5/11/2011

Here´s the letter to the President:

President Hinckley, this past week has been great here in Barcelona. We´ve been really busy and we´ve been really blessed. We were in piso every single night before 10:00 and we were really able to see how much more effective we were able to be. I think the biggest miracle we saw this past week has to do with Mario and Magda, who will be baptized next week. This past week we taught them Tithing, and it didn´t go over so well. They said they didn´t think they´d be able to do it until next year due to their finances and we ended it basically just inviting them to pray and ask God how they could do it. The next day we went to a baptism in Hospitalet with them and had a quick visit afterwards. We asked them what they thought about tithing after reading the folleto and praying about it, and they told us that it wasn´t a problem anymore, and they were willing to make the sacrifice. They´re doing great, and Elder Keller I think is going to talk more about them in his letter. Elder Keller is probably the best companion I´ve ever had. He´s always working hard and really thinking about the people. He´s driven completely by love, and I´ll miss being able to be with him for this past transfer. We have two other investigators with baptismal dates right now. We have Drés and Sandy, both for the 28-May. Drés Chic is from Túnis, and is doing really well. He used to drink and smoke and he quit it all after the first visit with us. The only problem he has is that he is homeless. He´s in the process of getting his papers, but it could take some time. Elder Keller and I were wondering if you can baptize someone without a house or not. He told us that he does have an address where mail can be sent, but I think it´s just a P.O. Box. He´s currently praying so that he can be able to have a house and be baptized on the 28-May. Sandy Fajardo is from the Dominican Republic and is really nice. He works in an Italian restaurant as a chef. He lives above where Alina Vargas (a member) used to live. She gave us the information for him and his wife Kenya. We´ve only taught him the Restoration, and we haven´t had a second visit. It´s been difficult to visit with him, but we´re doing everything we can so that he and his wife can be baptized. The main thing with them is that we need to set up three visits a week and be able to visit with him and then he can be ready on time. With recent converts I´m going to write about Alberto Román and Mila Sabogal. Alberto was baptized in February and he´s doing great. He has an assignment to help set up and clean up with the noche de hogar on Monday that José Luis gave him. We´ve taught him all of lesson 5 and we´ve re-taught Lessons 1, 2, and 3. We just need to finish up teaching the commandments. He´s doing great though. The only thing he still needs is an interview with the bishop. This Sunday we decided we´re going to talk to the secretary of the ward and just ask if he can set up interviews with all of our recent converts. Mila Sabogal was baptized 2 weeks ago. She´s also doing great. We talked about eternal marriage and temples and she now has the goal to go to the temple in July with the ward for baptisms for the dead, and go again after a year. She´s doing great, the only problem is that she can only come to sacrament meeting right now due to work. I would say the main thing Elder Keller and I have repented of recently is being in piso at 10:00 and filling out the area book after. We´ve been really blessed by doing so. Our planning is better and subsequently the following day always goes better as well. Also, we´re updating the area book so we can now use that as a valuable resource for us and for missionaries in the future. Overall, things are going great here. I´m sad that Elder Keller and I won´t be companions again, but I´m excited to see what me and my new companion can do this next transfer. I have a goal to baptize 6 more people, so I´ll be working a lot, and hopefully I can help even more people than that be baptized. Overall, I still love being a missionary. Thanks for all you do.

