HOLA

Hey everyone,

I hope you all had the week you had, which is a good one I hope, but
you had what you had. Anyways!

This week was one of not many lessons.  A ton of our investigators
were not able to meet this week due to well, I don't know what.  It
was kinda a rough week as far as setting up appointments with people
and actually having them, But the lessons we were able to have this
week went pretty well!

Probably the funniest part of this week was our ward party.  Oh man,
we had a talent night for our ward party, and everyone and their mom
participated and showed up.  There were a ton of people there.  My
companion and I and the hermanas in our ward did this skit where we
have the other companion hide behind us and use his arms as if they
were our arms.  If you've never seen it before you are probably pretty
confused but if you have I hope you know what I am talking about.  Our
skit was about the typical day in the life of a missionary.  We ate
breakfast, shaved, brushed our teeth, exercised, but all with the arms
of our companion.  My companion pretty much put shaving cream all over
my whole face and almost made me die by putting too much cereal in my
mouth, but overall, it was a pretty successful skit! The people in the
ward thought it was pretty funny, so we were stoked with the way that
turned out.

This week I want to share with you part of one of the spiritual thoughts
we shared with one of the families in our ward.  We shared the Mormon
message with them called 'The Will of the Lord' (at least that's how
it translates from the Spanish title).  I'm sure many of you have seen
it.  It's about the talk D.Todd Christofferson gave in 2011 at a
general conference meeting.  In this talk, he gives the metaphor of
how the gardener has to cut down this beautiful plant, and the plant
is sad because it looses all the things that it had to make it happy and
beautiful in its appearance. The gardener then tells the plant that he
is the gardener there and he knows what he wants the plant to become.
Anyways, the plant eventually grows up into something even more
beautiful than it was before.

It's a metaphor that is very applicable to our lives.  Many times we
are doing good, we are doing the right things, and bam, something
comes and cuts us right down, and totally ruins everything we had
going for us.  Often times we wonder why does this happen.  If God
really does love us and want the best for us, why does he let those
trials enter our lives which make us unhappy for a time.  But the
answer is in the question.  Because God loves us, he lets these things
happen.  He has divine potential for each and every one of us, but
sometimes we have to have trials to help us fulfill this potential.

Or, Maybe sometimes we have to suffer something because there is
someone else who is going to suffer something similar in the future of
our lives, and he needs us there to help that person too.  Whatever it
is, many of the trials we have in our lives despite our efforts to be
the best we can be are to help us become even more, to become even
better.

But how do we keep our cool, and allow these trials to help us.  I
mean, sometimes it's really hard to look at the bright side of life
when it just feels like nothing is going your way.  We just need to do
everything we can to be patient, and trust that the lord will deliver
us.  I Love what it says in Mosiah 23:21-22

21 Nevertheless the Lord seeth fit to chasten his people; yea, he
trieth their patience and their faith.

22 Nevertheless--whosoever putteth his trust in him the same shall be
lifted up at the last day. Yea, and thus it was with this people.

Remember that the Lord Loves each and every one of us, and he just
wants the best things possible for us.  Sometimes we have to pass
through the lowest of lows to get there, but we know we have a Savior
who suffered those same things to carry us through those times.  Our
Father in Heaven will lead us to never ending happiness if we trust
the gardener, and use the times where we are cut down to grow into
things that are even more beautiful.

Love you all and hope you have a fantastic week



Elder Baron

Hola Todos

Hello everyone,

I hope you all had the best week of your life... Let's be real, that
probably didn't happen, but maybe your week wasn't the best.  If
that's the case, hang in there.  I love ya, and the lord loves you
even more.  Prayer will get you through everything, never forget that.

It was a pretty good week here in Vecindario.  There's always good and
bad to everything, but life's easier when you remember the good, so
that's gonna be my focus with this email. This week we had an awesome
ward activity.  We hiked to this waterfall as a ward. The hike was
super pretty, but pretty hard for a lot of the members.  Most of them
went home and barely made it to church the next day because they were
so sore.

