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

Family! How is everyone? Things are going well for me. It sounds like you all got the pictures from Elder Sproul. I saw him a couple times, but I don´t know when all he took pictures. This past week was way good at the park. We go every Saturday, by the way. Our job is to do contacts, and try and give out either a pamphlet, Book of Mormon, and the best thing to be able to do is get their contact info. (phone number, address, name, etc.) and have the missionaries out in the field go teach them. Oh, also, they mix us up on Saturdays, so we´re not actually with our companion. They try to mix it up so at least one of the companions can communicate fairly well in Spanish. This past week I was with Elder Close. It was way good. We were able to give out two Book of Mormons, and we got the contact info. for both of them. They both seemed golden, so we´ll see what happens with that. Actually, I may never know what happens. I just get the info and pass it on, but it´d be nice if I find out someday that something happened. Who knows. So that was fun. Their names were Juan, and Carlos. Juan was a construction worker and at first told us he was tired and didn´t really want to read or talk to us. By the end though he just kept on reading scriptures that I was giving him from the Book of Mormon and gave us his contact info to hear more. Carlos was about 50 and he had just finished running and was sitting on the curb resting. We talked to him (and Juan too) for probably about 15 minutes each. It was good. Carlos is Catholic, but thinks that there could be more revelations. He wanted to take the Book of Mormon and read and pray about it. We were able to give him a few scriptures about why bad things happen to good people, because he was wondering about that, and also we left him with the pamphlet Family: A Proclamation to the World. He said the most important thing in his life is God, then his family. So hopefully things go well there. So that was fun. The other cool thing this past week is that we´re all legal residents now. They sent me and my district, plus two other Elders who arrived here late, to the government building where some lawyers did stuff, and then we signed a paper. So yeah. It was crazy, because I was in charge of the group since I´m district leader, so they sent me with an envelope that had over 200 euros, which is over $300, to give to the lawyers. I made sure I was hanging onto it the whole time. I didn´t lose it though, so that´s good. Things continue to go well for me and my companion, Elder Bodily. I don´t know if I told you this, but Elder Bodily is the one that was in Jen´s singles ward at BYU that I talked to for a bit on Facebook before my mission. So that´s cool. Let´s see, what else. Oh, Elder Bodily and I have our lesson plans for lesson 2 done. We´ll be practicing it tonight in the Prácticas Sala Grande. That´s where we teach other missionaries acting as investigators. We have that every night, but twice a week it´s a full lesson, rather than just a principle. Tonight and Saturday night it´s a full lesson. So that should be cool. They give us situations and all. Not as cool as the park since it´s not real, but still cool. But yeah, we practiced it once, and lesson 2 is harder to teach than lesson 1. But I think we´ll be fine after a few times of practicing it. It´s hard to not share more information than we should. Because you don´t want to share everything we know, it´d just confuse them. But yeah. Anyways, that´s that. Our teacher, Hermana Viso has been out of town this past week. She´ll be gone next week too, but then she´s back. Oh, also, a bunch of people are leaving next Tuesday. So that´s weird. There´ll be a lot less people here. Two of them, the portuguese missionaries are really cool. They only speak portuguese, well, a little bit of Spanish, and a little bit of English, so we talk to them a lot. It´ll be weird having them leave. But yeah. I´m probably going to try and get some pictures developed, or put on a CD or something to send home to you guys soon, hopefully you enjoy that. I´m not sure when though. Maybe today, maybe next week. We´ll see. Oh, I got to go to the temple again today. I love the temple here. It´s really nice. One thing I love is the Celestial room. It´s so much whiter than most. Most are bright, but it´s kind of a yellowish bright, this one is like a white bright. Most of the light comes from the windows/sun. Anyways, I´m going to end this now. I can´t think of much else to say. I hope everything´s going well there. ¡Chao!
-Elder Sommerfeldt

