Family and friends! How´s everyone doing? THings are going great here. This past week has been crazy busy, I´ll tell you about it a little later. First off though I´m going to send a few pictures. Okay, so first off is a picture that Elder Estrada e-mailed me of Edith´s baptism down in Castellón. She´s the one that I was teaching for the longest time, then when I went down there for residency stuff I set the date with her and she wanted me to baptize her, but I was going to be in Palma, and she had Armando do it in the end. I´m super happy for her. She´s going to be a great member. Okay, the next picture is of me buying some candy last preparation day and a candy stand they have out in one of the ramblas here. It was good candy. The next picture is of Elder Hunsaker, Elder Bennington, me, and Elder Keeler in a picture that the mission is going to use in a book they´re making for the Hinckleys. Each district had to have a word in the picture and in the end it´s going to say a message. We had "YOU!" as our word. So yeah. Next up is a picture of our tree, it´s a little small. I also have put up a lot of stockings on the wall too. It´s a pretty good Christmassy piso now. I like it. Also, mom and dad, I got your package. THank you so much. I love it. I´m not opening the presents until Christmas, but thank you so much for all of the reeses and the reeses nutrageous, and the reeses christmas trees, and the reeses fast break, etc. I love REESES! Anyways, that´s about it for pictures this week. I´ll hopefully send some more next week.
Anyways, so I said this past week was crazy busy. It was crazy busy because Elder Hunsaker and I taught 30 total lessons, with 20 of those lessons being member present lessons, we found 10 new investigators, and we had 5 in church. We met the standard of excellence for investigators in church, and we about doubled every other standard of excellence. So that was fun. I was really tired when we got in last night though. It´s good we have this preparation day to recover a bit. We´re probably going to play RISK again. It´s a fun game. Anyways, we also now have 3 investigators preparing for baptism. We have Mabel who will for sure be baptized this Saturday. She´s incredible. She´s from Nigeria and is Robert´s (a member who less active for a while) wife. She´ll for sure be baptized this next Saturday at 12:00 a.m., which will be 4:00 a.m. your time. So that´s nice. I´m excited about that. Next up we have Paula. She finally wants to get baptized, but her dad, who´s not a member (everyone else in her family is a member though) won´t let her. We fasted and prayed with her this past weekend though, so we´re hoping that they dad changes before this Saturday. We´ll see. She´s 14, turns 15 tomorrow, and is from Bolivia. She´s doing really well though. The other is with a guy we just met last night. His name is Stali and he´s from Nigeria. He´s Kevin´s (an investigator from Levante) friend. He seems really good. His date is for January 2nd. So we´ll see how all that goes.
Also this past week we did intercambios (exchanges) with Inca/Manacor. I was with Elder Egan for Tuesday and Wednesday. It went really well. Basically, our whole week has just been perfect, except for Paula´s dad, and Elder Hunsaker´s been pretty sick, so I´ve been having to set everything up and such so he can hopefully get better soon. He´s getting a little better now though, so that´s good. We also started teaching these two guys this past week named Juan and Junior. Juan´s probably 35 or so and is the son of Remedios (a member). He´s super good. His roommate is Junior and Junior is 21 and from Brasil. THey´re both super good and they both came to church this past week. They could get baptized on Christmas day. THey´re praying about it, so we´ll see what happens. We´re also teaching a girl named Dayana who´s doing really well. She´s Damaris´s other daugther, which means Dana´s (the girl Elder Jacinto and I baptized) older sister. She´s 18, almost 19, and just recently started doing really well. She could also potentially be baptized on Christmas day, we´ll see what happens though. I´m super excited though, because everything is going really well here.
Also, just so everyone knows, everyone here knows I´m going to be president of the United States and they all know I love Christmas. When members see me they´ll see, how long until Christmas, and I´ll quickly calculate and tell them how many days, hours and minutes. It´s fun. And a lot of members also call me Señor Don Presidente, or something like that. It´s good. WEll, I need to be going and start writing individuals now. I love you all though and I wish you a very Merry Christmas in 12 DAYS!!!!!!!!! ¡Chao!
-Elder Ryan Sommerfeldt
12/13/10
12/6/2010
Family and Friends! How´s everyone doing? So first off, it´s December!!!! Which means it´s almost Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!! I have a countdown going and all. So that´s good. So I´m going to start off attaching some pictures. Okay, so I´m not sure the order they all got attached. But one of them is of Elder Cannell, then me, then Elder Jacinto, then Elder Greep, then Elder Bowers. It was their last night there in our piso. It was also the night Barcelona beat Real Madrid 5-0, hence Elder Jacinto and I are in our Barcelona jerseys. Next is of a little adventure we had this past week that involved being on a boat. I´ll tell you more about it later. Anyways, one is of me eating with Elder Hunsaker in the background holding the receipt, because it was expensive. Next is one of the boat that we were on that was taken from a helicopter or something. Next is me at like 6 in the morning dead tired, and next is right after we got off the boat with the Boat name and the sunrise in the background. So yeah, I hope you enjoy those pictures.
