4/26/2010

Family and Friends! How´s everyone doing there? So this past week has been crazy. There´s no way I´ll be able to tell you about everything that´s happened. First off though, remember how last week we had a good week with 24 lessons, well this past week we had 27 lessons. Elder Morales called again congratulating/thanking us. So yeah, we´ll see how we can keep things going here. We also had the conference with Elder Hinckley. It went really well. I liked it a lot. We were able to see some videos that the mission department is working on, but they haven´t actually shown them yet or even finished editing them yet, so that was fun. It was a good beneficial conference. Also, mom, Hermana Hinckley told me that Chris Maybe wasn´t able to leave because of the volcano, so I still haven´t gotten the package, but you said she was here now, so maybe she´s come now. Who knows. So also this week I was sick. Tuesday night my stomach hurt just a little bit as I was going to bed. Anyways, I woke up in the night and I was just freezing and shaking because I was so cold. Long story short for a couple hours I was rolled up in a ball freezing. I had a bit of a fever the next morning, but it got down to 99. something so I was able to go out and work still. We had a really productive day, but that just made recovering take longer. In the end I lost the fever but for a few days I´ve had really bad pain in my neck and in my head. Yesterday it wasn´t as bad though, and today I feel fine, so hopefully I´m over it now. I think I should be good. The other big news, Julian did not leave. We taught him everything, finishing on Thursday and set up the interview for Friday afternoon. Friday morning while we were getting the baptismal font ready he sent us a text saying he couldn´t do the interview. So we called him up and long story short, he feels like it´s a bit too fast. We´ll see what ends up happening there. If he stays here a while longer he´ll still be baptized here, if not he´ll have to wait until he´s in Brasil. So we´ll see what happens with that. Another big thing this past week, we had 11 investigators in church this past week. Normal is like 3 or 4, so 11 was way good. Now we just need to keep up the work here. I would say right now the people that seem the best are Edith, Paul (her son), and Geraldine (her daughter). They all came to church, the third time for Edith, second time for Paul, and first time for Geraldine. Paul then went to a family home evening with the young single adults, then stayed for choir practice afterwards, then went with us after to another family home evening. He also asked us if even though he´s not a member yet if he can go around with us to visits. He´s 19 and really cool. So hopefully he can get baptized here soon. He´d be a really good member / future missionary. Oh, sorry I´m not sending pictures this week, the computer I´m using doesn´t have a place to put the camera card, so sorry. I was going to send a picture of my picture I´m drawing. And to answer your question mom, yes we can draw. Not whenever we want, but preparation days and in the evenings we can. We get in at 10 at night, plan for half an hour then we have and hour to get ready for bed. Hermana Hinckley even told us to do things during that time to reduce stress, so that we sleep better and can work more effectively. So yeah, I can draw, but not very often. For that it takes a while to finish pictures. Anyways, what else is new. Jairo, another invetigator with a baptismal date for the 8th of May came to church, so that´s way good. Same with Guillermo, another investigator with a meta for the 13th of June. Overall, the mission is awesome. I love it. Tell congratulations to Ben Brockbank. He´ll love being a missionary, it´s the best experience you can have. He´ll be a great missionary in Louisiana (I think that´s where you said he was going). Anyways, I can´t think of anything else in specific to say. We just have a ton of work, and I can´t possible right about everysingle person, so yeah, sorry. I´m going to write the individuals now, but have a great week. -Elder Sommerfeldt

