5/9/11

Yeah, I´ve always wanted to move over to Tampa. Florida. That´s not too far away, right? Not, LOL

Missionaries get abused here a lot, but I´ve never had to give a talk.

 

Yeah, but you always moved the steering wheel in the truck. And the seat...and the mirrors...

 

The cat likes to be brushed. It´s because he´s too lazy for self grooming.
Ah, the library. The odor of stale books and unwashed teenagers.

 

No, we really didn´t do anything yesterday. It was stake conference, so we just went into Barcelona. Then we came home and worked for a bit.

 

So...I decided I could send some pictures now. (made some arrangements). 3405 was a round of Bananagrams. Elder Plaskett lost, and kinda spelt some words with what he had left. Then there´s just some more random photos. Like signs in Vic.

 

Today, we´ll be going into Barcelona to have some happy time wandering around doing nothing. No, the envelope hasn´t come still.

 

Just be finishing up the transfer this week. I´ll probably be writing on Tuesday. Sorry for the short letter, but we did just talk on the phone.

 

Love,

 

Bradley.

5/2/11

Well, they are four years old. That´s a decent age for a cordless phone, it seems.

Rather than kill you with waiting for the details, I´ll be calling on Saturday. And since you´re nine hours behind at the moment, I´ll probably call around eight thirty, which means that the call should come in at 11:30AM your time on Saturday. I´ll check my email mid week to make sure that´s all right, so reply back saying that that´s okay, or tell me if there´s some sporting event that´ll be in the way so I can change it around. Yes, it´ll be the same setup.

Sounds like things have been interesting back there. That´s sad to hear about Brian and Cindy. Especially with that many kids in the middle of it. I did kind of think that the shed was supposed to be messy. It´s a tradition of sorts, isn´t it?

I actually wasn´t in Vic this week. We´ve still got things to do here back in Granollers, so I was here holding down the fort, and Elder Keller and one of the others was out in Vic handling things. Next week is Stake Conference (I´ll see if I make it this time). No baptisms yet, but we´re still really close. Hopefully things pull through before the end of the transfer. (17th).

So, yeah, I was on intercambios this week. Elder Keller went to Gerona to see how things were moving along there, and I was here with Elder Dalton. We had a good time, though most of our visits fired us. At least I was with someone who was more than happy to make Utah jokes...hehehe, though Elder Plaskett usually joins in with us, and he´s from there.

Wednesday night was the Madrid-Barcelona game, so that was nice and crazy. It was a miracle we had a visit at nine, though they were definitely pushing us to hurry and get out.

Thursday, we go out early to catch a train out to Gerona so we can switch back. While on the train we were flipping through some newspapers that had been left out to see what the score had ended up as and other things, when I see an article titled ¨Sony PlayStation Network servers hacked, user data of potentially all 70 million users stolen.¨

Apparently they had a security breach in their main servers, but they´re not sure just how big yet. They crashed the whole system to knock out the hack, but it´ll be a while before they know everything. Most likely, they´ve got a lot of credit card numbers, and yes, my card was tied to my account. Thankfully, it was the old card, so it won´t be a whole lot of use, but if it does turn out to have been stolen, they´ll be notifying me. So if the bank calls saying they´ve cancelled my card, or if the identity theft company calls saying something about how there was a problem, well, now you´ll know. I wouldn´t worry about it too much, though. It was pretty basic, public ally available info (name, etc) and nothing overly sensitive. And that card number is tied to an expired card. We´ll have to wait and see, though, because they´re still trying to see what was seen and/or taken. Either way (I know brandon really doesn´t use the PS3), but if he does start getting messages on it(or the 360. This was a pretty serious attack and very bold, so they might just make Xbox Live and Microsoft their next target) asking personal or funny questions, or if funny stuff starts happening, tell him to let me know. Their system is still shut down, but next week when it´s back up (maybe) I´ll get on and change all the passwords remotely. Crazy world, huh? At least I happened to have seen something, or I wouldn´t have known.

Anyway, we got to Gerona, and caught the train back to Granollers...except it wasn´t a train with a stop in Granollers. We ended up in Barcelona, then had to backtrack on another train to Granollers. I was pretty tired after all that.

Friday we did some work in Vic. Had to help out a bit in the seminary class they´ve got going out there.

Saturday, we just decided to do a full blown intercambio again, so I haven´t been out to Vic since Friday. I stayed here in Granollers with Elder Plaskett (I really don´t care for his companion. Another Gilbert weirdie.) That was nice for a change to not have to travel so much. We taught some of the usual hilarious lessons to Africans (¨This is not Bible. It is like Bible, but it is not Bible. But it is word of God. So we are here to give it to you.¨). Or something like that.

There was one African guy we were waiting for in a park...the other Elders had randomly contacted him, and while he was a Muslim, he was trying to stop smoking (it was a pretty funny contact. ¨That´s bad for you.¨ ¨You´re right!¨ (then the guy throws down all the tabacco). So we were just sharing how it´s bad to smoke and ways he could stop feeling the need to smoke. That´s some of the crazy, random things we do out here....

Then Sunday was spent here, a nice, quiet, normal day. It´s usually refreshing to go on intercambios, even if they can be a pain, because you get some fresh ideas and concepts to apply, plus it´s someone who you haven´t exhausted a lot of conversation topics with.

Things should keep moving along this week. I hope you all have a good one, and I´ll be talking to you on Saturday if all goes well, right?

Love,

Bradley.

4/25/11

The Trump? We haven´t had a president with long hair since Reagan! That would cause a lot of problems with China, but it´s probably about time. They´ve been purposly damaging our economy long enough with their illegal currency weaking games. Good tickets to look for would be Trump/Gingrich or even better, Trunt/Huntsman, since Trump would be a little weak on the foreign policy end, and Huntsman is the former US Ambassador to China.

 

I´ll probably end up needing to register remotely or something. Too bad the darn mail is so slow. You may have to look at that next year to see how we´ll have to do it, or if I´ll be back before the deadline to register to vote in the General Election.

