October 13, 2010

~ iiiiCupleaños Felíz!!!! that is crazy that you´re 16, and that sounds so fun to play golf for your birthday, I´m super jealous. My shoes just got here right before we left to do internet, y son guapisimos (and they´re super fly) I´m stoked to wear them, but I´m going to wait as long as I can, I really couldn´t have picked out a better looking pair of shoes. Thanks, the beef jerky will get put to good use as well. Thanks for everything, we are teaching a lot and contacting like crazy, an area 70 is going to come down here in November and we´re are going to have zone conference with him so we´re stoked about that. We should have a baptism in two week hopefully, so pray that Eduard will continue with the lessons. Have a good day I miss you guys!
elder ross

October 6, 2010

~ We got to watch almost all of conference, but we had to leave halfway through the second sessiones of both saturday and sunday to get home on time. All the talks I heard were super good. It´s cool to see how in the MTC in Madrid I watched general conference in spanish cause I wanted to see how much I could understand, and I did understand a lot but in comparison to now I understand a lot more. I really liked when the Prophet talked about Alice and the chesser cat and how when we have tough decisions in our lives we should ask ourselves, where do I want to go. That is going to help me a lot I think. Also they talked a lot about how coupled with every temptation there is a way out. That is reassuring to hear as well, I know that there are thousands of people who are going to benefit from the council that we recieved this general conference. I swear that i´m just now beginning to realize that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet just like moses or alma that is a live right now to guide us. It is indeed a blessing. Thanks for sending me shoes, I really won´t need them for some time more. I´m not going to wear them until these shoes are almost destroyed I think. Then like you said when I get home i´ll have a new pair of shoes, so that´ll be perfect. Everything is going great. we are energized for the work now. We went to the Island of Lanzarote on Monday for splits and we got back yesterday afternoon. It´s such a cool experience being here and visiting other islands and working with other missionaries. We have an awesome zone. One of the elder´s in Lanzarote is Spanish and is from Barcelona. We were in the same room in the MTC in Madrid but he went to the mission of Bilboa and I went to malaga. Then we got moved to the mission of Madrid and we were on splits together in a desert island. Who would of thought. It was funny because in the MTC I didn´t understand him very much at all and he couldn´t understand me but we got along because we love fútbol, but now we understand each other perfectly and it was cool to see him and talk to him. He´s a great missionary, and he knows so much about the scriptures, and he uses them so well. He has motivated me to keep studying hard. So everythings good. Thanks for everything, I love you guys. Tell Danny I said what up, and ask him to check his email too.
hasta luego
elder ross

Sept 29, 2010

~ That´s sad BYU is strungling but it´s understandable, at least by the time I get back the kinks will all be worked out and we´ll be able to enjoy some good ol Cougar Football. I saw american football on t.v. at a members house who has the american football channel, and it was so weird. When president called me to be Zone leader here in Las Palmas. I wasn´t sure what to do but president sounded like he had confidence in me so I figured it would be alright, and now everythings going good. We had to take the car to the shop on a Friday and cause it was right before the weekend we didn´t get it back until Tuesday. This area is huge, and we walked everywhere because the Gua Guas (buses) are crazy here. We got everywhere we needed to go, and we found some new investigators. Elder Kap is awesome. He has been led by the spirit so many times while we´ve been working. I´m learning lots everyday. I´m so excited for general conference, it´s going to be awesome. Everything is going good. My right shoe started to get a hole in it, but don´t worry dad I melted the cap of a pen onto it and now it´s all better, haha. but seriously. Thanks for giving me the chance to be here, son buenos padres de verdad!
elder ross

Sept 15, 2010

~ Elder Kap is pretty much just amazing, it´s so fun to be with him. I really hope I get to watch him go home too, he´s an awesome missionary, and we´re getting along great, and we´re working really efficiently, and using our time the best that we can. Today for p-day we went hiking with the senior couple that is here and the other elders and some members, in the middle of the island there are mountains and pine trees, and it smelled so good. We took pictures and had a picnic after.
elder ross