4-19-2010

Family and friends! HOw´s everyone doing? I hope mom, dad, and John are having fun in Baltimore. THat sounds like it would be fun. Well, this past week here has been great. You´ll remember last week I was excited that we reached 21 lessons, well this past week we had 24 lessons, along with 10 member presents, 5 new investigators, 6 investigators in church, and we have 3 investigators with baptismal dates. So that´s cool. I´m excited about that. Last night the ayudante called us telling us we had a great week and that we met the standards of excellence in every category. So that was cool. Well, I´m going to attach a few photos today. First off is of me and Juan in front of his house. He´s from Romania and he lives in a field in an abondoned house that he´s furnished from the trash basically. He´s pretty poor, but always so happy, it´s great. He´s thinking about baptism right now. THe next picture is of me and Elder Hancock in front of a bull statue that they have here in Castellón. The next one is of a picture I´m drawing. I´m not sure if I told you, but a recent convert in our ward is an artist, and she didn´t want me to lose my art ability, so she gave me some pastels, pencils, notebooks, etc. to be able to keep drawing. So I´ve just been drawing some in the evenings and on preparation days. I´m further along with the picture than this photo shows, but you can see a bit of what it´ll be like. I´ll probably finish it this next week or so. I hope you like it. THe next one is of a bunch of people in our zone playing football a couple weeks ago, or rather, right after playing football. And the last picture is of Julian, who we thought was going to Brasil this past week. So about that story of Julian. Julian was going to have to go back to Brasil this past Wednesday. There´s a company that´s sending him out there, it´s because he has to get a divorce or something from his wife there or something like that, kind of a sad situation it sounds like, but he hasn´t told us all the details. Anyways, so he was going to leave, but then this past Saturday we saw him in a store and figured out that his plane wasn´t able to leave because of the volcano that erupted in iceland or something like that. So we ended up visiting with him yesterday and we set a baptismal date for this Saturday. There´s a chance that the company calls him and says he has to leave on Wednesday, or Thursday, or something like that, and if that happens then he´s gone and we´ll pass him information to missionaries over there and he can get baptized over there, but if they don´t have him leave until next week, then he´ll be baptized here this Saturday. So yeah, it´s pretty cool. He´s super ready though. He told us how he came to know the Book of Mormon is true one day, and it´s a super powerful experience. So yeah, he´s good. We also still have Guillermo with a baptismal date in June, then we also put a baptismal date with Jairo. Jairo´s from Colombia. We´ve been teaching him for a couple weeks, and this past week we were finally able to put a date on him. So hopefully we can help him be able to progress and be ready by the 8th of May. We´ll see how all that goes. So let´s see, what else is new this past week. We did intercambios twice this past week. ONe time I went to Valencia and worked there, and the other time one of the elders from Valencia came out here to Castellón and worked with me out here. SO that was good. We started teaching this family this past week. Edith, then her daughter Geraldine, then her son Paul. Paul is 19, so I´ve kind of become his friend a bit. Edith and Paul came to church this past week. It was Paul´s first time, and Edith´s second time. So that´s good. Edith is contemplating baptism now, so we´ll have to see what she says when we visit with them tomorrow. We´ll also see them tonight too because they´re going to go with us to a family home evening. SO that should be fun. Also this past week we visited a young women in our ward who´s in the hospital with tuberculosis. She´s a little desanimada, like depressed a little bit. She´s been there for a week now, and it could be another month or so that she´s there. She´s all alone, and when people visit her they have to wear a mask. She can´t watch TV, she´s in pain, etc. I hope I didn´t catch it when we visited her and gave her a blessing. I had a mask on, so it should be good, but that would be really bad if I caught it. I think I´m good though. So tomorrow we´ll be having a conference with Elder Richard Hinckley. That should be really good. I´m excited about it. I´ll let you know next week how it went, etc. So tonight we´re going to visit Julian, who has the baptismal date for this Saturday, in Valeria´s (a recent convert) house. We´re oging to have a Family HOme Evening and teach Obedience, Study the Scriptures, Pray Frequently, Tithing, Fasting, and Offerings. It should be pretty good. We have a teach a lot at once becuase we only have this week to teach him all of the commandments. It´ll be good htough. Oh, here´s some other good news. So there´s this 15 year old girl named Francheska from the Dominican Republic. She´s the only member in her family. Her mom wasn´t letting her come to church, but we figured out this past week that now she can come. She´s so good too. She asked us this past week if she can go with us to visit people and stuff, so now we´re going to be taking her with us a couple times a week now. We took her with us to visit Edith and Paul and it went really well. So yeah, that´s good. Oh, also, I had to speak in church yesterday. It went pretty well. The assignment they gave me was a talk from the January Liahona 1988 from a talk by Dallin H. Oaks called The LIght and The LIfe of the World. I wanted to talk about missionary work though, so I talked about that talk, then most of the time I talked about how we can reflect that light. I think it went pretty good. Well, that´s basically my week. It´s been a really good week. I need to be going now though, but have a great week and I´ll write again next week.
-Elder Sommerfeldt

