Hey fam,
First off, HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYY LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I hope you had a fantastic day, it sounds like you did. Ammon, props on the PROM invite, creative, clever, and well played. You are a gentleman and a scholar. Super jealous of the Cajun food consumed on Logan´s birthday, but I´ll get over it :) To answer Sophie´s questions, yes they celebrate Easter here. In fact they celebrate it for a whole week! It´s called the Semana Santa. They have lots of parties and have parades and everything. (Well not really parades, they are called processions and sometimes they whip themselves and stuff, so that´s kinda weird, maybe best if you don´t tell Sohpie that part :) ). And yes I have had lots of Spain candy. The most common are called chuches, they are gummy candies, kinda like the ones we have at home, but even better :) There are also other candies called Turron that comes in a lot of different types. Some are chocolate, others are like toffee, but they are all really good. They eat that around Christmas time. I sleep in an apartment right next to the office and the train station. I have gone to some good restaurants. There are really good all you can eat chinese restaurants called WOK, but one of my favorites was an authentic Spanish restaurant that a member took me to. I don´t remember what it was called but I ordered a berejena rellenada (stuffed eggplant) without knowing what it was. It was REALLY good. It was full of meat and melted cheese, so that always helps. They even have McDonalds and Burger King here. In fact here in Fuengirola there is even a KFC and a Subway (a couple of the very few here in Spain). But all food is good when you are a missionary. I have eaten lots and lots of things I didn´t like before and they all tasted great, because they were free :)
Things are going well here. I am very very VERY excited for General Conference. In fact I watched the first session before writing this email. It was great, even though our computer was slow :/ I´m excited for when I will get the chance to talk to you all about what we learned and what your insights are to the conference. Feel free to write about them to me :) I can´t believe AJ is on his way home. There is a sister here in Malaga that was good friends with both him and Carson. Her name is Haleigh Flake. She´s great! But she sends her hellos and love to John, Deb, Carson, Steve, and AJ (and the baby whose name has just not stuck in my head yet :/ Sorry!)
So this week I had a thought. I was ironing my shirt and reading from the institute manual for Doctrine and Covenants and read something about something, really I don´t remember. What I do remember is the thought I had directly afterwards. What I read must have had something to do with vision because I began to think about how the human eye works and all the scriptures that talk about eyes. The eye uses light to create perception. That light helps us understand what surrounds us. If our eyes are closed, we may be able to perceive a few things, but the majority of what is there will be unknown to us. The same principle holds with our spiritual eyes. When we close our eyes to the light and truth that the gospel brings, our perception of the things around us decreases. Why do we have such a hard time handling trials when we are not reading our scriptures, praying and doing those things that we need to? Because our eyes are closed and we are receiving less light. As we strive to open our spiritual eyes more, the light and truth of the Holy Spirit illuminates our minds and our hearts to those things that are around us. We understand better the world that we live in and the loving plan of our Heavenly Father. And as we all know, the source of all light is the Son (Didn´t he spell that wrong? No I did not). As we come towards Him, we see with his eyes, and His eyes see all. I love you and I hope you all have a wonderful week and a wonderful conference and you learn a lot!
Con amor,
Elder Charlie Flint