So, yes, yesterday was the first day in the new branch. We met in a members apartment. She´s essentially donated the second floor to the church, so it was about 40 of us crammed in the room, and the Stake and Branch presidencies on the balcony. We didn´t have time to print out hymns, so we passed by the chapel here in Granollers and swiped about ten hymnbooks from them. The branch president was like ¨Did you ask for these?¨ with a smile. The stake president just laughed and said basically ¨I didn´t see anything.¨

 

Thankfully, our prayers worked, and it didn´t rain during the services(clouds looked nasty up until about 20 minutes before). The Stake President said that they´re in negotiations for a nice building they´ve found, but that they´re going to take a while, and it´ll have to be approved by the Europe Area Presidency. About five to six months at the expected rate, so I probably won´t be here when that happens. Afterwards the stake president drove us home. He told us we should ask the Office for a car since we´ll be travelling a ridiculous amount(he was pretty serious too). We told him we´ll think about it. Since we´ll be in the office for interviews tomorrow, we´ll bring in some clippings for some nice used Mercedes...hehehe.

 

In all reality, though, we´re going to be hitting them up for unlimited travel tickets. Our current one is only good for 70 trips, which isn´t very much between the two of us. With as often as we have to buy a new one, the office would actually save by buying a month long unlimited pass. Plus, we´re always out of money while we wait to get reimbursed...

 

Silly binner, she´s got to at least drink through out the day. She´ll drop like a stone at that rate. Brandon just needs better coaching. Sounds like he´s got some real winners.

 

She probably needs like an 04 Chevy Aveo...something light that bounces if it runs into something. Like a rollerskate. Maybe a Geo Metro.

 

So, it was Spanish ¨Lets all be bums¨ week, aka ¨Semana Santa¨. The whole country has been on holiday since Wednesday. Nothing will be back to normal until tomorrow. Like most catholic holidays, they´re not celebrated because the people actually believe, rather, because it´s an excuse to not work. So there´s been no mail delivery, no garbage pickup, no street cleaning, most stores have been closed, the train company has run the usual bad schedule, and I´m surprised the whole country didn´t just fall apart. All the dumpsters are overflowing, people are probably needing to send mail, lots of fun stuff.

 

We didn´t do anything too crazy this week, though. Lots of work. We´re looking at some baptisms soon. I think we´re about to get a whole family in Vic(4)-we´re so close, but I think they´ll pull through. The members are pulling, we´re pulling, and with a little help, it´ll be for this Saturday. Otherwise, it´ll be in two weeks, because the next week is Stake Conference. They like the church, they love us, they just need to pray a little more to get that testimony and they´ll come.

 

Tomorrow we´ll be in Barcelona for interviews, afterwhich we´ll all go make the usual fast food run. That´s kind of tradition to go eat somewhere after interviews. Then I´ve got to pick up a third journal-there´s only about 20 pages left in the second one.

 

Then, this week, Elder Keller will be in Gerona for Tuesday-Thursday, and little brother, Crofts younger and lesser son, Elder Dalton, from Oro Valley, will be here with me. So I´m sure we´ll be busy.

 

Well, I guess it was a quiet week again. Hopefully more next week. Sometimes I worry that I´ll keep saying next week, then I´ll be seeing you all in person...

 

Oh, yes, I´ll be calling home on the 8th. When is your church, so I can finagle around so that you can at least attend sacrament meeting?

 

 

Bradley.

4/18/11

OH TEH NOES OH MY WHAT DID YOU DO THE COMPUTER WILL DIE AND I DON´T KNOW WHAT TO DO...hahaha

 

It´s fine. My guess is that it was one of those annoying popups that locks up the browser, then looks like a virus scanner/Windows Explorer window, then tells you you´ve got ten billion viruses. Don´t worry. I´m sure all the protections I built in will keep things fine. I´ve already got plans for Larry to pass by the house and do a tune up on all the equipment when he gets home in a few months. I´ve got too many little tweaks to let people touch it-they´d say I was crazy. (and they say well...)

No, the week didn´t go as planned. The AP´s got involved with a grand ´plan´,(I think the Communists had better ´plans´.) so I ended up in a trio for most of the week. We still went into Barcelona for the day, but I ended up having to leave my bag there and not get it until Tuesday afternoon. And I´d packed so well I didn´t have anything left in the house...hehe.

 

Yes, the branch is still on schedule. This Sunday we´ll be having church there. Though now we´re hearing it´ll be almost five months before we´ve got the actual chapel ready-the city is throwing up all kinds of problems. If it was a...well, house of ill repute, we´d probably have an easier time getting the permits.

 

Eh, one year is aways away. Things are moving along nice and fine.

 

I think a good car for Marae would be an ´88 Buick Skylark. Two tone.

 

Binner used to be really good at being the teachers favorite. What happened there?

 

Seriously, another puppy will distort the zen balance of the house and cause a chemical imbalance which will resort in the departure of at least one cat. Then again, Dad would probably say that´s a good thing.

 

Transfers are still a while away. And if we were to suddenly get shipped out to Vic it´d be okay-we´d still be in Granollers on a weekly basis minimum.

 

So, it was a different week. Monday we did go into Barcelona to see the giant monument to the Catholic Church...not much of a spirit in that place. Probably won´t survive the Second Coming. Then we came back, worked in the area on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday as a trio (me as tag along). We did have some nice doctrinal discussions, though. I do enjoy those. I just wish I could find someone who likes the Bible as much as I do...

 

Nothing was too crazy. Thursday afternoon Elder Keller came back, then we went out into the countryside with this guy who´d randomly contacted us in the street. He took us out to see...another old catholic church.  But at least the walk there was nice.

 

It is pretty easy to see why most Catholics aren´t very active. The churches are nice and dinky. Usually pretty poor lighting as well. Like being in a crypt.

 

Friday, we did a fair bit of traveling. Taught a super confused Evangelical guy...he´s so messed up he´s afraid to touch the pages of the Book of Mormon, and then said that the picture of Christ that was up in the house was against the commandment of ´no images´. Then he muttered some memorized prayer and did a little ritual. I remarked afterward how glad I am that the church isn´t strapped by inane traditions like that. He just looked so trapped, uncomfortable, and unhappy.