4/12/2010

Family and Friends! How´s everyone doing there back in the United States? I hope everything´s going well there. Things are going pretty well here. So this past week I wasn´t actually in my area until Wednesday afternoon. So I was out of my area from Saturday afternoon until Wednesday afternoon. It was crazy. We were gone for general conference, then we were in Valencia Monday morning for Preparation Day, then Monday evening and Tuesday I was in Catarroja on Intercambios, and Wednesday was zone conference. So, first off, last Monday we played American Football and it was so much fun. I was sore for like four days after though, it´s been a while since I´ve played sports. It was pretty fun though. Then we went to a castle and stuff, so that was fun too. Then on Tuesday I was in Catarroja. We set two baptismal dates for them, so that was good. Wednesday was zone conference. That went really well too. It was good, and we got Dominos pizza at the end. It was funny because there was one time when my companion was in a meeting with the ayudantes, because he´s the district leader, and I ended up being the only one in the room with President and Hermana Hinckley. We figured out the whole connection between Chris Maybe and such, so that was good. Let´s see, what else. Julian is not on track to be baptized anymore. He´s still doing really well, but he has plans of going back to Brasil in one week, which doesn´t give him enough time. If for some reason he stays a week or two longer though, I bet he´ll be baptized. We´ll see what happens I guess. We set another fecha with a guy named Guillermo though. It´s not until June, he´s got a few things he needs to change, but we´ll see what we can do to help him. Then we have a couple other people that have some potential, like Jairo, Juan, Elisabet, and Edith. We´ll see how it all turns out in the end though. Anyways, this past week there were three baptisms in our district, so on Thursday evening Elder Hancock and I had to go out to Valencia and Catarroja so he could do the baptismal interviews. It´s cool though how many people are really prepared to be baptized. It´s good. It really is God´s work, not ours. This past week we got 21 lessons, so we broke the goal of 20. I was happy. Well, overall things are great. I attached a picture of me in front of the castle. I hope youall like it. Oh, you´ll have to ask mom and dad for it, because I´m not sending it to everyone. Well, I need to go now, but have a great week. ¡Chao!
-Elder Sommerfeldt

4/5/2010

Family and Friends! HOw´s everyone doing? Things are going great here in Castellón. It´s actually been a big blur of everything. It feels like I´ve been down here forever and at the same time hardly at all. Right now I´m in Valencia, for Preparation Day. With Conference we watch every session except the Sunday afternoon session. We watch the Saturday morning session live at 6 p.m., then 11 a.m. Sunday morning we watch the Priesthood session rebroadcasted, then at 2 we watch the Saturday afternoon session re-broadcasted, then at 6 p.m. Sunday evening we watch the Sunday morning session live. Some of the members watch the Sunday afternoon session at 10 p.m. Sunday night, but we can´t as missionaries. Anyways, I´m going to be doing intercambios at the end of the day going to Cataroja, which is close to Valencia, where we watched conference, so we just stayed the night and then I´ll leave from here. Anyways, we´ve been able to get a lot of new investigators this past week, well, not a lot, but 3. One of them is named Julian and he´s from Brasil and he now has a baptismal date for the 24th of April, so I´ll keep you guys updated on that. He saw us and came over to us and asked how the mission´s going. His mom is a member apparently in Brasil, so that´s cool. He speaks Spanish pretty well too, so that´s good. We´re also teaching a 15 year old girl, Francheska, that´s a less active member only because she was baptized in the dominican republic, where her dad lives, she came out here to Spain, and her mom doesn´t want her to go to church. We´re helping her out though, and we´re giong to start teaching her friend Elisabet, so we´ll see how that all goes. There´s also a recent convert in our ward named Valeria who´s an artist. So we talked about art for a while one day and she has a sister going back to Argentina where she´s from, and she´s going to have her pick me up some art supplies so if I ever have any spare time I can draw. I don´t know if I´ll have any spare time, but maybe some preparation days or at night it would be fun. I still have that Joseph Smith in Liberty Jail picture I´m doing in pencil. I haven´t worked on it for a few months though. So yeah, that´s the gist of it. Oh, today for preparation day we´re giong to have 8 missionaries and we´re going to play some flag football, so that should be fun. I´m excited about that. Oh, also, just to say a bit more about my companion, his name is Elder Hancock, he´s been in the mission for just over 1 year and 7 months now, he´s been in Castellón for a bit over 3 months now too. He´s from Ogden. He´s a little bit taller than me. He has blonde hair. I don´t know what else you want to know, but if you have any specific questions about him, my area, etc., just let me know. Overall things are going great here in Castellón. After Edgar´s baptism there wasn´t a ton of work. They had a ton of investigators, but they didn´t even have the contact information on a bunch of them, so they weren´t progressing at all. So now we´ve been finding some new investigators and things seem to be going really well now. Hopefully we can keep it up. We had 17 lessons this past week, which is almost the goal of 20, so we´ll see if we can´t get 20 here soon. This week will also be zone conference down here, so that will be cool. Oh, also, did I tell you that in a couple weeks Elder Richard Hinckley, from the seventy, will be doing a mission tour here? So that should be fun. I´ll tell you about that when it happens. Well, that´s been my week. It going good. I´m going to write the individuals now, but have a great week. ¡Chao!

