Transfers, Chinese Food, and Miracles

Hello!

So we've had a pretty exciting week. It has been jam packed (they all are) and really fun. I found out that I will be finishing my mission here in the office for sure, so that was pretty big news. Definitely didn't expect it but I'm really excited. Lots is going on in the next few weeks and I'm excited to help out with it. With transfers here again we're pretty swamped in the office. And I'll be starting my last transfer on Monday. I can't believe it.

On Monday I answered the phone and it was a man calling the office trying to get in touch with the missionaries. He said that a year ago a missionary contacted him in the street and gave him their number, but he was in a big hurry and lost their card before he could call them. He said he had thought a lot about the church in the past year but never enough to actually try to get back in contact with us until this week when he spent all of Monday searching for some way to call the mission office. He finally found it by chatting with someone on mormon.org. By the time we visited him on Wednesday he had already started reading the Book of Mormon online and had basically learned the first lesson from what he had read. He has a baptismal date for April 13th. We're excited for him.

Speaking of baptismal dates, Elie, a Brazilian investigator we have had for a while (I don't know if I have written about her before...) has accepted a baptismal date for March 30th! She has known the missionaries for a long time now but has never been to church or really put forth much on her part. A few weeks ago she had a heart attack and since then, everything has changed. She was at church on Sunday and we had a great lesson with her (and great Brazilian lunch!) this week. She is praying a lot to know if the 30th is when she should be baptized. We hope she recognizes her answer.

Right here by the office there is a Chinese restaurant that we go to sometimes. There is a really nice guy who works there and speaks English so we hit it off really well with him and invited him to English class. He told us his name is Elias...but mostly because his Chinese name is too hard to say, so he picked that one for Spanish, haha. He came for English class and loved it (and taught us some Chinese as well...nice!). Afterward we gave him a Book of Mormon in English and Chinese and he was really excited to read it. He is a really good guy...about 26 and has lived here in Spain for about 10 years, so he speaks perfect Spanish and really good English. Hopefully he will read and be able to come to church soon.

There is so much to write about! Yesterday we took a trip out to Ronda to contact a reference that we got from a mission in Uruguay. It is a lady named Natalia - her parents were baptized not too long ago and want her to meet with us. She is awesome...but it is a bit hard since she lives 2 hours or so away from Fuengirola. Her husband works in Marbella, so we're going to see if they can figure out a way to come to church on Sundays.

Oh, and have I ever mentioned that Spain is the most beautiful place ever? The drive to Ronda is incredible!!!

Anyway, I gotta get back to work on travel plans and other things. I love you all so much! The church is true! The Book of Mormon is full of peace, joy, and knowledge that we can obtain whenever we're willing to read it and do what God instructs us to do. I'm so grateful to be a missionary!!

Love,
Elder Mockler

Spanish Notaries and Other Adventures...

¡Buenos días!

It has been RAINY here this week! And we've heard next week will be the same. I guess it has to rain at least a few times a year around here. Elder Berrett and I need to learn to carry umbrellas - the other day we walked around with a new missionary to do some residency things and got soaked to the bone. Oops!

This week I got to add a few interesting experiences to my "only in the office" list. The first was that we had to bring the first big group of visa waiters back so they could sign a Power of Attorney with a notary and pick up their residency cards. Here in Spain, a notary isn't just the intern at your local Wells Fargo. To give you an idea, just 1 power of attorney like the ones we did costs between 65 and 80€. All just for a fancy signature! So I got to act important again to get all that done well. The mission van also had a small accident so we had to get creative to fit everyone into our other mission vehicles. But, everything went well. Another residency triumph! We'll do it again this week with an even bigger group.

We had Zone Leader concilio on Monday and Tuesday as well. President Deere spoke about goals and vision as well as obedience. He taught us about how to set a vision of where we want to get to, setting goals to help us along the way, and making plans to meet those goals. It was an incredible learning experience. Yesterday we talked about it again in out zone training meeting in Málaga. The mission is incredible!!!

Elder Berrett and I have been working a lot with a less active man named Alberto. He is doing really well and has started coming back to church. We have had some really spiritual lessons with him lately  - in particular one about the Atonement and another one about the commandments. It has been great to see, more than anything, how much he has changed. He is still pretty quiet, still lives in the same house with about 7 clocks on the wall (none of them are set to the right time), still has to take care of his sick mother everyday, and still has the same family problems. But when we see him now, I can see a new light in his eyes and a happiness about him that wasn't there before. The boredom and stagnation that he felt before has slowly given way under the light of the Gospel in his life. I'm so thankful for that light in my life and how it leads me, guides me, and lifts me up.

I love you!!!

Elder Mockler

Life in the office is not normal.

