Email 2/4/18
Hello everybody,
“…Truth is knowledge of things as they are, and as they were, and as they are to come” (D&C 93:24). Our Heavenly Father is a “…God of truth, and canst not lie” (Ether 3:12). The Church of Christ is “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets” (Ephesians 2:20). The Lord has also declared, “whether [I speak] by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same” (D&C 1:38). Thus, we can be sure that when we hear our living prophet and his Apostles speak, it is the voice of the Lord, and what they are saying is the unchangeable truth.
It was a wonderful general conference this weekend! Very historic. We went to the stake center in San Fernando to watch the sessions (at an eight hour time difference) and even though we were just in a small upstairs room, watching it in English, with a handful of other missionaries, the spirit was just as strong as if we were there personally in the conference center. I felt the unmistakable impressions of the spirit testifying to me that Russell M. Nelson is indeed God’s prophet, and I am anxious to review his instructions given to us over the coming days, weeks, and months.
Also, yesterday was Easter! In Spain, it’s not just a one day holiday, but a week long festivo. This involves losts of processions through the streets, including giant floats (not sure if that is the right word) of scenes from Christ’s last week, marching bands, and people dressed in the traicional (traditional) Semana Santa pointy cap robes. Yeah, the ones that look like what the KKK wears. I’m not sure what all of the symbolism behind it is, but I think one reason they’re like that is because the people in the parades are repentant sinners, participating as some sort of rite to receive forgiveness, and it’s something they do anonymously.
All of these processions naturally caused some interruptions to missionary work, making it harder to get from place to place and also not being able to meet with some of our investigators, but we managed to survive. There was even a procession that passed on the street right outside of our Piso one night, which we were able to watch from our balcony. Of course, I will attach pictures.
Some other news coming out of Spain is that the Spain MTC is closing at the end of the year. When they announced that our mission, The Spain Málaga Mission, was being dissolved into the Spain Madrid and Spain Barcelona missions, they made a big deal of reminding us that they’re not “closing” the mission, but “consolidating” it. I have had fun over the past few days reminding people to say that they are “consolidating” the MTC, not “closing” it, but I think my unfunny sense of humor was not understood by most haha. It is sad to see, but understandable as to why the church is making this decision.
In the sprit of Easter, we went to Frank and Ana Belén’s house to share the “SiempreAhí” message with them and encourage them to share it with their friends. They have these two daughters, Paula, age 4, and Carlota, age 2, that are just the funnest little kids to be around. Paula was playing with a Minnie Mouse doll and the “Richard” doll, named after me, that I sent a picture of in one of my previous emails. I ended up using the dolls to act out the appearance of the resurrected Christ to Mary Magdalena to her. So for the next half hour she was walking around the Piso with the Minnie Mouse doll saying, “dónde está Jesucristo?” I guess that means I explained the first part of the story pretty good but probably lost her on the second part haha. Oh well. It was cute. She’ll figure it out eventually.
We also had stopped by Tomas’s house one evening because he hadn’t been to church in a few weeks. You may remmeber him as being the father of Raquel, who left on her mission to Argentina several months ago. Well he was there, and so was Sara, Raquel’s twin sister, who is menos activa, and I feel like we had a good lesson with them and I definitely felt like I got to know Sara a lot better. It was a really positive interaction.
A few weeks ago, I mentioned María Ángeles, and her sister Ana María, and Ána María, the daughter of her namesake. They let us come back this week and teach them which was super good because we thought that they really weren’t that interested. None of them kept their commitment to read the Book of Mormon that we had left them, so we re-emphasized the importance of it, and invited them to do it again. Hopefully they do.
Also, we saw Alfonso a few times during the week. He’s still doing good. He was watching General Conference yesterday at his house. We’re going to be working our best to make sure he’s at church every week from now on now that he’s doing better.
Lastly, this is going to be my last transfer. I come home in six weeks! My trainee, companion for the last three transfers, and good friend, Elder Clark, is being moved to Cartagena. Elder Castillo from Costa Rica is going to be my final companion. I don’t think I’ve ever talked to him, but he’s been in the mission for over a year, so he’s breaking the trend I’ve experienced my entire mission of my companions progressively getting younger in the mission. (My trainer was at 1.5 years, my second companion at 14 months, my third companion at 1 year, my next at 6 months, etc.) It’ll be good to shake things up a bit.
Love,
Élder Stark ??
Photos
1: A scene from the Garden of Gethsemane
2: Futbolito
3: With Tomas and Sara
4-9: Semana Santa on Bag Street
10,13: Catholic roadblocks
11: We met a pig
12: Cool stripes
13: Dani is French
14: District meeting
15: Until next time
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