The End- Totally Selfless Service

Dear Family, 

This week was really good. It went by super fast. Nothing super exciting has happened but we are hanging in there. 

What to say..... Well I am not as tired as I used to be!! So that´s good. I feel pretty good right now. 

L is doing well. That kid is the most frustrating human being in the world. I love him to death but wow!!! He´s a hassle!! Keeping him quiet in church is practically impossible. We FINALLY got to talk his father and YAY he can get baptized!!!! We just need to plan for a day in which the family could be there. L is a great kid. He has a lot of issues when it comes to respecting his parents and being responsible. I think a lot of it has to do with the way he is treated in his home. His two little siblings are treated like royalty while he is always being harped on and criticized. It´s really sad. He´s a super smart kid and has lots of potential but I feel like his parents are going about things the wrong way. But it´s hard for them because they both work a ton and don´t have time to spend with him. But still. It´s never good to talk about one´s children that way in public. There is a fine line between constructive and destructive criticism. I really know that the gospel will help him though. I think he´s already starting to change. 

We were trying to get Angel and Domi and their family to church. They didn´t end up coming. Which is sad. Haha. I really love church as a missionary. It´s always either totally glorious or completely heartbreaking. More often than not it´s heartbreaking. We stress and worry and invite and call and do everything we can to get people to come to church and then very few actually show up. I love being in sacrament meeting and turning my head EVERY single time the doors open with hope in my heart only to have it crushed when it´s not the people we were hoping for. Ah. Working with people is hard. But I love it. I really do. I love caring so much about whether or not other people come to church. Before the mission it truly never even crossed my mind. And now it´s our entire life. There is SO much work to do. We really do need more missionaries in the field. 

We are working with lots of less actives and it´s so great to see them come to church. And so sad when they don´t. But we keep going!! We can´t give up on anyone. 

But I really do love church as a missionary. Church has become something totally different for me. I get so much out of it, way more than I ever have. I hope that this doesn´t change after I get home. I know that it won´t. We were sitting down and Sacrament Meeting was about to start when the first counselor came up to me and asked me to give a talk....within the next 10 minutes. So that was fun :) I felt kind of bad though. I didn´t act bothered or anything but I kind of sighed and smiled at him in a flustered sort of way and said ¨of course¨. I could have been better about the way I responded. The poor counselor. He honestly is such a champ. Spanish. His wife isn´t a member and wants nothing. The Bishop is sick all the time and doesn´t come to church very often. Every other Sunday maybe. And there isn´t another counseler. It´s a bishopric of 2. So this counselor, whilst juggling his whole family life with a wife that doesn´t like him spending lots of time at church, has to do everything. And after he asked me to speak he said ¨I am sorry I just don´t have anyone. All three people that were supposed to speak today decided not to show up.¨  So I felt bad for not having responded with lots of enthusiasm. Some leaders in our ward just work so hard. There are SO many sisters that are divorced. Or that have husbands who don´t want anything to do with the church. And they work so hard. The Primary president is a good example. She has four kids and drags them all to church every sunday. She is divorced and is the only source of income for her home. She works until late at night and yet still strives to magnify her calling. She also doesn´t have any active counselors. Her counselors come MAYBE once a month. It´s so sad. I admire her so much. And there are lots of other amazing examples of women in our ward. The priesthood just needs to step it up. Men need to step it up. There are so many amazing, valiant, self sacrificing sisters that should be supported by their husbands but we are too lazy and selfish to do our part. I will NEVER be that guy. My heart goes out to those sisters. More than half of the Relief Society is that way. Honestly...if it weren´t for them our ward would fall apart. 

So I gave my talk. He let me choose the subject and I talked about the importance of studying the BoM every day. I think it went well. I love the Book of Mormon and I am convinced that the members would find all of the answers to their problems if they would just strive to study every single day. But so few do. I worry about it. I think I worry a lot. Haha. Just kidding. Perhaps worry isn´t the correct word. I think about it a lot. I ponder about it a lot. Every day I am more and more convinced of the importance of daily gospel study. It is KEY. We cannot have spiritual power if we don´t study. My number one goal and priority when I get home is to find and make time to study every day. I know that´s it´s easy to say that now because I haven´t gone home yet, and that it´s SO hard once our lives go back to normal...but I am determined. I think that God is telling me that I need to make that the biggest priority for myself, because I always find myself thinking about it. 

Other than that...we are working like normal. The work I am doing now is totally selfless as Kylie put it. I like that a lot. I won´t be hear to see a lot of the fruits of my labors, but that doesn´t mean I shouldn´t work as hard. And I am trying so hard to keep striving to do my best and give my all. 

In our mission we give ¨dying testimonies¨ which are basically the last testimony of a missionary that is about to finish his mission. Usually they are given in big mission conferences, but we don´t have one of those until March 15th, so I gave mine in a normal zone meeting on Friday. I was the only one, because I am the only one from my group in my zone. It was weird. I have spent the last 2 years listening to dying testimonies and then I was just up there giving my own. It was so fast. SO fast. And yet I don´t feel like I am dying. I don´t feel anything!! It just felt like I was up there giving a talk like always in a zone meeting. I didn´t cry or anything. I just feel normal. It still hasn´t sunken in yet. Hopefully it doesn´t until I am in the mission home that last night. 

But yeah. I have had my last zone meeting. Wow I cannot believe that I have a little over three weeks left. This is so weird. 

Well I hope you are all doing well. I am certainly doing fantastic. I am going through an amazing time of my mission right now. I love Elder Salcedo and I love our area. It´s one of my most difficult areas, but I really do enjoy it. I love working with the ward and I love helping these people that need Christ so badly and don´t even realize it. I just love my mission. And I wouldn´t trade it for anything in this world. 

I love you all!!! 

Elder Sharp

And HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO LINCOLN!!!!!!! On Sunday :) 

You´re 9 flipping years old!!! That is really really really not cool. I have got to get home SOON!!! 

I love you Linc :) See you soon!!!

Obedience Walk

OH man I am tired. 

This week it just hit me like a semi truck. I feel like my blood has become super thick or something and I literally cannot move as fast as I normally can. 

It was a good week. One of the hardest I´ve ever had. I don´t know what happened but everyone and their dogS failed us this week. Really frustrating. Walking around for hours on end knocking on doors that never open and looking for people that don´t live in the directions that we were given and contacting grumpy Spaniards can only be fun for so long!!! Hahaha. Oh man. Usually we are luckier and God lets us into houses but on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday we had only like three or four lessons in total. Saturday night we had every set appt fail us at 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 o´clock. SO that was a very long ¨obedience walk¨. It was lovely. But we did the best we could. I am trying to be super positive for my kid. But he doesn´t get down or anything. He says that he loves the mission. I think he is enjoying it. 

But we were blessed to find some really great new investigators. Six I think. Three of them were that family that I told you about. AMAZING. We are going to try to visit them tonight. We went back a few days later and the dad wasn´t supposed to be there but he was. We walked in and he had read a TON, and he had highlighted and marked and everything. He had questions about the authority and he understood and it was just perfect. I wanted to cry. Sometimes I look at him and just ask ¨are you for real??¨ Like he´s going to start cracking up at any second and be like ¨JUST KIDDING I´M REALLY A JEHOVAH´S WITNESS, GOT YA!!¨ He´s so great. He would be baptized in three weeks if it weren´t for the fact that he works as a truck driver and is NEVER home. Every ten days he is home for 1 or 2. So that´s hard. 

