Elder Carrigan, Signing Out!

Hey Everyone!

Well, this is it... This will probably be the last email I send home from here in Barcelona, and I dont even know where to start! To begin to explain how I am feeling would be dificult and to explain how I have felt or what I have learned over these past two years would be impossible. 

These two years of my life are something to me that will never be replaced nor forgotten! The lessons I have learned, the memories made, and the people I have met will always be a constant reminder of what the Lord has shown me who I am and what I can become. Before my mission I thought I understood the gospel, and maybe I did, but I only understood it with my head. I only understood what the teachers taught me in church. I can now say that I understand the gospel with my heart. I know it works, I have seen it. I know its true, I have lived it!

And so I leave you all with my testimony. Simple yet strong.

I know God exists. He is there. He is our Heavenly Father who loves us and wants the best for each and every one of us.

I know Jesus Christ is the savior and redeemer of the world. He suffered for us so that we can become better each and every day.

I know the doctrine of Jesus Christ is true. That Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Recieving the Gift of Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End are essential steps on our path to eternal salvation. 

I know thanks to His wonderful atonement, ANYONE can change at ANY time. Anything is possible

I know that Joseph Smith was called to be the prophet of the restoration. He saw the Father and the Son. He was given the priesthood and restored the church of Jesus Christ.

I know the Book of Mormon is the word of God. The promises and blessings it contains are true. I know there is not a single man or woman on this earth that has read it, pondered it, and asked god with a sincere heart, that has not recieved an answer that it is true.

And last of all, I know this gospel blesses families! Families CAN be together forever, and that is the greatest blessing that God has given us! :)

I love you all! 

Que Dios Os Bendiga! 

Elder Carrigan

Now to go spend my last Preparation Day in Camp Nou! My heaven on earth! :) 

Good Week!

Hey Guys!

It was a great week here in Barcelona! We are still working hard and I am just enjoying every moment! :)

We are working trying to find news and also trying to get the investigators we have into the water! I want to get wet at least one more time! haha This week was hard becasue it was semana santa here. It is funny because everyone we talk to here in the streets say that they dont believe in God or Jesus Christ and yet the whole country shuts down for a week to celebrate easter. Intersting! 

Because of easter lots of people were out of town. Edilenia went to Madrid for the whole week so we havent met with her in awhile and also she wasnt able to come to church so she wont be able to get baptized this next week... Hopefully she gets home soon so we can put a set date with her, teach her the remaining comandments and get her baptized! The good news is that we have been calling here and sharing little messages with her over the phone! She tells us she is also reading the BoM, so we think everything is still going well!

The family from Ecuador... They have fallen off the face of the earth. Kind of sad because they are ready to be baptized, but their mom just doesnt show much support. She is a member who hasnt been to church in a long time, and at first she was super excited and now she goes in her room everytime we go over... It is disappointing, but we are keeping our heads up, and we know there are more people for us that are prepared! We jsut need to find them! :) 

Other exciting news is David recieved the priesthood this week and came out and worked with us twice this week! The kid is incredible! He was talking to everyone on the street! He would just go up to them and be like hey! Do you believe in God, they would reject him and he would turn to us and be like what the heck, they dont even know who we are, what we have to offer, and what they are missing out on! It was incredible to see! Hopefully he will keep it up and maybe one day serve a mission.We are going to talk to him a little bit this week! See if we can get him pumped up a little bit! 

Well thats it! All is well! I love you all lots! 

Elder Carrigan

Photos

1913 Me, Elder Rasmussen, David, His Mom (Liliam)

1921 2 baptisms in the district two weeks ago! 

1945 Another baptism this week! Left to right Elder Alder, Elder Tidwell, Hermana Hair, Kevin (Recient Convert. He was baptized a month ago) Genesis (Kevins friend) Hermana Nalbandyan, Me, Elder Rasmussen

Baptism Weekend

Hey Everyone

So the big news this week was that David got baptized! It was a really good baptism and everything went great! My companion baptized him. It was probably one of the best baptisms I have seen on my mission. We had almost all the youth there, and it was really cool to see them all support him! The ward was really excited for him as well. On Sunday he was the most popular kid in church! haha It was great! This next week he should be getting the priesthood if everything goes to plan.

