New transfer, new opportunities

Que pasa mufasa

Well nothing really changed here with transfers as far as my companion
and our assignment, but what did change is that we only have two other
missionaries in our district who weren't in it before.

IF ANYONE HAS ANY GOOD IDEAS FOR FAMILY HOME EVENINGS THAT ARE FUN
PLEASE SEND THEM TO ME THIS WEEK IF YOU CAN.

Spiritual aspect of this email.  A teacher asked me to share what my
patriarchal blessing meant for me this Sunday.  As I began explaining
it, a scripture came into my head, and the spirit gave me some
thoughts I had never had before.  I would love to share a few of them.

In Ether 12:27 it says
27 And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I
give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is
sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they
humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make
weak things become strong unto them.

I believe that the things we read about in our patriarchal blessings
are the blessings we can obtain as we learn to trust in the Savior,
and overcome our weaknesses.  As we overcome those weaknesses, we find
our strengths. We fulfill our divine potential and are blessed in that
process with strengths that originated from what we once couldn't do
in our lives.  It really does require a lot of humility too.  To get
those blessings, we have to recognize the weaknesses we have that
maybe we don't like recognizing.  For example, maybe we get offended
easily, or we aren't good at forgiving others.  Yet, when we humbly
think about it, we can improve, and with that improvement, we are
blessed. We have a hint of those blessings from our patriachal
blessings.

Another thing I wanted to share from this week is a talk that I have
been reading all week.  It's about bearing our trials, and it helped
me, hope it helps you.

Mountains to Climb

By President Henry B. Eyring

If we have faith in Jesus Christ, the hardest as well as the easiest
times in life can be a blessing.


     I heard President Spencer W. Kimball, in a session of
conference, ask that God would give him mountains to climb. He said:
“There are great challenges ahead of us, giant opportunities to be
met. I welcome that exciting prospect and feel to say to the Lord,
humbly, ‘Give me this mountain,’ give me these challenges.”


   My heart was stirred, knowing, as I did, some of the challenges
and adversity he had already faced. I felt a desire to be more like
him, a valiant servant of God. So one night I prayed for a test to
prove my courage. I can remember it vividly. In the evening I knelt in
my bedroom with a faith that seemed almost to fill my heart to
bursting.


   Within a day or two my prayer was answered. The hardest trial of
my life surprised and humbled me. It provided me a twofold lesson.
First, I had clear proof that God heard and answered my prayer of
faith. But second, I began a tutorial that still goes on to learn
about why I felt with such confidence that night that a great blessing
could come from adversity to more than compensate for any cost.


   The adversity that hit me in that faraway day now seems tiny
compared to what has come since--to me and to those I love. Many of
you are now passing through physical, mental, and emotional trials
that could cause you to cry out as did one great and faithful servant
of God I knew well. His nurse heard him exclaim from his bed of pain,
“When I have tried all my life to be good, why has this happened to
me?”


   You know how the Lord answered that question for the Prophet
Joseph Smith in his prison cell:


   “And if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into the hands of
murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast
into the deep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce
winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the
elements combine to hedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws
of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son,
that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy
good.


   “The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he?


   “Therefore, hold on thy way, and the priesthood shall remain with
thee; for their bounds are set, they cannot pass. Thy days are known,
and thy years shall not be numbered less; therefore, fear not what man
can do, for God shall be with you forever and ever.”


   There seems to me no better answer to the question of why trials
come and what we are to do than the words of the Lord Himself, who
passed through trials for us more terrible than we can imagine.


   You remember His words when He counseled that we should, out of
faith in Him, repent:


   “Therefore I command you to repent--repent, lest I smite you by
the rod of my mouth, and by my wrath, and by my anger, and your
sufferings be sore--how sore you know not, how exquisite you know not,
yea, how hard to bear you know not.


   “For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they
might not suffer if they would repent;


   “But if they would not repent they must suffer even as I;


   “Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to
tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer
both body and spirit--and would that I might not drink the bitter cup,
and shrink--


   “Nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and finished
my preparations unto the children of men.”


   You and I have faith that the way to rise through and above trials
is to believe that there is a “balm in Gilead” and that the Lord has
promised, “I will not … forsake thee.” That is what President Thomas
S. Monson has taught us to help us and those we serve in what seem
lonely and overwhelming trials.


