1/4 of the Journey

Hello!!!

Hm..I don´t know where to begin!! Things are going well here in Jerez. J and A are doing well. J came to all three hours of church yesterday with S. P isn´t coming to church really, which is frustrating. She does have a brand new baby though. And doesn´t get much sleep. But it´s just unfortunate that she isn´t progressing. I am super close to A, our thirteen year old recent convert. She reminds me a lot of June. And I am super close to A too. P not so much. I just don´t talk to her a lot. But she´s super cool. And I love J and S. They are so incredible. P is also doing really well. He is a champ. He has read the entire Book of Mormon, and also the book Our Legacy. His baptism is on Sunday. I am really really glad that these people are getting baptized. It is hard to set a secure date here in Spain. The trick is to get people from the fecha (date) to the font. That´s what we´re working on as a mission. And luckily our investigators are rocks. They are going to be baptized. And it´s not because we are awesome. Just because God is. When it comes to other people...there are. But not a lot. That´s our problem. It´s so difficult to find someone in this country that actually wants to follow God´s will in their life. You would not believe how many people will tell us that they are catholic and I will be like ¨how wonderful, and now why are you catholic?¨ They usually have no response, so we follow with ¨do you believe that your church is true¨? And at this point half say no and half say yes. The ones that say yes we ask, how do you know, and they just say ¨well it´s what there is!! I have been born in this church, my parents and grandparents were catholic, and that´s what I am going to be!!¨And the ones that say no just don´t really care about whether it´s true or not. The majority of people here don´t care about religion.  The only way to get anywhere is to work through members. Or find miracles on the street like Victoriano :) It´s sad because out of the 8 investigators that we found, 1 of them is still an investigator. And she isn´t really progressing. Anyway. I love this work. It´s challenging, but we aren´t alone. God is on our side. And I think missions are just as much for the missionaries as they are for the people we find and teach. God needs his church to grow, and it grows by having strong new converts, but it grows more by having really strong missionaries (that have been strengthened by the mission) go home and get married and raise really really strong families. This stone cut without hands will fill the world. I really love being a part of this work. I really love these people. And it hurts me to watch them ruin their lives, or not do the things we ask them to because of laziness. I am so glad that I still have 18 months of this. I cannot tell you how deeply I love Jerez. It feels like home to me. The members and people that I have met here. It´s incredible. Victoriano is as strong as ever. He is my hero. He´ll go to the temple to do baptisms for all of his family members in November. Same with A, J, and S. And P will go in December. I am hoping that M and A will go too. And e and r. But I don´t know much about them because they aren´t in my area anymore. 

Interesting news. I received a phone call from President Deere this morning. We are going to be a trio here in the Rez until the next transfer. He is a Peruvian elder that has been visa waiting in peru for the past six months. He is from my group. He should get here tomorrow. I don´t know his name yet. Tomorrow we are going on splits with the zone leaders in San fernando. We´´ll see how that goes. :) Jerez is its own district now, and we will be a trio of elders and a trio of hermanas. Kinda cool. I am excited to learn more from this new elder. I need it. It will be really beneficial for Elder Erickson and I. 

For the first time in my mission, I feel the desire to come back. In the beginning I wanted Mom and Dad to come and pick me up so that we could go to London, but after a while I just wanted to go home like everyone else right away and have a huge airport homecoming. But now all I want is to come back and see these people. It will be hard for me to leave Jerez. So yeah mom and dad, whatever our finances will allow, but I would love to show you guys around all of my areas so you can meet my converts :) I truly love these people. Jerez just feels like my home. This piso, capilla, ward, everything. I have been here for a really long time. You know I really can´t believe how much my feelings have changed about all of this. I really do love my mission. 

It´s amazing how much I have changed. I often don´t feel as spiritual as I thought missionaries were supposed to feel, but when I look at my testimony, I am just so grateful for how much it´s grown. Six months of serving Jesus Christ has taught me a lot of things. I look back on my life and look forward to the life I have ahead and it makes me realize just how dependent on the Savior I am. He really is in everything. I love doing this. My testimony has grown immensely. And how could it not?? Watching a 19 year old boy who has been searching for the truth risk everything to be baptized into the church of Jesus Christ, only because he has read the book of mormon and he prayed to his Heavenly Father to know if it was true, and he was answered. It´s amazing to me. P has come to know for himself that this is the church of God. Victoriano, J, P, everyone. This gospel changes people. I then look at myself and see that it´s been changing me as well. I know it´s true. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet. I know it through the only way anyone can know of spiritual truths. The Holy Ghost. I also have a testimony of the power of the Book of Mormon. And the prophets. All of the basic doctrines of this gospel have been formalized in my heart and my testimony. I don´t study deep doctrine a lot, but I do have a testimony of the simple things. As I go through each day, trying to rely on the Holy Ghost and trying to help people come unto Christ, I just feel joy. A tired, exhausted, joy. But I would never ever give this up for anything in the entire world. It makes me want to serve my God with every part of my soul for the rest of my life. I just want to do everything right. All of my callings, my role as son, brother and eventually husband and father. I just want to serve other people. And the only reason I have those desires is because of the work I am doing right now. I am trying to see things with eternal eyes, trying to stop worrying about worldly things. It´s amazing how blessed we are. I hear lots of things about the war that might start between Syria, Russia, and the US. Of course. There is no war that doesn´t directly involve the US. Sometimes I get worried. These times have been prophesied. Wars, rumors of wars, crisis, hunger, sickness, natural disasters, you name it. It´s all happening. But we´re gonna be ok. Heavenly Father loves us so much, and if we do His will, we will always be happy. 

