Dylan's baptism

Bueno, 

Lots of challenges this week for sure in the mission, but better than last week! Let's focus on the highlights though! 

Our friend Dylan got baptized this Sunday and it was awesome! His step dad performed the baptism and man you could feel the spirit so strong! The family were all in tears afterwards and at that moment I realized something. The family is incredibly important and necessary in God's plan of happiness! God wants more than anything for us to reach the goal of eternal life after we die with our families! It was really powerful to see the last member of this family take one leap towards heaven getting baptized and to see how grateful the family was that their son and brother joined them in their journey through this life with the goal of arriving to heaven together! 

WE have another investigator who is working towards the 4th of June for her baptism and she really faced a lot of opposition this week! She talked to her mom about her baptism and her mom was not too fond of the idea to say the least! She told us she wanted to meet with us though and tell us about it. We weren't sure if this was going to be the drop talk from her or what. She told us all about it and when she finished, her friend who is a member of the church, David, straight up asked her, "What are you going to do? You going to get baptized still or not?" Despite the blunt question she cheerfully replied, "Of course! I'm 19 years old, and can choose for myself, and I am sure this is true and what I want to do!" Holy cow that was so good to hear and we are so excited for her. We pray that she has the faith to withstand all the opposition that always comes before baptism as Satan does not want us to take this step to get closer to heaven! 

In other news this week, we had a good p day this week! My companions from Guadalajara invited us to come hang out with them with an investigator that used to live in our area! I sat out most of the time while they scrimmaged but I shot some baskets and had a really good talk with the investigator with one of the other missionaries! He should get baptized soon and we are super pumped for him! He's been through the worst but he's loving the story of Nephi and everything about the church! 

Other than that, life is going goood! We just need to find some new people to teach soon here! 

Love you guys! Update me on your lives por favor! I feel like so much has changed since I've been gone! 

Elder Baron

Calle Fuerteventura 4, 2, Office 8B

28703 San Sebastian de los Reyes

Madrid

Spain

The weather is about as unpredictable as the work here in Azuqueca

Holy cow I'm tired, 

Said goodbye to the crutches for good this week and man walking makes me tired! This week was a huge rollercoaster. I don't really want to get into details about all of it because it's a little bit on the complicated side but our investigators have faced a lot of opposition recently. It's affecting their progress. Satan works harder than ever to keep people from making big decisions that bring big blessings like baptism and confirmation. We have so many people who are really close but held back by the fiery darts and tempests found so commonly in today's world and everyday life! That's ok because the investigators have grown their faith a lot and should be able to make the jump very soon! They are awesome! 

We had a really interesting experience with one investigator this week though. He's 15 and his name is Dylan! His mom and sister got baptized here not too long ago, but he decided that it wasn't his time yet at the last minute! We were really sad when it all happened but we have been working hard with him since then to help him get to the point where it is his time! We've invited him to consider the blessings and the experiences he has already had a million times but he's been pretty reluctant.... UNTIL NOW! The other day we were meeting with him and another kid who is less active and we were just talking about the priesthood and out of the blue, Dylan was just like. I Think that I am ready to be baptized now! We kinda just stopped in our tracks and looked at one another and we were like, " please tell me this isn't a joke" it wasn't! Dylan has his interview tomorrow and can hopefully take the step to be baptized very soon! He's an awesome kid! He comes to church every Sunday and by far is one of the more mature youth we have here in the ward! I hope that everything goes good for him soon! Our buddy Edgar should also be getting baptized possibly with Dylan this Sunday (If Dylan's parents can come)! We also have a girl on date for the 4th of June too! Really really praying right now to see everything go through with these investigators so that they can start to feel all these blessings as soon as possible! Let's see if they can overcome all the obstacles Satan will throw at them these next few weeks! 

Another highlight from this week was of course the temple! Every time I go to the temple and do a session, my testimony grows and I feel the spirit stronger than anywhere else! I know that the church is true because of the way I feel closer to a God by participating in temple ordinances! The temple is the best source for peace, comfort, and refuge in the whole world! Go to the temple please soon because it's the best and it's a break you each need! If you can't go to the temple yet, I urge you to make whatever sacrifice you can to get to that point! These past few weeks have been the hardest for me in a while, but what I felt today in the temple has rebooted me 100%! 

Invitación of the week: make cookies and bring them to your neighbors.

Have a good one! 