So now for the stories of this past week. So on Tuesday is when Elder Hunsaker came in. A problem that happened is that Elder Cannell accidentally took our phone with him when he went to Barcelona, so we had no phone. Anyways, what ended up happening is that Elder Bennington and his new companion, Elder Keeler (he´s a really good missionary) missed their plane. We didn´t have a plane so no one could tell us. WE were planning on them getting back to piso around 11 or 11:30 at night, so we were up waiting for them and it got to midnight and they still weren´t back. So we walked down to the church and called them and they told us they´d missed their plane and went back to the office to spend the night there. So that was a late night. Anyways, then on Thursday night we had to catch a plane that left at 9:55 at night and got to barcelona and 10:45, but it was delayed a bit, so we got there a bit after 11 at night. So that was another late night. Then we had concilio on Friday. It was really good. Concilio is the meeting that the zone leaders have once a month or once a transfer with President and Hermana Hinckley and the Ayudantes (assistants to the president). It was a really good meeting and we talked a lot about how we can be even better, not just obeying all the rules, but obeying all the principles as well. Anyways, so then we had to catch a plan that left Barcelona at 8:30 at night. WE got there just before 7:30 and there were news cameras and such there, so we were all confused. Anyways, what happened is around 6:30 or 7:00 the air control people went on strike, and all flights were cancelled. THey´re still having problems with it. So we called the office and we didn´t know what to do. We were waiting in a line with like 2,000 people in line to try and find out what we could do, but it became clear that no planes would be leaving for at least a day or two. I think they´ve just recently started having planes moving again. So yeah. So President Hinckley through the idea out of us taking a ferry. So we ended up taking a bus and the metro over to the port in Barcelona and we caught a ferry that left at 11 at night. That was a huge pain in and of itself, but it all turned out okay in the end, we just spent hours in line though with thousands of people. Anyways, we went on a ferry across the Mediterranean Sea! It was pretty fun. The only downside is that we were in chairs the whole time, we didn´t get into port until 7 a.m. So I was dead tired. I´d say I got like 2 hours of sleep all night Friday night. We got back to our piso at 8:00 in the morning, then I took a half hour nap, then got ready and we went out to work again. I´m still way tired from it. But it´s getting better and better each day. It was really fun though to be on a boat. It was basically a cruise ship too. They had restaurants, a pool, which was closed, so I still took a picture of it, they had a movie theater, but we´re missionaries so we didn´t go there either. It was just fun being on a cruise ship, but it was a little weird feeling too. And I was super tired the whole time. We bought some dinner on the boat, ate, then we tried to sleep. We also went up on deck a couple times, that was fun. We could still see Barcelona in the distance even like 2 hours after we left. So, that was my adventure of the week.
Next, and more important, Paula and Mabel are still doing good for their baptismal dates for the 18th. Especially Mabel, Paula´s going to be a bit more difficult, but I think it´ll all turn out good. Mabel wasn´t able to come to church this past week because they´re getting their baby a Nigerian Passport and the Nigerian embassy was in Palma this past weekend, but they were there Saturday until Midnight and all day Sunday doing it. So yeah, that was sad, but she´ll come every week, so she´s still doing well. Also, we started teaching two new people. One is named Juan and is the son of Remedios, a less active. He´s about 40 years old and his daughter has down sindrome I think is what she has. He seems like he could be pretty good. Next we went to teach Giovanni, this guy we haven´t taught for a long time, and his friend Miguel was there. WE taught both of them and set up a cita with Miguel and his wife for this next week. SO yeah, things are going well. It was a slower week than normal with transfers and with going to Barcelona, but we´re still doing good.
Elder Hunsaker is from Wyoming, and as he says, there´s 100 cows for every person there. Crazy! He´s a good missionary. He´s really lost in the work. He really likes reading and studying, which is the opposite as me, but that´s okay. He did Martial Arts before the mission, but that´s the only real sport he did seriously. He´s a convert, but he was baptized when he was like 9 or 10. His mom was less active, but the missionaries came and reactivated her and baptized the rest of the family and ever since then he´s wanted to serve a mission. So yeah, now you know a bit more about my companion. Well, I need to be going now, but I hope you all have fantastic weeks. Also, just so you know, I´m not planning on sending anything home for Christmas, but I´ll get you something and bring it back in June, packages are expensive... Sorry. Anyways, things are going great and I´ll talk to you all next week. ¡Chao!
-Elder Ryan Sommerfeldt
So now for the stories of this past week. So on Tuesday is when Elder Hunsaker came in. A problem that happened is that Elder Cannell accidentally took our phone with him when he went to Barcelona, so we had no phone. Anyways, what ended up happening is that Elder Bennington and his new companion, Elder Keeler (he´s a really good missionary) missed their plane. We didn´t have a plane so no one could tell us. WE were planning on them getting back to piso around 11 or 11:30 at night, so we were up waiting for them and it got to midnight and they still weren´t back. So we walked down to the church and called them and they told us they´d missed their plane and went back to the office to spend the night there. So that was a late night. Anyways, then on Thursday night we had to catch a plane that left at 9:55 at night and got to barcelona and 10:45, but it was delayed a bit, so we got there a bit after 11 at night. So that was another late night. Then we had concilio on Friday. It was really good. Concilio is the meeting that the zone leaders have once a month or once a transfer with President and Hermana Hinckley and the Ayudantes (assistants to the president). It was a really good meeting and we talked a lot about how we can be even better, not just obeying all the rules, but obeying all the principles as well. Anyways, so then we had to catch a plan that left Barcelona at 8:30 at night. WE got there just before 7:30 and there were news cameras and such there, so we were all confused. Anyways, what happened is around 6:30 or 7:00 the air control people went on strike, and all flights were cancelled. THey´re still having problems with it. So we called the office and we didn´t know what to do. We were waiting in a line with like 2,000 people in line to try and find out what we could do, but it became clear that no planes would be leaving for at least a day or two. I think they´ve just recently started having planes moving again. So yeah. So President Hinckley through the idea out of us taking a ferry. So we ended up taking a bus and the metro over to the port in Barcelona and we caught a ferry that left at 11 at night. That was a huge pain in and of itself, but it all turned out okay in the end, we just spent hours in line though with thousands of people. Anyways, we went on a ferry across the Mediterranean Sea! It was pretty fun. The only downside is that we were in chairs the whole time, we didn´t get into port until 7 a.m. So I was dead tired. I´d say I got like 2 hours of sleep all night Friday night. We got back to our piso at 8:00 in the morning, then I took a half hour nap, then got ready and we went out to work again. I´m still way tired from it. But it´s getting better and better each day. It was really fun though to be on a boat. It was basically a cruise ship too. They had restaurants, a pool, which was closed, so I still took a picture of it, they had a movie theater, but we´re missionaries so we didn´t go there either. It was just fun being on a cruise ship, but it was a little weird feeling too. And I was super tired the whole time. We bought some dinner on the boat, ate, then we tried to sleep. We also went up on deck a couple times, that was fun. We could still see Barcelona in the distance even like 2 hours after we left. So, that was my adventure of the week.
