Conquering Spain

Hello!

First and foremost, CONGRATS OWEN!! I'm so excited for you!!! Mom sent me a few picture of Emma and I hope you can send some more this week!!! :)

Well, this morning I had great triumph. Missionaries have lived in our apartment for a long, long time so there are many strange treasures to be found. The other day I found artificial maple flavoring and today Elder Rodriguez and I made....get ready for it....drumroll.....maple syrup!! That may not sound so exciting to those who live in a land where syrup flows like the waters of the Great Mississippi, but here in Spain it was quite a triumph. Syrup is incredibly expensive here and we made it for FREE!! (not to mention our bottle of flavoring serves for 24 liters.....woah.)

A little news from Aljarafe...Jesús and Angeles should be getting baptized next week! Wow! I'm super excited for them!! I wish I could be there but such is the mission...hopefully there will be pictures on the blog soon!

We had another crazy week. I don't think I'll really have a normal week as long as I'm up here in La Mancha. We had a new missionary in one of our areas decide to go home so we spent a lot of the week talking with him and with President trying to figure out what to do. It was really, really sad to see him make the decision to go after just a week or so. He is from Chile and just felt too homesick to stay. It made me realize how much the last 13 months or so have changed me and how awesome my mission is. And how excited I am for the time that is left!! It also made me think a lot about how God feels when we make poor decisions and don't follow the counsels he gives us through scripture and prophets. He knows what Eternal Life is like and is sad when we make choices that take us farther away from that goal. He knows how to arrive there because he has acheived it and has done everything he can to give all his children the chance to make it as well. I know He loves us perfectly and that he is always just waiting for us to make the decisions that allow Him to give us amazing blessings.

I think that is all for this week! We're going back to Málaga on Wednesday and don't get back until Friday morning so we have another busy week with lots of travel ahead of us. I love Spain!!

Have a great week!

Elder Mockler

La Manchita

¡Oye!

Well, I officially live in Castilla-La Mancha now! Yayy! It's the greatest place ever! We drive here and the drive between our pueblos reminds me a lot of Indiana. Pretty flat and lots of wheat. We live in a pueblo called Alcázar de San Juan that I think has about 40,000 people. My companion is named Elder Rodriguez and he is from Madrid but his mom is Colombian so he is half South American. He speaks English pretty well but doesn't like to so it is 100% Spanish all the time betwen us which has been pretty darn neat! It makes for some pretty hilarious situations sometimes too.

Well, we have a crazy month ahead of us! We just got back today from Zone Leader Concilio in Fuengirola and we get to go back to Malaga next week for zone conference. Then when President Clegg leaves and Pres. Deere gets here at the end of the month we go back twice agin for concilio and zone conference. Lots of trips on the AVE (the high speed train)! We're super excited for everything that is coming up but we'll definitely stay plenty busy!

The branch is pretty small here...between 15 and 20 people in church every week, so it reminds me a lot of Huércal-Overa. I definitely miss having a mature ward like in Aljarafe but small branches are awesome as well. Just last week 5 people were baptized here so we are hoping to find lots of new people and keep seeing great things. I love being a missionary! The church is true! Following Christ's teachings is the way to fulfilment now and in the eternities. We are so blessed to have prophets and apostles and scriptures today to guide us to Him!

I Love you so much!!

Elder Mockler

Transfer time...

Hello!

I tried Gazpacho for the first time this week. Definitely not my favorite food but it isn't too bad either. It is huge in the summer here, so I might have to acquire a taste for it fast...

Well, another transfer has come and gone and last Thursday Elder Berrett and I unexpectedly got a call. We both thought I would be staying here 1 more transfer but it turns out I'm going up to La Mancha to be the Zone Leader there. I'm pretty sad to be leaving here but excited to go North and get a new start! I'll be living in Alcázar de San Juan. I'll send my new address next week. I had to teach Elder Berrett to drive a stick this week which was pretty exciting, haha. He definitely caught on a lot faster than I did!!

On Friday we had the most awesome ward activity ever! It was the ward's annual 'fiesta de las patatas' and we went out to our Bishop's farm to fry potatos and eggs and have a grand old time. We played soccer for a while with the ward and then just kinda hung out while we waited for the oil to heat up. We had a lot of investigators there and tons of members invited their friends. In all there were about 75 people there which was a huge success. We had to leave around 9:45 so we were the first to eat...the activity didn't end until 1 or 1:30 in the morning. That's Spain for ya...they like the party.

Well, that is about it for today! Spain is awesome! I'm so grateful to be here and for all tht the Lord is teaching me. I am growing so much and am excited for a whole year more of learning, growing and serving!! I hope you all have a great week!

Love you!!

Elder Mockler

Guess what's in my stomach right now!

¡Feliz Lunes!

Today has been quite an exciting day. Yesterday our Bishop asked us if we would go help him pick potatoes in his field this morning. So, we went! It was awesome! We harvested around 500 kilos of potatoes in one morning...not bad. And after he invited us over for lunch and we cut up a few and made french fries with fresh eggs right there on the spot! Spanish fries are a little different - they make them much oily-er and then you fry and egg and break the yolk over top of them. It might sound weird, but it is delicious. AND, to repay us for our work, they had gotten us a surprise....﹛CARACOLES!! Yes, that does mean snails. And the verdict is....I actually REALLY like them. It is a little weird biting their little snaily hard the first time, but after that you get over it and they are delicious. So, along with some fresh squeezed orange juice and dulce de leche ice cream, we had a pretty incredible lunch.

