11/22/10

*Questions answered...we had asked in email prior to his reply.

1. Just another day. I´ll probably buy something to make in house. (Thanksgiving)
2. No, not yet, but it could come this week. (transfer for his companion)
3. Just make a new playlist. Then import the CD´s into the computer (stick it in, wait until it brings up a box that says ´would you like to import CD¨) and click yes. Then, once you´ve copied all the music you want, drag the songs to the new playlist you made and then click ¨Burn Disc¨. Probably take a few CD´s.
4. It shouldn´t be running out for a bit. Tell him to push the Guide button (the big button in the center), then go over to the far right tab, then look for ¨Account Information¨or something like that. Should be able to find the date around there. I think it might be coming up. If so, get a 12 month card at a store, and punch in the info under ¨Redeem Code¨. (xbox)
5. No, not really. But I kinda like being able to rest for two hours in house. (do members feed you in new area)
6. Normal work day here. Larry got to take it as an extra p-day, but we go out after four here I think. (Christmas)
7. No, because Microsoft´s gotten pretty good at detecting the modified controllers. They violate the Terms of Use, which equals Account+Console banned from Xbox Live until the year 9999. No matter what crazy steven´s telling him, they´re detectable. So no. (xbox controller for Brandon question)
8. Eh...customs will probably steal it again. I´m okay, really. (would he like a food/snack box?)

No, Risk will be next transfer. (have you been able to play the game Risk w/ companions on pday?)

Sounds like Marae gotten pretty good. (told how Marae had a great softball game)

It´s not really too cold. I´m...sort of still in short sleeves. :). Don´t worry, if it gets cold, I pull on a coat.

I don´t need anything at the moment, and we´re not buying a Christmas tree until after the Pharisee gets transferred.

The other baptism went through. She had to talk to President ( and we didn´t get the clearance until 9PM on Saturday night...), but it happened Sunday Morning. Now the goal is to get them to the temple in a year.

Been a fairly interesting week. Not a whole lot happened (though district meeting was a happy joyous time as usual). Joy´s interview was set for friday morning, but Vilafranca showed up Thursday night as a surprise to spend the night. Went out and did the interview in the morning, then President calls, saying he and Sister Hinckley are driving up from Valencia and want to stop by for lunch and to see the new apartment. So they took us to a nice Italian place and we all ordered some pizzas, then showed off the apartment. We talked about how most of the members here are ´Mormon Catholics´. 

Had to get up at a little before six on Sunday to go start filling the font. Was too early.

Things will be pretty crazy this transfer. They´ll be switching out one Assistant to the President, the Secretary to the President, and a good number of the Zone and District leaders. Plus, most of the oldest missionaries have been in their area for a while, so they´ll probably get switched out and asked to train in their new areas (big group coming in again). Though President kinda hinted he´d be sending someone here to be trained...not what I expected. May not happen, though. A few of them are a little iffy with visa issues, so he may not need to. 

Things are moving along fairly quickly here. Doorman is out for vacation the whole week, so we´ll have to take the garbage down ourselves. (comp´s upset about that). I´m planning on taking a nice break today. Wednesday, we´ll have to travel down to Valencia so the Pharisee can do his fingerprints to get another ID card.

Had a letter from Elder Crofts on Tuesday telling me how everything had pretty much stayed the same, though the office staff finally allowed them to buy new mattresses.

Seems like there´s not much to the letter this time. I though I´d had more to write.

I´ll try to have more next week.

bradley.

- Show quoted

11/15/10

I think they´ll be fine without the name. Just go ahead and send them.

Well, the Pharisee´s been here four transfers (24 weeks), so it´s 99% certain he´s gone. It´s really rare for a missionary to stay for more than four transfers in one area. So I´ll just have to put up with two more weeks.

Like I said, make sure you get the extended warranty on this surgery. Makes the doctors do a better job if they might have to fix the original, right?

Pictures are of me, Ludovik (member), Gerard (baptism-ee), and The Pharisee, in all his doofus glory. Can´t quite call him a ¨hipster doofus¨, so just doofus.

Church is moving more towards preparing the members we´ve got for what´s coming next. The last calls are starting to be made, I think. Though Elder Cook´s conference talk made it sound like we weren´t quite there yet (and I don´t think we are either), things are probably going to start degenerating soon. I know they just redid the entire two volume Church Operations Manual, and they´re holding a world conference to introduce it Saturday. Bishop said it´s a whole lot more detailed.

Well, it was an interesting week. Tuesday was the exchange with Elder Monks. Wooh, that was a fun time. Haven´t had such a good time since Gandia. We went and hit a candy shop, actually talked (he rode motorcross before the mission, so he knows his quads and stuff), and just enjoyed ourselves.

Switched back Wednesday evening. Then, Thursday evening the Zone Leaders called...I´m thinking *hmm*. After the Pharisee got done talking about how ¨well, we´re all right. We´re different, but I guess we get along. (I´m sitting right in the next room while he´s saying this...) I took the phone. Our Zone leaders here are Hansen and Atkin, and Hansen was my district leader down in Gandia (plus, he´s in the same group with Crofts and Monks). We chit chatted for a bit, then he asks ¨Okay, so we have a really serious question for you.¨. I´m thinking... all right. ¨Is Obama really a Muslim?¨. I couldn´t stop laughing for ten minutes. They´d been stopped in the street by someone getting mad at them for electing a Muslim to be President. Hansen knew I´m Mister Politics(along with half the mission, I´m starting to think. We have ¨Mattice Minutes¨during district meeting where they ask me stuff about these kinda things), so that was the whole purpose of their call.

Saturday afternoon, Elder Monks calls to invite us over to spend the night Sunday and then spend today in Vilafranca, and they were getting ahold of a Risk set, and then we´d play all day today. (You know me, if Risk is there I´m there.) I mention it to the Pharisee and he immediately starts whining. So I worked on it for a bit, Sunday, I show how the trains work out perfectly, won´t be a problem, even offer to pay the bum´s train fare, and he says no, because ¨Ugh, I just don´t want to lose two hours of p-day in the train...¨. So when Monks calls Sunday night to see if we´re at least coming for Monday, I told him no, we weren´t. He goes ¨I´m getting the feeling this wasn´t your idea.¨ Told me to hang in there until the end of the transfer. Hopefully we´ll be able to get something together next transfer when I don´t have a deadbeat. So we´ll get to sit around the apartment today...doing nothing.

Saturday was the baptism. Everything went well, though only three members came to the service. Wasn´t well announced, though, so I can´t get upset. Bishop got up in Sacrament meeting and let the ward know he expected more support from the members next time.

Today, I´ll be drawing some Christmas things up and coloring them so the apartment isn´t so humbugish. I was going to go out and buy a few things, but I had to get some slacks dry cleaned, and that took the last 10 euros of personal cash I had. I had to pull out 30 last week to buy new shoe insoles (all four quit about the same time), so that´s all I´m using for the month. I´ll draw up some trees and stuff and decorate my study cubby at least.

Tomorrow is District meeting, so that´s a trip to Vilafranca. Then we have to go into the office afterwards to pick up a load of supplies (and I´m not taking my suitcase this time), so that´s the whole day gone.

So, I thought of a few little things you guys could send. Like some cheap Red Sox stuff (fridge magnets and stuff like that), a copy of that picture you sent earlier in the week, but in color (plz), maybe a tie or two.

Going to eat pizza and swig Pepsi for lunch. I don´t haz much else, sadly. You guys have a good week. 

Bradley.

11/8/10

Okay, so the address I sent last week was correct. Just to recap:

Elder Bradley Seth Mattice
C/Rambla Nova 125, 3, 3
43001 Tarragona, Spain.

Side note: The Rambla Nova is the equivalent of living on Fifth Avenue or Times Square in New York. Better be-the rent just went from 550 a month to 800.

The Joseph Smith Translation should be in the full Bible format, I would think. I didn´t think there were that many formats.

I got the cookies a while back when I was in the office. No, they weren´t rocks, thankfully. They were good. But I doubt I could find any of the ingredients here (Spain´s supermarkets are pretty substandard...more like a quick mart than a store.)

It was a crazy week. Spent most of p-day dealing with contracts and other junk. Tuesday spent the day getting contracts signed, then finally got the keys and spent the rest of the day moving over the majority of things. Wednesday was normal. Thursday we had Zone Conference with Elder Texiera (kinda funny to hear a guy from Portugal speak English with a New York accent, but...). Friday, the Belnaps (one of the senior couples) came down to help us clean the old apartment and finish moving. That took all day. Then Saturday and Sunday were spent scrambling to get lessons.

Pictures are of my ´study cubby´ (I fought hard for that room). others are of the bathroom I got in exchange for the study cubby (personally, I like it better. The other one has bright, 70´s style orange tile...). Reminds me of being in the camp trailer sometimes.

