I will always remember my first Christmas on the mission here in Córdoba!  I´m so lucky that I was able to spend it in Spain!  In Spain Christmas Eve is called "noche buena" or "good night" where basically it´s a night where everyone parties and goes hard.  Except for the good Christians of course!! But for noche buena we went to a member´s house named Martin and spent almost all night with his family.  He gave us basically unlimited shrimp and chicken with this amazing honeynut sauce hmmmmm mama mia! And after dinner we played uno for a really long time it got super intense!  I loved it so much and I loved being able to talk to my family on Christmas!! What a great experience that was.

And also somthing happened on Christmas that was basically a miracle. Someone actually called US because they wanted to have a lesson!!! We are always having to call people and do everything ourselves.  But Stephanie and Luigi called us for us to come over and teach them a lesson! So sweet!  I felt so good and I couldn´t believe it! Other than that we didn´t have too much progress this week but I love being here and being able to get to celebrate Christmas in a different culture I love it here! And sharing the true message of Chirstmas which is celebrating the birth of our Savior and Redeemer Jesus Christ!

Stay sweet everyone,

Elder Stephens

 ​pancake mix! haha there is a costco in sevilla so we told the elders in sevilla to hook us up!!! Pancakes wooooooo!!!

Let me start of with saying Merry Christmas to everyone!!! I am loving it here in Córdoba. This week was really busy.  On Wednesday we had a tri-zone so president came down and talked with all of us in Sevilla.  It was awesome! He talked to us about what happened in the Málaga Mission in 2014.  We had 419 baptisms (now more because that was as of last week) in 2014! And our goal for 2015 is to have 500+! It´s definitely something we can achieve and I hope I can contribute to reaching this upcoming year!  President also gave a good lesson on Self Reliance.  He talked a lot about how we need to learn how to use our money and how we need to live within our means.  He knows a lot about money! So he gave us some really good tips that I can use on my mish and also after! Then after the zone meeting we had a talent show and it was so fun! Me and Elder Wilson did a skit about missionaries who can never get along (we know a lot about how that looks like lol jkjkjkjk) and it went really well! Definitely got a few people to laugh.... I think...

So that took almost all day Wednesday, and Thursday I went to Málaga to get my residency.  It was the first time on the mission I´ve traveled all by myself I was a little nervous because I was in a country where I don´t really know anything but really it wasn´t bad at all.  So I made it safe and sound and spent the night at the mission home with all the people that were in my same group at the MTC! So it was really good to see them and catch up and everything.  So Friday after we got a residency we went back home.  And on the train ride home this absolutely stunning Española sits next to me.  I started talking with her and I ended up telling her the whole story of Joseph Smith and the restoration. I bore some solid testimony and I gave her a book of mormon and she was really interested and wanted to learn more! ! I talked with her basically the whole train ride and I was able to give a lesson in spanish without a companion helping me out! I really felt the gift of tongues in effect when I was talking with her. By the way her name is Glicia, and she lives in Madrid so hopefully something happens with that.

Then Saturday we had our branch Christmas party! And we were there all afternoon and for a small little branch to have an activity like there was it was amazing! Plenty of food and after they had a little talent show as well.  Me and Elder Wilson only saw a little bit of it but it but it was a great activity!  

On Sunday we had a couple investigators at Church! We had Andres the 13 year old and a man named Carlos.  It was a great week this week and I can´t wait to talk to my family on Christmas!! So excited and love you all!

11 December 2014

Stephens, Daniel Gerald Record number: 000-xxxx-xxxx Current priesthood office: Elder

Olympus Cove Ward (90549) Salt Lake Mount Olympus Stake (504319) (322)

THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS PRIESTHOOD LINE OF AUTHORITY

PRIESTHOOD LINE OF AUTHORITY Melchizedek Priesthood Conferral and Ordination to the Office of Elder 22 Jun 2014

Ordained By

Brett Allen Stephens
Bryan Hugh Stephens
Gary Lynn Abbott
Dudley Lebaron Jones 24 Feb 1905
John Andreas Widtsoe 31 Jan 1872
Heber Jeddy Grant 22 Nov 1856
George Quayle Cannon 11 Jan 1827
Brigham Young 1 Jun 1801
The Three Witnesses Oliver Cowdery David Whitmer Martin Harris
Joseph Smith, Jr 23 Dec 1805
Peter, James, and John
Who were ordained Apostles by the Savior during His earthly ministry

​                                                   Elder Reid going home to the UK

Hello family! Everything sounds like it went good with Grandpa´s funeral.  I´m sure everyone learned a lot about his life full of service and could appreciate what he did for his family and friends.  So grateful for that example in my life!

This week was really hard but it was good.  We are really being diligent to find people and be obedient.  We found a few people and hopefully we can see some fruits of our labors soon! Elder Wilson and I are really trying hard because we just want 1 baptism together before he goes back to the States in January.  I really hope we will be able to get it.  And I think we will! There is a family with a mom and 3 sons, but only the mom (Cecilia) and the youngest son (Andres) listen to our lessons. They are both really interested though! I think Andres will for sure get baptized and hopefully the mom will.  And if they get baptized maybe that will soften the hearts of the two older sons! A couple days ago we painted a room in their house and that was a great experience!  When we were painting we were talking to the oldest son, Fabian, who is 22.  He is always smoking weed and even when we were painting he was as high as a kite.  He is kind of a bum-actually no he is a straight bum haha- but when were painting we casually asked him if he could replace smoking weed with something productive would he do it and he replied with "yeah for sure" so he still has hope to fix up his life and it would be so amazing if we could help him change!!

