April 28, 2014 - Week of Consecration - Week 40‏

Hello sweet family and friends! This past week was FAST, wow I can hardly remember what happened, but we worked hard and had some pretty interesting experiences;) Oh the mission... Thank you so much for all of the nice emails, your support means everything to me! As for this past week, here are the highlights:

Elder Patterson and I were able to meet with some of the new investigators that we have found that are really progressing. Right now we are trying to find out which investigators are progressing and others who are not quite ready. We were able to meet with the new family we have found and taught them about the Restoration of the Gospel. The lesson went well.  Right now our struggle is meeting with them and getting our investigators to church. A lot of our investigators work in the campo picking fruit and right now is the season for that, so we have a hard time meeting with them as a family, but we are excited to see their progress; they really have a lot of potential.

We also focused on some Menos Activos in our area. They are a young married couple who just had their first son a few months ago. This past week we were able to visit with them a few times and invite them to church. Their son is so dang cute! He is honestly one of the happiest little boys that I have ever seen and is always happy when the Elders come over. I knew the first time that I met them that they were a very special family. I am excited to work with them and help them to enjoy the blessing that come from the gospel. I don´t know what it is, but the father reminds me of Uncle Matt, just the way he talks, laughs, and everything! They really are so awesome!

Thursday and Friday I went on Intercambios with the other Elders while Elder Patterson went to Malaga to work on his residency. We had such a great intercambio, and I decided that trios are where it is at. Hahah.. so much fun. While I was with them, I experienced a lot of firsts, 1) As we were meeting with one of the other Elders’ investigators, they brought out some tapas (snack food) to snack on. They didn´t have quite a great selection, olives and octopus... so I had to eat it. Wow octopus has the texture of chicken, but the density of gum... haha good experience. 2) While we were meeting with that same investigator, he was telling us about his religious background. They seem like a very spiritual family, but maybe just a little different. He told us that he had dreamed of building his own church and knew that is what he had to do. The way that we saw it is that when they build the capilla (chapel) here he will be a member and have a leadership position;) 3) I was also able to visit with THE Roger. I have heard so much about this man from Elder Ellsworth, and finally had the opportunity to visit with him and meet him. Roger is a 60-year-old member who LOVES the missionaries almost as much as he LOVES his coke. I think the first words he said to me were, "Elder Farrell, when are you going to come visit with me so I can share coke with you" Hahah he is such an incredible man. I imagine he is my "Old Fogie". (a reference to a man on Adam’s mission)

Other than that, this week was a blur. I am really excited for this upcoming week of consecration, and to see all of the miracles the Lord has in store for the Spain Malaga mission. I invite all of you to do the same. Be obedient to the things you should and strive to find someone who needs your help. I love you all and am so grateful for you. 

Have the best week,

Elder Dallin Farrell

April 21, 2014 - Semana Santa

Hello sweet family and friends, what a week! I hope you all had a wonderful week and especially a Happy Easter. What a special day we have to reflect on the Resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ. Also, I hope you had the best ‘birfday’ NATERS!! Wow... 13. Happy Birthday big guy! This past week was an interesting week with Semana Santa here in Spain, but that adds to the mission experience;) As for our week,

Like I mentioned, this past week was Semana Santa here in Spain. If you haven´t heard, this is a HUGE holiday for all of the Catholics here in Spain. It is also a pretty crazy holiday. The thought is nice, but... the presentation is kind of scary.. haha Elder Patterson and I had quite the experience this week. So for Semana Santa, each night they have a different procession or Parade from the different Catholic groups that are here. Each day represents what Christ did the last week of his life. If you have never seen a picture of their costumes... I would recommend it, haha but they are a little scary. Anyways each night they get dressed up in big capes and a cone type hat and play the drums and carry torch type things down the street. One night, Elder Patterson and I were coming in from working in one of our Pueblos and we noticed that all of the lights in the city were off. It was really dark, and after struggling to finally find a parking spot in these crazy streets, we took off towards our piso. As we were approaching main street we noticed that there were not really any people, and the lights were still off, we continued walking towards our piso and came around the corner to find all of the people silently watching the procession. However what we didn´t know is that it was the silent procession and that is the reason why all of the lights in the city were off. To add to this experience the costumed things were wearing all black carrying candles... haha it spooked us a little bit, but we were able to make it back to our piso. I am going to have to say that the procession was much more enjoyable from our porch;) haha it is an interesting tradition.

Other than that, Elder Patterson and I had a really good week. This past week we were able to find a new family from Ecuador which we are really excited to work with, they really have a ton of potential! Friday night and Saturday we were also able to do intercambios with some other Elders in our zone. I was able to work with Elder Adams in Murcia and the highlight of my time with him was the Primary activity we were able to help with on Saturday morning. I kind of went into this activity blind, not knowing the details, but it was such a neat activity. All of the primary kids in the Murcia ward had gotten together to do a missionary activity. What they had planned to do was visit with all of the other primary aged kids that were inactive and visit with them. It turns out that there was too big of a turn out so we ended up splitting the kids up between the missionaries, and we went out street contacting for a good hour. Wow, those kids were such awesome missionaries! It was so so funny to see them just extend their arm with a pass along card and just walk head on into somebody and invite them to the church of Jesus Christ of Latter day saints. One of my new "Companions" Elder Cortes did such a great job! I wasn´t sure if I should tell him or not that his white shirt was tucked into his blues clues underwear...;) haha I decided not to! Haha it was such an awesome activity, and I am pretty sure I learned more from the kids then they may have learned from us. I am grateful for this past week and am looking forward to a great one. Have a great week! I love you all!