It seems like that happens to me always now. We have about 8-9 people that will be baptized in the next 2-5 months that could all be baptized in two weeks if it weren´t for ridiculous reasons like work schedules and the catholic church. We have this awesome lady that we started teaching this week called Germania. She wants to be baptized and so does her daughter. The problem is that she promised her exhusband and his family that the little girl would do the first comunion (catholic ordinance) and the father has already bought plane tickets and everything. She can´t be baptized because in the comunion she has to declare her faith in the catholic church as her daughter takes the first comunion, and she can´t back out of it. It´s super confusing and I don´t understand it. She wants me to baptize her before I leave. But it´s a tricky situation. So we are just praying. Then there is Trini that was ready to be baptized a month ago but still hasn´t even been to church because of work. And then there is Luis who will be baptized as soon as we get his parents´ permission. And then there is another family who finally got around to geting a marriage date set, but it can´t happen until august because it´s almost impossible to get married in Spain. So yeah. We are just here. Waiting. And I will probably leave and not see any of it. That´s ok though. All that matters is that we work and help them and love them and do the best we can right? It does hurt a little to think that I will miss so many baptisms. But I feel very fulfilled and content with what I have done here. And i will keep doing the best I can- 

Last night everyone failed us as well. And we heard a lot of rude rejections. For about ten seconds I got a little frustrated with Him. Like, ¨why can you not make this any easier?¨ But instantly I realized that He probably felt just as sad as I did about all of His hard hearted children that claim not to even believe in Him. Though it would be nice if every prepared person had a bright golden star about their head that only missionaries could see. We could walk down the street, spot a star, and go run and pounce on that prepared person and baptize them. Life would be so much easier....but life isn´t about being easy ;) We all need to grow and I understand that. 

Anyway. Last night. REAlly hard. We walked a lot but ended up finding a new family to teach right at the end of the night. From Guinea Ecuatorial. They seem to be really awesome. Ana and her kids and sister. Hopefully they progress. It was really nice of Him to help us out like that. Cause I was going on reserve fuel at that point but FINALLY someone let us in. Thank the Lord. 

I just feel tired. I pray and plead for more energy. This week was insanely hard for me. Even people that we contact in the streets comment on it. This one guy said ¨You guys are idiots, I would never join a church that would brainwash me and make me work like slaves for them while the leaders lived like kings.¨ He pointed to me and said ¨look at those bags under your eyes, you looked like you haven´t slept in weeks!!! look what they are doing to you!! Wake up!!¨ I started laughing out loud when he said that. Hahaha. oh man. It was super funny to me for some reason. But he´s right- I really do have some dark vampire-like eyes. It´s gross. I don´t have energy to work out in the mornings. I do it, but not like I used to. I just feel drained in every way. 

I am sure that it was just a bad week. I know this week will be better. I just need to pray a ton and keep going!! I really have been strengthened by grace. I have felt it. That´s how I keep going!

Anyway. Clayton is a stud for getting the part of willy wonka. what a hero. I miss that guy. I hope you are all well. Thanks for your messages. Dad and Mom. I really appreciate that. Obedience is key. The source of Christ´s power was His obedience to the Father. It´s the same for us in a big way. 

I love you all. A lot. 

Elder Sharp

Forgive the short email?

WOW my hands are freezing!! I can´t even type! I am literally typing like a toddler! Our regular internet cafe wasn´t open so we came to this icebox to email. So please forgive the shortness of this email. 

I AM JUST DOING SO WELL!!! And it sounds like you lot are as well. I have to say that dad´s ¨practicing spanish¨ comment got me to laugh out loud. Hahaha. Oh man how I miss my father´s humor!!!!! I can´t wait to be around that again :) 

Where to begin? Well Elder Salcedo is just a ray of sunshine. I like him a lot!! He´s lived his whole life in Barcelona, but he was born in Peru. He is super funny and we get along really well. He is SOOO different from Elder Weenig. Polar opposites. It´s been very interesting to make this transition. Weenig was always on top of obedience. We knew what we had to do and we did it and we motivated each other. Elder Salcedo is kind of new and...well he loves to sleep :) I have never had to literally attack my companion in order to get him out of bed!! But once Salcedo gets going and starts working he´s unstoppable. Really smart guy with a sharp tongue who knows how to get along with people. He is a good teacher as well. He´s a great  guy, but much to my eternal dismay, he doesn´t like running. So I was really worried for a while. But I convince him to get up fifteen minutes early and to come outside in the cold weather and watch me run in circles. On T, Th, and Sat. He´s super good at dieting though. So he´s been helping me out a lot with that. He had a personal nutritionist and everything back at home. 

I am really grateful to have gotten him as my last companion. I love that I will end my mission speaking spanish all the time! 

We had interviews with President yesterday, and we had to change our Pday to Tuesday. That´s why I am emailing so late. It was good. President gave me some good advice about how to make the most of the time that I have left. 

This week has been interesting. I have really loved training. I just love being a missionary. I really do mean that. I don´t say that just so that people think I like what I am doing. Last night I talked with some elders in my district and they were sharing a miracle with me that they had experienced and I just felt so much love for this work. There are some moments in which I truly wish I had another transfer left after this one. I feel like I have so much left to do still. I know that I have worked hard and been blessed with lot of miracles. I have really tried hard. And while I have regrets and know that I could have worked harder, I really appreciate the time that I have been given. I just don´t feel ready to leave it all. Which is good. Because I still have a good chunk of my mission ahead of me. Six weeks is a long time!!!! But it´s really amazing how odd I feel. I thought it would be harder than it is. I mean, I am exhausted. But I still feel like I have lots of ganas and motivation to go out and work. 

We have found lots of good investigators this week. We found a FAMILY on Sunday night. It was a miracle. We were leaving this building the other day and this girl was coming up the stairs. We talked to her and she told us to come back later. We have been trying for a while, and we finally got in with her mom. Turns out it is a family of 4. The parents have a good marriage and everything. The crazy thing is that the father was the most interested. Usually the men don´t really care that much. But this guy was amazing. He´s a truck driver and his hardly ever home. Maybe two days in every 15. But he´s awesome. We gave a good restoration lesson and the spirit was very strong. I was super happy that Elder Salcedo got to experience that, because that doesn´t really happen often here. We had been teaching Luis, our 14 year old investigator that should be baptized soon. So we took him with us to teach this family (they are neighbors). It was super super funny. Luis is the most frustrating 14 year old ever, but one can´t help but love him. He actually did super well in the lesson. Hahaha. I wish you could have been there. Lesson to investigator with INVESTIGATOR present. 

Trini is still going strong. She would be baptized tomorrow. Just waiting until something changes with her work situation so that she could go to church. Ugh. But I am really glad to have taught her. 

We ¨picked up¨ (that´s american missionary slang) this Colombian girl called Natalia. She looks totally african, but she´s from Colombia. She´s crazy. Super evangelical. She described this dream she had of the kingdom of God and it was one of the most entertaining things I have ever heard. Apparently the fish in the celestial kingdom (yes there are fish there) have RUBIES instead of eyes, and all of the rocks are pearls. We´ll see how she progresses. 

We´re still teaching Domingo. He´s this Spanish guy. He is progressing slowly. 

