Email 10/7/17
Hello everybody,
Last week started out kind of bad. From Sunday through Wednesday, Elder Moffat and I were both sick with some sort of stomach flu, so we were stuck in piso for a few days, dying. It was pretty miserable. The worst part was that we had to cancel a few teaching appointments, but it was a definite necessity to rest. Hopefully we’ll be able to get those appointments arranged again for this week. One of the appointments we had to cancel was for our investigator Bernardo, whom we haven’t seen in a month, so that one was especially sad to have to postpone. But, it is what it is.
After our fun sick fest, we went down to Málaga. Thursday evening, there was a training meeting for the district leaders of the Granada and Málaga 1 and 2 zones, and then Friday was Zone Conference! One really cool thing that we did during the meeting was that every companionship stood up and shared a miracle that they had seen happen recently. You see, for the last fast Sunday, we had a special focus as a mission during the fast to have the missionary work go well and also to help us to be able to meet the mission goal of 22 baptisms during the month of July. There were so many miracles that happened as a result of this fast!
The thing that really struck me about the miracles that everyone shared was that they were all about individual people or families. “So and so came to church for the first time in months,” or, “our investigator committed to baptism,” and other great things like that. A quote in the book “Adjusting to Missionary Life” says that, “You [as a missionary] have a front row seat to the greatest miracle of all: the effect of Christ’s Atonement on individuals and families.” The work of salvation is truly a “one-by-one” experience. Our Heavenly Father knows us all individually and we can all have a personal relationship with Him and with our Savior Jesus Christ. The best part of the mission definitely has been all of the people that I’ve met and have seen change through the Atonement of Christ. The miracle of change is real.
On Saturday, we helped out with a youth fundraising activity in order to help the youth in our ward earn money for a stake campout. We spent the afternoon helping them wash and clean the member’s cars, who in turn donated money to the camping trip fund. It was a really fun service opportunity!
And finally, yesterday, Pablo was baptized! He’s going to be confirmed next week, so it’s not all done yet, but the baptism yesterday went really well! Pablo may be only 14, but he’s one of the most solid people in the gospel that I’ve met. Although really any missionary could have been the ones to “officially” teach and prepare him for baptism, it was a special privilege to be one of the missionaries who did just that. Him being baptized was for sure one of the biggest miracles I’ve ever seen.
Needless to say, the mission is going great!
Love,
Élder Stark ??
Photos
1: Somewhere outside of Málaga
2: Elder Darrington!!!
3: Santiago, or, The Realest OG
4: All of us missionaries with Jesús, our ward mission leader who is moving back to his country this week, sadly.
5: With Jesús
6: Elder Stark, Pablo, Elder Moffat, Carlos
7: With Pablo, Jesús, and the Bishop haha
8: Until next time
