Christmas season

Hello dearest family and friends,

'Tis the season to be jolly! It's weird to think that it is already
Christmas again here in the land of the sun! It is getting a little
cold here in Sevilla I'm not the biggest fan of the cold but it could
be worse! We had a pretty good week. Monday we went to the center to
see some cool things and eat Taco bell! That's really all we did...
it's a shame I'm not the biggest sight seeing guy.

This week we also had the usual district meeting and later taught one
of our investigators that works as a hair dresser. It is pretty cool
how we met her, I might have already shared this story... if I have
I'm sure my mom will edit it out. But anyways, one day as we were on
our way to an investigators house we passed by a hair place
where a less active lady works. As we went to go see who was inside we
saw another lady who we didn't know crying. So we knocked on the door
and asked her if everything was all right. It turns out that she had
been diagnosed with cancer and was very scared and worried about the
future. But in that very moment when we knocked on the door she had
prayed to the Lord to bring her comfort. We ended up teaching her the
gospel and how it can heal us and bring us peace. This week we taught
her the restoration and invited her to be baptized in January, to
which she responded yes!

I am constantly reminded of the pure goodness of our Father in Heaven
and how mindful He is of each one of us. I am thankful that this
Christmas I get to do my favorite thing. I love being a missionary! It
really is the most rewarding work I have ever done. I wish everyone
could see the wonder of this work! It has opened my eyes to the beauty
of the plan of our Father.

I wish everyone the greatest Christmas ever! Find some time to serve!
Find some time to remember the real reason we are all here! Let's
remember Him and love He who loved us first!

Love
Elder Owens

Hey everyone!

This passed week was amazing! Last Monday we bought some Christmas
decorations from a Chino (basically a store ran by Chinese people that
sell bad quality stuff for dirt cheap!) we also ate thanksgiving at
TGIF Fridays! An American family here in Sevilla invited us to eat
with them!

We spent some time in Malaga and Fuengirola doing some intercambios
and doing my residency! I got to see my good friend Elder Pearce! He
is such a boss! I love getting to see my old areas!

This week we talked with a lot of people and have been working a lot
more with the members. We have been helping the members recognize all
the people they know and how they can help them invite their friends
to learn about the gospel. Things are pretty calm here in Sevilla! A
lot of good people! We are having a lot of fun! I love Elder Hirst a
lot!

Christmas is coming up and there is a new initiative for the month of
December! #lighttheworld
I invite you all to participate in this great activity and do your
best to be a follower of Jesus Christ!

I wish you all the best week! Keep going strong!

Love,
Elder Owens
owens.christopher@myldsmail.net

Padre Pedro
Ayala 68 Bajo D
41005  Sevilla,
España.

Fun times in Sevilla

Dear family and friends,

We are having a great time here in Sevilla! We are on our way to
Malaga right now and will be back tomorrow! So I apologize for the
wimpy email... just kind of like all my emails...

We had some fun adventures this week! We were sitting down looking up
some directions on my companion's iPad and out of nowhere a man come
running by and swipes the iPad out of my companion's hands. We didn't
feel like losing the iPad so we started chasing him. The man wasn't
following the word of wisdom so we quickly got to him, got ahold of his
jacket and ripped it off his back. He freaked out and dropped the iPad
and took out a knife because he thought we were going to beat the snot
out of him. So we got the iPad and got out. Haha some people are not
that smart here in Sevilla! We will be more careful with our iPads
from now on.

We have been trying to help the ward a lot this week! We cut out snow
flakes and and we are going to put them on the doors of the members.
There is nothing more important than a unified ward! Hopefully the
Christmas spirit will help us be better missionaries for the lord!

At times, back at home, I didn't take advantage of the great
organization of the church where I lived. Now that I serve in wards
with such few members, I really understand the importance of the
church. We need a place to go where we can feel the love of others to
build us up with the good word of God. It's so important that we truly
and genuinely help the great family we have in our wards. I love the
church and the goodness that comes from it. I wish you all the best of
luck!

