¡MIA FAMILIA!

¿Que tal? Is everyone doing awesome. It´s sounds like you´ve all had an exciting week. Furnaces breaking down, Superbowl parties and Skyler´s birthday. By the way HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY BROTHER!!!!!!!!!!! I was thinking about you on Saturday and I wish I could have been there. I´ve missed 3 family birthdays already. Weird! Time goes fast out here. I still feel like I just entered the MTC last week. But here I am in Spain, working my culo off (ps Dad if that is a swear word in Colombia, I apologize, here it´s okay). The work is awesome. It´s hard, especially because we walk everywhere but it´s super rewarding. One of the coolest things that´s happened in my mission happened the other day. So first off, a few weeks ago, the week before I came here I think, a man walked into church off the street. His name is Jesus. He didn´t really know anybody in the rama, he was just interested so he came to church. Golden, right? So E. Butler and E. Cortes talked to him, but he was in the process of moving and they didn´t really get his info. So the other day we were walking down the street and who do we see, none other than Jesus. So we talked to him and got his number but once again failed to get his dirección. FAIL! But we decided with a movil (cell phone) number we could figure out a lot, so we decided we would call him soon thereafter. So a few days later we were on our way to our first cita with Achmed (remember him from last week?). And we were late. It was my fault. I had left my agenda with Achmed´s address in it in the car of an investigator after a service project that morning. So we were practically runing to Achmed´s house and when we arrived and knocked...nothing. So we were bummed but we decided to knock again, once for their salvation and twice for our´s right? ;) So we knocked again and the door was answered by none other than...Jesus! (If you didn´t know that was the name of our investigator and thought I was talking about the Jesus this story would probably be even mas guay (more cool)). It was insane. I guess he had been living with Achmed for the last week. They hadn´t known eachother before that and neither realized that the other had any contact with the missionaries. It was absolutely insane. So you have to realize that here in Spain the pack people in as tight as they can. They have building after building after building connected and each one has 3-5 floors with 3-5 pisos on each floor. So they are literally thousands upon thousands of pisos in Valdepeñas. What are the chances that he would move into one with a muslim man that we had contacted! It´s near impossible. But the Lord knows his sheep and he likes to keep them close to him. We have had so many tender mercies like that. The Lord is on our side and we see his efforts in the work every day. Know we just have to do the same. This last week we had a big conference with a member of the 70 named Elder Tiexierra. He is from Portugal and we had a 6-7 hour conference with him. It was awesome! One of the things he stressed the most is that we need to repent before we can help our investigators to do so. That sound kinda different right? Asking missionaries to repent? I mean didn´t they have to do that pretty well before they came on the mission? But repenting really is this, a change of our thought, beliefs, and behaviors. Repentence=change. And not just change, complete change. Think about it this way. Our thoughts represent our mind, our beliefs represent our hearts, and our behaviors represent our body. When we change all three. We are changing every single part of us. We cannot fully repent without a change in all three. If we change just our thoughts, then we could think one way, know the things are wrong, but still do them. If we change our behaviors and not thoughts or beliefs, we´ll stop doing the things, but not for the right reasons. I´ve seen examples of both these and so many more as I´ve been out here on the mission. The Lord requires us to change completely when we repent. And it´s hard. It´s always hard to change. As humans we despise change. It´s difficult to the level of being painful at times, but that´s what the Lord asks of us. But he doesn´t expect us to do it alone. That is why we have families. That is why we have the church. And most importatnly that is why we have the Atonement. The use of the Atonement is a simple as this. As Nike and Spencer W Kimball would say, just do it. All it takes is a broken heart and a contrite spirit and a sincere prayer. The Atonement works for every single person on this earth, regardless of whether they use it or not. We just have to do it. We just have to get on our knees and tell our Heavenly Father that we can´t do it alone, and he will help us. I´ve seen that numerous times on my mission. I know that the Atonement is real and that it works for every single one of us. I know that repentence is hard but it is because, as Elder Holland put it, Salvation is not a cheap experience. I know that we all have the ability to do the things the Lord commands us. Now we just need to do as Nephi, and go and do them. I love you all so much. I´m so excited for Skyler´s call! If you can you should try to film it and send it to me through an email. I would love to be a part of it. I´m so proud of you Skyler. The mission will be hard, but es vale la pena, por supuesto. I love you all and miss you a ton. I hope things are going well and that you´re all toasty warm with your new furnace :)

Con Amor

Elder Flint