October 3, 2012

Yes, another jamon [Spanish Ham]!

Why Hello there my family!!!!

This week has been pretty good, and intense!! I´m not sure how to really describe it, but we´ll see how it goes!! First thing though, transfers happened!! Guess where I´m at! If you guessed anywhere except for Parla, you´re wrong!! I´m still here in Parla working as hard as I can. I´m also still with Elder Alvarez, my wonderful Spanish companion!!! Elder Soriano has gone off to a new world of Spain, which is Mostoles, so I´m pretty sure that he´s enjoying himself over yonder. We got Elder Rose as his replacement companion for Elder Cunningham so we´ve got 2.5 Americans, 1 Spaniard, and .5 of a Mexican. That equals 4 people!!! Hahaha!!!! How cool is that!! Anyways, on to my week!!



Goodbye Elder Soriano - On the way to the train station

Thursday was a pretty cool, yet crazy confusing day. Weekly planning was different because we didn´t really know who was leaving or who was staying, or if both of us were leaving, so we left our new planners really well organized for the week just in case. Friday we had Noche de Hogar [home evening], but we didn´t really go in and listen considering we had a lesson at that time with Carlos. It was a pretty cool lesson, but we could´ve done better as far as explaining the Plan of Salvation better, but that´s how we learn, through experiences and making mistakes. Later that night, we got the transfers information and it was really shocking!! Elder Alvarez and I have been in Parla for about 4 months, and I´ve heard that President Jackson doesn´t like to keep missionaries in an area more than 6 months and just hearing that we BOTH are staying here for another transfer, or month and a half. So, it will be interesting to see what happens next transfer!! And yes, I´m still District Leader.

Saturday was an interesting day. So Elder Alvarez and I went to a Caja Madrid ATM machine to get money out. I got money out just fine, but when Elder Alvarez went to get money out, it took a while for the machine to spit the card out. He also wanted to see how much money was in his account so he put it back in and when it came time for the card to come out, the machine had trouble again. So we waited for it to spit it back out, but after a few seconds, it gave up and just ate the card. We were both stunned and just thinking of what we were going to do!! After standing out there for a bit, some joven [young person] comes to us and greets us saying, "Hello Elders."

We turned around and it was a young woman who wanted to know where the church was in Parla. We told her approximately where it was and gave her our number for if she wanted us to visit. She´s a less active member who lives in a pueblo [village] 15 minutes out of Parla and hasn´t found the church. We then said goodbye since she seemed to be in a bit of a hurry to get into Kebab (we think that she works there) and then started thinking about the card. Some guy then comes up to us and asks us if we´re using the ATM, and we mention that my companion´s card is stuck inside. He then says that the ATM has been having trouble for the week and that it´s been doing that to lots of cards. He then mentioned that there was a number that we could call on the screen and he leaves. Just as we are about to push the "send call" button, the ATM randomly spits the card out. We both just laugh, pick up the card, and go back on our way. We then thought of how it was a miracle that it happened so that we could find that less active YW. It was a pretty cool experience!!

Parla District - L to R:  Alex, Elder Rose, Sister Sican,
Sister Farias, Elder Alvarez, Elder Cunningham

Sunday not much really happened, except that, OTILIA CAME TO CHURCH AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!! Happiness all over the place!!!! This is the second time in the 4 months that I´ve been here, that she´s come to church!! Super coolio!!! Not much else really, but that made my day!! Elder Soriano also packed his bags all evening so yeah. Monday I received a call at around 11:30 am about how Elder Cunningham´s new companion, Elder Rose, came late and that he was waiting with the APs for him. That was really weird, but after a while, President saw him come by himself, late for the meeting. Elder Cunningham had since been in the office waiting for everything to settle. Eventually at around 2:30 pm they came and all is well. We met with two less actives and the lessons were really cool!! We also helped a family with a move from one piso [apartment] to another. I didn´t get away from helping with a move, so yeah. It was fun, except for having to carry boxes and furniture up four flights of stairs to get to their piso. I was tired afterwards.

Parque Parla Este

Tuesday was pretty good!! District meeting was focused on making goals, rendir cuentas de las metas (my English is horrid) [assessing how we met the goals], and diligence!! Super cool district meeting, and we made pretty good goals for the transfer!! I loved it!! We then contacted a lot and went into a cool park called Parque Parla Este [East Parla Park]. It´s a nice quiet park with trees and a playground for the kids! Today was pretty dramatic as far as Elder Alvarez and health is concerned, but all is resolved and all is well. That´s a story to tell another day!! How´s everything going over there in Texas? I saw the photos of the kitchen and it´s looking really nice!! You guys are doing a lot of work over there!! How has Giselle been? Tell her to be expecting a letter from me soon!! Love you all!!!

Elder Bauer