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.