Next, and more important, Paula and Mabel are still doing good for their baptismal dates for the 18th. Especially Mabel, Paula´s going to be a bit more difficult, but I think it´ll all turn out good. Mabel wasn´t able to come to church this past week because they´re getting their baby a Nigerian Passport and the Nigerian embassy was in Palma this past weekend, but they were there Saturday until Midnight and all day Sunday doing it. So yeah, that was sad, but she´ll come every week, so she´s still doing well. Also, we started teaching two new people. One is named Juan and is the son of Remedios, a less active. He´s about 40 years old and his daughter has down sindrome I think is what she has. He seems like he could be pretty good. Next we went to teach Giovanni, this guy we haven´t taught for a long time, and his friend Miguel was there. WE taught both of them and set up a cita with Miguel and his wife for this next week. SO yeah, things are going well. It was a slower week than normal with transfers and with going to Barcelona, but we´re still doing good.
Elder Hunsaker is from Wyoming, and as he says, there´s 100 cows for every person there. Crazy! He´s a good missionary. He´s really lost in the work. He really likes reading and studying, which is the opposite as me, but that´s okay. He did Martial Arts before the mission, but that´s the only real sport he did seriously. He´s a convert, but he was baptized when he was like 9 or 10. His mom was less active, but the missionaries came and reactivated her and baptized the rest of the family and ever since then he´s wanted to serve a mission. So yeah, now you know a bit more about my companion. Well, I need to be going now, but I hope you all have fantastic weeks. Also, just so you know, I´m not planning on sending anything home for Christmas, but I´ll get you something and bring it back in June, packages are expensive... Sorry. Anyways, things are going great and I´ll talk to you all next week. ¡Chao!
-Elder Ryan Sommerfeldt
11/30/2010
Family! How´s everyone doing? Things are going great here, except for the fact that Elder Jacinto left... He went to Zaragoza to be a zone leader in the new zone that just got created, the Lleida Zone. I´m staying out here for at least one more transfer and my new companion is Elder Hunsaker. I don´t know him very well yet, we came straight from the airport to do internet, so yeah. He seems nice though and he´s from Wyoming I believe. He has the same amount of time in the mission as Elder Jacinto did. He´ll be going home the first part of April.
Alright, so I´m going to attach a few pictures. Okay, the first one is all of us with David and Vanessa and their kids Marta, Jorge, and Carla, the next one is of me in a big chair that was in the street in front of a chair, and we couldn´t help but hurry and jump up there to take a picture. Next is of Aura, Mario, Elder Jacinto, and I, next is of all of us with Carolina and Pancho, and their kids Panchito and Carolita, and the last picture is one of Elder Jacinto and I that I copied from his camera of us when we were at Aura´s with the ocean in the background. Well, enjoy.
Okay, so the big news is that we now have 2 investigators with a baptismal date. First off we have Paula. It was super hard with her. She´s the 14 year old girl that´s Lais´s sister (Lais is a recent convert). She set a date for the 18th of December. Next is with a lady named Mabel, from Nigeria. Her husband, Robert, is a member, but he´s been less-active for a bit, but I think just because of work. Anyways, we had one cita with her and she accepted right away. It was super good. So we´ve made conversion plans for both of them and they´re doing really well. Mabel came to church for the first time this past week even. We also have an investigator named Jefferson who teaches Capoera, it´s like a martial art thing, but like a dance thing too. It´s pretty cool. He´s from Brasil. It´s a place kind of close to Sao Paolo, but not super close. He came to church this past week for the first time as well and loved it.
Oh, this past week we also went out to visit this lady that the branch assigned us to visit because they thought she was less-active. We got out there and found out she isn´t. She´s just been traveling a lot. She´s from England. Do you want to hear the crazy part. So we got talking and she told us that she works for NuSkin, and I told her that my best friend´s dad also worked for Nuskin. She said, what´s his name, I said Brent Goddard, Jon Goddard´s dad, and she´s like, Brent, I know Brent. Apparently when Jon and his family went to Africa a few years ago for the Nourish the Children program, she was there too. She said they work together a lot, so that´s crazy. That´s cool though. She said she was going to tell him that she knows me.
Okay, so with transfers, Elder Jacinto left. Also, Elder Cannell´s leaving to go be a zone leader in Barcelona. Elder Bowers, from Inca also left. So my new companion is Elder Hunsaker. Elder Bennington, the first person Elder Jacinto and I trained, who still lives in the same piso as me, is training too! That´ll be fun for him. He told me he´s going to be asking me a lot of questions. He´s still fairly new himself. He´ll do great though. THe other nice thing is that this past week we had 2 baptisms in our zone. One in Menorca and the other one here in Palma, in the Levante branch. I did the interview for her. Her name´s Lidia. The baptism went really well. Her mom´s been a member for like 17 years now, and her daughter, who´s 22, finally decided to get baptized too. So that was fun to see. For the past 8 weeks we´ve averaged a baptism every week in our zone, and that´s with only 4 companionships. So on average each companionship has been baptizing every other week. THat´s pretty good.
