Llamado a Servir en España: Service is a magic trick

Querido familia y amigos!

This week was absolutely incredible! I learned so much about service and mostly about charity. It was kind of the underlying theme of the whole week and all of my experiences. But the mission has LICE!!!! Oh no - so many missionaries are getting it - yikes!!!

On Tuesday we went to a cita with one of our investigators Brisa, she is 13 and came to church this past sunday with us and absolutely LOVED it!!! Her mom said she has never been happier or had the biggest smile on her face when she got home! I am so excited for her. Her baptism is scheduled for this coming weekend, but we will see if she is ready by then. Anyways, we had a cita with her. We went into her building and knocked on the door. Then coming down the stairs next to us was a cute lady with headphones in and looked like she was headed out for a run. We smiled at her and said, "hola, buenas" just like we do to everyone else we see. She immediately stopped, took out her headphones and said in spanish, "where are you from? I love your smiles and I need some friends here...can you speak spanish? Of course we told her. We told her that we have clases de ingles every Wednesday and she said she wanted to come. We said a prayer with her, got her number, name and address and that was all in about 30 seconds because then Brisa opened the door. We said a prayer with all of them right then and there in the hallway and then Melany (that´s her name) said, "wow that was beautiful! I can´t wait to see you tomorrow!" MELANY IS SERIOUSLY A MIRACLE! That doesn´t just happen... people don´t usually just come up practically with a sign on them saying, "I would like to be baptized"! But with Melany that´s pretty much what happened! She came to clases de ingles the next day, but her english is practically perfect (in every way:) And so we took her into a different room and she said, "I just want to talk to you! You are both so nice! I will tell you all about me and my story and my family and then I want to hear why both of you are here on missions, why you decided to come here, I want to hear about your families and see pictures, I want to know more about your church and how you came to know it is true". Ok, WOW she is just incredible! We sat in the church talking for about an hour about all of that and at the end of the lesson about the Book of Mormon, we challenged her to read it and she said, "Of course I will read it! I want to know for myself it is true!" We bore our testimonies and at the end she said, "Well, you got me! I´m sold. I think I want to be a member of your church now!" WHAT?!?! Then she said, "So when is the next time I can see you. Could we set up another time to visit?" This lesson threw me for a loop... I couldn´t figure out if she was the missionary or if we were. Hermana Larsen and I both kept looking at each other with the biggest smiles on our faces and every 5 minutes Melany would go, "You know, I have been in spain for about 2 weeks now. Before this I was in Boston Massachusetts and nobody here will smile at me and people aren´t very nice to me. I just love being with you both because you are so happy!" We told her to come to church on sunday and she could meet SO many happy people who will want to be her friend. She said, "Ok, great! I will be there at 8:45am" And guess what?! She was there and stayed for all three hours!!! And then she heard the announcement about stake conference next week and said, "Ok, so next week we will come at 10 and not 9 right? And this is for a conference?" She is seriously just incredible! It made me so happy though to remember that the Gospel is full of so much service. Melany is someone who has felt very alone for a long time in her life and when she came to church and everyone was so nice and then to a members house to eat medio dia with us afterwards she looked at us and said, "I just feel like I am part of a family now and you all make me want to be happy". The Gospel is honestly full of joy and peace and love and it is such a wonderful service that brings all people closer to christ! I love it so so so much!!! Melany is incredible and I can´t wait to keep teaching her!

We had a lesson for medio dia with a member and her mom and her mom told us she has a little bit of depression and it is really sad. We tried to help her and comfort her for about an hour with scriptures and conference talks and advice. But everytime we brought up something new there was always another problem to be mentioned. Her life is definitely really hard, but something Hermana Larsen and I learned from it was that when you feel like you have a lot of problems or hard things in your life just go out and serve someone!!!! It will make everything so much better. I truly believe that missionaries are the happiest people on planet earth because we are constantly trying to serve other people. And the ones who aren´t happy are too focued on themselves. I challenge you all that if you are having a hard time right now (even if you aren´t) find a way to serve someone every single day and don´t focus on yourself. Constantly strive to turn outwards!

Something else I learned was this week in my interview with President Dayton. He and Hermana Dayton are so incredible! They are both working so hard and I love them so much! He challenged the whole mission to start reading the New Testament so that we can start to learn the stories of Christ and know them just as well as we know the Book of Mormon. I am so excited and I feel like it will really help our investigators! Something else he talked about though was charity. I loved the scripture he used in 1 Cor. 13:1-3.

1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not
charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all
mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I
could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.

3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give
my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest
of these is charity.

We cannot just serve people. If we are feeling sad or lonely or upset or anything else, we can´t just think that going out and serving someone will make everything better. Yes, service is a magic trick, but we have to do it with the right intentions and with TRUE charity in our hearts... That is when we will really come to love others as the Savior did and find joy in every moment of the day! I found this to be true as we helped our sweet friend Jen this week. She has 3 autistic children all under the age of 10 and she doesn´t have a husband. We saw her in the street one day and she told us that they were emergency moving because they didn´t have enough money. So we went over to her house on Friday and helped her clean and pack and we talked to her. Her life is so so so hard. But the incredible thing is that through it all, this cute lady from the Phillipines doesn´t cease to see the little joys and miracles in her life. She said, "You know. This is the hardest thing that has ever happened to me. But I feel so blessed. I know God will make everything work out. And no matter what happens I have my three little angels, my three miracles and that is really all I need to be happy". She is honestly the STRONGEST woman I have ever met. (we texted her a quote from Elder Holland this week and she texted back and goes, "Please send Elder Holland My thanks" hahaha. So if Any of you get a chance this week to see Elder Holland tell him you blessed an investigators life in Spain:) Hermana Larsen and I held her in our arms that night and rocked her back and forth as she just cried and cried because she was so so scared for the future. We shared scriptures and mormon messages with her and by the time we left she was smiling and practically bearing testimony to us. I know that this gospel changes lives. Even though Jen can´t join the church right now, I know the gospel has touched and changed her life. After we left her house Hermana Larsen and I made a goal to never complain again.... we don´t have to. If Jen can do it then we can do it!

I loved this quote from Sister Reeves talk, "Understandably, many have expressed that our Father’s promised blessings are just “way too far away,” particularly when our lives are

overflowing with challenges. But Amulek taught that “this life is the
time … to prepare to meet God.” It is not the time to receive all of
our blessings. President Packer explained, “‘And they all lived
happily ever after’ is never written into the second act. That line
belongs in the third act, when the mysteries are solved and everything
is put right.” However, a vision of our Father’s incredible promised
blessings must be the central focus before our eyes every day--as well
as an awareness “of the multitude of his tender mercies” that we
experience on a daily basis. I do not know why we have the many trials that we have, but
it is my personal feeling that the reward is so great, so eternal and
everlasting, so joyful and beyond our understanding that in that day
of reward, we may feel to say to our merciful, loving Father, “Was
that all that was required?” I believe that if we could daily remember
and recognize the depth of that love our Heavenly Father and our
Savior have for us, we would be willing to do anything to be back in
Their presence again, surrounded by Their love eternally. What will it
matter, dear sisters, what we suffered here if, in the end, those
trials are the very things which qualify us for eternal life and
exaltation in the kingdom of God with our Father and Savior?"

I know that this is true. As we choose to make the gospel the center of our lives and serve other people with true charity in our hearts then we will find true happiness everyday! I am so grateful for the gospel in my life. I know it is true and know that our Savior Jesus Christ is our true source of happiness and peace in this life and forever! En el nombre de Jesucristo, Amén.

Love you all! Have a great week!

Love, ´

Hermana Eyring