Haircut

Hi friends, I'm here with my partner Elder Roddy at a hair salon near our house, I'm very excited about this haircut, I've been doing my own haircuts for about 6 months. I can do it well, but when I do it only for so long I need a factory reset.  

 

We received news of transfers this week, I am going to stay in Torrejón de Ardoz and Elder Roddy is going to the Canary  Islands and Elder Romrell will be my companion, litty.  

 

He made two exchanges this week. In first with Elder Ostler in downtown Madrid, I learned many good things. I really enjoyed this exchange. And then an exchange with Elder Madsen in Torrejón, we had some good lessons and I learned a lot from him. 

 

 I hope everyone has a great week. I wrote this email in Spanish and then Google Translate translated it.

Shoutout Cooper for grating and Kade Griffiths for returning from the mission.

Love, Elder Ditto

I Just Hit ONE Year!!!

We had a fire Zone pday in Torrejon. 

Zone P-day!!!

Crockpot rice was a fail

Elder Roddy and I took the pleasure of cooking meat, rice, and beans for 24 missionaries. The meat was easy, the beans were easy, the rice though...that was not easy. We tried at first cooking the rice in the crockpot, but that didn't work like that, so this morning we quickly whipped up some mid-rice.  Good news...my mom sent me Taco Seasoning so the tacos were still gas. We played soccer, and volleyball, and did a water balloon fight and water gun fight mas o menos. Super lit, it was really hot outside so it felt good and everyone had a good time. 

A chaval named Johnny Appleseed (code name) got baptized on Saturday, and a recent convert named Philip baptized him. Elder Rod Wave and I planned the whole baptism out 5 days before it happened. However, there were still at least two things that didn't go as planned (we forgot to assign a music director and one of the people who was gonna give a talk couldn't come, and the baptismal clothing was too small for both of them) so I guess three things didn't go as planned. 

So with 10 minutes' notice, I tried to think of a good talk about the Holy Ghost for Johnny Appleseed.  I ended up talking about Ratatouille - how Remi controlled Linguini (what a classic analogy) and I was told this at one point, but I forgot until after the baptism when Johnny told me that his favorite movie is Ratatouille. The Holy Ghost clutched up! After the baptism the ward finally pulled up, to watch the Champion's League final. lol there were MANY more people at the Champions League vs the baptism. HALA MADRID vamos chavalinos, madrid is the best.

Other highlights:

- I hit a year

- did 2 exchanges

- I love teaching about the gospel

- Time to grind, smartly

Love, 

Elder Ditto

Just Saw My Own Siblings IN Spain

Hey Folks. ¿Cómo estáis? ¿Sabéis algo loco? Just reunited with Alex and Alexa for like dos horas. It was awesome. I'll see them en un añote. Alex came with an Atletico Madrid jersey and we ate jamón serrano y tal.

Reunited after one year!!

The reunion video!!!  

Alex and Alexa brought all the special fixings for a true Spaniard picnic.

See you in another year!!

- Élder Roddy and I have been making smoothies in the mornings, they are so healthy and yummy. 

- João (codename) wants to get baptized! He has changed a lot this past month and is so much happier and has a lot more peace in his life. Repentance is joy!

- Élder Roddy and I went running

- There was a medieval-looking cheese, wax candle, and wood bowl market festival this week. Spain is still cool.

Pensamiento Espiritual:

¨JST Matt. 21:34–35 … And again, hear another parable; for unto you that believe not, I speak in parables; that your unrighteousness may be rewarded unto you. Behold, there was …¨

SO FIRE. 

Jesús purposefully focused his teaching on those who were willing to make efforts to learn and apply his teachings. As a missionary, I try to do the same thing. There are so many people in the world, and I think the job of the missionary is to find and teach the ones who are ready to make changes in their lives. I have learned that there actually are people who God has prepared, and then he throws the alley-oop to the missionaries.

 I love being a missionary! 

Love, 

Elder Ditto

Heavenly Hymns

Yesterday at church we had the weirdest sacrament meeting. Most of the members arrived like 10 minutes late, and a little kid was running around in the pulpit area during sacrament and no one was grabbing him. He started hitting the notes on the piano while my comp was playing the sacrament hymn. So it was wild, it got me thinking about why we sing on the reuniones sacrementales. Is it just for fun? Or did Jesus say so? So I studied it and sure enough, it is because Jesus said we should. There is a lot of stuff about it but here are some things that I liked:

Worship through Music (Dallin H. Oaks)

"The singing of hymns is one of the best ways to learn the doctrine of the restored gospel."

and 

"As we sang together, the Spirit of the Lord descended upon us, and we were made ready for prayer."

Songs are super powerful! They are prayers and they help us learn and feel the spirit, but only if they are fire songs. Y'all know that I love music and there are a lot of songs that are not welcoming to the spirit. So if anyone reading this who is not a missionary, try a one-week Enya fast as Tyler so wisely taught. I think it'll be a good experience for y'all.

This week we taught our amigo codenamed, João, about repentance using Alma 36. It was so good. He is a tough dude but the Spirit of God is a lil tougher so when he felt it he got teary and he had a moment of realization of the things he had done wrong and he knew exactly what he needed to do...pray for repentance. And he did. The next day (was a Saturday) and he pulled up to the church unannounced with a white shirt and a tie. He pulled up with the sole reason to pray with us. So we prayed together then he left and came to church the next day. this week João taught me that repentance is real and joyful! Have a  great week mandem! Ciao

Love, 

Elder Ditto

Opened A New &Collar Shirt

The work here in Torrejón is firing! Three days this week we had lessons at 10am and were finishing lessons at 10pm. Super blessing. We have quite a few amigos who are very interested and reading the Libro de Mormón. So we just pray and teach them hoping all goes swell.

One really awesome moment this week was in a lesson at the church on Friday. We were teaching  Amine and Smino (codenames) with JID as the member of the church in the lesson. JID talked a lot, but it was 100% ok because she was bearing her testimony about Jesus' atonement and how Jesus bled from every pore from so much excruciating effort and pain. She said her son once bled from the pores in his chest from a sickness he had once. The spirit was noticeably present and I was very grateful for that moment we had together. We invited Amine and Smino to pray to ask God if they should be baptized. Smino prayed for 10 minutes that night and is still looking for his answer, so we wait for that and keep teaching.

- A Brazilian amigo pulled up to Church in a white shirt!

- cut my own hair and Elder Roddys

- opened up a fresh &Collar shirt today

- found 3 fire youth songs in Portuguese. 

Here's the best one: Sempre ao Seu Lado (Official Lyric Video) - Nicholas Shigekiyo / Jovens da Igreja de Jesus Cristo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoevR9Q1PDM

- ate soggy kebap:)

Mother's Day many moons ago!

Yo sé que tengo la mejor madre!

Love,

Elder Ditto

I feel like Mormon

Sick week, a Brazilian homie has interest and last lesson he sais, "I feel like Mormón!" I dont rlly know excatly what that means, but i liked it. Good stuff! Talk later

Love, Elder Ditto

Torrejón de Ardoth

It's kinda loco moving cities. This past week I moved to Torrejón de Ardoz which is a municipality of Spain belonging to the Community of Madrid. Shoutout to everyone who has moved in their life, gotta be tough but also a good learning experience. 

My new companion, Élder Roddy, and me

One thing that I appreciate is the things that are the same. Like if you move with your family to Japan or something, at least you have the same family. For the missionaries...at least the gospel is the same, you know? So I just focus on the things I know how to do, like do missionary things. 

Goodbyes

Farewell

Aight yall, take advantage of the little things this week!! Tootaloo

Love, Elder Ditto