9/15/09

Family! How is everyone doing? Things are going great here. This week I wrote down a few things in my planner that I want to write about that I´m not sure if I´ve told you, so that you can know some interesting things. Number one is Public Transportation. We take public transportation all over the place. It´s crazy. We don´t even live in our area, since we live in Cornellá, and we have all of the surrounding Pueblos, such as Esplugas, San Boi, Castelld´efells, Gavá, etc. So yeah. We have to travel anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour to get to the different Pueblos in our area. It´s a bit of a pain sometimes. They have a metro, but it´s in obras, works, right now. THey´re doing construction on it and all, so yeah. We don´t use that very much because a bunch of it is shut down. We use the tramvia a lot though. It´s just like Trax in Salt Lake pretty much. We also take busses a lot. So that´s cool. I sometimes talk to people on the public transportation. I don´t know why, but most missionaries don´t. I don´t all the time, but I do when I can. This past week I talked to some girl who´s atheist and says she´s believes in science´s explanation of how everything came to be. I took that opportunity to tell her I´m studying Physics and then went on to tell her my Theory (God, Adam and Eve, etc). It was fun. So yeah. By the way, sorry if I have an typos, I´m just trying to type fast, so my bad if I do. NExt item. The two main sodas they drink here are Coca-Cola and Fanta. They have Fanta Limón and Naranja (orange). I love the fanta, especially the lemonade stuff. Back home I´d always mix lemonade with sprite, and here it´s just already done for me, so that´s nice. And Coca-Cola, mom, I had never had coca cola until the mission. I never thought I´d be saying I didn´t have coco cola until the mission, but that´s what happened. Some of the members offer coca cola all the time, but I don´t drink it a ton. I´ve probably had it like three times or so. THe first time I really didn´t like it. It´s good now, but still not great. If they have something else I take that, so you don´t have to worry too much mom. Next thing, I heard that you can go on Google Earth and find our Piso. So our address one more time is Calle Virgen de Pilar 30,3 08940 Cornellá, in Spain. So if you want to see that you can. We have the roof as part of our piso since we´re on the top floor. So we can go up there and just look out. That´s kind of cool. We decided we might eat up there one meal sometime. Anyways, next item of business, motorcycles and scooters. THey have a bunch of them here too, and, like in Brazil, they can go wherever they want. They go inbetween cars, sidewalks, wherever. SO yeah, that´s cool. WEll, I think that´s just about it for that. Now about some investigators. We´re teaching a lady named Isabel. The elders before where thinking she wasn´t really progressing at all. They´d taught her lessons 1,2, and 3. She apparently just said yes to everything, and she´s living with a less active member who wants her to listen to us. Anyways, this past week we taught her and I shared my experience of coming to know the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and how she can know too. THe spirit was strong and she said she´d pray to know about it. So that´s good. Hopefully we can baptize her soon, and after she either moves out or gets married to her boyfriend. Next, the less active family with Mauri and Charo are going good. They have a dad that´s a non member, but we haven´t been able to teach him yet. We´re hoping one of these days he´ll just stay and listen to us, hopefully this next week since we have 3 citas with them. SO yeah. Also, our other less actives, Raquel and Penelope are doing good. The mom and husband of Raquel aren´t members, and the boyfriend of Penelope isn´t, so we´ll see what we can do about that. Also, Rossy, the nine year old. We´re hoping to get her baptized on October 4th. The only problem is that she wants someone back in Bolivia to baptize her, so we´re hoping we can become her friend and gain her trust really quickly so she´ll want someone out here to do it so it can happen a lot sooner. So that´s that. I think that´s everyone. Actually, there´s Ruth. We´ve taught her once, she was a former investigator, and we committed her to baptism. She´s from Bolivia too. We´ll see how that goes. She can only meet with us once a week. Hopefully it goes well though. Sorry if this is all random and all, I´m just thinking of things as I write. We continue to eat with members a lot. That´s fun, but I´m shy with some of them. Some of them talk with such a strong accent and so fast that I just can´t understand enough to participate. Then there´s others that I do really well with. I´m working on being sociable with all of them, even when it´s hard to understand. This past week we did Intercambios, companions exchanges. I was with one of the Zone leaders for a night and a morning, then we switched back. That was good. His name is Elder Sharpe. He´s wanting to play football when he gets back, probably for the U though... I guess nobody´s perfect. Speaking of which, Go Cougars! I was glad to hear about that game. Anyways, so the intercambios went well. Also, we´re teaching an English class every Saturday, that´s continuing to go well too. WEll, I´m goign to end this so I have some time to write the individuals. Have a fantastic week everyone that reads this. ¡Chao!

