Almost Christmas!

¡Hola!

It is almost Christmas! Can you believe it?! I sure can't. We're super excited. We get some free time on Christmas Eve and all of Christmas day free, so that'll be a nice break. Everything is on track for our baptism on Sunday except that they installed a kitchen where we would usually fill the font....and routed the pipes to the sink. So we'll see what happens with all of that. We'll sit in the room for 10 hours filling the font if we have to, though...no sink is getting in the way of the Lord's work!

More food adventures! On Tuesday we had a cooking party to send Elder Taylor off to Sevilla. We made home-made pancakes in the morning and then Vegetable soup, chicken tacos and salsa for lunch. It left the nicely-cleaned kitchen a wreck, but it was worth it!! On Saturday morning we went to visit one of our investigators, Carlos, and he had been up since 7am cooking us home-made chicken empanadas. They were delicious. Both times we have seen him he has made us incredible columbian food. He is an awesome investigator and the food is like the icing on the cake. We really like seeing him :)

We watched the Christmas Devotional last night and it was awesome! We had 4 investigators there which made it even better. We couldn't get the video to work very well and it was skipping the whole time, but such is the life in Spain. The work is going really well here in Huércal. We now have 7 investigators with baptismal dates and we are really excited to keep setting more. Getting the day set is the easy part, though, so hopefully we can keep helping them progress towards that goal. 

The new church Christmas videos are AWESOME! We watched them in a family home evening on Wednesday and they blew us away. Then again we're missionaries and anything the church does gets us all worked up. I really loved them though and think they are very well done. As far as giving a little missionary thought in my letter, I would just tell you to go and watch the videos that are available. 

Merry Christmas! Love you so much!!

Elder Mockler

P.S. A few pictures! Santa Clause with some Spanish children, making cookies, and Elder Marchello with the oven!

Another transfer come and gone...

¡Hola!

I'm writing this week from Lorca, a town a little North of Huércal. It is in the Murcia province, which is cool because we leave Andalucia to come here. Most of the mission is within Andalucia. We have been here a few times this week to do splits, have a zone conference, and now to spend P-Day with the Elders here. There was a huge earthquake here in May or June and there is still a lot of damage to a lot of the buildings. The entry way to their piso is still just absolutely destroyed, as well as their capilla. Spanish buildings are definitely not built for earthquakes.

We finished another transfer this week. I can hardly believe that Elder Marchello got here 6 weeks ago. Thankfully there are no changes for us this time around, so I'll be here until at least the end of January! I'll be serving as our new district leader, so that will be an interesting new responsibility. And the weather report from Huércal-Overa? REALLY cold! At night we get our room pretty toasty with our space heater, but it is definitely getting harder and harder to get out of bed and open that door in the morning. Definitely makes me grateful for things like carpet and central heating and insulation!

We had quite the Christmas-ey week this week. On Friday we had a ward activity and all had dinner together and listened to a few short Christmas messages. Santa Claus made an appearance too....and guess who had the privilege of being Papa Noel? Yep, that's right, I did! Haha it was great fun. I'm not really sure how the missionaries became the first candidates for it, but we did. We also embarked on the great Spanish cookie baking quest again this week and made real Christmas cookies. They turned out quite well, actually, and blew everyone in the branch away. We had a lot of our investigators come as well and they enjoyed it a lot. Overall it was a great success and tons of fun!

Well, sorry this has been kind of short this week.I know that God knows all things and has a perfect plan for every one of us. I hope we can all have faith in him and follow those things that he asks us to do. I know the church is true and that Christ is at its head.

Have a great week! I love you!!!

Elder Mockler

300!!!!

¡Buenos Días!

Our mission hit our goal of 300 baptisms this week! That means the rest of the year we just get to see how far past it we can get! Of course the numbers aren't what is important in missionary work - it is the people - but it is still nice to have exceeded our goal and to be able to see how much the church has grown in Spain in just 1 year. The stone has been cut out of the mountain and continues growing to fill the whole Earth. 

Well, I had a weird realization today that describes pretty well how time flies. As of now I have been in Huércal-Overa as long as I was in Algeciras. The time just keeps getting faster and faster - Elder Marchello and I have been together 6 weeks now. I cannot believe it! I'm hoping to stay here a lot longer still, so no worries about me moving!

Apparently writing that paragraph about food a few weeks ago was all I needed to start having some interesting food experiences again. On Friday we had the choice privilege of eating pig foot. There isn't much preparation involved in making it...just imagine having a pig's foot sticking out of a bowl of soup and you've got what we had. I can't say it was very enjoyable, but at least I can say I've tried it. On Saturday we ate peanut soup which was extremely delicious. I was a little skeptical at first, but it was honestly the best thing I've eaten for a while around here.

Good news about the work here in Huércal...we set 4 baptismal fechas this week!! We met a Romanian family and they are getting baptized on the 7th of January. Melissa is going to get baptized on Christmas Day!! We are really excited for that. Since we only have Sacrament meeting on Christmas we are going to do the baptismal service just after. It will be very special and we are excited that we have finally been able to work out a good date. Looks like we'll have a White Christmas!

I would just like to share a quick thought. We have been sharing this passage with a lot of people this week:

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, I give unto you to be the light of this people. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid...Therefore let your light so shine before this people, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven."

The Savior said this to his Nephite disciples during his ministry to them as well as to his disciples in Jerusalem during the Sermon on the Mount. That light that he speaks of is a real, literal, visible light. The Spirit fills us with light and knowledge that shines forth out of us when we are faithful. This is one of the greatest blessings we can have in this life. I'm thankful to have it in my life and even more thankful to help others find it. We cannot hide what we know nor deny it. There is nothing more desirable or fulfilling than this light although other things sometimes seem enticing. I hope we can all strive to be filled with the Light of Christ and the Spirit.

I love you all so much!!! Have a great week!

Elder Mockler