So, let me say thanks for being a family that actually fixes things ourselves and not one who calls the repair man. Saturday night I tossed a load of shirts into the new washer and turned it on, then went to bed. Sunday morning I get up and it´s saying the filter is clogged, which means it won´t drain water and is stopped mid cycle....it´s not even a week old. So I´m thinking...uh oh. Companion is mumbling how it´s broke because I did laundry on a day other than monday. (even though that´s not a rule, and it´d be impossible to do all the laundry on Monday only. Plus the fact that he does laundry during the week...). So I drained the machine, pulled off the filter cap, and find this plastic chunk in there. Pulled it out, put the filter back in, and restarted the machine. Fifteen minutes later, same light is back on. Then we had to go to church (not really, but for some reason my comp thinks we need to go to the Ward Welfare Committee meeting at 8:30 in the morning...). Came back after church, he´s saying how I broke it and we´ll have to call the repair man and pay a bunch of money. I drain the thing again, pull off the filter, and find that a chunk of cotton he´d dropped in the machine (in between the drum and the washer) had gotten wrapped around the impeller on the water pump. Spent twenty minutes pulling that out, then got it back together and it worked again. Then after the shirts were done, I threw in socks just to be a turd head (well, and I was out of socks.)  Also, thanks that I don´t sound like a complete idiot when I´m trying tell someone what happened. It´s a ´float´ in the toilet, not a ´styrofoam ball thing´.

Tell Dad to tell them he wants a Lincoln Blackwood. Yeah, it´s only a half ton and it´s a bit old, but it´s got a power tonneau cover. Carpeted bed. He´d at least ride in a little style, right?

As for the Pharisee...I´m just trying to get through this transfer and hope for the best. This week should be better, since I´ll be on interchanges with Elder Monks, who´ll be here from Tuesday afternoon to Wednesday evening. He´s in Elder Crofts group and is pretty loose. (and has a sense of humor). But don´t worry about me. You know I´m too much of a fart head to ever let anything really get to me. I find things too funny to ever really get depressed.

I can´t imagine I´d be transferred after only one transfer here, so I should be here through Christmas. Next transfers are on November 30th, but I shouldn´t go anywhere. President likes to do crazy things during transfers, but not that crazy.

We´re still teaching people. Should have a baptism this Saturday. Pretty set, so nothing should fall through. 20 year old Spainard, wants to go on a mission soon. Guess that makes two of them, right? :)

Saw most of the gang at Zone Conference on Wednesday, except for (unfortunately), the Mysterious Man from St. George. He´s up in Bilbao, and they had their zone conference up there.

Good to hear the election results. Now Obama is pretty well hamstrung for the next (and last) two years of his presidency. The Senate shouldn´t be an issue. They don´t have the 60 needed to stop a filibuster, and even if the Dems swing all the Independants over, not all of their own party will vote with them.

I saw some headlines that said Obama was pretty mad. Oh well, too bad. I thought he was all for ´change´.

Not too surprising that Brewer won, but I was kinda hoping McCain would get the boot. Giffords too.

So, did Nancy Pelosi not even get reelected, or did she just lose the Speaker of the House position?

That´s all I haz this week.

Until next week,

Bradley.

11/1/10

You´ll have to send me detailed election results next week. Who won, where, the new balance of the Senate and the House, etc. I´m sure Glenn will have a nice chit chat about it the day after. Oh, and the Bama´s reaction.

So, I remembered some more stuff for the christmas/birthday list. One, the Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restauration movie. Second may prove to be pretty difficult. I need a copy of the Joseph Smith Translation. The Reorganized Church sells them (now they´re called the ¨Community of Christ¨ or some other name like that.) But, if it´s not too expensive,  the Church released an annotated full version in the 80´s (President said he doubted I´d be able to find it), done by someone named Miller (I think Robert Miller). But either way, just a copy of the standard will be fine, unless it´s crazy expensive. Probably getting it used will be easier.

So, I finally pushed him to taking the apartment on the Rambla, but the contracts have been taking forever. In theory, the address should be

Elder Bradley Seth Mattice
Rambla Nova 125, 3, 3
Tarragona 43001, Spain

but I´m not sure on that. Things are moving slower because it´s one of the Catholic´s ridiculous holidays today, and nearly everything´s closed. I was hoping we´d get the keys on Saturday, but no dice.

Tarragona is a little larger than Gandia. It´s not this smelly little crowded blob like Gandia was. It helps we´re in Catalunya, which means people have money (Jags and BMW´s everywhere). Overall, people are more friendly too.

They sort of celebrate Halloween, but they don´t really get it. If it doesn´t mean they get a day off, no one really puts any effort into it.

It hasn´t been very cold. I´m in short sleeves still, so it´s been fairly nice.

3035, well, happy fun time, eh?

We´ve got Zone Conference scheduled this week for Thursday. Elder Texiera is doing a mission tour, so he´ll be there for a visit.

You´ll have to tell Dad that we´ve got a reference for a guy named Carlos Beltran. He ought to get a laugh out of that.

Haven´t seen much history. Spainards, in attempting to ´preserve´ history, usually wipe it out. Haven´t been in Old Tarragona yet either, but it´s probably not too impressive.

Poor BooBoo. So abused...

Finally heard from Larry again. Says he´s loving being in Canadia...not. :) He´s doing fine, though.

Interview with President was pretty weird. All we did was talk for a few minutes about random stuff (buildings, if you can believe it) and it was done. I guess that means he´s not worried about me or anything.

Four more weeks until transfers...please come fast. I´m living with the modern day version of a Pharisee. So concerned with the letter of the law that he´s completely missed the point. Really thinks he deserves to be a Zone Leader somewhere, or AP. Hehe...not!

Well, there´s not much else to talk about. Have a good week.

Bradley.

10/25/10

Well, the realtor´s pretty well taken the week off. I think I´m going to talk to Elder Close today and tell him let´s just take the piso we saw on the Rambla last week. A little old, but just redone and a lot bigger. Then we can finally get relaxed. I´m going into the office tomorrow for the mail run. The office couple was down in Valencia, and Elder Crofts said he was going to send the box with them, so I´ll get it tomorrow. Not too late.

Hopefully my cat gets a better attitude. I´d imagine he´s gone a little far at times. You could get Hannah one of Sony´s old Aibo dogs...they should be a little cheaper than they were in the past. But she´d probably kill it.  

Picture is me with Director Arjona, back in the Madrid MTC.Now you can´t say I never sent pictures. I´ll see about getting some pictures taken today so I have more to send for you.

The ward´s better here. Gotta love the bishop. We were in PEC meeting yesterday, and you could hear the choir practicing. (No one in Spain can sing. Very sad). He looks over at his counselor and says ¨That´s not human. That´s something dying.¨ It was pretty bad...makes Shawn Scott sound like Frank Sinatra.

They should be doing Doctrine and Covenants/Church History in Seminary this year, right? He went in a bad year. Better to either go in on a Book of Mormon year or an Old Testament year, IMO.

Busyish week this week. Have to go into Barcelona for interviews with President tomorrow (thankfully it´s only an hour train ride), so District Meeting will be pushed back to Wednesday, probably. Tomorrow marks five months, eh?

So, dad says you want a more comprehensive list for gifts.

Scriptures: Separate Bible and Triple, Don´t forget, there´s the new church Online Store, where you can order almost everything direct. (don´t know if it´s cheaper) Genuine leather is a little expensive, so probably just go with the bonded leather.(unless you know a member of the First Presidency and can get one of the Italian Leather sets they give out every year...hehehe) Thumb tabs, plz. Preferrably blue, since they discontinued the brown.
Two books: The Great Apostacy and Articles of Faith, both by James E. Talmage.
Some Tabernacle Choir CD´s. (not too many, plz. Like two at most).

Well, that´s not comprehensive, but it´s a start.

P.S. Don´t know if you saw it, but President Monson broke ground on the Rome, Italy temple on Saturday. Moving forward!

 Hope you all have a good week.

Bradley.

10/18/10

No, I´m not going to give you my address. It´s a secret.

Okay, actually, I don´t even really know it. But even if I did, I wouldn´t give it. But that´s because we´re going to be moving soon, so we don´t want any mail getting delivered to where it´ll never be seen again. So, send it to the mission office address.

Elder Bradley Seth Mattice
C/ Calatrava, 10-12

08017 Barcelona
Spain.

It´s not an elegant solution (we´ll only get that mail once a month or so), but we hope to have a new piso by the end of this month. So probably just pinch off the flow of letters for a short time until we get things settled out.

Skin is fine. It´s fairly humid here, so that shouldn´t be a problem. We´re too close to the Med to dry out.

Still no box. No idea when I´m going to see it. Probably next year at the mission rate of mail . I guess I´ll be able to use the cookies for paperweights and hammers by then.

Tell Brandon just to fall down early, then have them put him in the cart and pull him along in it. That´d be a pretty accurate pioneer experience...oh, I´m terrible. Also, hoe cakes are pretty stinky. We just ate the jerky. Though we didn´t have the cart to pull.

Weather´s been pretty calm here. Most days it´s in the low seventies, high sixties. Last night it bottomed out at about sixty flat.

Yes, please don´t get into the computers at home. They´re delicate and have sensitive feelings. They know that Dad doesn´t like them, and it´s all I can do to keep them from going on strike.

Clothing wise, I´m going to go looking for a belt today. I´s sort of only a semi fatty now, instead of a big fatty, and this one isn´t adequate anymore. The older one kinda works, but it´s falling apart. The lining is pulling away from the leather.

Sounds like you had a crazy week. Hopefully things go smoother this week.

Going to buy food today, and continue my studies of the Bible. Ooh, messy. At least I´m done with the Old Testament. Law of Moses is kinda long. I think Elder Close wants to go looking at some clothes ( I think he buys a lot of clothes. I know he´s real big on his comfort and his brands. We were in Vilafranca for District Meeting and he commented four times how they had Temper-Pedic mattresses. I wanted to quote Russell P. Kramer by the end.)

