3/23/2010

Family and Friends! How´s everyone doing? Things are good here. It´s my last day here though... I´ll talk about that later though. Anyways, first off, Toni got baptized this past week. It went really well. I´m attaching a picture of his baptism, so enjoy that. I baptized him and it went really well. This last week was actually crazy. There were a ton of things going on. For one, Friday morning Elder Baugh had to leave to Menorca to do a baptismal interview, so I had to move around a lot with other elders for a couple days, living out of a briefcase. So we missed a day of work in our area due to that, and we had the baptism scheduled for Saturday. At first, I was thinking we wouldn´t be able to get 20 lessons, which is the goal. We´ve been shooting for it the whole transfer, but only gotten 18 or 19. Then this past week, even though we were super busy, we had 20, I thought... Then when I did the weekly numbers I realized I´d actually counted one day wrong and we only got 19. It was okay though, because we were super busy, and we still had one of our most productive weeks. So Toni got baptized. He came out of the water smiling. He´s super good. He was way prepared. Then on Sunday Elder Baugh did the confirmation. It´s really cool how good he´s been. Also, we found out, that the person he met over facebook, lives in the homeward of President Hinckley, what are the chances? And now he´s a member because of that. So yeah. Okay, a lot of other things have happened, but the next important is that I´m not going to have another day here in Barcelona. Sunday night President Hinckley called Elder Baugh asking him to go to Palma Mallorca (the islands) to be a zone leader out there. I was waiting for later that night when they say transfers to see who my new companion would be, but the result is that they are closing our area, or better said, combining it with the hermanas area. In our ward we have 2 elders and 2 hermanas. They had to close one area, so they closed ours. The hermanas will be working the whole ward now. I´m leaving to Castellon right after I do internet. Just so you know, Castellon is spelled with an accent on the o, but my keyboard doesn´t work well now, so i can´t do the accents. So yeah. I´ll definitely miss it here though. We said bye to a lot of people yesterday and it was pretty hard. Lusmila started crying thanking us for all we did to help her, and it really helped me see just how important missionary work is. We really have a huge influence on people´s lives. I´ll miss everyone here, but I´ll see them all again someday. I also have a little journal thing where a bunch of people wrote contact info. etc. So yeah. Oh, before I forget, my new address in Castell´´on is going to be: Elder Ryan SommerfeldtAvda. Casalduch 16, 1, B12005 - Castell´´on (spell Castell´´on with an accent over the o)Spain/España So yeah, sent everything there now. Okay, so with the photos I´m sending, the first one is of Toni with Elder Baugh and I at his baptism, the next one is of Tom´´as Flores, our ward mission leader, the third one is of me with Jessica and her family. Quick update on her, she´s working on getting married, but in Spain it takes at least 3 months to do all the paper work for marriage, it´s not like the U.S., so she won´t be able to get baptized until the summer. She told Elder Baugh and I that she wants us at her baptism if we can. We told her if we can we will, and if not she at least needs to send us some pictures of it. So yeah. The fourth one is with Arturo and Angela. They helped us a lot too. They´re great people. Okay, With my address, everything you send can be sent there now. It´´s crazy that I´´m leaving so fast. I´m going into my sixth transfer and I´m already in my fourth area. 5 areas is normal for a regular missionary. It´s crazy. I feel at home here, and now I have to go again. That seems to happen a lot here on the mission. I get really close to people, then I leave, then the same thing happens again and again. It´ll be fun coming back though. The bishop told me yesterday I´m welcome there with my family whenever I want, so we´ll maybe spend a day there when we come back. So earlier we were emailing and the office called telling Elder Baugh his plane left 2 1/2 hours earlier than planned, so we quit and left, but then right when we got back to piso they called saying they accidentally said it wrong. So we´re back here to finish our email. I really can´t think of much more to say though. I will miss it here, but I´m excited to see what it´s like in Castellón. Just so you know, my new companion´s name is Elder Hancock. He´s from Plain City, Utah (near Ogden). He was in my district for my first two transfers in Vilafranca, so I know him a bit already. Well, I can´t think of much else to say, so I´m going to go, but have a great week and don´t send me letters to my address here in Barcelona anymore, send it to Castellón. have a great week. ¡Chao! -Elder Sommerfeldt

