Called to Madrid South

Jake was asked  to write a letter home to the Graham Oaks ward that Ty was able to read in our ward Sacrament Meeting: _____________________________________________________________________ A very merry Christmas and a happy New Year from Spain! I hope you are all doing well and enjoying this wonderful season of reflection and renewal. After spending 3 months in Cáceres, I am now in the beautiful beach city of Málaga. I am currently companions with Elder Peredo from Bolivia and I'm learning lots of Spanish! It has already been 6 months since I left and time is flying! I am always out of my comfort zone, which means I am growing in ways I didn't think were possible. As I missionary my perspective has become more magnified. Things going on in the world or at home begin to lose focus, as I begin to zoom in on the personal conversions of others. Let me share one experience that demostrates that very conversion and Lord's part in it.  One Sunday in early November, we began our wa...

A very merry Christmas from Spain! I hope everyone is enjoying this special time of year when we can enjoy the company of friends, family, and the greater focus on the birth of our Savior.  Another eventful week here in Spain. I was able to do 2 exchanges and was able to learn a lot from their examples. Much of the training we receive as missionaries simply comes from other missionaries and their experience. For example we receive advice in district councils, zone conferences, and exchanges. The knowledge that you have as a missionary most often just comes with lots of time and experiences.  Lots of ups and downs this week! A few of our friends asked that we stopped teaching them after a month or so of progress w hich was difficult, but I know we did what we could. We have some new friends so, as always, there's hope on the horizon! We got back in contact with Nehuel, and now his friend is coming to the activities too! We're still working with Viviana, but it has been a bit of...

This past week started off with a bang with a Christmas Conference with the whole mission! We arrived in Madrid on Sunday night and said "hi" to everyone and toured the beautiful temple grounds. The next day we gathered at 7:30 in the church to hear messages by the APs, President Obando, and some musical numbers. I think it was so cool to have so many missionaries gathered together with the same goal in mind and the same dedication to the work. After that, each zone put on a little scene of the birth of Jesus Christ. Unfortunately I don't have a video of our part, but maybe it's better that way. I returned from Madrid late on Tuesday with my companion. It's an odd feeling but I'm now the one leading out the area and directing what we do. It feels really nice to finally know what I'm doing, but also pretty tiring. We have a friend named Eddi who we found about a month ago on exchanges. He only speaks French so he has been getting taught by a different elder...

Let me begin by apologizing for the late email and for those I did not respond to. Yesterday was absolutely amazing, but also really busy. More on that in the letter for next week!  Wow the transfer is already over! I'm actually really sad to see this one end. I really have enjoyed my time with Elder Andersen and the other Elders that we're sharing the ward with. Elder Andersen got called up to the big leagues as ZL in Sevilla, and I'm gonna miss him a lot. He was absolutely hilarious and taught me how to work like a dog. My new companion will be Elder Peredo from Barcelona and I'm so excited to speak Spanish with him! Also I will now be ward sharing with Elder Price who was my trainer a transfer ago. Kinda wild to be back together, but I’m really looking forward to doing big things this transfer.  It has just been a downright fun week. We began by eating wayyyy to much at a sushi buffet near our church and were served well by a very kind robot. We also went bowling and...

We started this week off with a bang with a Turkey Bowl to celebrate Thanksgiving! We went down to Granada and played with a bunch of Elders from the zone. We escaped with no injuries, but American football, along with normal fútbol, was banned in the mission this week   This week was little difficult to be honest. We lost contact with many of the people we set for baptismal date this last week and one of them that was progressing nicely didn't feel that the Word of Wisdom was something she wants. That said, we always have new friends and things to look forward to. For example, Viviana was a friend from Columbia we met on Friday. She already came to church on Sunday and is very interested in the church. She already knows a lot and we should be meeting with her more this week.  Not a lot more to talk about this week, but on Tuesday I did exchanges with Elder Oporto. He's from Peru so we got to speak Spanish all day   Its always fun to learn and spend the day with othe...