Distict Leader....preparing for conference

Dear Family,

A great week out here in Madrid. It has been fairly rainy here as well, but for the first time in my life, I don´t mind a whole ton. This summer has been very hot, and it is a welcome cool down.

Recently, Elder Smith and I have been spending more time out in the street meeting new people! Haha, that gives us quite a few new stories there. Many times we meet people that were born and baptized in the catholic church, but haven´t been in years. Haha, and it´s funny to see that they fall back on that when we talk to them. We introduce ourselves, and they say, "No, gracias, soy católico" Haha, but it is not to hard to break past that barrier. Testimony!!! Haha, talking to people in the street has not been my favorite, but I feel like I am starting to like it a little bit more. That´s one of our responsibilities, and I love when I can get into it, and I feel like no one is going to stop me!

Haha, also, this week we had a zone training, which are always edifying. In this one, we talked about many things, but the best part was that we watched a talk by President Uchtdorf to the new mission presidents. It is called, "Fear Not, I am with thee." He talked all about our personal conversion into disciples of Christ. He shares the history of Christ´s resurection, and talks about Peter´s conversion into a fearless missionary. We really have no reason to fear in this world. We have found the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and he will always be there to help us. He finishes quoting the hymn, How Firm a Foundation. That song has been very special for me on the mission, and It was awesome to hear President Uchtdorf quote it. I know that Christ is here with me. That he is there with all of you, and he is active in our lives. 

"Fear not, I am with thee,

Oh, be not dismayed,

For I am thy God

and will still give thee aid

I´ll strengthen thee, help thee,

and cause thee to stand,

Upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand."

I love you family. I am always praying for you.

´Till next week!

Elder Rawlinson

Nicholas, Roberto, and German

Dear Family,

A great first week here during this second transfer with Elder Smith! We are setting goals, and working hard, and we have definitley seen the hand of the Lord as we do that. I love seeing that when we recommit to serving the Lord, he blesses us with miracles. For instance, on Tuesday, we were out in the street, when we heard "Elder! Elder!" from behind us. As we turn around, we met Nicolás, an Argentinian member that has been here for three months. He told us that he had been looking for a chapel, and that he hasn´t been to church in about two years. We met with him, and his stepbrother, Roberto. Nicolás is 19, and his brother is 14. His dad got married to Roberto´s mom about a month ago, and they are all living together. Nicolás is the only member, and we were able to teach him and Roberto the restoration, and we are very excited to see them come back, or get to know the Church!

We also met a new investigator named German. He is a brother of another investigator we have, and we talked to him while trying to get a hold of our investigator. He was going through a hard time, and told us, "You guys can´t convince me, I don´t believe in God." We taught him about prayer, and how we don´t convince people, but we help them to find God. But, I didn´t see to much success. When we shared a scripture to help him, he said, "That´s beautiful, let me show you something that I think is beautiful." He then tried to put some Nicolas Cage movie on, and told us that he was very interested in Film. Haha, can´t say I have seen that happen on my mission before! We testified that indeed, yes, God does exist, and set up a time to come back. When we visited a couple of days later, he was completely different. He listened as we talked about the Plan of Salvation, and the importance of this life, and prayed at the end of the lesson. It was one of the most humble and sincere prayers I have heard. We asked him how he felt after, and he said, "Well, a little better." That simple really testified to me the power of sincere prayer. It helps us to know that God exists, and that he is always there to comfort us. There is a quote in the new mormon message, "The Hope of God´s Light" that says, "Spiritual light rarely comes to people who merely sit in darkness, waiting for someone to flip a switch. It takes an act of faith to open our eyes to The Light of Christ." I saw this in that lesson with German. His act of faith was what gave him the calm peacefull feeling after praying. There is still a long way to go with him, but I am very excited to help him, and others grow, and see The Light of Christ. That is our purpose as missionaries, and I am seeing that more than ever lately.

I also had my first district meeting this Wednesday! I hope that it went well! To answer your question, we have 8 missionaries in our district, 6 Élderes, and 2 Hermanas. We talked about General Conference, and how we can get ready personaly, and how we can help our investigators get ready. We focused on Mosiah 2:9, and what King Benjamin askes his people to do as he starts his discourse. I invite you to read it, and think of the ways that you can apply it to General conference in a couple weeks. I am super excited! It seems like just 1 month ago that we had the last conference! Man, time flies out here!

Yes, I did get the package! I love it! I might have eaten the Twix´s already. ;) Thank you so much! Great music, an awesome shirt, and amazing letters! Thank you, Thank you, thank you!!!! 