Jesús and Angeles are still doing awesome. Jesús came to church yesterday in a white shirt and tie...just like us! Haha it was awesome. On Tuesday we met with them and he said he felt like his prayers weren't being answered really. So we talked a little bit about keeping the commandments and promised him that if he would read, pray, and stop smoking that God would give him a job. As we were leaving we told him to call us if anything happened. After the lesson Elder Berrett and I started a fast. When we ended it on Wednesday we still hadn't heard anything. I was pretty nervous! But when we got to their house on Thursday he invited us in and the following conversation ensued:

"Hey, come in, I'm just getting home and eating."
"Just getting home? from where?"
"Oh, you know, just been working today..."
"What?? Working?!"
"Yeah, you know, no big deal..."

He was trying to play it off like nothing had even happened haha but we were all so excited! He is SO excited to be reading the scriptures now and they love coming to church. I know that God answers our prayers! We have to do what he asks of us and be humble enough to accept what he gives to us. But no prayer is ever left unanswered!

Have a great week!

Elder Mockler

The following photographs show Andy attending a zone conference and are taken from the Spain Málaga mission blog at

http://spainmalagamission.blogspot.com/

¡Jo...qué caló!

¡¡Bueeennooooossss Dias!!

Well it is really hot here now. And it will stay hot. Luckily we have Air Conditioning this year. I love Air Conditioning.

I may have already mentioned it but I'm not sure, so sorry if this is a repeat. Hernan Cortez's house is in our area! We actually contact right in front of it a lot. It is a school or something like that now but they have kept all of the cannons on the roof and there is a sign outside honoring the 'gran hombre' who conquered the Americas. Just the kind of thing you walk past in Spain that's not so common in the US.

Church was awesome yesterday! Jesus and Angeles came and brought their kids and they loved it. It is always so stressful having investigators at church the first time, especially when it is a family, because you want everything to go just right. And even though crazy things always happen, they always enjoy it in the end because they can feel the Spirit there.

Well, there isn't a whole lot to say this week since we had mother's day calls yesterday. The church is true! Read the Book of Mormon...it is the word of God, just like the Bible. Together they teach us the path back to our Heavenly Father.

I love you!!!

Elder Mockler

The Rain in Spain falls mainly on the....missionaries.

Hello!

Had I ever mentioned that, in order to more fully understand and embrace Spanish culture (and enjoy delicious, salty, raw bacon-meat), we bought a Jamón leg a few weeks ago? Well, it met it's sad demise last Monday after having scraped it to the bone (literally). I had quite a lot of fun with that thing...from carrying a pig leg through San Juan to cooking breakfast next to a pig hoof every morning...I don't think I'll ever have an experience quite like it. Until we buy the next one, that is. Anyway, I attached a picture of me and the pig leg. I hope it grosses you out as much as it should gross me out!

It rained a lot this week, which was fun. On Saturday we did a cosecha in Sevilla and it rained the entire time we were out. It made it kind of exciting, though, and our best contacts happened when it was raining the hardest. A few rain drops can't stop this work! Interesting fact about Spain: All of the sidewalks are made out of tiles which are loosely placed on top of concrete. But they usually aren't placed well so when it rains there are sporadic 'landmines' when you step on a wobbly tile and it sprays your legs (or, if you're lucky, your companion's legs) with the water that has seeped in underneath. Qué divertido.

Well, we have another busy week ahead of us. We're headed to Córdoba tonight to do an interview and we have lots of lessons planned that we hope will go through. The time is flying by!! The mission is like living a mini-life and it makes me realize that we are all on a noble quest for perfection and we must use every minute to try to procure it. And although we are unable, if we do our best Christ will lift us up unto perfection in the last day. God's commands are nothing more than the boundaries on the path to His kingdom. Sometimes (or oftentimes) we're just too stubborn to see it.

Love you!!!!

Elder Mockler

1 year?

¡Hola!

I don't know if I mentioned it last week, but this week was the Sevilla Feria. Luckily things don't get crazy here in the pueblos but we sure did see lots of flamenco dresses getting on the buses to the city!

Well, this week was super busy. Time flew by WAY too fast! On Monday I went to Fuengirola again for District Leader training, which was excellent as always. Then on Thursday Elder Berrett went to Madrid to finish his residency so I did splits here with Elder Valenzuela who is serving in Jerez. And on Friday we had Specialized Training in Sevilla which was also a great chance to be with Preisdent and Hermana Clegg and learn how to be better missionaries. Aside from all that we have just been working super hard here in Aljarafe and we're starting to see a lot of success.

Sorry there aren't a lot of details this week! We have just been knocking a lot of doors, talking to a lot of people in the streets, and teaching prepared people the Gospel. As a mission we set over 70 baptismal dates this week which is easily a new mission record. I hit a year this week as well and it is funny how everything is pretty familiar to me but the work never gets old. There are always new people to lift, new things to learn, and new ways to improve. Being with Elder Berrett is really fun and just know that we're doing awesome!! The church is true and brings us happiness. When we truly seek to understand Gospel principles, it all fits together. We just need to be humble and patient with the Lord's timing and trust in his ability to give us the richest blessings possible. 

Love you!!!

Andy

The following photos are from the mission blog:  http://spainmalagamission.blogspot.com/

The first 3 photos are from district leader training the last is from
district training.