~ 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.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Sunday, March 7, 2010
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.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
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
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
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
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!!
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Jan 18, 2010
~
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.
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
~
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.
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.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
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!!!
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!!!
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