Elder Baron

Calle Fuerteventura 4, 2, Office 8B

28703 San Sebastian de los Reyes

Madrid

Spain

District of Champions after eating 5 guys in Madrid and buying new clothes

Elder Brasher from Northern California

District temple day 

Hola amigos míos

Well, 

That's the best translation I have for bueno. There's just no English equivalent, but ANYWAYS! 

Things have been really hard this week! But at the same time good things have happened too!

This whole injury has given me some serious time to think. Here's some of my thoughts: I never win anything, I'm never the best at anything, and every time I get good at something or think I am good at something, someone else comes in and beats me at it. What's the lesson to be learned? Just focus on being your best self, and don't worry about being the best in anything else. Comparison doesn't get you anywhere, any you can never be fully satisfied by trying to beat everyone else in everything. How did I learn this lesson: losing at fooseball... 

As far as the work here, the only thing I can say is that it's been super complicated. But at the same time we feel really blessed with a lot of things that have happened. We have seen a ton of progress recently from a girl named Celia that we are teaching! Celia is really loving the gospel! We taught her the word of wisdom this week and she absolutely agreed and was way down to live it! It always makes me happy to see people commit to live a big commandment because there are always so many blessings in store for doing so! We've also been able to see a lot of progress from our buddy Edgar. The poor guy has come from the lowest of lows and still fights his battles every day but his faith in reading the Book of Mormon every day and coming to church inspires us! We taught him about temples this week and he expressed a lot of desires to visit the House of the Lord here on earth some day!  We hope that some day in the next couple weeks we can help him prepare to enjoy all the blessings that await him from baptism and go to the temple! Poco a poco! 

We had a blast this week organizing a ping pong tournament with the young men's and despite my lack of abilities to move good, we've gotten the soccer saturdays up and rolling again! Those activities are awesome because people who haven't been to church in years come and we get to know them better and serve them! Even if the gospel isn't on their minds right now, we still love to spend time with our brothers and sisters and show how much they mean to us. 

The members are so awesome here! We love them tons and they love us back! We have a really awesome friend named Fernando who helps us with a ton of lessons! He just got back from a mission a little while ago in England! We had a really cool experience with him the other day! He was having a super hard morning and we barely missed him as we went to his house and left a bunch of hearts on his door to show him how much we loved and appreciated him! He said he was feeling super down as he walked up to the door but had his spirits raised so much as he saw our notes! We got together with him for correlation because he is the assistant ward mission leader and he told us how much that meant to him! It feels so good to serve people in the ward here! Other members have also been feeding us a lot of really good food as well and have helped with taking us to the church every day so we can still work hard despite my knee! 

Other than that, life continues on the same as usual! Hope everyone is alive and thriving! 

Here's a video of how hard it's been raining here! Pics will come next week! 

Told them I wanted the same as my companion. BYU approved haircut..

Hola del Cojo

Hello from the cripple, 

Despite some walking limitations, we've had a really good week here. I'm running kinda short on time but the knee is getting little by little less swollen and I'm also getting more and more excited to get to walking again, but there's still a good couple weeks in the recovery process left. 

We've had some really awesome experiences this week. We got to take Rosa who just got baptized to the temple with her husband Jhon! SHE LOVED IT SOO MUCH! She got to be baptized and confirmed for her grandma and her husband got baptized for her grandpa. she really felt the spirit strong. She told us, "I felt like they were there with me!" We had a great trip to the temple with them. We also have seen a ton of progress from our investigator Edgar from the Dominican Republic! Poor guy has had a really hard life and has had it rough as he has tried to prepare for baptism but he's a fighting spirit! We got to teach him and some of the people he lives with and this older lady that we taught who lives in his house even came to church! 

On Sunday we had an outstanding set of meetings about missionary work. This girl shared a talk in sacrament meeting about missionary work and about a friend she had who was on the verge of ending her life but was encouraged by many motives, including a very deep talk about the plan of salvation to continue on. There was one moment in the meeting where literally everything stopped and all eyes were fixed on her as she with emotion talked about how important it was for her to share that message with her friend! I've never felt the spirit so strong in a sacrament meeting. It was outstanding. One of the ward missionaries shared a really good quote too I would like to close with to reflect on. "To start sharing the gospel with our friends, it's not so important that they be prepared, but more that we prepare them!" 

Let's go forward and prepare some people to here the gospel this week! Love you guys! 

Elder Baron

Calle Fuerteventura 4, 2, Office 8B

28703 San Sebastian de los Reyes

Madrid

Spain

    District BBQ