Now more than Ever

Dear family, 

I quite enjoyed your talk mother. You really are one wise woman. A ¨mother who knows¨ to be sure. You may say that I can deliver them better than you (which I strongly disagree with- I have learned in the mission that expressing myself and communication in general are NOT my strongpoints, although that has a lot to do with spanish), you have a gift of writing talks. Searching and finding counsel from various sources and relating it all together with your own testimony- you do it in a very powerful way. Hopefully one day I might be able to do the same. 

I am doing well. It´s been a rather boring week. I can´t even remember what I did. All of our progressing investigators are unable to meet with us :) So at this point we are left with working with people who are progressing VERY slowly. (I had to delete a large section of his letter because he gives too many details about his investigators to put on the blog.) 

We have other investigators. We are working with tons of less actives. But no one is progressing. It´s all passing so slowly. Nobody in our zone baptized this month, so I get to go to concilio and report a big old 0 baptisms as a companionship and 0 as a zone. Our zone is absolutely tiny, only seven companionships. Smallest zone in the mission. But still. It´s hard. I am trying to be more positive and faithful. Hopeful. And I know that May will be better. I just get frustrated because I am working hard. We really are helping people. But our numbers just don´t show it. Sure we are teaching 20-25 lessons every week, which is the standard of excellence in our mission, but we don´t have any baptismal dates, progressing investigators (in order for them to be ¨progressing¨ in our mission, they have to come to church every week), and so far we haven´t baptized here in Elche. I have had a really interesting mission. Jerez was a golden paradise, and then I was sent to Almería which was just insanely hard. It´s just flat out a hard area. And then here in Elche which is supposed to be a good city, but it turns out then all of the four areas that are here in Elche are just dead. None of the missionaries have anything. I don´t know what to do. I will be honest, being a zone leader isn´t the greatest thing in the world. At all. I basically just get to feel guilty for the fact that the whole ZONE is doing bad when it comes to baptizing, and not just because my companion and I are. Anyway. I never wanted to be responsible for a zone, but I am. And I know I need to do the absolute best I can to help it in every way. So I am going to spend some extra time on my knees this week to find out what we need to do differently. As I learn more about the way that the church works and experience the responsibilities of leadership, and especially as I work so closely with church leaders, I am seriously amazed at all of the challenges and trials that I never before had thought about. Being a bishop would be SO incredibly difficult. Getting the members to respect your authority as a bishop, even if they don´t see you fit for the job, having to deal with all of the immature adults that have so many problems in their lives, having to be the authority in charge of everyone else, trying to run effective ward council meetings, worrying about all of the financial aspects as well, trying to keep unity between all of the organizations, listening to everyone confess their sins and trying to listen so closely to the spirit to try and give them counsel that will actually help them in their life, and praying to know when someone has actually done enough to be forgiven because it affects your own salvation as well, WOW. The list goes on and on and on.  I don´t know why anyone would EVER want to have that responsibility. Seriously. Some people are literally crazy. Actually WANTING to have that kind of responsibility?? Yeah. NO, THANK YOU. It´s a good thing that God is there helping all of His faithful bishops, because they couldn´t do what they all have to do without divine guidance and assitance. 

 Personally, I like teaching. I do not like leading. I want to be the gospel principles teacher for the rest of my life, and nothing else. And I am very glad that I love teaching, because in my blessing it tells me that a Teacher is my role. No matter what I do in the church, I will always be teaching. It´s my personal calling :) So I lucked out on that one!! 

Right now in our mission we are having a ¨week of consecration¨. I am super stoked for it. We are all going to be exactly obedient and we will work with urgency and eficáz. Even elder tudela recommitted himself to the work, and is now back on track. Which is a tremendous blessing for me. Pray for us that we will be able to consecrate everything this week, and then keep doing it even after the week of consecration ends. I am starting my ten months of consecration today, actually :) 

We had a really awesome lesson this week. Several, actually. We are teaching this romanian girl named S. She´s an evangelist. Baptist or something. But we contacted her and are now teaching her. We had a really good lesson about the book of mormon. It was incredible. It was so good that it could have been on the preach my gospel training videos. It was Elder Christiansen status, even. I felt the spirit so strongly as I testified about the book of mormon. She promised to read it, and she understood! She understood our message, which is something that happens less often than you would think. 