9/7/09

Family, and everyone else! How are you guys? THings are going well here for me. I tried to send some pictures, but it took forever. I still sent two to Pete, so he´ll forward them around to people hopefully. The internet must be way slow though because It took like ten minutes to download them. So I won´t be sending pictures like was the original plan. Anyways, things are going well here. This past week was good and bad. One day we were in Gavá, another small city outside Cornellá, and yes, Cornellá is kind of a suburb of Barcelona. Anyways, we were in Gavá walking down the street when all of a sudden a lady walks out a door right as we´re passing it and just says, Elders. So we turned around and long story short it turns out she´s from a less active family and so we went and visited them, and have visited them once since then, and are visiting them again tomorrow. The dad isn´t a member, so we´re hoping we can get him eventually to want to hear and listen to the gospel. So that´s good. They came to church too, and they´re from Bolivia Kevin, as are a TON of the people here we talk to. It´s crazy. There´s another family that was less active that we´ve been passing by and they´re more activated now and there´s a boyfriend, and the grandparents that live with them that aren´t members, so we´ll see what we can do there too. Let´s see, what else. Oh, yesterday was terrible. We had four citas, visits/appointments, lined up with a member assigned to come to each one. 3 of our members fell through, so only one was able to come, and they all cancelled on us or didn´t want us to come when we got there. So we went from having a ton of stuff to absolutely nothing. It was way frustrating. But apparently a lot of times right before a really good thing happens, a really bad thing happens. So we´ll see what happens there. So yeah. Let´s see, today´s Dia de Preparación. We went Bowling! It was way fun. It was only 5 euros for shoes and two games of bowling. I got 152 and 147, so it looks like I´ve still got a bit of my talent left for bowling. It wasn´t quite as fun as it was when I would go with Jen, but it was still a ton of fun. The second time was a competition between companions and whichever companionship got the highest score with them added together won and the others had to pitch in and buy them a kebab ( a thing with a bunch of meet and vegetables in it in a tortilla and cooked, they´re all over here). We won, so we didn´t have to pay for our kebabs. That was nice. Then we played soccer at the church, that was fun, but I got hurt. My leg has this huge bump on it, but hopefully it´s better soon. Okay, so now a bit about my schedule now. I wake up each morning at 7:30, pray and exercise for 30 minutes, then get ready (shower, eat, iron, etc) until 9. Then from 9-10 is personal study, from 10-11 is companion study, then from 11-11:30 is language study. Then we go out and proselyte, unless we have meetings or something until 2. From 2-4 we´re either in our Piso for lunch, or we go to a members. It´s called Medio Día here, and basically everything shuts down during those 2 hours. It´s crazy. All the stores, everything closes. And everyone´s home either eating or sleeping for a bit. Just a little different from the US. Then we go from 4-10 working again. We´re not allowed dinner unless a member invites us over (which is usually about half the time or so), then we go there for an hour. Then from 10-11 we plan and read from the missionary handbook, then we get ready and go to bed by 11:30. So that´s the schedule. It´s good. We usually get quite a few eating citas with members. Our ward´s way good. So usually anywhere from 6-10 a week I´d say. So that´s nice, but I have a hard time eating it all. At every single one so far it´s been meat, not fish. The other elders said they´ve had fish a few times, but rarely. So that´s nice. Let´s see, what else to say. Oh, we had interviews with the president this past Wednesday. That was fun. I also got a letter from Jen she´d sent to the CCM in Madrid but it didn´t get to me in time. Oh, that reminds me, if it´s ever near a time when I might not be staying in the same place, you can send things to the mission home and I´ll get them, but I´ll ge tthings faster if you send them directly to me, the address I gave you last week. So yeah. Oh, I bore my testimony yesterday. I had to do it, but it wasn´t bad at all. I´m getting better at being able to talk to people too. So that´s nice. It all depends on the person, some people I understand just fine, others have a way thick accent. Well, I need to run on to individual´s now, I´m almost out of time. ¡Chao!
Elder Sommerfeldt
P.S. GO BYU!!!!! I was excited to hear that.