Bonjour!

Well, another week come and gone. I can't believe how fast it has gone by!

It is strawberry season here in Spain. Most of the fruit here is absolutely incredible...and the strawberries are no exception. The other day a member from the English branch brought 2 big boxes of strawberries to the office and they're amazing. Just thought everyone should know how jealous they should be of me.

We also went to the Málaga castle today which was awesome. Here is a picture of the view of Málaga from on top:

On Thursday morning we got to do another good ol' 3am airport run to take the Stevens, the Senior office couple, home. It was super weird to see them go. But, that's the way it goes! On the way out of the airport a real storm brewed up and some crazy lightning started. By the time we pulled out it had started to rain and before we got to the freeway we pulled over because it was raining too hard to keep driving. Then it started hailing....but not just your normal run-of-the-mill 2 minute hailstorm....it kept going for what seemed like ages. By the time it stopped hailing and raining and we started going, it looked like it had snowed! Spanish engineering isn't always the best, and it really showed because for about half our drive home we were driving through at least 6 inches of standing water...sometimes with little hail icebergs floating in it. It was a good thing we were in the van! Anyway, it was a smashing good time, as the British would say, and we got home slowly but safely.

But life isn't all just eating strawberries and driving around in the middle of the night! This week we have had tons of time to teach, which was been awesome. And on Sunday, the APs had a baptism! A great Cuban man named Ciro. I had the opportunity to do his baptismal interview. He is an amazing person...he was held in prison for many years in Cuba for his political ideas before being sent here to Spain through a program for Cuban political prisoners. He has found great joy in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and drives more than a half an hour every Sunday to get to church in Fuengirola. After the baptismal interview, he asked if I would baptize him, and I got to do that on Sunday. It was a really special service.

The church is growing in Spain!! The English branch was reorganized on Sunday and the Spanish ward barely fits in the chapel anymore. The stake president spoke after the reorganization and said that they have plans to split the current Granada Stake in order to make a Málaga stake and that they plan to create 2 new wards in Málaga in the next year or so. So awesome! It is an amazing time to be a part of the Lord's work as he gathers those who will listen to his voice and come unto Him so that he may heal them.

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

Andy

The following two photos are from the Spain Malaga Mission blog at:  http://thespainmalagamission.blogspot.com/

Andy at Ciro's baptism

Andy and a group of missionaries at the Stevens' piso

Note from Andy's Mom:  Andy and I have started a sparring match of sorts.  I have started attaching beautiful pictures of Utah to his letters to help him get excited about coming home.  This is what he said about that: "You picked the wrong guy to get in a "beautiful pictures of the place I live" competition with. I'll be fighting your Utah pictures back every week :)"  And here is the picture he sent me.

Specialized Training & The Alhambra

Buenas tardes!

I don't have much time to write this week so I'm just gonna attach a few pictures and call it good. :)

This week we had Specialized Training in Málaga. It was great! It is always good to have big missionary meeting...we learn so much. It was also 1€ pizza day at Telepizza, so we went and got some afterward. AND it got up to 24ºC in Málaga, which is just about the most perfect weather ever, so we stopped and ate it in the park.

Today we went to the Alhambra in Granada! It was SO awesome! And extremely cold (I'm glad I have a good coat!!). It was pretty rainy but we managed to stay relatively dry.

From the towers of the Alcazaba, there are great views of Granada.

There is lots of incredible architecture as well - both Arabic and Spanish. Here is our whole district in a huge circular plaza

And here we are again finishing up and posing in front of the entrance way (don't know what I was looking at! oops.):

Besides all of that excitement we've just been busy busy here in the office. We got 2 more missionaries this week from Chile and they missed their connection in Peru which was a fun puzzle to figure out. But they're here and have all their residency now. Just another day in the life!

We're still reading the book of Mormon as a mission. I am so grateful to have it as another testament of Jesus Christ. It is true and I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer - the only way back to the Father.

I love you!!

Elder Mockler

These two pictures are from the mission blog at http://thespainmalagamission.blogspot.com/.

Elder Mockler, Elder Berrett, Hermana Lovell, Hermana Greenwood, and Elder Spainhower enjoying the sunset in Benalmadena.

Specialized training:  Malaga and Granada zones.

Happy Valentines Day!

Hola!

So myldsmail wasn't really working yesterday so we're finishing our email up today since we have a bit of time. It might be a bit short, though! This week has been a lot slower (finally!!) which has been really nice. We've started being able to do a lot more work in our area and escape from the office more and more which has been great. Elder Berrett also practiced driving a lot and we're proud to say that after almost a year of being companions I have finally taught him to drive (the problem is the teacher, not the student. We never have time for him to practice!!).