Really other than that, there isnt much to tell. Its the same old here in Barc! We are working hard to find people to teach and the other investigators we have are progressing well. Edilenia set her own date for not this weekend but the next. She is Madrid this weekend, but eveything is going well. She is like half way through the BoM, its incredible! haha Melisa, Evelyn, and Moises are still there. They are progressing but slowly. Its hard to meet with them because they are teenagers and their lives are crazy! They are super great and need to be baptized, so we are trying really hard!

This week is a holiday week here in Spain. For Easter, everyone gets the whole week off, so we will see how the week goes! Since everyone is out of school, today we are going to go play scatterball (dodgeball) in the church with all the youth! It should be really fun! 

Well love you guys lots! Hope you all have a great week! 

Love

Elder Carrigan

Conference Weekend

Hey Everyone!

So first I must apologize for my April Fools joke! haha I sure did think it was funny though! My companion and I were both dying laughing while we were writing it and I think I probably won the best April fools day email contest we had in the zone! haha Any way, I hope I at least got a smile out of you! :)

So conference wsa incredible! Its always so great to listen to the inspired words of the prophets. This morning I was reviewing some of my notes that I took and I just kept thinking to myself about how blessed we really are that God has called prophets in these days. While many people feel like they are lost in this world, we can always feel guided and on track if we choose to act upon the words of the prophets. I dont know if I have a favorite yet, but I will say that I really enjoyed the prophets message about love and charity. Could you imagine a world with people who just slowed down and stopped for 2 seconds to listen to others and tried to help them with their problems. I guess being a missionary just helps you see another side of things and one of the things I have learned here is that the little acts of love really do make a difference in life. A handshake here, a hug there, a smile, a laugh, a simple thank you can change the whole day of a person, and more than anything, what the other person thinks about you. The world truly would be a different place if we all just looked out for eachother a little bit more.

Well, what more... The work is going well right night! We had interviews with President this week adn the only thing he told me was "Elder Carrigan, Finish like a man!" haha I am trying my best! We are working hard!

This coming Saturday, David will be getting baptized!!!! This week we were able to tie everything down and we are planning everything right now! We are really excited and we are glad that he is making such a great choice! He is really excited as well! He has changed a lot during this time we have been teaching him! It has been a great experience seeing a boy who, at first, said he didnt believe in God, change into a man with a growing testimony!

Edilenia had a set back this past week. She is recieving lots of pressure from her aunt and parents... We were calling her all week and she wasnt answering. Finally we asked the sisters if they could call and she how she was doing. She answered and talked with them. The next day was here birthday so we all made a cake and suprised her for her birthday. She came to an activity later that night in the church and we were able to talk. At least now she is willing to talk with us again. We will see what we can do to get her to start progressing agian. We owe the sisters! Without them, she would be gone!

We have some more investigators that are there, but they arent so commited. We are working hard to get them to keep their commitments, but there is only so much we can do... 

I guess another highlight of the week is Elder McMahon and I have started teaching the Zumba classes on Saturday mornings! haha Its pretty great! I will let your imagination do the work on this one! Yeah, our attendence is pretty high right now! Its pretty amazing some of the things you can do to get people coming to church! haha

Well, I love you all lots and hope you all have a great week! 

Loves!

Elder Carrigan

Barca! Barca! Barca!

Hey Everyone! 

Great week here in Barcelona! Lots of hard work. Unfortinately, David wasnt baptized this week... We had a great lesson with him, but he said he didnt feel ready... On Saturday we saw him again and talked with him about why he didnt feel ready and he said that he hadnt recieved his sign yet... Turns out that his mom had a dream before she got baptized so he was waiting for something like that.... We talked about the Holy Ghost and set a new fecha with him for the 12th of April. I was kinda of bummed because it is kinda far away, but we are planning really helping him read the Book of Mormon and feel the spirit. By the 12th, he will be ready! Please keep his mom Liliam in your prayers. She will be having brain surgury this coming week... We are hoping everything goes well! 