Love,
Elder Owens

My week

Dear family and friends,

This week we unfortunately haven't been in our area as much as we
wanted, but you get what you get! Monday and Tuesday we spent the
whole day in Fuengirola at the mission home to do some mission council
stuff. We had a good time and I got to see Elder Salcedo my old
companion from Barcelona he will be finishing his mission in a few
weeks. I doubt it will be the last time I see him considering he had 5
companions from Arizona and will want to give them all a visit one of
these days. Wednesday we did our weekly planing and did some family
history for one of the recent converts of our ward from Nigeria. On
Thursday we had a super sweet Christmas lunch for the ward. I was
honestly amazed! Considering spain is still in its early years of the
church this activity was a pretty big hit! While everyone was eating
there was a talent show going on with a lot of the ward members! They
were some pretty awesome skits, one including the primary singing and
dancing to supercalafregalisticexpialadoshisa... ya I have no idea...
but anyways, there was also a flamenca band! That afternoon we spent
some time with Morrison (the member from Nigeria) I even ate some Foo
Foo! It's a special dish from Nigeria.
Friday we had zone meeting! It went pretty well, we decorated the room
with some Christmas decorations to give it a little Christmas spirit!
Afterwards we ate Costco pizza and cookies!! That afternoon we had
intercambios with the Elders From Córdoba and got the chance to find
some cool people! We met a girl from China that came to Spain to
study, so hopefully we can get with her some time this week! Saturday
the ward hosted a orchestra concert for the skate of Sevilla and
invited a local school to preform there. Sunday we had our
investigator Isaac in the church and got him to sign up for the ward
temple trip to Madrid!

As a missionary there are a lot of things that need to be done
temporally speaking and spiritually speaking. The same goes for anyone
really. The important part is where we put the focus on in our life.
Is the spiritual aspect of our lives the number one thing? Do we go to
church to increase the social aspect of our temporal life? Do we seek
praise? Where is our heart? One thing I have learned on my mission is
that we need to accommodate our temporal life to increase our
spiritual life. I don't set goals and make plans, study preach my
gospel, and study the mission language because I don't want to be on
the street. I set goals and make plans and do all of these things so
that i can be a better and more affective missionary. I invite you all
to ask yourselves where your heart is. Why do you go to work every
day? Why do you have a family? Why do you go to church to take the
sacrament? What is the purpose of this life? All of these questions
have answers! So seek the scriptures for them! You will be surprised
what happens!

I love you all,

Elder Owens!

Elder Christopher Owens
Padre Pedro Ayala 68 Bajo D
41005, Seville
Spain

Goodbye Fuengirola Hello Sevilla

 

Hello my brothers and sisters!

 

Well as you can tell, I will be leaving to Sevilla on Wednesday! My new companion is Elder Hirst! He has the same amount of time as me in the mission. I am sad I'm leaving, but Fuengirola is in good hands!

 

First of all I wish to apologize for the boring emails... trust me, it's about as hard to write them as it is to read them. The culture here in Spain is absolutely amazing and at times I fail to share it with you all. But I need some help. Shoot me some questions and I will be sure to answer them!

 

Well anyways, on to the good stuff!

 

I wish to speak on the subject of "laziness"...

 

Ok, so as missionaries we speak to a lot of people! and when you share the greatest message in the world people tend to give you there information so that we can contact them in a better moment. That's where things get a little... frustrating on our part. I have a list of at least 150 people who we have talked with on the street and a small handful of those people actually meet with us on another occasion because of pure laziness. I feel the biggest reason people miss out on the greatest things in life is because of laziness. How about we promise ourselves to be better on top of things and do the things the lord needs us to do.

 

I wish to speak of a person who is not lazy, and her name is Leonor! We have been meeting with her the last couple of weeks and she decided that she was going to reed the Book of Mormon every day. This one act changed her life! She has found answers to her prayers in that books and has decided she wants to be baptized the 17th of December! If she can do it so can we!

