November 30, 2011

Well, let me just say that this week has been...interesting. So, first, thanks for the package that I got a week ago but forgot to say thank you for it. By the way, transfers are coming up so please, if anyone is going to send me anything, namely Megan, Barry, Wil and Trey, and you guys, send it to the mission office. That would be easier for me. Also thanks for the letters from:

Megan

Wil and Trey

Barry
And special thanks to mom for the package!!

Well, let me get on to my week. So Thursday nothing really new, except that by the end of the day I started not feeling too well. My stomach every now and then would hurt pretty bad and I couldn´t concentrate too much on the lessons. Friday I stayed home pretty much all day because I was sick. I rested as much as I can. Saturday we did stuff, we ended up at Ana Vigo´s house and I ate some goodies, but my stomach didn´t like me afterwards. Sunday we went to church and taught some lessons to people and one of them told me what I should eat to help me feel better so I took her advice and bought stuff on Monday. Monday and Tuesday we stayed home because of sick reasons. Plus I had diarrhea and I´m not sure if it has stopped or not, but yeah. Today was a super weird and scary day for me. Let me just say that my companion is on his way home unexpectedly with a year left of his mission. I can´t say anything else about that, so don´t even ask until after my mission. I´m writing from the CCM. Presidente Baruque, the branch president in Valladolid, helped us out in cleaning the piso before leaving and President Watkins came and picked us up to bring us here to Madrid. For now I´ll be with Elder Thurstin, one of my first companions here!!! He´s so awesome!!! I got to say hi to the CCM President, President Earl and I´ve been keeping in touch with him so yeah. I´ll be going with Elder Thurstin as soon as they come and pick me up. That´s pretty much it.

November 23, 2011

The entire zone!

The León Cathedral [Santa Maria de León] at Night

The Zone Leaders

Familia,

Wow, my inbox is pretty empty this week, what happened family??? I know I didn´t write last week on Wednesday, but yeah. Oh well, I´m sure that there´s a reason since Giselle is super busy with her Nutcracker so yeah. Well, all I have to say is that this week...well...past few days, have been great and crazy!!! So, Friday we arrived in León at around 7:10 and had District Meeting then went to the piso [apartment] in León. Let´s just say that was pretty interesting. Fourteen missionaries in a 4 room 2 bath apartment. It was crazy there, but I got to know the zone a lot better!! Elder Rivera, the other Zone Leader, is awesome!! I love that Elder!!! Finding a place to sleep was an adventure for most of the missionaries there too. Elder Evans helped me out to get a mattress up the stairs to sleep so yeah. I was paired up with another Elder since we were short on beds so yeah. His name was Elder Paredes and he was waiting for his visa in the Utah Salt Lake City Mission too!!!!  And guess what, he was companions with Elder Thomas over there too!!!!!!! ♫♪This is a small world after all♪♫!!! So yeah, he got to know the district that I was in and yeah!!! Super cool!! He told me all about his experiences there and yeah.

Saturday was Zone Conference. It went from 10 - 2 so it was pretty long, but we had a break in between so it wasn´t bad. I learned a lot from that. Before that though I had my interview with the President. After Zone Conference there in the church building in León, we had lunch which was Dominos Pizza!! I had 3 slices and that filled me up quite a bit so yeah. Then Hermana Watkins brought out pumpkin pie and I ate a slice of that, even though I wanted more of it!!! I´m getting hungry just talking about it!!! Anyway, then at around 6 we got an assignment to visit some people in a certain area in León, but we didn´t know the streets too well. It´s okay though, I had fun. We went to bed after that, well, at 12. Sunday we had district conference, instead of stake conference just because they are a lot of ramas [branches] and not barrios [wards].  So yeah, we got back here at around 3:30 and I was dead tired so we went to the piso [apartment] to rest a bit before working.  OH and by the way, we have 5 people scheduled to be baptized!!  Four of them are two couples that need to get married first, so it may take a while before they get baptized, but it´s okay.  I hope everything works out!

