A note from Susan, Skyler's sister:
Thank you sooooo much to everyone who entered my contest to win a date with Skyler! I would have said thank you to all the "girls", but we had one guy enter too. Too funny! Anyway, at long last I'm here to announce the winner. (We did the drawing last night over the phone and webcam with Skyler.) And the winner is...
BROOKE B.
So be expecting a call from Skyler soon! And thank you again everyone for entering and being such great sports! Stay tuned in 3 years to win a date with Jason Carr! :)
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Friday, September 10, 2010
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Win a Date wtih Skyler!
I posted this once before on here, but it was a little premature. So now I am posting it again. For those of you who don't know, I (Susan, Skyler's sister) am holding a contest to win a date with Skyler when he gets home from Spain soon. Either leave a comment on here to enter, or email me directly at carr_susan_e@yahoo.com . I will draw a name from the entries from a hat in a couple weeks, so hurry, hurry! For any of those mom's out there who want to enter their daughter, that is totally fair, so email me. Skyler is an AWESOME guy, as you can tell by this blog if you read his letters home, and it totally fun too.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
the end of an epic ride 1 Sept 2010
I am left with very little time. I have been pushing back all of the going home stuff as long as i could, but i have run out of room to run, so i had a good long reading session. Trunky. Bah.
Alright, on to the real stuff.
The Lord is really being merciful and letting us be really busy this week. It is helping so much. There are wierd moments, but it is super easy to get rid of those since this is a strict contacting mission. Just stop someone and talk. It is really easy to get rid of sucky feelings when focusing on helping someone else feel something. Sadly, when we are in the apartment there are no people to stop, and since everyone is sick of listening to me i decided to come up with something to distract me. Honestly you would think it would be like a journal or scriptures or something like that, but i will be honest, its not. Not at all. I found an EFY song i like so i am coreographing a dance for it and we are going to do it as an apartment boy band on the last day and record it... No buts about it.
Hmm, probably didnt need to share that, but whats done is done.
Oh, interesting thing happened. A man from the Mormon Channel podcast thing came to the temple to interview people about it. He interviewed Elder Middleton and me and it should come out in november. I doubt we will get a part in it since he said he has over 30 hours of audio for a 30 minute segment with narrative, but it was a cool 13 minute experience so no worries.
Alright, couple of things. We have seen a miracle in the life of a guy we started teaching last week. Mostly just the total turn around in his life. He came to us with scars on his arms from his depression and cutting saying his life was a wreck and he didnt know what to do. We got to explain and it pretty much came down to the fact that he got here a while ago and fell in love with a prostitute and his relationship with here was destroying his life...... Duh. That was a no brainer. We got to have some really good spiritual throw downs with him and in just a week it has been incredible to see the change. Kind of interesting point- the things he likes the most about the church is the hymn book. (sorry this is all so jumpy, i am way out of time) He is done with her, going back to his country to try to fix things in his life and get back with his family, and when he gets back he is going to be baptized. One thing that really hit me was when he was explaining the first meeting we set up with him he had fallen asleep right before. While he was asleep he says he felt his bed shaking as if somebody was trying to get him to wake up and when he woke up there was nobody but he suddenly remembered the appointment and came running. The rest has changed his life.
The next thing was with Alvaro, the young man we have been working with toward a baptismal date. We sat down with him last night because he has been having hard time and we needed to have a heart to heart. We have been wondering if he was really ready to be baptized because we didnt just want him to join the church because of our friendship and have him fall when we leave. We wanted to have our own confirmation before setting up the interview. We started casually asking hte baptismal interview questions and it was really sketchy at first. We asked if he believed God was his Father. He said that he didnt really know what that meant. We asked if he believed in Jesus Christ and he said that he didnt really understand how it worked. We asked if he believed in Pres Monson as the living prophet and he said he didnt know enough to say honestly, but that he did like how when he read anything by him it made him want to be better. Then we asked if he believed the church had been restored and he said that what he felt and saw really made him believe it was, but that he was really trying to be sure. HE then reminded us of something we taught him in the beginning. He said that when we told him that as he read the book of mormon his testimony would grow he knew it was true and he has seen it happen. Better but not quite there. We decided to ask why he even wanted to be baptised. HE said that he wanted to be clean, he wanted to be a new person and start again. We asked what that meant for him and he said that he would get to live every moment of his life trying to progress towards God so that he could get to know him better. When he said that we both felt it. He was doing everything right and he was really seeing miracles in his life.
I wish i had time to be cheesy and come up with a good ending for this, but i will leave that for the sleepy homecoming.
Quick note: i think the most powerful random feeling right now is that of gratitude. I just keep thinking about how many incredible things i have seen, done and learned and cannot believe i got the chance to be a part of it all.
Its true. All of it.
Love,
Elder Carr
Defender of the Faith
185 lbs.
Alright, on to the real stuff.
The Lord is really being merciful and letting us be really busy this week. It is helping so much. There are wierd moments, but it is super easy to get rid of those since this is a strict contacting mission. Just stop someone and talk. It is really easy to get rid of sucky feelings when focusing on helping someone else feel something. Sadly, when we are in the apartment there are no people to stop, and since everyone is sick of listening to me i decided to come up with something to distract me. Honestly you would think it would be like a journal or scriptures or something like that, but i will be honest, its not. Not at all. I found an EFY song i like so i am coreographing a dance for it and we are going to do it as an apartment boy band on the last day and record it... No buts about it.
Hmm, probably didnt need to share that, but whats done is done.
Oh, interesting thing happened. A man from the Mormon Channel podcast thing came to the temple to interview people about it. He interviewed Elder Middleton and me and it should come out in november. I doubt we will get a part in it since he said he has over 30 hours of audio for a 30 minute segment with narrative, but it was a cool 13 minute experience so no worries.
Alright, couple of things. We have seen a miracle in the life of a guy we started teaching last week. Mostly just the total turn around in his life. He came to us with scars on his arms from his depression and cutting saying his life was a wreck and he didnt know what to do. We got to explain and it pretty much came down to the fact that he got here a while ago and fell in love with a prostitute and his relationship with here was destroying his life...... Duh. That was a no brainer. We got to have some really good spiritual throw downs with him and in just a week it has been incredible to see the change. Kind of interesting point- the things he likes the most about the church is the hymn book. (sorry this is all so jumpy, i am way out of time) He is done with her, going back to his country to try to fix things in his life and get back with his family, and when he gets back he is going to be baptized. One thing that really hit me was when he was explaining the first meeting we set up with him he had fallen asleep right before. While he was asleep he says he felt his bed shaking as if somebody was trying to get him to wake up and when he woke up there was nobody but he suddenly remembered the appointment and came running. The rest has changed his life.
The next thing was with Alvaro, the young man we have been working with toward a baptismal date. We sat down with him last night because he has been having hard time and we needed to have a heart to heart. We have been wondering if he was really ready to be baptized because we didnt just want him to join the church because of our friendship and have him fall when we leave. We wanted to have our own confirmation before setting up the interview. We started casually asking hte baptismal interview questions and it was really sketchy at first. We asked if he believed God was his Father. He said that he didnt really know what that meant. We asked if he believed in Jesus Christ and he said that he didnt really understand how it worked. We asked if he believed in Pres Monson as the living prophet and he said he didnt know enough to say honestly, but that he did like how when he read anything by him it made him want to be better. Then we asked if he believed the church had been restored and he said that what he felt and saw really made him believe it was, but that he was really trying to be sure. HE then reminded us of something we taught him in the beginning. He said that when we told him that as he read the book of mormon his testimony would grow he knew it was true and he has seen it happen. Better but not quite there. We decided to ask why he even wanted to be baptised. HE said that he wanted to be clean, he wanted to be a new person and start again. We asked what that meant for him and he said that he would get to live every moment of his life trying to progress towards God so that he could get to know him better. When he said that we both felt it. He was doing everything right and he was really seeing miracles in his life.
I wish i had time to be cheesy and come up with a good ending for this, but i will leave that for the sleepy homecoming.
Quick note: i think the most powerful random feeling right now is that of gratitude. I just keep thinking about how many incredible things i have seen, done and learned and cannot believe i got the chance to be a part of it all.
Its true. All of it.
Love,
Elder Carr
Defender of the Faith
185 lbs.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
no es difithil querreros 25 Aug 2010
It was a cousin that served here! Now i even know the name and can pretend we were best buds, and maybe someday we can even become best buds. Thanks Matt. When i met Elder Paya he looked at the tag and asked if they called me Superman too. I had no idea what he was talking about, but he was a general authority, so i pulled the good old smile and nod. Luckily he explained it after, but it was definitely ironic because i do get Clark Kent a lot. Not due to any work ethic or overachieveablity (from now on that is a real word) but rather to the glasses and perfectly sculpted wave in my hair that is now a month and 3 days old (my birthday present to myself- i call it my onda). I have had a couple random people bring it up but the one of greatest note is Pepi (Josepha) Maneu. She is in the ward i am serving in right now and we see her everyday because she works at the temple hostal. She is actually our adoptive spanish mother. We even got to be there for the baptism of her neice, Paula. Awesome connection.
The proclamations Susan put together sound soo good. Everyone here loves Susan. My companions love her for the packages. The members love her for the picture book which has turned out to be as good as gold. The investigators love her for the youtube video she made of my call- i still have no idea how they find it. Speaking of wierd stuff found on youtube, the ward has been having a good time with the tyedye and the knitting on mom's show which they tracked down on youtube. Youtube!
Finally! Business out of the way and we can get on to the good stuff.
Guess what? The church is true! My whole mission i have always loved to put that to the test and do what i call truth detectors. Today i had just one of those moments. Week 5 of every transfer is Madrid soccer week after we get out of the temple. All of the mission mormonaries from madrid show up. While we were waiting for the crowds to gather we snook the water battles of several elders away and set them up on top of the goal. We then took turns trying to hit them. I have holes in both my shoes so luckily i had an excuse for sucking because i was horrible. I didnt even come close. Also fortunate is that we were all extremely united in our terribleness. Then i did the test. The test has yet to fail. It really is incredible. I put the ball down from the furthest away spot attempted and procclaimed the test, "if i get this the church is true" and took the shot. The ball flew through the air like a torpedo from heaven and completely destroyed the small bottle in the middle and left the poor bewildered elder amazed and thirsty for the rest of the day. This has worked with a football from the far side of the gym, a rock with a skinny tree in the distance, the united states beating spain in soccer last year, and countless other moments. There it is. Nobody can say my testimony is not built on a sure foundation.
Oh my, running out of time.
Yesterday was a blast at our basketball activity. Every week we get like 25 poeple and there are never more than 5 that are members. Yesterday was special because a ton of new people showed up and we have appointments with all of them for later this week. The best part though was with a guy who has been coming since the beginning. He is a paraguayan man that used to play professionally in bolivia until he hurt his knee so now he is limited to the spotlights of the Madrid 6th ward chapel lights. He is an amazing guy but has never accepted meeting with us because he is afraid to try something different then the catholicism he grew up with. Luckily, the Lord let him smash his finger at work that morning so he asked us if we had tape to tape it up for him. We took him to our little first aid kit across temple square in the security office and took care of him. While there he saw the camera screens the security look at and asked why the security was so good. We then go to explain what the temple means to us. Seems like that got him thinkind. Towards the end of the night we told everyone that there was time for one more game because we had to be getting home. He was sitting out and came over to sit by me. He asked why we have such a strict schedule. Then he asked what we do all day. Then he asked how we make a living out here. Then he asked why we come. I gave him my whole story. Afterwards he got a hint of why we look people in the eye when we tell them it is true. He thought about it for a bit. Then after a few seconds of silence he turned and said, "i want a book of mormon." There are so many incredible people in that activity. So fun to get them asking questions. Sadly, the bishop of another ward is trying to shut it down because there are too many non-members.... hmm. No worries, good intentions are easy to work with.
That does it for today.
I love everything about my life,
Especially y'all,
Elder Sky
The proclamations Susan put together sound soo good. Everyone here loves Susan. My companions love her for the packages. The members love her for the picture book which has turned out to be as good as gold. The investigators love her for the youtube video she made of my call- i still have no idea how they find it. Speaking of wierd stuff found on youtube, the ward has been having a good time with the tyedye and the knitting on mom's show which they tracked down on youtube. Youtube!
Finally! Business out of the way and we can get on to the good stuff.
Guess what? The church is true! My whole mission i have always loved to put that to the test and do what i call truth detectors. Today i had just one of those moments. Week 5 of every transfer is Madrid soccer week after we get out of the temple. All of the mission mormonaries from madrid show up. While we were waiting for the crowds to gather we snook the water battles of several elders away and set them up on top of the goal. We then took turns trying to hit them. I have holes in both my shoes so luckily i had an excuse for sucking because i was horrible. I didnt even come close. Also fortunate is that we were all extremely united in our terribleness. Then i did the test. The test has yet to fail. It really is incredible. I put the ball down from the furthest away spot attempted and procclaimed the test, "if i get this the church is true" and took the shot. The ball flew through the air like a torpedo from heaven and completely destroyed the small bottle in the middle and left the poor bewildered elder amazed and thirsty for the rest of the day. This has worked with a football from the far side of the gym, a rock with a skinny tree in the distance, the united states beating spain in soccer last year, and countless other moments. There it is. Nobody can say my testimony is not built on a sure foundation.
Oh my, running out of time.
