Obstacles are good

Selfie at Es Pontàs

 Hola a todos!

It has been another awesome week in the islands! This week has literally flown by. We had lots of great citas, and we have been seeing even more success through our efforts on Instagram.

This past week on Sunday I gave a talk. It was quite a fun experience, the gift of tongues is real. I kinda forgot that I was talking in Spanish, and my companion said I went for 15 minutes. I'm not sure if I have ever gone that long in English! Anyway, I wanted to share a little bit of my talk. I talked a little bit about Elder Uchtdorf's talk from the Conference from a few weeks ago, God will do something unimaginable. And to open his talk, he talked about the troubles the early Saints had with building the Salt Lake Temple. And since the Saints had to halt construction and bury the foundations due to a threat, after everything passed the Saints found out that the original sandstone foundations had cracked, meaning, had they kept building, the temple could have fallen very quickly. And so I shared that God will provide obstacles in our lives to bring about His purposes. God knows our true potential, and even though that in the moment it may not seem it is for our best, or for our progression, in the end, it always is. 

I shared my experience of preparing for my mission. One thing you need to do is have your wisdom teeth surgery, and I decided to do the surgery in the middle of my last track season. Undoubtedly, the surgery and the 7 day recovery after affected my season, and it ended shorter than I had anticipated. But, as the year progressed into the Summer and Fall, we found out that it was very hard, if not impossible to get a surgery date, and had I waited, I most surely would have needed to push my start date. And had I done that, there is a chance that, due to a pandemic, I wouldn't be able to enter Spain. So even though I was really upset about my track season being cut short, I am very happy and grateful to be in Spain during these difficult times. 

I wish everyone a happy Halloween, but even more so, to those Nevadans who read this, Happy Nevada Day! Home means Nevada! 

Until next week!

Élder Van Wagenen 

God Bless America, Viva España 

Fotos:

1. Ripping mate at the Santuario de Sant Salvador

2. Es Pontàs, an arch just off the coast of the east coast of Mallorca

3. On top of a mountain near Porto Colom

Barcelona and Bikes

First time on a bike in a long time. We rented some bikes and rode all around Palma

 Hola a todos!

We had quite an eventful week! At the beginning of the week, my companion and I went to Barcelona to do intercambios with the Assistants. And it was honestly a blast. I was able to spend some time in Barcelona, as the only time I was in the city before I was just traveling, but it was really fun to explore the city and spend some time with friends.

They say that if you want to feel the Spirit, testify of Christ. And I can testify that this statement is indeed true. This week we met with a person who knew who Jesus Christ was, and that he was an important person in Christianity, but didn't quite know why. And so we took the opportunity to explain the sacred importance of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and what that means for every single one of us. We have all come to earth to be tested and to prove our faithfulness to God, as we promised before coming to Earth. And God knew we would mess up, and we would sin. And no unclean thing can enter in the presence of God, so God sent his Son Jesus Christ to make it possible for all of us to repent, and be able to return to His presence. But anyways, as we explained this to our amigo, who did not know what the Atonement was, the Spirit entered the room and testified to our amigo that yes, even though these gringos struggle to speak Spanish, what they say is true. Jesus Christ is real, and through the Atonement, we can be free from sin. It was such a powerful lesson!

We have also been working really hard on Instagram this past week. And Hermana Foster, a Senior Missionary here on the Islands who has a pretty big name Instagram account, @abountifulkitchen, has been helping us a lot. She has helped give us some structure to finding people to teach. But this week I was able to talk to some people, and even set a couple of visits with. It has been going pretty slow at first, but we are going little by little and seeing little miracles each day. So we are going to keep going, and we are super excited to continue working on Instagram. 

Until next week!

Élder Van Wagenen 

God Bless America, Viva España 

Fotos:

1. Dominos with the district 

2. Palma on a Monday morning from a high elevation. 

3. Spanish mediodia with the district. 

4. Barcelona in the mission office

5. More bikes

6. Preparation Day in Barcelona 

Bautismo!

Baptism! 

Hola a todos!

