December 15, 2010

~ It´s all good, we all went to the island of Tenerife this morning to have a christmas party with President Watkins and Sister Watkins. We came over on the ferry, and they picked us up and we had a christmas devotional in the chapel here in Santa Cruz and then we ate a lot, and then we exchanged white elephant gifts, and then we ate some more, and it was great. It´s always good to see everyone, and to be together as a zone. Everything is going good. A lady in our ward taught me how to make yogurt. I remember you told me you used to make it in France, but I forgot how. My last comp. elder Slack and I tried to make it one day in Fuerteventura cause he hear that you just put yogurt with milk, and so we tried it but it didn´t work, but then we were eating with a family and she brought out a bowl of yogurt and taught us the trick which is that you have to heat the milk before and then leave it out wrapped in a blanket. And I did it and it worked way good, and now I make it all the time. It´s way cheap, and it's good, I swear my stomach feels better when I eat yogurt in the morning. We went fishing last week too with an investigator, we went to the port and fished with him for a little bit and then we taught him and it was fun. I caught a tiny fish and my comp caught a big one. It was fun. Our investigator loves fishing. His nephew is going to get baptized the first week of January, and it´s making him want to get baptised too I think. There´s so many awesome people here.
Anyways everything is going good, we´re going to do splits today with Elder De Haro and Elder Slack who are in the south of this island. Thanks for everything, Tell the perry´s and the Truman´s thanks for sending me those letters! ´have a good week!
elder ross

December 8, 2010

~ Gracias por todo. Hicimos intercambios esta semana y han salido muy bien.... sorry umm thanks for everything we did splits this week and they came out good, the next week we´re going to the island of Tenerife to have a christmas celebracion with the president and his wife and we´re way excited, we have a small zone but everyone works hard and gets along, and because we´re so seperated every chance we get to see one another we cherish. We used the camaras to have a council with president and the other leaders de zona and then the day after we had a district meeting with all the islands and we had the meeting and then my comp and mi taught them what we had learned in the council with president. everything is going great. thanks for everything two of my favorite scriptures are alma 26:11-12 y Helaman 3: 35. they are good ones. Wish him good luck for me! i can´t believe i´m not going to see matt for more than three years!! dang. that´s life, and it´s for the best. thanks for everything
elder ross

December 1, 2010

~ Zone conference was awesome, we Elder Caussé let me conduct in spanish so it went good. We learned a lot, and he talked a lot about the importance of revelacion. It´s amazing the the seventy are called and then they just leave everything and serve the lord for 25 years. He speaks english really well, I told him you served in the south of France where he´s from. I got the package, and the shirts are perfect. I´m staying for this transfer too, so i´ll be here for christmas. We went to the old mission home for thanksgiving and it was so good, we ate with the family that moved from fuerteventura to this island the same time that I came over. It was really good, we ate a ton. This last week was district conference and all the islands connected by camara. An area seventy came down to talk to us, Elder Wright from England, and it was really good. Presidente Watkins and Sister Watkins came down as well, and we had a good meeting, for the first half hour the camaras weren´t working, and when we have had problems before we shut the power off to the chapel and then turn it back on and it works after that for some reason, so the counselor in the district presidency was trying to figure out how to get everything working, and so I went into the hall to tell him that maybe if we turned the power off it would work. At first he wasn´t sure, because we had a chapel full of people, but it still wasn´t working, so we shut the power off, and turned it back on and then it all worked fine after that.
Elder Kap and I one night decided to go and visit a less active family that we had never met, and when we rang the doorbell they let us in and after talking for a little bit they told us how crazy it was that we rang the doorbell when we did, because right before the wife asked the husband why he didn´t go to the church, and the husband asked her the same thing, and the second after we rang the doorbell. They´re like 28-30, he´s from Argentina and served a mission and she´s from here and they live with her mom and little brother who haven´t gone to church for a long time either. And they have two little kids. So after that we have been visiting them about every week and we have had family home evening and lessons, and they all have super strong testimonies, and we invited them to come to church, but they still didn´t have the desire to come. And so the area 70 and president Watkins and the president of the district, saturday night before the conference picked two inactive families to visit, and it was them and the family, of the brother, of the husband who also served a mission in Argentina, and is inactive. So they visited them and had a super spiritual night with them and then the next day they all came to church, and it was so good to see them there. They are such good people. We are also helping two other less active family, and one of the families has a daughter who married a return missionary, and who lives in Las Vegas, and when we were visiting them the mother was talking on the phone to the daughter in las vegas, and she wanted to talk to me, and I talked to her and she asked for our house number and she wanted to call you guys. Everything is going good, I´m glad I get to stay here at least one more transfer. It´s a great place. I´m going to come home with a bunch of canary islands food recipies. thanks for everything have a good week!

November 24, 2010

~ Thanks for everything, sorry I couldn´t write more but we had an amazing thanksgiving yesterday in the house of the mision with the elder missionaries. I don´t think I´ll be leaving so send whatever here, there´s no spicy food here so if you can find the jalapeño and peppered beef jerky send it. Haha thanks for everything we have two baptismal dates set and we could have 4 more before the end of the next week. thanks!
elder ross

November 17, 2010

~ this week was awesome, we found a cuban guy who I stopped in the street and he is super humble and he came to church, and now we´re teaching him, and he accepted a baptismal date. He smokes and drinks but he´s really spiritual, before we taught him the restoration, we left him with a pamphlet about the restoration and he read it and then when we taught him the restoration he explained to us the first vision and why Joseph Smith was necessary and why the Book of Mormon came forth. It was so cool to see someone realize the magnitude of the restoration. This sunday I had to give a talk in sacrament, and the microphone went out at the very beginning of sacrament meeting, so I had to yell my talk, but I made them laugh, and everyone said that they understood me well. I´ve learning that you gotta speak loud when you give talks or the people won´t pay atention. Everytime I´ve givin a talk here in Spain I´ve spoke right into the microphone because the niños are always pretty loud. The old talks of the General Authorities that I have from the 1950´s are awesome cause they are so good at speaking. They vary their ton of voice a lot, and they´re good at keeping your attention. It had to be hard to speak in the times of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, I´ve heard stories that sometimes they had to take breaks for their voices, and I believe it, it´s fisically draining to speak loudly for a long time. I´ve definitely learned a lot about public speaking in the mission. So today the whole zone is here with us. we are all writing our families, and then we´re going to play futbol as a zone and then we are going to see the island a little. Tonight we have a meeting with the branch and then after we´re going to have a meeting with the Seventy, and the District Presidency, and we´re going to go over how the meetings with the ward should be, and he´s going to teach us. Then tomorrow we´re going to have zone conference. Conducting will be alright, the worst part about it is I have to do it in English and i feel awkard when i speak english. i can speak publicly in spanish anytime anywhere, but in english it´s hard. the spaniards are so good at talking, everytime you talk to them they put on a show and it´s awesome, i´m trying to learn to speak like they do. the package has gotten here but i haven´t had time to pick it up yet, but thanks! we set the goal of 8 baptisms for this transfer for the zone and we´ve had 7 so far, and then the A.P.´s extended another challenge which is 50 baptisms by the end of the year for the canary islands, and right now we have 45 for the year, so the islands have had a mountain of success this year. i´m excited to see president and to listen to elder Caussé. my talk this week was on our well being fisical and spiritual, and i concluded that a good wellbeing spiritual can get us through any fisical challenge that we may have. one of the talks that i´ve been listening to over and over is a talk by hugh nibley speaking about brigham young, and he basically just reads quotes from brigham young, and it´s super powerfull what he says, he talks about how as saints we can have a spiritual joy that gets us through anything if we will stop worring about the things of the world, and simply obey and give thanks to God. I know that it doesn´t matter what happens in this world as long as we consecrate our lives to the Lord. Thanks for everything, have a great thanksgiving!
elder ross