I also had a really cool experience as we were giving a blessing yesterday. We were in the stake president´s office (the stake president, aka my hero, wasn´t there) with A and her cousin J, and tudela and I were giving her a blessing. She is struggling right now in her life. Anyway. Tudela was giving the blessing, and I was standing there with my hands on her head as well, and I just started praying for tudela that he would be receptive to the spirit and be able to give her the words that God wished her to hear. Instantly after I had started praying in my heart for him, I felt SUCH a strong feeling of the priesthood power. It felt like Tudela and I were in perfect unity during that blessing. As I prayed for him and he strived to listen to the spirit, I felt Heavenly Father´s spirit there. It was one of the most amazing feelings I have ever experienced. The most powerful spiritual witness I have ever felt was in the madrid temple, but this one was strong as well. It was so specific too. Total priesthood unity. I felt the power of the priesthood channeling through us, and I was filled with feelings of unity. It was like I knew what he should say before he even said it, and then he said exactly what I felt. It was cool. 

I am doing well. I am happy, even though things are hard right now :) That´s what matters. I love this place, and I would say that I am enjoying my mission now more than ever. 

I am grateful for your prayers and for your support. I love you so much!! I pray for you every day and I am so thankful for you all. I can skype whenever. Tudela doesn´t skype until the end of may. Mother´s day in Sweden is different. So let me know!

Clayton, THANK YOU for emailing me. I will respond next week because I am out of time today :( I love you so much! One question, why are you saving up for a new guitar?? Hahaha. Didn´t you just get a super nice one last month?? I am proud of you for your musical endeavors. You are seriously such a stud. And you probably have the same voice as me. Because I have rythym issues as well. So I can sympathize with you. We´ll sing all the time together when I get home, and mom and dad will be so annoyed!! 

Still haven´t received the package. I don´t know why. Could you guys track it?? It won´t come today because it is ANOTHER fetching holiday today. I swear, every other day here is a holiday- and then the Spaniards wonder why they are in crisis?? Yeah. It´s not that complicated sherlock. It´s because people have holidays every other day and then when they DO actually work, they take a three hour break during the middle of the day. Crazy. 

Anyway. Love you all 

elder sharp

Less than 'Two Minutes' Left

Dear loved ones, 

I am doing so well!!!! How are you!? Didn´t you just love conference?? I really did. The last four days were absolutely wonderful for me. For multiple reasons. 

One of them was conference. SO great. I felt so inspired and excited to apply that counsel to my life. I was able to listen to most of the sessions in english, but because of some problems I missed the saturday afternoon session. Or at least half of it. I saw the first half but only in Spanish. And then I saw the first half of the last session in Spanish. I missed D Todd Cristofferson´s talk, and I didn´t really understand Scott and Hale´s talks because it was in Spanish and I was doing numbers at the same time, so I was on the phone with our zone and wasn´t able to really pay attention. I´ll have to wait and print them off or something. Did you know that Richard G Scott does his own Spanish translation?? It was in Spanish, but it was still his voice!! Cool huh? 

I really really enjoyed Uchtdorf´s talk. I feel like that is something that I struggle with tremendously. I am not grateful enough. That talk definitely spoke to me personally. I had so many experiences like that during this conference. I loved Bednar´s talk as well, although all of what he said can be found in his books. He is so incredible. I feel like once we come to truly understand and apply that principle ( the enabling power of the atonement ), our entire lives will changed. Our entire perspective will change. I am trying so hard right now to rely upon the atonement in that way. I also LOVED the Prophet´s talk on love. I had an interesting experience as he was speaking. For the first time in my life, I FELT that it was the Lord´s voice speaking to me, through the Prophet. It was such a strong impression. I thought to myself, out of all of the messages that the Lord would give to His people right now through the mouth of His Prophet, the Lord chose  LOVE. For some reason I just found that so interesting. Apparently that is something that the world in general is struggling with. It makes sense though. We are all so focused on so many other things. So many other good things. Missionary work, callings, spiritual growth, etc etc. But all of those things we do BECAUSE of our love. Love truly is the greatest commandment. And if we do love God like we should, we fulfill of our responsibilites gladly because we love our brothers and sisters. Missionary work is a labor of love. And as missionaries, we often forget that. It can almost become a routine job. We do all of the things so robotically. I have felt myself do it before! I go into a lesson and just robotically deliver the message and then leave. Just going through the motions. It also can become like a business. We just work so hard to have success because of baptisms and numbers but often forget the real purpose. I was doing a lot of self reflection during that talk. How much of what I do is done because I love the Lord and I really love these people that I am teaching? Sometimes it´s hard to love them. Most everyone hates us and wants nothing to do with us. And when we can get people to let us in, they don´t really want to accept what we have to say. But I need to love them. It was just a really great conference. They really just get better and better. 