Nothing much else to say except for...HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVE!!!!!!  I don´t think I´ll be celebrating that here since there´s no such thing.  So while you´re eating turkey, I´ll be in bed haha so yeah. Someone has to eat a turkey leg for me, don´t think that it can just sit there while I´m gone.  EAT IT!!!! Haha. Well, how´s everything over there?  How was Thanksgiving (since I´ll read your emails after Thanksgiving)? Anything fun happen?  Any fun stories?  Well take care and I´ll talk to you soon!!!  Love you all!!!

Elder Bauer

November 18, 2011

Christopher Columbus's House in Valladolid

Familia,

Well, sorry for not writting to you Wednesday, but it was because we had zone conference in León and P-Day was changed from Wednesday to today so yeah. Plus we had exchanges with the Elders of León and they lasted longer than we thought they would. So I´ll tell you about that after showing you some pictures. The first four pictures [three of which are found above] are of the Museo de Colón so yeah. I think that´s the house you wanted me to see. I only got to take pictures of the outside so yeah. This was after I wrote to you last that I took these pictures. I saw it this time, haha, so there!!! Anyway, on to my week.

Well, this week wasn´t too exciting except for the exchanges to León so yeah. Tuesday at around 12 pm we went to the bus station and took a bus to León. At León we met the Elders there, Elder Bermudez and...ELDER EVANS!!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!  So Elder Gallego and Elder Bermudez went back to Valladolid and I stayed with Elder Evans there in León. The plan was for me to be there until Wednesday and then return to Valladolid with Elder Evans at around 12. So Elder Evans and I went to the piso, which is an awesome looking piso!!! We took medio-dia and planned the rest of the day. We had a lesson at 8 and an FHE at 9 at the church building. We contacted before going to the church building, by ringing doorbells outside apartment buildings. We got about 20 contacts just at one building and at about 6:30 Elder Evans told me that we didn´t have any food in the piso so we went to buy things for a really good dip and hamburgers for the next day. So at about 7:30 we went to the church, taught an awesome lesson about service to a recent convert, had the family home evening and went back home at around 9:30. We got back and made the dip with the stuff we bought for it (a red pepper, onions, beans, and tomatoes) and stuff there at the piso (hot sauce, tomato sauce, cheese and spices). We forgot to buy milk so it reminded me of the video the Tombs made of NO MILK....AAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!! We ate the dip with the Doritos that we bought too as well as mango juice which made that night super awesome!!!! Unfortunately we went to bed late.

The next day (Wednesday) we got up and studied what we were going to teach that day and planned out the day! Then we went out and called an appointment we had and cancelled our appointment with him, because we realized that we didn´t have time that morning. We met up with Elder and Sister Swanson at about 11:45 at the El Corté Ingles near the church building and we did contacts there while waiting. Elder Swanson is from Salt Lake, but has been living in Germany for a while. He´s in charge of all the medical stuff for all of the missions in Europe and he´s awesome!!! He took us out to eat so we ate breakfast for lunch in El Corte Ingles on the top floor so we had a great view of León!! Then we got a ride from Elder Swanson to the bus station to get the bus to Valladolid. We tried to buy tickets, then found out that our cards didn´t work so it was no bueno! We called Elder Gallego and told him that our cards didn´t work so we couldn´t travel that day. So, we went back to the piso and took medio-dia and yeah. So I didn´t bring anything to shower with me or pj´s to León so my hair was greasy and I was getting scruffy looking. So, later that night we did more contacts and all of the lessons we had dropped us, but Elder Swanson gave us German...well, Dutch Chocolate so that made us feel better. At around 9:30 we got back to the piso and started to cook the hamburgers on a grill they have there!! They were thick and huge!!! We each had two so I got super full again!! We played a game called Magic while the burgers were cooking so the time passed. I helped mix the burger meat with egg and spices so it was good!!! We went to bed late again...I know, sorry, but the burgers took a while to cook.

Thursday we got up, and Elder Gallego pretty much ordered us to come back down to Valladolid to finalize the exchanges. Weird because I came back down, to go back up the next day, but it was still understandable so yeah. We went down, our cards worked, and I slept on the bus as much as I could! We got here and yeah. Now I´m here. Intense right?! Yeah!! How was your week? Not as cool and weird and crazy and fun and funny as mine I´ll bet, but I haven´t read the weekly email yet so I don´t know. I´ll bet not. Have a fun week!!! Love you and I´ll email next week at the regular time, Wednesday so yeah. Hasta Luego!!!

