I get to go to Barcelona!!!! So here´s the news. I´ve been extremely sick since Saturday. My fever hit 102.7 degrees. So it was pretty bad. But the Medic just called the regional doctor in Germany and he said I´m okay to go tomorrow, just don´t shake anyone´s hand for 3 days. So that´s good. A week and half ago or so one of the teachers that was here for a short time went home to switzerland and when he got home was confirmed for having swine flu. Anyways, they cracked down here, because some missionaries were starting to feel sick. A few days later mine and one other elder´s temperatures went way high. So we both had to miss the park. We also both had to move into a "quarantine room." I´ve been in bed a lot for the past couple days, but I´ve been feeling pretty good today. I only hope I´m not just temporarily feeling good, then going to die in the field. We´ll see though I guess. But yeah. Anyways, so there´s a good chance what we had was swine flu, and if it wasn´t that, it was a really bad flu. The other Elder is still above 102 degrees, so that´s not good. His name is Elder Dunn. He´s cool. We´ve gotten to know each other better too sharing a room the past couple days with nothing to do. Anyways, so I really felt like I was going to die several times, I would be freezing and I just couldn´t get warm sometimes. Then I´d be so hot and I couldn´t cool down. Saturday night I only got 2-3 hours of sleep, because I couldn´t sleep. But last night I slept the whole night through, when I woke up my temperature was only 99.3, and it´s been below 100 all day today. So they´re keeping my ticket and flight plans all good to go. So that´s exciting. I´m so excited to go. I just hope I can get back into the missionary swing of things, since I´ve been kind of out of it the past couple days. We´ll see though. I´m not sure when my P-day will be, but I´ll let you know when I know. Oh, so cool story. On Sunday I had a blessing from Elder Bodily, my companion, with Elder Driggs and Elder Cannell (the other elders in my room) helping. After the blessing I took my temperature about every half hour. The first time it was 98.9, then 98.7, then 98.6. 98.6 is the normal temperature, so it was cool how it went down like that. It hasn´t gone over 100 since then. So that´s really nice. The President just came in here to confirm that I´m going. So they´re confirming all my flight info. etc. Anyways, really not much else has happened here due to my being in bed the whole time. It was kind of lame that I missed the last everything. The last park, the last singing by the temple (I don´t know if I told you about that. Every Sunday night we sing out in the temple plaza area and people come out to hear us. So yeah, it´s cool), the last class, etc. But, I get to go, so all is well. Well, I can´t think of much else to say now, sorry. I´ve loved it here, it´s been a lot of fun, I´ve learned a lot, but I´m excited to go to Barcelona now, and I hope and pray I´ll be healthy enough to serve effectively while I´m there. Well, I´m going to write individuals now. ¡Chao!
-Elder Sommerfeldt
8/30/09
8/21/09
8/20/09
Well, things are going well for me here. I will try and hurry and write this. More people wrote me this week, so I have a little less time to write, but that´s okay. To answer a few questions really quick, I believe I get 1 hour to email on Monday before leaving. So I can email the fam one more time before you leaving. You can write me too, but don´t make it incredibly long or anything. But yeah, it´ll be your last chance to write me... So good news, I got 3 letters this past week! Before this week I´d only recieved one letter my whole time here. They were from Jen and Kelly. So that was fun. Oh, I must´ve gotten 4 letters, because I just remember I also got one from Iris Brown. So yeah. Anyways, I leave next Tuesday, so this is my last P-day here. It´s weird. I went to the temple today for my last time. It was really good. I did the session in Spanish (with the headset) today. It was really cool. I understood everything. Also, today was the first time I didn´t need help at all the whole time. So that was cool. I love the Madrid temple here. I hope that I´ll be able to come by here sometime in the future. Maybe if we come back to barcelona we can swing by the Madrid temple since we´d have to fly through Madrid. We´ll see. That´s still a long ways off. Anyways, let´s see, what else is new. The