And then we went to concilio on monday and tuesday. SOO great. There are 8 zone leaders and 2 SHEs in this part of the mission. And then two of the zone leader companionships have cars, so we were allowed to drive down in cars. 5 and 5. I went with Elders Skousen, Olsen, Flores, and my man Elder Bastian. It was a five hour drive there and I seriously loved it. Bastian just got to Alicante and he´s with Skousen. Both of them are just so amazing. And then there is Elder Olsen. Such a stud. It was so good for me to be with them. A lot of the older companions that I have had (either ZLs or exZLs) have been super negative about the mission leadership and about the work in general. They gave me a really bad mindset when it comes to being a zone leader. Hahaha. I was so mistaken in so many ways. Being with these guys was so refreshing. They work so hard and are just SO obedient. Especially Elder Olsen. He´s just inspiring. The positive attitudes that they have about the work and the mission in general was so so good for me to be around. It was like seeing a whole different side of the work. I don´t think I can explain it very well, but just know that the Lord blessed me a great deal this weekend. At concilio we talked a lot about the importance of studies and then teaching. We learned a lot about that. I am an ok teacher, but I still do so many thing wrong. I have tried to be like Elder Christiansen throughout my whole mission. Elder Christiansen from the PMG videos. I think he´s an incredible teacher, and I try to teach like him. Slow, simple, clear, and he pauses and THINKS before he speaks. And he focuses on the people. He trys to have them talk more than him. That is a good teacher. And in concilio President Deere talked a lot about that kind of teaching. It was just really good. And Hermana Deere made cafe rio salads which was incredible as well. Then the next morning we got up and gave our reports and then talked about the problems in the mission. It was very constructive. At the end of that concilio, I felt like we were completey unified. Usually it feels like it´s just a competition between zones. Who can baptize the most. SO SO not how it should be. But that´s how missionaries make it sometimes. But President has changed out like all of the zone leaders within the last 2 or 3 transfers, and this new council is a lot different (from what I hear). I think our mission is going to see some serious miracles this year. We are going up for sure. 

It has been weird without Elder Love. Tudela and I get along :) But, as I predicted, it has taken a lot of patience on my part. And his too probably. I am getting good at holding my tongue and just taking a deep breath, and letting it go. I am lucky to be with Elder Tudela. I keep trying to put myself in his shoes and it helps. We aren´t perfect, but we get along quite well considering our personalities. 

Quincey is such a stud. Seriously I love the fact that he was so attentive during conference. 

I am sad that my letter didn´t get there safely. I had sent one of my badges in there with it to give to Clayton. The guy at the post office assured me that it would arrive safely. I will have to order another badge I suppose. I am still praying for him, and for all of you.

Our investigators are doing well. M should be about finished with her job, so we are praying that she might reappear. And then V and I are just amazing as well. We went to their house (yes, they have an actual house out in the country outside of Elche- it´s glorious) and watched conference with them. They are awesome. We just need to get them married!! We still haven´t been able to get M  and her four daughters to church. As they live in Elda, those things are difficult. But we are hoping that soon they will come. We have this other lady called H that came to watch conference. We´ll see how that all works out. She has 11 dogs in her apartment that live with her. Yeah. No comment. And then guess what!! A and M came to a session of conference!!! M didn´t seem like she liked it at all, but I am just happy that A was there!!! He is an inactive that used to be young men president and everything. He´s like thirty. He bothers me so much when I teach him. He says that he doesn´t come because he´s trying to get his girlfriend to come. Basically just trying to save her soul but in the process is losing his own. I can´t stand that mentality. We should never marry or even DATE anyone that would drag us down. But he is considering it. It´s frustrating to me. But I love him to death and it´s the first time he´s been back to church in like six months. 

I am really loving it here. It´s been an awesome week. I have learned so much these past few days and I am so excited to just get to work. I loved that talk about the olympic athletes and the four minutes. If I am not mistaken, it was given by the presiding bishop...? Can´t remember. I really enjoyed that. The plan of salvation is such a gem. I thought about it in terms of a mission too. My four minutes of a mission is VERY quickly coming to an end. I have less than two minutes left. I seriously can´t believe it´s going by so quickly. The hermanas that got here with me have about 3 transfers left. THREE!!! So weird. Hermana Deere talked about that this concilio. About not giving up and making the last 10 months of your mission the best part. And I know that it will be the best part of my mission. 

I am so happy for Spencer about those people that are getting baptized!! What awesome converts! That is so wonderful. I wish I knew something about his mission. I don´t hear anything about it. I send him my email every week. I don´t know if he reads it, but at least he has something. I am just saying, this system may work out well for you guys and him, but I would really like to know what is going on in my brother´s life. I hope Brigham is practicing his keyboard ablilities so that ALL of us can actually get some info on his mission. 

Well I love all of you so much. I hope you are feeling close to the Savior and that you rely on Him in times of trials and difficulties, as well as in times of comfort and prosperity!! I have such a strong testimony of Him and the power of the Atonement. It is REAL. I have felt it and I know that it can lift us beyond our own capacities. 

Have the best week ever!!! 

