To Extremadura!!

Hey!!

Well, we had another great week. The biggest news would be that we had another successful road trip to Cáceres this week! The drive is really pretty and we pass tons of castles on the way which is really neat. We got there on Friday morning and worked all day with the Elder Gomes and Elder Blanch. Elder Gomes is from Brazil and has been on his mission about a month now. It is pretty crazy being with someone so 'young' in the mission! haha. On Saturday we had Specialized training with Cáceres and Badajoz (and president and the APs) and then came back here and got back just in time to go to bed!! It is always fun to do splits and to travel, but even better to get home and get back to work as usual.

On Monday we found an awesome new family that we contacted on Dia de Diamante. Two of them have baptismal dates already and we're really excited to be teaching them. One of them went to church a lot in Ecuador years ago and saw her Grandma's baptism and is really happy to be meeting with us. The only problem is that they work ALL the time so it is really hard to meet with them. Here in Spain either you work way too much and don't get paid hardly anything or you are unemployed and can't find work. It is rare to find someone with a normal job. I heard this week that unemployment has hit 25% this week here...the 'crisis', as they call it, is pretty bad. We know the gospel can help us with any problem, though, and that even though living gospel principles doesn't make money magically fall from the sky, it does help us with our everyday problems. I'm so glad I can be a missionary and help others. The Gospel is real and true! I know Jesus Christ is our Savior, that he loves us, and that our Heavenly Father is actively involved in our lives.

I hope you all have a great week!!

Elder Mockler

Another Week from La Mancha

Jopeeé

Hey! Another great week here in Alcázar. Not too much new so this will be a really short email. Last Thursday morning we went and did a few baptismal interviews in Valdepeñas. We had specialized training on Friday in Ciudad Real and as always it was great to see the APs and president and get together as a district for a couple of hours. We had interviews as well which was a good chance to get to know President Deere better. The change is done but it still takes some time for all of us to adjust and get to know President Deere. Aside from specialized training and the interview we had a fairly normal week (hooray!!!) of finding and teaching which was refreshing, haha. This week that is all going to end because we have to go to Cáceres (road trip!!!) on Friday and be in their specialized training on Saturday. Woohoo!

Spain's EFY is this week so we have been talking to all of the youth here and getting them excited for it. It reminded me a lot of my years at EFY...they were so awesome! I'm so glad I went to EFY because it really laid a good foundation for me. I'm grateful for the church and that through an earthly organization God can guide His servants to help others arrive in His presence again one day. I'm so grateful to be a missionary and to be able to meet, help, and love SO many great people! The church is true! The Book of Mormon is as well and brings the Spirit more fully into our lives than any other book. And most importantly, I know Christ is our Savior and that He can heal any of our spiritual wounds.

Love you!!

Elder Mockler

Here is a patriotic picture of Andy and some other missionaries taken on the fourth of July.  It is from the mission blog at http://thespainmalagamission.blogspot.com/

Diamond Day II

Hello! Well, this week's email will be really short. Sorry! We had a great week here and found a lot of new investigators which is always great. We have been blessed a lot the last few week to be finding new people EVERYWHERE! Speaking of finding, we had our Día de Diamante II on Friday and it went GREAT! We really wore ourselves out and basically crawled into the piso at night. We seriously could hardly walk anymore from being out and about running around talking to people all day. We had a lot of fun and even more success so we are really happy with how everything went.

We are teaching a man named Regalado who is really awesome but going through a lot of hard times right now. He is going through some really difficult family problems and is slightly depressive. The other night we went and visited him and watched 'Finding Faith in Christ' which is a really great movie the church made about Christ that shows parts of his life and many of the miracles in the Bible (see below). It was a really great lesson and we felt the Spirit a lot. I know Christ can take away our burdens and make them light. He will carry us through our hardest times if we let him.

Well, that is about it for today. Spain is awesome!! I hope everything is great in the USA as well! Love you!!

 Elder Mockler

You can watch the video Andy talks about here:

Finding Faith In Christ

Helllllloooooooo!!!!

¡Hola!