fish is okay, but I don´t think I ever said I liked it. So mom and dad, I noticed you made comments about me liking it, but that might be stretching it just a little bit. The park last week was good. I was with Elder Dunn. We got 16 contacts and gave out one Book of Mormon. It wasn´t the most successful week, but it was still good. I´m surprised how many people there are who absolutely just don´t believe in anything. Not even a higher power. It´s crazy. But there´s a lot who believe in God and Christ as well, so that´s good. Oh, so this past week I gave my first blessing. I was way nervous. Hermana Brown, the hermana in my district, asked Elder Bodily and I if we´d give here a blessing. We asked who she wanted to annoint and who to give the blessing. She said she didn´t care but eventually said to have Elder Bodily annoint and have me give the blessing. So we did that. It was really nice to finally see for myself that words will come into my head. I had no idea what I was going to say before, but words popped into my head and I said them. So it was a good experience. She´s been sick, so that´s why she asked. She´s still sick, but getting better I think. There was a teacher that was here for a week and half just subbing, but went home to Switzerland a bit ago and was diagnosed with Swine Flu. So they´ve taken a few precautions here with that, but I don´t think anyone else has Swine, just bad coughs etc. So yeah, hopefully everyone gets felling better soon. I have a bit of a cough again, but as I´ve told people here, I have the immune system of a fox. Then when they ask what that means I say, "Have you ever heard of a fox dying of sickness...?" It´s kind of funny. Because I´m sure they do, but you don´t ever hear about foxes dying of sickness. Ha ha. So that´s funny. Let´s see, what else is new. I´m excited to go to Barcelona. I feel like I´m doing a lot better with the language, but still not fluent. I can communicate very well though. So that´s good. And Kevin, I understood everything you said in your email, so yeah. Anyways, we´ve continued practicing teaching etc. This week we´re teaching the 3rd lesson, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the commandments (The Word of Wisdom, Tithing, Sabbath Day Holy, Law of Chastity). So that´s what I´m doing over here. All is going well with that. President Hill is gone for 3 or 4 days, so we´re kind of on our own here for a while. But the teachers are all still here and all. And he gave me emergency contact info too if there´s any problems. So that´s good. There´s some mission president´s seminar in Preston, England, so that´s where he is. Oh, also, Hermana Hill, his wife,, helped us sew stuff. My pants below the pockets were ripping. She fixed them though. So that´s good. Well, I´m out of time now. So I´m going to send this. Have a fantastic week. ¡Chao! -Elder Sommerfeldt
8/14/09
8/13/09
Hello everyone! How´s it going? To answer some questions, I leave here in a week and a half. I believe it´s the 25th of August. It´s a Tuesday, so yeah. That´ll be fun. We just got back from the temple, it was way good again.
Okay, so now I´m going to try and answer a bunch of mom´s questions. I love it here. I don´t know if maybe the Peru and Brazil MTC´s were just lacking or what, but I like it here. I´m sure I´ll like the field even more, but there´s no complaints, except for sometimes the food. Mom also asked if we have fish, we probably have about 4 or 5 servings of fish each week. Sometimes it´s not bad, but sometimes it´s just so slimy and fishy and nobody likes it. So yeah. But it´s not terrible. I´m the master at hiding the food that I don´t eat. I usually have a pudding thing, it´s in a disposable container, then the vegetables etc. that I don´t eat I stick in there, put the cover thing back on, and when I take my tray up I just hurry and toss it in the trash so the cooks can´t tell that I didn´t eat all of their food. I think I need to thank Bruce for the ingenious ways of hiding food. I will be flying when I go to Barcelona. We´ll leave early Tuesday morning, go to the airport, then fly to the mission. Right now there are 14 elders and 4 hermanas here, so 18 missionaries total. They´re all really cool and I get along with everyone really well.
So the park continues to go well. My companion for the park last week and I had 16 contacts and 1 referral last week. It wasn´t my best week, but it wasn´t terrible.
