September 19, 2012

Do you remember the pata de jamón [literally leg of ham]?

Day two of the pata in an apartment with four hungry missionaries

By the end of the day on Friday - picked clean!

 

Familia:

So just to say that the game yesterday was super AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Real Madrid vs. Manchester City!!! Madrid won 3-2 and it was pretty intense!! I´ll tell you about it when I get to Tuesday but for now let’s go to Thursday the 13th.

Thursday we saw Vincent and Carolina and Ibeth. Everyone is doing great so all is well!! I played with Carolina and Ibeth´s little cat too and got scratched up all over my hand. It was fun though. The lesson with Carolina and Ibeth was on being an example, and I used my laser for the lesson!! So I shined my laser up on their ceiling and pretty much compared it to Christ´s birth and how the light of the new star gave them light and guided the wise men as well as shepherds to where the babe laid. I also related the story with how Jesus was our example and our light. Then I asked everyone, how we could be examples to the people that we know. I then said that with our good examples we could bring others to Christ and have that light spread to others. I put a certain kind of lens on my laser and had it shine on to the ceiling again and it looked like a planetarium with all of the points of green light. Their cat was going crazy at that point and wanted to catch one of the little green points on the ceiling. It was cool, and funny!!

Friday we had Marcelino and he is hilarious!! I love to listen to him talk about random stuff!! The only problem is that he talks and talks a lot so we can´t really share too much since he talks a lot, but oh well, not much we can do about it. We then ate with Yuliana and her food is always good!! We then had an evening without anything until 7:30 and 8:00. At 7:30 we had Rocio and at 8:00 we had Carlos. Carlos has really good intentions!! He wants to learn more and actually mentioned baptism a lot!! He also wants to see the Temple one day so it sounds good!!! We then had the Noche de Hogar [home evening], and went home! Really good day!

Saturday I had intercambios [companionship exchanges] with the tiny Mexican Elder Soriano!! We did contacts and got two great referrals and got to see Otilia! She said that she´ll come to church, but in the end she didn´t which made me pretty sad. She even promised!!!! =( Oh well, I hope that next week we can do something to get her animated [His word choice of animated is kind of Spanglish – he means to say enthused]!! We also saw Gerard and he´s really good!! We got to know him a bit more and he seems like he has great intentions too so I´m really glad to have found him! Sunday was pretty empty. We went to church and then ate lunch with the branch president´s family, contacted, then ate dinner with Ibeth.

Monday we had intercambios [companionship exchanges] with the other Zone Leader Elder McGrath!!!! Let me just say that he´s really good!!! He´s a maquina at contacting [contacting machine]!! We got 10 references received that day and it was just amazing!!! We also saw Melisa for the first time in about a week! She´s doing well and Elder McGrath committed her to invite her family to a little activity where we make brownies. It sounds good and yeah! It sounds pretty yummy too, hehe. Tuesday morning we switched companions back so I got Elder Alvarez back and it was pretty good!! The sisters of Leganes 2 wanted me to do a baptismal interview at 11:30 at the Leganes chapel for an investigator getting baptized this weekend!! The first interview I have ever done, but turned out really well!! The guy is from Haiti and his testimony is super strong!!! I can just see it in his eyes! After the interview we took pictures with him and it was super cool!! We started district meeting and talked about Chapter 5 in Preach My Gospel. Pretty much about the Book of Mormon and how to use it in the lessons!! It was a really good district meeting!!

The Leganes LDS Chapel

 

From L to R: Hermana Carter, Me, Joseph (investigator and baptismal candidate), and Hermana Piedade.

The District. From L to R: Elder Soriano, Hermanas Farias, Carter, Piedade, Elders Cunningham, Alvarez and me.

 

 Later Tuesday evening at around 6, we dropped my companion off with a member since he didn´t buy tickets to the game. We got to the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium at about 7:30, just in time for the doors to open and we got in! I was just super excited at that time!!! FÚTBAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We climbed the stairs, and the view was super good!!! We got a view of the whole stadium on the west side, long side of the field!! I sat next to...you may have guessed it...ELDER FORREST!!!! Office comps forever I guess since we always seem to be near eachother. For the first 45 minutes none of the teams scored a goal so Elder Forrest and I were pretty bummed about that. After halftime though, Manchester City scores a goal and that was not cool!!! Hermana Hernandez is hilarious!! She was screaming in Spanglish that time just like pretty much any other time. HAA. Then Madrid scores a goal, so 1-1. The whole stadium pretty much just bursts in a huge cheer and I don´t think I´ve ever cheared and yelled as loud as I did when Madrid scored!! Then Manchester scored again after a while and we were a bit bummed again. Then Madrid scores again!!! Again yelling and screaming out of my mind!!! Then it´s really intense and after a while and near the end...MADRID SCORED AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ending score, 3-2 Madrid won!!! I screamed like never before!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was great!!!!!!!

Elder (Alex) Bauer, and Elder Forrest

 

Today my vocal chords are fine, but when I yawn my vocal muscles hurt. I´m not really sure what they are, but whatever. We went to the temple and got a district picture in front of the temple! Now we´re e-mailing, duh!! How are you guys doing? Have a good week so far? Take care and I´ll talk to you soon!! Love you all!!!
       ~Elder Bauer~
       Called to Serve:
   Spain Madrid Mission
               and
       District Leader
              of the
       District of Parla