Yesterday was a blast at our basketball activity. Every week we get like 25 poeple and there are never more than 5 that are members. Yesterday was special because a ton of new people showed up and we have appointments with all of them for later this week. The best part though was with a guy who has been coming since the beginning. He is a paraguayan man that used to play professionally in bolivia until he hurt his knee so now he is limited to the spotlights of the Madrid 6th ward chapel lights. He is an amazing guy but has never accepted meeting with us because he is afraid to try something different then the catholicism he grew up with. Luckily, the Lord let him smash his finger at work that morning so he asked us if we had tape to tape it up for him. We took him to our little first aid kit across temple square in the security office and took care of him. While there he saw the camera screens the security look at and asked why the security was so good. We then go to explain what the temple means to us. Seems like that got him thinkind. Towards the end of the night we told everyone that there was time for one more game because we had to be getting home. He was sitting out and came over to sit by me. He asked why we have such a strict schedule. Then he asked what we do all day. Then he asked how we make a living out here. Then he asked why we come. I gave him my whole story. Afterwards he got a hint of why we look people in the eye when we tell them it is true. He thought about it for a bit. Then after a few seconds of silence he turned and said, "i want a book of mormon." There are so many incredible people in that activity. So fun to get them asking questions. Sadly, the bishop of another ward is trying to shut it down because there are too many non-members.... hmm. No worries, good intentions are easy to work with.
That does it for today.
I love everything about my life,
Especially y'all,
Elder Sky
Monday, August 23, 2010
Period. 18 Aug 2010
Alright, i cant hold it in anymore, we had one of the coolest things happen yesterday. No one can ever tell me that my incapacity to control the volume of my voice has never done me any good. We contacted a family in the park the other day and they were really cool.. We gave them the Elder Carrleton experience (Carr + Middleton = Carrleton) and they loved it. They asked if we would be in the area the next day so they could see us so we agreed on meeting them in the park. Sadly, the weather was bad so they didnt show. Luckily, this is the Lord's work so something even cooler happened. We were walking through the park, a little bummed that they didnt show and we saw a group of kids playing on the play ground in the distance. About seven 12 year old kids. Like always, the kids yelled at us when they saw us. Like always, i yelled back. Then they said a couple of english words they know. Then i said a couple of english words that i remember. They were a little shocked because what i said sounded way cooler than what they said so they decided to come running over to ask what was said. We gave them a little run down on the lingo and there was one that spoke really well, a couple that spoke okay, but the rest were terrible. Then we started asking them about their english classes and why they hadn't learned anything. They said that they didnt like it and they didnt care. I told them that was stupid. Then we spent a good while talking about college and working hard. It was wierd and a little sad. You could tell that none of these kids had ever had anyone motivate them to be better, much less tell them that they could do it. They soaked it up and asked tons of questions about it. Of course they are still kids and would try to crack jokes or would say stupid stuff, and of course we would one up them and maintain the obvious dominance and forced himility upon them. They loved it. As we were leaving the ring leader, kind of the alpha-kid, came up to apologize for some of the dumb stuff his friends said. He was actually the one who spoke really good english and talked the most about wanting to go to the university. We started talking and he was the most incredible kid i have ever met in spain. Elder Melocoton (as i call him) caught some of what we were talking about and immediately was amazing and kept the other kids entertained by asking them to ask him any question about the mormons. While he had those ones on the side i asked Angel, this amazing kid, what he wanted to do in his life. He said he wanted to go to Harvard. I said, "do it" and a light just came on inside of him. He made an excuse about not knowing if he could pay for it and i said to not think one second about. Just work hard and do it. Then he looked at me for a second and out of nowhere just said, "i believe in God." He said that he just felt like there was something there. Then i got to tell him what i had felt and how. Even got to tell him about the Book of Mormon. He just looked excited to hear it all. I told him we would give him one and that he could feel it too and he said that he would love to have what we had. Then he hit me with a shot to the heart. Must have been one of the heart melting bullets because it worked. He said that he had actually walked on temple grounds before. He was alone and he didnt know why he wanted to go look at it, he just really felt like he wanted to. He said that as soon as he set foot on the square he felt something he had never felt before. Something very peaceful. He just felt good. We exchanged some numbers and some testimony and we will be seeing him later. Apparently Elder M had a good time with the other kids too because they called us that night to ask if we could show them around and give them a tour. It was so fun herding six 12 year olds all around the church.
Incredible experiences every moment of everyday, but so little time to even scrape the surface.
Oh well, take your scrapings for now.
Love you,
Elder Sky
Thursday, August 12, 2010
my dear mamacita 11 Aug 2010
I am sitting here beginning one of the most rushed emails ever, and there is an awesome elder sitting behind my and he just saw the title. He asked, "doesnt that have certain conotations?" I just looked at him and said, "you better believe it."
I would like to make a quick interjection to rhett- I stand corrected. Sharks are definitely not mammals. I tried to come up with some tricky cover up to protect the few remains of my shattered pride, you know, something like the fact that i was referring more to the aggresive mother sharks: mama maulers, or mamauls, but there is not time for such ticky tacky work. I will let you have this one. Twoshay (i didnt know how to spell that so i purposefully spelled it as horribly as i could).
I think the talk on the 19th sounds great. I was hoping to be able to add in something interesting and i think the jet lag will be the perfect spice. I remember what it did to me when i got here, i cant wait to see what it does when i am in front of a couple hundred people. I accept your challenge.
So we have become a bit infamous in the mission for being the zone that always has awesome activities every transfer. Today we topped it all. We planned on having a zone dodgeball day, but after thinking it over we decided to make it our zone vs. all the other madrid zones. It went down gloriously, and we are the dominant zone. I was pretty dominant for the first 5 minutes. Well, that is until a stray ball somehow found its way out of my hand and into a sister's face. No harm done, but i didnt feel too good about that one. After a while we switched it up and started trying out new teams since we had about 50 missionaries there. We did Utah vs. everyone else, people who use the lisp vs. poeple who dont, new missionaries vs. old ones, stuff like that. It was fun and it helped some of the bilbao and malaga people who have been having a hard time with the change get to know some of the mission. President even came and he would even cheer after i acted out an extremely overdramatic death after getting hit by a ball.
Sorry, time is super short, all the locutorios were closed until like 20 minutes ago. Let me hurry and get something worthwhile in.
We have been teaching a lot of really young people lately, So much of our efforts have been focused on youngins. I love teaching people that are younger than me. The lessons just stop being lessons. I love just talking with them and sharing what i have felt and helping them feel it. We do that with everyone but they accept it alot better. We have been teaching a kid who has been staying here with his cousins for the summer. He is from new york and is a total gangsta. We have had some awesome lessons and he has been reading and one time when he prayed he felt something incredible. He was worried with how his parents would accept it but this week he got a call saying that the missionaries talked to his parents and they are being taught and really like it. There are no such things as coincidences (you better believe that is sincere because i dont even know how to spell that word).
Sorry that is brief, but we gotta run to a lesson.
Health is great, life is happy, love is overflowing,
Elder Sky
I would like to make a quick interjection to rhett- I stand corrected. Sharks are definitely not mammals. I tried to come up with some tricky cover up to protect the few remains of my shattered pride, you know, something like the fact that i was referring more to the aggresive mother sharks: mama maulers, or mamauls, but there is not time for such ticky tacky work. I will let you have this one. Twoshay (i didnt know how to spell that so i purposefully spelled it as horribly as i could).
I think the talk on the 19th sounds great. I was hoping to be able to add in something interesting and i think the jet lag will be the perfect spice. I remember what it did to me when i got here, i cant wait to see what it does when i am in front of a couple hundred people. I accept your challenge.
So we have become a bit infamous in the mission for being the zone that always has awesome activities every transfer. Today we topped it all. We planned on having a zone dodgeball day, but after thinking it over we decided to make it our zone vs. all the other madrid zones. It went down gloriously, and we are the dominant zone. I was pretty dominant for the first 5 minutes. Well, that is until a stray ball somehow found its way out of my hand and into a sister's face. No harm done, but i didnt feel too good about that one. After a while we switched it up and started trying out new teams since we had about 50 missionaries there. We did Utah vs. everyone else, people who use the lisp vs. poeple who dont, new missionaries vs. old ones, stuff like that. It was fun and it helped some of the bilbao and malaga people who have been having a hard time with the change get to know some of the mission. President even came and he would even cheer after i acted out an extremely overdramatic death after getting hit by a ball.
Sorry, time is super short, all the locutorios were closed until like 20 minutes ago. Let me hurry and get something worthwhile in.
We have been teaching a lot of really young people lately, So much of our efforts have been focused on youngins. I love teaching people that are younger than me. The lessons just stop being lessons. I love just talking with them and sharing what i have felt and helping them feel it. We do that with everyone but they accept it alot better. We have been teaching a kid who has been staying here with his cousins for the summer. He is from new york and is a total gangsta. We have had some awesome lessons and he has been reading and one time when he prayed he felt something incredible. He was worried with how his parents would accept it but this week he got a call saying that the missionaries talked to his parents and they are being taught and really like it. There are no such things as coincidences (you better believe that is sincere because i dont even know how to spell that word).
Sorry that is brief, but we gotta run to a lesson.
Health is great, life is happy, love is overflowing,
Elder Sky
Thursday, August 5, 2010
hola mamacita 4 Aug 2010
So the flight plans are in... oh my gosh, so wierd. I am not gonna lie, I am way super excited to see you all, but i am not happy at all that this is ending. Oh well, i will just take my frustrations out on Jason. All better.
We just got back from the museum of natural science. It was cool. We went for the dinosaurs and there were no dinosaurs. The entance was just roped off and i was like, "what the heck?" Under construction, so they say. It cost us 5 euros. The cool stuff i saw added up to about 4.10. The dinosaurs would have made the difference. It was like the spanish version of the
florida sea world trip all over again. Just waiting to see those sharks. All day seeing other sub par stuff just thinking about how cool those sharks are gonna be. Then it happened. Right before getting to the sharks. The beginning of Jason's acrobatic career begins with him careening off a bar onto his chin. The blood was cool, but it was not the resuflt of giant watery mammals tearing through the flesh of other helpless fish.
Wow, that was a forgotten piece of trauma that just surfaced. Sorry you had to experience that. Looks like another frustration i will have to take out on Jason when he gets here.
The baptism of Paula was incredible. Such an amazing program and turnout. She had a really hard day but came through like a champ. She said when she woke up that morning she almost called us to say she couldnt do it because she was attacked by feelings of being unprepared. She talked herself through that and went for a walk. While walking she got the thought to stop by the train station and catch a train to take her as far away as she could possibly get. Luckily, she ignored that one too. Then she got home and started to feel very very sick. She couldnt take it any more and just fell to her knees. She said she couldnt do anything else in that moment but pray. She just told God that she was not good enough and in no way ready, but that
she would always follow Him. She said that she would trust Him and leave her life in His hands. When she was baptized she understood why. I think she felt the Hands.
She is in the picture. The rest are her family and friends of the ward.
Life is good. Time is short. Love is abundant. Jason is in for it.
Just kidding,
but seriously.
Love,
Elder Sky
185 lbs. everyone says i look skinny... well, just the latina mamas.
Friday, July 30, 2010
Varadero, Cuba 28 July 2010
There are some huge posters on the walls of this computer place and i decided the two that i like the most were the one of Machu Picchu and one of an awesome looking beach which turned out to be Varadero, Cuba. That explains the subject. I hope Rhett is still planning on cruising cuba with me because it is definitely something i am counting on.
As for the week, no, wait! I have to say thank you. The birthday package was.... da bomb! Thank you so much for all the effort that was put into that. I know it is hard to believe, but that was the best present i have gotten on a mission birthday, heck, i even had a surprise party and was given a 25 lbs watermelon that was incredible, seriously, we think they pumped it full of something because it is sooo good, like my mouth is watering right now thinking about it, but honestly, it is not even in the same league as the stuff you sent, so cool, so sweet, so boss. Mom, i will kiss you right on the face when i see you. And all you others that pitched in with letters, even those i dont know, be warned, you are loved and i may have the same thing in store for all of you.
Alright, now we can get on to the good stuff. This week has been filled with, wait! Sorry, one more thing before i forget. I have gotten it a lot lately, and once from a general authority, so i have to ask- our cousin who served here, the carr, did he serve around the years of 85-87 under Elder Piat? I remember meeting him at a family reunion we invited ourselves to over in pleasant grove or something. I would like to know because there are a few people here who served around him who keep bugging me about it.
Okay, that is it, no more interuptions, on to the week. The week was filled with all sorts of, WAIT! Ha, just kidding that time. For reals, more than just experiences i think it is landmarked by interesting people. For example- there is one that we refer to as DOSM, which stands for Dirty Old Spaniard Man. We also use DOSM because it rhymes with awesome, but that is besides the point (but totally awesome). Our experience with him took place at a little kiosk sort of thing that sells otter pops. We were doing business and he came up, drunk as a dog (you better believe dogs get drunk), asking me if i knew any girls he could become acquainted with (NOTE: the true sayings of DOSM have been edited for the sake of the younger readers). He was a very dirty old spaniard man, hence the name. From the time i have been on the mission i have come to realize that the only way to shake off a drunk is to confuse them. Normal response encourages them, fear feeds them, annoyance angers them, ignorance has no effect, but english, oh my dear beloved english, confuses the living stars out of them. When he started talking to me, i responded in english and he was taken very off guard. He starting yelling that he had sworn he heard us speaking his language, but i just kept it going, and within 30 seconds he was off yelling at a stray dog. It was brilliant. Then as we left it got even better. We said goodbye to the otter pop man in spanish and then saw him so i said "take it easy" and he repeated it kind of in a mocking voice, and you would never believe it, but it sounded perfect. That is the secret to the english accent: drunk spaniard! It was incredible.