September 22

~ Everything is going great, I haven´t crashed yet, and now I can parallel park like no other, I swear driving those golf carts around all day helps me drive here. That´s insane they have up to 50 students in a class. So Rachel is a sophmore now? No puede ser... so we still have a baptismal date for the friend of the recent convert, and we started teaching his whole family, so we´ll see if they progress too. It´s kinda hard with such a big area cause we teach people who don´t have a car who live really far away from the church and it´s hard for them to make it on Sunday, or attend consistently, but I guess those who have the faith will come no matter how far they have to travel. So the cactuses get pretty dang big, they grow taller than your head, and branch out from the middle like 3 feet maybe. So the family that gave us those cactuses has three daughters and one son who have families, and the daughter who was our neighbor in fuerteventura just moved to a pueblo on this island where I´m at, and we ate lunch with them yesterday and it was cool to see them again, their kids are hilarious. The church made an instructional dvd called the district that went with one district and video taped them and it helps us learn to be better missionaries, and now they´ve come out with a new one, and it´s really good. They ask a lot of questions and really try to fit the lessons to each individual, and the last three days in the morning all the leaders in the mission with president Watkins, got together and we joined by camara to watch the new videos and learn, and it´s really cool to see how missionaries are coming out more and more prepared to baptize from the beginning. Thanks for the package, I did get it but it was like 2 weeks ago and I forgot to tell you I got it but it is awesome, that beef jerky was amazing! and I still can´t believe that p-nut butter has no hydrogenated oils, what a blessing haha. I gave the stickers to the member and she was super happy, she tried to give me money but I wouldn´t take it so she said we have to eat at her house once a week now, and she´s from Venezuela and she cooks amazing. I miss my old comp but my new one is awesome so it´s all good, we´re having loads of fun. Les echo un monton de menos, y les quiero mucho!
elder ross

Sept, 8 - First Baptism

~ The baptism went great, and we gave him the holy ghost on Sunday and it was awesome, there is a mom and a daughter that we are teaching, and during sacrament meeting I said to her that that was the first baptism that I have had, and she said, don´t worry you´ll have two more before you leave, talking about them two, so i guess we´ll see. It was super sad to see my comp leave. He left me an English futbol jersey which is awesome. I still don´t want to buy rachel a spanish national team jersey just cause it´s really just that insanely expensive, i´m sure online you could find them for half the price, so if you look and you find a good price buy me one too .
My New companion is named Elder Kap, and he is an amazing elder. I really don´t deserve so many just amazing companions. We both drink a liter of milk a day and a bunch of water, and we like exercising. We love talking to people in the streets, we are really similar and i´m going to grow a mountain while i´m with him. He´s from Pleasant View UT. north of Ogden, and he goes home in February. I hope I can stay here for as long as possible. Driving is ridiculous, but i´ve already learned a ton in two days, and I haven´t crashed. A cop was behind me at an intersection and when the light turned green I didn´t pop the clutch but almost, and like 3 seconds later the cop turned it´s lights on and I thought I was done for so I pulled over and he just drove by, it was a big scare. But everything is great, the mission president and his wife visited us to do a piso (apartment) check, and our piso is really old, it used to be the old mission home for the islands and it has so much stuff that we don´t use, so at first president said that we had to get everything fixed and we had to throw away all the broken stuff, but by the end, the list of things to do was so long that he said it would be better if we just moved pisos so we are in the process of looking for a new piso as well, so we got tons to do, and the adventure just get´s better and better, I miss you all, stay happy and i´ll see you later.
elder ross

Sept 1, 2010 - New Companion

~ My new companion is named elder Kap and he´ll be here on sunday right before elder Woodland leaves. It´s sad knowing he´s done and I won´t see him for a long time, but we had some good weeks together. I have to do a bunch of stuff with getting empatronized here in las palmas, but I love you all, thanks for everything, I miss you a ton. Have a good week.
elder ross

oh yeah, we have a baptism this saturday the day before Woodland leaves and it´s an 18 year old kid who is awesome so that will be number 1!