Elder Sharp

PS- I spoke with V while we were at concilio. Hna. Anderson let me use her phone (she´s the SHE in Jerez). He just got his patriarchal blessing and is doing so well. I miss him a lot. He hasn´t missed one day of church since that first sunday he came with Elder Pardo and I. What a flipping miracle! And P and everyone else in Jerez are doing super well too. J and S and all of them. And E in Almeria is passing the sacrament and going to church by himself. This really is such an amazing work. 

ONE YEAR!!

Dear loved ones, 

I am well. Our week was good. Fast. And a little hard. All three of our fechas fell this week. M got a job working as an interna, which is basically a person who lives with an old Spaniard and takes care of them 24/7. There are lots of old Spaniards here. But we can´t even call M anymore because her old lady boss gets ticked if she´s on the phone. It´s not permanent, but we probably won´t see her for a few weeks. She is reading the BoM and she still wants to keep meeting with us. Her son M avoids us now. He´s never home and his mom was definitely the driving force behind all of that. K the 12 year old got really scared about her fecha and decided that she doesn´t want to be baptized right now. So yeah. A little tough. But I still have hope. I have been studying faith all week. And it has helped a lot. I think they will all still get baptized. Just not this month. So that means I have to go report 0 baptisms as a companionship this month during concilio. Oh well. Next month will be better :) 

We never went running. Elder Love has back problems this week. But I exercised every day in the piso!! Interesting that you asked about our trio :) I love both of my companions. A lot. Elder Love and I would get along perfectly. Well actually, we do. We get along perfectly. Tudela and I not so much. In the mission, sometimes it´s americans vs. natives. It shouldn´t be like that. But it is. All three of us are at fault. But Tudela is SUPER defensive about Europe. If we ever say anything that we miss about America or if we complain about Europe at all, he starts making comments and then we end up arguing. We have argued about some really dumb stuff. Yesterday we got into politics and Elder Tudela was seriously ticked. We never fight or anything. But we do get irritated. When Tudela and I are alone, we get along fine. We are kind of similar so we occassionally butt heads, but I love him a ton. Elder Love just kind of ignites sparks sometimes. Elder Tudela has some personality issues that he needs to fix, and so do I. And together we can do it. So that´s why I want to stay with him for another two transfers after this. I really enjoy my companions right now. Yesterday we had a companship inventory and decided to not discuss anything about europe vs. america. I´ve never really had a problem with it before. But I think it´s just the fact that we´re two americans together with a native. Anyway. We all get along really well. I feel like I am serving with my brothers. We argue like brothers. And most of the time we get along really well. I will miss Elder Love when he leaves in two weeks. I love being a trio. It´s harder to focus and get things done, but it´s so much more fun. Although teaching is hard in a trio. It´s like hanging out with friends. I don´t know. There are good things to both trios and normal companionships. 

Your week sounded awesome. Super jealous of you guys. Driving around Cali, eating at nice restaurants, at the beach, amusement parks, with Duane and Misty. Yeah...my week was a tad different ;) I am glad that you guys had fun though. Mom- please understand that I soak up every single detail about your lives. It´s just something I look forward to during the week.  So remember, the longer the better. The more detail the better. I most love hearing about how everyone is doing. I am glad you guys kept the cars. Hopefully they are still up and running in a year!! I will get home and get right to work, so that I can either buy a car or buy one of those cars from you guys. 

Yeah I totally about died when I read that Clayton said no. Tell Dad that if that offer is still up in the air, I would TOTALLY take it. Too bad that I am not allowed to leave mission boundaries. Haha. That would definitely not be a good idea. 

Well this week was a bit uneventful. I don´t know what to say. 

This is my hump week. It has been really hard for me to think that I am halfway. One year ago I was on an airplane. I had to do the hardest thing I´ve ever done!! Say goodbye to my family. I remember all of it so clearly. Exactly. I remember waiting in that line to get through security. Dad was the last person I hugged. And then I passed through with Webb and saw you guys across the security as I was walking away. And then I stopped. And looked at you for a moment. And then walked away!! And it´s been a year now. Wow. A year!! It frightens me a little. I can´t believe that I have less than a year left. In less than a year we will finally be together!! I´ll be honest, it scares the heck out of me. It´s going by so fast. I feel like every week as I walk to the locutorio it hits me like a sack of bricks that I have seven days less to be here. I don´t even think about it much during the week. The weeks fly by. And they say the second year goes by even faster than the first. I don´t want this to go by so fast. I don´t feel like I have done enough yet. I am ready for this next year though. I am going to make it better than the first. I know how to work now. And I am going to give everything this last year. I am going to go home with nothing left! 

Out of time. I love you all. Be safe. Thank you for all of your support

elder sharp

A Great Place to Die!!

