2 years went to 2 weeks way too fast

August 5, 2019

Hi friends!!

I know its been forever since I've written, sorry bout that. For the past 2 and a half months I've been training a new missionary which is super fun and I've also learned a ton. It's really weird spending my last 3 months in Spain with someone who just got here; makes you think a lot about the last 2 years and all the things you've learned. I've been compiling a pretty big list of this and I'll be sharing some of them in church next Sunday, August 18th at 9:00 A.M!!! The address is 27 Lawton Road, Canton CT. 

As my mission comes to a close, I've been thinking a lot about a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson (my senior year english teacher would be so proud Haha):

"If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown them." 

One of the life changing things that I've learned is to treasure every day as if it is the most important day in a thousand years. Life is to be lived in, not lived through. About 16 months ago, I decided to change my attitude to live in life instead of through it. I have never had a bad day since then. Joy can always be found, even in the hardest of times. I have so many mixed emotions about coming home that I can't even begin to describe them, but one of them is joy. Joy to live life in the way God wants me to. To trust his path and his timing and see miracles in your life is the path to joy.

See you super soon!!!

Elder Coleman

Pic1 - Us and Katy!!

Pic2 - Baptism of Dario and Jesus

Pic3 - Baptism of Lidia

Pic4 - Elder Salazar from my first district

Pic5 - A really big family night

Pic6 - "Served with love, returned with honor"

Weekly Email

May 13, 2019

Friends and Family,

We did tons of traveling this past week! So on Monday we took a bullet train from Madrid to Malaga for a conference we had there, and then ok Wednesday we went to Sevilla. The highlight in Sevilla was definitely having Mexican food for the first time in a long time. Then on Thursday we were in Sevilla for another conference and then we head back on a bullet train that night.

So lots of traveling, but it's not over yet because we catch a flight in a couple hours back the the Canary Islands. So I'm soooooooo excited to go back, definitely my paradise over there.

We did have a lot of time to teach our friends as well. In one lesson, we watched the video of the Prodigal Son and discussed God's love for all of his children. We all stray from the path at one time or another, so we always have the opportunity to "come to ourselves" as the scripture puts it. This means to recognize our faults and humble ourselves before God. Only then can we receive of His grace, which is the strengthening power to return back home.

Elder Coleman

Pic1-4 Sevilla

Pic5 With my past comp Elder Grappendorf

Weekly Email

April 29, 2019

We had some fun family nights this week, one of the pictures is attached. We also worked a lot on our secret coding project which is always fun. We're pretty much done with Version 1 of 5! 

We were in a lesson with this 6 year old kid that started reciting all of the planets as well as their composition and size. We doubted him when he said that the earth has a radius of about 6,000 Km... We were wrong and the kid was right; didn't miss it by a kilometer. So our mission should be pleased that a kindergartner is smarter than the office agents 

We talked to one of our friends about making the decision to change now, and we shared the words of Amulek in Alma 34 when he admonished the Zoramites to "not procrastinate the day of your repentance until the end." We must remember that "now is the time and the day of [our] salvation. This life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors." As the living prophet in our day Russell M. Nelson taught 3 weeks ago, we must choose now to do a little better and be a little better every day.

Elder Coleman

Weekly Email

April 10, 2019

Friends and Family,

Lots of coding this past week and a half. It was really nice to go to the temple today and take a little bit of a break. Back to the modern grind though...

Last week I wrote a little bit about faith, and how many people believe in Jesus Christ, yet when trials come they often doubt their confidence that He can actually make a difference in their life. This past week, we felt that we were supposed to share a certain message with someone, but as we were teaching I started to fear that our friend would be offended or react in a bad way. As I thought about this, I remembered the words of the Savior: "How is it that you have no faith?" I figured I should probably trust Him, and the lesson went really well. Later that day, we were hitting what seemed like an unmovable wall with our coding project, and we were getting worried that it was not going to be possible. Again, the same thought came to my head: "How is it that you have no faith?"

The past week I spoke of an experience where a man asked us to open the Book of Mormon randomly and he would read something that would help him. In that experience, I doubted for a moment that it was possible. Last week it was doubt, this week it was fear. We know from the scriptures that doubt and fear are two very common feelings that are faith destroying. This is why the Savior admonished us to "look unto me in every thought. Doubt not. Fear not." It is why Peter began to sink after he feared the wind and the waves, and Christ gently said, "O ye of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt."

Although many of us say we have faith, we often have doubts or fear when our trust in God is put to the test. We feel that we don’t believe enough to make miracles occur, and in doing so we forget that the Savior taught his apostles: "If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you." I know that we will never be let down whenever we put our trust in God. 

Weekly Email

April 1, 2019

Friends and Family,

Last week on Monday we went to Toledo and I bought a sword. Pictures included.

I made spanish empanadas this week (empanadas but with Spaniard things like chorizo). They're not a thing, but they were super good. We also ate with a lady that we're teaching who's from Paraguay. She said she was bringing out the soup, and brought out these little cakes; I was super confused and was just waiting for the soup. Apparently they call these egg omlet cake things "soup".