THis past week was Thanksgiving. We ate 3 Thanksgiving meals. It was super good. Although I dídn´t get any chocolate cream pie... That´s okay though.
Alright, the other big news is that Barcelona beat Madrid last night 5-0!!!! That´s crazy. That´s a complete blow out. Well, I can´t think of much more to say, and so I´m going to end this so I can write the individuals. Have great weeks though. ¡Chao!
-Elder Ryan Sommerfeldt
Alright, so I´m going to attach a few pictures. Okay, the first one is all of us with David and Vanessa and their kids Marta, Jorge, and Carla, the next one is of me in a big chair that was in the street in front of a chair, and we couldn´t help but hurry and jump up there to take a picture. Next is of Aura, Mario, Elder Jacinto, and I, next is of all of us with Carolina and Pancho, and their kids Panchito and Carolita, and the last picture is one of Elder Jacinto and I that I copied from his camera of us when we were at Aura´s with the ocean in the background. Well, enjoy.
Okay, so the big news is that we now have 2 investigators with a baptismal date. First off we have Paula. It was super hard with her. She´s the 14 year old girl that´s Lais´s sister (Lais is a recent convert). She set a date for the 18th of December. Next is with a lady named Mabel, from Nigeria. Her husband, Robert, is a member, but he´s been less-active for a bit, but I think just because of work. Anyways, we had one cita with her and she accepted right away. It was super good. So we´ve made conversion plans for both of them and they´re doing really well. Mabel came to church for the first time this past week even. We also have an investigator named Jefferson who teaches Capoera, it´s like a martial art thing, but like a dance thing too. It´s pretty cool. He´s from Brasil. It´s a place kind of close to Sao Paolo, but not super close. He came to church this past week for the first time as well and loved it.
Oh, this past week we also went out to visit this lady that the branch assigned us to visit because they thought she was less-active. We got out there and found out she isn´t. She´s just been traveling a lot. She´s from England. Do you want to hear the crazy part. So we got talking and she told us that she works for NuSkin, and I told her that my best friend´s dad also worked for Nuskin. She said, what´s his name, I said Brent Goddard, Jon Goddard´s dad, and she´s like, Brent, I know Brent. Apparently when Jon and his family went to Africa a few years ago for the Nourish the Children program, she was there too. She said they work together a lot, so that´s crazy. That´s cool though. She said she was going to tell him that she knows me.
Okay, so with transfers, Elder Jacinto left. Also, Elder Cannell´s leaving to go be a zone leader in Barcelona. Elder Bowers, from Inca also left. So my new companion is Elder Hunsaker. Elder Bennington, the first person Elder Jacinto and I trained, who still lives in the same piso as me, is training too! That´ll be fun for him. He told me he´s going to be asking me a lot of questions. He´s still fairly new himself. He´ll do great though. THe other nice thing is that this past week we had 2 baptisms in our zone. One in Menorca and the other one here in Palma, in the Levante branch. I did the interview for her. Her name´s Lidia. The baptism went really well. Her mom´s been a member for like 17 years now, and her daughter, who´s 22, finally decided to get baptized too. So that was fun to see. For the past 8 weeks we´ve averaged a baptism every week in our zone, and that´s with only 4 companionships. So on average each companionship has been baptizing every other week. THat´s pretty good.
THis past week was Thanksgiving. We ate 3 Thanksgiving meals. It was super good. Although I dídn´t get any chocolate cream pie... That´s okay though.
Alright, the other big news is that Barcelona beat Madrid last night 5-0!!!! That´s crazy. That´s a complete blow out. Well, I can´t think of much more to say, and so I´m going to end this so I can write the individuals. Have great weeks though. ¡Chao!
-Elder Ryan Sommerfeldt
11/25/10
11-23-2010
Family and friends!!! How´s everyone doing? So this week I can send pictures finally! So I´m attaching five to this one. First off we have two with me and my Barça Jersey, then the next is a thing that Elizabeth made for me for Christmas, then all of us in our zone at the Mini-CCM, then one of Paul, me, and Edith, and her baby Rodrigo (down in Castellón, I went there this past week, I´ll write about that more later.) Okay, I´m going to send this e-mail and attach five more onto my next e-mail.
The next five are of today. Today we went to a place called Porto Colom. It was so cool. It was probably one of the most beautiful places I´ve ever been. I´m trying to attach 6 pictures. Okay, so the first one is of me with a hawk on my arm. We met this guy while we were there and just started talking. Anyways, he had a hawk and let us wear the glove and had the hawk fly from the trees and land on our arm. It was awesome. The next is of me with the harbor behind me. The next is of Elder Jacinto, Elder Bennington, Elder Cannell, and I in front of two boats that were up on the land. The next is of me sitting on a dock right next to a boat. The next is one of me fishing, and the last one is right before we left with the harbor in the background and the wind blowing. It was probably the best preparation day yet. It was so pretty. THere´s a recent convert in the Manacor branch that lives out there and we talked to him and he took us fishing. It was a ton of fun.