Dear FAM,

I am doing well :) I missed you all quite badly yesterday. More than usual. I am not sure why. I was in Gospel Principles class yesterday, a little frustrated because some of our investigators couldn´t make it to church, and your faces came into my mind. And I just thought of you. I am so excited to see you again. I am not excited to finish the mission. But I really cannot wait to be with my family again. I love you so much! And I mean it when I say that. I occasionally would ask myself how one can really know that he feels LOVE for someone else, as you well know mother. But when one feels that for someone, he knows it. It´s as simple as that. I was just sitting there in that classroom feeling overwhelmed by the love I feel for my family. It was a sweet experience. I wouldn´t say I was homesick. Just missing my family. Every single one of you.

I had a meeting with my stake president this week and it was awesome. I felt so motivated to do work here in Elche. I really do love being here. I trust in President Deere´s revelation, but I must say that I hope I am here for a long time. Yes I am feeling better. Thank heavens. I cannot wait to go running tomorrow!! It´s been WAY too long. Yes I am out of LAVENDER just so you know.

Brigham does rely on you quite a bit. I did too though. I think you are forgetting all of the things you do for me :) Even though Brigham asks more from you than I did, you still did WAY too much for me!!

And it´s true. I don´t drive anywhere. ALTHOUGH I did drive in Granada for about five mintues. Bassett let me drive their car when we were on intercambios because I had my license with me. SOOOO great. But there´s always the chance I could go to a car area. I don´t really want to, but it could happen. It would be SICK to die in Fuengirola. The elders there have a car because they work in some super rich tourist towns along the coast. Like Marbella and stuff. It would be a great place to die. But there are lots of downsides to cars as well. So either way, I am fine wherever the Lord sends me. But I don´t have to worry about that for another six months :)

Grammie and Grandpa gave me a red whisper phone that was nicer than the ones I made. It should be in my stuff somewhere. But if you can´t find it, the pvc ones work fine too :)

I CANNOT BELIEVE YOU BOUGHT THAT CAR!!!!!!!  Seriously. I saw the picture and just felt weird. I freaked out actually. That thing does not look natural in our driveway. Like a panther in our humble home of goats. Ha. I felt a little uncomfortable to be honest. The trooper and suburban probably feel like crap now. I would too. I would be paranoid driving that thing. But I am sure I would get over that in about two seconds if I ever find myself behind it´s wheel. It´s super nice. Like, REALLY REALLY nice. I still can´t even believe it. Did you keep the Focus?

I really enjoyed the length of your letter. I love reading about your feelings and thoughts and worries. It makes me feel closer to you. I do like sharing your problems. So don´t feel bad about sharing them with me. I can understand your feelings.  I think that when correction is necessary, we should ALWAYS strive to give it with the Spirit. In a loving way. If the Spirit leaves us and we become angry, then we did something wrong and gave in to the natural man. Which happens to everyone so often. But it´s a work in progress mom. Especially for me. Being like Jesus Christ is definitely an endeavor that requires time. More than a lifetime. There isn´t much I can say, because it´s not something I have ever experienced. I know that I can say anything to you, and you can do the same to me. I hope that we can keep this openness going for the rest of our lives. It´s so important that we as a family can speak to each other. I think perfect families really DO exist. Perfect in the sense that we all love each other immensely and have fun together and take care of all problems that arise quickly and efficiently. I think that´s what all of us are working for. I know that is all that you guys want. It depends so much upon certain things though. Who we marry, of course. And how devoted we are to the gospel. I hope and pray that we can have that kind of family. It is so unbelievably important that we stay strong in the gospel. That we have our foundations firm in Christ. For the rest of our lives. I will never ever stop fighting for my family. There is always more to be done in the work of Salvation. Whether it´s ancestors, spiritual brothers and sisters that don´t have the truth, less actives, it doesn´t matter. And the most important work of all is making sure that my own brothers and parents and wife and children are strong and righteous in the gospel. I am so proud of you mom for all that you do. So grateful. I know that we can do this. God can do anything :) Please just don´t stop fighting. It´s worth every ounce of effort, every tear, everything. I know that you already know all of this. But I just hope you know that I am with you 100 percent on this. 

I love you so much. I am growing a lot. It´s been a hard week for me when it comes to the work. But I feel my relationship with my Father in Heaven growing. And also my relationship with the Savior. I have really tried to learn of Him and come to know Him, and I have prayed for it a lot. And it´s coming. I know He lives. I know that there is purpose to this life and that the plan of salvation is VERY real. It is the only thing that brings meaning and purpose to this life. I am learning a lot. And I love my mission more than anything.

