BILBAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Family,

I love you!! I AM IN BILBAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is the Bishop Merrill and his wife Kate of Sabadell 2
Elder Wheat and I with our tie. :)
Our last night in Sabadell. Élder Wheat left to Ibiza!!!!!!!!!

Leaving Sabadell was probably the hardest thing ever -- there was so much love there. I love Sabadell, and the wonderful friends I've made there.

Family, I want to come back and have you meet them. These people are incredible!!!

I visited every family the week before I left, especially my friends who have been baptized in these past few months. I love these people!!!!

There were so many tears and hugs involved. I can't put into an email what happened. Tender experience after tender experience. I feel like I know a little bit about what Heaven is like from being with such loving people. What a wonderful place!

...

It was very confusing to have gotten the call telling me that I was going to serve in Bilbao. I was so speechlessly excited to go; but I was devastated to leave them. It was weird. Thankfully, I am a citizen of this country, and will be able to come back and visit them all soon!!

For now, I am in Bilbao!!! :D My new companion is Elder Cook from Seatle Washington. He plays piano, ballroom dances, and went to BYU just before leaving on his misión. He has 7 months left, and he's an obedient missionary. I'm excited to work with him!!

I want to retell a miracle from Sabadell. The story continued.

The couple we contacted a month ago, coming home from an FHE in a pueblo late one night, started having the other missionaries in our Ward come and visit them. We also had opportunities to teach them as we saw them on the bus or as they called out to us out on the Street. Last Friday I went in to interview him for his baptism.

It was incredible. He was SO prepared! He knows that this is true: the first time he walked into the Church, he could feel something (the Spirit), and then during the family-focused classes, he felt the Spirit witness to him that this was the true church of God on earth today. That's when he began to progress; but angels had been preparing him the whole time before that...

He told me in the interview this (I will try to paraphrase): "When we were back in the Dominican Republic, my wife and children used to go to church every Sunday, but I always had work to do. I never made time to go to church. A few weeks ago I woke up feeling that something was missing in our lives, and I told my wife that we needed to find the church. That same day, God sent us an angel...you!"

The interview went phenomenally, and then came the time to fill out his "registro" and ask which of his two missionaries (or members aka his friends) he wanted to baptize him. I was totally taken off guard when he told me that he wanted me to baptize him.

We went back into their living room, and the wife began to tell me a little more about the story of our first meeting. She said: "You came as an answer to our prayers. We saw you on the bus, but we wouldn't have said anything to you if you hadn't started talking with us. We never give our number to anyone, but you made us feel so good. It just goes to show how important it is to be friendly and talk with everyone."

...

I was so humbled by their words. I am in awe of Heavenly Father, and how he Works. He is "todopoderoso." What a privilege and tender mercy to be able to serve as a representative of His Holy Son, and to be engaged full-time in His work. I am so grateful to be a missionary. I love this!!!

I love you all!!! Keep Reading the Book of Mormon, Praying, and being Fully Active in the Church!! It's Heavenly Father's church -- He wants us to remember this!!

Love,
Elder Zubeldia

P.S. Papi, please send me the addresses and phone numbers and names of our family and friends. It's time for everyone here to have another chance to choose to have an eternal family. Please pray for them and that Angels will prepare their hearts!!! I love you!!!