1808 Kilometers, crowds are scary, New Years Inbox x

Hello dearest friends and family,

First I would like to apologize for not sending an email last week, I
will explain.

These past few weeks have been very special, we were planning to have
a baptism the 9th for our friend Ivan. He is the Bulgarian guy. The
Saturday before his baptism we could not contact him, he was not in
his house and he was not answering his phone. But we needed to make
sure he was coming to church because if he didn't he could not get
baptized. So we did what two teenage boys would do. We went on an Ivan
hunt. As we sat in our car and offered a prayer to our Father in
Heaven that His will would be done, we had a thought to search in some
buildings that we knew some of his friends lived. So we rang on a
random door and thankfully they let us into the building. We went
straight to the mailboxes and found a name that was not "Maria" (I say
that becomes everyone's name is Maria here) Anyway, we found a
Bulgarian name and we went to the door and knocked. Yes ladies and
gentlemen, Ivan was in that home. Unfortunately he really needs money
and so he decided to go and work instead. I won't lie, I was very
frustrated. But all we could do was testify of the importance of
church and let him make his own decision. Update on him, he is getting
lessons from the Bulgarian missionaries.

Earlier that day we suffered a LOT of rejection. It was really
effecting me. But as we were walking, we saw a house just filled with
people playing on instruments. My boss companion just went and
knocked on the door. They invited us in and played us a few songs. We
ended up teaching a lesson to everyone. It was pretty cool! Nothing
really came from it but it was very interesting.

So the reason I did not write an email last week was because I drove
to Malaga. They have a meeting every month for the zone leaders and I
got to drive 4 zone leaders to this meeting. I was suppose to work
with the Elders in Malaga during the meeting, but because they didn't
pick me up so President had me sit in the meeting with them. This, for me,
was very amazing, because I had the opportunity to see the plans that
the Lord has for our mission. It truly was an honor to be there.

Also, I was called by one of the office Elders only to find out that I
needed to come down to the office for residency. So I packed my bags again and drove 4
other Elders in my group back to Malaga....
Let me tell you! This was not that easy for me. I'm pretty sure I fell
asleep 3 times.. Shhhhh don't tell my parents. I had to pull one of my
dads strategies and drink 3 Gallons of Coke.

We had a pretty great New Years! We ate grapes! This tradition is to
eat 12 grapes in 12 seconds and while you do this you wish for stuff
for the 12 months of the year. We also played cards and drank some
stuff! Haha jk Fanta, Cola and water.

There is something that happens in the 2 years of serving a mission.
As a member of the Church there are commandments that we follow. But
as a missionary there about 40x more commandments added, from the
Missionary Manual, the Preach my Gospel book and other rules given to
us by our President. We cannot be perfect. Is is impossible. Only
Christ has that title of perfection. This should not be an excuse to
be disobedient though. We might not be able to be perfect but we sure
can put every ounce of our being to try. There is growth that comes
from being obedient. I know that for a fact. I see it every day from
those investigators who choose to follow the commandments. Being as
obedient as possible is not comfortable. It is hard. Very hard. But
the growth that you will experience from this obedience will better
your life. I invite you all to grow this week. I love you all and you
are in my prayers. Please just be obedient.

Love
Elder Owens