Good things are going to come because of your boldness!

First off... HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!! I love you! Thank you for everything you have done for me! I wouldn´t be the missionary or man I am without you in my life. Thank you for all the lessons you taught me (or tried to teach me that I am now finally learning haha). Have a great week!

Alrighty so once again, I've been so busy and tired that I haven't been good at writing in my journal. But I remembered a lot! haha. So we have a girl in our ward who is in a very missionary work involved family so we are often at their house teaching people that they invited over and she has a thing for Chinese guys hahaha. There are a lot of Chinese people here actually. Anyways we were walking through our area and she yelled at us and had us come over and she was watching some Chinese kids play basketball. Me and Elder Antezana said, in English so she couldn't understand, "Hey, let's go play with them and if we win they have to talk to her" hahaha. So we played basketball with these kids for 30 minutes or so and they were pretty good! We called it a game after it had been tied at 7-7 for a while. Then they said they would go talk to her if I could dunk! hahaha. So I tried a few times and was missing it by like 2 INCHES!!!! Man! If I hadn't been in church clothes :). But that was fun and we tried talking to them about going to teach them but they don't speak Spanish very well. That's a bummer but a fun experience. Made me feel like Dad :) haha.

We have a less active family that we have been teaching multiple times a week since I got here and the dad just blames his problems on the members and the bishop and the prophet and a bunch of crap. And the other day we went over to talk and he went off about all of that stuff and was yelling and wouldn't let us talk and we were trying to help him! His wife was yelling at him telling him to stop and stuff and I was getting so frustrated! He just kept interrupting us and yelling at us and stuff and finally I yelled "PLEASE!! GIVE US 5 MINUTES! We are trying to help you! Listen for 5 minutes please!!!" And it was dead quiet.... Everyone was looking at me and I was just red ticked off. My companion was either trying not to laugh or just in aww because his face was all wierd and he couldn't think of anything to say after that hahaha. Then the guy started going off again and at the end my companion said "Alrighty listen up. My companion wants to share a scripture." And I was so mad! I was just thinking "How the heck am I gonna share a scripture!? All I wanna do is knock this guy out!" haha. I opened up and BOOM there was a perfect one! I shared it and then explained that "We are in the perfect church. But the people in it aren't perfect. Besides Christ, imperfect people is all God has had to work with. We all have problems and hardships. You are where you are because of YOUR decisions. You need to quit blaming everyone else for your situation. We are here to help you but you need to let us." And then I asked if we could do anything and he said pray for us. We said we would and we left. The next day he wouldn't let us in the house.... In Correlation meeting with the Ward Mission Leader, who is also in the Presidency of the Mission, we were talking about it and my companion told him what I did. And the mission leader was like "Yeah Elder Marchant!! He needed someone to yell at him! Good things are going to come because of your boldness." Haha. So I hope they do! We visited the guy again the other day and he was home alone and we had our first normal lesson! I apologized haha :). He was very receptive and maybe good things will come ...... :). I felt so bad!

Well that is my craziest story of the week :). Hopefully it doesn't happen again.... :) All is well though! :) haha. I love the mission and Spain and the people (most of the time hahaha) Love you all!


QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
-Do you ever cook dinner?
We cook dinner quite often! It's always the same haha but yes, we cook :).
-Do you keep your room clean?
I need to be better at making the bed but that's it :)
-What is your church building like?
I will take pictures of the Church building :)

 

And another great week in Sevilla! haha

And another great week in Sevilla! haha

The worst part was finding out that the Broncos lost haha. Now I'm gonna hear it all P-day from one of the Sister missionaries :).

Well we have several investigators from Nigeria that speak English and so I have to do almost all the teaching and it is hard! It is so different teaching in a language that you weren't taught to teach in! I spent all morning memorizing the first vision in English haha. But the Spirit was so much stronger when I taught it in English! I enjoy teaching in English :) but it's hard too because all my companion can do is say He knows its true haha. Hopefully it continues to go well.

