10/18/2010

Family and friends! HOw are you all doing? So this big news of the week here is that Dana got baptized!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It went super well. I want to send a picture home, but the computer doesn´t have a working slot for my SD card... maybe next week. We also just got back from a place called Formentor, you can google it if you want, but it was so beautiful. It´s a little peninsula thing with a lighthouse and the ocean crashes against all the rocks, etc. I took a lot of pictures and video. You´ll be able to see it someday, and hopefully next week I can get some pictures sent out. So yeah. So with Dana´s baptism, it went super good in the end. It was a bit of a hassle though doing everything. It was my week to have the phone too, so I was talking on the phone A LOT this past week. There was another guy named Antonio from the Manacor branch, a branch about an hour away, that also got baptized and they got baptized together. So the Manacor president kept on calling us to see what was going on, see if we had clothes Antonio could use, etc. It was a bit of a hassle. We got the programs all made and everything though and at 5:00 my time they were baptized. It went super, super good. Then on Sunday I confirmed Dana. She was super happy the whole time, and her friend Imma, who´s also super cute, she´s 9, came to the baptism and the confirmation. It was funny, because we had 4 investigators in church this past week, and two of them were primary age... So half of our investigators in church are kids. It´s funny. Well, this past week we had district meeting out in Inca, and right after we did intercambios. Oh, first off, I forgot to tell you about the new missionary Elder Jacinto and I are training.

Okay, so his name is Elder Greep. He´s from Utah, around South Jordan. His plane was supposed to get in at like 9:30, but on our way to the airport we got a call saying his flight was delayed. In the end, it was 11:50 that he got in... So we had a lot of time waiting, and we were really tired the next day. He got in though, so that´s good. It was delayed becuase on Tuesday it was pouring rain here. I´ve never seen so much rain. It felt like I was in a hurricane or something, and we were running around to citas and all, and neither one of us had an umbrella. I lost mine in my last area. maybe I´ll have to buy a new one if it keeps raining. Anyways, Elder Greep´s from Utah and he´s a good missionary. We get along well. Also, it was funny, because Elder Bennington pretended for the entire first day to be from England. He actually did the accent really well, and Elder Greep totally bought all of it.

Anyways, so after the district meeting on Wednesday we did intercambios for a little bit to get some interviews done. Elder Jacinto did this interview, and I´ll do the next one that we have to do. Elder Bowers, from Inca, who was a district leader, has permission to do the interviews that Elder Jacinto and I need, so he came out and interviewed Dana. Anyways, to the interview, Dana´s mom, Damaris, brought two of her friends, Silvia, and Cote, and we started teaching them. Silvia now has a baptismal date for the 13 of November. So that´s really good. Silvia and Cote also came to the baptism and loved it. They helped with cleaning up and such more than anyone else.

Next, there was also a lady we started teaching this past week named Susana. We found her through English Classes. She told us that she wanted to be baptized because she had an experience that let her know that God exists, so she went to the Catholic Church to figure out what she had to do. On the way she saw an English Class advertisement and called us up. Then she was going to start the catholic classes this Tuesday at 6:00, but she set up to visit with us instead. She´s very prepared. So we´ll see what we can do to get her baptized as well. We asked if she´d be baptized after she knows the Book of Mormon is true and she said for sure. She said there´s nothing about the catholic church that´s special, she just had heard of the catholic church more than other churches. So yeah. I´m really excited to help her. So yeah. Things are going really well here. This next Saturday we´re having a Noche de Cine (movie night) that we´re in charge of. We´re going to watch "Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration." It should be really good. Not many people have seen that here either. Only those that have gone to the temple have seen it. So we announced that in church and gave out a ton of little invitations. Hopefullky everyone brings a bunch of friends.

I also had to speak this past week. With the baptism and all I completely forgot about it until Saturday night. I got something ready fast though and it actually went really well. I just talked about why I decided to serve a mission and some of the miracles I´ve seen on my misison and how we can all see miracles and be missionaries. So yeah. Let´s see, I can´t think of what else I should say. It´s been a good week. We also finished the week with 20 lessons, exactly. So that was good. Elder Greep, Elder Jacinto, and I all get along well. Elder Greep still isn´t good with spanish, but that´s understandable, he´s only been here for like a week now. He´s getting better and better each day though and he really wants to help the people.