Leanne and Hannah. Well. I don´t really know. We taught them again but I didn´t really feel it. Leanne hadn´t read or anything. They had stuff happen in their family and they were very closed to God that day. We haven´t seen them since. But we taught a super good lesson. We talked about sin and why it´s important to repent. They don´t agree with us at all about sin. These words were spoken: ¨lust makes me happy, why would God not want that for us?¨ I was so stunned. These girls are awesome and I really do desire their salvation, but wow they never cease to amaze me. They about died when I pulled out the bible scripture from the sermon on the mount about ¨he who looks upon a woman to lust after her, adultery in his heart, etc.¨. In the beginning it was them kind of arguing with us, but after a while they stopped. We testified a lot of Jesus Christ and his Atonement, and the spirit came. And the coolest part is that we actually invited them to repent....literally..we said these words. ¨We invite you to repent of your sins¨. That´s not something that we do very often and we should probably do it more. But it´s always weird to literally tell people that they need to repent of their sins. It was right though. I KNOW they felt the spirit. It was so strong. Just quiet and powerful. One of them was getting really emotional about it. BUT after that we tried to set a return cita but they told us that this weekend they would be too drunk to meet with us. SO yeah. I keep praying for them though. Christ suffered for all of us. We all sin in our own different ways. We all need the atonement just as much as the next guy. It´s not like some people need it more than others. I know that they can repent and be forgiven. That´s the message of our gospel. A man can change his stars, no matter what he did in the past. 

I need to end. I really love the brotherhood I feel as a missionary. I was in Malaga picking up my ¨son¨ and I got to see so many missionaries that I love. It was so inspiring and reenergizing. I just love Elder Love, who is an old comp of mine. Seeing him always makes me happy. I get so surprised by how much I love being around people sometimes. The best part was that when I went down to Malaga on Tuesday, Elder Bastian was on the same bus because he came down a day early to die. So I got to spend another 8 hours with him. That´s one of the best parts of the mission. The bonds that we create with each other as we serve the Lord are powerful. I don´t know how to explain it. Laboring together in the same part of His vineyard to save these souls. Cleaning up each other´s puke. You just can´t do stuff like this as a normal person!! 

I love this so much. I am not ready to end and I won´t be until it´s happening. Time is my best friend right now. 

I love you all 

Elder Sharp

Recent Baptism

Isn't he looking so handsome?!?  I guess I'm biased.  

Final Transfer

For his final 6 weeks Elder Sharp will be training Elder Salcedo in Alicante!!

Pablo is going to England

Dear Family, 

Hey :) I miss and love each of you so much. I feel so much appreciation for all of you right now. I hope you have had a good week. 

I am glad that our new ward isn´t as bad as you thought it would be ;) I don´t know what is up with the little boys though!! (Clayton looks taller than me in those photos....so I guess I shouldn´t be referring to him as little). Why won´t they talk with people?? That´s very strange to me. Don´t worry though. I won´t be shy. I am not like that anymore. Want to know something funny?? I have listened to my companions and missionaries in my zones and districts, and when they describe me, they use the words ¨super outgoing and extroverted¨. HA!! Isn´t that hilarious? Elder Weenig feels like I am so social that my presence hinders him from developing friendships with some of the people with whom we work....isn´t that insane? I always tell them...you are so mistaken. My mother would NEVER describe me that way. I don´t feel like I particulary enjoy meeting new people and putting myself out there but I definitely do it often. One kind of has to as a missionary. So anyway, I will destroy the shy Sharp boy image that they are creating. 

I am very excited to work in this new ward. I have thought about it and I came to the conclusion that it won´t even feel like going home for me!! It will feel like being transferred to a new area!! I will be in a ward in which I know almost nobody and I will have to get up and introduce myself and all that.....ok maybe a little different but I find it humorous that I will get up and address a ward that doesn´t know me. Quite similar to life in the mission. 

I am feeling very happy and positive today. Weenig has rubbed off on me I suppose, because I feel much more optimistic and positive now as I have been with him for so long. I really love him. We are different and sometimes we disagree on things, but I have never had such an open, honest relationship with a companion. And...he´s going to leave me soon. Which is sad but he is ready to spread his wings and experience something new. 

President called last night and told me that I will be training to end my mission. Last transfer starts in a week....so weird. But the time is going by just like it should. I can´t complain. Not too fast and not too slow. So my last companion will be fresh out of the MTC!!! I am really excited. I think it will help me to work even harder during my last transfer. I am going to try so hard. I want this missionary to have amazing habits and to learn from the beginning how to work effectively. I feel like he will be my last gift to this mission, so I want to train a champion. I am going to give everything I have. We´re going 100 percent. I am very excited. 

GUESS WHAT!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHH!!! I received the greatest news this week. Just GLORIOUS. It´s up there with seeing a picture of a family that you found, taught, and baptized standing in white in front of the temple...

PABLO GOT HIS MISSION CALL!!! England, Burmingham. He reports on April 16th :D :D I cannot tell you how joyful it feels to know that he is going. I am so proud of him. I honestly don´t know why I am so lucky to have gotten to know some of these amazing people. Anyway. He reports in April, so you will meet him Mom Dad and Clayton :) :) Pablo is the blonde, Spanish young man from Jerez. Ah.....I am so happy. I rejoice in their successes and achievments. The missionary-convert relationship is very special. This gospel is incredible. Just a month after I finish my mission, someone that I taught and with whom I shared the gospel is going to start his own mission. What an incredible opportunity that people have to change. He was a normal Spanish kid with little hope in his life and not much interest in God. He has always been special and amazing, but the gospel has helped him so much. He will touch the hearts of many people. I just....wow. Overwhelmed with joy. 

Nancy got a calling today. Primary Presidency :) She sent me a sweet email today about how happy she is for the gospel in her life. She says she is finally starting to realize what a treasure she has received in her life. She thanked us for being so persistent with her. She was leading a very....worldly life and she dropped EVERYTHING and changed in two weeks. And is now seeing tons of blessings because of her application of the gospel in her life. It really does change lives. 

My mission has been perfect. Perfect for me. I have been given everything that I needed to become converted to the gospel. All of my experiences and triumphs and hardships have just been....perfect for me. I couldn´t have asked for anything better. I obviously haven´t been a perfect missionary, and there are things that I regret, but I am very positive about my experience here in Spain. It is one of the most sacred things that I have. I will always treasure it. I also feel very positive about the future and the direction in which I am headed. I have really come to love the gospel and the joy that I feel as I live it. 

Well I don´t have an immense amount of time left. 