I tried to get pictures of Stashnar this morning, but the lighting wasn´t right. And he´s kinda glossy and reflects the flash. And I´m worried he´s cursed. Elder Crofts kept threatening me that I´d end up assistant to the president. I told him that President doesn´t work with apostates, which should keep me pretty safe.


I know it´s kinda short, but pictures are worth more, right? Plz? And this?

10/12/10 pictures

 Bradley w/ one of the oldest members in Gandia, Spain.  Tomas Costa

 Bradley w/ Hillary...the little girl they baptized.

 Bradley w/ Erardo.  They baptized him after he came looking for them.....lovingly nicknamed Sid (the sloth) went out everyday with them for weeks before his college classes started.  Wants to be a missionary when he turns 19.

The wedding he attended....that he spoke about in a previous letter. 

10/12/10

Okay, I´m in Tarragona now. Just got in about thirty minutes ago. Crazy trip.

We left Valencia about six, got to the Office about 10:30 since we had to take the Metro (Three suitcases+stairs=not fun). Office was pretty full, so we were all making a big racket last night. Had a good joke, though. Elder Parry was in panic mode (as usual) with all the tickets. Finally, he got a break and was off the phone for about two minutes. So Elder Crofts pulls out the phone, and dials the office. He goes ¨Hey, Elder Parry, what do I do if I missed the train?¨ Now, he´s sitting literally ten feet from Elder Parry. Elder Parry puts down the phone and puts his head in his hands. ¨Aaarrrgghhh!¨ Elder Johansen says ¨What´s up, did someone miss a train?¨ He goes ¨How did you guess? Elder Crofts is stuck in the train station.¨ Elder Crofts goes, ¨Hey, I´m here.¨ Elder Parry picks up the phone, calls Elder Crofts back. Elder Crofts is like ¨I¨m here, Elder Parry.¨ Finally, he had to get up and walk over to the desk. ¨Elder Parry!¨. Elder Parry just sees him...then groans. Whole office just about died. Elder Parry didn´t realize he was in the room the whole time.

Then, got up this morning, most of the Elders went in to the Trainers meeting, but the Hinckley´s asked Elder Fairchild and I to go up to their residence and fix the TV and the computer, so that took some time. Another group came in, with some other friends. They told us to get out of the office before the greenies came in, so we headed for Sagrada Familia. I get to that Metro stop and the office calls ¨Elder Mattice, could you come back? Elder Close is here.¨. Then I go back, only to come back to Sagrada Familia with Elder Close and another group. Fraid I didn´t think to grab the camera, so no pics of that. But I´m attaching a fair amount, eh? Still, we´re only an hour out of Barcelona, so it wouldn´t be hard to go back. Lot cooler up here. Good thing-it´s almost jacket time, and I´d been hoping it´d cool off before that happened.

Piso is a little newer, but we´re looking here. Have to be out by the 30th of October, so we´re in a hurry. Apparantly they found a nice one, but you could kind of see a pool, which meant no go.

Surprises? Well, there´s about twenty VHS copies of Finding Faith In Christ under his bedspread. Those should be fun to sleep on. Then a few other things just left around.

I´m sure I´ll be able to drive fine. If I ever end up stuck in the office, you pretty well have to drive, so...

Not a ton more to report on. We´re going to go by groceries tonight, then I´m not sure what else

10/11/10

Well...I´m not sure when I´m going to get my package. If it doesn´t get here by 4:10 today, it could be a few more days. Elder Crofts says he´ll forward anything that comes.

 

I´m being transferred already!

 

Hehe, yes, not joking. I´m going to Tarragona now. Everyone was kinda surprised, since I only had two transfers here. Elder Crofts is staying here to train someone else now.  Plus, transfers were moved up a week because President will be in Germany next week. So I take a train out of Valencia at 5:30 this evening, up to Barcelona, then Tarragona is only an hour out of Barcelona. Half the zone is being transferred, so I´ll be with a big group. (Elder Greenburg only was here for three weeks.) My district leader here is being transferred to the Hospitalet zone with me to be the new Zone Leader there. I think Crofts might end up being the district leader here. He´s looking forward to that...not. ;) But I´ve left plenty of surprises for him for when he gets back. :)
 

So, yeah, better hold the mail for a bit. Tomorrow is the official p-day, so I should be able to send the new address pretty quick.

 

No, we never did anything toward a new apartment. But I know Tarragona just switched, so it should be nicer.

 

Got to pack today. I hate packing. :( A lot is still packed...but it´s a pain.

 

I considered it, but I think I´ll leave the typewriter. Too big to drag across the country.

 

Of course he can stay in country and learn Spanish. Elder Crofts´s brother just started his in San Antonio. Lazy bums have a car and everything. And they´re always eating barbacue...

 

So, since tomorrow is still p-day, I should be writing more, but it´s not guaranteed.

 

Tell Determan ¨No way.¨

 

No, never heard of that book. Never read it either, so must have been something else.

 

So, it was a fairly quiet week. Not a lot to share. I feel bad with this short letter. 

 

I´m sure he´ll drive fine once he can reach the pedals. Not sure how he´s going to do that until he grows a bit...

 

It´s finally starting to cool down, thankfully. And It´ll be colder in Tarragona, since it´s more north. 

 

More tomorrow, hopefully. If not, next week. 

 

Bradley.

10/4/10

Germ X is just 99 percent alcohol. And it wasn´t even my idea, actually.

 

Strike was a bust. Spaniards are too lazy to get out and do anything. No one even bothered to close. I understand it was more interesting in other places, but not here.

 

So, we´d planned to have a good weekend and go to Alcoy to watch the conference with friends (in English), but as is typical, something got in the way. :P. We went to the bus station at 2:00 to wait for the 2:30 bus. Never came. Looked at the sign to see the bus to Alcoy was at 4:45 now. So we kept waiting...bus never came. Turns out they don´t bother to run buses to Alcoy on the weekends. Not sure why it was on the sign...so by then it was too late to go to Valencia, so we were stuck watching it in Spanish in Gandia. And we couldn´t get out to Alcoy with a reasonable time on Sunday, so we just ended up going into Valencia to watch the three other sessions. But we had to catch a train back, so we missed the Sunday Afternoon, which didn´t start until 10PM here. We´d planned on having a popcorn party in Alcoy and watching it, but it´s alright.

 

Conference was a little more fiery than we expected. Especially compared to April conference, the General Authorities were pretty blunt about what´s been going on. We didn´t get to hear his actual voice on Saturday Morning´s session (monotone translator), but he seemed pretty serious about the missionary shortage. I know Elder Nelson spoke the same in Priesthood Session as well.

 

Going to be another digging week this week. We´ve already tossed the baptismal date for Franns. He was good in the beginning, but then we found out he´s not married (despite the fact he says ´my wife´.) and after we had a lesson where his wife and sister were in it (both more fanatical in their religions) he´s pretty well cooled off. Now he´s denying prophets and all the things he said he knew were true. We think they´ve been talking to him. He´s really confused. Told us that a prophet had to be perfect, and no one could be perfect today. We told him that the Bible prophets weren´t perfect, but that didn´t go too well. Elder Crofts got pretty irritated, so I had to close up and get us out of there. ;) But we´ll still keep visiting him.

 

We´re going to have to get the ward more involved. We were talking with the old ward mission leader, who told us that we needed to pretty well slap the members with a commitment in a way that certain people in the ward can´t stop. One of the ward missionaries just constantly argues, misuses quotes, says that pass along cards and pamphlets are useless, and basically doesn´t want to do anything. But we´ve got a plan for her...hehehe. I even typed it. ¨A Most Excellent Plan for the Stopping of Attempted Counter-Attack by...¨. I´m going to speak in sacrament meeting soon, and going to commit the members to give out five pass-along cards a week. Even if it´s just shoving them in mailboxes. He said when they did it in England, they had baptisms every week. I suspect the lady will try to misuse President Hinckley´s talk where he said ¨This work isn´t just giving out pamphlets¨, but we´ve been working with Bishop and he´s said he´ll help push the idea. He said ¨One, that just says ¨not only¨, and two, President Hinckley isn´t the prophet anymore, President Monson is, and he´s the one who´s pushed these newer cards into Spain (we´ve got new style cards now).

 

Then we´ve got to get them to start holding activities. They don´t here, and I guess it´s because most of the members think it´s inappropriate. They´ve got the idea that the chapel is ¨the house of the Lord¨, but it´s not, that´s the temple. I guess the English family had a water party once and certain members blew a gasket because there was a little water on the tile inside. But it´d be nice to have things to invite investigators too.

 

With the shortage of missionaries, President and the leadership decided to drop the goal of 600 baptisms for this year. We had three months to get more than we´ve gotten all year, so it just wasn´t happening. Now we´re going to try to meet four hundred, which means we need like 45 a month for the next three months. Then we´ll realign based on the count next year.

 

Don´t worry too much about the pictures. Whenever you have time is all.

 

Yes, when you get a conference Ensign, send it, because it´ll be like February before we get it here.

 

We´ll be doing more poker today, but we´ve developed a ¨Prophet and Apostles¨ Memory game, and we´ve been using it a lot this week, including in lessons. Maybe I´ll sell it to Deseret Book when I get back ;).

Saturday during our lunch with Benjamin, he had some really good pasta I´m going to make today. Noodles, cheese, mayo (I know, but it was good), and bacon. Should be able to get all the ingredients.

 

No tengo mas. Eso es todo. Lo siento.

