Share to care and care to share

 

Dear family and friends,

It has been one of those crazy weeks this week. This last Monday we had interviews with president and did some fun things like go to the center of Sevilla and play some board games. Wednesday and Thursday we had intercambios in Malaga and when we got back Thursday night we assisted a district leader training meeting and gave a little workshop thing. Friday morning we had a tri-zone missionary conference with a third of the mission.Saturday evening we had the stake conference priesthood session and the adult session with Elder Suarez of the quorum of the 70. Sunday morning Elder Suarez spoke to all the missionaries in the stake and later to the whole stake in general. So yeah... pretty full week!

Well even though all of these activities were pretty fun and exciting, I personally would like to share what I treasure the most out of all of this, and that is what I felt and learned throughout it all. Well I honestly don't know who all reads my emails considering it's my mother who sends these emails to everyone, but for all those who are not too familiar with the church,  the fist paragraph of this email probably makes no sense and I apologize for that, I do wish to explain the purpose of a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Also, for all of those who are missionaries I would like you to take note as well.

As a "set apart" (or in other words set apart from the world) missionary of this church, you are called to invite others to come unto Christ. Now with this said I want us to all think, why?

Now really there is no exact answer, but I do wish to share something that I feel could be one of the answers.

In Moses 1:39 it is God speaking to Moses and it says that "For behold, this is my work and my glory--to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man."

We learn in this scripture that our Father in Heaven receives glory when we do the things necessary to receive eternal life. So when Jesus Christ died for us so that we could repent and revive eternal life he was giving glory to our Father in Heaven. So as missionaries, even know we can't pay for people's sins, what we can do, is help them receive eternal life by teaching them the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and inviting them to come unto Him and receive eternal life and in turn we are giving glory to God. I hope I am explaining myself well. As we help bring soles unto Christ we glorify our Father in Heaven.

Now with this said, as missionaries we share this message with EVERYONE. Did you notice that I capitalized the word EVERYONE? Because it is important. We talk to EVERYONE, and we don't justify the word EVERYONE. EVERYONE is EVERYONE... The reason we do this is because we love God. We love our Savior Jesus Christ. We know this message we share will bless EVERYONE who will listen.

I hope this email doesn't seem too strong but I do wish that everyone that reads this email knows that I love my Father in Heaven and I am not afraid to share this gospel with everyone... so look out Spain....

I love you all! Be safe and do what's right!

Elder Owens

Pure Love

Dear family and friends,

I would say it has been a pretty normal week! Aka an amazing week! My
companion is Elder Maldonado! He is from Brazil but has lived in
Zaragoza, Spain since he was 8. He is the best!

I just got out of my interview with president, and what a privilege it
is to speak with such an inspired man and see what a great example he
is of a diligent servant of Christ.

We have been focusing a lot on the Holy Ghost lately as a mission. The
gift of the Holy Ghost has been running trough my head a lot lately.
As I have studied and prayed about this gift I have gained a greater
understanding of the absolute need for this gift. When we repent unto
baptism, we then, in turn, receive the gift of the Holy Ghost by the
laying on of hands. This constant companion has played one of the
greatest roles in my life. As I have striven to be worthy of this
gift, it has amplified all functions of who I am. When I say that, I
mean that the Spirt has led greater light into my heart and sole and
has literally changed the way I think, see and feel. I testify that
God lives. I testify that the infinite sacrifice of Jesus the
Christ, our Savior and Redeemer is more powerful than we can even
imagine. Trust and have the faith that It as as real as the world is
round. I love you all and forever will be my greatest desire that you
all take apart of this great gift!

Love,
Elder Owens

The journey continues in Sevilla

Dear family and friends!

This it's been a great fast week! Rosa will be getting baptized this
Saturday so we are getting ready for that! She is doing great!

Cool story, we passed by this lady who just got back from Nicaragua
whose son is preparing to serve a mission, when she was there she
learned a lot about the church but was not able to be baptized there.
So we will be working a lot with here in the next few weeks!

So we just got transfer calls and I will be staying in Sevilla and
Elder Hirst will be going over to Alicante! My new companion is Elder
Maldonado; he is from Brazil but has lives in Spain for most of his
life. He is a hard worker so we will be having fun the next while
together.

This week we did exchanges with the elders from Córdoba, Elder
Hernandez from Mayorca and Elder Kärn from Sweden! They are amazing
guys! We did the baptismal interview for Rosa during the exchange and
she passed with flying colors!

Thursday my companion ate something bad, so we were in the apartment
the whole day while he was hunched over the toilet clearing out his
stomach. It was only a 24 hour thing so he is doing a lot better now.

Friday there was a party in the church for a family who are leaving to
Ecuador next week. We had one of our investigators Jorge go and he had
a great time!

We are hoping to get some people in the water in the next couple of
weeks so we would love your prayers!

I love you all and hope you have the greatest week ever!

Love, Elder Owens

Time is my enemy

Dear family and friends,

Well, I can't recall most of what happened this week, but here are a
few things that happened. We have been teaching a lot to Rosa this
week! In fact we have taught her everything she need to know for the
baptismal interview. We actually had it all set up for Saturday even
our district leader from Córdoba came down. Unfortunately about an
hour before her interview she gave us a call telling us that she could
not make it because of work. On top of that she didn't come to church
this week :( Hopefully we will not have to postpone the baptism...

But even though Satan is working, Jesus is working harder! That Sunday
morning we met a woman whose son is serving a mission and wanted us to
come over to share our message with her and her sister. Things are
doing good here in Sevilla!

This week we had splits with the missionaries from Dos Hermanas, they
are great guys! I'm glad I have the chance to work with some of the
greatest people ever! During the split we watched a world wide mission
conference directed by the missionary board of the church in which
they explained the importance of teaching the whole gospel of Jesus
Christ and making sure we don't miss a step  Also during the
conference they released a new schedule for missionaries in the whole
world. It really doesn't sound like that big of a deal but for us It
is.

There is good ahead! I love you all! Keep on praying, keep on reading
and keep on trying! It's a great journey!

Love,
Elder Owens