Coruna Changes

March 21, 2016

Well this has been another great week in A Coruña. Time is flying so fast that it seems that I was writing just yesterday. The work here in Coruña is going so well, we have so much to do. We are teaching every day. I feel blessed to be here at this time, after the work of many many missionaries I get to see and benefit from their efforts to find and our teaching pool is great. It helps as well to have a stud companion who is one of the best missionaries I've served with. We had baptismal interviews with Cauini, Iris, and Jose Antonio and so we are getting very excited for their baptisms the first week of April! We have started working with Rafa, a less active member, so that he can prepare himself to go on a mission, which is his desire, and he came to church on Sunday! We also are teaching the wife and son of a recent convert, Kandy and Iago, and they told us on Sunday night that they want to be baptized so things are flying here and we are just pumped. Those are just a few of all the miracles and blessings here in Coruña.

It was a big change coming from Talavera to A Coruña, going from a tiny branch to what should be a ward, going from training for six months to having an older companion, and having to start all my relationships over again with the members and investigators. Change is never easy but always a time of great growth. I am grateful for the ability that we have been given, to overcome new challenges and grow. God always knows what we need and when we need. When I got here I didn't want to be here. I would have preferred to have stayed in Talavera but I am grateful that I am here and the things that I am learning about, especially what I am learning from my companion. He has taught me so much in the last couple weeks through his example and our conversation. There are different ways that the Lord helps us to grow, by giving us extreme challenges that seem impossible and he also gives us people to learn from that will push us and help us grow just because of their example. I am grateful for both because I must use the atonement in order to grow in both ways. This week as we prepare to celebrate Easter I invite you to mediate on how you can use the atonement more effectively in your life. There is great, even infinite, power in the atonement if we choose to use it.

Love,
Elder Gustafson