Family and friends! How´s everyone doing? So I´ll start with the good news first. Montse was baptized this past Tuesday, I baptized her, then on Sunday she was confirmed by Elder Morales. It was way good. Then on Sunday Rachel, from South Carolina was baptized and confirmed by her grandpa. They´re such a good family. I´m going to miss them. They go home this week. Rachel and Lauren and such cute kids though. At least it´ll be easier to stay in contact with them after my mission since they live in the same country. Well, now for the bad news, Sunday night President Hinckley called and Elder Morales is being transferred. He´s going to be a zone leader over the Barcelona zone. Crazy. We were both super sad though. We´ve had a lot of success together and we´ve become basically best friends, but now he´s leaving. Actually, we´re leaving to the office in about 1- 1 1/2 hours. He wants to say something though, so here it is:
> > Hey!! I'm leaving, so this is my last oportunity to tell something to all of you.> I've been serving with Elder Ryan David Sommerfeldt for 2 transfers (3 months). We have seen miracles together. This last month has been the most productive month of all my mission. We baptized 5 children of God. Now, I'm leaving, but I trust completely in Elder Sommerfeldt, I know he's gonna do it well here.> Just so you know, you have a really good missionary son (or brother). He is, without any doubt, the best companion that I ever had. (dang it!!, I don't wanna leave!!) Thanks for your gifts for Xmas too!!
> Bye!!
> > Okay, I´m back, I wrote to his family too. He´s a really good companion, so it´s kind of hard to think about anything else that has happened this past week since he´s leaving. My new companion´s name is Elder Nelson. He´s been in the mission for a year and half or so I think. Anyways, this past week was good. It was Christmas. We went over to a family´s house on Christmas day to eat lunch and all, and it was also that day that we did everything, the interview, etc, for Rachel. Then calling home was so much fun. It was good to hear all of your voices again, and sorry Ben, Laurel, and Rachel, for not talking to you guys as much... I´ll try and do better on Mother´s Day. I was thinking maybe I could have a few minutes with each person, but everyone else can listen so I don´t just repeat the same things over and over... Well, sorry this is shorter than normal, but if I´m going to have time to write individuals too I need to go. Have fantastic weeks and enjoy the New Year! ¡Chao!
> > -Elder Sommerfeldt
12/30/09
12/22/09
12/22/2009
Hello everyone! Things are going really well here. I´m short on time today, so to describe some of the things that have happened I´m going to copy part out of what I wrote to President Hinckley to describe the past week. :
President Hinckley, this past week has been amazing out here in Vilafranca. With the help of The Lord we have seen may miracles. The first of which is that we figured out the situation of Montse and Emmanuel, and we were able to find a way that Montse can still be baptized. When we told her what had happened and that we´d learned that she could still be baptized she started crying because she was so happy. It was really nice to see the great desires she has to enter into the covenant of baptism. That was all we needed to have an amazing week out here, but there were even more miracles. One day we went to teach someone and a member was going to meet us there. We got there and the member had a friend, Abraham, who had come with him. We set up a time to visit with Abraham in the member´s house and taught him the message of the Restoration. He believed everything we taught and wanted to learn more. So we comitted him to come to church and to be baptized the 9th of January. He excepted both. He came to church and after Sunday School told us he´d learned a lot. He said he was already a member of another church, but that we were able to help him learn so much more than he´d learned before and he was excited to continue coming to church, learning from us, and progressing towards baptism. Then we were able to see another miracle yesterday. We were reveiwing things with the girl, Rachel, fom the United States who is here with her family visiting grandparents. We found out that the parents weren´t so set on her being baptized, but rather that it was the grandparents who were pressuring it a lot. The family from America has been less active for the past several years and thus they were unsure as to whether or not their daughter was ready. After talking to the daughter for a while, it became clear that she was ready, she just needed support from her parents and the whole family needs to go to church again. They are all great people though. Well, those are some of the miracles that have occurred this past week here in Vilafranca.
