October 17, 2012

Alex on a hike overlooking San Lorenzo de El Escorial

The town of San Lorenzo de El Escorial (the large building is called El Escorial)

El Escorial (a monastery and palace built by Felipe II)

Alex in El Escorial

El Escorial

El Escorial from the back

 

Why hello familia!!!

My week has been pretty cool, crazy, empty, but cool at the same time!!! Here it is all!!!

So Thursday was a pretty empty day. We didn´t have anything, like seriously zero, nothing, nada de nada [nothing of nothing], no lessons, no contacted, NOTHING!!! We did have weekly planning, but that´s it. Friday was the P-Day where we went to El Escorial!! SUPER COOL PLACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Seriously, if you guys ever come to Spain, I´ll take you there!! First we took a hike up a hill where Felipe II made a "throne" to overlook El Escorial. The branch came too so it was fun with all of the members and kids there. There were also a lot of rocks and it was really pretty there!! It was pretty chilly too, but that didn´t really matter. Up on the hill we had a little spiritual thought given by me, and then we hiked back down. We did spend a good hour up there though so it was pretty cool!! We came down and ate lunch and took the bus (the branch rented out a bus to take us up there. The first time that I took a charter bus since I was up in Valladolid) and went to El Escorial, got to see the inside and it was pretty cool!! So we saw a bit of how it was built, and it was pretty much built from the inside out. Pretty intense how big it is too!! I took a ton of pictures too!! We then got back, completely exhausted from hiking, climbing rocks, running around, and hiking some more, that we just died in bed. I was really sore the next few days.

Saturday we just had a lesson with Carolina and Ibeth, but I don´t really remember too much about it. We did get a pretty cool guy as a contact though. Juan, from Ecuador, and he seems really cool!! We set up a visit for today and I´ll tell you how that went in just a bit. I´m just keeping you interested!! Hahahahaaa!! Sunday was a pretty good day too. We had church and had lunch with a member called Fabiola from Colombia. She made really good food!! We also got a referral.

Monday we saw Cleme, from Colombia as well. She´s a member, but her granddaughter isn´t, but comes to church every week and really likes it, but her parents don´t let her move on quite yet. Some day I´m sure that she will get baptized like Ana in Valladolid did. Just a matter of time.

Tuesday was pretty cool!! We had District Meeting and the Zone Leaders Elder Perkins and Elder Rodriguez-Silva came and did a practice that took up all of the time. It was a practice of how to use each of our attributes to help out our companion and us achieve a common goal. First the Elders, or in other words, me and Elder Alvarez together, and Elder Cunningham and Elder Rose together. The Zone Leaders then took us back to back and tied a string around both of our heals. We then had to go over a table, walk around some chairs which were set up as an obstacle and it was pretty hard, especially since I fell off of the table twice, the second time landing on the floor, but on my hands so it was good. So we had to work together to finish before the others.

Then the Hermanas [sisters]. Hermanas Sicán and Farías were blindfolded and Hermanas Voemba and Piedade had to guide them through obstacles speaking in their native languages (French and Portuguese respectively). It was pretty funny to see them frustrated, but succeed in the end, hahahaaa!! It was really good!! We then ate lunch and went back home and had a miracle evening!!! So we had a lesson with Rocio about random stuff and such, then one with Yolanda, a less active family about example. Used the laser too, super cool lesson!! I loved how it turned out!! We then went out contacting, and not many people out on the street, but we managed to get 3 interested people!!!! I was pretty suprised to be honest!! Super cool!!!

The zone leaders join district meeting.

Elder Perkins (on the left) and Elder Rodriguez-Silva (on Right)
 

Today was P-Day and Elder Rose and I went to Pavones to practice for a musical number for Zone Conference. So for Zone Conference the Zone Leaders wanted to do a musical number, and I was drafted into singing, but it´s okay, I like singing!! We practiced, and tried out a lot of hymns, from Brightly Beams Our Father´s Mercy, to Peace Be Still. We chose the hymn Acompañame [Abide with Me], number 99 in the Spanish hymnal [#166 in the English hymnal click here to hear it in Spanish]. I don´t know what it´s called in English, but yeah. It turned out good!! At 7:00 we had the appointment with Juan and it was really cool!!! He´s a really good guy and is just prepared!! I´m sure that he´ll get baptized!! Now we´re here emailing!! How has your day been? Heck, how has your week been? Any new adventures? What´s Jonathan going to try to attack this week? Take care and I´ll talk to you guys soon!! Love you all!!!

