Leaving Motril

Email 1/5/17

Hello everybody,

Yesterday, we received notice of the transfer changes. I’m actually being transferred to another area within my current district (which was a bit of a surprise), to the city of Jaén. It is a few hours inland from where Motril is on the cost. My new companion will be Elder Moffat. All I know about him right now is that he is from Las Vegas, NV, has around six months less time than I do in the mission, and was trained by Elder De La Rosa, the district leader here. Also, we’re whitewashing / reopening that area, so we’ll both be new there. You see, Jaén typically has two companionships (four missionaries) there, but for the last transfer, there’s only been one companionship of three missionaries there. So this will be an adventurous start to this transfer, heading into this new area with a lot of unknowns.

Of course, that means that my six months here in Motril is coming to a close. I’m definitely going to miss it. I’ve met a lot of great people here and have learned a ton from this area. Changes are always bittersweet moments.

On Sunday (yesterday), we had stake conference. It was in the Granada chapel with all of the members from here, Málaga, Almería, Jaén, etc. in attendance. The chapel and overflow seating areas, which are basically the same size as a chapel and cultural center in a typical church building in the states, were packed full of people. It was quite the different experience from the small 10 people sacrament meetings that I’ve grown accustomed to here.

It was a really good conference. Elder Patrick Kearon of the seventy (and also president of the Europe area) was there, as well as Elder Karl D. Hirst, a newly called area seventy. Elder Kearon spoke about how to make the messages we heard in the stake conference last “past Tuesday,” or in other words, how to actually put things into practice in order to achieve our goals and become more like the Savior. He was walking around, greeting members before the conference started, so I was able to shake his hand and talk to him for a second, so that was cool.

A bunch of other things happened this week. For starters, we went up to Granada to do intercambios with Elder De La Rosa and Elder Bird. It was a really, really good intercambio. Elder De La Rosa and I had the opportunity to teach about the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ to one of their new investigators, and it was probably one of the best lessons I’ve had on my mission. The spirit was so strong, and we were able to commit that investigator to being baptized this month!

Also, later in the week, Elder Pack and I decided that we wanted to pass by the house of this future investigator we found while street contacting a few months ago. This guy was from Morocco, and every time that we’ve passed by his house in the past, he’s been in Morocco, working. Not this time though! His Spanish isn’t the best, and we can’t really speak Arabic, but luckily we had copies of the Book of Mormon and pamphlets in Arabic, so we were able to start teaching him and his family about the restoration. We’ve only had one lesson with them, but they expressed that they are very excited to learn more about Jesus Christ, so that was super exciting! الكنيسة صحيحة!

I’ve been thinking about the scripture Moroni 10:32 a lot this week: “Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God.” It is such a powerful verse and important invitation. The promise here is also incredibly straightforward. As we choose to come unto Christ by following the commandments and making covenants, we are perfected in Him. I love Him. I love this promise. So simple, but so true. Come unto Him.

Love,

Élder Stark ??

Photos

1: The District (feat. The Gibsons who dropped by our district meeting on Tuesday): Hermana Gentry, Hermana Woods, Elder Carter, Elder Bird; Hermana Gibson, Elder Gibson, Elder Cox, Elder Cerna, Elder Stark, Elder Ramirez, Elder Morgan, Elder Pack, Elder De La Rosa