2/22/11 Transfer Day to Granollers

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

2/21/11

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Okay, rest tomorrow.

Bradley.

2/9/11 From President Hinckley

Dear



                       Michael David Mattice |Mary Lee Mattice


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Sincerely
Clark B. Hinckley

President, Spain Barcelona Mission

2/14/11

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


That´s all for this week.Bradley

2/6/11

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

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

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

I got the card, yes.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Have a good week.

Bradley.

1/31/11

Hehehe, I thought about that but sent it anyway.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1/29/11

Spain´s heard all the bad things I´ve said about their postal service. They´ve impounded that package you sent, and it´s stuck at the airport in Madrid.

They´re saying that there are ´taxable´ materials inside. (aka Spain wants money). The office can get it out, but what they need is a complete (tell me about it) list of every thing inside, and prices for everything. Then I´ll have to pay for it.

If it´s like a bag of rice krispy treats you made, that´s not taxable(I´m not sure how they´d tax it) But anything else, the peanut butter, toothbrushes, all of it, they need prices for. If it was just laying around the house, make up a reasonable price for it, I guess.

It´s not the first time it´s happened to a missionary. But what happens if you just ignore it is that they´ll send it back to the US...in about three months. And with no shipping refund. So we´re time sensitive here. I´ll need it by Monday so I can print it out and take it to the office on Tuesday.

Supposedly, to get around it, from now on, things need to look used. Obviously, we can´t do anything about peanut butter (and I don´t think that´s what they´re wanting to tax), but for example, if you sent a shirt, you´d need to strip off all the packaging, wrinkle it a good bit, maybe even wash it once or twice. Used stuff they can´t tax.

I know this is a huge pain in the butt, and we´ll have to think of other ways to get stuff here if it´s anything serious in the future, but it´s better than waiting three months or so to get it back in the US...without refund.

Happy weekend...

Bradley

1/24/11

Still no package, but the mail hadn´t come today before we walked out of the building, so maybe it´ll be there when we get back.

Elder Benito and Hansen have had an interesting week. We´d wondered how long it would last, and sure enough, things blew up on Friday night. That seems to have helped, though. Now they´re progressing a bit. Still, like Elder Hansen and I were talking, Elder Benito needs about six or seven(he´d be over the year mark) more transfers as junior companion, in a different area.

It´s been a rather busy week. I think all we´re teaching at the moment are Africans and Edgar. Bishop said he´s glad we´re bringing in more Africans so that we can get the ones we have to have a more stable community, but I don´t think he knows we´re planning to have an African branch as soon as possible .

That´s the mission focus for the year. President wants us to find and teach primarily families. Had a zone conference on Thursday to talk all about it. He wants us to get 450 baptisms for the mission this year. Breaks down to about 10 per companionship, or, in other words, ten per missionary. It´s not an outrageous number. We´re still sitting with only 90 missionaries, and President didn´t make it sound like he expects that to go back up any time soon. Better than the 68 we bottomed out at when I came into the field, though. Normal average is 120 per mission.

We´re hearing a lot of rumors that one of the reasons President Monson is calling so hard for new missionaries is that the Church is about to open up work in all of China. It´d take a lot of missionaries, and with the shortage right now, they´d end up having to shortchange a lot of missions for a bit. It´d explode over there fast, though. We´d be the first ones in there.

Zone Conference was pretty interesting. It´s not every missionary that gets to hear their President open up his first talk by saying ¨When my father was President of the Church...¨

Well, this week will be the eight month mark. Mission is a third over. It´s gone by fast.

We should be having quite a few baptisms coming up soon. We´ve got five dates set (one of them feels like cheating), and though one or two are kinda flimsy, at least some of them will go through. Bishop came up to us yesterday saying ¨So there´s this lady who´s here, who was baptised in South America, but she had to leave and never was confirmed, so she´s got to be rebaptised.¨ Turns out she lives in our area (I love how my line always works out perfect), so she´ll probably be baptised the 5th of February. Kinda cheating, but I guess that´s how it works.

This week should be interesting-apparantly President has chosen me and my companion to be guinea pigs on some new thing the church wants to try-they´re trying to get us on the freebie healthcare here. I hope that won´t have political repercussions for the future...

