8/23/10

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

-Elder Ryan Sommerfeldt

8/16/2010

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

08/09/2010

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

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

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

08/04/2010

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

7/26/10 - zone leader and new address

Family and Friends! So here´s the big news... I´m in Palma de Mallorca right now. I´m on the islands! So that ´s exciting. I´m nervous though for a few reasons. One, I´m zone leader, and I´m super young, and two, both the missionaries that were here both got transferred at the same time and my new companion Elder Jacinto and I both got put in here at the same time to be the zone leaders in the Baleares zone. I guess I just skipped the District Leader stage. I don´t know how it´ll go, but I´m sure it´ll go well. The Lord always prepares the way, but I´m still a little nervous. It was really sad leaving everyone in Castellón. I have a ton of photos. I don´t have my camera with me now though, so I can´t send any of them back. Sorry... I´ll try next week. I also want to get a CD or DVD made of them and send them out. I´ll do my best. There´s been a ton of crazy changes though, so I´m still adjusting. Anyways, last week in Castellón, Elder Estrada had to go to Madrid for residency problems, but it´s worked out now though. He was gone Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. On Tuesday Elder Cranford (the district leader out there) came and worked with me. On Wednesday I worked with Elder Cranford and Elder Johnson in their area and there weren´t any missionaries in Castellón. Then on Thursday I came back and worked with Armando in Castellón until Elder Estrada got back. It put us way behind so that by Saturday morning we only had 10 lessons. We worked hard though and ended with 22 lessons. It was incredible. We also found 15 new investigators last week, which is like six times the average in the mission. Also, Sunday we were able to set seven baptismal fechas with a bunch of new people. They come from two families, and both familes are Romanian. The other crazy thing is that Elder Estrada is going to train now. He only has 3 months and 3 weeks in the field. He entered the MTC the same day as Elder Parry. So yeah. It´s crazy. I´m so young and I´m a zone leader, he´s so young and he´s training. It should go good though. So, I can´t remember my address right now for my new piso. I forgot to write it down. I´ll see if I can get it though. So yeah, I had to say good bye to Armando, to Charo, to Alex, to Jairo, to Edgar, to Adina, to Elena (and neither Adina nor Elena ended up getting baptized last week, maybe in a couple weeks they will), to Alicia/Roxanna/Evelyn and fam., etc. I said bye to a lot of people and took a lot of pictures. I only have like 30 pictures left on my card, so mom, I´ll need you to send me a new card as soon as you can. So we came out here, got in at 6:00, then saw that we had a cita and 5:30, a meeting at 6:30, a cita at 7:00 and another cita at 8:00. So we had to leave right away. Everything fired though. Luckily we were able to get around to all of the areas though with the map we have. It´s just crazy though, because it´s the first time Elder Jacinto and I have been here, and it´s the first time either of us has been zone leader too. Okay, I just called some other Elders and got our address, it´s

C/ Gumersindo 11, 3
07004 - Palma de Mallorca
Spain / España

So I hope to get letters... haha. Anyways, now you have it. So the name of the branch where I´m out now is named Poniente. I hear there´s like 70-80 people that come more or less each week to church. We have our own building for the capilla! That´s awesome. Every other area it´s just been under Pisos. Like an apartment building and the bottom floor is the capilla (church). So yeah, this one has a soccer court, some grass outside, etc. It´ll be good. The other good news is that they were going to have 3 baptisms this past weekend. THey only had one, but the other two should happen this weekend! We still haven´t met them, but I´ll let you know how it all goes. Okay, so quick story about Wednesday when I was in Catarroja. I´m going to give a watered down version of it so I don´t use too much time. We were in the capilla, left, did a contact, she wanted to learn more, so we showed her the capilla and she was supposed to come to church on Sunday. That´s a miracle, but it´s even better. So we walk out after showing this lady and her son the capilla and there´s another lady and her son that walk by and say is this the mormon church? THey´d been looking for half an hour for it because the mom had heard about it and wanted to be invovled and integrated with the mormon church. So we gave her a tour of the church, then had a cita (visit) with her and I committer her and her son to be baptized on the 11th of August and she said that´s why she came, to be baptized. Anyways, they both accepted and will be baptized the 11th of August. So that´s cool. Then in Castellón we set 7 peole up for the 21st of August. Things are going really good now. Well, I miss Castellón. It´s like starting the mission all over again. I somewhere I don´t know, and I have to leave my family behind. Such is the work of the Lord though. I´m sure I´ll grow to love Palma de Mallorca as well, but I´ll definitely stay in contact with people in Castellón and visit there after my mission. Well, a ton of things have happened, but I don´t know what else to say. I´m going to write the indvidual letters now. Have a great week. ¡Chao!
-Elder Ryan Sommerfeldt

