Elder Nathan Ditto - Spain Madrid North Mission: May 2025

My Homecoming Talk (click here to listen)

Hello. Good morning. Good to see you all here. It's great to see you. I'm a little nervous. It's kind of weird because I've done this, like, a lot of times, but it's in English, so it's kind of weird, honestly. But I got home from my mission and lived through Spain about, like, I think four days ago. It's been a bit of a crazy four days. It's really good to be back. I'm really happy. And it's good to see a lot of familiar faces. A few people I don't know, so I would like to get to know the rest of you guys.

And, first of all, I want to invite all the young boys to… alright. That's the most important part of my talk, by the way. Thank you. For the young boys to go on a mission.

But coming back has been super, super fun — to see people that I didn't really know before the mission too. For example, my nephew Roman, who God blessed, and my niece Nora. It's been great to get to know them, and to meet them, and to spend time with them.

And today I kind of want to talk about that idea of getting to know people — especially the Godhead. God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. During my mission, I was able to teach a lot of people about the Godhead, which in Spanish… well, it’s the same word as the Trinity, which makes it a little confusing for a lot of people, honestly. I thought I came up with a new word for the Godhead in Spanish, but anyway — I wanted to talk about that today. The importance of our relationship with the Godhead, and why we want to develop that relationship.

So, first of all, I want to talk a little bit about the idea that you can’t serve someone you don’t know. In Mosiah 5:13, it says: “For how knoweth a man the master whom he has not served, and who is a stranger unto him, and is far from the thoughts and intents of his heart?”

Just like how I didn’t really get to know Nora, my niece, until I was able to spend time with her and hold her — and I'm still getting to know her — it's the exact same with our Heavenly Father. We can’t actually know Him until we spend time with Him, until we get to talk to Him.

Now, why is a relationship with the Godhead important? Well, in the Bible, Jesus was giving a prayer, and in that prayer, Jesus Christ said: “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” So according to the Bible, according to Jesus, life eternal is knowing God and Jesus Christ. So if we get to know the Godhead, then we have reached eternal life.

Some synonyms of “knowing” are to have developed a relationship with someone through meeting and spending time with them — to be familiar or friendly with. And a relationship can also be said as a connection, an association, a link, or a correlation. So when I'm talking about “knowing” the Godhead, I'm talking about our relationship.

First of all—who is God? That’s a question that a lot of people honestly don’t know the answer to in all countries. I was able to teach a lot about who God was, so I want to start reading in the Old Testament, in Genesis, when the Creation was happening. Verse 26 says: “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” And God the Father appeared to Moses and said, “Thou art my son.”

So from these two scriptures, we learn that Moses was a child of God, Christ was a child of God, and that we are also children of God. We are sons and daughters of God. And also in Primary, we sing, “I am a child of God, and He has sent me here.” God is our Father, and He loves us a lot.

We currently do not live with Him, so it’s kind of hard to have a relationship with Him. I didn’t live with my parents for two years, and a lot of my relationship with them was from beforehand — or on Mondays when I got to talk to them. So I was able to keep my relationship with my parents during my calls, and right now, by spending time with them.

So how do we “call God” on P-day? Well, every single day, we get to call God. We get to talk to Him every single day. And that is the only way to have a strong relationship with God — to pray and talk to Him.

A lot of times when we pray, we ask for answers and ask for help and ask for all these things, which is great — but a lot of times God has already helped one of His other children with the answer, and a lot of times it's found in the scriptures — the Bible or the Book of Mormon. And if we read the scriptures, we can find the answer to a lot of our prayers.

I’d like to share this story of one of my friends that I was able to meet during my mission named Juan. Juan is from Spain, and his friend Santi is a member of the church, and they work together. And Juan struggled a lot with depression — just being sad all the time, not being happy, kind of living a sad life. And he took a lot of medication to try to have a better life and more peace.