> So yeah, there´s a brief summary. So we´re going to be baptizing Montse tomorrow, the 22nd of December. I´m super excited. She asked me to baptize her, and Elder Morales to confirm her. SO that should be another good experience. Our mission has a goal of 400 baptisms for the year, and right now we´re at 387, with 17 planned for this next week, so if at least 13 of them go through we´ll reach it. I think we will, we´re all working really hard. Elder Morales and I will have had 4 baptisms by the end of this transfer, so hopefully the leaders see the success we´re having and don´t transfer us at all. Transfers are December 27th, so we´ll see if Elder Morales is staying or going next week. Hopefully he stays. Along with that, my Preparation Day will be on Tuesday next week, just so you know.
Well, let´s see, what else is new. We had the Christmas Conference this past week, it was a lot of fun. We did some skits using a Disney Song. They were all really funny. Later we ate dominoes pizza, It was so good. I love pizza, and I don´t think I´ve had some good pizza like that since I started my mission. So that was fun. Things are really busy this next week with Christmas a lot of members want us to come over, we´re still trying to teach, we have to do intercambios this week, and we call home this week. There´s a lot going on, but it´s fun and good. Hakuna Matata, it means no worries. Anyways, our heater got temporarily fixed. It´s working now, but they don´t think it will last much longer. The first part of this week they´re planning on coming by and putting a brand new one in, so that should be really nice. Hopefully by the time we talk on Christmas we´ll have a new heater and all. For now though it´s really good. It gets way cold here though. Well, not really. It´s like anywhere from 0-6 degrees celcius here though. Which isn´t bad, but without gloves, and not having a big winter coat it´s cold.
Anyways, I think I said earlier in the letter to president, but we set a baptismal goal with Abraham. He´s from Ghana. We teach him in English. Also, yesterday we taught a girl named Rachel, the grand daughter of a member here, who´s 11 but not baptized yet because her parents have been inactive for a while. There´s a chance she´ll get baptized while she´s here visiting though. She´s from South Carolina, so that´s fun talking to her in English and all. Her dad´s from Texas though, from around Houston, which reminds me, Kevin, what city exactly do you live in. He said the city he´s from there were a lot of accountants that lived there, so it may be the same city. So yeah, that would be cool.
Well, I´m short on time today, so I´m going to end this, have great weeks and MERRY CHRISTMAS! / ¡FELIZ NAVIDAD!
-Elder Sommerfeldt
President Hinckley, this past week has been amazing out here in Vilafranca. With the help of The Lord we have seen may miracles. The first of which is that we figured out the situation of Montse and Emmanuel, and we were able to find a way that Montse can still be baptized. When we told her what had happened and that we´d learned that she could still be baptized she started crying because she was so happy. It was really nice to see the great desires she has to enter into the covenant of baptism. That was all we needed to have an amazing week out here, but there were even more miracles. One day we went to teach someone and a member was going to meet us there. We got there and the member had a friend, Abraham, who had come with him. We set up a time to visit with Abraham in the member´s house and taught him the message of the Restoration. He believed everything we taught and wanted to learn more. So we comitted him to come to church and to be baptized the 9th of January. He excepted both. He came to church and after Sunday School told us he´d learned a lot. He said he was already a member of another church, but that we were able to help him learn so much more than he´d learned before and he was excited to continue coming to church, learning from us, and progressing towards baptism. Then we were able to see another miracle yesterday. We were reveiwing things with the girl, Rachel, fom the United States who is here with her family visiting grandparents. We found out that the parents weren´t so set on her being baptized, but rather that it was the grandparents who were pressuring it a lot. The family from America has been less active for the past several years and thus they were unsure as to whether or not their daughter was ready. After talking to the daughter for a while, it became clear that she was ready, she just needed support from her parents and the whole family needs to go to church again. They are all great people though. Well, those are some of the miracles that have occurred this past week here in Vilafranca.
> So yeah, there´s a brief summary. So we´re going to be baptizing Montse tomorrow, the 22nd of December. I´m super excited. She asked me to baptize her, and Elder Morales to confirm her. SO that should be another good experience. Our mission has a goal of 400 baptisms for the year, and right now we´re at 387, with 17 planned for this next week, so if at least 13 of them go through we´ll reach it. I think we will, we´re all working really hard. Elder Morales and I will have had 4 baptisms by the end of this transfer, so hopefully the leaders see the success we´re having and don´t transfer us at all. Transfers are December 27th, so we´ll see if Elder Morales is staying or going next week. Hopefully he stays. Along with that, my Preparation Day will be on Tuesday next week, just so you know.
