Friday, September 30, 2011

End of September

Mamá,

¿Cómo estás? That´s all I´ll write in Spanish so yeah. Pretty much this week has been pretty cool!!! The food here is better than at the MTC in Provo, and the teachers are awesome!!! I´m glad you liked the pictures that I sent back. That´s about all that has really happened here. Saturday we did contacts in the park!! I tried to talk to some people, but most of them didn´t want to talk. I talked to a total of 4 people at the park who listened, but rejected, but it´s okay. My goal for the park was 8 so I got half of what my goal was so yeah!!! Better than nothing so yeah. I was paired with a French Elder that didn´t really understand English or Spanish so it was hard to communicate with him, but he´s pretty cool!! Sunday and Monday (today), President Earl gave us lessons on some really deep doctrine stuff!!! Seriously, I was SHOCKED about most of the stuff he said. He talked about the Plan of Salvation, super deep so I won’t get into it, and the creation today, super deep so I won’t get into it, and it was super cool!!!! That´s pretty much it for today.

How´s everything at home going? Everything still fine and dandy? Take care and I´ll talk to you later!!! Love you all my family!!!

Con amor

~Elder Bauer~


Mom,

I was told that if you send the stuff to the mission home, it would take at least a month for me to get it. My companions say that you can send it straight to my apartment so that I get it in 6 - 7 days so yeah.

September, 28 2011

Questions about my address, I can´t answer it right now, haha. So yeah, I´ll bet you guessed where I´m serving in my first area, Valladolid!! So yesterday was a pretty good day! I woke up, everyone in my District left (by the way, the week at the CCM, I was District Leader so yeah) and so I was alone for a while. I went to class with the French missionaries, and didn´t understand a word of what they were saying. It was fun though. At 10 am I left class and waited outside of President Earl´s office for Presidente Watkins to arrive. I sat out there for about an hour and at around 11, he came! He was super excited to see me and have me here, haha!!! It was pretty awesome! He said something like, "finally you are here, we keep seeing your picture and now you´re here!!!" It was fun!!! We had a little meeting and he told me about Spain, the place I´m serving and all that stuff. Then he took me over to the Autobus station to wait for my bus to come and take me to Valladolid. It was a pretty cool trip, but pretty long too. It was a 2.5 hour ride and I was tired when I got out. Three missionaries were waiting for me out on the station, but not my companion. He has been here in Salamanca for exchanges so yeah. We decided to come here and visit for the day since it´s P-Day today so yeah. Wednesdays are P-Days so yeah. That´s about all that really happened. How´s everything at home? Any fun stuff going on? Take care and I hope everything is good over there!! Love you all!!

Dad,

I´m glad to hear that you are doing well!! I´m also glad that everyone is doing well in school, like Jonathan! His grades look like mine when I was a Senior 2nd semester so yeah!! Looking great!!! Going to the Temple sounds like a lot of fun too!!! I´ve gone to the Madrid Temple 3 times and it´s a great place to go!!! It´s the most beautiful as well so yeah!!! If mom still plans to come here to get me after my mission, you´ll see it!! As for my address, my companions say that you can send mail straight to my apartment so that I get it in 6 - 7 days so yeah. If you send it to the mission home, it would take nearly a month for me to get mail so yeah.
Love ya' all!!!

Friday, September 23, 2011

The Metro

Frente al Palacio Royal

The Organ

Inside the Cathedral

Catedral de la Almudena

Building in la Plaza Mayor

Plaza Mayor

The Group of Missionary I Traveled to Spain with

Thursday, September 22nd 2011

Yes, you´re getting two emails from me this week. Today is P-Day so that´s why you´re getting two this week. Tuesday President Earl just wanted us to let you know that we landed okay!! Get ready for some pictures, because this email is full of them, like, super full!!! Yesterday we planned and got to take care of some visa stuff for residency, and no, it´s not over until I get to my new area so yeah. We went to the Madrid Temple for a session and it was pretty awesome, especially since it was in Spanish!! Then the Celestial Room is the prettiest one I have seen in my life!!!! I love that temple!!! Anyway, not too much else happened that day so yeah!

