Triple Threat

Happy 4th of July folks! Looks like everyone had fun, we did too. Cooked up some burgers in the church parking lot after an exchange.

We had 3 exchanges last week! So many, and kind of hard to work effectively in our area, just cuz I wasn't with my comp too much. It's hard to stay focused and plan everything out but I did enjoy the exchanges a lot. 

Here are some things I learned:

1st Elder Christiansen: he is very willing to receive advice and he is a humble guy, also that comp studies are important. I'm gonna have to try to do comp studies with my future wife.

2nd  Elder Bernard: show your personality! Spanish is tough for him and he is working on it a lot, even though he can't fully express himself in Spanish words, everyone we talked to that day knew exactly what type of guy he is...funny and happy. I am trying to show my love in my body language.

3rd Elder Buchanan: go with the flow. We cut a menos activo member's hair, it was fun. They work right in the center of Madrid, SO MANY PEOPLE!

Muchas cosas. This morning we had some time to watch a "The District" video about finding thru members of the church. It was so fire. Those misioneros in the videos are goats. I love meeting, serving, teaching, and working together with the members in Spain, they are so faithful and courageous. If you are a member of the church and are reading this, Send me ideas for how I can love the members more. Good stuff! God has a great work and I want to be a part of it 

Love, 

Elder Ditto

Dios te Bendiga

This is gonna be a good email for all you folks reading this, mom lol. 

A year in the mission gives someone much experience and knowledge. Which is lit, but it can also be hard to be humble and change your ways. But more importantly, remembering who is really the most experienced, and the jefe (boss) who is Heavenly Father. Even though I feel at times like I know how to do things as a missionary, I need to remember that this is God's work! It's interesante. I read this scripture two days ago and it's a little extreme for my case but it is fire:

Helaman 4:13,15 "And because of this their great wickedness, and their boastings in their own strength, they were left in their own strength; therefore they did not prosper, but were afflicted and smitten, and driven before the Lamanites, until they had lost possession of almost all their lands."

"And it came to pass that they did repent, and inasmuch as they did repent they did begin to prosper."

Aight so I really tried to apply this truth this week and it def helped me be happier and see more milagros (miracles). The Book of Mormon is true once again!

1

Cool Events:

The Posterity

1. Zone Conference *combined Madrid East and West Zones. Èlder Nelsons' entire "posterity" was there, it was lit to see my boys Miranda and Hill.

2. Intercambio w/ Èlder Nielsen in torrejòn. We scheduled a "miracle lesson" after English class (we just had faith that someone from English clase was gonna want to escuchar un mensaje sobre Jesucristo) no new ppl came to English class  rip. Then right before we skedaddled a dood named Frank pulled up randomly and we taught him  Dios te bendiga

Fire burgers!

3. After that day (intercambio day) we went to this fiiire hambuger place called El Gallego. It was riquiiisimo fr.

4. Elder Romrell and I prayed to find a Peruvian Family. God answered our prayers of course as we were able to meet up with Patywack Carlitos and fam again and Carlos pulled up to church  I love church.

I finished the New Testament!!

5. I finished Saints v.1 and the New Testament. I am grateful for all the Saints back in the day. 

It looks like the shenanigans in the US are cool, have a good week, and read the scriptures pls 

Love, 

Elder Ditto

Walking about, seeking whom he may devour

From what i can remember:

- Sábado

The ward did a fire primary activity. "Missionary for a day" Elder Romrell and I helped with the "MTC" portion. It was cool for me to think that I am an example for the youf.

- Domingo

We had many great lessons on Sunday. Includong a lady from Gabón, Africa (shout out to Elder Rencher for going back out on the mission) and I studied about temptations. Here's a fire scripture, 1 Peter 5:8 "be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour" -kanye. I think my memory has gotten better, I recently have been memorizing and remembering things easily lol.

- hoy: today we played sports for combined Zone Pday, it was so fun. The mission rented out a turf soccer feild in the center of Madrid from noon-4. It was a scorching hot day, my bod is sun burnt fr but I loved playing fútbol with the misionaries. I still love fútbol fr. Got to see Élderes Miranda, Hill, Nelson. 3 of my ñast comps

Love, 

Elder Ditto

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