Then we were teaching Paula, the one who is getting baptized this week, and got to have a fun little question and answer. It was all normal stuff until she pulled out her bible and asked one that had been bugging her for a long time. She has been reading the old testament and it has been hard for her to read about the cleaning out of the holy land in Joshua. She was wondering why they killed everyone, even the children. I looked at her for a moment, then, reaching for my book of mormon said, "that is why we love the book of mormon". She accepted and things are better than ever.
Next interesting people were found in the Red Cross distribution center in a mystical land called Arganda del Rey. It is about 30 minutes from Madrid and is filled with Romanians and Gypsys. We went to go do service handing out food and the people that volunteer there are so cool. They absolutely hate religion, but love the missionaries to death. Elder Dunn, the missionary i went with, is training right now so i guess they got excited about having a missionary that could speak a little more spanish than normal. They took us for a tour and showed us the ropes. After, when they all usually go out to get drinks, they took away our agency and made us go with them. It was fun to see them in their natural habitat. So much artificial joy. It was fun to have a real smile when we walked out of that place. Free cokes and american music videos explained by half drunk spaniards- wonderful.
Alright, last one i have time for is named Ronny. He is very likely the most amazing man i have ever met in my life. We got a call from the temple saying that a man walked in that wanted to talk to us. We skidadled on over and found him sitting in the waiting room reading. He is a christian convert from Iran that grew up in Kuwait and had to run away to Armenia and now was looking for a better life in Spain. Some of the stuff he told us about was mind blowing. All the fighting he saw in Kuwait was really hard on him, then the turkish slaughtering of christians in armenia made him become a refugee with his family and his being apart from his family looking for work seemed to be the hardest part of it all. He said that not too long ago he met two missionaries that were the nicest people he had ever met. They gave him a book of mormon and he read it in 3 weeks. He came to the temple to tell us that he wanted to be baptized. He was amazing. The first thing he said was that he was Ronny, he was from Iran, he loved God, and did not hate americans. He lives in another elders area but talking to him was a really humbling experience. Hard to believe, but i am sure even harder to live.
Sorry for the lack of time. Every week it is the same.
Love you,
Elder Sky
Friday, July 23, 2010
many thanks 21 July 2010
I am super excited to get your stuff, you are all so faithful at winning my love. It is yours.
So i experienced a lot of firsts this week. Three that are of the greatest interest.
#1: At precisely 7:12 last saturday evening we were at a members house helping him fix his printer and at that very moment i fell in love with shakira. Her new wakka wakka song came on the computer and it was a choice between that and the rear end of the member as he battled with the chords of the printer. She won.
#2: We were teaching Paula the law of chastity and she had one of the hardest doubts i have ever had to faced on my mission, and it is for the sole reason that it was absolutely doctrineless. She had already said that she would live it, in her words, "if God says it, we do it." But it troubled her to think of her personal future as to the fact that she had no idea what was allowed within the dating realm. Her question was- how do mormons flirt? She just couldnt imagine it. It was awkward. We were there with her aunt, her new friend in the church, and a member man: all single mormons. And then of course us who are in a class of our own. Unpracticed and unavailable. The best thing i could muster was that she needed to come to the US and walk across the BYU campus once and she would see, hear, and experience all she needed to.
#3: Mission Council with the new boundaries. The tricky thing with this is that the mission now is twice as big with the canaries as the cherry on top. It was too hard to make everyone travel, and president wanted it to be fully combined, so we got to skype it. Leon and Santiago set up in their chapels to get the video conference going, and the canaries did the same a little bit later because of the time zone difference. We got to go to the MTC and use the systems there. The biggest lesson i learned: the church has some serious tools at its disposal. It was way fun to judge the heck out of all the other missionaries. I dont know why that happens, but it is so much fun to just try to figure them out by what you see on a blurry plasma screen and hear through the speakers. I would love to know what they think of us. For some reason Elder Middleton and i sat in front of the camera most the time, were the first to be asked to do everything, and did the training. Everything in our own special way. We will see if we run into them some other day.
Best quote this week: "Elder Middleton, when i first met you i thought you were the biggest slacker of a lazy missionary i ever met. And then when i found out you and elder carr were my zone leaders i thought to myself - how could he put two of them together? But now i know that i am wrong. After your workshop in zone conference and our exchange i know that you are both great missionaries and somehow know how to have fun." -Elder Jackson (Trainee in his 2nd transfer)
Sorry, we need to end this fast. We dont have enough money to pay for the extra time.
Love,
Elder Sky
So i experienced a lot of firsts this week. Three that are of the greatest interest.
#1: At precisely 7:12 last saturday evening we were at a members house helping him fix his printer and at that very moment i fell in love with shakira. Her new wakka wakka song came on the computer and it was a choice between that and the rear end of the member as he battled with the chords of the printer. She won.
#2: We were teaching Paula the law of chastity and she had one of the hardest doubts i have ever had to faced on my mission, and it is for the sole reason that it was absolutely doctrineless. She had already said that she would live it, in her words, "if God says it, we do it." But it troubled her to think of her personal future as to the fact that she had no idea what was allowed within the dating realm. Her question was- how do mormons flirt? She just couldnt imagine it. It was awkward. We were there with her aunt, her new friend in the church, and a member man: all single mormons. And then of course us who are in a class of our own. Unpracticed and unavailable. The best thing i could muster was that she needed to come to the US and walk across the BYU campus once and she would see, hear, and experience all she needed to.
#3: Mission Council with the new boundaries. The tricky thing with this is that the mission now is twice as big with the canaries as the cherry on top. It was too hard to make everyone travel, and president wanted it to be fully combined, so we got to skype it. Leon and Santiago set up in their chapels to get the video conference going, and the canaries did the same a little bit later because of the time zone difference. We got to go to the MTC and use the systems there. The biggest lesson i learned: the church has some serious tools at its disposal. It was way fun to judge the heck out of all the other missionaries. I dont know why that happens, but it is so much fun to just try to figure them out by what you see on a blurry plasma screen and hear through the speakers. I would love to know what they think of us. For some reason Elder Middleton and i sat in front of the camera most the time, were the first to be asked to do everything, and did the training. Everything in our own special way. We will see if we run into them some other day.
Best quote this week: "Elder Middleton, when i first met you i thought you were the biggest slacker of a lazy missionary i ever met. And then when i found out you and elder carr were my zone leaders i thought to myself - how could he put two of them together? But now i know that i am wrong. After your workshop in zone conference and our exchange i know that you are both great missionaries and somehow know how to have fun." -Elder Jackson (Trainee in his 2nd transfer)
Sorry, we need to end this fast. We dont have enough money to pay for the extra time.
Love,
Elder Sky
Saturday, July 17, 2010
The octopus does it again 14 July 2010
Before i even start thinking about writing the big stuff (which is pretty dumb to say since writing that there i was thinking about it (and even moreso now)) i will answer questions.
Wards in Madrid? There are 8 wards in the actual city, but if you go out about 45 minutes there are a lot more. Mostly branches out there though.
Where do they meet? There are 4 chapels shared by the 8 wards spead out in the four corners.
Where is the Stake Center? It is on the temple lot.
Where is the mission home? It is about 40 minutes from the center of madrid by bus, in car it is much much less, It is in a really nice area.
Okay, enough of the funny business. You need to hear about what happened. I have never in my life even dreamed of ever thinking about being near imagining what went down on sunday night. Epic. The entire day there was an inexcapable buzz in the air. Even at church you could tell that peoples thoughts were on the game. Honestly, had they discovered the cure for cancer on sunday, nobody would have heard anything about it until today. When the game started, the city died. The only people on the streets were the people who either left the bar to take a smoke or to throw up, both because of the nerves of it all. It was impossible to do anything. Nobody would accept visits. Nobody would stop to talk unless it was solely to yell a swear word about the game and follow it immediately with a chest bump. It was incredible. Every bar was filled to capacity. The streets were lined with big screens and shoulder to shoulder crowds. In the center i heard that on one single street there were more than 300000 people watching. So of course, with every living spaniard worshiping their false god in full dedication, we found ourselves standing outside the window of a bar watching the game. Luckily, it only caught us for about 10 minutes because then we had to go inside to do weekly number calls. We started getting things ready, still listening out the window for the sounds of the game, as was explained last week. Then it happened. Something that cannot be scaled on the missionary sound classifications. The explotion of noise, the silence, the gasp, and then the absolute loss of all reason. Fireworks exploding right out the window, people rioting through the streets, jumping into the fountains, climbing on passerby cars, and to top it all off, a huge beetle flew in through the window and landed on my face and really freaked me out. Even the bugs were celebrating! As you can imagine, calls didnt really happen. Too much noise and when the goal was scored the entire system locked up. It was a pretty noisy night, day, and following night. At least one thing is for certain: the work will proceed a great deal because now the spaniards believe in God. I hear the cathedrals saw record crowds for the sunday morning mass.
Now, to abruptly change the subject, we had zone conference yesterday. It was way fun. They asigned us a one hour training where we had a specific theme for the first thirty minutes and then our own thang for the last 30. It was way fun. We bought a rope and played a game then talked about it. The assistants, who are in our zone, along with Hermana Watkins said they were supposed to go around and listen to all the different workshops but they stayed in ours the whole hour because they didnt want to miss anything. That got the pride canteen all filled up as normal. Then to make good things great, Hermana Watkins singled me out in her talk. She spoke on unity and said, "Dont worry about being similar, just be united - if we all had to be like each other, Elder Carr would never survive."
Now for another radical change of topic. This last week we started teaching... wow, there is a kid that just snuck up behind me and started screaming at the top of his lungs. It really freaked me out. I looked at him and just started sreaming with him and he stopped. Okay back to business, wait, getting a call..... Done, now we can start. This last week we started teaching a girl named Paula. She is from Barcelona and is a really cool girl. Incredible life. I dont want to lest it off just for her sake, but suffice it to say it climaxes at a failed suicide attempt. The poor girl was just searching for something. When we met with her we had some really humbling lessons. Stuff that just leaves you speachless. We did feel very strongly that she could get a clear answer if she really searched, and that is what we promised her. We gave her asignments and she read them all and more. She would pray every chance she got, just pleading for something to help her know that she had not gone through all that she had for no reason. When we met with her she just said that there was nothing. It was hard for us. Times like that are tough because it is so far out of our control. But we knew what we had felt with her, we knew we had done our very best to leave our hearts on the table as always so we left her in the Lords hands. She came to the baptism on saturday and said it was interesting but still nothing. She came to church and went through all the classes and still had received nothing. Then we got to the last hour which is sacrament for us. She said that during the passing of the sacrament she felt really calm so she decided to give it one more try. She started to pray and said that she plead like she had never plead before. Then she just let her heart pour out and told God that if he would let her feel that He was there then she would be baptized and do whatever she needed to, but she just wanted to feel it. And in that very moment she said that the most overwhelming feeling of joy she has ever felt came over her. So much that she almost couldnt breath and just started to cry. We talked to her that night and when she told us about it we cried with her. I felt really strongly that she need to set the date then so we told her that we would help her fufill her promise and i said the first date that came to mind which was the 14th of august. As soon as the date was out of my mouth i felt the strongest feeling of "no, she has waited long enough, she deserves it now." She had agreed gladly with the first and i thought it might not be good to take the moment, but it was a really strong feeling and when i looked at my companion i was obvious he was feeling the same thing. So we invited her again and she accepted even more gladly. She said she didnt care, she would do what was necessary. On monday when we met with her she had already borken up with her boyfriend and had him move out and gone shopping with her aunt for more modest clothes. We still hadnt even finished teaching the restoration. It is super humbling to realize how little we do, but how much our very best effort is needed.
That is it for me. Talk to you later.
Hugs and kisses,
Elder Sky
P.s. The people in the pictures are Jazmin, who was baptized this last saturday, and her family. She is 9, her sister is a reactivated girl and her mom is working on getting baptized this coming month.
Wards in Madrid? There are 8 wards in the actual city, but if you go out about 45 minutes there are a lot more. Mostly branches out there though.
Where do they meet? There are 4 chapels shared by the 8 wards spead out in the four corners.
Where is the Stake Center? It is on the temple lot.
Where is the mission home? It is about 40 minutes from the center of madrid by bus, in car it is much much less, It is in a really nice area.