Today, it was crazy!!!! So we went on the metro for the first time here in Madrid, and we had to get more Visa stuff done so yeah. Then the way back was fun too, but not too hard. If you guys do come to Spain after my mission, then I´d like to show you around!!! Anyway, so then, after lunch at around 3, we left to explore Madrid!! I think you can figure out where these places are so yeah! You know more about the locations here than I do, so yeah. So we went into this huge, and I mean, HUGE church building, I think it was a catholic building, but anyway, it was pretty awesome!!! Then we went to the Palace right next to it. I forget what it was called, but it was pretty cool too!!! Then we walked around and stuff and I got tired like I did in New York so yeah!!! The metro is super easy to figure out! I love it!!!

Well, not much else to say. Anything exciting happen today? How has everyone been? Take care and I´ll talk to you soon!!! Love you all!!!

--
~Elder Bauer~
Called to Serve:
Spain Madrid Mission

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

The Madrid Temple from a CCM window

The Madrid temple from the bus

The "Hood"

View from CCM

Bus in Spain

Cannon District (in Salt Lake City Mission)

Praying Mantis

Awesome Family's daughter

September 20th, 2011

Okay, so I´m here in the CCM in Spain and it´s been super AWESOME so far!!! Anyway, first I´ll tell you about my flight and stuff. So as mom may have told you, I got the call on Thursday during District Meeting and got my Visa Saturday. As for the flight information, you were right about my flight!!! I rode in a 747 jet from Atlanta to Spain, which was a new and different experience for me. They had a TV screen on every seat so I turned it on to see where we were as we were going to Spain. It told us the speed of the plane, the altitude, and everything. It even had a GPS map thing that showed where the plane was. I slept as much on the plane as I could, but I´m still a bit tired. I feel like it should be dinner time right now, but we just had lunch. It´s about 2:30 right now and yeah. Anyway, here are some pictures.

The first picture is of Elder Rosario and Elder Vanegas so that you know who they are. The second is the Awesome Family's daughter's baptism. Her dad baptized her and that was awesome!!! The third is a praying mantis we found on Elder Thomas´s bike. Fourth, Cannon District (from left to right) Elder Retamal, Elder Vailea, Elder Hill, Sister Harris, Sister Fenga, Elder Thomas, Elder Chavez, and me. The fifth is the first bus I took in Spain to the CCM here. The CCM is actually 3 floors here in the building thing. The top floors so yeah. The sixth is the Madrid Temple from the bus. The seventh is the view out of a window from the CCM as well as the eighth. And the ninth is a view of the Madrid Temple from the CCM staircase so yeah. I´ll take more pictures, but that´s it for now. As for the keyboard, it´s really weird since it´s got a few keys that are in different places and some are smaller than the others and stuff like that. I´ll have to get used to it.

Anyways, when I got off the plane, I had to get my luggage and I talked to this lady that spoke pretty good English. She´s from here, and here as in Madrid, and so yeah. I asked her about if she´s had missionaries or if she´d like them and yeah. She seemed interested, but she didn´t want the missionaries over mostly because of her family. I wished her a good day and yeah. I then exchanged my American Dollars to Euros and they look funny so yeah! LOT´S of stuff to get used to here I must say!! The outlets, the light-switches, everything. The CCM is much better than the MTC though, just because it´s newer and stuff. Anyways, not much else has happened so yeah. How are things back home? Sleeping as I send this email? Sleep well and I´ll talk to you soon!!! Love you all!!

Monday, September 19, 2011

September 19, 2011

Hello All my friends.
No e-mail from Alex this week.
Instead, today we got a phone call with area code from Atlanta. It was Alex calling to tell us that he got his visa on Thursday, Saturday he met with the Spanish Consul. When he was calling he was at the Airport in Atlandt on his way to Spain.
He is traveling with 2 other elders and 3 sister missionaries. He will arrive in Madrid at about 9:30 AM Madrid time. (About 3 AM our time) It is very probable that he will go one week to the MTC and then he will receive his first assignment, but he could also just go directly to the area where he will be working. We shall see!
We are very excited, but I'm going thru the whole ordeal of him leaving on a mission all over again, even though he has been gone for 5 months now. So far, he spent about 6 weeks in the MTC, has had two transfers within the SLC area, and has had 7 baptisms, including the last one, which was interesting. He got transfered back to his first area. The family he had baptized, had a daughter who was now being baptized by her father, who now holds the Priesthood. How cool is that!
Madrid Saints, watch out! Here comes Alex!!!

