Thanksgiving Post

Dear Family,     

I would first like to thank you so much for all of the things that you do for me. I don´t think any other mother in the world would stay up on the computer till 3am just to give their son some recipes. You truly are amazing mom. I am so thankful for you. I know that all of that took a lot of time and I do not express enough gratitude for the things that you and Dad do for me. Please don´t ever be afraid to ask me for a favor. I will do anything that I possibly can for you. So please ask me whatever you want. It´s hard because there isn´t very much that I can do to show my appreciation for my family, so the small things that you need from me are actually very much welcomed. THANK YOU for all of those recipes. Today I am planning to spend the majority of the day in the kitchen. I am really excited to cook. And I really don´t think you have enough faith in my cooking abilities. But I will send you pictures and you will be impressed :) I CANNOT believe you spent 45 dollars to send me some gravy packets. It literally makes me sick. Am I grateful and appreciative? Yes, but I also feel so incredibly guilty for wasting that money. I feel really bad. It´s just gravy!! I am surprised that Dad even allowed that purchase to happen. I am really really grateful. Like I said, only mother in the world that would ever do that. :) 

I laughed really hard when I saw the picture of Dad getting his jeans. I was suprised when you told me that he had been wearing Spencer´s old jeans!!! But this is a good thing. It´s about time he started to conform. :) But I am just glad that Dad is widening his horizon!!! And I am super proud of him for choosing El Rancho Grande as his birthday lunch. Seriously that man is changing so much!! Loved hearing about his talk. And I am really glad that you sent it to me Dad!! I can´t wait to read it. And the Chic-fil-a story was also hysterical. I seriously miss you all so much it hurts. Quincey is such a sport. Most creative car. That´s pretty dang impressive two years in a row. Hahaha. He´s so cute. BTW, who on earth is Xotchill???? 

My week was one of the greatest weeks of my mission. The work was a ltitle slow, but personally speaking I have really never felt better. A few days ago we found out about transfers, and all of us are staying here except for Elder Bastian. Which really really makes me sad. I have come to love many of the people that I serve with, but Elder Bastian is just really awesome. I am going to miss him a ton. He is going to Seville to be a Zone Leader. But he is only one transfer older than me so I will definitely be seeing him around in the mission field. Elder Chapple and I are going to stay together another transfer. Which is good :) He is a funny kid. Very very mellow and quirky. One of those kids that just goes with the flow in every single aspect of his life. This last transfer FLEW by. So fast. The three new elders that are coming here are alright. Well I don´t know them at all. Two are going to end up dying here in the next few transfers, and one is from Chapple and Bird´s group. It should be a good transfer. 

We are working with some investigators right now that are progressing (finally). Well..kind of progressing. The first is J G, who is a 45 year old man. One of the most interesting people I have ever met. He is actually a big time actor and director of musicals and plays. He is from the Dominican Republic. He is very educated and is easily the most intelligent person I have ever taught, especially when it comes to the Bible. He is a ¨searcher of truth¨ and doesn´t really believe that one church can house all of God´s truth. He knows the Bible insanely well and has done lots of investigations into many different churches. He was an old investigator and knows a lot about the church. It is hard to teach him. He doesn´t bible bash...not really anyway. He is very respectful. But he uses a ton of big words that I don´t really know. He´s awesome though. I absolutely love talking to him. He is a really unique person. But the truths of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ can touch anyone. We just need to help him read the Book of Mormon with the right spirit. He has a fecha for the 29th of December. 

We are also teaching this other family of Dominicans. They are the cousins of J G. We found them last week and they are really awesome. But they kind of think that we are english teachers more than missionaries. So right now we are working on shifiting our purpose in their house. We have only taught them twice though. They are really awesome people. We are teaching this other girl from Ecuador named F. She was an ancient investigator and it´s been about four years since the missionaries taught her. But she let us in and we have been teaching her. She is progressing really well. We only teach her once a week. The problem is that she can´t come to church because she works from 10 - 1 every Sunday. So we are trying to work on that. But she will definitely be baptized as soon as she can come to church. She´s about 23 years old. Super nice. 