-Elder Ryan Sommerfeldt



Family and friends! How´s everyone doing? Things are going great here in Barcelona. I can´t think of a lot to say after talking on the phone just a few days ago, so this may be shorter, I don´t know. Anyways, there is one thing that I was going to tell you that I didn´t tell you on the phone call. I wrote about it in the letter to the president though I just realized, so I´ll just leave it. It´s about the miracle that happened with Mario and Magda with tithing. I´m super excited for them. On Monday we visited with them and went over the interview questions and they´re good on all of them. Tonight we´re going to the family of the relief society president to have a Noche de Hogar (family home evening), then tomorrow morning will be their interviews and Saturday will be their baptisms, at 4:00. We made invitations too. I´ll attach the invitations actually so that you can see them. They turned out pretty well I think. We gave Mario and Magda 20 invitations to give to / invite their friends and families to the baptism, so we can hopefully start to teach even more people. I´m super excited for them though, and they´re excited too. They came to the Noche de Hogar in the church on Monday and we announced the baptism and they had them stand up and they were smiling and so happy. So that´s good. It´s fun too since we just met them 2 weeks ago. I love how the Lord is always preparing people to be baptized and enter into His church. The other news is that Julio, who was going to be baptized this week as well, is not going to be anymore. He didn´t come to church because his wife didn´t want him to go, since it was Mother´s Day. We had a visit with him though and he still wants to be baptized. He´ll be baptized either the 21st or the 28th of May. So that´s fun. Yesterday we had a specialized training for our zone. The zone leaders taught an hour workshop on the role of the spirit in conversion and it went really well. President and Hermana Hinckley taught the rest. Our new schedule in the mission is that one month there´s a zone conference, and that´s where we´ll do stuff, the next month is interviews, and the next month is this specialized zone training, which is basically like a short, less formal zone conference. So yeah, that´s that. It´s going well though. In this next month, in June, we´re going to do zone conferences, so I´ll get to travel all around the mission one more time. Anyways, after the training yesterday the Hinckley´s invited Elder Keller and I to eat with them and their daughter and son-in-law that are visiting. So we ate with them, then we worked on transfers for about 2.5-3 hours. We still have 1-2 hours more to do tomorrow. We´ve basically figured out who my new companion´s going to be, but I´m not going to say yet just in case it changes. I will say though that Elder Keller´s going to Lleida and will be training. He´s really excited. He served there about 8 months ago and it was his favorite area. The missionaries were pulled out for the last 3 weeks of the transfer, so he´ll be white-washing it, but since he already knows the area it will be really good. He´ll be really happy. Things will be good here too. I´ll let you know who my companion is next week, but if it´s the same as is set right now, it´ll be really fun. Well, I can´t think of much else to say. Things are going great here though. We´re still working a lot and we´re going to see a lot of miracles here this last transfer. Also, just so everyone knows, I may not write on Wednesday next week, with transfers and all. I´ll write on either Wednesday or Thursday though. Well, everything´s going great here for me. Have a fantastic week and I´ll write more next week. ¡Chao!

-Elder Ryan Sommerfeldt

5/3/2011 (pictures under "Additional Pictures")

Family and friends! How´s everyone doing? Things are going great here this week. We were able to see Sabrina, Mila, and Rocío all baptized last week. It was incredible. I´m going to attach photos of their baptisms. Okay, so the first one is of Sabrina and her whole family. Left to right it´s Israel (her dad), Coral (her sister), Teresa (her mom) Sabrina, me, and Elder Keller. The next one is just of Elder Keller, Sabrina, and me. The next one is of Me, Felipe (the member that baptized Rocío), Rocío, Mila, Rubén (the member that baptized Mila), and Elder Keller. The next one is me, Rocío and Elder Keller, then the last one is me, Mila, and Elder Keller. Sabrina got baptized on Friday, then Rocío and Mila got baptized on Saturday. They all turned out great. It was so fun to see them. They were all so happy too. That´s the biggest news. The next big news is that in a week and a half we´ll have 3 more baptisms. We met a couple named Mario and Magda. I told the story about it in my President´s Letter which I´ll just send to everyone. They´re doing great though. We visit them practically every day. They´re doing incredible though. Also, we have Julio for the 14th of May as well. I also talked about him in my Letter the the President. Next up we have Drés who will be baptized the 28th of May. I talked about him a bit in the letter to the President as well. We contacted Drés on Sunday in the street, and we walked to the church right then, had a tour, and invited him to be baptized. He´s doing really well. He used to drink and smoke, but he quit drinking after Sunday, and he´s dropped from 20 cigarettes a day to just 1 on Monday. So he´s doing really well. We´re really excited for all of them. Mario and Magda, and Julio will all be baptized Elder Keller´s last week here, so that´ll be fun. Also, some people asked about Jean Pierre, Isabel´s 11-year old son who she wants to do the first comunion. We´re still not sure. We had a visit on Sunday, and it was okay, but we´re not sure what´ll happen. He´ll be baptized before I leave, but there´s a chance it´s not until June. We´ll see what happens in the end. We also had to stop teaching Alberto´s family (Alberto´s the one that got baptized the 12th of February). They just weren´t progressing and they said they´d decided they weren´t going to read anymore, so we had to stop teaching them. It was sad, because we´d become good friends. We´re not here to find people and prepare them for baptism though, we´re here to find people that are ready to be baptized now. We´ve talked a lot about how the field is white all ready to harvest, and that´s what we´re focusing on. We´re looking for people that will be baptized this month. I don´t know if anyone´s interested, but I just realized I can attach the message that Elder Keller and I are writing this month in the newsletter. We write one every month. Here´s this months if you´re interested:

Dear fellow missionaries,

The Lord has declared, “The field is white all ready to harvest.” But what does this mean? How many believe you can baptize every month in the Spain Barcelona Mission regardless of where you serve? How many believe that there are at least four to five people who are prepared to accept baptism in your area each and every week?

The Lord and His angels are “declaring it unto many at this time in [Spain]; and this is for the purpose of preparing the hearts of the children of men to receive his word.” (Alma 13:24) Our missionary service is far too valuable to send missionaries to an area where they cannot baptize. In this the eleventh hour, we have been called to gather in the elect in preparation for the second coming of the Messiah. We are not in our assigned areas by accident; nor do we meet prepared individuals by coincidence. The “elect” may live in the same piso as a recent convert. They may have received a Book of Mormon during Sant Jordi. They may be on a bus, the metro, or a train. They may have family who are members. The Lord has said, “[I will] send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.” (Jeremiah 16:16) We are the hunters. Certainly they are there.

We know that there are prepared people in every area, and not just one prepared person. The Lord prepares His children in family units. We believe this is true. We had a thrilling experience this last week running into a woman on the street. Her name is Magdalena. She was carrying heavy grocery bags and a car seat home and looked like she was struggling. We offered to help. She accepted. As we walked to her home together, she asked us who we were, where we were from, what we were doing here in Spain, etc. When we arrived to her home, the recent convert who was helping us for the afternoon asked if she had a few minutes right now to hear our unique message to the world. She gladly accepted the invitation. We entered, were introduced to her husband, Mario, and had a wonderful, spiritual lesson about the Restoration. Without doubting, they both accepted baptismal dates for two and a half weeks later. Mario and Magda attended church with us this last Sunday and are quickly progressing. This week they will be inviting their three children who live away from home to receive the missionaries. This recent miracle illustrates the two truths that the Lord is preparing His children everywhere, and He is preparing their families as well.

Shall we not go on in so great a cause?

B E ! ¡ E V E

Elder Keller y Elder Sommerfeldt

Here´s April´s if you want it too:

Dear Fellow Missionaries,
Every morning when we wake up and see the sun rising over Barcelona we are reminded how lucky we are to be missionaries serving in the Spain Barcelona Mission. We love being missionaries! In the faro there is a deeply bred culture of excellence. We´re exactly obedient; we have great members in our wards and branches and we work effectively with them; we are professional; we like to sip horchata on hot, summer days and snack on napolitanas; we even sweat through the spring in our jackets; and most importantly, WE BAPTIZE WORTHY CONVERTS!
These things are engrained into our culture, and they make us who we are. In recent months we have added even more to our already rich culture. We find ways to better involve members in our missionary purpose; we find, teach, and baptize worthy converted families; we strive to be fully consecrated missionaries; and we understand that the most important converts we make on our missions are ourselves.
This year we have the goal to help 450 worthy converts enter the waters of baptism. This is a big goal. Is it too big? No. Because of who we are as Spain Barcelona missionaries, we know it is possible to help 450 brothers and sisters be baptized this year. It is going to require that we unite together into a band of brothers and sisters. “This sort of brotherhood [and sisterhood] happens when people give their hearts, might, minds, and strength to a cause greater than themselves. When we work together in a bond of brotherhood [and sisterhood], when we love each other and are loyal and faithful to the great cause to which we have been called, the impossible becomes possible.” (Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin, Band of Brothers) President Uchtdorf affirmed that “none of us can or should move the Lord’s work alone. But if we all stand close together in the place the Lord has appointed and lift where we stand, nothing can keep this divine work from moving upward and forward.” May we all unite into a band of brothers and sisters and lift where we stand. Somos el faro! We love you!
-Elder Keller y Elder Sommerfeldt


I hope you enjoy reading those. Maybe I´ll send January through March later if you want. Anyways though, we've talked a lot about how there´s 4-5 people that the Lord has prepared in every single area. It really is true, so we don´t have time to spend on people that aren´t prepared yet.

