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!