PICTURES!!!!!

I know it has been a while, i have promised pictures for a while and i appreciate the patience from everyone who wanted to see pictures.

Here they go....(yes they are random and sorry for the sideway ones)

Things to note, chopsticks, how happy Elder Rodriguez is, and how much you can feel the Spirit with his letters and pictures!! =)

And yes Elder Rodriguez sent Thousands of pictures and we are still going through them. Enjoy!!

El Cumpleañero

I picked up my new companion today. He is Elder Renshaw from Iowa. He is tall and excited to be here in Santander. He started off in Vigo and then went to San Sebastian and now here. I had a great week. We divided up the areas to accommodate six missionaries instead of four. My old companion had worked with one person before I got here. He stopped visiting when I arrived to Santander. About three weeks ago I called him to see if he still had interest. We knew he did. We had been visiting with him for three weeks now. Today in the morning the other two elders made him breakfast and we ate and then taught him a lesson afterward. After the visit he had a question, ¨are there any baptisms soon?¨ We knew automatically that he was ready and was about to ask for himself. We told him that the Hermanas had five people getting baptized the 18 of April and that we had thought about the 25 of April for him. He said he´d love to get baptized then. We were so excited! My old companion and Elder Stevens will continue to teach him what he needs to be ready for the waters of baptism. One lady I found has been progressing so much. I know it is because of the fact that she lives with a family that are members. They help out so much in the lessons and helping her get to church . She has come three weeks in a row already! She started working again so she won´t be able to visit all week till Saturday and she´ll still be able to go Sunday to church. The last visit we left her with the promise in the Book of Mormon. She said she´d read, meditate about what she read and then pray to God to ask Him personally if the book is true. I did the same promise last week. I read a chapter in El Libro de Mormón and after meditated about what I read. I then got on my knees and started to pray. I talked with my Father in Heaven. I let Him know that I already knew the book was true and was coming to Him to help my testimony grow. I asked Him, ¨Is the Book of Mormon true?¨ and then I waited, waited some more and then that is when I felt some thing. I felt energy go throughout my body. It was like the feeling of being tired and when you drink a nice glass of cold water and you feel energized. I knew it was the Holy Ghost testifying to me that the book was still indeed true. My mind was clear and I could only think of peace and had no worries. I know she will receive an answer if she sincerely does the promise left in that book for all to test. I have enjoyed learning more about Jesus Christ during my time here in this country. I have read the Bible and the Book of Mormon and other great books to help me know my Savior better. I have learned that we celebrate the birth of the Savior during the Christmas season and we celebrate His resurrection during Easter. The fact is that He was born today. Yes, today, the sixth of April but 2,009 years ago. We can read about it in Doctrine and Covenants chapter 20 verse 1. It explains that that is when He came into the world in the flesh or that means when He too received a physical body. I am not much on celebrating things even my own birthday but I will think of the Savior today. I will have Him in my thoughts and my heart as I go through out the day talking to others about Him. I leave you all with my testimony that Jesus lives. He is resurrected and has a body that is perfect and glorified. I know that He loves me and all mankind. He has already showed us His love with what He has done while on the earth. And even till this day He is continues to show His love for us. He did not only leave us His teachings that we have in the Bible and Book of Mormon and the Spirit which He promised but He continues to teach us today. He is the head of the His Church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and guides us today. What a blessing it is to know that we can continue to learn from the greatest teacher that the world has ever seen. This I leave with you in the sacred name of Jesus Christ Himself, Amen.

Christ Did His Part . . . Now It Is My Turn

¡Feliz Cumpleaños Mike!

