Family and Friends!!! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How is everyone? Things are going great here for me. I´m going to start off with some pictures. I´m thinking it´s going to take two e-mails to send all of it though. Okay, so first off we have me in Barcelona in front of a thing at Plaça Espanya, then we have me and Hermana Johns (one of the hermanas from my group that goes home this next transfer), then me and Hermana Bustamante (another hermana from my group that goes home this transfer), then me on Christmas morning with the jersey Jen gave me (It´s awesome by the way), then one with all four of us Christmas morning with (left to right) Elder Bennington, Elder Keeler, me, and Elder Hunsaker, then on with me and what we ate for lunch. So yeah. That´s that. Okay, so now the second e-mail with the next batch of pictures. The first two are of the baptism that there was out in Manacor. First off we have one with a lot of people. It´s (left to right) me, Elder Greep (Elder Jacinto and I trained him second), Augusto (Elder Jacinto, Elder Bennington, and I taught him everything before he went out to Manacor), Francisco (I interviewed him), Elder Egan, and Elder Bennington (the first person Elder Jacinto and I trained). The next picture is of me and Augusto, and the next 3 are of my shoes. So yeah. My old shoes were pretty beat up, but I have really nice shoes now. They´re from Damaris, but I feel kind of bad because they probably cost her like 60-70 euros. She´s basically my mom here in Palma. She calls Elder Jacinto and I her hijos. It´ll be sad when I get transferred having to leave her family (Damaris, Dayana, and Dana), we´re really close.
Okay, so I can´t think of what I should really say, because we just talked a couple days ago. It was great getting to talk to all of you, and I´m glad the conference call thing worked out in the end. I meant to tell you guys to say hi to John, but the calling card died before I had time to. I hope it was fun talking to him too. maybe we could work something out so we can all talk at the same time for Mother´s Day, I don´t know though. We´ll see. So yesterday was a pretty good day. The only bad thing about it is that no investigators came to church. I was pretty mad about that. We had everything set up, but most of them "slept in." I guess that´s the problem with having church right after Christmas. Even a lot of the members didn´t come. Mabel came though. She and Robert are doing great. We actually just started teaching one of her friends, so we´ll still be passing by her house a few times a week probably to teach her friend (Anita). Yesterday we also went to visit some less actives that are almost re-activated, and they invited their neighbor, Marinela. I don´t know if you remember the 9-year old girl from Romania named Mihaela that wanted to get baptized but her mom wouldn´t give her permission, well this is her aunt, she´s 23. I had one of the most awkward situations because we´re not supposed to give besos like everyone does here in Spain so I stuck my hand out and she grabbed it but just got closer and closer, but I´m taller so she was just like waiting for me to bend down for the besos and I had to awkwardly explain that as missionaries we don´t give besos, only a hand shake. It would have almost been better to just have done besos and then explained it after, which they say if it´s going to be super awkward to just do that, but I didn´t. She´s a new investigator now though.
We´ve been watching the video "Joy to the World" with a lot of people. They all really like it. I love it too. It makes me remember Christmas and gets me excited for Christmas. It might be after Christmas day, but as far as I´m concerned Christmas goes until sometime in January. Anyways, I want to thank Mom and Dad, Grandma and Grandpa Sommerfeldt, Grandma and Grandpa Brockbank, and Jen for the packages. I loved all of them. Thank you so much. It made my Christmas even more fun.
So for Christmas Eve Damaris invited us over to eat. We got there at 8:00 and ate and exchanged gifts and shared a quick message about Christmas. It was really good. She got all of the missionaries a really nice shirt (and we saw the price tags later and they were 30 euros each), then she got me the new shoes. It´s because my old ones were destroyed. Now I understand why a week or so ago Dayana (her daughter, 18 years old, almost 19, hopefully will get batized in a couple weeks), was putting her foot up next to mine in church and asking what size I wear. I didn´t think anything of it at the time, but now I get it. It was really nice of them though. We´re going there this Wednesday to celebrate Dayana and Elder Hunsaker´s birthdays, and we´re also eating there for New Year´s Eve. It´ll be good.
Well, sorry this e-mail is really rambled and everything, but I need to go. I hope everything goes well with everyone there though and have a Happy New Year!