I sometimes feel surreal when I think about how it´s been 6 months. It has gone by so quickly. I know my entire mission will be the same way, and it breaks my heart. I can´t believe how fast it goes. But I am trying to make the most of it. I still have a while :) I want you guys to know that I have a testimony of this work. I know we are representatives of Jesus Christ. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. I know this message of happiness is the only thing that can save this fallen world. We carry a light as missionaries that other people need to have. Christ told his disciples that ¨ye are the light of the world¨. Christ is the source of all light, and we as his disciples bring that light to the world. And that light changes people. It causes them to remember who they are, and where they came from. The Plan of Salvation changes lives. I have had lots of doubts, but they are all gone. Every single one. I just realized that yesterday. I hadn´t thought about doubts since the MTC. God wouldn´t make it so easy. It doesnt matter if some things make sense and others don´t, we are meant to walk by faith in this life. There is a reason why the last days are supposed to be the hardest time to live. We may not have to walk as much as the Pioneers (although I walk a ton), but it´s a lot harder to have faith nowadays with the world as evil as it is. And I know with all my heart that Joseph Smith was God´s chosen servant to restore His church again to the earth. I know the Book of Mormon is the word of God, and it came about the way that Joseph said it did. I love my Heavenly Father so much. He has given me everything I could ever want or need, and I will never be able to repay Him. I love this work. Everyone should serve a mission at some point in their life. There really is no replacement. I am so excited for Spencer to start. I love you guys so much. Thank you for supporting me while I am out here. I pray for you always and I hope you are doing your part in this work as well. Go to the temple often, and visit people that need your help!! I can´t believe I didn´t pay more attention to this before my mission. I hardly even knew who the less actives were. I had some home teaching families that weren´t even active, and I didn´t realize what an enormous opportunity Heavenly Father gave me. I´m going to visit everyone when I get home. I hope Bishop assigns me all of the less active families to home teach. I just love this. I can´t even tell you guys. You just have to try it!! Wow. Life is so wonderful. Anyway. Love you 

Elder Sharp

Hello :) 

I am so happy right now!! I have some really uplifiting piano music going, and life just couldn´t get better. Seriously. Well...

We had the best week ever. Honestly I don´t know why Heavenly Father is blessing so much. So I left off last week when we were about to go try and set a baptismal date with P, who has been an investigator since my second week here. We always teach him with his girlfriend, who is the niece of a member family in our ward. It has been a little difficult because the members have been really trying to take things slow with him, and that´s not what missionaries are supposed to do. But we respected the wishes of the members, who know P way better than we do. Finally, last week at church, they asked us to go and try to set a fecha with him. We had never met with him alone before. So this was huge. And I was excited. The girlfriend, M, is simply not prepared and doesn´t have the desires like P did. Which is why the members were holding back so much. The aunt really wanted the niece, M, to be baptized. With time :) So we met with P in the capilla, and it was just the three of us. FOR THE FIRST TIME ever. And it went horribly. Seriously horribly. I sounded silly and Erickson had a bad spanish day as well. And the Spirit just wasn´t really there. P did not like the date. At all. He said he doesn´t want to feel pressured. He just said ¨No.¨ And so I just wanted to stick my head in the ground. But we sat there. And listened for a while. And then we asked him, "do you know this is true?¨ and he said yes. And then we said ¨do you know that heavenly father wants you to get baptized?¨ and he said yes. And then we said ¨Well P, it looks like you have some praying to do. We know you are afraid, and we know that you feel pressured, by us, by your friends, your family, etc. But none of that matters. What matters is what your heavenly father wants you to do.¨ So we had him promise that he would go home and pray and ask. And that was it. So about three days later we got a call from P and he asked if we could do another FHE in D and R´s house, which would have been the second one that week because we went straight from the capilla to their house that monday and had an FHE. I honestly didn´t think much of it, but we agreed to go and met him there at 9:30 on thursday. So we taught about ¨dare to stand alone¨ and used the mormon message to help us teach it. After we were done teaching we all went around the room and talked about our feelings about all of it, and P went last. And he just looked up at us (Missionaries, D and R, the aunt and uncle, and his gfriend) and said, ¨I have prayed about it. I am going to be baptized this month.¨ And we all just sat there. That is the first time that I have ever cried because of an investigator. But I totally did. R and D started crying, and M (who had already known) starting crying, and then I did. I was just so happy. I had prayed and prayed for Heavenly Father to give P an answer, and He did. P will be baptized on the 22nd. I was just overjoyed. P is the best young man I have ever met. I would never be that righteous were it not for the Church. He is an honest young man that only wants to do what is right. He has a few chapters left until finishes the entire book of mormon. And he is also going to serve a mission. I am so so happy for him. 