 

Saturday was just spent preparing for Sunday. Sunday was the last time we´d be meeting in the church here, so things were mostly spent with the members saying good bye.

 

Now comes the big week. We´ll be pushing the whole week to get as many people to come on Sunday as possible. The stake president will be there, so we need to at least make the branch look as promising as possible.

 

I did finally eat all the candy. I guess I didn´t wait. Sorry.

 

Hopefully things go nice and calm this week for you all. I´m sure they will here too.

 

Love,

Bradley.

4/11/11

No, no more puppies! They´re messy, expensive, they only demand attention, and my cat will probably go on strike and destroy something.

 

They probably won´t send him to Mexico. Though I don´t know if they´re still having the colossal visa problems, but it´s probably not going to happen. I really doubt New Mexico, though. I´ll guess...Peru, or Argentina. There´s my two.

 

Sounds like the Binner had a rough race, but at least she´s all right.

 

China´s still just a rumor. It´s not like it´s a secret, but there´s not much weight behind it either. Mission rumors spread pretty easy.

 

If you send another card, make sure it´s not really big. I don´t think the camera will accept anything bigger than 2GB (especially without a firmware update). Dang thing´s still running 1.011-I don´t know why I didn´t think of updating it.

 

The branch is chugging along. It´s still not open yet, but we´ve finally got a firm date of the 24th from the stake.

 

I got a letter from Father Crofts today. Apparantly, his mother was reading my letters on the blog...I didn´t know they were being posted publically. Dearie me...I certaintly hope I haven´t offended anyone. . Now I have to censor myself.

 

So, it´s been a hot week. Too hot. And it´s not even summer yet...I think it´s going to be a warm one this year. And I´ll probably not be getting out of Granollers until the end of July transfer...and since every new area just moves me up north, I´ll probably head up to the Bilbao area...as long as it´s not St Sebastian...can´t take Benny Boy. *twitches*

 

So, today´s going to be a special day. We´re finally making the difficult journey on the infamous R2 Nord into Barcelona. The treacherous 35 minute trip on Renfe´s finest rat motels will hopefully get us in safely. Then we´ll be going to the giant ant hill, also known as the Sagrada Familia, as well as some other stuff. I´ll see if I can take some pictures.

 

This week is the grand and poweful ¨Leadership Training Seminar¨, which means my companion has to attend. Tonight we´ll be sleeping in Barcelona...with about four others, including the all-powerful Zone Leader, the Man from St. George. It´s been since I left for the field that we´ve seen eachother, so that should be good. Then I´ll be here in Granollers until Thursday afternoon with another missionary. Perhaps we´ll just stay in all day and play Bananagrams.

 

Elder Keller and I have been going through some McKinnon withdrawals. It´s been like a presence has been missing from the house all week. We´ve tried to console ourselves listening to his albums, but it hasn´t helped much. I think we´re recovering, though.

 

Getting close to filling volume two of the mission journals. I´ll have to order another one soon-there´s only 39 pages left to write in.

 

So I got a haircut last week. I felt a little gay, though. We were in a hurry, so we had to go to a slightly upscale shop. Then I let Plaskett go first, who opted for the shampoo treatment...then when I went up, they just assumed that I wanted a shampoo...ridiculous. 16 euros later...I don´t plan to go back. At least the haircut isn´t utterly horrible...

 

Nothing too crazy has been happening this week, though. It was pretty calm apart from the heat. We´re going to be looking for an apartment in Vic soon, so we´ll be looking for a palace with air conditioning..maybe even central air! (haha...right, that doesn´t exist here.) I remember how in the US we used to have to refrigerate things, too...milk...eggs...meat...nope, not here! With the magic Spain Milk, you can leave it open on the counter for a day or two and not see a difference. And if it expires on the shelf, they just have to run it back through the factory and it´s good for a few months more. It´s like magic!

 

Okay, I´ll calm down on the sarcasm. But I have a fanbase on the internets now, so I have to perform, right?

 

Hopefully you all have a good week.

 

Bradley.

4/4/11

Things have been shifting around here too. One day, it´ll be crazy hot, then things will cool off again.

 

The shoes are moving along okay. Getting shoes here will be fun, though. Those seem to be the most common things seized by los tontos de Madrid. Granted, those seem to be those ´hip´ Ecco shoes that run like 160 bucks (and they´re not waterproof) I´ve never seen a missionary with a pair that´s lasted their whole mission. Every single one falls apart in the heels.

 

My slip ons are fine (still more comfortable), the other ones are chugging along. There´s starting to be a little wear in the sole on one side, but it´s nothing out of the ordinary. Those things probably have quite a few miles on them.

 

Socks are fine. They´re holding up like they should. No elastic problems yet.

 

We didn´t see Elder Scott talk. Thanks to the time zone issue, we only see the Saturday sessions and Sunday morning. But President Monson made sure we all heard it in Priesthood session. ¨I just see groups of mid 20´s men running around! In groups! I don´t know what they´re doing!¨

 

Now, a secret. The Church has produced a new version of the ¨Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration¨ movie that they released in 2005. And they´ve released it for online download. http://radio.lds.org/joseph?lang=eng

 

Now here´s the fun part. You´ll just need to download it to a flash drive (use the 8GB one, plz), flip down the front door on the Blu-ray player, and stick the flash drive in. Then it should (if there´s no disc in) switch to flash drive mode and you´ll be able to watch it that way. Get the 1080p version (the download link is right below the video box, it´s a 2.2GB file, so transfer speeds will be a bit) so it looks nice and pretty on that big screen. We watched it in between sessions of conference and it´s a lot different from the old one (about 40% is new material). Yes, I know there´s a lot that that player does that I didn´t tell about. Did you know you can get on YouTube with it as well?

 

Fall on the house? I´d be more worried about it falling on my truck!  The house is insured!

