Kings day

Hello family and friends,

This week has been loaded with many marvelous adventures and miracles!
I feel that throughout the year and a half that I have been writing
these emails I have failed to truly express the absolute culture
difference there is between Spain and the United States. In the early
days of the United States we celebrated two holidays, first, the
Fourth of July and second, thanksgiving. Obviously throughout time
more holiday have been added to the United States Calendar. But the
point is, is that there are not many holidays celebrated the the
United States in comparison to Spain. I can't even express how many
holidays are celebrated in this country. Let me try to name a few: (oh
and by the way, every holiday I am going to list is celebrated more
extravagantly than we celebrate Christmas) ok... Semana Santa, día de
Reyes, feria de Abril, Halloween, la Navidad, día De los Santos, los
moros y cristianos, día del virgen María, año nuevo, viernes santo, la
pascua, día internacional de los trabajadores, día de la Asunción,
fiesta nacional de España, día de la constitución, inmaculada
concepción, san Valentín, and every single town has its own party for
some virgin and for whatever else they can think of. Basically they
LOVE to party here and It usually consists of alcohol, fire works, and
screaming.

So this week they celebrated kings day! They have this huge parade
where they go in big floats and throw literally tons of candy and toys
to the literally thousands of people along the streets. We were
invited by some investigators to go and watch it and it was... cool!

I'm feeling better this week, so that's good. I'm averaging a sickness
every 6 months, hopefully that pattern keeps up.

I love the Book of Mormon! It just teaches such goodness! I am
thankful for the great men and woman who have sacrificed so much to
give us the Book of Mormon and the Bible.

I love you all I hope you have a great week!

Elder owens!

Best New Years ever!

Hello family and friends!

Really not much to say about this week. We had a super great district
meeting where we did a secret santa and ate together. Other than that
we were stuck in the apartment because I stared this new diet plan
called, The Flu... so yeah... basically not the most productive week.
But at least there are great things that can be learned from trial!
But -10 pounds later I'm feeling a lot better.

So we are headed down to Fuengirola again for some meetings and will
hopefully get working again by Wednesday! We are teaching some great
people, we just need to help them understand more the importance of
sacrifice and really showing the lord you want to follow his will.

I can't believe it's already been a year... the only full year of my
life as a missionary. It's hard to believe that the greatest year ever
has come and passed. I think back to all of the lessons I learned and
the amazing people I have met. I am so thankful for the time I have
had to be a missionary and the experiences the Lord has set for me so
that I can learn to be more like my savior. Now it's time to make this
next year even better! There are always goals that can be made to help
us become more like the savior and better servants of him.

I love you all so much! I'm sorry it's not the greatest letter.

Love
Elder Owens

Remember Him

Dear family and friends,

What an amazing time of year it has been! Christmas will always have a
special place in my heart! That really sums up the week! We did a lot
of preparations for the Christmas conference we had as a multi-zone.
My companion and I hosted the talent show this year; it went pretty
well, all we really had to do was announce the upcoming talents and say
jokes while people were getting ready. Unfortunately this was a
struggle for us... jokes in Spanish are not really that common, let
alone jokes that a bunch of greengos can understand. But we ended up
making it work! We also did a skit with some other missionaries that
got a few laughs; we acted out certain parts of a missionary day,
like, comp. study, transfer calls, weekly planning, contacting, etc.
But as if famous characters were one of the missionaries. For example,
we did one with Batman getting transfer calls, the Hulk calling a fake
number, Gandalf contacting and the Grinch doing daily planning. They
were pretty funny!

Also, during the week a less active member took us out to a brand new
KFC here in Seville, also he got us some key chains with the first
letter of our first name. He is a pretty cool guy! We also were
invited to go to another church by one of our investigators this week!
It was really different and quite funny at the start! As the service
went on the activities changed quite rapidly and my companion and I
were not used to it... Let's just say we snuck out because I was
getting scared.

I am thankful for this great Christmas time and the great experiences
that went with it. Now as this time comes to a close let's make it a
special effort to keep the focus of Christ at the same level. I
promise as we do exactly that, the love of Christ will fill our lives
and we will be happy no matter our circumstances!

I love you all! And I hope you had a great Christmas!

Love
Elder Owen