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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