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.

New Area...and now he is in....

Dear..... Well, Everyone!

Well, I just want to start off apologizing to all of you for how bad I am at writing back. For that, I decided that it would be a good idea to start another group email, and let you all know what´s going on!

So, I just barely arrived about an hour ago in my third area! And I´m finally in Madrid! Our area is called Barrio 3 (The 3rd Ward) in the Madrid West stake! The ward boundaries cover a rather large part of the sourth western part of Madrid. It will be very strange to be in a ward that is more normal sized! But, I am very happy to be back in Madrid. From that first day that I landed here, back in October, I have always liked Madrid. It is very hot, but luckily the islands got me used to that. I will let you know more about the new area next week as I learn more!

As great as it is here, it was indeed dificult to leave Vecindario. I don´t think that I let anyone know last week, but Dominga is getting baptized this saturday! Since Fiorela, her grand daughter, had left to go to EFY in Segovia, she had to be a lot more independent with her scripture study and prayers on her own, and she really got to know her answer. We had a lesson planning on setting a date for the end of August, but she said, "I´m already ready!" We just have to wait for Fiorela to get back!" Haha, that was a very happy moment for me. We actually had the interview a week ago saturday, and we were excited to do it last saturday, but then she asked if we could wait one more week for her daughter´s boyfriend to come into town. I was a little bummed, but family comes first, so I´m excited to see pictures from Elder Gentry. Dominga is such an amazing person, and I have been so happy to be able to teach her. Her faith is astounding, as her greatest fear before baptism was that she would´nt be able to live the comandments. But she really feels ready now. She was sad to see me go, even though I´m sure that I was a lot more sad to leave, but I know I will see her and her family again. 

Farewells were hard, but they really helped me to realize how blessed I was in Vecindario. I had such an amazing time with Elder Gentry, and I am very excited to see him after. I also had to say goodbye to Fabio. He is such an amazing person, and I will miss his amazing testimony. He really defined to me the importance of living the gospel every day. I´m going to miss the Islands, and all of the craziness that goes on there, but I am so thankful for all of the things that God had taught me during my 6 months there.

Anyways! Things are going great here with Elder Smith! We actually knew eachother from our district in the North of Spain. I´m very excited to work with him, and see the hand of the Lord in our lives.

Spiritual thought! Yesterday, I got up in Sacrament meeting to share my testimony one last time in the ward, and I felt prompted to share Moses 7:53 

"And the Lord said: Blessed is he through whose seed Messiah shall come; for he saith—I am Messiah, the King of Zion, the Rock of Heaven, which is broad as eternity; whoso cometh in at the gate and climbeth up by me shall never fall; wherefore, blessed are they of whom I have spoken, for they shall come forth with songs of everlasting joy."

Christ really is our Rock. If we enter through baptism, and after climb up by him, we will never fall. The mission can be difficult at times, but I have really seen that as I confide in Christ, I am raised up, and given more power. I then am so happy that I have desires to sing "songs of everlasting joy"

Thank you Family and Friends, for the patience more than anything. I love all of you, and I want you to know that I am having the time of my life out here!

Élder Rawlinson