8/31/09

Family! How´s it going? Things are going well here for me. Hey, I only have 45 minutes for email every week now. So I don´t know how I´m going to do it. If I ever don´t get individual emails sent off to you guys that´s why. Sorry... I am serving in Cornellá. It´s actually the Pueblos around Cornellá. My companions name is Elder Johnson. He only has 3 months left in the mission. He´s cool though. There are also two other missionaries in our Piso (apartment) named Elder Tonge and Elder Romney. My address by the way, if people want to send me letters is C/ Virgen de Pilar 30,3 08940 Cornellá Spain (España). So yeah, now no one has an excuse for not writing me. I was sick, I don´t know if it was swine or not, but it was a flu that was pretty bad. I´m good now though. I was way tired the first couple days, but I´ve recovered. I´m still tired, but it´s just because we´re always doing stuff. We are hopefully going to have a baptism this next Saturday. Her name is Bertha. However, I´ve never met her. We haven´t been able to meet with her for over a week, and she didn´t come to church this past week... So I don´t know how that´s going to go. We didn´t really have any other investigators, but we got like 4 more yesterday, Sunday, so that´s good. One is a friend of a member who´s on vacation visiting here, but will be here for a month, and she´s living at the member´s house. Her big problem is that we used to have Polygamy, she´s a super feminist, so she doesn´t understand how our religion could be from God since we used to have it. So we´ll see what happens with her. The other person is a boyfriend of a member, we have an appointment with him later. The other two are a mom and her son. We met them yesterday because I said I wanted to try knocking doors, and on the second to last door they let us in, we taught them, and we´ll go back on Sunday. So that´s good. They´re from Ecuador. It´s funny, most of the people that will talk to us here are from South America, but there´s probably more immigrants than natives here that I see. So that´s kind of cool. Also, we used to keep track of all of our contacts, but President Hinckley just changed that. I like it. I´ve heard the other mission president was way good, but I think he had too many numbers and all, and President Hinckley´s changing that some. So that´s nice. Let´s see, what else is new. I can´t think of a whole lot. Today I bought five ties for 2 euros a piece, so that was fun. Also, we played fútbol for a while in the capilla. Our ward is way good by the way. We eat with members at least once a day pretty much. It´s pretty cool. People just like feeding us. So yeah. I can´t think of much else to say right now. Oh, my companion, Elder Johnson. He´s from Mesa, Arizona. Um, I don´t know what else. The other elders here seem to not care about writing home as much, so I´ve hardly had any time to write home, and now I´m having to rush through this email. SO that´s kind of a bummer, but oh well. I´ll get used to it eventually. Well, I´m going to send this, but I hope everything continues to go well with you guys. ¡Chao!
Elder Ryan Sommerfeldt

