Monday, May 30, 2011

Hola in Espanol - 6 months

It is hard to believe that it has been 6 months! but officially on June 1st he will have been gone that long. Sometimes it feels like it has been forever and sometimes it is like where has the time gone. I'm just glad that he is learning things.

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ok well im going to start off with the exciting fun story of my life this last week and if i have time move on to the other stuff. So. this week was hard. all we do is contact and just try to get in with some people. its amazing the things that you do when you have abolutely nothing. "Hey! Lady! have you heard the news?? there is a living prophet today on the earth! would you like to hear more?" ha yeah that was me doing a contact and yes i did say that. haha. so anyways i thought i would have some fun. Elder rencher and i had absolutly no money. we were breaking into our emergency funds so that we could buy our food. and we have a dishwasher in our piso here. we ran out of dishsoap for the dishwasher but we had the palmolive style of hand soap so i said lets put that in the dishwasher. i wanted bubbles EVERYWHERE. because that would just be so exciting and yeah. i dont know. so i filled it up with some soap and he started freaking out about how i was going to make a mess and i was just so excited. so we started it on the intense mode to get some love going for us. it went through the whole cycle and no bubbles. ON THE OUTSIDE haha so we just took that as a bummer it worked .. it actually cleaned the dishes and yeah. what a bummer. it went how it was supposed to and didnt give us a cool story at all. then we opened it and there were bubbles on the bottom. there were more than we expected haha but still not exactly what i was imagineing(with the whole kitchen full of bubbles) so it had worked a little bit but wasnt a mess that i was looking for.
Umm. We had a couple completely different experiences in one day (yesterday) we went to this guys house and he let us in and we taught him lesson 0 which is just introducing everything and then he said to come back. we went to this other ladies house and she was finally home and we were just saying how we wanted to share our message with them and her husband was like why. i like what i have and he said i know what all the religions have to offer and i said do you know what ours has to offer? haha he said no. what a surprise. so then i said what we have will bless your family and he said will you be giving us money and i said look we dont have money and he shut the door in our face. ha. it was pretty interesting.
anyways as far as that goes. im calling this portion of my mission the learning face becasue the most im getting out of this area is studying. so maybe thats what it is. cause im not seeing much else. anways i hope all is well keep doing what you are supposed to. keep reading keep praying keep being who you are. because your example is what people see not the words you say.! love you all!!

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Day 177

Got an email today.

This is what it said.

Hey sorry it's late:

c/seis de junio 44, 3'B
13300 Valdepenas (Cuidad Real)
Espana

is my new piso, FYI

Sorry that its been a while. we had the travelling ap´s with us and so we didnt have a p day this week. so we are taking it this week. my new comp is SO MUCH better than my last. we have a good relationship. he just wants to be a missionary which is really good. its just hard because he always has to be doing somethign but he never makes the decisions. technically im the senior comp but i dont know the area and he is always like well what do we do now? i have no idea so we go and contact and stuff. he is really excited to do the work. but he runs like everywhere. even on p day. haha we had a talk today. i said Elder. we are going to enjoy valdepeñas the one day that we can and we are going to walk slow and do what we want to do becasue all the other times its different. he has a hard time with walking slow. he worries about all the little things in life ha its funny and it just reminds me of when i started with elder west. ha we are really really good friends we have already opened up and shared a lot about life. we just have different views on missionary work. so we are learning. its just once something comes up we have to do it right then and stuff and i feel like we are annoying a lot of the investigators that we have so we are slowing down a littl and just working with what we got. eating the food we have on the plate and when that is to a pace that is controlled go for seconds. if that makes sense. i love elder rencher (my new comp.) its just the travelling ap´s and myself think that he needs to relax a little bit and it will start coming together. he is a good example to me. i just... this is the hardest thing i have ever done. this last week all i have been doing is contacts. thats it .. i only taught one lesson the whole week. and in the contacts we are contacting people we have already contacted. haha its kind of funny but its just they dont want anything ... NOTHING.. from us. and its frustrating. we go out and serve them and ways i never would have thought of because when you have nothing to do then you start getting really creative. its still not working. im having a hard time but i think im learnign a lot too. ummm.. im trying to think of what else. the earthquake we found out by reading a newspaper on the bus but i didnt feel anything. life is good . im in a little pueblo the members that are active are strong. thats good. but we dont have much going on. i dont think my legs have ever hurt this much in my life. even with soccer . ha i think its funny. but i gained a little wait in malaga and ive already lost what i gained there here. we walk EVERYWHERE and the members that are active live in a different pueblo. so we dont eat with the members here so we cook our own food. pretty much it has just consisted of peanut butter and marmalada sandwhiches. which im already sick of.
in all seriousness im doing good. just tired a lot and what not. frustrated but elder rencher is a good missionary. thats all he wants to do and i get caught up a lot. man i just want to be brad still. haha im still working hard its jsut yeah haha anyways im doing good really. dont worry too much
keep doing what you need to. keep spoiling the girls .. cause thats all thats ever happened haha and then spoil me when i come home. i have been talking to my comps about my dream man cave. you know we have a lot of time to talk about a lot of things seeing as we are always together. so i have some pretty specific details i want for that .. anyways love you all!!!


