Email 12/12/16
Hello everybody,
I’m writing this sitting on a bus, taking the hour long bus ride that drives through the snow capped mountains that separate Motril from the big city of Granada. It’s a drive that we usually take on Tuesdays in order to get to our district meeting, but today, p-day, we’re going to the famed Alhambra, so prepare yourselves for pictures coming next week.
As far as how the previous week went, it was pretty normal. There’s an area a bit on the outskirts of Motril that we discovered where missionaries haven’t worked a lot in the past. So, we’ve been knocking a lot of doors, trying to find people to teach, and in this effort, we’ve been taking advantage of the #IluminaElMundo Christmas initiative, offering to share a quick message about Christmas, showing them the video if they’re interested, and then extending the invitation for us to return and teach them more. It’s been working pretty well so far, we’ve found a few people who we’re going to try to go back to visit again.
As we were walking to this area one day, this guy stopped us in the streets, and asked, “Vosotros sois mormones, no?” (“You’re mormons, right?”), which, of course, we responded in the affirmative, and it turns out that he was meeting with the missionaries several years ago and decided that he wanted to learn more about the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ again. It’s always a miracle worth sharing when something like that happens, so we hope and pray for the best.
For the Christmas season, my mom mailed me a letter containing little notes from some of my extended family members with the intention that I read one each day leading up to Christmas. First, a big thanks to all who were kind enough to write me something. It really means a lot to me. On Thursday, the note that I opened was from my cousin, Alexis, who shared Alma 37:37. (“Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good; yea, when thou liest down at night lie down unto the Lord, that he may watch over you in your sleep; and when thou risest in the morning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God; and if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day.”) Flash forward to the evening when we were teaching one of our investigators and were trying to explain to him the importance of morning and nightly prayers, and boom, here was this perfect scripture that we were able to share with him to help him understand the concept that I probably wouldn’t have been able to think of off the top of my head. We used that same scripture two other times this week, so thanks to Alexis, and thanks again to my other family members for your notes of encouragement and inspiration.
Have a good week, good luck with finals, Merry Christmas, etc.
Élder Stark ??
Photos
1: ///otril
2: Glimpse of a sunset
3: Invading Santa’s privacy
4: A contrail scarred sky
5: Until next time