I try to behave myself, I suppose. That probably helps. I´m a low-stress missionary.
I´m neither excited nor fearful. I´m simply moving along. My companion reminds me at least once a day how close that day is, but it´s okay.
I haven´t locked in the study plans just yet. I know I have to start thinking about that, but it doesn´t help that I don´t know what the exact major would even be yet. There´s time for that yet.
Yes, I finally sent out a blind e-mail to what I thought was Larry´s e-mail address last week and it was. He´s up at BYU Idaho. Says that I need to get home quick. :)
No, they don´t have Boy Scouts here in Spain. That´s pretty well only a US and England thing. They´ve been trying to get the Center for Young Adults open and working (that´s for the 18 to 30 year olds). There´s not much to do here in Europe that´s not corrupt (this is a pretty wicked land), so it´s a good way to keep them with their heads focused in the gospel. .
I know I was thinking that if I was working with the stock market, I´d have to be closer to New York to balance out the time difference a little more, so I might be moving to Minnesota. That´s not too far away, and there´s plenty of snow for the winter. And relatively low taxes, I believe. That´s important.
Sounds like you had a sick puppy there. Hopefully he stays better. It´s probably for the best if we don´t get any more dogs. You know, the neighbors might start to think that we´re running an animal shelter.
No, Bob´s not moving forward as he should. One of his biggest problems is that he´s not doing what he needs to for the Lord to work miracles in his life. If you´re not truly repenting, then getting baptised won´t serve for anything. He´s realized that there´s nothing more we can teach him-now it´s up to him to make a decision.
Well, life moves along. Everything´s closed today, so we weren´t able to do much (or even buy food). Another holiday...Spain´s been closed since Wednesday. The postal service hasn´t been open since Tuesday. Nor have any government offices. I´m not sure how anything gets done. I´m sure tomorrow will bring a nice wave of mess when things grind back to a start.
We´ll be looking for a new apartment this week. If all goes perfectly, we´ll be able to move out of the one were in by the end of this month. We´re all tired of living there. You clean and it´s still dirty looking. Plus the mold problems in the bathroom...yeah, we´re moving fast.
I hope you all have a good, smooth week.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
4/2/12
The office should be requesting my travel home soon. I spoke about the routing with the secretary and he said that it shouldn´t be a problem-and that they had someone fly home to Tucson and the routing was just Barcelona-Atlanta-Tucson, and they didn´t even involve Phoenix. But they´re a little behind on it. They´ll be in touch with you soon, they just haven´t gotten around to it yet.
Yeah, I´m sure the Europeans woudn´t even comment on that. They´re still of the opinion that Obama is ¨The One¨ and that he´s wonderful because he´s all about the freebies, being weak, etc,
I did get the package-I just forgot about it when I was writing my letter. Thank you very much for all the wonderful foot powder...:). That was the most needed thing, heh. But all the stuff was wonderful.
There´s always been a mail key in the van...it´s in the cupholder. I suspect it´s still in the cupholder.
The last week calmed down for conference. We didn´t have any technical difficulties this time-though the satellite didn´t work for more than 30 minutes for the Spanish transmission, but the district president was prepared and just live streamed both the English and Spanish broadcasts over the internet. The church had that new policy of broadband going into all church owned chapels, and thankfully they put it in in Palma last month, so we had that as a backup.
Today we´re having a much calmer day. We´re going to stay home and play Risk. You know, the game of world domination? :)
I´ve been on the phone for half the time I´m on the internet, so this letter might be a little shorter.
We were surprised with the new Presiding Bishopric being called. We just met Elder Caussé in December, and I knew he was planning another mission tour in June, but now he´s not.hehe. But hey, now I can say I´ve met the first counselor, and that he knew how to pronounce my last name on the first try without a problem.
The strike was a bust. Nothing even closed. Nothing exciting happens here. But planning a strike that works takes effort or a lot of anger, and there wasn´t either in this case. But that´s okay. Better luck next time, right?
Well, I hope that this week moves along more smoothly. We´ll be getting haircuts today as well. We´re going to a place called ¨Haircuts FU¨...some chinese place. Not the best implication from the name, right?
Love,
Bradley.
Yeah, I´m sure the Europeans woudn´t even comment on that. They´re still of the opinion that Obama is ¨The One¨ and that he´s wonderful because he´s all about the freebies, being weak, etc,
I did get the package-I just forgot about it when I was writing my letter. Thank you very much for all the wonderful foot powder...:). That was the most needed thing, heh. But all the stuff was wonderful.
There´s always been a mail key in the van...it´s in the cupholder. I suspect it´s still in the cupholder.
The last week calmed down for conference. We didn´t have any technical difficulties this time-though the satellite didn´t work for more than 30 minutes for the Spanish transmission, but the district president was prepared and just live streamed both the English and Spanish broadcasts over the internet. The church had that new policy of broadband going into all church owned chapels, and thankfully they put it in in Palma last month, so we had that as a backup.
Today we´re having a much calmer day. We´re going to stay home and play Risk. You know, the game of world domination? :)
I´ve been on the phone for half the time I´m on the internet, so this letter might be a little shorter.
We were surprised with the new Presiding Bishopric being called. We just met Elder Caussé in December, and I knew he was planning another mission tour in June, but now he´s not.hehe. But hey, now I can say I´ve met the first counselor, and that he knew how to pronounce my last name on the first try without a problem.
The strike was a bust. Nothing even closed. Nothing exciting happens here. But planning a strike that works takes effort or a lot of anger, and there wasn´t either in this case. But that´s okay. Better luck next time, right?
Well, I hope that this week moves along more smoothly. We´ll be getting haircuts today as well. We´re going to a place called ¨Haircuts FU¨...some chinese place. Not the best implication from the name, right?
Love,
Bradley.
3/28/12
There´s usually a similar set of problems with most missionary pisos. 1. The missionaries are lazy and haven´t done basic cleaning or maintence. 2. The missionaries who found the piso are lazy or utterly inexperienced in real estate, and settle for the first one that fit the price and number of bedroom requirements. And 3. Spanish construction.
All three of those items combined add up to form a bad problem.
That´s how it was in the Palma piso. The classic bad Spanish tile (which looks dirty no matter what you do). Old windows that leak. An old bathroom (which had mold all over the ceiling (partially for lack of any type of vent fan). A bad electrical system which can´t run more than anything one item at once. Etc. But it´s much better. Most of it can be solved by common sense. For example, if you leave the bathroom window open, and leave the door ajar with the other window open, all the steam goes out and you won´t have problems in the future. And it´s mainly just a matter of buying the right cleaning supplies, and then actually doing the cleaning.
I´ve probably said it before, but I do thank my parents for having taught me some good common sense.
So Jose Luis was baptised this weekend. Attached are the pictures of him, Maria Luisa, his member friend that presented him the church, and the member who baptised him (who really is that pale. He looks somewhat like Mr. Edward is what most missionaries say).
The other pictures are just some shots of Palma I took from the bus.
So it was a busy week last week. We were traveling everywhere. On Tuesday we had meetings in Inca with the Mallorca missionaries, where we finally met with the McArthurs. They´re a nice couple. Then I was out in Manacor on exchanges for Wednesday evening and Thursday. We´ve still got some things to work out there.
The weekend was mostly calm. Monday, we flew into Barcelona again. No problems on the flight. Flew back on Tuesday. A lot of meetings, lots of talking. We´re going to avoid any excessive travel this week as we prepare for Conference. It should be a calm week. Then I´m sure we´ll be back at the race the week following conference. Tomorrow in particular will be interesting, however. It´s another general strike, which is where all the ´hard workers´ get together to protest how ´hard´ they work. But they do it organizedly because they know it´s not effective. So there´s usually a lot of advertising in advance. Like President said, the worst it´s come to was a few mattresses in the Ronda de Dalt in 2010 in Barcelona that stopped traffic for a bit.
Hopefully you all have a good week. It sounds like you´re all busy, but I´m sure you´ll be fine.
Love,
Bradley.
All three of those items combined add up to form a bad problem.
That´s how it was in the Palma piso. The classic bad Spanish tile (which looks dirty no matter what you do). Old windows that leak. An old bathroom (which had mold all over the ceiling (partially for lack of any type of vent fan). A bad electrical system which can´t run more than anything one item at once. Etc. But it´s much better. Most of it can be solved by common sense. For example, if you leave the bathroom window open, and leave the door ajar with the other window open, all the steam goes out and you won´t have problems in the future. And it´s mainly just a matter of buying the right cleaning supplies, and then actually doing the cleaning.
I´ve probably said it before, but I do thank my parents for having taught me some good common sense.
So Jose Luis was baptised this weekend. Attached are the pictures of him, Maria Luisa, his member friend that presented him the church, and the member who baptised him (who really is that pale. He looks somewhat like Mr. Edward is what most missionaries say).
The other pictures are just some shots of Palma I took from the bus.
So it was a busy week last week. We were traveling everywhere. On Tuesday we had meetings in Inca with the Mallorca missionaries, where we finally met with the McArthurs. They´re a nice couple. Then I was out in Manacor on exchanges for Wednesday evening and Thursday. We´ve still got some things to work out there.
The weekend was mostly calm. Monday, we flew into Barcelona again. No problems on the flight. Flew back on Tuesday. A lot of meetings, lots of talking. We´re going to avoid any excessive travel this week as we prepare for Conference. It should be a calm week. Then I´m sure we´ll be back at the race the week following conference. Tomorrow in particular will be interesting, however. It´s another general strike, which is where all the ´hard workers´ get together to protest how ´hard´ they work. But they do it organizedly because they know it´s not effective. So there´s usually a lot of advertising in advance. Like President said, the worst it´s come to was a few mattresses in the Ronda de Dalt in 2010 in Barcelona that stopped traffic for a bit.
Hopefully you all have a good week. It sounds like you´re all busy, but I´m sure you´ll be fine.
Love,
Bradley.
3/19/12
I don´t actually have an iPod anyway, remember? I gave it away. And I´m insulted that you´ve called my Reader a dinosaur. It´s just to read books.
Things here seem to be calm at the moment. I flew in without too many problems. The office was there to pick me up. Got the card on Tuesday morning. I decided to get my carry on and take it out with me. I get to the gate and they tell me I have to stick my bag in this little tin can and check to see if it fits. It does, except for that little handle on the bottom that helps it stand upright. They go ¨Oh no, you´ll have to pay to check that bag. You can´t take that on the plane.¨ I wasn´t happy. They´ve never checked before, but this time they decided to scalp everyone. Most people had issues with just a little wheel, or a handle, etc. And they charge 20€ each bag. In the US with any real airline if your carry on is too big they just put a little tag on it, stick it under the plane, and give it back to you as you get off the plane. No charge. That´s how it was when I flew from Tucson to Salt Lake. But we´re dealing with incompetent Spanish airlines...where the customer is always wrong. And a criminal. It´s probably why most of them are going bankrupt.
So if all goes well we´ll have two baptisms this weekend. Bob and Joseph. We´ve been working with both since I got here, so it´s nice to see them both ready and excited.
On Thursday we got a call from the secretary asking us if we´d offer the talks in Sacrament meeting. They both went really well. We left a bit of time at the end since they were a tad short, but the branch president got up and backed up what we´d said, then took it a little further. I was surprised. But it seems like he liked what we had to say.
We´ve been doing a lot of cleaning to the old dump this week as well-getting it all fixed up, and especially in shape to turn it back over in May. We´re all excited to start looking for a new place in late April. It´s not adecuate for our needs, nor is it the best place to live. But it´s doable at the moment, and it´s in a lot better condition than it was.
So today we´re going for a special treat. Here in Palma is a sight never before seen in Spain-Pizza Hut. We´re going to eat some fine pizza, then we´ll be going bowling again afterwards.
I´m not sure how next week will work out. It´s very possible I won´t be able to write until Thursday. We´ve got Council on Monday, Leadership Training on Tuesday, then the Assistants had planned to do exchanges on Tuesday and Wednesday. Since they´re more concerned about their schedule, we´ll end up back here in Palma sometime on Thursday afternoon, no doubt. So don´t expect a fast letter next week. If I can write on Monday I´ll try, but there´s no guarantees.
I´m glad to hear that the weather´s been nice at home. It fluctuates a lot here in Palma for unknown reasons. The senior couple, the MacArthurs, arrived this morning on the ferry at 7AM (they were on it all night). We haven´t met them yet, though they´re invited to go bowling. They said they´d call us if the decided to go (they´re probably exhausted, so I wouldn´t blame them if they didn´t).
Well, I hope you have a good week. Have fun and be safe.
Things here seem to be calm at the moment. I flew in without too many problems. The office was there to pick me up. Got the card on Tuesday morning. I decided to get my carry on and take it out with me. I get to the gate and they tell me I have to stick my bag in this little tin can and check to see if it fits. It does, except for that little handle on the bottom that helps it stand upright. They go ¨Oh no, you´ll have to pay to check that bag. You can´t take that on the plane.¨ I wasn´t happy. They´ve never checked before, but this time they decided to scalp everyone. Most people had issues with just a little wheel, or a handle, etc. And they charge 20€ each bag. In the US with any real airline if your carry on is too big they just put a little tag on it, stick it under the plane, and give it back to you as you get off the plane. No charge. That´s how it was when I flew from Tucson to Salt Lake. But we´re dealing with incompetent Spanish airlines...where the customer is always wrong. And a criminal. It´s probably why most of them are going bankrupt.
So if all goes well we´ll have two baptisms this weekend. Bob and Joseph. We´ve been working with both since I got here, so it´s nice to see them both ready and excited.
On Thursday we got a call from the secretary asking us if we´d offer the talks in Sacrament meeting. They both went really well. We left a bit of time at the end since they were a tad short, but the branch president got up and backed up what we´d said, then took it a little further. I was surprised. But it seems like he liked what we had to say.
We´ve been doing a lot of cleaning to the old dump this week as well-getting it all fixed up, and especially in shape to turn it back over in May. We´re all excited to start looking for a new place in late April. It´s not adecuate for our needs, nor is it the best place to live. But it´s doable at the moment, and it´s in a lot better condition than it was.
So today we´re going for a special treat. Here in Palma is a sight never before seen in Spain-Pizza Hut. We´re going to eat some fine pizza, then we´ll be going bowling again afterwards.
I´m not sure how next week will work out. It´s very possible I won´t be able to write until Thursday. We´ve got Council on Monday, Leadership Training on Tuesday, then the Assistants had planned to do exchanges on Tuesday and Wednesday. Since they´re more concerned about their schedule, we´ll end up back here in Palma sometime on Thursday afternoon, no doubt. So don´t expect a fast letter next week. If I can write on Monday I´ll try, but there´s no guarantees.
I´m glad to hear that the weather´s been nice at home. It fluctuates a lot here in Palma for unknown reasons. The senior couple, the MacArthurs, arrived this morning on the ferry at 7AM (they were on it all night). We haven´t met them yet, though they´re invited to go bowling. They said they´d call us if the decided to go (they´re probably exhausted, so I wouldn´t blame them if they didn´t).
Well, I hope you have a good week. Have fun and be safe.
3/12/12
My teeth don´t look bad, actually. I just picked up a new toothbrush that´s helping to keep them fairly clean. There is one thing I can´t seem to find lately-a can of Kiwi shoe polish. Black. My shoes are kind of needing it, and I only find this shady stuff lately. Or cheater polish, which doesn´t protect the shoe.
Larry and I used to have a jolly good time making fun of the Chevy Malibu. Good old Government Motors...ahh...
The fuel tank isn´t in that area, but that big sunken area for the Magic Seat is, so maybe it was cracked. There´s also a lot of stuff designed to transfer the shock into the frame, plus sensors for the airbags that could have been tweaked. And the hitch may have been tweaked as well.
Bob´s being a little frustrating at the moment. He knows he wants to get baptised, his wife´s told him he can, he just doesn´t want to act and take the step. Then he didn´t come to church and had his phone off yesterday. My companion´s going to try to visit him tonight-I´m going to Barcelona at 6PM.
I have to go pick up my card, so I´ll be flying in tonight and flying back out on Tuesday afternoon. Quick little trip.
We´re still chugging along here. We´ve got until the end of the week to try and find an apartment for the senior couple that´ll be here this weekend. There´s been a lot of apartments that aren´t furnished, or the owners don´t like a fair contract, etc. As soon as I finish this letter we´ll be off to look at a promising one that´s pretty close to the church. It´s a semi-senile older woman, but she sounded nice. A little confused as to why two Americans are coming to Palma. It´ll be exciting, though. There´s a lot of work to do here with the youth, and there´s a lot of members who are complaining about the big push the church is putting on the YSA. They´re coming out here to open up a center for them. Right now with the couple assigned out of the branch they´ve managed to get 38 YSA attending(from all three islands, mostly from Mallorca) , but there´s around 150 inactives just in Palma.