A few weeks ago we still had 45 minutes left until we had to go home but we both felt sick and so we decided to go home. About a block before we got home we saw a lady crying.We walked passed her and looked at each other and both just turned around to go talk to her. We asked if everything was okay and if there was anything we could do. We told her that no matter what was wrong we knew that our message would help her and we asked if we could get her information. We found out that she lived in the Hermana's area so we gave the information to them. The other day a boy walked up to us and said "Hey do you know those ladies?" we turned around and this lady was waving at us and she had a member with her! We went over and talked to them and found out she had been taking lessons from the Hermanas and she was making friends with the members and the boy that came and stopped us is her son and she has another one. Yesterday we took them to stake conference! She is so happy now! What an amazing experience! :)

Aunt Paige emailed me and asked me what my top 10 favorite things of the mission are and I have never thought about it but this is what I said:

"Top 10 favorite things of the mission field....that's rough! But I will give it a whirl :). These aren't in any particular order okay!? haha
1. Spain! It is beautiful! It is so different and I love it!
2. Making new friends! I have made some of the best friends I've ever had and in such a short time!
3. Learning about the Gospel. I have learned things that I never in my wildest dreams could have imagined and they are in plain sight in the scriptures!
4. Teaching and seeing the Spirit work in people. When you teach with the Spirit you can see it working in the hearts of the people! And there is nothing quite like it.
5. Growing! There is no way I would have been able to go to college or get married or anything like that without going on a mission and growing and learning!
6. Relationships with people at home. I have grown closer to my loved ones at home a lot! I'm on the other side of the world and yet somehow I am growing closer and loving more my family and friends at home or serving missions.
7. I feel so good! Physically I am feeling better than ever! Emotionally...well that goes up and down haha but I can see myself getting stronger and I have had emotional highs for sure out here! Spiritually, man every day something happens to me spiritually that makes me know what I'm doing is right.
8. Helping people. I have always been one that loves helping people and I get to do it every day here. Even if they don't wanna listen to the Message and I'm just helping them put away the tables at the bar or something it is just good :).
9. My testimony. It grows daily. It will never stop growing! As long as I'm doing what's right! I have seen it bless people's lives and I am looking forward to blessing more and growing more.
10. Seeing the hand of the Lord in my life every day. A lot of people don't see it. People think of trials as being terrible and they complain and that just makes it worse. If a trial didn't come to me from disobedience, I know that it is the Lord blessing me. You just have to look at the blessings - although they may not seem like blessing at the time - every day and thank the Lord for making you better.

Somewhere in there belongs Spanish too :) haha. I never ever thought I'd learn Spanish. I didn't like it before the mission. But it is wonderful and will bless my life richly during my service and in the rest of my life!"

I love you all! No pictures sorry...it's been a busy week and we didn't do anything last P-day :( haha.


Love,


Elder Marchant

All is well though :)

First off... Sorry I didn't email yesterday! I will tell you about it later.


Okay! First :) So last P day we went back to the Plaza de Espana and got better pictures so I will send those :).
The next day I went to Malaga! That was a great 2 day break :) haha. I needed it! It was super good to see my friends from the MTC. And hang out with President and his family for a while :). He is so awesome! He is definitely one of the greatest men in the world! He is going to be an Apostle :). haha. There is one Elder that has been really struggling. He is a good friend from the MTC. They only have 13 members in the branch so they have to do everything. They never have any investigators, he almost got mugged last week, he's just super depressed, doesn't get along with his companion and is just hating being on a mission right now. In the MTC he was the happiest kid I have ever met! I asked him if he had asked for a blessing and he said no. Then he asked me if I could give him one before we left Malaga. The next morning we went downstairs in the mission home and I prayed before I gave it and then I gave him a blessing. When it was done he was crying and gave me a hug and said "Thank you so much, I can honestly say that was EXACTLY what I needed and easily one of the most spiritual moments of my whole life." I am so grateful for the priesthood. Moments like that make me KNOW that the Gospel is true.