I feel like this letter is short, but there´s not a ton to write about. Weather´s been cold here lately-not quite as bad as more central areas, but still cold.

Science fair projects? Nobody likes those. They´re almost as bad as those dumb probes they used to torture innocent students with. Maybe some of us don´t like coloring on paper...

Future spouse? What is that madness?

Bradley.

Oh, yeah. Doesn´t the picture look a little bit like Gerry? (Gerry Williams)

1/17/11 Question to the missionary w/ Answer.....

Hey buddy...question for the missionary...Tammy Fenn and I were talking last night...and she really stumbles on this one statement found in the Testimony of the Three Witnesses....And the honor be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, which is one God. Amen.
She was hoping you could explain it to her and actually to me now that she and I talked...she thinks maybe she's thinking too much about it...but is hoping you might give a simple answer for it...she said she even asked Bishop Gerald about it years ago...but it still puzzles her...mainly because of the word "one"  Because we all know they are separate beings....but as an investigator reading this...one might question what it means to be "one" especially since we say they are separate....Dad gave her the same answer Gerald did...because they act together as one...I hope you understand where she's confused and can help...

love you. MOM

They´re one God in the sense that they´re all working with one purpose. Not necessarily in the case of that particular testimony, but many times when the scriptures say they are one God, it´s because other languages (such as Greek, the language of the New Testament) have multiple forms of the word ´one´, and in the scriptural case, it´s a plural form of one. They´re separate persons, just with the same purpose-to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man (Moses 1:39). But they are certaintly three separate people, just unified in a manner that we can only dream of.

Hopefully that answers the question.

1/17/11

That sounds like a mess, but also about what I expected. McVeigh got the death penalty, and I´m sure this bum will end up getting it too.

Oh dear...I´m going to have a box full of gravy mix. Hopefully you taped up all the seams. They do have peanut butter here, but it´s like $6 for a small jar, and it´s not very well made either. Silly Spaniards and their lack of culture change. You could open up a Baskin Robbins here and have it fail.

I was looking closely at the shoes this week. They´re holding up really well so far. No signs of any cracks or splitting in the soles yet, and the shoes are still in good shape. Keeping them polished helps the leather from wearing out too fast. Plus switching them every day-most missionaries just end up wearing one pair and then ask why it´s destroyed within a year. Silly dopes.

It was a better week this week. All our investigators are finally back from vacation, so we had a good amount of lessons. Now that Elder Close is gone, I´m the expert on the area, and I´m having to make sure people aren´t slipping through the cracks on both companionships. A recent convert family almost did, since Elder Benito hadn´t ever met them (long story) and they haven´t come to church in two months.

Elder Hansen is the new elder here in Tarragona. He´s having a rough time with Elder Benito. We´ve had to have a couple of late night talks with him just to get him to let some stress off. Benito´s training was just a disaster, and he´s absolutely lost on the area. Elder Hansen´s about to go home in three more transfers, so this is the last situation he wanted to end his mission. Elder Close did a really bad job with him-to the point that Elder Hansen´s thinking he´ll have to get President to step in and talk to him. He´s overly confused on the rules, sees all these contradictions that aren´t there, doesn´t listen to any of us when we try to correct him...yikes. Elder Hansen had talked to Elder Southwick, the former AP, and said that President had a feeling the trainers last transfer weren´t doing their job, and, well...he was right.

Weather´s been spectacular here. We were in slacks and short sleeves the whole week. They said it´s a little warmer than usual, so it´ll just be a dry summer.

We had some good lessons this week. We´d been teaching on and off some Seventh-Day Adventists. They were pretty much the confused Jews I expected them to be. But they weren´t progressing(and only wanted to argue how the Sabbath is on Saturday), so I finally set up a lesson to just hit them over the head with the Bible until they either agreed to change or we were going to drop them. Got in, I gave my little twenty minute lesson, read some scriptures, and by the end he was just absolutely furious. Talked about how he didn´t like to fight over the Bible (he´s been pulling stunts with it for weeks) and then tried to read some obsure Old Testament scripture about the Law of Moses. We ended up talking for about ten more minutes before they finally just gave up. We definately had some help in the lesson- both of us were just turning back every little thrust and hitting them with another question they couldn´t answer. It was a really good lesson, and we celebrated by buying churros afterwards (apostate moment ).

