10/19/09

Family! How is everyone doing? So here´s the big news. I´m in Vilafranca right now, not Cornellá. I think I told you last week about how there was an elder that went home after only being in the mission for a week, and how since the other companionship in our Piso was a trio I thought one of them would leave. Anyways, Monday evening they called me and told me to pack and be ready to leave the next morning. They took someone from the trio and put them with Elder Johnson, my old companion, and now I´m with Elder Morales, a Spaniard. I was way sad when I heard, and even for a few days after, and I still am a bit. I didn´t even get to say goodbye to any of our investigators or anything. I hope they´re all still progressing though and can still be baptized the 30th of October. We´ll see how that goes. So yeah. I´m now in a city called Vilafranca del Penedés. It´s about an hour away from Cornellá, and like an hour and half to two hours away from Barcelona. Just so you know, my address now is C/ Amalia Soler 18,4,1 08720-Vilafranca del Penedés (Barcelona) Spain (España). So yeah, if you can get that forwarded to Jen so she can get it on facebook for everyone, that would be great. And anyone who wants to write me can send it to that address now. I´ll still get everything that was sent to Cornellá, I´ll just have to wait a little bit. So yeah, that´s that. I´m now here in Vilafranca. I´m still getting used to the area and all, but it seems good. It´s a branch, with around 70 people or so I think attending church each week. Our goal is to get it to a ward. We´ll see what we can do about that. This past week we started teaching a girl named Claus who is progressing very well. She´s from Bolivia, but one of her parents is Spaniard, and she´s lived here for a couple years now. She´s living with her mom Rosemary. We´re teaching both of them, but Claus is progressing the most. She even came to church yesterday. We´re going to try to set a baptismal date for her the 7th of November. So we´ll see how that goes. There´s also a kid named Roberto that´s doing well. He has friends that are members and comes to Seminary almost every night and church almost every week. So hopefully we can get him baptized the 7th of November too. I´ll keep you updated on that though. Okay, so funny story. Here in Spain they do besos, where you kiss each other´s cheeks (kind of weird I think, but I hear it gets more normal the longer you´re here). Anyways, so normall when we´re with a group of people everyone gives besos to everyone then shakes the hands of the missionaries. When we first met Claus though she was doing the besos with everyone then got to me and started to go in to do the besos thing, and I was just like, uh... And she realized and stopped and apologized and said she didn´t realize we couldn´t and all. It was just a funny story, and a little awkward for me... haha. So that´s the funny story. I can´t thinik of what else has happened. Oh, we met the Stake Patriarch, because he lives in our ward, and he´s a way good guy. He also drove us out to a Pueblo on Saturday to go teach a girl named Carola. He´s very dedicated to the gospel though, so that´s good. My spanish is coming along pretty good, and it should come along even better now that I´m with Elder Morales, a native. He helps me with my spanish, and I help him with his english. So far we get along very well, so that´s good. It´s weird because we´re the only two people in our Piso. So I went from having 5 elders in a piso to only having 2. Crazy. It´s quieter, but still good. So things are going well with that. Well, I can´t think of much else to say now, so I think I´ll go ahead and start the individuals. Have a great week!
Elder Sommerfeldt