When it comes to people who are progressing, that´s about it. We´re working on it though. I am very positive about the work right now. I really do enjoy this. Some days are hard, and I often find myself fighting discouragement, but I love this work. 

One of the reasons that my week was so amazing was my personal study. Honestly I have never had such uplifting personal study. I basically just read the Book of Mormon for an hour. But I have that study guide as well and I seriously love it. My testimony of the Book of Mormon has grown so incredibly much, and I find myself in lessons just testifying about the truthfulness of the BoM. It is so wonderful. I am in Alma 57 right now. I am in the middle of all of the war chapters, which are cool. But my favorite part of the Book of Mormon is probably from the beginning of Alma up to the war chapters, when it talks about all of the missionary work that Alma and the sons of Mosiah did. So incredible. They are such amazing examples for me. The faith that they possessed amazes me. I think almost every single Latter-day Saint takes faith for granted. It is such a commonly mentioned, seemingly simple principle that in reality has so much profundity and depth to it. I wish that I had less doubts and more faith. That is how miracles are performed. The Priesthood itself works according to three different things, (as long as we´re worthy and everything): the will of God, and then the faith of the priesthood bearer and the faith of the person being blessed BY the priesthood. Jesus always healed people according to their faith. I just think there is so much more to it than I even comprehend. But the Book of Mormon really is changing my life. I read it and I just feel joy. My entire soul just feels warm and I feel the Spirit testify to me of its truthfulness every single time I read it. I wish I had put forth more effort into gaining a testimony of the Book of Mormon before the mission. Because it really can come alive. I think about Alma the Younger gathering his sons and personally speaking to each of them before the end of his life and counseling him the way that he did. Corianton was the wayward son, and he spends more time speaking to him than the older two. I could just feel the love and concern that Alma has for his lost son. Alma the Younger is definitely my favorite prophet. And I also LOVE Moroni. Captain Moroni. I never realized just how incredible and humble of a person he was. He had so much faith in the Lord. I really am just loving life right now because of the Book of Mormon. 

As I mentioned before, there are some changes coming up here in Almería. Because the new elders are coming to work in the northern pueblos, we had to give up our piso to them. So the hermanas clark and crocket (whom I absolutely love) are buying a new piso and chaps and I will move into theirs because it is a better location in respect to our area. It´s right in the middle of our new area. The new elders won´t have anything to start with in their small northen towns, so Chapple and I had to cut our area in half and give them the top half. So our area is really small now. The new elders came to open up a large pueblo up north. But somehow they got half of our area too. That´s ok though. It will be nice to have a smaller area because we won´t have to walk as much. So I am going to have to move all of my stuff to the Hermana´s piso. It´s going to be a pretty big hassle. But apparently the Hermana´s piso is even nicer than ours. So that´s a good thing. THEY HAVE A DRYER!!!! Americans take that for granted so much. 

Once again, I wish to express my deep sadness for the fact that Elder Bastian is leaving. I seriously love that kid. He is probably the greatest friend I have made so far in the field. We are definitely hanging out after the mission. Whenever the four of us elders are together, we always go on splits and I hang out with Bastian and our comps stick together, so I have gotten to know him really well. I might even shed some tears when we send him off at the train station. Which will be a first. I have really loved my district this last transfer. The Hermanas are so wonderful. I actually love all of the Hermanas I´ve gotten to know. Every single one of them has been just fantastic. I really love serving with them. And I love elder Bird, who is Bastian´s companion. He is super christlike and just a wonderful guy. Bless his heart. 

Tomorrow we are meeting together as a district for our last district meeting and we are going to have Thanksgiving dinner afterwards. I am excited. I have been looking forward to this for quite some time now. I am grateful for a lot of things in my life. 

One thing that I have been thinking about is love. Elder has a hard time expressing love, in fact he won´t even tell people that he loves them. He thinks everyone just lies when they say it in the field and everything. Last night we were talking about how we need to love the people and all of that and he was expressing concerns about how he doesn´t really like people and doesn´t know if he feels genuine love for the people here. I told him that I felt the same way for a while. I am not the most outgoing person and I don´t especially love being surrounded by a ton of people or having to meet new people every single day. But I have prayed a lot to be able to love my fellow missionaries and the people I teach. And I really have felt an enormous amount of love for everyone throughout my misison. I am definitely not perfect, but I love loving people. I love the feeling of just caring for the members and the investigators and especially my fellow missionaries. It is the greatest feeling. I feel full of love almost all the time, and I hope that I can feel like that for the rest of my existence. 