We´ve been working with that family we found last week. Kate is really starting to progress now, and Prince is finally fighting the desire to just stay at home and live an easier life. He´s been a member for seventeen years, though, and even three years of inactivity doesn´t change that. We had a separate Gospel Principles class in English for all the Africans and he was in there just throwing down all kinds of stuff. Deep level of comprehension.

All the Roman stuff here is closed on Mondays. I really don´t know why.(I don´t think it´s for family home evening) We´re still going to go one day and get some pictures at the very least.

Still working hard-we´re consistantly putting in some of the best numbers in the mission. If we can pull off these two baptisms we´ve got planned, it´ll be a really good transfer.

Emails are really only for the family. That´s all we really have time for anyway-we´re supposed to keep it to an hour, and I try my best to keep that. Maybe the box will work, but I hate people feeling obligated to write me.

Well, that´s all I have for the main letter. I´ve got little side letters to all of you to write.

Love,
Bradley.

3124 is of the whole mission (though a chunk of the first row has gone home already) and 26 is a picture I got from Elder Hansen.

So, I still have my study room.

1/10/11

Yeah, I´m still in Tarragona. I could use some more Q-tips, plz. Same companion, though Elder Close is moving out now. Now I´m having to play the usual games to maintain what I´ve got in the apartment-my companion is being a butthead about it. Basically threatened me that if I don´t agree to switch bedrooms (and lose my little study cubby) he´ll make sure I´ll lose my study cubby no matter what(since he´s ´friends´ with the new District Leader that´s coming in)...well, you can guess how well I took that. Needless to say, I won´t be switching bedrooms, nor will I be losing my office. I took the small bathroom, the small fridge, I gave this companion the nice mattress, lots of space, and even a few spare spaces in my office. Ya esta. No mas.

Why is it that all my companions from Utah are boneheads? It´s like some kind of entitlement syndrome.

I´d heard that something had happened in Arizona, but I wasn´t able to get many details(he was kinda old). It´ll probably start getting worse from here on out. Sounds like that´s another end of Tucson to stay out of, though. Remember that shooting at that Eegees a long time ago back when we lived there?

My guess is that they´ll start looking at Secret Service protection for Congress as well, now. It´ll probably lead to a huge debate on banning all guns in the US now. That happened when Senator Brady was shot. You´ll have to keep me informed on what happens in the aftermath.

Sorry to hear the funeral was rough, but at least you´re through it now. We´ve got a pretty good ward, so be greatful for that. You wouldn´t believe the huge amount of politics that goes on in the wards here in Spain...a lot of grudges. Lot of inactive members over offenses and things, too.

Poor booboo...now she´s got an electric fence. Probably thinks she´s being abused right now.

Well, Binner didn´t send me one last week either....

Nothing really bombastic this week. We were passing by some old addresses I´d taken down. One of them turned out to be an inactive member from Nigeria...who´s married to a non member. We had a lesson with them and set a baptismal date with his wife. Guy´s really nice, he´s just been inactive first because no one spoke English in the ward, then later he just didn´t come because it´d become habit. Was in the bishopric, the elders quorum presidency, all kinds of things back in Africa. Now that we´ve got some more africans here in the ward, he´ll have people he can talk with, so it´ll be better at church for them now. Both are in their early thirties, they´ve got two little girls as well.

Not a whole lot else planned for this week, I think. Things should be pretty calm and quiet.

Sewing a project for art? Is it like thread the yarn through a plastic frame, or real sewing?

Okay, I don´t think I have anymore. Hope you all have a good week.

Bradley.

1/3/11

I´m sorry to hear that. Hopefully everything gets figured out.

The work wasn´t so hot this week. My companion came down with bronchitis, so we were in the apartment from Wednesday morning until Sunday. He´d been kinda sick the last week or so, then woke up Wednesday morning just all messed up. Had to take him to the ER...hoo boy, they´re so stupid here. I got a little grumpy with them. Would have gotten grumpier, but I had my nametag on. Then the hospital was in worse shape than Benson´s little hospital was ten years ago. So we finally got him some antibiotics and had him stay inside for the rest of the week. He´s doing better now, though he´s still got a tad bit of a cough. Doesn´t look sick anymore, though.