Things continue to go well with my district. This past week somebody suggested having a "District Inventory." I wasn´t scared, but a little nervous that there might be some people that just knocked everything other people did, and that it wouldn´t be constructive criticism at all. But, I prayed about it the day before, and had a thought that I should come up with something that I liked about each person individually. So the day of I wrote down in my planner something about each person in my district that was good and that I liked about them. Then I asked if I could start off saying a few things, and went through and personally complimented everyone. It ended up going really well. There were a few things that people still brought up that need to change, which are fine, but they did it constructively and nobody´s feelings were hurt or anything. So that was a cool experience for me.
Anyways, what else. Oh, today we´re going to the Prado Museum. I guess it´s some famous museum. So that´s cool. We´ll see how it goes. I can´t take any pictures inside, but maybe I will outside. We´ll see. So last week we just played fútbol for our P-Day. It was fun. I still haven´t played any tennis here. The only place I know of where I can play has a fee, so I don´t want to pay for it. So yeah.
Oh, I can´t remember if I told you, but Elder Bodily (my companion) and I were memorizing all of the Los Artículos de Fe, 2 Nefi 25:26, and "Divina Luz" (Lead Kindly light, but in Spanish). We completed them all by last Sunday. It was hard, but we did it. This week we´re saying through all of them everyday so we can make sure we remember them longer.
Well, I can´t think of what else has happened. Oh, Hermana Viso, one of my teachers is back now. She was on vacation for 2 weeks. Which apparently is short over here in Spain. Most people take 1 month long vacations, crazy. Yesterday in class with Hermana Viso we all sang songs like "God Bless America," "God Bless the USA," "My Country ´Tis of Thee," etc. It was fun. She was asking if we really are that patriotic or not. I guess in Spain people aren´t really patriotic at all. So yeah. It was funny. Afterwards we are were yelling "USA! USA! USA!..." It´s fun teasing her a bit. Okay, what else, oh, I love Nutella. We have this stuff, it´s actually called Nucilla, but it´s just like Nutella, and we dip crackers in it and eat it. I eat a lot, but I´ve gotten a little better at not eating it all.
This past week for one of our practice teachings we got to have some local youth come in and play investigators. That was fun, but it was a lot harder than when teaching other missionaries, but probably still easier than it will be teaching actual investigators. Oh, I´ve only gotten one letter my entire time here, so Kevin and Bruce, you were right that the letters drop down a ton after leaving Provo. Oh well I guess. Well, I think I´m going to head out now, I can´t think of much else to say. So yeah. Things are good here with me, and hope everything goes well with you guys. And have fun with dinner with Jen this Sunday. Well, this is Karl, signing out. ¡Chao!
-Elder Sommerfeldt
Okay, so now I´m going to try and answer a bunch of mom´s questions. I love it here. I don´t know if maybe the Peru and Brazil MTC´s were just lacking or what, but I like it here. I´m sure I´ll like the field even more, but there´s no complaints, except for sometimes the food. Mom also asked if we have fish, we probably have about 4 or 5 servings of fish each week. Sometimes it´s not bad, but sometimes it´s just so slimy and fishy and nobody likes it. So yeah. But it´s not terrible. I´m the master at hiding the food that I don´t eat. I usually have a pudding thing, it´s in a disposable container, then the vegetables etc. that I don´t eat I stick in there, put the cover thing back on, and when I take my tray up I just hurry and toss it in the trash so the cooks can´t tell that I didn´t eat all of their food. I think I need to thank Bruce for the ingenious ways of hiding food. I will be flying when I go to Barcelona. We´ll leave early Tuesday morning, go to the airport, then fly to the mission. Right now there are 14 elders and 4 hermanas here, so 18 missionaries total. They´re all really cool and I get along with everyone really well.
So the park continues to go well. My companion for the park last week and I had 16 contacts and 1 referral last week. It wasn´t my best week, but it wasn´t terrible.
Things continue to go well with my district. This past week somebody suggested having a "District Inventory." I wasn´t scared, but a little nervous that there might be some people that just knocked everything other people did, and that it wouldn´t be constructive criticism at all. But, I prayed about it the day before, and had a thought that I should come up with something that I liked about each person individually. So the day of I wrote down in my planner something about each person in my district that was good and that I liked about them. Then I asked if I could start off saying a few things, and went through and personally complimented everyone. It ended up going really well. There were a few things that people still brought up that need to change, which are fine, but they did it constructively and nobody´s feelings were hurt or anything. So that was a cool experience for me.