Elder Bauer

October 10, 2012

Enjoying the last of the Magnum ice cream bars

Bauer flower power

The Madrid Temple at dusk

Why hello family!

This past week has been pretty good!! Not a lot of things have happened, but we´re still going. So when I heard the age drop for the Elders and Sisters to 18 and 19, I was pretty shocked!! It was pretty cool too, and funny to see the faces of the people around me just gasping and stuff, hehe.

Thursday was pretty empty as far as lessons are concerned. We dropped Vincent, considering he´s not progressing or listening to us for the right reasons. We offered to pass by every now and then, but aside from that, nothing else happened. Friday we saw Carolina, had a good lesson about the story President Packer told about the debtor and the mediator. It was pretty good!! We then had Noche de Hogar [home evening] and that´s it for Friday. Saturday was empty, except for General Conference, same with Sunday. Considering you guys saw it, there´s no need for an explanation.

Monday was pretty cool!! In the morning we saw Melisa after about 2 or 3 weeks of not having contact with her. It was pretty cool!! We had a lesson about being an example and I used my laser for the lesson. I´ll have to show you that lesson since it´s pretty cool!! It´s more of a Christmas message, but still, it´s good for any time of year!! We then ate with the Gordon family and shared a message. Then at 6 we saw Yolanda and had a great lesson with her too!! We had planned my laser lesson, but then we changed our plans and I shared from Mosiah 24. She´s going through a trial since none of her family has a job so she´s making food and going to the Embajada de Ecuador [Ecuadoran Embassy] to sell food and make a bit of money.

She´s been doing that for about 2 months and has been waking up at 4:00 in the morning to get everything ready to go, coming back at around 2:00 or 3:00 pm and resting, then getting back up at 5:00 to start preparing the food, and not resting again until about 11:30 pm. It´s pretty crazy, but she´s doing something. Mosiah 24 talks about the trials of the pueblo de Alma [people of Alma] and how they get into cautiverio [captivity] and doing all sorts of tasks for the lamanites and Ammulon. Then how the Lord frees them and they go to Zarahemla. Pretty cool little story and she really liked it!! We ended the night talking to Hermano [Brother] Gordon and telling him that we talked to President Jackson about changing P-Day to Friday so that we could go with the branch to El Escorial and take some investigators.

Tuesday we had district meeting which was based on following the Spirit and how to recognize its impressions. It was pretty good, and the food afterwards, like always, was really good too!! We then went back to Parla and visited Erick y Yulliana, and that was really good!! We did a repaso [review] of the Law of Chastity, and they understood and it was all good!! I´m glad that all is well over there!! Take care and I´ll talk to you soon!! Love you all!!!

Elder Bauer

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

September 26, 2012

Elder Soriano, or Elder Spongebob?!?

 

Why hello there!!!!!!

You guys mentioned that transfers should be coming up soon, and guess what, you´re right!! This Friday I will get all of the information on transfers for my district and be able to tell you where I go/if I stay!! But anyhow, on to my week!!

Thursday we had weekly planning and it was pretty good. Same old same old pretty much. We then went to eat with a member called Vanesia, and she´s a convert of about a year and is preparing her mission papers to go on a mission!! Pretty exciting for her, but also stressful. I´m sure that all will work out for her. We then tried to visit Jose y Yolanda, a less active family, but they couldn´t that day. So we did contacts and called references and that´s it. Not the most exciting day, but oh well. Friday not much either, but it was a bit better than Thursday. We went to see Carolina just to see how she was doing and just talked to her for a while. We also shared a video from the D&C seminary videos about Light and Truth. She really liked it and helped her out a lot. She said at the end of the visit that it was something that she needed to hear and that was cool!!! Not much else happened except for Noche de Hogar [home evening] and more contacts.