I was looking more towards 23, but that´s what you needed to get out of the chapter, so that works.
Yeah, it´ll be the number life, I suppose. Bean counting. ;) But if you do your own investments, you´re your own boss. Plus the NYSE is only open Monday to Friday.
So it´ll be another busy week for all.
Love you,
Bradley.
Larry and I used to have a jolly good time making fun of the Chevy Malibu. Good old Government Motors...ahh...
The fuel tank isn´t in that area, but that big sunken area for the Magic Seat is, so maybe it was cracked. There´s also a lot of stuff designed to transfer the shock into the frame, plus sensors for the airbags that could have been tweaked. And the hitch may have been tweaked as well.
Bob´s being a little frustrating at the moment. He knows he wants to get baptised, his wife´s told him he can, he just doesn´t want to act and take the step. Then he didn´t come to church and had his phone off yesterday. My companion´s going to try to visit him tonight-I´m going to Barcelona at 6PM.
I have to go pick up my card, so I´ll be flying in tonight and flying back out on Tuesday afternoon. Quick little trip.
We´re still chugging along here. We´ve got until the end of the week to try and find an apartment for the senior couple that´ll be here this weekend. There´s been a lot of apartments that aren´t furnished, or the owners don´t like a fair contract, etc. As soon as I finish this letter we´ll be off to look at a promising one that´s pretty close to the church. It´s a semi-senile older woman, but she sounded nice. A little confused as to why two Americans are coming to Palma. It´ll be exciting, though. There´s a lot of work to do here with the youth, and there´s a lot of members who are complaining about the big push the church is putting on the YSA. They´re coming out here to open up a center for them. Right now with the couple assigned out of the branch they´ve managed to get 38 YSA attending(from all three islands, mostly from Mallorca) , but there´s around 150 inactives just in Palma.
I was looking more towards 23, but that´s what you needed to get out of the chapter, so that works.
Yeah, it´ll be the number life, I suppose. Bean counting. ;) But if you do your own investments, you´re your own boss. Plus the NYSE is only open Monday to Friday.
So it´ll be another busy week for all.
Love you,
Bradley.
3/6/12
I don´t think you need to feel bad about the package. We´ve been busy, and I haven´t felt as though I´ve been doing without. One thing I would appreciate would be a can of foot powder. Just one-I don´t think there´s enough time left to justify two of them.
So yeah, the dentist...we got there, went it (it was a fairly nice office), the dentist came in, we talked, she got out some tools, then she pulled down a mask with laughing gas...and then I woke up without a spleen.
Just kidding.
Hehehe...I´m sure this one will go over well. No, she looked at it and said that it´s not a cavity or a pinhole, but that it´s just a stain that´s there on the molar. It´s right where those two parts of molar form together (the little ridge) and she said it´s just a little bit stained, but that it´s nothing to worry about. I´ve been keeping an eye on it for a while and it hadn´t changed. The visit was just basically an appraisal, so it was free. She did manage to compliment me on my teeth about four times in the three minutes I was in the chair. ¨Very good teeth. Very nice¨.
It´s been a wild week. We´ve been running everywhere trying to keep things in the air. Then we got calls on Thursday night (they tried to send us a fax but none of the zone leaders got them) with transfer information. My companion was sent off to Bilbao, and I´m here with Elder Araujo, from Brazil. Although he speaks English at a native level-used to go to BYU.
So that always makes things weird between companions. We managed to make it until the end. I sent him off at the airport this morning just after my new companion arrived.
I didn´t have to fly in for this one, but I`ll be flying in on Saturday to retrieve my new residency card from Barcelona. Same day flights...that´s going to be a little busy.
We had some interesting testimonies this week as well.
Bob´s doing well. He didn´t come to church this Sunday, so when we met with him on Wednesday we asked what happened. He said that his wife had taken him out on Saturday, then pushed him into drinking, then they´d gone back and fought, and he almost decided to go back to Bolivia. But at some point during the fight he told her how he wanted to get baptised (that´s been his big issue-he´s been afraid of the reaction) and it kind of created a quiet moment. But she accepted his decision. He doesn´t have a set date at the moment because he´s not sure he wants to move too fast (but he needs to), but he´ll be baptised soon. So it wasn´t the best situation, but good things came out of it, so that works.
So I had an epiphany this week. I haven´t been putting too much thought into it, but I was reading in some paperwork trying to decide what I was going to do in life (after all, when people ask what you´re going to study you have to have something to say) and I decided that something fun and appropriate to do would be to work in investment banking, and do some work with the stock market. I think I´d have fun with that.
I´m glad to hear that things are going on normally, for the most part. I hope that they stay that way.
We´ve been cleaning up the apartment a lot this week. It´s one of those never ending projects. I´m not sure why we have so many dust bunnies in the place. Well, I do, but I just say I don´t. Drafty place...lots of little leaks. The church isn´t in the newest part of town, so the apartment complexes are all older. At least it´s a lot cleaner than it was when I got here, and my new companion´s been able to come in to a relatively clean piso. It´s still not my Gandia mansion, but you can´t win them all.
We´ll be out and about this week, making the smooth transfer over. Actually it´s likely to be anything but smooth, but we´ll see. When ever you have to take things over it´s usually crazy. We´ll hope for the best.
Read Alma chapter 50 this week.
Love,
Bradley.
So yeah, the dentist...we got there, went it (it was a fairly nice office), the dentist came in, we talked, she got out some tools, then she pulled down a mask with laughing gas...and then I woke up without a spleen.
Just kidding.
Hehehe...I´m sure this one will go over well. No, she looked at it and said that it´s not a cavity or a pinhole, but that it´s just a stain that´s there on the molar. It´s right where those two parts of molar form together (the little ridge) and she said it´s just a little bit stained, but that it´s nothing to worry about. I´ve been keeping an eye on it for a while and it hadn´t changed. The visit was just basically an appraisal, so it was free. She did manage to compliment me on my teeth about four times in the three minutes I was in the chair. ¨Very good teeth. Very nice¨.
It´s been a wild week. We´ve been running everywhere trying to keep things in the air. Then we got calls on Thursday night (they tried to send us a fax but none of the zone leaders got them) with transfer information. My companion was sent off to Bilbao, and I´m here with Elder Araujo, from Brazil. Although he speaks English at a native level-used to go to BYU.
So that always makes things weird between companions. We managed to make it until the end. I sent him off at the airport this morning just after my new companion arrived.
I didn´t have to fly in for this one, but I`ll be flying in on Saturday to retrieve my new residency card from Barcelona. Same day flights...that´s going to be a little busy.
We had some interesting testimonies this week as well.
Bob´s doing well. He didn´t come to church this Sunday, so when we met with him on Wednesday we asked what happened. He said that his wife had taken him out on Saturday, then pushed him into drinking, then they´d gone back and fought, and he almost decided to go back to Bolivia. But at some point during the fight he told her how he wanted to get baptised (that´s been his big issue-he´s been afraid of the reaction) and it kind of created a quiet moment. But she accepted his decision. He doesn´t have a set date at the moment because he´s not sure he wants to move too fast (but he needs to), but he´ll be baptised soon. So it wasn´t the best situation, but good things came out of it, so that works.
So I had an epiphany this week. I haven´t been putting too much thought into it, but I was reading in some paperwork trying to decide what I was going to do in life (after all, when people ask what you´re going to study you have to have something to say) and I decided that something fun and appropriate to do would be to work in investment banking, and do some work with the stock market. I think I´d have fun with that.
I´m glad to hear that things are going on normally, for the most part. I hope that they stay that way.
We´ve been cleaning up the apartment a lot this week. It´s one of those never ending projects. I´m not sure why we have so many dust bunnies in the place. Well, I do, but I just say I don´t. Drafty place...lots of little leaks. The church isn´t in the newest part of town, so the apartment complexes are all older. At least it´s a lot cleaner than it was when I got here, and my new companion´s been able to come in to a relatively clean piso. It´s still not my Gandia mansion, but you can´t win them all.
We´ll be out and about this week, making the smooth transfer over. Actually it´s likely to be anything but smooth, but we´ll see. When ever you have to take things over it´s usually crazy. We´ll hope for the best.
Read Alma chapter 50 this week.
Love,
Bradley.
2/29/12
Yeah, I´d gotten my ballot, voted, and sent it back a while ago. Definately didn´t want it to get there late.
Sorry it´s taken until today. We flew back on Tuesday, but then we were in the chapel from 12 until 8PM, then we had visits after that. It wasn´t the most supurbly planned day. But we´ve got this time right now to be able to write, so we´re doing it.
Tell them to put some Quaker State 100k mile plus Oil in there. It should hold out, right? At least you´ll set off all the metal detectors now. My companion always sets them off thanks to a metal rod he has in his arm. The spanish just get confused for a second, then shrug and let him through.
So we had an interesting week. We had the baptism on Saturday of Estefani, a little nine year old. But she hasn´t been confirmed because of some issues with communication.
Other than that, it was a calm week. We were in Barcelona on Monday, though the schedule really didn´t give us any free time to be able to write. But we had a good conference and got a lot of issues discussed and plans made.
Bob´s moving along slowly, but his wife still isn´t helping. She´s improved a bit, but he´s never come back to church after the first time, and we´re pretty sure that she plays a part in that. We´ll be seeing him tonight to try to help him out with that.
I´ll be in the dentist´s on Friday and we´ll see what they say. Hopefully it won´t be anything too crazy.
Next week we´ll have a transfer week, so that means I won´t be writing on Monday either. I don´t think a normal schedule will be happening too frequently in the future. There´s just too much going on. The two weeks after that shouldn´t be a problem, but the last week in March will probably be a mess.
I hope you all have a good week.
Love,
Bradley.
Sorry it´s taken until today. We flew back on Tuesday, but then we were in the chapel from 12 until 8PM, then we had visits after that. It wasn´t the most supurbly planned day. But we´ve got this time right now to be able to write, so we´re doing it.
Tell them to put some Quaker State 100k mile plus Oil in there. It should hold out, right? At least you´ll set off all the metal detectors now. My companion always sets them off thanks to a metal rod he has in his arm. The spanish just get confused for a second, then shrug and let him through.
So we had an interesting week. We had the baptism on Saturday of Estefani, a little nine year old. But she hasn´t been confirmed because of some issues with communication.
Other than that, it was a calm week. We were in Barcelona on Monday, though the schedule really didn´t give us any free time to be able to write. But we had a good conference and got a lot of issues discussed and plans made.
Bob´s moving along slowly, but his wife still isn´t helping. She´s improved a bit, but he´s never come back to church after the first time, and we´re pretty sure that she plays a part in that. We´ll be seeing him tonight to try to help him out with that.
I´ll be in the dentist´s on Friday and we´ll see what they say. Hopefully it won´t be anything too crazy.
Next week we´ll have a transfer week, so that means I won´t be writing on Monday either. I don´t think a normal schedule will be happening too frequently in the future. There´s just too much going on. The two weeks after that shouldn´t be a problem, but the last week in March will probably be a mess.
I hope you all have a good week.
Love,
Bradley.
2/20/12
Well, it´s been an interesting day, and an interesting week.
My appointment to get my tooth looked at is on March 2nd. That´s the earliest the dentist had. I tried to stay away from the ones who run their office out of their apartment. Of course, I couldn´t go to the big chain dentists either, as they have the policy of ¨All or nothing¨, meaning that they´ll make up that you have something else, and if you don´t agree to have it fixed, they won´t do any work at all. Good old extortion tactics.
It´s the molar on the back bottom, left hand side (your left). It hasn´t gotten particularly bad, and I hope it stays calm until I can get it looked at.
The weather´s been better this week. In the 70´s during the day. It´s still tolerable to wear a suit coat, though I´m sure by the end of March it´s already going to be too hot for such things.
That Elder actually didn´t end up going home. The Area Presidency cleared that he stay. So he flew back out on Thursday, and he´s back out and working again.
Last week, we decided to go out and have a little fun. So we went out and went bowling (yeah, it´s been a while). We went out to give him a little send off.
Of course, one thing leads to another, so the four of us here in Palma went out bowling again today. We decided to throw three games this time, however.
My first two games weren´t bad, then I started off the third one with a strike. Kinda sunk down after that, but then I came back on the fourth throw with a strike. I actually had three strikes in a row, then a 5, then a few others, then I threw a strike, but ended up messing up on the final set and lost by 5 points, more or less. But it was a good game.
Sorry if that sounded a little excited. But it was a really good game-I came back from having 26 after three to finishing with 134 (which is still terrible, but it´s good for me.) :)
It´s been a good week for the work as well. We saw a lot of good things. On Sunday, we found a new Dominican family to begin teaching. Her son, who´s 18, had studied to be a Catholic Priest for four years before he came to Spain. We didn´t know what to expect, but he seems like a normal kid.
Bob´s had an interesting week. He wants to get baptised, but he wasn´t sure how to break the news to his wife. We had a lesson talking about that. We´ll be seeing him at 9 tonight to see how that turned out (I don´t think it came out perfectly).
On Thursday we had to wake up at 5AM to get to the airport on time so that my companion could catch his 9AM flight to Barcelona. We had to do exchanges with the AP´s, so then we waited in the airport until 1:30 when Elder Hadley arrived. It was a similar story on Saturday when we switched back-got to the airport at 12, waited until 4PM. It´s a long time to sit in a small airport.
Next week I don´t know if I´ll be writing on Tuesday or Wednesday. We have Mission Council on Monday, but the flight might be just early enough to give us time to write. But if not, I´ll write on Tuesday.
That computer is a dinosaur. There are flash drives with more capacity than that hard drive. I´ll patch it up when I get home, then it´ll probably be time to give it the boot.
Well, I hope the week moves smoothly. I´ll look forward to hearing about it next week.
Bradley.
My appointment to get my tooth looked at is on March 2nd. That´s the earliest the dentist had. I tried to stay away from the ones who run their office out of their apartment. Of course, I couldn´t go to the big chain dentists either, as they have the policy of ¨All or nothing¨, meaning that they´ll make up that you have something else, and if you don´t agree to have it fixed, they won´t do any work at all. Good old extortion tactics.
It´s the molar on the back bottom, left hand side (your left). It hasn´t gotten particularly bad, and I hope it stays calm until I can get it looked at.
The weather´s been better this week. In the 70´s during the day. It´s still tolerable to wear a suit coat, though I´m sure by the end of March it´s already going to be too hot for such things.
That Elder actually didn´t end up going home. The Area Presidency cleared that he stay. So he flew back out on Thursday, and he´s back out and working again.
Last week, we decided to go out and have a little fun. So we went out and went bowling (yeah, it´s been a while). We went out to give him a little send off.
Of course, one thing leads to another, so the four of us here in Palma went out bowling again today. We decided to throw three games this time, however.
My first two games weren´t bad, then I started off the third one with a strike. Kinda sunk down after that, but then I came back on the fourth throw with a strike. I actually had three strikes in a row, then a 5, then a few others, then I threw a strike, but ended up messing up on the final set and lost by 5 points, more or less. But it was a good game.
Sorry if that sounded a little excited. But it was a really good game-I came back from having 26 after three to finishing with 134 (which is still terrible, but it´s good for me.) :)
It´s been a good week for the work as well. We saw a lot of good things. On Sunday, we found a new Dominican family to begin teaching. Her son, who´s 18, had studied to be a Catholic Priest for four years before he came to Spain. We didn´t know what to expect, but he seems like a normal kid.
Bob´s had an interesting week. He wants to get baptised, but he wasn´t sure how to break the news to his wife. We had a lesson talking about that. We´ll be seeing him at 9 tonight to see how that turned out (I don´t think it came out perfectly).
On Thursday we had to wake up at 5AM to get to the airport on time so that my companion could catch his 9AM flight to Barcelona. We had to do exchanges with the AP´s, so then we waited in the airport until 1:30 when Elder Hadley arrived. It was a similar story on Saturday when we switched back-got to the airport at 12, waited until 4PM. It´s a long time to sit in a small airport.
Next week I don´t know if I´ll be writing on Tuesday or Wednesday. We have Mission Council on Monday, but the flight might be just early enough to give us time to write. But if not, I´ll write on Tuesday.
That computer is a dinosaur. There are flash drives with more capacity than that hard drive. I´ll patch it up when I get home, then it´ll probably be time to give it the boot.
Well, I hope the week moves smoothly. I´ll look forward to hearing about it next week.
Bradley.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
2/13/12
Yeah, it sounds like your week was calmer, at the very least.
I´m not going to comment on the dog. I´m sure he´s a wonderful little home-wrecker and the sofas will be in shreds in no time at all. >:O
Yeah, it was a crazy weekend. We´ve been busy trying to run around taking care of everything. On Friday the doctor for the southern European missions came down to Palma so we could go visit some doctors. That was fun-a nice break from the routine. They wanted the information so that we have good trustworthy doctors here and don´t have to fly into Barcelona for care if something goes wrong.