8/24/09

I get to go to Barcelona!!!! So here´s the news. I´ve been extremely sick since Saturday. My fever hit 102.7 degrees. So it was pretty bad. But the Medic just called the regional doctor in Germany and he said I´m okay to go tomorrow, just don´t shake anyone´s hand for 3 days. So that´s good. A week and half ago or so one of the teachers that was here for a short time went home to switzerland and when he got home was confirmed for having swine flu. Anyways, they cracked down here, because some missionaries were starting to feel sick. A few days later mine and one other elder´s temperatures went way high. So we both had to miss the park. We also both had to move into a "quarantine room." I´ve been in bed a lot for the past couple days, but I´ve been feeling pretty good today. I only hope I´m not just temporarily feeling good, then going to die in the field. We´ll see though I guess. But yeah. Anyways, so there´s a good chance what we had was swine flu, and if it wasn´t that, it was a really bad flu. The other Elder is still above 102 degrees, so that´s not good. His name is Elder Dunn. He´s cool. We´ve gotten to know each other better too sharing a room the past couple days with nothing to do. Anyways, so I really felt like I was going to die several times, I would be freezing and I just couldn´t get warm sometimes. Then I´d be so hot and I couldn´t cool down. Saturday night I only got 2-3 hours of sleep, because I couldn´t sleep. But last night I slept the whole night through, when I woke up my temperature was only 99.3, and it´s been below 100 all day today. So they´re keeping my ticket and flight plans all good to go. So that´s exciting. I´m so excited to go. I just hope I can get back into the missionary swing of things, since I´ve been kind of out of it the past couple days. We´ll see though. I´m not sure when my P-day will be, but I´ll let you know when I know. Oh, so cool story. On Sunday I had a blessing from Elder Bodily, my companion, with Elder Driggs and Elder Cannell (the other elders in my room) helping. After the blessing I took my temperature about every half hour. The first time it was 98.9, then 98.7, then 98.6. 98.6 is the normal temperature, so it was cool how it went down like that. It hasn´t gone over 100 since then. So that´s really nice. The President just came in here to confirm that I´m going. So they´re confirming all my flight info. etc. Anyways, really not much else has happened here due to my being in bed the whole time. It was kind of lame that I missed the last everything. The last park, the last singing by the temple (I don´t know if I told you about that. Every Sunday night we sing out in the temple plaza area and people come out to hear us. So yeah, it´s cool), the last class, etc. But, I get to go, so all is well. Well, I can´t think of much else to say now, sorry. I´ve loved it here, it´s been a lot of fun, I´ve learned a lot, but I´m excited to go to Barcelona now, and I hope and pray I´ll be healthy enough to serve effectively while I´m there. Well, I´m going to write individuals now. ¡Chao!
-Elder Sommerfeldt

8/20/09

Well, things are going well for me here. I will try and hurry and write this. More people wrote me this week, so I have a little less time to write, but that´s okay. To answer a few questions really quick, I believe I get 1 hour to email on Monday before leaving. So I can email the fam one more time before you leaving. You can write me too, but don´t make it incredibly long or anything. But yeah, it´ll be your last chance to write me... So good news, I got 3 letters this past week! Before this week I´d only recieved one letter my whole time here. They were from Jen and Kelly. So that was fun. Oh, I must´ve gotten 4 letters, because I just remember I also got one from Iris Brown. So yeah. Anyways, I leave next Tuesday, so this is my last P-day here. It´s weird. I went to the temple today for my last time. It was really good. I did the session in Spanish (with the headset) today. It was really cool. I understood everything. Also, today was the first time I didn´t need help at all the whole time. So that was cool. I love the Madrid temple here. I hope that I´ll be able to come by here sometime in the future. Maybe if we come back to barcelona we can swing by the Madrid temple since we´d have to fly through Madrid. We´ll see. That´s still a long ways off. Anyways, let´s see, what else is new. The fish is okay, but I don´t think I ever said I liked it. So mom and dad, I noticed you made comments about me liking it, but that might be stretching it just a little bit. The park last week was good. I was with Elder Dunn. We got 16 contacts and gave out one Book of Mormon. It wasn´t the most successful week, but it was still good. I´m surprised how many people there are who absolutely just don´t believe in anything. Not even a higher power. It´s crazy. But there´s a lot who believe in God and Christ as well, so that´s good. Oh, so this past week I gave my first blessing. I was way nervous. Hermana Brown, the hermana in my district, asked Elder Bodily and I if we´d give here a blessing. We asked who she wanted to annoint and who to give the blessing. She said she didn´t care but eventually said to have Elder Bodily annoint and have me give the blessing. So we did that. It was really nice to finally see for myself that words will come into my head. I had no idea what I was going to say before, but words popped into my head and I said them. So it was a good experience. She´s been sick, so that´s why she asked. She´s still sick, but getting better I think. There was a teacher that was here for a week and half just subbing, but went home to Switzerland a bit ago and was diagnosed with Swine Flu. So they´ve taken a few precautions here with that, but I don´t think anyone else has Swine, just bad coughs etc. So yeah, hopefully everyone gets felling better soon. I have a bit of a cough again, but as I´ve told people here, I have the immune system of a fox. Then when they ask what that means I say, "Have you ever heard of a fox dying of sickness...?" It´s kind of funny. Because I´m sure they do, but you don´t ever hear about foxes dying of sickness. Ha ha. So that´s funny. Let´s see, what else is new. I´m excited to go to Barcelona. I feel like I´m doing a lot better with the language, but still not fluent. I can communicate very well though. So that´s good. And Kevin, I understood everything you said in your email, so yeah. Anyways, we´ve continued practicing teaching etc. This week we´re teaching the 3rd lesson, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the commandments (The Word of Wisdom, Tithing, Sabbath Day Holy, Law of Chastity). So that´s what I´m doing over here. All is going well with that. President Hill is gone for 3 or 4 days, so we´re kind of on our own here for a while. But the teachers are all still here and all. And he gave me emergency contact info too if there´s any problems. So that´s good. There´s some mission president´s seminar in Preston, England, so that´s where he is. Oh, also, Hermana Hill, his wife,, helped us sew stuff. My pants below the pockets were ripping. She fixed them though. So that´s good. Well, I´m out of time now. So I´m going to send this. Have a fantastic week. ¡Chao! -Elder Sommerfeldt

