Feeling better finally and finding people

Hey everybody!

I hope you all had a good week this week! I am definitely feeling a lot better, so I think my sickness has left jaja xD 

Drinking water from a fountain on the trail of Santiago

But yes! We have the new missionaries here, and my companion Elder Larsen is amazing! The members already love him and we have seen so many miracles together. He found out the situation in Logroño wasn´t the best, so we talked about what we could do to better it, and we decided to pass by old investigators or less actives, or anybody that we could. And in one day we found about 12 people who wanted to learn more about the Gospel, in their houses, or in the streets. We were so happy to see so much success here we couldn´t go to sleep that night jaja. But things are picking up here, slowly but surely. 

With my new companion Elder Larsen

 I am not sure what to say this week. We have been passing by people, seeing if we can find new people to teach, and we found two people, Kelly, a young mom from Bolivia, and Imad, a teen from Morocco. And the rest of the people said that they will be available soon to talk to us! 

But there hasn´t been a lot this week that has gone on, so I will leave you with two scriptures I found this week! 

One of the scriptures I would like to leave with you this week is in 1 Corinthians 13:8. Here, Paul is talking to the Corinthians and they are having trouble being unified since the church is pretty young there. But Paul shares that many things can pass away, the material things, the bad things, but that charity never fails. Moroni says that charity is the pure love of Christ, and with Paul´s testimony, it can never fail. I know that charity never fails and as a companionship we have been working on it and we have seen tons of miracles the past week because of it. Love everybody! And I love you all :)

The next scripture is in Alma 38:4-5, where Alma is talking to his son Shiblón, where he suffered through his afflictions and trials and he was blessed in the end. We need to suffer with patience all things and we will receive the blessings from our Father. I know that our Father loves us and that He has big plans for each of us :)  We will see you next week! 

Elder Sadler

  

In front of the cathedral in Logroño. Can you see me in the picture on the right? Hint: I am the one holding a book (the one on the right).

Staying in Logroño

Hey everybody! So transfers are this week and half of our district is leaving! Elder Puri is going to Cornellà, Elder Dunn is going to Terrasa, and Hermana Vaziri is going home! So the replacements are... drumroll please: Hma Stilson, coming from Valencia, the companion of Elder García is Elder Roberts (who served in Cornellà AND Vic, so we have a lot to talk about) and my companion is Elder Larsen as our District Leader, who served in Gandía before I did so we also have a lot to talk about jaja xD 

The District of Logroño and Greg

With Elder Dunn

We were pretty excited about the changes, it was kind of sad that Elder Dunn was leaving but he is needed somewhere else. This past week has been a little rough as well, with me being sick still. We went to the clinic last week to have me be checked out and today Tuesday, this morning, I went to go take some blood tests done, but right now I feel 95% better :) 

But anyway, on Friday, which was my mother´s birthday (happy birthday again!) we had a talent show in the ward. There were a lot of good songs and dances, and Elder Puri and I did a sketch on what the normal life of a missionary is, where he was the body and my arms acted as his arms as I stood behind him. Everyone loved it, they said it was so funny, it is kind of like what they do on “Who´s line is it anyway?” But we had a lot of investigators there and the ward loved it :) 

And well, we went out to visit a lot of the families who wanted to say goodbye to Elder Dunn, he didn´t want to leave, and it was a little hard for him, after we lifted up the area so much, but I know that the Lord is with him. Now I need everyone´s prayers to help me and my new companion Elder Larsen in the work here that we may see baptisms in the month of February! I know we will see baptisms in that month with your prayers! 

And for the scripture of the week, it is my favorite passage of the Book of Mormon. I don´t know if I have shared it before, but it is 3 Nefi 28:1-12, with the 3 Nefitas. They are such a great example to me as they show me that there are some cases in which you can make a good choice, but that there is always a better choice we can make. I love that passage, you all have a good week, I love you all!!! 

Elder Sadler 

Visiting with families over the Christmas holidays: 

Three Wise Men Parade on the night of the 5th of January:

Year mark and its surprises

Hey everybody, and welcome to the second year of my mission! 