I found out this week that Rafy went through the temple! If you don't remember, she is the lady who was baptized one of my first weeks in Algeciras. I don't know if I wrote about it but she actually stopped by the office with Mercedes a few weeks ago to say hi since they had to be here in Fuengirola for something. It is so awesome to see how much they have grown and even cooler to see them set on going to the temple and continuing in the gospel.

We got 2 new missionaries this week, which was a surprise for us considering we were only expecting 1. But, on Wednesday we got a call from a pay phone in Madrid from an Elder Rojas who was quite confused as to where he should go. At the time, Elder Berrett and I were in an appointment (in the coolest apartment ever, I might add - looking out the windows made it feel like we were on a boat...nothing but the sea!), so between us and the APs we got him on a train here. Luckily he is a smart guy and a good sport. He is from Mexico and loves it here already (as we all do) except for the lack of Mexican food - and he said that Taco Bell made him want to throw up haha. Anyway, only 2 short mornings of residency work and we'll just have 2 more this week. A nice change from 15!

This week I finished 2nd Nephi in my Book of Mormon reading. I love 2 Nephi 25:13:

"Behold, they will crucify him; and after he is laid in a sepulchre for the space of three days he shall rise from the dead, with healing in his wings; and all those who shall believe on his name shall be saved in the kingdom of God. Wherefore, my soul delighteth to prophesy concerning him, for I have seen his day, and my heart doth magnify his holy name."

I'm grateful to know that Jesus Christ rose on the 3rd day and because of that we will someday rise as well. I'm grateful that he heals us and for the opportunity to teach others of that great sacrifice.

Have an awesome week!

Elder Mockler

Almost to Elder Berrett's year mark...

¡Hola!

So, this week Elder Berrett will have been on his mission 1 year. Pretty crazy that we've been together so long!!

Well, another week come and gone! It has been a little less crazy, finally. We did finally have almost a whole PDay today!! We went and played soccer at the church with a bunch of members after cleaning the capilla a little bit. I noticed that I've gotten way better since I've been here. That isn't saying much, though, considering how bad I was before, haha.

This week we received 11 new missionaries! They just keep coming. We had to do all the residency madness with them, but we're getting pretty good at it so although it was the biggest group yet everything came and went without too much madness. Well, there was still plenty of madness, but everything went well and we were all way less stressed! We also sent 8 missionaries home, so we got both ends of the spectrum. It was pretty weird since I knew all of the departing missionaries really well. Lots of them were picked up by their families so we only had to take 2 on the 4am airport run which was nice.

Well, I can't think of too much more that's new around here. Life is awesome here in Spain! I hope all is well in the US, too! We are reading the Book of Mormon as a mission lately....I love it! It brings so much peace and knowledge to our lives. Read it lots this week!!

Love,

Elder Mockler

Has it really been a week?

I can't believe how fast time has gone this week! It has been another crazy one but we feel like the smoke is finally beginning to clear and that in a week or two things will be back to normal. I think I've said that a few other times around here and it hasn't ever happened, so maybe I shouldn't get my hopes up too high. But that is what makes being in the office so darn FUN!

This week Elder Teixeira (our area president and a member of the first quorum of the seventy) came to do a small mission tour. It has been awesome to have him here. On Tuesday and Wednesday we had zone leader concilio a week early so he could be at it and then we had a huge zone conference in Málaga on Thursday. Since he has a very limited schedule, we are only having 2 zone conferences instead of the normal 3, which was been quite the logistical puzzle for us here in the office. We also got the special opportunity of ordering 50 pizzas for the Málaga conference, which freaked out the Málaga Dominos pretty bad, haha. And Ï learned that bringing out pizza in a room full of hungry people brings out the worst in them and generally turns them into wild animals hahaha. In the end everything went great with the conference. He'll do another one in Alicante on Monday, so we're busy preparing everything for that. Fun stuff!

In the conference, Elder Teixeira began by speaking about repentance and gave some really interesting thoughts about it. He spoke about how repentance is the process by which we improve. Anytime we change any sort of behavior to become better, we are repenting. When we truly repent, our view of the world changes and we do things differently because we see that there is a better way to do them. When we look at it like that, repentance stops having a negative connotation - as many people feel it has - and becomes something positive and desirable. That's why we must repent of something everyday! I'm so grateful for a Gospel of progress that allows us to become better.  Whether it be in missionary work, family life, work relations, or anything else, following the Gospel of Jesus Christ and putting our will in line with God's will blesses us and makes us better.

Pray, read the scriptures, go to church, and strive to repent and live the commandments always - that is the opportunity we have. Let's do it!

I love being a missionary!

Have an awesome week! Love you so much!!!

Elder Mockler