A Baptism!!

Baptism of Andrea, taught by her brother, an RM, both from Ecuador.  Jared and Elder Ward

Questions:

You said that you miss peanut butter.  Does that mean that peanut butter is unavailable, or it's too expensive to buy?:  Both. It´s too expensive if you find it, and it´s really hard to find.  plus it doesn´t taste the same as american peanut butter.  

What's the story behind your T-shirt and red scarf of San Fermines?:  It´s just what the people wear for san fermines.  I don´t have access to wikipidia.

Have you met President Dayton yet? :  yes when they first came in they had a tour of the mission in the beginning of july and we had interviews with them this past week.

So did you get a chance to see any of the running of the bulls?:  no we aren´t allowed to go there during the festivals for our safety.

So how are your investigators progressing? :  this past week, none, but we have a fecha for this weekend for a man from camarun.

have any of them made any progress towards the baptismal fecha?:  see the previous question.  Kevin is his name.  He was progressing fine until a few weeks ago when he just stopped coming to church and last week had a bunch of faith crushing questions.  It saddens me to work so hard and have him slipping from our fingers, but we´ll keep on trying.

Well I want to quickly go through the random stuff I write down during the week.

First we went to this thrift shop and I bought a ti 83 graphing calculator, in english, in great condition for 6 euros, which is like 7 or 8 dollars!  prepping for school mom.

There was a poster in the street the other day that said " there are others who fear vaccination."  it was propaganda for people to help the people in africa.  We are so blessed to live in the united States.

I had been holding on to this romanian restoration pamphlet for like 4 months and finally handed it out to a man we contacted the other day.  Being prepared weighs a lot but the reward is even sweeter.

We went to victoria to have interviews and Hermana Dayton made rice crispy treats.  yum.

Happy 24th of july.  I was sitting on a bus when the time and date sign flashed by and it hit me, IT´S PIONEER DAY!!!!  But i´m in spain and so that has no effect here....

Girls should never wear thin t-shirts, it´s not good for elders....

I contacted this lady on a bus the other day and on our way to a visit the next day I said hi to her I said " buenos tardes" rather than "buenas días"  que greengo.  I´m still imperfect, but that´s okay because I´m improving.

I got to pass the sacrament on Sunday because we were a little short on priesthood holders.  It was a blessing to do that.  The sacrament is the only ordinance in which we do for ourselves over again.  I was told that by Pres. pace and it was a hit to the head to understand that we do it every Sunday to renew our baptismal covenants.  Also, people are very grateful for what we do for passing and blessing the sacrament worthily because there are some people, like me, who wait all week to take the bread and water in remembrance of the body and blood of the lamb of God.  We had missionary prep with the JAS yesterday (YSA)  and we were going over chapter 3 lesson 3 in pmg.  It says that the sacrament is a commandment.  just a few things I have been thinking about this week.

A talk by Carlos Galarza, the brother of andrea who was baptized this past weekend!  gave a really good talk about prayer.  He said a few things that I jotted down.  He said  "all great miracles come after prayer"  examples: Christ prayed in the garden of Gathsemane, or Joseph smith and the first vision.  When we pray we are to do two things every time.  1) pray for forgiveness 2) pray for things we need/want.  Always pray with faith.

We were walking and we met a bother of one of our investigators.  His daughter is in the hospital in Romania and was very depressed and sad.  We sat by him on a bench and shared a little about the plan of salvation and gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon.  We read Alma 7:11-13 with him and to me it was a really spiritual experience.  We are hoping something good comes from it.  I love sharing my testimony of the plan of salvation.

Well those were the things which I wrote down in my planner that I thought I ought to share with you.  This week has been good.  We are working hard here in Navarra.  We received a reference from the office that a person in the south of Navarra wants to listen to us, but he or she lives like 2 hours away in car.  um....we´ll find a way to get in contact with him or her.

It has been a while since I have truly said I love you, but it´s true.  I truly love you.  I got your letters mom on Wednesday and they were great.  I loved the pictures you send.  Keep sending more.  My mission president says you all look sweet.

I love the mission.  It is hard, because like Elder Holland said " because it was never easy for him."  We all have to experience a little of what he had to go through.  It’s hard but a wonderful journey.  I love handing out books of mormon.  it is a physical way of seeing my progress as a missionary.  I mark how many boms I have handed out in my mission and it is a lot.  Sometimes I think a missionary is one who goes to south america, and partly it´s true, but it´s one who gives up his or her time to the lord and all their wants and desires and he will gives us in return a changed person AFTER the fire of affliction and refinement of challenges and tests.  We all live in God´s family, not a yellow submarine.  I know the church is true and the Book of Mormon too.  I love you all and hope you all have a great week.

Con amor,

Élder Jared Alex Gonzalez