Anyways, what else. Oh, today we´re going to the Prado Museum. I guess it´s some famous museum. So that´s cool. We´ll see how it goes. I can´t take any pictures inside, but maybe I will outside. We´ll see. So last week we just played fútbol for our P-Day. It was fun. I still haven´t played any tennis here. The only place I know of where I can play has a fee, so I don´t want to pay for it. So yeah.
Oh, I can´t remember if I told you, but Elder Bodily (my companion) and I were memorizing all of the Los Artículos de Fe, 2 Nefi 25:26, and "Divina Luz" (Lead Kindly light, but in Spanish). We completed them all by last Sunday. It was hard, but we did it. This week we´re saying through all of them everyday so we can make sure we remember them longer.
Well, I can´t think of what else has happened. Oh, Hermana Viso, one of my teachers is back now. She was on vacation for 2 weeks. Which apparently is short over here in Spain. Most people take 1 month long vacations, crazy. Yesterday in class with Hermana Viso we all sang songs like "God Bless America," "God Bless the USA," "My Country ´Tis of Thee," etc. It was fun. She was asking if we really are that patriotic or not. I guess in Spain people aren´t really patriotic at all. So yeah. It was funny. Afterwards we are were yelling "USA! USA! USA!..." It´s fun teasing her a bit. Okay, what else, oh, I love Nutella. We have this stuff, it´s actually called Nucilla, but it´s just like Nutella, and we dip crackers in it and eat it. I eat a lot, but I´ve gotten a little better at not eating it all.
This past week for one of our practice teachings we got to have some local youth come in and play investigators. That was fun, but it was a lot harder than when teaching other missionaries, but probably still easier than it will be teaching actual investigators. Oh, I´ve only gotten one letter my entire time here, so Kevin and Bruce, you were right that the letters drop down a ton after leaving Provo. Oh well I guess. Well, I think I´m going to head out now, I can´t think of much else to say. So yeah. Things are good here with me, and hope everything goes well with you guys. And have fun with dinner with Jen this Sunday. Well, this is Karl, signing out. ¡Chao!
-Elder Sommerfeldt
8/11/09
8/6/09
Hello everyone! How is everyone doing? Things are going well here. This email is being sent a little bit later than normal. The computers weren´t working forever, but there´s a guy here now individually changing each computer so it will work. Anyways, things are going good here. This past week all of the missionaries that were here before us left. There were 12 that left, so for Tuesday and a lot of Wednesday there were only 14 missionaries.
Anyways, a couple spiritual experiences. The Sunday before missionaries leave we watch the Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration movie. It was so good. Long story short, I felt the spirit so strong and am so grateful for all that Joseph Smith did for us. So that was way cool. Also, I had one other spiritual experience. Well, I had more than one, but one more that I´ll mention here. So Elder Bodily and I were teaching this past week. We were teaching some "investigators" (other missionaries) the second lesson. It wasn´t going really well. It was okay, but not great. Anyways, I had the thought that I should use the pamphelt for The Plan of Salvation. So I grabbed it and opened it. I ended up finding the picture of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane and just felt that´s what I should do. I showed it to Elder Bodily really quickly so he´d know where I was going, then we started to teach and talk about the Atonement. It was so amazing how much the spirit changed in the room. Before the other missionaries were just kind of chilling, leaning back in their chairs, etc., and after that, it was very apparent that the spirit was there. It was a good experience for me at seeing how much listening to the spirit can really benefit you, and just how important it is. So yeah. That was good. I hope I can keep it up in the field as well with real investigators. So those are my spiritual experiences.