 

I promise that as we decided to be more proactive our hearts will be changed to be a better servant of the lord! I wish you all the best! 

Love, 

Elder Owens

owens.christopher@myldsmail.net

Happy Halloween

 

Hello my beautiful family and friends,

 

It's another great day in Fuengirola. We are here in Malaga right now celebrating Halloween with the other missionaries. We carved pumpkins, played some football and ate rotisserie chicken.

 

I would have to say this week has been a very... umm fun... we will go with that.  When you teach people the gospel you naturally create a love for the person and when they tell you they don't want to continue in this path of happiness and peace it breaks your heart. Unfortunately there were a lot of people this week who did exactly that. I felt just a tiny bit like our father in Heaven feels when we decided to stray from the path that His perfect son has provided. He weeps when we are disobedient because we are separating ourselves from Him.

 

We have had a lot of opportunities to meet a lot of amazing people. A lot of people we are working with are face to face with the decision to act with faith or stay still, and rot! We need to act with faith always! Because when we do we will be happy.

 

I sit here and think what I could say that would bless the people that read my emails... But there is not much more I could say than what Jesus said to all of us... "If you love me, keep my commandments". I know if we do just that, all will be good in the end. All will be well. Keep fighting, keep believing!

 

I love you all I hope you have a great Halloween! Be safe!

Love, 

Elder Owens

owens.christopher@myldsmail.net

Keep on digging

 

Dear family and friends!

 

I don't know if I have said anything about Norwegians yet but we found this 19 year old kid named Nicklas from Norway. When we first met it seemed to good to be true. But now I know it's true! Like most Scandinavians the word of wisdom(health code revealed from the lord to the prophet) is a little bit difficult to follow. But with the known fear of how difficult it would be, he promised to follow the commandments. I know for a surety that if it were not for the love of our savior there would be no reason for his change. He came with us to church this week and just loved it. Good thing I was speaking in church so I could speak about things he needed to hear.

 

This week we also had interviews with president. He is an amazing man. He helped me understand the importance in studying the important things. As missionaries we study a lot! More than that we study the same things every day. So at times we spend our time studying things that are not really important at the moment and we lose the precious time we had to study and increase our ability as missionaries. President reminded me of the story of the wise man and the foolish man. It says that he dug deep! And built his house upon a rock! Even know we might have read the Book of Mormon countless times already. We need to dig deeper and deeper!

 

This week I had to renew my residency here in Spain so I got to see a lot of sweet faces including my last companion. The mission truly is the best! I have such sweet relationships with such great people!

 

I love ya all!

 

Love, 

Elder Owens

Rain, rain go away, come again another day

Dear family and friends,

 

Have you ever blinked passed a week? Well if you haven't, go on a mission!

 

This last Monday we decided to go check out the carnivals! Let's just say that safety codes are a little bit different here in Spain. Towards the back of the fair there was the classic Viking ship ride but with a twist! At each end of the ship there was a cage... no straps, no nothing. Just a cage with 6 people crammed inside. Not to mention this thing comes apart and fits in a truck to be taken to other places in the country. I'm pretty sure I saw a few people leave with blood on their shirt.

 

This Friday is rained!! It was the 2nd time I had to use an umbrella in over a year!! Unfortunately Spanish people are afraid of the rain so there was nobody on the streets. But you know what that means! They were all in their houses! Haha!

 

This week we also had Zone meeting! The zone leaders are really good at getting us animated! We are focusing on finding new investigators! Something I have learned is that our father in Heaven is working so hard with each of us! He is doing his best to prepare each person to hear this wonderful gospel! What we need to do as missionaries is show the faith and trust that the Lord will guid us to those who are ready.