November 10, 2010

~ So everything is going good still we are teaching the family of the kid that just got baptized, and his dad said that he wants to find the truth, but he thinks that all the churches are the same, but he also said that if he feels like he should, he´ll get baptized with the other three kids. He looked proud of his son when he got baptized. They are an awesome family. So this Tuesday everyone is going to come to this island, and we´ll have p-day and the day after we´ll have the zone conference with Elder Kausé from France. I have to direct the zone conference so that´ll be fun, other than that everything is going good.
Anyways I can´t think of much more to say, everything is going great and I´m learning every single day how to work hard and be more humble and patient, so I couldn´t ask for anything more. I think that it´s a commandment for guys to serve missions and not for the women because there´s so much that we need to learn that girls are just born with, like how to cook and clean and think of others and sew and listen to the spirit. The transfers will be the 29th of November, so if I can just get by this transfer I won´t have to freeze so much in the peninsula. It´s crazy it´s already Thanksgiving and almost Christmas and almost 2011. The time flys when you´re havin fun. Have a great week and I´ll see you all later! Rachel please don´t crash the car
elder ross

November 3, 2010

~ We´re going to have zone conference the 17th of November with an area seventy from france, his name´s Elder Kausé. I´m stoked. Eduard got baptized this last sunday and it was awesome, the spirit was super strong, and his family came and it looks like we´ll keep teaching them and hopefully some more if not all of them will get baptized. It´s a testimony to me of how important the members are in the mission work, because one kid decided to share the gospel with his friend I´ve seen two baptisms. The family of Eduard is awesome. Eduard has two sisters and one brother, and their dad takes care of them. Their dad at first was really closed to us but now he´s opened up a lot and hopefully we´ll be able to teach him more. Transfers will be the 29th of November and I´m really hoping that I don´t go, mainly cause it´s so cold in the peninsula, but also cause I don´t want to leave Eduard and his family. The elderly couple that are serving on our island are going to make a big Thanksgiving, and i´m so excited. Sister Parker said that she has found just about everything that she needs to have a real Thanksgiving.
Right now I´m in an internet cafe in the island of Tenerife. My comp and I came over to do splits with the district leader and his comp (who is my old comp from Fuerteventura elder Slack). We had district meeting with them and the sisters in the morning and Me and elder Slack got to work together yesterday afternoon, and it was so much fun. Today for p-day we´re going to see the island a little before we have to get on the ship back to Las Palmas. It´s awesome to be in such a crazy place with such good people and such awesome missionaries. The mission is the best.
I still really want to be a dentist, so that good that it won´t be changed so much by the health plan. How´s Jeff doing?? Is he a full on dentist now? Anyways, everything is going great I really don´t need anything for Christmas, I would love a spain jersey but I think it would be way cheaper just to buy one online, but I really don´t know, you gotta look at the prices online and then let me know how much they are. Everything is going great, that´s crazy that Kelsey Rogers is getting home in December, there´s just not enough time haha.
Do you think you could send me a picture of buddy in an email?
You really don´t have to send anything for christmas, but if you do those face wipes that came with that face cleaning kit work good, and I think you can just buy the face wipes, but it´s really not that important. Thanks for everything!!!
elder ross

October 27, 2010

~ Thanks for everything, Wduard is going to get baptized this sunday, and we´re all super excited. I think if you sent me like two short sleeve shirts it´d be perfect. I got a bunch of clothes in my suitcase in Madrid, so no worries. I´m so jealous you´re going to eat flank steak sandwiches ahhh so good. This branch here is awesome. There´s this new reunion(meeting) we have now with all the leaders, and the members here are so awesome. Last night we had the reunion(meeting) and it was awesome, it really was productive and things were planned and things got done, you could serioulsy feel the spirit while we talked about the people here in Las Palmas. I don´t have much time but everythings going good. Tell everyone I said hi, thinking of all the people I´ve met in my life through the church and here on the mission gives me more strength and motivation than anything. Thinking of brother Anderson just makes me wanna work so hard and do the very best that I can. Thanks for everything I´m going to try and send something to Eric, there´s not much stuff here halloween but i´ll find something from the islands to send him.
elder ross

October 20, 2010

~ Familia, everything is going good. Eduard still wants to get baptized on the 30 of october, and his little brother who has eleven years is progressing really fast. Their dad is getting more and more comfortable with us and with what we teach his kids. it would be awesome if he got baptized too, but we´ll see what happens. The mother and daughter that we were teaching now don´t want to receive the lessons because they don´t have time. So that´s super sad, but we´ll keep passing by their house every once and a while. I think that if my old comp. Elder Woodland would have stayed we would still be teaching them cause he was the one that found them, but no worries, the mom says she knows that the Book of Mormon is true and that it´s just because she doesn´t have time. The hardest part about the mission work is getting to know people and sharing spiritual experiences with them and then seeing them go the way of the world and decide that they don´t want to hear any more. The things in this world blind us and lull us away into a false sense of security.
I was thinking, that if you´re going to send something, send me like two packs of those big tortillas that aren´t cooked yet, that you cook in the pan you know? Aw man I´ve been dreaming about those for a long time. It´s weird but they don´t sell tortillas here. If you find them they come in packs of 6 and they cost like 6 dollars. So anyways, I haven´t crashed yet and I´ve gotten way better at shifting and at parallel parking, and the members here are helping us lots and ya everything is going good. The parents of the big family from fuerteventura that gave me the cactuses came over to visist their daughter who just moved over here and we´re going to eat lunch with them so i´m stoked for that. Thanks for everything, my shirts are incredibly dirty so if you sent me like 2 that would also be a huge help. Those talks on my ipod from the 50´s and all the church c.d.´s are so awesome, the word has really become delicious to me like it talks about in alma 32:27-28. Whenever I have free time I want to study the scriptures and ponder the teachings of Christ. The scriptures are the best. Thanks for everything you guys are the best, don´t worry be happy!
elder ross

October 13, 2010

~ iiiiCupleaños Felíz!!!! that is crazy that you´re 16, and that sounds so fun to play golf for your birthday, I´m super jealous. My shoes just got here right before we left to do internet, y son guapisimos (and they´re super fly) I´m stoked to wear them, but I´m going to wait as long as I can, I really couldn´t have picked out a better looking pair of shoes. Thanks, the beef jerky will get put to good use as well. Thanks for everything, we are teaching a lot and contacting like crazy, an area 70 is going to come down here in November and we´re are going to have zone conference with him so we´re stoked about that. We should have a baptism in two week hopefully, so pray that Eduard will continue with the lessons. Have a good day I miss you guys!
elder ross

October 6, 2010

~ We got to watch almost all of conference, but we had to leave halfway through the second sessiones of both saturday and sunday to get home on time. All the talks I heard were super good. It´s cool to see how in the MTC in Madrid I watched general conference in spanish cause I wanted to see how much I could understand, and I did understand a lot but in comparison to now I understand a lot more. I really liked when the Prophet talked about Alice and the chesser cat and how when we have tough decisions in our lives we should ask ourselves, where do I want to go. That is going to help me a lot I think. Also they talked a lot about how coupled with every temptation there is a way out. That is reassuring to hear as well, I know that there are thousands of people who are going to benefit from the council that we recieved this general conference. I swear that i´m just now beginning to realize that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet just like moses or alma that is a live right now to guide us. It is indeed a blessing. Thanks for sending me shoes, I really won´t need them for some time more. I´m not going to wear them until these shoes are almost destroyed I think. Then like you said when I get home i´ll have a new pair of shoes, so that´ll be perfect. Everything is going great. we are energized for the work now. We went to the Island of Lanzarote on Monday for splits and we got back yesterday afternoon. It´s such a cool experience being here and visiting other islands and working with other missionaries. We have an awesome zone. One of the elder´s in Lanzarote is Spanish and is from Barcelona. We were in the same room in the MTC in Madrid but he went to the mission of Bilboa and I went to malaga. Then we got moved to the mission of Madrid and we were on splits together in a desert island. Who would of thought. It was funny because in the MTC I didn´t understand him very much at all and he couldn´t understand me but we got along because we love fútbol, but now we understand each other perfectly and it was cool to see him and talk to him. He´s a great missionary, and he knows so much about the scriptures, and he uses them so well. He has motivated me to keep studying hard. So everythings good. Thanks for everything, I love you guys. Tell Danny I said what up, and ask him to check his email too.
hasta luego
elder ross