We had our baptism on Saturday!!! :). It was so great! haha funny story. We got to the chapel 2 and a half or 3 hours early to start the font filling. Elder Adams turned on the font and we all just sat and talked for an hour in the foyer. So an hour after we started it we went to check on it and NOTHING had happened!! The drain was open!!! So we had an hour and a half to fill the font before the baptism started! We ran around everywhere grabbing mop buckets and cups and stuff and were filling them up in the bathrooms and kitchens and running and dumping them into the font! At first it was kinda fun and an adventure but after and hour and a half of doing it we were all hurting so bad and so irritated! haha. It was probably a funny sight to the members walking by haha. The picture of me and Elder Bastian is us filling up buckets and cups in the bathroom haha. :)


So...yesterday.... we wake up, get dressed in Missionary clothes because we have an early appointment and won't have time to get back home and change out of normal clothes. We go to the post office because Elder Antezana has a package there. But the guy won't give it to him because the package says "Elder Antezana" but his Documents say "Kevin Antezana" so we tried explaining to this guy for a while and he said "No. I have to wait for someone named Elder Antezana to come in." So we waited for 2 hours so that they could get ahold of his family and change the name and send faxes and junk all around the post offices to get it all figured out! During the time we were waiting, the only Computer Lab near was closed, so was burger king! We only had enough money to get some juice boxes and cookies for lunch, we had to WALK 2 more hours to get to the side of the city we needed to be because Elder Adams needed our bus pass for the day. And by the time all this was done we had to go eat dinner with some missionaries and then head to a town 45 minutes away by bus to teach someone.... it was NOT a P DAY!! haha. One of the pictures I'm sending is a picture of me after I got home last night haha. You'll be able to tell :).


All is well though :). Our goal for this weeks baptismal dates is 12! We have names for all of them so we are hoping for 12! :). Also we have an investigator from Nigeria who speaks english so I have to teach her and it is SO HARD to teach in English! For companionship study this morning we practice teaching in English and it's so hard! I can't say the first vision in English either! So I have to have that memorized before tomorrow haha. It's fun though :).


Hopefully I have more great, crazy, stressful stories for next week :). But so long until then! :) Love you!


Elder Marchant :P

Filling up the font.

Baptism Day!

Plaza de Espana

Olive Trees

Mmmmmmm, looks yummy!

A cool lookin sign???

Well....I have been SOOO busy...

Dear All,

Well....I have been SOOO busy this week and didn't write in my journal once...:(. So this morning I tried to think of everything that happened! I know I missed a lot haha. But here goes!

So last Tuesday, my companion had to go to Malaga for a District Leader meeting so I went on Splits for the day with one of the Zone Leaders in our area. So I had to take the lead and take us around to our investigators and teach them. I learned a lot of different ways to teach and to contact from him. It was also very nice to have someone to talk to in English for 2 days haha.

Tomorrow I am going to Malaga to get my Residency card for Spain. So that should be fun! I get to see
some of the guys from the MTC that were in my group that I haven't seen since the first day here.

We are planning on having 2 baptisms on Saturday! So that is gonna be awesome!!! I am really excited for them!! Nothing is ever set in stone till it happens but we are praying! Our family from Peru, we have to find a new date for because we have had to start the lessons over because their Dad and other son are wanting to listen now too! So that is even better!! :). I am really hoping that we can get the whole family! :).

I hate shaving every day. It is the absolute worst! haha. And I miss music! A ton!! But I really am loving the mission a lot! It is teaching me so much and I'm growing more and more every day!

I'm putting on some pictures of the Plaza de España. We went there the other night after a lesson in a little town outside of Sevilla. It was funny because I didn't know where we were going and then my companion said "Close your eyes" and he guided me for a while and it was super gay haha. Then he said "open!" and I did and it was awesome!!! It was the most beautiful place I've been to so far in Spain! It is actually where they filmed Star Wars on the planet of Naboo! My companion said to me "I want to take my girlfriend here because it would be super romantic but I can't. So I had to do it with you." hahahahaha! The pictures are bad because my camera doesn't take good pictures at night but I'm gonna go back during the day soon :).

Love,
Elder Marchant

AWWW YEAH!!