Transfers will be next week, so I say hold off on the package until I know what´s going to happen. Most likely, I won´t be transferred, (though there might be some companion shuffling in Tarragona-Elder Close is really hoping he gets this Zone Leader spot that´s opening, but we´ll see), but you never know anymore. Things tend to be crazy. President Monson is pushing mission presidents to keep missionaries in their areas for longer than it has been lately, ideally four transfers, even five in cases, just because it´s too hard on the recent converts, but there´s been a lot of shifting with less time still.

Totals for the year weren´t very good. We fell about eighty baptisms short of what they´d been hoping. Haven´t heard all of what´s going to be happening this year, but I think they´re going to toss any kind of number goal for 2011. The whole month of December the mission just got slammed left and right. Lost roughly sixty planned baptisms, right now something around 15 percent of the mission is seriously ill(nasty stomach bug seems to be going around), our best investigator turned out to be gay... it´s just been a rough ending. Our area was one of the bright spots in the mission, but we tanked this week pretty bad. We´ll turn it back around, though. Long as there isn´t anymore sickness.

Yeah, we´ve noticed the holidays isn´t the best season to teach, actually. Here in Spain it´s not going to be over until January 7th. The 6th is what Spain really celebrates...the wise men day. You know, because the wise men are more important than Jesus...

I thought the booboo was too fat to fit under the fence. You´ll have to beat her with a stick, I guess.

So this morning I was finally able to go pick up that package. It got here the 28th, but I couldn´t leave the apartment to go pick it up. Thanks for the Grinch. I´ll have to do something with him as a joke.

Well, with staying in I was able to burn through all my books, and those CD´s. Thanks for the Joseph Smith one-Madsen was bringing up a lot of new stuff we don´t really ever hear about.

Fireworks everywhere but in Pima County? Pima County is always a bunch of fuddy-duddies. Unless it comes to weed, they´d probably legalize that.

True Grit not starring John Wayne is heresy. Did they at least leave Gene´s favorite line in the movie?

You could take some Germ-X and squirt it in his mouth when he curses. I don´t think it´d kill him-it´s just a little alcohol, right?

It wasn´t the rain-that little umbrella was a piece of junk was all. It broke the second time I tried to use it. The one I have now works fine. Little big to drag along during transfers, but otherwise it works. Sometimes I slide it on my bag like Sean Connery in The Last Crusade. Other times it´s my cane. :)

I haven´t been in an area where there was more than one ward meeting in a building, so I don´t know whether they flip flop wards here. I´ll ask Elder Benito later-I think he meets in a multiward building in Madrid when he´s at home.

I´m going to go relax for the most part today, I think. We´ve got to go buy a new stereo today-I´ve milked about all we can out of the clunker we´ve got now. We´re still trying to get the hot water heater fixed-it works when it wants to, and I´m sick of cold showers.

Love,

Bradley.

12/27/10 (HELPING US OUT ELECTRONICALLY) oy! WE MISS HIM.

Did he just redeem the card on your user account, or did he buy songs? Either way, he should just be able to have them pulled up. Pull up iTunes (make sure you´re signed in on the iTunes Store with the account you bought them on), then go to the top, click ¨Store¨or ¨purchases¨ or something (might have to go through all the pull down windows) and look for ¨Check for Purchased Songs¨. Then click it, and it should allow it to download. If not...well it´d be pretty hard to explain how to do it over an e-mail. Not impossible, but we´ll try this first.

Oops...not sure why I hit send. Sorry.

Scripture is Proverbs 23: 13-14

 13Withhold not ^acorrection from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.
 14Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.
Or, there´s this in Proverbs 13:
24He that spareth his ^arod hateth his son: but he that loveth him ^bchasteneth him betimes(aka sometimes).
It´s a good thing that the book of Proverbs isn´t solid doctrine, right?

So, full year schedule...what evilness. I´m so glad I got the schooling old style. Back before we had these fancy computer reading programs. Why, in my day, we had to use a pencil! And the teacher actually looked at your paper! And we had to do these stupid ´probes´....