Sept 29, 2010

~ That´s sad BYU is strungling but it´s understandable, at least by the time I get back the kinks will all be worked out and we´ll be able to enjoy some good ol Cougar Football. I saw american football on t.v. at a members house who has the american football channel, and it was so weird. When president called me to be Zone leader here in Las Palmas. I wasn´t sure what to do but president sounded like he had confidence in me so I figured it would be alright, and now everythings going good. We had to take the car to the shop on a Friday and cause it was right before the weekend we didn´t get it back until Tuesday. This area is huge, and we walked everywhere because the Gua Guas (buses) are crazy here. We got everywhere we needed to go, and we found some new investigators. Elder Kap is awesome. He has been led by the spirit so many times while we´ve been working. I´m learning lots everyday. I´m so excited for general conference, it´s going to be awesome. Everything is going good. My right shoe started to get a hole in it, but don´t worry dad I melted the cap of a pen onto it and now it´s all better, haha. but seriously. Thanks for giving me the chance to be here, son buenos padres de verdad!
elder ross

Sept 15, 2010

~ Elder Kap is pretty much just amazing, it´s so fun to be with him. I really hope I get to watch him go home too, he´s an awesome missionary, and we´re getting along great, and we´re working really efficiently, and using our time the best that we can. Today for p-day we went hiking with the senior couple that is here and the other elders and some members, in the middle of the island there are mountains and pine trees, and it smelled so good. We took pictures and had a picnic after.
elder ross

September 22

~ Everything is going great, I haven´t crashed yet, and now I can parallel park like no other, I swear driving those golf carts around all day helps me drive here. That´s insane they have up to 50 students in a class. So Rachel is a sophmore now? No puede ser... so we still have a baptismal date for the friend of the recent convert, and we started teaching his whole family, so we´ll see if they progress too. It´s kinda hard with such a big area cause we teach people who don´t have a car who live really far away from the church and it´s hard for them to make it on Sunday, or attend consistently, but I guess those who have the faith will come no matter how far they have to travel. So the cactuses get pretty dang big, they grow taller than your head, and branch out from the middle like 3 feet maybe. So the family that gave us those cactuses has three daughters and one son who have families, and the daughter who was our neighbor in fuerteventura just moved to a pueblo on this island where I´m at, and we ate lunch with them yesterday and it was cool to see them again, their kids are hilarious. The church made an instructional dvd called the district that went with one district and video taped them and it helps us learn to be better missionaries, and now they´ve come out with a new one, and it´s really good. They ask a lot of questions and really try to fit the lessons to each individual, and the last three days in the morning all the leaders in the mission with president Watkins, got together and we joined by camara to watch the new videos and learn, and it´s really cool to see how missionaries are coming out more and more prepared to baptize from the beginning. Thanks for the package, I did get it but it was like 2 weeks ago and I forgot to tell you I got it but it is awesome, that beef jerky was amazing! and I still can´t believe that p-nut butter has no hydrogenated oils, what a blessing haha. I gave the stickers to the member and she was super happy, she tried to give me money but I wouldn´t take it so she said we have to eat at her house once a week now, and she´s from Venezuela and she cooks amazing. I miss my old comp but my new one is awesome so it´s all good, we´re having loads of fun. Les echo un monton de menos, y les quiero mucho!
elder ross

Sept, 8 - First Baptism

~ The baptism went great, and we gave him the holy ghost on Sunday and it was awesome, there is a mom and a daughter that we are teaching, and during sacrament meeting I said to her that that was the first baptism that I have had, and she said, don´t worry you´ll have two more before you leave, talking about them two, so i guess we´ll see. It was super sad to see my comp leave. He left me an English futbol jersey which is awesome. I still don´t want to buy rachel a spanish national team jersey just cause it´s really just that insanely expensive, i´m sure online you could find them for half the price, so if you look and you find a good price buy me one too .
My New companion is named Elder Kap, and he is an amazing elder. I really don´t deserve so many just amazing companions. We both drink a liter of milk a day and a bunch of water, and we like exercising. We love talking to people in the streets, we are really similar and i´m going to grow a mountain while i´m with him. He´s from Pleasant View UT. north of Ogden, and he goes home in February. I hope I can stay here for as long as possible. Driving is ridiculous, but i´ve already learned a ton in two days, and I haven´t crashed. A cop was behind me at an intersection and when the light turned green I didn´t pop the clutch but almost, and like 3 seconds later the cop turned it´s lights on and I thought I was done for so I pulled over and he just drove by, it was a big scare. But everything is great, the mission president and his wife visited us to do a piso (apartment) check, and our piso is really old, it used to be the old mission home for the islands and it has so much stuff that we don´t use, so at first president said that we had to get everything fixed and we had to throw away all the broken stuff, but by the end, the list of things to do was so long that he said it would be better if we just moved pisos so we are in the process of looking for a new piso as well, so we got tons to do, and the adventure just get´s better and better, I miss you all, stay happy and i´ll see you later.
elder ross

Sept 1, 2010 - New Companion

~ My new companion is named elder Kap and he´ll be here on sunday right before elder Woodland leaves. It´s sad knowing he´s done and I won´t see him for a long time, but we had some good weeks together. I have to do a bunch of stuff with getting empatronized here in las palmas, but I love you all, thanks for everything, I miss you a ton. Have a good week.
elder ross

oh yeah, we have a baptism this saturday the day before Woodland leaves and it´s an 18 year old kid who is awesome so that will be number 1!

Aug 25, 2010

~ Thanks for everything! You guys are really just amazing parents, and I miss you a ton. I´m sorry about the kidney stone, no offense but I really hope I don´t inheret your digestive system or your kidneys, I heard kidney stones are one of the worst pain a man can go through. Tell Aunt Lynn congratulations too for being called as the Stake Relief Society President, she will do great! All the relief society presidents here in the branches are always so strong and help us so much, they don´t even realize how amazingly important they are in the work of the Lord. Thanks for taking care of the cactuses, I´m stoked for the "tunos", yea I heard that the spaniards brought them back and set them up as borders around there property, and in Jerez in the peninsula I saw the giant cactus borders.
I still highly advise against letting Rachel drive, 1. she´s a girl 2. she´s hardly a child 3. she´ll be driving my car!!!! I just can´t see anything good come from this, but the Lord´s will be done right? no but seriously if you let her drive (cause you don´t have to) you should restrict her driving at night and on the weekends just cause that´s when I got in trouble but anyways...
We are on splits to the island of Tenerife right now and it´s been awesome, I went on splits with my elder Slack and it was so good to see him, we´ve had so much fun. We had a district meeting, and the district leader and I made plans to have the meeting in a different chapel than they usually do because my comp. Elder Woodland started his mission in that chapel, and we had the meeting in the sacrament room where he gave his first testimony in the mission field and the district leader at the end of the meeting asked him to bear his testimony and it was super fuerte. It makes me scared to go home. Thanks for everything, these are the best experiences I´ve ever had. Thanks for helping me get out here.
elder ross

