Baptism in the Basque Country

BATPISM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Faith got baptized. There was a lot of stuff that happened this week, fulll of crazy stuff and full of miracles. I will start from the beginning. We went to Bilbao for a zone conference and we got to teach for 10 minutes. It was great. It was what our zones needed and it was what I needed. I learned a lot about being a better person. President and Hermana Pace are really worried, not only about during the mission but also after the mission. They want us to endure to the end. 

We found a great Spaniard early last week. His name is Pablo. He is from north Spain. We have already taught him twice and he came to Faith´s baptism and loved it then came to church. He told us it has been a desire of his to be baptized in the name of the father, and the son, and the holy ghost. We are very excited to be with him.

At the baptism of Faith she brought 4 friends with her, one less active and 3 nonmembers. boom!!! 2 of the which have baptism fechas. We had a huge turn out because at church last week and during the week she made sure that everyone knew about her baptism. It was great to see the real desire to be baptized. 

Last night we had 2 great visits that just make me think about the importance of members. 1st we had a visit and we brought a member all the people present were from Nigeria. There were moments when the investigators didn´t understand what was going on in the lesson and our member explained to them in the simple terms of a recent convert what we were trying to say. He even testified the need for them to be baptized. 

2nd We had a family night with a member family and a nonmember friend. We watched the restoration and the members testified. I am getting better at really loving and using the members.

We are going to start this new transfer off with a bang. I don´t know how but somehow Elder Wiscombe and I are going to find the whole world, then teach them then baptize them. Let´s do this! Let´s go baptize the world!!

Prayer list:

Pablo: Baptized the 12th. Quit smoking.

César: come to church. baptized the 12th.

Austin and Doris. come to church. Baptized the 12th.

Thank you all! I love all of you and thank you for your prayers! Can we all go out and baptize the world please?

Élder Smiley

Finally we got a letter with some length!!

Today I finally have some time to talk to y´all. This past month has been an atrocity, trying to pull everything together and do everything, but today I have a little bit of a break to talk to y´all. This past week was a bit crazy and a bit funny. First of all I got to do a companionship exchange with a missionary who reminds me of Jake Lamb. It was so funny. He talked about Star Wars, sword fighting, and all this other crazy stuff. It was something I will never forget. 

Another funny story, we were teaching Faith this Saturday and we were teaching the word of wisdom and we brought up tea. She asked if we couldn´t drink all teas and we told her the exceptions that our president has told us!  She responded saying that there was one herb that helps her go to sleep and poop better. When she said this Elder Wiscombe and I tried so hard not to laugh, while our member explained everything and she was ok with it. I had to say a prayer in my head so I wouldn´t destroy the rest of the lesson.

Yesterday was the best and the worst. Almost none of our investigators could come to church.  Then almost all of our visits with new investigators fired. That made me mad. Especially when we are trying so hard to find these 2000 new investigators, but all of them are firing us and we just can´t find them. After trying everything that we could and passing by and talking to everyone a miracle happened. We found him. The friend of a member that has been reading the Book of Mormon but just has not had time to meet with the missionaries. He is in Alma! He loves it. He wants to know more about it. He is so excited. It was a testimony builder to me that AFTER we do all we can that God will come in and do the rest. Just like the atonement. He will do the rest. 

Just one of the few lessons I have learned from being a missionary. I have learned so many it´s hard to count, but these are the lessons and the things I will use and know for the rest of my life. It is not about me anymore. Probably the hardest lesson to learn as a 19 year old.

This week in Vitoria we should have a triple dipper, between us and the Hermanas.

Prayer list:

Faith will be baptized this week.

George and Luilli from the hermanas.

Maria and Elisa can know they are ready for baptism. They can just DO IT!!!

Cesar can be baptized on the 12 of Julio.

FIND! FIND! FIND!

I love all of you and thank you for everything! Y´all are the best and I pray for you and I feel your prayers. 

Élder Smiley

I guess we are thankful for the short letters we get!!

Crazy week. Everything hit the fan. Investigators dropping us. Fired visits. Lying street contacts. The worst. To top it all off we had miracles on Sunday. I don´t know why but it usually is just like that. This Sunday an investigator that hadn´t come to church in almost 2 years came. She is finally starting to progress and we are hoping to help her and her friend start trucking right along!!! I´m sorry I don´t have as much time now a days with everything going on especially because a bunch of crazy stuff is happening in the zone and we have got to find 2000 news this month so this is short and I am sorry. I will tell all of you thank you for your prayers and your fasts. I feel your spirit and your help with me when it is just hard. Thank you and I love all of you!!! I hope the best for all of you!!!

Prayer list:

1.Doris. Baptized the 28th. Read. pray and come to church

2. Faith. Baptized the 21st. Read and pray.

3.Maria and Elisa. Read and pray and accept a fecha.

4. Find! Find! Find!

Getting used to life as a Zone Leader

This week was my first week in my area. It was incredible!!!! Elder Wiscombe is incredible!!!! I love it so much and he is the best companion!!! (I love all my companions)

We have seen so many miracles this past week I think because this next week we will not be in our area hardly at all. Yesterday we went to Barcelona for the leadership meeting and tomorrow we have the zone “focus” (of the which I will be doing with Elder Wiscombe which is a little intimidating) and a zone conference back in Bilbao!!!! It´s great!!! hahaha Fun fact for you. Elder Wiscombe is from Morgan Utah and he knows the Smileys up north. (represent!!!!)

We had a huge activity this Saturday to start off the month of invitation (I will explain this more) and had a huge turn out. It was definitely a huge miracle!!! 

At the activity some members came up to us and told us that they were going to bring 3 friends to church tomorrow and wanted us to help them. What? Miracle!!!

Our investigators and less active came to church 30 minutes early and sat down and read the Book of Mormon. It was just one of those proud moments of your mission.

At leadership conference we made a goal for this June to do something we have never done before, to find 2000 new investigators as a mission. We have never done that before and it would be the miracle of the century. (By the way I think the picture of us at leadership conference is on Pte Pace´s facebook. not sure) I sure hope that we can get our zone fired up about it.

June, the month of invitation. In Europe June is the month of invitation, where every member should invite a friend or a less active to come to church or listen to the missionaries. We are very excited here in Vitoria and I would love to invite every single one of you to take the month of invitation to help some one meet with the missionaries or to come back to church. We have already seen miracles from it.

I got your package and I thank you for that but I do not need any more socks, I think, for the rest of my life. I have a million!!! Thank you so much for the candy!!! WE are so excited to eat away!!!

Vitoria is looking super solid and we are running off the ward and it is incredible! We are working with the members better than ever before and baptisms will be coming and retention will stay so we are pumped!!! We had 5 baptisms in our zone in May, but we are hoping to at least double that in June. I hope everything is going well for you there. Love you!!

Prayer list: 

Mercedes and fam. Baptism on the 14th.

Benita: Read, pray and come to church.

That our mission can find 2000 news.

I love all of you and thank you for everything you do for me!!! Love you all!!!

HELLO VITORIA!!

I am loving it up here in Vitoria! It is still super cold, but it´s going great.

I love my companion Elder Wiscombe. He is an incredible missionary and leader! I love him to death!

I got a good welcome from the WARD!!! of 80 people!!! It is incredible!! The members are so excited for the missionary work and we are super excited for them!

Today is a picture email day I hope you love all of them!

Plus nothing crazy happened this week except for not knowing anything about anything, being hit with the neuby syndrome again and being completely new.  

The new Zone Leaders in Vitoria Zone!  Get ready to dance the Baptize Boogie!!!!