Well, things are going great here in Palma. There´s always those bad days, but the good things are a lot more than the hard things. So yeah. I love being a missionary. I´ll write to all of you next week. ¡Chao!

-Elder Ryan Sommerfeldt

10/12/2010

Family and Friends! How´s everyone going? First off, good luck John! You´re going to love your mission. Okay, so for pictures, the first one is of Elder Bennington, me, Dana (the girl that´s getting baptized this Saturday!), and Elder Jacinto. We all had ginormous grapes in our cheeks, hence the funny faces. Dana´s a really cute girl though. The next one is me in front of this building called Pueblo Español. I was going to get more pictures of it, but my battery on my camera died... The next picture is of all of us missionaries here in Palma with a family. The dad´s name is David, the mom´s name is Vanessa, the oldest daughter´s name is Marta, and the son´s name is Jorge. I can´t remember the little girl´s name though. There members though, and we eat with them usually once a week. WE took the picture because it was Elder Henrie´s last time... he got transferred... We actually just got done dropping him off. Speaking of transfers, I´m staying. I´ll talk more about that later though. The next picture is of a view from up on top of this mountain where we went and took a few pictures. It was raining though, so the pictures didn´t turn out so good... Next is of me when we took all the pictures and I was outside in the rain (actually, I´m not sure if that one attached, sorry...). Finally, the last picture is of Elder Bennington, Elder Henrie, and I right before Elder Henrie left. I cut my hair last night by the way, so my hair´s shorter. I hope it looks good. It´s kind of funny how I´ve learned how to cut my own hair on the mission. It´s not as hard as I would´ve thought it would be.

Anyways, so Elder Henrie left. He´s going to Sabadell. We´ll miss him. Elder Jacinto and I stay companions, but Elder Bennington won´t be our companion anymore... So that´s kind of sad. He was a good companion. He´s going to be Elder Cannell´s companion, which is the other branch in Palma, and we share a piso, so we´re almost still companions. So that´s good. Elder Jacinto and I are going to be training again too... It´s crazy. They´re having zone leaders train a lot of the new missionaries now. I don´t know why, but that´s what the Lord wants now I guess. So I´m training for the third time now, which usually never happens. I´ll let you know how the new companion is next week. He comes in this afternoon. Elder Jacinto and I stay together though for at least another transfer though, so that´s good. We´ve been together for two transfers now, so he´ll be my longest companion yet. So, this past week we had interviews with President Hinckley on Tuesday. So we had our district meeting, and Elder Jacinto and I talked a lot about what we need to do to get 400 baptisms by the end of the year in our mission. It went really good. Then we got kebab, then President came, ate with us, then we had interviews. So that was good. In my interview I basically told President Hinckley that I wanted to stay here with Elder Jacinto for another transfer, and he said they´d decided that they weren´t going to change a good thing, and he told me that unless he got a strong impression before Sunday to change, that we´d be staying companions. And that happened. So that´s good. It´ll be a bit weird without Elder Bennington though. The three of us have become good friends in these past few weeks.

Anyways, the other big thing about this week is that we now have 7 investigators with baptismal dates in our area! We have Dana for this Saturday, she´s doing really well, then we have Augusto, Paula, Cyril, Wally, Segundo, and John. They´re all doing fairly well. Dana´s great, Augusto´s doing really well, and Segundo´s doing really well. The other´s are doing well, but it´s hard to tell right now because they´re still fairly new. I´m excited for that though. In our zone we have 21 investigators with baptismal dates. That´s the highest it´s ever been. THere used to be six companionships in our zone and the most our zone has ever had is 10 investigators with baptismal dates, so we´re more than double that, and we only have 4 companionships... So that´s super good. The whole mission is doing really well. We´re all working hard and we´re determined to get our goal of 400 baptisms, but in our zone we´re shooting for 404. So yeah. It´s an exciting time right now.

