Good week!

Good week good week! we were very busy but we definetly saw the benefits! This upcoming week the PLaza kids are being baptized. They are so great. Tony the youngest is such a stud and has so much excitement and energy about his baptism. Kelly the oldest 17, is really excited too. Joseline 15, wasnt so sure about it but we had a really spiritual lesson about prayer the other day. I think she didnt really understand the power of prayer. Now i think she is really praying for her answer, I know that when we ask our father in heaven, with real intent, he will always answer. It is so beautiful to me. I dont think i would have been this excited about religion when i was their age, but i am so glad to see their example and be able to witness such a special thing in them. I really love this work and cannot wait for more things lke this to happen.
I love you all and i know God loves us! Im not becoming some religious nerd or anything i just feel good and now i finally know why

Thanks for all your love and support
love,
Elder Santore

Staying in Sabadell!

well hello again. Tranfers came by fast, im staying here in sabadell to finish my training. very excting stuff! We had to move the plaza baptism a week behind becasue they couldnt make it tochurch this past sunday. A bummer but they will get there. We talked to them about going to the temple in a year to be sealed as a family and they were very excited! I really hope and pray that it happens! That would be so amazing.

We had an off week i think, it just came so fast. We were distracted with a lot of things but no worries it just makes us want to work harder this week! there is a lot of work to do. Its crazy.

I dont really know waht else to say, im tryin to stay positive with everything but its hard when its so hot. All i know is this church birngs true happiness. I have seen it change lives already in the six weeks i have been here. I love this work. it is such a blessing to be here. I feel so blessed to be able to spread this gospel and i know that i have been helped! I know this is true. I just know it.

I love you all so very much!!! thank for your examples and your prayers!!

Elder Ryan Santore

Hello again!

Another week in spain. Sometimes its weird walking around here. I am starting to get used to all the european streets and its freaky, like before i was all amazed by it all but now its just nothing that special haha. But i still look at all the allies and waht not and just find myself thinking ¨how the heck did i end up here¨. Its a good feeling for sure. This week we just tried so hard to get working, it really showed with our numbers! before we had like 1 person come to church a few lessons ervy week but this week we had 5 people come to church, taught 13 lessons with members present. It was amazing, we made our goals really hard but it just made us work so much more for them. It was nuts, yesterday in church my mind was so tired from walking everyday and jsut concentrating on getting those goals that i just couldnt keep my eyes open. I dont think i have ever been so tired haha. Ill be walking and just cloe my eyes for a little, im literally starting to sleep while im walking in the streets for a little. Its pretty gnarly. But that means im working i hope.

Lets see, I saw SAM HOUSEKEEPER! biggest surprise of my life!!!! We had to go to the office in BArcelona to get interviewed by the president(happens every few months, i wasnt in trouble), and he was just sitting on a couch in there! We have only been in the office once in my mission and i was in there for probably an hour. him being there was such a crazy miracle! I saw him and was confused because he was dressed normal, and i was like wow that looks like WAIT WHAT THE HECK! it was a very trippy experience! I didnt really know what to say, but im so glad i saw him. Never thought an old high school buddy would just pop up in the mission office, unreal.

Im trying to think of other things that happened this week. we just keep working and working, yoga and insense, thats the way haha. I dunno waht i would do without that right now. Things with spanish and just being away from the world can be really difficult and when i just breathe and stretch i feel great. It calms me down and makes me more patient. Its crazy haha. but i love it.

I feel all your prayers and love. I appreciate it so much! I know that our father in heaven is listening when we pray. I have felt it beyond belief here. I wish the people that we spoke to could find it themselves to try it because it really makes all the difference. We are alive to have joy, and when we feel sad we have someone to talk to always! its an unreal blessing. I am so blessed to have this in my life and i just want the world to have it also. I love this work, it is inredcibly difficult and so tiring but i have never felt this way before. So many emotions of happiness and calmness. this is the way, i love you all!

Thanks again for all you do!

Elder Ryan Santore

4th of July

Why hello!! It has been a great week! We moved into our new piso which is so nice!! I love it! it as air conditioning which is really rare but such a blessing! It is getting so hot here, im starting to sweat pretty crazy amount haha.

But other than that the work is getting pretty intense. We are finally strating to have a bunch of teaching visits with people which is so great! the other day we were just sitting down trying to plan out our night in a little more detail and a man and a woman came up to us. Apparently he was baptized in ecuador a long time ago and moved here to spain and didnt know there was a church here. We met with him and his family and they all have plans to be baptized on the 27! it was amazing! the kids are so excited, they have two girls and a boy ages 18, 14, and 9. so incredible, we were just sitting trying to figure out what we needed to do that night and bam!

That seriously was such a great blessing. Elder shumway and i were like floating the rest of the week because of the greatness that had occurred haha.
LEts see though, i have been doing yoga every morning which is pretty intense. Im getting really zen. I swear soon ill be able to just fly, thats how zen i am. But for real, it makes the day so great. We get up do some yoga, take some protein, take hot cold showers, do some insense and drink mate while we study. I feel like im about to reach mormon nirvana every morning haha. Its getting pretty close.

In all serious, I am seeing a lot of great things happen. we see miracles everyday and i am so grateful for it. I feel great. This is such a tremendous work. I wish i could speak better but i feel it coming along. I feel like im working a lot harder which feels great. I love you all and hope you are having a great week!! stay great!!

Love your favorite Misisonary,
Elder Ryan Santore
AKA Zen Master of Spain

TWO MONTHS!!!

So today is my 2 month mark!!! im like almost done haha. No but really, it seems like it is going very fast. This week was great. we had a lot of miracles happen that usually never happen. Three happened in one day right after another which is so insane! We have been really struggling to find new people to teach and boom! So we just walk out of our piso and seem an African man, we start talking to him and learn he speaks english, then he says he would love for us to come by and teach him our gospel because he loves the bible! so we have an appointment with him this week. Then we were on the bus just thinking to ourselves wow, that was incredible when a Dominican man turns around and asks if we are the mormons. We were like ya! and he starts talking about 14 years ago he was taught by the mormons in the Dominican Republic but left to Spain before he could learn more. Well he wants to learn more! IT was such an amazing experience. And then we were eating some lunch at a little cafe and this man comes up and asks if we are the mormons again! we were like ya, once again. and he goes off about he has been talking to mormons online in the missionary chat thing, and wants missionaries to come to his home to teach him. We were like what! ya we can do that! it was such a blessing to us to know that all the contacting and hard work we had done was really paying off!!

 

I really love this work. it is soooo hard at times but it is sooo worth it. I am already seeing this gospel change lives including my own. its an amazing thing that I wish everyone could have!! 

 

Well i love you so much! thanks for all the support!! I truly appreciate it all!!! I feel so much love from home

you are all the greatest people!!!

 

Love, 

Elder Santore

 

ps no funny poop story yet.. still waiting, but it will happen