-Elder Ryan Sommerfeldt
12/30/10
12/21/2010
Family and friends! How´s everyone doing? Things are going great here. I have a lot of pictures to send home though. So I might have to do a couple emails with that. First off, Mabel got baptized!!!!! Okay, so I´m not going to talk about each one. The first five though are all of Mabel´s baptism. The guy that baptized her is Presidente Carballo. He´s one of the counselors in the district presidency that she wanted to baptize her, so that´s good. Then she had Presidente Balcázar, our branch president, confirm her. There´s one picture with her and her family. It´s her (Mabel), her husband (John Robert), her son (Bill), and her daughter (Elena). They´re a really good family. So that was fun that she got to be baptized. Then the other Nigerian that was baptized that you see in the big picture is in the Levante branch. His name is Victor. So yeah. It was a great baptism and she was excited the whole time. The only bad part about it is that about an hour before the baptism we still didn´t have the baptismal clothes for her. A member from the LEvante branch accidentally took them home. In the end we got some though, it was just super stressful. Okay, so that´s it for those five. Now I¨m going to attach more pictures.
Okay, so of the next five. THe first is of me on the wall. Next is me on the Castle bridge going out to the tower. Next is of me and Elder Bennington in the courtyard thing. Next is of me pretending like I´m in the first vision because there was a spot where the sun was coming in, and the next is a view of the Meditteranean sea. So that´s cool. Okay, I´m going to send 5 more.
Okay, so the last five. The first is of Lais, Paula, me, and Elder Keeler (Elder Keeler´s from Levante, but we were doing intercambios/exchanges). Next is a picture of the Cathedral taken from the castle. Next is of me climbing up a place where I´m not sure if we were allowed to go, but we had to see what was up there, and the next one is me up there. The last one is of a harbor that we saw as well from the top of the castle. And we were in regular clothes because we had to hike to get to the castle, so that´s why we´re not in white shirts and ties. It was a fun preparation day. The castle is Castillo de Bellver.
This week has been a really good week. The only bad part is that right now we don´t have any investigators currently working towards a specific baptismal date. We have a lot of investigators that are really close though. So first off, I´d say the closest is Dayana. SHe´s doing SUPER good right now. She´s Dana´s older sister. She´s 18, but turns 19 soon. She listed to missionaries like a year ago, but never got baptized, and with us when we taught her the first time she didn´t seem too good, but like the second time she´d completely changed. I´m really excited for her. Right now her most recent homework is to read 2 Nephi 31 and ask God when she should be baptized. We´ve given her assignments to do and everything and she always does them really well. WE had a cita this past week and we got to where we were asking a bunch of questions and we ended up learning from her that when she prayed she said she felt something weird. So we kept probing and she described it as "cosquillas en me corazon" (tickles on my heart). I´m really excited for her. NExt we have Junior and Juan, who are both also doing well, they just need to read and pray. They´re reading now, but in their prayers they´re not specifically asking God if the Book of Mormon is true. They´re so close though. Then we have Paula. She finally wants to be baptized, but her dad still isn´t giving permission. We´re hoping that changes this week and she can be baptized on Christmas Day. We´ll see though. WEll, We have a bunch of other investigators, but those are the main ones. Hey, I´m sorry this e-mail is so short, but I spent a ton of time attaching pictures this week. This next week is CHRISTMAS though!!!! MERRY CHRISTMAS on Saturday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope you all have a fantabulous Christmas. WEll, I need to be going now, but I´ll talk to you all later. ¡Chao!
-Elder Ryan Sommerfeldt
Okay, so of the next five. THe first is of me on the wall. Next is me on the Castle bridge going out to the tower. Next is of me and Elder Bennington in the courtyard thing. Next is of me pretending like I´m in the first vision because there was a spot where the sun was coming in, and the next is a view of the Meditteranean sea. So that´s cool. Okay, I´m going to send 5 more.
Okay, so the last five. The first is of Lais, Paula, me, and Elder Keeler (Elder Keeler´s from Levante, but we were doing intercambios/exchanges). Next is a picture of the Cathedral taken from the castle. Next is of me climbing up a place where I´m not sure if we were allowed to go, but we had to see what was up there, and the next one is me up there. The last one is of a harbor that we saw as well from the top of the castle. And we were in regular clothes because we had to hike to get to the castle, so that´s why we´re not in white shirts and ties. It was a fun preparation day. The castle is Castillo de Bellver.