MIRACLE NUMBER TWO

(I can't really include this story- as there are so many specific details.  But it was awesome.  He has a family he's been teaching and they were working with the young boy, who is 10 or 11.  They wanted his step-father to be baptized too, but they knew he was waiting and not quite ready.  In the process of one of their discussions, the boy finally said he'd get baptized when his dad did.  Long story short- the dad agreed right there that night for him and his son to be baptized this month.  His reasons that he had been holding back were super touching and he didn't want anyone to know.  But it was the most selfless and giving thing! Preston was really overwhelmed and just thinks the absolute world of this sweet family, and he is very excited for them.)   

Honestly I am so overjoyed for these people. I really don´t know why Heavenly Father is blessing us so much. I really do know that I am nothing though. We seriously do not do anything. Sometimes I feel like a bumbling idiot that walks around trying to get into people´s houses and teach something in Spanish and, miraculously, the Lord is blessing us with baptisms. I know it isn´t anything that we did. The Spirit is changing the hearts of these wonderful people that have received testimonies by their own efforts, not because of anything that we did. It is so incredible to watch the miracle of conversion take place in these people´s lives. 

I have so much to say, and so little time to say it. I really wish I had time to write all of the feelings of my heart. Apart from all of the wonderful people that are choosing to be baptized this month, I am just truly happy. FINALLY the 18 months that I have left is beginning to become a relief instead of a discouragment. 18 more months to grow, to meet more people, to share what I love with all my heart with the people that I love with all of my heart. I truly love this gospel. As I study and preach this good news, I become more and more convinced. I am so completely convinced of the perfection of God´s plan. This world was perfectly designed into a place where we could learn and progress and grow. As we love and serve others, we grow and progress so much faster than we would otherwise. And we are also happiest when we are not thinking of ourselves. Of that I am sure. This is hard, but I get to wake up every morning and worry about other people. For two years, I am totally focused on others. What a blessing that is. And I am just barely beginning to realize it. I know this is true. And anyone can know it. I have come to appreciate this in so many different ways. The Atonement and the Savior especially, as well as the Book of Mormon. 

I am about out of time. I started a letter for you today mom and I will try and answer all of your questions in that letter. I really wish I had more time to tell you everything. I am so excited to live life. I love the mission, and I am excited to have a family and teach my children everything I am learning. I will have to read that book you´re talking about for sure. Sounds awesome. Well I am out of time. I will answer your questions, I promise. I love you so much. Spencer should be so excited :) It really is the greatest thing I have ever done. And life only gets better from here :) How very blessed we are. You´re all always in my prayers. I love you

Elder Sharp

We're all champs

Hey!!

Really good week this week. We had our baptism on Saturday, and Sunday was a great day in Church. We had a ton of people there. 98. Which is super super good for us. And lots of people showed up that haven´t come in a while. Less actives and whatnot. And Today I went to Gibraltar which was awesome. Transfers are this week, and Hermana Chance is leaving. She is going to Fuengirola and Hermana Johns is going to be a SHE (basically just a leadership position for Hermanas, they go and splits with other hermanas and are just machines). SHEs always are in a pair of two, so this other SHE is coming to live in Jerez, and this pair of SHEs is also going to train a new hermana. Super cool. Elder Erickson and I will kick it here for another transfer, which is exactly what I wanted. I absolutely love Elder Erickson. We get along super well, even though we are so different. He is absolutely wonderful. And I am super glad Johns is staying here too, cause she´s awesome as well. We all have tons of fun. And work hard. Of course :)

I wasn´t in Jerez very much this week. I was in Malaga for about two days with Johns. There was this big leadership training and her and I went. That´s how I got to spend the night with Jordan Quinn. It was SOO great to see him. I love the fact that he is here too. So I think they will split my district. We will have like 14 people in it now, so I am pretty sure that they will just make Jerez its own district. We´ll see. Hooper is leaving. He goes home in December and will spend his last two transfers in Malaga training. I´ll miss him a ton. But things are going really well. The baptism was awesome. The Hermanas baptized A, the husband of the south american girl that Pardo and I baptized, M. He was our investigator, but when we split the area he became the hermana´s because he lives in their area. Maribel is doing super awesome. Same with Victoriano. But yeah, Antonio and Ana were baptized on Saturday. I was priviliged to baptize Antonio, and Elder Erickson baptized Ana. And then on Sunday I confirmed Ana and ended up giving two baby blessings. Which was a surprise. I was sitting there and all of the sudden they announced that there would be three baby blessings and two confirmations. I was only expecting one baby blessing. But we blessed Lola (Paola´s daugther) first and I did that, it was scary but it went well. And then Emilio and Rosario (my second and third converts) wanted their seven year old daughter blessed. And the daughter asked me to do that one as well. So that was a surprise. Fun stuff. I was really nervous about all of it, but it went ok. I didn´t bless or confirm as elegantly as the bishop or WML did that day, but I did my best and I felt the Spirit. A priesthood blessing is a priesthood blessing. It doesn´t matter how poorly we speak, the power is not in the words we say.

Quick insert about trivial matters..... If you haven´t sent my package yet, could you put pretzel m&ms in there??