Okay, so I went to Castellón. I´ll talk about that a bit. So we were doing planning on Thursday and I got a call from the lawyer saying I needed to be in Castellón yesterday to be able to pay some fees/taxes and sign some papers. He said if I waited too long then they might deny my residency, which would be super bad. So I called the office and about 4 hours later I caught a plane to Castellón. It was really weird, because I traveled alone, so I was by myself for a long time. On the way there on the plane I met a guy named Thomás, and we became friends. He ended up not being interested in the gospel, but he paid for a taxi to take me from the airport to the train station (about 20 euros), so that was super nice of him. Then I got there and I got to see Armando. Friday morning everything went well and I´m now legal until July 2012. Next, we went and visited Edith. Edith, Paul, and Geraldine. Elder Hancock and I visited them a ton when I was there. Anyways, she´s getting baptized this weekend!!!! I was so excited. She was doubting when I got there, but then I asked her, and she said yes. She wanted me to baptize her, but I told her I had to go back to Palma so I wouldn´t be able to be there, so she still wasn´t sure who she was going to choose. It was crazy. Anyways, I´m so excited for her. Paul and Geraldine still aren´t getting baptized, but hopefully after they see the change in their mom they will be. This weekend there´s also 4 other people that are getting baptized in Castellón. Melina, her parents, and their room mate. I taught all of them too. So yeah, It´s really nice to see all that happening. Anyways, I also got to eat with Mariela, and I got to see Charo right before I left. She met me at the train station. I look forward to being able to go back there after my mission and spend a significant time there and visit everyone. Anyways, all of that was a blast though. ON the plane ride home I sat by a german girl. We ended up talking a bunch, but she´s not interested in the gospel, she is going to pray though. So that´s good.
Okay, so here in Palma, we were able to teach 21 lessons this past week! It was crazy. It was super hard, but in the end we did it. The only bad part is that we still have nobody with a baptismal date, but we will soon. So, what else is new. Leticia almost accepted a baptismal date for this Saturday, but in the end she didn´t because she couldn´t come to church. We´re still working with her though. We started teaching 2 other girls, they´re 12 years old each. As of right now we haven´t been able to teach the families, but we´ll keep working at it. I think one of the main reasons we can sometimes teach people´s kids, but not the parents is because the parents think they don´t have time. I say "think" because most of the time they really do, they just don´t have time to visit with us and watch T.V. for as long as they want to too.
Anyways, transfers are this week, so we´ll see if I leave or if Elder Jacinto leaves. I still think there´s a slight chance we both stay, but it´s very slim. We´ll see how it all turns out in the end. Well, that´s the biggest news. I can´t think of anything else huge that happened. I continue reading The Book of Mormon to try and finish it by the end of the year. I´m near the end of Mosiah. It´s going well. I´m marking everywhere it talks about Faith, Repentance, Baptism, The Holy Ghost, and Endure to the End, with a different color for each one. So yeah. It´s going well. Oh, also, yesterday I put up two Christmas trees in our Piso!!!! It´s almost here. Well, I need to go now and write the individuals. Have a great day though and I´ll write more next week. ¡Chao!
-Elder Ryan Sommerfeldt
The next five are of today. Today we went to a place called Porto Colom. It was so cool. It was probably one of the most beautiful places I´ve ever been. I´m trying to attach 6 pictures. Okay, so the first one is of me with a hawk on my arm. We met this guy while we were there and just started talking. Anyways, he had a hawk and let us wear the glove and had the hawk fly from the trees and land on our arm. It was awesome. The next is of me with the harbor behind me. The next is of Elder Jacinto, Elder Bennington, Elder Cannell, and I in front of two boats that were up on the land. The next is of me sitting on a dock right next to a boat. The next is one of me fishing, and the last one is right before we left with the harbor in the background and the wind blowing. It was probably the best preparation day yet. It was so pretty. THere´s a recent convert in the Manacor branch that lives out there and we talked to him and he took us fishing. It was a ton of fun.
Okay, so I went to Castellón. I´ll talk about that a bit. So we were doing planning on Thursday and I got a call from the lawyer saying I needed to be in Castellón yesterday to be able to pay some fees/taxes and sign some papers. He said if I waited too long then they might deny my residency, which would be super bad. So I called the office and about 4 hours later I caught a plane to Castellón. It was really weird, because I traveled alone, so I was by myself for a long time. On the way there on the plane I met a guy named Thomás, and we became friends. He ended up not being interested in the gospel, but he paid for a taxi to take me from the airport to the train station (about 20 euros), so that was super nice of him. Then I got there and I got to see Armando. Friday morning everything went well and I´m now legal until July 2012. Next, we went and visited Edith. Edith, Paul, and Geraldine. Elder Hancock and I visited them a ton when I was there. Anyways, she´s getting baptized this weekend!!!! I was so excited. She was doubting when I got there, but then I asked her, and she said yes. She wanted me to baptize her, but I told her I had to go back to Palma so I wouldn´t be able to be there, so she still wasn´t sure who she was going to choose. It was crazy. Anyways, I´m so excited for her. Paul and Geraldine still aren´t getting baptized, but hopefully after they see the change in their mom they will be. This weekend there´s also 4 other people that are getting baptized in Castellón. Melina, her parents, and their room mate. I taught all of them too. So yeah, It´s really nice to see all that happening. Anyways, I also got to eat with Mariela, and I got to see Charo right before I left. She met me at the train station. I look forward to being able to go back there after my mission and spend a significant time there and visit everyone. Anyways, all of that was a blast though. ON the plane ride home I sat by a german girl. We ended up talking a bunch, but she´s not interested in the gospel, she is going to pray though. So that´s good.