 

I wish to speak about being organized and clean. I have seen many houses here in Spain. I have seen clean ones and not so clean ones. But every now and again we get the apocalypse house, where it looks like the house has gone through world war 3, zombies, and a nuclear bomb. I know that the spirt cannot dwell in a dirty unorganized place. The same goes with an area. If you do not utilize all the tools given to you, he area can become unorganized and people can be forgotten. It is so important to show the lord that you treasure the blessings you have received. I know the Savior lives and he is watching what we do with the things we have and the blessings he has given.

 

I hope you all have an amazing week!

 

Love, 

Elder Owens

owens.christopher@myldsmail.net

Are you willing to take up your cross?

 

Dear family and friends!

 

The Carnival is here!! I am now no longer in awe at the amount of partying that goes down here in Spain. It was just a normal afternoon when out of the blue we saw this lady in a flamenca dress, at first we were just thinking it was a crazy lady but it turns out that almost every single lady in the town of Fuengirola was wearing these dresses. 

 

We had a family home evening this week with a Bolivian family! They invited some of their non Mormon friends to come and meet us. It was a little awkward at first because the family didn't mention that there would be missionaries there, but good thing my companion is a funny guy so the ice was broken pretty fast.

 

On my free time(the 20min after eating) I have been reading Jesus The Christ. Wow... is that a great book.... but as I was reading it spoke a little about when Jesus told his disciples to "take up your cross and follow me". It hit me... to be converted to this gospel we need to be willing to literally give up everything. There is no mark to reach, no certain amount of points to score. We need to give give everything and follow Him. There might be just one thing we are not willing to give up... but that will be our downfall.

 

Something that has really helped me is sincere prayer. Really praying to my father who loves me. Someone who listens and answers. When was the last time you prayed on your knees out loud telling your father everything! Also reading the scriptures! Someone smarter than me said, "praying is how we talk with God and the scriptures is how God talks with us." I invite you all to do the simple things! Read and pray.

 

I love you all!

 

Love, 

Elder Owens

Elder Zwick!

Dear family and friends,

This week we were visited by Elder Zwick of the first quorum of the
70. The inspiration he brought to the mission will be pondered and
applied for years to come. He spoke a lot on personal revelation and
that it is an absolute necessity in remaining strong in the faith.
Every time we open the scriptures or say a prayer we need to treat it
how it really is. It should be an amazing experience! Every time!

We have been teaching some awesome people here in Fuengirola! We met a
guy named David Who is an architect and Is pretty interested in the
Book of Mormon. We are going to see what comes of it all! Also we met
with a lady named Loyda! She is a rockstar! She wants to change her
life around and become a better mother for her kids!

Angie in my last area just got baptized!! She is the best! It's
unbelievable the miracles the lord is able to preform! He is always
there and will never forsake us.

I invite you all to have the best scripture study of your lives! Study
with faith and don't forget a prayer ;)


Love,
Elder Owens
owens.christopher@myldsmail.net

Goals

Dear family and friends,

As another week slips by, the familiar scene of me and my companion
sitting side by side writing our families reminds me of how precious
our time really is. The way we use our time surely shows the respect
and love for our creator who freely gave it to us. Being here in
Spain, a day does not go by without seeing a game played on the local
30 tapas bars within a mile radius. When I think of the word "goal"
two things come to my mind. (1) A plan that can assist us to reach our
greatest dreams and desires, and (2) the word the announcer yells as
we watch extremely talented people live our dreams and desires.

As children of a Father in Heaven we need to realize that our time
here is short and that we cannot waste even a second of it. Let's
choose now to not waste our time and do what needs to be done! In D&C
107:99-100 it says...

99 Wherefore, now let every man learn his duty, and to act in the
office in which he is appointed, in all diligence.

100 He that is slothful shall not be counted worthy to stand, and he
that learns not his duty and shows himself not approved shall not be
counted worthy to stand. Even so. Amen.

