8/23/10

Family and Friends! How´s everyone doing? So this past week was a bit better than last week. Last week we had 15 citas, but this past week we had 17. We´re getting closer and closer to having 20 lessons/week. Also this past week we had zone conference. I´m going to stick a picture on here of it. I hope it works, because for some reason I can´t actually see the picture, so I guessed which one it is. I think the other picture should be of me on our balcony with a bit of our neighborhood in the background. I hope you enjoy it. Let´s see, what else. Oh, so with zone conference Elder Jacinto and I were in charge of a bunch of it. We had to assign everything, and another interesting thing that will make mom happy is that this is the only zone without someone who can play the piano amazingly well, so I had to play the hymns. It turned out good though. Elder Jacinto conducted, and the only other things we had to do was set up, sit in front, and give a little presentation on area books. It went well though. It was a good conference I think. Also with the conference the ayudantes (assistants to the president) came out to do intercambios with Elder Jacinto and I. It was a fairly good intercambio. Do you want to hear something amazing! I sat in a chair where the King of Spain sat just two-three weeks ago! We started teaching this guy that´s been friends with the king of Spain since they were kids. He calls the King by his first name. He was the math tutor for the Prince, and the Prince won´t let him speak to him in usted, only in tu. So yeah, that was awesome. He told us he would get us Spanish nationality if we wanted it, and he has the connections to do it. He´s 80 years old, his name´s Jaime, and hopefully we can help him get baptized. I went with Elder Raban and he knew Elder Raban before and just loves him. He´s a really nice guy, so we´ll see what we can do to help him get baptized. But yeah, I read telegrams from the King of Spain to this guy inviting him over to dine with them. It was pretty cool. So this past week we did an intercambios blitz with the elders in Levante (it´s the other branch here in Palma). We did that Wednesday. First off intercambios means I was with one of the elders from Levante, and Elder Jacinto was with the other one. Then the blitz means that we were both working in their area to help them get more citas and
more investigators and just help their area do a bit better. It went pretty well. They have 3 investigators with baptismal dates right now, so that´s good. We were still fired on a bunch this past week, but not as bad as the last week, so that´s good. So a cool story that happened is that we were walking to go pass by some people and we passed this lady in the cross walk. Elder Jacinto felt like we should contact them, but you can´t contact in the middle of the street, so we walked around the block to find them that way. We got around and we couldn´t find them, so we were about ready to give up, but then we saw them, so we took off after them. It was a lady pushing a stroller with two little girls walking with her. So we were almos caught up, like 20 feet away when she went into a cafetería. So we just walked by and we were going to wait for her come out. After like 5 minutes we figured she might be there a while, so we decided we´d go in, buy some orange fanta, and hopefully start up a conversation. So we went and right before entering two girls called us from the other side of the street. Long story short one of them is interested in learning more, they´re both from the Dominican Republic and have been the church there. They live in the Levante Elder´s area, but that´s good. They have more work now. So after talking to them we went into the cafetería and bought some fantas and sat down at a table next to them. They looked like they were from Bolivia so after a couple minutes and asked where they were from, they said Bolivia, I said I had a brother that was there for 2 years as a missionary and we started talking. Long story short, the dad said he was thinking about finding a priest or someone to come and talk to his daughters so they can learn more about Jesus Christ, and we told him we´d love to go and talk to the whole family. So we got his info and set up a cita. They weren´t there for the first one, but maybe this next week. So that was cool. Also, we had not the greatest week, so we got to Sunday with only 14 lessons, and then we were blessed. We had 4 investigators come to church, and one of them had gotten a pass along card a while back, and just decided to come. Anyways, the one that was there for the first time is named Rigo. So we had a cita with Rigo in the evening, and set a baptismal fecha with him for the 18 of September!!! The only thing is that we figured out after the cita that he lives in the Levante Elder´s area. Now they have someone else to work with. So that´s that. Yesterday we also had a cita with a girl named Gatha. She´s from Korea. So hopefully we can help her get baptized as well. It´s cool, because I´ve always wanted to baptized a rich guy, and I´ve always wanted to baptize an asian. So if Jaime (the king´s friend) gets baptized, that would be the rich guy, then if Gatha gets baptized that would be the asian. They´re all children of God though, so I´ll just baptize whoever´s ready. Well, I can´t think of much else to say. This next week is looking very good. We already have like 15 citas set up, and most of them I don´t think will cancel on us. So that´s good. Today we´re going to play fútbol (soccer) and then go to Zara (a clothes store) and I might get a spanish suit for really cheap. Everything´s on Rebajas (sales) right now, and there´s a girl that´s a member that works there that told us she can get us even more deals. So we´ll see what happens. Well, I need to be going now, but have a great week and I´ll write more next week. Have great weeks. ¡Chao!