I love you guys a ton. I can´t believe Spencer leaves so soon. Honestly time is FLYING by. Sometimes I feel like I am speeding down the freeway with the wind hurling at my face when it comes to time. This last transfer went by very quickly. I will hit 6 months in less than three weeks. And a week after Spencer leaves on his mission, I will hit 7 months. Super crazy. This transfer is going to be great though. Elder Erickson and I have set some high goals this transfer and we want to make it perfect. We are going to try our hardest.

About the package thing, always better that you don´t send it to the mission office. I guess for JQ it doesn´t matter a whole lot since he is so close to the mission office, but it gets here so much faster if you send it to my address. Could you put some pens in there too?? Decent ones? Everyone here spends a fortune on these super nice pens called parkers, but I don´t want to. But my papermates are about gone. So yeah.

SUPER SUPER SUPER jealous that you guys get to go to Warrenton. You honestly have no idea. I would love to go to Oregon. Honestly that is what I want to do when I get home. Just a short trip to Oregon and clam chowder. Erickson and I talk about oregon all the time. His family goes there too. They have some pretty cool traditions, but we both just love oregon. When they go to Oregon they go crabbing, which sounds really fun. You should look into that. You rent these baskets with bait in them attached to a long rope and huck them in the water off the dock, and then they sink and after a while they fill up with crabs and you can keep them, depending on the size. They always eat a ton of crab when they go. Sounds super cool. I want to do that with my family. You all better think of me when you eat those clam chowder bread bowls. Wow. It is so so not fair. I literally have been talking about Oregon at least once a day for the last 6 weeks, and now you guys are going. Oh well. Have fun :) Enjoy your last few weeks with my amazing brother. I am so proud of him. He is going to do so well. Only a few days in the MTC and then San Fernando is going to have one incredible missionary to work with. Guess what- Spencer is going to the San Fernando mission, and right now I am serving in the zone of San Fernando. That´s what my zone is called. Kind of ironic.

Well I am really happy for Spencer. I hope he´s excited. He needs to really enjoy these last few weeks, because in about 6 months he will not even remember what being a normal human being is like. Life changes so quickly. But it all goes by so fast. I don´t even know anymore. I feel like the P days are like every other day. Super weird. Today we went to Gibraltar and it was AWESOME. It is actually a British territory, so after we crossed customs it was like a whole different world. Even the weather was different!! It was super cloudy and windy, and I loved it. Felt like heaven. I guess it´s a good thing that I wasn´t sent to England on my mission. I am just fascinated by that country. And the accents seriously make me super jealous. I don´t know why they speak our language so much better than we do. Just walking around all the old shoppes today listening to tons of young, attractive women speak with a British accent was super hard. I was almost relieved to get out of there. Really distracting!! You guys would love Gibraltar though. Definitely up our alley. The rock was cool. We didn´t hike all the way up, just far enough to see the monkeys. It´s kind of funny. A huge rock with monkeys all over it. They were jumping on us and everything. And we had a bag with cans of soda in it and as we were walking down the mountain back to the city, a pack of monkeys attacked hermana johns who was carrying the bag and then she flipped and threw it at me, so then this huge monkey jumped on my arm and starting ripping into the bag so I, in my panic mode, decided that spinning around in circles would solve the problem. Really I don´t know why. But I just start spinning around hoping that the monkey would fall off, and it didn´t. It was flipping huge. Finally the bag ripped and all of our soda went rolling down the hill and the monkeys ran after it. So did we. We managed to save some of the cans, but the monkeys got some too. I was ticked. Fun day though. I am glad we went. I love British culture. I loved hearing people speak english again!! I would pass people and say hola or buenas because that´s what I am so used to. I am sure it´ll be like that when I return home as well.

So Things are going well. Tonight we have a really important appt with Pablo and Maria. We are going to set a baptismal date for the 28th of September. And Jose and Paola are doing well too.

I am happy. We are working hard and I am learning lots. I am really starting to care a lot about the people. This transfer will be awesome. Members feed us often enough. 2 or 3 times a week. But I am not a huge fan of eating with members. It is so hard to get out of their house with enough time to study and stuff during medio dia. I prefer being at home and cooking for myself. But we eat with members often enough.

Spencer sounds like a champ. He is so talented. I really miss him. I will record his video and send you my sd card probably next week. Don´t watch his video until the night he gets set apart though. Watch it with everyone there when they are all talking about how amazing Spencer is and how much they´ll miss him. Mine will fit in quite nicely. I hope Brigham is doing well. I am going to record a video for him too. I miss both of them so much. I hate thinking that I won´t see Brigham for 4 years. That is absolutely crazy. We have an awesome family and I love us so much. I hope you´re doing better Mom. You´re wonderful and I hope you never forget that. You mean the world to your children, even if we have a difficult time showing it. And I really admire Dad for his faith and example. He is such a champ. I hope I can be as good of a Father as he is.

Those movies sound awesome. I miss movies more than I thought I would. It´s harder with an american companion that loves movies so much. He is rubbing off on me. So is Johns. Don´t worry though mom. Spain is super safe. I am not worried in the slightest.

Anyway. That´s all folks. Life is good and I am excited for the next six weeks. Keep doing well. I love you all more than anything. Be happy!!!

