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

Another Month Gone...

¡Hopalapa fapamipilipiapa!

I learned a new language this week! Well, sort of. It is like Spanish pig latin. What I wrote there is how you would say 'Hola familia.' You can replace and of the p's with  just about anything - f, ch, etc - but it is easiest to do with p. We've heard that it is what prisoners used to speak in prison so that the guards wouldn't understand them. But I don't know if I really believe that...

Well, the most exciting news from this week is that we finally got a pila (baptismal font)! It is bigger than the one in Algeciras, but still just a little above ground pool. The Lorca elders had a baptism on Saturday and their chapel is still under construction since it got damaged in the earthquake there a few months ago, so they came here to use the font. Everything went great and it was a really good chance to bring some of our investigators to a baptismal service.

So Thanksgiving came and went without much notice. Elder Marchello and I did manage to find Ben and Jerry's here, though, and we celebrated with that. It is a little pricey here (ok, a lot pricey), but we figured it was the only worthy way to celebrate the great American tradition of eating too much food. I don't think I have ever enjoyed ice cream more than I enjoyed that Ben and Jerry's. Dad, you should find out how long it takes to get to their headquarters in Vermont and we should make a delicious visit sometime :)

The work is moving forward here! It is a great time to be a missionary in Spain. I'm so thankful to be here and to be able to learn and grow along side those we teach. The Lord always provides for us - and even more when we exercise faith in Him. The church is true! There is no better nor more direct way to profound happiness - now and forever - thank living in agreeance with the commandments of God.

Have a great week! I love you!

Elder Mockler

Pictures:

1) We took a little break on our drive to Águilas that I talked about last week. Far the the back you can see the Mediterranean through the mountains.

2) Elder Marchello and the font. It took about 5 hours to fill and we have to be with it the whole time, so we had a pretty...exciting?...morning in the capilla.

Almost Sort of Kind of Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving, America!

Unfortunately Thanksgiving doesn't exist here. People always make fun of the whole turkey thing, too. They think eating turkey is weird. If only they knew what they were missing....

Well, after I talked about food last week I had a few interesting food experiences. First, last Tuesday, Elder Marchello and I went to a Wok - or a Chinese all you can eat grill. We were half-way stuck out in a pueblo and decided it would be a good way to celebrate both our birthdays. It was actually really, really good. Imagine that! On Wednesday we had a slightly less pleasant food experience...pig intestine and rice. It doesn't taste that bad, but it is like chewing on rubber. We've also had snails and cow tongue promised to us this week, so we'll have a couple interesting food experiences here soon.

I had a pretty fun drive this week as well. On Tuesday the Lorca Elders were here for our district meeting and ended up missing their bus to get to Aguilas, one of their pueblos. Since our morning cita had failed us, we decided to drive them out there and then head to our pueblo for the afternoon. We didn't know how to get there, but found our way on the map and started going. Little did we know the road we were on would turn into a 1 lane mountain road and take us winding through the Spanish countryside for 40 minutes! It was a pretty cool little road built right onto the hills and mountains....but when you run into another car coming the other way (not literally, obviously) things get pretty interesting. After dropping them off in Aguilas, we got on the highway to go back to Vera....only to find we had gotten on a toll road....and neither of us had any money! Luckily Spanish toll booths are one of the 5 places in Spain that will accept a credit card, so we were ok. After all that stress and getting to Vera a little early, it wasn't hard to convince ourselves to go to Wok!

Well, I think that is about it. We are working a lot here - we have been really blessed to find a lot of new invesigators. We had 3 people come about 40 minutes to get to the capilla. It is exciting to see people put forth that kind of effort to come to church. But when you kow something is good and true, you should always do everything in your power to find it. This week at Zone Conference, President Clegg challeneged us all to read the Book of Mormon before Christmas and highlight every verse that references Christ. He left us with this verse:

Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with ^asurety ^bhope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which^chope cometh of ^dfaith, maketh an ^eanchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in^fgood works, being led to ^gglorify God.

There are a lot of things we can use as an anchor in our lives. I can testify that faith in God is the best anchor we can have. It is the surest of all foundations and the way to the truest and most profound happiness.

I love you!! Have a great week!

Elder Mockler

 

 Andy, Elder Marchello, and Elder Taylor at Zone Conference

 Murcia and Alicante Zones

20!

¡Buenos días!

