Welp, it´s been a pretty stinking awesome month. Marisol and her children did get baptized and the baptismal service was awesome. I had the privilage of baptising Marisol and my companion baptized her daughter Alejandra, and a member Vladimir (I love this man, he´s a saint in all definittions of the word) got to baptize the son Josue. Super cool experience. The husband Gustavo unfortunately did not get baptized, but we are confidnet that down the road, not to long from now, he will be baptized. Marisol, in the baptismal service got up and bore her testimony and was in tears, telling us how happy she is, and how good she feels becuase she is free from her past mistakes and that her children have a good and positive enviroment to grow up in. In one years time they´ll be going to the temple for sure. And Josue has already said that he wants to be a missionary. Holy. Cow. You´ve heard me say it before, but let me just say it again, missionary work is the best!!
So Monday we traveled to Málaga to have the concilio with President Deere and Hermana Deere. We talked about how to be leaders in the church, the customs and things we do, and then we talked a lot about obedience. We studied that all together for the whole month of Feburary and it was really good. I learned a lot about obedience and the whole expereince has given me a new perspective of obedience, a new drive to be obedient, and a deeper understanding of the importance of it and the power that comes with it. I enjoyed it so much that I have decided that for the rest of my mission I will study one subject a month. The month of march I will study the love of God/ charity. I invite you all to do something similar with your study habits. Pick a subject, or an attribute that you would like to aquire, and then study the thing for a whole month! It´s incredible the ways that your understanding will deepen and your mind be illuminated. Scripture study is cool!
This Firday is Zone Conference where we teach the zone what President taught us. We´re going to talk about the key indicators and the one that in our zone we need help with, and that is having investigators in church. "investigators that come to church get baptized," as said by the famous Elder Bird, (no relation to Larry Bird). In our zone we know how to find, and we teach plenty of lessons, but it seems like we can´t get our investigators to church as much as we would like. So, we will be teaching this principle on Friday. And we´ve brought a surpirse for the zone. We asked a favor from the hermanas on the US military base in Sevilla to bring us enough root beer for the whole zone to make rootbeer floats. So, 22 cans of rootbeer made the long haul of over 400 kilometers in my suitcase with piles of books of mormon stacked on top of them, and I am happy to report that there were no problems. No one goes to as much effort to make their zone happy as we do, that´s for sure.
Mom asked me if I ever have bad or hard days becuase every time I write, I always right such up beat letters. And the answer might come to a shock, but of course I have bad days! There are days where all of our plans fail us, where we don´t meet our goals, where we lose investigators, where people yell and spit on me in the street, days where I arrive home and all I want to do is crawl into bed and sleep for the next week. But I never right about that because it doesn´t matter. It´s normal to have bad days, but when I´m writing, I´m trying to remember all of the blessings I received that week and all of the miracles I saw, so naturally the letters come out super happy. It´s a technique that President Deere has talked about, and countless other church leaders: trying to find the good in every situation, and being grateful for the blessings of each day. It´s what helps keep us humble, and it helps keep me excited. I try my hardest to always be excited and have a good attitude, and I do it by trying my hardest to remember. Remember His Atonement, His love, and the blessings He has already given me, and the promise of the blessings to come. Remember. It´s a difficult thing to do, especially when the world tries so hard to make us forget, but that´s why the Lord has given us the Holy Ghost, it´s one of His jobs. The Gift of the Holy Ghost really is the most precious gift that God can give us in this life. Let us all learn to appreciate that gift, and seek for it´s guidance and help.
I love you all so much! This month we´re going to work hard with a man named Leo (he´s come to church once) and a family named Milton, Ruth, and Chris. They´re all super prepared and we´re going to work hard this month to help them get baptized. I hope you all have a fabulous week, and if it´s going a little slow, just think of this: it´s already Wednesday! Luvs!
Shane
this is me and my companion at the mission home.
and this is my companion learning to drive. nuff said.
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