September 30, 2013

Hey everyone! 

Hahah well I love hearing that ya´ll are freezing cause today it´s 93 and all week it was over 90 hahah. But I live in the ugliest place in the world to be honest. So the language is coming great, it´s clicking so much better. I´m trying to learn Catalá but it´s so hard.  I don't know what happened last week but now I can just understand everything.  It's coming along better and I'm learning Catala and Andalucia.  I like the southern dialect more and everyone thinks I'm native until they speak Catala -- hahaha!  Ryker would understand it pretty well I bet. Bevinguts! Buen dia. L´Eglesia de Jesucrist de Darres de dias. Hahah something like that, i can say it NOT write it. It´s french, italian, spanish and portuguese mix. So hard. Haha. 

So my comp is at the mission home and he got my package, whooo yes! Can´t wait for my birthday package!!!! Umm anything I need...Kool aid. 

Stories... well I´ve learned every bad word there is this week. We were teaching someone and it was a husband wife and their newborn... The lady was so interested and we were like wow this is great!... then we ask the husband if he was happy with his life and he looks down for a second and then goes, No, pero no necesito este en mi vida, no me importa. (I wanted to hit him first but kept calm).  He looked us in the eyes and said you are f'in idiots, wasting two years of your life for this.. Wow how sad. He just went off at us and then we had to leave so we could be on time. We got home and I was just dying...missing home, wondering why I was here, wanting to come back-- both of us just in tears pretty much. So I figured my comp was thinking the same thing, but then he came over and said I´m so sorry Elder... I asked why and he said, I don´t want you to think I´m a bad missionary, I don´t want you to think that this is what it´s like, I don´t want you to hate the time you had with me... I just want you to have success and I´m failing you, I´m so sorry. It hit me of just how Christlike he is... I was feeling sorry for myself and he was feeling all the pain of the world for me...just wow...what an amazing guy. But yeah other than that we´ve just been yelled at and had zero success.

I gave a talk in a baptism this week and I guess it went really well. I speak very well in Spanish so I feel confident with that. Umm what else. Oh I need some BYU updates, Dodgers updates like something please. how´s Ziggy doing in the NFL. Like someone please!! Me and Elder Streiff, he lives in my piso, have become great friends and we will be forever because of these experiences that we have shared. We both are a bit homesick but it´s getting better.  I met with the President again for some reason (probably because of the ghetto place I am in hahaha) and he´s just a great guy, gives me so much hope. Nothing else is really going on here. But I miss and love you all! send me questions so I can answer them! And yeah mom I got your letter (at my scary location it worked) and loved it! no better feeling!

So love you guys so much!

September 23, 2013

Ok here we go... I´m gonna try to knock out all your questions and see if I can finally send these pictures! Ok, so we buy our stuff at a little mercado by our piso.  It´s so weird and gross there but it´s all we got! Soooo expensive they really don´t give you enough money to live out here hahah oh well -- we are in survival mode this week eating my package  (thank you so much by the way I love it) this week of peanut butter and crumbs hahah. Yes, we have a microwave and oven. They are awful and we do not use them!! We have weights in our piso so we work out or run in the morning. I must say I´m looking rather sexy!! Weighing about 181 and I've gotten bigger in a good way. 

Did you get the pics one of our families said she would facebook to you? They are so funny. I hate everyones food still and they all know it so they sneak pics while I eat.  Yeah they all know so now they never cook fish, just beef, it´s getting better. The lobster is pretty good.  They all work at restaurants so they will feed us seafood.. mostly fish. Sometimes good stuff usually gross fish, sometimes crab and lobster though and its so fresh and good.

Is this place safe.... I don´t want you to be worried but no, not at all safe. Very scary to be honest. We almost died this week...hahah nothing bad we just ride in the back of our ward mission leaders truck thing and yeah it´s scary. The language is getting there but it´s freaking hard. I can understand 75% of what´s going on and speak just about anything I want. The problem is understanding. We walk pfff like... 10 miles a day.. at least. Bare minimum. No there is no fast food by me, there is barely any food by me. Next week we will be going to the Sagrada Familia, but other than that not really gone anywhere. 

