Amigos en la Capilla!

That's right we had lots of amigos at church this week!!! A friend from the street, lots of friends of members, and the husband of our baptismal date and her family! After so long of frankly sad attendance, it was so good to have a packed chapel. It was especially good to see the family of our friend who wants to be baptized. We want to help families, not just individuals, grow connections to God and to each other. 

Lots of finding this week. I'm getting a lot better at talking to random people and we are much more effective with our time. Sometimes we are super busy, running from appointment to appointment, and sometimes they all cancel so we have to figure something else out. That's just the ebb and flow of the work I guess. 

In other news, we put the Christmas Tree up this week!!! Just kinda bored on Saturday, so I figured, why not? I just love Christmas and it gives our piso a little bit of life. 

We had an activity this week with the youth from the ward and played Skull King. Although I lost horribly, we had all of the youth come and a lot of our friends too! I'm sorry, not a lot of interesting things this week,which is crazy to say because everyday feels like a fever dream. Lots of things to look forward to though - this week I'll be heading to both Madrid and Sevilla, so heads up for next week! 

The last image, in my dry collection of photos says, "The only correct religion is being a good person". Being here in Spain, where being Catholic is more an ethnicity than a religion and where many people are believers, but not practicers, this principle is common. And why should it not be? Religion in Europe, and the rest of the world, has been used as a political and psychological tool to subject, plunder and kill. Popes used to start wars, not preach against them, and religion is used to exclude, not include. Why can't we just toss out all that messy theology stuff and just be nice people? 

Let me begin by stating that "being a good person" is the goal; that true religion truly practiced is what makes a good person, a divine person. Religion is a collection of principles, of truth claims, such as God exists or Jesus Christ is divine. When we accept these claims, certain requirements accompany that acceptance. This means that God is demanding. Not in a bad way, but in the manner that gravity demands a response, a reaction, so does God. For example, when we truly believe in gravity, we sacrifice certain actions, like jumping off a building. We sacrifice our actions that are counter to God, only when we accept the idea that He exists. Without religion, there is not that sacrifice or demand that forces one to act good even when they don't "feel like it."

It is also impossible to define "good person" without more basic principles, ones often found in religion. For example, as Christians, we seek to emulate the examples and principles taught by Jesus Christ such as: we have divine potential or we will be judged according to our actions.  Whether in religion or not, certain principles define what it means to be good. Finally, this church in particular, provides us, in our journey to be good people, the opportunity to repent, the enabling grace of the Atonement, and the guiding influence of the Holy Ghost. Through ordinances and covenants performed with the correct authority, we also gain a greater provision of His power. 

"For the natural man is an enemy to God and will be forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love"

The truth is, there are no good people without guiding principles. May those principles be the correct ones and be found in your hearts and actions, not in councils and creeds. 

All this to say, Elder Dougall let's just stick to what you ate there in Spain. Next week I promise.

Elder Dougall