This week has been a really good week. The only bad part is that right now we don´t have any investigators currently working towards a specific baptismal date. We have a lot of investigators that are really close though. So first off, I´d say the closest is Dayana. SHe´s doing SUPER good right now. She´s Dana´s older sister. She´s 18, but turns 19 soon. She listed to missionaries like a year ago, but never got baptized, and with us when we taught her the first time she didn´t seem too good, but like the second time she´d completely changed. I´m really excited for her. Right now her most recent homework is to read 2 Nephi 31 and ask God when she should be baptized. We´ve given her assignments to do and everything and she always does them really well. WE had a cita this past week and we got to where we were asking a bunch of questions and we ended up learning from her that when she prayed she said she felt something weird. So we kept probing and she described it as "cosquillas en me corazon" (tickles on my heart). I´m really excited for her. NExt we have Junior and Juan, who are both also doing well, they just need to read and pray. They´re reading now, but in their prayers they´re not specifically asking God if the Book of Mormon is true. They´re so close though. Then we have Paula. She finally wants to be baptized, but her dad still isn´t giving permission. We´re hoping that changes this week and she can be baptized on Christmas Day. We´ll see though. WEll, We have a bunch of other investigators, but those are the main ones. Hey, I´m sorry this e-mail is so short, but I spent a ton of time attaching pictures this week. This next week is CHRISTMAS though!!!! MERRY CHRISTMAS on Saturday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope you all have a fantabulous Christmas. WEll, I need to be going now, but I´ll talk to you all later. ¡Chao!
-Elder Ryan Sommerfeldt
12/13/10
12/13/2010
Family and friends! How´s everyone doing? THings are going great here. This past week has been crazy busy, I´ll tell you about it a little later. First off though I´m going to send a few pictures. Okay, so first off is a picture that Elder Estrada e-mailed me of Edith´s baptism down in Castellón. She´s the one that I was teaching for the longest time, then when I went down there for residency stuff I set the date with her and she wanted me to baptize her, but I was going to be in Palma, and she had Armando do it in the end. I´m super happy for her. She´s going to be a great member. Okay, the next picture is of me buying some candy last preparation day and a candy stand they have out in one of the ramblas here. It was good candy. The next picture is of Elder Hunsaker, Elder Bennington, me, and Elder Keeler in a picture that the mission is going to use in a book they´re making for the Hinckleys. Each district had to have a word in the picture and in the end it´s going to say a message. We had "YOU!" as our word. So yeah. Next up is a picture of our tree, it´s a little small. I also have put up a lot of stockings on the wall too. It´s a pretty good Christmassy piso now. I like it. Also, mom and dad, I got your package. THank you so much. I love it. I´m not opening the presents until Christmas, but thank you so much for all of the reeses and the reeses nutrageous, and the reeses christmas trees, and the reeses fast break, etc. I love REESES! Anyways, that´s about it for pictures this week. I´ll hopefully send some more next week.
Anyways, so I said this past week was crazy busy. It was crazy busy because Elder Hunsaker and I taught 30 total lessons, with 20 of those lessons being member present lessons, we found 10 new investigators, and we had 5 in church. We met the standard of excellence for investigators in church, and we about doubled every other standard of excellence. So that was fun. I was really tired when we got in last night though. It´s good we have this preparation day to recover a bit. We´re probably going to play RISK again. It´s a fun game. Anyways, we also now have 3 investigators preparing for baptism. We have Mabel who will for sure be baptized this Saturday. She´s incredible. She´s from Nigeria and is Robert´s (a member who less active for a while) wife. She´ll for sure be baptized this next Saturday at 12:00 a.m., which will be 4:00 a.m. your time. So that´s nice. I´m excited about that. Next up we have Paula. She finally wants to get baptized, but her dad, who´s not a member (everyone else in her family is a member though) won´t let her. We fasted and prayed with her this past weekend though, so we´re hoping that they dad changes before this Saturday. We´ll see. She´s 14, turns 15 tomorrow, and is from Bolivia. She´s doing really well though. The other is with a guy we just met last night. His name is Stali and he´s from Nigeria. He´s Kevin´s (an investigator from Levante) friend. He seems really good. His date is for January 2nd. So we´ll see how all that goes.