Okay, enough of the funny business. You need to hear about what happened. I have never in my life even dreamed of ever thinking about being near imagining what went down on sunday night. Epic. The entire day there was an inexcapable buzz in the air. Even at church you could tell that peoples thoughts were on the game. Honestly, had they discovered the cure for cancer on sunday, nobody would have heard anything about it until today. When the game started, the city died. The only people on the streets were the people who either left the bar to take a smoke or to throw up, both because of the nerves of it all. It was impossible to do anything. Nobody would accept visits. Nobody would stop to talk unless it was solely to yell a swear word about the game and follow it immediately with a chest bump. It was incredible. Every bar was filled to capacity. The streets were lined with big screens and shoulder to shoulder crowds. In the center i heard that on one single street there were more than 300000 people watching. So of course, with every living spaniard worshiping their false god in full dedication, we found ourselves standing outside the window of a bar watching the game. Luckily, it only caught us for about 10 minutes because then we had to go inside to do weekly number calls. We started getting things ready, still listening out the window for the sounds of the game, as was explained last week. Then it happened. Something that cannot be scaled on the missionary sound classifications. The explotion of noise, the silence, the gasp, and then the absolute loss of all reason. Fireworks exploding right out the window, people rioting through the streets, jumping into the fountains, climbing on passerby cars, and to top it all off, a huge beetle flew in through the window and landed on my face and really freaked me out. Even the bugs were celebrating! As you can imagine, calls didnt really happen. Too much noise and when the goal was scored the entire system locked up. It was a pretty noisy night, day, and following night. At least one thing is for certain: the work will proceed a great deal because now the spaniards believe in God. I hear the cathedrals saw record crowds for the sunday morning mass.
Now, to abruptly change the subject, we had zone conference yesterday. It was way fun. They asigned us a one hour training where we had a specific theme for the first thirty minutes and then our own thang for the last 30. It was way fun. We bought a rope and played a game then talked about it. The assistants, who are in our zone, along with Hermana Watkins said they were supposed to go around and listen to all the different workshops but they stayed in ours the whole hour because they didnt want to miss anything. That got the pride canteen all filled up as normal. Then to make good things great, Hermana Watkins singled me out in her talk. She spoke on unity and said, "Dont worry about being similar, just be united - if we all had to be like each other, Elder Carr would never survive."
Now for another radical change of topic. This last week we started teaching... wow, there is a kid that just snuck up behind me and started screaming at the top of his lungs. It really freaked me out. I looked at him and just started sreaming with him and he stopped. Okay back to business, wait, getting a call..... Done, now we can start. This last week we started teaching a girl named Paula. She is from Barcelona and is a really cool girl. Incredible life. I dont want to lest it off just for her sake, but suffice it to say it climaxes at a failed suicide attempt. The poor girl was just searching for something. When we met with her we had some really humbling lessons. Stuff that just leaves you speachless. We did feel very strongly that she could get a clear answer if she really searched, and that is what we promised her. We gave her asignments and she read them all and more. She would pray every chance she got, just pleading for something to help her know that she had not gone through all that she had for no reason. When we met with her she just said that there was nothing. It was hard for us. Times like that are tough because it is so far out of our control. But we knew what we had felt with her, we knew we had done our very best to leave our hearts on the table as always so we left her in the Lords hands. She came to the baptism on saturday and said it was interesting but still nothing. She came to church and went through all the classes and still had received nothing. Then we got to the last hour which is sacrament for us. She said that during the passing of the sacrament she felt really calm so she decided to give it one more try. She started to pray and said that she plead like she had never plead before. Then she just let her heart pour out and told God that if he would let her feel that He was there then she would be baptized and do whatever she needed to, but she just wanted to feel it. And in that very moment she said that the most overwhelming feeling of joy she has ever felt came over her. So much that she almost couldnt breath and just started to cry. We talked to her that night and when she told us about it we cried with her. I felt really strongly that she need to set the date then so we told her that we would help her fufill her promise and i said the first date that came to mind which was the 14th of august. As soon as the date was out of my mouth i felt the strongest feeling of "no, she has waited long enough, she deserves it now." She had agreed gladly with the first and i thought it might not be good to take the moment, but it was a really strong feeling and when i looked at my companion i was obvious he was feeling the same thing. So we invited her again and she accepted even more gladly. She said she didnt care, she would do what was necessary. On monday when we met with her she had already borken up with her boyfriend and had him move out and gone shopping with her aunt for more modest clothes. We still hadnt even finished teaching the restoration. It is super humbling to realize how little we do, but how much our very best effort is needed.
That is it for me. Talk to you later.
Hugs and kisses,
Elder Sky
P.s. The people in the pictures are Jazmin, who was baptized this last saturday, and her family. She is 9, her sister is a reactivated girl and her mom is working on getting baptized this coming month.
tis a scorcher 7 July 2010
World cup in Spain. Its different than i had imagined. I think the best way to describe it would be to imagine yourself living next to a huge stadium. You never really know exactly what happened, but the noises tell you everything. And i will tell you what, you can hear it. So far the decifering has gotten us thus far:
-Low buzz with the occasional outburst: normal play.
-Huge explosion of cheers through all the city: really good play.
-Huge explosion of cheers accompanied by honking of car horns: goal. (Car horns are key)
-Silence: Bad.
-Drunk people swearing: Loss.
-Drunk people swearing in form of song: Normal day.
-Drunk poeple swearing, singing, and dancing through streets kissing everyone they see: Normal weekend/holiday, but if done immediately following a game: Win.
The world cup has taken over. It is incredible. We contacted everyone we saw in the streets during the last game and ended up with 2 contacts.
There you have it. The world cup in spain. Everyone here is really excited about the game tonight because some german octopus told them they would win. That is where their faith seems to dwell at the moment.
The idolatry has progressed to an impressive point. At least it is a step up from a golden calf. El pulpo aleman.
In spite of all this the work has progressed impressively well. The baptism was amazing. Never in my life have i been able to see such a dramatic change in someone in such short a time. She came on monday saying that she had read all of doctrine and covenants in one night and knew she had felt the confirmation she was looking for. She was an entirely different person than when we saw her sunday. Sadly, she told us there that she only wanted us and the bishop to come to her baptism and that she wanted to be confirmed in a smaller branch because she knew she was too shy to do it all. We were willing to do what she felt she was capable of so we made some plans. Then on thursday she showed up just glowing. She was an entirely different person than when we saw her on monday. On friday we went to the baptism and it was incredible to see the miracles happen. Because of time we didnt get to invite very many people and she didnt invite anyone because she felt guilty inviting people when her family was not going to be there (lots of opposition). When we were about to start the baptism, one person and then later another showed up that were 2 of her best friends. Both didnt know why they came to the church that day, they just said they felt like they needed to. There were a lot of tears. After the baptism she even said that she would go ahead and be confirmed in our own ward (biggest in madrid) which was incredible. She showed up on sunday and she was a totally different person than when we saw her on friday. After her flawless confirmation she was the first one to get up and bare testimony. That was a shocker. She has had a hard life and the first time i met her she told us, through tears, that the only thing she wanted to know is if she was a daughter of God. She texted us yesterday and said that she feels full of light and that everytime she looks in the mirror it surprises her because she sees a person of eternal value- something she has never seen before.
Sorry, we have to leave early to get to a lesson a ways away. Everyone will be traveling to watch the game right now so we have to get our rear ends out of here.
Love you bunches.
Elder Sky Carr
-Low buzz with the occasional outburst: normal play.
-Huge explosion of cheers through all the city: really good play.
-Huge explosion of cheers accompanied by honking of car horns: goal. (Car horns are key)
-Silence: Bad.
-Drunk people swearing: Loss.
-Drunk people swearing in form of song: Normal day.
-Drunk poeple swearing, singing, and dancing through streets kissing everyone they see: Normal weekend/holiday, but if done immediately following a game: Win.
The world cup has taken over. It is incredible. We contacted everyone we saw in the streets during the last game and ended up with 2 contacts.
There you have it. The world cup in spain. Everyone here is really excited about the game tonight because some german octopus told them they would win. That is where their faith seems to dwell at the moment.
The idolatry has progressed to an impressive point. At least it is a step up from a golden calf. El pulpo aleman.
In spite of all this the work has progressed impressively well. The baptism was amazing. Never in my life have i been able to see such a dramatic change in someone in such short a time. She came on monday saying that she had read all of doctrine and covenants in one night and knew she had felt the confirmation she was looking for. She was an entirely different person than when we saw her sunday. Sadly, she told us there that she only wanted us and the bishop to come to her baptism and that she wanted to be confirmed in a smaller branch because she knew she was too shy to do it all. We were willing to do what she felt she was capable of so we made some plans. Then on thursday she showed up just glowing. She was an entirely different person than when we saw her on monday. On friday we went to the baptism and it was incredible to see the miracles happen. Because of time we didnt get to invite very many people and she didnt invite anyone because she felt guilty inviting people when her family was not going to be there (lots of opposition). When we were about to start the baptism, one person and then later another showed up that were 2 of her best friends. Both didnt know why they came to the church that day, they just said they felt like they needed to. There were a lot of tears. After the baptism she even said that she would go ahead and be confirmed in our own ward (biggest in madrid) which was incredible. She showed up on sunday and she was a totally different person than when we saw her on friday. After her flawless confirmation she was the first one to get up and bare testimony. That was a shocker. She has had a hard life and the first time i met her she told us, through tears, that the only thing she wanted to know is if she was a daughter of God. She texted us yesterday and said that she feels full of light and that everytime she looks in the mirror it surprises her because she sees a person of eternal value- something she has never seen before.
Sorry, we have to leave early to get to a lesson a ways away. Everyone will be traveling to watch the game right now so we have to get our rear ends out of here.
Love you bunches.
Elder Sky Carr
Thursday, July 1, 2010
ace in the hole? Well whats it doin there? 30 June 2010
Yes, in case you were wondering, there is a strike right now in the public transit of madrid. This causes us to have to arrive late from everything and leave early for the other things. Obviously you were not wondering that, but now you are. Apparently the government made a 5% pay cut and the workers flipped. Now there are no workers and madrid is flipping. It is nuts.
So as for the normal stuff i can try to squeeze in in the 5 minutes i have left (i am going to make an attempt at filling for the lack of words with pictures of our bike trip) i will give you some quickies.
Susan!! So the other day we were on the bus and this kid got on, i said hi and he got off really fast so i didnt really get to talk to him. Bummer. Well, we ended up seeing him from the bus one day so we got off and went to talk to him and he said, "Hey Elder Skyler." Unexpected. After the shock wore off i was able to ask him how the heck he knew my name and who i was since we had never ever spoken. Turns out he found the blog. You are incredible. And even more incredible, he speaks english, so he will probably end up reading about himself pretty soon.
No time to expound any more on that, just know your reach is terrifying and impressive.
So the pictures are from the Tandem bike experience (thought they would fit the theme of your last letter, Mom). It was so fun. We domintated all the solo riders. Best part of all though: We had planned for a long time to get the tandem, but we knew we had to get something more to make it even better, and as we were walking into the metro we saw a nigerian selling sunglasses for 10 euros each. I went up and showed him the 10 and said that i wanted two instead of just one. He gave us two. So worth it.
The work is progressing. We have an investigator named Nieves that we picked up a couple weeks ago. She has been investigating for about 6 years and has a lot of problems. We have had some really amazing lessons with her and this last sunday we were talking about how we could help her more and it just came down to the fact that she needed to be baptized as soon as possible because she would not last much longer without the gift of the holy ghost, Luckily, the Lord decided to tune in on that conversation. That day we gave her a triple combination. That night she read the whole thing. When she woke up she said she knew what she needed to do. We met, she said she needed to be baptized this week, and here we are, running to make it happen. We are set for friday. Incredible.
Sorry for the shortness,
Just imagine the rest is filled with my love for you,
Elder Sky
dangerously skinny! 23 June 2010
Skinny, eh? I dont know what is going on. I have never changed anything. Maybe it is one of those huge figurative analogy things. Like when i started the mission the weight and stress of the work was really plumping and cushioning me up, then when i started to quit relying on myself, the Spirit, which, as everyone knows, is made of helium, began to take over and is lightening the load.
Or maybe its just because we walk alot and its really hot.
I love being the offspring of a latin mommy and a cali daddy. Content when their kids are tubby and concerned when they are nearing average. I eat lots. Oh, and as for ceviche, i think it is my fivorite food ever, which is wierd, but true. I am also gaining a love for brazilian food. There is a group of about 6 elderly brazilian single women who love feeding us. We are like their vending machines. They put food in and in return i entertain them with my broken brazilian (i refuse to call it portuguese because i can understand brazilian portuguese just fine but whenever i run into a portuguese person i just smile and nod). I think brazilian requires more role playing ability than actual knowledge. Just have to picture that you are a drunk french guy trying to speak spanish. Way easier.
I just realized that the whole beginning of this email would have been a huge and useless sidenote had it not been for the fact that i started out with this... Now this is the side note.
So as for the new companion situation i am extremely pleased. Its like sharing the gospel with a buddy just becuase you both want to. I was super excited when i first found out, which was actually well before i was supposed to. I went on exchanges with one of the assistants to the president and my favorite game to play while i am visiting is the "lets see whats in this drawer" game. Found a lot of cool stuff. Amogst the stuff found was the paper with all the transfers on it. Oops.
As for the actual week, it has been so flip turned upside down. Gosh. Let me just scrape the surface and throw it at you so you can get a sample.
Oh, and before i forget, i would like to request lots of pictures from powell once again. You have done splendidly in the past and i would like to request a repeat. I will reward with many loves and kisses, no matter who you are. Be warned.
Back to the business of the crazy week. We got a call from a guy who had been contacted a few months ago but lived in england so he dodged it with his excuses. The elders who talked to him did manage to give him a card which apparently has been burning into this said individuals concience for the past few months until he came back to spain to visit. When he got here he called us and said he really wanted to hear what we were all about. That was a first for me. While teaching him he said that he was very confused and starting telling us all about his life and i remember vividly that the thought that went through my mind several times as i struggle to focus and listen, which has always been an inward battle, was the thought, "this guys sits really wierd." He continued explaining his interesting story and sitting uniquely until he realized the two utah bubble boys in front of him just were not getting it, so he came right out and said it. Turns out hes gay. That was a first for me. Explains the sitting uniqueness. He was really nice and got a lot of stuff to think about and is actually going to keep learning in england. We will see how that goes down.