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Tuesday, September 6 2011

Dad,

Well, so far I'm doing well and yeah. Do you know what Stake our friens are in? I'm working in the Granger West Stake right now and we have dinners with English wards too so who knows, I may have dinner with them if I stay here so yeah!!! Your last email, the questions, yes I remember being in those places so yeah. Back to missionary stuffs, it's been pretty fun being here. I talk less because my companions talk like crazy!!! I get bored in the lessons since I don't talk. Trios are soooo hard to be in, but I'm learning a lot this transfer so yeah. I'll have to make a goal to force myself into the conversation since I won’t be able to do it without the force. Sounds kind of like Star Wars, but it's not. Anyway, my week.

Crazy! Took Trax to the Temple the last Monday of the month of August and that was fun!!! The new Trax station in West Valley is close to where I live, but not within walking distance. The new trains look cool too!!! Moving on. This week we had a lot of different Family Home Evenings with investigators which was fun!!! We did the exact same thing in each one which was rather interesting, but fun/funny!! After one of them we had to run home, since it was about 9:25 and we have to be home by 9:30 and it took about 5 minutes for us to get to the house from there. It was hilarious!!! We walk out of the house calmly, and once we close the door to the house, we run to the car!!! I was laughing in the car almost all the way back to the apartment!!!

Saturday we had a baptism and My companion cooked a dish from Puerto Rico and it was pretty rico!! Haha que chistoso!!! Anyway that was super fun and yeah!!! Sunday we had a pretty interesting day. We had investigators going to the Spanish Branch and English Ward so it was crazy!!! We went to both places, but they had to go home after a while so we got them home. Monday was P-Day and we did a district morning study at the other Elder's place. Oh and guess what, one of these Elders is from...NEW ZEALAND! Brought back some memories. He's a Tongan with a New Zealand accent so yeah. Our mission presiden't wife brought breakfast and we ate that at 10. Then we got groceries and ate lunch with a senior Elder. He is a Senior Missionary that helps marry people and the Zone that gets the most marriages goes out to eat with him. I got a half rack of ribs which was good!! Today I get to e-mail since yesterday was a holiday so yeah.

How's everything going at home? How are my siblings doing in school? Anything interesting? Oh, one thing before I'm done. Sorry to those who are expecting letters from me sometime soon. The reason I haven't sent any is because one, since transfers, P-Day has been crammed with things that I have to do so I can't really reply to your letters as fast and two, I'm out of stamps. Can you send me more stamps please? Thanks!! Oh and thanks for the letters from:

Stephanie
Grandma
Megan

Thanks for the emails from:
Bauer Family

Yeah, anyway, have a great day!!! Love you all!!!

~Elder Bauer~

Mother,

This week has been fun! I'll just paste it here as soon as I finish saying stuff. Sounds like stuff is going good there in happy Bloomington Illinois. Well, so far I'm doing well and yeah. Do you know what Stake were our friends are in? I'm working in the Granger West Stake right now and we have dinners with English wards too so who knows, I may have dinner with them if I stay here so yeah!!! As for the cookies, I get them when I get letters too so I get them Thursdays so yeah. I was wondering something too about my huge coat. I'm thinking of leaving it in the mission office, but I don't know if I can. Every time I get a chance to talk to the mission President about it, I forget. I was wondering if Grandma could ask them about that. Or...I guess I can send him an e-mail so yeah.

We have three in our apartment, and it's an apartment, just us not anyone else. Trios are hard like I mentioned in the last email so yeah. The apartment is pretty nice, but not the best. I did get minor frost bite since it's getting colder and they turn on the swamp cooler and it blows on my feet. I put on two pairs of socks now, one of them being the gray ones you sent me, and my jacket on my feet. Now they stay warm. I forgot to mention that in my other email so just add that in somewhere so yeah. Just to remind you, I need stamps, I only have one left and it will be used for Giselle's letter so yeah. She'll be getting a letter soon. Take care!!! Love you!!!