One of the best parts of this week was we baptized one of our
investigators, the Cuban who has been reading the Book of Mormon like
crazy. Holy cow, he is such an incredible example for me.  This man
went from never having prayed in his entire life to reading and
praying every day, and absolutely loving church. You truly can see the
change in his countenance that has come by his decisions to grow his
faith and change his life by accepting and living the gospel.  It
truly was an unreal experience to baptize someone.  As I stood there
in the front with him, the mission became way more real. I realized
where I was, what was happening, and how lucky I was to be there at
that moment. I cannot even describe it completely, but it truly was a
special experience.

One thing that really helped me a lot this week that I would like to
share with you is the story of Peter and the Savior walking on water.
The scripture is the following

Matthew 14:
25 And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking
on the sea.

26 And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were
troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear.

27 But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it
is I; be not afraid.

28 And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come
unto thee on the water.

29 And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he
walked on the water, to go to Jesus.

30 But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning
to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me.

31 And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and
said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?

There are so many times where my faith is tested out here.  There are
times where I feel like there is no light at the end of the tunnel
with some of these investigators, like I will never be even close to a
perfect teacher, or like I will never be able to speak this language
fluently or understand it completely.  Like Peter, we need to keep our
eye on the savior though and on our goals.  Forget about the obstacles
that are all around us. But we aren't perfect though.  There will be
times where we can't just forget about those trials that are around us
that easily, and our faith may dwindle a bit, but if we look back to
the savior, he will catch us before we fall, and pull us out of any
difficult situation. I love this scripture from Mosiah 29, which says

20 But behold, he did deliver them because they did humble themselves
before him; and because they cried mightily unto him he did deliver
them out of bondage; and thus doth the Lord work with his power in all
cases among the children of men, extending the arm of mercy towards
them that put their trust in him.

The Lord really will lead us on the right path, and help us, but we
have to humble ourselves and trust him.  Sometimes it's really hard to
do that, but it becomes easier when we have the right perspective. The
lord knows the past the present and the future of our lives.  He has
divine potential for each and every one of us. He wants us to be
successful and happy here and in the eternities.  We just need to do
the things that are right and trust him.  Even when we do all that
though, it doesn't mean that the hard times go away, but as we trust
in the lord, he fills our hearts with the hope to make it through.
Obedience to the gospel really will make one happier right now, and
forever.

I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Hope all is well with everyone, have a great week


Elder Baron

                       El bautismo

              Despues del bautismo

The coast here yields Norwegians in speedos and ships

               The Church building 

     Waterfall on our hike with the ward 

HEY AMERICANS

Hello amigos,

Well this week went pretty well here in the canaries.  Every week has
its challenges but this week was pretty tranquilo (Low key, yeah they
have a word for it in Spanish)  Today, we played soccer again but this
time with all the missionaries on the island on this court right on
the beach up in las palmas.  I don't have my converter, but next week
I will for sure send more pics and videos of what the court looked
like, but it was weird to be so close to the water again and to not be
able to jump right in.  Our area is so huge here.  We've got everyone
from the people who live up in the mountains to the people who live
right along the beach.  Yesterday we walked to a less actives house in
the coolest little pueblito I've seen yet on this whole island.  It
kinda reminded me of San Clemente.  There was a sweet surf spot right
out there too, and people getting ready to go out.  Except here they
don't really get towel changing into wetsuits, they kinda just do it
without the towels, we didn't get too much of a view because we had to
leave at that point, but before that, it was sweet to see a place that
reminded me so much of California. Other than that, things are going
forward here.  Investigators progress and digress like crazy. Every
day is a new opportunity here with ups and downs, but the mission
moves.