People are veryyyy poor but not humble at all. They live in like a 10 by 10 piso with four kids usually. About 80% of Spain is Atheist so no one I mean no one will talk with us put no pasa nada. I´ve taught a few discussions but not many. They´ve been great. We had a family set for baptism this week but they decided not to because the mom had some freak out so we are back to ground zero with no investigators.

Church is soooo weird. It's in a building in the middle of the hood. It´s decent but weird. We have 100 members but like 45 active maybe. 

We have a washing machine then we hang them to dry hahahah. We have meals from members decently often. One of the moms here took pics and sent them to you on facebook so look for that. 

As far as getting the packages you send to the mission home...we get them whenever we go to the mission home which is an hour or so away and we have to walk close to ten miles. I see him once in a while but he´s awesome. 

 

Mission President is awesome and my companion is too. I get so tired because all we do is speak in Spanish so my brain is just dead at the end of the day. I live with Elder Cerquiera, Elder Ferrer and Elder Streiff.  Elder Streiff is from Montana and was in the MTC with me and we have become great friends, I love him to death we keep eachother sane. I sent you guys my address but here it is again. 

Carrer Provença 15 Bajos 2º

L´Hospitalet de Llobregat

(Barcelona) 08901

only send letters there though not packages! hahaha scary.  You said you google mapped my address and asked if there was a workplace or something at the end of the street and a bar in the other alley.  Yeah we have a huge warehouse hahah and bars at every corner.  K one thing I was gonna ask was please send my Patriarchal Blessing. Other than that nothing really exciting going on here... Hmmm nope haha. 

Hey B - you are taking Spanish so make sure you actually pay attention.. you´ll need it... and when your teacher says you will never use the Vosotros form stand up and tell her she is a filthy liar hahahah and that´s the only form you hear in Spain and Spain is the purest of all Spanish.  What does Hospitalet mean?  Means nothing...maybe it translates to Hell but nothing else. But pay attention to Spanish you will need it. I speak Catalan here so it´s way different. 

Well thank you everyone for everything! I miss and love you all! 

HAPPY 19TH BIRTHDAY ELDER MATEOS!

WE LOVE YOU!!!

 

AWESOME ZONE CONFERENCE SEPT. 16, 2013

September 17, 2013

So my first two weeks in the field have been interesting. Not all too great. I have learned that I am in the place of the Devil, not even kidding this is a modern day Babylon. It is the land of iniquity. We seriously are laughed at every single step of the way. No one cares to hear our word. No one takes us seriously. About 80 percent of this place is Athiest. I live in a super poor area, everyone is from Ecuador and South America...I haven´t taught a single Spaniard. We are laughed at, spit at, yelled at...we almost get in fights.  It is not what I thought a mission was. I am here and I feel like we are in the times of old in the scriptures. These people are so wicked. We have some faithful members but not many good ones. You wouldn´t even be able to comprehend what I see daily. This place has us because Satan has won here, and we have to conquer it again. Almost daily my companion and I come home close to tears because all we do is fail. There is no success. We street contact over fifty hours a week because there is no one to teach. Everyone, give missionaries references because without member references this work cannot go on. Help them please! 