8/13/09

Hello everyone! How´s it going? To answer some questions, I leave here in a week and a half. I believe it´s the 25th of August. It´s a Tuesday, so yeah. That´ll be fun. We just got back from the temple, it was way good again.
Okay, so now I´m going to try and answer a bunch of mom´s questions. I love it here. I don´t know if maybe the Peru and Brazil MTC´s were just lacking or what, but I like it here. I´m sure I´ll like the field even more, but there´s no complaints, except for sometimes the food. Mom also asked if we have fish, we probably have about 4 or 5 servings of fish each week. Sometimes it´s not bad, but sometimes it´s just so slimy and fishy and nobody likes it. So yeah. But it´s not terrible. I´m the master at hiding the food that I don´t eat. I usually have a pudding thing, it´s in a disposable container, then the vegetables etc. that I don´t eat I stick in there, put the cover thing back on, and when I take my tray up I just hurry and toss it in the trash so the cooks can´t tell that I didn´t eat all of their food. I think I need to thank Bruce for the ingenious ways of hiding food. I will be flying when I go to Barcelona. We´ll leave early Tuesday morning, go to the airport, then fly to the mission. Right now there are 14 elders and 4 hermanas here, so 18 missionaries total. They´re all really cool and I get along with everyone really well.
So the park continues to go well. My companion for the park last week and I had 16 contacts and 1 referral last week. It wasn´t my best week, but it wasn´t terrible.
Things continue to go well with my district. This past week somebody suggested having a "District Inventory." I wasn´t scared, but a little nervous that there might be some people that just knocked everything other people did, and that it wouldn´t be constructive criticism at all. But, I prayed about it the day before, and had a thought that I should come up with something that I liked about each person individually. So the day of I wrote down in my planner something about each person in my district that was good and that I liked about them. Then I asked if I could start off saying a few things, and went through and personally complimented everyone. It ended up going really well. There were a few things that people still brought up that need to change, which are fine, but they did it constructively and nobody´s feelings were hurt or anything. So that was a cool experience for me.
Anyways, what else. Oh, today we´re going to the Prado Museum. I guess it´s some famous museum. So that´s cool. We´ll see how it goes. I can´t take any pictures inside, but maybe I will outside. We´ll see. So last week we just played fútbol for our P-Day. It was fun. I still haven´t played any tennis here. The only place I know of where I can play has a fee, so I don´t want to pay for it. So yeah.
Oh, I can´t remember if I told you, but Elder Bodily (my companion) and I were memorizing all of the Los Artículos de Fe, 2 Nefi 25:26, and "Divina Luz" (Lead Kindly light, but in Spanish). We completed them all by last Sunday. It was hard, but we did it. This week we´re saying through all of them everyday so we can make sure we remember them longer.
Well, I can´t think of what else has happened. Oh, Hermana Viso, one of my teachers is back now. She was on vacation for 2 weeks. Which apparently is short over here in Spain. Most people take 1 month long vacations, crazy. Yesterday in class with Hermana Viso we all sang songs like "God Bless America," "God Bless the USA," "My Country ´Tis of Thee," etc. It was fun. She was asking if we really are that patriotic or not. I guess in Spain people aren´t really patriotic at all. So yeah. It was funny. Afterwards we are were yelling "USA! USA! USA!..." It´s fun teasing her a bit. Okay, what else, oh, I love Nutella. We have this stuff, it´s actually called Nucilla, but it´s just like Nutella, and we dip crackers in it and eat it. I eat a lot, but I´ve gotten a little better at not eating it all.
This past week for one of our practice teachings we got to have some local youth come in and play investigators. That was fun, but it was a lot harder than when teaching other missionaries, but probably still easier than it will be teaching actual investigators. Oh, I´ve only gotten one letter my entire time here, so Kevin and Bruce, you were right that the letters drop down a ton after leaving Provo. Oh well I guess. Well, I think I´m going to head out now, I can´t think of much else to say. So yeah. Things are good here with me, and hope everything goes well with you guys. And have fun with dinner with Jen this Sunday. Well, this is Karl, signing out. ¡Chao!
-Elder Sommerfeldt

