Transfers!!

May 14, 2018

 

Getting transferred this Wednesday! I am leaving an area with tons of tiny towns on the farthest northeast coast of the mission to Sanlucar de Barramedas on the southwest coast. It's also a very small town that is famous for horse racing...but on the beach. So that'll be interesting. It looks like it will be at least 12 hours on a bus all day on Wednesday! Then to work! Seeing as I've been in Benidorm for almost 6 months, I definitely have mixed feelings about leaving but really excited to head west. This week we all kind of knew I was leaving so we met with tons of people. We had two barbeque's. The spaniard one obviously had cans of olives and jamon. The lamb was pretty cool though. The barbeque with C______ was AMAZING seeing as it was steak and american burgers !!!

One of the really cool experiences that I've had here in Benidorm is seeing the change in a man named T____. When I arrived, he hadnt been to church in over 20 years, but he wanted to return. After working a lot with him and not seeing much progress, we finally sat him down and asked him what his goals were in life: did he want to be stuck where he was or did he want to progress. We set a lot of goals and made plans. Since then, he has been studying the Book of Mormon regularly as well as attending church. His life has completely changed by simply assessing his situation and choosing to act. Everyone has things in their life that they want to change. Whether it be a job, school, or lifestyle, we can all set goals and make plans of how to change.

Elder Coleman

Pic1 - The Whalley's 

Pic2 - Crying Repentance to the people of l'Albir with the Kempfs children

Pic3 - This dog loves me I promise

Pic4 - Gonna miss my car

 

 

Weekly Email - May 6, 2018

Friends and Family,

We took this super cool member of the church named T____ to go visit people this week! We gave a bunch of priesthood blessings and counseled a ton of people too. We read a lot of deep doctrine together which is always fun. We had our usual family night in the church and a lot of people showed up this time!!! We weren't so lucky with the branch activity on Saturday where only 2 members came. At least we could say we only had 1 more church member than investigator there! We have a movie night planned for this Friday so we're hoping people come to that because that would be cool. Also, hopefully our branch will have 2 baptisms next week!!!

We talked about reverence a lot in church yesterday, and we were challenged to be more reverent during our meetings. We studied how reverence invites revelation. In the scriptures, we learn that reverence is having a profound respect for sacred things. In order to find out God's will in our lives, we must learn to have a profound respect for sacred things.

Elder Coleman
  

Weekly Email

April 30, 2018

Friends and Family,

Officially living in Benidorm now! We have been living in Benissa, a tiny town about 45 min. away. We spent a lot of time taking loads all the way down to Benidorm to move into this tiny apartment with the other 2 missionaries.

We also witnessed a running of the bulls in Benissa which was pretty crazy. Didn't die 👍 They've mostly stopped doing the bull fights here, but the running of the bulls is still super popular. It's pretty funny because all the people are in the cages and the bull is surrounded by all the cages. You basically run around and try not to get stabbed by the bull! Good times good times. We went with this super cool English family and also ate with them twice which was fun.

We went to this international festival and there was this Russian table so I took a pic on Putin's throne which was cool. And they had papa rellenos which are these potatoes which are filled with meat and stuff from Colombia. Today, we visited several castles in our area. They weren't as cool as we thought they'd be, but whatever.

This week, I've been thinking a lot about faith. The more I study it, the more I realize how difficult it is to obtain. When someone has faith, they can work miracles. Paul speaks of faith in the 11th chapter of his epistle to the Hebrews. After describing all that was accomplished through the faith of Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sara, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and Rahab, Paul states:

"And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gideon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets: Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again... And these all...obtained a good report through faith."

Through faith, we can truly accomplish miracles. How do we obtain this faith? Joseph Smith taught that 3 things are necessary in order to have faith:

1. The idea that God actually exists

2. A correct idea of His character, perfections, and attributes.

3. An actual knowledge that the course of life which he is pursuing is in according to the will of God (he later explains that this knowledge only comes through the sacrifice of all things)

We can all study more fully the character, perfections, and attributes of God. As we do so, our faith in him will grow, as will our ability to call down miracles from the opened heavens.

Elder Coleman

Pic1 - Guadalest Castle

Pic2 - Guadalest Lake (Pretty much the only lake here because drought)

Pic3 - Awesome Peruvian/American family