This is so hard you have no idea. I have taught three lessons out of complete miracles though just enough to keep my companion and I going. We have one baptismal date on the 28th -- a nine year old who isn´t a member his dad is and his mom is not. The mom does not want to be baptized but we finally taught her and the Spirit was literally shouting during that lesson. You wouldn´t even believe it. I asked her to be baptized as we are instructed to... She said no. She won´t listen to us now and it´s been almost a week or so. How can you deny these feelings? It was so strong. My companion and I were dying and struggling because she flaked on us one day and we were standing in the street murmuring so my companion said let´s pray and repent so we did and after we said "amen" I just said "Elder we need to contact everyone we see" so some little punk kid walks by and I was just like not him (though in my mind) but my companion said, "una pregunta usted una persona que cree en Dios?" and he said, "yes" and wanted to hear more, this never ever ever happens. We taught the first lesson right there and invited him to baptism and he said yes. We have to teach him the rest before we can truly set a date but wow, what a miracle. That has been our only true success so far. Having to report our numbers every week just really gets me down. This is the hardest thing of my life. I have never felt so discouraged. But one night while walking home after hours and hours of working I just had this overwhelming feeling in the street then I heard my name... No one was there so I shook it off then it happened again. Then I remembered a quote that Elder Perkis always says, Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of Heaven. The words just made me feel so much better and I could feel the angels around me. It´s not all like that though. It´s hard. It´s so hard. I wish I were better prepared. The mission isn´t all these amazing miracles. There are many but that´s not a mission. Be ready for trials in this life. And learn that money is not everything. Money is of Satan. Truly. I have been so humbled here. Be grateful for everything you have back home. You will never understand how blessed you are until He takes it all away. So be humble like unto a child. 

So a little update on weather, well it rains like every day and when it doesn´t rain it´s about 110 degrees so its hard hahah. All we eat is rice I swear. Some of the food is pretty good but mainly rice hahaha. I am serving a third world country mission I kid you not. Hahaha but everything is going along well.. half decently. I´m very homesick and miss everyone sooo much. But I hope all is well. I pray for you all so hard every single night. I love you all.

September 9, 2013

Hahahah so the field is very hard I have to say. You know in the best two years how he says,¨that ain´t the language they taught me in the MTC.¨  Well, guess what, they really did teach us the wrong language!! They speak Catalan here and I do not understand a single word of it.  Thankfully most of them speak Spanish but they speak with the craziest accent in this area so it is very difficult for me...

So cool story... Where I am serving they hate Spain, how great huh??  Not suppose to wear the pin (of the Spanish flag) because here they are trying to split from Spain and be their own country. All the people have these Catalunyan flags everywhere -- it is insane. Ok, so they said don´t expect dinner appointments... not true at ALL. We have had six in four days. Yeah its insane and I am loving the people, just can´t always understand them which is veryyyy hard.  I speak amazingly, but can not always understand. I´ve learned lots of naughty words from not saying them right. hahahah.  I tell everyone I´m from Africa too and they get a kick out of it. 

So where I live is the total hood of Spain. Like seriously, it is Rose Park I learned, but it´s awesome. A lot of immigrants from South America so they always feed us rice and chicken. It is awesome food. But I love it seriously it´s awesome but SOO hard. I have had a hard time. We have no one to teach because we opened this area, no one will listen to us, we are rejected and yelled at multiple times a day. It is the hardest thing I have ever experienced. Then Sunday was awesome -- to finally be wanted somewhere and have people listen to us. And Pday is now so we will go hang out and then nothing else really hahah. We can do what we want. So when my companion leaves (his mission is over shortly) I´ll stay here and get a new one. The temp is beyond hot, well not hot, but so humid. It has rained almost everyday I´ve been here. But it feels way good. 

So tell all the little ones I love and miss them! Tell B to keep doing well at football and work hard. You´ll never be able to relive those years and they were the best years of my life. If I could go back I would.  Tell Jax I miss and love him, work hard during those open gyms, they will make or break the player you can be. And make sure you´re going out and having fun with everyone and really experiencing high school. Make it fun. Every night before I go to bed those are the memories I can reflect on and laugh about. Ruffles make sure you´re being smart out there, pick the right kind of chocolate. I miss all of you guys. Be sure that you guys write me every week because I love being able to see it all. And lastly all I want is candy to snack on hahah, we only get one meal a day so I am starving. I love you all!!

Third day of transfers:  Everyone is excited for their new companion and new area!!..and one last photo with this historic group
 
 

He Has ARRIVED!!! 
E-mail dated September 5, 2013


Hey! I hope you´re awake but if not oh well! So I just got to my first area.. I love it!  So we were here for two days doing our residency and getting set up with a temporary companion. I got Élder Ferrer. He is a ZL (zone leader) and such a champ!! So we hit it off way well. Everything was beyond solid and we contacted people and got references like no other. 