   But President Monson has also wisely taught that a foundation of
faith in the reality of those promises takes time to build. You may
have seen the need for that foundation, as I have, at the bedside of
someone ready to give up the fight to endure to the end. If the
foundation of faith is not embedded in our hearts, the power to endure
will crumble.



     My purpose today is to describe what I know of how we can lay
that unshakable foundation. I do it with great humility for two
reasons. First, what I say could discourage some who are struggling in
the midst of great adversity and feel their foundation of faith is
crumbling. And second, I know that ever-greater tests lie before me
before the end of life. Therefore, the prescription I offer you has
yet to be proven in my own life through enduring to the end.


   As a young man I worked with a contractor building footings and
foundations for new houses. In the summer heat it was hard work to
prepare the ground for the form into which we poured the cement for
the footing. There were no machines. We used a pick and a shovel.
Building lasting foundations for buildings was hard work in those
days.


   It also required patience. After we poured the footing, we waited
for it to cure. Much as we wanted to keep the jobs moving, we also
waited after the pour of the foundation before we took away the forms.


   And even more impressive to a novice builder was what seemed to be
a tedious and time-consuming process to put metal bars carefully
inside the forms to give the finished foundation strength.


   In a similar way, the ground must be carefully prepared for our
foundation of faith to withstand the storms that will come into every
life. That solid basis for a foundation of faith is personal
integrity.


   Our choosing the right consistently whenever the choice is placed
before us creates the solid ground under our faith. It can begin in
childhood since every soul is born with the free gift of the Spirit of
Christ. With that Spirit we can know when we have done what is right
before God and when we have done wrong in His sight.


   Those choices, hundreds in most days, prepare the solid ground on
which our edifice of faith is built. The metal framework around which
the substance of our faith is poured is the gospel of Jesus Christ,
with all its covenants, ordinances, and principles.


   One of the keys to an enduring faith is to judge correctly the
curing time required. That is why I was unwise to pray so soon in my
life for higher mountains to climb and greater tests.


   That curing does not come automatically through the passage of
time, but it does take time. Getting older does not do it alone. It is
serving God and others persistently with full heart and soul that
turns testimony of truth into unbreakable spiritual strength.


   Now, I wish to encourage those who are in the midst of hard
trials, who feel their faith may be fading under the onslaught of
troubles. Trouble itself can be your way to strengthen and finally
gain unshakable faith. Moroni, the son of Mormon in the Book of
Mormon, told us how that blessing could come to pass. He teaches the
simple and sweet truth that acting on even a twig of faith allows God
to grow it:


   “And now, I, Moroni, would speak somewhat concerning these things;
I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for
and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye
receive no witness until after the trial of your faith.


   “For it was by faith that Christ showed himself unto our fathers,
after he had risen from the dead; and he showed not himself unto them
until after they had faith in him; wherefore, it must needs be that
some had faith in him, for he showed himself not unto the world.


   “But because of the faith of men he has shown himself unto the
world, and glorified the name of the Father, and prepared a way that
thereby others might be partakers of the heavenly gift, that they
might hope for those things which they have not seen.


   “Wherefore, ye may also have hope, and be partakers of the gift,
if ye will but have faith.”


   That particle of faith most precious and which you should protect
and use to whatever extent you can is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Moroni taught the power of that faith this way: “And neither at any
time hath any wrought miracles until after their faith; wherefore they
first believed in the Son of God.”


   I have visited with a woman who received the miracle of sufficient
strength to endure unimaginable losses with just the simple capacity
to repeat endlessly the words “I know that my Redeemer lives.” That
faith and those words of testimony were still there in the mist that
obscured but did not erase memories of her childhood.


   I was stunned to learn that another woman had forgiven a person
who had wronged her for years. I was surprised and asked her why she
had chosen to forgive and forget so many years of spiteful abuse.


   She said quietly, “It was the hardest thing I have ever done, but
I just knew I had to do it. So I did.” Her faith that the Savior would
forgive her if she forgave others prepared her with a feeling of peace
and hope as she faced death just months after she had forgiven her
unrepentant adversary.