3/15/2010

Family and Friends! How´s everyone doing? Things are going great here for me in Barcelona. So an update on Tony and Jessica. Tony decided that this past Saturday he wasn´t ready, but he´s all set for the next Satruday, the 20th of March. So that should all go well. Next with Jessica. She lost her meta. She´s super ready, and wants to get baptized, but she has to get married. It´s going to take about 3 months probably for her to get married. It´s crazy here, they´re completely legal and everything, and it´ll still take 3 months to get married. We´ll keep visiting them though, and hopefully she can get baptized before I get transferred from this area. Speaking of transfers, just so you know this next week is transfers. So I´ll be writing on Tuesday not Monday next week. Elder Baugh thinks he´s going to go, but I don´t know we´ll see. I´ll let you know next week. Anyways, mom, you asked how I liked doing intercambios with Elder Morales, just so you know, we don´t do intercambios that often. However, this past week we did have intercambios and I was with Elder Morales. It was a lot of fun. It was great. We taught really well together in Vilafranca, and the one day we had together it all came back and we taught well with unity etc. So yeah, it was a good day with him. I was nervous too that we wouldn´t have enough stuff to do, because I stayed in my area, which means that I´m in charge, but it all went well and we were kept busy. This next week I´ll be doing intercambios with Elder Bodily (my companion from the CCM in Madrid, he was also Jen´s friend at BYU before the mission), so that´ll be fun. So about last week. It snowed a ton for here in Barcelona. It came down for a few hours and it stuck. All of the busses just ended up pulling off to the side of the road, people that were on them had to get off, and they were shut down all day. Also, here they have the Metro, which is like a subway, then they have another thing that´s like a metro, but it´s called Ferrocarrils. Anyways, Ferrocarrils was shut down, and Metro was shut down partially as well. It was a bit difficult getting around too. We also helped a few cars throughout the night get unstuck. No one here knows how to drive in the snow. Word on the street is it hasn´t snowed as much as it did last Monday for 20-30 years. So I was here in Barcelona in the historic snow storm of 2010. That´s pretty cool to think about. We also had interviews this past week. That went well. To answer mom´s question, in interviews we talk about whatever we want to, and he´ll help us/teach us if we need. For example, I don´t think I´ve told you, but this past week we taught Tony and he heard for the first time that we believe that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are two different people. It boggled his mind you could say. So in my interview we spent most of the time talking about how we could help him to still be baptized and help him understand that concept. It´s obvious to me, but to him it´s not because he was raised thinking they were all the same person. It´s good though. He´s doing better now, and everything looks good for the baptism this Saturday. So I´m sending some pictures again to Mom and Dad, if anyone wants them they can ask them to forward them on to you. The first one is me standing by the office when it was snowing. The second one is a picture from our window of our street while it was snowing. The last one is of me and Elder Morales when we were on intercambios. Let´s see, what else is new. We had a BBQ with a member from Ward 3 this past week. It was fun. It was just during medio día. He invited us and ward 3 over to eat. He had a huge house though. It was crazy. Most people in Spain live in apartments and such. His house was basically an apartment building. He made a bunch of meat and such, and it was pretty good. I still prefer having a steak or something from Outback or something, but it was still good. I can´t think of much else new that has happened, but it´s been a great week. Oh, I´m getting close to finishing The Book of Mormon marking everywhere it says Christ, an attribute of Christ, or where Christ is actually talking. It´s going really well and it´s neat to see how much The Book of Mormon really testifies and talks about Christ. Oh, also, I just figured out today that Richard Hinckley, President Hinckley´s brother, is going to be here on a mission tour in April. So that should be pretty fun. Well, that´s about all that´s new here. I hope BYU does well in the NCAA tournament, and have a great week. -Elder Sommerfeldt

3/8/2010

Family and friends! How´s everything going there in Utah? Things are going great here in Barcelona. This past week has been a good week too. To start things off, last Monday, Preparation Day, we went to Mont Juic, it´s a castle thing that overlooks all of Barc. I took a video that you can see someday. It was pretty cool. Then we ate at a little restaurant thing, then it was a normal day again. Let´s see, this past week we also had intercambios. I was with Elder Reynolds. He´s actually from Spanish Fork. It was good. It was the first time that I had to do intercambios in my area, which was a bit difficult, because I still don´t know how to get around really well and all. I know most of it, but there´s so many busses and such that we take that it gets confusing which bus number you take where. It went well though. Also, we did a service project this past week with the hermanas. We weeded a big garden thing for a less active member. It went pretty well. It was nice to be doing some yard work again though, I´m not going to lie. I don´t know that I can say I miss mowing 40 lawns a week, but I don´t mind doing some yard work every once in a while... So I´m sending a few pictures along in the email to mom and dad, if anyone wants them you can ask them for them. The first one is a picture that´s on a wall. There´s a lot of graffiti, and a lot of it is actually really good. So yeah, you can see this one. The next one is one of Elder Baugh and I when we were up a Mont Juic. The last one is of my with Barç behind me. I hope you like them. Let´s see, what else has happened. Things are going well with Tony and Jessica. The only problem with Tony is that yesterday he told us he wants to get baptized, but he wants to wait a week, becuase he wants to feel even more. We going to visit him today though and we´ll hopefully be able to help him see that he needs to be baptized and receive the Holy Ghost in order to be able to feel more. I think that will hopefully all go well though and he´ll be able to get baptized this Saturday, but I´ll let you know this next week. Jessica is also doing really well. Her husband/boyfriend gets back this week, so hopefully next week they can get married so that the 27th of March she can get baptized. We visited another time with Roberto, the guy from Mexico. It´s really hard getting in with them. Both he and his wife are going to the university here and don´t have a set schedule. We´ll see what we can do though to help him get baptized as soon as possible. The weather here hasn´t been bad this past week, but a few days ago it started to get cold again, and now it´s raining. It´s not too cold, just colder. Oh, I´m feeling better too. I still have a cough and a stuffy nose, etc., but overall I feel a lot better. So that´s good. Oh, I just learned that tomorrow we´re going to be doing intercambios with the zone leaders, which means that I´ll have a day being Elder Morales´ companion again. So that should be fun. He told me that he sent you guys a letter by the way, just so you know. So you should get that soon I guess. Also this next week we´ll have interviews with President Hinckley, so that should be good too. Well, I can´t think of much else new, so I´m going to go ahead and end this. Have a great week. ¡Chao! -Elder Sommerfeldt
P.S. I just looked out the window and it´s snowing now! Yes! Well, have a great week.