Anyway. I love you :) More than the world. More than anything. My parents are the most incredible people I have ever met, and I miss you both.

love, your son

Loving Elche

Dearest loved ones, 

How are you? You must be super tired because I haven´t gotten an update on your lives :) Just a picture of the car you are looking at. Super cool, by the way. Definitely an upgrade from the Focus. Haha. (btw, if you don´t want the focus, I know a guy who could use a car in 12 months...just so you know).

I am doing well. I really really love my new companions. It´s the greatest trio I have ever been in. Elder Love is a stud. He is such a cool kid. He reminds me a ton of Kyle. In fact, he even graduated from Perry High School in 2013. He was in Logan´s graduating class. He knows Kyle and Logan, and his family friends with Kyle´s girlfriend Riley. Is she still waiting for him? I hope so.  Elder Love is just a really awesome guy. 

Elder Tudela is a mix between Nico and Nathan Eads. More like Nico than Nathan Eads. He speaks english perfectly. I like him a lot. I might be with him for three entire transfers though. Which is a long time. We get along well. He only has four months left on his mission, so I try to cut him some slack. But I really like him as a person. Tudelas is a really awesome guy. He is from Chile but lives in Sweden. 

Elche is great. There is a lot of work here. The last guy that was here kind of destroyed the area a bit. He just died here and left things pretty bad. But there is work. And that´s the important thing. Our zone is a little small. We´re the second smallest zone in the mission. And almost everyone in the zone is super young. Guess what! Elder Chapple is in my zone now!! I got to see him on Friday. So that was fun. The Hermanas in Elche are baptizing a ton right now. They just had two last night, two last week, and will have two more on the 8th of March. Two sets of Hermanas. They´re working really hard and seeing a ton of miracles. We have two fechas right now as well for the 22 of March. M and M.  M is his mother, and she is getting baptized for sure. We got here and they didn´t even have a fecha, but she is golden!! So we set a fecha with her in our first lesson here. And with her son too. He is not going to be as easy. But she is totally prepared. We have a lot of other investigators that should have fechas this week as well. There is this one member that lives in a pueblo outside of Elche called Elda. The goal is to make a branch there because lots of members live out there. That´s what President wants us to do. So we might be moving over to Elda next transfer to start working only over there. But anyway, this member is a columbian lady named I, and she is AWESOME. Probably about 30, and just the coolest lady ever. She feeds us a lot and gives us tons of references. She was called as a ward missionary yesterday. We are working with her friend right now named D.  I don´t know her yet, but apparently she is ready for the gospel. This I lady is basically a gold mine. So I am super glad to be here. The members are great. Well, some of them. 

I am really really really really missing Almería, when it comes to the ward. The work here is way faster than it was in Almería. But I grew so close to that ward, and they worked so well with the missionaries. This new ward just doesn´t really care a whole lot about the missionaries. Some of the members do, and I already love lots of them, but the leadership in this ward just has other priorities. Which boils my blood because the work of salvation is the Lord´s number one priority right now. But I am trying to be calm and loving instead of complaining. The bishop is nice. But he kind of just blows us off like we don´t matter a whole lot. He is a good man though and wants to work. He just doesn´t think we are super useful to him. He works with technology and the youth. Those are his passions. It´s weird because all my last bishop cared about was Family History and Missionary work. The two most important things. And our ward mission leader here is totally wipped by the bishopric and the other leaders of the organization. Which is totally different than Julio. Julio fought during ward council for more missionary activities and he helped everyone remember the purpose and goals that we have as a ward. He literally teared up and almost cried one time as he was fighting the young men´s president about having a missionary/young men activity every month instead of every three months. He was such a champ. He was the FIRST member that I couldn´t say goodbye to without crying a little. It was sad to say goodbye to him. Here...I don´t think my WML likes me or Tudela. We come here and we start trying to fix the problems that are here, and it´s making the leaders a little uncomfortable. It´s not like we´re doing anything crazy. Just asking for keys to the chapel, a ward directory, ward missionaries, and when ward council is so that we can attend. Fetch, in some wards the ZLs even go to the priesthood leadership meetings. I like the bishop better than the WML. Which is sad. The other two WMLs that I have had have been my best friends. Literally. This guy is nice, but just...I dunno. He´s willing to help us and is super nice, but I was too spoiled with Julio. Really effective WMLs are SOOO hard to come by. Our correlation meetings with the WML and missionares are utterly pointless, and yet the bishop is emphatic that our only connection to the ward be through the WML. And the ward here is also trying to put a limit on the days we can have baptisms, because they are complaining that we have them too often and waste water. Hahaha. I think it´s a little ridiculous. Obviously baptisms can be done together and we should try to plan them as best we can, but obviously baptizing is more important than water conservation. I do like the ward. It´s not Almería, but I am sure that I will come to love it. I already love most of the members that I have gotten to know. 