Not long after this experience, which caused us to feel a little strange, as you can probably imagine, the Lord sent 3 californian girls to get us back in line. We were waiting for an investigator so we couldnt really escape anywhere and they came to visit the temple so it is not like we could avoid it either. I think it is sufficient to sum up that whole awkward talking experience by saying that i had no idea what to do with my hands while talking to them. Apparently a temple missionary was supervising the activity and she was proud of my brave effort and ensured me i would figure it out someday.
Not long after this experience, which caused us to feel a little strange, as you can probably imagine, the Lord sent Danny, one of our sweet investigators to cheer me up. He was in awe when he realized that we had real names. When i told him mine he tried it out a couple of time (destroying it like they always do) and said, "your name sound like a transformer." That was a first for me.
Not long after this experience, which caused me to feel awesome, as you can probably imagine, i was awkwardly caught up in my first profession of love from one of the young women in the ward. It was wierd. I am going to have to write the whole experience down somewhere because it would make great material for a soap opera. She has helped us a lot with some of the investigators we have of her age, you know, befriending and what not. After sacrament meeting was over she just walked up, let it all out, told me she couldnt work with me anymore, and went on her way, Nothing you learn in Preach my Gospel prepares you for that.
Not long after this experience, which caused us to feel a little strange, as you can probably imagine, we saw a lizard. It was so sweet! We were coming home at the end of the day and there it was, just hanging out on the fence. I chased it for a while and then caught it. We were going to give it as a gift to the new missionary that we live with (he is actually dating a girl from MV that graduated with Jason.), but as i was triamphuntly gitting off the ground with my lizard (it was quite the tussle), my pen fell out of my pocket, and as i went down to get it the lizard slipped out of my hand and started crawling up my arm. That freaked me out so of course i screamed and dropped the lizard. As i chased it again i almost got it and then everything fell out of my pocket, as always happens to me, and it got away.
Not long after this experience, which caused us to feel a little strange, as you can probably imagine, we went to work for what was supposed to be an awesome day. We got a call at the last minute changing a few of our plans but it was no big deal. When we got to the first appointment, it turns out the guy was a bum so we had to change plans. Because of the plan change we ended up with an awkward window of time. Too little to follow through with what we had for a back up plan, and just wandering would be useless. So we made a choice. Contact as far as we could up a street towards the next appointment and catch a bus if we were not going to make it on time. We started out on the course that this silly man who showed tons of promise had put us on. Immediately i saw a man organizing his bags from the shopping trip he just had and thought we should offer to help him. I have loved doing this my whole mission, mostly just because it is way fun to offer my companions help, but also because they never say yes. We feel good for trying and we dont even get tired because we dont do anything. Win win, with just a little loss in the middle. Well, i kind of brushed off the thought because there were a ton of other people we could talk to and we were a little down on our goal for contacts. Luckily the Lord loves to give second chances, (at times i even feel like a walking second chance (not sure what that means but it is true)) because i turned after walking around a kid, tripping, and dodging an old man to see the very same guy walking right next to me with all of his bags. I gave in and offered help. He accepted. That was a first for me. We started talking and he was super cool. He even went so far as saying that he had never met anyone like us before. He then asked who we were. After explaning a bit he kind of got quiet for a second and said, "my wife and i have been looking for a church to go to for a long time." He asked if we were allowed to accept a drink from him. If there is one thing i have learned on my mission it is to always say yes to everything that gets us to have more one on one time with them and even moreso allows them to serve us. He served us and we met his wife and his two apartment mates. They are all amazing. When we had to leave he said he would walk us out. He not only walked us out, but walked with us almost all the way to the church. He said that ever since he got here he had been really sad and was looking for something he didnt even understand. He said that for the first time he had felt it with us.
It is incredible how much the Lord is in charge.
Hugs and kisses,
Elder Carr-emelito
Or maybe its just because we walk alot and its really hot.
I love being the offspring of a latin mommy and a cali daddy. Content when their kids are tubby and concerned when they are nearing average. I eat lots. Oh, and as for ceviche, i think it is my fivorite food ever, which is wierd, but true. I am also gaining a love for brazilian food. There is a group of about 6 elderly brazilian single women who love feeding us. We are like their vending machines. They put food in and in return i entertain them with my broken brazilian (i refuse to call it portuguese because i can understand brazilian portuguese just fine but whenever i run into a portuguese person i just smile and nod). I think brazilian requires more role playing ability than actual knowledge. Just have to picture that you are a drunk french guy trying to speak spanish. Way easier.
I just realized that the whole beginning of this email would have been a huge and useless sidenote had it not been for the fact that i started out with this... Now this is the side note.
So as for the new companion situation i am extremely pleased. Its like sharing the gospel with a buddy just becuase you both want to. I was super excited when i first found out, which was actually well before i was supposed to. I went on exchanges with one of the assistants to the president and my favorite game to play while i am visiting is the "lets see whats in this drawer" game. Found a lot of cool stuff. Amogst the stuff found was the paper with all the transfers on it. Oops.
As for the actual week, it has been so flip turned upside down. Gosh. Let me just scrape the surface and throw it at you so you can get a sample.
Oh, and before i forget, i would like to request lots of pictures from powell once again. You have done splendidly in the past and i would like to request a repeat. I will reward with many loves and kisses, no matter who you are. Be warned.
Back to the business of the crazy week. We got a call from a guy who had been contacted a few months ago but lived in england so he dodged it with his excuses. The elders who talked to him did manage to give him a card which apparently has been burning into this said individuals concience for the past few months until he came back to spain to visit. When he got here he called us and said he really wanted to hear what we were all about. That was a first for me. While teaching him he said that he was very confused and starting telling us all about his life and i remember vividly that the thought that went through my mind several times as i struggle to focus and listen, which has always been an inward battle, was the thought, "this guys sits really wierd." He continued explaining his interesting story and sitting uniquely until he realized the two utah bubble boys in front of him just were not getting it, so he came right out and said it. Turns out hes gay. That was a first for me. Explains the sitting uniqueness. He was really nice and got a lot of stuff to think about and is actually going to keep learning in england. We will see how that goes down.
Not long after this experience, which caused us to feel a little strange, as you can probably imagine, the Lord sent 3 californian girls to get us back in line. We were waiting for an investigator so we couldnt really escape anywhere and they came to visit the temple so it is not like we could avoid it either. I think it is sufficient to sum up that whole awkward talking experience by saying that i had no idea what to do with my hands while talking to them. Apparently a temple missionary was supervising the activity and she was proud of my brave effort and ensured me i would figure it out someday.
Not long after this experience, which caused us to feel a little strange, as you can probably imagine, the Lord sent Danny, one of our sweet investigators to cheer me up. He was in awe when he realized that we had real names. When i told him mine he tried it out a couple of time (destroying it like they always do) and said, "your name sound like a transformer." That was a first for me.
Not long after this experience, which caused me to feel awesome, as you can probably imagine, i was awkwardly caught up in my first profession of love from one of the young women in the ward. It was wierd. I am going to have to write the whole experience down somewhere because it would make great material for a soap opera. She has helped us a lot with some of the investigators we have of her age, you know, befriending and what not. After sacrament meeting was over she just walked up, let it all out, told me she couldnt work with me anymore, and went on her way, Nothing you learn in Preach my Gospel prepares you for that.
Not long after this experience, which caused us to feel a little strange, as you can probably imagine, we saw a lizard. It was so sweet! We were coming home at the end of the day and there it was, just hanging out on the fence. I chased it for a while and then caught it. We were going to give it as a gift to the new missionary that we live with (he is actually dating a girl from MV that graduated with Jason.), but as i was triamphuntly gitting off the ground with my lizard (it was quite the tussle), my pen fell out of my pocket, and as i went down to get it the lizard slipped out of my hand and started crawling up my arm. That freaked me out so of course i screamed and dropped the lizard. As i chased it again i almost got it and then everything fell out of my pocket, as always happens to me, and it got away.
Not long after this experience, which caused us to feel a little strange, as you can probably imagine, we went to work for what was supposed to be an awesome day. We got a call at the last minute changing a few of our plans but it was no big deal. When we got to the first appointment, it turns out the guy was a bum so we had to change plans. Because of the plan change we ended up with an awkward window of time. Too little to follow through with what we had for a back up plan, and just wandering would be useless. So we made a choice. Contact as far as we could up a street towards the next appointment and catch a bus if we were not going to make it on time. We started out on the course that this silly man who showed tons of promise had put us on. Immediately i saw a man organizing his bags from the shopping trip he just had and thought we should offer to help him. I have loved doing this my whole mission, mostly just because it is way fun to offer my companions help, but also because they never say yes. We feel good for trying and we dont even get tired because we dont do anything. Win win, with just a little loss in the middle. Well, i kind of brushed off the thought because there were a ton of other people we could talk to and we were a little down on our goal for contacts. Luckily the Lord loves to give second chances, (at times i even feel like a walking second chance (not sure what that means but it is true)) because i turned after walking around a kid, tripping, and dodging an old man to see the very same guy walking right next to me with all of his bags. I gave in and offered help. He accepted. That was a first for me. We started talking and he was super cool. He even went so far as saying that he had never met anyone like us before. He then asked who we were. After explaning a bit he kind of got quiet for a second and said, "my wife and i have been looking for a church to go to for a long time." He asked if we were allowed to accept a drink from him. If there is one thing i have learned on my mission it is to always say yes to everything that gets us to have more one on one time with them and even moreso allows them to serve us. He served us and we met his wife and his two apartment mates. They are all amazing. When we had to leave he said he would walk us out. He not only walked us out, but walked with us almost all the way to the church. He said that ever since he got here he had been really sad and was looking for something he didnt even understand. He said that for the first time he had felt it with us.
It is incredible how much the Lord is in charge.
Hugs and kisses,
Elder Carr-emelito
read this 16 June 2010
Wow, there are a lot of things going on over there. Sometimes i forget that while i am here you are all still living your lives. I have a feeling i will hit a greater culture shock getting home then when i got here.
Justin, congratulations on ending your life. Farewell my friend. You will be missed.
Bozzy too, huh? Hmm. Well, maybe Jason and I can share friends for a while until i find new ones cuz the currents are dropping like flies.
Elder Jackson is gone. This was my first experience with a dying missionary. Wierd. I have always had really young companions, and i just got another one so i think i got my first and last taste of that. Well, that is, until the first hand experience, Dah!
Subject change.
Nothing is coming to mind.
Dang. I will just keep going with this i guess. His last pday was fun. We went and catered for the Hermana party. Not sure how we got pulled into that, but I just followed my comp and there we were. All the hermanas in the mission and us serving them cake. It was wierd. I realized somthing while i stood afar off and stared. They are all really old. Like, all of them are older than me. Even the new ones. And of course, as this thought came fluttering through my mind it immediately slipped straight down and out of my mouth. That didnt help the case. I got reprimanded by some, others took it better. I think the ones who took it better were probably staring right back thinking how young i was, but thanks to their filter had no problemas. After that we went on over to the main event which was a big combined meal with a ton of missionaries, members, and investigators from the area that Elder Jackson spent a year in. An appropriate desire. Plus, they served us Ceviche. Amazing. I love mooching off of other missionaries connections.
As for the other areas that i have gotten to serve in, i will give you a simple run down.
Azuqueca. A little town that has one of the strongest wards in spain. Apparently a ton of spanish members a long time ago got up and moved to the same street in the same town because they were all super BFF's. I felt like i was in utah. People kept honking at us, giving us rides, feeding us. Wow. I forgot my camera there.
Torrejon. A significantly bigger town which was actually the beginnings of the church in spain becasue of the air base. Highlights: Serving with Elder Gomez from Guatemala- it was cool since Missy and Brad both lived there so we had an awesome connection (honestly, i am not even sure they went there or what happened, but faked my way through that pretty well. It has been so long i cant ever remember. I think that is actually the greatest skill i have gained on the mission, the ability to talk about any subject for at least 5 minutes and sound like a know what i am talking about.) Plus, we taught an 70 year old cuban man with a baptismal date. That was a treat. He invited me to the party he will be holding in the autumn to celebrate the 3 year anniversary of the death of castro. I accepted. I forgot my hymn book there.
Barrio 2 (ventas). Assistants area. Golden. Huge streets, full of people. Humble as can be. Every missionaries dream.
So far the running surprise i have received in the feedback of the exchange has been the energy. Kind of a hyper missionary movement going on. We will see what kind of impact it will have. Im not too good at the other stuff, so i dont worry about it, i just try to always share two of my favorite things, energy and uniqueness. Sometimes it is received well... The assistant i went on exchanges with wrote down on the exchange paper thingy, "you definitely have your own style of doing things..." Not sure how to take that. Dont really care.
Hmm I just reread the paragraph and it could me taken in many different ways. Hah, interperet as you may.
My new companions name is Elder Middleton. Sandy utah. Year in the mission. Pure blooded pueblo punk. There is excitement in the air.
Sorry, gotta run.
Elder Carr-emelito
184, im nothing!