Jose has a fecha for this week, but he told us that if he doesnt find a job this week, then he is going back to Argentina on Friday... We are praying he finds a job. If not, then some missionaries are going to be very happy in Argentina! haha 

Edilenia is also progressing really well! She is reading a ton! She is half way done with 2 Nephi right now! She is great! The only thing we are worried about is that she is really shy! We are trying really hard to get her involved with the young adults. If we can get that done. She will be baptized! 

Last night was an amazing night here in Barcelona! Last night Barcelona played in Madrid in soccer and everyone was in a bar watching the game! It turned out to be one of the craziest games ever! I kept thinking about how I was probably the only one in the whole city not watching the game... I was dying inside! haha The only parts I could see was when we walked past a bar on our way home... Luckily we walked passed right as Messi put one in the back of the net! It was awesome! haha the whole city just jumped! Man I love this place! haha We were going to go to a game this next Saturday, but unfortinately it doesnt look like its going to work out... Too much stuff to do, and if everything goes well, Jose will be baptized! Just means I am going to have to come back and watch a game! Dad, you bought those tickets already right? :) 

Well, thats it this week! Love you all! Thanks for everything you all do for me! I love you all lots!

Elder Carrigan

Photo Me in my Barc jersey today celebrating the win in front of a huge Catalan flag. VISCA CATALUNYA!!!!! :)

Good Week

Hey Guys

So yeah I kinda lost track of time doing other things, so its going to be a short one this week. Sorry! 

The week went really well! We continue to work really hard to find new investigators here. The good news about Barc is there are always tons of people in the street to talk to. the bad news is that most the time they dont live in your area... haha We have passed lots of really good references, but as long as they are taught the gospel, I am happy! 

The great thing is that we have a fecha! We put a fecha with David this week! His mom in a recient convert! He turned 17 this week and he is progressing really well. We has started to pray and read and he always comes to church and loves it. He will get baptized on the 22nd. We are lucky that the youth here in Barcelona are so great! He already has tons of friends in church and I feel like the date is pretty set! 

The bishop in our ward invited us to knock doors in our area close to the church to find some people as well. It has been hard to leave the street and to go up into the buildings just because its so easy to talk to everyone in the street, but I know he is the man that recieves the revelation in this ward and I know we will be blessed in some way by obeying his council! 

Other than that, We just keep on working! Couldnt be happier! Love you all! 

Elder Carrigan

Pics

1816 Me and my companion teaching one of our investigators who is in the hospital right now... She is great but has a hole in her lungs... Super sad! 

1810 Me next to the Med Sea! :) Beautiful!

1807 Me and about half the zone on the beach after playing beach volleyball! It was a great day!

Great Week!

Hey Guys

Sorry not a lot of time this week but this week went really well. Barc is the greatest place on earth! Better than Disneyland! haha 

So this week was a rough one but we saw some incredible miracles! We have been doing lots of pass bys looking for menos activos and more than anything people to teach! The greatst thing is that I am in Barcelona and leterally there are people everywhere! haha This week we found another incredible family!!! TOMA! The mom is a less active member that hasnt been to church in quite sometime, we set up a visit with her and we werent expecting much. We walked in and BOOM! 5 kids!!! Greatest thing in the world! Huge miracle! The oldest Melissa (16) is incredible! She needs to be a member! Evelyn (15) Is obsessed with Justin Beiber... I made a joke about him and lets just say I learned my lesson really fast! haha Moises (12) is a stud! and Angela(9) is a doll. We taught them about the Book of Mormon and she started to reading right away! It was super cute! Then their stepdad is also a nonmember but he wasnt home in the last visit to hopefully we will meet him soon! Well anyway, we invited them all to come to church this week, we went by Sunday morning and the mom didnt end up waking up, but all 5 kids walked down the stairs ready to go to church! It was awesome! haha We hope that their mom will support them and jump on board with them. The good news is that their greatgrandpa is a really active member and helps us out a lot! The bummer news is that we found out on Sunday that they live in the sisters area... LOVE IT! So we had to pass them... We will be blessed! haha

The good news is David is progressing well! We have been inviting him to lots of the activities here in the church and he always comes and he loves them! He brought a friend as well! We talked about baptism with him and he said that before he didnt really believe in God but that now things are makign more sense. We are going to invite him to be baptized again this week and try a little harder to put a date.

Other than that everything is going really well! Life couldnt be better! 

Love you all

Elder C