We found a really awesome girl on Facebook this week. She was really interested in learning more, and hasn't stopped talking to us since Wednesday; too bad she lives on the other side of Madrid so other missionaries will have to visit her. We did find a Catholic Priest on Facebook that lives right next to us, and we went out to a pastry shop and talked a little bit. We were also calling random people in our phone, and we called this dude that was taught by missionaries for several years, and he told us he wanted to meet the next day. We went to his house and he was such a jolly old Spanish dude. He showed us around his house, fed us some sweets, and talked with us a lot about his beliefs and such. He wanted to test the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon by opening it up to a random verse and start reading to see if it helped him. We did. And it did. Never doubt the power of the word of God.

On Sunday right before sacrament meeting I was asked to give a short talk during the meeting. I had been thinking a lot about the high expectations that many of feel, and how many people feel that they always fall short. I talked about the need to do everything within our power, but not to feel down when we don't do everything. It made me think of a conference talk my mission President recommended I read by Lawrence Corbridge. He said:

"The Lord’s way is not hard. Life is hard, not the gospel. 'There is an opposition in all things,' everywhere, for everyone. Life is hard for all of us, but life is also simple. We have only two choices. We can either follow the Lord and be endowed with His power and have peace, light, strength, knowledge, confidence, love, and joy, or we can go some other way, any other way, whatever other way, and go it alone—without His support, without His power, without guidance, in darkness, turmoil, doubt, grief, and despair. And I ask, which way is easier? Life is hard, but life is simple. Get on the path and never, ever give up. You never give up. You just keep on going. You don’t quit, and you will make it." (Read the full talk at https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2008/10/the-way?lang=eng)

There are winners and there are quitters. Regardless of how long it takes us to overcome our personal weaknesses, if we endure to the end while trying our best, if we finish the race, we will be winners. If we don't make it, it won't be because we're "not good enough". It will be because we gave up and stopped trying to become better. "Don't quit, and you will make it."

Elder Coleman

Pic1 - Sword
Pic2 - Toledo
Pic3-5 - cute dogs

Python In Madrid??

March 25, 2019

Friends and Family,

My first 3 weeks in Madrid have been crazy! It definitely has been a culture shock going from a tiny island all alone to one of the biggest cities in Europe. So far I love it; always something to do! My new companion is Elder Christensen, and he studied engineering before the mission.

For those wondering about why I would mention a snake in my subject line, you might be disappointed to hear that it's not a "Python" the animal, but Python the programming language... Yes, my companion and I are programming as missionaries. Definitely not the first thing I saw myself doing on my mission, but we're writing a program to make missionary work way better in Spain (and hopefully all of Europe), and I'm also running stats on Facebook efficiency in R (a different programming language). So we've been dedicating time every day for the past couple of weeks, mostly because neither of us really know how to use Python. We quickly discovered that the public library computers were not going to let us do what we wanted to do, so we commandeered a laptop that our mission President was letting his Assistants use... srry not srry.

Even with all the time spent on this other project, we've still found tons of people to teach. The little time that we can spend looking for people has been really successful, so we've definitely seen some crazy miracles. It really has helped me experience something that we teach all the time: God's grace will transform our small efforts into amazing results. Even if you feel you have almost nothing to offer, God will accept your offering and pour out His blessings upon you. I love how this idea is stated in "Believing Christ" by Stephen Robinson:

"What matters is that through the atonement of Jesus Christ we can receive, despite our unworthiness, what we desire, what we long for—but only if it is what we realy long for. So what do you want? What do you really want? In Matthew 5:6 the Lord says: 'Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.' We regularly misinterpret this scripture to mean something like "Blessed are the righteous." But that is not what it means at all. When are we hungry? When do we thirst? After Thanksgiving dinner with  all the trimmings? No, we are hungry when we haven't eaten; we are thirsty when we haven't drunk, when we don't have the object of our desire. This beatitude refers to people like you and me who want to do what is right, who long for, who hunger and thirst after righteousness— Blessed are they who desire with all their hearts to be righteous as Christ is righteous, to be perfect as he is perfect, who long for it and seek it, and who would give anything for it, though they do not have it. What is their reward? They shall, through the atonement of Christ, receive it according to their fondest desires!"

Elder Coleman

Transfer!! To Madrid!!! (Lots of Pictures)

March 4, 2019

Friends and Family,

Another awesome week in the Canary Islands! We went to Lanzarote to do splits with the elders on that island, and we got to go to the baptism of Meivy and Liz. Both of them were found by the missionaries there by using Facebook, which is just another fulfilment of the Lord's promise that He would "hasten [His] work in its time."

I found out on Saturday that I will be transferred tomorrow to Madrid. I'm definitely excited to finally see what missionary life is like in a city, but I'm also sad to be leaving the amazing island of Fuerteventura. It will always hold a special place in my heart, and I will never forget the several people here that have changed my life. Truly, "great are the promises of the Lord unto them who are upon the isles of the sea" (2 Nephi 10:21). 

This week, I've thought a lot about our place in the universe and the individuality of our relationship with God regardless of the vastness of His creations. He says in the Book of Moses that "my works are without end, and also my words, for they never cease" (Moses 1:4). Not only does this mean that God still speaks today through his loving prophet, but also that His works are too great for us to count. But after God states the grandeur of his creations, he tells Moses, and each of us: "I have a work for thee, Moses, my son" (Moses 1:6). God has chosen each of his children to accomplish important work while in this life. Like God had a work for Moses, God also has a work for all of us, individual and specific to our gifts and talents.

Elder Coleman