Many Miracles

Beautiful sunset!

Torrejon District with Felix

I love miracles! I believe that as we see miracles in our lives that is when we know that we are doing the will of God. We have seen so many miracles this week and I am grateful for them. 

Miracle of Felix

This week Felix our investigator from NYC sprained his wrist! It was a miracle! It was a miracle for us because for the first time in almost three weeks we were able to spend P-Day with him and then teach him again later on Friday. It was amazing. His wrist has healed and he is back to his busy life of school and work but has committed to prepare for baptism by meeting with us every week and asking for Sunday mornings off at work.

Miracle with Leo

I don't know how much I have said about Leo but Leo is awesome! Leo has real desires to learn and progress which is a real blessing. He comes to everything, baptisms, Ward activities, general conference, stake conference etc. his only problem is that when he ends up finding a job that if he is required to work on Sunday he will do it and stop coming. He is an amazing guy with a testimony of the principles of the gospel he just can only see how much he needs a job. We have been praying that he finds a job Monday through Saturday and can continue progressing in the gospel. One of my favorite parts of the mission is being devoted to others all my time, always trying to better myself so that I can help others along their journey.

Miracles in Coslada

This transfer they opened a brand new area inside of our area if that makes sense. They essentially put another set of Elders here in Torrejón and assigned them to work in a city that is just next to Torrejón which is also in our area. Anyways so to help them get started over there this week we spent an afternoon contacting. Contacting is one of my favorite things to do because we see so many miracles when we do it with an attitude of prayer, faith, and hope. We went on mini splits for the afternoon and I was with Elder Phillips. We had three distinct miracles from Coslada that I would like to share.

#1 The Little Boy on His Bike

We were walking along and saw a little boy ridding on a tiny little bike. He stopped and said hi and asked who we were and what we were doing. We crouched down and started talking with him, his dad walked up and Elder Phillips went to talk with him as I was in the middle of this conversation with this little boy. Turns out the guy was from England and spoke English to Elder Phillip's delight, (Elder Phillips has been in the mission for about two weeks now). Then the mom walked up and I began talking with her and we were able to receive an invitation to call them and speak more with them, all because a little boy wanted to talk with some funny looking Americans.

#2 Little Kids in the Plaza

We went and approached a woman sitting on a bench in a Plaza and tried speaking with her. Turns out that she hasn't been in Spain very long after moving here from Romania, but her little kids and their friends spoke Spanish. We had about ten little kids 6-8 years old running around all trying to ask us questions and talk with us so we went and sat and on the next bench right next to their mothers and started answering their questions about who we were and what we were doing their in Spain. As we answered their questions about what are missionaries one little girl asked us "did you come from heaven?" It was a neat experience and when we left they all had their little pass a long cards with pictures of Jesus and one of the women who had been listening to us talk to their kids accepted a Book of Mormon and the invitation to keep learning more.

# 3 The Women with the Dogs

As we continued throughout our afternoon talking with absolutely everyone that we could we ended up in a small little park surrounded by trees. We saw a woman sitting on a bench with two little dogs. Elder Phillips made the approach and we started a conversation with her. As we talked we learned about some of the trials that she was going through in her life. She told us about how hard the passing of her parents, the year before, was for her. As she opened up she gave us the opportunity to testify of the Plan of Salvation, that we know that we can live with our families again after death. There is more to life than simply this time we have on earth. I felt the spirit so strongly sitting on a park bench talking with a woman who I had met maybe ten minutes earlier. It was a beautiful miracle we had the privilege to be a part of.

We saw a rainbow on the way to send our emails.

I am so grateful for the miracles that I see every day in my life and in the lives of those around me. As we seek to find the miracles that happen every day I know that we can be happier and we can better align ourselves with God's will. I love being a missionary. I can't believe how fast time seems to be flying right now, it makes me nervous that if I blink I might miss it. I love my Savior and what He did for me and for all of you. I love you with all my heart!

Elder Gustafson

Homemade GF corndogs with Elder Hendrix

Paola, a recent convert and baker, has been making me GF cookies so I am happy here :)