Elder Sorensen in Valencia, Spain

A Very Fast Week

Today´s been a very fast week.  It seems like I emailed last time yesterday. We´ve been busy visiting investigators and less actives and eating at members' houses all week.

It´s great to hear about what´s going on at home. And thanks for the pictures!

The highlight of this week, was, of course, the baptism. We were going to have Peter´s member friend from Nigeria baptize him, but he was busy so I did it. It was a little stressful because I got out of a meeting 15 minutes before the baptism was supposed to start, went to change into white clothes, and found that one of the other people (there were three baptisms that day) had taken and was wearing my baptismal clothes. It was a mad scramble trying to find clothes, change, take pictures, show Peter what he needed to do, and figure out how to pronounce Peters Chukwuemeka Ikpeamaezeh in 15 minutes. But, the baptism went smoothly and I was able to confirm him on Sunday as well.

Peter was a golden investigator. No, he was better than that. We´d ask him if he had any questions/concerns, and he'd say "I´d have questions if I didn't believe something that you´re saying, but I know it's all true." He´s the best.

Our Spanish family that we´re teaching is... getting there. It´s a complicated situation. It started when a woman named María José called us and wanted to take the discussions again after 7 years. She lives with a friend, Mari Carmen, who we started teaching. Mari Carmen´s daughter Arancha and her boyfriend/ex-husband (more on that later) Santiago came to a lesson, and now we´re teaching them in their house. 

María José is doing very well and has cleaned up her life a lot, and she had a baptismal date for next week (the 28th), but she left Valencia to take care of her mother. We´re not sure for how long.

Mari Carmen told us (after having taught her every lesson and challenging her to be baptized) that she actually doesn't believe in God (surprise!). But she still wants to meet with us, so we´ll see what we can do.

Santiago and Arancha were married, got divorced, and are now living together again. Santiago is ready to be baptized, but wants to be baptized with his family. So, they´re planning on getting married again (I think), but marriage in Spain takes over a year to process paperwork. They might go out of country for it.

Anyway, crazy situation with investigators. We met another Nigerian named Alex, and he accepted the restoration lesson very well. He committed to baptism, and he´ll probably be baptized on the 12th of next month (because the 5th is general conference).

Speaking of General Conference, I can´t wait! I've heard from a couple missionaries that the first general conference on their missions was the best day of their lives. I just keep thinking about Elder Holland´s talk, "The first commandment", or something like that. The one where Jesus asks Peter, "Do you love me?" three times. If you haven't seen it recently, I recommend watching it. I think we´re going to watch General Conference in the chapel here in Valencia. Only two more weeks!

So, funny story. My package, that I was going to get on Wednesday... the President forgot to bring the box of mail. So... probably middle of this week or next. If you look carefully at Ether 12:6, it says that "I would show unto you that your packing is a thing hoped for, and not seen". But, we had an amazing 9-hour zone conference. I loved every second of it (it was like a mini General Conference).

If you want details on where the piso is, click here. Ours is the top right corner, second floor from the top. It´s a street view map, so you can drag it around and look. Click the X in the top right to view it on the normal map.

Alright, scripture of the week is Mosiah 2:41. It´s really true that the righteous are happy. It doesn´t mean that they don´t have trials or things to be sad about, but the righteous can always find happiness in Christ and in following his commandments. That´s something that we´re trying to show our investigators, so we share this scripture a lot.

Quick note about the language: In Barcelona and the surrounding area, they speak Catalán. In Valencia and the area around it they speak Valenciano, a dialect of Catalán. It´s very close to Spanish, so you can generally understand it if you speak Spanish, but fortunately every speaks Español (or as they call it in Spain, Castellano) as well.

Well, I´m about out of time. I was able to talk with Colton today. (He´s in the same time zone, so he was on at the same time.) Nathan emailed about an hour and half before I did, so I´ll probably get to talk to him soon too. It´s neat that our preparation days are all the same day.

I just want to leave with my testimony. I know that Jesus is the Christ and our Savior. I know that we can find happiness and success as we follow him. I've learned now more than ever that we need to rely on the strength of God. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, and each time I read it I enjoy it even more. I know that the Gospel has been restored in it´s fullness again on the earth, and that through baptism and other covenants in the Priesthood, we can become closer to God and find true happiness. I share these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

-Élder Sorensen