One day, Santi told Juan that he should read the Book of Mormon, and said that the Book of Mormon would help him feel happier and more peaceful.

So one amazing morning, the missionaries — me and my companion — got a text from a member saying, “My friend wants to read the Book of Mormon.” Insane text. Great text. We were super excited, so we were like, “Okay, sweet, let’s meet with this guy.” So we met with him that same day.

Juan told us about his life. He said, you know, “My life is kind of the worst, and I just want peace. I want to read the Book of Mormon.” So we gave him a Book of Mormon, for sure. Gave him a nice book. And we told him that if he read the Book of Mormon, he would have more peace.

Juan took that to heart. He started studying the Book of Mormon. Reading every single footnote. He read Come, Follow Me — like, I didn’t even do that. He went through all the footnotes. He was really studying.

Juan told us that he felt more happiness and more peace than he literally ever had in his entire life. The Book of Mormon made him feel happy — even though he had been taking medicine to feel happy.

Another friend is named Jesús…

Another friend was named Jesús Oche. He is from Equatorial Guinea, where the Church exists, but there are no missionaries and no established congregations. There are just a few members who read the scriptures on their own and maybe meet together.

Anyway, Jesús Oche was on vacation in Laredo, Spain when I was there. During his vacation, he saw on Facebook that we were giving out copies of the Book of Mormon, and he really wanted one. So my awesome companion and I, on a Sunday night—super late, around 8:00 p.m., right when we were about to call family (because in Spain we called on Sunday nights due to the crazy time difference)—we decided to go visit him. He wasn’t answering any of our calls, but we had perseverance, so we went anyway.

He lived kind of far away, but when we got there, he was super nice to us. He really wanted the Book of Mormon. We gave it to him, and he wanted to read it to learn more about Jesus Christ and the gospel. He also actually studied the Book of Mormon and read the entire thing, which was super awesome. He told us, “I love Moroni 8!” and we were like, “Oh! Sweet… that’s the end!”

But he got baptized, and his life is a lot better because of the Book of Mormon and because of God. His brother also got baptized, and Jesús was able to baptize his brother, which was super cool.

From these two experiences, we learned that God speaks to us in many ways, but especially through the Book of Mormon. If any of you want to feel more peace or happiness or direction in your life, I invite you to read the book every day. President Nelson said, “I promise that as you prayerfully study the Book of Mormon every day, you will make better decisions every day. I promise that as you study, the windows of heaven will open, and you will receive answers to your own questions and direction for your own life.”

I’m very grateful for God. I’m very grateful that He has given us the Book of Mormon. I’ve had it my entire life—literally probably my entire life, maybe one or two or three copies. But the first time I actually started to study it and wanted to learn from it was the first time I truly got to know God and Christ, and I felt the Spirit.

I think a lot of you are similar to me. You might have four Books of Mormon in your room, but maybe you haven’t read it all the way through by yourself yet. If that’s you, I want to invite you to do that—and to start today.

Second member of the Godhead: the Holy Ghost.

What is the Holy Ghost? The Holy Spirit? In Doctrine and Covenants 130, we learn about the nature of God: “The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s; the Son also; but the Holy Ghost does not have a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of spirit.” If it were not so, the Holy Ghost could not dwell in us.

So if we can’t see Him, how can we have a relationship with Him? Well, there are a lot of ways. But first, why is the Holy Ghost important?

The Holy Ghost does a lot of amazing things. He is a guide, a comforter, a teacher. He testifies of truth. And He can purify us.

Testifying of truth.

I have another awesome friend named Liliana. She’s from Peru, and she went to an evangelical church for 15 years. She was very passionate and very committed. She had a lot of callings there—she was a dancer and a young adult leader.

She met the missionaries before I even got to that area, and they gave her a Book of Mormon. She mainly started reading it just to prove it wrong. When I got there, I talked to her, and she didn’t seem all that interested.