-Elder Ryan Sommerfeldt

8/16/2010

Family and Friends! How´s everyone doing? I hope things are going well there? Everything´s good here in Palma de Mallorca. It was nice to finally have a full week here. It was a harder week than normal though. We had 17 people cancel citas on us throughout the week, but such is life.
So with pictures, I actually haven´t taken that many citas. First off though is a place called Plaza de Toros that´s just like 2-3 blocks away from our house. They actually had a concert there a couple weeks ago by The Cranberries and you could hear the music from inside our piso. It was interesting. It´s a cool building though, it looks like a collosseum. The other picture is from last week when we played tennis. I don´t have any other pictures really, so I´m not going to send any others this week. I´m going to make a DVD soon though and mail it home with 8 gigs of pictures, so you can look forward to that.
Well, so as I said this past week has been a bit slow. We still got 15 lessons in the end, but it was hard being fired on 17 times. Elder Jacinto and I had to teach district meeting this past week, so that was fun. It went well, we just didn´thave time to finish talking about everything we had planned. This week on Friday is zone conference, so we need to teach and organize a lot of that. So yeah. Zone Conferences aren´t as fun now because I have to help organize them... just joking. They´ll still be good. It´s not that much we have to do either. I think we just have like 45 minutes or so to teach something. They´re going to tell us what to talk about tonight. So yeah. Anyways, we started teaching some people this week named José Luis and Mildred. They´re a family from Bolivia and they have one son named Luis. Luis is like 4 or 5. They´re super good though. They want to get baptized, they understand their reading, etc. The only problem is they´re not married. They´ve been together for like 7 years though, so we´ll see if we can help them get married. We´re going to talk about it tonight with them. Hopefully it goes well. I´ll let you know how that goes next week. We´re also visited a guy named Wilson this past week. Wilson is from Nigeria. He´s super good too. He wants to work towards baptism. We ´ve only had one cita with him though, and we weren´t able to set a specific date for a baptism with him, but hopefully this next week we´ll be able to. We have a bunch of other people we´re visiting, but they´re not progressing right now. We´re actually going to have to drop a lot of people this next week, just because they´re not progressing. We´ve been working with some less actives as well and this past week one of them came to church, so that´s good. Her name´s Aura. She´s really nice. We eat with her, her husband, and her son every Saturday. So we´ll have to see if we can´t get their whole family reactivated.
Well, I can´t think of much else new this week. Sorry, other than being fired on a ton, it´s been a normal week. Oh, one thing, Elder Parry called me up this past week (he´s the Secretary to the President) and he told me that there were some new missionaries coming in and he wasn´t sure why, but President wanted me to catch a plane into Barcelona the next day, so it sounded like I was going to be transferred and train again and whitewash an area. I was like, are you serious, and he said, nope, I´m just joking. I was nervous for a bit there though. Our mission right now has less people than it´s ever had. We only have around 80 missionaries in the mission right now. There´s like 8 missionaries waiting on Visas, so hopefully they can get here fast. One of the branch/ward that has been closed is in our zone. So it would be nice to get it reopened. Well, I can´t think of much else new, so I´m going to go ahead and end this. I hope you all have a fantastic week though and I´ll talk to you later.
-Elder Ryan Sommerfeldt

08/09/2010

Family and Friends! How´s everyone doing? So first off I´m going to send home pictures, since I haven´t been able to for so long. The first one is of a bunch of people in the Castellón ward. That seems like it was so long ago. I have a bunch of other pictures from Castellón that you´ll have to see too, but I can´t fit them all on this email. Maybe I´ll finally be able to get a DVD made one of these weeks. I just feel like there´s never time for things, but that´s normal I guess. The second picture is of Francheska and I from Castellòn. You can ask mom and dad to forward all the pictures. The third picture is of me, Valeria, Guadalupe, and Edgar. The fourth picture is of Alex, Adina, and I. The fifth picture is of Armando and I. I think only five pictures fit to an email, so I´m going to send this, then I´ll attach five more.

Okay, so this is the second email. The first five are of me and Elder Morales with in the first one with Pilar and Ignacio, a recent convert that had gone less active and Elder Nelson and I helped her get activated again. The next is of Susana, Elder Morales and I baptized her. The next is of Josué. He´s a really cool kid in Vilafranca that we got to see. The next is of Karlita, Elder Morales and I also baptized her. And the next is of Abraham. Elder Morales and I started baptizing her, but Elder Nelson and I are the one´s that were there when he got baptized. All of those were taken when we were in Vilafranca this past week, which I talked about in my last email. It was a ton of fun. The last photo here is of what we did today for Preparation Day. We played tennis!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was a ton of fun. My companion is the one with a light blue shirt on, if you want to see who he is. There´s a senior couple in our zone and they have money, so they took us all to a tennis club and we played for a couple hours. Last week they took us out to get Kebab (a really good food they have here, and in most of the world I think, just not in the US so much). So that was nice.
So, I wrote on Wednesday, so there´s not a ton new. We came back here on Thursday, and had a cita out here with Elizabeth (a girl that got baptized the weekend before we got here). Anyways, due to being gone all week, last week was not a very good week with teaching lessons. It was a little lame. We only had 7 lessons. We´ll do better this week though. We´re actually set up with three citas this afternoon, starting at 7 (I don´t know if I told you, but our Preparation Day goes until 7 now, since everything´s pushed back an hour from what most of the world does), and we should get 5-7 new investigators this evening. So it should be really good. Well, we also had something good this past week. We were able to set a baptismal date with a girl named Leticia. She´s 20 years old, and she seems super ready to be baptized. The biggest problem is that there´s no other members in her family, and she says her mom makes her do things on Sunday, so she doesn´t want to get baptized if she can´t commit to be able to come every Sunday. So we´ll see what ends up happening with that. I hope it goes well though.