Justin, congratulations on ending your life. Farewell my friend. You will be missed.
Bozzy too, huh? Hmm. Well, maybe Jason and I can share friends for a while until i find new ones cuz the currents are dropping like flies.
Elder Jackson is gone. This was my first experience with a dying missionary. Wierd. I have always had really young companions, and i just got another one so i think i got my first and last taste of that. Well, that is, until the first hand experience, Dah!
Subject change.
Nothing is coming to mind.
Dang. I will just keep going with this i guess. His last pday was fun. We went and catered for the Hermana party. Not sure how we got pulled into that, but I just followed my comp and there we were. All the hermanas in the mission and us serving them cake. It was wierd. I realized somthing while i stood afar off and stared. They are all really old. Like, all of them are older than me. Even the new ones. And of course, as this thought came fluttering through my mind it immediately slipped straight down and out of my mouth. That didnt help the case. I got reprimanded by some, others took it better. I think the ones who took it better were probably staring right back thinking how young i was, but thanks to their filter had no problemas. After that we went on over to the main event which was a big combined meal with a ton of missionaries, members, and investigators from the area that Elder Jackson spent a year in. An appropriate desire. Plus, they served us Ceviche. Amazing. I love mooching off of other missionaries connections.
As for the other areas that i have gotten to serve in, i will give you a simple run down.
Azuqueca. A little town that has one of the strongest wards in spain. Apparently a ton of spanish members a long time ago got up and moved to the same street in the same town because they were all super BFF's. I felt like i was in utah. People kept honking at us, giving us rides, feeding us. Wow. I forgot my camera there.
Torrejon. A significantly bigger town which was actually the beginnings of the church in spain becasue of the air base. Highlights: Serving with Elder Gomez from Guatemala- it was cool since Missy and Brad both lived there so we had an awesome connection (honestly, i am not even sure they went there or what happened, but faked my way through that pretty well. It has been so long i cant ever remember. I think that is actually the greatest skill i have gained on the mission, the ability to talk about any subject for at least 5 minutes and sound like a know what i am talking about.) Plus, we taught an 70 year old cuban man with a baptismal date. That was a treat. He invited me to the party he will be holding in the autumn to celebrate the 3 year anniversary of the death of castro. I accepted. I forgot my hymn book there.
Barrio 2 (ventas). Assistants area. Golden. Huge streets, full of people. Humble as can be. Every missionaries dream.
So far the running surprise i have received in the feedback of the exchange has been the energy. Kind of a hyper missionary movement going on. We will see what kind of impact it will have. Im not too good at the other stuff, so i dont worry about it, i just try to always share two of my favorite things, energy and uniqueness. Sometimes it is received well... The assistant i went on exchanges with wrote down on the exchange paper thingy, "you definitely have your own style of doing things..." Not sure how to take that. Dont really care.
Hmm I just reread the paragraph and it could me taken in many different ways. Hah, interperet as you may.
My new companions name is Elder Middleton. Sandy utah. Year in the mission. Pure blooded pueblo punk. There is excitement in the air.
Sorry, gotta run.
Elder Carr-emelito
184, im nothing!
remember me! 9 June 2010
I got both packages this week. You guys rock. Thank you so much susan and mom (the rest of you are dead to me). Make sure you give Kris a huge kiss right on the face for me. That was super nice of her to do that and she even got harrased by an old spaniard on her way to complete her mission. That is what i call courage and determination.
I have to apologize, i have absolutely no time. It is my companions last Pday and i want to make sure it is his best. Sorry to cut you short, but he is already starting to finally realize he is going home. For example, he just turned to me and told me "oh man, i dont get to be elder jackson anymore.... gregory is a stupid name." You see what i am talking about? I guess the fact that it is now easier to just wait and tell him in person rather than write him is really making it all sink in. In fact, i think i am going to tell him that. Done. That didnt help.
Some quick cool milestones. This may not mean alot to anyone, but it is absolutly incredible for this mission. We hit the 100 baptism mark as a mission. It is incredible the things that are happening. We have half the missionaries, and there are even 40 baptismal dates right now. There are a lot of amazing things happening. Wow. Like i said, big deal for us. Probably almost as good as Karston`s weekly numbers...
I will quickly tell you of one sweet happening from this week. Stephanie, the girl we started teaching last week invited us to her house to teach her. We ended up teaching her and her mom. It was amazing. Her mom lost a child about 20 years ago and was a total wreck, but thanks to some members that got her involved in the church, she was able to keep moving forward. She was going to be baptized there but her husband would not let her. She then left to spain and lost contact with the church. Now her daughtered wandered into the same church and she is getting another chance. When we went in to teach them the second time i went ahead and told them that at the end of the lesson we would invite them to be baptized. We taught them and then we invited them like we said. I will never forget what she said, "Elder, I have waited enough time." So she is scheduled to be baptized with her daughter on the 10th of july. Prayers prayers prayers.
So in the last week i have only worked 2 days in my area because i went and worked in Ventas, Torrejon, Azuqueca, and Alcala. I wish i had more time to tell you about them cuz they were sweet. Guess i will just tell you with you come and get me. HAH! Beat you to the punch!
Love,
Elder SKy
I have to apologize, i have absolutely no time. It is my companions last Pday and i want to make sure it is his best. Sorry to cut you short, but he is already starting to finally realize he is going home. For example, he just turned to me and told me "oh man, i dont get to be elder jackson anymore.... gregory is a stupid name." You see what i am talking about? I guess the fact that it is now easier to just wait and tell him in person rather than write him is really making it all sink in. In fact, i think i am going to tell him that. Done. That didnt help.
Some quick cool milestones. This may not mean alot to anyone, but it is absolutly incredible for this mission. We hit the 100 baptism mark as a mission. It is incredible the things that are happening. We have half the missionaries, and there are even 40 baptismal dates right now. There are a lot of amazing things happening. Wow. Like i said, big deal for us. Probably almost as good as Karston`s weekly numbers...
I will quickly tell you of one sweet happening from this week. Stephanie, the girl we started teaching last week invited us to her house to teach her. We ended up teaching her and her mom. It was amazing. Her mom lost a child about 20 years ago and was a total wreck, but thanks to some members that got her involved in the church, she was able to keep moving forward. She was going to be baptized there but her husband would not let her. She then left to spain and lost contact with the church. Now her daughtered wandered into the same church and she is getting another chance. When we went in to teach them the second time i went ahead and told them that at the end of the lesson we would invite them to be baptized. We taught them and then we invited them like we said. I will never forget what she said, "Elder, I have waited enough time." So she is scheduled to be baptized with her daughter on the 10th of july. Prayers prayers prayers.
So in the last week i have only worked 2 days in my area because i went and worked in Ventas, Torrejon, Azuqueca, and Alcala. I wish i had more time to tell you about them cuz they were sweet. Guess i will just tell you with you come and get me. HAH! Beat you to the punch!
Love,
Elder SKy
visa shmisha Wed 2 June 2010
Speaking of office stuff... Well, i realized now that we were not talking about any office stuff, but now we are so take this: the mission office is moving on the 14 of june. Plan accordingly! that is where all the letters and stuff get sent to.
Spain Madrid Mission
Calle Fuerteventura 4, 2º, Oficina 8-B
San Sebastian de los Reyes
28703 Madrid
Finally! On to the real stuff.
This last week was a biggie. Super biggie. I think the coolest of all was the baptism this last saturday. Surprise! Dont worry, it was for me too. I dont know if she told you, Mom, but Alejandra decided to get baptized. This was a huge miracle condsidering there are no longer missionaries in Talavera. She finally decided that she had had enough, quit her job, went to church, made the decision and made it happen. We got to hold the service in the stake center (our church) as a double service with the outlanders (the elders with a car that cover all the pueblos that no longer have missionaries, also not really called outlanders, that is just my name for them). It was unbelieveable. Okay, so this is why it was such a big deal. First of all, Alejandra was the first proressing investigator i ever had on the mission. So that was really cool. But even more meaningful, to me at least, was the fact that it came from Talavera. When i left on the mission i remember hearing alot about the importance of setting goals. To be honest i had no idea what to expect on the mission and even moreso in spain so i avoided the numbers (which are lame to me anyway) and just set the goal to make a difference in every area i served in, or in other words, baptize in every area. I never cared how much, i knew i would work hard, but i just wanted that to be my vision. Well, as you know, it didnt happen. Elder Carr had to be humbled first. And as you may be aware, it took a whole year (and the humbling never really happened, the tender mercies jsut started kicking in). My goal and dream was shattered before i even had a chance to get going. Well, the church is true, and i am one of Heavenly Father's favorite children so i got another chance. Talavera was taken care of, and not to mention it happened in such a way that it is a killer reminder that it has nothing to do with me, for heaven's sake i wasnt even there! (looks like the whole humbling thing is still in effect, at least a little bit) And the cherry on top of my bubbly tender mercy mountain: I got sent back to my first area. It is soooooo sweet!
Okay, time is short. Sorry, lots of silly extra tasks we have to do all the time.
On thursday Elder Caussé came to visit and train all of the bishoprics and auxiliary leaders in Madrid. He is actually the only member of the area presidency that has not done a mission tour yet so he went ahead and set his own appointment with the president and set up a surprise leader council. That was pretty legit. 10 missionaries, President Watkins and Elder Caussé sitting together in the high council room for 4 hours just getting the spiritual throw down. Even though my hind quarters fell asleep like 100 times it was a very cool conference. He just gave us the run down on the european vision and then let us ask questions for the rest of the time. Lots of big changes in store.
AAH!, really fast, we have this investigator named Stephanie who is awesome. I will tell more about her in the coming weeks because she is awesome. She is a 17 year old girl who came to church on her own one day and now she is one of the best ever. So, we had an appointment with her for last saturday and the member we set up to come with us stood us up at the last second so we were stuck in a pickle. Luckily, we consumed the pickle and found our way out of the crisis. We are always on temple square and since the MTC is right there we occasionally run into the missionaries staying there. We saw two sisters walking around and had the crazy idea to have them help us with the lesson since we cant teach single women. We called president and he gave us the go ahead so we had one of the coolest lessons ever. They both had about 2 weeks in the mtc and were totally spiritual powerhouses. THeir spanish was terrible, but honestly, it made no difference. It was cool to see at the end that some of the questions and prayers they had expressed were answered, stephanie loved it, and everything worked out in time for the next appointment. It was a way cool experience and i am really sorry i cant tell anymore about it.
I love you,
Elder SKy
ps i sent you a picture with me and franco.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
When two elephants meet to fight, the earth suffers... 26 May 2010
The subject was brought up by an interesting experience. In the ward there is an awesome nigerian family. They recently made me part of their family tribe. We even celebrated our naming ceremony yesterday. My new Bening City name is Osasu Mwen (pronounced VEH) meaning "God guides me". They are so nuts, you are going to have to meet them when you come. In fact, i already let it slip that you are coming to pick me up and they are counting the days until they get to meet you. They figure that you are a lot like me and that excites them. So much in fact that the head of the family said that he was going to prepare himself for the encounter because "when two elephants meet to fight, the earth suffers". So plan on it. I bet i could even get you all hooked up with your own names.
Quick side note. As we ended the naming ceremony Felix, the head of the family, explained the importance of having a name. It was supasweet. He started talking about how we usually act like the name that we have. It is the thing we hear more than anything so it influences us a ton. He then compared it to the importance of taking upon us the name of Jesus Christ. People should be able to recognize us for the name we have taken upon ourselves. It was way cool because he did it all in his wild nigerian preacher voice. Im currently working a lot on my wild nigerian preacher voice. I have taken the liberty of adding that to the list of things i want to be when i grow up.
So you asked why the other leaders or considered as greasers in my mind? (yep, thats right, i am actually answering a question, feel free to freak) ((double side note: I just accidentally burped really loud. Dont worry though, there is only one other guy in here other than us and my companion took the liberty of being embarassed for me.)) So, as for that, it has everything to do with the movie grease. Naturally they are who they are. The intimidating group of rough necks that have perfect hair and cars. They just fall into place. And its not that i consider myself to be the girl... so maybe i do at times, always, but thats no big deal, right? Okay, im confused on many different levels, lets move on.
Maybe i should just stick to ignoring most of your questions like usual.
Mom, you are such a rebel! I cant wait to see how we work out this whole package thing. Is she planning on visiting the temple? she can just leave it with us there or with somebody around. It will work its way to me somehow.
Okay, im just gonna start popping in some of the happenings of that last couple weeks in no specific order. Sorry for cutting you short last week, i will do my best to get you up to speed. The most important stuff has all played out a bit more so it is even better and more juicy.
First things first, i got to do a baptismal challenge for a cuban last week! The greatest thing i can tell you about the whole experience can be properly expressed in the form of a joke: why do cubans always have such short hair? Because when they get to the barber shop they always say, "cortame el pelo, chico." If you dont get it, ask mom. There you have it, he was elect.
I am going to go ahead and answer your question before you even ask it- No that joke was not part of the interview, it just came to mind right now when i was recalling the experience. He was golden, not much more about it. It was very fun.