Saturday the Hermanas had a baptism. I had just met the little girl a week or so before and she was definitely prepared to be baptized. She had told me something I can´t forget. She told me that she loves God and Jesus. She also understands the that they love her. I got to speak at her baptismal service and participate in it. It was such a blessing to see that her father had just been baptized not too long ago and was able to baptize her. The Hermanas do a work for the Lord that Elders can´t do. Hermana Garcia and Hermana Calderón taught over twenty-two lessons this past week and took members to at least half of them. The members here help out the missionary work so much. Members come with us to visits and all. I am still getting to know the ones we are teaching. We have been looking for a lot more and have been finding. We continue to work hard and know the Lord is at our side whether it be by the help of members, good people on the street, angles, and so many others ways that I don´t see. People seem to be talking about how the world is at a critical time. The members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints here are preparing themselves in so many ways. They are making sure they have food stored away for the future. They have brought food together to help so many that are left without jobs and nothing to eat. They even just bought a piece of land to start growing their own crops! The faith members have here just surprises me once again. I am currently learning to put more and more trust in Christ. And just when I think I have put all I can, I find out that I still have more I can give to Him. I need to start helping others focus more on the Savior. My companion and I went by to help a person struggling in life and especially his spiritual life. We decided to talk about faith. I have learned to teach people and teach them how things are and not hide the truth. We simply(but truthfullly) told him the truth. I asked him, ¨¿What have you done in your life to show that you have faith in Christ?¨ He responded with an answer. I then asked my companion who also responded on how he has personally showed faith and what actions he has previously done.¨ I have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. I read the scriptures. I go to Chruch. I get on my knees and pray. I have shown faith in my life. I am currently showing my faith. The question is, ¿Will I or will we have faith in the future? ¿What will we do to show we have faith? I can´t say, ¨Well, I have gone to church before and prayed and read the scriptures.¨ What I can say is that I will continue to do those things. God has shown me so many times of what He has done for me. We went to a pueblo on the coast. The area was just covered in green grass and green trees and everything was just so full of color and life. I knew then and said to myself, ¨God created this all for me, for me to enjoy.¨ I am grateful for my Heavenly Father and all those that love Him by what they do for Him. I am preparing myself to meet Him one day for I know I will have to stand before Him and answer to Him of what I did with my time. I want to wait for that day with joy and have nothing to fear for Christ did His part and now I am doing my part. Elder Rodriguez

We Have Faith In Christ, We Have Faith That All Can Return Unto Him

Oh, and Kimberly's b day was the 23 of Jan 20yrs old!! I don't believe it!!. I really don't, ha ha. And tell Bebe happy birthday too. 30 of Jan!!


We had a great zone conference this week! I have been in Leon for a long time now. I know all the missionaries in the zone. I even know members in each rama in all the cities, ha ha. I went to Ponferrada to work with another elder. We visited a few people. The visits were great. The elders there are working with a few families where either the husband or wife isn´t a member. You wound´t believe how much love can be seen by the spouse that is a member towards their spouse. I am also grateful being able to attend all the meeting for the branch and entire district. We are the only missionaries there because it isn´t for missionaries but since we are the leaders of the branch we go. I learn so much and how God´s Church works. They talk about missionary work from time to time. I get to help them understand what our vision is as missionaries and they let me know what I can tell the missionaries to help them out on their side of things. I mentioned it before that I assign members sacrament talks. I had never spoken in any of my other cities till Leon. Then being the one assigning the talks I thought I would not ever talk. Then I learned how things work. If a member can´t talk, then I have ready the topic they were assigned. I have spoken a few times so far already in Leon. It is such a wonderful experience. The members do so much here. My companion and I have found many new people. We have a few families we are teaching! A member moved to Leon also and so we have one more strength in the branch. As we walk all day in the streets we see and talk to many. The interesting thing is when we stop a person and then they say, ¨I am a member of the Church.¨ We always are happy to find them because we let them know that the Church exists here in the northen part of Spain! We found Paola and have a visit set up with her. We also ran into Patricia, from Chile, and she was super friendly. She lives in a pueblo about three hours on foot. We plan on taking a bus for that one but the reason I know it is three hours away because she had just come walking from there when we ran into her! There is also a girl named Yessi. There is an intersting story about her. I had visited Leon over a year ago and passed by her home. She would always say the missionaries could come by but was never home when they did. We I got assigned to Leon, I remember her and passed by and the same thing happened. When I got my third companion he asked about her and I told him that she does the same thing. He wanted to try anyways. I suggested when I left the area he could go back and try. When I was in another city for cambios he passed by her and ended up with a visit(like we all had before and then she never was home). I said ok and that we would go visit her. We went and she actually let us share a message with her!!! It was a humbling experience for me. It helped my faith grow. Many members that are stuggling to go to Church should always have people that care and love them enough to pass by them. As I get to call any companionshiop in the zone I hear many stories. Stories of past missionaries that passed by so and so and they never wanted anything. Then six months later(or even a year in my story) more missionaries pass by and the people want to have God back in their life. I have learned not to give up on people so easily. I have friends back home that have learned of the truth of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. Some that have stayed super strong with their faith in God. While others are going through trials so difficult that the average person would not be able to help. I pray for them that the missionaries and members go by them to say hi. To let them know that they haven´t been forgotten but yet missed. May we ourselves also make sure our testimony is strong enough so when the day comes, we may have something to lean on. This is my testimony that I know what I have written here is true. Elder RodriguezWe Have Faith In Christ, We Have Faith That All Can Return Unto Him