6/13/11

Sounds like you had an interesting week. The fire looks like it´s gotten pretty out of hand. Uncle Kim´s commute is messed up, I bet.

 

So this week was interesting. Tuesday we went into Barcelona for more meetings...
13^aWe believe in having meetings with all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul—We believe in all meetings, we ^fhope for all meetings, we have endured many meetings, and hope to be able to ^gendure all meetings. If there is anything ^hvirtuous, ⁱlovely, or of good report or praiseworthy to discuss, we hold a meeting.

 

That´s the humorous interpretation of the thirteenth Article of Faith.

 

We did get our conference issues, I guess, so that was okay. Wednesday we were up in Ripoll with the branch president. They´ve finally got the meetinghouse situation worked out. They´ll be working on a bajos until September (It´ll be done in August, but City Hall and everything else closes in August, so we won´t be able to get occupancy permits until September...hopefully), but until then we´ll be in an old bakery/cafe. At least it´s on the ground floor and people will be able to see it. ;)

 

Thursday...we were in the train up to Campdevánol...and the ticket checker came around. We showed him our tickets, which show we´re covered up to Vic, and asked to buy the usual extention up to Campdevánol. He freaked out and hauled us to the front of the train, then wrote us 50 euro citations for ´not having a ticket´. Now we get to go into Barcelona tomorrow and try to protest the farce, because we´ve never had a problem before, and the ticket sellers have told us to do it that way, as well as other ticket checkers. Like Alfredo said, he saw ties and white shirts and figured they could suck 50 each out of us. They´re probably not going to do anything, sadly.

 

It was going to happen that morning anyway, though. The way they´ve got the scam set up is that if you pay immediately (aka, cash to his pocket), they only charge 25 euros. Elder Saldaña had 25, so he payed. I had 15...but that morning, as I was grabbing my wallet, I saw a 20 sitting there and had the thought come to mind ¨I should grab that.¨. Of course, I thought, ¨Why? It´s a 2.90 ticket. I´ve got 15.¨ Then the impression ¨And if you get a ticket and need 25?¨. Well, I didn´t listen, and so now I´ll end up being out 50. Now you see why I would never want to live here...

 

Friday was pretty normal, Saturday we went out to Tona for a branch barbecue, which wasn´t bad. I´ve got some pictures, but the card reader isn´t working on this computer. Surprise.

 

Sunday was what will probably be the last meeting there in Shirley´s house. It was pretty full.

 

So we might be having a baptism on the 25th. As for transfers, they´re the 28th of June. This is the third transfer, so it´s hard to say if I´m staying or going. Probably start a mail stop on Wednesday just in case I´m leaving.

 

We don´t have an apartment yet. I´m giving the realtor until Wednesday before I go looking for someone else. We went in last week and pretty well got the brush off with a ¨Yeah, I´ll call if I get anything.¨ Customer service doesn´t exist here. It´s kinda weird. I´m sure when I go back to the States I´ll think everyone´s overly friendly.

 

As for the trip with your parents... ¨One night our little son Richard, who had a heart problem, awoke crying. The two of us heard it. Normally my wife always got up to take care of a crying baby, but this time I said, “I’ll take care of him.”
Because of his problem, when he began to cry, his little heart would pound very rapidly. He would throw up and soil the bed clothing. That night I held him very close to try to calm his racing heart and stop his crying as I changed his clothes and put on new bedsheets. I held him until he went to sleep. I didn’t know then that just a few months later he would pass away. I will always remember holding him in my arms in the middle of that night.¨
Elder Richard G. Scott, April 2011 conference. It might be the last trip you get, so just go and work to enjoy it.
We did get an interesting little tidbit from the branch president: Salt Lake has finally approved the reorganization of the stakes here in Barcelona. They´re going to be creating the third stake up here. That usually means that one of the Quorum of the Twelve will be coming down to take care of it, which means we might get a mission tour. I don´t know if it´ll be Elder Holland (or if I´ll be in the Barcelona area when it happens), but one can hope.
Well, you all have a good week.
Bradley.