I will now share the wonders of Wilson. Wilson is a colombian that we are currently teaching. He is so so so so saweeeet. When we first taught him about praying on his own about the things we had shared he asked us if we could do a fast together so he could get an answer... yeah, no joke. Of course we said yes (while or stomaches screamed NO!) and he felt really good about it. After that whole experience we went on to have another experience, a first for me, at the young single adult family night. That was a treat. Great crowd for nearly the whole time, then it happened... I thought it was a myth or urban legend of sorts, but it happened. I had always heard of people who attends stuff like this that are in no way eligible to be there. You know, the old creepy dudes. Well, these ones blew me away. Like 5 old, and we are talking old, canes and everything, came waltsing (more of a waltz waddle) on in like they owned the place! They didnt fool me with their big smiles and huge hearts, i knew deep down they were pure evil. They hung out in the bag just sucking the youth out of the room with their old person charm. Then the worst part of all- Wilson left to use the restroom for a moment so we stayed to mingle. He didnt come back for a while so i went to investigate. I didnt believe my eyes. He was in the middle of the geyser group talking to them and being nice. I turned to my companion and let him know we were ruined, he was mixing in with the entirely wrong crowd. He didnt seem to see the danger, but it was real. He made it out alive thanks to their need to go home to put their teeth in water. i dont know how many more close calls we can handle. Since then Wilson has done really well. He is a little scared of his own capacities to stay strong after baptism (awesome doubt), but there is some serious progression and promise.
Next you will hear of Leonardo and Jenny. Also from colombia. They are breathtakingly perfect. They are a young MARRIED couple that are here studying. As elder jackson put it, "I have been waiting to find a family like this my whole mission." They are just soaking everything up. It is hard to explain. They just get it. The best part of all is the find. We had set out for what was to be the best day so far this transfer. THe whole evening was filled with super sure appointments. Well, we went from appointment to appointment to find out that somebody forgot to tell the people we were supposed to teach how awesome the day was going to be because they all failed on us. AFter each fail, we set off to work the area and follow the plans. They all failed so effectively, in fact, that we had to stop to decide what we wanted to do. One of the goals we have is to never wander around. Even if that is all we have to do, we will at least plan to wander so it is not just us doing the wandering, but we can at least let the Lord in on it. So this is the best part. I was looking back and i realized that everytime we ran into a failed lesson, we made a move to another place. Each place we went to then led us to another place and another plan. Had we changed one plan, we would have ended up in an entirely different place. This is what i love about this work. The importance of the individual in the sight of God. We ended up on a street we are not usually on all because of hte chain of plans we had carried out. We saw them, felt it, talked to them, and they are incredible. In one lesson they were telling us about how many missionaries they have seen in their lives, it was actually impressive te hear. Then Jenny asked me why we talked to them. That wasnt the kicker, it came when she asked me why none of the others had ever talked to her and her husband. That one hit me to the core. MAde me rethink things a bit. Good one to dwell on.
Okay, i am out of time, sorry.
loves,
Elder Sky
192ish
Quick side note. As we ended the naming ceremony Felix, the head of the family, explained the importance of having a name. It was supasweet. He started talking about how we usually act like the name that we have. It is the thing we hear more than anything so it influences us a ton. He then compared it to the importance of taking upon us the name of Jesus Christ. People should be able to recognize us for the name we have taken upon ourselves. It was way cool because he did it all in his wild nigerian preacher voice. Im currently working a lot on my wild nigerian preacher voice. I have taken the liberty of adding that to the list of things i want to be when i grow up.
So you asked why the other leaders or considered as greasers in my mind? (yep, thats right, i am actually answering a question, feel free to freak) ((double side note: I just accidentally burped really loud. Dont worry though, there is only one other guy in here other than us and my companion took the liberty of being embarassed for me.)) So, as for that, it has everything to do with the movie grease. Naturally they are who they are. The intimidating group of rough necks that have perfect hair and cars. They just fall into place. And its not that i consider myself to be the girl... so maybe i do at times, always, but thats no big deal, right? Okay, im confused on many different levels, lets move on.
Maybe i should just stick to ignoring most of your questions like usual.
Mom, you are such a rebel! I cant wait to see how we work out this whole package thing. Is she planning on visiting the temple? she can just leave it with us there or with somebody around. It will work its way to me somehow.
Okay, im just gonna start popping in some of the happenings of that last couple weeks in no specific order. Sorry for cutting you short last week, i will do my best to get you up to speed. The most important stuff has all played out a bit more so it is even better and more juicy.
First things first, i got to do a baptismal challenge for a cuban last week! The greatest thing i can tell you about the whole experience can be properly expressed in the form of a joke: why do cubans always have such short hair? Because when they get to the barber shop they always say, "cortame el pelo, chico." If you dont get it, ask mom. There you have it, he was elect.
I am going to go ahead and answer your question before you even ask it- No that joke was not part of the interview, it just came to mind right now when i was recalling the experience. He was golden, not much more about it. It was very fun.
I will now share the wonders of Wilson. Wilson is a colombian that we are currently teaching. He is so so so so saweeeet. When we first taught him about praying on his own about the things we had shared he asked us if we could do a fast together so he could get an answer... yeah, no joke. Of course we said yes (while or stomaches screamed NO!) and he felt really good about it. After that whole experience we went on to have another experience, a first for me, at the young single adult family night. That was a treat. Great crowd for nearly the whole time, then it happened... I thought it was a myth or urban legend of sorts, but it happened. I had always heard of people who attends stuff like this that are in no way eligible to be there. You know, the old creepy dudes. Well, these ones blew me away. Like 5 old, and we are talking old, canes and everything, came waltsing (more of a waltz waddle) on in like they owned the place! They didnt fool me with their big smiles and huge hearts, i knew deep down they were pure evil. They hung out in the bag just sucking the youth out of the room with their old person charm. Then the worst part of all- Wilson left to use the restroom for a moment so we stayed to mingle. He didnt come back for a while so i went to investigate. I didnt believe my eyes. He was in the middle of the geyser group talking to them and being nice. I turned to my companion and let him know we were ruined, he was mixing in with the entirely wrong crowd. He didnt seem to see the danger, but it was real. He made it out alive thanks to their need to go home to put their teeth in water. i dont know how many more close calls we can handle. Since then Wilson has done really well. He is a little scared of his own capacities to stay strong after baptism (awesome doubt), but there is some serious progression and promise.
Next you will hear of Leonardo and Jenny. Also from colombia. They are breathtakingly perfect. They are a young MARRIED couple that are here studying. As elder jackson put it, "I have been waiting to find a family like this my whole mission." They are just soaking everything up. It is hard to explain. They just get it. The best part of all is the find. We had set out for what was to be the best day so far this transfer. THe whole evening was filled with super sure appointments. Well, we went from appointment to appointment to find out that somebody forgot to tell the people we were supposed to teach how awesome the day was going to be because they all failed on us. AFter each fail, we set off to work the area and follow the plans. They all failed so effectively, in fact, that we had to stop to decide what we wanted to do. One of the goals we have is to never wander around. Even if that is all we have to do, we will at least plan to wander so it is not just us doing the wandering, but we can at least let the Lord in on it. So this is the best part. I was looking back and i realized that everytime we ran into a failed lesson, we made a move to another place. Each place we went to then led us to another place and another plan. Had we changed one plan, we would have ended up in an entirely different place. This is what i love about this work. The importance of the individual in the sight of God. We ended up on a street we are not usually on all because of hte chain of plans we had carried out. We saw them, felt it, talked to them, and they are incredible. In one lesson they were telling us about how many missionaries they have seen in their lives, it was actually impressive te hear. Then Jenny asked me why we talked to them. That wasnt the kicker, it came when she asked me why none of the others had ever talked to her and her husband. That one hit me to the core. MAde me rethink things a bit. Good one to dwell on.
Okay, i am out of time, sorry.
loves,
Elder Sky
192ish
OMG, i love castles 19 May 2010
So apparently i made it in with the greasers (what i now call the really high up mission leadership, or in other words, those who have cars) because we got an invite at the last minute to go visit another caslte palace place. It was a very different experience. But before i get into that i would like to give you a briefing.
We just barely got back from our northern madrid excursion (add El Escorial, Segovia, Manzanares, and Valle de los Caidos to the visit list) and are dunzo for time. Nothing new i know, but i thought at the very least i would let you know. THis way you have an idea as to why this has to be so shor and vague. Also, i forgot my planner, so i dont have any of the funner more specific details of the week, which i promise to give next week in a super edition weekly email home. Prepare yoursleves because i know i will be preparing my fingers at the very least for the power surge they are going to have to excerpt the next time i am here. I have come to create a great alter ego for the short hour we spend during emails. I feel like i am on my throne just feeding you all my thoughts and.... Why is it that when i have the least amount of time i have the most distractions and random thoughts fly into my fingers? Usually i just delete them, but to save this email from being super short, i am going to leave it.
So back to the trip. We visited a place called La Granja. It was very much like Aranjuez. Actually, that kind of added to the trip. I have seen Aranjuez palace a bunch of times since there is not that much else to do down there and so i kind of know what to expect. Well, there was a really long silence in one of the rooms where the ancient carpetry was hung on the wall for display, and seeing as me and silence have never really gotten along, i kind of pushed myslef into the little group of mission leaders and began to describe the reason the carpets were on the walls. It all consisted mainly of the great spanish winds gust of 1612 that took the entire palace framework and threw it on its side, leaving the carpeted floor as the north wall. They made a great mistake of listening to me, so as you can imagine, it continued for the entire tour. Mostly by their request, i assure you. This was when i realized that my mission experience has been very very different from all of theirs. It was funny to see them react to me, i felt like a bacteria. It was like there was this part of them that wanted to take part in all of it and have fun, but there was this strange impediment, unknown to me, that was holding them back and causing them to be embarassed by me on several different occasions. Can you imagine that? Wierd. There was even a room portraying the clocks of the royal dining room which all happened to be of african statues carrying the clock part on their backs and heads. A little racy, and they almost got me, but then i remembered that when the african people discovered time, they used their superior hunter gatherer skills to steal it from the english that had settled there. These were natrually depictions of that very occruence. That is clearly a lie, but that is how it went down for nearly 2 hours. The greasers are an interesting group. Apparently they have always done little outings like this, so maybe i will either get to see more cool stuff, or stop getting invited. Both sound good to me.
Sorry if this is a wierd email, but like i said, we are out of time, i am plannerless, and my companion is waiting by the door.
I love you dearly, i am healthy, the work is exploding, and you will hear all about all of it next week.
Elder Sky
We just barely got back from our northern madrid excursion (add El Escorial, Segovia, Manzanares, and Valle de los Caidos to the visit list) and are dunzo for time. Nothing new i know, but i thought at the very least i would let you know. THis way you have an idea as to why this has to be so shor and vague. Also, i forgot my planner, so i dont have any of the funner more specific details of the week, which i promise to give next week in a super edition weekly email home. Prepare yoursleves because i know i will be preparing my fingers at the very least for the power surge they are going to have to excerpt the next time i am here. I have come to create a great alter ego for the short hour we spend during emails. I feel like i am on my throne just feeding you all my thoughts and.... Why is it that when i have the least amount of time i have the most distractions and random thoughts fly into my fingers? Usually i just delete them, but to save this email from being super short, i am going to leave it.
So back to the trip. We visited a place called La Granja. It was very much like Aranjuez. Actually, that kind of added to the trip. I have seen Aranjuez palace a bunch of times since there is not that much else to do down there and so i kind of know what to expect. Well, there was a really long silence in one of the rooms where the ancient carpetry was hung on the wall for display, and seeing as me and silence have never really gotten along, i kind of pushed myslef into the little group of mission leaders and began to describe the reason the carpets were on the walls. It all consisted mainly of the great spanish winds gust of 1612 that took the entire palace framework and threw it on its side, leaving the carpeted floor as the north wall. They made a great mistake of listening to me, so as you can imagine, it continued for the entire tour. Mostly by their request, i assure you. This was when i realized that my mission experience has been very very different from all of theirs. It was funny to see them react to me, i felt like a bacteria. It was like there was this part of them that wanted to take part in all of it and have fun, but there was this strange impediment, unknown to me, that was holding them back and causing them to be embarassed by me on several different occasions. Can you imagine that? Wierd. There was even a room portraying the clocks of the royal dining room which all happened to be of african statues carrying the clock part on their backs and heads. A little racy, and they almost got me, but then i remembered that when the african people discovered time, they used their superior hunter gatherer skills to steal it from the english that had settled there. These were natrually depictions of that very occruence. That is clearly a lie, but that is how it went down for nearly 2 hours. The greasers are an interesting group. Apparently they have always done little outings like this, so maybe i will either get to see more cool stuff, or stop getting invited. Both sound good to me.
Sorry if this is a wierd email, but like i said, we are out of time, i am plannerless, and my companion is waiting by the door.
I love you dearly, i am healthy, the work is exploding, and you will hear all about all of it next week.
Elder Sky
Weekly email: version number two 12 May 2010
Well, turns out that i just forgot to click send last week. Hmm... I dont wanna talk about it. Ha, my bad. Dont act suprised. I am just surprised it is the first time it has ever happened. I deserve a prize.
Speaking of prizes, If that package is still waiting to be send, i would like to request some beef jerky. Any kind. The other day somebody called somebody else a jerk and it really made me have a killer craving.
Speaking of killer, our neighbor kids are pretty killer. Apparently either them or their parents dont really like us that much. We were walking out of the building the other day and this little herd of spanish chillins came running after us yelling. I was just about ready to bust some skulls but they stopped before they got to us. Their apparent leader spoke up and said two words, "Sois ladrones." Since that mishap i have been planning my attack to take over as the herds new alpha elder. So far they really like the invisible weapon battles i ensue with them whenever they cross our path on the way home. I would rather be a warrior than a thief.