   She asked me, “When I get there, how will it be in heaven?”


   And I said, “I know just from what I have seen of your capacity to
exercise faith and to forgive that it will be a wonderful homecoming
for you.”


   I have another encouragement to those who now wonder if their
faith in Jesus Christ will be sufficient for them to endure well to
the end. I was blessed to have known others of you who are listening
now when you were younger, vibrant, gifted beyond most of those around
you, yet you chose to do what the Savior would have done. Out of your
abundance you found ways to help and care for those you might have
ignored or looked down upon from your place in life.


   When hard trials come, the faith to endure them well will be
there, built as you may now notice but may have not at the time that
you acted on the pure love of Christ, serving and forgiving others as
the Savior would have done. You built a foundation of faith from
loving as the Savior loved and serving for Him. Your faith in Him led
to acts of charity that will bring you hope.


   It is never too late to strengthen the foundation of faith. There
is always time. With faith in the Savior, you can repent and plead for
forgiveness. There is someone you can forgive. There is someone you
can thank. There is someone you can serve and lift. You can do it
wherever you are and however alone and deserted you may feel.


   I cannot promise an end to your adversity in this life. I cannot
assure you that your trials will seem to you to be only for a moment.
One of the characteristics of trials in life is that they seem to make
clocks slow down and then appear almost to stop.


   There are reasons for that. Knowing those reasons may not give
much comfort, but it can give you a feeling of patience. Those reasons
come from this one fact: in Their perfect love for you, Heavenly
Father and the Savior want you fitted to be with Them to live in
families forever. Only those washed perfectly clean through the
Atonement of Jesus Christ can be there.


   My mother fought cancer for nearly 10 years. Treatments and
surgeries and finally confinement to her bed were some of her trials.


   I remember my father saying as he watched her take her last
breath, “A little girl has gone home to rest.”


   One of the speakers at her funeral was President Spencer W.
Kimball. Among the tributes he paid, I remember one that went
something like this: “Some of you may have thought that Mildred
suffered so long and so much because of something she had done wrong
that required the trials.” He then said, “No, it was that God just
wanted her to be polished a little more.” I remember at the time
thinking, “If a woman that good needed that much polishing, what is
ahead for me?”


   If we have faith in Jesus Christ, the hardest as well as the
easiest times in life can be a blessing. In all conditions, we can
choose the right with the guidance of the Spirit. We have the gospel
of Jesus Christ to shape and guide our lives if we choose it. And with
prophets revealing to us our place in the plan of salvation, we can
live with perfect hope and a feeling of peace. We never need to feel
that we are alone or unloved in the Lord’s service because we never
are. We can feel the love of God. The Savior has promised angels on
our left and our right to bear us up. And He always keeps His word.


   I testify that God the Father lives and that His Beloved Son is
our Redeemer. The Holy Ghost has confirmed truth in this conference
and will again as you seek it, as you listen, and as you later study
the messages of the Lord’s authorized servants, who are here.
President Thomas S. Monson is the Lord’s prophet to the entire world.
The Lord watches over you. God the Father lives. His Beloved Son,
Jesus Christ, is our Redeemer. His love is unfailing. I so testify in
the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Have a great week
Elder Baron

Por fin fuimos al templo

I finally got to go to the temple this week and for that reason I am
writing you all today on a Wednesday because we changed our p day.  Oh
my lanta how I missed the temple.  We did everything in Spanish which
was very different but super cool because I could actually understand
this time.  It was so incredible to be in the Lords house to just have
some time to talk to him and learn by revelation.  One thing I learned
is that sometime the way the Holy Ghost talks to us can seem a little
harsh, but as we seek to apply the things that he prompts us to do, we
are blessed, and we realize that those promptings are given because
there is someone who loves us very much, and knows what we can do to
be even happier.