I really just want to keep rambling on about how much I love the Book of Mormon and all of the things that I have felt and learned this past week, but I am about out of time. Thank you so much for the amazing people that you are. This Thanksgiving season is going to be a little different here in Spain, but that does not change the amount of gratitude I feel for the countless blessings that my Heavenly Father has given me. Truly I am blessed. I am so grateful for my parents and my family. More than anything else, I will always be grateful for that blessing in my life. I thank God every single day for the extraordinary family that I was born into. I love you all more than anything else. I am also incredibly grateful for the privilege I have to be a member of Christ´s church in these latter days. I am thankful for the Book of Mormon, and for the powerful impact that it can have on our lives, if we allow it to do so. I know it´s true. I am also thankful for the chance I have to hold God´s priesthood, another thing that I so often take for granted. I love my life, I love my family, and I love my Father in Heaven. Happy Thanksgiving!!! 

Love, Elder Sharp 

I Hate Being Twitchy

HAPPY BIRTHDAY FATHER!!!!!!! (tomorrow) I hope your day is magical and everyone at home treats you as wonderfully as you deserve to be treated

Yes I will send you some missionary in action pics. I really wanted a reciple for stuffing. Grammie´s stuffing. And a recipe for gravy. Cause that is crucial. But just do what you can. I will get back on my email tonight so if you have time I would love to get some instruction on what the best thing to do would be. Also... could I have a chocolate orange in my package?? And I need my sd cards back. And Can you send me a picture of my plaque?? I have never seen it. Spencer´s looks really good. Stud.

We had a killer week this week. We found 12 new investigators, which was a miracle. We´ll see how much potential they have. Unfortunately our investigator with a baptismal date dropped us. He doesn´t feel like he is prepared, and it is hard for him to learn anything anyway. I have a lot of thoughts about that aspect of it...when it comes to differences in intelligence and all that. But he is basically a beggar in the streets. He sells little watches. He is kind of dramatic, but so sweet and loving. He cracks me up. But yeah he doesn´t want to be baptized until February. And he didn´t come to church yesterday. He´s depressed right now. His name is J. He´s a gypsy Literally, a gypsy. they come from egypt and india, a mix breed, and they are literally the european gypsies that ruined the Phantom of the Opera´s life when he was a boy and the ones that have weird circuses and travel around. Nomads, wanderers that long ago settled in Spain. There are some in lots of european countries but spain has many. They have integrated into Spanish culture and are spaniards. But gitanos (gypsies in spanish) are super poor and live in dangerous/ghetto neighborhoods. I should send you a picture of this one neighborhood we go to. It looks like the world will after WW3. Let´s just say that here in Spain NOBODY has the kind of wealth that Spencer is experiencing. But anyway. J dropped us. But we are still working hard. I am going to have to split the area again because two more missionaries are coming here. That will be 8 here in Almeria. I have split an area three times and I am only 8 months old (tomorrow)!!! It´s growing so much!!!

I cannot believe Spencer wrote a letter that long. I don´t know how he has time. My letters really are pathetic compared to what he´s pulling off. I think I should make a bigger effort to organize my emails and send more pictures. And write more thought filled letters. I just don´t understand when he does that. The white bible says we should only communicate with our family on P-days, and I took that to include writing letters. But everyone interprets it differently. Even if I did write during the week, I wouldn´t have time. I am SO busy all the time. Spencer is kidding himself if he thinks I have planned lessons coming out of my ears. We kick and claw and fight to get lessons here in Almeria. I wake up in the morning and either do exercise or lay down on the floor and stretch ;) then eat and shower and I barely make it in time to study. Then we study and plan a little and leave. And we come back three hours later and (if we don´t have an eating cita with members) cook and clean up and start studying again. And we leave at five. And we work till ten. And I come home literally exhausted every night. I used to have trouble sleeping at home. Even in the MTC. But the mission has zapped that problem. We come home, plan, eat something small, and then I crash. I am out three seconds after my head hits the pillow. Which is not normal for this kid!!!
Anyway.