 

Bradley.

9/27/10

Oh, it should be a good week. Wednesday the unions are calling for a general strike...basically it´s when the Spainards find a way to be even lazier... :)

 

We´re not sure how big it´s going to be just yet. Some people are saying mild, President and the AP´s say we need to be prepared for it to last a full week (aka everything closed for a while). As long as the demonstrations don´t get too violent, we´ll get to go outside and work. Otherwise, it´s staying in the flat and playing poker. It´ll probably be pretty mild here, but I¨d expect Valencia and Madrid to be messy, and Barcelona to be a disaster. The Catalunians love to make a mess as long as it causes problems for the Spanish government. They´re like these great little rebels you just want to cheer on.

 

Been an okay day this morning. We decided to test just how flammable Germ-X is for study time (it wasn´t my bottle) and lit it in a glass. Pretty interesting-nice alcohol fire, then it just goes out. Then we went to play basketball with Sid in the church parking lot, so we´re out in civilian clothes this morning. First time I`ve worn my tennis shoes since leaving the MTC.

 

Conference...we´re going to see. We may go into Valencia, since they´ll have it in English there. The spanish translation is always terrible. No expression, and bland. If not, we may watch it with some of the English speaking members here.

 

We´re still working with Erardo and company. Hillary was baptised on Saturday. I asked him after it whether he liked it and he said yes, so... The dad´s gotten more interested again-he came to the baptism and everything, so that was a good thing.

 

Sunday´s are usually interesting. The ward´s got so many little disputes between members at the moment. Our poor ward mission leader doesn´t have the support of half of his ward missionaries, and the bishopric doesn´t support him either. He said ¨I asked you to make sure the ward missionaries you were calling could at least come to weekly coordination meeting.¨, but Bishop just washed his hands of it and said ¨That´s your job.¨ The bishop...well, he´s not the best. We´re trying, though.

 

Made omelets this morning, but they didn´t turn out so great. I think I´m going to strip down the skillet and try again.

 

Today, I´m going to kick my comp´s butt in poker, which should be good, and then I´ll just enjoy the day. Probably going to buy some premade sandwiches you toss in a skillet and brown (different, more expensive skillet), then buy some Fartons and enjoy those. 

 

I think we´re going to try to visit Hillary tonight, since we´re going to be reteaching everything again. 

 

Friday night, Sid told us he was going to some protest on Saturday night they do every year trying to make it mandatory to learn Catalúnian (different dialect of Spanish, mainly spoken in Catalunya). I told him I didn´t feel real good about him going and that if anything got bad to get out. We didn´t see him until Sunday morning in church (first time he blessed the sacrament. Pretty good-he didn´t mess up). A little bit after, we were out with him when he told us what happened Saturday night. He said he was sitting around with some friends when they tried to get him to smoke marijuana. I guess they pushed pretty hard, and with the alcohol too. He said he felt like he needed to go and told them he was going back home. Thankfully he followed the Spirit and left. 

 

I think that´s all I have for this week. 

 

Bradley.

9/20/10

Not a whole lot of new things going on here. We´ve been digging for anything new for the whole week, but that seems to happen here a lot. Finally got some new investigators, as we were essentially down to just those two kids. Erardo´s pretty well just stopped participating in anything. His mother says ¨Oh, he´s just used to the catholic church...¨, which translates into ¨Church for him is not making any decisions and going once or twice a year.¨. But, not a whole lot we can do. Hillary is still going to be baptised unless it falls through. We´re going to see. We´ve got a new investigator who accepted a date in the first lesson, so that´ll be for the 16th of October.

 

So the wedding was interesting. Went to the reception (had to bum a ride, since we took the train to Xeraco for the wedding. I keep telling Elder Crofts that we should requisition motorcycles from the office. The scriptures say that Ammon took his Honda with him when he preached to the Lamanites...), and waited an hour for the bride and groom to show up...with plates of food in front of us. Luckily, it was just snacks, but we all gave in after about fourty minutes. All the people assigned to our table didn´t come, except for Benjamin (from Holland, speaks English,  he´s the High Priest Group Leader), so we combined with another table. Main course was a suprisingly good lamb...I was very surprised that it tasted that good. Fell off the bone. Then there was ice cream, then the cake. Music was too loud, so no one really danced. We weren´t allowed to dance anyway(apparantly it´s one of those rules), not that I would have danced... Still, i´ve got a few pictures, which I´ll get developed and sent along soon.
 

Less insane travel this week. Just the normal district meeting on Tuesday. Elder Crofts and I hauled the typewriter along as a joke. Elder Corbitt was so jealous. Ever since he saw it during an exchange, he´s been scouring secondhand shops in Alcoy for one.

 

So, last p-day, I went and got a Texas Hold´Em set and taught Elder Crofts how to play poker and Baccarrat. I´m afraid he´s become quite the gambling addict...he may need counseling when he goes home. ;)

 

Today, we´re going to go to the Burger King that we discovered is in Gandia. Been here months and just happened to run into it the other day by accident...sort of embarassing it took so long. Then again, it took two weeks just to discover we had the same birthday.

 

Sid´s still doing fine, though he´s started school again, so we can´t take him many places anymore. Though I think we were getting so many lessons out of him we didn´t quite realize how bad our investigator pool had gotten.

 

Nothing new food wise. Same old, same old. I´ve discovered it´s remarkably easy to eat green beans when you mix them with applesauce...

 

We´re in the middle of a Mercadona boycott, so we´ve been shopping other places. Nice change. I can´t believe they thought they´d get away with charging 10 cents per plastic bag. They may get the weakwilled socialists here, but they won´t get this capitalist! I´ll shop around.
 

It may rain here today. We´re going to see, but I´ve got my umbrella just in case.

 

That´s all for this week.

9/13/10

So...the trip to Madrid didn´t go as planned. In fact, it was a disaster. I had to go with Elder Booher (yay...kentucky...), and we´d planned to stay in Catarroja and catch a simple Cercanias train into the station in the morning. But it turned out the first commuter train wasn´t until the Madrid train left. (yeah, we didn´t fly). So we went into Valencia, show up at the Zone Leader´s piso, and I call on the phone. ¨Hey, can you buzz us up?¨. Poor Elder Ames. Bad first week in the area as a ZL for him. Then we got up at 5 to get to the station by 630, picked up the tickets, got on the train, and got into Madrid at 1030. Unfortunately, I´d turned off the cell phone and when I´d tried to turn it back on, I´d learned that we have a pin code to punch in on start up...and I didn´t know the code. So, I tried for fifteen minutes to get the payphones (which are STUPID) to accept my Visa. Finally, I bought some twelve ounce bottle of Fanta for 2.20 to break the 10 I had, so I could get change for a pay phone to call the office. Then it turned out it was just 1820...*headdesk*. So, got through the metro, picked up our card, and headed back to the station. Elder Parry says ¨Okay, all the trains to Valencia from Madrid are booked, so I´m going to send you to Barcelona, then from Barcelona to Valencia.¨

 

I´m thinking ¨okay, we could just, you know, stay at the MTC for the night, but whatever.¨ So we got on the train to Barcelona (at least he got us the high speed train), and we got to Barcelona. I go to print out the tickets for the return and see that he reserved us tickets...back to Madrid. As I´m calling him to figure out what happened, I see the departures board start flashing ¨Sold Out¨ on all the trains to Valencia...

 

So, he tells us to get to the Mission Office. They got back from proselyting (Office elders work from 830AM to 600 PM, then go out from 630 to 1030. to do missionary work) and he buys us tickets for a 930AM train to Valencia. Spent the night in the Mission Home talking with some others who were there waiting for trains back to their areas, though President, the AP´s, and half the office staff were in Vitoria for a Stake Conference.

 

Saturday morning, get back to the station, try to board the train, only to find out it´s over booked. We´re sitting on the platform as it pulls away, along with about fourty other people. So I called Elder Parry again, he panicks, says ¨go get new tickets.¨ The only scheduled trains were for 730 and 830 that night, putting us in Valencia at like 11 or 12. Luckily, there was a train that just had a stop in Valencia at 3PM. Got off in Castelleon to pick up Elder Crofts, then spent two more hours on commuter trains back to Gandia...got back at 9PM. Then I had to write a last minute talk, which I didn´t end up giving anyway. Either way, I´m glad it´s back to normal now. Our weekly totals were really good with only three days of real proselyting in Gandia...not. :(

 

I´m going to try to do some more repairs to the piso today, though we´re still looking for a new one. I think I´m going to rearrange the living room to make it a little more comfortable.

 

Erardo is on hiatus right now. His mom says he´s terrified of being baptised, but he won´t say anything to us. His sister still wants to be baptised, but now their mother says she wants them to be baptised together...we´re going tonight to see if we can straighten things out.

 

Because of the madness with the Madrid trip, I left my brush in the Mission Office. No idea when I´ll see it again, so I´m going to find a new one today. Wish me luck...

 

Hookay, so I needs some pictures. Mainly just to show people a little more about the US. So...some pictures of the DC trip, pictures of dune trips, pics of you guys, etc.

 

And...did you find out when the Reach soundtrack is coming out? Is it soon?

 

Right now, we´re essentially starting from scratch. One of our investigators is essentially dumping us again, the other two couldn´t care less if we never called again, and that leaves the Bolivians. Still, there´s some old contacts that could be promising. And we´re going to put our 12 ward missionaries to work. And we´re trying to get the members to start giving some references. It´s hard to bribe them with baked goodies if we don´t have an oven, though. Vamos a ver.