Aug 18. 2010

~ We did a bunch of contacts last week me and my comp. and we did splits with some elders at the south of the island and got them a bunch of contacts too. We were trying to get everyone excited about doing them, and when our numbers came in on Sunday there was a huge difference. Almost every companionship at least doubled and some tripled and some quadrupled their number of contacts, so President Watkins is happy and so am I. It´s gotten to be a bit of a competition, and no one in our zone has beat us yet for the week. The kid I trained and his comp from spain did beat our most contacts in one day record though and now it´s set at 46 so we have to try to beat that now. They are the newest elders in the mission and they are doing as many contacts as anyone so that´s cool. It seems like the friendly competition works for this group, I know it´s what get´s me going at least. We heard that my first comp Elder Solari who stayed in the Málaga mision got put in today as A.P. So that´s cool. In our group of three, Elder Anderson & Elder Solari were put in as Z.L. after 4 transfers, I trained after 5 transfers now elder Anderson is the office elder of Madrid, and I´m Z.L. and Elder Solari is now A.P. So we´ve had a great start to the mission. The experiences of the mission are priceless.
This weeks it´s going to be hard to get our contacts in Las Palmas cause we are on the island of Lanzarote now, which is the desert Island north of Fuerteventura. We got here Monday and worked with them and celebrated my comp Elder Woodland´s 21 birthday, Elder Jensen baked him a cake the day before, and we surprised him with it when they got home for the afternoon, and then we happened to find a giant stuffed giraffe in the street so we took that to the apartment and put a happy birthday sign on it and it was funny. Monday night elder Jensen and I went to the house of a member in a village, and we taught her non member mom who is super nice the plan of salvacion. They had a huge garden, and I said that the plants are so detailed and amazing that they are evidence to me that God created them and put all nature here and gave it all a purpose, a purpose that they all fulfill really well.
You guys are crazy letting Rachel drive you anywhere let alone some place far. I do not support her driving at all. I can´t think of anything more dangerous. For the longest time I didn´t want to ask cause I knew it would distract me, but will my car still be in one piece when I get home??? oh well, at least I´ve learned to love walking so it´s all good, haha. well we´re going to spend this p-day here in Lanzarote with Elders Jensen (utah) and Mater (england). My comp knew elder Mater before the mission in england, but he´s just starting the mission, so my comp is trying to impart his council before he goes home.

Aug 11 - Zone Leader

~ So I have the title of zone leader, but I don´t feel like one, Elder Woodland is a great comp, I´m learning a lot. In the new mission they are really pushing for contacts in the street, and we keep track of how many we do, the new areas that got put into the Madrid Mission were struggling at first to get as many as president wants, and two of the areas here always have low numbers but Elder Woodland and I did really good this last week even though we started counting on Wednesday. We have a lot of fun with the people in the streets, there´s some awesome people that we have come across. The members are really good, and we have like 5 teenage investigators, and 3 of them came to church last Sunday so hopefully we can get some baptisms before Elder Woodland leaves. Today for p-day we´re going to play minigolf, and I´m so excited.
Just watching my comp drive makes me scared to drive, but before he goes we´re going to practice. He tells me that I should have watched the "fast and the furious" more often cause it helps in this city. I´m glad I´m at least staying in the islands for some time longer, I really do miss fuerteventura though, but anyways everything is good, and i´m learning a lot all day everyday, thanks for everything and until next time.
elder ross

Aug 4th - Grand Canary Island

~ Elder Brian Ross
Eusebio Navarro 1,4-A
35003
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
España

I´m in Las Palmas now with Elder Woodland, who has been my zone leader ever since my first area. He´s from England, and he´s done with the mission in 5 weeks. Elder Slack is with us, and at first he was going to stay with us but now he´s going to the other big island of Tenerife. He was going to be in a group of three, but now it´s only going to be him and an Elder from Spain who went to the mission field a month after Elder Slack, so Elder Slack will be the senior comp with two months in the mission. The two zones of Tenerife and Las Palmas are now combined into one so we have to do splits with the elders in Tenerife, and the elders here on Gran Canaria, and the two elders that are on the island Lanzarote. It was so sad leaving Fuerteventura, they are such good people, and it is such a cool island. I´m excited to be with Elder Woodland, and to get to know this island, but Fuerteventura was amazing. They were all really sad that the missionaries were leaving, we ran around like crazy saying goodbye to everyone and cleaning out the apartment. It was lucky that we lived just above the chapel cause we just took the missionary stuff down stairs and put it in the branch presidents office. Our investigators we left with our ward mission leader, and because he´s about to go on his own mission I think he may be able to help at least one get baptized. I sent you guys three packages full of these pads from these prickly pear cactus that give this super good fruit, I hope they get there at least one, I sent 9 of the pads wrapped in old shirts, and what you got to do is break up the dirt a little bit where you´re going to put them and then you could sprinkle a layer of good dirt over it and then you take the pads and bury them halfway into the ground sticking up, and then you water them like twice for the first month and once every month after that, and then they´ll grow. But you gotta plant them right when you get them, cause it takes like a year or two before they give fruit, and the fruit is sooo good. The adventure continues, elder ross

Aug 2nd 2010 - Getting Transferred

~ yeah p-day is on wednesday now, but look don´t send anything to this address here in Fuerteventura, one of our zone leaders is getting deported on wednesday back to the u.s. because of his papers. So we are going to Las Palmas on the Island of Gran Canaria to be with his comp so there won´t be missionaries here for at least 5 week.
Second thing is that I need to get the permission to drive, so I´m sending passport fotos with my driver´s license and some forms I have filled out, when you get it you need to go to "AAA" to get the international driving permision thing. You need to send it and my driver´s license and whatever else back to me as soon as you can cause the Zone leader who is staying is going home in 5 weeks at the end of the transfer and I´ll need to drive. I´m going to send you the branches of the cactus´s either today or tomorrow. haha
hasta luego
elder ross

July 26

~ The Plan de Salvacion is awesome, there´s a guy who has had the lessons from the missionaries for a long time who´s wife is a member and his mom just died so we´re going to teach him the plan de salvacion this week for sure. So the destroying angel of transfers passed by me and we are both here for at least another six weeks! I was so worried the whole last week just cause I hate saying good bye. But now I´m super happy, and it makes me want to work like a crazy to help this branch. So the office called three of the elders on the islands and told them to do the sruff to get your license so I don´t know why but I´ll have to send you everything in the mail I guess. It´s all good either way cause I got six weeks here to get it figured out. Today a sent an envelope full of melon seeds to you guys so you gotta plant them! thanks for everything keep it real and we´ll catch you on the flip side.
elder ross

July 19

~ Que guay, (how cool) I remember hearing that talk. It was cool to hear that it really is though the twelve apostols that we are called to the areas that we are in. It gives me the faith I need to work hard. That´s cool they sent me a letter about the mission change also. So This week we will hear about transfers, and I really don´t want to leave this island! For that reason I´ll most likely be transfered, but I hate saying good bye to all your friends, the people are so nice here, I told the president of the branch on the way to his house to eat on Sunday. That I would cry if I didn´t get to eat tunos before I left, those are the fruits from the cacti, cause they get ripe in mid august, and he said what a shame it would be, but after we ate at his house he brought out some tunos that his wife had found and bought especially for me, and they were amazing. He said he´s jealous of me because his wife always makes us special food and gives us treats haha. There are such good strong people here. We were going to set a date for baptism on Saturday but our investigator got called in to work in the ambulance and then we were going to have a lesson to set the date on Monday but the same thing happened, and now he has work till next week, so if I´m not here next week at least elder slack will be able to get a baptism in his first area. Everything is going good, I miss you guys, but it´s all good, the Book of Mormon is true, and it´s sad that so many people blindfully don´t accept it, we were walking all around the city on Monday with just about no one to talk to, and these old Jehovas witness ladies wanted to talk, so we started talking and I testified of the Book of Mormon and they said that the Bible doesn´t say anything about the B of M so it can´t be true, and I just thought how silly is that, and the scripture in Nephi came to my mind that says why are you complaining to have more word of God. Then I started testifying that Jesus is Jehova, and they freaked. They tried to give us all these scriptures in the Bible that go against that and they said that we don´t study the Bible but we just left, and then that night we searched in the Bible for scriptures, and we found in Corinthians 10: 1-4 where Paul teaches simply that Jesus is Jehova, and it makes me sad that people so faithfull can be so blinded by the precepts and teachings of man mingled with scripture. But anyways, we´re going to keep the bible bashing to a minimum, but if they start bringing all these scriptures on us that is the one scripture I will give to them. They were really nice old ladies but still. Everything is going great thanks for all the support you´ve always given me. Have fun and i´ll talk to you later.

