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

7/5/2010

Family and Friends! HOw´s everyone doing? So first things first I think is that Elder Parry is no longer my companion. We got a call Monday night at 10:03 by President Hinckley telling us that he wanted Elder Parry to go up to Barcelona the next day to start training to be the secretary to the president. Long story short, we finally got to bed at 2:30 after packing all his stuff, then we had to wake up at 4:30 to catch the train that left at 6:06. I came back and we arrived back in Castellón around 1:30 p.m. with my new companion Elder Estrada. I was super tired. I traveled for like 6 hours, and I only got like 2 hours of sleep. I´m doing better now though. It´s sad that Elder Parry had to leave. He was a good companion and I¨ll miss him, but Elder Estrada´s also good. He started the mission at the same time as Elder Parry, but his parents are both from Guatamala, and he lived there between the ages 2 and 8, so he speaks Spanish perfectly, and English perfectly. So we´ll see if I can improve my Spanish more now. Well, I´m going to attach some pictures now. The first one is of me and my new companion Elder Estrada, we took it this morning right before coming here. The next one is of Elder Parry and I at Valeria´s house, a member we ran and said bye too Monday night after we got the call. The next is of me, Valeria, Elder Parry, Guadalupe, and Armando. The last picture is of Roxanna, Armando, and Elder Parry. I hope you enjoy the pictures. So yeah. Things have been a bit different here getting adjusted to a new companion and all, but things are going well. We´re still going good with Alex, he´ll be baptized this Saturday at 7:00 p.m. It should go really well. WE also set a baptismal date with his sister, Adina for the 24th of July, so hopefully that goes well too. So the worse thing that happened this past week was probably on Tuesday. On Tuesday is when we switched companions. We got back in at 1:30, ate lunch, then we went out to work for the afternoon. WE had 5 citas lined up and every single one of them fired on us. We ended up being able to visit Charo, a recent convert, but she was the only one. I felt bad because it was the first day for Elder Estrada and all, but the rest of the week went well. I feel bad for him too because he left with 7 baptismal fechas in Lleida where he was. We´re at 4 now though, so it´s not bad. We have Alex for this Saturday, then for the 24th we have his sister Adina, a lady named Elena, and a girl named Josi. Alex and Adina are both from Romania, but have lived here for like 7 years now. Alex is 14 and Adina is 13. We´ll still working with the parents and getting them baptized. Elena is also from Romania. She´s probably about 40 years old or so, maybe like 38. THen we have Josi, I´m guessing she´s 25-28 years old. Josi´s from Brasil. So those are our people with fechas now. We also had Kenny, but on Saturday he told us he didn´t want to be baptized on the tenth, so that was lame. We´re still working with him though to hopefully help him get baptized here soon. This past week we got 3 new investigators named Fany, Alejandra, and Juan Diego. Fany and Alejandra are friends of Roxanna (a member). WE´ve just visited with them once. THen we have Juan Diego. Juan Diego is Charo´s son (Charo´s a recent convert). Missionaries have never been able to teach him before. He´s way friendly, but he just doesn´t want anything to do with religion basically. Anyways, we went there and asked if Charo was there, he said no, so then we asked if we could talk to him, he said he was about to leave, so we said, what about just 5 minutes, and he agreed. So we talked about how The Book of Mormon answers the questions of the soul. WE read through some questions that Preach My Gospel lists and one of them he said that´s a question I have. So we left him with a chapter to read from the Book of Mormon and he´s going to read it. We´ll have our second cita with him tonight. We´re going a little slower with him, but I´m excited about working with him. This past week we also did something different. We made a paper that had the scriptures Mosiah 27:14 and Alma 6:6 on it. Then we put the names of all of our investigators with baptismal dates on it. WE handed them out to people in Elder´s Quorum and in Relief Society and asked all the members to pray for all the people on the list by name every day. So that should help a lot. We also taught our class "Cada Miembro Un Misionero" and it went well again. WE taught the Plan of Salvation. We´re trying to help the members here know all of the missionary lessons so they can help their friends and help us in the misisonary work. All of you should learn all of them too. YOu should hear "The Restoration" and know what the eight points are that Preach My Gospel talks about with that. If the missionaries and the members are more unified that the missionary work goes a lot better. Well, those are some updates from here in Castellón. Barcelona was fun for the hour I was in the train station. We actually met a guy wearing a BYU hat who was there with his family, and he served in the Barcelona mission about 17 years ago or so. So that was kind of fun. Oh, so another thing that´s happening this week. I´m going to be Elder Parry´s companion again for one day! He has to come down here to do finger prints for his residency card, and Elder Estrada has to go up to Lleida to do his, so they´re going to switch for a day and Elder Parry and I will be together another day. That should be pretty fun. Well, I can´t think of much more to say. I guess I´ll end this and write the individuals. I hope you all have fantastic weeks though. ¡Chao!