Until next week,

Sincerley,

Elder Rawlinson

​

Chapel in Madrid, Economy, and Diego

Dear Family,

Sounds like things are going great out there in Utah! Keep on keepin´on! Know that I am always praying for all of you, 

First, I will answer Dad´s question about the Economy. Things are still difficult. I haven´t seen much improvement in my time here. Many of the Latin immigrants that came here in the early 2000s are now going home. If someone has work, it is usually a lot of strict hours, or not enough. One unique thing about here in Madrid. There are quite a few Chinese people! Haha, it is something that I didn´t even think about before coming on the mission, but aparently they are actually a growing demographic. I will need to take some pictures of a neighborhood here in our area called Usera. It is practically a Chinatown! Many don´t speak spanish or english very well, so as missionaries, we don´t have to much success with them.

I´m not sure if I have told you about him, but we have an investigator named Diego. He is from Ecuador, and is about 25 years old. He works in a Military base, so he is only home about 2 or 3 days a week. We had lost contact with him for a few weeks, but found him in the street on Wednesday night. He was sent to Zaragoza, another city here in Spain, for work and had gotten back that day. Since, we have been able to meet with him and set a baptismal date. He is awesome! He has desires to really know if our church is true. We will keep helping him to get ready for October. It´s so amazing to see people that are really prepared to listen to the gospel.

In other news, we recieved transfer information on Saturday, and I´m staying here for 6 more weeks! Haha, that´s not to surprising, as I just got here. But, the bigger surprise is that I found out that I will be district leader this transfer. Ahhhh! I freaked out a little when I got the news! But, I am very excited to serve the district. There are new responsibilities, but a whole new set of blessings! But, just to be sure, keep me in your prayers. ;)

Well, I´m just about out of time, oh, here is a picture of the chapel! 

Love you all!

Élder Rawlinson

PS. Just a kind reminder about the priesthood line of authority. Thanks Dad! ;)

Love the food!!!

Dear Family,

Another great week out here in Madrid! Many good things to report! 

This Saturday, we were invited by investigators of another companionship to eat with them. Haha, that doesn´t happen too often, but missionaries are never people to turn down food. They brought us to a Bolivian restaurant, and I have to say. That was some great food! I had a dish called Silpancho, which was rice and a fried pork with vegetables and potatoes. Woah!!! It was amazing, and I could hardly eat all of it! I have to say, that is one of the most unique things about serving in Spain. We eat food from so many different countries! I have had food from Honduras, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, and The Canary Islands(which is different than the rest of Spain.) and even more countries! And then, of course, food from Spain. It is great, but there is one problem, I can´t choose a favorite type of food!

Haha, spiritually, the week was also fantastic. :) We have started teaching a new family, and they are from the Dominican Republic. We met the mom, Benni, last week, and were able to finally meet with her this week. When we got there, we invited everyone else to listen, and her husband, son, and son in law came to listen to the Restoration. It was so awesome! They asked some amazing questions, and were also very funny. When started talking about prophets, Beni´s son, Mariano asked us what were "false prophets". His brother in law immediately said. "When you tell me that you love me, I know that you are lying, and that would make you a false prophet." Haha, it was hillarious to see two full grown men joking around like two 14 year olds! Haha, but that is one thing that I have noticed about Dominicans, they love to take life easy, and have fun while they are at it! 

One thing that I tried to apply in that lesson was some advice that the APs had given us in Zone Conference last week. They said, "Every time you tell someone about the Restoration, make sure that you tell them how it has changed your life." It´s really true, the Restoration has changed all of our lives. As I expressed how I felt, I could really see the grand effect of that first prayer Joseph Smith. Because of one boy´s humble desire to know the nature of Christ´s church, the fulness of the gospel was restored to the Earth. How great is our calling as missionaries!

Also, we were able to bring Rodry to a Family Home Evening with some members last night. It was awesome! It was really cool to see how the members really brought him in. That is what we are focussing on the most with him right now, developing his relationship with the members, so that he doesn´t feel alone as he takes this big step.

Well, that´s about it for this week. Oh, one favor. Dad, do you have our priesthood line of authority? If so, I could definitley use a copy. Thank you so much Mom and Dad! I love you so much!

Élder Rawlinson

PS. Here in Madrid, pretty much everyone lives in Apartments, (A piso here in España) I will try and get a photo of the chapel sometime this week!

