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.