This week we had a really neat experience with a new investigator.
Right now we have a pretty solid amount of investigators, but most of
them are from other countries.  The Cubans we have are golden though.
This investigator was a man we found outside of the house of one of
our other investigators.  Actually, we didn't have a ton of time and
we were on our way home, but he stopped us and just started asking us
about who we were.  We got his information to meet with him, and he
told us he was going to be at church the next day.  Well, that week he
wasn't there, but we saw him again in the streets a couple days later
and talked again.  He left us with, ya know, I don't think it's a
coincidence we saw each other twice.  We taught that guy the next day
and had one of our best lessons yet with the restoration.  The spirit
was really strong as we shared the first vision with this man, it
really did fill the room. We gave this man a Book of Mormon and when
we met a couple days later he had picked out alma and read almost all
of it.  We were stunned.  We had another good lesson with him, and
invited him to church the next day.  My companion spoke as well as one
of the hermanas in our ward, and a member of the stake presidency.  He
absolutely loved it. There was an incredible spirit in that meeting
that day though, it was unlike any other Sunday. (Especially as we
closed the meeting singing families can be together forever. Another
one of our Cuban investigators brought his wife that day too and she
was crying through the meeting. But back to the first Cuban, it's
amazing how the lord works.  We have been trying so hard to think of
all these new ways to find new people to teach here, and the lord led
this man just right into our hands.  Now, we don't know what is going
to happen with this man.  But we know that the lord has already given
us incredible opportunities to share the gospel with him, and we know
that the rest will come when the Lord has planned.


This morning I was reading in Mosiah 18, which is where alma baptises
a ton of people.  There were a couple versus that stood out to me
though.

27 And again Alma commanded that the people of the church should
impart of their substance, every one according to that which he had;
if he have more abundantly he should impart more abundantly; and of
him that had but little, but little should be required; and to him
that had not should be given.

28 And thus they should impart of their substance of their own free
will and good desires towards God, and to those priests that stood in
need, yea, and to every needy, naked soul.

29 And this he said unto them, having been commanded of God; and they
did walk uprightly before God, imparting to one another both
temporally and spiritually according to their needs and their wants.

I love these simple versus.  The Lord truly does command us to share
all that we have.  It's hard to leave to go on a mission.  It's
difficult to leave things behind, and sometimes you miss things about
home, but really, almost every missionary who goes on a mission is sad
for the day when they have to go home, and every day, it only gets
easier.  Why is that so?  It's because there truly is great joy that
comes from sharing what we have with other people.  That's something
that happens out here.  As we see how others are blessed by the
message that we have rooted as the center of our lives, we have a
desire to share it with even more people. The more I give of myself
out here to both the lord and to my investigators, the happier I am,
and the more I want to share the gospel with others

If any of you guys are at home and are thinking about the decision of
whether or not to serve a mission. GO! It's only been a few months but
I've learned so much here about myself and about the gospel, and this
already feels like one of the greatest adventures and blessings I've
had in my life.  I can promise you it will be the same for you too!

Other than that, I really want everyone reading this to know that I
love you. I'm grateful the Lord crossed our paths.  I'm grateful for
every day, and I'm grateful to be a missionary.  Hope you all have a
great week!



Elder Baron

                   Me and my Dad 

   Playing with the thousand stray cats               we find in the streets 

Weekly update!

HEYO

Well, today's situation with the wifi is not good and I've got five
minutes to write something to change the world,  so here it goes...

This week was pretty challenging to have lessons because everyone is
doing things for the holidays, but we still had some great experiences
with our investigators, and feeling the spirit.  As far as a scripture
that really helped me this week, Moroni 7: 45, 47-48 is one that comes
to my mind.  It's about how charity suffereth long, is kind and
envieth not.  That's something I am working on a ton out here.  We
have these Christ like attributes that we work on from preach my
gospel, and that's the one I'm working on now because I think I
struggle with that the most.  As I have tried harder to give more love
to others though, I really have felt more love from my Heavenly Father
in my Life. Tip of the week I guess is you have to give more love to
feel more love.

As far as what is going on here, they have a huge holiday on the 5th
of January here bigger than Christmas called the day of the kings
(That is when they do gifts for Christmas), so everyone is all amped
for that. New Years was interesting.  We ate some delicious turkey at
the bishops and got firecrackers thrown at us, but the only thing we
kissed was goodbye to our childhood.  Today was rad.  We played soccer
on a court with a bunch of the youth in the ward and some non members
and less actives.  Seriously was such a blast! The people here are
pretty passionate about soccer, they don't mess around that's for
sure.  But it was sweeeeet.

Hope all is well with everyone at home and hope you guys had a great
holiday season.

Hasta la vista baby

Elder Baron