Well, let´s see, what else is new. We had the Christmas Conference this past week, it was a lot of fun. We did some skits using a Disney Song. They were all really funny. Later we ate dominoes pizza, It was so good. I love pizza, and I don´t think I´ve had some good pizza like that since I started my mission. So that was fun. Things are really busy this next week with Christmas a lot of members want us to come over, we´re still trying to teach, we have to do intercambios this week, and we call home this week. There´s a lot going on, but it´s fun and good. Hakuna Matata, it means no worries. Anyways, our heater got temporarily fixed. It´s working now, but they don´t think it will last much longer. The first part of this week they´re planning on coming by and putting a brand new one in, so that should be really nice. Hopefully by the time we talk on Christmas we´ll have a new heater and all. For now though it´s really good. It gets way cold here though. Well, not really. It´s like anywhere from 0-6 degrees celcius here though. Which isn´t bad, but without gloves, and not having a big winter coat it´s cold.
Anyways, I think I said earlier in the letter to president, but we set a baptismal goal with Abraham. He´s from Ghana. We teach him in English. Also, yesterday we taught a girl named Rachel, the grand daughter of a member here, who´s 11 but not baptized yet because her parents have been inactive for a while. There´s a chance she´ll get baptized while she´s here visiting though. She´s from South Carolina, so that´s fun talking to her in English and all. Her dad´s from Texas though, from around Houston, which reminds me, Kevin, what city exactly do you live in. He said the city he´s from there were a lot of accountants that lived there, so it may be the same city. So yeah, that would be cool.
Well, I´m short on time today, so I´m going to end this, have great weeks and MERRY CHRISTMAS! / ¡FELIZ NAVIDAD!
-Elder Sommerfeldt
12/17/09
12/14/2009
Family (and friends who read this)! How´s everyone doing? THings are going well here. We haven´t found Iván yet. I think he probably left, like maybe even left Spain. We´ve passed by daily and called several times and we haven´t been able to get in contact with him. So who knows what happened to him. The last time we talked to him he was thinking about going back to Colombia sometime, so maybe he just did that out of the blue, who knows. So, let´s see, what´s the new news this week. I don´t know if I told you, but Karlita and Raquel (two of the people we baptized a couple weeks ago) are going to go to Peru for a month. So that might not be good. We figured out that there´s some chapels in the city they´re going to, and we´ve made them each a calendar with a chapter or a few versus to read each day while they´re gone. We taught them enduring to the end yesterday, and I think they´ll be okay. The main sad thing is that it´s possible that Elder MOrales will be gone when they get back. WE don´t know yet, but transfers are the 27th of December, so it could happen, hopefully not though. I almost certainly won´t be transferred though. Well, I would say some of the worse news this past week is that we´ve been without hot water for the majority of it. It´s so cold here, and we have no heat, and no hot water, so the only warm place is in bed with the covers over my head. It´s going okay though, and tomorrow someone´s supposed to hopefully come fix it. Now for some good news, maybe. Montse, the mom of Susana (one of the people that got baptized a couple weeks ago), is ready to be baptized, but she´s still living with that guy. They´re super poor, so we´ve been hesitant in saying you need to split up, because with all three of them they´re barely paying the rent, and went the last week of the month with very limited food. HOwever, this past week we had intercambios, I was with Elder Hansen (he´s cool, but he played football at Utah before his mission... Just joking, he´s good). Anyways, on the intercambios I asked them if they could live separately at least until they get married, which they´re planning on having happening in January or February. They said they would think about it and let us know this next week. We really want her to be baptized, not just because she needs it, but also because our branch has a goal of 10 baptisms for this year, and right now we´re at 9... Anyways, yesterday we had Ward Counsel and the Stake Presidency was there. When we explained the situation the stake presidency suggested that the branch could pay rent for one of them for one or two months to be able to live separately until they can get married! So that was exciting. I really hope we can help them except it. WE talked to Montse last night