My least favorite thing about the mission has been decided: having to pretend to like people´s dogs. I am just done with that. Have I written about that before? I don´t know. But I am ready to be done with that aspect of it :) Everyone and their dog owns a dog here in Spain....haha..that was kind of a pun. Anyway, it´s true. And they lick me, my hands, my clothes, and get hair all over me and I honestly cannot wait until I can bid farewell to all of these Spanish dogs. I will not miss them :P 

Something that actually is difficult about the mission. Heartache. Thursday was a really hard day for us. Weenig was very sad and discouraged. We got a text from our Philipinos saying that they don´t want us to come by their house anymore. They don´t want to change religions. We got failed by two futures with lots of potential. And our golden number one investigator, a Dominican named Luis, hadn´t answered his phone in 4 days and just wasn´t calling us back. It was very discouraging. Our area crumbles so easily. And it just explodes so easily as well. Thursday was a crumbling day. Nobody wanted anything. And it was hard. I spent the whole day trying to tell Elder Weenig that everything was fine and that it wasn´t because we are doing something wrong, that it just happens sometimes in the mission. But after we got home and planned I just walked into my bedroom and started praying before even getting ready for bed. I was there a long time. I remember just feeling so much.....heartache for the people that didn´t want anything. Literal, physical pain. All we do is worry about other people in the mission. And when they don´t want anything, it hurts. I get sick sometimes. I get attached to people really easily, and it really really hurts when they reject us and decide that the gospel isn´t for them, even when I KNOW that they have felt the spirit. Sometimes I just don´t understand. As I was praying for Luis, I remember feeling TOTALLY overwhelmed with worry, stress, and pain. Our area is doing alright now, but that day it seemed like we had nothing. And I didn´t know what to do. In that moment of overwhelming pressure, I kind of just took a step back and laughed. How awesome that I have become capable to feel that for another person! Before the mission, I didn´t care much about anybody besides myself and the people that loved me. And now I am literally aching for the welfare of others. What a miracle. I hate it. I hate that other people can make our lives so hard. But we do choose to be affected by it. Honestly it´s impossible not to be frustrated when that happens. But I also love it. I love caring so much about others. Perhaps the argument could be made that it´s selfish because we only worry about them for our own wellbeing, because without them our lives are hard. However, I don´t think so. I think most of us missionaries genuinely feel for and care about the people we teach. Anyway. I realized that everything was fine. God sent peace to my soul, and it was all fine. Even if everyone left us, we would find more people. But I never cease to be amazed by the amount of physical pain that one can feel in his heart. I never felt that before the mission, but it´s real. 

We ended up finding Luis again. He should be baptized soon. He is very accepting and wants the gospel in his life. Everyone else from the ¨thursday tragedy ¨ still don´t want anything. But that´s ok. We will keep finding. 

We have a baptism this Saturday. Her name is Teki. She´s a 10 year old Uruguayan girl. She is a funny situation. Her parents are members so it hasn´t been a very authentic missionary experience. But she is very sincere and bore a powerful testimony last week in church. I am excited for her. 

I am very happy!!! We are going to punch this next transfer in the face. My new comp and I are going to work so hard. And I am very hopeful for the future. 

We met these two girls from Finland and Wales the other day. They were speaking english, so we asked them we they were from and we started talking and they were looking for the police station so we helped them out. They are here just to live. It´s weird. 17 and 19 and they just randomly decided to come live in Spain. They are looking for work right now and have their own piso and everything. Anyway, we asked them what they thought about God and they said that they didn´t really think much about him. Ha. Anyway. We gave them our number just in case they needed help again finding the police, and we pointed them in the right direction and sent them on their way. The funny thing is that this morning we got a text from them. Hahaha. They told us that they ¨really enjoyed meeting us¨ and they invited us to go and get a coffee with them sometime soon. Weenig and I thought it was hysterical. They really didn´t seem like the type of girls that would be interested in hearing more about the gospel. And we made it very clear that we were missionaries. We suspect that their intentions aren´t very spiritual :P But we´re going to invite them to learn about the gospel of course. You really never know who God has prepared!!

We played tennis today for P-day. Again. I am not a huge fan but Elder Weenig loves it. I am slowly getting better though :P 

That´s all folks. We are happy and healthy. I am so proud of all of you and I miss you a ton!! I pray for you all every day. I feel your prayers. Thanks for all of your support. 

All my love, 

Elder Sharp

Happy Birthday to Ben

Dear family,

All is well. I am glad that Dad had a good birthday. Although birthdays just aren´t as fun when you get older. And they are even less fun in the mission. It´s ok though. Some religions don´t even celebrate birthdays! 

THANK YOU for the package!!! We are having a zone dinner tomorrow for Thanksgiving. But I am not bringing my special thanksgiving food. There will be too many people. Plus it´s not even Thanksgiving. So Weenig and I might invite the other elders over on Thursday and we have everything bought to do the real thanksgiving feast there. I am going to make turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffed mushrooms, gravy, stuffing, green bean casserole...the works. I am excited!! It cost a pretty penny but it´s definitely worth it. The ensign was my favorite part :) 

Things are going well. We had a really good week. I was very happy. We set four baptismal dates. We found some pretty awesome investigators. A 20 year old boy called Henry, who is really prepared. He´s from Ecuador. We have this Bulgarian investigator called Rosa that is going to be baptized on the 20th of December. She´s progressing very well. Jaime and Diana are doing well. Slowly progressing. It´s hard to meet with them but they are SO nice and I know that they need to hear this message right now. 

So there is a Sister in my ward that is going to leave for Brazil on December 2nd. She is in Brigham´s same group, but she is Brazilian and doesn´t need to learn the language, so she enters a little less than two weeks before the field entry date. So she is totally going to see BRIGHAM!!! Her name is Sister Barbosa and she is super awesome. She speaks english so she´ll be able to talk to Brigham. I was super excited to hear that. 

So I don´t have a whole lot to say. I really have missed my family this week. It doesn´t ever go away. I cannot wait to see Spencer again. And I feel like I won´t see Brigham for years. Which is totally true :( It makes me sad. Sigh. I didn´t anticipate this whole ¨let´s all serve missions at the same time¨ thing being so stinking difficult on me. But it really is. I can only imagine how it is for my parents. 

Church is always a joy. Yesterday we had to sit in primary the whole time because Elder Weenig is apparently the only mormon pianist in all of Alicante. Haha. It´s ridiculous. Even the other ward calls us and tries to get us to go to their choir practices every week. I am not the biggest fan of being the pianist´s companion because we waste lots of time. But at least we are serving the members. Well. My companion is :) I sing in their choirs though so I think that counts for something. Anyway. The primary in Spain is just special. It´s basically nursery with larger children. Those poor poor primary teachers. I have so much respect for them. 

I was thinking about my testimony during church. I feel like before the mission I had never ever really sat down and contemplated my own testimony. It´s certainly changed a lot in the last 20 months. The little sapling has grown into a pretty sturdy, young little tree. I have ways to go. But I do enjoy having testimonies of so many different aspects of the gospel. All of the principles. The commandments. I have the biggest testimony of obedience. I truly understand the commandments and the reasons for which we have them. I love living them and I am so grateful for the clarity that I feel. The mission has been the biggest blessing in that regard. The life of someone who lives the gospel is SOOOOOO different than the lives of those who don´t. I am ridiculously blessed. I really have learned how to rely upon the atonement of the Savior and apply it into my life. And I really do know that this church is His. I feel it everytime I think about it. It has become so clear in the mission field. 

Sometimes I ask myself why I was born into such incredible circumstances. The best time of the world, into the best family ever, into the greatest country ever, with the gospel....I really just don´t understand it. Herriman is such a special place. It´s different than the rest of Utah. I honestly couldn´t have asked for a better situation in life. My life is perfect and it scares me. I have everything that I could ever want. Weenig and I talk about it a lot. He said something that impacted me a bit. Where much is given, much is required. My blessing says that exact same thing. And it´s true. We are expected to live much different lives than the rest of the world. I really do want to give back all that I can. He has given me so much. I don´t have time to write about all of the things that I am grateful for, but if you really want to know I´ll let you read my journal come March. God has given me EVERYTHING. 