Elder Bauer

Making Dip in León with Elder Evans

November 9, 2011

Familia,

It has been getting colder, but not too bad. In León it´s even colder than Valladolid! This week has been crazy for me so here it goes!!!

So the most exciting day was Monday for me so I´ll start with Monday. So, Elder Gallego is a Zone Leader so he had to go to a Leadership Training Meeting in León so we had to get up at 5:30 am to get to the bus station and catch the bus that left at 6:45. So we took the bus and it´s a two hour bus ride up so I tried to sleep, but I didn´t get to but oh well. We got up there and the thermometers say that it´s like 3 or 6º C [37º or 43º F] so it was super cold!! We got out and walked toward the church building, but it was too early so we ate breakfast at a bar (I know, weird, but it´s okay). So at 10 is when the meeting started and all of the leaders of León were there, and I left with another elder, Elder Evans! He´s super funny and awesome!! We did a bit of morning study and we went out and contacted.

We contact from 11 until about 12:15 and we go back to the church building because we had a lesson at 12:30 with a guy that I don´t remember his name. He´s a recent convert that´s all I know and we taught him the gospel of Jesus Christ. It was a pretty good lesson! After the lesson, the meeting ended so we went to a restaurant called Kebab and it was really good. We took the food to the Piso of Elder Evans (well, the Piso of the León missionaries) and ate it there. After that, Elder Evans taught me how to play a game called Magic, and it´s an interesting game. Well, at 4:30 Elder Gallego decides it´s time to go and try to catch the bus leaving León going to Valladolid, but it left at 4:40 so we weren´t going to catch it. We went down anyway and got ice cream (I know, but whatever - it was good anyway) and caught the train going to Madrid Chamartín, which stops in Valladolid, so we took the train down. It was a really nice train!! It got up to a speed of 153 kph [95 mph]so it was faster than the bus. So we got to Valladolid at 6:30 - 6:45 and got to the piso to eat a bit. Then we went to give a lesson and that was Monday. Super exciting right!!!

How´s everyone doing over there? Did Jonathan like his trip to New York? I hope all is well and that you have a good week!!! Take care and I´ll talk to you soon!!!

Elder Bauer

P.S. The pictures are of Elder Evans, and the wall there in León so yeah.

November 2, 2011

Hola Mamá,

Well, I wasn´t transferred so the old address is still valid so yeah! I knew I felt like someone was watching me when I walked out of my home, haha!! [Mom told him she was “creeping on his neighborhood” via Google Earth.]  Our apartments are called pisos here. I´ll see if I can send you pictures of my piso so that you can see what it looks like. As for my Spanish, Elder Gallego thinks that it sounds pretty good!! He´s a little jealous that I can speak both Spanish and English well. I´m sort of trying to teach him English, but he´s got a way to go, haha!!! He´s got a thick accent when he speaks English so yeah, it´s funny to me! As for the Plaza with the park, I´ve already seen it a lot. We walk by there pretty much every day. In fact, I´ve got some pictures so I´ll attach them here so you can see them!! The first picture is of a building near there that I thought looked cool [called Casa Mantilla]. The second is of a fountain there [fuente de cristal in the Plaza de Zorrilla], the third is of another cool building [Academia de Caballería], the fourth is of the park entrance [the park is called Campo Grande], and the fifth is of a picture thing I found there right outside the park. The park isn´t as crazy and full as the one in New York, but it’s got some ducks, swans, and peacocks!! Weird I know, but yeah it´s fun!! Funny that you mention New York too because there are ads everywhere of going on a trip to New York for € 857 and spending 5 days there.

