And I´m not joking.
Our investigator Julio was hospitalized last Sunday and died on Friday.
He was battling with lung cancer. We passed by in the evenings when we
didnt have much to do and when there wasn´t anyone in the streets. He
passed away on Friday night, so yesterday we had the funeral in a catholic
church called La Santa Cruz. We had a catholic mass for 30 minutes then
the priest sprinkled water on the coffin and that was the end of it. We
sang "How Great thou Art" and I was conducting the choir of us
missionaries and a few members. It was a spiritual experience to know the
difference in how we as a church think about the afterlife. With our
knowledge of the plan of salvation, we know "that the spirits of all men,
as soon as they are departed from this mortal body, yea, the spirits of all
men, whether they be good or evil, are taken home to that God
who gave them life.". Alma 40:11 We must remember that this life is
not the beginning, neither it is the end. We lived with God before this
earth and will live with Him after this life. However, the key to this is
the atonement of Jesus Christ, but we cannot fully understand the atonement
unless we first study the fall, and we cannot understand the fall without
knowing the meaning of the creation. see "the atonement", Elder
Nelson . In one year Julio´s temple work can be done for him and then he
can have the ordinances done in behalf of him to enter to the kingdom of God.
Also this week I got
transferred... I´m a little bummed out to leave my island, but the Lord
has other plans for me here in Sabadell, Catalunya. My new companion is
Élder Olaso from Idaho. He has one transfer left and he was in my
district for two transfers when I was in Terrassa. Speaking of terrassa,
I am like 15 minutes away from terrassa by train. It is a little weird to
return back to the same zone and be so close to my last area.
When on the airplane
today, I sat next to a man who was on his way to Barcelona for a business
trip. BTW my knees where JAMMED up into the seat in front of me. I
was squirming around to find a comfortable position for the next 45 minutes of
the flight. Plus it didn´t help that the man in front of me was leaning back
in his seat. Anyway, we started talking and he said this to me "what
is it that your church teaches that is different than the other christian
churches?" I said we believed that Christ established his church
with his power and authority, then after the death of him and his apostles the
church was lost. God then called Joseph Smith to be a prophet in these
days and restored the church of God here on earth through the power of God, and
that the evidence we have of this restoration is the Book of Mormon. We
talked a little bit more and then went to sleep. However, the three girls
that were sitting behind us were making comments about us, how we were apostles...
So as I was exiting the plane I talked with them for a minute and handed a card
we had with mormon.org on
it so they can find the church because they were curious. And now I am
here in Sabadell. I hate lugging luggage across city from bus to plane to
bus to train to train again to bus to piso. Lots of stuff to carry.
questions:
how are your fast and
testimony meetings? do you get to share your testimony often?: good.
many people here in spain share their testimonies and sometimes I don’t
have enough time to go and give my testimony.
You met yourself?
But only in name. You're not gay and wear women's makeup. Btw:
Were you able to give him a BofM? : yes
Random thoughts:
Julio in hospital.
we were doing some passbys
last week and we made a trip around the bay in sant antonio on a cloudy, cold
day, which was perfect that way so we don´t see any bikinis. it was a long
walk, but they were not interested anymore.
we had a nice rainstorm
this past week. Cleaned the streets and air.
we had district
meeting. We learned about using the scriptures by:
1)introducing the
scripture with history, background, etc.
2)reading it
3)applying it
We were contacted last
week by a man named Matthew from Preston, England. He likes to talk to
the missionaries about how there is a monument of the first baptism outside the
US there by a river. We asked if he was interested to learn more, but he declined,
meanwhile as he is rolling up a cigarette...
we talked to 2 american
military pilots on the bus to sant antonio who knew members from back home who
are on missions.
Julio died on friday, a
full moon.
We were walking last week
and passed a bar. a man was kind of
pushed out of the bar and bumped into us because his friends were watching from
the other side of the glass. His name was Luis. He is from
sinagal(a country in africa that i don’t know how to spell). He was
really wanting us to drink with him and was pulling my arm to make us go
in. Luckily we had a visit we had to go to so we politely declined and
quickly went to our next visit.
a new thing I´m going to
be doing now is write about the most frequent questions that we are asked or an
interesting question we receive here in Spain. this week our winner is
"are you amish?" No, we are latter-day saints. We believe
in electricity and we have normal lives like everyone else.
We had misa on
Lunes. Monday mass.
I almost got besos,
kisses, from an investigator. But i got a hug from a primary girl last night in
our farewell activity with the branch.
We had a big farewell
activity with the branch last night. It was fun and we got to hear a lot
of testimonies from the members of how we have helped while serving with them.
Well family I love this
church. I know it is true. I know that the family is ordained of
God. I know that the commandments keep us safe and not constrict
us. God lives and he loves us. Live worthy of your temple recommend
and you will find greater happiness.
Con cariño,
Élder Gonzalez
sent from a computer from
a local internet shop because we live way too far away from our church and the
wifi doesn´t work there.
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