7/23/09

Hello everyone! How are you all? Things are going well here for me. I´m liking it a lot in Spain. So we do get to go out of the MTC. Everyday actually if we want. For Gym if we play soccer or a number of other things we go to a concrete pit (kind of a medium stadium with grafitti and such all over) to play soccer, or we can go to the gym in the stake center right by us which is what I usually do. We get some pretty intense games of basketball going. Oh, so with pictures, I can´t open them here. The server´s too slow. They´ll let you open them but you have to go to President Hill´s office to do so since he´s on a separate server or something, but I don´t want to have to do that everytime. So yeah. Probably just don´t email me any pictures yet. Thanks for them though, I just won´t get to see them for a while. So yeah. Things are going well for me though. Oh, also, we can go running every morning if we want, and we can just run out and about Madrid. We have breakfast at 7:30 so we have an hour to get ready, which leaves time to go running if we want. I´ve been once, but I´ve been feeling sick this past week, so I haven´t gone for a couple days. I´m getting better though. I´ve just been so stuffed up and coughing and feeling terrible. I think I told you my companion, Elder Bodily, was sick, so a few of us got sick. I´m improving though. So companions, I was in a trio, but Elder Kellar go put into our district, so my other companion, Elder Cook, got put with him, so now it´s just me and Elder Bodily. We get along really well. It´s good. I don´t think we´ll have any problems really the whole time. Oh, also, I´m District Leader, so that´s cool. We have six elders and one hermana in our district. We all get along really well, so that´s good. Okay, so the park last Saturday. Every Saturday we go to this massive park in Madrid. We´re there for an hour just contacting. So I was put with Elder Cook last week. We got rejected so many times. So many people would just stick there hand at us saying to leave, some one just completely ignore us and stare in another direction, and some would talk, but then tell us they didn´t want to hear more or take anything. But, here´s the story, we had five minutes left, Elder Cook and I decided to do one more. So we started walking. Then we noticed a guy walking up from behind us, like walking for exercise. So we just walked at his pace and walked with him talking for probably 15-20 minutes. It was awesome. He used to be a Catholic, but had changed a couple years ago because he didn´t think the Catholics had the full truth. We went on to tell him that we believed the same thing. Then we explained a little about God calling a prophet in our day and gave him a Book of Mormon. We had him read Moroni 10:3-5 right there and so yeah. It was awesome. He was from Colombia. He said he walks there every day, so we´ll try and find each other this upcoming Saturday. So that´s really cool. Also, we take the Metro over to the park, so we have like 8 minutes either way to do contacts on there. My companion and I had 5 I believe. I had two, one each way, and he had three. So that was good. I´m looking forward to it tomorrow. Okay, so now for important visitors. Brother Allen was here this past week. He´s the mission director, or something like that. He´s the head of the mission department of the church. Since there´s only like 25 missionaries or so we all got to meet him and talk with him. He had Elder Bodily and I teach him, so it was just the three of us in a room, and he was playing an investigator. He taught us a lot about applying lessons to individuals. We´re not teaching lessons, we´re teaching people. We always wanted to get into the lesson and just start teaching, but it´s really important to get to know them really well, asking questions, and get them to open up to you, until the Spirit tells you, that´s the route you need to take this lesson. So that was way cool. Oh, my district´s doing the musical number in Sacrament meeting this week. We´re going to sing The Spirit of God, but in Spanish. It should be good. I think we´re going to try and do like one verse normal, then an acapello verse without the chorus, then a quick solo by the piano, then into the last verses. It should be good hopefully. Well, it sounds like you all had fun in Canada. That´s good. I´m glad you played horseshoes in remembrance of me. That´s always good. And there was only one ringer the whole time? Crazy. As always, remember to forward this to Jen so she can put it up wherever. Oh, I´m going to Sol today, it´s in the center of Madrid, a tourist area. I´ll be gone for 3 hours. I´m excited. I´ll let you know how it is next week probably. I´m going to send this so I don´t accidentally lose it or anything. Have a fantastic week. -Elder Sommerfeldt