I was reading the ensign that you sent me. Thanks by the way. I love it. I especially love Elder Eyring´s talk about receiving revelation. I feel like I relate to him very well on certain things. One of them being our relationship with our mother. In his talk he recalls coming home at night and quietly walking past his parent´s bedroom, and then hearing his mother call ¨Hal, come in for a moment¨ Hahaha. Oh I know how that feels. He then walked in and sat on their bed for two hours or so, and then perhaps his father sent them out to the family room because he was tired and needed to sleep for work the next day. So he and his mother went out into the family room and talked for another two hours. It probably ended with a very very long hug, maybe some tears. Elder Eyring mentions that his mother sought revelation to help her son who may or may not have been struggling. And, just from reading his talk, one infers that her inspired counsel made a lasting impact upon his life. So profound that those counsels have stayed with him until this day. Even though his mother passed away over 40 years ago. 

I love reading that. I have been blessed with a similar mother who seeks revelation to help her struggling sons. And an equally incredible father. The counsel that was given to me has also stayed with me throughout my short life, and it will be something that I remember forever. I am eternally grateful for that. For the effort that you two put forth to help me SEE clearly. That was always a common theme. The things that are truly important in this life, and the things that are not. Seeing clearly and taking off the teenage blinders that cause us to put so much emphasis on things that really don´t matter. The importance of striving to develop a testimony at a young age. I wish I had listened more. I think the message that most sunk through was ¨don´t have a girlfriend before your mission¨. hahaha. But now the Spirit bring things back to me and I say to myself ...wow. I wish I had listened to them. I wish I had tried harder to understand the gospel and listen to the spirit. I wish I hadn´t wasted so much time on things that weren´t really that important. How I RELISH those memories. Those long, late nights. Those nights have made a profound impact on my life. I am so grateful for two parents that have invested so much in me. I really hope to make that investment worth it. 

I have been thinking about my mission. I can´t believe I have this much time here. Hermana Herrera asks me all the time ¨What would you say if you had to sum up your mission in a few words?¨ or ¨What have you enjoyed most about your mission¨? I hate those questions. I hate having to look back over my mission and see that it´s coming to an end. I randomly broke down crying in the streets the other night. We were walking and I was thinking about how much of a miracle the mission even is. It shouldn´t work. Young adults should not be willing to give up 2 years of their life to go and talk to people about their religion. It´s so weird. And they certainly should not be able to convince people to change their entire life and join a church and then do the same thing. It really doesn´t make sense how the missionary program even functions properly. But it does. And it´s successful. I am so thankful for this time that I have been given. I am especially grateful for the 3 and a half months that I have left. It´s going to be a wonderful time and we are going to make the most of it. I have had the greatest experience out here. I would reccommend this to everyone. And I do. It has changed me completely. I have gained so much more than I have given. 

Anyway. I love you all. 

Happy birthday to ben 

The Gospel Unites Us

Dearest mother and father, and family,

I cried a little looking a those pictures. He´s gone. I am praying for all of you. I hope that you can get back to the swing of things quickly. I can´t imagine what you must be feeling though. God is blessing you. That´s for sure. He is going to have the greatest experience of his life,,,so far. Really. This is what God wants. I have a firm testimony, a sure knowledge, that all of this is literally welding our family together. We were always close before, but the love, adoration, devotion and appreciation that I have for my family has multiplied a hundredfold on my mission. The financial blessings are great, but the most incredible blessing that I think we will receive is what this is doing for our family spiritually and emotionally. We´re going to be an eternal family. 

Is Abby lactose intolerant?

I have had an interesting week. A whirlwind of a week. I love being a missionary. I have had a lot of wonderful little experiences this week that have just touched my heart! 

My companion is unreal. I feel like I am companions with a celestial being. He could be translated at any moment. He has shared some pretty personal things with me about his life and I just cannot believe how incredible he is. Such a pure, sincere desire to bless the lives of others. Even before his mission. That´s all he wants in life. I was so selfish before the mission. He inspires me. He inspires everyone. He´s literally 18 years old and has no experience, but he is a natural leader. I am really excited for him. We get along really well. Sometimes his singing gets to be a little too much. I think going twenty months surrounded by people who hate when I sing has rubbed off on me and caused me to stop. Cause I don´t sing that much. But he is ALWAYS singing. That´s my only complaint though. His only flaws are fretting too much about whether or not he´s being perfect. I think being with someone that has that problem is helping me to work on it too. Cause I am not super good at that either. 

I was in an interview with President Deere today. And I was telling him about my companion. My interview with him was weird. But he talked to the two of us together, Weenig and I, about teaching correctly, and then Weenig left and we talked about how I will end my mission here in Alicante and we talked a little bit about my companion. He told me how much he appreciates me as a missionary, and then I told him about Elder Weenig. Honestly I just got emotional. I felt so weird. But I was telling him about Elder Weenig and how much he is going to accomplish on his mission and how pure and powerful he is and the Spirit just got super strong. President Deere felt it as well, and he just said   I know. He´s special.   That´s why I am trusting you with him.¨  It was nice to hear that. Elder Weenig is probably going to be an Apostle. 

I told President Deere that I want to stay with Elder Weenig until the end of my mission, but he just laughed and said that it probably wasn´t going to happen. My gut feeling is that Weenig will leave in December and that I will train. That´s what President wants. But he told me he would pray and think about letting Weenig and I stay together another transfer. 

President Deere is going to go teach lessons with us tonight in an hour. We changed our Pday a little today, and now Pres Deere is going to come work with us. I am super nervous about it. Never done it before and we don´t have the greatest lessons planned. But it´´ll be ok. 

Could you send me a recipe on cooking potatoes in the oven? The red ones that you do? I don´t like baked potatoes, and mashed get old after a while. What else can I do? 

Elder Weenig and I are doing really well. One of our investigators is getting baptized this week. Her name is Tekki. She´s pretty awesome. There aren´t a lot of progressing investigators here, but a few of our investigators have fechas. We dropped a lot of them and we are starting from scratch. We have a goal of finding nine this week. I love this work. I really do. 

I don´t have much time left. I am trying to remember what happened this week. 

Oh I saw President Lopez, my old stake president from Elche, on saturday. I LOVE talking with him. He gave me a lot of great advice and really inspired me. I feel like once I capture the vision for a particular ward/area, everything becomes much easier. Honestly I love taking part in this. I keep having all of these ¨missionary moments¨ where I wish I could just take a snapshot of my life. Just yesterday we cornered our incredibly difficult to meet with Bishop and sat him down and had a little meeting with him asking how we could best help the ward and all of that, and just sitting down with him in that room just meant so much to me. I love it. I love feeling like such a huge part of this work. I really did nothing with my life before the mission. Another one was seeing an African recent convert (who are kind of....looked at warily here because most of them go inactive quickly) sit down amidst the congregation after having given and INCREDIBLE talk in SPANISH and then all of the spanish members turned and clapped him on the shoulder and thanked him for his words. He was beaming. I was watching from the other side of the room, but I just felt such a joy in my heart. The gospel unites us. It changes lives. It gives people second chances. I have more that I wanted to share, but I am out of time. But I really am loving every minute. Being here in Alicante has revitalized me. Elder Weenig has revitalized me. 

I must admit, I think about your suggestion often. Living at home that first semester. I think that is what I am supposed to do. It answers a lot of my problems and worries. I will have to look into it, but I have a good feeling about that. Anyway. 

I love you all so much. I miss you but I am so happy to be where I am. 

Tea tree and that blue face soap please. 

I LOVE YOU!!!

