Happy Birthday Ammon!

Hello fam!
For starters, HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can´t believe you´re 17! That´s like, super old. And that means that in a years time you could be on the mission! Or at least very close to being on the mission! Crazy stuff. So New York or Chicago or Sacramento. Either way it will be fun (but New York is definitely the best :) ) And Dad, I do get all your emails, I just try to respond to everyone with one big one. If you want a specific response in mi Español, que por supuesto es mejor que lo tuyo ;) Lo haré. Pero si no, tu tranquilito y intentaré contestar a todos en uno. Y espero que un día puedo tocar cómo William Joseph, ahora seguro que no, debido de que no he practicado para nada en este año y pico, pero quiero practicar mejor al regresar. So Skyler got in a new apartment, cool beans and you guys are thinking about buying a house or condo. Well let me tell you what I think about that.......YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Of course, being the financial secretary of the mission (actually right now I´m just the lame duck of the office) I will say that you make sure you measure out the pros and cons and take into account the whole budget before moving forward, but YYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That would save me lots and lots of stress and money. And Mom, you got a nursing interview! That´s awesome! You´ll do great! Really, I´m excited for you! They would be a bunch of tontos not to pick you! So you went to see William Joseph!? Cool beans! That sounds like a ton of fun. Pretty sure when I get home I am going to be looking all over for all of the cultural events around Utah. Being in Europe and especially being with Elder Castillo, you get really into a lot of cultural things. I love art museums, old historical sites, plays, recitals, anything that has to do with humanities and fine arts. I see the Lord´s hand in every single one of those things (in the case that they are wholesome and uplifting) I´ve started a bucketlist and two of my things so far are to 1: See a big show (like Broadway or the like) for every year of my married life, 2: Go to the Louvre. I have more, but those are my big artsy ones. I´m just an artsy guy. High cultured :) This last week for Pday (I may have already told you this) We went and saw a big horse show in Jerez. It was super cool! I don´t have pictures, but I have a way for you all to get access to some pictures that I don´t have yet! The Castillos have a blog! The URL is rodcastillo.blogspot.com They have a lot of pictures of events that I either did not have my camera at, or was too lazy to take pictures. It´s a lot of fun.
So things are going extremely well here. We have been assigned a new area and the work is moving forward rapidly. I wanted to share a quick miracle with you all. So a couple of days ago we went to Benalmádena (our new area) to meet with a member named Djeff (Jeff). We knew what building he lived in and kinda where it was, but his cell phone was broken and we did not know the door number. So we went hoping that the information that another elder had given to us was correct regarding the door number, and if not, we could just knock the whole building until we found him. So we got to the building and it was literally the most grand and spacious building I have ever seen (not in wickedness, just in size) It was 12 stories tall with at least 20 doors on every floor. For those of you that are slow with math, like me, that is at least 240 doors that we would have to knock to find Djeff. So we knocked the two doors that Elder Ericson had given us and neither of them belonged to Djeff. So we started calling every member we could think of.  But nobody knew where he lived. But one member said that she thought he lived on the 7th floor. So we went up to the 7th floor and kept on calling. When out of the blue walks Djeff coming out of his door. He had to run an errand in the exact moment that we were trying to contact him. We ran a quick errand with him and then came back to find a friend that was visiting with him. She wasn´t a member, but he had talked to her a lot about the church she had noticed many changes that she liked in him after being baptized. In a nutshell, she was just super prepared. She was very interested about finding out more and things were just perfect! We were definitely in the right place at the right time. It´s amazing to see how the Lord directs us to those that are prepared to receive the gospel. If we just listen and keep trying to find out his will, things work out. I hope you all have a great week and that things go well for each of you! I love you all a ton!
Con amor,
Elder Charlie Flint