Ahh, the old Anchor Baby debate. Silly Congress.
18% is still not to bad compared to the 30+ that it is here. But for the US...it´s madness.
Still, the rate of spending will probably slow down here pretty soon. There might have to come government wide shutdowns when budgets don´t get passed, but we´ll probably have a few more years than three or four. Though, more unemployment=less taxes brought in=more stupid taxes on rich=less jobs=less taxes...and the cycle continues. Sometimes I wonder if any of those goons took Algebra 1.

Sorry this letter seems short. We did just talk.
We´re going to get in some Phase 10 and Skip-Bo today. And I was crazy enough to finally break down and buy some real maple syrup...five euros later. Ouch.

I´ll have a better letter next week. promise.
Bradley.

12/25/10

Okay, I´ll be calling between 8:30 and 9:00 PM Spain time. Dont´worry, the call is dirt cheap for me. It´s going to be like 3 euros for the thirty or so minutes.

Love,

Bradley.

12/20/10

Okay, so the call first. I´ve considered the several options, and I think the simplest option will be for me to just go to a locutorio and make the call from there. Then there´s not signal issues, and it´s usually pretty cheap(like three or four bucks). I´ll be calling on Christmas day, probably around 8:30-9:00PM our time, which shouldn´t be too late for you all. The calls this year are limited to 30 minutes.

I got the one box with the peanut brittle and stuff on Tuesday, and  the other on Friday. The fudge...well, it kinda made it. It was mainly melted into one big blob in the Tupperware.

Baptism went fine. Pictures are attached. He...well, he´s not the best with pictures. But he´s a pretty good kid. Name is Mikel, and he´s from Spain.

We actually were one of the most successful companionships in the mission this week. Judging from the numbers we´ve been seeing in the weekly reports, the mission is getting hammered right now. There were some 22 people with dates for Saturday, and only five actually made it into getting baptised. So we´re sitting about 74 baptisms short for the year´s goal, with fifteen scheduled for this weekend, the last one in the year that counts. Well, there´s always next year.

The presents were fine. They all made it. Two of them had rips on the edges, but i´ve behaved. They´re all still wrapped. Last night, I finally made those mashed potatoes and gravy. Put down some toast on the bottom of the plate, then the taters, then the gravy. Nice little meal.

We´ve still got Edgar set for Christmas day. Pretty sure that´s going to go through. Hopefully we have the hot water heaters working this time-it was sort of frozen water last time.

Weather´s been pretty calm here. Being right on the sea helps. It´s definitely been jacket weather, but nothing too extreme.

I saw on LDS.org that Switzerland is trying to pass a law that would prevent missionaries in their country unless they came from one of the European Union countries...that´s not a good sign. Hopefully they get it stopped, and the rest of Europe doesn´t follow suit.

We had the ward christmas party on Friday. Bishop spent a fair amount of money to make sure it was a good one this year. Tons of food, and I think everyone had a good time.

I think all the clothes are holding up. Nothings in dire need of replacement yet. But yeah, the washers over here are all retarded. And we´ve got a Whirlpool...but it´s got to be European built, that´s certain. Explains why it only sort of works.

Christmas conference is on Wednesday. It should be good. We´ve still got to go out and buy the white elephant gifts-not sure if we´re supposed to wrap them or just bring them-but that should go fine.

Hehe...they don´t have biscuits here. Guess it´s gravy on toast. . I am planning on feeding the Spaniard some El Pato, though. He´ll probably act like it´s Baja sauce and go running for the faucet. Thanks for the cans-sometimes food is a little bland here. I´m planning on using it for the flautas and for the hot dog burros this week. Thankfully we have a church key.

So, I´ll try to be good and not open the presents too early. Might have to follow local tradition (well, South American tradition) and open them the 24th...or maybe just two a day until Christmas? ;)

All right, I´ll behave. Maybe.

Well, it´s kinda of a short letter. I´ll write down some themes for the call on Saturday.

Bradley

PS: I sent out the Christmas letters, but they didn´t get put in the box until Tuesday, and probably didn´t get postmarked until Wednesday. Hopefully they´ll make it in time, but if not, there is stuff coming.

- Show quoted text -

12/13/10

Doesn´t sound too hot, although we´ve been in mostly short sleeves this week. I don´t think we´ll get any snow here, though. That´d be a Bilbao section thing.