Today we´ll be out in the center part of town, just browsing through some stores and getting some things done.
Normally I should still be able to write on Monday, just that last week was crazy. But the next couple of weeks should be calmer.
So I has a problem.
Between emergencies, paying for a dentist trip for my last companion(which he never payed back...that´s another long story, and 50 euros gone), and other bad luck situations(plus buying a few needed things) my personal card is a little low, and I need to go to the dentist to get a pinhole fixed. (and the mission doesn´t cover it) It´s starting to slowly turn black, and I know that needs to get taken care of ASAP before it goes into full blown cavity mode. I had to buy a set of gloves on Wednesday (it´s cold, and they were on sale for a great price), so there´s about 38 euros on my card right now. It´s probably going to be about 50 to get my tooth fixed. Do you thing you could put about 40 dollars into my account so I can get it taken care of? I shouldn´t have any more emergencies since I´ve been really skimping to rebuild my emergency funds and I´ve got them back now, so I´ll use the card and then just set it aside. I still need to get the estimate from a dentist, but the smallest filling here costs about that much. Sorry to have to ask this. If you need my account number, let me send it in a manner that it´s a little bit disguised.
Bob´s doing very well. He´s just a happy guy who always makes us laugh. We´re working with him at his pace towards baptism. He´ll be baptised either near the end of this month or next month. It´s one of the great things about Jehovah´s Witnesses, even if they´re inactive, is that they´re used to studying scriptures, praying, behaving, and doing things in a reverent manner. Like President Hinckley says ¨They´re great at preparing so many future members for us, that the first thing I plan on doing when I get home is thank them when they come to my house!¨.
I´d remembered that it was Valentines day. We don´t forget that many things.
Oh, the poor van. It´s had a rough life.
So this should be a calm week here. Hopefully, it´s a calm week there.
Have a good one,
Bradley.
I´m not going to comment on the dog. I´m sure he´s a wonderful little home-wrecker and the sofas will be in shreds in no time at all. >:O
Yeah, it was a crazy weekend. We´ve been busy trying to run around taking care of everything. On Friday the doctor for the southern European missions came down to Palma so we could go visit some doctors. That was fun-a nice break from the routine. They wanted the information so that we have good trustworthy doctors here and don´t have to fly into Barcelona for care if something goes wrong.
Today we´ll be out in the center part of town, just browsing through some stores and getting some things done.
Normally I should still be able to write on Monday, just that last week was crazy. But the next couple of weeks should be calmer.
So I has a problem.
Bob´s doing very well. He´s just a happy guy who always makes us laugh. We´re working with him at his pace towards baptism. He´ll be baptised either near the end of this month or next month. It´s one of the great things about Jehovah´s Witnesses, even if they´re inactive, is that they´re used to studying scriptures, praying, behaving, and doing things in a reverent manner. Like President Hinckley says ¨They´re great at preparing so many future members for us, that the first thing I plan on doing when I get home is thank them when they come to my house!¨.
I´d remembered that it was Valentines day. We don´t forget that many things.
Oh, the poor van. It´s had a rough life.
So this should be a calm week here. Hopefully, it´s a calm week there.
Have a good one,
Bradley.
2/8/12
Well, it actually snowed this weekend, or at least Friday and Saturday night. So it was kind of cold. My coat, scarfs, gloves, sweaters, etc are all in Barcelona in the office basement. But I was fine. I borrowed some stuff and was warm. It´s the first time it´s snowed that much since the 1960´s. The apartment´s old and drafty(and extremely overpriced), but we just close up the bedrooms at night with heaters and blankets and we´re warm. It`s probably equivalent to serving in Ukraine or similar countries.
. Thankfully they came and fixed the dryer today. The electrical installation is a joke, and so when someone had a heater plugged in it blew up the timer on the dryer. We have to be careful to not plug in too many things at once either. Two heaters means nothing else. Just a few lights. And that´s after it was ´fixed´. But the expiration date on the contract is May 30th, so while we´ll start looking for a new place in March or so, I won´t be living in it. Oh well.
So we made it back to Palma on Tuesday. Had a calm couple of days, then we got a call on Friday morning saying that there´d been an office mess-up and Elder Pericle would have to fly out to Menorca to do a baptismal interview. We took him off to the airport, then I was with members on splits until the evening. I was joking around with Rafa (he´s interesting) while we huddled under his umbrella, then I noticed that the rain had changed to snowflakes. We were somewhat concerned that the airport would be shut down (island people really aren´t prepared for snow), but my companion made it back fine in the morning.
Sorry I haven´t been able to write until today. We had conferences on Monday and Tuesday, so we´re kind of getting a preparation day today. Kind of.
It sounds like you had a rough week. I´m sorry to hear that. Just remember that we´ll be able to overcome all things through Christ. Really, it´s how all these people we see here change their lives. We´re teaching a man from Bolivia named Bob(we can´t use real names anymore) who was previously a Jehovah´s Witness, though he´s been out of that church for quite some time. The day before I got here, they were passing by former investigators, and his stepdaughter had been taught before. As they knocked, Bob was reading in the Book of Mormon which he´d just found about fifteen minutes earlier. He invited the missionaries up and they started teaching him. He just surprises us every visit by his faith. The last time he´d invited us to have tea the next visit, so we commented that hot chocolate would be better, and briefly mentioned that we don´t drink tea. So the last visit was on the Word of Wisdom. He didn´t really understand why (like I told him, it´s a question of faith), but he just finally said ¨Well, I don´t understand, but if that´s the way the Lord says it has to be, then it has to be that way¨. That´s the answer we like to hear. He´s really trying to get his wife to listen, though she seems to really not like us at the moment (he says that her reason´s aren´t justified), and we´re going to keep working with him.
We had to manage the conferences on Monday and Tuesday. Of course, the planning was bad. The office only told us what we had to do Saturday at 8PM, we were headed to a visit, and all the stores close at 9PM. ANd they´re not open Sunday, and the first session was set for Monday at 10. We ran around getting everything bought (the stores also don´t open until 9AM), and managed to have everything set up by 930 when the Hinckley´s arrived. We´ll be pestering the office a lot earlier this time.
I have a working computer, so I´m attaching some pictures since I´m short on time. Most are just of the snow on Sunday morning, the last is when I took that trip down to Alcoy.
I hope you all have a good week, and that things are smoother this week.
Love,
Bradley
So we made it back to Palma on Tuesday. Had a calm couple of days, then we got a call on Friday morning saying that there´d been an office mess-up and Elder Pericle would have to fly out to Menorca to do a baptismal interview. We took him off to the airport, then I was with members on splits until the evening. I was joking around with Rafa (he´s interesting) while we huddled under his umbrella, then I noticed that the rain had changed to snowflakes. We were somewhat concerned that the airport would be shut down (island people really aren´t prepared for snow), but my companion made it back fine in the morning.
Sorry I haven´t been able to write until today. We had conferences on Monday and Tuesday, so we´re kind of getting a preparation day today. Kind of.
It sounds like you had a rough week. I´m sorry to hear that. Just remember that we´ll be able to overcome all things through Christ. Really, it´s how all these people we see here change their lives. We´re teaching a man from Bolivia named Bob(we can´t use real names anymore) who was previously a Jehovah´s Witness, though he´s been out of that church for quite some time. The day before I got here, they were passing by former investigators, and his stepdaughter had been taught before. As they knocked, Bob was reading in the Book of Mormon which he´d just found about fifteen minutes earlier. He invited the missionaries up and they started teaching him. He just surprises us every visit by his faith. The last time he´d invited us to have tea the next visit, so we commented that hot chocolate would be better, and briefly mentioned that we don´t drink tea. So the last visit was on the Word of Wisdom. He didn´t really understand why (like I told him, it´s a question of faith), but he just finally said ¨Well, I don´t understand, but if that´s the way the Lord says it has to be, then it has to be that way¨. That´s the answer we like to hear. He´s really trying to get his wife to listen, though she seems to really not like us at the moment (he says that her reason´s aren´t justified), and we´re going to keep working with him.
We had to manage the conferences on Monday and Tuesday. Of course, the planning was bad. The office only told us what we had to do Saturday at 8PM, we were headed to a visit, and all the stores close at 9PM. ANd they´re not open Sunday, and the first session was set for Monday at 10. We ran around getting everything bought (the stores also don´t open until 9AM), and managed to have everything set up by 930 when the Hinckley´s arrived. We´ll be pestering the office a lot earlier this time.
I have a working computer, so I´m attaching some pictures since I´m short on time. Most are just of the snow on Sunday morning, the last is when I took that trip down to Alcoy.
I hope you all have a good week, and that things are smoother this week.
Love,
Bradley
1/31/12
Arizona is almost as large as Spain, so don´t worry. Mallorca´s not that big. For the Spanish Postal Service, the Balearus Islands are the same tarriff as the mainland, so it shouldn´t cost extra. You might want to check, but it costs the same to send things inside Spain and to those islands, so it shoudn´t be different on your end.
My companion´s name is Elder Pericle, and he´s from Virginia. We´ve been having a jolly good time together.
The Office Secretary should give you a call soon to ask about travel details (or perhaps an e-mail) to ask how you´d like the flights configured, so you´ll just have to let him know. I don´t know if they´d have a flight from Georgia or New York to Tucson or not.
So we had to fly in yesterday for mission council, which took up the morning. Then by the time we got here there wasn´t time to write, and the meeting was from 4 to about 930. So we´re in the office now waiting for a 5PM flight (long story), and we´re writing today.
I had to laugh when you said ¨no turbulance¨. On yesterdays flight we´d just started to level off and they turned off the seatbelt light when the plane dropped, the light came back on, and they said ¨We´re experiencing a bit of turbulence, please return to your seats¨. It wasn´t that bad, don´t worry. But I hadn´t been in a plane for a year and a half, now I´ve had four flights in a week´s time, and we´ll be back in Barcelona on the 27th of February for another meeting, followed by a possible trip on the 6th for transfers (or to pick up my new residency card).
We were supposed to catch a 11:40 flight to Palma, but yesterday when we were in the office before the meeting I was talking with the Elder in charge of residency when we realized that the office records were wrong-they thought that I´d already done my fingerprints and everything for my second residency card. Nope. So they sent us to do that this morning. It went extremely fast, thankfully. Now we´ll be headed out around 5PM for the short hop back to Mallorca.
Actually, I was happy to leave things. Only having one suitcase and my briefcase was rather enjoyable. A lot easier to navigate around airports and trains. And I really haven´t missed the items I stored away. It´s not like I´ll be without them for too long.
Yes, it´s been rainy and cold. I was told I was going to an island, and yet I´ve yet to see any banana trees, straw huts, pineapple plantations, Hawaiian people, or savages. Just a city with normal goodies. It´s quite large, however. With the way the branches are split three quarters of Palma is in our area, with just a quarter for the other Elders. But they survive just fine.
I´m definately not in the same level of apartment we had in Gandia. It´s old and cold. There´s heaters, but we can only have them on if there´s nothing in the washer, and if we don´t have too many lights on. In the summer we´ll be fine, we´ve just got to survive the winter, which will be ending soon, no doubt.
I´m glad to see that all appears to be well back home. I´m sure my cat is fluffy and happpy, as usual.
So I don´t know when I´ll be writing next week. We´ll be having training conferences with the Zone and President on Monday and Tuesday, so I suspect we won´t have our preparation day until Wednesday. I´m not sure how regular my writing schedule will be from here on out. Most of the time it shoudn´t be different, but you never know.
I hope all goes well and that everyone has a good week.
Bradley.
My companion´s name is Elder Pericle, and he´s from Virginia. We´ve been having a jolly good time together.
The Office Secretary should give you a call soon to ask about travel details (or perhaps an e-mail) to ask how you´d like the flights configured, so you´ll just have to let him know. I don´t know if they´d have a flight from Georgia or New York to Tucson or not.
So we had to fly in yesterday for mission council, which took up the morning. Then by the time we got here there wasn´t time to write, and the meeting was from 4 to about 930. So we´re in the office now waiting for a 5PM flight (long story), and we´re writing today.
I had to laugh when you said ¨no turbulance¨. On yesterdays flight we´d just started to level off and they turned off the seatbelt light when the plane dropped, the light came back on, and they said ¨We´re experiencing a bit of turbulence, please return to your seats¨. It wasn´t that bad, don´t worry. But I hadn´t been in a plane for a year and a half, now I´ve had four flights in a week´s time, and we´ll be back in Barcelona on the 27th of February for another meeting, followed by a possible trip on the 6th for transfers (or to pick up my new residency card).
We were supposed to catch a 11:40 flight to Palma, but yesterday when we were in the office before the meeting I was talking with the Elder in charge of residency when we realized that the office records were wrong-they thought that I´d already done my fingerprints and everything for my second residency card. Nope. So they sent us to do that this morning. It went extremely fast, thankfully. Now we´ll be headed out around 5PM for the short hop back to Mallorca.
Actually, I was happy to leave things. Only having one suitcase and my briefcase was rather enjoyable. A lot easier to navigate around airports and trains. And I really haven´t missed the items I stored away. It´s not like I´ll be without them for too long.
Yes, it´s been rainy and cold. I was told I was going to an island, and yet I´ve yet to see any banana trees, straw huts, pineapple plantations, Hawaiian people, or savages. Just a city with normal goodies. It´s quite large, however. With the way the branches are split three quarters of Palma is in our area, with just a quarter for the other Elders. But they survive just fine.
I´m definately not in the same level of apartment we had in Gandia. It´s old and cold. There´s heaters, but we can only have them on if there´s nothing in the washer, and if we don´t have too many lights on. In the summer we´ll be fine, we´ve just got to survive the winter, which will be ending soon, no doubt.
I´m glad to see that all appears to be well back home. I´m sure my cat is fluffy and happpy, as usual.
So I don´t know when I´ll be writing next week. We´ll be having training conferences with the Zone and President on Monday and Tuesday, so I suspect we won´t have our preparation day until Wednesday. I´m not sure how regular my writing schedule will be from here on out. Most of the time it shoudn´t be different, but you never know.
I hope all goes well and that everyone has a good week.
Bradley.
1/24/12
So yes, I´m not in Gandia anymore. I´ve been transferred to Gilligan´s Island out here in the Mediterranean. I´m in Palma de Mallorca.
So, it was kind of a surprise. I´d expected to be going up north to finish things off. Then when we had interviews on Friday, I was chatting with Elder Allphin while my companion was in with President, and he just said ¨You´re really going to like your new assignment. The Lord has big things in store for you.¨ So the next morning President called and said ¨Elder Mattice, I´m calling you to serve in the Poniente Branch on Mallorca as Zone Leader.¨ So here I am!
It was a crazy week last week. We switched with the Valencia Zone Leaders on Tuesday morning, then I spent that day and half of Wednesday there. Their piso was being repainted (it was in bad shape), so we all ended up throwing mattresses on the floor in a tiny room trying not to die from paint fumes. Elder Reeder, who´s there in Valencia, was pretty entertaining. He´s very neat and orderly, so this was just like murder to him. He complained about every five minutes.
Wednesday evening, I went to the train station, and got onto a train BY MYSELF to Alcoy. It´s the longest I´ve been alone for twenty months-two and a half hours. It was significantly weird. The train from Valencia got me to XatÃva, then I had to switch trains to go to Alcoy, which is that lost little town in the mountains. It was a diesel powered train from the 70´s out there...at least it was warm. Pulled into Alcoy about 10:45PM (way past the time we should be inside) and had a warm reception (I love those two Elders that were there). We had a great day on Thursday (ate about 8 quasadallas (hehe) each with El Pato. They´re both from Gilbert, so at least we all can talk about Arizona related things and they get it. And they know what Casa Mañana is...ooh....
It was a much needed little vacation. I realized after being with Elder Taylor how sad and stressed I´d gotten. Elder Taylor was my companion´s last companion and he´s just said ¨I know exactly what you´re going through, exactly how you feel, and I´m here to tell you that you absolutely cannot feel that way.¨ I guess he´d been in bad shape and President had to give him a bit of a pep talk.
So we had interviews on Friday. I renewed my temple recommend (it´s just an extension that´s good from now until three months after I get home). President Hinckley knew the questions from memory, without pausing. I was pretty impressed. I definitely can´t do that during my baptismal interviews.
I had to leave most of my stuff in Barcelona in the basement of the office. I only took the middle bag out to Mallorca, but it had everything I really needed, so it was actually nice to travel with fewer bags. We traveled up from Valencia on Monday, then I ended up sitting around the office all night Monday and until about 12PM today, until Elder Montoya and Elder Garces and I all left for the airport.
It took a long time to get out there. We rode a little plane out to the island (Airbus 320-200), and it was about a 25 minute flight. Nice short hop, really. Now I´m in an internet shop with some other Elders, and my companion, Elder Pericle, is with Elder Salmon, who´s in the other half of Palma.