Tri-Zone Conference at Manzana del Templo

Dear Family,

I will work on getting the pictures during the next week! I am definitley not in a place that is as naturally beautiful as the islands, but I will work on getting pictures. Also, we are planning on going to Toledo next week, and I will definitley get a ton of pictures when we go over there.

This week has been fantastic! We were able to set a date with Rodry, the investigator that I mentioned last week. We will be working hard to get him ready for the baptism. He is about 35 years old, and he is from Ecuador. He has been putting in his part to be baptized. He has fasted this week, and been studying in order to resolve his doubts, so our job will be to help him realize how ready he is.

We are also teaching a part member family. The dad, who is a member is named Daniel, and he is from Ecuador. His wife(soon to be!) is Fatima, and she is from Honduras. They have been meeting with missionaries for a while, but they are really starting to take coming to church and getting married seriously. I have been seeing them progress, and their joy has really been increasing. On Friday, we met with them, and Daniel shared a very neat experience. We had finished the lesson, and asked them if they needed anything. Daniel then told us about a dream that he had. He said that the dream was an answer to a prayer and a decision that he made, and he wanted a little help understanding it. It included this scripture: D&C 82:10

"I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise."

As he shared this divine experience he had, the import of this scriptural phrase really hit me. The Lord WILL bless us when we try our best. He answered the prayer of Daniel, and he will answer our prayers.

This week we had a tri-zone conference at the Manzana del Templo (Temple Square, not Temple Apple.) The APs focused on the section 11 of D&C and talked about desires. They gave a time for everyone to think of examples in the scriptures of people recieving acording to their desires. I immediatly thought of 1 Kings 3. We talked about this story in Seminary in 11th grade. Where Solomon becomes king, and desires help from the Lord to be able to judge righteously. He is given that ability, as it is a righteous desire. The APs also invited us to always remember the day of our mission call. When we could feel our desire. After that meeting, I have really tried to do that. Always remember that amazing feeling I had the day I got my call.

Well, I´m glad to hear that everyone is OK after the thunderstorm! If you could try sending those pictures in a different format, I would love to see them, but I didn´t see them this time. 

Alright, thats about it for this week. I love you! 

Que Dios os bendiga.

Élder Rawlinson

Middle of August

Dear Family,

Well, back to school! Wow, I can hardly believe it! Three siblings in three different schools! Haha, fun stuff. How much you guys are growing up! Haha, keep it up Ethan! I know its hard, but practice is really what you need to learn a language. A lot of the stuff that I learned in the MTC didn´t really make sense until I was practicing out in the field. Keep going!

This week has been awesome! Yesterday was an especially good day. First, I have a little bit of an interesting story to tell. We were at an investigators house after church, and he offered us some juice. That sounded like greatly needed relief to the hot Madrid day. As I took a sip, I imediatley realized that something was wrong. Haha, it was tea! Whooops!!! Oh well, we had no idea, and it turned into a pretty good opporitunity to teach the Word of Wisdom.

Later in the afternoon, we passed by a member´s house that we had found in the ward list. His name is Ángel, and he is 15. We didn´t find any family members, and we were really confused. As we went to knock on the door, his older sister, named Erika, walked out and said, "Oh, you must be looking for my brother." As we got to know the two of them, we found out that he is the only member in his family, and that they had just barely gotten back yesterday from being in Bolivia for the summer. Erika expressed that it has been hard since they got back, and that we should pray for them. Us, being missionaries, thought, "We can do more than just pray." :) We offered to come back and share a message with both of them, and she agreed with enthusiasm! We will be visiting with them this week, and we are very excited!

Oh, another thing! On Tuesday night, the zone leaders called us and said that we would be going to the Temple the next morning. When I found that out, I just about screamed with excitement. The temple!!! It was the first time I had been since the MTC in November, and it was amazing! The temple really is the house of the Lord, and I felt that right when I walked in the doors.

Later that day, we had a farewell for two of the missionaries serving in the ward. Both of them had finished their time out in the mission, left for the mission home on Thursday. One of the missionaries is Elder Anderson. I don´t remember if I said anything about him in up in Avilés, but he was my first district leader. He is from Ogden, but was baptized about a year and a half before his mission. His story reminds me a lot of Austin Fietkau, as he always went to scouts, but never was interested. Elder Anderson is such a great example to me of dedication, and taught so much to me in my first few weeks in the field. It was hard to see him go, but I am really grateful to our Heavenly Father for providing me with such great examples in the mission and in life.

Well, that´s about it! It was an awesome week, and I am very excited for this week! I love you family, and if there is anything you need, I am just an email away.

Love,

Élder Rawlinson.