What to say?? It is cold here....yes...cold!!!!!!!! IT¨S COLD!!!!!!! :D :D :D I am super stoked about it. Sweaters and scarves are officially out of the suit case. In our piso it gets FREEZING. They don´t use insulation in the walls here in Spain so we´re all freezing our tails off. Getting out of bed has never been so hard for me. And our piso doesn´t even have tile. It has fake wood floors, which are still cold in the morning but not NEAR as cold as the tile gets. It´s like walking on ice (my bathroom has tile). But I am not complaining. It has rained a little and when I feel cold I just smile. Heavenly Father is being super nice to me right now.

Your lives sound as busy as ever. I hope the fact that you are putting so much time and money and energy into the house means that you intend to stay there for a long time. I really do not want to come home to anything else. My ward, my house, my home!!! And my family. It will be weird coming home to only three brothers. But at least I will be there to welcome Spencer and Brigham home. I am praying that dad's job situation works out. Dad deserves it. He works so hard. He is 38 now right?? So crazy. For a second I thought he was turning 39 and that I would end up missing his 40th birthday, but no. I will be there!!!! People freak out when I tell them my parents are only 37. They then do the math and look at me confusedly, while I smile and explain the situation as carefully as possible. But it helps with people who aren´t members or converts or everyone really. So many people throw it into our faces that we were born in the church and we only do this because our parents do it. Although I wish Dad had gotten the opportunity to serve, it is still nice sometimes to say that my father DIDN´T actually serve a mission. The idea that some people have about religion here is baffling. The majority of people don´t care in the slightest if their religion is true or not. ¨It´s what there is¨ or ¨I was born in it and I will die in it!!!!¨ Who cares if it´s true!!?? Sometimes I just want to take the BoM and smack people upside the head. They do it because it´s just what they know. It´s all tradition here. Apart from the jehovah´s witnesses and evangelicals. 90 percent of Spain is a non practicing catholic. But there are people who are searching for the gospel. We just have to have faith that God will lead us to them.

I had to teach gospel principles yesterday cause the teacher was sick and it didn´t go very well. It was about signs of the second coming. There were investigators in there and this recent convert kept going off about aliens and signs in the sky that she saw. She is a little crazy. She wants to write the pope and have the catholic and lds churches become one. No joke. After her confirmation on sunday she stands up and does the whole catholic cross thing in front of the whole ward. I about died laughing :)

When it comes to Spencer´s letter, I think a lot of things. I am impressed actually. I guess surprised as well. I wasn´t much help to him before he left, but I couldn´t really give them the perspective of being away from home for the first time. I had already done that so it wasn´t new to me. I still struggled in the beginning with it though. Cooking and shopping and budgeting. But I have it figured out now. I have saved tons of money the last two months. I still have 130 euros in my missionary account and the month is almost over!!! Super happy about it. (We get 140 every first day of the month) And with PMG yeah I actually DID tell him that he should study that. Punk. Hahaha. I remember that was about the only piece of advice I gave him. I love him so much. And I really miss him. I loved his letter that he sent me. And your letter to him. And I really loved the letter Dad sent me two weeks ago. My parents are very wise. I respect both of you a great deal. Spencer is right when it comes to getting out of your mission what you put into it. So true. There are lots of elders that go home worse than they left. Some don´t change at all. My biggest fear is coming home the same person I was when I left. I went this to change me so badly. And I know it is. I will print off spencer´s letter tonight in the chapel and then write my thoughts about it.

Well I am running out of time. I wanted to write Dad an email and tell him how much I appreciate him. I don´t know if I will have time though.