7-19-2010

Family and friends! How´s everyone doing? THings are going great here for me. Well, it´s been a good week, and a bad week. It´s been a good week because we taught 30 lessons and we got a ton of referrals, we have 15 that we need to contact. Here´s the bad news though. Both Elena and Adina, who were going to be baptized this Saturday don´t want to now. Elena can´t for sure this Saturday, because she didn´t come to church this week and she´s only come one other time, Adina there´s still hope that maybe she´ll change, so we´ll see what happens with that. It was frustrating though. They both told us the same day too. It´s alright though, we´ll help them change, and we´ll find new people that are prepared as well. So, I¨m going to attach a few pictures now. The first one is of an accident that we saw one day while we were walking. We didn´t see any ambulance or any people there, so it looks like by the time we got there anyone that was hurt was already gone. It was interesting though. I haven´t seen an accident for a long time. The next picture is of me this morning, I took it right before coming to do internet. I hope you like it. The next one is a picture that a little girl in our english class drew a few weeks ago, it was for Elder Parry and I. I´m the one saying "Prrrrr..." I was trying to teach them how to say purple. The next one is one that a member took when Elder Parry was down here, and because of the son it looks like I´m an angel. It was funny, so I copied it from her camera. It almost looks like Elder Parry and Elder Estrada are companions, and then they have the Holy Ghost with them. Anyways, that´s it for pictures this week. I hope you enjoy them, and ask mom and dad if you want to see them.
So this past week was a bit crazy. First off, on Wednesday morning Elder Estrada went up to Lleida and didn´t get back until Thursday afternoon. So all day Wednesday I was with either Fabio, a member, or Armando, another member. Then at night Armando took me to the train station, and I went to Valencia where I met the zone leaders and spent the night there with them. Then on Thursday morning the zone leaders took me back to the train station and I came back out to Castellón and met Fabio. Fabio was with me all morning, then I was with Armando in the afternoon until Elder Estrada got back. The worse part is that Elder Estrada had problems with getting everything done, so he´s going to have to back up in a week or two. I´m not sure if I´ll be here or not though when that happens. We´ll see what happens. Transfers are this upcoming week and I´m a little worried I´ll be transferred, but we´ll see. People can still send stuff here, but don´t send it after Tuesday probably. I´ll let you know next Tuesday if I was transferred or if I stayed. Anyways, this past week we got a new family of investigators. We were only able to visit them once though, so that´s kind of lame. Hopefully we´ll be able to visit them again this week. We just visited with that dad, José Antonio, and two of his kids, Juan David and Laura. His wife, Jenny, and his other son, José Antonio, weren´t able to be there. We also got a ton of references this past week. A lot of our references came from some members that went out yesterday and contacted in the park for a couple hours. So that was nice. THey even set a cita up for us. We´ll see how it all goes. That´s good to get references like that, but they´re a little less certain, since they´re references from a contact, and not actual friends of the members. We´ll see how it all turns out though. Alex is doing well. He has an interview set up for the Priesthood this week, and he´ll be able to get it this next Sunday. I also visited with Edith and Paul, I do´nt know if you remember them, but they´re a family that Elder Hancock and I started teaching, but they just did´nt progress enough. Anyways, they´re still about the same, so it was fun to visit with them, but they´re not prepared yet. Edith´s baby should´ve been born just a couple days ago though, so maybe that´ll help her.
Our class about missionary work continues going well too. WE had like 14 people show up this past week. It seems like there´s always new people. So that´s nice. Oh, I was going to tell you guys some things that maybe you don´t know about life here in Spain. FIrst one, it´s always so hot at night, and all we have is a fan, so we always have to sleep with all the windows open. It´s not a huge deal, except both Elder Estrada and I have bug bites all over our arms and legs, and we get new ones every night/morning. It´s interesting. It´s not bad though. There´s cockroaches here, but in our piso we don´t have any. We have a nicer piso, so they´re not in our building, but we see them on the street occassionally. The worse was today I was writing a letter and I was sitting on my bed and I saw the smallest spider I´ve ever seen crawling around and I realized there are probably quite a few of those on my bed and such,a nd that´s probably what I´m being bit by, so I washed my sheets. Hopefully that helps a bit. Anyways, this past week we also had an ispection by one of President Hinckley´s counselors. He just came after church to look at our piso and all, and it was good. So that was good. Well, I can´t think of much else to say, so I¨m going to go ahead and end this, but I hope you all have fantastic weeks and I´ll write you next Tuesday. ¡Chao!
-Elder Ryan Sommerfeldt