I would have to say I'm pretty good at setting goals, but when it
comes to actually carrying them out I don't do so well. Something that
has really helped me is being accountable and involving someone to
help me be accountable. At the end of each night my iPad goes off and
my companion asks me if I completed my goal. There is no worse feeling
than saying to your companion, at that moment,"no".  
I am so thankful for this great experience. I invite you all to:

1. Learn your duty
2. Act with all diligence
3. Never be Lazy

You are children of God! You can do it!

Love,
Elder Owens

¡Fuengirola tio!

Good,

 

Spanish fun fact of the day! Good morning means buenas dias, but people here are really lazy so they just say buenas. so they are just basically saying "Good!"

 

"Hey Good!"  "Good!"

 

 

Yeah it´s like that...

 

Well, I would say it has been a GOOD week! We started teaching a man by the name of Saul! He is pretty awesome! We had a super spiritual lesson and set a baptismal date for the 24th. Fuengirola is so amazing and has such great potential! There are people from all over the world here!

 

This week we decided to set a goal to talk with every single person! For all of those who have not visited Spain its basically walking around in the microwaveable food section of Walmart. There are always people there no matter what time of day. So I would say we talked to around 200 people this week. By doing this we saw countless miracles. Sometimes our fear gets in the way of the Lords work! We need to able to work on the level of the Lord. It is not easy to get there, but we need to make our best effort to be able to show the Lord our faith.

 

I was just informed the other day that Angie (the girl in my last area who changed her life in a week)

will get baptized this Wednesday!!! The Lord has so many ways of getting his work done! I am so blessed to be able to be a first hand witness of it.

 

As I think of my mission, and the times when I grew the most, I wasn't necessarily having fun. We need to understand that not all of life is rainbows and unicorns. Don´t get me wrong! Life is super fun and a great attitude can change everything. We just can’t expect life to be super fun and interesting ALL the time. Some of the greatest moments on my mission have been uncomfortable. It’s when we make hard decisions that we can truly change!

 

I love how simple yet so complex the Gosple is! We can always do better!

 

I love this gospel!!

 

Love,

Elder Owens   

Fuengirola

Dear family and friends,

 

Things are going great! I am loving it here in Fuengirola!! We are getting to know a lot of people and meeting a lot of the members. We have seen so many miracles this week its crazy. There are just too many to tell but I will just let you know on a little secret! God loves us and wants us to be happy! If we have enough faith and are willing to act upon the promptings of the spirit you will see miracles!

 

My companion is Elder Pearce! He is seriously the best! I could not of asked for a better comp!

he is from Lindin Utah and is the baby of 4 kids! He is super funny and has the best laugh ever.

 

This week we left the keys in our apartment and so we spent 30 minutes using a card to break into our house. Luckily our neighbor saw us and helped us get in! haha

 

I do not have a ton of time today but I just want to express my love for all the amazing time and experiences I have seen on my mission has really blessed my life and helped me know what I want to do to have a successful happy life!

 

I love you all and wish you a great day!

 

Love,

Elder Owens

Utter destruction!

Hello friends and family!

 

I would say this week has been one of the craziest weeks of my mission!

 

First off, this Angie girl we found last week is amazing! She has met with us every day since we met and has changed her whole life around! I have never seen a human being change so fast! She has stopped smoking, drinking, using bad language, the way she dresses, she even broke up with her boyfriend who she had been with for 3 years because he was holding her back. I am amazed... A 22 year old girl who had known the church for a week has put everything on the alter of sacrifice because she knows what she wants and she is willing to do anything for it. We have known the church for years and their are things that we are not willing to change. She is a wonderful example of faith and action! Her baptism is for the 3rd of September and she is ready!

 

I received news this week that I will be leaving Torrevieja. I won't lie I'm super sad. I hate leaving the people that I have gotten to know and love. But the work must go on! The lord has been blessing and preparing Torrevieja for some big changes this next transfer! After some discussion, president has decided to put 2 extra missionaries in Torrevieja! They will be sisters missionaries with a car! I will be going to Fuengirola the 22nd to open an area there and train! I am super thankful for the great experiences I have had in Torrevieja and the amazing people I have gotten to know. 