Also this past week we did intercambios (exchanges) with Inca/Manacor. I was with Elder Egan for Tuesday and Wednesday. It went really well. Basically, our whole week has just been perfect, except for Paula´s dad, and Elder Hunsaker´s been pretty sick, so I´ve been having to set everything up and such so he can hopefully get better soon. He´s getting a little better now though, so that´s good. We also started teaching these two guys this past week named Juan and Junior. Juan´s probably 35 or so and is the son of Remedios (a member). He´s super good. His roommate is Junior and Junior is 21 and from Brasil. THey´re both super good and they both came to church this past week. They could get baptized on Christmas day. THey´re praying about it, so we´ll see what happens. We´re also teaching a girl named Dayana who´s doing really well. She´s Damaris´s other daugther, which means Dana´s (the girl Elder Jacinto and I baptized) older sister. She´s 18, almost 19, and just recently started doing really well. She could also potentially be baptized on Christmas day, we´ll see what happens though. I´m super excited though, because everything is going really well here.
Also, just so everyone knows, everyone here knows I´m going to be president of the United States and they all know I love Christmas. When members see me they´ll see, how long until Christmas, and I´ll quickly calculate and tell them how many days, hours and minutes. It´s fun. And a lot of members also call me Señor Don Presidente, or something like that. It´s good. WEll, I need to be going and start writing individuals now. I love you all though and I wish you a very Merry Christmas in 12 DAYS!!!!!!!!! ¡Chao!
-Elder Ryan Sommerfeldt
Anyways, so I said this past week was crazy busy. It was crazy busy because Elder Hunsaker and I taught 30 total lessons, with 20 of those lessons being member present lessons, we found 10 new investigators, and we had 5 in church. We met the standard of excellence for investigators in church, and we about doubled every other standard of excellence. So that was fun. I was really tired when we got in last night though. It´s good we have this preparation day to recover a bit. We´re probably going to play RISK again. It´s a fun game. Anyways, we also now have 3 investigators preparing for baptism. We have Mabel who will for sure be baptized this Saturday. She´s incredible. She´s from Nigeria and is Robert´s (a member who less active for a while) wife. She´ll for sure be baptized this next Saturday at 12:00 a.m., which will be 4:00 a.m. your time. So that´s nice. I´m excited about that. Next up we have Paula. She finally wants to get baptized, but her dad, who´s not a member (everyone else in her family is a member though) won´t let her. We fasted and prayed with her this past weekend though, so we´re hoping that they dad changes before this Saturday. We´ll see. She´s 14, turns 15 tomorrow, and is from Bolivia. She´s doing really well though. The other is with a guy we just met last night. His name is Stali and he´s from Nigeria. He´s Kevin´s (an investigator from Levante) friend. He seems really good. His date is for January 2nd. So we´ll see how all that goes.
Also this past week we did intercambios (exchanges) with Inca/Manacor. I was with Elder Egan for Tuesday and Wednesday. It went really well. Basically, our whole week has just been perfect, except for Paula´s dad, and Elder Hunsaker´s been pretty sick, so I´ve been having to set everything up and such so he can hopefully get better soon. He´s getting a little better now though, so that´s good. We also started teaching these two guys this past week named Juan and Junior. Juan´s probably 35 or so and is the son of Remedios (a member). He´s super good. His roommate is Junior and Junior is 21 and from Brasil. THey´re both super good and they both came to church this past week. They could get baptized on Christmas day. THey´re praying about it, so we´ll see what happens. We´re also teaching a girl named Dayana who´s doing really well. She´s Damaris´s other daugther, which means Dana´s (the girl Elder Jacinto and I baptized) older sister. She´s 18, almost 19, and just recently started doing really well. She could also potentially be baptized on Christmas day, we´ll see what happens though. I´m super excited though, because everything is going really well here.
Also, just so everyone knows, everyone here knows I´m going to be president of the United States and they all know I love Christmas. When members see me they´ll see, how long until Christmas, and I´ll quickly calculate and tell them how many days, hours and minutes. It´s fun. And a lot of members also call me Señor Don Presidente, or something like that. It´s good. WEll, I need to be going and start writing individuals now. I love you all though and I wish you a very Merry Christmas in 12 DAYS!!!!!!!!! ¡Chao!