10/12/09

Hello everyone! Things are going well here for me. I can´t remember if I told you last week, but we have a goal for 5 baptisms October 30th. We are now at 3. We had four, but one lives three streets out of our area and has to be taught by some other missionaries (she wasn´t happy about that at all). So yeah. We are still on with Isabel getting baptized the 30th. She´s doing great, and we´re meeting with her twice a week still in a member´s house while her boyfriend is out of town, because we need a guy in the house. José Luis is also doing well. He´s the boyfriend of Penelope. The only thing with him is that he has to work weekends. He´s looking for a job, but was only able to find one where he has to work Saturdays and Sundays. He´s looking for another one, but it´s hard for him to quit until he has another one because it´s his only source of income. He doesn´t have all his papers finished, so that´s why it´s difficult. We´re just hoping and praying that he´ll find one soon so that he´ll be able to go church the Sunday after his baptism to get the Holy Ghost. If he doesn´t have a way to take that Sunday off by then we´ll have to hold off, but I think something will work out. The other guy is new. His name is Ricardo. We met him one day when we were walking and he stopped us and asked if we were the mormons. Long story short he went to church a bunch back in Ecuador before moving here, and really liked it. So we set up a time to meet with him in the house of some members that live nearby. We had the cita and he mentioned at one time that he didn´t know why he wasn´t baptized, so right then and there Elder Johnson committed him to be baptized the 30th of October and he accepted. We´ve taught him twice now, and if all goes well that will work out too. The only difficulty is that this past Sunday he was going to come to church (it´s like an hour and half away from his house), but he realized that he didn´t have money right before so he couldn´t take a bus. If we can get him to come these next two times though we´ll be good. So yeah, we´ll see how that goes. So we should be at three now. Yesterday we met with Rossy (the nine year old we´ve been trying to teach for forever, but have never been able to). Things went really well. She likes to draw, so I was able to get in there, and I told her I´ll bring some copies of some of my pictures for her next time, and I´ll give them to her. So yeah, hopefully that helps too. She also loves reading, and we left her with the Book of Mormon for kids, and asked her to read and pray about it. So we´re hoping she can get baptized too. Hopefully the 30th, but we don´t know for there. We asked her, and she said she didn´t know, so we´ll have to wait and see. Hopefully that all goes well too. So that´s the update on investigators I believe. I don´t think there´s much else to update there. We went bowling today for preparation day and I got 164!!! I was excited. It was good. So, some weird things (or things you may not know) about Spain. Okay, let´s see, here in Catalunya (the province), everything is in Catalan. That´s the language that´s the official language of Catalunya. Everyone speaks Spanish (or Castellano as they call it here), but almost everyone that was born here or went to school here also speaks Catalan. So like all of the signs and stuff are in Catalan. It´s kind of nice, because I can look at the words and usually figure out what they´re trying to say, and when I come back, I´ll probably speak just a little bit (not much) of Catalan as well. It´s things like Salida is how you say Exit in Spanish, but in Catalan it´s Sortida. Instead of Pierna for Leg, you say Cama (which is also how you say bed). So yeah, it´s just a little different. That´s one thing. The other thing is that there´s always trash and stuff all over the streets and sidewalks. It´s not terrible because they have people who have the job of basically constantly sweeping a plaza, but it´s still dirty. People here just throw trash and such all the time. So yeah. Also, for trash, like from our Piso, they have a bin for plastics, one for cardboard, one for glass, and another for other stuff. The bins are about a block away from our house and a whole neighborhood shares the same bins. So that´s that news. Well, I can´t think of much else to say. Things are going well here though. Oh, we have a new elder here. His name is Elder Dillon and he´s companions with Elder Romney and Elder Tonge, but living in our piso. It´s actually a lot of fun having five people now. It´s good. He´s a good guy too. However, really close to us, in our same zone, a new elder who´s only been here a week went home, so we´re thinking they may take one of the missionaries from the trio over there... I´ll let you know next week what happens. We should find out later today. Well, with that I think I´ve said everything I can think of. Have fantastic days and weeks and I´ll talk to everyone later. ¡Chao!
-Elder Sommerfeldt