 

I have been studying a lot in the Book of Mormon lately and I just read in Helaman when the Nephites become wicked again. It says in Helaman 4:13  "And because of this their great wickedness, and their boastings in their own strength, they were left in their own strength; therefore they did not prosper, but were afflicted and smitten, and driven before the Lamanites, until they had lost possession of almost all their lands."

I testify that we are nothing without our God... He provides everything! If because of our pride we think in any way, shape or form that we can do something without our God we are dead wrong. We are not strong enough... I love the scriptures and the revelation that I have received through them. We must be humble enough to ask for help and humble enough to change the things we do wrong. I invite you all to ask your Father in Heaven what you need to improve. He will help you if you are sincere and humble.

 

I love you all, remember your God in all things!!

 

Love, 

Elder Owens

 

Well.... Sorry!

Dear family and friends!

I'm sorry this email is going to be short!

We found this amazing girl named Angie this week! She is doing amazing
and I will talk more about her the next week!

Sofia had her interview and will be baptized the 20th!! Woooooo!!

There are going to be a lot of changes in Torrevieja in a few weeks I
will have more information about it next week as well!

I'm am so thankful for the great blessings the lord has given me and
my companion! We have seen endless miracles this last week!! Our
mission is focusing on being consecrated and we will be receiving 28
new missionaries in a few weeks!

THIS WORK WILL GO FORWARD!!!!!

I love you all!

Love,
Elder Owens
owens.christopher@myldsmail.net

Jamón

Dear family and friends!

It's not every day in the mission field you find yourself hauling
around a 20lbs hind leg of a pig. To explain a little bit, we work
once a week in a food kitchen giving food to less fortunate people. We
have come to be good friends with some of the people there and so they
invited us to eat lunch with all of the volunteers completely free. So
we were just having a good time eating at a Spanish restaurant taking
about what we do as missionaries and all of they sudden the head chef
guy pulls out this huge Jamón (hind led of pig that has been put in
salt for a long time). So they started selling tickets for the raffle
and everyone but us bought tickets. Unfortunately for every body else
the chef guy gave us each of us one ticket. Yep... We won a huge pig
leg. It was pretty funny! I'm glad no one got upset.

Also I don't know if it is big in the states but here everyone is
running around catching Pokemon with this new app that came out. It's
pretty funny!

We ate this week with a pretty cool family! The husband is from Spain
and the wife is from Austria, and they have 4 girls! But the thing is,
is that they all speak 3 languages perfectly.
It's pretty amazing to me how cool this family is! They are only in
Spain for the summer and are in the Germany Alpine mission in Austria
the rest of the year! Shout out to Kami Cullimore!

We are also getting a mini missionary today so next week I'll tell you
all about him!

So the 20th of August we will be having a baptism for the mother of
Veronica and we are super excited! They are so awesome, and will
forever be some of the most amazing people I have met here in Spain! I
am thankful the lord has blessed us so much here in Torrevieja! There
are some truly amazing people here!

All around I am so thankful for my mission! It definitely has been one
of my greatest decisions! It has helped me set the direction I want my
life to go! I would never trade the experiences I have gained here. I
know as we strive to serve our savior and do what the Prophet asks us
to do we will see his hands in our lives molding us to become who he
wants up to be. We as children of a God have so much potential! I know
there are some of you out there with the decision to serve a mission.
With all of my heart and sole, I testify that serving the lord by
helping his children be saved will be the greatest thing you can do.
He loves us so much. It's our duty and our privilege to serve the
lord. He died so that I may live and I am eternally grateful. I know
the lord blesses us for our sacrifices to serve him. I know now more
than ever that anything is possible with the lord on your side. Be not
afraid, only believe.