Elder Sharp, the first

Soggy, Moldy, Fly-infested Pillow

Dear Family, 

It was really great talking to you!!! I loved seeing all of you, and seeing my grandparents as well! You all look so great!!  It gets easier every time to hang up that skype phone call! I don´t know why. Perhaps it was easy this time because I know it´s less than two months till we get to do it again. And it will probably be easy next time as well. It´s so crazy. I feel like I am running so fast and that there is a big wall of fire chasing me and....no matter how fast I run it´s always gaining on me. Four stinking months. I kind of want them to last forever....and at the same time I want them to pass by in the blink of an eye. Ugh. So many conradicting feelings. You guys all look great. I am super excited to talk to you again :) 

Alright to explain a few things. My companion is seriously the greatest missionary I have ever met. I feel like I am companions with a future prophet. Seriously this kid is going to accomplish miracles in the mission field. He speaks spanish fluently and understands exactly what missionaries should do to be successful. He is 100 percent exactly obedient to the T in every single way. He feels an urgency and truly desires to use every second in the most effective way possible. He knows the area INCREDIBLY well and also knows the members and their stories. He´s also freakishly positive. I haven´t heard one negative thing come out of his mouth. Not one!! He never speaks unkindly about ANYONE. He is optimistic, driven, and here to serve God and serve these people. He is also a skilled teacher. And an effective planner. It´s like he´s been out here for over a year, but it´s been six weeks. I cannot comprehend it. He contacts, invites people to be baptized, follows every single rule, and strives so hard to use every second wisely. I have never had a comp like him I really don´t feel like there is a whole lot I can teach him, but I am doing my best. I feel like being companions with him is a big responsibility. Like the future of many souls is in my hands right now, and I have to make sure this kid keeps going like he is. It´s really awesome being companions with him. He just has so much FAITH! AND HE´S BEEN HERE FOR SIX WEEKS!! Sometimes it is a little frustrating in the beginning because we aren´t used to each other. But I think he has a lot more respect for me now after having worked together for a while. I think his last comp was awesome, but didn´t really keep up with Weenig very well. I can keep up with him though, and he knows it. Plus I have a year and a half of experience on him, and he is starting to realize it. In the beginning he just thought he had to carry the whole world on his shoulders, and it´s not supposed to be like that. But really he´s amazing. I feel like I have been given a chance to work harder and more consecrated than I ever have. And I am going to do it. I´ve already decided. I am tired and sometimes it´s hard for me to find motivation, but I am going to give it my all with this guy. 

The only negative thing was when I stepped into the piso. Absolutely filthy. The dirtiest piso I have ever come to. I seriously don´t understand how some missionaries can live like this. This morning we spent SIX hours cleaning the piso. Weenig is actually a fairly clean person, but he said that he just assumed that as missionaries we just lived like that. I just stared at him for like ten seconds without even saying anything, and asked him if they ever did their monday morning cleaning. He just stared at me blankly and said...what´s that?  I was so bothered at the previous missionary. So I dug through a huge stack of papers and found the cleaning chart that our mission has that tells us what to clean each day, week, and transfer. Haha. I could have been nicer about it. I couldn´t clean until today, but saturday night we went and spent like 15 bucks on cleaning supplies just to get ready for monday morning. Honestly, I have spent the past five days just miserable. I couldn´t walk into the kitchen without feeling overwhelmed and depressed. It literally grates at my soul living in a dirty place like that. JUST WAITING to be able to clean it. Flies EVERYWHERE food spills EVERYWHERE honey all over inside the cupboards and flour/spice residue everywhere because a few months ago some idiots thought it would be cool to have a food war in their piso. It seriously looked like a bunch of fetching animals had lived there for the past six months. The bathrooms were filthy and in the laundry room there was a wet PILLOW and towels in this big sink that had been molding and rotting for ages, and there was this bug nest underneath there and that´s why there were so many flies. A soggy moldy fly infested PILLOW!! What the heck? I don´t think they cleaned the toilets once last transfer. Seriously I don´t get it. I don´t get it. People think that cleaning is picking up trash and washing some dishes. So this morning we swept and mopped everything and threw away tons of crap that missionaries always leave in their pisos and then I went through all of the cupboards and drawers and took out all of the dishes that were thrown in there and scrubbed every single cupboard and drawer in the kitchen and washed all of the dishes in the entire kitchen, even the ¨clean¨ ones (missionaries don´t know how to wash dishes properly) and then scrubbed the floor and the fridge and the sink and took care of the heck that was going on in that laundry room. Then cleaned the inside of the fridge and threw away all of the old disgusting food that no one bothers to worry about. I swear. I just don´t get it. But thankfully our piso is spotless right now. And I am much happier :) Although we spent a lot of Pday time cleaning, it was definitely worth it. My sanity is pretty important. 

On a happier note, the ward is good. It´s a very pretty area. There isn´t much work here but that´s not really a shocker because I never get sent to an area that is going well. I am used to it by now. And I also have a lot of hope for the future. Weenig and I are going to see miracles together. I am sure of it. We already have seen a few miracles. We are working so hard. Seriously. I love it. As I told you before, I have never had a comp that pushed me like this. I am not a bad missionary or anything, and I am certainly not disobedient. I mean, sometimes I email for fifteen minutes longer than I should, and occasionally I don´t do area book during medio dia, but I would say that I am a pretty obedient missionary. But Weenig is the type who makes obedience a quest. He just loves finding new rules so that he can follow them. It´s sometimes a little irritating, but then I repent and try to help him be as obedient as possible. Like I said, I don´t want to ruin the guy. I am going to do the best I can to make sure that he always has this mentality. I really am excited to be here. My area is beautiful. It´s got some really rich parts in it. Everything is super close to our piso. I am really glad to FINISH MY MISSION HERE ( that was for Thorpe). It is an amazing area and the members really care about the missionaries and I think we´re going to see lots of miracles. 

Which is really what I want. I want to hit the tape sprinting as fast as I can. And my comp is willing to run right along side of me. So I am going to make this my best area. 

I had a cool experience in church yesterday. We were in class and there was a recent convert there and he was having a lot of doubts about Jesus being Jehovah. He used to be Jehovah Witness. But the teacher (who is my spanish hero here in Alicante, I have one in every area) just explained it with so much love and compassion, and finally got through to the guy when the missionaries have been trying for months. And after the teacher just bore his testimony about the gospel and truth and understanding true principles and doctrine and I just felt such a peace inside my heart. I felt so much LOVE for the church and for the blessing that it has been in my life. I really do love it. I love the gospel so much and I am forever grateful to have been born to parents who sacrificed so much to teach it to me. I am so stinking lucky. That´s all that I felt after hanging up with you guys. Pure and immense gratitude. I have so much to look forward to after my mission and so many amazing people who love me. And many people don´t have that. Families are the most important thing in this world, because I am convinced that true and lasting happiness comes from knowing that you will be with your family forever. Life would be so hard without that knowledge. Sigh. I really don´t deserve everything that has been given to me. 

I don´t have much time left. 

I was thinking that we don´t need to go to Almeria. I would rather have more time in other places. I don´t have very many friendships here, and I would be ok with not visiting there. I t would be better that way. So first Sevilla, then Jerez, then Elche and Alicante, and from there to Barcelona and on to Paris and all of that. So yeah. Let me know if you need more specifics. I would like to see a musical or something in London, and also visit the HP castle, but I will be happy just being with you people so don´t worry about it. Thanks so much for everything. 

Good luck Brigham. I love you. You´re going to be awesome :) I am so stinking proud of you. We´re three for three so far. Only three left!!! 