-Elder Ryan Sommerfeldt

6/21/10

Family and friends! How´s everyone doing? Things are going great here for me in Castellón. THis past week has been incredible with teaching. We were able to teach 32 lessons this past week, plus one to members. So 33, but 32 that count. That´s a lot. The most I´ve ever had before was 27 or 28. Anyways, so that was good. I think it´s mainly because of all of the new investigators we have that we´re visiting with and such, while still trying to visit with all the recent converts and less actives. It´s difficult sometimes, but it´s better to be busy than have nothing to do. Well, first off, I´m going to go ahead and attach some pictures for you guys. The first one is of me in front of one of the tanks. I think it was the one I was going to send last week, that didn´t work. It´s in front of the tank with Nemo. The next one is one of the beluga whale that we saw. The next one is of Bianca, Bruna, me, and Elder Parry (going left to right). They´re the daughters of Celia and they´re going to Germany today for a couple months because Celia´s husband, their dad, is there working right now. So they´ll spend the summer with him, and I probably won´t see them again because I¨ll probably be transferred before they come back. I always imitate Bruna, and she was sitting like that on the couch, so I did the same thing and so Bianca and Elder Parry did the same thing for the photo. The next one is of a poster for a cell phone company here and it has a girl on it and everytime I see it I think it looks a lot like Leah, so you can tell me what you think. And the last picture is of Nemo. So yeah. I hope you enjoy those pictures, and if you want to see them, ask mom and dad for them to forward them to you.
Anyways, everything is going great here. This past Wednesday we had a cool experience. We were coming back from District Meeting in Valencia and Elder Parry wanted a drink, so we went to a Consuum (a grocery store) to get him a drink. Anyways, when we walked out it was raining so he was drinking it under a balcony to stay dry and another lady was there too named Barbara. We started talking to her and she eventually asked what we were doing here, so we told her, and long story short we set up a cita with her for the next day, went and taught her, and her 25 year old (more or less) daughter as well. So that was nice. She´s evangelist, and was at her church this sunday, so she didn´t come to church with us. We´ll see what we can do to help her though. Thing continue going well with Lissette, except we´re pretty sure she´s not married to the guy she´s living with, so that could be a problem, and it kind of seems like she wants to leave him, which would be good, but they have a child, and it seems like she might leave him for another guy. Needless to say we´ll be teaching the Law of Chastity tomorrow, so we´ll see how that all goes. Also, I don´t know if you guys remember hearing about Jhonatan. He´s an investigator that had a baptismal date, then left to Madrid, but he came back this past week, and we re-set it for this Saturday, but then he didn´t come to church and we haven´t been able to get in contact with him. So it´s been a bit of a pain. The member that went to pick him up said that his dad answered and said he was in bed with a hang over... So that´s a problem we´ll have to work with. THe good news is that Alex and Mihaela´s family is doing fairly well. WEll, their children are. THey sitll haven´t come to church, but Alex and Adina both came again, on Saturday Alex went an hour away to Valencia for a 2 hour stake Priesthood meeting and liked it, and he came with us to a FHE last night too. The biggest problem there is that it´s hard to get times that we can visit them. We´re going to start trying to at least visit Alex, and if the rest of the family isn´t there, then we´ll continue with Alex, and the rest of the family will just progress a bit slower. So yeah. That´s the news there. Also, we re-set a date with Kenny, from Jamaica, for July 10th. He also came to church this past week, so that´s good. Julian, from Brasil, continues coming to english classes every saturday and to church every sunday, but he still doesn´t want to get baptized. THis Wednesday´s his birthday, so we set up a little cita to give him cookies/see where he´s at and how he feels about baptism now. We´ll see I guess. Well, I need to be wrapping this up. Overall, it´s been a good week, we have zone conference this week, so I can write about that next week, and have a great week. ¡Chao!