This week in Parla went really really well.  Well, at least I think
so.  Some weeks we don't have a ton of lessons, but we feel good about
it at the end of the week. We found a lot of new people to teach this
week.  I'm actually not too sure where this hope I have is coming from
because to be honest, this week was full of super difficult baptismal
interviews, investigators with fechas telling us that the church
seemed like it was run by the illuminati and not calling us back, and
TONS of stress.  But I really do feel optimistic for this coming week
and I'm counting the many blessings that the Lord is giving us.  It
truly is incredible.  When we take a step back looking at every week,
the Lords hands are there.  For example, this week a random man came
to English class we have never met before.  After teaching him, he
told us he wanted to come to church and he actually came.  We also had
two less actives in church this week for the first time in years. We
met some incredibly prepared people in the street as well.  He's
always there.

Another thing I learned this week is the importance of humility, and
unconditional love in missionary work.  I'm honestly so grateful for
the opportunity to be a district leader because these missionaries
here teach me so much each and every week with every exchange and with
every district meeting.  I really am only in the position I am to love
them unconditionally, serve them, work with them, and learn.  I'm so
grateful for that. I also learned this week from the Holy Ghost that I
am too focused on material things and not loving the people,
especially the members, as much as I should.  These are things I am
going to work on in the coming week.

Just a quick side note to finish off.  If you guys could save the
emails you send me until p day that would be very much
appreciated.  I absolutely love hearing from all of you, but it would
help me to focus if I don't have a ton of emails waiting to be read on
P day.  We also aren't aloud to chat back and forth on email anymore.
LOVE you all to pieces and have a rad week

Elder Baron

Elder Bednar is a savage

Welp, this week was pretty solid.

I had no time really to write home last week because we were doing an
activity with the youth in our ward.  Well, we made them brownies and
played ping pong with them and made them drink this aloe Vera juice
that was super good we bought at this chino store. Plus I also had to
work on some plans for a distric meeting.  My second district meeting
and president Pack came to it.  I was pretty nervous about that one.
But it turned out alright thankfully.

Other than that, this week was full of less active pass bys.  We are
trying to come up with a new strategy.  We are looking for members
less in the streets and more from the members and less actives.  It's
a hard thing to do but we are focusing our efforts on that 100%, so we
shall see what happens.  This week we met this really shy less active
kid.  When we knocked on his door, he didn't open it because he was
worried about what we would say to him.  He hung up the door bell on
us, but right after that two guys walked out and let us come into the
building.  We knocked on his door and he opened.  He told us he was
super scared of what we were going to say to him.  After just really
doing our best to love him, he agreed to let us come back the next day
to teach him.  We had a great lesson with him and discovered that he
had not lost his testimony, he had just been too ashamed to what
people would say to him if he came back.  We have a ton of hope for
him and it makes us super happy teaching him and helping him.

This week we had the amazing experience of having an apostle here in
our mission. Elder Bednar came and we had an incredible meeting with
him and with the missionaries.  Man he talks super strong to everyone
but at the same time, powerful in the sense that his words touched
each and every one of our hearts.  I had the opportunity to listen
during three meetings with him this weekend and man all three were so
so so awesome.

Some of the things I learned from him are: We really don't have to
worry so much about always receiving and knowing what the spirit wants
us to do before we act.  Most of the time, we just need to go forth
and act and not worrying about it so much.  We need to do the things we
know we are supposed to do, but after that, we can trust that our
decision will be influenced by the spirit, and we don't have to worry
so much.  That's something I have struggled with as a missionary at
times. I always want to make sure that I'm doing the Lords will.  But
all the best experiences I've had were ones where obedience and
having the courage to act resulted in something.  They are
experiences where I had no clue I was being prompted by the spirit
until afterwards.  It motivated me to try my best to be as obedient as
possible, and just go forth acting on what comes to my head, but
without thinking so much.

He also talked to us a lot about faith and the story he loves to tell
about how the Red Sea was not parted until after the children of
Israel had soaked their feet.  They didn't just stand on the banks
waiting.  He really motivated me to go forward and show my faith by
acting.  He taught me that I need to trust that the Lord will guide
all my thoughts if I do my part, which is obedience and constantly
working as hard as I can.

Other than that, he taught me that the gospel will have more power in
my life and I will see miracles the more that I give to the Lord.  I
know that I have to give all my energy to the Lord to receive the
fullness of blessings as a missionary.

I hope that you all have the best week ever, and I guess to sum
up a long list of things, be good, show your faith by acting, and give
yourself to the lord and he will bless you.  That's my message for
this week.

Adios amigos!