Dearly beloved,
We gather here, around the computers, mobile devices, ipods, etc. today to read the weekly report from Elder Derick Marchant.


I love being a missionary!!! We now have 8, that's right, EIGHT!!! Baptismal dates!!! Last week at Zone conference we made a goal to have 21 Baptismal Dates as a zone this transfer. And just me and my companion already have 8! At zone conference we were all given a card that's kind of like a walk through to teach about Power and Authority, Jesus Christ, baptism, the Holy Ghost, the remission or sins, AND the Repentence all in one lesson and all in 3 Nephi 11! So that day we decided we were gonna use it with this family we had been teaching from Peru. The mom's name is P, and we have been teaching her daughter, A who is like 19, M who is 12, and L who is 21. The dad doesn't live there I don't think and her other son never comes. The Spirit was super strong the whole lesson and right at the end I invited them to be baptized... it was dead quiet for a while. Then, M (She is so cute by the way!) said "Claro que sí!" Which means "Yes! Of Course!" and then the rest of them family all said yes 1 by 1! We set up the date and then M offered the closing prayer and she said "Heavenly Father, thank you so much for bringing us the missionaries and please bless us that we can repent so we can be baptized." I almost lost it! I was so dang happy and full of the Spirit! They came to the Church the next day for a ward activity and then they came to church yesterday!! I am just so dang excited I can't even handle it!!! We also set up dates with 2 other girls that we are teaching. I don't know how solid they are right now but hopefully we can get with them a little more to teach :).


We were invited to attend a wedding (Which was also the ward activity spoken of above) last Saturday. That was pretty fun! We got to talk to lots of non members and give out pamphlets and stuff. The best part was that the family from Peru came though :).


So in Spain there are farmacies everywhere! They are in like every square mile! And I've had the most awful cough ever like all week so I went to the farmacy to find cough drops. They had a box with like 10 cough drops in it for 6 EUROS!!! I was like no! I will suffer death by cough before I pay that much for flippin cough drops! Then my zone leader told me to try checking a candy store. So I go into this little Chucheria and ask if they have "candy with menthol" haha. 5 CENTS EACH!!! IN A CANDY STORE!! so I got 10 for 50 cents :). I thought it was pretty silly haha.


Also the missionaries in the Sevilla stake area are singing in a choir for stake conference :). I'm very much enjoying that! The director just tells the Elders "If you don't know what you're doing, stand by Elder Marchant and copy him okay?" haha. I feel like I'm in Delta High choir still! haha! But it's fun and I'm way excited to sing! :)


I will be sure to let y'all know what happens with our investigators! :) I know mom will be on me no matter what! haha.


Spanish is coming good! I need to be better at really studying it in the books and stuff...I get a tad bored and we play dumb schmuck. :). But I am learning fast and loving it!
Love you!


Elder Marchant

Mission Pages

A MISSIONARY CHRISTMAS (author unknown)

I skipped the sales after Thanksgiving. The thrill just wasn't there. No pictures taken with Santa Claus, my decorating has no flair. His presents are shoes, shirts, and ties, two suits and socks...no fun. I've bought him all white clothes because... This year I'm giving Christ my son.

I've spent more time in the temple, my testimony stirred. I've reread November's Ensign, Felt strength come from His words. Our family prays more frequently. My tears are quick to run. Abraham seems closer because, This year I'm giving Christ my son.

I wonder how those Lamanite mothers, gave their sons to war? Or how the pioneers chose Zion, their sacrifice was so much more. My loss will be his presence, I'll miss his smile a ton for two years we will pray for him, I'm giving Christ my son.

I stare at his face when he's not looking. I memorize his eyes, their shine. He's always hungered for the part of him, that makes his soul divine. The stories and lessons he always heard, His choice and mine are one. I'll put my faith in God's hand, This year, I'm giving Him my son.

Past gifts have lost their glitter; I think I finally understand Christ's birth should be celebrated by giving Him a hand. It's because I know Christ lives and reigns that all his packing's done. My gift has taken years to make, This year... I'm giving Christ my son.