Anyways, on Monday and yesterday we were on intercambios. I was with Elder Ramírez. He´s from Ecuador, but grew up in Spain. It was fun. I was in Hospitalet, which is a suburb of Barcelona. It´s like Salt Lake and Sandy would be. It was good. We were able to visit with two people they´re teaching that will be baptized this month, and they´re both doing really well. One of them is getting baptized this Saturday and Elder Keller and I are going to go there with Mario and Magda so they can see a baptism before their own. Okay, with calling me this weekend, it looks like I can do it on Saturday, if it´s 9:00 p.m. my time, so I think that´d be 1:00 your time. If dad can go to his work, then all of you, brothers and sisters and in-laws, can be in on a conference call. That would be good. So yeah. I´ll plan on that. Well, I can´t think of anything else that I need to talk about. I´m doing great and I love being here as a missionary. Have a fantastic week and I´ll talk to you (at least family members) on Saturday, and the rest I´ll write next Wednesday. Have a great week. ¡Chao!

-Elder Ryan Sommerfeldt

4/27/2011

Family and Friends! How´s everyone doing? Things are going great here. We had an incredible week last week and we have a lot of things that´ll be happening this week. Rocío didn´t get baptized last week, but she´s probably going to be baptized this week, along with two other people, Mila and Sabrina. Rocío Popo is from Colombia. We met her about a month ago, and she´s incredible. She´s had this sickness for a long time though that really impedes her reading as much as she needs to, etc., but she´s ready to be baptized this Saturday. I´m 90% sure she will be. Next up we have Mila Sabogal. She´s for sure getting baptized. Rubén (a member from the ward) is going to baptize her. Both Rocío and Mila will be baptized on Saturday at 6:00. Sabrina Ledo was going to be baptized on Saturday as well, but she´s a 9-year old and last night her mom said she wants her to wait until next week and be baptized during the week so it´s just her that gets baptized. We were able to capitilize on that though and instead of moving her baptism back a week, we moved it up to Friday. So she´ll be baptized this Friday at 8:30. The other exciting news is that she wants me to baptize her. I thought I was never going to be able to baptize anyone the rest of my mission because our bishop doesn´t like the missionaries baptizing people, but she asked if I would, so hopefully the Bishop´s okay with that. So that´s good. Also, her dad is doing incredible. He used to never talk to us, but now we´re great friends and all. It´s great. Anyways, I´ll send pictures of all three baptisms home next week. Well, that´s the biggest part of what´s going on here. We also have Jean Pierre, Isabel´s 11 year old son who´s getting ready to be baptized the 14-May. The only issue there is that Isabel finally confessed that he´s been preparing for the first comunion for a long time, so we´re seeing what we can do to help her realize that he shouldn´t do the first comunion, and that he should just be baptized instead. We´ll see how it all goes.

That´s the gist of my week though. We also have a lot of other people, like Gina, Roxana (the girl Elder Keller contacted last week that works in the meat shop), Lidia, etc. So we´ll keep helping people come unto Christ by helping them be baptized worthy converts. Let´s see, this past week we also had a holiday in Spain. Well, it was easter, but also semana santa. On top of that, the 23-April is a holiday called Sant Jordi, where guys buy roses and give them to girls (don´t worry, I didn´t participate in that part), and where girls buy books to give to guys. In this one all of the missionaries participated. We set up a stand at the new Stake Center in Barcelona and handed out Book of Mormon´s all day. We were only there in the morning, but throughout the day they handed out over 400 Book of Mormons, so that was really neat. They had 4 people that just walked into church the next day that had received a Book of Mormon the previous day.
We also had a little issue with some missionaries in Lleida (2 hours away driving) and we had to go up there and help them get moved out and clean the piso too, so that took up our entire day on Monday. It´s crazy how every day´s a different day here. We also have something to do. So yeah, we´re busy, but I´m loving it. Well, I can´t think of much else to say about my week, so I´m going to send this off. Have a great week and I´ll write more next week.