July 12, 2010

~ We had a good week. We went to the other island of Lanzarote on Saturday for p-day with a german member who served his mission in Wisconsin, and who is here on an internship. We rented a car and went over in a ferry. We saw just about the whole island in one day, it was really cool. It´s an active volcanic island with tons of volcanic rock, and it was awesome. The best part about the trip though was the ferry ride there and the ferry ride back, because in between the island there are FLYING FISH and they were so cool. On the ride over there we were sitting there and then I saw one jump out and fly so far, I was freaking out and no one believed me and then more came out. Then on the way back we went to the front to watch for them and we saw a bunch, they jump out of the water and glide so far, it´s seriously crazy. I remember as a kid seeing a drawing of them in a book, and they looked so cool, but then later I heard that they just jump far, but these fish were flying! It was awesome, I tried to take a video of it but it didn´t work too well.
Yesterday was crazy, everyone just waiting and waiting for the game, we were in the street for most of the time, and we saw one guy running as fast as he could to get somewhere to watch it. At the end, we stopped buy a members house cause we thought it was over, and they were in the overtime, and we came in and saw Iniesta score, he seems like a humble player. Ramos Villa and Pedro are awesome, I think Ramos is from Jerez where I first served. Then when they scored the place exploded and the madness didn´t stop until morning. That goalie Casillas is awesome too. I´m not sure if this will make the people more friendly or just pridefull. I think some will be nicer and some will be more pridefull. In short it was AWESOME!!!
Everything is good over here, everything is good, Elder Slack is a great kid. Tell everyone I say hi, and tell the Distinctive guys they better be practicing their ping pong cause we have a table here, and my skills are better than ever haha. Thanks for everything, I love you all, keep cool, and stay happy!
elder ross

July 5th

~ We went to Gran Canaria Friday morning and played futbol for p-day, and it was super fun, then we had interviews with the president, and it was good. President Watkins is different but he seems really efficient. He was like the chief financial advisor for Bank of America for a long time, and he´s really business like. He only speaks spanish with the missionaries which is a good thing. Elder Slack is understanding more and more each day. We had zone conference on Saturday and it was good, we talked a lot about the new changes and the things that are different, but it was good. Like always it got me motivated to work. I´m really trying to talk to everyone, and I´m learning how to leave every person on good terms whether they give us a reference or not. It´s easy to make people mad, so I try to avoid that. I want to learn to get them thinking, it´s hard to take their thoughts out of the world on the street but I think I´m getting better at it. We got back to Fuerteventura Saturday night in the middle of the soccer game, and right when we got to our apartment we heard everyone in their houses freaking out before the goal because they were close to scoring, and then they scored and the whole neighborhood exploded, it was hilarious, and then a little bit later the game ended and the antics began, and didn´t end until like 6 in the morning, we kept waking up to people honking and yelling and lighting off fire works, so by coincidence we were able to enjoy a few fireworks the morning of the Fourth of July. Thanks for everything! I miss you all a mountain, I´m going to send home some seeds of these white melons they have here that are AMAZING and also I´m going to send you prickly pear cactus pieces to plant that give these fruits that are also AMAZING, and I know those would grow in vegas,
Ráchel, tú tienes que practicar el Golf un monton o no vas a tener la capacidad de ganar padre nunca, y ya es cierto que nunca tendrás la capacidad de ganarme a mi, pero bueno, esta bien como un sueno supongo.

¡VIVA ESPAÑA!

June 21 & June 28

~ So we have been having some success over here, it´s been really amazing, there´s been miracle after miracle with the mission work. Before yesterday I hadn´t seen one investigator in church, but yesterday we had 3 come out. One is just about ready for baptism, and one of the others his sister started hearing the lessons here on this island when he started. Then she went to live in Malalga, and got taught by the missionaries there, and she got baptised there. Now she has moved back here, so they all came to church yesterday and it was cool. The kid we teach says that it´s not fair that he started taking the lessons first and she got baptized before him, so we think she´ll be a good influence on him. We are just loving it over here. we had a mini zone conference here where we used the camera in the chapel to watch a zone conference in malaga that they had with an area 70 named Elder Kerr from Scotland, and it was really powerful, and just awesome.
We are going to go to Gran Canaria in 2 weeks to have another zone conference with the new mission president. It won´t be the same but he´ll have the authority for the mission work in these areas. I want to stay here in this area for the whole mission, or at least three two more transfers, I went three transfers with my trainer so I hope we can just stay here for a little while. It really doesn´t matter but I just really love this place, and the people are super awesome. Everything is going good, stay happy and keep working hard.
elder ross


6-28-2010 That´s awesome that Logan´s the branch president, we get the chance to help a lot here too. We had a family home evening for the branch, and just before there was a graduation ceremony for seminary in the chapel. There was some miscommuncation, and everyone who was in the seminary graduation thought that the family home evening was canceled, so they all left including the people who had the lesson so everyone else who had come to the chaple and prepared the game and refreshments for the family home evening were kinda mad. Then someone asked if we had a little lesson prepared that we could give and I told them that we are missionaries, and that we teach for a living, so we were able to teach everyone the message of the restoration, and it turned out all right.
We heard yesterday from just about every one of the young men at least 3 times each that America lost, I was quite sad, but my comp and I concluded that it´s better for our personal safety that we don´t win the world cup while we´re living in Spain. As they say here the match between Spain and Portugal is going to be a "partiraso" (just a really good game). Anyways, thanks for all your prayers and all your support, I miss you all a mountain (spanish expression) don´t worry be happy!

June 2010

~ This week was amazing! But then again every week is amazing in the mission. Everyone here is crazy for futbol, but I´m not going to lie, I´ve resparked my personal love for it also.
So we left on Sunday after church (which was branch conference) to go to the island of Gran Canaria, and we had interviews with President Mellor for the very last time, and it was amazing, he always tells me that he trusts me a lot for some reason, he said that he couldn´t send someone to this island to train if he didn´t trust them. He has given me so much strength. Then on Monday we had zone conference, and it was really motivational, it was super hard to hear president bear his testimony at the end, I don´t know if I´ve ever felt the spirit so strong. I know the spirit was there because I had an overwhelming desire to do good, and to work harder, and the Holy Ghost inspires man to do good continually. I want to do good continually no matter what it takes, and no matter what personal changes I need to make. Elder Anderson (my comp from madrid) and I were able to do contacts in the street together after the conference and it was so much fun seeing just how much we have grown. He´s just a stud and a half. We got up this morning and had p-day together as a zone, and it was great, we played another zone vs zone futbol match and it was awesome, there's no sort of motivation to exercise like sports, we all ran ourselves to exhaustion, and it was great. So now Elder Slack and I are back in Fuerteventura. Elder Slack came to the mission field ready to be a missionary and ready to work, so we´re having a great time. He´s still learning spanish but he´s progressing little by little. Everything is going great, thanks for everything. When the days are tough, search for the Spirit, because He motivates us to do good, and gives us the strength and peace to do it.
elder ross

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May 31, 2010

~ So Elder Slack is here now, and we´re having a blast. He´s really humble, and awesome. He´s actually from Reno, so everyone askes us what the casinos are like. He´s still learning spanish, but he has seriously progressed so much in just 4 days. We had 23 lessons this last week, and the zone leaders said that we broke the sister's record of most lessons in our zone, so that was cool. We had 4 lessons to investigators with a member present, 8 with just investigators and 11 with members and menos activos. It is almost easier being the trainer, because I just decide which way and we go, there´s not so much indecision. But yeah, everything is going good, he likes playing soccer, so we´ll have more fun with the kids here. I forgot to tell you something funny that happened, so I was using rubbing alcohol to clean my face every night, but then they stopped selling it so I bought hydrogen peroxide, and I used it to wash my face for like a month and it turned my eyebrows yellow, so yeah I have yellow eyebrows, but at least I realized so I don´t use hydrogen peroxide anymore for my face. Thanks for everything, and I hope you have a great summer!