I am pretty healthy. I think the hair loss thing was all in my head. I am sort of a hypochondriac when it comes to the way I look, I am starting to notice. Rash was only there for about 2 weeks. And the twitch is still there. Except it happens in random parts of my body. The eye doesn´t twitch as much. Still does though. But I get random twitches every where. It´s weird. I hate being twitchy. My shoes are the bomb. My clothes are awesome as well. Except the gray suit that I bought is fading. The pants are totally different colors than the jacket. Kind of stinks. My bag that I spent so much time looking for is PERFECT. I love it to death. It suits all of my needs perfectly and I really couldn´t have asked for anything better. We walk a ton here. We also use buses sometimes. I think that´s why I am so tired. European missionaries don´t get cars or bikes like the american ones. We aren´t pampered here ;)

Out of time. I love you Dad and I want you to know that I appreciate you so much. Thank you for the things you teach me every week and for the example you have set. I really do care about you guys more than anything. You´re my best friends. I love you

Elder Sharp

Anti-Numbers

Mom and Dad,

I am doing better. Right now the work here is not going very well. It´s hard. We just don´t have the people. Last week was especially awful. I think the leaders will call us and ask us what´s going on. I am really anti numbers, but I know it´s the way the program works. And the numbers represent people. I just haven´t found investigators that progress. So many unmarried people here. Everyone smokes. BUT I have hope. I know I haven´t worked as hard as I should be. Elder B lectured us yesterday (he is DL) about our numbers. I don´t think his are a ton better, but I know that he has to do it. He is only six weeks older than me in the mission. At first it was irritating for me to have to respect his authority. Not a huge problem or anything. But when I first got here it was...odd. But that was obviously just me being prideful. And I have worked on that a lot these past few weeks. To me, becoming more humble and submissive is really important. I did really well last night as he was giving us his thoughts and everything. So that made me happy. I was grateful for his advice :) I know he only wants the best for us. I thik it´s a really important lesson to learn. Well it is. I will always have authorities and people over me in life, in work, church, everything. Age or experience doesn´t matter, I need to be humble and submissive and respectful because that is the way Christ was. I think I am making progress.

Anyway. really though I am doing better. i´m happy :)

Package- I would prefer nothing. After that, money. After that, yes ties are always welcomed :) We get bored of ties really fast. Other than that, I don´t know. I like being surprised. I am trying not to eat as badly and I know that packages mean treats and unhealthy food, but it´s also what I want. I don´t ever buy unhealthy food at the store. But somehow I am still getting a little chubby. Who knows. I will start thinking and let you know next week.

I LOVED LOVED the Warbler. That made my week. It was awesome. Keep it going!!!

Dad, I appreciate the offer of the money for the marriages, but it´s not allowed. And I wouldn´t take it anyway if it were. These people aren´t even sure they want to get married. And yeah. Everyone needs money here. You guys wouldn´t believe the poverty that is going on here. I don´t know if I have written much about it but wow. It´s insane. No one has money. No one has jobs. The people that do have jobs here have really really bad jobs. Here a job at McDonald´s is something HUGE. There isn´t really a middle class anymore in Spain. It was actually helpful for me to tell people that my father was out of work. But that thankfully ended quickly. Here people either hate the US or would give their right arm to get there. So many people want to go to the US.

The weather actually has been better. Still WAY too hot. It´s november. But I stopped sweating. 70 degrees huh. It´s going to be so long before I experience cold weather. A little less than two years. Unless it was cold when I got home. That would be nice.

I am glad that Dad found a job. That is a blessing. What a enormous blessing. Almost everyone here (including the working members) are on support from the government. It´s insane. This place is going to collapse soon. Work is really hard to come by. And good work is nigh impossible. We are lucky to live where we do. Although things aren´t super amazing in the states, there is seriously no comparison to how things are here. People here are used to living well, because they did before. So people are super depressed with the crisis.

Whitewashed means that the two missionaries are both brand new to the area. Which would be really hard. The only thing harder is opening, which means that the area had been closed beforehand and the missionaries have to go in with nothing already started. Starting from scratch.

I am sorry for him that he is homesick. That is normal though. I was ¨trunky¨ as well when I first started. But it does go away. The mission is all about enduring to the end. Just learning to love it and doing the same thing day after day. It´s kinda like life. We just have to press forward steadfastly, taking it one day at a time. Trying not to think about how much time there is left. Then you will realize that you are down to 3 months left and all of the sudden you don´t want to leave. That´s my goal. I want to get to the point where the end of my mission will be something that I don´t want to come!