Clayton´s grades are absolutely beautiful. I love that. What a huge feat for him. That´s so great!! You should buy him an ice cream or something. 

And Dad your thoughts on parenting were interesting to me. I guess it makes sense. The motivation goes down as the years go by. Hang in there :) I am super excited to help you in the yard, and you´ll have to wait and see in order to believe me!!! 

I love you all SOOOOOOOOOOOO much, The church is true and we are soo blessed. 

Preston

The Only Thing that Can Save the World.

Dear Family, 

It´s been a really great week. One of the most consecrated weeks of my mission. I am very tired!! 

Nancy´s baptism was quite wonderful. Small and tranquilo. She´s seriously amazing. One of my favorite converts. She is rock solid. She got baptized two weeks after our first lesson with her, but she was totally ready. 

Right now we have a mini missionary with us. He´s been here for a week, and will be here for a week more. He is from Jerez, and so I knew him from a year ago. His name is Nefi, and he´s funny. It was really hard for me to understand him in the beginning because the accents from Jerez are AWFUL. I had forgotten. But after a week of being with him I have gotten the hang of it. Because we are a trio, they sent him to be with us so that we could do splits. It´s been really nice. We have been able to work as two companionships in one area. It´s kind of hard sometimes because we don´t have enough to keep two companionships busy, but we have been finding news and it´s going well. I have been with Nefi all week, which has been cool. I have always wanted to have a Spanish companion. My companions are basically best friends, so they just decided that Nefi and I would be together for two weeks. Which was fine with me :) 

Sometimes Nefi reminds me of Spencer´s old companion, the one that would never leave him alone. Nefi is hysterical, but the whole personal space thing just doesn´t register to him. We literally walk around the streets all day with his arm around my shoulders as he tells me jokes in his awful accent. He is super touchy. And he LOVES just sitting in the bathroom watching me as I brush my teeth. I don´t know what he finds so fascinating about it, but he just walks right in and stares at me. It´s funny :) 

He´s a good kid. I am glad that he got to experience a baptism on his mini mission. That´s a rare occurence here in Spain!

I don´t have much to say. Today we went to the 3rd largest cathedral in all of Spain, and then to a castle palace thing, and then to a 12 century arab bathhouse that has been converted into an italian restaurant. That awesome Texan couple took us. They spent tons of money on us and it makes me feel super bad. Apparently they are loaded though because they take the missionaries out all the time. They remind me so much of Grammie and Grandpa. The husband has a PHD in spanish culture and history so he gave us a personal tour of everything today. It´s been a good day. 

A few things that I wanted to mention- 

I have been reading Acts lately!! What an amazing book. It has been very beneficial to read about the primitive church of Jesus Christ. Peter was amazing first of all, and I am also amazed by how much that church back then resembles our church now. It´s obviously the same church, but it´s so exact. I have found many different scriptures about the gospel of Jesus Christ- it really was taught by the original apostles, and it was lost to the world until 1820ish. Such a simple doctrine was totally distorted and forgotten. They practiced the laying on of hands to receive the gift of the holy ghost, priesthood authority, organization, it´s all there. The exact blueprint of our church, as Callister says. 

We are reading the Book of Mormon as a mission. Again. I love it. I wish I had more time every morning for personal study. I am gonig to pay attention to a few things in specific this time. The atonement of Jesus Christ, as the BoM is the best book to teach us how to apply it into our lives, and how to learn to hear and recognize the voice of the Spirit. I think someone talked about that in conference....President Packer maybe?? 

I have felt really good this week. I feel like I am training a new missionary or something, being with Nefi. We get up every morning and work out super hard. We did it every day this week. Which is an accomplishment for me. Heavenly Father has been helping me a lot to get up, change, and get out the door to work out. If I get out and run or do cross fit with the ZLs, it really helps me through out the rest of the morning. So Nefi and I have had some really good mornings. And I have been much better about doing language study and area book. And I am just working a lot harder in general. Being with Nefi has motivated me a lot for some reason. He´s willing to do anything without complaining, so I am just taking advantage of it! I had him contact last night. I would do it, and then we would find someone else and I would say ¨your turn¨ and he always said ¨no, it´s yours, I did the last one¨ even though he had yet to speak to anyone in the street. When we would knock doors he would just sit there staring awkwardly at the person who just answered the door, and then turn to me and say ¨habla!¨ Hahaha. It was super embarrassing sometimes. Finally I made him do it last night, so we go up to this girl who was waiting at a bus stop, and Nefi goes up to her and just stops dead. She was this really really beautiful Venezuelan girl, and Nefi who is 19 just lost his breath. He LITERALLY stared at her with his jaw dropped for like 8 long awkward seconds, and she looked super afraid, and then finally just found his voice and looked at her, then looked at me, then looked at her, and pointed to me and said to her ¨my companion¨ and then just stopped talking completely and looked at the ground. I was DYING!!!!! I was trying SOOOO hard not to laugh. It was the most hysterical thing I had ever seen. The girl wasn´t amused though, she looked terrified. Apparently she was just here on vacation, and was only 17. I tried to salvage the contact, but there wasn´t much to save. She wasn´t super interested, but she said she would talk to the missionaries if she ever saw them in her country. 

I should mention just how blessed I am. I have been thinking a lot about my converts. And it just baffles me how wonderful they are. This week has been really special for me. As you saw in the photos, Jose and Sonia and their family were sealed in the temple on Thursday. I heard that day, and then Nefi pulled up a picture of it on his iPhone. I don´t think I have ever been so impacted by a picture. It was totally overwhelming. I just bawled. They have come so far. She was totally inactive, and none of her family members were members of the church. Her husband didn´t really want anything. And now he is a worthy, endowed melchizedek priesthood holder and they are sealed in the temple. I don´t know how to explain the joy that I feel. Their lives have changed so much in just one short year. Thanks to the gospel. The first time in white is great. Baptizing. Yay. But we do all of that to help people. It´s about changing their lives and getting them to the temple, so they can become eternal families. I have been immeasurably blessed when it comes to that. Pablo the 19 year old boy from Jerez is expecting his mission call this week. He is excited to serve a full time mission, and he will change so many lives. Victoriano received his endowment a few weeks ago. He too had his second day in white. Jose and Sonia and Ana and Alonso were just sealed, they are all solid. Maribel and Antonio from Jerez are still fully active with callings and are preparing to go to the temple as well. Andrea and Gabriela from Elche went to the temple last week as well. They did baptisms. Andrea is determined to serve a mission. Their whole family (all five of them that are members now) are preparing to get sealed in the temple. The parents came back from Belgium, and are now all together in Elche, totally active and happy. Nancy was baptized and confirmed yesterday and saturday, and is preparing to go to the temple in November. She is also determined to serve a mission. Her parents are totally active again, after like 15 years, and received callings yesterday. Her brother should be baptized soon if all goes well. Their goal is to be sealed in the temple. Carlota is doing well too :)  She has so much faith. Emilio and Rosario are semi active. I don´t know how Emilio the Bulgarian from Almeria is doing, and I know that Kevin from Elche only comes every other week. But all in all I am absolutely amazed by how much the Lord has poured out his blessings upon all of those incredible people. They inspire me, and I just can´t help but feel peace in my heart that they have made it to the temple. Looking at that photo of Jose and Sonia just makes everything worth it. THAT is why I am here. I am so thankful for the experiences that I have had so far in this country. I have been blessed way more than I deserve. People really do need to hear this message. It´s the ONLY thing that can save the world. 