I´ll be going back to Barcelona for Zone Leader Council next Monday. I think I´m going to be on planes a little more often now. We hit a little turbulance on the way down, which wasn´t my favorite experience, but at least I didn´t scream.
The address is
C/ Gumersindo 11, 3
07004 Palma de Mallorca
España
With the voting it would probably just be easier to do it from there. We certainly don´t want it to be late, and you´ll just have to send me a list of the candidates. A registered Republican, huh? I need to register with the NRA next, though I hear that´s gone down hill a lot since Charlton Heston died.
That was my week. I know it´s a large wall of text as we say, but I hope it makes up for some of the shorter letters in the past.
So, it was kind of a surprise. I´d expected to be going up north to finish things off. Then when we had interviews on Friday, I was chatting with Elder Allphin while my companion was in with President, and he just said ¨You´re really going to like your new assignment. The Lord has big things in store for you.¨ So the next morning President called and said ¨Elder Mattice, I´m calling you to serve in the Poniente Branch on Mallorca as Zone Leader.¨ So here I am!
It was a crazy week last week. We switched with the Valencia Zone Leaders on Tuesday morning, then I spent that day and half of Wednesday there. Their piso was being repainted (it was in bad shape), so we all ended up throwing mattresses on the floor in a tiny room trying not to die from paint fumes. Elder Reeder, who´s there in Valencia, was pretty entertaining. He´s very neat and orderly, so this was just like murder to him. He complained about every five minutes.
Wednesday evening, I went to the train station, and got onto a train BY MYSELF to Alcoy. It´s the longest I´ve been alone for twenty months-two and a half hours. It was significantly weird. The train from Valencia got me to XatÃva, then I had to switch trains to go to Alcoy, which is that lost little town in the mountains. It was a diesel powered train from the 70´s out there...at least it was warm. Pulled into Alcoy about 10:45PM (way past the time we should be inside) and had a warm reception (I love those two Elders that were there). We had a great day on Thursday (ate about 8 quasadallas (hehe) each with El Pato. They´re both from Gilbert, so at least we all can talk about Arizona related things and they get it. And they know what Casa Mañana is...ooh....
It was a much needed little vacation. I realized after being with Elder Taylor how sad and stressed I´d gotten. Elder Taylor was my companion´s last companion and he´s just said ¨I know exactly what you´re going through, exactly how you feel, and I´m here to tell you that you absolutely cannot feel that way.¨ I guess he´d been in bad shape and President had to give him a bit of a pep talk.
So we had interviews on Friday. I renewed my temple recommend (it´s just an extension that´s good from now until three months after I get home). President Hinckley knew the questions from memory, without pausing. I was pretty impressed. I definitely can´t do that during my baptismal interviews.
I had to leave most of my stuff in Barcelona in the basement of the office. I only took the middle bag out to Mallorca, but it had everything I really needed, so it was actually nice to travel with fewer bags. We traveled up from Valencia on Monday, then I ended up sitting around the office all night Monday and until about 12PM today, until Elder Montoya and Elder Garces and I all left for the airport.
It took a long time to get out there. We rode a little plane out to the island (Airbus 320-200), and it was about a 25 minute flight. Nice short hop, really. Now I´m in an internet shop with some other Elders, and my companion, Elder Pericle, is with Elder Salmon, who´s in the other half of Palma.
I´ll be going back to Barcelona for Zone Leader Council next Monday. I think I´m going to be on planes a little more often now. We hit a little turbulance on the way down, which wasn´t my favorite experience, but at least I didn´t scream.
The address is
C/ Gumersindo 11, 3
07004 Palma de Mallorca
España
With the voting it would probably just be easier to do it from there. We certainly don´t want it to be late, and you´ll just have to send me a list of the candidates. A registered Republican, huh? I need to register with the NRA next, though I hear that´s gone down hill a lot since Charlton Heston died.
That was my week. I know it´s a large wall of text as we say, but I hope it makes up for some of the shorter letters in the past.
1/16/12
A fuller account of Elder Whitney´s vision is in the March 2008 Ensign, in the article by President Packer.
I don´t have my license on me, actually. I know it´s D50 something, but I´ll have to look and tell later.
So, it was an interesting week. Jesus fell through, but we found some new people who might progress towards baptism. One crazy thing that happened was that on Wednesday, I contacted a woman who wasn´t interested, but as I was talking with her, a guy who was walking by stopped and started talking to my companion. He asked for money to buy a plane ticket back to the Canary Islands (a lot of people ask us for money). We told him that we couldn´t help him, but gave him a pass along card and directions to the information office (he was looking for a motel). On Thursday, we had exchanges planned with some members, and to our surprise one of the members (he´s a crazier sort) had this same guy with him. He explained that he was coming home from work, when he felt the impression to stop at an Internet cafe and buy candy for his wife (he said that he never does that). Then he saw this guy inside, felt like he needed to talk to him, and long story shout (I´m short on time) he´s staying at the members house right now, came to church on Sunday, and he´s going back to the islands in a week or so. He´s a pretty dedicated Baptist, so we´re not sure how receptive he´ll be (he was a little contentious on Sunday in Gospel Principles class ¨Where´s that in the Bible!?¨ but we´ve got a visit set for Wednesday.
Glad to hear that Mitt won. We´ll have to see how things go, because I believe he won New Hampshire in 2008 as well. I´ll send a letter home with my DL# today, so you´ll have it by Friday probably.
Love,
Bradley.
I don´t have my license on me, actually. I know it´s D50 something, but I´ll have to look and tell later.
So, it was an interesting week. Jesus fell through, but we found some new people who might progress towards baptism. One crazy thing that happened was that on Wednesday, I contacted a woman who wasn´t interested, but as I was talking with her, a guy who was walking by stopped and started talking to my companion. He asked for money to buy a plane ticket back to the Canary Islands (a lot of people ask us for money). We told him that we couldn´t help him, but gave him a pass along card and directions to the information office (he was looking for a motel). On Thursday, we had exchanges planned with some members, and to our surprise one of the members (he´s a crazier sort) had this same guy with him. He explained that he was coming home from work, when he felt the impression to stop at an Internet cafe and buy candy for his wife (he said that he never does that). Then he saw this guy inside, felt like he needed to talk to him, and long story shout (I´m short on time) he´s staying at the members house right now, came to church on Sunday, and he´s going back to the islands in a week or so. He´s a pretty dedicated Baptist, so we´re not sure how receptive he´ll be (he was a little contentious on Sunday in Gospel Principles class ¨Where´s that in the Bible!?¨ but we´ve got a visit set for Wednesday.
Glad to hear that Mitt won. We´ll have to see how things go, because I believe he won New Hampshire in 2008 as well. I´ll send a letter home with my DL# today, so you´ll have it by Friday probably.
Love,
Bradley.
1/9/12
I´ve only three transfers left, and that´s about one areas´ worth, so I´ll be there the rest of the time. But that´s not until the 24th of January. And I don´t know where I´ll be going.
President Hinckley sent him here so I could work him out of it, and it seems like he´s finally coming out of it. It´ll take more time to be sure, but I´m optimistic at the moment.
We´ll have stake conference at a Spain-wide level in February (satellite broadcast from Salt Lake), so that´ll be exciting.
As Brandon expressed, I don´t know most of these relatives. I´m not sure that´s fixable. I´ll just start calling everyone uncle and aunt.
If I end up going back down to EA I´d like to go to the temple weekly. Especially with it being that close. Maybe a couple of sessions (not to mention I´ll take advantage of the Spanish session)
Hannah being a lazy old dog sounds about right. I´m sure she´ll probably thin up a little in the summer, but she´s probably entering the golden years of retirement and lounging on the couch all day.
The church´s media push this last year and with the increase they´ve got planned for this year will help Romney out a bit. President Monson´s been focusing a lot on visibility and openness, and that´s why we´ve been getting a lot of media attention.
I´d suggest watching the types of music that the munchkins listen to. I´m not going all 80´s anti MTV style, but look up the lyrics on the songs and make sure there´s not anything inappropriate in them.
So the conference was good. We were concerned that the general missionary would get scared off by placing the yearly goal we wanted (there was a large push for 1000 or more), so we set the quarterly goal of 150 plus for the moment, from here until the end of March. But things in Europe are changing a lot. In the highest baptising missions in the church ( the Utah missions) they only have 3000 a year, and Portugal´s on track for 1200 or more. Basically, things are different, and one of the things that will help is that the people start getting the news. Talk about that with the ward the next time you get a chance-European missionaries baptise regularly. We´ve pretty well managed to stop the new missionaries from getting that corruption by having them stay connected to the mission blog, but not every mission has a President Hinckley. The widespread goal is to baptise every week, not just every month. And we´ll be doing it.
Time went by fast today. I´m fine, my house is clean, and everythings okay. Quick summary.
Love,
Bradley.
President Hinckley sent him here so I could work him out of it, and it seems like he´s finally coming out of it. It´ll take more time to be sure, but I´m optimistic at the moment.
We´ll have stake conference at a Spain-wide level in February (satellite broadcast from Salt Lake), so that´ll be exciting.
As Brandon expressed, I don´t know most of these relatives. I´m not sure that´s fixable. I´ll just start calling everyone uncle and aunt.
If I end up going back down to EA I´d like to go to the temple weekly. Especially with it being that close. Maybe a couple of sessions (not to mention I´ll take advantage of the Spanish session)
Hannah being a lazy old dog sounds about right. I´m sure she´ll probably thin up a little in the summer, but she´s probably entering the golden years of retirement and lounging on the couch all day.
The church´s media push this last year and with the increase they´ve got planned for this year will help Romney out a bit. President Monson´s been focusing a lot on visibility and openness, and that´s why we´ve been getting a lot of media attention.
I´d suggest watching the types of music that the munchkins listen to. I´m not going all 80´s anti MTV style, but look up the lyrics on the songs and make sure there´s not anything inappropriate in them.
So the conference was good. We were concerned that the general missionary would get scared off by placing the yearly goal we wanted (there was a large push for 1000 or more), so we set the quarterly goal of 150 plus for the moment, from here until the end of March. But things in Europe are changing a lot. In the highest baptising missions in the church ( the Utah missions) they only have 3000 a year, and Portugal´s on track for 1200 or more. Basically, things are different, and one of the things that will help is that the people start getting the news. Talk about that with the ward the next time you get a chance-European missionaries baptise regularly. We´ve pretty well managed to stop the new missionaries from getting that corruption by having them stay connected to the mission blog, but not every mission has a President Hinckley. The widespread goal is to baptise every week, not just every month. And we´ll be doing it.
Time went by fast today. I´m fine, my house is clean, and everythings okay. Quick summary.
Love,
Bradley.
1/2/12
We managed to pull a fast one and end up with 451 for the year, so yes, we did get that.
It could happen. One of the members here was just talking about the newest stake president in his home country. He´d been bishop of a ward for two weeks when they called him to be the new stake president.
I´ll be travelling up to Barcelona this afternoon for a conference. I won´t be back here in Gandia until Wednesday night, fairly late. One of those things.
The week was pretty calm. I had planned to to exchanges with the Alcoy elders, but the Elder responsible left his suitcase in their apartment. So I was here in Gandia all week. Right now things are all kind of exploding around my ears, but it´s okay. Nothing new, and nothing I can´t handle. I´ll be using the full war chest, though. We had an easy transfer in the last one, so it´s semi-natural that this one would be difficult.
Thankfully, the Lord´s taken a big weight off my back. My companion´s been dead for the past couple of weeks. Not doing much, getting up around 10AM instead of 7:30, and just generally not helping matters. I´ve finally involved the leadership, and they´ve all been praying, not to mention I´ve been working with him pretty hard. He seems to have had some kind of 2012 reset, since for the last two days he´s been getting up on time, doing everything he should, helping with small things (the dishes, cleaning), etc. So now I´ll be able to focus less on him and more on my own area and the district. I´m here in the last three weeks of my time here. I´ll be leaving January 24th unless there´s a really unexpected change, so I´ve got to leave everything in good shape.
Oh, the joys of having ISP problems. It´s obviously Obama´s fault. There is no other explanation. I know a few of the members were asking if we hear anything about the news back home. When I said that Obama was probably going to be replaced by Ron Paul the poor guy nearly had a stroke. Ron Paul: Good for America, bad for everybody else. Bye bye Monopoly Money! (the Euro)
We´re teaching a great guy named Jesus right now. He threw out his cigarettes right as we taught him the Word of Wisdom, and he´s getting ready to be baptised the 21st of January. It´s just a pity that we don´t have someone named John to baptise him. Then it´d be perfect.
New Years eve, we ate with some members. Since we had to be home early, and the food was late, we ended up scarfing down a quick plate before everyone else ate. It was pretty sad. Then we were in bed by 11:30. I plan to have a much better time this coming New Years Eve. I also set the goal to be in Times Square one of these days when it happens.
Well, the holiday laziness still hasn´t ended here in Spain. We´ll have round three this weekend with WiseMenDay. Some how, here in Spain, their Bible translation became corrupted or something, because they´re not just wise men, they´ve been converted into Mage Kings with magic powers who bring toys and joy for all. I think I prefer the fat boy.
So, happy new year. I hope you all have a good week, and that things move smoothly.
Bradley.
It could happen. One of the members here was just talking about the newest stake president in his home country. He´d been bishop of a ward for two weeks when they called him to be the new stake president.
I´ll be travelling up to Barcelona this afternoon for a conference. I won´t be back here in Gandia until Wednesday night, fairly late. One of those things.
The week was pretty calm. I had planned to to exchanges with the Alcoy elders, but the Elder responsible left his suitcase in their apartment. So I was here in Gandia all week. Right now things are all kind of exploding around my ears, but it´s okay. Nothing new, and nothing I can´t handle. I´ll be using the full war chest, though. We had an easy transfer in the last one, so it´s semi-natural that this one would be difficult.
Thankfully, the Lord´s taken a big weight off my back. My companion´s been dead for the past couple of weeks. Not doing much, getting up around 10AM instead of 7:30, and just generally not helping matters. I´ve finally involved the leadership, and they´ve all been praying, not to mention I´ve been working with him pretty hard. He seems to have had some kind of 2012 reset, since for the last two days he´s been getting up on time, doing everything he should, helping with small things (the dishes, cleaning), etc. So now I´ll be able to focus less on him and more on my own area and the district. I´m here in the last three weeks of my time here. I´ll be leaving January 24th unless there´s a really unexpected change, so I´ve got to leave everything in good shape.
Oh, the joys of having ISP problems. It´s obviously Obama´s fault. There is no other explanation. I know a few of the members were asking if we hear anything about the news back home. When I said that Obama was probably going to be replaced by Ron Paul the poor guy nearly had a stroke. Ron Paul: Good for America, bad for everybody else. Bye bye Monopoly Money! (the Euro)
We´re teaching a great guy named Jesus right now. He threw out his cigarettes right as we taught him the Word of Wisdom, and he´s getting ready to be baptised the 21st of January. It´s just a pity that we don´t have someone named John to baptise him. Then it´d be perfect.
New Years eve, we ate with some members. Since we had to be home early, and the food was late, we ended up scarfing down a quick plate before everyone else ate. It was pretty sad. Then we were in bed by 11:30. I plan to have a much better time this coming New Years Eve. I also set the goal to be in Times Square one of these days when it happens.
Well, the holiday laziness still hasn´t ended here in Spain. We´ll have round three this weekend with WiseMenDay. Some how, here in Spain, their Bible translation became corrupted or something, because they´re not just wise men, they´ve been converted into Mage Kings with magic powers who bring toys and joy for all. I think I prefer the fat boy.
So, happy new year. I hope you all have a good week, and that things move smoothly.
Bradley.
12/26/11
January 24th is when I´ll probably be leaving for my last area.
I think at the moment I´m probably not going to need anything until the end. I should have enough deodorant, toothpaste, etc to survive until the end. Should I start getting low, I´ll advise, but for now it looks good.
The shoes should be fine. They were much needed. Look a lot different from the way the old ones look. They came just in time too-last night I noticed that the heel on one was about to completely split. I´ve been impressed enough with the shoes to probably stick with the brand after the mission.
I´ve gotten slightly taller during my mission, so he´ll probably have trouble catching up. I managed to sleep through all the night, though I kept hearing a dog or something. I know it´ll be difficult to have a house in the early years, but I plan on living in an apartment as little as possible. I woke up on Sunday, went to grab my garments off of the rack outside, only to discover that they stank like smoke...yech. I already washed them again and they´re good, but it was still annoying. Too many smokers here.
So the week was interesting. On Friday we got up and took off to catch a bus to Benidorm early, since I had to go do a baptismal interview and we weren´t sure if he was going to be leaving early. Got there at 10:30, went to the TRAM, then they said he coudn´t meet until around 4PM. We spent the day passing by people for the hermanas, then their branch president saw us and took us to his house for lunch.
