A Very Happy Missionary

So it's official, Terrassa ward has 3 new members, 2 being converts (an eight year old boy whose family are members was also baptized). It was amazing to see the change in Julio in only a month or so. He really has surprised us, I might just say he is more solid than his wife, not that she isn't solid, but he has jumped in head first. At the baptism he went up to bear his testimony and it was amazing. He said how he has years and years away from God and for the first time in his life he felt like he doesn't have a cargo on his shoulders. I have learned that I love the testimony and prayers of investigators and recent converts 10 times more than members. They are so sincere and unrehearsed, you can tell without a doubt that it is from his heart. It made me laugh when he was done he was like "Thank you all, thank you all very much," then went to walk off, then ran back up and said amen. LOL

So Rach and Evan might be able to relate with me about the one problem with baptisms.... at least in my case it seems to always leave me without investigators. We have one right now, an 18 yr old girl named Kerly. She is doing everything we ask and the Young Women are doing an awesome job of showing her love, but she is just a little low on faith. Hopefully we could see a baptism with her in the next couple weeks, but still pray for new investigators; it worked last time.

So this week we had 2 pancake eating citas. One with a 1/2 American family and the other with a guy who has an American wife (also is probably going to be our next bishop, we should find that out next week).

I got a interesting phone call last night. It was a mission number but not one on our records, I picked up and heard, "Hello Elder Roos, it's President Hinckley"... and yeah I had a feeling I knew what he was going to say.... I get my new companion a couple days early. Elder Lindsey and I get to be in the office Wednesday morning to get trainer training. I'm just glad I answered the phone well and wasn't like, "Hey who is this?" LOL

Elder Lindsey is doing well. We have been working together fighting against trunkiness. I think it will be good that his last 4 days he will have a greenie watching his every move.
Elder Roos

Everyone who was baptized that day and those who baptized them.
An eight-year-old from the ward baptized by his Grandfather, Elder Lindsey baptized Rosa, Julio was baptized by Stevie, and a gentleman baptized in another ward by a missionary whose name I don't know.

Stevie and Elder Lindsay with Julio, Rosa, and their daughter.

Three very happy missionaries after the baptisms.

So i don't know what you're saying in your prayers over there, but keep it up. Rosa and Julio are doing AMAZING. So you'll like this. We were a little nervous about teaching them both tithing and the Word of Wisdom. About a year ago, Julio lost his licence for a DUI but when we taught the WOW, he was excited about it. I was amazed how easily they accepted it. I'm almost wondering if this DUI was preparatory to his stopping drinking so he could be prepared when we got there. When we were finishing teaching tithing, Elder Lindsey asked Julio if he thought this was a law from God, and Julio surprisingly told us no... then a couple seconds later he said... "It's a right." I thought that was a pretty good answer. Also, he asked me to baptize him... so I'm a little nervous to do it. Rosa was sick yesterday but we will see who she wants to baptize her.

The rest of the week..... Wednesday we had a office couple (a husband/wife set of missionaries who help run the clerical side of things) come check our piso, so i went into military mode last week, they said it was the cleanest one in the mission, even better than the hermanas. Wednesday and Thursday we picked up 3 new investigators. One has some potential, but it might take a while, we are starting with finding faith.... fun!!! Saturday we visited Rosa and Julio, so I'm gonna restate how awesome they are. We had a good Sunday, 4 investigators in church, good day, and we might have had the best numbers in the zone for the week, not like it's a competition... but if it was we would have won. LOL

Well, I love y'all. Hope all is going well.

Chapter of the week, 2 Nephi 31, Gospel of Christ

Well I love you all,

Elder Roos

A Great Week in Terrassa!

So if you remember correctly Rosa and Julio where the ones who were going to be baptized at the beginning of July but we lost contact with them. well you'll like the story.

Well, last Thursday we got a call from a man who had moved here from Australia (originally from Argentina) and wanted us to come visit him and help him figure out a way he can come to church. Just so happen that he and his family live in the same pueblo as Rosa and Julio. So we set up a Noche De Hogar for Wednesday and me and my companion asked a member who helped us with Rosa and Julio to drive us out there and if we could just drop by their house just to see if we could find them.
Well we did and they were there. This is where is gets good. As we were talking she was telling us how she kept thinking about us and the church and how she really needed to come back, she even told us that last Thursday (same day the new member called us)she couldn't stop thinking about the church.... God works in wonderful ways,. We taught an awesome lesson out of 1Nephi 8 (tree of life, thank you Rach for the silver Parker pen because I used it as the iron rod) Now we are going to baptize them both on the 28th.

Yeah the only problem that came up is they don't have a car, nor the two member family who live up there and the first bus doesn't come until well after church starts. So Sunday we went up with the bishop and his family to do a sacrament meeting with all them up there. This is how amazing our bishop is (remember what he has been through the last month, and without a job). So he is going to leave an hour earlier then he normally does, go up there to pick up the 8 people in his nine person van and drive them to church and put his kids on a train.... amazing right? Yeah, I hope my mansion in heaven is in the same neighborhood as his.