May 24, 2010

~ The weeks are going by like days it seems like. For the past weeks they have been making a new sacrament room in the church, and this was the first time we got to use it. In my first area and here also sacrament isn´t as reverant, and some of the members get kinda mad at the others, but there´s a lot of kids, and they ususally don´t take them out. But now they have put a speaker out in the hall so the parents can take their kids out and still listen, so maybe that will help. It´s also hard cause the microphone isn´t as loud, so whenever I talk I try and speak right into it to make it louder. Everythings good, it´s just hard here because there´s so many people from different backgrounds who weren´t raised in the church, and I guess people get offended easily. I haven´t heard or seen anything specific but there are a ton of inactive members. We have activated one lady though who hadn´t been to church for five years, so that´s good I guess. She taught us how to make croquetas, and they´re really good. We also learned how to make mojo (the j makes and h sound in spanish) and alioli. Mojo is a popular sauce from the canary islands and alioli is like homeade garlic mayonaise, and they're both really good.
It´s been good with Elder Wardell, we have learned a lot, and it seems like we´ve both grown stronger as missionaries. Last night a guy told us we were angels and that we couldn´t know how much he needed the messange that we gave him. It was cool because earlier elder wardell was talking to his wife and playing their guitar, and I was talking to him, and he told me how his work is really stressfull because it´s so competetive, and his boss told him that for the same salary he could be replaced by an engineer with a high degree and everything, so his work has been tough. He told that to me, but Elder Wardell didn´t even hear him say that, and then when we were going to share a scripture, Elder Wardell decided to open up to Ether 12 and read where it says that our testimonies are made sure only after the testing of our faith. We didn´t decide on reading that before hand or anything. It was good to see him receive strength from the Lord in that moment.
So we got the tansfer calls saturday night, and my comp is going up to Granada and there´s a new american elder (Elder Slack) coming down from the Madrid MTC this Wednesday. President called me Saturday and told me I would be training, and he sounded pretty confident that I could do it, so I´m just going to trust his judgement and do my best. so I´ll let you know how it goes, it´s going to be an adventure that´s for sure, thanks for everything!

May 17

~ This week was good, we had 17 lessons, so we almost made the 20 lesson goal. We learned in zone conference about what president calls leccion 0, and its the very first thing we teach to people in the first appointment. We basically find out what they want in life, then we give them an overview of the gospel and explain to them our job as missionaries. We then explain baptism, and commit them to read and pray about the things that we are goiing to be teaching them. We taught this lesson twice this week, and when we taught it last night it worked really good. So we give them a direction and show them from the beginning the desired goal which is baptism, and that helps both us and them. We taught him how to pray, and at first he said he didn´t want to in front of us but president said we should be persistent and should wait until they pray. That´s what we did, and he prayed and it was awesome. So yeah everything is going good, I think that my comp will be leaving next week but we won´t know till this Saturday. Everything is going good over here, thanks for everything and tell everyone I miss them!

May 3, 2010

~ My birthday was really good, the night before we ate super good seafood pizza at an investigator´s house, and they are super nice, and on Saturday we played fútbol with the young men, and they had threatened to throw eggs and flour on me because it was my birthday for the entire week before, but they forgot, so I was safe. After fútbol we ate at a members house who takes care of an older man who is hilarious. He´s like 85, and he can´t hear very good, but he´s always making jokes and laughing, I was saying the prayer for the food, and he started laughing and I started laughing and it took me a while to stop. He´s got a good attitude. after that we visted a less active member who´s living in a motor home now in a city at the north end of the island, and we shared a good message with him and left him a chapter in the Book of Mormon to read, he has changed a lot since I´ve been here. The testimony meeting we had the day after was amazing, it was Mother´s day here, and it was powerful. The testimonies of the humble people here are awesome.
That makes me super happy that Jeff really likes the dental field, I still really feel like that is what I want to do, I want to give people good smiles. I´m going to have to work hard in school when I get back but it´ll be worth it. So we are flying to the island of Tenerife this Friday and we´ll fly back Saturday night. I´m excited to visit that island, and see my comp from Madrid Elder Anderson. We are going to have a big fútbol game between the las palmas zone and the tenerife zone, and it´s gunna be epic. So yeah everything is going great, the mission is the best, thanks for letting me experience this, you have always been great examples. It´s a miracle that I´m out here.
elder ross

April 26

~ The week was good, the investigators we have are progressing slowly, but they are such good people, but I know there´s people here who are prepared already. We played the young mens quorum again in fútbol, and it was a heated match, and they beat us, but my comp and I both score over 4 or 5 goals we played the first to 15, it was sweet, my comp sent you some of the pictures.
We´re going to zone conference to the Island of Tenerife the 7th of May, so I guess that´s where we´ll talk on the phone too, I´m going to take a bunch of pictures, and then I´ll send home another SD card. So I bought a kilo of young bull liver this week, and it tastes pretty strange, but with enough salt it´s not that bad, to get my iron I´m just going to eat a piece of that every week cause I know it´s loaded with it. I´m trying to learn how to make bread like they make it here in the bread shops, I made two rolls this morning that are rising in the apartment right now, I had no idea that the bread here is basically just water flour salt and yeast, it just tastes so good! I want to learn to make it. So everything is going great my companion and I are trying to make our contacts in the street more personable. We´re tying to be friendly, but with excitement, we want to get their attention, it´s been working pretty good, but still we need to practice more. It is crazy that Rachel is learning to drive, you are brave for getting into a car with her. Don´t you think it would be better if she just practiced for a couple years with the car games for the playstation? and plus she already has a motorcycle she can drive. haha everyone is just growing up so fast, well everything is great. One thing I thought was interesting was that Moses held up the snake on the stick and told the people to look and be saved, and there were people who died just because of the simpleness of the way. The things we do everyday as members of the church and followers of Christ are so simple, but they are what keep us in the straight and narrow path that leads to salvation.

April 19

~ wow... i heard about the volcano and the earthquake in China yesterday, but I thought the volcano was in Ireland cause the names sound so much a like in spanish. I swear more and more people are going to start realizing that things are changing, and that there really is nothing sure in this world except for God. I swear more people are going to realize too that the world/society is getting worse and worse morally, and more and more people will hear about the Church of Jesus Christ and the good that comes from it and it´s members, and I think people are going to want to be apart of the good. I know I´m a kid, but kids these days, they don´t want to learn they don´t want to work they just want without effort. and the distractions are so strong, and there´s so many of them. I wish they would think haha they don´t even realize how much they can become. I know I´m preaching to the choir, but it´s the truth. It´s a miracle that I´m out here on the mision, like in the Book of Mormon I can honestly say that the Lord has snatched my soul from bitter despair and utter destruction. I´m excited cause we´re going to the Island of Tenerife for zone conference like the first week in may, and that´s supposed to be one of the prettiest islands so yea everything is good. So we eat at these two families houses every single week, one on Wednesday and the other Sunday. At the one on wednesday we made sandwiches with this really good meat, it was so soft and tender and tasted so good, and then when we were done they told us it was cow tongue, haha they didn´t think we would´ve eaten it if we would have known, but it´s amazing, really I´m going to buy some cause it´s super cheap too. Also we had this sausage called morsilla, it´s a blood sausage that I had had earlier in Madrid and in Jerez, but the canary morsilla is different, it´s weird cause it´s sweet. It tasted like brownies, but there´s no chocolate in it. You could seriously put frosting on them and call them brownies and the whole world would love them. It´s really good. those two families live out in the country, and have chickens and everything, and they remind me so much of grandma and grandpa and the layed back Idaho lifestyle. they have a bunch of baby chicks, and an incubater and everything. I gave a talk yesterday in Sacrament, it´s gotten way easy to give talks. So yeah thanks for everything, thanks for helping me so much and letting me learn on my own too.
elder ross

