January 23, 2012

Hola,

Elder Seely is leaving!  I'm really sad.  He is an incredible missionary and I have really enjoyed the time that we have served together in Puertollano.  This has been one of the fastest transfers of my mission.  Time is flying!!!!  Get this, he is going to Huelva!  I have already started telling him the people he needs to meet and say hi to for me.  I am so grateful for the things we have learned and experienced together.  My new companion is Elder Barney, from Boise, Idaho.  I'm pretty sure he's from Boise.  Either way, we will tell people that he's from Idaho and I'm from Iowa - they will have a fun time getting that straightened out.  He was in the Sevilla Zone with me before I went to Fuengirola.  He's a great missionary.  I'm pretty sure he has passed the year mark in the mission, but not by too much.  He comes on Wednesday - that's the travel day for transfers.  Elder Ferreira is finishing his mission!  He goes home on Thursday.  I'm gonna miss him a lot.


Puertollano isn't a huge city, as far as square miles, but there are 50,000 people, which gives us a chance to meet a lot of different people.  No matter who they are, or where they're from, they are children of God.  We are all children of God and we need His gospel.  It is the plan that He has created for our happiness.  No other way will give us the same blessings and the same fulfillment.  He wants to give us the highest of all blessings, and the only way to do that is through the Atonement of Christ and obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel.  Like Elder Fagersten in Arizona said last week, if our minds are firm in the faith of Christ, we will enjoy all of those blessings.


The gospel is beautiful.  It is eternal.  It is true.  It was restored in its fullness to the prophet, Joseph Smith.  Every authority, doctrine, ordinance, and power necessary for us to receive life and salvation was once again given to man through this prophet, seer, and revelator.  The Book of Mormon is evidence of this.  If the Book of Mormon is indeed the word of God, which I know to be the case, then Jesus is the Christ, the Savior and Redeemer of the world, Joseph Smith was His prophet, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Lord's kingdom once again established on the earth preparatory to the second coming of the Messiah.


Love,
Elder Fagersten in Spain