-Elder Ryan Sommerfeldt
12/6/2010
Family and Friends! How´s everyone doing? So first off, it´s December!!!! Which means it´s almost Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!! I have a countdown going and all. So that´s good. So I´m going to start off attaching some pictures. Okay, so I´m not sure the order they all got attached. But one of them is of Elder Cannell, then me, then Elder Jacinto, then Elder Greep, then Elder Bowers. It was their last night there in our piso. It was also the night Barcelona beat Real Madrid 5-0, hence Elder Jacinto and I are in our Barcelona jerseys. Next is of a little adventure we had this past week that involved being on a boat. I´ll tell you more about it later. Anyways, one is of me eating with Elder Hunsaker in the background holding the receipt, because it was expensive. Next is one of the boat that we were on that was taken from a helicopter or something. Next is me at like 6 in the morning dead tired, and next is right after we got off the boat with the Boat name and the sunrise in the background. So yeah, I hope you enjoy those pictures.
So now for the stories of this past week. So on Tuesday is when Elder Hunsaker came in. A problem that happened is that Elder Cannell accidentally took our phone with him when he went to Barcelona, so we had no phone. Anyways, what ended up happening is that Elder Bennington and his new companion, Elder Keeler (he´s a really good missionary) missed their plane. We didn´t have a plane so no one could tell us. WE were planning on them getting back to piso around 11 or 11:30 at night, so we were up waiting for them and it got to midnight and they still weren´t back. So we walked down to the church and called them and they told us they´d missed their plane and went back to the office to spend the night there. So that was a late night. Anyways, then on Thursday night we had to catch a plane that left at 9:55 at night and got to barcelona and 10:45, but it was delayed a bit, so we got there a bit after 11 at night. So that was another late night. Then we had concilio on Friday. It was really good. Concilio is the meeting that the zone leaders have once a month or once a transfer with President and Hermana Hinckley and the Ayudantes (assistants to the president). It was a really good meeting and we talked a lot about how we can be even better, not just obeying all the rules, but obeying all the principles as well. Anyways, so then we had to catch a plan that left Barcelona at 8:30 at night. WE got there just before 7:30 and there were news cameras and such there, so we were all confused. Anyways, what happened is around 6:30 or 7:00 the air control people went on strike, and all flights were cancelled. THey´re still having problems with it. So we called the office and we didn´t know what to do. We were waiting in a line with like 2,000 people in line to try and find out what we could do, but it became clear that no planes would be leaving for at least a day or two. I think they´ve just recently started having planes moving again. So yeah. So President Hinckley through the idea out of us taking a ferry. So we ended up taking a bus and the metro over to the port in Barcelona and we caught a ferry that left at 11 at night. That was a huge pain in and of itself, but it all turned out okay in the end, we just spent hours in line though with thousands of people. Anyways, we went on a ferry across the Mediterranean Sea! It was pretty fun. The only downside is that we were in chairs the whole time, we didn´t get into port until 7 a.m. So I was dead tired. I´d say I got like 2 hours of sleep all night Friday night. We got back to our piso at 8:00 in the morning, then I took a half hour nap, then got ready and we went out to work again. I´m still way tired from it. But it´s getting better and better each day. It was really fun though to be on a boat. It was basically a cruise ship too. They had restaurants, a pool, which was closed, so I still took a picture of it, they had a movie theater, but we´re missionaries so we didn´t go there either. It was just fun being on a cruise ship, but it was a little weird feeling too. And I was super tired the whole time. We bought some dinner on the boat, ate, then we tried to sleep. We also went up on deck a couple times, that was fun. We could still see Barcelona in the distance even like 2 hours after we left. So, that was my adventure of the week.
Next, and more important, Paula and Mabel are still doing good for their baptismal dates for the 18th. Especially Mabel, Paula´s going to be a bit more difficult, but I think it´ll all turn out good. Mabel wasn´t able to come to church this past week because they´re getting their baby a Nigerian Passport and the Nigerian embassy was in Palma this past weekend, but they were there Saturday until Midnight and all day Sunday doing it. So yeah, that was sad, but she´ll come every week, so she´s still doing well. Also, we started teaching two new people. One is named Juan and is the son of Remedios, a less active. He´s about 40 years old and his daughter has down sindrome I think is what she has. He seems like he could be pretty good. Next we went to teach Giovanni, this guy we haven´t taught for a long time, and his friend Miguel was there. WE taught both of them and set up a cita with Miguel and his wife for this next week. SO yeah, things are going well. It was a slower week than normal with transfers and with going to Barcelona, but we´re still doing good.