So then came today... I was getting way nervous i´d have a dud companion. I was beyond worried --  like you have no idea. So there were two people I liked a lot... Elder Ferrer and Elder Cerquiera who was the other ZL. I was praying so hard to get one or the other. So we were sitting in a room and they would call you up one by one and tell you who your comp was in front of everyone, a rather long process...so I was freaking out...just so scared. I waited for forty minutes then finally it´s me and one other kid... I walk up and President Pace says, "how do you like Portuguese?"  I just looked at him and he says, "well your companion is from Portugal so you better love it, it´s Elder Cerquiera!"  I was so relieved you have no idea.  HE RAN AND HUGGED ME AND IT WAS HILARIOUS!!  He´s been out 23 months and I´m his last comp. He said he was praying to either have me or Elder Jennings as his comp. Looks like both of our prayers were answered. 

So the train ride to Barca was 2 and a half hours on the bullet train, those are freaking sweet btw!! But yeah that was just nuts and then we got off and went to our capilla, chapel. And let me tell you.. The food is amazing!! Good thing is my piso, room, are a bunch of gym rats. I love it. So it´s me, Elder Streiff - new, Elder Cerquiera, and Elder Ferrer. I love it so much. Hahaha!!!  They´re so cool. Our piso is sick too, I´ll send pics soon. But yeah this place is crazy. Just barely Elder Cerquiera and I went to a member's house and had a way good meal.  Then we went tracking and started talking to some guy in the street after, and well, now we have our first investigator. I´m so excited for that. We teach him Domingo at 12. Well there´s just about everything. 

Today is my first day so I don't know my schedule really well but it looks kind of like this.  

7:30 wake up and work out
9:00 study
10:00 companion study
11:00 practice language
12:00 head out
1:00 lunch
2:00 siesta til 5:00 then go out and work until 10:30
10:30 personal time 
11:30 bed

You asked for the address to mail letters and packages... just mail to the mission home for now.  My companion is on splits right now so I can't ask.  I am in the area Hospitalet.  It is so pretty at the beaches.  Wow.  I love it and I know we will all be blessed for me being here.  Catalan is very hard to understand here so hopefully one day.  


Tell B and Reece how sick it is that they´re doing so well. Tell B that though his size may never come, it doesn´t matter. What matters is how big of a heart you have when you play. Reece, well, he´ll be a big boy hahah. Remember, day by day, we get stronger and stronger, til we can´t be beat, we won´t be beat. I love you all!

FINALLY ARRIVED IN BARCELONA!!

What do 43 New Missionaries look like? Angels! Welcome to El Faro!

What do 43 New Missionaries look like? Angels! Welcome to El Faro!

September 1, 2013

So I can´t even tell you how excited I am to get out of here! I need a new place.  Things have been hard but they are looking up! I get up at 5:45 tomorrow to head out to Barca! There are 41 of us heading by bullet train going 160 mph for four hours. I cannot even describe how excited I am! Sorry not to respond about all the kids and sports but I want updates and will handwrite those to you! 

So this week was so solid. I loved it.  The worst food I have had here is called Gespacho - yuck. Elder Harrop Landinez and Dougher dragged me out of the dumps and made it what it was. I loved it. We went to Sol on Thursday and got all our shopping done! It was so fun. I´m gonna miss them so much so we got a little pin that we can mail around and take pics with and send to eachother. 

But yeah it is summer and you´re all complaining about 95?? It is 116. So ha! It was sooooo hot I cannot even take it!  But they say Barcelona is way cooler. So I can't wait! I will be getting my new comp tomorrow and more time to email so I will tell you all the details!  I wish the kids would all email me a little more...but tell them I love and miss them.  Tell Bridger to be a good missionary with his new friends.  I wished I would have been a better missionary with my friends that I love.  Te quiero mucho! Echo de menos! Tenga un buen dia.

I love you all!!