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| View from the hike to our mountain top rama (branch) activity. |
I´m
going to start this letter with the probably funniest moment of my mission, shared
with permission of Elder Giforos. On Saturday we had a rama activity and we
were responsible for bringing some sort of desert, and we decided to make
brownies. So we bought all of the ingredients that we needed and came home and
of course had to make sure that they were delicious so we decided to make a
small batch. Elder Giforos is a great missionary and is exactly obedient and so
when the directions of the recipe said mix ingredients by hand he stuck his
hand into the egg, flour sugar, chocolatey mess of the bowl and started mixing
it with his hand. I look over and just start dying laughing. He turns to me and
says, "What?" I explained to him that it meant without an electric
beater. He pulled his hand out covered in chocolate mess dripping off his
fingers. It was a great moment that has kept me laughing all week long. I´m just
glad to have a trainer who is exactly obedient.
Other
than that this week has been pretty good! On Monday after P-day we had a
wonderful discussion with some Testigos de Jehova which was really interesting
as it always is. I am so grateful that with our message no one has to believe our
words. What I mean is that they can and must find out for themselves that our
message is true. I could show people scripture after scripture that show that
our church is the church of God on the earth but that is not how we work.
Obviously we share scriptures and stories and our own testimony in order to
help people strengthen their desires and their faith to take action but they
need to take their own action and read the Book of Mormon for themselves and
pray and then they can receive that answer from God that we are promised.
This
week we also found another really cool investigator. She is a professional
triathlete here in Pontevedra who gets to travel all around Spain competing in triathlons.
We contacted into her late one rainy night and she seemed kind of interested,
and then when we called her she was in Madrid for a triathlon and said she
didn´t have time for the missionaries. Then about a week ago Elder Giforos sent
a mass text to all of the contacts that we hadn´t had more than a first street
contact with. She responded thanking us for not forgetting about her and that
she would love to meet. When we had our first lesson with her she told us two
great things first that if she receives an answer she´ll be willing to take the
steps necessary to be baptized and second that she has a friend as well that
she thinks would be interested in hearing our message. It was an amazing
miracle in Pontevedra.
On
Saturday we had our Rama activity which was super cool. One of our
investigators came and we had ribs cooked over a fire up on a mountain which
was really cool! I think that was when I realized how sad I would be if I had
to leave this this area. (That night we would be getting transfer notices) We
bonded with the members and our investigator bore a testimony up on top of the
mountain right before our spiritual thought which was really cool! It was a
really great day and ended even better when I found out that night that I would
be staying in Pontevedra with Elder Giforos for another transfer and probably
another after that because he goes home the end of this transfer.
Sunday
was a day of reflection for me. It was a great day, I gave a talk in church and
that went well or as good as my broken Spanish allowed, but it was good to feel
the Spirit. We still haven´t seen recent convert at church since his
confirmation which is really sad because he can´t leave the family business to
come. It is difficult and we just keep praying for him. After church and later
that night we had an appointment that made me realize that the only thing that
we can do as missionaries is invite. Even if people refuse to accept the
message for themselves there is still nothing more that we can do. The Spirit
can convey our message to the hearts of all but only those who chose to let it
into their hearts will ever be truly converted. We all must look to see where
our own faith is and not belittle others because of their mistakes or sins.
Love is the key and there is no other way to help anyone besides love. This is
something that I am trying to improve on. Loving everyone. It is super easy to
love your friends and your family but when you have to love people that are
making such poor decisions in their lives this is hard for me. I am grateful
though that through the atonement of Jesus Christ my weaknesses can be made
strong. This I believe with all my heart.
The
work here in Pontevedra is great. We see miracles every day. I am so grateful
to be here in Pontevedra at this time with my great companion. I am praying for
you all and hope your lives are filled with the joy of the gospel that mine is
filled with.
I
love you all,
Elder
Gustafson
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| My new little friend! |
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