Saturday we had a piso [apartment] inspection!! The Ovards came, with their trainees, Elder Forsythe and Elder Johnson (temporary replacements until the senior couple that is supposed to replace them comes) and it was the funniest inspection ever!!! It´s something that you should have been there to see. So I followed Elder Forsythe around the piso [apartment] (taking over Elder Ovard´s position of piso [apartment] management) and when he entered a room, he would go through the routine. He would look at his paper, read what it said, and ask us if things were working/check if it was working. He would say, "Does the light switch work" switch the light on and off various times and say, "Good. Do the windows work, they look like they do. Do the outlets work?" Someone would say, yes and he´d move on, "Good. Is the floor broken or cracked?" he´d then step on the floor a bit and say, "Looks like it´s good. Is there any crackage on the ceiling? Looks like it´s all good...wow, there´s a huge mosquito there on your ceiling!! Just huge!!!" Hahahaa!!! He did the same thing with the bedroom, but there were two mosquitoes in that one! Hahahaaaa!! It was great!

When the Ovards and the two new office Elders left, the day was full of fijando citas [setting appointments] and then all of the appointments we made failed the same day.  So in the morning we called Ibeth to see if we could visit her, and she said that she could! Later, she called us back and said that something came up so that idea just died. We called Marcelino to see if we could pass by, but he said that it would be better another day. Then Gerard called us and told us that he wouldn´t be able to see us at 6, and to move it to Sunday. So in all, we had a ton of NOTHING. More contacts...yay (with an unenthusiastic voice).

Sunday was pretty good! We went to church, and there were quite a few new faces that I haven´t seen before!! Lots of less actives came and some investigators too so yeah! We then ate with Carmen, a Spanish member, and she always makes good food, and a lot of it. I left feeling like I would never eat again, haha. Later we went and saw Gerard to get to know him and talk to him a bit so that we could relate to him a bit more so yeah. It was pretty good!! We then went and passed by some former investigators and it rained a bit too!! Miracle of the week: It rained in Parla!!!

Rain in Parla!!!

 

 Temple from the CCM 6th floor. This was after the meeting Monday.

Monday was super good!!!!! All of the leaders in the mission had to go to a leadership training meeting so that meant that I had to go to that. It was really cool!!! The assistants to the president, all of the zone leaders, and all of the district leaders were there and it was really edifying. I can only say that I am more motivated to do better and become a better missionary!!! Super coolio!!! Later that day we went to see Yolanda, but she wasn´t there, so we did a few contacts. One of the contacts was a guy named Jorge, and he was from Peru and an Evangelist. He has a bit of interest in our message, but for the most part, he was the one talking the whole time. We stood talking to him for half an hour, and when he told us his name, and gave us his number, and then told us that some others had talked to him already to see him during the week, I told my companion that it sounds like WE are the ones that have the cita [appointment] with him. So we went to the piso [apartment] and looked at some of the registros [records] that we have, and sure enough, we were the ones that called him and set up the appointment with him. So we called him and told him that we are the missionaries that talked to him a few minutes ago and that we have the appointment with him Thursday so that was pretty fun!! Later we went to see Ibeth and had a pretty cool lesson with her. We showed her a Mormon Message about moving on and not giving up considering she´s had a hard life. Pretty cool!!

The Zone!!!

Me with Elder Lopez! He´s super cool and I wish I could be his companion, but he´s leaving at the end of this transfer. We became super good friends in a heartbeat!

 

 Tuesday we had zone meeting (not zone conference, that´s different) and it was also really edifying and awesome!! We learned a lot about obedience to the horario [schedule] and it was really good!! The zone leaders then got up and talked about the meeting on Monday and all of the things that we learned! It was pretty cool!! We then had a visit with Yolanda and her family and they are doing really well!! We taught them about the importance of reading, praying, and going to church. We then committed them to pray every day and then when we come back. We´ll see how it all went. We then took both of my suits and one pair of pants to get dry cleaned and then went to Erick and Yulliana´s house. We taught them about baptism and the Holy Ghost and it was all good!! They´re a great family!! We then went home and during the night it rained some more!!

