Savage Mode

KAiXO! Howdy y'all. What's the difference between Sadness and Discouragement?

Lots of train traveling this week!

On Tuesday we took the train to Madrid. The ride through the countryside around all the little pueblos is so beautiful. Madrid is a hype city, I hope to serve there one day and get to know the lads there. Elder Smith and I had our residency meetings (I'm almost legal now).

I love this bag

I filled the brown leather bag with bastante copies of the best and most true book on the earth (The Book of Mormon) and then we took the train back to Sanse. The next day we went to Bilbao for Zone Conference. Elder Nelson and I only had 2.5 days in our area this week so that was really weird tbh. But we definitely made the best of it.

I honestly think we have the best Mission President! Shoutout to Presidente Eastland! He is a wise man 🧙‍♂️ . I like to imagine him as a Swordsmith forging and shaping us missionaries here in España into some absolutely SHARP and dope-looking swords. We all walked out of zone conference with increased knowledge and purpose. Savage mode.

The élderes en Madrid

One thing he shared which I loved was about the sons of Mosiah. Alma 26:23-31 are some really good verses.

The sons of Mosiah pull up with the intent to help out their enemies. And their enemies "laugh [them] to scorn." The Sons of Mosiah were out there in the streets preaching and knocking on doors but people were not receptive. They wrote, "When our hearts were depressed, and we were about to turn back, behold, the Lord comforted us, and said: Go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites, and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give unto you success." In this tough moment, the Lord helped them out and told them to keep on pushing. The difference between sadness and discouragement is FAITH. It's normal to be sad, but when we get discouraged this is when we lose faith; lose faith in ourselves, in our friends, in our talents. Whatever it may be...don't lose faith! Know that God can be trusted at all times. We can't choose other people's actions but we can choose to keep our faith.

Alma 26:37

"Now my brethren, we see that God is mindful of every people, whatsoever land they may be in; yea, he numbereth his people, and his bowels of mercy are over all the earth. Now this is my joy, and my great thanksgiving; yea, and I will give thanks unto my God forever. Amen."

Here's a crazy story:

Our faces after we basically conducted a church meeting (once in a lifetime experience, hopefully jaja)

We had Stake Conference this Sunday (the actual meeting was in a different city) but some enormous miscommunication happened which resulted in only us, José María, a Turista from Puerto Rico, and 2 members in the capilla (church) in San Sebastián. Every single member was in the other city watching it in person. 10 o'clock and we are all huddled around the laptop to watch the Zoom for Stake Conference (because we didn't think about bringing an HDMI and there's none in the Church to connect to the projector). The Zoom wasn't starting because it starts at 11 am (not 10 am)! In ONE more HOUR. So Elder Nelson and I feel so freaking defeated. Absolute L. But, I take a breath, think for a second, remember that we missionaries probably don't have the authority to conduct a sacrament meeting, then start conducting haha. We sang a hymn, prayed, and started a testimony meeting. It ended up good. José María bore his testimony! Then the Zoom started and a thousand more tech problems arose but we ended up figuring it out. Ended up being 3 hr church.