That´s really the gist of what´s happened this past week. There hasn´t been a ton apart from the meetings in Barcelona. We had a less active couple that we´ve taught a few times come to church this past Sunday, so that was good. They left after Sacrament meeting tough. I don´t now, we need to work on having the members grab onto people better. We´ve had investigators come too, but members sometimes don´t be their friends and much as they need to be. So they leave after one or two hours. We´ll get it there though. Well, I can´t think of what else to say, but I hope everyone has a great week. I´m going to go ahead and write the individuals now I guess. I´ll write more next week. ¡Chao!
-Elder Ryan Sommerfeldt

08/04/2010

Family and friends! How are you all doing? So you´re probably all wondering why I´m writing this on Wednesday and not on Monday. Well on Monday we had to go into to Barcelona for concilio. It´s a meeting with all the zone leaders and President and Hermana Hinckley. Anyways, we had to leave our piso in the morning, and the meeting started at 5:00, and with travel and all we didn´t have time for internet. Today President Hinckley told me it was fine if we took an hour sometime and hurried to write home, so yeah. So right now I´m still in Barcelona, but I´ll talk about all that later. First off with last week. So last week was crazy, with a brand new area and all. We were extra blessed though. So the big miracle is that even though we missed the first few days of the week, and we started off Thursday with only 3 lessons, we still reached the goal of 20 lessons. No one in our zone (the baleric islands) has had 20 lessons for a long time. At least for a month or so. So that was good that we were able to do that to hopefully set a standard and help other people get motivated to do the same. We´ll see what we can do though. We had a bunch of crazy stories, one being with a guy named Marco. Marco is from Nigeria and things were going really well with him. We visited him several times last week, but the last time he was just crazy. He was telling us his pastor was the Jesus of our time and the savior and that he (Marco) was a prophet and that he´d lived on the earth before and had been sent back to preach about his pastor. So yeah, that was kind of lame losing an investigator, but I guess now´s not his time. We found a few new investigators as well, including a family from Bolivia. So we´ll see how everything goes with all of that. As far as pictures go, there´s no place to stick the memory card in the computer, so you´ll have to wait another week for more pictures. I have a bunch of pictures you´ll have to see though. I need to just make a DVD and send it to you. Okay, so I´m still in Barcelona because of the new lessons that are coming out to help missionaries with Preach My Gospel. What the General Authorities have asked that they do in every mission is train all the leaders in the mission starting now, so that in a year when new missionaries come having learned these lessons from the MTC that we´ll already know them. They´re not new lessons, but they´re lessons to help us use Preach My Gospel better. Things like "The Doctrine of Christ," "The Role of the Holy Ghost in Conversion," "Reverlation through Prayer," "Revelation through the Book of Mormon," "Revelation through Church Attendance," "Teach People, Not Lessons," "We Invite, They Commit, We Follow Up," and "How to Begin Teaching." Those are the 8 lessons. It´s really nothing new, it´s all in Preach My Gospel. They´re just putting a big emphasis on it though. It´s good. We´ve gone through the first 5, and we have 3 more to go tomorrow. It gives me headaches though just because we´re sitting down from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. with only a couple breaks, but it´s alright. Okay, so now the big news... I got to go to Vilafranca yesterday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And even better, I went with Elder Morales!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We were super lucky. It ended at 4, and both of our areas are far, so they were just going to have everyone who had traveled into Barcelona stay in Barcelona and work, but Elder Morales asked if we could go out there, and Elder Jacinto too, and they let us. So I saw Pilar again, Josué, Susana, Karlita (the first person I actually baptized), and Abraham. It was so fun. What was crazy is that I stil remembered the area perfectly, including which doorbell I had to push, like for the floor and door. It was really cool. I really feel at home there. Also, I figured out I´ll have to go back to Castellón in a few weeks probably for residency things since I was empodronized there. But yeah. It was a ton of fun being in Vilafranca again. I loved it. I can´t wait to be able to go back to all my areas and see everyone. I´d love to live in Spain actually for a year or two sometime after my mission, but we´ll see what happens. Anyways, so yeah, that was a lot of fun, and I got a bunch of pictures with all of them. Okay, so a little about Concilio (the meeting with the zone leaders and President and Hermana Hinckley), that was really cool. We actually have a big say in how we do things in the mission. President Hinckley just brought up topics, then we´d talk about it. For example, when we should wake up and go to bed, because they were doing it slightly different in Bilbao and our mission is now a mixture of the two missions. But we all gave our opinions, then came up with what we should do. It was cool. We also all had to give little presentations on our zones too, and that went well too. Our zone is good, but we need to improve. But that´s alright, we can always be improving. Well, things are going great here. I hope everything´s going well there. I´m going to end this though and write the individual´s now. Have a fantastic week. -Elder Ryan Sommerfeldt