January 5, 2011

~ Hey, we made the root beer and used it to make rootbeer floats and they were way good. I just eye balled it cause I didn´t have anything to measure the ingredients, but it turned out good. We still are planning on baptizing Cristian this saturday, so my first three baptisms are three boys under 18 yrs old. I always thought earlier on in the mission that it would be awesome to baptize younger people cause it would have the greatest impact on their lives and on the lives of those around them, for a long time. I´m pretty sure I´m staying here at least one more transfer but we don´t know yet. I hope I stay. The people here are awesome, Elder Kap is teaching me a lot and it would be awesome to be with him for his last transfer. We are going to work like crazy this transfer. I got the packages and they were awesome, the Horitos sent me crunch berries and fruit roll-ups and pringles and they are so good. Thanks for the christmas tree and the beef jerky and the sun flower seeds, and the books. I´ve always loved teaching lessons with visual aids but the only ones I´ve know have been ones that other missionaries have taught me, but now with the missionary aid book I´m set for some awesome lessons. I love the book by Elder Holland, it is soooooo good seriously. Thanks for the package. Today is Kings Day so everything is closed and we are using the computer in the church and we both have to use the same computer and we don´t have much times so I gotta go but thanks for everything you guys are the best.
elder ross

December 29, 2010

~ haha! no I don´t need a new suit, we only wear it on sundays and I´m going to take it to get drycleaned some day in the near/distant future, I might buy a pair of pants if we ever have time, but up until now everything has been going great. We are teaching alot and talking to a lot of people. We flew into Las Palmas las night after doing splits with the elders in Lanzarote. I got to see a less active member who we taught in fuerteventura who now lives in Lanzarote, and it was so good to see her. We taught her husband a lot but we coudn´t baptize him because he was waiting for a trial, but now everything is almost over with. He´s going to get baptized in Lanzarote and I´m so happy for them, they have three kids and when we taught them in Fuerteventura it always made me sad cause their situacion was so bad. But now everything has turned out good, they endured some hard trials for years, but it was all worth it, and it was awesome to see them again. When we got back we saw in the mailbox the paper for the package you sent me and when we opened the mail box there was another from the Horitos, we haven´t gotten them yet, but we´re going to pick them up right now so thanks!!!!! i´m super excited, tell the horitos thanks too.
Also I was wondering if you could look online for homeade rootbeer recipes, I need two, one with dry ice and one with just carbonated water (in case we can´t find dry ice) we´re going to make rootbeer floats for New Years Eve with the less active family that we´ve reactivate. also I want you to send me in just a word document drawings of the sun, without faces if you can find any, I want to use one for a lesson, send me a bunch and i´ll use the one I like. thanks for everything, don´t worry everything is going great I´m happy.
elder ross

December 22, 2010

~ MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! This is the warmest christmas I´ve ever had, it´s so nice outside. I got the package from the young men and young women, it was super heavy. Tell them that the beef jerky and peanut butter and gatorade and chewy bars are amazing. The pictures and notes me dieron mucho animo. I got a letter from the Shoendorfers, and when I opened the letter I ripped off a corner and the first thing I saw was Dan´s big bearded and smilin face and it made me so happy. It did me good to see them all. It looks like everyones growing up. Tell the Perry's and the Truman's thanks for the letters. I´m sure your package will get here today or tomorrow. Thanks for everything, I´m excited for the New Year. I can´t believe 2010 is already over. The time goes by super fast. We had a big christmas party here in the church and it was really good. There are two families whose dad isn´t a memeber, but we´re teaching one of them and his nephew is going to get baptized in two weeks and he is progressing a lot, and the other dad's family just had another baby girl, and his oldest daughter is going to get baptized in a year, and she wants him to baptize her so we´re going to start teaching him little by little. It would be so awesome if they both got baptized, I know their wives and kids would be super happy. I found a little book that explains chinese and i´m studying it a little bit. If I learn another language it´ll be chinese. We are going to eat with one family for lunch and another for dinner and then for New Years Eve we´ll be with a family that´s less active that has started to come back in the last month. It´s gunna be a great Christmas. Thanks for everything, I can only be grateful.
elder ross

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