The interview was a less than jolly experience. I´ve never had one where the person was almost antagonistic. It was more like ¨I´m glad you´re here, so I can prove to you that I´m not ready¨. The sisters said that he claimed to have a testimony, but then he told me that he didn´t. I´m not sure if he just did not want to get baptised, or what. I hope he was telling the truth-I read that bit you sent about how if they lie to a servant in a leadership position, it´s as if they lied to the Lord. Either way, he didn´t pass. So we ended up getting back into Gandia at 11:15 PM. We should have left earlier, but we had to wait for half an hour on the bus for the company to work out a double booking problem.
Yesterday we had probably the best attendance at sacrament meeting in Spain. There were actually about 60 people who showed up, and we had six investigators (ideal is 5). The program was kinda iffy, but they liked it, so it served its purpose.
Saturday night we ate with some members. They had a turkey (first one I´ve seen here). It was okay. The stuffing was really good though. The turkey we had on Sunday was much better, but the stuffing wasn´t as good. Go figure.
I shouldn´t be going anywhere this week, though next week I´ll be leaving on the 2nd to be in Barcelona on the 3rd and 4th. Then I´ll be back down here to finish out the transfer.
We´re sitting with 449 baptisms for the year. Somehow, Albacete and Terrassa have two baptisms that will need to be confirmed at the service, which makes them 2011 baptisms, which have thrown the mission back into stress mode as we hope that at least one goes through to push things up to 450. Luckily we´ve got good missionaries who won´t goof off in those areas, so there´s a good chance.
Today I´m going to be relaxing a bit. I´m also going to be sending that 100 dollar bill home. It´s to be placed in a tithing envelope and given to the Bishop, please. I feel a little behind on tithing, so it´ll go to that. I´ll wrap it well so it doesn´t get swiped. I´ll send it out today.
Thanks for every thing, and happy holidays!
Bradley.
I think at the moment I´m probably not going to need anything until the end. I should have enough deodorant, toothpaste, etc to survive until the end. Should I start getting low, I´ll advise, but for now it looks good.
The shoes should be fine. They were much needed. Look a lot different from the way the old ones look. They came just in time too-last night I noticed that the heel on one was about to completely split. I´ve been impressed enough with the shoes to probably stick with the brand after the mission.
I´ve gotten slightly taller during my mission, so he´ll probably have trouble catching up. I managed to sleep through all the night, though I kept hearing a dog or something. I know it´ll be difficult to have a house in the early years, but I plan on living in an apartment as little as possible. I woke up on Sunday, went to grab my garments off of the rack outside, only to discover that they stank like smoke...yech. I already washed them again and they´re good, but it was still annoying. Too many smokers here.
So the week was interesting. On Friday we got up and took off to catch a bus to Benidorm early, since I had to go do a baptismal interview and we weren´t sure if he was going to be leaving early. Got there at 10:30, went to the TRAM, then they said he coudn´t meet until around 4PM. We spent the day passing by people for the hermanas, then their branch president saw us and took us to his house for lunch.
The interview was a less than jolly experience. I´ve never had one where the person was almost antagonistic. It was more like ¨I´m glad you´re here, so I can prove to you that I´m not ready¨. The sisters said that he claimed to have a testimony, but then he told me that he didn´t. I´m not sure if he just did not want to get baptised, or what. I hope he was telling the truth-I read that bit you sent about how if they lie to a servant in a leadership position, it´s as if they lied to the Lord. Either way, he didn´t pass. So we ended up getting back into Gandia at 11:15 PM. We should have left earlier, but we had to wait for half an hour on the bus for the company to work out a double booking problem.
Yesterday we had probably the best attendance at sacrament meeting in Spain. There were actually about 60 people who showed up, and we had six investigators (ideal is 5). The program was kinda iffy, but they liked it, so it served its purpose.
Saturday night we ate with some members. They had a turkey (first one I´ve seen here). It was okay. The stuffing was really good though. The turkey we had on Sunday was much better, but the stuffing wasn´t as good. Go figure.
I shouldn´t be going anywhere this week, though next week I´ll be leaving on the 2nd to be in Barcelona on the 3rd and 4th. Then I´ll be back down here to finish out the transfer.
We´re sitting with 449 baptisms for the year. Somehow, Albacete and Terrassa have two baptisms that will need to be confirmed at the service, which makes them 2011 baptisms, which have thrown the mission back into stress mode as we hope that at least one goes through to push things up to 450. Luckily we´ve got good missionaries who won´t goof off in those areas, so there´s a good chance.
Today I´m going to be relaxing a bit. I´m also going to be sending that 100 dollar bill home. It´s to be placed in a tithing envelope and given to the Bishop, please. I feel a little behind on tithing, so it´ll go to that. I´ll wrap it well so it doesn´t get swiped. I´ll send it out today.
Thanks for every thing, and happy holidays!
Bradley.
12/19/11
Yeah, the call´s going to be a pain, since the office just threw more wrenches in the mix. They should have given us the guidelines for this call last week, but poor planning is poor planning, and now there´s not a whole lot I can do about it. 
. Now I´m not sure if I should just call on Saturday to not have to deal with it, or still call on Sunday. I´ll think about it while I write, and I´ll tell you at the end. May have you respond back ASAP and I´ll check later.
So the week was busy as always. Spent most of the week preparing Georgiana to get baptised. I´d send photos, but this computer doesn´t have a card slot. Better keyboard, but no card slot. It´s always something.
In theory they´ll be bringing down our packages on Wednesday. I know at least one of the boxes made it, but I haven´t confirmed to see if the other one did. No, Christmas day I´ll be in Gandia working as normal. We don´t get holidays, just days when we can relax a bit.
Wednesday we had district meeting here. That went okay, though I had to plan it on really short notice since I only found out Tuesday at about 5PM. On Friday we had the Ward Christmas party. The zone leaders came down to do the baptismal interview, then they left. The wind that day was really bad. Nearly knocked me over a few times, and it was breaking ceramic roofing tiles off (though that may be due to bad construction more than anything).
Saturday we had the baptism, which went well. She was ready, and now she´s happier, though her family´s proven to be a big stumbling block, repeatedly. That should all be fixed. Catholic tradition keep the people bound strongly, just like Satan wants. Thankfully, she´s got good support from the members.
The scripture talks about how when John the Baptist came, he wasn´t a common person who ate and drank with people, so the Pharisees said that he was possessed with a devil. Then when Jesus came and was a common people who met with everyone, they said that he was a sinner. He´s calling them hypocrits, like little children who cry when people don´t play by their rules. I was applying it in a manner of ¨some people will never be happy¨.
It might be easier in general to make the call on Saturday, just to simplify things. If I called at 10AM on Saturday would that be too early or difficult? I´ll check back around 10AM your time today, so there won´t be much time for you all to organize and decide. If it won´t work, then we´ll figure something else out.
Today we´ll be busy cutting hair, buying propane (pain in the butt), and doing all the last minute things before Christmas.
Love,
Bradley.
So the week was busy as always. Spent most of the week preparing Georgiana to get baptised. I´d send photos, but this computer doesn´t have a card slot. Better keyboard, but no card slot. It´s always something.
In theory they´ll be bringing down our packages on Wednesday. I know at least one of the boxes made it, but I haven´t confirmed to see if the other one did. No, Christmas day I´ll be in Gandia working as normal. We don´t get holidays, just days when we can relax a bit.
Wednesday we had district meeting here. That went okay, though I had to plan it on really short notice since I only found out Tuesday at about 5PM. On Friday we had the Ward Christmas party. The zone leaders came down to do the baptismal interview, then they left. The wind that day was really bad. Nearly knocked me over a few times, and it was breaking ceramic roofing tiles off (though that may be due to bad construction more than anything).
Saturday we had the baptism, which went well. She was ready, and now she´s happier, though her family´s proven to be a big stumbling block, repeatedly. That should all be fixed. Catholic tradition keep the people bound strongly, just like Satan wants. Thankfully, she´s got good support from the members.
The scripture talks about how when John the Baptist came, he wasn´t a common person who ate and drank with people, so the Pharisees said that he was possessed with a devil. Then when Jesus came and was a common people who met with everyone, they said that he was a sinner. He´s calling them hypocrits, like little children who cry when people don´t play by their rules. I was applying it in a manner of ¨some people will never be happy¨.
It might be easier in general to make the call on Saturday, just to simplify things. If I called at 10AM on Saturday would that be too early or difficult? I´ll check back around 10AM your time today, so there won´t be much time for you all to organize and decide. If it won´t work, then we´ll figure something else out.
Today we´ll be busy cutting hair, buying propane (pain in the butt), and doing all the last minute things before Christmas.
Love,
Bradley.
12/13/11
Just don´t forget said password. Don´t forget to lock out the iPod Touch´s as well. You can add a four digit passcode to those by going to Settings, then Security.
That sounds like the first of the new board game movies. I know they were planning a Monopoly movie. Oh, Hollywood and your lack of originality.
31 ¶And the Lord said, Whereunto then shall I liken the men of this generation? and to what are they like?
32 They are like unto children sitting in the marketplace, and calling one to another, and saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have amourned to you, and ye have not wept.
33 For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine; and ye say, He hath a devil.
34 The Son of man is come eating and drinking; and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners!
You can think of that when you deal with the Anderson children, I suppose. Some people will just never be happy. .
I´ll let you know the certain details next week, but I´ll try to call before church, since the latest I could call would be 9PM, which is 1PM your time, which doesn´t work. It may be pretty early in the morning (10) or so.
The trip required a really early wake up, but we made it. Elder Caussé was a good speaker. He was pretty shocked to hear that we woke up at 7:30, though. That is probably the latest of all the missions. But the Area Presidency had approved it, so I doubt it´ll change any time soon.
We had a stressful experience on Sunday night. Right before the Christmas devotional was about to start (they showed it a week late here), we got a text message from our baptismal date for this week saying that she wasn´t going to get baptised. We´d just seen her at church and everything was fine. We called her, and she told us that her mother had called and freaked out when she heard that her daughter was considering breaking the Catholic traditions, and told her she couldn´t get baptised. At that point, we really couldn´t do much, but our wonderful Relief Society president went over and told her ¨We´re going for a walk.¨, brought her to the chapel, and in the ten minute walk calmed her down and got her to agree to be baptised again. So we only saw half the devotional, but it all worked out in the end.
So if all goes according to plan, we´ll have Georgiana this week, and Zoe, a little 11 year old, next week. Then that´ll essentially end the year for the mission, because all baptisms after the 25th count for 2012. We´re only 29 baptisms away from the year´s goal of 450, so it´s going to be close, but I´m sure we´ll make it. That being said, pray for us, okay?
I´m attaching a series of pictures. I was bored.
By the way, I recently ate mussels and shell fish. It was kinda bland. It definately wasn´t Mexican food.
We cleaned out a recent converts house this week. They´re gypsies, and not very clean...ugg...I´ve never seen so many cockroaches in my life. It was like being on an episode of Dirty Jobs, without gloves or any kind of protection. You could scoop up dead ones in handfuls, like candy. Lets just say you should be glad you weren´t there.
Well,
Have a good week!
That sounds like the first of the new board game movies. I know they were planning a Monopoly movie. Oh, Hollywood and your lack of originality.
31 ¶And the Lord said, Whereunto then shall I liken the men of this generation? and to what are they like?
32 They are like unto children sitting in the marketplace, and calling one to another, and saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have amourned to you, and ye have not wept.
33 For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine; and ye say, He hath a devil.
34 The Son of man is come eating and drinking; and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners!
You can think of that when you deal with the Anderson children, I suppose. Some people will just never be happy. .
I´ll let you know the certain details next week, but I´ll try to call before church, since the latest I could call would be 9PM, which is 1PM your time, which doesn´t work. It may be pretty early in the morning (10) or so.
The trip required a really early wake up, but we made it. Elder Caussé was a good speaker. He was pretty shocked to hear that we woke up at 7:30, though. That is probably the latest of all the missions. But the Area Presidency had approved it, so I doubt it´ll change any time soon.
We had a stressful experience on Sunday night. Right before the Christmas devotional was about to start (they showed it a week late here), we got a text message from our baptismal date for this week saying that she wasn´t going to get baptised. We´d just seen her at church and everything was fine. We called her, and she told us that her mother had called and freaked out when she heard that her daughter was considering breaking the Catholic traditions, and told her she couldn´t get baptised. At that point, we really couldn´t do much, but our wonderful Relief Society president went over and told her ¨We´re going for a walk.¨, brought her to the chapel, and in the ten minute walk calmed her down and got her to agree to be baptised again. So we only saw half the devotional, but it all worked out in the end.
So if all goes according to plan, we´ll have Georgiana this week, and Zoe, a little 11 year old, next week. Then that´ll essentially end the year for the mission, because all baptisms after the 25th count for 2012. We´re only 29 baptisms away from the year´s goal of 450, so it´s going to be close, but I´m sure we´ll make it. That being said, pray for us, okay?
I´m attaching a series of pictures. I was bored.
By the way, I recently ate mussels and shell fish. It was kinda bland. It definately wasn´t Mexican food.
We cleaned out a recent converts house this week. They´re gypsies, and not very clean...ugg...I´ve never seen so many cockroaches in my life. It was like being on an episode of Dirty Jobs, without gloves or any kind of protection. You could scoop up dead ones in handfuls, like candy. Lets just say you should be glad you weren´t there.
Well,
Have a good week!
2/13/11
Just don´t forget said password. Don´t forget to lock out the iPod Touch´s as well. You can add a four digit passcode to those by going to Settings, then Security.
That sounds like the first of the new board game movies. I know they were planning a Monopoly movie. Oh, Hollywood and your lack of originality.
31 ¶And the Lord said, Whereunto then shall I liken the men of this generation? and to what are they like?
32 They are like unto children sitting in the marketplace, and calling one to another, and saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have amourned to you, and ye have not wept.
33 For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine; and ye say, He hath a devil.
34 The Son of man is come eating and drinking; and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners!
You can think of that when you deal with the Anderson children, I suppose. Some people will just never be happy. .
I´ll let you know the certain details next week, but I´ll try to call before church, since the latest I could call would be 9PM, which is 1PM your time, which doesn´t work. It may be pretty early in the morning (10) or so.
The trip required a really early wake up, but we made it. Elder Caussé was a good speaker. He was pretty shocked to hear that we woke up at 7:30, though. That is probably the latest of all the missions. But the Area Presidency had approved it, so I doubt it´ll change any time soon.
We had a stressful experience on Sunday night. Right before the Christmas devotional was about to start (they showed it a week late here), we got a text message from our baptismal date for this week saying that she wasn´t going to get baptised. We´d just seen her at church and everything was fine. We called her, and she told us that her mother had called and freaked out when she heard that her daughter was considering breaking the Catholic traditions, and told her she couldn´t get baptised. At that point, we really couldn´t do much, but our wonderful Relief Society president went over and told her ¨We´re going for a walk.¨, brought her to the chapel, and in the ten minute walk calmed her down and got her to agree to be baptised again. So we only saw half the devotional, but it all worked out in the end.
So if all goes according to plan, we´ll have Georgiana this week, and Zoe, a little 11 year old, next week. Then that´ll essentially end the year for the mission, because all baptisms after the 25th count for 2012. We´re only 29 baptisms away from the year´s goal of 450, so it´s going to be close, but I´m sure we´ll make it. That being said, pray for us, okay?
I´m attaching a series of pictures. I was bored.
By the way, I recently ate mussels and shell fish. It was kinda bland. It definately wasn´t Mexican food.
We cleaned out a recent converts house this week. They´re gypsies, and not very clean...ugg...I´ve never seen so many cockroaches in my life. It was like being on an episode of Dirty Jobs, without gloves or any kind of protection. You could scoop up dead ones in handfuls, like candy. Lets just say you should be glad you weren´t there.
Well,
Have a good week!
That sounds like the first of the new board game movies. I know they were planning a Monopoly movie. Oh, Hollywood and your lack of originality.
31 ¶And the Lord said, Whereunto then shall I liken the men of this generation? and to what are they like?
32 They are like unto children sitting in the marketplace, and calling one to another, and saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have amourned to you, and ye have not wept.
33 For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine; and ye say, He hath a devil.
34 The Son of man is come eating and drinking; and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners!
You can think of that when you deal with the Anderson children, I suppose. Some people will just never be happy. .
I´ll let you know the certain details next week, but I´ll try to call before church, since the latest I could call would be 9PM, which is 1PM your time, which doesn´t work. It may be pretty early in the morning (10) or so.
The trip required a really early wake up, but we made it. Elder Caussé was a good speaker. He was pretty shocked to hear that we woke up at 7:30, though. That is probably the latest of all the missions. But the Area Presidency had approved it, so I doubt it´ll change any time soon.