Okay, so here in Palma, we were able to teach 21 lessons this past week! It was crazy. It was super hard, but in the end we did it. The only bad part is that we still have nobody with a baptismal date, but we will soon. So, what else is new. Leticia almost accepted a baptismal date for this Saturday, but in the end she didn´t because she couldn´t come to church. We´re still working with her though. We started teaching 2 other girls, they´re 12 years old each. As of right now we haven´t been able to teach the families, but we´ll keep working at it. I think one of the main reasons we can sometimes teach people´s kids, but not the parents is because the parents think they don´t have time. I say "think" because most of the time they really do, they just don´t have time to visit with us and watch T.V. for as long as they want to too.
Anyways, transfers are this week, so we´ll see if I leave or if Elder Jacinto leaves. I still think there´s a slight chance we both stay, but it´s very slim. We´ll see how it all turns out in the end. Well, that´s the biggest news. I can´t think of anything else huge that happened. I continue reading The Book of Mormon to try and finish it by the end of the year. I´m near the end of Mosiah. It´s going well. I´m marking everywhere it talks about Faith, Repentance, Baptism, The Holy Ghost, and Endure to the End, with a different color for each one. So yeah. It´s going well. Oh, also, yesterday I put up two Christmas trees in our Piso!!!! It´s almost here. Well, I need to go now and write the individuals. Have a great day though and I´ll write more next week. ¡Chao!
-Elder Ryan Sommerfeldt
11-15-2010
Family and friends! How´s everyone doing over there in the United States of America? Things are going great here. First off I´m going to start attaching a few pictures. I don´t know if it´s going to work actually. If it does though, the first picture is of everyone that was at the Teixeira conference that´s from my group, like everyone that was in the MTC / CCM together. The next one is of me with my Barça jersey, the next one is the back of my Barça jersey, the next is of the Santa thing Elizabeth, the recent convert, made for me, and the last one is of The Hinckleys at the Mini CCM with us. I hope it works out, if not, I´m sorry.
So this week has been fairly good here in Palma. We taught 20 lessons. So that was good. The bad part is that we don´t currently have any investigator with a baptismal date right now. But by next week we´ll have at least 5. That´s our goal. We have a Family Home Evening tonight with Damaris´s friends, so that will be a mom and her daughter. Hopefully that goes well. This past week we had the Mini CCM. It was really good. It was Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. every day. We learned a lot of things and reveiwed a lot of things. It was my week to have the phone out of Elder Jacinto and I, so I had to call and order pizza for Wednesday and call and order Kebabs for Thursday. It turned out good though. In the afternoon Elder Jacinto and I did intercambios with the elders from Menorca (another island). So I taught with Elder Jacinto Monday night, then I didn´t actually teach with him again until Saturday. It´s because Thursday, after the Mini CCM, I went out to Manacor and Inca with Elder Bowers for intercambios. That went well. We taught this one girl named Marta out there who´s the wife of a less active member. It was the first time missionaries have taught her. She was really nice, but she´s really set on her Catholic beliefs. She committed to read and pray about the Book of Mormon though, so that´s good. If she really does that, then it´ll go well. Here in Palma there were two baptisms this past week. Geovana and Félix got baptized. They´re from Levante´s branch. They were supposed to get baptized, last week, but didn´t in the end because Félix´s dad took him to Barcelona last minute. I think I wrote about them earlier. Anyways, so that was really good to see them baptized. She has a caste on her arm too, so they had to wrap it all up with plastic wrap, but it worked out good in the end. I don´t know if I told you guys about Mihaela, she´s a little 9 year old girl from Romania. I think I have. Well, we´ve been trying to teach her family for the longest time, but this past week they told us they´re really not intersted, but they gave us permission to teach their daughter. So now we´ll help her get baptized and then she can go to church with her neighbors and all (her neighbors are members, that´s how we met her). There´s also a 12 year old girl that´s a friend of a member that´s come to church for like 4 weeks, and we finally were able to set up a Noche de Hogar with her, and hopefully her whole family comes. She´s going to invite them. Rodrigo, the investigator that was in the hospital, is out of the hospital now. We have a visit with him tonight. Hopefully he progresses well though. Jesus still has been ignoring us. I don´t know what we´re going to do with him. It´s kind of a frustrating situation, but such is life sometimes. Hopefully we get him to change his mind sometime. Augusto went out to another finca, but we´re probably going to have a visit with him this week and we´ll see what ends up happening. Hopefully it goes well though in the end. He could be baptized if he could just find a way to come to chuch on Sundays. Well, I can´t think of much else to say now, so I´m going to go ahead and end this and write the individuals now. Have a great week. ¡Chao!