This past week we had one day where we did splits with a member and I went around with Miguel Angel. It was really good. He´s a recent convert, so while we were doing splits, we had a visit. We made a mission plan for him to help all of his friends and family, because none of them are members. That went really well. We came up with a bunch of plans and things we can do. So that was good. Well, I don´t really know what else to say. It´s been a good week though. This week is looking like it´ll be a bit stressful, but hopefully it still goes well. Pray for us though.

This past week there´s been a lot of rain too. We were going to go on an excursion this morning with the young single adults and some of our investigators, but it was pouring... so we weren´t able to. Also, Sunday morning it was pouring rain, and none of our investigators came to church, and right at 10:00 when we were supposed to start there were probably only 15 people or so at church. It´s crazy how the rain just kept people from coming. Anyways, I´m going to go and right the individual letters now though. Have a fantastic week. ¡Chao!

-Elder Ryan Sommerfeldt

10/4/2010

Family and Friends! How´s everyone doing? Things are going pretty good here. Dana is still progressing, but we had to move her baptism back one week because she´s with her mom one week and with her dad the next, so we figured out she´ll be with her dad the week of the 9th, but she has a date for the 16th and is doing really well with that. The family home evening with the president´s family went really well last week. So that´s good. We played a really funny game after too. You pack a cup with flour, then turn it upside down, then you put a coin on it. Everyone takes turns cutting a slice off the flour and the person that makes it fall when they cut it has to get the coin out and in their teeth without using their hands, so they get flour all over their face. It was fun.

Okay, so I can finally send a few pictures. My last card isn´t working great, so these are only the more recent pictures. The first one is of Elder Jacinto and I wearing Elder Bennington´s sunglasses being weird. The next one is of Elder Jacinto, Elder Bennington, and I walking down a strett on Preparation Day and we had the other Elders take a picture of us. Next is of me down town a bit and you can see a bit of the city behind me. The next one is of me with the cathedral behind me. I´m close to the camera and the cathedral´s far away. It´s huge though. The last one is of me, Elder Jacinto, and Elder Bennington in front of the cathedral on some stairs there. So yeah. Now you can see some pictures again. I hope you liked them. I don´t know when I´ll get the DVD made with my pictures from the other card, but hopefully someday.

Okay, moving on. By the way, I started writing with paragraphs to make my e-mails easier to read, due to the fact that one of you (you know who you are) suggested it. Anyways, so this past week was good. We had a cita with that guy named Augusto, that we contacted last week, on Tuesday. It went really good. We had another one on Wednesday and set a baptismal date with him for the 23 of October. So that was good. Then on Thursday right before going to Barcelona we visited with this girl named Paula. She´s 14, daughter of a less active, sister of a recent convert. She even went to EFY this past summer. Anyways, we finally got her to accept a baptismal date, now we just need to help her be ready and feel ready by the 23 of October too.

After that Elder Jacinto and I went to Barcelona and Elder Bennington stayed with Elder Cannell and Elder Henrie (the other missionaries in Palma). Concilio was good. We set a goal of 400 baptisms for the year. We´re at 252 right now, so we need about 50 each month the rest of the year. It´s going to be a lot of work, but it´s possible. You can keep that goal in your prayers. We got to eat pancakes for breakfast with the Hinckleys, and enchiladas for lunch with them. So that was a lot of fun.

Anyways, we came back Friday night. Saturday was a pretty good day. We had a cita with Leticia and she stayed for conference. She was super good. She made all sorts of comments to me during conference asking if she could choose her baptizes her, and if one of us could baptize her, etc. So we´ll have to work with her a lot too. Conference on Sunday was crazy. The satelite was broken and we weren´t able to watch conference that way, but we hooked it up to the internet. I´m just going to copy this from the President´s Letter. Here it is :

We had a really neat experience this past weekend with the power of prayer. So apparently the satelite broke in our capilla. So in the end we had to watch everything on Saturday through the internet hooked up to the projector. Anyways, we got there on Sunday to watch the Priesthood session and the internet was no longer working. They tried, but never got it fixed, so we weren´t able to see the Priesthood Session. Then it got closer to 2:00 to watch the Saturday afternoon session and the internet didn´t work. I was way surprised because the District President started sending everyone home saying we´d watch the conference the first week in November instead. All of us missionaries were really upset. We had investigators coming and we didn´t want to just completely cancel General Conference for the Balearic Islands. So we all went into a room and prayed. After the prayer we went and looked at everything and within a few minutes it was all fixed. We also prayed after it was all working to thank God for the miracle. It really was a miracle. We had to watch most of it in Spanish, so I didn´t get as much out of it as I would have liked to, but it was really neat to see just how powerful prayer is.

