One transfer down, fifteen to go!

Well I gotta say that this transfer was the fastest six weeks ever! I can't believe that I'm already on my second transfer. But along with the start of this next transfer, comes a new companion. Yep, Elder Gerber is leaving already. We both honestly thought that he was going to stay in Pamplona for at least one more transfer. But we got the call that he was leaving for Barcelona. I gotta say that I'm a bit nervous because I'm going to be the one showing my new companion, Elder Southwick who was the previous AP, assistant to the President. So this will be interesting. Usually new missionaries stay with their trainer at least for two transfers...but I guess not me haha. But I guess this is how it's supposed to be.

This week I also went on another exchange with another missionary in Logroño. And the funny thing is our companions put us with new missionaries haha. So I went with another missionary, Elder Thompson, who has also been out as long as me. He doesn't speak a ton of Spanish either so we were kinda nervous. But it was actually pretty good. We didn't have any appointments set up at all which was kinda hard so we just did contacts and passed by old investigators for a day and a half. Overall, it was a good learning experience. It taught us both how to work more independently and make do with the little experience we have.

This past week has been great. We've been doing contacts still whenever we can on the streets and we found ten new investigators! It's amazing what happens with the work when you just do the little things. A lot of missionaries hate doing contacts, but I gotta say, they work. This morning we made up this saying: "Contacts are easy, contacts are fun, the gospel is meant for everyone!" haha I'm definitely gonna keep up the contacting.

I gotta get goin though since we have to head out and get ready. I might be able to send another short update tomorrow but we'll see. If not, until next week!

Love and miss you all! Thanks for the love and support :)

¡Feliz Año!

Happy New Year everyone!!! I hope it was awesome! This week has been great. We started off this week with a goal to contact, or talk to, 20 new people every day. It wasn't that hard to do really but it was kinda hard to get up the guts sometimes to just start randomly talking to someone. But we've seen miracles and blessings from it all. We didn't teach any lessons this week with members which was kinda a bummer but we had a lot of other random lessons that we had through talking to random people. And we also found eight new investigators!! For those that don't really know anything about that, that's way good haha.

The weekly goal for the mission is four and we doubled that and it's because we've been working hard and trying to do our part. When we as missionaries do our job, the Lord does His and blesses us. It was amazing to see how many prepared people were just put in our path. Hopefully these progress well and we continue to have success.

New Year's Eve was quite interesting to say the least. We came home early because it isn't exactly the safest thing to be out on the streets when there are drunk people haha. So we came home, made some food, did whatever, and when midnight came we ate our grapes and drank my own mixer drink haha. It's just juice and carbonated water and it tastes way good. The grapes though are a Spanish tradition and it's pretty cool. Every dong of the clock at midnight you eat a grape and make a wish for the new year. It was kinda hard because you gotta eat them real quick or you'll get stuck with a mouth full of grapes haha.

The fireworks started going off allll over the place and went on for quite a while. So it was just a little hard to get to sleep but we eventually did. We got a phone call from one of our contacts at around 7:00 am and she was just a little under the influence haha. She basically just asked if we wanted to come over and have some drinks. Made for an interesting start to the morning. But the next day, no one was outside at allll. It was seriously deserted everywhere you went. We went out to do work like usual and we saw absolutely no one until around 5:00 pm. It was crazy. But I guess that's the way things roll over here haha. It was a fun New Year's Eve though.

This week Elder Gerber and I started companion stretching haha. And don't make fun of us cuz it helps so much. We sleep way better and we're getting flexible at the same time haha. We've made a goal to be able to do the splits eventually...and so far so good! I gotta say it realllllyyyy hurts sometimes, especially when your comp is pulling or pushing on you haha. But we've actually already noticed a difference which is great.

On a sadder note, we attended a funeral on Saturday. The father of one of the members here passed away. The member's name is Milagros and she's awesome. She's so nice to the missionaries and feeds us alllll the time which makes it even better haha. But her son and daughters are also in the ward here and we know them pretty well too. They're a great family and so we went to the service too. I never thought I'd be going to a funeral service on my mission. But it was a great missionary opportunity because a lot of her friends came that aren't members. They said that they loved this service because it was so optimistic about what happens after death. I'm so grateful that we have this knowledge about what happens afterwards and that we can see our family and friends again. The family is doing great too.