8/6/09

Hello everyone! How is everyone doing? Things are going well here. This email is being sent a little bit later than normal. The computers weren´t working forever, but there´s a guy here now individually changing each computer so it will work. Anyways, things are going good here. This past week all of the missionaries that were here before us left. There were 12 that left, so for Tuesday and a lot of Wednesday there were only 14 missionaries.
Anyways, a couple spiritual experiences. The Sunday before missionaries leave we watch the Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration movie. It was so good. Long story short, I felt the spirit so strong and am so grateful for all that Joseph Smith did for us. So that was way cool. Also, I had one other spiritual experience. Well, I had more than one, but one more that I´ll mention here. So Elder Bodily and I were teaching this past week. We were teaching some "investigators" (other missionaries) the second lesson. It wasn´t going really well. It was okay, but not great. Anyways, I had the thought that I should use the pamphelt for The Plan of Salvation. So I grabbed it and opened it. I ended up finding the picture of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane and just felt that´s what I should do. I showed it to Elder Bodily really quickly so he´d know where I was going, then we started to teach and talk about the Atonement. It was so amazing how much the spirit changed in the room. Before the other missionaries were just kind of chilling, leaning back in their chairs, etc., and after that, it was very apparent that the spirit was there. It was a good experience for me at seeing how much listening to the spirit can really benefit you, and just how important it is. So yeah. That was good. I hope I can keep it up in the field as well with real investigators. So those are my spiritual experiences.
Another thing I don´t think I´ve told you that you´ll be interested in hearing is that for the past few weeks our district has played review games. It started off when Elder Bodily and I decided to play Jeopardy as a District. So we were in charge the first week, then the next week Elder Driggs and Elder Cannell did Jeopardy too, then this past week Hermana Brown did a vocab review game with drawing, acting, and explaining. So far they´ve all been fun. Elder Cook and Elder Kellar have the game for this next Tuesday, and I´m sure that one will be fun too. So things are good there. I just thought I´d continue a bit of my FHE lessons tradition out here... :) Anyways, for Gym most days now I play fútbol. It´s fun. We play in this concrete pit/stadium thing. I like it. I don´t know for sure what we´re doing for P-day today. We were going to go to the Prada museum, but we´re going to wait until next week, because there´s one new Elder, and three new hermanas that want to go with us, but since they just got here yesterday, they don´t have a P-day until next week. So yeah.
Oh, so Elder Bodily and I have been memorizing a lot this past week. Our goal is to have all of the Articles of Faith, 2 Nefi 25:26, and "Divina Luz" (Lead Kindly Light) all memorized by this Sunday. I have 2/3 verses of "Divina Luz" memorized, 9 of the articles of faith down, and I´m almost done with 2 Nefi 25:26. It´s way hard remember all of them. We´ll get it though, hopefully. Well, I can´t think of a whole lot else to say. Oh, you should be getting my CD soon, let me know if you do. Also, if anyone emails me in the next few hours, I´ll be writing the individuals in about 3 hours or so, probably. Well, I´m going to send this out to everyone, then do generals later. ¡Chao!
-Elder Sommerfeldt