Well, as far as everything else here is concerned, not much new happened. We got 20 lessons this week though so that was an accomplishment!! We´ve been walking around a lot too so my legs are super tired!! We walked to Ana´s house (an investigator) and made brownies on Sunday and that was fun!! They were pretty chocolatey, but that makes them better!! Then yesterday we walked over to her house, but she didn´t let us in because it was too late for her parents. By the way, her house is super far from our house. I was super tired when I got home last night. My hip joints still hurt from that, but it´s okay. My shoes are super bad too. Back by the heel they are pretty worn out and my left shoe is worse because back in Salt Lake on our bikes, while pedaling fast, my shoe near the toes hit the ground, and the sole broke [see pictures below for before and after on my shoes - the before pictures are a pair of shoes purchased at the same time, but not yet used]. At least I can say that I´m a missionary with hol[e]y shoes, hahahahahahaha....or should I say....jajajajajajajaja, que chistoso!! Well, that´s about it. Oh another thing about this week is that this weekend and Monday and Tuesday was a holiday so the streets were pretty much dead during the day. Not a soul was out except for some few people. Contacts didn´t go well so far. But anyway, how are things at home? Anything else that´s fun going on? Take care and I´ll talk to you soon!! Love you all!!!

Elder Bauer

Dad,

Well, lots of questions to answer. I´ll answer them:

1. Question:  So have you noticed the difference in the Spanish between Mexican Spanish and Castellano?  Both in pronunciation and vocabulary there is a difference.  Have you noticed that difference?
    Answer:  I´ve noticed a difference in the way they say their J´s. It´s got a bit of a "phlegm" sound to it, kind of like German, except German is all over the place. Sometimes they drop the "S" sound at the end of the words like Elder Gallego does.

2. Question:  Have you begun to change your Spanish to Castellano?
    Answer:  I´m trying not to, but sometimes I catch myself saying the J´s how they do. Pretty embarrassing, haha.

3. Question:  Is there a strange idiom you have heard in Spain, you have never heard before from your mom or her family?
    Answer:  Yes, but at the moment I don´t really remember.

4. Question:  Where do you email? Do you go to a library, or do you e-mail us at a member's house?
    Answer:  We go to a place called a Locultorio, but you have to pay to use the computers. We can´t use a member´s computer because we aren´t allowed to.

5.  Question:  And then what else do you do on your P-day?  Do you have to do your laundry?  Do you go grocery shopping?  Do you act like a tourist?
    Answer:  Yes I sometimes do laundry, yes we shop, and we act like tourists. It´s fun!!

6.  Question:  Have you seen Columbus's house (I mean from the outside)?
    Answer:  I´m not sure. I need to know where it is to be able to say yes or no. Tell me the street or where it´s close to so that I can go see it!

7. Question:  Are there customs or norms that you have observed in Spain that you wish were norms or customs in the US?
    Answer:  Medio-dia. I like that a lot!! Everything closes for that and everyone takes a nap!! I wish that was in the US!

8. Question:  What is the thing you never thought that much about when at home, but miss now that you are in Spain?
    Answer:  Walmart, the milk, the cars, the roads and signs of the roads and that´s all that I can think of right now.

9. Question:  Sister Abeling told us a few weeks ago that her seminary class was planning to write to you as part of what they do on Friday.  Have they ever done so?
    Answer:  Yes they have, and I´ve been meaning to send them a reply, but I haven´t done so because of the lack of money and lack of stamps. If you could apologize for me to her, that would be great!

10. Question:  I was just looking at the weather report for Valladolid.  It looks both cool (to cold if you are out late enough - or early enough), and wet!  People have been whining about the weather here, but tomorrow's forecast looks better here than there!  It is expected to hit 61 degrees F there (with showers) and 67 here and mostly sunny.  I will take our weather to yours!  So have you been cold?  Have you gotten wet?
   Answer:  Yes and yes to your questions, but my handy dandy umbrella ella ella has been handy!! Today it looks like it´s going to rain!! It has already, but during the night! Crazy the weather here. One day it was down to 3º C [37º F] and in the evening it got up to 21º C [70º F]. Super weird...haa!

Oh, one last thing, mom, could you send me more peanut butter as well as the rest of the stuff I asked for? Gracias!!! Take care and I love you all!!!

