February 6, 2012

Hola a todos,

The experiences of this week taught me a lot.  Although many things stay the same, every single day brought something different.  My whole mission has passed that way - every day a new challenge, every day a new opportunity.  I am grateful for the atonement of Jesus Christ, which helps me to change and learn and grow from those experiences.  In the morning, it is the custom of the majority of the people here in Spain to go and buy food for the day.  So, there are many people out in the streets, but the majority tell us, "Tengo prisa," which means, "I'm in a hurry."  The challenge and the opportunity that we have is to stay positive despite the rejection and continue to exercise faith and look for that person who will take a moment to listen to us and invite us to visit with them later.  The temptation comes to get frustrated or think that we're not doing something right, but the Spirit has reminded me more than once that the Only Perfect Missionary that ever lived on this earth was also ignored and rejected.  No one loved and served more perfectly than He did, and nobody has ever been treated worse than He was.  But nothing could break His faith in his Father's plan, and He submitted His will to the Father's in all things, in a perfect and infinite expression of love for His Father and for us.  His love and His atonement has the power to carry us above and beyond anything we could ever hope to do or become by ourselves.


This weekend we enjoyed a special broadcast from Salt Lake City for our District Conference.  Elder W. Craig Zwick of the Seventy spoke, then Sister Elaine S. Dalton, then Elder D. Todd Christofferson and President Dieter F. Uchtdorf.  Each of them gave messages of hope and encouragement, inviting us to recommit ourselves to the Lord and to His restored gospel.  I am so grateful for my Savior and for each of you.  I am grateful for the great and eternal truths that have been restored to the earth by the Lord through a prophet.  Joseph Smith was the instrument in the hands of God to bring about that restoration, and the Lord has provided evidence of that, a way that we can know for ourselves if this message is true or not.  That evidence is the Book of Mormon.  In it we learn more about the saving and redeeming mission of the Lord Jesus Christ and we read the promise that if we ask God, in faith, He will manifest the truth of it unto us by the power of the Holy Ghost (Moroni 10:3-5).


He lives and loves us.


Love,
Elder Fagersten in Spain