 

I´m fine on deodorant and all. Still on the first can of Barbasol. I´m wondering how long that thing is going to last...

 

I guess they´ve been talking that if all of the 40 missionaries with visa delays got here by December, my group will be either training or in leadership positions already. :\.

 

Being in Barcelona for that short period got me the ´Catalunya bug¨, aka I now agree that it´s a seperate country, and I like it better than Spain. People there actually work! It´s like the US! They even have Jaguar dealerships! :)

 

Okay, that´s all for this week. More next week. I´ll try to send out a picture of Sid this week too.

 

Bradley.

pictures from Bradley 9/9/10

They called themselves "District Alma"  This was when he was at the Madrid MTC just prior to leaving for Gandia.....he will always treasure these moments forever.

pictures from Bradley 9/9/10

Madrid Spain Temple.  Outside of the MTC in his apartment on the 5th floor....what an amazing site to wake up to every morning...and go to sleep every night.

9/7/10

Okay, sorry I didn´t write yesterday. I didn´t know, but on transfer weeks our P´days are usually delayed until Tuesday. So we had a work day yesterday.

 

I´m still here in Gandia, and Elder Crofts is too. This transfer was a lot calmer than normal, thankfully.

 

So, the office has had me in limbo for the past week. First, Elder Parry didn´t know when I was going. Then, Tuesday at District meeting in Valencia, Elder Estrada said ¨Okay, so Elder Parry says we´re going to fly to Madrid on thursday, pick up our cards, and fly back on the same day. So I´m thinking ¨Okay, so I spend tuesday night in Alcoy, to go back to Gandia Wednesday afternoon, to go into Valencia Wednesday night, to fly out thusday morning, to come back and be dead Friday.

 

Then, Wednesday, I got a call from Elder Parry saying ¨Okay, I know you´re going to kill me, but we´re not sending you until next Friday, same way.¨ So Friday I´ll probably fly to Madrid and back. It´ll be nice to be on a plane without luggage worries for once, though. Only like an hour flight each way.

 

Poor kid. He´s got less than six months in the field and he´s drowning at the moment. It´s become the mission joke at the moment ¨Oh my, Elder Parry´s involved? Get ready for a disaster!¨

 

Yes, I got my box with the CD´s last monday, actually. I like how it said ¨book¨, but dere was no book inside...

 

Apart from that one box, everything comes fine.

 

I sent out some letters Saturday, so I have no idea when they´ll be delivered. Sent you a couple of photos, and then sent the Williams and your parents a letter. Typed with my fancy typewriter, too!

 

Ismael (small confession: he reminds us of Sid the Sloth from Ice Age, so we´ve nicknamed him Sid) is a spainard. He´s still going out pretty regularly. Good kid-¨like Nathaniel of old, in whom there is no guile¨.

 

Erardo and his sister, Hillary, are Bolivians. We barely got her to agree to be baptised on Thursday. Erardo, for some reason, is really scared of being baptised. We can´t figure out what´s wrong, but the district is praying for him right now and hopefully we can diagnose the problem.

 

Funny story. Hillary has a problem (granted, she´s only 10), in that she doesn´t make decisions. If we asked a question, she always looks to her mother, or to her sister. ANd we were closing up the lesson and hadn´t gotten her to commit to anything again. Then I felt the impression to tell her (because she had said that school was hard this year) that the Holy Ghost could help her with her school work, but that she could only get this if she was baptised. She thought about it for a second, and then said yes, without looking for help.

 

Hopefully she´ll be a good enough pull for Erardo to calm him down.

 

Now, their mother also wants to get baptised, but can´t, because they´re not married. We´ve discussed this with her husband, who always offers the lame excuse ¨I think you have to really know someone before you can marry her¨...they´ve been living together for twenty-five years. We´ve told them they have to talk this out, but it´s not going anywhere really fast.

 

So, our apartment, well, it´s not terrible, but it´s definitely not wonderful. We´ve been making small fixes here and there (a common theme throughout the mission, lazy missionaries running down the apartments), but the apartment is more than thirty years old. (And has electrical problems...had Elder Crofts panicking that I was going to kill myself and set the building on fire for a bit. I was only working with an outlet...and sparks shooting out are normal, right?) But some of the issues include broken light fixtures, no oven, aging bathrooms, peeling plaster, sagging ceilings, (my personal favorite is how it takes ninety seconds for the kitchen light to turn on. And the light fixture where it actually fused the base of the bulb to the socket...). Well, Sister Lund (one of the couple missionaries, she´s the distribution secretary for the mission and her husband is the finance secretary) called on Thursday and said ¨You´re still looking for a new piso, right?¨ Turns out the office never bothered to renew our contract, and so we can look for a piso whenever we want. Already seen that there´s piso´s avaliable that are cheaper and better.

 

It´s odd we´re in that piso, since when President Hinckley got into the mission last year he changed nearly all the pisos because he said ¨We don´t want to be in a piso that could have problems¨. Now that Cataroja has a new one, we might be in the oldest in the mission, so we´re looking now.

 

We were hoping to get one in the same building as one of our favorite members, but they were a tad higher than we´re allowed at the moment. He´s the second counselor here, probably the Spanish equivalent of Dean Kartchner mixed with Gerry. His wife died a few years back, so we visit him every so often.

Sometimes it´s just crazy how things are here. People think it´s normal to be so heavily taxed on everything. And so many people think it´s normal to be out of work. Here, if you´ve worked for only like a month, you can get free checks from the government for over three years...You want to shake them and say ¨This isn´t normal! Wake up!¨ but it wouldn´t matter.

 

Saturday, we were heading to pass by someone when we passed by one of the bakery´s of a member (who´s instructed his employees to give us free pastries all the time...we try not to pass by too often). He asked us to help him move a fridge from the old store to his new one on the main road. So we´re in his van with the fridge (he also speaks English, lived in the US for ten years) and we see that the main road is blocked with protestors. Going around, he shakes his head and says ¨You know what they´re protesting today? George W. Bush. I don´t even think those idiots realize he´s not the President anymore.¨

 

Like he said (and as we´ve noticed), the people are pretty anti-US. Everything is the US´s fault, and that means it´s Bush´s fault, because they all love Obama. Their media constantly reports on how we´re evil, and Islamophobes (because the New Yorkers don´t want a blasted mosque next to the WTC site, which is kind of a ¨duh, that shouldn´t be there, we don´t need a momument to terrorism¨ moment), and all manner of bad things.

 

But still, the work goes on.

Something else you can look for for later is to see when the Halo: Reach Original Soundtrack comes out. I can´t really guess, because for Halo 3 it was a few months after the game launch, and for ODST it was a day and date launch with the game.

 

That´s all for this week. Good luck unpacking!

8/30/10

Well, they said the mail is pretty secure here. No telling, though. Spainards set the standard for mooching and being lazy...more on that later.

 

I´ve gotten the envelope with the talks, but no box yet. Maybe today.

 

Noo! No quads with the button! Too tiny! Blind!

 

Hehe, naah. I don´t like the quads. They´ll hold out for now.

 

The baptism did happen, thankfully. No support from his family, though. Parents are separated, dad´s a muslim (I don´t even think he knows), mom´s a non practicing (like all) Catholic. None of his family came to the service, but thankfully a good amount of the ward turned out. He still goes out with us everyday, though I think we wear him out sometimes. ;)

 

 

Right now we´ve got tentative dates for a baptism on the 11th and the 18th. Though, I think we might try to get the little 12 year old´s sister to agree to be baptised and combine all the services on the 18th.

 

I´m going to develop some pictures today and get them in the mail tomorrow. And, if all goes well, (which it should) we´ll have the typewriter fixed so I can make some legible letters to send out. Yes, it´s electric. We just need a cartridge, which shouldn´t be too hard to find today.

 

We´re pretty restricted on what we´re allowed to have as far as books go, sadly. They´ve cut it down more in recent years too. So on that front, I´ll have to say no.

 

So, more on the lazy spainards. ;), They just don´t do a whole lot. If someone in the US tried to run their business by opening at 10:30, closing at 2, opening back up at 5, and closing at 8, they´d be broke in a month. But that´s how they work here. A lot of times they only work from 10-2 and then close for the rest of the day. Then, August is ¨vacations¨ month, which means it´s entirely acceptable to close for the whole month. Hope you didn´t need anything! The immigrants are the ones who do all the work.

 

Then we get to hear how evil the US is because we don´t have free healthcare. Someone was saying yesterday ¨In America if you can´t afford to pay and get hurt, the doctors will just sit and laugh as you die on their floor.¨...yeah, I´m very serious. He honestly believes that. Then he said how much better free healthcare is, and how their doctors are better(Which is bunk. I´ve seen their hospital waiting room. Talk about nightmare.)...but Obama is great because ¨he really cares for people.¨ So we just have to smile and try to push on. There´s actually a large amount of Obama lovers here. But I keep my mouth shut. It´s still hard sometimes...If they demand an answer I just say ¨I don´t really like him very much¨and move on. 

 

The oddest thing is when they bash us for building houses out of wood. That one I can´t figure out. Yeah, it´s wood, but it´s more than triple the size of your average little apartment here, so what´s it matter?

 

Well, I did say the ceiling looked odd. Not quite that odd, but still.

