Be better than yesterday

 Bilbao art museum. I recreated this photo from a movie, anybody have a guess as to which it could be??

Hola a todos!

It has been a really good week here in Bilbao, with some good enough weather to wear shorts and short sleeves! Although we certainly got some looks from the locals haha, but we had a very good week.

Something I have learned this week is never giving up, or losing faith. This week, we had set up lots of visits with lots of people. We would text these people beforehand, just to make sure we were all good to meet, to which they would reply sure thing Elders! And then when the time arrived, we would call them, they wouldn't answer, and then 10 minutes later sent us a photo of some rice, and then saying sorry Elders it's just that I'm actually shopping right now. And well, it is pretty frustrating because we love teaching people about something that will completely change their lives, but they don't seem to want it. This happened several times every day this week, and it was easy to lose enthusiasm, but we tried to not let it get us down, and we kept working. Well this past weekend, there have been some ads running on Facebook here in Spain, and well this past weekend we have received over 10 references, and have set visits with over half of them for this week. And so, I feel very strongly that the Lord knew and saw our efforts, and although nothing good may have come out of the visits, that never really happened, the Lord still blesses us.

And I think this applies to missionary work, but also any aspect in life. I have a pretty strong testimony of the concept that God won't forget about us. He knows every single one of us in a very individual way, and with that knows what we struggle with. Elder Bednar once said, “If today you are a little bit better than you were yesterday, then that's enough. And, if tomorrow you are a little bit better than you were today, then that's enough.” The Lord values our daily efforts in becoming more like His Son, Jesus Christ, and will not only help us in that path, but bless us as we continue on.

Until next week!

Élder Van Wagenen 

God Bless America, Viva España 

Fotos:

1. Cathedral in Bilbao 

2. Bilbao at sunset

3. This statue of a dog of flowers is literally called Puppy, and it sits in front of the Guggenheim museum right next to our piso.