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