Well, it´s been a more normal week this time around. We´re still working on getting the area built up, though I`ve been told President is pretty pleased with our numbers for this week, so we´ll have to keep working.

We finally got the window replaced that Elder Benito broke (long, long story), and thankfully they didn´t charge us for it. Still trying to get the hot water heater looked at (apparantly they´re supposed to be coming tomorrow.)

We´ve got just one baptism set for the 25th at the moment, and one for the 18th. The other that was set for the 25th will probably be a January baptism.

Funny story: Saturday we took a trip out to a pueblo to eat with one of our recent converts (who´s from Scotland, so everythings in English) and we were just sitting (all four) when she was bringing out two plates. One of them tipped a bit and dropped a little gravy on the ground. She just says ¨Oh, s***¨, no warning. It was exactly how your mother usually says it. (she´s about sixty too) So we all managed to keep quiet until she went back into the kitchen, and then all about died with laughter. Just really unexpected.

Thursday, we go out to this little dumpy pueblo called Campoclaro. We were just going to mainly kill time and pass by some former investigators. First, a less active from Africa stops us and asks where the church is. So we set a lesson with him for the next day. Then, another lady stops us and asks whether there´s the ward Christmas party this year. We set a lesson with her for the next day too. Later, we´d gone pretty far out into a pretty rough looking area, it´s getting late, and I finally said ¨All right, let´s get out of here.¨ We´d had to pass by some gangs on the way, and now it was getting fairly dark.

As we´re headed back in that direction, this huge African guy waves us down and starts walking with us. Talking about how he´d heard about the church in Africa and all kinds of stuff. Walked with him all past the gangs to the bus stop, then got his information and set up an appointment for the next day.

So, next day, we go out to Campoclaro again. All three lessons fired on us. The third person wasn´t even interested and didn´t remember giving us his information (my comp thought he might have been drunk).

Personally, I think he was just sent there to walk with us and keep us from getting robbed, so...needless to say we don´t work in Campoclaro anymore. At least not at night. Our information member told us that´s not an area we should be in anyway.

We´ve been having a lot more fun this week. Now that everything is finally split, we just have to make sure the other companionship isn´t trying to make inroads into our area (the zone leaders hit that pretty hard during their visit on Tuesday). We´ve gone out for churros a few times, (haven´t hit a candy shop yet), but we´re still working hard.

I´m going to try to send out all the Christmas letters today. Should be able to get most, if not all, in the mail. They should make it to the US before Christmas.

Today, I´ve got to get more lightbulbs (it would figure these turds all go out around the same time. The ones in our bedroom and my Study Cubby(now renamed the Tarragona Norte offices) are little Halogens that are running us 2.50 for a two pack for the junkiest versions. Like 12.00 for a name brand.

I put together the christmas tree last week, and I´ve got pictures of it. It wasn´t too difficult.

This week, we´ve got to just get things ready for the baptism on the 18th. Apart from that, it should be pretty calm. Going to relax this p-day, and probably just kick back a bit, maybe take a few pictures.

I´ll try not to open the presents. Hopefully the paper doesn´t accidentally rip or something. Or they don´t end up going through one of the x-ray machines at the train station.

Yes, you can tell your parents I got the card, and no, the post office didn´t steal the money. It´ll sit with the stash of Dollars I´ve got for a while, probably.

I keep telling the new missionaries that President wears a Santa suit for the Christmas party, but I´m not sure they believe me. I think it´ll mainly just be a simple little thing for four hours like the schedule says. I´ve got to find a white give for a White Elephant game they´ll be holding.

Okay, that´s probably all I have for this week.

Bradley.

12/6/10

Yeah, I got the cards a bit late, but it was fine. No mail today, though-another stupid Catholic holiday, so everything´s closed. I´m going to drown in these holidays.

The chinos might be open today, but I don´t think the Pharisee will shell out his part for a tree, so probably not, unless just Allphin and I buy one.

So we had to go to district meeting on Wednesday, and we had to go to Llerida. Rather than just take a bus, the Pharisee made us take the AVE...so, 40 euros later for a thirty minute ride each way, we got there.

He´s been pretty bad lately. Now he likes to lord over everyone. The amount of crap in the meeting was so large you needed waders to get through it. The Elders from Llerida were like ¨Oh no, why couldn´t we get Elder Naseath again?¨. Basically, ¨I want success here so I can be a zone leader or an AP¨...