Today we´re planning to go to the Toledo store and that´s it. Has the stress level gone down a bit? How´s everything? Take care and I´ll talk to you guys soon!!! Love you all!!!

Elder Bauer

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

September 12,2012

Plaza de Toros in Parla

Renfe coming into Parla from near the Plaza de Toros

Santiago Bernabeu Stadium

Elder Cunningham with his Pata de Jamón [Spanish Ham]

Me with Elder Cunningham´s Pata de Jamón [Spanish Ham]

 

Hello family!!!!

I started typing this email in a store called Media Markt so yeah! I'm typing on one of the new iPads and it's pretty cool! I'm glad that all is going well over yonder in Texas! I hope that all continues to go well and that everyone continues to have fun!! So not too much has happened that's too exciting, but I'll start with Thursday.

So Thursday was weekly planning so nothing too exciting there. We visited Carolina and Ibeth for a little Noche de Hogar [home evening] and it was pretty cool!! I then played with their cat with my green laser pointer and it was really funny how it chased after it and meowed at it, hahahaa!! Yes, if I haven´t told you about it, I got a green laser pointer at a chino [convenience store] for 11.95€ so yeah. I can pop balloons with it too so it´s really fun!! Friday we went to eat at the house of Erik and Yuliana and they make some of the best spicy salsa that I have ever tried since I left Valladolid! So I was also on intercambios [companionship exchanges] with Elder Cunningham, and while we were waiting for the food to come out, the AP´s called us and told us that President Jackson has approved of us going to a Fútball [soccer] game of Real Madrid vs. Manchester City at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium in Madrid!!! Elder Cunningham and I were freaking out since it was weird and since President Watkins would never think of doing something like that, but we got permission!! The tickets are 75€ so not too bad for a game live!!! Later on we saw Emanuel, a joven [means young, but either refers to youth or young single adult] in Elder Cunningham´s "area" and then had Noche de Hogar [home evening].

Saturday we saw Vincent for the first time in three weeks and it was pretty good!! He said that he would come to church on Sunday, and he did!! Not much else happened on Saturday. Sunday we went to church and that was it. Monday was a pretty good day!! We finally met Yolanda and Jose Luis, a less active family that we´ve never gotten a hold of, and they were really cool!! So they´ve been less active for about 12 years and have lost their jobs so it´s been pretty hard on them. We told them about the importance of going to church and she said that it was true and that she knows that it is something that is missing in her life. So pretty much she promised us that she´d come this Sunday!! She also said that we gave her strength and that was awesome to hear!! I loved that meeting. We then went to Gerard, a former investigator and joven [young single adult], who seems pretty cool too!! We got to know him a bit and he´s pretty interested in learning a bit more! So we gave him a Book of Mormon and invited him to read the introduction. He´s going to do it, I´m pretty sure! It was pretty cool! We then saw Carolina and Ibeth and it was a pretty cool little visit. Carolina also gave me a haircut and it looks really good!!

Tuesday was district meeting and the AP´s came and shared something really great with us about faith!! They told Hermana [Sister] Piedade to sit in a chair far away from them and told her to move a Book of Mormon from where she was sitting, without doing anything, and of course, she couldn´t, no one can. They then explain that with faith, you have to have action, and started to ask us what some acts of faith we demonstrate everyday! Getting up, leaving the piso [apartment], studying, etc. They then used that to explain obedience and it was really good!! It´s one of those times when you have to have been there to know how it went! I then did a practice of Chapter 9 of Preach My Gospel and it was pretty good! We then ate as a district and had three lessons yesterday!! Rocio, Erik and Yuliana, then Noche de Hogar [home evening] with Carolina e Ibeth, and Erik and Yuliana. We were having some technical difficulties with my DVD but eventually we got to see the Mormon Message that we wanted to see, with some parts chopped off. It was good though, it got the message across so yeah.

