January 9, 2013

The apartment decorated for Christmas

Hey Family

I hope that everyone has had a good Christmas Break and that all is well over yonder in Texas!! Here there was also Three Kings Party!! In fact, it was a crazy Three Kings Party!!! Everyone here in Spain makes it a HUGE deal, which is okay since it´s a pretty dope holiday!! (I stole the word "dope" from Elder Jeppson, he emailed me recently.) Not too much else that has been crazy here, but I´ve had a really great week this week. Check it out!!!!!

Thursday we didn´t have much of anything. Weekly planning and that was pretty much it. The two appointments we had failed, but we still tried contacting people. Not much, but oh well. Friday was pretty cool!!! We didn´t have too many lessons, but it was still a pretty intense day!! So we visited Cristian in the morning and had a really good lesson about the priesthood! Super cool and he really liked it too!! We then went to see Jonatan. Super cool guy, age 23 so he´s JAS [young single adult]. Not a member, but wants to be baptized soon, unfortunately his father is a bit against him being baptized so out of respect for his dad, he hasn´t gotten baptized. We spent pretty much the rest of the evening with him, from 2:30 pm - 6:30 pm, doing service. It was awesome because he helps people in need where he lives which is a place that is lower class. It´s also a maze since anyone that doesn´t know the place, could get lost. It´s up in a hill too so we climbed a lot of stairs with boxes and stuff so we got pretty tired. Super cool though!!

We then had to leave to go to another person´s house to see them and teach them. We contacted them in a building a little earlier in the week and they told us to go back at a different time. We got there and they weren´t home, so we were pretty bummed about that. Not much we could´ve done though. Later in the night we went to Vecindario to spend the night there so that we could do exchanges there. My companion since he´s district leader, had to do three baptismal interviews there, and I came back with Elder Lisonbee to work in Las Palmas. While we were there in Vecindario we did a little barbecue and it was really good!!

Saturday Elder Lisonbee and I returned to Las Palmas and we worked like missionaries do!! We actually had fútbol [soccer] planned in the morning, but no one was there in the cancha [field] to play so we returned back to the piso [apartment] and tried to contact some former Investigators. No one really answered, but we did get some together to take with us to close to the port so that we could pass by them. We then took medio-dia [lunch break] then went to see Oscar. We got there at 4:15 and were a bit early for the lesson, but then decided to knock doors of their building. Not much happened in that time. We then went back to find out that Oscar was still not there. We stayed there to wait for him and Gabi to get back, but they got back pretty late, and Gabi had a birthday party, turning 19 years old, and so we couldn´t really teach Oscar. We left since we had another appointment at 8:00 with Fani. We also had some registros [record] of former Investigators with us and decided to try to pass by them. We didn´t really have any success since everyone was going from their homes to see the Three Kings Parade. It was crazy!!! Pretty much everywhere else was empty except for one street where everyone was going to see the parade.

We then tried to see Fani, but she wasn´t home, and so we tried to contact people on the way to the bus stop, but since they were all in the Kings mood, they didn´t want anything. At around 8:15 or 8:30 we decided to walk back to the piso [apartment] since all of the buses were full. It took us 45 minutes to get back and it was a pain to get to the door of the piso [apartment] building since there were cars parked everywhere, even on the sidewalk!!! Crazy!!! Not much happened except that we switched back companions and went to bed.

All the missionaries gather to say good-bye to the Eynons!

Sunday was pretty cool too!!! Even with it being Three Kings Day, 102 people went to church and it was pretty full!! One investigator in church though, but yeah. Also an inactive came back to church as well as a less active family which was amazing!!! I loved it and hope to see them again next week!! At 6:00 we went with Jonatan to take gifts to two families that are in need and can´t buy gifts for their own families. It was amazing to see the expressions on the faces of all of the kids!! It was amazing to do that service!!! We spent pretty much all evening doing that and it was one of the best Three Kings Days that I´ve had!!!

Monday was a pretty empty day, but we did all that we could! We took some former investigators records from the area book and went to a place that was a central place where they were living and started from there. We knocked on one of their doors, but they weren´t there, so we knocked the whole building. Three people answered their doors, were really nice, but didn´t want anything. At least we know where all of the nice people live though!! We then went back home and took our medio-dia [lunch break]. We then went to teach Jose about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the lesson turned out super good!!!! He´s understanding everything and is doing all the stuff he needs to do to get married so that he could get baptized!! I love that guy!! He´s 70 years old, Catholic, Spaniard, but just awesome and wants to get baptized because he loves the church. We´ll hopefully be able to help him with that desire!!

Tuesday was even better than EVER!!!! We had zone meeting via Polycam with the whole zone. It really made me think a lot about how to be a better missionary and it was just awesome!! It really gave me a lot of animo [motivation] to go through the area book and visit some of the former investigators!! I started a list and will eventually use it to pass by some people in an area if someone fails us on a visit! I´m super excited!!!! We then had 100% of the lessons planned!! That almost NEVER happens!!! I was really happy!!! We taught Andres, a less active, about service!! He´s less active because he plays professional fútbol [soccer], but he´s really strong in the faith. When we talked about service, and how home teachers are part of service, he wanted to be part of that! We then went over to visit Oscar and talked to him about the Word of Wisdom! It´s awesome to see how he´s growing to love the Gospel!! We left him Alma 32 the last time, and he was sharing the scriptures that he really liked with us for the first 15 minutes of the lesson!! I just love it when people get that big of an interest in learning about the Gospel!!!

We then went over to the mission leader´s house to talk to him about the investigators that we have. It´s amazing to think that we have 4 people with a baptismal date!! I´m loving Las Palmas!! He then had to go take his wife Raquel to drop her off at the port so that she could go to Tenerife. It´s pretty cool to see the huge ARMAS boats and how they load the cars into the boats and how they close the doors too!! Super fun!! We then were dropped off near Maria, a recent convert, and visited her after visiting a nearby less active. We talked to Maria about the importance of family history work, and it was pretty cool!! Her son was there too, and he isn´t a member, so when he asked questions, we answered them very boldly!! Even though sometimes he would ask it in a joking manner, we answered boldly and it would change his entire attitude! At one point I was talking to him and it was just amazing to feel what I felt for him!! I just saw him as my brother and wanted him to comprehend that through his faith in Jesus Christ, he could leave all of his mistakes and stuff behind and just continue forward!! It was an amazing experience and I hope that someday he could be baptized!! I´m sure that he will!!

El Corte Ingles (a department store) decorated for the holidays

 Today we went to three different malls here. El Mirador, Las Terrasas, and Las Arenas. It was pretty fun since we spent time with the Elders of Vecindario. Super fun!! Not much, but I´m glad that you guys had a cool week too!! Take care and I hope to talk to you soon!! Love you all!!!

Elder Bauer

Las Palmas from El Mirador