In a few days we have yet another holiday haha. El Día de los Reyes is on January 6 and it's basically like another Christmas but bigger. So we bought King Cake which is something people usually get for the holiday. We still don't know what we're gonna do though on that day since no one will be out and stuff. But we'll see.

Thanks for all the prayers, love, support, and letters! I love hearing from you all and how everyone's doing. I love you all and I know the Lord blesses those who strive to do His work. Spread the gospel and the knowledge and peace this gospel brings because many are looking for it but just don't know where to find it. Miracles do happen and will continue to happen so long as this church and the priesthood of God are on the earth. I have seen them and I know that I will continue to see them.

Until next week!

Happy New Year!

This week was quite interesting. A few days before Christmas, we ended up getting stuck in Logroño, another city in our mission for about four days because Elder Gerber, my companion, got sick with a “bathroom issue”. We made the trip to Logroño because as a District Leader, Elder Gerber had to interview a person for a Christmas day baptism.:) Logroño is about 1.5 hrs. away from our area. The day we were suppose to head back on Christmas eve, had us just missed the last bus until Sunday. We were stranded there and didn't really have a change of clothes. So we had to use what we had and do some laundry. But it was kinda fun being with the other Elders there. We ate with a family there and they were great. Their daughter, Sara, just got off her mission to Malaga about two months ago and she's going to BYU in about a week. So some of you might meet her. But now I'm finally back in my own city, and it feels great to have my own clean clothes and food and everything.:)

It was really frustrating this past week because I couldn't do much at all since Elder Gerber was sick. If he's sick, I have to stay with him. So we didn't get to teach anything or anyone, and we were stuck in the piso for a few days. It was awful. And you can only read for so long haha. I just felt like a bum. But now he's all good and we're back to action :).

Hope you all had a great Christmas! Let's just say that this year was wayyyy different than expected. But at least I got to talk to my family :). That was the best part. And of course, I got to delve into my Christmas stocking when we got back!:)

Sorry this one is so short and doesn't really have a lot of stuff in it. It was a pretty boring week to be honest. And we have to run to a visit in a few minutes, again, so my time got cut way short again. Hopefully next week's email will be better.

Have a Happy New Year everyone!!!

¡Feliz Navidad!

Merry Christmas everyone!!! I know it's not quite Christmas. But since I won't be able to email again until after, I decided to say it now. Hope it's great! I'm not quite sure what we're doing here for Christmas...I think we're going over to a member's house with the Hermanas and doing something. Should be fun.

This week was crazy. Tuesday was our Christmas Conference with our entire zone. It was awesome. We got to exchange white elephant gifts and we ate an amazingggg dinner. President and Sister Hinckley also gave all of us a couple of presents. Since our mission nickname is "El Faro", which means lighthouse in Spanish, they gave us all a Lighthouse Christmas ornament. It's way cool. We also have cookbooks coming haha. But they weren't quite done at the printer so they'll just mail them they said.

After the conference I went on my first Exchanges!! For those that don't know, an Exchange is when you and your regular companion split for a day or two and go with another missionary. I got to go to Bilbao for two days with Elder Ramirez who, lucky me, is a native haha. But it was really good practice for my Spanish. Bilbao was an awesome place. Way different from Pamplona but still way cool. We also had to walk soooo much. And Elder Ramirez loves to walk fast. So I was actually way too warm for my coat haha. But overall it was an amazing learning experience.

The rest of the week was iffy. We didn't teach many lessons because we had a lot of appointments just fall through. It's really frustrating when that happens because you don't really have a whole lot else that you had planned. So instead of teaching, we usually just go by people who are listed in the Area Book or run by references. And it is definitely not one of the most effective uses of time. But this Saturday we had a baptism! It was awesome! Her name is Lisa. Her whole family are members but she was the last one. It's awesome to see the hand of the Lord in this work. I love it here :)

I would email more but we're really short on time. We gotta get somewhere soon. But next week I'll have more time. Hope you all have a great Christmas!!!

