May 31, 2010

~ So Elder Slack is here now, and we´re having a blast. He´s really humble, and awesome. He´s actually from Reno, so everyone askes us what the casinos are like. He´s still learning spanish, but he has seriously progressed so much in just 4 days. We had 23 lessons this last week, and the zone leaders said that we broke the sister's record of most lessons in our zone, so that was cool. We had 4 lessons to investigators with a member present, 8 with just investigators and 11 with members and menos activos. It is almost easier being the trainer, because I just decide which way and we go, there´s not so much indecision. But yeah, everything is going good, he likes playing soccer, so we´ll have more fun with the kids here. I forgot to tell you something funny that happened, so I was using rubbing alcohol to clean my face every night, but then they stopped selling it so I bought hydrogen peroxide, and I used it to wash my face for like a month and it turned my eyebrows yellow, so yeah I have yellow eyebrows, but at least I realized so I don´t use hydrogen peroxide anymore for my face. Thanks for everything, and I hope you have a great summer!

May 24, 2010

~ The weeks are going by like days it seems like. For the past weeks they have been making a new sacrament room in the church, and this was the first time we got to use it. In my first area and here also sacrament isn´t as reverant, and some of the members get kinda mad at the others, but there´s a lot of kids, and they ususally don´t take them out. But now they have put a speaker out in the hall so the parents can take their kids out and still listen, so maybe that will help. It´s also hard cause the microphone isn´t as loud, so whenever I talk I try and speak right into it to make it louder. Everythings good, it´s just hard here because there´s so many people from different backgrounds who weren´t raised in the church, and I guess people get offended easily. I haven´t heard or seen anything specific but there are a ton of inactive members. We have activated one lady though who hadn´t been to church for five years, so that´s good I guess. She taught us how to make croquetas, and they´re really good. We also learned how to make mojo (the j makes and h sound in spanish) and alioli. Mojo is a popular sauce from the canary islands and alioli is like homeade garlic mayonaise, and they're both really good.
It´s been good with Elder Wardell, we have learned a lot, and it seems like we´ve both grown stronger as missionaries. Last night a guy told us we were angels and that we couldn´t know how much he needed the messange that we gave him. It was cool because earlier elder wardell was talking to his wife and playing their guitar, and I was talking to him, and he told me how his work is really stressfull because it´s so competetive, and his boss told him that for the same salary he could be replaced by an engineer with a high degree and everything, so his work has been tough. He told that to me, but Elder Wardell didn´t even hear him say that, and then when we were going to share a scripture, Elder Wardell decided to open up to Ether 12 and read where it says that our testimonies are made sure only after the testing of our faith. We didn´t decide on reading that before hand or anything. It was good to see him receive strength from the Lord in that moment.
So we got the tansfer calls saturday night, and my comp is going up to Granada and there´s a new american elder (Elder Slack) coming down from the Madrid MTC this Wednesday. President called me Saturday and told me I would be training, and he sounded pretty confident that I could do it, so I´m just going to trust his judgement and do my best. so I´ll let you know how it goes, it´s going to be an adventure that´s for sure, thanks for everything!

May 17

~ This week was good, we had 17 lessons, so we almost made the 20 lesson goal. We learned in zone conference about what president calls leccion 0, and its the very first thing we teach to people in the first appointment. We basically find out what they want in life, then we give them an overview of the gospel and explain to them our job as missionaries. We then explain baptism, and commit them to read and pray about the things that we are goiing to be teaching them. We taught this lesson twice this week, and when we taught it last night it worked really good. So we give them a direction and show them from the beginning the desired goal which is baptism, and that helps both us and them. We taught him how to pray, and at first he said he didn´t want to in front of us but president said we should be persistent and should wait until they pray. That´s what we did, and he prayed and it was awesome. So yeah everything is going good, I think that my comp will be leaving next week but we won´t know till this Saturday. Everything is going good over here, thanks for everything and tell everyone I miss them!

May 3, 2010

~ My birthday was really good, the night before we ate super good seafood pizza at an investigator´s house, and they are super nice, and on Saturday we played fútbol with the young men, and they had threatened to throw eggs and flour on me because it was my birthday for the entire week before, but they forgot, so I was safe. After fútbol we ate at a members house who takes care of an older man who is hilarious. He´s like 85, and he can´t hear very good, but he´s always making jokes and laughing, I was saying the prayer for the food, and he started laughing and I started laughing and it took me a while to stop. He´s got a good attitude. after that we visted a less active member who´s living in a motor home now in a city at the north end of the island, and we shared a good message with him and left him a chapter in the Book of Mormon to read, he has changed a lot since I´ve been here. The testimony meeting we had the day after was amazing, it was Mother´s day here, and it was powerful. The testimonies of the humble people here are awesome.
That makes me super happy that Jeff really likes the dental field, I still really feel like that is what I want to do, I want to give people good smiles. I´m going to have to work hard in school when I get back but it´ll be worth it. So we are flying to the island of Tenerife this Friday and we´ll fly back Saturday night. I´m excited to visit that island, and see my comp from Madrid Elder Anderson. We are going to have a big fútbol game between the las palmas zone and the tenerife zone, and it´s gunna be epic. So yeah everything is going great, the mission is the best, thanks for letting me experience this, you have always been great examples. It´s a miracle that I´m out here.
elder ross