Another thing I don´t think I´ve told you that you´ll be interested in hearing is that for the past few weeks our district has played review games. It started off when Elder Bodily and I decided to play Jeopardy as a District. So we were in charge the first week, then the next week Elder Driggs and Elder Cannell did Jeopardy too, then this past week Hermana Brown did a vocab review game with drawing, acting, and explaining. So far they´ve all been fun. Elder Cook and Elder Kellar have the game for this next Tuesday, and I´m sure that one will be fun too. So things are good there. I just thought I´d continue a bit of my FHE lessons tradition out here... :) Anyways, for Gym most days now I play fútbol. It´s fun. We play in this concrete pit/stadium thing. I like it. I don´t know for sure what we´re doing for P-day today. We were going to go to the Prada museum, but we´re going to wait until next week, because there´s one new Elder, and three new hermanas that want to go with us, but since they just got here yesterday, they don´t have a P-day until next week. So yeah.
Oh, so Elder Bodily and I have been memorizing a lot this past week. Our goal is to have all of the Articles of Faith, 2 Nefi 25:26, and "Divina Luz" (Lead Kindly Light) all memorized by this Sunday. I have 2/3 verses of "Divina Luz" memorized, 9 of the articles of faith down, and I´m almost done with 2 Nefi 25:26. It´s way hard remember all of them. We´ll get it though, hopefully. Well, I can´t think of a whole lot else to say. Oh, you should be getting my CD soon, let me know if you do. Also, if anyone emails me in the next few hours, I´ll be writing the individuals in about 3 hours or so, probably. Well, I´m going to send this out to everyone, then do generals later. ¡Chao!
-Elder Sommerfeldt
Anyways, a couple spiritual experiences. The Sunday before missionaries leave we watch the Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration movie. It was so good. Long story short, I felt the spirit so strong and am so grateful for all that Joseph Smith did for us. So that was way cool. Also, I had one other spiritual experience. Well, I had more than one, but one more that I´ll mention here. So Elder Bodily and I were teaching this past week. We were teaching some "investigators" (other missionaries) the second lesson. It wasn´t going really well. It was okay, but not great. Anyways, I had the thought that I should use the pamphelt for The Plan of Salvation. So I grabbed it and opened it. I ended up finding the picture of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane and just felt that´s what I should do. I showed it to Elder Bodily really quickly so he´d know where I was going, then we started to teach and talk about the Atonement. It was so amazing how much the spirit changed in the room. Before the other missionaries were just kind of chilling, leaning back in their chairs, etc., and after that, it was very apparent that the spirit was there. It was a good experience for me at seeing how much listening to the spirit can really benefit you, and just how important it is. So yeah. That was good. I hope I can keep it up in the field as well with real investigators. So those are my spiritual experiences.
Another thing I don´t think I´ve told you that you´ll be interested in hearing is that for the past few weeks our district has played review games. It started off when Elder Bodily and I decided to play Jeopardy as a District. So we were in charge the first week, then the next week Elder Driggs and Elder Cannell did Jeopardy too, then this past week Hermana Brown did a vocab review game with drawing, acting, and explaining. So far they´ve all been fun. Elder Cook and Elder Kellar have the game for this next Tuesday, and I´m sure that one will be fun too. So things are good there. I just thought I´d continue a bit of my FHE lessons tradition out here... :) Anyways, for Gym most days now I play fútbol. It´s fun. We play in this concrete pit/stadium thing. I like it. I don´t know for sure what we´re doing for P-day today. We were going to go to the Prada museum, but we´re going to wait until next week, because there´s one new Elder, and three new hermanas that want to go with us, but since they just got here yesterday, they don´t have a P-day until next week. So yeah.
Oh, so Elder Bodily and I have been memorizing a lot this past week. Our goal is to have all of the Articles of Faith, 2 Nefi 25:26, and "Divina Luz" (Lead Kindly Light) all memorized by this Sunday. I have 2/3 verses of "Divina Luz" memorized, 9 of the articles of faith down, and I´m almost done with 2 Nefi 25:26. It´s way hard remember all of them. We´ll get it though, hopefully. Well, I can´t think of a whole lot else to say. Oh, you should be getting my CD soon, let me know if you do. Also, if anyone emails me in the next few hours, I´ll be writing the individuals in about 3 hours or so, probably. Well, I´m going to send this out to everyone, then do generals later. ¡Chao!
-Elder Sommerfeldt
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