 

I can't believe it is November already, let alone the 14th! Crazy to think I'll be 20 in a few days. Then again, birthdays hardly count on the mission anyway. Last week was Elder Marchello's birthday and we just cooked a pizza for dinner to celebrate. It is just a day like any other, so we don't do much celebrating :)

 

On Friday morning I got pretty sick with the flu or something which put a damper on the end of our week. I had Elder Marchello give me a blessing and it passed really fast and we were back working on Saturday and back to 100% by yesterday morning. I've been lucky to make it almost 7 months of my mission without being sick.

 

I have had a lot of people ask me about our eating situation. Here we are lucky and eat with members almost every day, which can be either a really good thing or a really bad thing. Bad missionary food is a very, very real thing! But it is worth it for the really good meals we get, too. We hardly ever eat out - mostly only when we travel. It is too expensive. To get a meal at McDonalds it is 6€ or 7€, which is like $9. It is pretty ridiculous. There is also a thing here called "Kebab" which is pretty good. Some missionaries LOVE it, and it is quite tasty, but it is also the definition of junk food. Something about "reformed lamb" makes me suspicious. We did get some churros at the street market today, though. Besides that we just eat in our piso and we buy our groceries on Mondays.

 

Besides that we are just working hard and finding more and more investigators to teach. We have pushed back Melissa's baptism because her husband is not quite ready and she wants to wait for him, which is really a very good decision. We have a lot of teaching to do this week, and that is the best part of missionary work, so it should be a really good week coming up! I'm so grateful that I can be here as a missionary and see how the gospel blesses so many lives - and how it can CHANGE people to be the best they can possibly be.

 

Love you!

 

Elder Mockler

Driving!

¡Hola Familia!

Well, Elder Ferguson left on Wednesday and, after spending the day in Almeria, I picked up Elder Marchello and we came back to good ol' Huércal-Overa. I realized that last week I wrote that I knew Elder Marchello because he was my "companion"...what I meant to say is that he was my zone leader. Hopefully that didn't confuse anyone too much!

A few weeks ago we took a P-Day with the Lorca Elders (The other area in our district...the elders there are Elder Gibson and Elder Taylor) to see a Christus statue in Vera. It is on top of a huge hill to the side of the city and they put the statue there after Old Vera was destroyed by an earthquake in the 1500s. Unfortunately the original statue isn't there anymore - it was redone sometime in the 20th century - but some ruins of the old city remain on the hill. Before the earthquake the whole city was built up onto the hill, but afterward they decided to start the new city in the valley nearby. I saw the picture of us on the blog (and mom asked about it) so I figured I would give the explanation!

On Thursday we started really using the car. That has been an adventure! Driving in Spain isn't too much different than in the States - mostly just a lot more roundabouts. It has been...interesting...trying to learn all the highways and how to get to all of our pueblos. I can confidently state we have never been lost....but I think we have taken the scenic route more than once already. It has been incredible to start going to so many new places. We have seen a lot of miracles this week. I will share one:

We decided to go out to a little town called Turre on Thursday evening. I'm not really sure why we decided to go all the way there because it is farther away than most of our other pueblos, but we had some futures and thought it might be a fun place to explore. We exhausted our futures pretty fast because most of them weren't home, so we decided to start knocking doors. At first, we didn't have any success, but we kept trying. Eventually, we came to the end of a street and knocked the last door. A girl walked to the door, we started presenting ourselves, and she invited us in! We were pretty caught off guard because that really doesn't happen very often in Spain. But, we went in and taught them a lesson. Last night, when we taught them for the second time, they told us that in that moment they had been passing through some hard things and that they had asked for someone or something to be sent to help them. It was amazing to hear them tell the story. I'm so grateful I got to be a part of that.

The work is great here in Huércal. We will have a baptism on the 19th and we will be getting a baptismal font a few days before that. I wish I had hours to write so I could recount all of the things I have seen and experienced. All I can say is that God is a God of miracles and that miracles have not ceased among the children of men. The only thing that has ceased is man's faith in Christ. If we have faith - and work WITH him - we can work and be part of miracles. I know that is true. The Gospel was sent to guide us through this life and to help us to grow. I hope we can all use it for that purpose.

I love you all!!!

Elder Mockler

 From the mission blog:  "Elders Gibson, Taylor, Ferguson and Mockler did a little sight-seeing for their preparation day. Lots of Christus Statues in Spain."