7/12/2010

Family and Friends! How´s everyone doing? Things are going great here in Castellón. We had a baptism this past Saturday! So that´s good. It turned out really good. He asked for a kid named Fabio to baptize him. Fabio is from Brasil. I think I´ve sent a picture of him in the past. So I´m trying to send some pictures home right now, but it´s not working now. I have a lame computer. We´ll see what we can do though. We had the baptism of Alex though. Everything´s going great with my new companion, Elder Estrada. We work really well together. We should be having at least two more baptisms in two weeks here. One is of Alex´s sister, Adina, and the other is of Elena, another lady from Romania that we´re teaching. So yeah, that´s good. Overall, things are going great here. We had another successful week too, with a baptism, 25 lessons, and yeah, everything´s going well. So this past week Elder Parry actually had to come down for a couple days. He had to come down on Tuesday because Wednesday morning he was going to do all of his fingerprints/paper work to be legal. So that´s what he was doing, but he couldn´t finish it on Wednesday morning, so he had to stay here an extra day and then we finished them up Thursday morning. It was a bit of a pain, but it´s done now. Now this next week my companion, Elder Estrada´s going to be going up to Lleida, where he was before, to do all of his paperwork and stuff. So yeah. So, with the photos, I can´t do it on my computer, but right at the end, I´m going to us the computer where Elder Estrada is, attach them, and send them off to mom and dad. So if anyone wants them, ask my mom and dad. Okay, so what else has happened this past week. Oh, we got new zone leaders. This past week is when they combined our mission with Bilbao. Well, we lost the stake of Elche, but we gained the stake of Bilbao. So there were a ton of changes this past week, one of which is that we got new zone leaders down here. Also, there´s this girl that was in my mission prep class at BYU named Rachel Patten and she´s in our mission now. So that´ll be cool talking to her. Because Elder Parry´s the secretary to the president he talks to a ton of people. So when he was down here he was telling me a story about someone that called from Bilbao named Hermana Patten, and I was like, her first name isn´t by chance Rachel is it? And he said it was. He actually saw a picture of her too, and I´m almost certain it´s the same one. THere´s also people that I knew in the CCM in Madrid who are in our mission now. So that´s cool. OUr class continues to go well that we´re teaching to the members. We had like 18 people or so this past week. Oh, I¨m going to tell about the baptism with more details now. So it was supposed to start at 7 and Alex was supposed to be there at 6:30. Well, 6:45 came around and he still wasn´t there, so we called him up and they had had some car problems, but we´re on their way. They had to go to the hospital because something had happened to their aunt that day and she had to go to the hospital (Satan sure doesn´t want people to get baptized, but God won, again). Anyways, long story short, everyone was there waiting from 7:00 until 7:30, which is when Alex finally got there. So then we took some pictures really fast, then we started. It went well. He had to be baptized 3 times though. THe first time the tie came out of the water, then the second time the guy baptizing missed one word, but other than that it was perfect. The family all liked it, their were like 30 people there (which is a lot compared to most baptisms), and overall it was just great. We got a new ward mission leader this week. I´m not a huge fan of him right now, but I´m trying to not notice the bad things too much, so that we can still be effective and work together, etc. I´m sure it´ll all turn out well in the end. Oh, so dad mentioned a bunch of you had a cold this past week. I thought I´d share with you guys some Spanish culture. In Spain, if you have a cough for an hour, you go to the hospital. If you have the slightest stomach ache, or head ache, you go to the hospital. It´s interesting. I think in the US we must just be tougher or something. Actually, I think it´s because they have socialized health care, so it´s all free for them. Anyways, it was nice to hear that you guys were all a little sick but that you didn´t go to the hospital. That´s how it ought to be. Oh, I almost forgot, YES! Spain did win the world cup!!!!!! It was fun. WE didn´t actually get to watch or anything, but it ended around 11:00 at night, when we were in piso, so we just were looking out the window yelling with everyone else. Cars just drive past honking, waving flags, people shoot of fireworks, etc. It was fun. We found some New Year´s celebration noise maker things we were blowing into to join into the party. I took a few videos and when I send home the DVD with all my pictures you can see them. It was fun. WEll, I´m going to go ahead and end this and send the individual letters now. Sorry this email´s shorter than normal. I can´t think of what to say. I´ll write more next week though. Have great weeks. -Elder Ryan Sommerfeldt