Feb 12, 2018 - Carnival week

Well this week was pretty cool.

First of all we are like really on the hunt in our area right now. So one afternoon this week when all of our citas failed us we decided to walk the entire coastline of the island and contact everyone. It was just a little over 10 miles. We talked to tons and tons of people! Met some pretty interesting people but didn’t find many who live here. That was mostly because this week is carnival here in Cadiz. Oh my goodness this carnival is nuts. Well to start we had exchanges in Jerez on Friday and Saturday. They were super good and I’ll talk about them later. Anyways before we left the members were warning us like be super careful on the train back and stuff. So we were thinking it might be a little crazy but we underestimated it! Instead of the normal train they had attached 2 trains together to accommodate all the extra people headed to Cádiz. It was super super full, like hard to even move, and all just drunk people in costumes. Really interesting people watching experience. Anyways the past few days the island has just been packed with people from all over the place. Carnival is basically just a huge drinking fest so people have been really crazy. There aren’t very many restrooms available so the sidewalks have been covered in urine and puke its gross. Luckily it doesn’t get too crazy late at night and we live in the more tranquilo part of the city so it’s safe. 

Well anyway so yeah we went to Jerez and did exchanges this week and they were really fun. I got to work with Elder Wood. He served near me back in Elche so it was fun to be together again. We taught a really powerful lesson on the gospel of Jesus Christ to a younger girl and her family. The rest of the appointments we had set failed so we contacted the rest of the day and found some pretty promising futures. 

Last of all I just want to share a little miracle that happened this week. So José Antonio our 19 year old investigator’s grandma was in the hospital. His Mom called and asked if we would come give her a blessing because she was apparently in bad shape. So we hurried over when we got back to Cádiz. When we got there she looked like she was in pretty bad condition. She was bleeding from some kind of infection she had on her lip, wasn’t breathing properly and apparently hadn’t been able to eat anything for the past 2 days. We tried talking to her but she wasn’t responsive. After talking with the family for a bit we decided to say a prayer together. As I finished the prayer she started to smile and started trying to signal something with her hands but didn’t have the strength to lift her arms up. So the next morning as we were walking to church we get a call from José Antonio’s Mom. She thanked us for coming and praying for the grandma. She said that the grandma was back to normal again and that José Antonio had told her that the improvement started right when we finished the prayer. Within the hour she was back to normal and responsive again. It was really a tender mercy for their family and we were grateful to be apart of the experience.

Yeah so that’s basically it for the week. Love you guys :)

- Élder Alex M. Childers 

Feb 5, 2018 - Mission Changes, road trip, baptism of Francesco

Hello everyone! 

Well as some of you may have heard as of July 1st my mission will no longer exist! Well it really won’t be that dramatic. We will be consolidated into the Madrid and Barcelona missions. So Spain will now just have two missions instead of three. Anyways this will not inflict a very large change for me since it will be during my very last transfer. The only difference will be that I will come home from a different mission home and I won’t know which one that will be until that last transfer day. Basically the area we are in when the change happens will determine which mission we will then be apart of. There will not be any dramatic area transfers or anything on July 1st,  just the borders will change. It should be pretty exciting, part of me wishes it could happen earlier so I could experience it a little more. It should still be pretty interesting having a new mission president for the last month though. 

Alright about the week now. 

My companion had to go down to Fuengirola to pick up his new residency card so we got to take a little road trip. I’m not sure if you remember Dad but when we went to the state police to get the background check for my visa we ran into an elderly couple headed to my mission. Well anyways their name is the Manwarings they are serving over at the Rota naval base, and they gave us a ride there. It was really cool cause we took the scenic route. We basically drove the whole southern coastline. We passed by Algeciras and could see Africa clearly from there it was a beautiful view! They also spoiled us with lots of good american snacks 😋

The most awesome part of the week though was when the elders in my district had a baptism! The guy’s name was Francesco and he is from Chile :) I had the opportunity to go over to Chiclana on Tuesday to do his baptismal interview. Man it was such a spiritual experience! We went through all the questions then at the end I shared D&C 20:37 with him. 

“And again, by way of commandment to the church concerning the manner of baptism--All those who humble themselves before God, and desire to be baptized, and come forth with broken hearts and contrite spirits, and witness before the church that they have truly repented of all their sins, and are willing to take upon them the name of Jesus Christ, having a determination to serve him to the end, and truly manifest by their works that they have received of the Spirit of Christ unto the remission of their sins, shall be received by baptism into his church.”

As we read the scripture together I felt the spirit wash over me confirming that he was ready to make this step. I could tell that he felt it also. Such a powerful experience! He was baptized Saturday night and we were able to attend. It’s always a really awesome to be a firsthand witness of the joy these people feel when choosing to follow Christ’s example. 

Well yeah that’s basically all the good stuff this week. We are kinda in a hurry today cause lots of missionaries are coming to see Cadiz so we get to be tour guides again haha. I wish you all the best though, have a great week :)

- Élder Alex M. Childers 

Jan 29, 2018

This week has been kind of slow. We had lots of little visits with members and a couple of family nights but all of our citas with investigators failed. With the help of the new technology we were at least able to send Jose Antonio a little video and message him about it. 

We also had a zone council meeting up in Jerez this week. It was crazy because we were at the train station early in the morning trying to print off the tickets and it wasn’t working. It kept saying that our code was invalid. After trying all of the machines we just decided to run and hop on the train cause it was going to leave soon. Well about halfway through the trip we realized that the office had bought us tickets for the wrong day. Luckily nobody came by to check the tickets so we made it there alright and the office was able to get us some for the trip back. 

We did have another opportunity to go help out at the Jimenez home again. This time we took all of the branches we had cut down. Well the ones that weren’t big enough for firewood, wood chipped them and spread it around in the soil with compost. Learning lots about farming stuff it’s pretty cool. 

Well that’s basically all that happened this week. Sorry not too exciting haha

Love you all,

- Élder Alex M. Childers