Today was P-Day, and all we did was go to the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium to buy tickets to the game!! I thought that since this is a one time opportunity to see a game in Madrid, I´d go so yeah, I´m going to see a Fútball [soccer] game next Tuesday!!!! I´m pretty excited!! That´s all we did for P-Day! How are you guys doing? Anything new? Take care and I´ll talk to you soon!!! Love you all!!

Elder Bauer

September 5, 2012

The Parla District with visiting zone leaders:  Left to Right: Sisters Farias, Carter, Piedade, and Elders Bauer, Perkins, Alvarez, Soriano, Cunningham, and Elder Rodriguez is in front of everyone.

Elder Perkins and Alex near the end of the exchange.

The Barbecue at the 3rd and 9th ward chapel.

Dad,

Well thanks for the news from home that was BLANK!! [see editor's note at the end of the e-mail!] I now know exactly what´s going on, haha!!! No worries. Thanks for the emails from the following wonderful people:

Cory Simmons (Elder Simmons)
Micah Hodges (Elder Hodges)

I appreciated getting emails from my RM District Leader Elder Simmons and RM Maquina y Fabrica del Universo [machine and manufacturer of the universe?] companion of mine and Zone Leader Elder Hodges. It was great to hear from those two great missionaries!! Well, here´s my week in a nutshell, but a bigger nutshell than what you guys gave me since nothing must have happened. =)
Thursday we had weekly planning and then had a new investigator which was pretty cool!! She´s a bit timid, but it´s okay, we´ll see what happens with her. Friday we had lunch with Yuliana, the investigator and her pareja [partner]. It was pretty good, especially since they had a hot sauce and that was really yummy!! At 6:00 we taught Melisa and it was really good!! We taught her that by small and simple means, great things come to pass so it was really good!!! Later we had Noche de Hogar [home evening] at the chapel so yeah. Saturday we had contacts, contacts, and more contacts.

Sunday we had Church and that was really cool! Not much after that. Monday we had two lessons set up, but both failed us. It was pretty sad, but it´s okay. Contacts. Tuesday was district meeting and we got two new/old Hermanas [sisters]. New because they came in by surprise, but old because they´ve both been in Leganes before. Hermana Sican, and Hermana Piedade are their names and it has been pretty fun! Elder Perkins, the Zone Leader, and his companion Elder Rodriguez came too so that we could do exchanges and Elder Perkins came to Parla while Elder Alvarez went to Barrio 3 [3rd ward chapel]. Later we taught Erik and Yuliana a great lesson!! We taught them about obedience and I used a kite example! If we´re obedient to God´s commandments (the string and the person flying the kite is God) we (the kite) will be able to fly higher, but if we cut the string because we think that will set us free and let us go higher, we will just fall to the ground. They then asked us a few questions and we answered them as best we could. We then ate with a member and it was really good!!!

Today was P-Day and Elder Perkins and I left Parla at around 10:15 to get to Barrio 3 to pick up Elder Alvarez and make the change. We then went to a BBQ at the Barrio 3 y 9 [3rd and 9th ward] chapel and it was pretty good!! Not much else happened today so yeah. So you see, my week was pretty uneventful. The exchange was awesome though!! Elder Perkins entered the MTC the same day I did, so we have just as much time as I do! Pretty cool!! What´s going on over there? I hope you send me an email tellling me everything before 7 pm my time so that I could see what´s going on. Take care and I´ll talk to you soon!! Love you all!

Elder Bauer

[Editor’s note:  I generally start writing a letter to Alex on Sunday, and it grows, so that by Tuesday when I send it, it is a substantial e-mail message.  I write it in Word.  Then I copy and paste into the e-mail program.  This week, I must have copied, but forgot to paste – since he got a blank e-mail.  I was online when his e-mail came, and had the original e-mail message, which I sent.  So he got it right after sending this.  I know he received it because I asked him specific questions to which he responded half an hour later.]