So, it was kind of a slow week. We were running around preparing everyone for conference. Tuesday, an inactive had called us asking for help moving. So we all went out to Vic, get there...and nothing´s packed. She then handed around bags and had us pack, then take everything down for her. We set up a nice system, though. My comp and Elder Plaskett on the bottom, loading things in the van, Elder McKinnon and a member on the third floor, bringing things to the elevator, and me...in the elevator, taking things up and down. I probably made about 70 trips in the darn thing. Third floor, oh hi, thanks, close doors, open doors, push crap out, close doors, up to the third, oh hi...yeah. We were there all day. But it´s all right.

 

Spent the rest of the week running around. Then Saturday came. Did some work in the morning, then caught a ride in with a member. (yay...no train). We´re in the stake center waiting around while the member watched the young women meeting. Then, as we´re getting close to the conference, we happened to ask the stake president where we´d be watching it in English.

 

He says ¨Well, they just installed the satellite transceiver this morning, and it´s only configured for Spanish, and the only guy who kinda knows what to do is in Hospitalet.¨

 

So it´s 10 minutes before conference, and we´ve got no English. No time to take the Metro to Hospitalet either. The office elders get there, and we all ran up to the third floor (okay, we took the elevator), managed to get into the family history center (it´s a tiny room), and get the computer hooked up fast enough to start conference just in time. Then we packed twenty missionaries in a room the size of your bedroom...and there´s a lot of microfilm machines in there. It was toasty. But at least we got to watch it in English. After that was done, we went with some members to Plaza Espanya(yes, that´s deliberate spelling. The ¨ñ¨ doesn´t exist in Catalunya) to watch the fountain and light show. I took some pictures, but it was kinda dark. I´ll try to send them along some time. (I swear, none of the card readers in this stupid place work). Then we headed home.

 

Sunday, got up, caught the train, had to run over to Hospitalet to watch Priesthood session (since that´s not sent over the internet until later), then caught the Metro back to the stake center in Barcelona to watch the rest of conference. So we were everywhere. But at least we caught all the sessions in English this time.

 

President Monson thought he´d be funny in the last talk on the Sunday Morning session, though. Everyone thought he was dropping a surprise temple annoucement like President Hinckley used to do, except for one in Jerusalem (yeah, the age of the city was wrong).

 

So, transfer calls came in on Saturday night. Yes, I´m still here for another transfer. We´ll be working on building up the new branch, which, if things stay on schedule, will be having its first meeting there this Sunday. We´ll see how things turn out. ´

 

Today, we´re going to be getting a few things taken care of. I need a haircut, so I´ll be looking for that, and we´ll be taking it easy for the most part. Busy week planned. Hopefully.

 

Hope you all have a good week.

 

Bradley.

3/28/11

I didn´t get the email, no. Just one from Dad and Binner. I figured it was a server screwup. That´s alright.

 

However, the box did arrive. I´ve now had to establish limits as to when I can do crosswords. Gracias.

 

The story on TV was probably over the completion of the Madrid/Murcia/Valencia AVE line they opened up in late December. Of course, President´s just banned us from all AVE travel () except in the rare approved case. But it´s okay.

 

Yeah, they´ve got all these conferences, though I haven´t attended a single one yet. I barely missed ward conference in Tarragona, then Close and I missed Stake Conference thanks to the time change, then I barely missed ward conference here, and I have no idea when stake conference is next.

 

Clothes are fine, as far as I know. Though I´ll probably just be tossing a lot of things when the time finally comes to go home. I guess there is a potential problem with the shoes. The left shoe on the lacing pair is starting to come away from the sole on the flex point where the shoe bends from walking. It´s not off completely, but there´s some stressed leather there for sure. I´m thinking about getting some super glue and just gluing it back down before it comes off entirely.

 

I think you´ll be getting that missing box back one day. Somehow I´ll get my revenge on the office for botching that one. And Spain, them too.

 

Yes, the booboo brought in mud every single day. I usually scraped off her paws and only let her out when she whined to go to the bathroom.

 

We finally went to the new building. I wasn´t that impressed, actually. For Spain it´s nice, and it looks nice from the outside, but it still looks kinda small. The stand was surprisingly small. I think the sacrament hall and the overflow would fit in our cultural hall. We´ll be going back for conference, though. They´re not equipped to show it period here in Granollers, and if they were, it woudn´t be in English. We´ll see the saturday sessions, the first sunday session, and the priesthood session.

 

Nope, I was actually sitting at the main table playing some games. We don´t go to bed until 11:30, remember?

 

I guess maybe Johnny won´t sneak around so much. Dope.

 

No baptisms set for this week. We´ve got some uncooperative investigators at the moment. "I´m going to do all I can to come to church, I promise." No show. "Oh, you know, things came up."

 

I´ve been using the leather cleaner. It´s helping, but there´s ten months of grime and sweat stains. With time it´ll look better, I´m sure. The triple´s case is still in nice shape, but I usually don´t carry it around in my hand.

 

This week should be calm as usual. We don´t have too much planned for today, or for the week, really. Hopefully you all have a nice week too.

 

Bradley.

3/21/11

Well, this week wasn´t too bad. We were fairly busy. Monday we really didn´t do anything, but it did rain pretty good. Shoes were soaked. Even if they´re waterproof, sometimes we were in puddles higher than the sides! Then we had a lesson with a new investigator, Alberto, and set a baptismal date with him. (which we´ve since had to change) Tuesday, not a whole lot happened. It was raining again. We did have a good lesson with Julietta, an investigator, and set a baptismal date with her (which we´ve since had to change as well.) Wednesday we had the usual lessons. English class went well. We were running all over the area on trains for the day. Thursday we ate with some members, and had some violent games of Uno. We were playing points, and I got hammered on the first game, ended up with 200 odd points. After that I was wiping everyone out, but by then it didn´t matter. Friday we all went out to Vic to eat with some members, It didn´t rain, for the first time this week. Saturday we went out and traveled a lot again. Then on Sunday, had church, went out and set another baptismal date with Isaac. After that, we had a family home evening with all the members of the soon-to-be branch. That went pretty well.

 

This week shoudn´t be too bad. We´ve got zone conference tomorrow, so that means a trip to Barcelona. Today we´re headed there as well to stop by the office and then to head off to see some sights. I think we´re looking at going to the Sagrada Familia, but we´ll see. Other than that, not much else happening.