-Elder Ryan Sommerfeldt

4/15/2011

Family and friends! How´s everyone doing? Things are going great here. We just got done with a three-day leadership training conference that we had. We pulled in all of the zone leaders, district leaders, trainers and new missionaries, into Barcelona for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. We reviewed all of the eight lessons that are newer with Preach My Gospel. The Fundamentals of Preach My Gospel, is what they´re called. Starting in May they´ll be teaching these lessons to everyone in the MTC´s all around the world. Elder Keller and I didn´t have to do too much, except for assign everyone that traveled in a place to work in the afternoons. The conference only went from 9:30 until 4:00 each day, so in the afternoons we had to assign other missionaries to go work in other missionaries´ areas. It worked out well. We also had to translate again for the conference. We have a microphone, and then all of the natives have head-sets that they use and they hear us as we translate. I actually like translating, it´s fun to see that the Spanish words come to me so fast, usually at least. It was a really good conference though. We talked a lot about having the faith that we can baptize every month in every area of the mission. So speaking of that, guess who´s getting baptized this week... Rocio! She´s so good. It was close though, because last week she was still a little bit shaky on Joseph Smith, so on Tuesday we watched "Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration." Then we talked about it. Then on Wednesday we talked about The Book of Mormon and how it´s evidence of Joseph Smith, and she was praying about it, and we don´t know how, but she has no doubts about Joseph Smith now, so that´s good. She´s super good. I feel bad for her though. She has a sickness. We think it´s cancer, but she hasn´t told us all of the details, but we know that she has to go to the hospital three times a week for 3-4 hours a time. She´s a really good lady though. She´s from Columbia. I´ll send pictures next week. She´s doing great now though. We also have a ton of other people that are doing great. We have Jean Pierre, Isabel´s son, who finally set a baptismal date. He´ll be baptized the 14-May. It´s pretty far out there, but it´s the day he came to Spain, and we couldn´t get them to move it up. Then we have Mila Sabogal who will be baptized the 7-May, but we´re probably going to move it up to the 30-April because she´s so prepared. Then we have a bunch of other people that are so close. We had a lady named Angela that we were working with who was going to be baptized the 30-april, but she´s fired on all of her visits, so I don´t know what will end up happening with her. I´m trying to think of what else has happened this week, but I can´t think of what else to write. It´s been a super busy week, but I can´t remember everything we did. Oh, last Friday we had Concilio. Concilio went really well. On Thursday night Elder Keller and I taught an hour session, then the rest was on Friday. I didn´t have to do anything on Friday except translate. It was a good Concilio though. We have 4 new zone leaders, so we have a lot of new missionaries. In the group on 9 missionaries that went home we lost 4 zone leaders and 5 district leaders, so we have a lot of new leaders this transfer. We´re working on making sure they´ll all trained in their duties so that we can continue progressing as a mission. We also were able to visit with Nancy. She´s going to come to church this Sunday. So hopefully we can get her into the habit of doing that again, and then hopefully her husband will let her be baptized here soon. Things are also going well with Alberto´s family. Iveris, his 17-year old sister, finally came to church this past Sunday, and it looks like she´ll come again this next Sunday. She´s praying every day to know if she should be baptized. So that´s the news on things here. Everything´s going great. I love being a missionary. Also, I was going to say, congratulations to Rachel! That´s super neat. I´ll be there this time. Well, I hope everyone has a great week and I´ll talk to you next week. I think my preparation day will be on Wednesday next week. Anyways, ¡Chao! -Elder Ryan Sommerfeldt