April 5 and April 12

~ April 5th The youth here are such good kids, but still they´re teenagers, but I really think that we could get them excited and interested in the scriptures. When their parents are around they won´t listen, but when it´s just them and us when we´re playing futbol or ping pong I´m going to start talking to them about stories in the scriptures and life and I´m going to ask them about what they think, they could help a ton of people.
General conference was awesome, we didn´t get to watch the second sessions of either day but we saw priesthood yesterday morning, I really liked what Uchtdorf said about patience, and that´s a quality that I want, and I´m really going to try to learn patience. The mission is great, President and Sister Mellor told us about that experience with the mission president´s wife in chile, and I was amazed. That´s so cool.
We are all prepared for at least two weeks if we had to stay inside here, I´ve had a 100 euro bill ever since the Madrid MTC, but I need to take it and change it for smaller bills like you said that´s way smart. Thanks for everything, the church is true, and the life is good
~ April 12 Everything is going great, we are both staying here in fuerteventura, and I´m really happy. Elder Anderson is coming down here to the islands and Elder Solari is going to granada, so Elder Anderson and I will be in madrid together most likely but I think elder solari will stay in malaga, but we´ll be in spain together.
Everything is going great, we are both staying here in fuerteventura, and i´m really happy, elder solari and elder anderson that are in my group are both going zone leaders now. elder anderson is coming down here to the islands and elder solari is going to granada, so elder anderson and i will be in madrid together most likely but i think elder solari will stay in malaga, but we´ll be in spain together.
So yea, everything is going good, we ate cow tonge last week and it was amazing! haha we are going to eat blood sausage this week, and I´ve already had blood sausage in spain (it´s called Morsilla) but the people here say that the Morsilla from the canary islands is way way better, so I´m excited, all the members are awesome, we make them laugh a lot haha. So the teenagers here are all good at futbol, and they challenged the elder´s quorum to a match this last saturday and we crushed them, so they want a rematch, and it´s funny. The people here play with a lot of finés, but I just run like crazy, and shot a lot, and they say that americans always run more than them, it´s funny, but I´m going to learn their tricks and then they´ll have nothing on me haha. I do that rainbow kick while we play and they are impressed, but I could get better at my dribbling haha, I feel like my spanish accent is getting better and better, it´s kinda tough here cause there are a lot of people from other countries that are learning spanish too, but it´s all good, everything is good.

March 22 and 29th letters

~ So we had zone conference, and it was awesome, we talked a lot about diligence, and we heard a lot of experiences of missionaries that stayed diligent in the search for people until the last minute of the day and found people who were baptized. One elder found a lady like that, and she was baptized in three weeks, and now has been to the temple and everything, it just shows that we gotta be faithful until the very end. The island we flew to is the main island of the Canarias, and the capital city Las Palmas is so big, the buildings are huge and there´s a ton of people compared to Fuerteventura where we are. So I think I´ll be in the Madrid mission for sure, but I´m excited either way, it´s going to be sad to see President Mellor and Sister Mellor leave, they are awesome. So everything is good, I can´t really think of anything I need for my birthday, everything is great, Elder Wardell is awesome, and we´re learning and growing a bunch.
The weeks are flying, president said that the days turn into weeks and the weeks into months on the mission and it´s so true, I just have to remember to learn and grow as much as I can everyday. On Saturday we´ll go to the chapel to watch general conference on the projector with the branch, I´m really excited, the last general conference that we watched I was in the MTC Madrid, and it was powerful. I want to try to prepare myself spiritually for this whole week. Our president didn´t say anything about how the misions would be changed this last zone conference, but just from what the letter said about the change I think I´ll be changed to Madrid. It would be awesome to go all the way up to Galicia, but I want to talk like the people here and in Jerez. I might just have a mix of all of them haha. Here it´s cool because there´s a lot of people from South America, so I know how they talk, and I´m learning the words they use. There´s also a bunch of people here from Africa, and a hole bunch of Arabics who are muslims. Every muslim we´ve talked to has been super nice, they are really faithful in their religion, and believe a lot of the same things. They believe that Jesus was the greatest prophet that there has been, but they don´t believe that He is the Son of God. It´s cool to talk to so many people from such different places. The people from Africa are always so humble, and have faith in God. Arabic is such a crazy language, I wish I knew it. Oh yeah, and there´s a bunch of Chinese people too. They own these stores that sell everything for way cheap. The Arabs and Chinese people learn spanish quickly even though their languages are way different from spanish, it´s funny cause we´re here from all around the world and we comunicate and work together all speaking spanish. I new spanish would be useful, but I didn´t even realize how many people speak it. I didn´t even realize that it was already Easter. The Semana Santa starts this week on Thursday I think. I know in the peninsula (spain mainland) the Semana Santa is always really big, but down here I don´t think it´s the same, but I know they still carry the statues through the streets, it´ll be cool to see I guess. Everything is going great, I hope that everythings good in the Meadows 8th ward, I miss everyone so much, it´s different when there´s not so many people. I am the designated director of music in Sacrament meeting, and I´m horrible at it, I told them that I kind-of had some idea of how to lead, and they have me do it every Sunday. There´s a mom who plays that piano and when she´s there it´s easier (even though I mess her up sometimes) but yesterday cause we changed our clocks she didn´t show up till the very end so I had to lead and everyone was singing acappella, it was hilarious. But I´m getting better I think or at least that´s what they say, haha. They´re are such good people. well everything is going awesome. elder ross

Chicken Adventure

~ Everything is going great, the branch here is awesome, every Sunday the president has us over to eat dinner, and yesterday one of the chickens got out of the chicken coop when we were about to leave, and we chased it all around, and then I cornered it ad grabbed it, and they couldn´t believe it. haha I told them that the chickens were my favorite on grandma and grandpa´s farm. It was funny cause they gave use eggs, and then later a member came and picked us up to teach with us, and he gave us a big bag of eggs too, so we´re good on eggs for the next couple of weeks. The people here are so laid back, they really remind me of everyone in Idaho, they fish a ton, and a lot of them live outside of the city with small farms. They´re helping us a lot with the work, we just need to keep finding people. In the weekly bulletin from the mission it´s interesting what they say about this mission, how we don´t find as many people, but we baptize more, so Elder Wardell and I are really going to focus in getting new references, to get new investigators. We´re learning a lot of spanish each day because he came out in the group just ahead of me so we´re both still learning, but our contacts in the street keep getting better and better. Everyone says I sound like I´m from Jerez, and it makes me laugh, the people in Jerez would be proud. We are doing our emails today but we won´t have p-day till Friday cause we have zone conference on Saturday, so we´re going to fly to the Island Grand Canaria Friday morning, and have p´day, and then Saturday we´ll have zone conference, and then we will come back Saturday night. It´s going to be awesome I´m sure. So fuerteventura is known for their goats, and they make the best cheeze, and it is really good. The water is so clear on the beaches, we might go fishing one p-day with one of the members, which would be fun. I´m learning so much everyday, it´s amazing, I need to open my mind allow the spirit to come in and teach. It´s awesome. Thanks for everything I love you all stay happy!

Fuerteventura

~ This place is so cool. It´s more relaxed than Jerez I think, there´s not that many people on this island of Fuerteventura. They say that the beaches here are some of the best there are, but on the island it´s all desert. My companion is Elder Wardell from Cedar Hills. Jerez is down to two elders now, Elder Solari and Elder Gleason, they are good together. it was sad to leave Elder Solari, but it´s all good. I talked to them two days ago and they said that it rained so hard that there was a mini flood in all the zone of cadiz. So if I´m going to stay in the Malaga mission I´ll have to come back up in three transfers, because then it will be changed. It´s possible, but who knows. Either way it´s going to be awesome, I could say that I was one of the last missionaries from the Malaga mission to be sent to the islands, or I could say that I went from Andalucia down to the Canarias, and then all the way up to Galicia at the very top of Spain. I flew from Sevilla to the main island Gran Canaria with two other elders and then in a different plane by myself I flew to Fuerteventura. For district meetings we use a camera, and have a video conference with the island above ours Lanzarote. And for zone conferences we fly to Gran Canaria. It´s such a big change going from an area with 4 elders and a whole zone that is always together, to a desert island where we´re the only ones here, but I love it. The branch here is cool, the branch president has been the branch president for almost 20 years now, he is really cool, every Sunday we go to his house which is out of the city I´m in(Puerte del Rosario) and go to this town in the mountains where he lives. It's really relaxed here, It´s awesome, such a good environment to progress. Our apartment is directly above the chapel, which is awesome, and the chapel has a ping pong table which is amazing! Here there´s a bunch of people from Africa and there´s a bunch of Arabics, we played futbol with a whole bunch of them this Saturday and they were all really good, but we still represented. Fuerteventura means strong adventure.