So yeah. A few other things that aren´t very pleasant. My entire bottle of tea tree oil fell and broke as I was packing last week. So I am totally out of that. I don´t need it, but in a few months when you send another package, I would love some of that. 

My camera broke. I don´t know how or why. I didn´t drop it or anything. It just won´t turn on or charge. Maybe it´s the battery? Still not sure. 

(he shared a long story about an elder that he cared deeply for who has recently had to go home because of some tragic things that went on.  Preston is extremely heart broken. He loves this elder very much.).    

I have to go. I love all of you. I hope you have a wonderful week. 

Love, Preston

Letter from Jan. 27

Dear loved ones, 

It´s been a crazy week. I always feel like weird stuff happens to me in the misson. For the past 4 days I have been with Bird and Lopez, or the other elders Vosters and Church. Vosters and Church are awesome. I really like them. But I still feel like I don´t belong anywhere. I am like a soccer ball that just gets passed back and forth. It´s actually really frustrating. I just want things to go back to normal. I get my new companion tomorrow. He went home for a month or so because hurt his leg playing soccer (which is why our mission banned soccer a few weeks ago). His name is Elder Cortés. I have met him before. He was a ZL in Malaga when he hurt himself. He only has a transfer and half left. So basically he will come here and then I will leave Almería in three weeks so that he can finish his mission in Almería and teach the area to his last companion. I am excited to work with him. It will be my first time working with someone that can speak spanish since Elder Pardo was my companion. Let´s just say that I am excited ;) This guy is a great missionary. I just hope that being at home for a month hasn´t killed him. I hope that he comes back ready to work his heart out. He is from Chile but lives in Mallorca, Spain. 

So we have been working two areas this week. It was a really sad week in Almería. My comp went home. And then another companionship in our district had a tragedy as well. They had this baptism planned out. This semi active girl´s boyfriend named A. He seemed golden. Cried during tons of lessons, really felt the Spirit, everything. I interviewed him to be baptized, and he understood everything and committed to live it all. I did the interview on Tuesday, and the baptism was supposed to be on Saturday. Saturday morning the elders that are teaching A call me and told me that he isn´t getting baptized. He had broken the law of Chastity the night before. So then I was told about how these elders explained to A that he wouldn´t be able to get baptized, and then he freaked out and collapsed, and wasn´t breathing. So they did CPR and the ambulance came and everything. Next day at church A was there with his girlfriend. Her father is a really strong member and is devastated. They were supposed to meet with the bishop, the father took A into a room and yelled at him during church, and then apparently A begged for forgiveness blah blah blah. After church I didn´t see A or his girlfriend. Then last night the other elders called me and told me that A and his girlfriend left church early and that she moved in with him. Yeah. He is 17 and lives in a pueblo outside of Almería with his mother and brother, and his 15 year old girlfriend now lives with him. Welcome to Spain, people. He is either the biggest liar on earth or just incredibly slow in the brain. I hope it´s the latter. I don´t even know what we are going to do with all of that. A just acts like nothing is wrong. I swear he´s mentally off. But he seemed totally awesome in the interview. I couldn´t have been more specific when I talked about the law of chastity with him. So that was hard for everyone. 

But other than that, there isn´t a whole lot to write!! You´re probably sick of me telling you how fat I am, so I will spare all of you and move on to something else. I really love Elder Bird. He is 6 ft 6, and before him I kind of had a thing against tall people. I guess I just didn´t feel very comfortable around them, being so small myself. But as I was writing Emily, congratualating her on her giant-of-a-fiancé, I realized that tall people have really grown on me (that was sort of punny) over the past little while. So that´s a good thing. 

I am just dying for things to get back to normal. This week has been so crazy. I have just been bouncing back and forth between companionships, and living in two different pisos has caused us to lose time. I haven´t had a solid study session in like five days. I realize that I just don´t feel good when I go a day without really studying. It´s like a spiritual battery charge, and when I don´t get that, I find myself working on basically nothing. Plus I am always exhausted. The members are worried about my health. At church they just kept asking me ¨what´s wrong with you??¨ When I get super tired, these red dots appear right below my eyes.  My eyes always feel awful. It´s the same feeling one gets when he has a headache, and his eyes are really sensitive and it just feels like there is a ton of pressure under my eyes or something. I feel like that all the time, but without the headache part. I think I must need more sleep than most people. I am not sure. 

Really I am a pretty clean person. Sometimes it´s frustrating to have to share cleaning responsibilities with my companions. For example: my companions will sweep the floor and then I will go after them and mop it, and they have no idea what they´re doing. I always have to resweep everything because they missed so much stuff. Quincey can sweep better than most of my companions. I don´t know why I mentioned this, but it just came to mind. 