Well, I guess the good news is that he didn't make a wrong turn and end up in France.
At least I can stop having the worry in the back of my mind. He successfully transferred. This is coming from a mom who on her mission drove to the mission home and exchanged companions, every time I transferred. I checked out his apartment on google map and it looks like a typical Spanish town. It looks a little poorer to me than Malaga but I think that he is having a great time.

Happy Days, he is safe.

Monday, May 23, 2011

Day 174

NO EMAIL TODAY. I hope that I do not have to wait until next week.

Monday, May 16, 2011

Day 167


Well, I tried to post earlier in the week but blogspot was being weird. We got this email from the Mission on Thursday. I didn't even know that there was an earthquake but was thankful all were safe.

To the concerned families of our dear missionaries,



As you may or may not be aware, two earthquakes struck southeast Spain Wednesday causing significant damage to buildings, injuring many and killing at least 10 unfortunate victims. The epicenter of the quakes – with magnitudes of 4.4 and 5.2 – was close to the town of Lorca which is approximately 50km (31 miles) southwest of Murcia, Spain.



Richard Clegg, President of the Spain Malaga Mission, has reported that members and missionaries are all safe. Miraculously, the two young missionary Elders assigned to the Lorca area had planned days in advance to work in a town outside of the affected zone and received no injury. The mission president is currently in Murcia at a conference with all missionaries in the surrounding areas.









Here is his email for the week:

man
this week has been the hardest week of my life. do you know how hard it is to babysit a 20 year old kid. its not easy. but dont worry about that because my hardest week of my life is coming to an end. i wont go into very much detail because it just pisses me off thinking about it. BUT.. something that helped is transfers are coming up AND IM LEAVING!!!!!! im going to my second area its called VALEPEÑAS .. its up by madrid im leaving andalucia and they will be speaking better spanish so i will be able to understand them better. haha so thats good news. This really has been the hardest thing that i have ever done. i dont know if i have been more exhausted doing emails or not. just always trying to get him to work and stuff is just not working out. but soon it wont be my problem.

im excited to leave but at the same time its hard to say by to my family that i have made here. i love them. My investigators that i found didnt want me to leave. The crazy ladies are what we call them and they pretty much gauranteed their baptsim. but just so you know i am not here for the numbers of baptisms because thats just not me. if i baptize them i mean thats cool but id rather have the relationship with them maybe thats why im leaving because other people care more about the numbers and stuff.

uhmmmm im still chugging life is crazy right now. i cant think very straight cause everything is changing. if there is anything that you need to send me send it to the mission office and then ill email you my new mailing address for my new piso in the week that is coming. just know that im still happy its just hard when the mission is the hardest thing i have done and i have to be with people that are making it even more harder than it needs to be. anyways i dont have much time we are having an american breakfast today with some members.

ill update more next week i love you all your in my prayers. keep your heads up. the lord works in mysterious ways i still am trying to figure out why i had these last 3 weeks the way i did.