Preston

Reaching Goals

My week was great. We found 8 new investigators. The mission reached the goal of 555. We have a baptism this week and I am super excited. We are trying our best. This week I need to confirm Ana and bless the baby. Still afraid. President Deere called me and gave me some advice about it. Should be fine. I am happy to hear about the happy things going on in your lives. I can´t wait to see that movie. And I hope you get better mom. You are so loved and appreciated and you just need to turn to the Savior with all of this. We can´t let ourselves go spiritually. The card got here safe and sound. Hopefully it never gets used. When it comes to the package, please don´t feel like you need to do anything. I feel bad. You´re sending me 150$ packages. It´s ok if I don´t get any of it. Just makes me fat anyway. BUT if you do send anything, we would love brownie mixes. Or cheesecake mixes. Stuff like that. I don´t need anything. Really. But food from home is always the best. And throw some letters in there too. Those are better than anything. Transfers are this week. We should find out on Friday. I am sure that we´ll both stay here. My personal study isn´t going very well. I only get a half hour in the morning and we hardly ever have time to do the study during medio dia. The other half hour of personal study. Cause we are either at people´s houses or whatever it may be. So when I get off the training schedule I will have a full hour in the morning, which will be nice. But I now know what I need to focus on. Thanks for that BOM quote. It really had a huge impact on me. Exactly what I needed to here. thanks mom. You always make my life so much easier. Well I need to go. I love you all so much. Thanks for everything. Mom you are amazing. Both of you. I love you so much and I can´t wait for Christmas. Tell Spencer I am super proud of him. I think about him all the time. He will be so good at this. Brig I love you. Our family is the most important thing. Tell the little boys how much I love them. You are all just wonderful.

Love, Preston

Waiting for the time to start flying by...

Hello from Jerez!!

Things sound good there. I am glad Spencer had a good experience in the temple. I think he was probably pretty prepared for that. I was super interested to learn that they updated the film. How cool!! I am even more excited to go to the temple. I am glad that I was able to see the old film. I miss the temple a lot. I spent a good amount of time there before I left. How is Quincey?? I seriously have dreams about him getting cancer at night. It is not fun. I don´t know why it happens but it really worries me. Just let me know that everything is still fine. Life sounds a little rough for all of you right now. It´ll be just you and Spencer at home now soon Mom. Just like it was with us a few months ago. Time flies. I am at five months today. Sometimes I get overwhelmed with how much longer I have. Time passes quickly and yet so slowly. Sometimes I think about the 19 months that face me and start to feel a little claustrophobic. It´s a really weird feeling. My heart starts beating all fast and I just get nervous. I am not used to 2 year committments. Haha. I´m the kid that looks to the future and likes to live there. But I am working on that. I am getting better at living day to day. Anyway. I miss you so much mom. And Dad. And everyone. I had a really rough day on Friday. I don´t know why. But things are much better now.

We had a decent week. Numbers wise it was ok. I still haven´t gotten back up to where I was with Pardo. But that will come in time. I am not too hard on myself. As long as I try my hardest I know that Heavenly Father is pleased with me. So this week is gonna be much better. The mission has some seriously high goals right now. We are going to find 555 new investigators this week, have 250 baptismal dates the next week, and 100 baptisms in September. CRAZY. That means 7 investigators every companionship, and they want everyone to find 7. We fasted and will pray every day at 4:00 to find new people. It´s a really big deal. We usually find 1-2 every week. And our monthly best for baptisms is 52. So September is double that. I am really excited. I work well with goals like this. I know Heavenly Father is preparing people here in Jerez. We just need to listen to His spirit and find them!!

Jose Sonia Ana Alonso and Paola are doing well. Paola isn´t a new investigator yet, but she will be this week. She is doing well and her baby Lola is perfectly healthy. Which makes me super happy. Alonso will get baptized in September. Ana on August 31st. And Jose is still needing some time. He has told us that he knows and HAS FELT that he should stop participating in the semana santa. Which is awesome. He reads the BoM every night and is just doing really well. I love being with that family. But I am also a little nervous. They want me to confirm Ana which is something that I have never done before. It is usually done by the bishopric. It requires really complicated Spanish that I am still not super good at yet. Subjunctive form. And even scarier than that is that they want me to bless Lola in sacrament meeting too. I didn´t think I would be blessing a baby until I was 24. So I don´t really know what to think. That is complicated Spanish too. Plus the whole ward will be there listening. So yeah. I am a bit nervous. I think that will all go down on the 1st of September so pray for me. I am going to need some serious help from the Spirit. I am pretty good at Spanish. But when you say things in that kind of form it gets really complicated. Anyway. We´ll see.

Pablo went to the temple this weekend with a family in the ward. He just walked around and stuff. He said he really loved it. Which is awesome. We will go teach him tonight. We have some other people too. Julia, Katherine, Juan, Gonzalo, and Andres. And we´re gonna find lots more this week. We had to drop some other people because they weren´t progressing which is always kind of sad.

