to travel to Bulgaria. His family lives there (mostly his two kids) and there was a terrorist attack in the airport there and his family lives right next to it. So he's going back to see how his family is. He said that he wants to come back and he was really sad that he wouldn't be getting baptized this weekend. But I know that the Lord has His own plan and time for everything. And I know that this man will someday in the future be baptized and receive the fulness of blessings and joy that the Restored Gospel brings.

This past week as well I got to work with Elder Keeler on exchanges! I started my mission with him and we were companions for the whole nine weeks in both Provo and Madrid MTC. But since we've been out here in the mission field, we've never ever served together or even been in the same district or zone until now. He's now in the same district as me and we got to do an exchange this past week and it was an incredible experience. I felt like I was back in the MTC again studying and practicing again, ha-ha. And it just felt comfortable teaching with him because we just clicked together so easily. So that was a pretty fun learning experience.

I can't really think of much else...I know lots happens but I feel like it's just all a blur, ha-ha. Next week we have another meeting on Preparation Day so we'll see how much time we have to write and do other stuff. But I'm excited for it :)

I love you all and miss ya lots! Talk to you all soon!

"Oh Está Todo Bien"

We had a satisfying week I'd say. Everything seems to be just going along well and there's not really much I can even complain about. Actually, I don't think that there's anything to complain about, ha-ha. We've been working hard and finding some great people to teach and seeing a lot of success doing so. We found a family of three from Ecuador whom we started teaching this week and they're really good. They're really open and nice and receive the message well and we're excited to see how they progress next week. Another man who we're teaching, Giovanni, is doing fantastic. He came to church yesterday, loved it, and even participated in the classes. He's preparing to get baptized on the 28th of this month and he's really excited. And so are we :)

We had exchanges with some other Elders in Barcelona this past week and it went pretty well. There's a lot that I learned and there's a lot that we can do to also help the others to continue to improve. It was also pretty neat because I got to go to Barcelona and work in parts that I hadn't been to before and to meet some of the people that the Elders have been teaching. And it's always incredible to me to see that the Gospel blesses everyone who actively and willingly try to learn of its truthfulness. No matter who you are or where you come from, the Restored Gospel blesses those that let it. That's one reason why I love doing these exchanges.

Well, this past week I said that I was probably going to buy a new suit...I didn't. I came really really close though, ha-ha. I had tried it on, it fit perfectly, it looked fantastic, and I had it in my hands and I was debating about whether or not I should buy it then or wait a little longer. And I decided to wait. The thing with these sales here is that they last for about a month or two and about halfway or towards the end, the prices drop again. But you run the risk of something not being there the longer you wait because whoever gets there first gets the item. But both my companion and I decided to wait a little longer until the prices drop again. Hopefully that wasn't a mistake, ha-ha. Oh well.

Today we have interviews with President Pace and I'm really excited about that since it's my first real opportunity to talk with him one on one and to just see what he's like. I'm sure it'll go well though. After the interviews we're just coming back to our area to relax a little for the rest of our Preparation Day.

I can't really think of anything else for some reason, ha-ha. I know lots happened but nothing that really sticks out other that what I've mentioned already. I hope all is well back home and that you're all loving the summer. Take advantage of vacations :) ha-ha. Love you all!

La Segunda Cosecha

For those who don't understand what "La Segunda Cosecha" means, when translated into English it means "The Second Harvest". And that's what we're experiencing right now in our mission. When Spain was opened to missionary work about 40 years ago there was incredible growth. But over the course of the years things started to slow down just a little bit. And now we have entered into another amazing stretch of growth here in the church. Hence "the second harvest". It's truly been incredible to see just what the Lord is doing and just how much He is in control of us and His plan. We have been incredibly blessed up to this point in the year to see growth that we haven't seen in a long time. This past week was an incredible week and we were blessed to see miracle after miracle in our zone and the missionaries are catching the excitement. I could go on and on about all of this but I'm sure I'd bore you all, ha-ha. So I'll switch to some other stuff that's been happening here lately...

I got sick this past week unfortunately but I still went out to work, ha-ha. I know that mom would probably get on to me but thankfully she's not here right now to do that :) ha-ha. Plus I wasn't in my own area. I had gone to Vic, a smaller city in our zone on exchanges and that's when I started just aching all over, I had a headache, I was dead tired the whole time, couldn't eat, but we still went out and worked. It was still a rewarding experience and everything but man am I glad that I'm over that sickness now, ha-ha. Not fun at all. Had a fever, sweated it out every night and then it would come back, but now that I'm back in the comfort of my own area, I can take care of myself better.

While I was there in Vic, the other Elder saw a little booth in the middle of the plaza and wanted to ask where he could buy a Catalan flag and we started talking a little and they found out we were from the US so they gave us stickers of the Texas flag! ha-ha. It was pretty neat and I stuck it in my journal. That doesn't happen too often out here, ha-ha.

The work has been going great! We had a miracle this past week and every time things like this happens I'm always just blown away. But while I was in Vic on exchanges, my companion stayed here with another Elder. The visit that they had scheduled fell through and so they began to walk down the street to pass by someone else and to contact people on the street. As they were walking, someone came running up behind them and said, "Elders!" It was a lady from Nicaragua and she said that she didn't know that we were here in this area! She had only been there about 7 months and she was so happy to find us. She works as a cook in a restaurant and she had literally just dropped everything she was doing when she saw them walk by and came running after them, ha-ha. A visit was set up and she was really excited and we went there and met her roommates. One is named Giovanni and he's also from Nicaragua. He said that he met with missionaries a little bit in Bulgaria and Italy but never had time to do much because of work. He said that they had invited him to be baptized but that he didn't feel like it was his time. But he said that when he heard that we were coming and how we had met Mary, his roommate, he said that he felt like it was a sign from God and he said, "I think I'm ready to be baptized." It was incredible and this man is so humble and sincere. It's just another example of how the Lord brings His prepared children to us. The work is amazing and there's nothing better. I love it and there's nothing else I'd rather be doing.

I gotta go now but I'll keep you in my prayers and I hope that all is well. Love you all!