I just want to express my love for the both of you. I love you so much. I hope you know just how much I care about you. I never ever could have imagined just how much I would come to love my parents. You are my greatest friends and I miss you more than I have ever missed anything. I am so grateful for the life that you have given me. I am literally amazed by how fortunate I am. God has given me everything I could ever ever want. This has been such a learning experience for me. I don´t know how much I have changed or anything, but I have learned a lot. Lots of different things. More about how life works, how the church works, and more about myself. My testimony has been fortified and I am coming to realize just how incredibly important the Savior is in our lives. In everything. It´s amazing just how much He did for us. Jesus Christ is everything. We´re reading the Book of Mormon (I love that Book with every part of my soul. I know it´s true) as a mission and we are focusing on everything that has to do with Jesus. It´s literally amazing. I have learned a lot, and I am still learning. But I really really appreciate the increased love, adoration, admiration, and respect that I have for my parents. I am so thankful for your diligent example in living the gospel. You are both so selfless. I know you aren´t perfect and everything, but I have met a lot of parents in these last 8 months. And I just can´t believe how blessed I am. I love you both. I love all of you. I am so excited to talk to you in six weeks. I miss our family life a lot. That is easily the thing I miss the most. EASILY. No competition. I would give anything to go back in time. I would love to be standing in that cabin again, surrounded by all seven of you. I know it will never be like that again. But I have such precious memories of my childhood and teenage years and I am so grateful for them.

This week was good. Hard. But this week is going to be much better. I am sure of it. Just pray for work here in Almeria. We need to find people! They switched out the counselors in our ward today. They did a lot of changes. But our new ward mission leader is the old 1st counselor. Julio. He is so awesome. His wife is awesome too. Her name is Mirta. They are from argentina and have a daughter serving in Barcelona. His wife feeds us a lot. And he is ready to work. I am super excited to work with him. The ward is great here. Well I don´t really have any time.

I am still working on my letter for Brigham. I am going to start one for the whole fam and include as much detail as possible. There is a lot to say. I just never remember to tell you about the stuff that actually happens day to day. I have had some interesting experiences.

I love you all. I am sorry this week was kind of all over the place. I am going to start organizing my thoughts better so that my letters aren´t so jumbled :)

elder sharp

Gypsies...but we go on.

Dearest Family, 

I was cracking up at his letter too :) Hahaha. His comp sounds absolutely hysterical. Mamma wolf. I think they will get along swimmingly. So Spencer was whitewashed his first area. That is really hard. But obviously President Hall knows that Spencer can handle whatever the Lord needs him to. 

My week was good. Just chuggin´along over here in Almería. We are still looking for people to teach that will actually progress. We just have tons of people that aren´t married right now. The most frustrating thing in the world because it takes so long for people to get married here. And no one has a dime to their name, so that is even less motivation to begin the process. But we go on. :) 

This week was actually super long. The longest week of my mission. It was jam-packed with tons of different stuff. I wish I had time to be more descriptive about everything, but I really don´t have a ton. What´s new? 

Last P-day we hung out as a district. I really really love our district. Chapple is great. He´s a really interesting person, but we get along really well and I like him a lot. The other two elders are Bastien and Bird. Both live in Utah right now. I love both of them. Bird was the star quarterback and point guard in high school, and is super athletic. He´s 6´6. He grew up inactive his whole life, but started coming to church about a year ago. His future wife helped him decide to go on a mission. He really is one of the nicest guys I have ever met. And Bastien is a lot like me. He is one of the few elders that I have met that I would actually want to become close friends with after the mission. (I have loved all of my companions, especially Lish and Erickson. But I just couldn´t see myself being super close with them after the mission). We just get along really well. We´re a lot alike. He is my DL and has been in the mission six weeks longer than I have. He lives in Saratoga Springs. Well, his family does. The Hermanas are Clark and Crockett. Clark is super super cool. She reminds me A TON of Aunt Amy, so I love having her in my district. She is 22 and kind of a free spirit. She´s funny. And then Crockett is a byu grad with a bachelor´s degree. She´s almost 24. She is nice. It´s a good district. On Monday we went to a large statue of the Savior that is here in Almeria next to the castle. It was cool. I have some cool pictures. Almería really is beautiful in some parts. I get the best sunrises every morning. Unfortunately they can´t quite be captured fully with the camera that I have. (Haven´t lost my camera...that is a record for me I think). 

