October 20, 2014 Letter

Heyyy Familia!!

To answer your questions before I start into the amazing week that I had... I have heard a lot about Ebola but not from President or anybody else, just from people that we work with. Everyone is freaking out about it. I´m sure it´s going to be fine. If not, we´ll all die and then just go to the Spirit world anyways, right? So either way, win win. :) Just kidding. I honestly haven´t thought much about it but I should probably start being more careful about who I shake hands with... if I ever meet an Ebola victim on the street, I will be sure not to beso them. So no worries! That´s really cute what you said about Jake. Tell him that I am doing just fine! If anything, I´m going to get sick from the rotten ham "jamon" that everybody eats down here, rather than Ebola. Spanish culture will kill me before any foreign disease. :)

Hermana Fuller and I will probably have one more week together here. She has been here for 4 transfers and it´s rare to stay for longer than that, so she will probably be going to a new area. I love her so much and I´m really going to miss her! She has two transfers left in the mission after this one ends, so she´ll be going home in January. I´m going to be sad when she leaves, we really get along so well. We´ll definitely be friends when we´re both home and hopefully living in Utah. She is a super amazing missionary and she has taught me a lot.

So this week... V. GOT BAPTIZED. Ahh it was SO AMAZING. So the day before I had a super rough day. I started crying in the bathroom at the capilla for no particular reason. I think it was because Hermana Fuller had told me like a day or two before that something always goes wrong before every baptism to delay it or mess with it somehow. After everything that we´ve already gone through with V., the last thing I wanted was for something to delay his baptism. So the day before I think the stress just kind of got to me a little bit and I had a rough afternoon. But all that worry was for nothing because the next day, everything went PERFECTLY. It was incredible. We got the programs printed, the clothes tried on, the font filled, the people there, the talks written, and the music number practiced. He was so happy. He took his earring off for the first time  in 11 years, gave it to Hermana Fuller to wear, got into his baptism clothes, and from there on out, it was one of the most spiritual experiences I´ve ever been a part of! I seriously just felt it so strongly. He was SO happy. Just glowing. I just couldn´t handle it... he has changed so much. He´s not the same person anymore, he´s just so so happy. All the time. Hermana Fuller and I both spoke before he ordinance was performed, and I think it went well. Way better than at Wilder´s baptism, for me at least. Then he got baptized by a member named Fernando, who has been an enormous help in getting him to this point. Then Fernando gave his testimony, Iulia (the member he has been living with who is Romanian) gave hers, and then V. got to give his. He was SO nervous. He showed me his hands right before he went up and they were totally shaking so hard. He gave it in Romaninan and Claudia, Iulia´s daughter, translated for him. It was beautiful. He just talked about how grateful he was to God for helping him find the true church and for the Book of Mormon and everything. Then he said, "Before I was alone. Now, I have a really, really big family". It almost made me cry. Ahh. He was so happy!! HE just walked around for the rest of the weekend saying "Soy Mormón" over and over and over again. Right after his baptism, when everyone was eating the snacks that people brought, he came up to me and asked who he needed to talk to about serving a mission. I knew he wanted to serve, but I couldn´t believe he was willing to just go up to someone and talk to them about it, he´s so shy! But he was determined. I told him not to worry about it at that moment, just to wait and enjoy the day. Needless to say, though, the next day at church, he found one of the other Romanian members and talked to her about him serving a mission. He´s 25 and will have to wait a year, which means that they would have to make an exception for him. But in his blessing when they confirmed him and gave him the Holy Ghost, he was promised that he would have the opportunity to participate in the work of the Lord. Ahh it was soo cool. I know he´ll serve a mission and I´m so excited for him. I can´t wait to see how much he has yet to progress and learn. It´s going to be amazing to see. Also, he was able to find money for the passport! So he´s getting that in three days, and then the other papers, and then he is legal to work and find a job here. Things are working out for him. He´s been such a miracle and I´m so grateful to have had this experience in my mission. He´s like a brother to me. Things are just going up from here!!

I love this experience so much. I say that all the time, but it really is so beautiful. I wish there was some way to express everything that I feel and see and learn on a daily basis. I told my companion the other day that the mission was not what I was expecting. She asked what it was that I was expecting and I said "This is a whole lot worse and a whole lot better than I ever thought it would be". I feel like that describes the mission perfectly. The highest of the highs and the lowest of the lows and the best part is that I can feel Heavenly Father with me through it all, stronger than I ever have. I am so excited to get to work this next week! I love working and knowing that it´s for such an important purpose and cause. This means the world to me. I looovee my mission!! And I love you all so much. I can´t wait to show Spain to you someday. I hope you can meet V. and all the other people that I have the privelege of working with. It won´t be complete till my family is here! I love you all, have an incredible week!!
Love.
Sam