Have we not reason to rejoice?

A YEAR OF MIRACLES
How great reason have we to rejoice; for could we have supposed when we started [this year] that God would have granted unto us such great blessings?
2 And now, I ask, what great blessings has he bestowed upon us? Can ye tell?
3 Behold, I answer for you; for our brethren…were in darkness, yea, even in the darkest abyss, but behold, how many of them are brought to behold the marvelous light of God! And this is the blessing which hath been bestowed upon us, that we have been made instruments in the hands of God to bring about this great work.
4 Behold, [451] of them do rejoice, and have been brought into the fold of God.
5 Behold, the field was ripe, and blessed are ye, for ye did thrust in the sickle, and did reap with your might, yea, all the day long did ye labor; and behold the number of your sheaves! And they shall be gathered into the garners, that they are not wasted.

11 I do not boast in my own strength, nor in my own wisdom; but behold, my joy is full, yea, my heart is brim with joy, and I will rejoice in my God.
12 Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever.
13 Behold, how many… of our brethren has he loosed from the pains of hell; and they are brought to sing redeeming love, and this because of the power of his word which is in us, therefore have we not great reason to rejoice?
14 Yea, we have reason to praise him forever, for he is the Most High God, and has loosed our brethren from the chains of hell.

23 Now do ye remember, my brethren, that we said unto our brethren [back home], we go up to the land of [Spain], to preach unto our brethren… and they laughed us to scorn?
24 For they said unto us: Do ye suppose that ye can bring the [people of Spain] to the knowledge of the truth? Do ye suppose that ye can convince the [people of Spain] of the incorrectness of the traditions of their fathers, as stiffnecked a people as they are…? Now my brethren, ye remember that this was their language.
26 But behold, my beloved brethren, we came into the [mission field] …with the intent that perhaps we might save some few of their souls.
27 Now when our hearts were depressed, and we were about to turn back, behold, the Lord comforted us, and said: Go amongst thy brethren… and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give unto you success.
28 And now behold, we have come, and been forth amongst them; and we have … traveled from house to house, relying upon the mercies of the world—not upon the mercies of the world alone but upon the mercies of God.
29 And we have entered into their houses and taught them, and we have taught them in their streets; yea, and we have taught them upon their hills...
30 …and all this, that perhaps we might be the means of saving some soul; and we supposed that our joy would be full if perhaps we could be the means of saving some.
31 Now behold, we can look forth and see the fruits of our labors; and are they few? I say unto you, Nay, they are many; yea, and we can witness of their sincerity, because of their love towards their brethren and also towards us.

35 Now have we not reason to rejoice?
(Alma 26)

When we began the year, we set a goal to help bring 450 souls into the Kingdom during 2011. During the early months of the year, it seemed virtually impossible, but as we approached the last few months we all felt like the Lord had prepared these people. During the last 50 days, one companionship of missionaries fasted each day and all missionaries prayed daily that the Lord would lead us to these prepared people.

By the end of the last Sunday of the year (Christmas Day), we had seen 448 people baptized and confirmed during the year! And then, as if to remind us whose work this is, a few more miracles took place this week. A young girl in a small branch, whose mother is an active member but whose father had never allowed his daughter to be baptized, had a sudden change of heart and agreed to let his daughter be baptized on Wednesday night if she could be confirmed that same night (as he refused to attend Church on Sunday when the confirmation would normally take place). On Thursday morning, the membership secretary, who had been working on a missing membership record of a convert from early in the year, received the baptism record for this convert, bringing the total to 450. And on Thursday night, another baptism and confirmation, due to special circumstances, took place in Palma. It has been a year of miracles!

Elders Allphin and Bennington with Juan and Nancy.
This great couple, 2 of 451 converts this year, were baptized in November.
Their 12-year old is preparing to be baptized on January 7th.

A White Christmas in Barrio 2

Saturday there were four wonderful baptisms in Barcelona Barrio 2. Each of our three companionships working in the ward (the office Elders and the Ayudantes) had a baptism. The ward had set a goal early in the year to help 30 people enter the waters the baptism during the year; with these four new converts they exceeded their goal by 1!

Cindy, Ligia, Sebastian, and Carmen

Every convert is a miracle, and each of these four wonderful new converts has their own miracle story. The Elders found Cindy´s name in the Area Book. She is the niece of one our Filipino members and was taught about 4 years ago but her parents did not want her to be baptized. The Elders got back in touch with her and her family (her parents are still in the Philippines). She wanted to get baptized, talked to her parents, and they agreed to give her permission.

Ligia was found by the missionaries several months ago. They taught her and her friend, and her friend was baptized within a few weeks, but Ligia was out of town and then had a difficult work schedule, and only in the past few weeks were the missionaries able to again begin meeting with her.

Sebastian showed up at Church a few weeks ago with his wife who is an active member. They live in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, but spend a month each year in Barcelona visiting family and friends here. Sebastian had never been baptized because of a smoking habit, although he attends regularly with his wife in Bolivia. The Elders Quorum President here immediately befriended him on the first Sunday, heard his story, introduced him to the missionaries and asked them to help him prepare for baptism. The EQP and the missionaries gave him a blessing to help him overcome his addiction, and he asked if he could be baptized by the EQP before returning to Bolivia. He kept all of his commitments, was baptized on Saturday, confirmed on Christmas, and returns to Santa Cruz today where he will attend Church on New Year´s Day as a new member!