We had a stressful experience on Sunday night. Right before the Christmas devotional was about to start (they showed it a week late here), we got a text message from our baptismal date for this week saying that she wasn´t going to get baptised. We´d just seen her at church and everything was fine. We called her, and she told us that her mother had called and freaked out when she heard that her daughter was considering breaking the Catholic traditions, and told her she couldn´t get baptised. At that point, we really couldn´t do much, but our wonderful Relief Society president went over and told her ¨We´re going for a walk.¨, brought her to the chapel, and in the ten minute walk calmed her down and got her to agree to be baptised again. So we only saw half the devotional, but it all worked out in the end.
So if all goes according to plan, we´ll have Georgiana this week, and Zoe, a little 11 year old, next week. Then that´ll essentially end the year for the mission, because all baptisms after the 25th count for 2012. We´re only 29 baptisms away from the year´s goal of 450, so it´s going to be close, but I´m sure we´ll make it. That being said, pray for us, okay?
I´m attaching a series of pictures. I was bored.
By the way, I recently ate mussels and shell fish. It was kinda bland. It definately wasn´t Mexican food.
We cleaned out a recent converts house this week. They´re gypsies, and not very clean...ugg...I´ve never seen so many cockroaches in my life. It was like being on an episode of Dirty Jobs, without gloves or any kind of protection. You could scoop up dead ones in handfuls, like candy. Lets just say you should be glad you weren´t there.
Well,
Have a good week!
12/5/11
Ugg, I hate ward council. Mainly because the leadership just disputes over immaterial items while the missionaries try not to fall asleep. This week we´re just going to leave a Progress Record with the ward mission leader (who we don´t even meet with) and leave.
Transfers are next week, but President sent out the information early to let everyone know, and I´m staying here. He said he wanted to make as few changes as possible this close to the end of the year.
Don´t worry, I´ll get the packages. They´ll get to me on the 21st, so I won´t be tempted to open them. Or maybe I will. I broke and open my birthday packages on Monday...naah, I´ll wait. :)
Now the members are starting to ask if I´ll ever be leaving Gandia. I´ll be here for a total of nine months, which is more than a third of the mission. But it´s okay, I have a nice apartment and food.
¨Old trusty¨ probably should have been retired in 2009, but we´ll see. By the time I get home it´ll be seven years old, which is definately time to replace it. I don´t think that hard drive will last much longer.
Thanks for the shoes. I looked closer at them and basically, the sole is a high-density foam coated in rubber. What´s happened is that in several places (like where the pad of the foot is) the rubber has completely worn off, so now it´s just the foam chipping off. That´s why the heel split as well. The rain hasn´t been helping matters either, I don´t think.
I really haven´t had too many sleepless nights, but I´m usually too tired to not sleep. At this point, I don´t function too well without eight hours. I don´t expect to sleep for a long time when I get home, but I will enjoy a nice rest. And driving...ooh, we were riding with a member this week and he started going a little fast...then I had to snap out of it. Hehe, I´ll survive.
I knew him a little bit, but I don´t think we ever had any classes together. Sometimes those things happen. I´m sure he´s fine now, probably busy preaching again.
This week should be busy. We´ll be preparing our new investigator for her baptism on the 17th. On Thursday we´ll be going to Valencia, since Elder Gerald Caussé of the Seventy is doing a mission tour.
They keep this district down here in Gandia full of Arizonans. They´re pulling out Elder Martherus, from Gilbert, and putting in Elder Rassmussen, from...Gilbert. Woohoo. I started my own little organization, the ¨Elders from Arizona¨, but no one´s paid their membership dues yet. Well, that´s how life goes sometimes.
Thursday we went to Burger King. I had some kind of disturbing box full of random food. Afterwards I felt sick from the grease, I think. I´m sure that won´t stop me in the future.
Well, I hope you all have a good week.
Bradley.
Transfers are next week, but President sent out the information early to let everyone know, and I´m staying here. He said he wanted to make as few changes as possible this close to the end of the year.
Don´t worry, I´ll get the packages. They´ll get to me on the 21st, so I won´t be tempted to open them. Or maybe I will. I broke and open my birthday packages on Monday...naah, I´ll wait. :)
Now the members are starting to ask if I´ll ever be leaving Gandia. I´ll be here for a total of nine months, which is more than a third of the mission. But it´s okay, I have a nice apartment and food.
¨Old trusty¨ probably should have been retired in 2009, but we´ll see. By the time I get home it´ll be seven years old, which is definately time to replace it. I don´t think that hard drive will last much longer.
Thanks for the shoes. I looked closer at them and basically, the sole is a high-density foam coated in rubber. What´s happened is that in several places (like where the pad of the foot is) the rubber has completely worn off, so now it´s just the foam chipping off. That´s why the heel split as well. The rain hasn´t been helping matters either, I don´t think.
I really haven´t had too many sleepless nights, but I´m usually too tired to not sleep. At this point, I don´t function too well without eight hours. I don´t expect to sleep for a long time when I get home, but I will enjoy a nice rest. And driving...ooh, we were riding with a member this week and he started going a little fast...then I had to snap out of it. Hehe, I´ll survive.
I knew him a little bit, but I don´t think we ever had any classes together. Sometimes those things happen. I´m sure he´s fine now, probably busy preaching again.
This week should be busy. We´ll be preparing our new investigator for her baptism on the 17th. On Thursday we´ll be going to Valencia, since Elder Gerald Caussé of the Seventy is doing a mission tour.
They keep this district down here in Gandia full of Arizonans. They´re pulling out Elder Martherus, from Gilbert, and putting in Elder Rassmussen, from...Gilbert. Woohoo. I started my own little organization, the ¨Elders from Arizona¨, but no one´s paid their membership dues yet. Well, that´s how life goes sometimes.
Thursday we went to Burger King. I had some kind of disturbing box full of random food. Afterwards I felt sick from the grease, I think. I´m sure that won´t stop me in the future.
Well, I hope you all have a good week.
Bradley.
11/28/11
The baptism went as planned. Well, it happened, but not much went according to plan, to be honest. We flooded the chapel, everyone came late, almost started without anyone from the Bishopric, I had to give a talk at the last minute...but we made it.
The font wasn´t filling up fast enough, so I turned both valves to wide open and left it. Then I didn´t hear the font, so I assumed someone had turned it off. Then my companion assumed I´d turned it off. It looked good and full. Then we left it and Carlos´s wife said ¨Hey, the hallway´s filling with water!¨. I thought we had a leak in the wall (Valencia´s font was flooding the parking garage in September), but it had run up and over the steps, then down into the hallway. So I ran and shut it off, opened the drain, my companion opened the door, which brought more water out...it was fun. Got the mop crew out and pushed most of the water out with a broom into the parking lot. Thankfully there wasn´t carpet.
Then I got up and winged the talk. That went well enough.
So he´s baptised now, and we´re back to finding more people. Sunday I confirmed him, then we participated in the baby blessing, which was a first. Poor thing cried the whole way through.
So...problem with the Christmas gifts. I hope you haven´t picked up too much, because this week the lace up shoes have expressed their desire to die. When you asked, they were fine, but now the heel is splitting in one of them, and there´s small pieces coming out of the sole right at the point where they flex. The slip on´s are fine, and I could probably just wear the laceups out and then run the other pair into the ground. I could try to shoe goo them, but anything on the sole usually wears off in a few days time. Sorry for the really short notice.
If it´s too late, no problem, I´ll just wear em out like I said. Probably still do that anyway.
As far as I´m aware of there´s no limit to the number of iPod´s that can be attached. Computers, yes, but iPod´s shouldn´t be a problem. If it´s necessary, I´m sure you´ll be able to deauthorize the Mini and the old Nano without any problems. And my Touch, since it barely worked when I left, and I really doubt it´s worth keeping now.
I did get the package. I´d forgotten how different new garments were. The old ones were pretty old.... I haven´t opened the majority of the presents, just the music. I´m trying to behave, though I may not survive past today... Thank you for all the wonderful gifts!
I didn´t find a turkey, so I bought some cheap pork chops and used up what was left of the potatoes and gravy.
Yes, still send it to Barcelona. A few days before Christmas we´ll all have Christmas dinner with the individual zones, and the Hinckley´s will bring down all the boxes in the office. Just needs to be in Barcelona before the 20th of December, and since it´s 10 days you´ve still got time.
Even though we´ve still got two weeks I´m on vacation essentially. There aren´t any district meetings for quite a while, so I´m just essentially taking numbers now. Only one more meeting before Christmas, and two more before the end of the year, and I might not even be a district leader after this transfer.
I hope you all has a good week.
The font wasn´t filling up fast enough, so I turned both valves to wide open and left it. Then I didn´t hear the font, so I assumed someone had turned it off. Then my companion assumed I´d turned it off. It looked good and full. Then we left it and Carlos´s wife said ¨Hey, the hallway´s filling with water!¨. I thought we had a leak in the wall (Valencia´s font was flooding the parking garage in September), but it had run up and over the steps, then down into the hallway. So I ran and shut it off, opened the drain, my companion opened the door, which brought more water out...it was fun. Got the mop crew out and pushed most of the water out with a broom into the parking lot. Thankfully there wasn´t carpet.
Then I got up and winged the talk. That went well enough.
So he´s baptised now, and we´re back to finding more people. Sunday I confirmed him, then we participated in the baby blessing, which was a first. Poor thing cried the whole way through.
So...problem with the Christmas gifts. I hope you haven´t picked up too much, because this week the lace up shoes have expressed their desire to die. When you asked, they were fine, but now the heel is splitting in one of them, and there´s small pieces coming out of the sole right at the point where they flex. The slip on´s are fine, and I could probably just wear the laceups out and then run the other pair into the ground. I could try to shoe goo them, but anything on the sole usually wears off in a few days time. Sorry for the really short notice.
As far as I´m aware of there´s no limit to the number of iPod´s that can be attached. Computers, yes, but iPod´s shouldn´t be a problem. If it´s necessary, I´m sure you´ll be able to deauthorize the Mini and the old Nano without any problems. And my Touch, since it barely worked when I left, and I really doubt it´s worth keeping now.
I did get the package. I´d forgotten how different new garments were. The old ones were pretty old.... I haven´t opened the majority of the presents, just the music. I´m trying to behave, though I may not survive past today...
I didn´t find a turkey, so I bought some cheap pork chops and used up what was left of the potatoes and gravy.
Yes, still send it to Barcelona. A few days before Christmas we´ll all have Christmas dinner with the individual zones, and the Hinckley´s will bring down all the boxes in the office. Just needs to be in Barcelona before the 20th of December, and since it´s 10 days you´ve still got time.
Even though we´ve still got two weeks I´m on vacation essentially. There aren´t any district meetings for quite a while, so I´m just essentially taking numbers now. Only one more meeting before Christmas, and two more before the end of the year, and I might not even be a district leader after this transfer.
I hope you all has a good week.
11/21/11
Yay for Best Buy...well, as long as it works. Reasons like that is why I plan on having Gigabit Ethernet jacks wired into my future house. It´s just simpler that way.
Smartphones have been out since the 90´s, though they do do a bit more in these days. I don´t think you really want an iPad. They release a new one every year, and then they stop making software for yours within a year and a half from the time it came out. It´s not quite like a PC.
Yes, the old info would have been stored in the Xbox, so just deleting all the config information would have worked, since with an Ethernet connection it´s generally automatic.
He should be getting baptised this weekend, if all goes well.
I honestly don´t know. I think I´m going to be transfered, but I might stay. I´ll have spent 7.5 months in Gandia in total by the time this transfer ends. A situation like this makes it nearly impossible to guess.
No, Larry´s a bum. He doesn´t write.
Is she well behaved or does she need a few light slams every now and then?
Hehehehehehe...married. That´s a good one.
I´m going to look at buying a turkey today. I don´t think my search will be very fruitful. But I´m not buying a rabbit to replace it. I´ll think hard on what we´re going to have. Last year we worked a normal day, and I cooked bratwurst. I´ll try to do better this year.
So our week was fairly calm. Tuesday we had our first full district meeting here in Gandia, and the zone leaders came down, which always turns into a party. Then I sent my companion off to Alcoy and had Elder Martherus come here. Strangely, nothing particularly crazy happened, which is a rare event in Gandia, and especially while we´re on intercambios.
They did a lot of construction on the chapel this week, changing out the rostrum and placing windows in all the doors. But then they left a huge mess, and we ended up getting called to clean with one member. So we worked upstairs, reorganizing the library and Bishop´s office, all the classrooms and finished up there, only to come down and find that the member had ´kinda sorta halfway´ swept up the sawdust (aka-not) and was about to start mopping. We sent him upstairs to mop, reswept the entire first floor, and then arranged all the chairs again. I miss pews and carpet, but that´s rare to see. Spaniards and their cheap tile.
Sunday we were talking about typical ´end of days´ destruction, and how it´s possible that Menorca could collapse into the sea and send a huge wave towards Valencia and Gandia. One of the members said ¨yeah, but these buildings are made of brick, so they´d probably survive.¨ I had to not laugh. Not to be too negative, but I don´t think more than 1 percent of buildings here would pass any kind of inspection in the States. They don´t use the brick properly, (or proper bricks, for that matter) so it would probably fare worse than wood. At least the houses in the states typically stay in one piece when the flood carries them away...
This week, I don´t think I have to go anywhere. A week of rest. I just got my hair cut, then we´ll go shopping, then I think it´ll be a calm day today. Not much else to do.
Well, I hope you all have a good week. I´ll send pictures of the baptism next week.
Love,
Bradley.
Smartphones have been out since the 90´s, though they do do a bit more in these days. I don´t think you really want an iPad. They release a new one every year, and then they stop making software for yours within a year and a half from the time it came out. It´s not quite like a PC.
Yes, the old info would have been stored in the Xbox, so just deleting all the config information would have worked, since with an Ethernet connection it´s generally automatic.
He should be getting baptised this weekend, if all goes well.
I honestly don´t know. I think I´m going to be transfered, but I might stay. I´ll have spent 7.5 months in Gandia in total by the time this transfer ends. A situation like this makes it nearly impossible to guess.
No, Larry´s a bum. He doesn´t write.
Is she well behaved or does she need a few light slams every now and then?
Hehehehehehe...married. That´s a good one.
I´m going to look at buying a turkey today. I don´t think my search will be very fruitful. But I´m not buying a rabbit to replace it. I´ll think hard on what we´re going to have. Last year we worked a normal day, and I cooked bratwurst. I´ll try to do better this year.
So our week was fairly calm. Tuesday we had our first full district meeting here in Gandia, and the zone leaders came down, which always turns into a party. Then I sent my companion off to Alcoy and had Elder Martherus come here. Strangely, nothing particularly crazy happened, which is a rare event in Gandia, and especially while we´re on intercambios.
They did a lot of construction on the chapel this week, changing out the rostrum and placing windows in all the doors. But then they left a huge mess, and we ended up getting called to clean with one member. So we worked upstairs, reorganizing the library and Bishop´s office, all the classrooms and finished up there, only to come down and find that the member had ´kinda sorta halfway´ swept up the sawdust (aka-not) and was about to start mopping. We sent him upstairs to mop, reswept the entire first floor, and then arranged all the chairs again. I miss pews and carpet, but that´s rare to see. Spaniards and their cheap tile.
Sunday we were talking about typical ´end of days´ destruction, and how it´s possible that Menorca could collapse into the sea and send a huge wave towards Valencia and Gandia. One of the members said ¨yeah, but these buildings are made of brick, so they´d probably survive.¨ I had to not laugh. Not to be too negative, but I don´t think more than 1 percent of buildings here would pass any kind of inspection in the States. They don´t use the brick properly, (or proper bricks, for that matter) so it would probably fare worse than wood. At least the houses in the states typically stay in one piece when the flood carries them away...
This week, I don´t think I have to go anywhere. A week of rest. I just got my hair cut, then we´ll go shopping, then I think it´ll be a calm day today. Not much else to do.
Well, I hope you all have a good week. I´ll send pictures of the baptism next week.
Love,
Bradley.
11/14/11
Yes, I remembered to tell her happy birthday. Now I´m done for the year. Then there´s just one slightly crazy lady who´ll have a birthday before I get home. I think it´s Grandma...I can´t remember.
The box as it is is probably fine. I´m surviving here without too many problems, so no worries.
Oh dear, that scares me that you´re all looking at gadgets. Remember, just two years ago you were all watching television with coaxial cables...now you´re probably looking at one of them new fancy cordless phones...
Yes, but what about the alignment, and the paint, and the running boards, and the paint, and the tires? And the paint? Heavens!
So, anyway, the week was pretty good. Busy, but good. Tuesday I made chicken tacos, finally. Dang chicken was expensive. As were the imported tortillas. But it was good, and I still have more chicken and tortillas to use.