4/6/2011

Hello everyone! Things are going great here in Barcelona. It´s a little weird though because we just got back from the airport from taking 9 missionaries home... So the mission is very different now. Among those 9 missionaries is Elder Jacinto and Elder Hunsaker, my two companions from out in Palma. They were both great missionaries, and it was sad to see them leave. I´ll see them in a few months at BYU though since they´ll both be going there. We lost 9 missionaries though and only gained one hermana. So we went down a total of 8 missionaries this transfer. We had to close a few areas, but next transfer we only send home two and we get like 10 new missionaries or something like that, so we´ll be able to get back to where we were. The hermana that came in is named Hermana Soderquist, she knows two of the elders in our mission and was in Jen´s singles ward at BYU, so that´s fun. When we saw her at the train station I said I´m Elder Sommerfeldt, and she said, oh, you´re Jen´s friend, right? So that´s fun how many connections she has with everyone. Anyways, she´s going to be a really good missionary. She´s being trained by a native up in Pamplona, which is 5 hours away or so by train. Okay, next off General Conference was great this past week. I loved it. I don´t know if I´ve told you, but every time we have a conference or something we write down questions we have, and there´s a promise that if we have the question written down and we´re looking for the answer, that we´ll find it. So I had 4 questions written down and I got answers to all of them. So it was a beneficial conference. In Spain we watch the Saturday sessions and the Sunday morning session, but we don´t get to see the Sunday afternoon session because it starts at 10:00 on Sunday night. Maybe I´ll be able to see it or parts of it though since we´re in the office a substantial amount now. We´ll see. This past week with transfers we also had a lot to do. One of the most time consuming project was making the Viejos video. It´s not on the Mission Blog yet, but it should be within a week. It took us so long to make. We filmed all of them Sunday and Monday and made it all on Monday. We finished with it super late and didn´t get much sleep that night, then this morning we had to wake up early again to drive people down to the airport, so I´m really tired. Yesterday I was feeling a bit sick actually, like a really bad headache/dizzy, etc., but I´m feeling a lot better today, so that´s good. With our investigators things continue giong well. Rocio came to conference and liked it. She´s still going well for the 16th-April, except we were going to have a visit with her yesterday, but she wasn´t there, so we need to figure out what´s going on there. Next, Julio wasn´t able to come to conference because his wife made them do something, so we had to move his date to the 23rd, but we saw him last night, and he´s doing well. Next we have Angela and her family. I don´t know if I told you about them. Actually, I know I didn´t, we just set the date on Saturday. It´s a family from Ecuador. There´s a mom (Angela), a dad (Cesar) and two kids (Javier-27 yrs old and Jimmy-18 yrs old). The only one right now that´s official with the date is Angela. Cesar has to work Sundays, and the kids weren´t home when we had the visit where we set the baptismal dates. But Angela really wants them to be baptized too, and they´ve both read in the Book of Mormon quite a bit too, so I think for sure Angela and the 2 kids will be baptized the 30th of April, and if Cesar can get his work changed then hopefully he can too. They´re a really good family though. The biggest problem is that they´re always super busy, and there´s only one time each week when they´re all home, unless it´s at 11:00 at night, which is too late for us. But we´re going to start visiting the whole family on Saturdays and then visit with people individually once or twice during the week so they can all be ready by the 30th. They´re a really good family though. I´m excited for them. we also have several other investigators that are doing really well, and I think they´ll be baptized this month as well, but we haven´t been able to set baptismal dates with them yet. We will soon here though. We also finally got a hold of Nancy again. We´re going to visit her tomorrow. Then we´re going to talk about a time we can just meet her husband, not to teach or convince him or anything, mainly just to become friends and hopefuly gain his trust. We´ll see how it all goes. This Friday is Concilio, which is when all of the zone leaders fly in to Barcelona and we have a meeting. Elder Keller and I are in charge of an hour long meeting on Thursday night, and then on Friday we´re up in the mission home with the Hinckleys. It´ll be good. Overall, things are going great here. I can´t think of what else to say. Here´s a question though, when´s Easter? I was just curious. Oh, some other big news is that Ana María finally came to church this past week, to General Conference. The only funny part is that she came to the Priesthood Session... Oh well. In Spain some people are weird and there was like 10 girls there anyways, so it turned out okay. We´re going to talk with them this week and see how it went. She´s Alberto´s mom (Alberto´s the recent convert that Elder Keller and I baptized). Also, Iveris (Alberto´s sister) promised to come to church this next Sunday, so we´ll see what we can get going there. Basically, right now we´re just overwhelmed with a ton of things we need to do in the office, and we still have a ton of things going on in our area where we need to work a lot. It´s going though. It´s good to be busy. Well, I can´t think of much else new to say, so I think I´ll go ahead and wrap this up. I hope you all have great weeks though. I´ll talk to you later. ¡Chao! -Elder Ryan Sommerfeldt