But a couple of weeks later, a member named Moisés came back to church after eight years of not going. They met, fell in love, and it was awesome. They danced together—it was great. And Moisés invited Liliana to come to church.

I’m sure the missionaries (including me) invited her at least ten times, and she never came. She’d always go to activities, but never on Sunday. But when Moisés invited her, she came. After church, she said, “That was awesome. I loved that. I felt really good.”

I was shocked—like, “No way you’re here! I’ve invited you so many times!” And she said, “Well… Moisés invited me.”

Two things:

Members need to invite people.
Love is powerful.

(They aren’t together anymore… but still.)

After church we talked with her, and she said she loved it and wanted to come back. From that moment on, every single lesson with Liliana was incredibly spiritual. She genuinely wanted to learn the gospel and know how to follow Christ.

One thing I loved about teaching her is that we never had to “take away” her beliefs. She would tell us what she believed, ask questions, and when we taught her, her understanding simply increased. That’s what happens when someone sincerely seeks truth.

I remember one lesson where we were teaching the Restoration. I said, “Joseph Smith was a prophet,” and during those eight words the Spirit was so strong. It testified to everyone in the room that Joseph Smith truly was a prophet.

She kept learning, and later she was baptized. It was awesome.

The Holy Ghost also purifies.

When you’re camping and you run out of clean water, you take river water. You take out the big debris first—sticks, rocks, dirt. But the water still isn’t clean. So you boil it. It takes time.

That is like baptism and the Holy Ghost. Baptism cleans us—our past mistakes and sins can be washed away. But we are still ourselves afterward. We still have weaknesses. We still sin. We still struggle.

That’s why we need the Holy Ghost. Being purified isn’t instant. Just like water doesn’t purify after three seconds on the flame, we don’t change instantly by feeling the Spirit once a week.

But if we feel the Spirit every day—if we invite Him every day—that’s when real change happens.

Church is a great place to feel the Spirit. The temple is a great place to feel the Spirit. Reading the Book of Mormon is absolutely a way to feel the Spirit.

Yes, on a mission you feel the Spirit a lot. But everyone can feel the Holy Ghost every day if they try.

I love Mosiah 3:19: “For the natural man is an enemy to God… unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit.” The Book of Mormon teaches that we are all in a fallen state and we will never be purified unless we yield to the Holy Ghost.

So it’s important to make time to feel Him daily.

Now Jesus Christ.

Who is Jesus Christ? The Book of Mormon teaches us so much about Him. Many people I taught came to know Him better through reading it.

Alma 7:10–12 teaches that He will “go forth suffering pains and afflictions and temptations… that He may know how to succor His people.” Jesus Christ is the Son of God and our Savior. He saves us from spiritual death (sin) and physical death (through resurrection).

Everyone will be resurrected—the young, the old, bond, free, male, female, righteous, unrighteous—all of us. And we can all be saved from spiritual death as we do our part. We will never “earn” salvation, but we can show God that we want it. That’s what the gospel is: showing God and Christ that we want to accept Their gift.

Verse 14 says we must be “born again.” We must be baptized and have faith in Christ, who takes away the sins of the world.

We taught a really cool guy from the Dominican Republic named Starlis. He was kind of goofy—walked a little funny, acted a little odd—but he was awesome. He had weaknesses like all of us, and he wanted to learn about repentance.

We taught him how to repent in prayer and invited him to pray that night. The next day, he told us he had driven to a quiet place in the mountains and prayed for forgiveness.

The next day he was literally a different person. Same guy, but completely transformed—happier, lighter, more Christlike. He was a great example to me.

At the beginning of my mission, I told my parents, “I don’t even need to repent because I’m preaching the gospel.” And I imagine my dad thinking, “Oh boy… he’ll learn.”

And I did learn. Repentance isn’t just for big sins. It’s the process of becoming like God, bit by bit. Every space between who we are and who He is—that space is repentance.

I want to finish with a scripture from the Old Testament: “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.”

Amen.