Elder Baron

    | The sequence of a companionship | 

Knew this tio from the Canary Islands and got to see him again this weekend

Welcome to Parla

How do you walk as they say in Spanish?

Well, I'm serving now in this branch in the second to most southern
area of this mission. My new companion is 6 foot 6, younger than me in
the mission, and is from Spokane Washington.  We have little to
nothing in common except the fact that we are both dorks.  Not gonna
lie, when I got the call to come to this area, all I heard was some
pretty negative stuff.  When I first got here, I was kinda stressing
out over that and I kinda let my mind be dominated by that. It's
pretty different here than the islands. I had a moment like the one in
Jaws where he is like "We are gonna need a bigger boat." At one point.
But after calming myself down a little bit and going to work a little,
we've seen that this area has a ton of potential, and we are resolved
to work as hard as we can here.

One of the most spiritual experiences from this week was in a lesson
we had from a man from Uganda.  I got to teach in English for the
First time in a while. Wowsers, it was one of those lessons where it
was nothing that we said, or nothing we did, but we felt the Spirit so
strong as we testified to this man that this gospel has the solution
for any problem.  We testified of the Savior, of the Book of Mormon,
of the truth of our message, and man the spirit was incredibly strong
in the room.

One thing I have learned in the mission is the importance of preparing
ourselves to receive revelation by the spirit.  We had an incredible
priesthood meeting with the stake presidency in the Islands right
before I left.  The first counselor went over President Eyrings talk
with us again and used the analogy of a sponge when you put it in
water, and a rock when you put it in water.  He ended by saying that
as we soften our hearts in this way before every meeting we have in
the church, we will take away much more at the end of the meeting,
versus just being barely touched by the water.  It's a principle I am
trying to apply as a missionary to be better. I'm trying to be as
obedient as possible and preparing myself as much as possible, so that
I can receive revelation each and every day. As we do this, we will be
able to touch the hearts of others as we testify to others and say
exactly what they need to hear to feel the spirit.

I'm so grateful to be here in Parla, and for the opportunity to love
the people of this branch

Elder Baron

Hola

This is most likely going to be the shortest group email that I've
sent home yet.

This week went really good because we got our investigators to meet
with us at least once since we told them I was leaving forever.  I was
thinking a lot about what I could leave them with to give them some
motivation, and received a prompting that the best thing I can leave
with them is my honest testimony.  I was able to share that testimony
a lot this week.  Sharing testimony is one of the greatest things we
can do to strengthen it, and one of the best ways to feel love from
our father in heaven.  I really felt that love a lot this week as I
was able to testify of him to others.

I am here in the southern part of Madrid in Parla and these next two
weeks are going to be kinda like the first two weeks in the mission,
because I know nothing about the peninsula. All I know is that they
speak Spanish a little different, and it's a lot hotter here in the
summer but without the wind.  I'm stoked to be serving in a little
bigger of a ward but I have heard some mixed feelings from other
missionaries about this area. NO IMPORTA, it's a new adventure and I'm
gonna give it my all at least.

Thanks to all for the love and support

Elder Baron

Here is a letter from the mission president regarding Elder Baron being called to be a district leader! So proud of him and the things he has already been able to accomplish out in the field! 

The Baron Family

Dear Brother and Sister Baron,

It is a pleasure to inform you that we have assigned your stake member, Elder Baron, to serve as a district leader in the Fuenlabrada District. This position carries with it increased leadership responsibility. The District Leader is to set an example for the other missionaries in his district through his study of the scriptures and the gospel, obedience and hard work, proselyting skills and other aspects of missionary work. Elder Baron will be responsible for planning and conducting weekly District Meetings, and in supervising, teaching and inspiring the missionaries in his district. He will also interview baptismal candidates, which requires spiritual sensitivity and maturity.


This assignment is in addition to his regular proselyting responsibilities. We have confidence in Elder Baron's abilities and know that this will give him opportunities for growth as he strengthens those he serves.  You can be proud of your son. We enjoy working with such a fine Elder in this great work.


May God's choicest blessings be with you and your family as you support your son in his missionary service in the Spain, Madrid Mission.Sincerely,


President Kevin B. Pack

Spain Madrid Mission