 

We travel a lot. The weekly trips into Valencia aren´t too bad, but this week I head to Alcoy for Tuesday/Wednesday, then next week I´ll have to head up to Barcelona to the Mission Office, then from Barcelona to Madrid to pick up my ¨This is a non citizen¨ card, then back to Barcelona, and back here again. That´ll probably take a few days, but it´s still a lot. Then today I have to go deal with registering with the government where I live, because they like to keep track of where everyone is at all times. If Obama ever suggests something similar, fight it with all you have.
 

So, we just found out that Bishop Richard C. Edgley is coming to Barcelona to speak to the stake there, but only the Barcelona and Hospitalet zones are invited. But I guess it´d cost a little too much to send all the missionaries up there. 

 

Hannah´s always been a poopoo head, right? She´ll calm down eventually. Maybe.

 

Hope everything else is well. 

 

Bradley.


#2 letter

I don´t know if anyone has ever definitively said what type of war it was. There was a story going around about someone who had a large birthmark on their back. Allegedly, their patriarchal blessing said ¨it was a spear wound from the war in heaven¨, but I´ve never heard a confirmation one way or the other.

 

Don´t forget that the accounts in Moses and Abraham are more detailed and less obscured than the accounts in the Bible.

8/23/10

Okay, so question first, since the answer might be kinda long.

 

We´re all spirit sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father. Jesus was the first born. Lucifer was somewhere in the beginning, as he was the son of the morning. He wasn´t evil initially, but somewhere along the line in the pre-existance, he started down a bad path and eventually revealed his evil intentions at the Grand Council. At this time we were all still in spirit form, except for the Father and Mother.

 

Because Lucifer sought to destroy our agency and God, he had to be cast out. That´s where the War in Heaven happened, where Michael (Adam) and his angels (us) fought against Lucifer and the 1/3 of spirits who declared their allegiance to him. In the end, we won, and Lucifer and those loyal to him were cast out. Lucifer became Satan, the ¨father of lies¨, and those other spirits became his fallen angels, equal partakers of endless misery.

 

Because they didn´t keep their ´first estate´, (which was our life in the pre-mortal existance), none of them received a body. (Now, if we were to see him in person, he would appear to be a physical person, because our current eyes can´t discern between physical matter here and the finer matter spirit bodies are made of. But he´s still a spirit.)  Those of us who did keep our first estate are here now. Even those who do great wickedness were at some point in the pre-existance, righteous enough to remain on the side of the Almighty.

 

So, every one is His son, but Jesus is the Only Begotten because he´s the only physical son God has created. Christ had a heavenly father with a mortal mother.

 

Now, I certainly hope I come home on a plane in a few years and don´t have to get back on another plane. I´m not sure how that´d happen, but I suppose it´s possible. The Church doesn´t typically ask missionaries to serve a second mission right after the first, but we are facing a serious shortage at the moment. Down below 51,000 worldwide from last count. Peaked at 60 thousand just a few years ago. President Hinckley says he´s begged Salt Lake for more missionaries, but they say they just aren´t available at the moment. Too many are choosing not to go, or aren´t worthy. Now we´re handling all this area, 11 million people, with only 10,000 members and eighty something missionaries. Last year they had 130. We´ve closed over twenty areas, yet the Lord knows our plight. We´re not slowing down on baptisms at all. Right now we´re sitting at something like 225 for the year, with a goal to get 600 by the end of the year. I don´t know if it´s possible, but we´re going to give it all we´ve got.

 

Christmas? It´s a tad early, isn´t it? Maybe a new set of English scriptures (I´m not sure how much longer Mr. Book of Mormon will hold out. The binding´s starting to give. It is over 10 years old now.)  Ah, as for packages, I´ve gotten the deodorant pack, but not the box. It wasn´t at Zone Conference, but a letter from the Williams sent to the MTC was, so...I don´t know where that box is at. Sometimes mail gets misplaced here for a while. Elder Crofts has a horror story of sending home a camera card in November and his parents not getting it until March... 

The post office is only open from 9-2 on weekdays and 9-1 on Saturday. And they don´t deliver on Saturday (lazy bums:p :)

 

Zone Conference was interesting. At one point President had us sign a card that´s going to President Monson, along with one of Yadrow´s new statues (the new Missionary type). I thought ¨You probably have his home address!¨

 

Elder Crofts said that when Richard came through for a tour of the mission last year, he told a story of when he was the mission president for Salt Lake South a few years ago. He said he invited his AP´s over for Christmas dinner...well, you can guess who showed up. He said he thought they were going to die from sitting in their chairs so straight. But he said they relaxed pretty fast, as he wasn´t there as President Hinckley, but as ¨Grandpa¨.

 

Ah, yes. A request. Could you put in the September package some older talks by President Faust and Elder Maxwell? Not their conference talks from April 2000, 2002, 2004, or October 2003, as I´ve got those in the flat. Not a ton, just a couple, please.
 

We´re still on track for the baptism on Saturday. He´s been going out with us on visits every day now, and the Bishop here is pushing him to go on a mission in a year.

 

Had a funny experience the other day. We were in the church teaching a lesson when one of the counselors in the bishopric dropped by. He asked us to give him some info, so we went upstairs to the secretary´s office (which doubles as the library.) I was just looking at the shelves when I see this brown book. I picked it up and realized it was a Book of Mormon, and looked exactly like the original printing from 1830. I´m thinking ¨Naah, can´t be.¨ So I open it and see ¨Printed by E.B. Grandin, New York, 1830.¨ You can bet I was a little shocked.

 

The next page said ¨Heritage reprint, 1970, Salt Lake City.¨ Ah well, it was still interesting to look at it. Nothing was in verse format, it was only like a novel.

 

Another interesting tidbit. The pulpit in the Conference Center? It´s made out of black walnut. From a tree that was in President Hinckley´s backyard...

 

That´s all I´ve got for right now. I´ll write more next week.

 

Bradley.

8-16-10

Sounds like Salt Lake came down with new instructions. We do live in difficult times, but, to steal from Dickens (and with a little creative license), ¨it was the worst of times, it was the best of times.¨ And to use the Book of Mormon (I don´t have the exact reference in front of me, but ¨Yea, there were never happier times among the children of Nephi than in the time of Captain Moroni.¨ And they were being slammed in the middle of a brutal war (Alma 48-62), and were practically under siege. So, even in the darkest hour, the light shines far brighter than in twilight.

 

I´m afraid I don´t get to see much of the water. We´re not allowed to go to the beach for a number of reasons. But I´ll see if I can get on top of a few of our members taller buildings and get a picture of the coast line.

 

So, I´ve gotten the card with the story about Glenn (poor guy), but not the things that were sent to the MTC. I´m wondering if they just forwarded them to the Mission Home, in which case I´ll probably get them Thursday at Zone Conference.

 

Supplies are fine at the moment. I still have Q-Tips, and I´m still on the first can of Barbasol, and the first tube of toothpaste. I´ve still got four or five more Mach 3 blades, which they do sell here, so I can just get more here when the need arises.

 

The streets are tiny, and non sensical. Much of the time they´re only one way, so you´re constantly going around to try to get to your destination. No wonder we don´t drive or bike here.

 

You´ll be fine in the library once you get things going.

 

Nothing super exciting. We´re just continuing to work with the investigators.

 

So, the other day we ran into someone on the street. Elder Crofts had run into him a few months ago and found out that he was a prior investigator from a few years back who´d been ready to be baptised, but his parents forbid it. Since he wasn´t 18, we couldn´t do anything.

 

Well, now he´s 18. And we got his new phone number, but when we called him he said he was ´busy at the moment.¨

 

Surprise, surprise, he showed up at church yesterday. And after about five minutes, he came up and said ¨Elders, I want to be baptized.¨

 

So, we now have an unexpected but most appreciated baptismal service to set up for the 28th. Not even in the field for three weeks... ;).

 

It was especially welcome after Saturday. We knocked nearly 85 doors and only got two potential investigators, who´ve both cancelled their appointments already, unfortunately.

 

We´ve got others who are ready, but Spain is a royal pain with marriage. They require papers, which is exceptionally hard for the immigrants (who aren´t well liked by the natives anyway). And they don´t recognize the Church´s authority to marry, so we have to wait on the locals for that two. We´ve got one family who have their papers now, and are just waiting for a day to go get it done. The other, her husband is trying to get his papers but they´re not making much progress.

 

Kind of a change for me. Especially since you can pretty well get married anywhere, any time in the U.S..

 

The news of the courts striking down the Arizona law was pretty bad, but the good thing is that either the Ninth or the Supreme Court will overturn that ruling. The courts are proving the only check we have at the moment. Thankfully, the justices aren´t elected.

 

But, as long as November goes well, our worries should soon lessen.

 

Is Grandpa´s voodoo not working for Brandon´s knees, or are they just not all healed up yet?

 

It´s been raining here on and off for the past few days. That wonderful umbrella already broke the first time I used it in Madrid >:O , so I had to go pick up a new one. It´s a little bigger than our big steel framed ones, but it´s holding up nicely. Only six Euros in one of the Chino´s here.

 

Any time you think the members there are crazy, just remember that there are places where they´re crazier.

 

I think a lot of it is that the church is really young here, but things are still interesting. One of the members, Benjamin (who´s actually from Holland, but served his mission in Bolivia), told us how he was kicked off the High Council for trying to tell them that things weren´t being done quite right. (He´s been a bishop four times, so...) They told him ¨Well, this isn´t the Church in Holland, it´s the Church in Spain, and we do things here the Spanish way.¨...so yeah, there are crazy people everywhere. It just shows that while the church is perfect, the members aren´t necessarily perfect.