Elder Bauer

October 26, 2011

Familia,

Well, let me just say this week has been another interesting week, but first I´ll start off by answering your questions. The members give me really good food!!! I like it and though it´s different, it´s really good!!! As for the dinner invitations, we don´t get more than two dinners with members per week. That´s okay since my companion knows how to cook! Our branch mission leader is Johel (twin brother of Johrs) and he´s great!! He recently had knee surgery so he´s not really able to do too much [see first picture above]. As for exchanges, we don´t do too many. I´ve only done one with the district leader, but we do go on splits with members of the branch about once a week.

Now, my week has been pretty good! Not too many new things except that a couple that have been investigating the church for a while have now gotten things together to get married and will hopefully get baptized in the next few weeks! That would be really good! I´m pretty happy about that! Oh and another thing! Transfers are this weekend. I´m not sure what will happen, I may stay and I may go so for the meantime, I hope that whoever is sending letters to the apartment where I live, doesn´t do so for about a week and sends it to the mission office instead. I don´t want to be transferred and not get my letters and not be able to reply to them because they are sent to the other apartment.  Aside from that, nothing really too new happened. I hope things at home continue to go well!! Hey, another thing, I´d like the mailing address of Blake (my choir buddy) if you could send it to me!! Take care my familia and be safe!!  Keep going...Energizer!!

Elder Bauer

P.S. The other pictures are of a lunch we had with a friend of Elder Gallego [Elder Gallego is in the second picture above] that moved here. The soup had clams in it and the meat in the plate that Elder Gallego was holding is lamb. There was also a Bulgarian dish there and it was really good that I ate it all!!!! YUMMY!!!!!

October 19, 2011

Daddio,

Well, I´ll start off by answering your questions. Elder Gallego (no s at the end) is from Southern Spain. I forget the city but he is a native. He speaks a little English, but not much. My wish came true I guess. I have to either speak Spanish to communicate or just not talk at all. I do a bit of both so yeah. He´s the Zone Leader, which is weird, usually the Zone Leaders are together, but right now they´re spread out trying to "fix" the mission. I´m not sure what that means, but it´s okay. As far as the District is concerned, there are only 4 elders in our district, including me. Super small in comparison to Salt Lake, but I don´t mind. The distances are huge too!!! The District Leader lives in Salamanca and we either have to travel there or they travel here. It´s a 1.5 hour bus ride there and back, so a total of 3 hours on a bus. Here in Valladolid we have a branch of about 75 to 80 active members and Elder Gallego and I are the only ones that serve there. The food here is interesting, and the first two pictures [see above] are of something that Elder Gallego bought and had me try. I can´t say that it tastes good or bad. It just tastes weird. I don´t know how else to describe it to you, but yeah. Then there´s a cereal that I really like that is called Rellenos con Chocolate and it´s super GOOD!!! They´re like squares filled with chocolate in the middle!! Yummy yum yum! I´ll see if I could send some home for you guys to try! I also like a pudding here that they have in the stores! It´s called something like Natillas Chocolate and ever since the CCM I´ve eaten some everyday!! The milk, well, let me just say, with Nesquik it tastes good!!!

Nothing too new to report this week, except that I got letters galore!!! I got letters from:
Chelsea Bakaitis
The Christiensons
Barry, Cristina, and Edison
Megan Eden
This week we also did splits with the District Leader. Elder Gallego went over to Salamanca and Elder Verdu (District Leader´s comp.) came here. That day we saw a guy figure skating, which was weird, but it´s okay. Then, Monday we did splits from 5 - 9. Elder Gallego went with a member and I went with another member. This member´s name is Jonathan, no joke. So Jonathan and I went out and we had to do at least 15 contacts and have 2 lessons. Well, we got two lessons out of 4 that we had planned, but at least we got two lessons. Contacts are harder to get because people either don´t have time or just don´t want to listen. We got 17 contacts though so it was all good! Jonathan is one of those members that I really like! He´s great!!! Not much else has changed, walking a lot and contacting more than having lessons, and Medio Dia is great!!! Two hours in the middle of the day to sit and either study or rest. I´ve been doing a lot of resting, but I´ll probably start a bit of studying so yeah. I´m glad all is well.   Pues, eso es todo lo que paso esta semana. ¿Cómo está la familia? ¿Estan bien? ¡¡Cuidanse y tengan una buena semana!! ¡Hasta luego!

~Elder Bauer~