Elder Erickson and I did much better this week. We worked out in the morning and got up on time. We still don´t do medio dia perfectly with language study and area book and all that. But we will this week. This week has got to be exact obedience if we want to see results. And every other week too. But especially this week. I am not very good at street contacting. I just don´t like doing it. Ideally missionaries wouldn´t do it but here in Spain the church is new and the members aren´t super helpful yet. In time. So I need to be better at that as well. I am kind of being forced to start liking being around people. I am usually a person that keeps to himself and his family but on the mission it´s kind of hard to do that. Obviously. I think when it comes to being Christlike we can´t keep to ourselves. We need to love people and desire to bless their lives any way we can. So that is good for me to learn.

Some interesting experiences this week...

We ran into a pack of teenagers one day when we were looking for this apartment complex. They were on one side of a chain link fence and we were on the other. It was super interesting. We asked them for help finding this place and they came over. A bunch of guys and about three girls. Girls were super immodest and had tats and facial piercings, like everyone here. The guys looked a little intense as well. They all looked about 20ish. They were all doing drugs and they came over and offered me some marijuana. (Totally used to that by now) but unlike other kids we talk to, these kids were super mean. They were shouting at us and swearing and doing really obscene things and trying to totally rip us to shreds. They asked us what we were preaching and ripped apart the prophet and were really just super rude. It was hard for me to be patient and kind cause every part of my natural man wanted to make them realize how bad their lives are right now and how incredibly unintelligent their comments were. But I didn´t say anything. They probably could have climbed the fence and killed us. There were tons of them. But the cool part was that we weren´t even phased. I felt the Spirit as we testified about what we know and told them that they are children of God and that he loves them. And that if they ever want to better their lives all they need to do is find us. So we invited them to the english class and left, while they were just hooting and screaming at us. They were all just feeding off of each other you know? There was one in there that had a different light about him. But I don´t know. I went back and right away found the door that we had been looking for. It was number 2, right next to number one. But before I was POSITIVE that the number two had been a number three, and so we went looking for number two. I don´t know. Maybe one of those young adults felt something when we spoke. I hope so. I do know that God wanted us to go talk to them.

We have more. But I am out of time. Unfortunately.

I had a whole thing written out on paper about my thoughts on member missionary work. I don´t know how the time flies so quickly. I am happy right now. I am eating pretty well. I eat tons of salads and vegetables. I buy tons of vegetables that are frozen and then cook them on a skillet. I eat lots of chicken, pork, and duck. And I really love tortilla de patata. I will make that a lot when I go home. Elder Erickson and I are super close. We irritate each other some times but we are both kind of mellow. Haha. He is so funny. I love being his comp. I hope I don´t get transfered. This transfer has FLOWN by. We are already in the fifth week. Well not much time left. I only send one email the whole time. I don´t know why I am so slow. Probably cause I read all of the emails now. It´s just not enough time. Well anyway. I miss you. I love you all so much. Only 19 months left :) And I get to see you in December. Sigh. Haha. I haven´t switched fully into the Love it stage yet. But I am on my way.

I love you

Elder Sharp

Beginning the LOVE IT phase... and approaching his 5 Month Mark

Dearest Family, 

It sounds like Trek was a wonderful experience. I am really glad :) Hearing about all of the fantastic things that happened and the friendships that were made make me really happy. Especially about Spence and Brig. They are truly amazing people. I don´t ever think about it enough, but I have been blessed with some fantastic brothers. Their testimonies are much stronger than mine, and I am grateful for their example. I loved what Dad said about Spencer. He really does know this is true. He will become an incredible missionary very soon after he gets into the field. It doesn´t matter how well you can speak AT ALL. Seriously. We don´t convince people of anything. But what we can do is bear testimony with the Spirit, and as Spencer shares his powerful testimony, his investigators will FEEL it. They will be touched by the Spirit that he brings. The only language that matters is that of the Spirit. I still am not really there yet. I can´t speak very beautifully, especially not in Spanish, and I don´t think I have the conviction that Spencer has. But I am trying to improve. I can´t tell you how beneficial this mission has been for me. And it´s only been a little less than five months. I am SO excited for Spencer!!! And Brigham. I am super proud of them. I wish Clayton could have had that trek experience. But I guess he will when he´s 17. You all give me so much strength. Really I love hearing from you. Missionaries are technically supposed to strengthen their families in their weekly letters, but the opposite occurs for us. I have an incredible family. Seeing your faces and reading about the things you think and feel really help me get more excited to work here in Jerez. So thanks. You mean a lot to me.

Elder Erickson and I had a better week when it comes to numbers. We still didn´t find a whole lot of new investigators. Which is what we need to work on right now. We are going to really change the way we do things this week. You are very right when it comes to the obedience factor Mom. It is a lot more difficult without Pardo. I do some things better, but some things a lot worse. I know we would be blessed with new investigators if we obeyed the schedule better. Exact obedience brings miracles. So this week we are going to obey to the best of our ability. Today we got up RIGHT at 7:30 and did everything we were supposed to do before P-day. Right now I am studying that Christ like attribute. Obedience. It is the first thing that I am trying to develop. We can always obey better, but I really have lots of room for improvement. Everything is based on obedience. If we obeyed exactly, we would be perfect. Which is really impossible. But it´s always an effort. Something we need to always strive to achieve. It´s just in the mission we have so many more rules to follow :) Even the hour Í wake up is a commandment now!! If I sleep in five minutes, then I am not being obedient. It´s interesting. But I know that if I master these things I need to do here in the field, I will have an easier time obeying the other commandments that we have when I go back home. So the elders of jerez are going to be more obedient. 