-Elder Ryan Sommerfeldt

6/15/2010

Family and friends! How´s everyone doing? So first off, I´m still here in Castellón. I didn´t get transferred. Nothing changed with Elder Parry and me, so we´ll be here for at least another 6 weeks. I´m glad. I like it here. Well, to start off, last week for preparation day as I said we went to the aquarium in Valencia! It was so fun. I´m going to attach some pictures so you can see them. My battery died half way through, so some of them are from Elder Parry´s camera. Also, we couldn´t have flash on, so a lot of them are a bit blurry. Anyways, the first one is a shark we saw. They have tunnels that you go through that are right in the middle of the aquarium. So sharks and everything would swim right over us. It was cool. The next picture is of our zone that went to the aquarium. The next one is of a sea horse. They had a tank with a bunch of little sea horses, so yeah. The next one is of Elder Parry and I while we were waiting for all the missionaries to come so we could go to the aquarium. The last one is of me in front of one of the tanks, there was a Nemo fish in there too. THere´s a lot more, but you´ll just have to see the rest when I send home a DVD or CD of pictures.

So, things are going great here. We did have a few bad things too though. Both Kenny and Jhonatan lost their baptismal dates because neither one of them came to church. However, we set two new baptismal dates that look a lot more hopeful, and we´re still going to work with Kenny, and Jhonatan went to Madrid for a few weeks, so we´ll talk with him when he comes back. Anyways, we set a baptismal date first off with a guy named Francis. Francis is from Nigeria. He is currently looking for work, and just got told he has to move out, and hearing about the gospel and reading in the Book of Mormon brings him peace and such. He´s looking pretty good. This past Sunday he couldn´t come to church, but he said that this next Sunday he´d walk an hour if he had to to follow us to church. It´s only about five minutes away from his house though, so that´s nice. His date is for the 10th of July right now. Next we have Lissette. So we were teaching Guillermo, right? Well, he said he didn´t want to continue, but we asked him who else we could teach, and Lissette happened to be right there, so we started teaching her. She set her date for the 9th of August because it´s her birthday, but she said if she feels ready sooner, like in July, she´ll get baptized sooner. I hope she does too, because the 9th of August I might not be here anymore. We´ll see what happens though I guess. Lissette is a catholic, but she´s a typical catholic that´s never read the bible, and goes to church not very often. She told us when she heard how we baptize by immersion that she had desires to be baptized like that. So now we´ll be working with her a lot. The only potential problem is that she´s married, and her husband is orthodox, and he hasn´t known that we started teaching her, but she told us after setting the baptismal date that she´s going to ask him and make sure it´s okay with him. So that´s good. I´m excited about working with Francis and Lissette. They both seem really good. Also, Paul, who we had to drop, is showing a lot of good signs. We just figured out he had a dream that answered his prayers basically. So that´s a big step. We´re going to visit him tomorrow and figure out a bit more and see what we do with baptism with him. So that´s good. Oh, so we had that class called "Every Member A Missionary" that we were going to teach, right? Well, 2 people showed up, so we didn´t teach it. It was kind of lame. It´s like, people tell us they want us to teach the members how to do missionary work, but a lot of them don´t care. That´s alright though, we´re going to try again and we´ll get something to work out I guess. So let´s see, what else is new. Oh, we started teaching a family this past week. The parents names are Alex and Mihaela, and the kid´s names are Alex and Adina. There a really cool family, and both of the kids came to church this past Sunday and had a really good time. So we´re seeing some potential with them as well. We´re probably going to have to go through and drop a bunch of investigators again this next week, just because they´re not progressing right now, but that´s alright. When we drop those that aren´t progressing, the Lord blesses us with more new investigators. Last week we got 9 new investigators, which for here is a ton. Then we just got another new investigator named Daniel yesterday who looks like he´ll be pretty good. We´re visiting him again tomorrow. Well, I can´t think of much else new that has happened htis past week. That´s just about it. So I´m going to send this off. Have a great week though and I´ll talk to you all next week. ¡Chao!