I learned a ton this week, but it has just been a while since I learned it. So I can´t recall. Oh actually I learned a lot about the Holy Ghost. I am reading the Bible right now as well. I love my studies. 

I think I am really tired right now. 

UM. Yeah sorry. The quality of this email is wretched. I loved reading that Grandpa watched P&P in honor of me :) That made me happy. I also really laughed reading Dad´s email. Hahaha. ¨and Dumb and Dumber blows them both out of the water¨. I don´t know why I thought that was funny. I guess because it´s just so dad. 

THANK YOU clayton for making a list of all those movies. I actually really do trust your opinion in movies, so you be sure and be faithful about writing down all of the movies we´re going to watch together when I return. I miss you so much. 

I miss all of you a ton. But I really really love it here. It´s so hard. And even when I don´t have a companion, and when this entire city should be having much more success than it is, I do love the work. I don´t want to regret anything. The weight of this mantle is sometimes overwhelming for me. But I know that the second it´s removed from me, I will just be crushed. Sometimes I look ahead into the future to the moment in which I am sitting down in front of President Jones and he asks me to take of my chapa, and I just feel scared!! And super super sad. It always brings tears to my eyes. And then I shake it off and work even harder. I will bawl when that moment arrives. I can already tell that, although this mantle is so exhausting, I will not want it to be taken from me. I am running with the baton right now, and in 13 months I will have to pass it off to someone else. I just know that I can´t let myself regret anything. I have to give it my all while I still have time. And I know I could have done better than I have done. But it´s also a learning process, and I keep reminding myself of that. 

We have a fecha for the 16th of February. F. She´s great. Pray for her please!! 

Love you all. 

elder sharp

Letter from Feb. 3

I have had oodles of problems with blogger over the past two weeks.  I haven't been able to log into my own accounts to update.  I finally got my 9 year old to help me today.  Seriously.  But Preston has been doing well.  He expects to be transferred in about a week.  

Dear loved ones, 

Things are going well. It was a difficult week, but I am grateful for it. Elder Cortés is a good guy. He is a very experienced missionary, and is ready to die. But he works hard. He is an amazing teacher and I am learning lots from him. He is from Chile but lives in Mallorca, Spain. My Spanish is improving. I think. I am just at a plateau. I never have time to study the language, but I am totally fluent so there isn´t a huge need. But if I want to speak perfectly by the time I head home, I need to start working harder. F dropped us. I don´t know why. She just says she has some family problem. Which means that I most likely won´t baptize in Almería. Which is hard for me to think about. I don´t know why things were so much easier for me in Jerez. But they were. And I just need to accept reality and make sure it doesn´t happen in my next area. I am for sure leaving in 2 weeks. Kind of sad. I love the ward here. I love the people. But I still don´t like leaving feeling like I have done nothing. I could have worked harder. I learn more, and become more effective, and then look back to the beginning and I just wish I could start my time over here in Almería, knowing what I know now. It would be nice. 

But I can´t. So I am moving on :) I am going to work as hard as I can these last two weeks and make the most of the time I have with Elder Cortés. We have three baptismal dates right now. While I was with Elder B, we found this Bulgarian family whilst knocking doors. And they are actually pretty awesome. They have fechas for this month. We might be able to baptize the teenage son before I leave. We´ll see.

Yes, I wear my retainers almost every night. I have been more diligent in the misson that I ever have before. Probably because I still feel sick about having lost them in the MTC. And paying 200 euros to replace them. No I don´t take vitamins. I will start. I have them still. I usually get 7-8 hours of sleep. I don´t know if my eating schedule is weird or what. I think the summer time will be easier for me when it comes to getting back into shape. It´s easier to work out in the mornings when it´s hot as you wake up. Easier to get out of bed. The problem is that my six months to sexy falls directly in the winter time months. So it´s going to be 12 months to sexy, and I will have to work really hard this summer and then do the best I can this winter to maintain the results I achieved in the summer time. You know?  I don´t drink enough water. That´s for certain. I am predisposed to store fat in my face, aren´t I? Well that´s unlucky. I´ll take it though, if that means I get to be a member of the Will and Debi Sharp family. 

I am glad you had all of those realizations out there. I really understand what you mean. We don´t realize how incredibly blessed we are. I am so thankful for you and for the sacrifices you have made to make our family what it is. I talked to Dad about that, and it was directed towards both of you. I am so thankful for what I have. It´s absolutely perfect for me. God knows what He´s doing. 

I will keep my eyes out for that package. I am sure it will arrive in time. Yeah I have been a district leader for a while off and on. Since my fourth month there in Jerez. I didn´t mention it because I am trying to not care about leadership. 

I have to go. I hope things are going well for all of you :) I love you and miss you dearly. 13 months left tomorrow. Time is going by so quickly. 

love, elder sharp