Hey, how is everyone? This keyboard is way weird, it´s European, so yeah. Anyways, I´m in Spain now. The flight was way long. It´s good though. We landed just before 10:00 Madrid time. The MTC President met us there and we got on a bus and took a fifteen minute ride back to the MTC (CCM, in Spanish). So that was good. My P-day will usually be on Thursday´s just so you know, but I don´t think I get one tomorrow. They´re having us stay up until 7:00 PM tonight to try and help with the jet lag, and I am so tired... The flights felt like they took forever. From Salt Lake to Atlanta was 3 hours, then it was another 8 hours to get to Madrid. It was only dark for about 2-3 hours, since we´re traveling backwards with the time and all. I don´t know if this email makes a ton of sense, but I´m tired, so sorry if it doesn´t. Oh, I´m in another trio companionship. My companions are Elder Cook (Who was actually the companion I was supposed to have in Provo, before they moved me up to Intermediate) and Elder Bodily. Elder Bodily´s the one that was in Jen´s BYU ward that I talked to a little bit on facebook before. So make sure to tell Jen he´s my companion for my stay here. Anyways, so that´s that. We´ve had lunch already today, so that was good. Oh, I think I may not write individual letters today, if I have time I will, but if you don´t get any, don´t worry. so yeah. Oh, something that´s kind of lame, I have a ton of US stamps, right? Because my call packet said to bring enough postage for my whole mission, well it´s pretty much useless. So I´ll have to be buying all new stamps here and such. I think I´ll probably mail you the stamps back, because I think there´s like 50-60 stamps or so. But yeah. Oh well I guess. It still feels weird that I´m here. It hasn´t quite hit me yet. Maybe when I wake up tomorrow and have had more sleep. There´s 24-27 people here in the CCM, so that´s kind of cool. Lunch was a lot different than lunch at the Provo MTC. It was a lot nicer, like the room and all, because it was so much smaller and such. I get to go to the Madrid temple tomorrow, so that ought to be fun. I´ll be going every week, so I´ll let you know how that goes next time I get to write home. So at the Provo MTC they would put money on a card for us, $6/week, but here they just give us 32 euros every 3 weeks. We already got our first little bit. So that´s cool. We do any shopping we need to just at like grocery stores and such around here. We´re allowed to leave the MTC/temple area, so that´s a big change. Oh, for gym, they have volleyball, but one of the best things is they have Tennis! So I´m excited about that. There´s five of us in our room, and one of them used to play for Timpview. He wasn´t ever Varsity though, so I imagine we´re fairly similar on our ability. So I´ll play him as well as another guy from my district back in Provo. So that´ll be fun. There´s some Russian missionaries here too. Apparently every three months or so they have to fly out here to Madrid to get their Visas renewed, while they´re out here they just stay at the CCM here. So that´s kind of cool. My teacher seems pretty cool, but it´s hard to understand her. Everyone speaks so different from what I´m used to. I´ll get the hang of it soon enough though, hopefully. I´m glad I was able to call for a few minutes to talk to Pete from Atlanta, I guess that means Kevin was the only one I didn´t get to talk to in our immediate family. Such is life I guess. Kevin, I hope your accounting thing went well. Well, I´m going to go now, but good luck with everything. I´ll talk to you maybe tomorrow, but probably not until next week. ¡Chao!
-Elder Karl

Ryan's Provo MTC district (before Elder Stull came) from left to right: Elders Astleford, Cannel, Hartle (DL), Figueroa, Kellar, Carlson, and Sommerfeldt

Elders Astleford, Sommerfeldt, and Carlson - trio companionship

So how is everyone? Today's kind of like a half P-day for me. It's weird. I'm still trying to go to class and such, but the three of us that are leaving are doing our laundry and writing and all that fun stuff as well. It's good though. So how is everyone doing? It sounds like you all had fun at Bear Lake. Hopefully Canada's fun for everyone next week too. With the exception of the drive it usually is. Make sure to play horse shoes in remembrance of me while you're up there. I leave here tomorrow morning at 5:00, and I imagine I'll be calling you from the Atlanta airport. We have a 4-hour layover there, so sometime then. I have all the calling card info. from dad, so that's good. Thanks for the accordian folder by the way dad. It's really nice to have to separate letters and such. That's crazy about Joe's boat. It seems like something happens to it at least yearly these days. Hopefully things work out with the truck, I'd hate to have it die. Let me know what ends up happening with that. I'll be curious to know. The only lame thing about leaving tomorrow is that it means I can't go to gym today, but oh well. I played volleyball on Saturday, and it was probably my best day yet. Good way to go out. We played indoor volleyball the past week and half or so. It's a lot of fun. On Saturday one of the MTC gym workers played with us, so we were setting each other up all day, so both of us had a bunch of good spikes and such. It was fun. Well, let's see what else is new. I saw brother Cardon again on Sunday. I don't know if he'll tell you. I can't remember if I told you last week, but Brother Croft was the one that helped me at the temple last Tuesday. So that was kind of fun. Things are going well for me. Oh, biggest thing probably, on Friday Elder Stull and I set up a teaching appointment, and we taught the entire first lesson in Spanish!!! I was excited. The people here still have 3 weeks before teaching in Spanish, so yeah. It was fun to get to do that. I wanted to do it at least once before going to Spain. We did pretty good too. Afterwards, when they tell us how we could improve, he said that we needed to focus the lesson more on him as an individual, we were thrilled to hear that, because we were just trying to be able to say what the basic principles were and describe them in Spanish. So that's good. Well, everything kind of blurs together these days, so I can't really remember everything. I have pictures, but I probably won't send them until I'm in Spain, no time today. I might mail some actual pictures (as in, not email attachments) today. We'll see what time brings. Well, I can't think of much else to say, but thanks for all of your emails and I love you all. Don't worry about me, I'm doing just fine. I'll talk to you all (well at least family) tomorrow.
-Elder Ryan Sommerfeldt