TRANSFERRED !!!!!!

~ I can´t believe that about Chile. The other ten elders that were in elder Solari and my district in the provo mtc all went either to Conception or Santiago, that´s good they´re all acounted for. I can´t imagine how crazy it is over there right now, we were talking about it today on the way to play futbol with the zone and three of the elders on the train with us each had a district full of elders going to chile, so I was thinking that the Lord filled Chile with missionaries so that when this earthquake hit they would be able to help everyone, and stand out, and everyone will remember the missionaries that helped them phisically, and the people will be more receptive to help spiritually you know? It´s been raining here like crazy, for the whole winter. I know there was a land slide in Italy and I think something happened in Portugal too. I was reading in the Book of Mormon and Moroni says that when the Book of Mormon will go forth to all the world there will be rumors of wars and earthquakes in all types of diverse places. It´s all true. I hope it will soften some of the people here too. I´m just trying to learn and progress everyday. Everyone at church says my accent is way good now, but it´s still hard to put sentences together, but I can understand a lot. We went to an appointment yesterday and the guy we were teaching had the strongest andaluz accent, and he spoke so fast, but I was keeping up with him alright, and my companion couldn´t believe I could understand him. I love the way they talk here. This transfer my new companions name is Elder Wardell, but the thing is that he is in the a place called fuerteventura which is in the Canary Islands, so I'm going down there in about one day, and I'm extremely excited, it was such a surprise I really didn't think that would happen but yeah it is happening, everyone says it's awesome, so if I'm still there in July my mission will be changed to the Madrid Mission which is fine with me, although I absolutely love Andalucia, so well see, I'll tell you how it is when I get there. I love you all be good.

February 22, 2010

~ So the lady who we´re going to baptize wants to be certain this is the true church which is good, but we might not have the baptism before elder Lauener leaves, but she´ll get baptised soon I think. We think that I´ll most likely stay here in Jerez because of her and another family we´ve been teaching in our area. We think that the companion of elder Solari and I will stay here together because he knows their area and I know ours. We realized that this week we complete our six month mark, elder Solari (Brian's MTC companion) and I have been together six months.
Elder Lauener an I gave talks yesterday, and afterwards, everyone said that my accent has gotten better and better. They said they could understand me and everthing, I really love the accent here, it´s hilarious, it´s still hard to understand them sometimes, but I´m getting better at understanding it and speaking it. When we talk to someone from Madrid, or South America it´s so easy to understand them compared to here. i´m going to start using the theta now so i can sound more like them. They speak like we do in america, we put all the words together, and cut the ends of some of them, here they don´t pronounce the s at the end of words like instead of mas o menos they say ma o meno and when I say I´m from las vegas I say la vega, it´s funny. My companion is always asking me to pronounce stuff in American English, and I´m realizing that we really do have an accent. We put the words together a lot, and always use contractions, like gunna gotta wanna, and I found a double word contraction we use, I wouldn´t´ve. haha.
It has made rain here for the past 4 weeks like crazy! It´s a good thing I thought to buy an umbrella (haha just kidding dad. You´re all awesome wrestle buddy for me!
elder ross

February 16, 2010

~ We just played soccer almost all day today for p-day, of course I scored the most goals haha, I think next week we´re at least going to the driving range to hit golf balls if not to actually go play!!! I can´t wait, my comp has never been, so we´re going to start him off right. He only has two more p-days! It´s crazy thinking of it, I can´t believe he´s not going to be around. It´s going to be interesting to see what changes happen here in Jerez, eventually it´s going to be reduced down to two missionaries, so it may be at the end of this transfer. So I forgot to tell you but I bought some futbol sala (soccer played on small cement courts) shoes. Futbol sala is super fun. So yeah everything is great, I bore my testimony in church two days ago and the whole ward was laughing by the end of it, they´re such good people, it´s seriously going to be sad when I leave. We set our first baptism date last week! It is this lady from Romania that we´ve been teaching for a few months she is ready to be baptised, she´s been coming to church faithfully, and elder Lauener is going to baptise her on the very last sunday of his mission, he wanted to have a baptism so bad with me, and I wanted him to have one sooo bad too before he left. it´s pretty solid, she still needs to be interviewed, but I think everything will be good, so yeah the church is so true! We gotta use our precious sacred time God has given us wisely!!

Jan 18, 2010

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We made a schedule for the members to have us over for dinner, and they are just super nice. There´s one lady here who is awesome, we ate at her house yesterday, she made us an Andalucia stew. It was really good, and then we had flan, this kind of flan with pine apple. Today for p-day we went to San Fernando and played futból on a field with artificial grass, the whole zone was there and it was super fun, the British elders brought a rugby ball, and we played that too. By the end of my mission I`m gonna be super good at soccer I think, haha. We don´t have too many really solid investigators right now, we have one lady from Romania who has come to church for the last month and a half, so with her it only seems like a matter of time. We have an 18 year old who is really interested in God and understanding it all, so we hope he will put the Book of Mormon to the test. We do a lot of contacts in the street, and get rejected a lot! But this past week we had two different contacts with two different guys who really stopped and listened, and it´s made me realize that I gotta look at every person the same, and I shouldn´t get discouraged, because the chosen are out there.

Jan 11 2010

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We got the ensigns with the general conference talks so we´re reading them, my tongue is getting better and better at speaking in spanish, reading out loud has helped a lot, after reading for a long time my tongue is seriously tired. It´s crazy, I´m always listening, and trying to imitate them, when they talk a lot of times I´ll watch their mouths to see how it´s done. The tongue is really active, you kind of have to relax it to talk as fast as they do.
This week I learned that if I have a thought I need to express it, becuase if my companion has the same thought, then chances are that it´s the spirit. We both had the thought to go see this lady who lost her brother 2 weeks ago in a jail in peru from some crazy disease, and we went there, and her cousins 22 year old son died the day before in an accident, so we were able to talk to her and try and help her understand the plan of salvation a little better. So I´m learning little by little how to trust in the spirit. So everything is great, I bought some really strong cheeze someone told me was good, and it was amazing. I´m just so happy I can be out here, the mission is honestly like a time machine, I get two years to take a break from the world and just grow and grow, thanks for everything, this is awesome.

The New Year

~ We had interviews with the president on saturday and he said that we would all most likely be staying in Jerez. They do transfers by phone the Saturday night before people have to move which is usually on a Wednesday. If my comp stays this will be his last transfer, and I´ll have the privilege of killing "The General", that´s what everyone calls him cause he was a zone leader for a long time and and A.P. for six transfers. He´s such a good example, I´ve heard that two transfers before a missionary goes home a lot of times missionaries don´t work as hard, but he´s not like that at all, if anything he´s more motivated because he knows his time here is short.
So I got a christmas letters from Aunt Debbie, Aunt Nancy, and Aunt Lynn, so tell them thanks! and a christmas card from the Perrys in our ward so tell them thanks too. I also got a package from the Laurels in our ward, with cards from the Evans, Sister Adamsen, and the Holleys, give them all a lot of thanks please too! They gave me some candy bars, some awesome toiletrys from Bath and Body Works, a super cool tie, SUPER cool socks that i can´t wait to wear when we play soccer, and a sweet christmas C.D. it was a pleasant surprise.
We had interviews on Saturday, the President and Sister Mellor are awesome, they are really nice. Well 2010 is going to be amazing! I´m learning every day and it´s awesome, when I read (the Scriptures) I can understand spanish really good, and with listening to them too. Today I was reading the story of Ammon, and I want to be like him, cause the first time the flocks were scattered instead of wasting time complaining he saw what needed to be done, and simply did it. I want to be automatically righteous, automatically productive and efficient, automatically helpful, when I have the good thought that I should do something i´m just going to do it. thanks for every thing!!!