Sunday, November 21, 2010

November 17, 2010

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~ 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

Sunday, November 14, 2010

November 10, 2010

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~ 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

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

November 3, 2010

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~ 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

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~ 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

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~ 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