Day 450

alright this will be short and sweet this week because i dont know what to say but as i go ill probably ramble enough to make it sufficient. this week i saw the importance of a lot of things. little things that have been making a big difference. haha . like always. its always the little things there is a talk by elder holland that is called the tongue of angels. in there he talks about how our tongues are little things compared to our body but they make the biggest difference im trying to remember because i dont have it written down but there was a scripture i want to say in peter im probably wrong its probably matthew but it talks about how the horses have a bit and the things that steer the boats are small but they make a huge difference when turning and stuff. its always the little things that affect us the most. well this week i noticed how small talking the sacrament to people is for us and the difference it makes in their lives. more for the people that cant do it for themselves or come to church and the importance of visiting those we are supposed to well our bishop came with us to this man and his wifes house. that we give them the sacrament every week. they dont ever leave the house because the husband had a motorcycle accident years ago. and is mentally handicapped. well not super bad but bad enough slow to speak and it costs him a lot to keep a conversation going. well he told us how great it is when he is able to take the sacrament and how the missionaries have helped him and his wife, the wife has been having problems taking care of her husband so long and not being able to leave and do the women things she needs in her life .. gossip and stuff haha talking basically. so we invited them to come one hour every week to sacrament meeting after some doubts they accepted and we will see them next week. we are really excited for them though he saw the importance of going to church and letting his wife have an hour a week to be among the members of the church and how he can sacrifice that for her to show his love. it was very powerful to see what really the understanding of a child does to us. so many times we talk about how young joseph smith is and all he did and how the scriptures say that we need to be like children humble meek submissive well i was thinking about that. the people that dont really throw fits about going to church are the kids. i think they understand the importance of going more than others. in the sacred reverence sense. i understand they cant pay attention as long as others and that that comes along with time but looking at the primaria kids when the sacrament is being served they really try their best to be the most reverent. it was just a cool experience. its been so long since they left and its going to be a great testimony to so many members that its possible to endure to the end.they have never given up hope in all the process since the accident its amazing.
we have some good investigators coming out of the woodworks just good people wanting to learn about jesus and how he can bless their lives. we are starting to get more support from the members and starting to see slowly the positive attitudes coming back. we are doing good we are happy i dont think i have been happier in my mission and i think that its ¨harder¨ now than it was in valdepeñas. but its different i dont know whats changed. mendoza is a boss. we are having a great time working hard and just loving the people. dont forget to do the little things decisions made today effect what happens tomorrow. you guys are awesome thanks for all the support and love have a great week!

Day 443

I'd been bugging Brad about sending me pictures. So he went a little crazy on Sis. Clegg's blog.









IM kind of really exhausted this week. it was cold in malaga like it said on the blog but it was a lot warmer than here so then i came back and just got sick its not fun. But i learned a lot there. and i am learning a lot right now about how pride precedes the fall. people are making decisions right now that i guess the affect us as far as the work goes but not to the extent of more than just feeling sorry for them not choosing the right. and i wanted to share something the pres. Clegg shared with us. the difference between simple and easy. its simple the gospel. its simple to have faith enough to repent and to be baptized and to get the spirit and to endure to the end keeping the commandments. its simple but its not always easy. for example people get in the habits of taking the lords name in vain. its simple to know that we should respect that but once caught in a habit .. how hard it is to get out of it. or keeping the sabbath day holy. sometimes its hard to sit in church for 3 hours i know for me it hasnt always been the easiest thing but its so simple to say. i mean if you think about it when you ask the youth a question what are the answers? i doubt they even pay attention to the question cause they always say read pray and go to church. its so simple to understand buy how easy is it to gut up a little bit earlier and read for 15 minutes out of the scriptures or to do home or visiting teaching? its only one time a month!! haha it seems so hard right now but im sure ill have those trials when i get home .. haha and its probably because im in the missionary mode and all im doing is making visits the only thing holding me back from having the visits is the people not letting us in. its simple to understand but its not always easy to do. Everyone has their trials that they are trying to work through we all have our weakness as it says in ether but how beautiful the atonement is that we can through jesus christ turn these weaknesses into strengths. life is really good right now. most missionaries say is hard. all we do is contact an pass by people and get rejected and repeat and repeat and trying to find different ways to do everything haha its ok though. life is good we are chugging. i dont mind it at all. at the beginning of my mission hated doing contacting but something i have learned to hate doing more is nothing. id rather go and get yelled at and laugh at them because of how funny it is than sit around in piso and do nothing haha. Life is phenomenal right now we are so good!!!!! we are progressing as a district and just overcoming our own weaknesses making it the best that we can! i love my mission i love spain its so much fun. and i love being bilinguel haha spanish is actually teaching me more about english haha its kind of cool. mendoza is amazing he is probably my favorite companion and we are just excited to go out and get people to accept us this week. HAppy valentines day!!! live it up this week! love you all!

Day 436

this week has been the coldest week of my life. i hate humidity mixed with super hot and super cold. i dont know why the world cant just find a happy medium. but we are doing better than other places. we heard that in russia or something it was like minus 30 degrees C. and that inside this houses with the chimineys and stuff it was 0 degrees C ... id ont know farenheit anymore but that is really cold haha and i am glad that we are only at 3 outside and its a lot warmer inside i dont really know what though. this week is supposed to get warmer but its sitll cold like 7 degrees or something.
Elder mendoza and i are doing great we got a lot of future investigators with 6 or 7 that told us when we could specifically come back and meet with them ... come to the meeting and like always so far here in cartagena. no show. not even 1. frustrating but it is what it is. we are trying. ha. we are having fun with the knocking and talking with people and there are a lot of weird people that we are coming in contact with but what better way to enjoy ourselves. haha. im trying to think of what cool happened this last week. i bought a harmonica and now know like 4 songs .. all hymns of course but its cool haha its a lot harder than i thought it would be but it helps pass some of the time. also for carson and abster the piano ladies. i started learning the piano out here. i know like 2 hymns now haha YEAH!!! its kind of fun i played in church once for the sacrament meeting. that was kind of stressfull but it worked i didnt mess up too bad. at least no one noticed. then yesterday we were at an eating cita and they had a viola. it was kind of hard at first to get back in the grove after almost 2 years of not touching one. butttttt i did pretty good at the end. they liked it. too bad they were already members other wise i think we could have had more investigators. ummm. tomorrow i leave early for the other side of the world. im going to malaga for a conference .. dont worry ill try and steal hermana cleggs camera and take as many pictures as i can for the blog next week. we will see how it goes buttt i will be on a bus from 8 am til 4 pm tomorrow to have the metting and on wed return .. its going to be a long 2 days but im kind of excited to get out and take a breather from this place i think its something that is needed in all parts of the life. yesterday we had a stake conference with all of spain and portugal. it was pretty cool we had pres. Uchtdorf elder Christofferson elder Zwick and Sister Dalton speak to us. they had a lot of good experiences to share and i learned a lot . a lot of what they ahve been talkin about in church and stuff lately has been tithing and to stay aways from bad things .. its amazing how the world influences so many people i dont think i could have fully known if i wasnt here on a mission. but anyways life is good there arent any complaints we are just trying to do our best and get someone to teach. just know that you are all in my prayers morning and night and that im doing good. have a great week this week! ! ! ! love you all!!