Leaving home a year ago! Time flies!

 

First of all, I would like to apologize for the scripture from last time, Isaías 14:21 is NOT the scripture I wanted to share, it is super fuerte. Sorry about the error! I have a better scripture for this week! But yeah, I have hit my year mark AND celebrated Reyes, and buah, Reyes is A LOT better than Christmas! At least I think so jaja! We went out to eat with members and we had a lot of fun just like at Christmas! 

And firstly, Happy Birthday to my lovely mother, Estefanía, she is turning a year older but she looks like she could be 25. She is the best mother that anybody could ask for, and especially the best mother for my brother Harrison. She is literally the best, if you all have the chance to see her, because I won´t be able to, wish her a happy birthday from me and give her a big kiss on January 16 :) Love you, Mamá!

And the 7^th of January is my official year of being a missionary! How exciting! I was excited! I was planning on doing something exciting like shaving my legs or my eyebrows (I can´t shave my eyebrows, I love them jaja) well, I don´t know, something to mark the year, but all of the sudden, that night I felt a little bit sick so when we got back to the piso, I went to bed a little early, and for the next four days I could hardly get up. Turns out, as a year gift, I got all the sicknesses that I didn´t get while being on my mission, and I just got them all at the same time. How great :P I went out and worked a little, because we needed to, but I never got better. You name it, fever, migraines, stomach pains, body aches, chills, hallucinations, everything that could keep you in bed I had over the weekend. I slept terribly, and I was kind of nervous because I felt so bad. But last night (early Monday morning) I was still up at 4:00 and I heard a little voice say “Go pray” and I said no, it is too late. And the voice came back and said to go pray again. So I went to pray in our study room, ask my Father for help and strength and love that I may feel better. Still with fever, aches, cramps, chills, sweat, sinus pain, I felt relaxed, when He told me to grab my prayer pillow (a small pillow) put it on my stomach, lie down, and He will take the pain away. I didn´t know what the big deal was, but I just obeyed. I grabbed the pillow went to my bed, put it on my stomach, and ALL of my pains, ALL OF THEM, disappeared. I kid you not, they all went away within the blink of an eye, and right after that moment I went to sleep peacefully until we had to get up and I am now writing this only with fatigue, but it is normal. God answered my prayers in an instant because He loves me and I am His son :) and it can work for every single one of you.

Saturday the 10 of enero (January), still sick but still smiling! 

But anyway, there were also a couple things that happened when I was fighting against all of these sicknesses. Jim, a member from Cameroon and France, and a lot of other places, has been engaged to a girl in Utah for a long time and has been waiting to go and we have been asking him recently when he was leaving and he said he would let us know, and then one morning, Friday, another member comes over to tell us that Jim left early that morning to Paris to see his family then he will fly to Salt Lake to get married. We were all shocked, he is a great guy and we wish him the best! 

We also had Ward Conference on Sunday and they changed the bishopric which was a surprise, but hopefully we will see miracles with this bishop as well! Also, a lot of people from Pamplona came down: one because he has a stake calling, another to help out with the combined class we had about auto sufficiency, another for a JAS (Young Single Adults) meeting, and a family who brought their son down to be set apart to serve his mission in Halifax, Canada and he left today! It was so good to see all of them and they were all excited to see me :) It was a nice surprise!

With my buddy Eneko

Last week for preparation day we went and played La Oca, a classic game where you go around the board and try to make it to the end. But there was a huge plaza dedicated to it, so the four of us went there and we were the pieces! I won the first game (unfair advantage because I had played it as a child) and Elder García won the second game. A lot of people actually walked buy us and took pictures of us playing with their cameras jaja. 

 

 

Playing the game of "La Oca"

But I think that is all, I want to all leave you with a nicer scripture this week in 1 Tesalonicenses 2:17 (1 Thessalonians 2:17). It really helped me out this week. I love you all, and see you next Tuesday! (Because there are transfers, let´s see what happens!)

Elder Sadler