 

Hope you all have a good week.

 

Bradley.

3/14/11

Sounds like she was pretty sick. Hopefully she starts clearing up.

 

High schools who let the sports stars get away with things are bound to have problems. I doubt there´s much of any kind of honor code there, from what it sounds like.

Yeah, I remember how the booboo always makes a huge mess. Maybe you´ll have to beat her a little...

 

Yeah, we heard about the tsunami the day it happened, actually. I guess the earthquake actually caused the Angel Moroni to spin on the Tokyo Temple-it´s not where it should be.  

 

That earthquake will probably shake a few other things loose. California´s been waiting for something to happen any time lately, and big deep quakes tend to cause other problems. Big quake there could lead to more problems in Yellowstone, not to mention problems throughout the rocky mountains. The Church has been concerned about earthquakes in Salt Lake for a few years now. That´s why the Conference Center meets standards ten times higher than law requires, and why the Tabernacle was rebuilt a few years ago.

 

Maybe California will fall off and we can have some beach near Yuma?

 

The missionary push is probably because things are opening up for the work to take another big step forward, and the Lord´s pushing things along a little faster. We were talking with some members lately and all are in agreement that we´re probably moving into the last times now. Conference will probably tell a lot-whether it´s a lighter hearted tone like the past, or serious and urgent like October´s conference.

 

Still don´t have it. I´ve pretty well given up on it. It´ll probably make it´s way back to the States in a few months.

 

Patrick´s single and 22, so nothing else is really coming from that end.

 

Yeah, it sounds like you need to clean some of the debris out of the shed.

 

So, it was a fairly calm week. Nothing really big happened. Our little branch might die before it ever gets started. The stake doesn´t seem very interested in starting it at all. Stake President was saying ¨Yeah, every time we have to open something, it´s just problems. It´s hard, problems, problems.¨. Now we´re being told that if they don´t find a place to rent within three weeks, they´ll throw it on hold for a while, saying it´d be ´paralyzed.´ Well, we´ll see. No telling if we´ll ever end up moving out there or not. It´s costing a fair amount of money and time for us to keep traveling. I´ve run more train rides in the past three weeks than in my whole mission combined...

 

Still, I suppose some things did happen. Out in Vic, and with one station here in Granollers, we´ve decided to get a little more ´pijo´ (doesn´t really translate, which is why we just insert it into English, but roughly, it´d be like ´demanding of expensive things´. Now we buy fresh milk instead of the crappy Spanish stuff that you don´t have to refrigerate...(it´s creepy). At least it has to be refrigerated. That´s a plus.

 

I found decent non Chinese toothbrushes here. You think the Chinese stuff in the US is crap...here´s where they send all the factory line rejects. As for toothpaste...Í´ll probably just end up having to use Colgate...

 

But one thing I can´t live without...is deodorant. That´s going to have to get through customs somehow. I´m about to start the last stick I´ve got, so there´s some time, but I guess if you ever find that leather conditioner you can send a stick or two with it, plz.

 

Oh, I did finally get to go to Lidl and buy the...peachie o´s!!!! And they had US style peanut butter that didn´t cost an arm and a leg. Just an arm.

 

Well, maybe more will happen this week. Hope you all have fun this week.

 

Bradley.

3/7/11

Spring, huh? It´s been spring for me since January, I think. Though it´s a little cooler here.

 

The high councilman is older-like 50´s. Kids are already grown up.

 

I have no plans to move to Spain. The fact that you cannot buy a simple thing like yeast in the store is a key reason to not move. (or cookie dough ice cream). Not to mention the inflation. I did some figures the other day and realized that a gallon of milk here would cost roughly $4.50...might as well move to Alaska and mine for some gold.

 

Elder Keller is fine. Yeah, he´s from Utah, but he doesn´t act like it, for once.

 

So I got the packages this morning. Nice on depackaging the Maple Nut Goodies-don´t worry, they were fine.

 

Good to hear the youth are receiving abuse. I saw too many little turd heads in my last area. The youth here in Granollers seem a little more straight.

 

Those Smith sunglasses? I gave them to him since they don´t fit me anyway-and they´re not prescription.

 

As far as I know, no law had been passed saying that kids with permits couldn´t drive on the freeway. Granted, I´ve been gone for a bit, but it doesn´t seem like a very logical law. Just be glad he´s not here in spain. It´s about 1000 to get a drivers license. And it´s like a month of ´practices´

 

Larry´s home in September. And if you told him he was going home in August he might have a stroke. :) Missionaries get like that when they get close to going home.

 

So, the week went pretty good. Had another baptism on Saturday. I´m trying to send pictures, but the card slots on this pile of junk aren´t in working order... . Either way, his name´s Patrick, and he´s from Ghana. He´ll be out in the Vic branch. I did the dunking this time around. Poor guy-he doesn´t understand a ton of English, and while the other Ghanans told him to plug his nose, he didn´t. And while I kept his legs from coming up, he just went board stiff under the water. Then he started squirming, so I had to haul him up out of the water and put him on his feet. At least he didn´t drown too badly.

 

Talked with the Stake President yesterday, who said that within four weeks max they´ll have a spot for the new branch. Won´t be permanent, but I think at the end of this transfer (which happens to be in four weeks) President will reassign us to that area. That means we´ll have to find a new apartment. Thankfully, the members in that area said they´re super easy to find, and fairly cheap. Shirley (yes, I´m serious) said she looked at one that was a two story three bedroom loft for 500 a month....which we could swing by the office without too much of a hassle.

 

We´ll have to blackmail the AP´s into bringing down an office van to help us move...because we´ll be taking the clothes dryer to Vic. Oh yes, we have a dryer here...kinda. The missionaries in the past found it in the street, without the plastic panel on the door. So, like natural people, they brought it home, created a new window of aluminum foil, and we´ve been using it ever since. I´d forgotten what socks felt like when they´ve been properly dried.

 

That means we´ll have from the town Centelles up to, well, Puigcerda in theory but in actuality the French border. I guess President already said we weren´t allowed to dart across the border for any reason. . Catalan provinces Ripollet, Osona, and the one above it.