-Elder Ryan Sommerfeldt
So this week has been fairly good here in Palma. We taught 20 lessons. So that was good. The bad part is that we don´t currently have any investigator with a baptismal date right now. But by next week we´ll have at least 5. That´s our goal. We have a Family Home Evening tonight with Damaris´s friends, so that will be a mom and her daughter. Hopefully that goes well. This past week we had the Mini CCM. It was really good. It was Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. every day. We learned a lot of things and reveiwed a lot of things. It was my week to have the phone out of Elder Jacinto and I, so I had to call and order pizza for Wednesday and call and order Kebabs for Thursday. It turned out good though. In the afternoon Elder Jacinto and I did intercambios with the elders from Menorca (another island). So I taught with Elder Jacinto Monday night, then I didn´t actually teach with him again until Saturday. It´s because Thursday, after the Mini CCM, I went out to Manacor and Inca with Elder Bowers for intercambios. That went well. We taught this one girl named Marta out there who´s the wife of a less active member. It was the first time missionaries have taught her. She was really nice, but she´s really set on her Catholic beliefs. She committed to read and pray about the Book of Mormon though, so that´s good. If she really does that, then it´ll go well. Here in Palma there were two baptisms this past week. Geovana and Félix got baptized. They´re from Levante´s branch. They were supposed to get baptized, last week, but didn´t in the end because Félix´s dad took him to Barcelona last minute. I think I wrote about them earlier. Anyways, so that was really good to see them baptized. She has a caste on her arm too, so they had to wrap it all up with plastic wrap, but it worked out good in the end. I don´t know if I told you guys about Mihaela, she´s a little 9 year old girl from Romania. I think I have. Well, we´ve been trying to teach her family for the longest time, but this past week they told us they´re really not intersted, but they gave us permission to teach their daughter. So now we´ll help her get baptized and then she can go to church with her neighbors and all (her neighbors are members, that´s how we met her). There´s also a 12 year old girl that´s a friend of a member that´s come to church for like 4 weeks, and we finally were able to set up a Noche de Hogar with her, and hopefully her whole family comes. She´s going to invite them. Rodrigo, the investigator that was in the hospital, is out of the hospital now. We have a visit with him tonight. Hopefully he progresses well though. Jesus still has been ignoring us. I don´t know what we´re going to do with him. It´s kind of a frustrating situation, but such is life sometimes. Hopefully we get him to change his mind sometime. Augusto went out to another finca, but we´re probably going to have a visit with him this week and we´ll see what ends up happening. Hopefully it goes well though in the end. He could be baptized if he could just find a way to come to chuch on Sundays. Well, I can´t think of much else to say now, so I´m going to go ahead and end this and write the individuals now. Have a great week. ¡Chao!
-Elder Ryan Sommerfeldt
11/8/10
11-8-2010
Family and Friends! How´s everyone doing? First off, I meant to say this last week, but I forgot because it was still a bit early, but HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope you had a fantastic day/week. Anyways, things are going alright here in Palma de Mallorca. This past week had some really good things, but also some really bad things. I´ll start with the bad news. So Jesus called us up Tuesday morning and told us he didn´t want to get baptized and he didn´t want to continue with us. I was so sad. I can´t even describe it. Anyways, we tried calling him several times, but he never answered. We had the member that went with us to the cita last week call him up too, but he didn´t answer him either. We´re pretty sure it´s because his cousin told him a bunch of false stuff about our church, or told him that she wouldn´t take care of him anymore if he got baptized. I hope he changes though... We even passed by this past Saturday and he came out, said he had nothing more to do with us and went back in his house... I don´t know what´s going to happen with that. So that was a bit depressing. Augusto didn´t get baptized either because he wasn´t able to come to church on Sunday. So he´s moving this week and will be baptized in two weeks in Manacor, but they´ll be coming to Palma for the baptism, so we´ll be there and all. So that´s good. Also, Levante was going to have two baptisms that were set. It was a single mom and her 9-year old son. On Friday the dad came and picked up the son and took him to Barcelona. So we had to cancel the baptism completely. They´re going to be baptized this next week though. Okay, also, Elder Harris had to stay in Barcelona because of needing the operation, so Elder Greep had to go to Inca and he´s been there since Friday. Next, Elder Bennington has been really sick, and he got really sick when we were in Barcelona for the conference and he had to stay there. He went to the hospital and they figured out he had an intestinal infection. So he was in the hospital for 3 days. He should be coming back tonight. So that´s the bad news. All of that caused almost everyone´s weeks in the zone to not be as good. It´s okay though, we´ll jump up this week.
So for some good news. We all went out to Barcelona on Wednesday for the conference with Elder Texeira of the seventy. He´s the second counselor in the area presidency of Europe. It was a really good conference. Before the conference we had a little 45 minute meeting with the Texeira´s, the Hinckleys, the Ayudantes, and the Zone Leaders. So that was fun to get to be in a smaller meeting with just 12 people and learn a bit more from Elder Texeira. Let´s just say after that conference I have no doubt that we can reach our goal for 404 baptisms for the year. That´s another thing, we just figured out last night that President Hinckley and Elder Texeira were talking and they decided to change the goal from 400 to 404. That´s what we´ve been saying in our zone the whole time. The Ayudante told us that President Hinckley said to Elder Texeira that he´s learned a bit from two missionaries out in Mallorca, and that´s why they changed the goal. So now we just need to work super hard and do our absolute best, and We´ll reach it. It was a really good conference though. We talked a lot about mining for gold, which is where you not only teach your progressing investigators, but you ask if you can pray for some of their friends, then you ask you if you can visit their friends to help them as well, and within a couple weeks you can have a lot of new investigators and people working towards baptism. We´ve been working on getting that going here in our zone since the conference.
So lets see, what else has happened? Oh, I think I´ve told you about José Luis and Mildred (they´re a super good couple, but he needs to get divorced from his ex-wife, and then they need to get married), but their baby was born this past week. And guess when it was born? November 3rd. I told them that their baby, Derek, shares a birthday with my mom and my nephew. So that was kind of cool. Okay, another thing about Barcelona. The night before Elder Cannell (he served in the 1st ward in Barcelona right before me, I replaced him) and I went and visited a couple people that we know. That was a lot of fun. I wish we could´ve visited a few more people, but oh well. Also, I called up Toni, the guy I baptized from Egypt, and he´s doing really well. His only problem is he had to move and now he´s taking care of old people and has to be there 24/7 and they won´t let him leave on Sunday´s to go to church. So that´s not good. He said he still reads and prays everyday. So now I just hope he can get to be able to go to church again too. He said he wants to see me before I finish my mission, so I´ll have to see him sometime. Lets see what else. Oh, on Thursday after the conference and before our plane left we passed by the Sagrada Familia, but not so much to see the Sagrada Familia, I´ve seen it several times, but to get Barcelona Jerseys! I wasn´t going to get one yet, since they´re pretty expensive, but I got one anyways. I got them to write Sommerfeldt on the back, with the number 13, since that´s my favorite number. I took pictures of it and I was going to send them, but I forgot my camera, so it´ll have to be next week I guess. Well, I can´t think of much else that´s new. This next week is a Mini-CCM (Mini MTC) for us. President Hinckley´s coming out and Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday until 4:00 in the afternoon is going to teach us some of the new lessons that help us apply Preach My Gospel better and be better teachers. So that should be good. It also means we´ll have a lot of missionaries in our piso, so it´ll be a crazy week. It´ll be good though.