So, we finally divided the area on Wednesday afternoon. I fought pretty hard to get the majority of Tarragona, (ended up giving away the biggest outer pueblo). He was thinking how most of our area was worthless ¨Eh, there´s nothing up there(old, old Roman Tarragona)¨ So we went to work.

Talked it over with a less active member on Thursday, who told us that area should be a gold mine, since it´s mostly populated by South Americans. We haven´t had much time to search up there yet, but it should bring some more this week. Thursday was the first real day we had to work last week.

Friday night, we finally got in with one of our investigators and set a baptismal date for the 25th. Saturday, we set another baptismal date for the 25th as well. We found new investigators in some of these ´dead´ pueblos. Then when we got back Saturday night he´s in the apartment pouting. ¨You´re going to have to give me Torredembarra. It has to be more fair.¨. My comps like ¨Hey, I thought we´d agreed to just split that area. ¨ ¨No, it´s not fair.¨. So I told him to take it and be happy (we hadn´t even gone out there, though we lost some nice Peruvian less actives.)

Throughout the week, the Pharisee had been talking about how they´d bumped into someone on the street. He said that the guy asked where the church was, and they asked him if he was a member. He replied ¨No, but I´d like to be.¨ Well, until Sunday they hadn´t even met with him. Sunday night, we were just walking all over the city, passing by former investigators that were dropped for one reason or another. We had the choice to either go catch a bus for a pueblo, Torreforta, to hope that a less active might be home, or walk uphill on the Rambla to pass by two more formers. We were tired, but we walked up the Rambla. Then we run into this guy who stops us and says ¨Hey, Elders, where are the other missionaries?¨ Turns out it was the Columbian guy they´d run into on the street. They were supposed to meet him at the church at 8, but they´d completely fired on him. Then I guess they´d called to meet him on the top of the Rambla. By sheer luck we´d run into him first. Talking with him, we found out that he lives in our area. So we walk with him to the meeting spot. I immediately saw the Pharisee was furious. Elder Allphin (who´s learned by himself how bad the Pharisee is) is like, ¨Hey, we ran into your friend, turns out he lives within our boundaries, so we´re going to go to the church to teach him.¨ The Pharisee was so furious. He pulls out the map, where I point out that the street in question is well past the borders of our area, then he storms off toward the church, saying ¨We´ll talk later about this!¨. (right infront of the investigator)

So we walked the twenty minutes to the church, getting to know Edgar, from Columbia. Great guy. He´d investigated in Columbia, but never had the chance to get baptised, and didn´t find the church here. We get to the church, go upstairs, and teach him a quick lesson. By the end of it, he´s got a baptismal date for the 25th of December.

So that was awesome. We´ve got another appointment with him tonight.

Going back to the apartment, we´re talking about how this is going to go over. Edgar himself had said ¨I like you guys better. That other guy is kinda...wierd¨. My comp was pretty upset (he tends to get pretty firey), especially since we knew they´d known he lived within our area, and they´d never have told us until after he was baptised, if even then. I got him calmed down, and when they got back things went okay. Turned out he was still mad, but his companion (who he´s training, a Spaniard(speaks english too)), told him to knock it off and that all that mattered was that he got baptised, not which companionship did it. And they´d just come from setting a baptismal date.

So, that´s how that went. I´m sure there will still be boundary issues, but we´ll continue on.

We´re planning on enjoying ourselves today. Got to go get a few lightbulbs (of course they have to be a special type), we´re going to see if the store is open, then we´re going to relax today. Probably play some Pass or Uno. Next week we´ve got plans to hit the sights here in Tarragona.

Either way, I´ve had a better week this last week than I´ve had since I left Gandia.

Now that there won´t be any crazyness this week, we should be able to get even more done. Looking like it´s going to be a busy Christmas day-I´ve never baptised more than one person a day, and three different people will be really interesting. I´m sure Bishop will just explode.

Well, that´s all the madness for this week. It´ll be interesting how the Pharisee justifies himself tomorrow, since he had the worst numbers in the district, and he always slammed Elder Monks about how ¨dur, the district leaders area should be a model for the other areas¨. I kinda feel bad for his companion. He treats him pretty badly,(I am master, you´re dirt) and Elder Allphin said that Elder Benito told him privately that he doesn´t like his trainer, which is sad.