9/28/09

Family! How is everything there back home? Things are going well here for me. This keyboard is really bad by the way. It´s all written on the keys like an english keyboard, but it´s programmed for a Spanish one. So if I mess up at all, just blame the keyboard... Anyways, things are going good here. Things are going pretty good with Isabel, except there´s one big problem. She´s the one living with her boyfriend. We had intercambios this past week, I was with Elder Chávez, a native who doesn´t speak any English, and we taught her and her boyfriend Pedro the law of chastity. They committed to live it, and it was way good. The spirit was there and everything. Anyways, we set a baptismal date for this next Friday, October 2nd. She said yes. The only problem now is that he won´t move out. So we´re doing everything we can to help it happen and go through. We´ll see how it goes though. We were going to meet with them yesterday before church but the boyfriend, Pedro, was "sick." So he didn´t come, but she came. We talked to her and she really wants to get baptized, she started crying saying some people are just stubborn, meaning Pedro. So yeah, you can pray for Isabel to be able to find a way to get this to work. We´re still hoping for this Friday, but if he doesn´t move out really fast then it will be delayed. HOpefully it works out though. We´ll see. So that´s the news there. The boyfriend that we´re talking to we haven´t been able to meet with since Tuesday. We´ll be meeting with him again tomorrow though, with the girlfriend and rest of the family. So that should hopefully go good. We´ll see. We briefly talked about the Book of Mormon last time and gave him one. I believe we´re planning on teaching the Plan of Salvation to him, because he and his girlfriend recently had a child. So yeah. We´ll see how that goes. I´ll keep you updated. We almost had a cita with the 9 year old, but we weren´t able to because the mom works 4 jobs and can hardly ever have time for us. I think with her it´ll be like once every week or two we´ll teach her, and then in a couple months or so she´ll get baptized. So yeah. That´s that update. Let´s see, the list of things I´ve been writing down to tell you guys. Oh, so people here have a really hard time pronouncing my name. So one day Elder Tonge, one of the Elders in my Piso told the member it´s just like "Soy muy feo," which means "I´m very ugly." So now everyone remembers my name, it´s funny. A lot of them are actually not that bad. I told some of the members to just call me "Soy muy guapo" instead of "Soy muy feo." We´ll see how that goes though. Next thing, last week in church I made a mistake. Elder Tonge was teaching the lesson trying to use an example of someone not liking things, so he asked me what´s something I don´t like. I told him I don´t like eating tomatoes. Anyways, long story short, one of the hermanas in our ward that feeds us every week (and has apparently given us tomatoes a lot) was like, oh no! So she apologized after and I tried to just say, oh no, I was meaning when I was younger I didn´t, they´re fine now. I don´t know if it worked or not though. It´s kind of a funny story. And she´s the type of person that wouldn´t really be mad either, she´d just joke about it a lot. So yeah. I can´t think of anything else. Um, when I was with Elder Chávez it was really nice at the end of the day to switch back to Elder Johnson. I´d been talking in Spanish all day, and if I didn´t understand something he said, sometimes there wasn´t anything we could do about it. So it was nice being able to go back to english a bit. Spanish isn´t bad though. My spanish is improving, each week I notice a bit of a difference. Not really much day by day, but week by week yes. Oh, the other thing, like 4 times we´ve given blessings. So far everytime I´ve done the annointing, because I don´t know if I can do the blessing in Spanish and all, but I think the next time I might be doing it, so we´ll see. Who knows when that will be. We´ve been continuing to teach the menos activos we´re teaching. Things are going well with them. We´re hoping to get some references from them soon. We´ll see what ends up happening with that though. I can´t think of anything else to say right now, I´m sure there´s more, my mind´s just blank. Sorry. I´ll just go ahead and end this now then I guess. Overall, things are going well here, Isabel will hopefully be baptized this Friday, and I don´t have any complaints. Have a fantastic week and I´ll talk to you next week.
-Elder Sommerfeldt

9/21/09

Family (and anyone else that reads this)! How are you all doing? Things are going well here for me. We have an investigator that we just about set a baptismal date for, but her boyfriend (who´s a member) is going to be out of town when we had the date. So now she has to look through her work schedule to try and find a time that works, that´s exciting though. It will be my first real baptism. I don´t know if I told you, but technically I have one baptism, just because the person was taught a little before I got here, went to Uruguay to be baptized by a friend, but it went down in the books as our baptism. Anyways though, the one that will hopefully be baptized here soon is living with her boyfriend. We haven´t taught her the Law of Chastity yet, that´s this Wednesday. The guy knows it´s coming, we told him, so we´ll see how they take it... Hopefully good. I think they would both want to get married, but the guys married to someone else, and she won´t sign a divorce with him, so he can´t get married to the girl we´re teaching. It´ll all work out though, I have faith. Let´s see, everything else is going well. The nine-year old we still haven´t been able to visit with. Her mom works 4 jobs and has virtually no time that we can go by. We´ll figure something out though. One of the less active (but they´ve been quite active since we started visiting them) families is doing well. We´re teaching the boyfriend of one of the daughters, and he seems interested. We´ve only taught him about The Book of Mormon so far though. But we have 2 citas with them this week. Okay, onto things I wrote down that are interesting to tell you. We´re really close to the ocean I figured out. This past week we were in Castelldefels and we were on the bus. For about a mile it just drives along the beach/ocean. It was quite hard knowing that I have to wait at least 2 years to go there... Oh well though. The language is coming along well. The members tell me that they can see a difference each time they see me, because I see most of them like once or twice a week is all. So yeah, that´s good. Oh, with the beach being so close, there´s also palm trees all over, so that´s cool too. Let´s see, what else, oh, on all of the windows here they have these shutter things that are like inside the wall somehow outside the building, and you can close them from the inside. They slide down over the window and it gets pitch black. They´re like metal shutters that are designed so they don´t leave any gaps for light to get in. So that´s cool too. Also, I was looking in the January Liahona for this year and I saw a picture in the church news section. Guess who was in it... President Clarke (Kevin´s mission president). That was interesting. It was some thing with Panama. That was fun though. Oh, it´s been raining a lot lately. It´s crazy. It just pours and pours. The streets become like rivers almost. But yeah, that´s my life here. Well, I´m going to go ahead and end this now, but know that I´m doing well here and everything is going well for me. ¡Hasta la proxima semana! Elder Ryan Sommerfeldt

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