 

We keep hearing little tidbits about Crofts, since he´s talking with a lot of the members here. Jason Afton Crofts.

 

The stake center was mainly so expensive because of the location-in between two high-rises-and because it´s designed so that it could be converted into a temple with little difficulty. They usually have fairly interesting buildings here-the one in Hospitalet is four stories high. The top floor is an indoor soccer court...the heresy.

 

It was finished in September, but the Church barely got the occupancy permit in the beginning of January. Spain´s not too friendly with the church in that area-the Area Presidency keeps having to come down to talk with some of the local officials. Malaga´s been waiting a few months for one on a new building there too.

 

Well, today doesn´t have any crazy plans. I think I´ll mainly be relaxing and staying calm. Next week I´ll grab a better computer and send those pictures along. Have a good week.

 

Bradley.

2/28/11

It really isn´t that much colder here, but we´re not that much further up. I´m told it´s cold in the winter, but we´re already moving out of that. It´s a pretty average size ward...for now.

 

They´re splitting the ward and making a branch out in Vic within a month, provided they can find a spot for it. When that happens, Elder Keller and I will be getting shipped out there to be there for good. (Well, until we get transferred).

 

We´re in a four man apartment for right now, until we´re out. It´s not too crowded, though.

I remember him a little bit, but not much. I wasn´t around the lower classes very much.

 

I suspected the number of people actually serving missions was pretty low, but that´s low by all standards. That might be lower than it was when President Kimball gave his talk in 1974 calling for the church to change and more missionaries to go out. I just did a little figuring, and while it´s not accurate because all the church membership isn´t elegible for a mission right now, .3 percent of the church is serving in a missionary capacity. Yeah, that´s three tenths of a percent.

 

Had a funny experience in church yesterday. One of the High Councilmen was giving a talk. I thought he looked a little funny, then after he´d talked for about thirty seconds I knew he wasn´t a native spanish speaker. (words weren´t slurred together enough.) Turns out he´s from Utah, just married a Spanish girl (probably met her on his mission).

 

As for the package, Señor Johnson made it sound like it´d been released, but I´m not holding my breath.(the office is horrifically incompetent) And if it does get out, it´ll get delivered to the Rambla, which means the earliest I´d be looking at getting it would be zone conference on the 22nd.

 

So, even with the move, I don´t think you need to stop the mail already. There´s no date on when we´re moving, and I´d be in Granollers for district meeting weekly if something did end up getting delivered here.

 

I am starting to get ready for Conference. This time, I´m pretty sure (especially if we end up in Vic) we´ll be going into Barcelona, and we´ll get to watch it in that new multi-million dollar stake center (it´s pretty crazy, I´ve heard). Supposed to be the most expensive stake center in church history.

 

I know we´re probably going to have to be selective about what we ship from now on, but something I do need that I don´t think I´ll be able to obtain here is some leather cleaner/conditioner. The cases for my spanish scriptures are genuine leather, and the Bible case is getting pretty scuffed and dirty. (grime from sweat, I think). I had pictures but I forgot to grab the card this morning.

 

Tuesday was pretty crazy, since it was traveling, then unpacking, then traveling. Elder Crofts went home. He looked pretty excited. Lots of the members here have been telling us how he´s back on Facebook now. Elder Keller said his time here was pretty rough (bad area/situation/companion), so he´s probably glad to just be done with it.

 

There happens to be a device in the apartment here that has keys and clicks, and at the same time makes impressions on paper with some ink involved...yes, that´s right. And it´s not a stinky electric one this time.

 

As for Brandon´s patriarchal blessing, tell him to think about it and pray over it. Maybe talk with Bishop. He still has time for that kind of stuff later, though. Only a wee 15 year old.

 

Well, I´m out of time. Hope you all have a good week.

 

Bradley

2/22/11 Transfer Day to Granollers

Okay, so I´m in Granollers right now. Address is C/Girona 35, 3, 1, 08402 Granollers. I think I´m always going to have a three or a one in my address...

 

Been a busy couple of days. Packed most of my stuff yesterday, though I waited on the shirts and slacks until this morning. Then I woke up this morning, finished packing the rest of it, and headed off to catch the bus out to the train station...alone. Yeah, they took me to the bus, but I had to go out alone on the bus and then sit in the train station alone. It was fully cleared, but it was weird. You get used to having someone to talk to, and when you don´t have someone, and there´s no phone to send off a text message to someone...it was a little different. Caught the train, where there were four other missionaries all being transferred out of their areas waiting, and we headed into the station. Elder Plaskett and I were both coming to Granollers, so we were together in the train station. About ten or twelve of us were all standing around waiting.

 

There was a big group waiting to head down to Valencia, as most of that area had changes. Since my trainer was in Granollers for his last two transfers, he was the one who showed up at the station to hand over keys, a phone, and a commuter train ticket. Elder Crofts is going home tomorrow...he´s got to be excited. And nervous.

 

So yeah, Elder Plaskett and I were heading to Granollers alone...with all the luggage. Thankfully, we caught the train, rode it out for 45 minutes, and then came out...no welcoming party. We call Elder Keller and say...ah, hello, hay personas esperando...But the piso was close...just down a road, so we walked ourselves.

 

He´s going to be a good companion. Granted, he´s headed for Barcelona right now, and Elder Plaskett and I are alone here in Granollers...

 

Since we´re so close to Barcelona, and we´re in the Barcelona zone, we´re going into Plaza Catalunya to ¨sing for the dead¨, where the missionaries who are going home and anyone else in the area sings. Luckily I know my way around pretty well, so we can get there by ourselves.

 

With the luggage, I took apart all the strap sections to piece together one good one, and then put the big bag and the middle one, so it worked fine.

 

That school schedule doesn´t sound any fun. Sounds just mean...

 

I´m all unpacked now, and I´ll be getting to work tomorrow. I´ll be writing next week. Have a good one.

2/21/11

Okay, so I´s getting transferred out of the big Tarragona.

