¡I hope everyone had just an outstanding Christmas!
On the night of Christmas here in Vecindario, we had the awesome
opportunity to sing to some people! Honestly, top 5 best caroling
experiences ever. The Spanish people absolutely loved seeing us
singing, but also we were able to really bring the spirit to some
people. Caroling resulted in a lesson with someone who wouldn't let us
teach him much before, and getting back into the house of a less
active woman and her less active 16 year old son. Both of those
lessons were super powerful, and we are so incredibly grateful for the
lords hands in the work through instances like these.
So here on the island and I think in general in Spain, we don't fill
the font up every week. James isn't crying cause he just got dunked
on in other words, but there are definitely incredible opportunities
to bring others unto Christ. That doesn't just mean with investigators
too. There are so many less active people here and even members of the
church who just need a little animo (encouragement) to do the things
they know they should be doing. We are brainstorming every day to try
and find ways to have more lessons with people, to try and find ways
to meet people's needs, and to try and be the missionaries the lord
knows we are capable of being and wants us to be. There are many days
where we come home after being failed five times in a row, but we get
back on our knees and although slightly discouraged at times, we do
our best to keep calm and plan on. We know the lord will lead us to
new opportunities as we give him all we have got in the days of the
near future.
I don't know, I guess where I am going with this though is that I want
to share with all of you how much missionary work has blessed my life.
I feel like Satan pushes against me every day for what I am doing
here. He's exposed my weaknesses and drilled me on many of them. There
are times where I don't feel capable, smart enough, or even too
imperfect. At the same time, I've never felt so close to my father in
heaven, and I've never felt the power of the atonement so strong
before in my life. In those times where I feel down, all I have to do
is get on my knees. After I do that, I'm filled with hope, and the
energy I need to carry on. I know this is where the lord wants me to
be in my life right now, and I know he has a plan for me here. The
other day I was reading a scripture in 2 Nephi 26:33 which says:
33 For none of these iniquities come of the Lord; for he doeth that
which is good among the children of men; and he doeth nothing save it
be plain unto the children of men; and he inviteth them all to come
unto him and partake of his goodness; and he denieth none that come
unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female; and he
remembereth the heathen; and all are alike unto God, both Jew and
Gentile.
I know I am here because the lord wants all his children to come unto
him, no matter where they are, or where they have been. The savior
performed the atonement for everyone, and his arms are and will always
be forever extended to those who come unto him. It truly was an act of
amazing grace. I'm here to try and help others feel that love here. I
would encourage any of you who are going through some hard times to
take some time and have a conversation with your Heavenly Father. I
promise he will help bring you out of any hole you are In, no matter
how deep, and I promise you that you will feel the empathetic love the
savior has for you.
Another thing I have learned here is that giving service to other
truly does bring happiness. The best days here are the ones where I
get home and reflect on that day, and can honestly say that I gave all
I had to help others. Those are the times when I feel happiest here.
Last thing, is I have absolutely fallen in love with the Book of
Mormon again in the past week. I've received answers to prayers in
this past week in my daily study in it, and have really grown to
understand a lot more what a blessing it is to have it. The Book of
Mormon is so key to gaining a testimony of the gospel. If your
testimony is on the border, read the Book of Mormon again. If you feel
like you've already done it, keep doing it. I promise you with
everything I have in me that you will receive an answer if you read it
with a desire to find answers, and pray with real intent to feel of
its truth. We all have doubts at times, that's normal. Heck, some of
the people here present me with some pretty logical doubts, but my
testimony is firm, because no one could ever take away from me the
sweet spiritual promptings I have had that the Book of Mormon is true.
Maybe it will take some of you some time and some perseverance, but I
promise all of you that if you continue reading and praying and doing
the right things in your life, the answers will come. Doubts will
also come, but just keep reading, and you'll find out the truth is
really what you feel in your heart.
My companion and I are trying to memorize these words from Jeffrey R
Holland about the Book of Mormon because they are so true:
For 179 years this book has been examined and attacked, denied and
deconstructed, targeted and torn apart like perhaps no other book in
modern religious history--perhaps like no other book in any religious
history. And still it stands. Failed theories about its origins have
been born and parroted and have died--from Ethan Smith to Solomon
Spaulding to deranged paranoid to cunning genius. None of these
frankly pathetic answers for this book has ever withstood examination
because there is no other answer than the one Joseph gave as its young
unlearned translator. In this I stand with my own great-grandfather,
who said simply enough, “No wicked man could write such a book as
this; and no good man would write it, unless it were true and he were
commanded of God to do so.”
I testify that one cannot come to full faith in this latter-day
work--and thereby find the fullest measure of peace and comfort in
these, our times--until he or she embraces the divinity of the Book of
Mormon and the Lord Jesus Christ, of whom it testifies. If anyone is
foolish enough or misled enough to reject 531 pages of a heretofore
unknown text teeming with literary and Semitic complexity without
honestly attempting to account for the origin of those
pages--especially without accounting for their powerful witness of
Jesus Christ and the profound spiritual impact that witness has had on
what is now tens of millions of readers--if that is the case, then
such a person, elect or otherwise, has been deceived; and if he or she
leaves this Church, it must be done by crawling over or under or
around the Book of Mormon to make that exit. In that sense the book is
what Christ Himself was said to be: “a stone of stumbling, … a rock of
offence,” a barrier in the path of one who wishes not to believe in
this work. Witnesses, even witnesses who were for a time hostile to
Joseph, testified to their death that they had seen an angel and had
handled the plates. “They have been shown unto us by the power of God,
and not of man,” they declared. “Wherefore we know of a surety that
the work is true.”
To sum it up, the lord loves us all. He will always be there for us,
and through Jesus Christ, we will always have someone there to comfort
us in our time of need who knows exactly what we are going through
because Jesus Christ came and fulfilled the atonement.
I know the Book of Mormon is true, and because it is true, Joseph
Smith was a prophet, and this truly is the church of Jesus Christ of
Latter Day Saints restored back again here on the earth, and I know we
have a prophet here on the earth today. I say these things in the
name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Elder Baron
P day hike in the middle of the island
The public bus they take everywhere. They call it "Gua Gua" pronounced Wa Wa
Waiting at the Gua Gua stop