It was a really cool. Well, that´s most of it. I´m running really short on time now, so I need to wrap this up so I can get some individual letters written. It´s been a great week though. Things are going really well, every companionship in our zone has at least two investigators with baptismal dates now too. Well, I can´t htink of much else to say, and due to being short on time I´m going to end this. Next week is transfers, but I´m almost certain we´ll both be staying here another transfer just from a comment the Hinckleys made, but we´ll see. I´ll write on Tuesday next week though. Anyways, I hope you all have a great week. Until next week. ¡Chao!

-Elder Ryan Sommerfeldt

9/27/2010

Family and Friends! How´s everyone doing? So I finally got my memory card back from the member that had it. He wasn´t able to get the DVD´s made, so you´ll have to wait a bit on that... I can send a few pictures home this week though. Actually, it´s not working, and I´ve wasted a ton of time trying to get it to work. SOrry... Maybe next week.

So I guess the biggest news of this week is that Elder Jacinto and I are still companions, but we´re in a trio now. A new Elder, Elder Bennington came and we´re training him together. So yeah. He´s been waiting his for his visa for a while and actually served for 2 months in the Los Angeles mission, then just recently got it, came, and now we´re training him in this mission. So yeah. He´s a good missionary. It´s weird being in a trio. There are some benefits though, one is that we can enter in even if it´s just a single women. The rule is that you need to take another person with you, but President Hinckley said if you have 3 missionaries that it´s okay too. So now if a member cancels on us or something we can still enter. So that´s nice. Also, Dana is still progressing well to be baptized. She´ll be baptized the 9th of October, so that´s good. Let´s see, also we did intercambios this past week. I was with Elder Cannell who is from my group (we started at the same time). So that was fun. It went well. We stayed in our area. Also, on Tuesday we went out to Manacor for a district meeting, and afterwards the Thompsons (a senior couple) took us all out to lunch. We went to a really nice Japanese buffet restaurant. It was a ton of fun. The restuarant had a conveyer belt and the workers just put a bunch of small plates on and we just grabbed the food off as it passed us. I probably had 15 plates or so. It was super good though. Also, this past week one of our investigators, Xisca, asked us to dedicate her store. She has a little sewing store, so we did that. That was interesting. It´s like her house, so we just dedicated it in a prayer and all. It was good though. She´s really good, but we´ve only been able to visit her once, because she´s super busy. Also, when we visited Dana this past week we took the Branch President´s daughter, since she´s about the same age, so that cita went really well. Also, we set up Family Home Evening for tonight with Dana, her mom Damaris, and the Branch President and his family. SO that should be good. All in all, this week was not a very good week. We had one of the worse weeks I´ve had since we got here. Next week will be better though. Another thing that happened this week is that I got a call from a recent convert/less active, but re-activating member on Friday and she had to move out of her Piso that day. So we called the Elder´s Chorum president and the three of us missionaries, plus a couple members moved all her stuff. It took a long time though... It´s all done now though. Her name´s Maria. I feel really bad for her. The guy she was living with before a couple weeks ago drinks a lot, and a couple weeks ago he got drunk, beat her, and almost threw her out the third story window... He´s in jail now and might be deported back to Ecuador. She´s doing a lot better though, so that´s good. I just hope everything works out for her. Oh, do you remember José Luis and Mildred? We haven´t been able to visit them for about a month because of his work, but he finally has more time now, so we visited them twice this past week, and they´re doing super good. They didn´t come to church though... We´ll get them to come this next week. Well, I need to be going and write the individual letters now, but have a great week and I´ll write more next week. ¡Chao!

-Elder Ryan Sommerfeldt