Well, once again I'm not writing from Alcázar. We're in Ciudad Real right now doing a District P-Day. Luckily, though, we will be back in a few hours this time instead of staying out of our area a few more days! Haha.

So you know, Hermana Deere started a new blog for the mission. The address is http://thespainmalagamission.blogspot.com/  
so go there from now on to see pictures instead of the old one.

Well, last week was definitely AWESOME! Staying in Málaga was a blast and we worked super hard with Elder Thomas and Elder Triana until we had zone conference and headed back home on Friday. Once we got back to our area we ran around trying to do an entire week's work in 2 and a half days...things were a bit crazy but there isn't anything more fun than working your tail off! We had a lot of plans made for Friday and Saturday, but in the end EVERY SINGLE ONE fell through! It was alright though...we kept working and the Lord put a lot of new people in our paths. We were able to find many new investigators this week and in the end we were able to move things around to meet with our current investigators as well. The Lord knows how he wants his work done! We just have to be there and willing to accept his will.

I learned a lot about boldness this week. God isn't someone who does things half way or who is afraid to tell us like it is. That is the kind of missionaries we have to be! No man can enter into the kingdom of God unless he has been baptized my immersion for the remission of sins by the proper authority...and I'm here to help people take that step! I am so thankful for the happiness God gives us when we live his Gospel. The things of the world and our natural desires like laziness may seem appealing in the moment but they are never worth it in the end.

This week on Friday we are having another Dia de Diamante! We will be spending the ENTIRE day contacting and finding new people to teach. I am SO excited!!! Please be praying for us that we can find those who are ready to accept the Everlasting Gospel of Jesus Christ. They need all of us to help them find the truth!

I Love you SO much!!!

Elder Mockler

This is a photo taken from the mission blog at http://thespainmalagamission.blogspot.com

¡Viva España!.....¡¡¡¡¡God Bless America!!!!!

Holaaaa...buenaaaa

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY! I may not be in America but I will not forget to celebrate the independence of our great nation this week! America isn't the only country pulsing with national pride this week, though. Spain won the Eurocopa! Everyone was going insane on Sunday night when Spain beat Italy in the final. It is the first time a team has ever won 3 titles in a row (eurocup, world cup, eurocup), so it was pretty historic. The only time you see Spanish flags out is for Fútbol....and there sure were a lot of Spanish flags out last weekend!

So right now I'm writing from Málaga. Yesterday we had a Zone Leader Council in Fuengirola with President Deere, our new mission President. It was so awesome!! He is great and we are going to have lots of success with him, just like we did with President Clegg. We had a really, really amazing concilio and now we're all excited to go WORK! Unfortunately, serving in La Mancha sometimes has unique challenges. We have Zone Conference on Thursday here in Málaga, and to not go all the way back just to turn around and get back on the train, we are staying here in Málaga for a few days. Sooo we won't be back in Alcázar until Friday. Ah! That is alright, though, we'll have a great time here in Málaga and get back to working extra hard in our area in a few days.

We travel A LOT! Last week we went on Splits with Cáceres, and area in Extremadura. We drove the car there...4 hours!! It was fun to have a little ¨road trip¨ haha. It was cool to get to see part of Spain I had never seen before. And all along the way there were TONS of castles up on the hills above little pueblos. We had great splits there and headed back home the next day. We also got to go through Toledo (which is part of the Madrid mission) to get there because there isn't really any other (reasonable) way to get from our area to Cácares. So that was neat.

I love the Book of Mormon. I have been studying it a lot lately and seeing the blessing it is in my life. The Gospel is real. Saying it isn't is terribly ignorant. Those who follow God's commandments and listen to his voice can come to know Him. There are miracles happening in Spain everyday and I know that those same miracles are happening all over the world as the Gosepl of Jesus Christ continues to touch the lives of God's children. I'm so grateful He has shown me the path to eternal life and that through the mercy, merits, and grace of his Son we can achieve the high standard our Father expects of us. We are worth so much more than we understand.

I love you!!!
Elder Mockler

Here is a great photo from the mission blog (http://spainmalagamission.blogspot.com/) showing all of the zone leaders with President Clegg.  Andy is third from the left.