-Elder Sommerfeldt

6/7/2010

Family and Friends! How´s everyone doing? So first off, there´s going to be no pictures this week, because I´m in Valencia right now and the computers don´t have card readers. I´m in Valencia because we´re going to the aquarium here today. So that should be fun. It´s a bit expensive though, but it´s a really famous aquarium, and it´s not like I´ll always be right by it. So next week you can expect a few good pictures from the aquarium. So, this past week has been good. It´s been a bit dificult in some ways, and good in other ways. First off, this past week they told our district that they wanted us to get 20 lessons by Friday this week, which seems really hard. Anyways, we ended with 21! So that was cool. We ended with 27 by the end of the week, but that was including members. They´re having us teach the members the missionary lessons, and while it doesn´t count in the actual numbers, they want us to at least have 20 lessons that we teach so we keep up our teaching abilities. SO yeah. We started teaching the members about The Restoration this past week and it´s actually gone really well. It´s good, because it´s the most basic stuff, but really it´s the most important, and a lot of people need a refresher course on it all too. So yeah, it´s been good. Okay, so this past week we officially dropped Julian and Edith. It was really hard, becuase they´re two of my favorite people, but it had to be done. I don´t think I´ve ever had dropping citas that went so well either. I had read in Alma 5, and what we did is read Alma 5:49 with them, then we talked about how that´s our role as missionaries, preach repentance and baptism basically, then we read verses 45-46 to see what their role is, which is to learn and know of themselves. So we told them we´re reached this point where we couldn´t force them to know of themselves, so we wanted them to dedicate time to learn for themselves. Julian still came to English class and to church, and we´re still really good friends with he and with Edith and her family. And in a couple weeks we´ll probably pass by again to see how things are, but we can´t be visiting them 3 times a week now if they´re not progressing. Okay, so what else is new. WE set / re-set baptismal dates with Jhonatan (26th of June), Kenny (this guy we met on the street who´s from Jamaica, also for the 26th of June), then we have two others, but they´re not looking so good now, so they don´t really count. Neither Jhonatan nor Kenny came to church though. We called both of them and passed by both of them yesterday but couldn´t get in contact with them, so hopefully things go better next week. They both need to come next week and the following to be baptized on the 26th of June. So l´ll keep you posted on that. Guillermo´s doing well. We don´t have a baptismal date with him, but he knows that´s what we´re working towards. He has a problem with smoking, so we need to help him overcome that before he gets baptized. Anyways, I finished my elephant picture from last week. I gave it away to Valeria though (the recent convert that´s an artist that gave me all the material to draw while I¨m in Castellón). I made some copies though that maybe I can send home though. We´ll see. It was fun drawing with charcoal though. Anyways, we have a new investigator named Mamadou. He´s Kobi´s friend. So we´ll see how things go with that. We also contacted this guy named Lucky from Nigeria this past week, set up a cita, and went we went there there were 4 people that became new investigators. They did´nt seem to understand very well, so we´re going to try teaching it again. We have a cita planned with them for today. Also, we´re starting up this class for the members. We´re calling it "Every Member a Missionary," or actually it´s called "Cada Miembro un Misionero." So yeah. It´s a class where we´re going to teach the members (specifically the ward missionaries) how we teach the lessons and what the lessons consist of etc. So we´ll see how that goes. It should be pretty good. We had Armando make us a little poster thing and all that´s hanging on the bulletin board and the bishop announced it last week too. The Bishop liked the idea too, so that´s good that he´s on with it. The Relief Society President also said it´s good because it´s one of the things from the ward mission plan. There´s a slight problem in that wards always make ward mission plans, but a lot of times they don´t follow through with the plan. So we´re trying to at least do our part. I¨ll keep you posted on how the class goes. Also, we have some potential with two kids that are cousins with Francheska (a member that´s been less active, but only because her mom wouldn´t let her come, but now she can come more often). Anyways, yesterday Francheska (15 years old) and her two cousins Bernardo (13 years old) and Francis (11 years old) both came to church. So we´ll have to see if we can´t get them and their mom (Francheska´s aunt) baptized. They´ve actually listened to missionaries in the past and we´re hoping to get in and visit with them this upcoming week. So yeah. Let´s see. I can´t think of much else new that´s happened, so I´d best start on the individual letters. I hope everyone has a great week and I´ll talk to you next week! ¡Chao!

-Elder Sommerfeldt
P.S. Next week is transfers, so my Preparation Day will be Tuesday. I´m pretty sure I´ll be staying in Castellón too, but there´s a chance I get transferred... a