3/30/2011

Family and friends! How´s everyone doing out there! Things are going great here in Barcelona. So the good news is that yesterday we did the preliminary transfers with President Hinckley and Elder Keller and I will be together for one more transfer. We´re both really excited about that. He basically let us choose. Well, he let Elder Keller decide if he wanted to leave this transfer or wait one more. He also asked who I want to have as my companion for the next transfer. So I have six weeks or so to pick who will be my companion for my last transfer. I´ve got some ideas, but we´ll see what´s best over the next six weeks. Anyways, things are giong great in our area too. We have some bad news with Nancy. We haven´t been able to talk to her for 4-5 days. We´re not sure what´s wrong. We´ve called her, but she doesn´t answer anymore, and everyone time we´ve passed by her house she hasn´t been there. We think it´s one of two things. Either she got a job and really has zero time, or else she talked to her husband and her husband told her not to even visit with us anymore. We´re not sure, but we´ll keep on trying. She´s too good to just drop. With Juana, we re-set her date for the 30-April to be baptized. She´s actually moving today though to the Hermana´s area in Hospitalet. She lives right on the border of our area, and she´s moving over just two metro stops, but it puts her into their area. We´ve already warned the hermanas, so she´ll be fine. The other big news is that we have two new people who are both working towards the 16th of April to be baptized and are doing great. One of them is named Julio Vargas, and the other is Rocio Popo. Julio Vargas is a guy that was visited by missionaries about six months ago and he was preparing to be baptized. Then he had to go to Peru and never got baptized. He came back to Spain on Wednesday, and on Thursday bought a phone and found the card he´d saved from the missionaries six months ago, Elder Raban and Elder Southwick, and called us. So we visited with him on Sunday and he´s now going great for the 16th of April. He´s even going to help an older lady with cancer move today with the Elder´s Chorum,s o that´ll be good for him. Also, we have Rocio. She´s a room mate of Christian. I don´t know if I´ve said this, but in Spain, people rent out rooms, so there´s always multiple people /families living in the pisos. So we got fired on on Saturday and decided to pass by Christian, one of our investigators, and she was there. We´d invited her to listen in the past, but she´d always been busy. Anyways, this time she came in. Elder Keller and I taught better than I think we ever have, and the spirit was there super strong, and she accepted to be baptized on the 16th of April. She´s an active member of another church as well, and goes every Sunday and every Wednesday, but our visit was on Saturday, and the next day she didn´t go her church, and she came to our church instead. Christian, our investigator that´ll be baptized in Columbia, also told us that she got called to work Sunday morning, which here with the crisis people take work whenever they can, but she turned it down because she was coming to church. So she´s doing really well. We left her with 3 Nephi 11-26 to read, which is a lot, but she wanted to know all about when Christ visited the americas, so I´m really excited for her. She´s doing great. I never said with Julio either. The first day missionaries contacted him 7-8 months ago he had prayed that morning because he was having problems, and he said to God that he would go to the first church that God showed him. He´d gone throughout the day and had nothing, then Elder Raban and Elder Southwick were walking and they were with a member. The member had asked them how they know who they need to contact and in the middle of explaining it to the member they saw Julio and stopped him. He told them about his prayer and started right from there to prepare himself to be baptized. Miracles happen. I love this work. It´s clearly directed by God. So that´s the big update on our investigators for this week. Things are going great here in Barcelona. I love it. I´m so happy that Elder Keller and I get to stay together for another transfer as well. The other day we had an investigator that we ran into invite us to go to a Kebab place and get kebabs, so we did. While we were eating he was telling us that we were really good missionaries, and that you could just tell that we worked really well together and that we were really unified and worked for the same purpose. This was from Christian, the investigator that´s been investigating for 15 years and knows hundreds of missionaries. He´s going to be baptized in 2-3 weeks. Right after he goes back to Columbia. I don´t know if I ever told you, but we were pushing him to be baptized here, and then we just randomly read a chapter from the Book of Mormon with him one day, and it happened to be the only chapter where it talked about the people postponing the day of their baptism, so he´s going to wait now. It was a direct answer from God. It´s neat to see God answer prayers. I love it. I´m sorry BYU lost. That´s too bad. In Jimmer going to be playing for us again next year, or does he graduate? Well, I can´t think of much else I should say, so I´m going to go ahead and finish this up. Thanks for all of the e-mails and all of the prayers and support. I´ll write more next week. ¡Chao! -Elder Ryan Sommerfeldt