Elder Dallin Farrell

April 14, 2014

Well family and friends, it doesn´t seem like too long ago that I wrote you;) Monday to Monday goes fast, but Wednesday to Monday goes even faster! As for the second half of our week here, we had a good one and we were really able to work effectively with the short amount of time we were given.

Wednesday night, we were able to meet with President Deere and President Marmol to talk all about the focus that the stake has with the work. A main focus of the meeting was FOCUS FOCUS FOCUS on the menos activos because they are the ones that have made sacred covenants and also they are the ones that have more association with non-members. It was a really great meeting and a really neat opportunity to be able to participate in the first stage of this new focus. It is now in the applying that we are focusing on as a mission and as a zone. 

Thursday we were able to have Specialized Zone Training with President where we were able to learn what we learned from the meeting the night before and techniques to apply it to the work here. 

As for our investigators here in Molina: Right now we have a decent amount of work, which is a great blessing. We recently had a lot of our investigators move to France for work which was a tough hit, but we have been able to work with the members and receive some very great references that we are very anxious to begin working with. Our main investigators that we are working with right now: An Ecuadorian with a family of 4. We have been able to meet with him a few times these past few weeks and also teach him the message of the Restoration. He was very receptive and it seems to resonate with him. He always sends us out with a big bag of oranges every time we leave! A lot of the people that live here work in the campo which are the fields picking fruit, so this summer I should be good when it comes to fruit;) This past week we also met two new families one a contact and the other a reference. Please keep them in your prayers; they really are special. 

Another interesting part of my week was that I learned how to drive STICK! It was something that I had always wanted to do, but I never imagined that I would do it on my mission, in Spain! That works too I guess! It was kind of scary with the narrow streets and big hills, but after killing it a good share of times... I was able to figure it out!

This week was also my first Sunday in my new ward here. I have heard this ward is incredible and I am going to have to agree with that! This past Sunday I was able to meet some incredible members and hear their incredible testimonies. I also had a neat experience in Sacrament Meeting. As we were bowing our heads for the Sacrament Prayer, I heard the hymn Praise to the Man coming from the other ward and I just was overcome with the spirit. I am so grateful to share this message that was restored by the Prophet Joseph Smith, here in Spain. What a beautiful message. I love this work, even when it is hard. 

Come what may and love it.

Have the best week family and friends, I sure love you all!!!

Elder Dallin Farrell

April 9, 2014 - What a week!

Concilio

Hello sweet family and friends how are you? It has been a good week and a half since I have talked to you, but A LOT has happened here in this new journey in Murcia. I have a lot to catch you up on, so here it goes.

I mentioned it before, but my new companion is Elder Logan Patterson from Logan Ut. He has been out for about 1 year and 4 months, so he knows what he is doing and is teaching me so much. We have really been getting along this past week and working hard. I am really grateful to be here with him and for this time that we will have to serve and learn from one another. The last time I emailed was from Alicante, so I will catch you up on all of the highlights. There was mainly just one, but it was so special. 

Last Monday night, we had planned to have a farewell noche de hogar with the [E] family, and then with the [L] family after. We had planned on making tacos with the E’s because we hadn´t done that with them and that was one of the things I absolutely had to do before I left. After a crazy Pday of packing and rushing, we ran to Mercadona, grabbed the ingredients and ran over to the E’s to start. As we got to their home, the sweet mom opened the door and told us that the boys weren´t home, that they had run over to the L´s home to fix a window, and that they needed our help. We ran over there and ‘mom’ ran with us. Right as we walked into the L´s home and around the corner, I hear, "SURPRISE!!" They had planned a joint family home evening and all of my loved ones from this area were there. It was so special! We were able to make tacos together and we were able to end with a spiritual message. I will always remember the strong relationships that we have developed; these people are so special.

Wednesday was travel day. Luckily for me, from Alicante to Murcia was only a one-hour bus ride so we had a whole day to work ahead of us. I have mentioned it in previous emails, but in this area we have a CAR, which is definitely a blessing for all of the pueblos that we work in. We work in two main pueblos that are about 20 and 40 minutes away. We have been keeping really busy with all of our assignments and I have been able to meet some of our investigators, and incredible members that live here in this area. That is one thing that I sure love about this church and the mission, no matter where you are at, there are always incredible members that will take care of you. 

Saturday and Sunday, GENERAL CONFERENCE!! Wow, what an incredible conference this April. Like always, it is such a blessing to see and hear the words of the Prophet to lead and guide us in these days. I am so grateful for this gospel. We were able to watch all of the conferences in our church building and most of them live! We watched the Sat Morn Saturday at 6, Priesthood session Sun at 11 Sat evening Sun at 2 then we are able to watch the Sunday sessions live at 6 and 10 pm here. It was a late night, but so worth it! I really enjoyed the Priesthood session and would recommend it to anyone who was not able to watch it.

Monday and Tuesday we were in Malaga. It is always such a blessing to spend time with President and Hermana Deere, and other missionaries that are becoming my best friends. The conference was so great, and the spirit was so strong. One of my favorite things about each conference is that we finish by singing the mission hymn "Oh Vos los llamados" The spirit is always so strong!! While there I was able to see some of my best friends in the mission, Elder Ellsworth included!! It was so good to see him and to catch up on the last three months. I also saw Hermana Anderson from Highland for the first time in a year, wow time on the mission is crazy.

This upcoming week is crazy with meetings, but I am looking forward to the time that we will have to work with some of our progressing investigators and to find some new ones. I know this email was a little scattered, I just wanted to try to include the highlights from this great week! I will be more specific about our investigators next week. Know how much I love you and am forever grateful for you.

Until next week, much love!

Elder Dallin Farrell