about it and she didn´t look super excited and she said she´d have to talk to Emmanuel and she didn´t know if he´d want to, but we´re going to do all we can to help it happen. I´ll let you all know what happens with that though. Let´s see, what else has happened this past week. We also had a baptism in our district in Tarragona this past weekend. Because Elder Morales is the District Leader he had to go out there to do the interview, and thus we had intercambios. Anyways, we ended up changing back right before the baptism so we just stayed and watched the baptism, it was really good. We´re also working with a bunch of less active families and three of them are progressing really well and are coming to church most weeks now. So that´s good as well. Oh, I don´t know if I told all you that we´re in the branch choir. This past Sunday was Branch Conference and so we sang. We sang Cantan Santos Ángeles, or Angels we have heard on high. There´s a Christmas concert that we´re singing in this next Saturday and we´re singing in Catalán, crazy huh? Anyways, I may have told this story, so sorry if it´s a repeat, but last week in practice they didn´t know how to sing a part of the song and I was like, no, it goes like this, and they were all like, oh yeah, that´s right, then someone said it was funny that an american has come to spain and is teaching them how to sing in Catalán. It was kind of funny. Anyways, everything´s going well here for me, although it´s quite cold. I hope it doesn´t get much colder here, I don´t have the proper clothing for temperatures this cold, so yeah. Well, I´m going to go now, but have a fantastic week. ¡Chao!
-Elder Sommerfeldt
-Elder Sommerfeldt
12/11/09
12/11/09
Hello everyone! How is everyone doing? Things are going great here for me in Spain. Things have been really good this past week, and really bad all at once. I´ll start with the bad I guess. Okay, the worse thing is that Iván, he had a baptismal fecha for the 19th, disappeared. We have no idea where he is. We haven´t talked to him for like 3 or 4 days now. The last cita we had with him was way good, and since then we´ve passed by and or called 50 times or so but haven´t been able to get a hold of him. He was having problems paying rent, so we´re wondering if maybe he was kicked out, but we have no idea. Hopefully we can find him this week though. He lost his fecha though, because he needed to come to church this past Sunday to keep that fecha, so that was a bummer. Let´s see, also this past week one day I had to wake up at 6:30 and get ready to go to do my fingerprints to get my DNI, my identification. We had to go to Barcelona, because according to the paperwork and all I´m ¨living¨at the office right now. It´s so the office elders can deal with all the legal stuff. I had to go get fingerprints and sign some stuff though, and it took the entire morning. We left at like 7:00 a.m. and didn´t get back until after 2:00 p.m. So that was a bit of a bummer, but at least we were able to do it all in one morning, and we ended up having a pretty productive afternoon. Oh, this past week we had a meeting with the whole zone and afterwards we went to a restuarant called Freeway. It´s an all you can eat argentinian buffet. It was way good. I ate a lot of meat and crepes and ice cream and a lot of other good food. It was like 11 euros or so though, which is a bit much... But yeah, let´s see, what else has happened. This past week in church we had three menos activos that we´ve been working with come to church. So that´s good. The number of fechas in the mission went from like 35 to 73 in 3 or 4 days because the leaders said they wanted to double the number invitations by the end of the week. So that was nice to see. I was just thinking about some things that are normal for me, that maybe I haven´t told you about. Every Monday night we do a Noche de Hogar (Family Home Evening) mainly for investigators and single people, or families with just a mom and a son, etc. Anyways, that´s something I don´t think I´ve said. We always do a game or activity to explain a gospel principle. Also, this past week we started English Classes. We had 6 people come the first night and 1 the second night. So we may be switching it to just one night, we´ll see. Things are going well here for me though. We found 4 new investigators and we´re going to see if we can´t help at least one of them to get baptized by the end of this year. That would be nice. Well, I´m just a little short on time, so I´m going to send this, but I´ll talk to you later and have a fantastic week.-Elder SommerfeldtAnd enjoy the SNOW!!!! (That´s something I don´t get here, just cold...)
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