 

Okay, so don´t bother sending them for a while until you send the next package in September, but when you do, throw in my Halo 3: ODST CD´s (they´re on the blue CD tower on my entertainment center. The case is below the Halo 3 OST but above Duran Duran´s Astronaut album. Make sure both discs are in there (there might be one in my stereo, or one in the truck. Then, get on the computer and make a new playlist in iTunes like I showed you. Label it ¨Mass Effect 2¨and then go to the library. Drag all the songs with the Album title (look in the Album column) of ¨Mass Effect 2 Original Soundtrack¨(or something like that) to that playlist. There should be a good amount of songs. Get the CD-R´s down and burn the songs to discs (It´ll probably take two, but there´s a lot of blanks. The blanks are the Sony discs, on their own spindle). Just a good lot of relaxing instrumental music.

 

You can just throw them in September´s package. Use some of the plastic cases under the counter for the ME2 discs, okay?

 

That´s all I have for this week.

 

Love,

 

Bradley.

8-9-10

Hannah is a bit of a boob, we knew that. Probably because she´s spoiled rotten.

 

Gandia is kinda...well, not that big, really. But that´s because the Europeans build up and close. They don´t typically have the big rural areas that we do.

 

Still haven´t gotten anything mail wise, but maybe some things will come today. The mail is pretty slow around here. I never thought I´d ever see USPS as ´fast´, but it actually is.

 

No, we don´t haz pouch mail around here. Only to countries where the mail just doesn´t work at all, mainly in South America.

 

This week went fine. We´re still working on getting people to commit to baptism, but in the end they have to make the decision.

 

So, the food was a little calmer this week. Apart from the snails.

 

Yes, snails. Two of them. At least they were steamed and cooked, but I still had to pull them out of their shell and eat them that way. I managed not to puke.

 

They´re really pretty tasteless, but that doesn´t mean I want to eat them ever again.

 

Went to dinner with the Summerfields three times last week (they really like Elder Hall, who was here when my comp was in Barcelona). Thankfully they didn´t make anything off the wall. And it wasn´t paella. (I don´t think I´ll be eating any rice for a decade when I get back). They´ve got a huge house out in the mountains that I know you´d love...the pool in the back, the twin fireplaces for cooking out back, a view of the Med...just not much parking.

 

It´s always a little sad to see how so many people have hardened their hearts to the gospel. Most of our street contacts end with the shaking Spanish finger and the ¨no, I don´t want to listen.¨ Thankfully, there are a lot of immigrants here who are more receptive than the Spaniards.

 

The other day, Elder Crofts and I were walking to an appointment when we struck up a contact with an older gentleman. We were talking about how we have a prophet on the earth again when he asked ¨Who?¨. So we showed him a little picture of President Monson. But, the conversation turned downhill after that. He told us we were too young to know anything, and that there was no way God loved people because of all the evil in the world, and then he said that we were being led to hell by a false prophet. (and gave me crap because of my Spanish ;P) Finally, I just testified that President Monson is a prophet, and we left.

 

You´d think that an experience like that would be depressing, but it was actually testimony building. And while it may not be here, one day that man will know that what we told him was the truth.

 

I´ve got a talk for you all to look up and watch. (or read, or listen to) ¨Safety for the Soul¨, by Elder Holland, from October 2009 General Conference.

 

By the way, I just found out that the 12 year old was baptized Saturday. Thank goodness for that little miracle. That was a tough experience. You go expecting to see this dark little terror and see only an innocent little boy who has no idea that what he was doing was wrong. I felt bad because I didn´t have any US coins on me (I´ve still got some, just put away) and he wanted one. Thankfully, he´s got a good ward who wants to help him, as does his mother.

 

The scriptures tell us that ¨in the end we are saved by grace, after all we can do.¨ Your father will be okay in the end. One day soon, he´ll be resurrected, and ¨not a hair on his head shall be lost.¨ That includes the mind too.

 

Well, we have a CD player in every flat, so I don´t need one. And this one has a selection of music, so I´m okay for now. But there is one thing I could use. American deodorant, as I´m being told to avoid the Spanish stuff like the plague. Just two sticks should be fine for a while.

 

That´s all I have for this week.

8-2-10

Well, actually, we don´t come back for lunch at all. At least not last week. Every day we eat with members. And that´s usually the only meal we eat.

 

That´s because everyone feeds us way too much. Apparantly the Spain way is eat yourself to death around 2-3, then don´t eat for the rest of the day.

 

For example: (P.S. I hate these spanish keyboards. They´re all wacked up to type on ;), Thursday, we went to a member´s house, where a woman named Pepa lives. There was some released Elder there who´d set up the appointment in the past, so we went there.

 

We start out with cheese slices, chips, and meat rolls. That´s okay. Then, out comes the paella. That was put on plates, but too much. So after that, I´m full.

 

But it didn´t end there. Then the fruit comes out. So I made the mistake of eating an apple, which really didn´t help. And, thinking we´re done, Pepa brings out this bread pie/cake thing, and cuts us all a huge slice.

 

So, now I´m practically groaning. Then out comes the little ice cream cone...

 

Thankfully, that was the real end.

 

So, that was the first meal. Friday, we go to meet with Jose Antonio, who is the ward mission leader. Huge paella dish. With shrimp. Not americanized peeled shrimp, but unpeeled cooked shrimp. And it´s a communal style.

 

Before we´re even done with our portion I´m in pain again. Then there´s the salad. And then the bananas. The pudding cups. And finally, he sends us home with a small loaf of bread.

 

So that´s why we don´t eat breakfast or dinner-the members feed us too much!

 

Saturday, we go to Benjamin and Gladys´s home. Thankfully, there, they actually made some pizzas, and we had those with Coke and a small chocolate mousse afterwards. A normal meal. And they invited us back for Sunday lunch.

 

Sunday lunch rolls around. We get there. A small salad. I´m thinking ¨Okay, I can eat this.¨

 

Except for the green olives...oh my, they were potent. Followed by fish, rice, and a small cheesecake.

 

So yeah, we eat well. I haven´t cooked a meal in the flat yet. And now I´ve eaten green olives, cucumbers, tomatoes, watermelon, and shrimp. Some were better than others.

 

Yesterday was church. But this is a weird area. There´s a family from England here, who don´t speak any Spanish. Then we´ve got some Nigerians who speak English better than Spanish. The Bishop speaks English as well as Spanish. So it´s not all Spanish.

 

Bishop had me get up during announcements and introduce myself. Thankfully I knew enough not to sound like a complete dunce, bore a quick testimony, and sat down.

 

Maybe they´re being nice, but everyone kept saying I speak with a native accent.

 

So then we go to sunday school. What a change from Brother Richardson, and definately a change from Anderson. She was pretty firey.

 

Sister Summerfield (that´s the English family) needed us to translate for her in Young Womens, so I went to that class.

 

Next week, though, Brother Summerfield is teaching the Young Men, and Sister Summerfield is teaching the Young Women, so I better brush up a little more on Spanish, since we´ll have to interpret for them.

 

They´re a good family, though. And John might be the only person in Spain with a real handshake. The Spanish don´t seem to do the firm American grip as much.

 

Right now we don´t have anyone with a baptismal date, though there are some that are close. We´ve got two Romanians who we just started teaching yesterday that are pretty interested. One of the Nigerians, who´s name is I.K., has a sister, Joy, who we taught the first lesson (in English!) to yesterday, and she´s thinking about baptism. Thankfully her brother is a strong convert and a good influence.

 

Then we have Sonia, who I haven´t taught yet, but who´s husband is in the bishopric, and she´s looking at baptism. And then there´s Anna, who can´t be baptised yet because her husband doesn´t want to get married, but she has two kids, Erardo and Hillary, who are able to be baptised. But Erardo, who´s 12, told us ¨no¨ the other night. A twelve year old! That was a little depressing.

 

We usually keep busy with lessons and appointments throughout the day. We do drop in on the recent converts when we don´t have any investigators, as well as the members. Some days we just go around, working down the list of street contacts made years ago. Most of them aren´t any good, but we´ve got to keep going through them.

 

Thankfully the chapel is air conditioned. Most of the apartments here (including ours) aren´t. Being inside AC for nine weeks kinda messed me up for heat, but I think I´ve readjusted now, since I´m sweating less again. But we don´t have to wear our suits except to church, so we survive.

 

Today will be a little crazy, as I have to go with my trainer into Valencia to drop him off there, and bring back a different companion for most of this week, as there are new procedures coming in from Salt Lake and all the zone leaders, district leaders, and trainers have to go. I´ll go back to Valencia to pick him up Friday morning, so for a few days I´ll be with a different companion already. He´s only got two weeks left, so hopefully he´s not too ¨trunky¨.

 

The walking isn´t too bad, as the city isn´t super large. For the farther away parts we take buses or go on nights we have with members.

 

I think that´s all I have for you this week. I´ll talk to you again next week.

 

Bradley.

