A Barcelona Birthday

Dear family,
How is everything? This past week was just a joy to be a missionary. I mean, all weeks are like that, but this one especially, because it was my birthday! Last week we found quite a few new investigators, 4 to be exact. One of them is named Marian. She is a Spanish lady, and boy do I already love her. She is the nicest lady, and she has such a Spanish accent that it is a little hard to understand her, but it´s all good. She is about 35 or so and she was living with a guy for 8 years and he made her get two abortions because he didn´t want children, and when she finally said that she was having a child, he packed up his things and left her. It basically ruined her. She was a reference from the sisters, and she needs baptism so bad! We invited her to be baptized and she accepted, but she doesn´t really know what it´s all about, so we have a lot of teaching to do. She´s so nice and she´s so willing to learn. Her little boy is a little rascal, but it´s all good.
Another investigator we had was Lucy. She called us from a card we handed out with our number on it, and we went over there, and she thought we were normal Christian missionaries, and that we were there to train her to go on a mission of her own. How weird is that? She told us that she was evangelical, and that she had an Argentinian Prophet whom she followed. So we gave her a Book of Mormon, and told her to read and pray. She was way nice and said that she would do it. Then the next day, we saw her in the street (coincidence? I think not!) and we waved and she started walking away pretty fast. We caught up to her and talked to her and she said that she asked her Argentine prophet or whatever about the Book of Mormon and that he got so mad and told her she would go to hell if she read it! How nuts is that. So she told us that she didn´t want to see us again. Man, how grateful I am for a Heavenly Father that I can pray to and ask if things are true, and not some Argentine guy who claims to be a prophet. We just told her that if she wants to know it´s true she should pray and not ask someone who knows nothing about it. It was a little disheartening, but the truth will go on. We know these things are true, and no one can deny that, ever.
So let me tell you about one of our investigators that we have. Her named is Aster. I might have talked about her before, but I just love her so much that I have to tell you more about her. She´s a crack up. She´s 26, and Dominican. She lives with some solid members here, and we started teaching her. The first time we talked to her, we told her to pray, and she refused. It took so many subsesquent visits to get her to pray with us, but she finally did it! And she was way good. She loves us missionaries coming over. She makes us laugh so much. We taught about the law of chastity, and she always says ¡Que fuerte! She´s a crack up. She knows that she has to be baptized, and that she´s going to be baptized, it´s just a matter of when. We´ll see how it goes. We love visiting her, and we are GOING to baptize her.
So we had Ariana´s baptism this past Sunday. It was a beautiful event. She is a pretty girl, really skinny, and she was so excited about getting baptized. She was excited to invite her friends, excited to have everyone there. As missionaries, we sang "Senior Te Necesito" and we got a bunch of people crying, including ourselves almost. It was beautiful. Baptism is a beautiful thing. So many people need it. There´s a lot of urgency for this message to be shared with all around Spain, all around the world.
So Daniel, he hasn´t been coming to church lately. I met with him while we were on exchanges, and we talked and he said that everything is going great and he´s reading and praying, but something just didn´t seem right. We told him that he still had to keep coming to church, and he said that he´d come, but he didn´t show up. We bought him a nice Book of Mormon and wrote our testimonies in it, and he loved that, but I just don´t know. I heard a good quote by President Hinckley - "The limit of your faith and actions is other people´s agency." Darned agency! We´re going to keep working with him. It breaks my heart that he hasn´t been to church in a while. I can´t imagine not going to church. Not taking of the Sacrament, man that would be hard. I´m so grateful for church, for the members, for the spirit that is there, for the opportunity to renew our baptismal covenants every week. I love church. Girls, you better make church a priority! We´ve been teaching a lot about the Sabbath day lately, to members, to menos activos, to investigators. A lot of people either work on sunday, watch Barcelona football games, or play football. We´re trying to get people to keep the Sabbath day more holy, because there are so many blessings in store for keeping in holy. Family, I challenge you to keep the Sabbath day more holy! Try it out for one day. I know, I wasn´t the best example of keeping it holy with my Halo playing ways and doing homework and sometimes hanging out with friends, but I´ve since repented, and I´ve determined to be better at it. Sundays as a missionary is weird, but it´s so good. We come home after church to eat, and I almost got undressed, but then I realized, hey, I´m a full time missionary, Sundays are primetime proselyting! It made me giggle to myself. I still can´t believe I´m in Spain on a mission. It´s so weird. I love it.
So we had transfers yesterday, and I got a new companion! I´m staying here in Hospitalet, and my new companion is Elder Hansen. He´s from Washington, and he played football at Utah. Yeah, college football! He is way nice, and he´s way humble. I like him a lot already, and I´m finally in a two some! It´s going to be different, I´m going to have to talk a lot more! I´m way excited for it though. We´re going to see a lot of miracles, of that I´m sure.
My birthday was a blast this past week. I woke up and cooked a ton of eggs and bacon and toast and we had orange juice. It was good. Then we planned for the week (I´ve done more planning on my mission already than I have in my whole past life). My companions then made such good pasta (not as good as Dad´s) for lunch. It was awesome. Then my companions had to go do interviews for some baptisms, so I was on splits with another elder, and we went around and visited people and just had a good time. We taught a lot. A member family, Los Calle (the Calle´s) had us over for dinner. Their two little daughters are too cute. We had some great food, I don´t remember what it is. I always ask for seconds though. I´m starting to appreciate vegetables. Dad´s going to have to teach me how to make his special pasta sauce when I get back. They gave me a pair of Oakley sunglasses for my birthday. How nice is that! I love the members here.
So tonight we have singing for the angels when the missionaries go home, and it´s kind of weird. I´ve already been out on my mission for three months. I hate thinking about that. When I was in the MTC,missionaries would count down how many days they had left (ridiculous!). I hate thinking about how much time I have left, because it´s so short. Time goes by so fast, and it makes me realize how much I have to love and take advantage of, and give my all every single day, every single visit. I´ve been trying to do that, and the work just becomes a joy. I try not to think about when the next time we´re going to eat is or anything. I love this work. It´s a divine work, I see miracles every day, I see the Hand of the Lord in everything I do. I can´t deny it. This is the true gospel of Jesus Christ. Joseph Smith really did see the Father and the Son, he translated the Book of Mormon, and it´s a true book. It was written for us. Jesus Christ took up himself our sins, He paid the price for our sins. I am forever indebted for that. We have a prophet on the earth today, and I definitely can´t deny that. I love looking over my conference notes - there´s no way that I can deny those men as Prophets and apostles. It´s so true.
I´m so blessed to be serving here in Spain. It´s the greatest. There is no place I´d rather be - even in Cancun sipping on a piña colada. I love Hospitalet, I love the shower that is either freezing cold or scalding, I love how we have no food, I love how much we get rejected, I love sweating and being so sweaty and not being able to shower, I love the rain and getting soaked, I love my companions, I love taking the metro, I love the members, I love the investigators, I love the menos activos. I love my mission is basically what I´m trying to say.
Thanks for everything family - for the support, for the pictures of kittens (thanks gabs), for the package that I still have to receive (we´re going to the office tonight so it might be ther. If you want to send peanut butter some time that´d be great! Peanut butter - I never realized how much I loved it until I didn´t have it. I´m going to buy a way nice coat pretty soon, so make sure there is sufficient funds on the card!
I love my family, and I love my mission.
Love,
Elder Pericle