June 13, 2012

Alex in front of the Palacio Real - Aranjuez

A picture taken from the window of Alex's window

Monthly mass transit pass

Family,

This has been a cool little week! Let´s just say that we´ve had some adventures. So starting with Thursday, we had a lesson in Aranjuez and we went and had plenty of time to get over there and stuff so we got on the bus and went to our lesson! Super cool because she´s super ready to get baptized!! On our way back, we got on the train to get to Pinto, and it was a different looking Renfe [regional commuter] train, but we didn´t really even think about it, we still got on. Besides, the person at the information desk said that all the trains stop at Pinto. I then went to sleep because it was going to be a 20 minute ride and I was pretty tired. When I woke up, we were in a little town and I wanted to know where we were. I then noticed that it was passing through a Renfe stop that looked pretty familiar and after passing it, on the wall of the stop, it said "Pinto" and I just started laughing. We got on a medio distancia [medium distance] train instead of the regular Renfe trains.

So after going for a while longer with no idea where the train was going to stop, I called Elder Simmons my district leader and told him everything. He just laughed and told me to call him back when I knew where the train stopped, or when I knew where we were. At that moment, I saw the next Renfe stop, which is where the train stopped, that said Villaverde Bajo, and he gave us instructions of what to do. So we just got off there and went over to the tracks that had the train that was going for Parla. When we got back to the piso [apartment] later that day, after telling the story again to Elders Simmons and Alvarez, Elder Soriano said that it didn´t take too much longer than taking the bus from Pinto to Parla, it just took 30 minutes longer and 50 cents. Hahahahaaa. Made us all laugh! Well, I learned from that experience that, medio distancia trains, which look and sound older than the other Renfe trains, don´t stop in Pinto.

Friday we had another good lesson with a progressing investigator!! Ana, super good and has real intent to learn. She asks sincere questions and we answer them in a way that she could understand them. Pretty cool!! We then had Noche de Hogar [family home evening] and played a game, and ate, then went home. Saturday and Sunday were days that I don´t remember, except that Sunday was Branch Conference so the Stake Presidency was there. The lesson in Priesthood was really good, given by one of the counselors. Sacrament meeting was pretty good too! I don´t know if I mentioned this in the last email, but the meetings are backwards here. They have Priesthood/Relief Society, then Sunday School, then Sacrament Meeting. Monday we went to Aranjuez and it was a good lesson again, like usual! We then came back to Parla without any problems and it was all good! We had to run to one of our lessons and we ran into Maribel, a member and a lady that´s 65, but seems younger.  We talked to her for about 2 or 3 minutes, and were off running again.

Tuesday was District Meeting. Right after we usually eat lunch as a District and it was a pretty interesting lunch. The rice was a bit undercooked so it was a bit hard, but still good! Elder Soriano served Elder Alvarez some juice and spilled it all over, and the dessert was Jello with carrot slivers at the bottom. The funny thing about the Jello part is that the cook of the Jello took the first bite, and just the expression on her face said that it wasn´t good, and guess what...it wasn´t. No one liked it, so before throwing it out, Elder Simmons played with it. It was the biggest fail of District Meeting Lunch that I´ve ever seen. Oh well, just another adventure. Today we went and tried to bowl, but the place was closed, but I bought 4 cool looking ties at Premark for 10€! Not too bad eh! How is everything over there in general? Anything fun happen this week? Take care and I´ll talk to you soon!

Love you all!!
Elder Bauer