I`m headed more up north. (I was right again!) Granollers, a pueblo of Barcelona. It´s supposed to be slightly smaller than my first area, I believe. I´ll be leaving tomorrow around noon, and I should be there within a few hours of leaving. I´ll be in the secondary companionship, which means I also end up working for a few days a week in Vic, a nearby city with a lone branch out there. Travel there in the morning, travel back at night type thing. After two transfers of hardly riding the train...back to trains. Though I doubt I´ll be riding the bus as much as we do here in Tarragona.

It´s supposed to be colder up there, though. But at least this time I should be able to stay in the area for four transfers, so I´ll be there for the summer. Not so hot.

Packing´s going...I still hate doing it. But I´m doing some tweaks, and I´m also shedding some more stuff here from the MTC that I don´t need/use anymore. So that should make up for the stuff I´ve added.

So, things went through, and we had a baptism yesterday. Her name is Susana, and she´s the one who was baptised 20 years ago but never confirmed. Thankfully she came to church on Sunday this time.

It was a busy week. Traveled into Barcelona on Friday for interviews, then came back at 5 for the baptism at 6:30. We´d had to ask a member to fill the font up earlier since it usually takes about two and a half hours. However, not thinking, the member filled it around 1...so the water was nice and frozen by the time we had the baptism. That had been the one thing she´d made clear-that she didn´t like cold water. Thankfully, she was a good sport about it and got in.

I´m planning on writing more tomorrow, primarily with the address to the new apartment. Hopefully things ride nice and smoothly tomorrow, as transfers can be messy. Thankfully, Elder Keller is meeting me in Barn-Sants to help get the luggage to Granollers. 3 bags+1person=no happy. But that means I´ll be alone for about an hour on the train in...probably be a little weird to do that.

I think I´m going to go look for some bungie cords or straps today, since I might need to roll the luggage together. All those stupid buckles snapped a long time ago.

Gas is expensive because of all the riots and strikes in the upper part of Africa, I believe. It´s messing up the price of crude pretty badly, from what I´ve heard. Of course, all those areas might be opened up to the church pretty soon, so that might be a good side effect.

Okay, rest tomorrow.

Bradley.

2/9/11 From President Hinckley

Dear



                       Michael David Mattice |Mary Lee Mattice


                     Sister Hinckley and I want you to know how much we enjoy working with your missionary in this great work of bringing souls unto Christ. We love our missionaries. We want you to know that we will always do everything possible to safeguard your missionary´s physical and spiritual wellbeing to help him/her serve honorably and effectively.

We see remarkable miracles every day in this work. The Lord blessed us with great success during 2010, and we had the tremendous experience of seeing 340 of our Heavenly Father´s children enter the waters of baptism during the year.

Each missionary in the Spain Barcelona Mission has worked with faith and dedication, and each of them is determined to continue to grow in faith and obedience in 2011. We invite you to join your prayers with those of your missionary that the Lord´s blessings will continue to increase and that we might bring many more precious souls unto Christ in 2011.

In addition to your prayers, there are some specific things you can do to help your son or daughter rise to an even higher level this year.

1. Write or email your missionary every week. Your support and encouragement is invaluable.

2. Encourage your missionary to be prayerful, obedient, and focused on his/her purpose.

3. Share with your missionary your own positive missionary experiences at home and some of the spiritual experiences you are having and the spiritual growth you are experiencing.

4. Keep your letters positive and uplifting and appropriate for missionary life.

5. Do not burden your missionary with news of details of problems at home, such as financial reversals, family difficulties, health problems, etc. Such information not only distracts them from their work, but can be devastating and cause a missionary to lose focus for weeks and even months, worrying about a situation beyond his/her control. Turn instead to the Lord; He will bless you as you support your missionary.

6. If your missionary has a close friend of the opposite sex at home, encourage that person to grow spiritually and keep their communication positive and supportive.

If you do not have a copy of the white Missionary Handbook and Preach My Gospel, I encourage you to obtain one. They are available at Church Distribution Centers and online at www.lds.org.

Sister Hinckley and I feel extremely blessed to be able to work so closely with the remarkable young men and women serving the Spain Barcelona Mission. Thank you for sending us such a wonderful young missionary. We pray that the Lord will bless you and your family during this special time that you have a missionary serving.


Sincerely
Clark B. Hinckley

President, Spain Barcelona Mission

2/14/11

Glad I could be of service. Yes, I still can be my sarcastic self. I charge by the hour.

We´re allegedly having interviews on Friday. I don´t trust the office, though.

Photos...76 is a drinking fountain in Spain. 77 is a place where I´ve spent half my mission...the bus stop. 80 and 81 are pictures of a little town, Vilallonga del Camp, which is just one main street. 87 is Gerard and I, 99 is how not to have the wall decorated, etc.

Yes, I got the envelope on Friday. It made it. Transfer calls are Saturday night this time around, but if I go, I might write on Monday or Tuesday. Depends on how they want me to move out, and where.

I haven´t heard anything about the box...I need to call up the office and find out what´s going on with it. It might be lost in the depths of the Spanish Inquisition.

Well, I don´t have any visits scheduled during today, thankfully. So I´ll be able to get done my huge to-do list. End of the list is peachie o´s...

The african branch will take time. It´d be a while, though we´re getting more to come in. But we need some more Melchizedek Priesthood holders first.

I think that´s a concern of a lot of mission presidents. Quite a few sometimes don´t get anything more than a quick iPhone email saying ¨Sorry, we´re so busy. We´ll write you next week.¨

(This above was Bradley's answer when I questioned why President Hinckley stressed the importance of emailing your missionary child...I CANNOT believe...parents don't do this....so sad!!!   You can read President Hinckley's letter prior to this letter)

We eat fine. Sometimes we eat with people, some times we eat in house.

Now, remind Brandon that driving isn´t like Gran Turismo 3. You don´t bounce the car off the wall to make the turn without hitting the brakes...oh dear, I hope the insurance premiums are paid up.

We don´t get a ton of rain. A lot of times it just kinda drizzles at night, then we wake up with wet streets and fog.