3/25/2011

Family and friends! How´s everyone doing? Things are going great here for me. We just got done with all of the zone conferences. They were really good zone conferences. We talked a lot about working with members, extending commitments, and being consecrated missionaries. I learned a lot, especially since I got to be in 6 zone conferences within 2 weeks. Elder Keller and I had to teach a workshop on working effectively with the Ward Council. I think it actually went really well though. President Hinckley just asked us yesterday if tomorrow, on Saturday, we can share it in a meeting they´re having with all of the stake presidents in the mission, as well as Elder Paya, of the seventy. So we´ll have to do really good with it tomorrow. With all of the conferences we also had pizza from dominoes, so the Hinckleys, Elder Keller, and I all ate pizza a lot these past couple of weeks. Okay, so I have several stories to tell. The first is that on our way to Lleida with the Hinckleys they told us an interesting e-mail they had received. What happened is that a couple weeks ago when Elder Keller and I went to Bilbao, in the airport in Barcelona upon returning we contacted a mom and a daughter from Italy. They were really nice. We offered to help them with their bags and as it turned out the mom had just recently broke her arm and was really appreciative of our help. We also helped them find where they needed to go since they don´t speak spanish, and so we were with them 5 minutes or so. Anyways, then we left and we even commented that it was kind of sad that we´d probably never see them again. However, President Hinckley got an e-mail that said the following: Goodmorning, I'm an italian student from Rome,my name is Lavinia Rutigliano and I'm sending you an e-mail because I met two american boys who were very kind with me and my mum at Barcelona Airport.They helped us in carrying our luggage(my mum has a broken arm),they are missionaries,they told us they come from Utah and they're staying in Spain for two years.They gave us a card with this website www.sud.org.es and an address : C/Marquès de Sentmenat 35-37 Metro:Plaça del Centre.We would like to contact them,unluckly we don't know their names,we only know that they are 21 and one of them studies chemistry and physics and the other one studies finances. We were in Bacelona for Comenius Project involving students of my mum's high school,Liceo Ginnasio Augusto in Rome and Joan Brossa's students in Barcelona,we thank you in advance if you will be able to keep us in touch with these american students. Our best regards. Lavinia Rutigliano Lucrezia Lopopolo So that was a lot of fun to see. We´re going to send them an e-mail and get missionaries out to them here soon. They had to have gone through a lot to be able to find President Hinckley´s e-mail. I don´t know how they did it. I´ll keep you updated on that though if I hear anything that happens with it. Okay, the other fun thing is that on the way from Lleida to Barcelona Elder Keller fell asleep and Hermana Hinckley was in and out of sleep, so I got to talk to President Hinckley and learn a lot more about him. I learned how he and Hermana Hinckley met, I learned what it was like when his dad became a general authority and an apostle, etc. It was fun. Anyways, after that we got to go to PALMA!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was so fun. I had a blast. I was with Elder Bennington and Elder Keller was with Elder Hunsaker. We got to go to eat lunch with Damaris and Dana, so that was fun. It was sad though, because we got there late, and Dana had to leave 10 minutes later. I took a picture with her and she started crying and ran out the door crying without even saying good bye and said, you were supposed to come earlier as she walked out the door. She had to go to school, and was sad that she didn´t get to be there while I was there. Luckily though I got to see her the next day, because we worked it out so Damaris could meet us at the church and then I talked to Dana a bit more, then Damaris drove us to the airport. So it all turned out good in the end. In Palma I also got to see a bunch of other people, like Sergio, Lais and Paula, Yomaira and Edgar, Mabel and Robert, Luis, and Elizabeth. So that was fun to see everyone again. I was super sad leaving when we got on the plane. I love it there. The zone conference went super well too. Well, things continue going well here in our area as well. The only slight issue is that Nancy´s husband, Johnny, said she can´t be baptized. I think it´s just because he doesn´t know us yet. I bet after he gets to know us though that he´ll change. We´ll see what ends up happening. We have a visit with her tonight, and the Hinckleys actually had us invite Nancy and Johnny over to their house sometime, so that should hopefully help. Things continue the same with Juana. I hope everything goes well with her in the end, but we´ll see. Well, I need to wrap this up, but I hope everyone has a fantastic week. I´ll talk to you later. ¡Chao! -Elder Ryan Sommerfeldt P.S. GO BYU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!