7-27-10 Letter from Pres. Hinckley

Dear Families of our new missionaries,

     We are pleased to inform you that your son has safely arrived in the Spain Barcelona Mission.  Hermana Hinckley and I, along with the two assistants, met him at the train station.  The group of missionaries we received are wonderful young men and women, ready to go to work. Their enthusiasm reflects their love for the Savior and we are grateful for the privilege of guiding them along as they serve the Lord.
     Every area in the Spain Barcelona Mission is unique and beautiful, rich in history and tradition.  More importantly, each city is full of children of our Heavenly Father, waiting to hear the glad news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
     Thank you for the trust you have put in us to shepherd your son.  Please know that we feel a great responsibility to guide and protect “our” missionaries.  We love your sons and daughters as if they were our own.  With the Lord’s help, we intend to make their mission experience in Barcelona the most memorable time of their lives.



Sincerely,

President and Hermana Hinckley

CBH/edp

7-29-10 NEW ADDRESS

Okay, so I´m writing a quick letter to tell you that yes, I´m here. And that everything is fine. I´m in Gandia now, doing the Lord´s work.

Address is : Cardenal Cisneros 51, 1, 1

46700 Gandia

Spain

That´s where I be.

Elder Crofts is from Idaho Falls, ID, and is a fine companion. Things are going well here. I´ve met some of the members and we´ve taught some lessons.

It was a long day Tuesday, since we didn´t get back until 10:30 from the train ride.

I´ll write you more Monday, when it´s really p-day.

Love,

Bradley.

7-22-10

I did get the card with the WTC pics and such. And the letters from your parents and the Williams.

 

Probably don´t send anything else until I have the address of my little flat in the field. The box should make it fine though.

 

Yeah, I get snacks occasionally, ;). Peachie-o´s, Twix, and the occasional Pepsi. Well, okay, a lot of Pepsi, but it´s still fine.

 

I´ve been hearing some more about the mission up there. For the most part, Pres. Hinckley isn´t very strict. He´s not Clegg, but his main concern is just to follow the rules in the white handbook, which are mostly common sense.

 

I guess a little aside about the handbook. There´s a Holland talk from around 2000 where he talks about it. ¨This isn´t something we just came up with. It wasn´t me and three other crotchety old men sucking down pickle juice and saying ¨All right! Let´s write this handbook! And put dat in dere! And that! Yeah! Get dem little bounders!¨

Basically, for every rule, there´s a story, so we follow them.

 

We get cell phones ;)

Depending on the area, you might end up spending three hours on a train to go proselyte for a bit, then three hours back to your home area. Schedule is a little different. In fact, it´s pretty much what my home schedule was-11:30 bedtime, 7:30 wake up. With the siesta from 2-4, where we go back, eat, and do some more personal study.

 

Yesterday we had to go to the outskirts of the city to apply for our residency card. That meant an hour long Metro ride, followed by an hours wait, and then a hour back. We had a guide who´s a local member, but, well...crazy. The lazy eye is handleable, though a tad unnerving, but he kept getting lost even though he´d been on Monday as well. Thankfully, we made it.

 

For the most part, I was better by Saturday. Just kept up on some decongestants and was fine.

 

We did hear that because there´s so many people here from different countries, sometimes we might end up teaching Romanians, South Americans, Frenchie frenchies ;), Armenians, all with different ideas and customs. And while we talk about how far America´s morals have slipped...we´re practically puritanical compared to Europe. They warned us to watch out for the nudist beaches, and to be prepared for some crazy things in lessons.

 

We´ll do a little thing for the 24th, President said.

 

For the most part, my spanish is fine. I can get across what I want to say generally, though sometimes I have to think of a word. But I´ll be fine in the field, as long as they´re not mixing it with other languages. And thankfully I´m not going to Malaga. Not only is it too hot, but the locals tend to mumble and slur all the words together. Makes it much more difficult to understand.

 

Yes, time is going by rather fast. Nearly two months already. And it´ll go faster out in the field. Before too long, I´ll be on a plane home. So I have to enjoy it while it lasts.

 

Don´t know any Miranda´s. Tell binner sorry. ;)

I know there´s some restrictions on music, so hold off for a bit until I see the list.

 

I don´t have anything else for now. For the most part, the days are routine, so there´s not a lot to talk about. Though, when I get back, President owes me a bunch of PowerPoints, so I´ll have those to show off when we get back.

 

Bradley.

7/22/10

I did get the card with the WTC pics and such. And the letters from your parents and the Williams.

 

Probably don´t send anything else until I have the address of my little flat in the field. The box should make it fine though.

 

Yeah, I get snacks occasionally, ;). Peachie-o´s, Twix, and the occasional Pepsi. Well, okay, a lot of Pepsi, but it´s still fine.

 

I´ve been hearing some more about the mission up there. For the most part, Pres. Hinckley isn´t very strict. He´s not Clegg, but his main concern is just to follow the rules in the white handbook, which are mostly common sense.

 

I guess a little aside about the handbook. There´s a Holland talk from around 2000 where he talks about it. ¨This isn´t something we just came up with. It wasn´t me and three other crotchety old men sucking down pickle juice and saying ¨All right! Let´s write this handbook! And put dat in dere! And that! Yeah! Get dem little bounders!¨

Basically, for every rule, there´s a story, so we follow them.

 

We get cell phones ;)

Depending on the area, you might end up spending three hours on a train to go proselyte for a bit, then three hours back to your home area. Schedule is a little different. In fact, it´s pretty much what my home schedule was-11:30 bedtime, 7:30 wake up. With the siesta from 2-4, where we go back, eat, and do some more personal study.

 

Yesterday we had to go to the outskirts of the city to apply for our residency card. That meant an hour long Metro ride, followed by an hours wait, and then a hour back. We had a guide who´s a local member, but, well...crazy. The lazy eye is handleable, though a tad unnerving, but he kept getting lost even though he´d been on Monday as well. Thankfully, we made it.

 

For the most part, I was better by Saturday. Just kept up on some decongestants and was fine.

 

We did hear that because there´s so many people here from different countries, sometimes we might end up teaching Romanians, South Americans, Frenchie frenchies ;), Armenians, all with different ideas and customs. And while we talk about how far America´s morals have slipped...we´re practically puritanical compared to Europe. They warned us to watch out for the nudist beaches, and to be prepared for some crazy things in lessons.

 

We´ll do a little thing for the 24th, President said.

 

For the most part, my spanish is fine. I can get across what I want to say generally, though sometimes I have to think of a word. But I´ll be fine in the field, as long as they´re not mixing it with other languages. And thankfully I´m not going to Malaga. Not only is it too hot, but the locals tend to mumble and slur all the words together. Makes it much more difficult to understand.

 

Yes, time is going by rather fast. Nearly two months already. And it´ll go faster out in the field. Before too long, I´ll be on a plane home. So I have to enjoy it while it lasts.

 

Don´t know any Miranda´s. Tell binner sorry. ;)

I know there´s some restrictions on music, so hold off for a bit until I see the list.

 

I don´t have anything else for now. For the most part, the days are routine, so there´s not a lot to talk about. Though, when I get back, President owes me a bunch of PowerPoints, so I´ll have those to show off when we get back.

 

Bradley.

7/15/10

I actually got the package with my card on Monday. Might have set a new mail record since mail doesn´t move on Saturday or Sunday here. Yes, the comics were funny as well. Particularly the one with Der Fuhrer.

 

I´ll leave the 27th or something like that. The rest of this week, the full next week, and then we´ll head up on Wednesday. When we get out there they´ll put us with a trainer for the first transfer (six weeks). Most of the missionaries here are from the US, and they´ll put me with an English speaking trainer for that purpose.

 

Unless, of course, I end up being called as Mission Secretary like Grandpa Seth. ;)

 

Okay, money. No, they don´t take the Almighty Dollar here (sadly), but all I have to do is take it to BBVA and get it changed. It´s not much of a hassle, but it might be easier to put it into my account. But for now I´m not really buying anything. And there´s no way I´m spending $91 on a soccer jersey. That´s Red Sox genuine jersey territory.

 

Yeah, it´s been pretty fast. The days are longish, but the weeks are exceedingly short, so that´s how it goes.

 

Hookay, two requests. One, I need two pictures, they´ll probably be easiest to find at Bookworms. The first is of Christ in the boat with Peter, James, and John, calming the sea. The second is of Pilate presenting Christ to the Jews. Both are by Simon Dewey. You´ll recognize them by their realism.

 

Second, I need a picture or two of the Green Tank. You can attach some to an email and send a few physicals, plz ;)

Speaking of which, did you ever get the front bumper tightened back up?

I´m not sure what to tell you to do with the books. It probably isn´t super great for them out on those shelves, no.

 

A turtle? Like one they found, or just bought? I`m reminded of that movie from a few years back, The Master of Disguise, with the idiot going ¨turtle! turtle!¨

 

Would you also do me a favor and just look around for a complete set of the Journal of Discourses? I´m curious to see if they´re really running $300 for a set. Most of it´s gospel, but occasionally one of the discourses wasn´t inspired. I think Brigham Young once said he saw people on the Moon (have to wonder if it was just Armstrong and he didn´t know how to interpret it).

 

We´ve sent out five others, so it´s down to about 20 now. Still a little full, but not as bad. I think there´s only one or two left in Provo for this group.

 

Tell the Booboo to behave. She is a little turd sometimes. Maybe throw some 2x4´s in the back for her to chew on? ;)

 

We speak of the Celestial Kingdom as a beautiful place, but I don´t think most of us understand how beautiful. A prophet once said that ¨if men could see even the Telestial Kingdom, they would kill themselves to get there! (and be happy too)¨

 

I´ll write more later.

 

Bradley.