October 3rd 2011

Dad,

Thanks for that letter! I´ll try my hardest to know when meetings are and all of that stuff so that I can be a more effective and more well planned missionary. I agree with the "object lesson" thing. I don´t do any object lessons. For one thing, my brain isn´t able to think fast enough for one, and PMG says that they should be converted by the spirit, not an object lesson.

As for conference, we watched the first session of Saturday Morning General Conference at our church building. It´s not too far from our Piso. 10 minute walk so yeah. We watched it live at 6 pm. So much for Saturday Morning, that´s Saturday Evening. Sunday we watched the Priesthood session in the morning from 10 - 12, then the Saturday Afternoon session from 2 - 4, then Sunday Morning live from 6 - 8. We couldn´t watch the Sunday Afternoon session because it would have gone from 10 - 12 at night. We had to be in the piso by 10 and to bed at 11:30. Now we changed the schedule from a later schedule to this one. Later schedule must be for the summers and this is the Winter schedule. Wake up at 7 am, be back to the piso at 9:30 and in bed by 11. Different from Salt Lake, but oh well.

Well, I hope all is well over there in the lovely Bloomington, Illinois...well...green Bloomington, Illinois. Take care, get well, stay neardy and have a lovely week!!! Love you!!

Elder Bauer

[P.S. Could you combine this letter with the one I sent to mom on my blog? ¡Gracias!]

Mom,

Well, I´ll see what I can do about sending letters to William and Hayden! Now, for my mission address, it´s okay to put the address of my home if you haven´t already put it there. The Don Sancho whatnot, I don´t know it off the top of my head, but yeah. It´s okay to put that on my blog so that people know where to send letters so that I don´t get letters from people months after they sent them. That´s what I heard from the missionaries here. If you send it to the mission office, you´ll most likely not get them for a month or two so yeah. I hope that all is still going well over at home!!

Well, nothing really exciting is going on except that this has been the weirdest transfer of my life!! All of my companions are leaving at some point this week and a new companion is coming in. Picture #1 [seen in the post above this letter] are all the missionaries that live in the same piso (apartment) that I do. They are, from left to right, me, Elder Thurstin, Elder McGrath, and Elder Arjona. Elder McGrath, my real companion, left yesterday for the Canary Islands, Elder Thurstin is leaving today for Madrid, and my new companion is coming from Madrid, and Elder Arjona is going to the US for his mission. He was waiting for his visa here so yeah. Weird transfer this has been.

The next few pictures are some sights here in Valladolid so yeah. Figure out which ones are which, because I don´t know. Crazy day, and by the way, before I forget, I did get the package you sent me!! It was a fun package to get!! Thank you!!! I probably won’t need as much stuff next time, but it´s okay! =) Now, the last picture is of a friend that I saw here, and I didn´t think I´d see him again for two years!! For some reason, he just showed up and it was crazy!! We talked a bit and I told him it would be okay to follow me around on my mission for the rest of the two years, well, 18 months give or take a few days so yeah! We took a picture and yeah! Now don´t freak out or anything, because the Energizer Bunny is the friend I´m talking about so yeah! Thanks mom!!! Well, that´s about it. I hope to hear from you guys another time soon!!! How´s everything back home? Anything exciting happening this week? Take care and I´ll talk to you soon!!! Love you all!!!

P.S. Wish Giselle a Happy Birthday and a Happy New Year for me!! Thanks!! =D