Elder Hunsaker is from Wyoming, and as he says, there´s 100 cows for every person there. Crazy! He´s a good missionary. He´s really lost in the work. He really likes reading and studying, which is the opposite as me, but that´s okay. He did Martial Arts before the mission, but that´s the only real sport he did seriously. He´s a convert, but he was baptized when he was like 9 or 10. His mom was less active, but the missionaries came and reactivated her and baptized the rest of the family and ever since then he´s wanted to serve a mission. So yeah, now you know a bit more about my companion. Well, I need to be going now, but I hope you all have fantastic weeks. Also, just so you know, I´m not planning on sending anything home for Christmas, but I´ll get you something and bring it back in June, packages are expensive... Sorry. Anyways, things are going great and I´ll talk to you all next week. ¡Chao!
-Elder Ryan Sommerfeldt
So now for the stories of this past week. So on Tuesday is when Elder Hunsaker came in. A problem that happened is that Elder Cannell accidentally took our phone with him when he went to Barcelona, so we had no phone. Anyways, what ended up happening is that Elder Bennington and his new companion, Elder Keeler (he´s a really good missionary) missed their plane. We didn´t have a plane so no one could tell us. WE were planning on them getting back to piso around 11 or 11:30 at night, so we were up waiting for them and it got to midnight and they still weren´t back. So we walked down to the church and called them and they told us they´d missed their plane and went back to the office to spend the night there. So that was a late night. Anyways, then on Thursday night we had to catch a plane that left at 9:55 at night and got to barcelona and 10:45, but it was delayed a bit, so we got there a bit after 11 at night. So that was another late night. Then we had concilio on Friday. It was really good. Concilio is the meeting that the zone leaders have once a month or once a transfer with President and Hermana Hinckley and the Ayudantes (assistants to the president). It was a really good meeting and we talked a lot about how we can be even better, not just obeying all the rules, but obeying all the principles as well. Anyways, so then we had to catch a plan that left Barcelona at 8:30 at night. WE got there just before 7:30 and there were news cameras and such there, so we were all confused. Anyways, what happened is around 6:30 or 7:00 the air control people went on strike, and all flights were cancelled. THey´re still having problems with it. So we called the office and we didn´t know what to do. We were waiting in a line with like 2,000 people in line to try and find out what we could do, but it became clear that no planes would be leaving for at least a day or two. I think they´ve just recently started having planes moving again. So yeah. So President Hinckley through the idea out of us taking a ferry. So we ended up taking a bus and the metro over to the port in Barcelona and we caught a ferry that left at 11 at night. That was a huge pain in and of itself, but it all turned out okay in the end, we just spent hours in line though with thousands of people. Anyways, we went on a ferry across the Mediterranean Sea! It was pretty fun. The only downside is that we were in chairs the whole time, we didn´t get into port until 7 a.m. So I was dead tired. I´d say I got like 2 hours of sleep all night Friday night. We got back to our piso at 8:00 in the morning, then I took a half hour nap, then got ready and we went out to work again. I´m still way tired from it. But it´s getting better and better each day. It was really fun though to be on a boat. It was basically a cruise ship too. They had restaurants, a pool, which was closed, so I still took a picture of it, they had a movie theater, but we´re missionaries so we didn´t go there either. It was just fun being on a cruise ship, but it was a little weird feeling too. And I was super tired the whole time. We bought some dinner on the boat, ate, then we tried to sleep. We also went up on deck a couple times, that was fun. We could still see Barcelona in the distance even like 2 hours after we left. So, that was my adventure of the week.
