A Culture of Obedience

¡Hola!

This week was my third zone conference in the Lleida Zone. It was also the third ever Lleida Zone Conference. It was amazing, as always. I just love listening to President Hinckley. We focused a lot on working with members again. Zone conference always gives you the refueling you need and a new drive to keep working hard. Spain is really seeing many miracles right now. The month of May was the best month on record in the mission. President told us a story about Elder Jacinto, one of my old zone leaders. He went home almost 2 transfers ago and has already come back to visit. He told President a story about his friends. Elder Jacinto had been with a group of friends. They were all telling stories about missionaries who were sent home from their missions for disobedience (you only get sent home for really bad actions). They turned to Elder Jacinto and asked him for a story. He merely told them, "We didn´t do that in our mission. Noone was sent home my entire mission for disobedience. But uh...we got home late once." The truth about our mission is that it really does have a culture of obedience and hard work. I am so grateful to be surrounded by such diligent missionaries!

My miracle story this week comes from asking someone to be baptized. We usually have a visit with Lucho once a week. He is the husband of one of our strongest members. Lucho knows the church is true and that he needs to change. He has known the missionaries for YEARS! Yet he won´t be baptized. Several times he has come close but never committed. This week during the visit it was only him, his daughter, and us. The Spirit was super strong. I felt deeply impressed in my heart to invite him to be baptized. Knowing Lucho´s history and I laughed to myself and ignored the Spirit. (I am a BAD example). A little later on I felt the same prompting. I was worried because I didn´t want to ruin our relationship with him by pushing him to be baptized like everyone else has. Thus I decided that I wouldn´t. I also decided that later that night I would pray about it, and if I still felt good, I would invite him the next visita. Well a little bit later my companion turned to Lucho and said, "I know you´ve been asked this a lot....will you follow...." The rest is history. The amazing thing is that Lucho said, "Yes." And that baptism is something he wants. His only worry is that he has a few things to change. We asked him if there is anything we can do to help with these few things. And thus the topic drifted and we didn´t have the chance to set a formal date. There is always the next visit! To me this is a miracle because it shows that the Spirit really does talk to all of us. He knows what is best and when is best! I am also grateful to have a companion. With the both of us feeling the Spirit it is easier to follow His promptings.

There haven´t been anymore cockroaches. Thank goodness!!

The members here in Tarragona are great! They are so excited about missionary work. We have received so many references and a ton of help!! It is wonderful. We are super close with one family, Los Birnbaumer. They are from Bolivia. The older daughter, Margareth, is the one who brought Yessi to church. (She has also given us several more references). They fed us during mediodia today because it´s a fiesta (holiday). We ended up spending a lot of our Preparation day with them just merely talking about Gospel related themes. They are such an amazing family! The Spirit is super strong in their home!

¡Hasta luego!

Love,
Elder Buchkovich