Miracle to start the transfer

Elder Rivas! The office crew is back together haha!

 Hola a todos!

The mission is so awesome, because it is full of miracles, and we saw one awesome this week! This past week, we had a guy who I had never met just show up at church. He lives kinda close to the capilla, and took a route that went around the church to go to his job. But, one day this past week, he felt prompted to not take the normal route, taking him right in front of the capilla. He said that as he did so, he felt something he hadn't ever felt, and he could just tell it was something good. Luckily, some members of the Bishopric were at the capilla for some meetings, and he was able to go in the capilla, and meet some of these members. And that is how he came to church. He stayed for 2 hours, and honestly loved it. We got to know him, and immediately set a cita to get to know each other, and start teaching him. Just a few days later, we met in the capilla to do just that, and we had a great cita. The Spirit was SO strong in this cita as we listened to him and his tough current life situations. We talked about faith, about God, and he easily accepted the Book of Mormon. My companion and I were on the same frequency that day, because I had felt a strong impression to set a baptism date with this guy, and my companion felt the same exact thing. There was a time, I swear we just looked at each other, knew exactly what we were thinking, nodded our heads, and we asked him if he wanted to follow the example of Jesus Christ by setting a goal to be baptized. Without hesitation, he accepted. And you will never guess what day!! July 4th!!!! The BEST day of the year! I thought it was pretty awesome that we invited him to be baptized that day, because it is a great day hahaha. So super awesome experience we had with him this week, and we are super excited to keep meeting with him.

We also had transfers this week, and I have a new companion, Elder Villamizar! He is from Venezuela, But not too long ago he and his family moved here to Spain. He is a super awesome guy, and we get along really well! We also teach super well together just from this cita we had haha, it is going to be a fun transfer.

Another miracle is that starting June 26th, masks are no longer obligatory in outside places!! Now for all of you Americans, that's probably pretty pathetic, but in Spain we call it a MILAGRO! Better days are makin their way to the land of Spain! Pues, esperamos jaja. 

Until next week!

Élder Van Wagenen

God Bless America, Viva España

Fotos:

1. Transfers!

2. Dropping off Elder Ireland at the train station. This was a depressing time

4. Me and my new companion, Elder Villamizar 

5. Just El Pilar being amazing as always. That sky tho

Back to my tierra

Bilbao, my tierra

 Hola a todos!

Long time no see!! Here in Zaragoza, it has been a very busy couple of weeks, but a very fun couple of weeks. Just this past weekend I produced 10 different videos! It has been insane! They were mostly Why I believe videos for the missionaries that were going home this week, and I am just glad that I was able to put their testimonies and experiences into a video that can be easily shared with people. So much fun!

Another very fun thing from this past week was we went back to my tierra of PAIS VASCO!! Basque Country!! Being the Social Media Specialists, we took the opportunity to travel the mission a little bit, and how could I skip the North?? We went up to Bilbao and did a little Zone Conference, Social Media edition, with the missionaries up there. We gave some training, helped the missionaries with some new tools, and took some missionaries out with our camera equipment to take some photos and videos to be used for the pages. It was SO AWESOME going back to Bilbao! It was kind of weird going back, as we arrived, and I knew exactly where we were, and exactly where to go, although I didn't live there anymore. Just weird vibes, but I even met up with some of my member friends, and we made a little video with them too! So it was a day full of big dubs! The next day, we went to San Sebastian, rated as one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, and we did intercambios with the Zone Leaders there, and did online finding with them, and discussed the social media needs of the zone. It also happened that my friend Elder Ireland was there, so it was great to see him, and we also filmed a music video on La Concha, San Sebastian´s very famous beach. Just from what I saw on the camera, it was looking very good, so I am super excited to edit that video! But it was a really awesome few days, and although it was tons of fun going back to an old area, we did get work done, and we were very productive, and I am very happy with the content that we got. Now I am just hoping that I can convince President to let us do the same thing in Mallorca😂🤞

Amidst the very stressful and busy life I live, I have found the importance of getting on my knees and praying, Just as I have stated before, the power of prayer is an amazing thing. I love the quote by Gordon B. Hinckley that says, "If life gets too hard to stand, kneel." I love that! If you also feel that life is too hard to stand, I invite you to kneel and pray. There is a loving Heavenly Father up there who will listen to you, and if you pray fervently, you will feel His love.

Until next week!

Élder Van Wagenen

God Bless America, Viva España

Fotos:

1. Me and Elder Ireland

2. Getting a good look at the Guggenheim once again

3. San Sebastian 

4. Beach in San Sebastian 

So many milagros

Elder Ireland passed thru, and we made our classic quarantine dish, curry!

 Hola a todos!

Sorry that it has been a quick second since I've sent an email out, it has still been very busy, in fact even more busy than we were before. In over one week, Elder Bishop and I created over 20 videos! We were popping out videos left and right like we were on some assembly line, it was crazy! But I also know that God definitely helped us in that process.

Another reason why we are so busy is because we work in our own ward. Back when I was in the office, there were 8 missionaries in 1 ward, and with that, it allowed all of us office Elders to focus more on doing our special assignments, for us creating content and improving social media, mission-wide. But now, we are in Zaragoza, which has 2 booming wards, and lots of work to be done. I am meeting lots of awesome members, and some very strong converts that help strengthen my faith.

One cool teaching story we had was with our amiga Elena. Elena is super awesome and is super nice. She is not a member, but her husband is. She goes to church every week and meets with us weekly as well. My companion and I really wanted to help her progress more, and we had the thought of doing a virtual temple tour. We have some Hermanas in our mission that went to the temple, worked with the Temple Presidency to take some photos and videos of the temple and temple grounds, and then they turned it into a beautiful presentation that could be presented to people we teach or meet with. And this was not the first time I did a temple tour, and we actually did one with Mabel, my dear friend from Palma who decided to get baptized shortly after her experience with the temple tour. But anyways, we did this temple tour with our amiga, and it was amazing. The Spirit was very strong and paired with our testimonies of the Spirit of the temple, and the fact that families can be together forever, it could not have been better. And on top of that, she was very interested in the baptisms for the dead, and wants to do it for her ancestors!! Like, it doesn't get much better than that!!! God is good ladies and gentlemen. 

Another cool thing that happened while waiting on the bus. Once again, I had someone approach me and ask me if I was a Jehovah's Witness. Never gets old jaja. But I responded and said, nope, but I am a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. And he asked me, ah okay, well do you have some Bible or something you can give me. And lucky for me, I had my trusty Book of Mormon in my hand, and so I gave that to him and said well this isn´t the Bible, but it is similar to the Bible, and it has changed my life. You want one? Shaking his head, I gave him the Book of Mormon, and we were off. Sometimes we don't know why God puts us in the paths of others, or why God puts others in the paths of us, but it is just another testimony that God loves all of his children and wants them to enjoy the fruits of the Gospel. I just love being a missionary so that I can see that every day, it's really cool.

One last thing, June is FULL of opportunities for YOU to show forth your American patriotism by flying those beautiful stars and stripes. So from one patriot to another, I would exhort you to fly your flags this week on June 6th, to honor all those heroes who fought for freedom on the beaches of Normandy. Their day at the beach was for your day at the beach. So go wave those stars and stripes high this weekend!

Until next week!

Élder Van Wagenen

God Bless America, Viva España

Fotos:

1. This is my life jaja

2. Eating with a member family

3. El Pilar

4. Parque Grande