Hello Fam,

It was great to be able to talk and see you all on Mother´s Day. I love you all so much! You´re the greatest :) Basically I know what you all are up too, and it sounds like things are going well. Getting Skyler moved to a new place, and maybe getting me hooked up with the Deweys (that stinks about the Walkers though, big bummer). That would be chill to room with Skyler, hopefully I wouldn´t drive him crazy :) That makes me so happy that Grandma Carol is preparing to go to the temple! That is AWESOME!!!!! I hope that she´ll be able to be in my sealing, I hope all my family can! Don´t know when that will be, but it will be the icing on the top of the cake of happiness if they could all be there. Sounds like everybody is pretty busy. Going to movies, on dates, and to birthday parties. Very nice. So to answer your questions about how long I´ll be here. I just started training my replacement, so I´ll be in the office for another 3 weeks or so and then I will be heading out. I´m not sure where I´ll be heading, but I won´t be here in the office anymore. There are for sure some things I´ll miss about the office, really just the people in and around it, but I am SO excited to get back into the work in the field. It will be a great change. Things have changed here in the office though. We got assigned a new area. It is a small town right next to Fuen called Benalmádena. We will be working there and working with the English Branch also. We are excited for the change mostly because it gives us a concrete place to go when we aren´t sure where to go. It will be great. Things have calmed down enough here in the office so the missionaries should be able to get out at about 6 or 7 every day and work for the rest of the night. That will be a great blessing.
So this week we have been visiting with a lot of member and talking about, you guessed it, missionary work. One of the things that we have focused on is getting names of less actives, part member families, and really anyone they know that lives in our area. As we have done so, the Lord has, once again, brought something to my attention that I thought I had already understood. Through small and simple things are great things brought to pass. What does that mean? I always thought, yeah just going things like reading scriptures and stuff like that can change your life. And I don´t want to downplay that, because it is VERY true, but really there is so much more than just that. Before the mission I always thought that if I could teach with just the right amount of doctrine and testimony and personal experiences and commitments and all that stuff that people would just be lining up to take a dip in the font. But that´s not always the case. I have felt the Spirit testify so strongly to people and seen how they, almost physically, reacted to that, but still would not commit to do anything. Wait, didn´t we do what we are supposed to? Isn´t God supposed to change their hearts and draw them to the waters of baptism? That´s what we tend to think, but it´s just not always that way. You know what usually happens. A member mentions the church to a friend. That´s how it starts. Hey, what are you reading? Oh it´s a book called the Book of Mormon? What´s that? Well, its a book kinda like the bible....That friend comes to church. Listens to the lessons and gets baptized. And it all came from one example. One small and simple thing. One of the most amazingly spiritual experiences I have had happened just a few weeks ago. A member from the UK who has lived here in Spain for the last 10 or 11 years, who was quite active earlier on in life, but very less active in her time here in Spain, has come back to full fellowship in the church. She quit smoking and drinking alcohol, tea, and coffee all cold turkey. (I told you about this while we were talking on Skype) It was an absolute miracle. We had been teaching her and trying all sorts of things to get her to quit, the past missionary had done the same, and the members of the branch were constantly trying to help. But nothing seemed to work. After all we could think of and all we could do, the thing that she attribute the difference to was minuscule, in a sense. I had listened to a talk by Brad Wilcox, the father of a sister in our mission that I became good friends with in our time in Badajoz, thought it was great, and thought of Debbie when I heard it. I thought it would be something she needed and would like to hear. So I printed it off with the intention of giving it to her. After about a week of forgetting it in the office or forgetting to give it to her when I saw her, it finally reached it´s intended destination. And that is what she said changed her whole attitude and viewpoint on life. That is what caused the change in her heart. Let me get things straight, I take absolutely no credit for giving her the talk, it was all the Lord. Really I just feel bad that I´m such an imperfect servant and it took me so long to give it to her. But small and simple? Definitely. Something great brought to pass? One of the most amazing and beautiful miracles of my mission. So when we think about missionary work in our homes or even just trying to perfect ourselves and teach those around us. Remember, the Lord works through the small and simple things that we do, and he makes them great. I love you all, I hope you have a fantastic week and I will talk to you next Saturday!
Con amor,
Elder Charlie Flint

Hello familia!

Hello familia!
Sorry about not getting to email you yesterday! Things got a little crazy. But I´m still alive! First things first, 9 o clock would work perfectly for skype. We can iron out any last second details next saturday right before we do it. I loved the pictures! They were all super fun! But Logan, it looks like your life is a little bit like mine right now :) But I´ll attach a picture of my that´s a little different. Sounds like things are going really well for everyone though! Numbers slow, awesome harp scholarships, fun dances, good grades, and Hershey track. Good work! Things are going well here too. Getting ready to be leaving the office probably some time soon here. But I guess you never know. But I´m just keeping on keeping on. Super pumped for a chance to get out into the "real" world of missionary life again.
So like I said, because things got crazy I wasn´t able to email you yesterday and today I don´t have that much time. I´m not sure what to write about today. Life has been moving at 200 kilometers per hour, but I wouldn´t have it anyway else. You know I think on thing I could talk about was something I felt today. Being in the office is hard for a few reasons. One of the main ones is that at times you really don´t feel much like a missionary. Some days I feel like I´m coming into work. And I don´t even get weekends off! So there have been moments where I have felt kinda like I´m not doing what I was called to do and that I´m wasting my time. Usually I get over it pretty quick by reminding myself that without us the mission wouldn´t move forward, but the other night I started thinking about it a lot. The Lord didn´t really give me an answer until today. As I sat in fast and testimony meeting Sis Deere (the mission president´s wife) gave her testimony. I don´t remember exactly what she talked about the whole time, but one of the subjects was the little ways that we show our faith. She mentioned a lot of things but one of them was coming on a mission. In that moment I got an overwhelming feeling. Yeah, maybe I´m not doing exactly what I expected to be doing before the mission, but I made the choice to come and came on the mission. There is no way that the Lord would be angry with me or disappointed, because really, how many young men are doing what I am doing right now? He is grateful for every missionary who leaves his family for whatever period of time. And he loves each and every one of us more fully than we understand. When we don´t feel like we are doing enough, we just need to remember that. That he is grateful for every little thing that we do to show our faith. If that is having scripture study with our families every night, no matter how much of a nightmare it turns out to be and how little spiritual feeding we get from it. For every family home evening even though the activity ends up in a fight. Every time we got to church even if the kids are screaming in the back of the chapel. Every little effort is not lost on Him. And each one is marked in heaven. So keep doing good! Keep trying! It might not work out exactly how you expected it, but when you desire to serve the Lord and show him your love, you are making Him happy. I love you all and hope you have a fantastic week! I will talk to you next Sunday :)
Con amor,
Elder Charlie Flint


By the way, AJ looks great! Holy Cow! You´ll have to tell him this: I showed the picture to Haleigh Flake (A sister in our mission) and she´s definitely thinking twice about that boyfriend she left at home ;) Give him a huge hug and tell him it´s from me. I´m excited to see him again soon.