November 14 letter

¡Hola! ¿Qué tal mi familia y amigos? Greetings from Spain!!! The weather is still fantastic here, but even better is the spirit of God that exists in this MTC. The language is coming along so well, and I am getting very excited to enter the field! Only a week and a half more! We just barely got back from the temple, and I am in love with it! It is one of the most beautiful things I have seen. The spirit I feel, and the inspiration I get there are special and undeniable. Let´s see, what else is there? I can´t remember if I said anything about this last week. There is a popular TV channel here that has filmed us a couple times in the past week and half, as they are making a segment on Mormons in Spain. If anyone wants to look that up on the internet (I think that is what its called, I can´t exactly remember. ;) ) the show is called commando actualidad, and the channel is TV 1 Española. That experience was very interesting! There was a day where a film crew was following the MTC president around, and also interviewed a few of the missionaries, in Spanish!!! Im glad that they didn´t choose to interview me, that would have been so stressful. The MTC received 30 new missionaries on Tuesday. All of them are native Spanish speakers that will be entering the field at the same time as us. So we now have almost 60 missionaries here. Very exciting! And it gives me a chance to practice my Spanish a little more! Every Thursday, we watch an MTC devotional either from the past, or live from Provo. Last weeks was from Elder Bednar on Christmas of 2011. It was one of the best devotionals I have ever listened to! It was on the Character of Christ. He stated that the character of Christ is to turn outward and serve people when the natural man would turn inward and focus on himself. I know that my mission will help me to overcome myself and become more like Christ, and I want to challenge each of you to do the same thing back home. I know that as we do this, we will become more in tune with the spirit and the will of The Father, and find more joy in this earthly experience. I miss all of you tons, but I love this work more than almost anything right now. I am always praying for all you, and I hope things are going great in The States.! This gospel is true. More and more, day by day, I am seeing that more clearly. I am very excited to get into the field and serve the people of this gorgeous country. ¡Grande es el Salvador y su Evangelio! Family! I´m so happy right now! I just got back from Sol, and I got some postcards I will have to send to Ethan when I get his letter. The fence looks very good! Tell everyone to check the blog, because I don´t have too much time today. I love each and every one of you! Keep me updated. Elder Rawlinson

November 6th letter

What happened this week? I´m kind of settling into the MTC, so this letter might be kind of short. Let´s see… On Saturday, as usual, we went to the park to proselyte. My companion and I placed 2 Books of Mormon! It was pretty amazing, before we left, me and him met to establish goals, and my companion said that he needed to bring a Russian BoM. He wanted to because he had met a man in the park the week before that wanted a Russian copy. I was a little skeptical, but as we were walking around the park, we found the same man! We gave him the Russian copy, and he was very happy. Not too much to report besides that! We went to the Prado art museum today. That was an awesome experience! My parents know how much I enjoy museums. The weather here continues to astound me. We left the window open last night. And it is November! My roommates are such amazing elders! They are all so different, but everyone contributes in different ways to an awesome spiritual room! We have an elder from Payson, one from Delta, one from Wyoming, one from Oregon, and my companion Elder Schwenke, who is from Orem. We have grown very close over the past three weeks, and I know that all of us will be lifelong friends. Haha, in fact, we are all planning on going to each other’s weadings when we get back. On a spiritual thought, our district had a killer lesson from one of our teachers a few days ago! He talked about the importance of bearing testimony to investigators, but it basically turned into him testifying about his mission experience. One thing that he said that I like a lot was, ¨God doesn´t look at your results, he looks at your decisions and your journey.¨ That helped me a lot, especially as I am learning a new language, and it can be a little discouraging sometimes. I love this gospel! I love the Lord! I love Spain. I love the People. I just can´t wait to get out in the field and feel this love grow tenfold! Elder Kaleb Rawlinson

2nd week in the MTC - Nov 1st letter date

Sorry this is a day late, but today is a holiday in Spain, so since the teachers have today off, they moved our Pday to Friday this week. On a normal week it is on Thursday. It is strange, traditionally, Spanish people don´t celebrate Halloween, but the prominence of the United States has made it more popular here. We saw a bunch of kids out and around last night in costumes. The holiday that is today is very similar to Memorial day back home. Everyone goes to cemeteries to honor those that have passed on. Wow, I feel like I will say this every time I mail home, but where do I start!?!? Spanish is coming along great! It´s difficult, but I am definitely making progress! The MTC is very hard, but I am continuously growing closer to Christ, and my testimony is growing more than it ever has before. I already feel my mission has changed my life dramatically, and I have only been out for about 2 and a half weeks! There are a couple of experiences that I want to share about this past week. As you know, we go to Buen Retiro Park every week to proselyte. It is one of the scariest things for me personally, but when I get there, I always feel strength and comfort. When we went this week, my temporary companion was Elder Dailey. He is from AF, and he is a pretty cool guy. As we walked into the park, we decided to walk the in the opposite direction that everyone else did, kind of towards the corner of the park. As we walked, we couldn´t really find anyone to talk to, so we decided to pray again and ask Heavenly Father to help us find someone who would listen to us. We then walked a little further, and almost immediately we saw a woman taking pictures by a stream. I felt like she was the one! We went and talked to her (luckily Elder Dailey was a little better at Spanish that I was.) She was visiting Madrid from Peru for business. She seemed very accepting and curious! We gave her a Book of Mormon, and she filled out a reference. I have no idea if she will actually take the discussions, but that experience taught me one thing. God answers prayers. Usually, it is not obvious, and we need to be constantly searching, and listening to the Holy Ghost. But, I feel like we all occasionally need a spiritual slap in the face, and that is what Saturday was for me. The other experience that was pretty great was the day before. There is a sister missionary in our district that is struggling with the transition to the mission, both physically and mentally. Last Friday was a difficult day for her, so she asked me if as the district leader, I could give a blessing of comfort to her. I full heartedly agreed, but I was very nervous. This was the first comfort blessing I had ever given. Even though I was nervous, I knew that it wasn´t actually me giving a blessing, and that I was just a channel for the power of the priesthood to help her. So, as I started the blessing, I immediately was comforted, and the words that I said were not my own. I love this gospel. I am extremely grateful for the power of the priesthood. I am grateful that I was worthy enough to give that sister a blessing, and have that amazing experience for the both of us. I am grateful to be on a mission. Even though I miss home at times, I know that it is what I need to do at this time in my life. I know this church is true, and I know that God loves us. Whenever we need anything, we can call upon our Father in Heaven. Thanks mom and dad! I love you so much, and I miss you tons! Elder Rawlinson