Have a good week.

Bradley.

11/30/10

Yes, we´re dealing with transfers today (yesterday was just a disaster). So, President decided to throw a curveball and break up the Hospitalet Zone, create two new zones, and reorganize the districts. And he´s put two companionships in Tarragona now. I´m not with the Pharisee anymore, but he´s still there. They´re letting him train again (hopefully it goes better than last time). And I´m with Elder Allphin again...sort of unexpected. Super super rare to have a companion twice in your mission. But at least we´ll get along.

 

I´m in Barcelona right now, wating for Allphin to get in the office. The newbies are coming in, so they kicked us out until after two. They made the Pharisee the district leader, so I´m sure it´ll just be delightful. Thankfully, that´s only an hour and a half once a week.

 

So, a messy week. Friday, we had to spend the day in Valencia because the Pharisee had to do fingerprints for residency. Left around 9, got back around 8PM. Didn´t get anything done because the line was too long. SO we went back Sunday night, spent the night there, got up at FOUR AM (), sat outside in the cold from 5:30 to 9, got a number, had to go back to the Valencia piso, sat around until 2:30, went back and froze in line from 3 to 6, finally got in, got done. I had to call the office to get them to change our return tickets so that we´d get into Barcelona earlier (the tickets we had put us in at 11:45PM). It was pouring rain, I didn´t have my umbrella, then a car drove by and soaked my slacks... Finally got on the train, got into Barcelona around 10:30, then got to the office and I went to sleep.

 

So, when I was in Valencia, they said they´d mistakenly received a box. It was a Hush Puppies shoe box. From July. Yeah, that missing box finally got to me, along with two letters from July as well. Fraid the Hot Cheetos bag popped some time ago, and while I haven´t opened it, they´re sure to be stale. Everything else is fine, though.

 

I ´ve gotten the box with the presents and the envelope with the Ensigns and everything. Probably some package notices sitting in the mailbox. And since I¨m a bad person I opened the presents already. . Thank you very much for the scriptures. They´re really nice. It hurts to use a marking pencil on them. I haven´t really eaten the candy much yet, but I´ll start breaking into it soon.

 

Hey, I was meaning to ask-what ever happened to that Lake Havasu City trip you won? Did it expire?

 

Tell dad that if he wants a new truck he really just has to ask.

 

I plan to treat myself. Especially since I¨ll be with a companion who won´t demand that I pay for everything and then mooch off of things. Maybe we´ll go out to eat for lunch.

 

Yes, I could use a bottle of baby powder.

 

The foot insoles are holding up, but they won´t last six months, I don´t think. When they start dying, I´ll let you know so you can send some from the US. They just don´t make good things here.

 

I thought about how this was the first black friday I´d missed in a while.

 

Naah, the Pharisee won´t change. He´s been a hypocrite his whole mission. He was brought up that way-super conceited and spoiled. Made his parents send him $180 just so he could buy a new jacket just because he didn´t like the way the old one looked (because it wasn´t ´european´ style.) It seems to be a Utah problem, primarily Salt Lake. Nearly every missionary I´ve met from Salt Lake I haven´t liked.

 

The Koreans had been getting antsy for a while. Little Kimmy likes to throw little fits every now and then.

 

I made some bratwurst for thanksgiving lunch. Then I had em with a nice Pepsi and some ice cream. Nothing too fancy. I´ve been smart with the mission money, so it just keeps building up. Then I can afford a silght splurge every now and then. (like 2.50 for a little thing of Dijon Mustard.) There´s a bottle of genuine Canadian Maple Syrup at one store í´ve been considering, but 5 euros for a little bottle like that is tough to swallow. Plus, there´s no waffles to buy.

 

We walk a pretty good amount. Shoes are holding up fine, though you can see some wear on the bottoms. Just keep them polished and they still look nice, though.

 

Elder Crofts is getting transferred out of Gandia finally. He´s ending up in Grannolers or something like that, so I´ll see him at the Christmas conference the 22nd. We keep writing each other pretty regularly, and I´ve got his home address.

 

Well, that´s all I have for this week.

 

Bradley.