Tuesday...can´t remember what we did. It was a routine day I think. 

Wednesday- we were invited to an evangelical church by some guy in the gypsyville on Tuesday, and we went. He said we could teach him if we did. So I went to an evangelical church with my companion. It was...odd. An old building in the middle of Los Alhemendros, which is a neighborhood filled with gitanos, or gypsies. We went in an it was very dark. There was a preacher up front with a mike that was chanting and singing, along with a rock band up front on the stage thing. There were loud speakers on the wall, and it was insanely loud in there. My head hurt. We walk in, wearing full missionary get-up of course, (no one was dressed up in this building), and every single head turned and just stared right at us. There were old benches set up in the middle of the room, and they were packed full of people. They looked at us like we were insects or something :) But we walked on in with our friend and sat down on a bench. The pastors rushed on over and greeted us. I didn´t feel an evil spirit or anything like that. I didn´t feel anything, actually. No peace, no light, just...nothing. Kind of numb. It was loud, hot, and people were chanting and wailing and singing along to the blasting music. At one point the pastor called up all those who desired to be clean of their sins to come forward, so a bunch of people got up and formed a line in front of the stage. And then the pastor and his sidekick went over and placed their hands over the ears of the forgiveness-seeking people, and started chanting and singing, swaying from side to side. Sometime they would whisper in the ears of these people. This was happening all while everyone was chanting and singing and the band was playing and it was all super dark. I only felt uncomfortable when they pastors put their hands on the people. That made me feel...wrong. The people would sit their and stare at the pastor chant and sing, and then they would put their hands in the air (while the pastor´s hands were on their head) and just start chanting and swaying around in a circle. Like a weird ritualistic dance or something. It was strange. That went on for about an hour. I was really bored. There was no word of God or anything. Just music saying the same things over and over again. And weird moaning and chanting. Very irreverent too. People (including teenagers and adults) would climb all over the benches and change seats and everything. It finally ended and we left and waited outside the building as everyone came out and shook our hands. They were super nice to us. It was kind of cool :) Usually people aren´t. A lot of them had a lot of questions for us. The pastors came out and asked us some stuff too. I think we intimidated them. But the whole crowd of people had gathered outside and were really interested in us. They kept looking at us and they were all whispering and stuff. We left, but came back to that neighborhood a few days later and everyone knew us. And they would listen to us and everything. We are going to keep going back. I think there is a lot of promise there. But I definitely know that our church is true. There was no Spirit testifying of truth in that church. 

Thursday- in Granada with president deere for a training. Really awesome in Granada. It was cold there. Yes. I said cold. I was in Heaven. It was like Utah in September. I absolutely loved it. I missed it. Such a blessing. I won´t ever get to serve in Granada because usually one doesn´t serve in the same zone twice, but I do appreciate the chances I have to go there. 

We also set a baptismal date for Juan that day. 24th. Fingers crossed. 

Friday- really sweet day. No time to explain. Miracles all day.

Saturday- average.

Sunday- stake conference in Granada. loved it. I saw my first DL Elder Hooper. I missed him a lot. He goes home soon. 

Anyway. I am out of time. But things are going well.  I am doing good. Just pressing forward steadfastly. In 16 months from today, I will either be on a plane or I will be with my parents!! Isn´t that insane? I don´t feel like I have been gone for that long. But I am glad I still have a lot of time. I need it ;) 

Could you send me some recipes? Stuffed mushrooms from Grammie and green bean casserole, try to keep in mind that I cannot get any american products here. The only green beans they have are fresh. I am making my own thanksgiving dinner. Cause I was homesick on Halloween and I know thanksgiving will be worse. 

Love you all. Sorry I just ran out of time today. 

elder sharp