The week went well. Ana and Alonso are going to be baptized. The children of Sonia. But her husband Jose so far doesn´t have a baptismal date. There is only one problem. Otherwise he said he would get baptized on the 31st with his stepkids. He is so awesome. The whole family is amazing. I have never felt so much love for investigators (it also has to do with how I can finally bond with people. I couldn´t before with the langauge barrier.) in my mission. I want them to go to the temple together so badly. Jose doesn´t drink, or smoke, is totally willing to pay tithing and believes all of the doctrine. The only problem is that he carries the altar/idol thing during semana santa. Jose has an interesting story. His dad died when he was young, so he stopped believing in God. But he met Sonia four years ago (while she was an inactive member) and she built his faith. They read the BOM together, Principles of the Gosepl, and he now believes very strongly in Jesus Christ and God. He does not believe in worshipping idols and images and understands that the Catholic church is corrupted, but he feels close to Jesus Christ when he is a pallbearer(??? four men carrying a box looking things with gold and stuff, don´t know the english word for it) and that is something super important to him. But I am not too worried. I am confident that he will realize that these things are more important. He really wants to go to the temple with his family. We are going to go talk to him with the Bishop and I am just praying that the Spirit will touch his heart so that he can be baptized and go to the temple. Jose has a daughter that lives with them normally. Her name is Paula, she´s 18 and she just had a baby girl. I was able to give her a blessing in the hospital the night before she had the baby. It was a really cool experience. Everything went perfectly with the delivery, and Paula will come back home to Jerez on the 15th. Right now she is visiting her mom in a close by city. I really want to teach her. I don´t know how receptive she will be, but I am confident that now is her time. The Spirit will touch her heart if she allows him to. This family is really important to me. I feel such a huge love for them and I truly desire their salvation. I just want Sonia to embrace the gospel again. She knows it´s true. But she doesn´t want to be a single mom in the church again so she is waiting for him. 

For the first time in my mission I am starting to truly feel something different. Maybe I am finally switching into the LOVE IT stage. I don´t know. But I think about all the people I have met and the problems that they are having and the people that I been able to help as an instrument in His hands and all of the members and other missionaries I have met....I just feel so happy. I was told that it would be more difficult to say good bye to Spain than it was with my family. But I never believed it. Especially after I got here and didn´t love it. But Spain is seriously growing on me. Fast. I think about leaving Jerez and I just get really sad. I really love this place. And I don´t want to leave. And I know that when the time comes to leave Spain itself, I will be devastated. Excited to see my family, but I am coming to love these people. They mean everything to me. I am glad that I still have 19 months and one week to live here with them. WOW. I can´t believe this is happening but it totally is!! I seriously and truly love this. I love being a missionary and I love these people. I love the growth that is happening and the things I am learning. I love being surrounded by so many amazing examples. President Deere is so amazing mom. He is so Christlike. You can feel the love he has for you after just looking in his eyes. He is so genuine and so good.  President Deere has lots of Christ like love. Being with him is the greatest feeling. After talking with him, you just want to go out and work so hard. I absolutely love President Deere. I don´t know anyone like him. Maybe the Adams?? He cares about other people WAY more than himself, and you can tell he dedicates everything to his missionaries and this work. He is super close to the Savior. Book...yes please. Erickson and investigators are getting along well. I know exactly how he feels when he says he doesn´t feel like he can connect with people because of the language barrier. But he is doing really well. 

I will pray my heart out for Sarah. That is so sad. But I know that no matter what happens, everything will be ok. The will of God is something we can´t understand. I know that at some point in my life I will have huge trials when it comes to the will of God. Things will happen and I will have to choose whether or not to be bitter and angry or plead for peace and the strength to continue. I am a little scared to think about it. But I know it will happen. We just need to have an eternal perspective. I love you all so much. I am so flipping happy right now. Thanks for your support :) 

When it comes to missionary work, I wish I had more time to write something. I am out of time, but I will write a letter if I can. Or write some thoughts and then email them next week. You are having the FHE next week right?? I will try to get it to you before then. Love you all

Elder Sharp

Shopping the Sales in Spain

I apologize.  Preston's letters have been coming in at different times lately, and I keep having computer issues.  Because his letter came in so much later yesterday, I was able to email back and forth with him about twice.  It was nice again to feel like I was able to communicate with him in real time.  He is doing very well.  I think he's very happy with his companion and his current situation.  I'd like to see this big Rebajas and see if it's really all that great.  :)

Dear Family,

This week was good. Numbers wise it has been the worst week I have ever had in the mission. It is a little hard with the area being cut in half. But we have some really promising new investigators. And some promising new futures. So we´ll see how it all goes this week.