I know there's One who understands, the sacrifice I'm making. Who knows the gift I willingly give, The toll it will be taking. For He has done it all before Greater love - there could be none. For years ago God gave to me, His only begotten son. The hands I washed, the hands I held, The hands I taught to pray; Now knock on doors to find the ones Who will listen to what he'll say. Because I know Christ needs him, Until all the gathering's done, My gift has taken years to make. This year... I'm giving Christ my son.

It's been a long week...haha but good!

It's been a long week...haha but good! And I have lots of stuff to talk about! First off, and the most exciting part!!...is that we have a Baptismal date for a kid named Samuel! He is 21 years old and is Golden! Every time we teach him the Spirit is especially strong! We also have 2 other FAMILIES that we think we will almost definitely be able to get set with dates as well! There has only been 1 baptism in our area in the last 2 years I think so if we get these it will be HUGE! :) We are super excited! ALright..now I have lots of little things. I got the other package! The shoe things are great! They help a lot! Thanks for gum too! It's like gold here! So expensive! So I'm cherishing my gum :). And the quote pad is the best! Because I haven't been able to put anything in my quote book since I got here because we aren't watching MTC devotionals and stuff like in the MTC. So now I can start adding quotes into my quote book again! :) I got a haircut! From my companion! It's not...terrible :). haha. I still can look presentable :). haha Last week all the missionaries in our ward went to the Bishop's house for new years eve! We sang Christmas songs and ate a ton of food! It was really fun. They have a tradition here in Spain on New Years eve. Right before midnight the clocktower in Madrid tolls 12 times. On every toll you shove a grape in your mouth! So by the time it really is midnight you have 12 grapes in your mouth and every screams "Happy New Year!" But it's all mumbled and grapes fall out of peoples mouths haha! Last P day we went to this place called the Cetas. Which means Mushrooms. In the Center of Sevilla they have this super tall "Mushrooms" that you can go up to the top and see ALL of Sevilla! I have tons of pictures and hopefully they actually go through today! We have a good friend in the ward named Eleazar and we were able to go watch him open his mission call last week :) It was cool being a missionary and seeing someone do that :) I was thinking "Wow, I just did this!" but then I was like 'No! That was like 8 months ago!!! What the heck!!!" Time has been flying for sure! Mom, I am singing! We had a multizone talent show last week on New Years Day and I sang "O My Father" :). Needless to say, I met lots of Sister missionaries after that ....:) hahaha! We also accidently left our keys in the Piso last week :). That was fun :) We spent a long time trying to break in and finally gave up and went grocery shopping while we waited for our landlord to come let us in :). Then we PRACTICED breaking in! It's actually really easy! .....I don't know if that is good or not :). haha A lot of members call us "Hermano" and not Elder and we have this one lady in our ward that invites us over all the time for food and to teach her little lessons haha. We she gave us New Years gifts which were socks :). And my package said "Hermano Americano" haha. When we went over there yesterday she practiced saying my last name because she was pretty embarassed haha ;). Well, that's a lot for this week! Love you guys! I'm loving it and doing great! My testimony definitely grows every single day! :)

You're all in my prayers! 

Elder Marchant

 We have a good friend in the ward named Eleazar and we were able to go watch him open his mission call last week :)

 Last P day we went to this place called the Cetas. Which means Mushrooms. In the Center of Sevilla they have this super tall "Mushrooms" that you can go up to the top and see ALL of Sevilla!

Mom,
I did get a letter from Greg! It was good to hear from him.
Hey, I'm almost in Alma 30! Wanna race!?! Haha. No, Take your time!! The Book of Mormon is so dang awesome!! Mine is so marked up! I can't believe the things I've learned! I'm currently reading it through in English and then will do it in Spanish after and then start studying the New Testament! Right now I am marking it up with all sorts of things but focusing on every scripture or story that is about putting our Trust in the Lord. It is everywhere! My "Trust in the Lord" color is green and I have more green than any other color in my scriptures!!


Love ya,
Elder Marchant