-Elder Sommerfeldt

3/29/2010

Family and friends! How´s everyone doing this week? Things are going fairly well down here in Castellón. I´m still getting adjusted to it and all, but it´s not too bad. Okay, so first off, some information about last Tuesday when I was transferred. I had to travel by myself from the office to Castellón. It was crazy too, because I literall left the office all by myself. It was the same day a ton of new missionaries had come in, and they had to take other missionaries to the airport, so I was left to leave the office, take a bus to the train station, get on the train, then go down to Castellón where I´d meet my compaion at the station. So I leave and as I´m walking to the bus stop I see the bus I need pulling out, so I missed it. I went and looked at the schedule and noticed it only passed every half hour or so and I had to be there in 45 minutes or so. It´s about a 25-30 minute ride. So at first I thought I´d end up missing my train and it´d be a huge hassle and all, but then I thought, what if I just take a taxi. So I flagged down a taxi that took my right to the train station. It was actually nicer that way because I didn´t have to worry about my luggage, the driver took care of all of it. The only bad part is that it cost 10,50 €. But that´s alright I guess. At least I didn´t miss my train and I got here to Castellón on time and all. Let´s see, so I got here on Tuesday, and on Friday we had a baptism. His name´s Edgar. Elder Hancock baptized him, and I confirmed him on Sunday. So that was fun. He´s seems like he´s doing really well. So that´s good. We spent this week visiting a lot of less actives and recent converts, so we´ll have to keep that up, but up it up a bit on investigators. So yeah. Oh, Elder Hancock is from Ogden, Utah, and he´s been in the mission for a year and 7 months about. The baptismal font here is just like the one in Vilafranca, so we had to spend quite a bit of time setting that up and filling it up. The ward´s pretty good. It´s a smaller ward, about 80 people that attend each week, but it´s pretty good. We´ll have to see what we can do to make it even better though. This past week we finished with something and had about half an hour left. We were at the church so I went and told the bishop that we had half an hour left in the day and asked if there was anyone he would like us to visit. I felt kind of bad because right after I said it the bishop looked at Elder Hancock and said, this is how it should be, learn from this Elder Hancock. More or less. IT was kind of funny though. Especially because we were with the zone leader and we were deciding what to do and the zone leader gave the idea of asking the bishop, I just happened to be the one that did it. Anyways, overall things are great here. We eat with members every day for lunch, so that´s nice, and not nice at the same time. We ate fish this past week, and it was not good... That´s okay though, I just hope that we don´t have to eat it too much here. Also, one day I had to eat a plate FULL of strawberries, and I´m not a fan of strawberries at all, but it was alright. Oh, another thing that´s interesting about Elder Hancock is that he has diabetes. He figured out on the mission about a year ago. So he always has to check his blood sugar and four times throughout the day he has to give himself injections of insulin. So that´s that. Well, I can´t think of much else that´s new. I don´t think I´ll be able to send pictures home from this area as often, the computers aren´t as nice here as they were where we did it in Barç. That´s okay though I guess. Well, I can´t think of much else that´s new, but have a great week and I´ll talk to you all next week.
-Elder Sommerfeldt