Carmen is a young university student from Honduras who recently came to Barcelona. In one of her first classes the instructor asked each student to introduce themselves, and when Carmen found another student from Honduras, Diosana, she immediately felt connected to her. Diosana is one of our great Young Single Adults, and invited her new friend, Carmen, to Church on Sunday. Carmen was baptized Christmas Eve and confirmed on Christmas. Her older sister, just arrived from Honduras, came to Sacrament meeting on Sunday to see her confirmed, so this story is not yet over.

We love miracles!

Christmas Conferences

Following the mission tour with Elder Causse, we made the rounds one more time to have Christmas lunch with all of the missionaries. We had our traditional pizza lunch, enhanced by Hna. Hinckley´s homemade chocolate chip cookies. Each missionary also received a small gift - a lighthouse ornament with "El Faro 2011" written on it. Most of the ornaments we purchased at the lighthouse in Tossa de Mar earlier this year.

The missionaries also had a little gift exchange - "something white" - and we concluded our get-together with a slide show of the year, the new Church videos on the birth of Christ, and testimonies. It was a wonderful time to be together and feel the spirit of Christmas!

We begin in the Lleida Zone, a short day-trip from Barcelona:

Next was a flight to Bilbao to meet with the wonderful missionaries of the Vitoria Zone:

And from Bilbao´s rainy skies, we flew to Palma where the weather was markedly better:

From Palma we flew to Valencia:

And from Valencia we took the train back to Barcelona, where we met with the combined Barcelona and Hospitalet Zones for our last conference:

Bon Nadal per a tots!

Mission Tour

Elder Gerald Causse toured the mission from December 6 to 9. We met him in Bilbao the evening of the 6th and held a wonderful conference there with the Vitoria Zone on 7 December. We then flew to Valencia for a conference on the 8th, then took the train to Barcelona where we met with all the other missionaries (4 zones combined) on the 9th.

It was a wonderful three days of inspired instruction. Elder Causse concluded each conference with a special Christmas present - he played a piano solo for the closing song.

One of the aspects of the conferences was a clear message that we are entering a "second harvest" in Spain. The first great harvest occured in the 1970s, when missionary work was very productive and when most of the current leaders of the Church were baptized. We are seeing the beginning of this second harvest already - this year we have already seen more convert baptisms than we have seen in any year for the past two decades, and with fewer missionaries than in any year except 2010. Elder Causse encouraged us to think of Spain as part of Latin America rather than part of Europe! This is an exciting time to be a missionary in Spain!

Navidad Nuestra

It's that time of year again. Fum, fum, fum!

Report from Palma

At the beginning of November, one of our companionships on the island of Mallorca were setting their goals for the month and felt strongly that there was a family being prepared in their area for baptism during the month. They set a goal to find and baptize that family. Then they made plans and went to work. They discussed their feelings and goals with the branch mission leader and branch missionaries and invited them to pray for this family. They asked about families that branch members knew. 

"We went to work, and we talked to a lot of people. We met families from all over the world, from Spain, from Argentine, for Colombia, from Ecuador, and from a handful of other countries. But the family that the Lord had prepared to receive the fullness of His gospel came from a different country, and it came in a way that was most unexpected."

Three weeks ago we held the semi-annual district conference of the Baleares District in Palma. Since the chapel is small, the Sunday session of district conference is held in a rented auditorium. That Sunday morning a young man and his father were on their way to church and, forgetting that it was district conference, went to the chapel as usual, only to find it locked. But standing outside the chapel was a family of 5. The young man talked to them and discovered that they had come to attend church, so he invited them to walk with him to the district conference. They attended the conference session and met the missionaries following the meeting. The Elders set up an appointment to meet with them on the following day. At that first lesson, the missionaries invited each member of the family to prepare to be baptized on November 26th, and each of them accepted the invitation. They began reading the Book of Mormon, they fasted and prayed together as a family. They attended Church each Sunday. And last Saturday they were baptized.

"We had a lot of white clothes to iron..."

A few notes...

While we were in Valencia for stake conference a couple of weeks ago, we took the opportunity to drive up to Albacete to see the new piso where the elders live. It is a great piso located in a good building in the center of town. Small, clean, and just right for missionaries. We are excited about re-starting the work in this branch after several years!

Home of the Albacete elders

 Late at night from our hotel room window in Valencia there was plenty of action on the streets below. The intersection was crowded with itinerant vendors. Anybody looking for cheap knock-offs?

Street vendors in Valencia

For those more interested in eating than buying a 10 euro pair of "Ray-Ban" sunglasses, there are plenty of tables available on the sidewalk.

Sidewalk cafes in Valencia

Last weekend took us to Zaragoza. We drove up on Saturday morning and met Hna. Clarissa Dalton, who arrived on the train from Madrid just a couple of hours before we arrived! She has been waiting for a visa in the Provo MTC and the Temple Square Mission for the past few weeks, and has now finally arrived! Since we had to be in Zaragoza for branch conferences on Saturday, and she was going to be assigned to Zaragoza and leave Madrid on Saturday, we skipped the usual visit to Barcelona and put her right to work!

Hna. Dalton with the Hinckley's in Zaragoza

Hna. Dalton and her trainer, Hna. Fuentes

 Following the branch conferences in Zaragoza, we drove back to Barcelona and prepared for a full day of training with the recently arrived missionaries (those arriving during the past four weeks) and their trainers. Since many of these new missionaries came from Spain, they received only 3-weeks training and did not attend the Provo MTC, so we spent an extra day with them helping them get a jump-start! They are are remarkable group of missionaries. We are very proud of them and very glad to have them in the mission!

New missionaries and their trainers at leadership training