Next, and more important, Paula and Mabel are still doing good for their baptismal dates for the 18th. Especially Mabel, Paula´s going to be a bit more difficult, but I think it´ll all turn out good. Mabel wasn´t able to come to church this past week because they´re getting their baby a Nigerian Passport and the Nigerian embassy was in Palma this past weekend, but they were there Saturday until Midnight and all day Sunday doing it. So yeah, that was sad, but she´ll come every week, so she´s still doing well. Also, we started teaching two new people. One is named Juan and is the son of Remedios, a less active. He´s about 40 years old and his daughter has down sindrome I think is what she has. He seems like he could be pretty good. Next we went to teach Giovanni, this guy we haven´t taught for a long time, and his friend Miguel was there. WE taught both of them and set up a cita with Miguel and his wife for this next week. SO yeah, things are going well. It was a slower week than normal with transfers and with going to Barcelona, but we´re still doing good.
Elder Hunsaker is from Wyoming, and as he says, there´s 100 cows for every person there. Crazy! He´s a good missionary. He´s really lost in the work. He really likes reading and studying, which is the opposite as me, but that´s okay. He did Martial Arts before the mission, but that´s the only real sport he did seriously. He´s a convert, but he was baptized when he was like 9 or 10. His mom was less active, but the missionaries came and reactivated her and baptized the rest of the family and ever since then he´s wanted to serve a mission. So yeah, now you know a bit more about my companion. Well, I need to be going now, but I hope you all have fantastic weeks. Also, just so you know, I´m not planning on sending anything home for Christmas, but I´ll get you something and bring it back in June, packages are expensive... Sorry. Anyways, things are going great and I´ll talk to you all next week. ¡Chao!
-Elder Ryan Sommerfeldt
11/30/2010
Family! How´s everyone doing? Things are going great here, except for the fact that Elder Jacinto left... He went to Zaragoza to be a zone leader in the new zone that just got created, the Lleida Zone. I´m staying out here for at least one more transfer and my new companion is Elder Hunsaker. I don´t know him very well yet, we came straight from the airport to do internet, so yeah. He seems nice though and he´s from Wyoming I believe. He has the same amount of time in the mission as Elder Jacinto did. He´ll be going home the first part of April.
Alright, so I´m going to attach a few pictures. Okay, the first one is all of us with David and Vanessa and their kids Marta, Jorge, and Carla, the next one is of me in a big chair that was in the street in front of a chair, and we couldn´t help but hurry and jump up there to take a picture. Next is of Aura, Mario, Elder Jacinto, and I, next is of all of us with Carolina and Pancho, and their kids Panchito and Carolita, and the last picture is one of Elder Jacinto and I that I copied from his camera of us when we were at Aura´s with the ocean in the background. Well, enjoy.
Okay, so the big news is that we now have 2 investigators with a baptismal date. First off we have Paula. It was super hard with her. She´s the 14 year old girl that´s Lais´s sister (Lais is a recent convert). She set a date for the 18th of December. Next is with a lady named Mabel, from Nigeria. Her husband, Robert, is a member, but he´s been less-active for a bit, but I think just because of work. Anyways, we had one cita with her and she accepted right away. It was super good. So we´ve made conversion plans for both of them and they´re doing really well. Mabel came to church for the first time this past week even. We also have an investigator named Jefferson who teaches Capoera, it´s like a martial art thing, but like a dance thing too. It´s pretty cool. He´s from Brasil. It´s a place kind of close to Sao Paolo, but not super close. He came to church this past week for the first time as well and loved it.
Oh, this past week we also went out to visit this lady that the branch assigned us to visit because they thought she was less-active. We got out there and found out she isn´t. She´s just been traveling a lot. She´s from England. Do you want to hear the crazy part. So we got talking and she told us that she works for NuSkin, and I told her that my best friend´s dad also worked for Nuskin. She said, what´s his name, I said Brent Goddard, Jon Goddard´s dad, and she´s like, Brent, I know Brent. Apparently when Jon and his family went to Africa a few years ago for the Nourish the Children program, she was there too. She said they work together a lot, so that´s crazy. That´s cool though. She said she was going to tell him that she knows me.