Now, what I would like are, occasionally, a few sports sections sent in the mail. I don´t think they can tax it, but I would kinda like a short update once in a while. 

We´ll actually be having a surprise baptism this Saturday if things don´t fall through. It´s a long story: Susana, from the Dominican Republic, was baptised 20 years ago, but she was evidently never confirmed, making the baptism invalid. We´ve had both the Bishop and the central offices in Madrid dig for the records, but they don´t seem to exist, and she doesn´t remember anything about being confirmed. So she´s decided on this Saturday, as some time in the following weeks she´s taking off for the US to be there for a while. #95, the lady to the left.


That´s all for this week.Bradley

2/6/11

I like to let pictures do the talking sometimes. It´s easier. So that´s five thousand words I just typed...impressive, eh?

So that´s Kate. Baptism went through without a hitch this time. Water was even warm. Some of the attendees grumbled about the fact that most of the program was in English, but they´ll get over it.

The two little girls, Sofia and Osas, are 7 and 5 years old, and Kate´s pregnant right now, so they´ll be a good family to have in the ward.

I got the card, yes.

I know I can always deal with it. I´ll probably need three or four decades of counseling after my mission, but I guess that´s not too bad. If you just admit that since you haven´t lived in Utah you´ve obviously gone to church in a barn, don´t know anything about the gospel, and have no idea how ´real life´ is(I´ve had one dope ask if Arizona even had a temple...no joke), you usually don´t have too many problems.

Sounds like it´s a little cold there. We´re still with nice spring weather here-short sleeves and slacks. This area´s got a reputation for nice weather.

Well, we were planning on having interviews with President this week...except now the office is basically telling us that we´re ´just not fitting in with President´s schedule´, and it doesn´t look like we´re even going to get an interview until the next time around...in May. There´s been a little grumbling about that around here for the past week. We needed to get into the office to pick up supplies, and now we´ll end up waiting until transfers.

So, like I was telling dad, I´m probably up for a transfer. Three transfers is when you start getting ready, and since I´ve been two with my current companion, that really means it´s time to go.

I´m hoping to head up north. Not because of the cold, but...well, I´m just ready to get out of Tarragona. I originally was hoping to stay for four, but now I´m ready to get out and move on. I´ll even be happy to go back to being junior companion again.

 And I really don´t want to head back down south, since I´ll probably end up in this new area for at least part of the summer. I´d like Pamplona, but it´s not a probable spot. Where ever I go, I just hope it´s in a nice area(not dozens of factories spewing toxic smoke just outside town ), and that my companion is clean...I think you´d just die with the eating habits of most of the missionaries. If you want to make a sandwich, use a plate. The countertop is not a plate! *grumble*. That´s why I´ve given up on keeping the kitchen clean. Between my companion and Benito...the house is a disaster except for my study cubby. Any time I find a dish I just wash it before I use it anyway. In that sense, I miss Elder Close...

With the package, Elder Hansen said his parents had some issues. According to what USPS is saying, all kinds of packages are getting stopped in Spain. They said that as they slip deeper and deeper into debt, they´re trying to suck every last dime they can get, from anyone they can try to scam. A lot of big companies have stopped shipping purchases here just for that reason.

I probably just would have been kicked out of the game. Sounds like it was quite the little disaster.

P-day clothes here are just normal shirt and tie, just like any other day. No rest for the weary...especially today, since my companion doesn´t seem to understand that he shouldn´t set appointments on p-day...we´ve got one at four and one at six, and both require travelling, so most of the day is shot, and we had one this morning, so that´s why I´m a little late writing this letter.

Not much planned for today. I´ll be dragging around my camera for a few days this week just to start taking pictures before I leave.

Agg, this letter´s too short, I know. But now I´m running out of time to write.

I don´t need any money on the card. I don´t do any personal shopping anyway. Not really anything to buy and it´s no where near souvenir time yet. Maybe in a year and a half or so I´ll start thinking about it. :)

Have a good week.

Bradley.

1/31/11

Hehehe, I thought about that but sent it anyway.

I´m not sure how much they´ll be able to sell the house for now, seeing as it´s had that much water in it.

Free healthcare in Spain = wannabee crazy nuts claiming to be doctors using LittleTykes surgical equipment and calling it ´good´. If you pay extra they´ll change gloves and put on a smile.

Next time you´re in San Carlos you can show them a picture of George...tell them I´ve got their chieftan hostage and I won´t give him back.

As for the library, just keep a can of Lysol ready always. Spray all the children down, spray their books down as they hand them over to you, and wear a respirator to keep from coming down with Toxic Lysol Overdose Syndrome. That´s something I wish they had discovered here...Lysol. Or Febreeze. Or maybe just deodorant...

Yeah, I´m not entirely sure how legal it is what they´re doing, but since there´s very little real oversight here, I don´t think I´ll be able to do much about the mail.

That being said, transfers are coming up again. 22 of February. So around Monday or Tuesday of next week will be the cut off date for mail, especially since I´m probably out of here.

Thursday, all the little Spainards threw up a general strike again...and again, it didn´t seem to do anything. I didn´t even see anything closed this time. I think they actually put up more publicity the day after the strike was supposed to happen.

No one really new this week. It was a little slower.

We were supposed to have interviews tomorrow, but when I called to get some times the office said ¨Oh, that´s right, we couldn´t fit you all into the schedule, so you might be getting interviewed next week. Maybe.¨ We´re an hour from Barcelona, and somehow we got bumped to next week. Granted, the interviews are all of two minutes long , so it´s not a huge loss, but still, we needed to pick up some supplies from the office.

Last night, we had nothing to do at all, so we took a bus out to a pueblo in the middle of nowhere to pass by an address. At least the address was real, but no one was home. So it was two hours of waiting for the bus to circle back and pick us up...and there wasn´t anything in the down. St. David is probably bigger.

I see on the weekly newsletter that someone I was teaching in my last area has a baptismal date for this week...we´ll see. That´d be one more of that family baptised.

Today, I´ve got to take some slacks into the cleaners, then we´re planning on playing a little Battleship. Maybe some cards.

Sorry for the short letter, but that´s what I have.