April 26

~ The week was good, the investigators we have are progressing slowly, but they are such good people, but I know there´s people here who are prepared already. We played the young mens quorum again in fútbol, and it was a heated match, and they beat us, but my comp and I both score over 4 or 5 goals we played the first to 15, it was sweet, my comp sent you some of the pictures.
We´re going to zone conference to the Island of Tenerife the 7th of May, so I guess that´s where we´ll talk on the phone too, I´m going to take a bunch of pictures, and then I´ll send home another SD card. So I bought a kilo of young bull liver this week, and it tastes pretty strange, but with enough salt it´s not that bad, to get my iron I´m just going to eat a piece of that every week cause I know it´s loaded with it. I´m trying to learn how to make bread like they make it here in the bread shops, I made two rolls this morning that are rising in the apartment right now, I had no idea that the bread here is basically just water flour salt and yeast, it just tastes so good! I want to learn to make it. So everything is going great my companion and I are trying to make our contacts in the street more personable. We´re tying to be friendly, but with excitement, we want to get their attention, it´s been working pretty good, but still we need to practice more. It is crazy that Rachel is learning to drive, you are brave for getting into a car with her. Don´t you think it would be better if she just practiced for a couple years with the car games for the playstation? and plus she already has a motorcycle she can drive. haha everyone is just growing up so fast, well everything is great. One thing I thought was interesting was that Moses held up the snake on the stick and told the people to look and be saved, and there were people who died just because of the simpleness of the way. The things we do everyday as members of the church and followers of Christ are so simple, but they are what keep us in the straight and narrow path that leads to salvation.

April 19

~ wow... i heard about the volcano and the earthquake in China yesterday, but I thought the volcano was in Ireland cause the names sound so much a like in spanish. I swear more and more people are going to start realizing that things are changing, and that there really is nothing sure in this world except for God. I swear more people are going to realize too that the world/society is getting worse and worse morally, and more and more people will hear about the Church of Jesus Christ and the good that comes from it and it´s members, and I think people are going to want to be apart of the good. I know I´m a kid, but kids these days, they don´t want to learn they don´t want to work they just want without effort. and the distractions are so strong, and there´s so many of them. I wish they would think haha they don´t even realize how much they can become. I know I´m preaching to the choir, but it´s the truth. It´s a miracle that I´m out here on the mision, like in the Book of Mormon I can honestly say that the Lord has snatched my soul from bitter despair and utter destruction. I´m excited cause we´re going to the Island of Tenerife for zone conference like the first week in may, and that´s supposed to be one of the prettiest islands so yea everything is good. So we eat at these two families houses every single week, one on Wednesday and the other Sunday. At the one on wednesday we made sandwiches with this really good meat, it was so soft and tender and tasted so good, and then when we were done they told us it was cow tongue, haha they didn´t think we would´ve eaten it if we would have known, but it´s amazing, really I´m going to buy some cause it´s super cheap too. Also we had this sausage called morsilla, it´s a blood sausage that I had had earlier in Madrid and in Jerez, but the canary morsilla is different, it´s weird cause it´s sweet. It tasted like brownies, but there´s no chocolate in it. You could seriously put frosting on them and call them brownies and the whole world would love them. It´s really good. those two families live out in the country, and have chickens and everything, and they remind me so much of grandma and grandpa and the layed back Idaho lifestyle. they have a bunch of baby chicks, and an incubater and everything. I gave a talk yesterday in Sacrament, it´s gotten way easy to give talks. So yeah thanks for everything, thanks for helping me so much and letting me learn on my own too.
elder ross

April 5 and April 12

~ April 5th The youth here are such good kids, but still they´re teenagers, but I really think that we could get them excited and interested in the scriptures. When their parents are around they won´t listen, but when it´s just them and us when we´re playing futbol or ping pong I´m going to start talking to them about stories in the scriptures and life and I´m going to ask them about what they think, they could help a ton of people.
General conference was awesome, we didn´t get to watch the second sessions of either day but we saw priesthood yesterday morning, I really liked what Uchtdorf said about patience, and that´s a quality that I want, and I´m really going to try to learn patience. The mission is great, President and Sister Mellor told us about that experience with the mission president´s wife in chile, and I was amazed. That´s so cool.
We are all prepared for at least two weeks if we had to stay inside here, I´ve had a 100 euro bill ever since the Madrid MTC, but I need to take it and change it for smaller bills like you said that´s way smart. Thanks for everything, the church is true, and the life is good
~ April 12 Everything is going great, we are both staying here in fuerteventura, and I´m really happy. Elder Anderson is coming down here to the islands and Elder Solari is going to granada, so Elder Anderson and I will be in madrid together most likely but I think elder solari will stay in malaga, but we´ll be in spain together.
Everything is going great, we are both staying here in fuerteventura, and i´m really happy, elder solari and elder anderson that are in my group are both going zone leaders now. elder anderson is coming down here to the islands and elder solari is going to granada, so elder anderson and i will be in madrid together most likely but i think elder solari will stay in malaga, but we´ll be in spain together.
So yea, everything is going good, we ate cow tonge last week and it was amazing! haha we are going to eat blood sausage this week, and I´ve already had blood sausage in spain (it´s called Morsilla) but the people here say that the Morsilla from the canary islands is way way better, so I´m excited, all the members are awesome, we make them laugh a lot haha. So the teenagers here are all good at futbol, and they challenged the elder´s quorum to a match this last saturday and we crushed them, so they want a rematch, and it´s funny. The people here play with a lot of finés, but I just run like crazy, and shot a lot, and they say that americans always run more than them, it´s funny, but I´m going to learn their tricks and then they´ll have nothing on me haha. I do that rainbow kick while we play and they are impressed, but I could get better at my dribbling haha, I feel like my spanish accent is getting better and better, it´s kinda tough here cause there are a lot of people from other countries that are learning spanish too, but it´s all good, everything is good.