Okay, so with transfers, Elder Jacinto left. Also, Elder Cannell´s leaving to go be a zone leader in Barcelona. Elder Bowers, from Inca also left. So my new companion is Elder Hunsaker. Elder Bennington, the first person Elder Jacinto and I trained, who still lives in the same piso as me, is training too! That´ll be fun for him. He told me he´s going to be asking me a lot of questions. He´s still fairly new himself. He´ll do great though. THe other nice thing is that this past week we had 2 baptisms in our zone. One in Menorca and the other one here in Palma, in the Levante branch. I did the interview for her. Her name´s Lidia. The baptism went really well. Her mom´s been a member for like 17 years now, and her daughter, who´s 22, finally decided to get baptized too. So that was fun to see. For the past 8 weeks we´ve averaged a baptism every week in our zone, and that´s with only 4 companionships. So on average each companionship has been baptizing every other week. THat´s pretty good.
THis past week was Thanksgiving. We ate 3 Thanksgiving meals. It was super good. Although I dídn´t get any chocolate cream pie... That´s okay though.
Alright, the other big news is that Barcelona beat Madrid last night 5-0!!!! That´s crazy. That´s a complete blow out. Well, I can´t think of much more to say, and so I´m going to end this so I can write the individuals. Have great weeks though. ¡Chao!
-Elder Ryan Sommerfeldt
Alright, so I´m going to attach a few pictures. Okay, the first one is all of us with David and Vanessa and their kids Marta, Jorge, and Carla, the next one is of me in a big chair that was in the street in front of a chair, and we couldn´t help but hurry and jump up there to take a picture. Next is of Aura, Mario, Elder Jacinto, and I, next is of all of us with Carolina and Pancho, and their kids Panchito and Carolita, and the last picture is one of Elder Jacinto and I that I copied from his camera of us when we were at Aura´s with the ocean in the background. Well, enjoy.
Okay, so the big news is that we now have 2 investigators with a baptismal date. First off we have Paula. It was super hard with her. She´s the 14 year old girl that´s Lais´s sister (Lais is a recent convert). She set a date for the 18th of December. Next is with a lady named Mabel, from Nigeria. Her husband, Robert, is a member, but he´s been less-active for a bit, but I think just because of work. Anyways, we had one cita with her and she accepted right away. It was super good. So we´ve made conversion plans for both of them and they´re doing really well. Mabel came to church for the first time this past week even. We also have an investigator named Jefferson who teaches Capoera, it´s like a martial art thing, but like a dance thing too. It´s pretty cool. He´s from Brasil. It´s a place kind of close to Sao Paolo, but not super close. He came to church this past week for the first time as well and loved it.
Oh, this past week we also went out to visit this lady that the branch assigned us to visit because they thought she was less-active. We got out there and found out she isn´t. She´s just been traveling a lot. She´s from England. Do you want to hear the crazy part. So we got talking and she told us that she works for NuSkin, and I told her that my best friend´s dad also worked for Nuskin. She said, what´s his name, I said Brent Goddard, Jon Goddard´s dad, and she´s like, Brent, I know Brent. Apparently when Jon and his family went to Africa a few years ago for the Nourish the Children program, she was there too. She said they work together a lot, so that´s crazy. That´s cool though. She said she was going to tell him that she knows me.
Okay, so with transfers, Elder Jacinto left. Also, Elder Cannell´s leaving to go be a zone leader in Barcelona. Elder Bowers, from Inca also left. So my new companion is Elder Hunsaker. Elder Bennington, the first person Elder Jacinto and I trained, who still lives in the same piso as me, is training too! That´ll be fun for him. He told me he´s going to be asking me a lot of questions. He´s still fairly new himself. He´ll do great though. THe other nice thing is that this past week we had 2 baptisms in our zone. One in Menorca and the other one here in Palma, in the Levante branch. I did the interview for her. Her name´s Lidia. The baptism went really well. Her mom´s been a member for like 17 years now, and her daughter, who´s 22, finally decided to get baptized too. So that was fun to see. For the past 8 weeks we´ve averaged a baptism every week in our zone, and that´s with only 4 companionships. So on average each companionship has been baptizing every other week. THat´s pretty good.
THis past week was Thanksgiving. We ate 3 Thanksgiving meals. It was super good. Although I dídn´t get any chocolate cream pie... That´s okay though.
Alright, the other big news is that Barcelona beat Madrid last night 5-0!!!! That´s crazy. That´s a complete blow out. Well, I can´t think of much more to say, and so I´m going to end this so I can write the individuals. Have great weeks though. ¡Chao!
-Elder Ryan Sommerfeldt
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