Monday, May 9, 2011

Day 160

First I have to say that it was sooo good to talk to Brad. It was clear, no delay. He was worried about that because we only have the cell phone. Probably the funniest part of the whole thing was when Abby was pass the phone to Kelsey, Ryker grabbed it and hung it up. We all just sat there staring at each other but AMAZINGLY Brad figured that out and called us back. I can't even begin to thank the family that hosted them in their home and let them call from there. It was just great to hear his voice and know that he is doing good. Sometime his emails are a little sketchy. But anyways here's the latest installment from Brad:

well.
yesterday was a great day to talk to you all. it was kind of weird haha i wont lie but it was good. it helped me a lot. ha you guys sound like you are doing well. thats great to hear. things were rough the last couple of weeks but one of the biggest things i have learned over here is how important the family is. ha when you get people together who are a family and they arent .. i dont know how to say it . cuando no hay amor. when there is no love. in the home then it makes it harder. but as we share with them the things of the gospel you can see how they start to want to spend time together. they dont know how to have a family night or anything. so the first month or so we spend family nights with them . we have the message we bring the snacks (we make rice crispies super yummy still) haha and everything and they loveit. they cant wait til the next week when the elderes come back (some times we are called misis [meesee´s] ) just because they are happy then. and soon they start doing it on their own. and you can see the change that they have in their home. cool experiences. umm. its hard to send an email the day after you talk cause its so much easier just to say hey this is whats up or this is whats buggin or this or that but its ok.
On saturday we were fasting again cause we often do that as missionaries. haha and we were focusing on 2 of our fechas that we have a mother and a daughter. and the week before we had to teach the gospel principles class and it was on the fast. (we havent taught them the word of wisdom) and we found out that the mom was fasting to stop smoking . ALSO the daughter was fasting so she could have a better relationship with her mom. and we were fasting that they would come unto christ. ha what amazing ways the lord works. she also asked us to come by on thursday. so if nothing else that is going on. thats happened lately. haha and in the last 8 weeks we have fasted 6 of them to have something and it reminds me of in alma. 5: 45- 46 i have fasted many days ha. yeah sometimes you have to fast a lot to get things going .. was well as working. and the hardest fast of my life was on saturday. we ended up closing the kitchen door and putting post it notes to help remind us haha. but yeah . anyways we areexcited for the work. Elder masterson and i talked last night .. pillow talk..super cute i know. and we were just talking about how all the members loved elder west and the relationship i had with elder west how it helped the work. and i think he has just been jealous of going to every member and having it not be about us. or him. and the thing im realzing more and more is how crazy it is and how much more people like you when its all about them. people want to feel wanted in this world. maybe thats whats missing. ha . so its something i will work on more .but like i said elder west is my best friend. ha i like elder masterson but he is still upset that he had to leave his last area and stuff. anyways.
keep doing good read your scriptures .. enjoy the normal life.
love you
elder b

Monday, May 2, 2011

Day 153

Well to all the mothers in the family. yestererday was mothers day here in spain. so Feliz Dia de Madre! i hope that when you celebrate it you will enjoy my voice to accompany you guys. i will be calling it will be around 9 in the morning for you guys. IM SO EXCITED!!! can you believe its almost been 6 months??? right now it feels like it has gone by really really fast. but dont forget there are the days that are slow too haha im running low on time. but the work is good here. just oging slow this last week because of the transfers. my new comp is named elder masterson he is from california. brea is the pueblo he is from there its right by los angeles. The first thing that Elder west taught me is every missionary has their own way of working. we will see how it goes. anyways. sorry its short this week. I MISS YOU and i LOVE YOU ALL. ill talk to you guys on sunday!!! BE EXCITED hahaha ok anyways have a good week, its rained like every day this week so its super humid. it reminds me of utah like every 2 hours its a different season. we just skip winter here haha ok love you!




He also sent a second email.
I told him that I wanted to live near the Mediterrean because there is no snow and we had snow on the ground on Saturday.

you want to live near the mediterrean? haha ok ill go back to utah then. haha then i can sleep. haha im so tired. this whole week has been people failing us and not being home and stuff and with transfers its hard to figure out what to do because he doesnt know where anything is or who any body is and so we just go to the people i know and go by antiguos and everything . its just frustrating . he is in love with video games and loves to sing. he walks so slow but the thing that i do to help out with that when we are running late is just tell him to tell me about a video game and as he is talking slowly start going faster.
That makes me laugh that ab just picks out the shrimp. she would love the "Paella" here it is usually made with shrimp. its super good too.
finally more males in the family. its about time. and let me know whats going on with that
carson won?? hahaha thats good!! thats super funny how she would have wrote different stuff down hahahahaha that makes me laugh i dont even think i wrote down the real stuff.. oh well .. good for her.
there have been posters for hop all over here. on the bus stops and stuff. so i know what your talking about a little bit.