November 28, 2012

Thanksgiving with the Eynons

Thanksgiving dinner in the Canary Islands (thanks Eynons)

Thanks is written all over Elder Bauer's face

Why hello Family!!

My week was good!! It will be shorter than usual since Thanksgiving I already wrote to you guys! Thanksgiving was great though since the Eynons invited us over for dinner that day!! LOT´S of food too!!!! I got really full that it hurt, but that didn´t matter since it was food from the Eynons!! Friday was pretty full of running around and stuff!! We were canceled by Cristian, but that was fine. We had extra time to contact and find more people. That wasn´t too successful either, but it´s okay. Later after Medio-Dia [lunch break] we went to Soila, but we got the message that she doesn´t want anything anymore so we´ve dropped her for now. I´m sure in the future she´ll progress. We then took the Guagua [bus] over to Maria Jose, a less active lady from Sevilla, and we had a member come with us! The funny thing about this one is that she wanted a blessing, but we couldn´t find where she lived. We got in the right building, but just couldn´t find the door on the 4th floor. We knocked on all but one of the doors when Elder Valenzuela said that he didn´t know if it was that building or a different one. So we called a few people to see if they knew where she lived.

In the end, it turned out that the only door that we didn´t knock on, was her. We pretty much said sorry, about being late and not being able to stay for very long because we had a lesson somewhere else. All for nothing pretty much, but it was fun! We then had to go to the Port where Fausto and Deila live. They´re a less active family and we were there for 30 minutes, taught a short lesson, and went to Fani, a new investigator´s house. We taught her the restoration with candles, just to try it out. It was pretty good so yeah!! Fani is the type that likes to talk a lot so it was hard to keep it short, but at 9:30 we got out and took the Guagua [bus] back home.

Las Palmas

Saturday was another day that was pretty empty. We tried to see some people, but none of them were available at the times that we had set up so we didn´t have too much of anything. At 6:30 we had Jonatan and Fran and we talked to them a bit about their doubts and answered their questions. It took quite a while to end the lesson, but we ended it at around 8:30. Unfortunately we didn´t get to another appointment that we had set up. We tried calling, but nothing. We ended up getting off of the Guagua [bus] and walking back to the piso [apartment]. We got back at 9:15ish.

Las Palmas (and the Atlantic Ocean)

Sunday was a pretty good day as far as the morning and the evening!! This Sunday I pretty much presented myself to the branch and it was pretty good!! I told them that I feel blessed to serve in the Islands, and to escape the cold, haha. It was good!! Right after church we had a lesson with Maria about the importance of reading, praying, and going to church. It was a good lesson, even though she was in a slight hurry since she had to work. We even talked a bit about her baptism and she said that she´d have to look at her schedule to see if it´s still okay. We then had Medio-Dia [lunch break] and afterwards we went to the JAS [young single adults] Center to wait for Cristian. He failed us again that day, but it´s okay. We left to do some contacts and it wasn´t really very effective, but it´s okay. We then went to the conclusion of Noche de Hogar de los JAS [home evening for the young single adults] in the JAS Center. The Eynons always bring good food there and that´s pretty much what we go for, haha. It was Shepherd´s Pie and OH GOODNESS!!!! YUMMY!!!!! We then spent a bit of time there with the JAS [young single adults] and went back to the piso [apartment].

Elder Ezra A. Bauer and Elder Kent F. Richards

Monday was an awesome day!!!!!!! So we had a Mission Tour here in the Spain Madrid Mission, and it was great!!! If you remember back in the visa waiting days, I had one of those there in SLC and Elder Paul V. Johnson came. This time we had Elder Kent F. Richards of the Second Quorum of the Seventy come and talk to us!!!! It was AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I got to shake his hand too which was awesome!! He talked to us about how to more effectively find and then how to teach for understanding. I learned a lot from him!! President Jackson was there too and it was fun to have him with us as well. The whole Zone of the Canary Islands was there too so I got to meet the new guys as well as see Elder Wride again!! We then ate super yummy food and it was good!! We then went and had a Noche de Hogar [home evening] at a member´s home and it was pretty good!! I was really excited to work after Elder Kent F. Richards so it was really good!!!

Tuesday was amazing!!!! We knocked a building and of the 3 people that answered the door, 2 wanted us to come back a different day and talk to them about the gospel!! It was awesome!!! Seriously I think that the Mission Tour helped my attitude a lot and now we´re both working on making things simple for everyone so that they could all understand!! I loved it!! We then met with a less active member called Cristo, and it was a pretty good message! I don´t really remember what we did, but it was good!! We then went to the JAS [young single adults] Center to have a lesson with Jonatan and Fran and it was really good!! We did the Restoration again and showed the short video of the Restoration. At the end of the video, Fran said that he felt something, and that he really liked the movie. We told him that he felt the Spirit and it was a cool experience!!! I love teaching simply!!! It´s amazing the miracles that come from it!! Today we had something planned, but it was changed to something else so I don´t know what we will do. Since Christmas is coming, when would be a good time to do Skype over yonder? I´m not really sure what our plans are, but it´s okay. Just tell me what you guys think. Take care and I´ll talk to you soon!! Love you all!!!

Elder Bauer