It's been a really good week. We had a good zone conference yesterday (meeting with the missionaries in the surrounding area). Thanks for prayers, they get answered don't they?
Love,
Elder Roos

Two More Baptisms!

Omar and his eight-year-old son were baptized! Here is what Stevie had to say about it:

Well, just like Juana and her daughters (Augustine's family), I had doubts that this day would ever come, but it did. It was awesome. I was happy that the ward made a good appearance. I would say there were about 50 people there. Also, there were several of their friends so hopefully they could feel the spirit and have a little more interest in the church.... so we will see...

So yeah, we are still super dry on investigators (people to teach), we did some good searching on Thursday, but then Friday and Saturday my companion got sick so we didn't get the chance to capitalize on it. The companion is dong alright. I have to tell you I hate killing Elders (being the last companion before an Elder returns home). Its like he is in a moral fight between when he know he needs to do and what he feels like he can justify dong only cause he has 4 weeks left, I can give you the days if you want them, he keeps reminding me. So, yeah, I have to fight not only to keep myself motivated, while trying to motivate him without him getting offensive about it. He is pretty good he just kinda took a downward turn this last week and a half.

We are seeing a good amount of success with one less active family we have (the one the Assistant to the President insulted). We got the entire family to church yesterday, that brought a big smile to my face. It's pretty much because the sixteen-year-old she broke up with her bad news bf so her mom told her church would make her feel better.

The bishop and his family seem to be doing really well (The Bishop's wife lost her battle with cancer a few weeks ago). We caught a ride with his from his pueblo back to Terrassa last week and I got to have a good talk with him. He is a awesome guy.

The year mark went well, we didn't really do all that much cause E. Lindsey got sick, so I bought me some cookies and a soda and celebrated like that. LOL, oh the exciting life of a missionary. So pray that we find some investigators, and more importantly that they are really interested.

Elder Roos

Omar, his eight year old son, and his older son who performed the baptisms.
Elder Lindsay and Stevie with Omar and his sons.
Stevie with Omar and his family and friends.

Update

Well, Stephen lost his camera (I know you are all shocked!), so we are no longer receiving audios. Hopefully I'll be better at posting again.

Just a quick update - Stevie is no longer in Manacoor, he is now in Terrassa, a suburb of Barcelona. They have had a tough couple of weeks but it looks like things are looking up - Here is his latest letter:

So yeah, much better week than last week. It wasn't perfect, we are still low on investigators (people to teach) and lessons, but saw some awesome success with Omar (a man they have been teaching for a few months) and others.

Okay, so funny story first. There is an OLDER LADY in our ward. Very strong testimony and very good member, but is kinda losing her mind a little. So, she is really good about sharing the gospel with everyone, especially the Muslim lady at the fruit store she goes too. A couple weeks ago she asked us for a Book of Mormon to give her, so of course we took one over to the member. Well, Friday we went to visit her and she wass like, "You know my friend,I took back the Book of Mormon. I told her if she wasn't gonna read it then I'm taking it away. She didn't believe me so i took it from her right there." I guess we need to count our blessings that we cant teach her anyways. LOL

Saturday we had the most spiritual cita I have had my entire mission with Omar. His son, the older one, not the soccer player had just got back from EFY (a week long conference for youth in the church) so he was on a spiritual high. We decided to have a testimony session right there. It was amazing. Omar gave an amazing testimony how he knows all of this is true because sometihng that wasn't of God couldn't make him feel this good. It was amazing. We announced his baptism at church and he got even more excited about it. The ward is giving him really good support. We are also going to baptize his 8 yr old son, so come Saturday the entire family will be members.

Yesterday our church service was all the youth talking about EFY. They really did come back 100 times stronger. I loved how one woman went up and bore her testimony telling them if they like this feeling, to serve a mission. it was an amazing meeting.

So yeah, that's about it. I hit a year thursday, also Omar has his interview that day so it could be a day to celebrate. Keep him in your prayers.

love elder roos

Pictures

I realize I have been a major slacker but here are some of the pictures Stevie has sent over the past few months.

I'm not sure if this is a gallery or what, but that is a picture of the two of them.

A close-up of the photo in the gallery window.

All the elders serving on the island of Mallorca.

Stephen and Elder Hansen with Augustine and his family. Augustine was already a member and he baptized his wife and two older children. His son is not yet old enough to be baptized.

We have this same picture of Stevie and an elder who was serving in our ward when Stevie was about seven or eight.

Spain wins the World Cup!
Stephen and Elder Neaseth with a young women and her boyfriend whom they were teaching.

The Manacoor Branch.

Paella - One of his favorite foods since arriving in Spain