Called to Serve : A WEEK TO REMEMBER IN AZUQUECA AND THE BEGINNING OF TRANSFER 4

Dear family and friends

This week was legendary! Oh man it was so fun! There was also some pretty big rough patches! I don't even know where to begin.

I guess I could always just start at the beginning, that would make sense wouldn't it?

On Monday, We ate dinner with a super motivated couple who have been married for a week and already have incredible plans to invite their friends over to just be with them and hear the gospel!

On Tuesday, we had an incredible meeting with a general authority Elder Gay on Tuesday! He served as a missionary here in Spain, so he could relate to us super well! I think this was the best meeting I've ever been in as a missionary! He taught us so much! Some of the things that stood out to me were that Satan will do everything he can to cut us down spiritually and emotionally! He told us to never buy into the negative thoughts and to keep moving forward always! A mission isn't hard because of a lack of baptisms, it's more because all the adversary does to make us feel down and unsuccessful! He stressed heavily as well on the importance of having a good relationship with our companion and the importance of what happens within the walls of our apartment! He taught us how to really teach people and not lessons extending commitments at the right time and sincerely thinking about people and asking questions. He also taught us that miracles exist, but only after we do all we can and call out to the Lord in fervent prayer! Last but not least, he helped us see that there are way more missionaries in our area than those who wear a name tag, and that missionary work is not only more enjoyable, but more fun when we work with the members! I walked out of that meeting a changed man with so many desires to become better!

On Wednesday we had our last district meeting together as a district! We've all been here together without change for two transfers and we all get along so well! We had a great testimony meeting together and of course the hermanas gave us all gifts and I shared some of the goods I got with everyone in my most recent package which I'm super grateful for by the way! I'm going to miss the two people in our district who just got transferred away so much!

On Thursday we had an amazing family home evening in the church with some young single adults and a new investigator named Sara! Sara was with people she felt comfortable with and asked us some really good questions! It was so cool to hear some of the people getting ready to go on a mission and those recently returned share their testimonies of the Book of Mormon and all the commandments! The coolest part was our new convert Celia chimed in and shared an incredibly powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon and even shared some of the scriptures we shared with her to help her during her conversion process! It was way funny when Sara asked her afterwards, "hey, how long have you been in this church?" The best part is that Celia just got baptized last Saturday and at that point hadn't even received the Holy Ghost yet! She nailed it man!

On Friday we had the opportunity to do some service taking out a ton of weeds in the garden of one of the counselors in the bishopric! We asked him if we could and he was like sure! Wow, that was a way bigger project than we expected but it went way good and was great prep for later that night! That night we got to take Dylan to the temple for the first time to do baptisms for the dead! He did 21 baptisms and confirmations!!! Wow the spirit was really strong as we got to be there with him and with the mission president and all the other recent converts from the lady transfer in Madrid!

Saturday was where things got interesting..... we planned this activity to play soccer in the morning at the church and we filled up a ton of water balloons for a water fight afterwards because it's so hot here! We invited everyone we could in the streets. The best part was that this member in our ward invited a friend who literally brought his whole soccer team and more! There were literally like 20 non members there and a ton of less actives! Then it got interesting! I took Elder Brasher in the church to get the water balloons while elder Walster was playing in the last game! Elder Walster hit heads with someone on the other team and split his head open! We had to leave all of our balloons behind with the other Elders while the bishop and the bishops daughter rushed us to the emergency room! My companion got 7 stitches! Azuqueca is a dangerous area that's for sure! Hahaha! It's all good though because everyone loved the water fight and we will hopefully do it again very soon! That night we got transfer news too! To our surprise we are both staying to spend our third transfer straight together here! Not just that though but we are getting another companion who had been out for about a year named Elder Hooker! It's going to be a huge heated party literally in our tiny piso that gets so hot at night without air conditioning that we can barely sleep!

Sunday was also a fantastic day! Celia asked me to confirm her and it was one of the best and most spiritual experiences I have had yet in the mission! As I gave her the blessing so many promises from the Lord for her filled my head! My whole body was trembling and I could feel the Lords love so strong for both of us! As I went and sat down, the spirit filled me from head to toe, and I sat for the next couple of minutes in pure peace and joy! The spirit is real and it's an undeniably powerful witness of the church! Very few times had I felt the spirit so strong as I have here on the mission! (GO ON A MISSION MY FRIENDS, IT'S SO HARD AT TIMES BUT SO WORTH IT!) Things didn't finish there though! I got to give another blessing later that day to our friend Fernandos sister who is going through a really hard time and I felt literally the same thing! So many specific things to say came to my head. I was afraid to say all of them because some of them were kind of specific but I knew that they were true! Once again the spirit filled my soul! To top things off, another one of our investigators got baptized! ENRIQUE! He is from Peru and we found him in the streets! I don't even remember what happened but he said that we invited him to play football and to English class. He told us he just felt so loved by that invitation and he even knew that it was likely for us to share something spiritual with him eventually! He came to the church on a Friday night looking for English class and found institute! He made a really good friend there from our ward who baptized him yesterday! From then on, Enrique passed through the worst of the worst. He was half homeless, abandoned by the people who made him come to Spain, lost rights to see his son who he loves more than the world, and even more! He moved out of our area a couple weeks ago but our really good friends in our district taught him and the baptism was held in our chapel with half the participants from our ward! Enrique is the most positive man I have ever met! He's always smiling and has the most contagious laugh in the whole world! He shared an incredible testimony and looked so good in the suit the Elders gave him! I will never forget his words: "I JUST WANT TO BE LIKE NEPHI!"

After the baptism Enrique came up to me and was like: YOU WERE THE ONE WHO INVITED ME HERE! I DIDN'T REMEMBER AT FIRST BUT I KNOW IT WAS YOU! To be honest, I know someone invited Enrique to the church while I was here but I don't remember that whatsoever! Who knows, maybe Enrique and I talked before this life in the preexistence. I was thinking about that as we gave each other a huge hug and I felt like I needed to be a better missionary for the rest of my mission. I need to keep talking to more people and invite as many people as I can to come unto Christ so that one day I can be reunited with all of them and rejoice together before the day when we get to meet the Lord! Maybe I won't be here to see their baptism, but people are converted little by little! The important part isn't to see all baptisms, but to invite all that you can!

After such an incredible week with so many miracles, I have the motivation I need to continue going! I don't know what the future holds here in Azuqueca in our trío but I do know one thing:

I know that this church is true! I know that because of these experiences in which the Holy Ghost tells me it in my heart! I know that Joseph Smith saw God and Jesus Christ, and that they gave him all the instructions to restore the church of Jesus Christ for our happiness! I know that the Book of Mormon is true and that it is the perfect guidance for us in these later Days! In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen!

P.S. my companion has a pretty big wound that might have a permenant scar and needs some encouragement right now! If you could please write him an email to boost his spirits and keep him moving forward that would be awesome! His email is Jacob.walster@myldsmail.net ! Thanks so much guys!