So, I´m trying to think of things I´d need for Christmas, but there isn´t much. Apart from some socks, I suppose I could use a few more ties, a small bottle (try to clean out a bottle of something else to use) of Tex Joy, some M&Ms (Peanut and Peanut Butter), some peanut butter, eh...I´m not coming up with many ideas here. I don´t need any books or anything, I´m good on music, and I really don´t need any clothes. Just throw in some good prepackaged American food and a few random trinkets and that´ll be good. And the cat, of course.
Address to send it to would be
C/Calatrava 10-12 bajos
08017 Barcelona
Spain
Then I´ll get it no matter where I´m at.
We´re busy teaching a lot of people at the moment, which is always welcome. Not having people to teach is not fun. Now we´ve just got to baptise the people that we´re teaching, and it´ll be perfect.
We had a good priesthood lesson yesterday. Thankfully they had a good member teaching it, as the last two lessons have been on the Second Coming, and the teachers weren´t prepared, so the class was just one big ¨Oh, we´ll I heard that we´ll be able to swim in lava...¨...etc. But the class was good. At one point they put the men and women together and had us stand outside of the doors, calling people in to live during the Millenium. Thankfully, our investigator Carlos was called in, and they called in his wife and mother in law. There was a big gap between them, and he said afterwards that he was thinking ¨What if this was real, and my wife wasn´t here?¨. We like it when investigators have experiences like that. They tend to keep progressing.
This week, we´ll be doing intercambios with the Alcoy elders again, so I´m dragging Elder Martherus here (I don´t have to travel, I´m the district leader!) and sending my companion there.
It´ll be a slower week with the members, since a good chunk of the ones that help us are going on the temple trip, and they´ll be back very late. But things should turn out alright.
Today I´ll be making spaghetti, or maybe chicken. It depends on how I feel.
I hope you all have a good week.
Bradley.
The box as it is is probably fine. I´m surviving here without too many problems, so no worries.
Oh dear, that scares me that you´re all looking at gadgets. Remember, just two years ago you were all watching television with coaxial cables...now you´re probably looking at one of them new fancy cordless phones...
Yes, but what about the alignment, and the paint, and the running boards, and the paint, and the tires? And the paint? Heavens!
So, anyway, the week was pretty good. Busy, but good. Tuesday I made chicken tacos, finally. Dang chicken was expensive. As were the imported tortillas. But it was good, and I still have more chicken and tortillas to use.
So, I´m trying to think of things I´d need for Christmas, but there isn´t much. Apart from some socks, I suppose I could use a few more ties, a small bottle (try to clean out a bottle of something else to use) of Tex Joy, some M&Ms (Peanut and Peanut Butter), some peanut butter, eh...I´m not coming up with many ideas here. I don´t need any books or anything, I´m good on music, and I really don´t need any clothes. Just throw in some good prepackaged American food and a few random trinkets and that´ll be good. And the cat, of course.
Address to send it to would be
C/Calatrava 10-12 bajos
08017 Barcelona
Spain
Then I´ll get it no matter where I´m at.
We´re busy teaching a lot of people at the moment, which is always welcome. Not having people to teach is not fun. Now we´ve just got to baptise the people that we´re teaching, and it´ll be perfect.
We had a good priesthood lesson yesterday. Thankfully they had a good member teaching it, as the last two lessons have been on the Second Coming, and the teachers weren´t prepared, so the class was just one big ¨Oh, we´ll I heard that we´ll be able to swim in lava...¨...etc. But the class was good. At one point they put the men and women together and had us stand outside of the doors, calling people in to live during the Millenium. Thankfully, our investigator Carlos was called in, and they called in his wife and mother in law. There was a big gap between them, and he said afterwards that he was thinking ¨What if this was real, and my wife wasn´t here?¨. We like it when investigators have experiences like that. They tend to keep progressing.
This week, we´ll be doing intercambios with the Alcoy elders again, so I´m dragging Elder Martherus here (I don´t have to travel, I´m the district leader!) and sending my companion there.
It´ll be a slower week with the members, since a good chunk of the ones that help us are going on the temple trip, and they´ll be back very late. But things should turn out alright.
Today I´ll be making spaghetti, or maybe chicken. It depends on how I feel.
I hope you all have a good week.
Bradley.
11/7/11
Yeah, that sounds like there was some interesting people in church yesterday. Bishoprics always have to do that, I think. It´s probably why there´s usually an older man who sleeps during sacrament-one less person who might laugh at the crazies.
Probably a 36 on the bottoms. With the Christmas stuff we´ll probably just wait, because I´m not sure I´d have room to transport the gifts with all their packaging etc during a transfer. I´ll get it without a problem if it goes into the office, so that´ll work out.
You´ll have to add a few packs of Big Red gum so a member here will stop pestering me. Please........
New socks would probably be a good idea. While the current ones aren´t bad, I´ve noticed that small holes are starting to appear at the seam where they sew the gold part to the sock on a few of them.
The picture is of the district from last transfer. They changed things around and pulled out one of the sister companionships, and Hna. Boone has a new companion, but other than that it´s pretty much the same this transfer. 3742 was of a lunch I made (I had extra gravy left over from the potatoes.)
So we didn´t have the baptism. That was a bad situation in the end. We´re still trying to find him, but he´s not answering his phone at the moment.
The week wasn´t bad, though. It´s been cold and rainy since Thursday, but other than that, okay. Being cold and rainy makes it possible to wear our suit jackets, which they made us start wearing.
Oh, ward council...I hate going. Most of the time we´re there as just a side show. If we´re lucky we get a few moments to speak. There´s usually a lot of talking, then little to no action, and we talk about the same things the next week. But we´ll be trying to get that fixed. One of the benefits of having a Spanish companion is that he can beat down on the Spaniards and they won´t have too much of a problem with it.
We found a new person who will hopefully get baptised in a few weeks. He´s only 19, but he seems like a good kid, and we´ll be seeing him again tonight.
We finally had to test out the heating in the piso, and it seems to be working okay. Not very efficient, but it works well enough.
Today we´ve got to buy a lot of light bulbs. Always a pain. The real lightbulbs are extremely expensive here, just like real Duracell batteries are, because of their ridiculous taxes. Imagine if the average sales tax on products was 18 percent...a four pack of AA´s is about 7.50. Since we need real things, we´ll be going out to the Carrefour again, so maybe I´ll get some Pepperidge Farm cookies or something.
Yes, I did get the package. Thank you for the nice candy and things.
Well, I know the letter´s short, but the week was short too. I hope you all have a nice week.
Bradley.
Probably a 36 on the bottoms. With the Christmas stuff we´ll probably just wait, because I´m not sure I´d have room to transport the gifts with all their packaging etc during a transfer. I´ll get it without a problem if it goes into the office, so that´ll work out.
You´ll have to add a few packs of Big Red gum so a member here will stop pestering me. Please........
New socks would probably be a good idea. While the current ones aren´t bad, I´ve noticed that small holes are starting to appear at the seam where they sew the gold part to the sock on a few of them.
The picture is of the district from last transfer. They changed things around and pulled out one of the sister companionships, and Hna. Boone has a new companion, but other than that it´s pretty much the same this transfer. 3742 was of a lunch I made (I had extra gravy left over from the potatoes.)
So we didn´t have the baptism. That was a bad situation in the end. We´re still trying to find him, but he´s not answering his phone at the moment.
The week wasn´t bad, though. It´s been cold and rainy since Thursday, but other than that, okay. Being cold and rainy makes it possible to wear our suit jackets, which they made us start wearing.
Oh, ward council...I hate going. Most of the time we´re there as just a side show. If we´re lucky we get a few moments to speak. There´s usually a lot of talking, then little to no action, and we talk about the same things the next week. But we´ll be trying to get that fixed. One of the benefits of having a Spanish companion is that he can beat down on the Spaniards and they won´t have too much of a problem with it.
We found a new person who will hopefully get baptised in a few weeks. He´s only 19, but he seems like a good kid, and we´ll be seeing him again tonight.
We finally had to test out the heating in the piso, and it seems to be working okay. Not very efficient, but it works well enough.
Today we´ve got to buy a lot of light bulbs. Always a pain. The real lightbulbs are extremely expensive here, just like real Duracell batteries are, because of their ridiculous taxes. Imagine if the average sales tax on products was 18 percent...a four pack of AA´s is about 7.50. Since we need real things, we´ll be going out to the Carrefour again, so maybe I´ll get some Pepperidge Farm cookies or something.
Yes, I did get the package. Thank you for the nice candy and things.
Well, I know the letter´s short, but the week was short too. I hope you all have a nice week.
Bradley.
11/2/11
Oh, I´m actually a little tired and sore right now. We all kinda beat ourselves up yesterday.
So, yesterday I took Elder Gross into Valencia and put him on his train along with half the zone, (this was at 10AM) and then the other half had to wait until 5:30PM for the new ones to arrive. So we decided to get some things done, then that led to basketball and Ultimate Frisbee. I was one of the ones who came out mostly unscathed. Elder Keeler tried to break his coccyx, poor kid. He was limping the whole day after that.
So on Sunday, we kept waiting for calls (they should have come Saturday, but there was a delay), so I finally called Elder Allphin and got the info. They told me I was getting Elder Knudson, which was insane, since he had also served here in Gandia before, and he´s a pretty old missionary.
It was a good thing E. Knudson didn´t want me to tell anyone, because Monday night E. Allphin called me again and said ¨There´s been a problem, your transfer assignment´s been changed, and you´re getting a different companion. So E. Knudson went to the Barcelona third ward, and I´m now here with Elder Batanero, who´s from the south of Spain.
They moved the zone around and pulled the Valencia sisters out of my district, so now it´s just us, the Alcoy Elders, and the Benidorm sisters, and we´re meeting here in Gandia instead of in Valencia. That´ll save me a bit of cash each week.
SO if all goes well, we´ll be having a baptism this Saturday. Things are picking up lately, and this guy´s been prepared just for this time. We´ve seen him make a 180 degree change in his life. Right now, the path looks clear for Saturday, so we´ll have to find some more people to baptise after him.
It rained Thursday, Friday, and Saturday here in Gandia. A lot. And the weather in general is a mess. It was hot yesterday, but colder today. We´ve given up trying to guess what´s going to happen.
Oh, for the birthday...there´s really not much that I need. I suppose there is a little music. Since we´re nearer to Christmas(started singing hymns and listening to music last week), I could use two CD´s: ¨Sing, Choirs of Angels¨ by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the Christmas CD by Andrea Bocelli (that´s a guy). Then maybe some more photos from home, and Nephi, of course. I´m missing my cat.Then I´ll probably just order some new garments and that´ll be enough. That´s assuming I ever get them. I ordered a temple picture in April and still haven´t gotten it *glares at office*. Oh, the office. They´re so great...
We´ll be going to buy food after this, since the fridge is empty. Empty. There´s butter and condensed milk, and El Pato. Don´t worry, we´re not starving.
It sounds like things are going okay back at home. We´re moving into the final quarter of the game now, then things are over. Now we just have to hang on until the end.
I´m most certaintly not sure how things will go from here. Christmas could be a problem, because the transfer ends the 13th of December, and there´s no telling if I´ll stay or leave. I may just have you send all christmas packages to the office, since we´ll have the Christmas conferences right before, and I´ll get it that way no matter where I am. There´s time to decide that, but not a lot, it´ll be here pretty rapidly, I suspect.
I hope you all have a good week. Sorry I didn´t write until today, but the schedule wasn´t working out, since we didn´t get into Gandia until about 8PM and my companion was exhausted last night, then we had District Meeting this morning (in our piso, since the Hermanas are in Barcelona and I didn´t want to walk to the church).
Love,
Bradley.
So, yesterday I took Elder Gross into Valencia and put him on his train along with half the zone, (this was at 10AM) and then the other half had to wait until 5:30PM for the new ones to arrive. So we decided to get some things done, then that led to basketball and Ultimate Frisbee. I was one of the ones who came out mostly unscathed. Elder Keeler tried to break his coccyx, poor kid. He was limping the whole day after that.
So on Sunday, we kept waiting for calls (they should have come Saturday, but there was a delay), so I finally called Elder Allphin and got the info. They told me I was getting Elder Knudson, which was insane, since he had also served here in Gandia before, and he´s a pretty old missionary.
It was a good thing E. Knudson didn´t want me to tell anyone, because Monday night E. Allphin called me again and said ¨There´s been a problem, your transfer assignment´s been changed, and you´re getting a different companion. So E. Knudson went to the Barcelona third ward, and I´m now here with Elder Batanero, who´s from the south of Spain.
They moved the zone around and pulled the Valencia sisters out of my district, so now it´s just us, the Alcoy Elders, and the Benidorm sisters, and we´re meeting here in Gandia instead of in Valencia. That´ll save me a bit of cash each week.
SO if all goes well, we´ll be having a baptism this Saturday. Things are picking up lately, and this guy´s been prepared just for this time. We´ve seen him make a 180 degree change in his life. Right now, the path looks clear for Saturday, so we´ll have to find some more people to baptise after him.
It rained Thursday, Friday, and Saturday here in Gandia. A lot. And the weather in general is a mess. It was hot yesterday, but colder today. We´ve given up trying to guess what´s going to happen.
Oh, for the birthday...there´s really not much that I need. I suppose there is a little music. Since we´re nearer to Christmas(started singing hymns and listening to music last week), I could use two CD´s: ¨Sing, Choirs of Angels¨ by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the Christmas CD by Andrea Bocelli (that´s a guy). Then maybe some more photos from home, and Nephi, of course. I´m missing my cat.
We´ll be going to buy food after this, since the fridge is empty. Empty. There´s butter and condensed milk, and El Pato. Don´t worry, we´re not starving.
It sounds like things are going okay back at home. We´re moving into the final quarter of the game now, then things are over. Now we just have to hang on until the end.
I´m most certaintly not sure how things will go from here. Christmas could be a problem, because the transfer ends the 13th of December, and there´s no telling if I´ll stay or leave. I may just have you send all christmas packages to the office, since we´ll have the Christmas conferences right before, and I´ll get it that way no matter where I am. There´s time to decide that, but not a lot, it´ll be here pretty rapidly, I suspect.
I hope you all have a good week. Sorry I didn´t write until today, but the schedule wasn´t working out, since we didn´t get into Gandia until about 8PM and my companion was exhausted last night, then we had District Meeting this morning (in our piso, since the Hermanas are in Barcelona and I didn´t want to walk to the church).
Love,
Bradley.
10/24/11
No sicknesses? Hooboy, I had some kind of intestinal bug from Saturday afternoon through Sunday. Man, that was a rough time. I was in and out of the bathroom all day. But I´m doing better now.
Yes, we had the baptism. It went well. Interesting, but well. She´d asked me to baptise her, so we got in the font, and right before we walked down the stairs I said ¨Okay, when I go to put you under just bend your knees a bit¨. Well, she was nervous, so she got in and knelt. Oops. So I got her standing again, then I positioned her, and she just started to dunk herself. I was like ¨Woah, not good!¨ Pulled her back up (this isn´t a very small lady either) and she´s just like ¨Sorry, I´m just so nervous!¨. So I got her reset, said the prayer, and dunked her, but her dress popped up and the bishop said we needed to redo it. It went fine the second time, though.
1301 is us with Antonia. It´s not a very good picture, but the other has my eyes closed, so...
So, it was an interesting week. Tuesday we had interviews, and then President came in on the last 35 minutes of my meeting. The zone leaders attended as well. Then, as the meeting finished, I pulled out the game we were going to play, but President was like ¨Well, let´s bring everyone together instead.¨. Luckily he just wanted to pull everyone together, he wasn´t against the game. Then he talked to everyone for a bit, and we finished. So, it wasn´t a bad meeting. Having President taking notes on his iPad in the back could be considered mildly stressful.
Wednesday, we switched with the zone leaders so one of them could do the interview, so I was with Elder Jimenez in Gandia. Wooh...that was a day. We ate with an old lady a few weeks ago, and she started telling these crazy stories about chicken head soup and other foods that woudn´t pass FDA inspections. So Elder Gross set up a day to come the next week and learn how to make said food.
It just so happened that he managed to ESCAPE that day. I had planned on leaving, but it didn´t work out that way. Elder Jimenez didn´t believe me when I told him, but then we walk in and she´s got chicken heads on the counter top...ooh, nasty. She´s ripping the flesh off, you can see the eyeballs, then she just crushes their little beaks, all the while making small talk. At the same time I´ve got Elder Jimenez leaning on my shoulder wincing and trying to make me laugh. Then he made the wrong comment and she had a chew out session with him for fifteen minutes. When ever she turned, he´d be behind laughing or making faces, so I´m having to keep a straight face.