¡Feliz Navidad!...casi (Merry Christmas!...almost)

I gotta say that this has been one of the fastest weeks ever. And it's also been one of the most emotionally trying haha. But don't get me wrong, I've loved being out here. This week started out pretty dang bad. We weren't having a whole lot of success and everything with contacts, and it was really frustrating. We also had a ton of citas (appointments) fall through. So we had to just pass by other people that we had as references or people to contact. But then there were just some days that were awesome. We had some citas that were amazing and you could feel that Hand of the Lord working on the people. When we had some of our lowest points, that's when we'd have one or two great experiences. The Lord blesses us with just enough to keep us going. And it's working haha.

Living in NY I thought that I had experienced some crazy weather, but I guess not. I swear that the weather here is bipolar. On Wednesday it was 23ºC which is around 70ºF! It was soooo warm and I was loving the weather...but then we woke up the next morning to -3ºC. Talk about quite the change. But even though it's been around -2ºC every morning, it usually gets up to 11º. So it's actually not too bad. And I still have yet to experience the realllll cold stuff haha. But I don't think I'll be experiencing that here. It rarely gets below freezing and rarely snows. But still, add the wind and its pretty cold in church clothes haha.

For those that don't know exactly what missionaries can or can't do, we sacrifice two years of our lives and go and serve the Lord wherever we are sent. I was sent to serve in Spain and I love it. One of the sacrifices we make is devoting our time and energy to the work and to the Lord, which means that we don't have distractions from girls here and cell phones, facebook, etc. So we can't hug girls or anything. It may sound kinda strange but I don't mind it. It's just something you get used to haha. But we went to one of our investigator's piso (apartment) and her friend, Adriana, was there too. And the typical greeting between two women or a man and women is a kiss on each cheek. But as a missionary, we don't do that. But...she didn't know that and she proceeded to greet us like normal haha. It was a little awkward because I wasn't able to react fast enough to say anything. But we explained afterward and she apologized a lot and everything. It was pretty funny. We just laughed afterwards.

This past week, along with the emotional rollercoaster, was our English Fast. And for those that know what fasting is, this is the same thing. Instead of abstaining from food, we didn't speak English for the entire week. It was kinda hard at first because I wasn't used to speaking only Spanish for the entire week. I'd done it for a day at a time but never for this long. But, surprisingly, it became a lot easier. By the end of the week I was thinking in Spanish and speaking fairly easily. Obviously there are still a lot of words and phrases I don't know but I'm amazed at how quickly I learned.

This morning was the first time we could speak English and I kinda forgot so I was still speaking in Spanish to my companion haha. And then we realized that we could switch. But today I've still been going back and forth just because it's a habit now. And now I even form sentences in English based on the Spanish grammar haha. This morning I said something like, "The food's hot, no?" instead of saying, "The food's hot right?" haha. I guess it's a good thing though because it means that the language is becoming part of my daily thinking.

With Christmas just about two weeks away we've been listening to lots of Christmas music haha. I'm lucky that I actually have a companion who enjoys listening to it like me. And we get along well so I can't complain. But it's weird because here in Spain, Christmas isn't that huge. Yes, people still give presents and acknowledge the birth of Christ. But the lights, and the trees, and the Christmas spirit in general is kinda lacking. It's kinda sad to be honest. So we make up for it in our piso. Tomorrow we have a Christmas Conference with our entire Zone and that should be pretty awesome.

There's a quote that Elder Gerber, my companion, said that I want to share. He said, "The time on a mission is kinda weird. A year seems like a month, a month seems like a week, a week seems like a day, and a day seems like a year." And it is so true. I haven't been out in the field for a month yet so I can't quite say that yet haha. But the weeks just go by so fast. I can't believe that another one has already come and gone. But there are definitely some days that just seem like they don't want to end. That's why he said they feel like a year sometimes. But it's all in the attitude.

I guess I'll finish with a scripture I found studying this week. It's Luke 12:34. For some reason it just popped out to me. So there's your spiritual enlightenment for the week haha.

Love and miss you all!