And my little brother received his endowment :) Another amazing miracle. I am super proud of you Brigham. I had a similar reaction when I went through the temple. It gets better every time you go.

I hope you are all happy and healthy. I pray for you specifically every night mom. I hope that these migraines will leave soon. I hope that everyone helps you this weekend to relieve the stress. I would if I were there. Be safe. I love you all so much. 

Elder Sharp

The Gospel can Save the World

Dear Family, 

Life is good. I am doing well. I have been feeling much closer to the spirit lately. Honestly...I feel like this is a turning point in my mission. I was reading back to my time in Jerez and I just feel like I was a different person. The things that I wrote about in my journal were just ... different. I was such a focused missionary. I had absolutely NO idea what I was doing but I did the best I could and trusted in the Holy Ghost and God worked miracles through us. I didn´t realize it in the moment, but we experienced miracles ALL THE TIME in Jerez. It´s amazing to me. I ask God to help me to go back to where I was before. To have that same level of urgency and dedication and pure trust in Heavenly Father with the knowledge and ability that I have now. Maybe that´s part of it. Maybe I have been putting too much trust in my own abilities and not trusting enough in Him. Either way, I am feeling better. 

I have had some cool experiences lately. When I go to an area, I get really wrapped up in the vision that the ward has for the work here. For example, I care a lot about helping the ward to acheive their goals and have real growth. Baptizing strong converts that will stay here and bless the ward, rescuing people, strengthening the members and helping them to develop a love for missionary work...there is just so much to be done. And I love it. I met with the bishop last night (which is a miracle...he´s SOO busy) and he talked to us about his goals and what he wants from us as missionaries. I finally caught the vision of Sevilla 2. Now I just want to stay here for the rest of my mission. It´s hard here because all of us live SOO far away from the church. Sevilla is a big city, and few people have cars. So the members move around on bikes or busses. And many people choose not to come to church because of the distance. But we are going to do the best we can. I am becoming really anxious. The time is just slipping through my hands. I worry that I won´t be able to make an impact on this ward. I worry that I am not using His time wisely enough. I don´t want to waste a second of it. I try not to think about the fact that, on Thursday, I will have officially six months left. It seems like so little time. Every one of my friends that have finished their mission and returned home tells me that they just want to go back. That it´s not as incredible as they thought. So I am just here praying my little heart out so that Heavenly Father helps me to enjoy this as much as I can while it lasts. And I think that I am. 

Our Gospel Principles teacher is President Blanco, who was the Stake President a few years ago and who also is the ward mission leader, and the counselor to President Deere in the mission. He´s an incredible man. I feel so blessed to have become so close to so many incredible priesthood leaders here in Spain. They have all made strong impacts upon my life and have inspired me in many ways. 

As President Blanco was teaching class yesterday about missionary work, he told his conversion story. It was very simple, but it marked me. He just said ¨When I think about the missionaries that taught me the gospel...I just feel overwhelmed with gratitude.¨ He can´t even talk about it without choking up. He was 21 years old. Two Americans knocked his door, he felt bad for them having to sweat out in the sun, so he let them in saying ¨you´re not going to get anything with me, just so you know¨. He was baptized three weeks later. He quit smoking, and put his life in order with the teachings of the Gospel. And then he went on a mission a year later. And he is one of the strongest members in Sevilla. He looks back on those two missionaries with pure gratitude and love, because the gospel means EVERYTHING to him. His family, the families of his children, everyone has been changed forever because of it. I just sat there staring at him and thinking about how I have been blessed to find people like that as well. I know that many of these converts have been changed FOREVER. But I also just felt so much guilt. I have not used my time as well as I should have. I felt so much desire to first repent, and then go out and find more prepared souls like President Blanco. That´s really what this work is about. Searching out and finding the chosen and elect that have been prepared to accept our message. I know there are people out there like Pablo, Victoriano, Jose and Sonia, Maribel, Maria, Andrea, and Jose Luis Blanco. People that are literally just waiting for this message. Searching for the truth but they know not where to find it. That´s what it is all about. Our call is to have changed our converts forever. It´s so not about us. We´re here to serve. I feel very blessed to be here right now. I wish I could go back and just start all over. There are so many people that need to hear our message. 

If I have learned anything on my mission, I have learned that the gospel truly can and does change lives. But it depends on us. If we (and the investigators) let it into our hearts, we really will be changed forever. The gospel is perfect and it never fails. But we have to truly accept it and live it. If we know and understand the reasons for which we do the things we do, we will learn and grow and be blessed. Missionary work is so much more that baptisms and numbers and time away from home. It´s about changing people´s lives and following in the Savior´s footsteps. Tithing, Chastity, Word of Wisdom, all of the principles and commandments by which we live are not just there to make life easier for us. Although that´s what they do in reality. We have to live by the letter of the law, but we also have to understand the spirit of the law. Kinda like faith and works. We have to do it to the best of our abilities, but we can´t go through the motions. We need to FEEL it and love it and do it because we truly have faith that we are doing God´s will. There have been many moments in my mission where I have simple just gone through the motions. Just doing things because ¨that´s what we´re supposed to do¨. Find people, teach them, and baptize them. I think it happens to lots of people, members, missionaries, everyone. 

I feel good about my mission though. I know I haven´t been perfect...at all. Nor will I ever come close out here, but I have learned from my mistakes and I try to do better every day. And lately I have been doing better. I am so thankful for a Father that has so much patience with me. I used to hear people say that all the time and I never really understand how they could actually FEEL that way. But that is exactly how I FEEL. I feel so much gratitude in my heart for my Heavenly Father. And for my Savior and His Atonement. I know without a doubt that through His sacrifice and our sincere repentance, we can be forgiven of any mistakes that are made. And thank heavens for that. I have fallen short all my life, and will surely continue to do so. But He has always been there to help me up, even when sometimes I just laid there stubbornly, ignoring the divine help that has always been available to me. This really is His church. This gospel is the only thing that can save the world. Everyone talkes about the wars and problems going on in the world. All of the diseases, natural disasters, political threats. We´re getting closer. Just like you said Mom. We are so blessed to have the reassurance that the Gospel provides. 

Your week sounds quite exciting. You were SOO busy this week. I wish I could have been there to help you out. I actually would have, if I were there. No doubt about it.  I am proud of you for juggling all of that without Dad´s help. That is no small feat. I am sure it was much more difficult than all of us realize so just know that you are greatly appreciated and admired by many people. Especially by me. 

I hope you do learn some spanish before you come. Because it would be nice if you actually understood what everyone says to you ;) But do what you can! It makes me really sad to hear that the food is going up. I thought costco prices were just awful in Spain, but with the euro transition it´s exactly the same price. Really sad. 

I am glad that Beth is going on a mission. She will absolutely love it. 

I hope you have fun on your cruise. Be safe!! Derek sounds like he´ll be a wonderful missionary. I really like hearing that Dad went to lunch with Spencer Garcia.  I swear. I have some truly incredible parents. Good to hear that he is doing well. 

As for all of that Brigham stuff....hahaha. I was laughing pretty hard after hearing about the whole Quincey and Lincoln thing. They are absolutely hysterical. I cannot WAIT to babysit them when I get home. Hopefully they will still need being babysat. They´re getting so old. But I love them so much. I can´t wait to see them again. 

I love you all so much. Have fun this week. I miss you!!!

love, elder sharp