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