We also visited a girl named Dayana this past week. She´s Dana´s sister, Damaris´s daughter. We´ll see if we can get her to follow the example of her little sister and be baptized too. She´s 18, and just came back after living with her boyfriend, now ex-boyfriend in Galicia for a year. So hopefully we can help her out a bit. Well, I can´t think of much else to say, so I´m going to go ahead and end this. I hope you all have a great week though, and I´ll talk to you later.
-Elder Ryan Sommerfeldt
10/19/10
10/18/2010
Family and friends! HOw are you all doing? So this big news of the week here is that Dana got baptized!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It went super well. I want to send a picture home, but the computer doesn´t have a working slot for my SD card... maybe next week. We also just got back from a place called Formentor, you can google it if you want, but it was so beautiful. It´s a little peninsula thing with a lighthouse and the ocean crashes against all the rocks, etc. I took a lot of pictures and video. You´ll be able to see it someday, and hopefully next week I can get some pictures sent out. So yeah. So with Dana´s baptism, it went super good in the end. It was a bit of a hassle though doing everything. It was my week to have the phone too, so I was talking on the phone A LOT this past week. There was another guy named Antonio from the Manacor branch, a branch about an hour away, that also got baptized and they got baptized together. So the Manacor president kept on calling us to see what was going on, see if we had clothes Antonio could use, etc. It was a bit of a hassle. We got the programs all made and everything though and at 5:00 my time they were baptized. It went super, super good. Then on Sunday I confirmed Dana. She was super happy the whole time, and her friend Imma, who´s also super cute, she´s 9, came to the baptism and the confirmation. It was funny, because we had 4 investigators in church this past week, and two of them were primary age... So half of our investigators in church are kids. It´s funny. Well, this past week we had district meeting out in Inca, and right after we did intercambios. Oh, first off, I forgot to tell you about the new missionary Elder Jacinto and I are training.
Okay, so his name is Elder Greep. He´s from Utah, around South Jordan. His plane was supposed to get in at like 9:30, but on our way to the airport we got a call saying his flight was delayed. In the end, it was 11:50 that he got in... So we had a lot of time waiting, and we were really tired the next day. He got in though, so that´s good. It was delayed becuase on Tuesday it was pouring rain here. I´ve never seen so much rain. It felt like I was in a hurricane or something, and we were running around to citas and all, and neither one of us had an umbrella. I lost mine in my last area. maybe I´ll have to buy a new one if it keeps raining. Anyways, Elder Greep´s from Utah and he´s a good missionary. We get along well. Also, it was funny, because Elder Bennington pretended for the entire first day to be from England. He actually did the accent really well, and Elder Greep totally bought all of it.
Anyways, so after the district meeting on Wednesday we did intercambios for a little bit to get some interviews done. Elder Jacinto did this interview, and I´ll do the next one that we have to do. Elder Bowers, from Inca, who was a district leader, has permission to do the interviews that Elder Jacinto and I need, so he came out and interviewed Dana. Anyways, to the interview, Dana´s mom, Damaris, brought two of her friends, Silvia, and Cote, and we started teaching them. Silvia now has a baptismal date for the 13 of November. So that´s really good. Silvia and Cote also came to the baptism and loved it. They helped with cleaning up and such more than anyone else.
Next, there was also a lady we started teaching this past week named Susana. We found her through English Classes. She told us that she wanted to be baptized because she had an experience that let her know that God exists, so she went to the Catholic Church to figure out what she had to do. On the way she saw an English Class advertisement and called us up. Then she was going to start the catholic classes this Tuesday at 6:00, but she set up to visit with us instead. She´s very prepared. So we´ll see what we can do to get her baptized as well. We asked if she´d be baptized after she knows the Book of Mormon is true and she said for sure. She said there´s nothing about the catholic church that´s special, she just had heard of the catholic church more than other churches. So yeah. I´m really excited to help her. So yeah. Things are going really well here. This next Saturday we´re having a Noche de Cine (movie night) that we´re in charge of. We´re going to watch "Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration." It should be really good. Not many people have seen that here either. Only those that have gone to the temple have seen it. So we announced that in church and gave out a ton of little invitations. Hopefullky everyone brings a bunch of friends.
I also had to speak this past week. With the baptism and all I completely forgot about it until Saturday night. I got something ready fast though and it actually went really well. I just talked about why I decided to serve a mission and some of the miracles I´ve seen on my misison and how we can all see miracles and be missionaries. So yeah. Let´s see, I can´t think of what else I should say. It´s been a good week. We also finished the week with 20 lessons, exactly. So that was good. Elder Greep, Elder Jacinto, and I all get along well. Elder Greep still isn´t good with spanish, but that´s understandable, he´s only been here for like a week now. He´s getting better and better each day though and he really wants to help the people.
Well, things are going great here in Palma. There´s always those bad days, but the good things are a lot more than the hard things. So yeah. I love being a missionary. I´ll write to all of you next week. ¡Chao!
-Elder Ryan Sommerfeldt
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