Elder Erickson has been sick this week. He has a stomach problem.  Poor guy.  I just want him to feel up to working hard. He is a funny guy. He sometimes reminds me of Uncle Jarrett. Just the way he laughs.  I could be friends with him outside of the mission for sure. He is a little like Kyle Macdonald too. I don´t know how to explain Elder Erickson. He´s kind of a punk. But he makes me laugh a ton. We have gotten along pretty well so far.

Hermana Johns is not Hermana Johnson from the MTC. Hermana Johns is super awesome and I love working with her. She is super old in the mission. She will go home in February. She is not from my same group. But we get along really well. Having other missionaries in the area is really good. I am enjoying it. And yeah I had a class or two with Chance but we never talked very much. She is pretty good friends with Tean I think. Not sure though.

Yeah I have lost weight according to the scale. But not a lot. I am getting super fat. Just a lack of exercise. We haven´t done much cause Elder Erickson never can. He either has blisters, upset stomach, or ingrown toenails. I feel bad for the guy. My first few weeks were rough too. I don´t give him a hard time for anything. I know it is miserable in the beginning. I have not forgotten :) But we need to start doing some kind of exercise. Last week I ate pretty poorly. I found this super delicious cereal and ate two whole boxes of it this last week. Chocolate pillows. The boxes of cereal here are even less filled than the ones in the States. So it wasn´t that much cereal. But I didn´t buy any today. I tried to go really healthy this week and ended up spending ten euros more than I should have. It´s hard. If I try to eat super healthy (just salad stuff and tons of fruit and lean meat) then I end up going over. One day I will figure this stuff out. I make refried beans a lot (which is just a little oil, beans, salt, and garlic, and some cheese) and that can´t be too bad for me. I dunno. We shall see!!

You should send me that book of Bednar´s for Xmas or something. I can get almost any church book approved from Pres. Deere. I would love to read it. I have already almost finished Jesus the Christ and all the other books I brought. I read a lot. I used to think Jesus the Christ was super complicated but it really isn´t that difficult to grasp. I like it a lot. I am gonna read it again in Spanish towards the end of my mission.

You definitely don´t write too many letters. I promise there is no such thing as too many letters. Or too long of an email. I can understand that writing letters to someone that never responds to them might be pretty frustrating, so I don´t blame you if you aren´t too thrilled to write me. Don´t feel obligated to. I did send one though last week. It should get to you guys soon. While you´re on Trek. When does Spencer go through the Temple?? Hopefully after my letter gets there. I would like him to read it before he goes through.

My bag is perfect. I love it so much. Perfect size and everything. I wouldn´t buy the Mr. Mac mission bag. There were like 2 of them that broke in the MTC. But yeah, it sounds like he has got everything all ready. Weird that he only has two months left.

Yeah I am spending money. Right now is Spain´s REBAJAS, which is the huge sale that all of the stores have. I have got some super great deals on stuff. And I also have had to use money to live. I wish I could make money in some way. I don´t know what I will do. I know missionaries that have never been able to go a month without using their personal money to eat. And they are almost done with their missions. It´s frustrating. I promise I will stop buying stuff. See why I did that? I gave you my word that I won´t buy more clothes for the rest of the year. If I break that then I am a person of zero integrity.

Thanks for sharing the miracle about Nico. That is seriously awesome. Seriously awesome. Thank heavens for the priesthood. And I actually got an email from Brianna a week ago. She says she is doing well. I am excited for her mission. And for Lolly too. She emailed me and told me :) Nampa Idaho. Super crazy!!  I am happy for them. There is no better place to be!!

Well when it comes to me, I am doing well. We have this awesome family that we are teaching right now. The mother is Sonia, a lady who hasn´t been to church in 7 years. She was an active member for 6 years. She went through the temple and everything. Even has her patriarchal blessing. But she got offended or something bad happened, and she left the Church. She moved to Jerez a few years ago. Her husband (second husband) is named Jose. He looks EXACTLY like Liam Neeson. The actor from Batman 1 and Taken. SUPER cool to teach the gospel to Liam Neeson. This guy used to be a body builder and almost died from steroid abuse. He quit all of that after he met Sonia and they got married. They are REALLY happy together. He is still really ripped though. And Sonia has two kids from her old marriage, Ana a 13 daughter and Alonso a 9 year old son. Jose has a daughter that lives with them too, named Paula. She is 18 and pregnant. She is visiting her mom right now in a different part of Spain, so we haven´t taught her yet. But we definitely will. Jose and Sonia want to be sealed in the temple together. But Sonia doesn´t want to begin the repentance process. She does, but she knows it will be hard. She has a super strong testimony and knows a ton about the gospel. All of them do because she has taught it to her family. It´s a little weird teaching them. But I love them a ton. We will keep working with them.

Pablo and Maria are still with us. We can only teach them once a week though because he works 6 days a week as a lifeguard. He is 19 and she is 16. He knows this is true. I think they will be baptized after the summer is over.

Jose and Ana are not doing well. They have been busy and they told me they feel like this is an obligation that they aren´t ready for right now and they want to wait a while. Which was hard to listen to. Sigh. But we keep going!!!! Always :)

We have some other people and things should start picking up. I am excited for this week!! I don´t have much time left. I love you all a ton. Thank you for your support. Things are going really really well here. Thanks for your prayers :) Have fun on Trek!!!

Love, Elder Sharp