Wow, this past week has been incredible!!! We have seen so many miracles this week, and as indicated by the title of the email, we had a baptism!!! It was my first baptism in the mission, and it was very very special. The Spirit was certainly there, and although we could only have 10 people, wear masks and observe social distancing, we still had an awesome service. Our amiga Mabel decided to be baptized because she felt it was the right thing she needed to do, and she told us after that she received a witness from the Holy Ghost during the service that yes, this was the correct decision. She is a huge example of faith in my life, and I am so glad for the opportunity I had to teach her.

This week, we had a devotional with Tad R. Callister, who has written some great books, including a case for the Book of Mormon. And in our devotional, he talked about several pieces of evidence for the Book of Mormon. For example, was there really cement in the ancient Americas? What about barley? And a list of other things. And there have been discoveries of all these things and many others in modern-day Americas, but what is most important is that we have faith. In ones quest to find out if the Book of Mormon is really a book from God and is true, although there are many evidences to be found online and through other studies and discoveries, the only way to find out is through the remarkable promise found in Moroni 10:3-5, which basically says that those who have a sincere desire, who ask in faith if the Book of Mormon is a true book, the Holy Ghost will give you that witness. But nevertheless, it was such a good devotional!!

And seeing that today is Columbus Day, here is Nephi talking about him. 1 Nephi 13:12

12 And I looked and beheld a man among the Gentiles, who was separated from the seed of my brethren by the many waters; I beheld the Spirit of God, that it came down and wrought upon the man; and he went forth upon the many waters, even unto the seed of my brethren, who were in the promised land

He may not be from Spain but under the Spanish flag he found the Americas. Pretty cool to read that Nephi saw some of the people we learn about in the history books. 

 Until next week!

 Élder Van Wagenen 

God Bless America, Viva España 

 Fotos:

1. Baptism!

2. We are pretty good friends with the workers at the ice cream place near piso, we go there a lot

3. Spain hamburgers aren't too bad 

4. Enjoying dinner during a busy day

We're halfway there, livin' on a prayer

 Bañalbufar

 Hola a todos!

Well, as the title indicates, yes. We are halfway there!!! 1 year ago, October 2nd, 2019, I stepped foot onto an airplane sitting in the Reno International Airport at an early hour, to fly to the MTC, and start my journey as a missionary. It has been incredible. I have met some amazing people, formed new friendships, grown closer to my Savior, and increased my patriotism for another country. Viva España! I have also had some amazing experiences, and well, I had some really awesome ones this past week. 

This week I witnessed 2 miracles, and it was awesome. The first one came when we taught our amiga, Mabel. We started teaching her when I arrived in the islands, and she is a very nice and open person. And over time and as we kept visiting and teaching her, she accepted the Gospel and has a desire to be baptized. However, something that is difficult for her is she lives a little further away from the city of Palma, and with the pandemic making physical church meetings not a possibility, she does not know very many members, hardly any. And it was really tough finding members who could come with us when we taught her because Mabel has a complicated schedule, and we normally meet with her when everyone else is busy or working. So it has been a struggle. However this past week we found a member who was free during that time, so we took her with us to the cita. And immediately a friendship was formed, and she helped us so much as we taught. She testified of prayer, and of personal revelation, but even more so, Mabel has been looking for a better job, and it just so happened to be that this member knee a place where she could get a job. So it was a big miracle to have this member with us, as it was exactly what Mabel needed.

The other miracle I saw was with another amigo, Carlos. And we are actually teaching his family, which includes his wife and son, but he has never been too interested in what we have taught, and he usually didn't even listen. We have been praying for months that the Lord would soften his heart and that he would be willing to listen. Well, this past week we were at his home after teaching his son English. And he offered us some tea, and we explained to him that we don't drink tea, and briefly explained the Word of Wisdom to him. He was kind of joking at it for a while, but then really began to ask why. And we said, well because of a man named Joseph Smith. And well, the rest is history. 

Just as we heard from General Conference, which by the way, pretty awesome one if you ask me, prayers are answered. The Lord hears them, even though at times if we may feel He doesn't, but He does, and He answers them in His time. Although it may not be our time, and just as I experienced with our amigo Carlos, we won't always get an answer right away, but He does always answer them. 

Anyways I hope everyone enjoyed their conference weekend and has another great week!

Élder Van Wagenen

God Bless America, Viva España

Fotos:

1. Just another day in the neighborhoods of Mallorca

2. Palma City Rockers 2.0

3. Bañalbufar

4. Bañalbufar