03/01/2010

Family and Friends! How´s everyone doing? Things are going great here in Barcelona. Tony is still going well. He´ll be baptized the 13-March. To answer questions about the whole situation with the girl in Utah and all, she lives in Utah. She´s never lived in Europe or anything, somehow they became friends on Facebook though, so that´s nice. Also, she is now no longer going to be coming out for the baptism. Tony told us that she told him that she´s not going to be able to. He´s wanting to go out there and study at BYU though, so that would be cool. If he does, I´ll make sure he finds you guys or something. It may be that it´s just talk though. A lot of people say they want to go, but end up not going. I´ll let you know what happens with that though. Let´s see, what else is new. Oh, so we also have another baptismal date for someone named Jessica. She´s doing really well right now. It was 2 weeks or so that I´d never met her, and Elder Baugh was saying maybe we should just drop her, because she wasn´t doing super great before, but we visited with her and she was doing super well. She basically shared her testimony with us the first time about how she always feels comfort when she reads The Book of Mormon and how she knows she needs to be baptized. She has a date for the 27th of March now. It would be sooner, but her "husband" is in Ecuador right now. He´ll get back in a week and a half, then they need to get married, then she can get baptized. He´s a member, but less active. She´s talked to him though, and it should be good with them getting married shortly after he gets back, then she can be baptized the 27th. Yesterday both Tony and Jessica came to church, and yesterday both of them said sometime during the day something about their baptism, so it shows their both excited about it too. To teach Tony we´ve been using someone named Lauren a lot. She´s from Arizona doing a study abroad here in Barcelona, so that´s nice. She sat with him through church yesterday and helped him understand everything, and she´ll be going with us again today to help us. I guess Jen will be able to do the same thing when she´s in Madrid. Let´s see, what else is new. Oh, I´ve been quite sick recently. A few days ago my throat started hurting me, and it´s just always bugged me. Then I was always dizzy. Then I started to get a cough, then last night I had a migraine and I was dying. We were still out visiting people, but I wasn´t talking, or paying attention or anything. I felt really bad, but I couldn´t do anything. I´m feeling better today, at least I don´t have any pain in my head. My throat still isn´t normal and I´m still coughing some. I don´t like it either because my voice is really weird now too because I´m sick, but oh well, I can´t do much about it. We´re going to try and buy some cough/throat drops today, so hopefully that helps. I also have ibuprofein in case my head starts hurting again. Anyways, so that´s the health update on me. Oh, also, I´m sending a couple pictures home again today. I hope everything worked with the four pictures I sent last week, I sent one to each person. I think I´m just going to send like two pictures this week. One is when I made German Pancakes this past week because I have syrup now! The other is a picture of a spider that I saw in our bathroom and smashed one day. It was pretty big. So if anyone wants the pictures, I sent them to mom and dad. Oh, something else that´s happened this week. Elder Baugh is the district leader and this past week we had one day where we didn´t get to have medio día to eat because we were (well, he was...) doing two baptismal interviews. It went well though. We just bought bocadillas on the road and kept going. In Vilafranca we would always have our two hours for medio día in our piso, but here we usually don´t. Usually we´re eating with members or something. It´s good though. Just different. I think I´ve gained weight here though even in these three weeks. Oh well. Let´s see, what else. Oh, yesterday a couple from Mexico came to church that just moved here like 8 days ago. She´s a member, but he isn´t. He said he´s in the process. So we´ll see if we can´t help him get baptized this month as well. Well, I think that´s the gist of what happened this past week, so I´m going to go ahead and end this, but have a great week and I´ll talk to you all next week. ¡Chao!
-Elder Sommerfeldt