5/11/2011

Here´s the letter to the President:

President Hinckley, this past week has been great here in Barcelona. We´ve been really busy and we´ve been really blessed. We were in piso every single night before 10:00 and we were really able to see how much more effective we were able to be. I think the biggest miracle we saw this past week has to do with Mario and Magda, who will be baptized next week. This past week we taught them Tithing, and it didn´t go over so well. They said they didn´t think they´d be able to do it until next year due to their finances and we ended it basically just inviting them to pray and ask God how they could do it. The next day we went to a baptism in Hospitalet with them and had a quick visit afterwards. We asked them what they thought about tithing after reading the folleto and praying about it, and they told us that it wasn´t a problem anymore, and they were willing to make the sacrifice. They´re doing great, and Elder Keller I think is going to talk more about them in his letter. Elder Keller is probably the best companion I´ve ever had. He´s always working hard and really thinking about the people. He´s driven completely by love, and I´ll miss being able to be with him for this past transfer. We have two other investigators with baptismal dates right now. We have Drés and Sandy, both for the 28-May. Drés Chic is from Túnis, and is doing really well. He used to drink and smoke and he quit it all after the first visit with us. The only problem he has is that he is homeless. He´s in the process of getting his papers, but it could take some time. Elder Keller and I were wondering if you can baptize someone without a house or not. He told us that he does have an address where mail can be sent, but I think it´s just a P.O. Box. He´s currently praying so that he can be able to have a house and be baptized on the 28-May. Sandy Fajardo is from the Dominican Republic and is really nice. He works in an Italian restaurant as a chef. He lives above where Alina Vargas (a member) used to live. She gave us the information for him and his wife Kenya. We´ve only taught him the Restoration, and we haven´t had a second visit. It´s been difficult to visit with him, but we´re doing everything we can so that he and his wife can be baptized. The main thing with them is that we need to set up three visits a week and be able to visit with him and then he can be ready on time. With recent converts I´m going to write about Alberto Román and Mila Sabogal. Alberto was baptized in February and he´s doing great. He has an assignment to help set up and clean up with the noche de hogar on Monday that José Luis gave him. We´ve taught him all of lesson 5 and we´ve re-taught Lessons 1, 2, and 3. We just need to finish up teaching the commandments. He´s doing great though. The only thing he still needs is an interview with the bishop. This Sunday we decided we´re going to talk to the secretary of the ward and just ask if he can set up interviews with all of our recent converts. Mila Sabogal was baptized 2 weeks ago. She´s also doing great. We talked about eternal marriage and temples and she now has the goal to go to the temple in July with the ward for baptisms for the dead, and go again after a year. She´s doing great, the only problem is that she can only come to sacrament meeting right now due to work. I would say the main thing Elder Keller and I have repented of recently is being in piso at 10:00 and filling out the area book after. We´ve been really blessed by doing so. Our planning is better and subsequently the following day always goes better as well. Also, we´re updating the area book so we can now use that as a valuable resource for us and for missionaries in the future. Overall, things are going great here. I´m sad that Elder Keller and I won´t be companions again, but I´m excited to see what me and my new companion can do this next transfer. I have a goal to baptize 6 more people, so I´ll be working a lot, and hopefully I can help even more people than that be baptized. Overall, I still love being a missionary. Thanks for all you do.

-Elder Ryan Sommerfeldt



Family and friends! How´s everyone doing? Things are going great here in Barcelona. I can´t think of a lot to say after talking on the phone just a few days ago, so this may be shorter, I don´t know. Anyways, there is one thing that I was going to tell you that I didn´t tell you on the phone call. I wrote about it in the letter to the president though I just realized, so I´ll just leave it. It´s about the miracle that happened with Mario and Magda with tithing. I´m super excited for them. On Monday we visited with them and went over the interview questions and they´re good on all of them. Tonight we´re going to the family of the relief society president to have a Noche de Hogar (family home evening), then tomorrow morning will be their interviews and Saturday will be their baptisms, at 4:00. We made invitations too. I´ll attach the invitations actually so that you can see them. They turned out pretty well I think. We gave Mario and Magda 20 invitations to give to / invite their friends and families to the baptism, so we can hopefully start to teach even more people. I´m super excited for them though, and they´re excited too. They came to the Noche de Hogar in the church on Monday and we announced the baptism and they had them stand up and they were smiling and so happy. So that´s good. It´s fun too since we just met them 2 weeks ago. I love how the Lord is always preparing people to be baptized and enter into His church. The other news is that Julio, who was going to be baptized this week as well, is not going to be anymore. He didn´t come to church because his wife didn´t want him to go, since it was Mother´s Day. We had a visit with him though and he still wants to be baptized. He´ll be baptized either the 21st or the 28th of May. So that´s fun. Yesterday we had a specialized training for our zone. The zone leaders taught an hour workshop on the role of the spirit in conversion and it went really well. President and Hermana Hinckley taught the rest. Our new schedule in the mission is that one month there´s a zone conference, and that´s where we´ll do stuff, the next month is interviews, and the next month is this specialized zone training, which is basically like a short, less formal zone conference. So yeah, that´s that. It´s going well though. In this next month, in June, we´re going to do zone conferences, so I´ll get to travel all around the mission one more time. Anyways, after the training yesterday the Hinckley´s invited Elder Keller and I to eat with them and their daughter and son-in-law that are visiting. So we ate with them, then we worked on transfers for about 2.5-3 hours. We still have 1-2 hours more to do tomorrow. We´ve basically figured out who my new companion´s going to be, but I´m not going to say yet just in case it changes. I will say though that Elder Keller´s going to Lleida and will be training. He´s really excited. He served there about 8 months ago and it was his favorite area. The missionaries were pulled out for the last 3 weeks of the transfer, so he´ll be white-washing it, but since he already knows the area it will be really good. He´ll be really happy. Things will be good here too. I´ll let you know who my companion is next week, but if it´s the same as is set right now, it´ll be really fun. Well, I can´t think of much else to say. Things are going great here though. We´re still working a lot and we´re going to see a lot of miracles here this last transfer. Also, just so everyone knows, I may not write on Wednesday next week, with transfers and all. I´ll write on either Wednesday or Thursday though. Well, everything´s going great here for me. Have a fantastic week and I´ll write more next week. ¡Chao!

-Elder Ryan Sommerfeldt