5/17/10

Family and Friends! How´s everyone doing back in Utah, and every other part of the world wherever you are reading this? Things are going great for me here in Castellón. This past week has been hard, but it´s been good too, so that´s good. It´s hard because I get a bit more stressed out than before being the senior companion, I just feel like I have to do more, but it´s good. I´m still adjusting. Anyways, it´s also been hard because we lost Jaime and Adriana´s baptismal dates... That´s alright though, I guess. We´ll just have to work and see if we can help them get baptized here soon. They didn´t come to church, and they both have smoking problems, so yeah. We´ll see what we can do though. We are going really good though with Jairo´s baptism for this next Saturday. WE have the interview all set up for Thursday, the baptism will be at 5 on Saturday, we announced it in Church, and Jairo even has told a few people about his baptism, so that´s way good. Let´s see what else is new. Edith, Paul, Geraldine, and that group are all doing well still. We´re going to invite Edith to be baptized with Jairo this Saturday, but I don´t know if she´ll accept. She told us a while ago that she wants it to be something she chooses to do, so I think what we might do is tell her that the guy that does the interviews will be out here on Thursday, and so if she wants to to let us know before then. We´ll see how it goes. We were able to have 26 lessons this past week, so that was pretty good. We did good in everything this past week, except we didn´t get any new investigators this week... Yesterday though we got a ton of addresses and phone numbers of people that this next week will hopefully convert into new investigators to make up for this past week. This week we also had intercambios. It was the first intercambios for Elder Parry. He was a little nervous before, but he said it went well. It went well for Elder Hardcastle and I too here in Castellón. He gave me advice with training, and basically just told me to give Elder Parry more things to do, that will make it easier for me, and it will help Elder Parry learn faster. So I´ve been doing that. Elder Parry now has the map, when we´re passing by people, I have him direct us. It´ll help him get the hang of things faster. He´s doing really well though. Last night we even did splits, so he was with Armando, and had to teach basically by himself. It went well. I was with another member named Eliseo. WE had 2 family home evenings at the same time. So yeah. So yeah, that´s my week. I´m trying to think of what else is new. Oh, pictures. I almost forgot. I´m going to add some pictures. So the first picture is of me in front of some building that I think is famous here. I took it last week. There´s a chance I send some repeats too, just so you know, so sorry if that happens. THe second picture is of me in front of the Barcelona bus a couple weeks ago. Barcelona played VilaReal, a Pueblo close to Castellón, so they stayed in a hotel here in Barcelona, and we happened to walk by the bus, so we took a picture. The third is of Elder Parry and I pointing to Castellón on the map in PResiden´t office from a couple weeks ago. The last one is of a park called Parque Ribalta, it´s the big park here in Castellón. So yeah. I hope you enjoy those. If anyone wants to see them, just ask mom and dad for them. Well, let´s see, what else can I say. Things are going great. I´ll take pictures of the baptism with Jairo this Saturday so you can see that, and hopefully we get Julian or Edith that get´s baptized as well the same day. We´ll just have to wait and see though. Anyways, I´m running out of time now, so I´m going to go. Have a great week.-Elder Sommerfeldt

5/3/10

Family (and friends)!!! How´s everyone doing? So, you may be wondering why I´m writing on Wednesday instead of Monday. One is because Preparation Day was Tuesday this past week, due to transfers, so then why Wednesday and not Tuesday you ask, well, it´s becaues I was up in Barcelona!!!! So now, why was I in Barcelona? Well here´s the big news... I´m training!!! It´s crazy. There were five new missionaries that came in this transfer, and I´m one of the five trainers. I´m the youngest of all the trainers. The next youngest trainer has been out for a year and 2 months, and I´ve only been out 10 months, it´s crazy. So we were on a train and didn´t get back until last night, so that´s why I´m doing internet today. Anyways, so I´m training Elder Parry. He´s from Seattle, Washington. His grandparents live in Lethbridge, Alberta too. There names are Gordon and Loise Bowden. I don´t know if Grandma and Grandpa, or Drew and Marcy know them, but that would be cool. So yeah. Anyways, he´s super excited to do missionary work and all, so I think we´ll get along great. I feel a little inadequate, being so young, I still feel like I just started my mission, but it´ll be good. If I just trust in the Lord and follow the spirit we´ll be able to have a lot of success together. Anyways, so that´s the really big news. I´m trying to send a picture of us yesterday, but I´m having difficulties attaching it right now. We´ll see if I can get it worked out though. Well, it looks like it´s not working, maybe next week I´ll send something. Anyways, last week was pretty good. We were able to have 7 investigators in church. Four of them were new, as in we hadn´t taught them yet, but we have their information and citas set up with them now. They´re two couples that came with members to church, so hopefully it all goes well with that. I´m having a hard time remembering all that happened last week, because of the change with Elder Parry coming, so sorry if I don´t talk about last week much. Oh, Mother´s Day. I was wondering if it would be possible for you guys to call me Saturday morning. You could make the call from dad´s phone at work and do the conference call again. I hope you still have the number from before for spain, it´s 0 then two other numbers, then you´ll have to dial my number, which is 637.460.792. So yeah, that would be nice if you can call me Saturday morning. It´ll be Saturday evening here. I did that because I don´t know what dad´s schedule is like Sunday morning. Okay, so I just talked to Elder Parry and here´s how we´re going to do it. His family is going to call him at 7:30 our time, then if you guys can call at 8:45-9:00 that would be great. So that would be between 12:45 and 1:00 your time, I believe. So yeah. If that´s a problem, I guess you could try and contact someone in the office and then have them contact me. If not, I look forward to talking to you guys on Saturday. Also, I was going to say, sorry for everyone who´s not family who just had to read all of that. Also, Dad, can you do it from your work phone and conference in Michelle, Kevin, Bruce, and John. THanks. And sorry if doing it on Saturday isn´t convenient for the Lawn-O-Matic work schedule... Anyways, I really can´t think of what to say. Oh, here´s something. Elder Hancock, is still in our zone. He just moved to the other district in the other zone to be their district leader. I´ll see him every week in the district meetings, because our two districts meet in the same place. So that´s kind of nice. Well, I really don´t know what else to say. Investigators are doing well. Elder Hancock visited a bunch of them on Monday with Armando, a member, because I had to leave early to go up to Barcelona. I think everyone´s doing well though. We visited with Jairo last night with Elder Parry, it was his first cita, so that was fun. I had him share his favorite scripture and then we just talked about it. It was just a 15 minute visit to see how he was doing. Well, I´m going to write the individuals now, but have a fantasic week. ¡Chao!

-Elder Sommerfeldt