There was other ´food´ as well. She boiled fish skeletons and heads in water, then pulled them out, put them in a little bowl and had me crush them up like some kind of sick pharmacist. It just makes this sick gray paste, which she then strained and put the juice back with the water she´d boiled them in, talking about how some RS president had taught these recipes thirty years ago. She mixes it in with some type of pasta, tomatoes, garlic, and onions, and then has us eat it. I thought Elder Jimenez was going to die. There was other food, the sole purpose of which is to clog you up so you don´t feel hungry...except we had another eating visit in just a few hours time.
Yeah, I probably won´t forget the chicken heads. We survived the rest of the day, though.
Saturday we had the baptism. It was a good experience. Then the confirmation was smooth on Sunday.
Today, we went out to the big store on the outskirts of town. They had an imported food section...ooh...Dr Pepper, Cherry Coke, Pepperidge Farm cookies, Ocean Spray juices, REFRIED BEANS (over three dollars a can, however
), etc. We had to control ourselves. But some of it definitely went home with us. We´ll go back next week, maybe.
So transfers are next week. My companion will probably be leaving, and I don´t know how the switch will turn out. So I should write on Tuesday, but no promises. It might be Wednesday.
Yeah, the weather reports were wrong. It was in the 70´s and didn´t rain except for a bit Sunday morning. They really can´t predict the weather here in the Med anymore.
I don´t have it yet. It´ll probably be coming in this week, though.
Well, that´s what I have. I hope you have a good week.
Bradley.
Yes, we had the baptism. It went well. Interesting, but well. She´d asked me to baptise her, so we got in the font, and right before we walked down the stairs I said ¨Okay, when I go to put you under just bend your knees a bit¨. Well, she was nervous, so she got in and knelt. Oops. So I got her standing again, then I positioned her, and she just started to dunk herself. I was like ¨Woah, not good!¨ Pulled her back up (this isn´t a very small lady either) and she´s just like ¨Sorry, I´m just so nervous!¨. So I got her reset, said the prayer, and dunked her, but her dress popped up and the bishop said we needed to redo it. It went fine the second time, though.
1301 is us with Antonia. It´s not a very good picture, but the other has my eyes closed, so...
So, it was an interesting week. Tuesday we had interviews, and then President came in on the last 35 minutes of my meeting. The zone leaders attended as well. Then, as the meeting finished, I pulled out the game we were going to play, but President was like ¨Well, let´s bring everyone together instead.¨. Luckily he just wanted to pull everyone together, he wasn´t against the game. Then he talked to everyone for a bit, and we finished. So, it wasn´t a bad meeting. Having President taking notes on his iPad in the back could be considered mildly stressful.
Wednesday, we switched with the zone leaders so one of them could do the interview, so I was with Elder Jimenez in Gandia. Wooh...that was a day. We ate with an old lady a few weeks ago, and she started telling these crazy stories about chicken head soup and other foods that woudn´t pass FDA inspections. So Elder Gross set up a day to come the next week and learn how to make said food.
It just so happened that he managed to ESCAPE that day. I had planned on leaving, but it didn´t work out that way. Elder Jimenez didn´t believe me when I told him, but then we walk in and she´s got chicken heads on the counter top...ooh, nasty. She´s ripping the flesh off, you can see the eyeballs, then she just crushes their little beaks, all the while making small talk. At the same time I´ve got Elder Jimenez leaning on my shoulder wincing and trying to make me laugh. Then he made the wrong comment and she had a chew out session with him for fifteen minutes. When ever she turned, he´d be behind laughing or making faces, so I´m having to keep a straight face.
There was other ´food´ as well. She boiled fish skeletons and heads in water, then pulled them out, put them in a little bowl and had me crush them up like some kind of sick pharmacist. It just makes this sick gray paste, which she then strained and put the juice back with the water she´d boiled them in, talking about how some RS president had taught these recipes thirty years ago. She mixes it in with some type of pasta, tomatoes, garlic, and onions, and then has us eat it. I thought Elder Jimenez was going to die. There was other food, the sole purpose of which is to clog you up so you don´t feel hungry...except we had another eating visit in just a few hours time.
Yeah, I probably won´t forget the chicken heads. We survived the rest of the day, though.
Saturday we had the baptism. It was a good experience. Then the confirmation was smooth on Sunday.
Today, we went out to the big store on the outskirts of town. They had an imported food section...ooh...Dr Pepper, Cherry Coke, Pepperidge Farm cookies, Ocean Spray juices, REFRIED BEANS (over three dollars a can, however
So transfers are next week. My companion will probably be leaving, and I don´t know how the switch will turn out. So I should write on Tuesday, but no promises. It might be Wednesday.
Yeah, the weather reports were wrong. It was in the 70´s and didn´t rain except for a bit Sunday morning. They really can´t predict the weather here in the Med anymore.
I don´t have it yet. It´ll probably be coming in this week, though.
Well, that´s what I have. I hope you have a good week.
Bradley.
10/17/11
I think the shoes will make it through to the end. They might be pretty beat up by then, but there should be enough tread life to last. I´ll probably do one more insole replacement in a few months, but there shouldn´t be any problems.
I thought the house looked wrong for a bit. Then I realized it was because there was a tree missing. I forgot you cut it down.
The grass again. I generally don´t have to worry about grass being tracked in. Having to watch out for dog poop on the sidewalks, yes, but not grass. Dog poop is an all too common sight.
We finally got the new SIM card on Tuesday. Turned everything to have 15 text messages and a dozen missed calls. But it works again. Kind of. The secretaries in the office have a lot of signal problems, as well as the AP´s-I was talking to Elder Allphin the other night and it cut off the call twice randomly.
So, if everything goes well, we´ll be having a baptism this Saturday. It´s the first one in a while, so it´ll hopefully be a good experience.
We saw a lot of good things this week, actually. People walking into church, people talking to us in the streets, all the fun things you like to see.
Tomorrow, President Hinckley will be in Valencia doing interviews for the missionaries, and he might drop in on my district meeting. That´ll be a bit stressful. I just hope he comes in at a good point! Last week, the zone leaders came in at the worst point possible, and there was a lot of silence. They probably thought it was an extremely boring meeting.
We´re still keeping the house clean. It was actually cleaner this week (and stayed cleaner) than I´d ever seen it be. So there wasn´t too much to pick up this morning.
I don´t think I´m really in need of anything. In November I´ll look at ordering some new garments through the office, but other than that there´s really no immediate needs I can think of.
I´ll probably be in Valencia for a few days this week, since one of the zone leaders will have to come down to do the interview (I can´t interview my own investigators). So I should have some baptism pictures to send you next week. That´ll be the goal.
I hope you all have a good week going back to school/work.
Bradley.
I thought the house looked wrong for a bit. Then I realized it was because there was a tree missing. I forgot you cut it down.
The grass again. I generally don´t have to worry about grass being tracked in. Having to watch out for dog poop on the sidewalks, yes, but not grass. Dog poop is an all too common sight.
We finally got the new SIM card on Tuesday. Turned everything to have 15 text messages and a dozen missed calls. But it works again. Kind of. The secretaries in the office have a lot of signal problems, as well as the AP´s-I was talking to Elder Allphin the other night and it cut off the call twice randomly.
So, if everything goes well, we´ll be having a baptism this Saturday. It´s the first one in a while, so it´ll hopefully be a good experience.
We saw a lot of good things this week, actually. People walking into church, people talking to us in the streets, all the fun things you like to see.
Tomorrow, President Hinckley will be in Valencia doing interviews for the missionaries, and he might drop in on my district meeting. That´ll be a bit stressful. I just hope he comes in at a good point! Last week, the zone leaders came in at the worst point possible, and there was a lot of silence. They probably thought it was an extremely boring meeting.
We´re still keeping the house clean. It was actually cleaner this week (and stayed cleaner) than I´d ever seen it be. So there wasn´t too much to pick up this morning.
I don´t think I´m really in need of anything. In November I´ll look at ordering some new garments through the office, but other than that there´s really no immediate needs I can think of.
I´ll probably be in Valencia for a few days this week, since one of the zone leaders will have to come down to do the interview (I can´t interview my own investigators). So I should have some baptism pictures to send you next week. That´ll be the goal.
I hope you all have a good week going back to school/work.
Bradley.
10/10/11
I´m not that skinny. Though I had to buy a new belt. And it averages around the third or fourth notch. But I think I´m pretty stable at the moment.
We had plenty of food. Just not the yummy kind. I didn´t want to make any rice, since we didn´t have any soy sauce. And I didn´t want to cook any pasta, since we had nothing with which to make sauce. So we went to Burger King instead that day. And we bought food the next day.
I said we could just eat steak when I got home instead of Christmas presents. And I´m too old to celebrate birthdays.
If you must, I do have a difficult request. I need special custom pen leads. You´re looking for Pentel ¨Multi 8¨ pencil leads (they look like color sticks with a metal piece on top). I need red, light blue, and orange. They´re probably ten dollars each.
I actually had figured that was what was going to happen. So I wasn´t too surprised when I opened the letter. That´s pretty much how it happened to Grandpa Seth-they called him while he was on vacation to the same spot.
The weather has mellowed out quite a bit. We mainly just leave the AC unit in the bedroom on ´Fan´ during the night now, just to keep the air circulating. The apartment was pretty messy-we had a ´New Schedule´ we were trying out last week, but it kinda short-circuited when we got to talking and missed the full time for cleaning. So we half-way cleaned and then had to do a bit more this week. The wood floors are a pain without the proper cleaning tools. The brooms aren´t ideal for that surface, nor is a normal mop. We may be making an investment in a real dust mop.
No, we don´t leave Gandia very much. We´re on the train normally once or twice a week.
It was an interesting week this week. On Friday morning I woke up to find our phone saying ´SIM Card rejected, validation failed¨. That in and of itself was fine. We´d been expecting that the switch from our old Vodafone cells would be happening soon. So I grabbed the new phone, put in the Movistar card, and received a ¨SIM Card rejected, validation failed´. message. That wasn´t good.
When we went out, we went to a public phone place, and I called the office. It turned out that we should have received two cards, one of which should have worked, but we only received one card, which didn´t work. That was all they could do for us. So we spent the weekend without a phone. They´re going to have a working card for us in Valencia tomorrow, I hope. When I called Elder Allphin to ask if he´d had a chance to talk with President yet over something, he´s like ¨Yeah, President´s been a little busy and out of town lately...and his phone doesn´t work.¨. Apparantly half the mission was left without a phone. The switch definately could have been managed a little better.
It was interesting doing missionary work without a phone (we don´t have landlines). Not a whole lot happened, to be honest. We just kept joking about it for the most part. ¨You have the phone?¨ ¨Yep! Not like it´s matters!¨. Followed by good chuckles as we descended in the elevator.
I´m sure the booboo remembers me. I´m pretty hard to forget. And I´m sure my cat will just claw me in the leg for having abandoned him for so long.
So, last week I used a recipe we had in our cook book to make Texas Sheet Cake. It didn´t turn out ideally, because we don´t have a real-sized cookie sheet (no, don´t send one), and I didn´t have the vanilla to make the frosting (it turns out that vanilla is kinda hard to find here). So we just made a second cake today, and we´ve got the vanilla this time to make the frosting. I´m planning on offering a few slices in a district meeting tomorrow as a prize.
I hope you all have a tranquil week, and that things go well. Have fun.
Bradley.
We had plenty of food. Just not the yummy kind. I didn´t want to make any rice, since we didn´t have any soy sauce. And I didn´t want to cook any pasta, since we had nothing with which to make sauce. So we went to Burger King instead that day. And we bought food the next day.
I said we could just eat steak when I got home instead of Christmas presents. And I´m too old to celebrate birthdays.
If you must, I do have a difficult request. I need special custom pen leads. You´re looking for Pentel ¨Multi 8¨ pencil leads (they look like color sticks with a metal piece on top). I need red, light blue, and orange. They´re probably ten dollars each.
I actually had figured that was what was going to happen. So I wasn´t too surprised when I opened the letter. That´s pretty much how it happened to Grandpa Seth-they called him while he was on vacation to the same spot.
The weather has mellowed out quite a bit. We mainly just leave the AC unit in the bedroom on ´Fan´ during the night now, just to keep the air circulating. The apartment was pretty messy-we had a ´New Schedule´ we were trying out last week, but it kinda short-circuited when we got to talking and missed the full time for cleaning. So we half-way cleaned and then had to do a bit more this week. The wood floors are a pain without the proper cleaning tools. The brooms aren´t ideal for that surface, nor is a normal mop. We may be making an investment in a real dust mop.
No, we don´t leave Gandia very much. We´re on the train normally once or twice a week.
It was an interesting week this week. On Friday morning I woke up to find our phone saying ´SIM Card rejected, validation failed¨. That in and of itself was fine. We´d been expecting that the switch from our old Vodafone cells would be happening soon. So I grabbed the new phone, put in the Movistar card, and received a ¨SIM Card rejected, validation failed´. message. That wasn´t good.
When we went out, we went to a public phone place, and I called the office. It turned out that we should have received two cards, one of which should have worked, but we only received one card, which didn´t work. That was all they could do for us. So we spent the weekend without a phone. They´re going to have a working card for us in Valencia tomorrow, I hope. When I called Elder Allphin to ask if he´d had a chance to talk with President yet over something, he´s like ¨Yeah, President´s been a little busy and out of town lately...and his phone doesn´t work.¨. Apparantly half the mission was left without a phone. The switch definately could have been managed a little better.
It was interesting doing missionary work without a phone (we don´t have landlines). Not a whole lot happened, to be honest. We just kept joking about it for the most part. ¨You have the phone?¨ ¨Yep! Not like it´s matters!¨. Followed by good chuckles as we descended in the elevator.
I´m sure the booboo remembers me. I´m pretty hard to forget. And I´m sure my cat will just claw me in the leg for having abandoned him for so long.
So, last week I used a recipe we had in our cook book to make Texas Sheet Cake. It didn´t turn out ideally, because we don´t have a real-sized cookie sheet (no, don´t send one
I hope you all have a tranquil week, and that things go well. Have fun.
Bradley.
10/3/11
Speaking of pictures, I finally got a computer with a working card slot, so there are some that I´ll be uploading in a bit.
3677 is the Mysterious Man from St. George making a return appearance. That was last transfer at the leadership training conference. The weird eye in the background is Elder Estrada trying to be funny. 3708 is my corrent companion (he doesn´t care much for pictures) and 3711 is me with one of our members from England (he left the next day after the picture was taken. 3709 was at his farewell party.
It sounds like your week was nice and fun. At least Kono puked in Dad´s truck and not mine.
They rarely share buildings here in Spain. Usually it´s one ward/branch per building. The only ones that seem to share are the stake centers.
We´re looking at having a baptism the 15th of October, if all goes well. President wants us to get the Bishop´s opinion on the situation-I doubt he´ll have a problem. Like he said, he doesn´t have the final say, but he wants to see what the Bishop thinks. She´s been wanting to get baptised for a while(years), and it´ll be a special case if it does happen. It´ll be a big support for her daughter who was baptised in June.
That´s not a reason not to baptise, but if she´s young...it´s not a sin to have those feelings of opposite-sex attraction, it´s just wrong to act on them. We´ve got members who have those attractions, they just work with them and don´t give into them. She´d just have to have a good interview, and if anything had happened, have an interview with the Mission President before getting baptised.
I could use some toothbrushes. But as for the rest of supplies...how about some Chicken Taco seasoning. I can make some chicken without too much difficulty (have an extremely nice kitchen), and I can get some kinda sour cream stuff...yes, that seasoning would be wonderful.
But I´ve already committed to watch all the Star Trek films with Larry...I don´t know if I´ll have the time...dearie me...
It was an interesting week. Thursday night I met up with Elder Abplanalp (who´s in Catarroja right now) and we took a train to Barcelona. Spent the night in the office with some of the Zone Leaders, then in the morning the Hinckley´s drove us over to the Barç 2 chapel.
Our little conference was wonderful. They´re counting on us to do a lot, though. We´ve got to the the mission on a much higher level to start baptising 50 a month from here on out. President would like to see the mission baptise 600 during the next year, and then just continue to climb.
That ended, and the Valencia zone leaders, Elder Abplanalp and I all rode back on the train, with seats facing eachother. It was one of those weird moments-plotting on a train going 140MPH while the sun is going down. Then we had the usual deep doctrine talk, and met up with our companions. Got back home around 11PM.
Saturday and Sunday we had general conference. Ended up watching two of our four sessions in Spanish. It´s not hard for me to understand, but it was for my companion. I just downloaded the conference now to a flash drive and we´ll listen to it in the house so he´ll be able to review the sessions he kinda missed, and we´ll both be able to hear the last session.
Our week this week should be okay. We have no food because it´s another festival in Gandia today, so all the stores are closed. Sad face...
Hope you have a good week.
Love,
Bradley.
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