We haven´t heard from Nancy since she came to church 2 weeks ago.  She is working all the time and she is never home or answers her phone.  Satan is really trying hard with her and she just doesn´t have any time which is so sad. We are still teaching her daughter Stephanie and Stephanie´s boyfriend Luigi which is great though.  They just moved out of the Nancy´s apartment yesterday so it´ll be interesting for them to have their own separate apartment.  They´re not married though so this week we have planned to teach them the law of chastity.  OHHH I wonder how it´s going to go hah I hope it goes well.

I´m so happy for this opportunity I have to serve.  I´m grateful for my family and the examples I´ve had in my life.  I´m grateful for Christ and that we have a Savior and a way to repent and be better.  I know that through the gospel of Christ we can achieve a happiness that is more full and profound then any type of temporal happiness.  I hope we can all be grateful for Christ and the Atonement this month.  I love everyone and Josh my brotha happy birthday!!

Also if you want to see the funniest video of my companion look up "paul wilson soulja boy" on youtube hahah. And also go to "Sparta Paintball Cordoba" on facebook and you can look at the photos of us playing paintball!

​post-paintball selfie with Elder Moran (he just took his protective gear of so that´s why he has no nametag haha)

                                                         ​Train ride to zone meeting

​                                                    Winter festivities in Córdoba

This week was really great!!! I had a lot of good experiences this week.   This last Friday we had zone meeting and after zone meeting we had intercombios with the zone leaders.  I stayed in Sevilla with Elder Love and his companion went with Elder Wilson.  Sevilla was a great experience! It was the first time being out of my little area.  We had a couple of just super great lessons and one lady felt the spirit so much she was balling her eyes out.  I learned a lot with my time in Sevilla. It was so awesome getting to know the area and especially Elder Love!  He´s awesome, he´s from Arizona and we got along great.  When he teaches he is just super calm and relaxed which is something that I learned.  I learned that when I teach I tend to get super tense because I´m thinking about the language and what I'm going to say and all that.  So sometimes I just need to calm down and take a big breathe and let the spirit do the talking.

So I got home from intercombios Saturday afternoon and about an hour after I got home I got a phone call from president telling me happy birthday then telling me about Grandpa Goodman´s passing away.  It was the weirdest feeling knowing that it finally happened.. I've been preparing for this day to happen because I knew he didn't have too much time.  I knew that he was suffering here so he´s happier where he is now and was received with gladness by all of our family in heaven! I have thought a lot about the influence of G-pa and what a blessing he has been! I am so grateful for all the experiences I have had with him and I know that he is in a great place!!

We had a tough week if you look at the numbers but the lessons we had were quality! A couple investigators are getting close to wanting to be baptized and hopefully I´ll get to baptize with Elder Wilson before he goes home!  If not it´s not all about the numbers, but I really hope we can get a baptism.  Work here in Spain is hard but just have to have faith and be obedient!!

BEST P-DAY EVER today though!! We went paintballing! For me it was the first time I´ve ever gone paintballing and it was awesome! I have some pics but I´ll send more next week.  The people that went were the four missionaries in Cordoba, Adrian (presidents son), Aldo and his son Diego (Diego is a member but his dad isn´t so it was awesome we got Aldo out!), and Marta (a 16 year old less active).  SO FUN! We went because Elder Reid, one of the other Elders in the other companionship, is dying this week and going home to England. So he had a great last p-day and I´ll miss the guy a lot!

First transfer in the field almost in the books.  Time is flying by so fast!

Hope everyone had a great thanksgiving!! I had a pretty good one!  One of the members in the church was going to make food for all of us but he called in the middle of the day Thursday and said he was out of town and couldn't do it.. So what we did for plan B is we went to an American Restaurant called Foster's Hollywood.  It was so good!! I had a burger that tasted just like home hahah.

This week we had a goal as a mission to get 250 investigators to church.  So this week me and my companion worked really hard to help with that goal.  We invited everyone and of course everyone said ¨oh not this week but for sure next week!¨ So Sunday came and we had 0 investigators that were committed to come.. We prayed really hard that morning that somehow we could get someone to come.  We got there and Elder Wilson decided to give Nancy one more call (she hasn't answered our phone calls for over a week now) and she answered and said ¨Hi! Stephanie (her daughter), Luigi (Stephanie´s boyfriend) and I are going to come we're getting dressed right now!¨ So they came and I was so happy that we did our job for the mission to reach 250!!!! The mission only got to 210 but it´s 20 or 30 people more than what we usually get so it was a good week for the mission!  God does answer prayers people!

 So after Church Nancy, Stephanie and Luigi invited us over for lunch! Nancy´s food is so good! I don't know if all Latinos cook like her but if they do missionaries over in Latin America are so lucky haha.  After the lunch we had a really good lesson on the plan of salvation.  I want this family to get baptized so bad! But it´s up to them if they want to know the truth they need to look for it.  It´s just so hard because of work (Nancy is working everyday and that´s why she doesn´t answer our phone calls...) So I know one day they will get baptized it just depends when they find the time to look for the truth! I hope they do while I am here.