Speaking of thieves, the Elders we live with are theives. This whole whitewash thing has been quite the interesting little persuit. We practically live out of our area book. Our big step has been trying to meet all the investigators we recieved from all the other areas. Well, apparently there was once in particular who was really good. We are talking way good. He is practically already dripping with baptismal water. So we finally got in contact with him the other day, set up an appointment and were set and ready to go. We ended up having to leave early to go meet him, funny thing was, the elders we live with, who work in the other ward, also had to leave early to teach a lesson. To make a long story short, we had both set up the same lesson and showed up for the same person. Turns out he moved the week before to the other ward and nobody told us or updated anything. I was wondering why he was so confused when we called and asked if we could meet with him. Moral of the story: the other elders are theives. There is a powerful rivalry going on since we both meet in the temple chapel.
Speaking of the temple, we got a call the other day as we were leaving the apartment from the temple patron telling us there were 15 non-members wanting a temple tour. The turned out to be an awesome group of mentally hadicap youth from andalucia. It was one of the funnest things i have ever done. When i told them that i have ancestors from andalucia they totally freaked and loved me. The tour was one of the most spiritually irreverent tours ever. It is hard to explain. I realized this had to be special and i wanted to make sure they had a good time and still felt the impact of it all. They loved it. I just gave them all the energy i had. Stuff like this really makes an impact on what i am wanting my future to contain.
Speaking of impacts, i think a pretty big impact was made at the mission council on monday. It pretty much just consists of all the big shots and me getting together to talk about the mission and present concerns and possible workshops for the mission. It was really boring. I kept my cool pretty much the whole time. Well, until we got to the complaints part. I didnt bring anything up, but somebody else said something about all the stuff we fit into the zone conferences and then president asked if we like what was happening in zone conference. Everyone nodded their heads in agreement, except me. I even had a "nope" slip out. Dont worry, it was followed quickly by a soft "oops" when all the heads turned toward me in terror. President asked me why so told him that it was a neat idea but it was really boring and i was tired of hearing from the same people in ever conference. He asked me to expound and some monster inside of me that i didnt even know was there excaped from its cage. It pretty much consisted of the fact that there are a lot of missionaries who get a lot from the zone conference, but they would honestly learn form anything because they show up prepared and seeking something. I felt that we needed to focus more on those who showed up just because they had to, and hated every minute of it. Heck, i had been to a conference or two with that in mind. Luckily i matured out of it, but honestly there are other things i would still rather do. President is so cool to put up with Bratz like me. He really switched the focus of the conference after that. It was cool.
Speaking of cool, we just got back from the wax museum. It was really wierd, but super sweet. They had a ton of spain specific things. Like all the big shot rulers of spain over the last 2000 years, tons of culture specific scenes, and even some pretty gross stuff, like the history of crime and torture in ancient spain. Way wierd. Way fun.
Speaking of way, i thought jason would be interested to know my plant-children are doing way good. Treeancum is growing well. Lion and jeff are still fighting. I need to figure out the watering schedule for them a bit better. I discovered small plant number three in the kitchen closet the other day and i am nursing him back to health.
Speaking of health, i am healthy and strong. Things are happy and going. I will try to get the pictures to you by next week for sure, mom. Sorry for the delay.
Loves,
Elder Sky
Speaking of prizes, If that package is still waiting to be send, i would like to request some beef jerky. Any kind. The other day somebody called somebody else a jerk and it really made me have a killer craving.
Speaking of killer, our neighbor kids are pretty killer. Apparently either them or their parents dont really like us that much. We were walking out of the building the other day and this little herd of spanish chillins came running after us yelling. I was just about ready to bust some skulls but they stopped before they got to us. Their apparent leader spoke up and said two words, "Sois ladrones." Since that mishap i have been planning my attack to take over as the herds new alpha elder. So far they really like the invisible weapon battles i ensue with them whenever they cross our path on the way home. I would rather be a warrior than a thief.
Speaking of thieves, the Elders we live with are theives. This whole whitewash thing has been quite the interesting little persuit. We practically live out of our area book. Our big step has been trying to meet all the investigators we recieved from all the other areas. Well, apparently there was once in particular who was really good. We are talking way good. He is practically already dripping with baptismal water. So we finally got in contact with him the other day, set up an appointment and were set and ready to go. We ended up having to leave early to go meet him, funny thing was, the elders we live with, who work in the other ward, also had to leave early to teach a lesson. To make a long story short, we had both set up the same lesson and showed up for the same person. Turns out he moved the week before to the other ward and nobody told us or updated anything. I was wondering why he was so confused when we called and asked if we could meet with him. Moral of the story: the other elders are theives. There is a powerful rivalry going on since we both meet in the temple chapel.
Speaking of the temple, we got a call the other day as we were leaving the apartment from the temple patron telling us there were 15 non-members wanting a temple tour. The turned out to be an awesome group of mentally hadicap youth from andalucia. It was one of the funnest things i have ever done. When i told them that i have ancestors from andalucia they totally freaked and loved me. The tour was one of the most spiritually irreverent tours ever. It is hard to explain. I realized this had to be special and i wanted to make sure they had a good time and still felt the impact of it all. They loved it. I just gave them all the energy i had. Stuff like this really makes an impact on what i am wanting my future to contain.
Speaking of impacts, i think a pretty big impact was made at the mission council on monday. It pretty much just consists of all the big shots and me getting together to talk about the mission and present concerns and possible workshops for the mission. It was really boring. I kept my cool pretty much the whole time. Well, until we got to the complaints part. I didnt bring anything up, but somebody else said something about all the stuff we fit into the zone conferences and then president asked if we like what was happening in zone conference. Everyone nodded their heads in agreement, except me. I even had a "nope" slip out. Dont worry, it was followed quickly by a soft "oops" when all the heads turned toward me in terror. President asked me why so told him that it was a neat idea but it was really boring and i was tired of hearing from the same people in ever conference. He asked me to expound and some monster inside of me that i didnt even know was there excaped from its cage. It pretty much consisted of the fact that there are a lot of missionaries who get a lot from the zone conference, but they would honestly learn form anything because they show up prepared and seeking something. I felt that we needed to focus more on those who showed up just because they had to, and hated every minute of it. Heck, i had been to a conference or two with that in mind. Luckily i matured out of it, but honestly there are other things i would still rather do. President is so cool to put up with Bratz like me. He really switched the focus of the conference after that. It was cool.
Speaking of cool, we just got back from the wax museum. It was really wierd, but super sweet. They had a ton of spain specific things. Like all the big shot rulers of spain over the last 2000 years, tons of culture specific scenes, and even some pretty gross stuff, like the history of crime and torture in ancient spain. Way wierd. Way fun.
Speaking of way, i thought jason would be interested to know my plant-children are doing way good. Treeancum is growing well. Lion and jeff are still fighting. I need to figure out the watering schedule for them a bit better. I discovered small plant number three in the kitchen closet the other day and i am nursing him back to health.
Speaking of health, i am healthy and strong. Things are happy and going. I will try to get the pictures to you by next week for sure, mom. Sorry for the delay.
Loves,
Elder Sky
Are you ready? 5 May 2010
So we finally found this legendary cultural center that gives free internet, but it took us about an hour and a half to find it, so i am a bit rushed at the moment. Luckily (and sadly) there are no big stories to tell, just humongous events.
So, remember how i was in Barrio 1 just loving life and thinking i was going to be ending my mission there? Yeah, about that... That is not going to happen anymore. We got a call on thursday telling us that they were going to remerge the areas and that only Elder Wallace was not supposed to buy his monthly metro pass. Naturally it all became clear that the brick wallace was to be outcasted to far off pueblo and that my companion, Elder Kay, would end up becoming the companion of the Barrio 5 elders that were with us. We knew one of them were leaving so we just figured they would do the most logical thing because there was no way that i would leave. Well, we were wrong. Apparently President got tired of all the huge changes and is just throwing darts at a map to figure out where to send us. Or at least that is the current theory.
They called saturday with the news and indeed Elder Wallace was to be outcasted. In fact he is so far outcasted that he will now become a missionary of the newly reorganized malaga mission. It was funny. We laughed.
Sadly, that is not all that they shared. I was about to hang up and he said that there was one more change. He told me i was out. It was not funny. I cried.
Shut up, Karston.
So we got the meeting, and it was a seious meeting. Just about the whole mission changed. There were a lot of missionaries going home and only 1 coming in. Plus, all the leadership and just like that had to be set in stone before the mission changes in July. So with how they do it now, we sat down in the meeting and they started announceing the areas and the companionships. Everyone laughed when they announced mine. I cried.
Shut up, Jason.
Due to all the holes and the prospected changes that were coming. They formed a new zone out of the previous Temple and Alcala zones. It is now known and Madrid Este. On top of that they merged the three Barrio 6 areas into one big kahuna of an area. Then they set to work to figure out who would be able to handle the job. Their first obvious choice was an easy one: Elder Action Jackson (as i like to call him). Ex-ZL, Ex-AP, current superstar. Done. Now, who do you think would be a good companion? This is when that one elder with a good sense of humor came in and said, "hey, we should give him Elder Carr." As you know, an idea like that is so absurd that everyone laughs and lets it just die away as quickly as it came up. Well, a mistake was made. Someone in the room thought that comment was serious and made it happen. I dont know who it was, but if i did.... So here i am. Totally lost and totally clueless. Hermana Watkins asked what i was thinking of doing so i told her that i only know how to do one thing well, and that is to be Elder Carr, so i will start with that and see what happens. It is what i have been doing so far and it hasnt been too bad. The white was is super hilarious. We get lost so much. We even have our own phones. Luckily, either nobody trusts me yet or nobody really believes it happened so they never call my phone, but it is kind of fun feeling important. I will hopefully figure this stuff out soon. Our first assignment is to make a workshop for the mission to go through at zone conference. It is going to rock. All the ones that they have done my whole mission have been super sucky. Way boring. This one is going to blow their socks off. We dont know how to do it yet, but my companion has given me free reign on the brainstorming of ideas. That is all i need. They might not learn anthing usefull, but they will remember!
So here i am. You might want to start sending letters to the mission again, i dont know our address yet but i will let you know when i do. My new number is 627486590. I have my own phone now so you can call whenever you want. I will keep planning on 930 for now.
Sorry about the scantyness of the email. As you can imagine, things are little hectic right now. I thought a whitewash was just a special tricks to turn your garments super white.
That comment may be evidence enough of my capacities.
Pray for those that have to put up with me, they will need it.
Love,
Elder Sky
So, remember how i was in Barrio 1 just loving life and thinking i was going to be ending my mission there? Yeah, about that... That is not going to happen anymore. We got a call on thursday telling us that they were going to remerge the areas and that only Elder Wallace was not supposed to buy his monthly metro pass. Naturally it all became clear that the brick wallace was to be outcasted to far off pueblo and that my companion, Elder Kay, would end up becoming the companion of the Barrio 5 elders that were with us. We knew one of them were leaving so we just figured they would do the most logical thing because there was no way that i would leave. Well, we were wrong. Apparently President got tired of all the huge changes and is just throwing darts at a map to figure out where to send us. Or at least that is the current theory.
They called saturday with the news and indeed Elder Wallace was to be outcasted. In fact he is so far outcasted that he will now become a missionary of the newly reorganized malaga mission. It was funny. We laughed.
Sadly, that is not all that they shared. I was about to hang up and he said that there was one more change. He told me i was out. It was not funny. I cried.
Shut up, Karston.
So we got the meeting, and it was a seious meeting. Just about the whole mission changed. There were a lot of missionaries going home and only 1 coming in. Plus, all the leadership and just like that had to be set in stone before the mission changes in July. So with how they do it now, we sat down in the meeting and they started announceing the areas and the companionships. Everyone laughed when they announced mine. I cried.
Shut up, Jason.
Due to all the holes and the prospected changes that were coming. They formed a new zone out of the previous Temple and Alcala zones. It is now known and Madrid Este. On top of that they merged the three Barrio 6 areas into one big kahuna of an area. Then they set to work to figure out who would be able to handle the job. Their first obvious choice was an easy one: Elder Action Jackson (as i like to call him). Ex-ZL, Ex-AP, current superstar. Done. Now, who do you think would be a good companion? This is when that one elder with a good sense of humor came in and said, "hey, we should give him Elder Carr." As you know, an idea like that is so absurd that everyone laughs and lets it just die away as quickly as it came up. Well, a mistake was made. Someone in the room thought that comment was serious and made it happen. I dont know who it was, but if i did.... So here i am. Totally lost and totally clueless. Hermana Watkins asked what i was thinking of doing so i told her that i only know how to do one thing well, and that is to be Elder Carr, so i will start with that and see what happens. It is what i have been doing so far and it hasnt been too bad. The white was is super hilarious. We get lost so much. We even have our own phones. Luckily, either nobody trusts me yet or nobody really believes it happened so they never call my phone, but it is kind of fun feeling important. I will hopefully figure this stuff out soon. Our first assignment is to make a workshop for the mission to go through at zone conference. It is going to rock. All the ones that they have done my whole mission have been super sucky. Way boring. This one is going to blow their socks off. We dont know how to do it yet, but my companion has given me free reign on the brainstorming of ideas. That is all i need. They might not learn anthing usefull, but they will remember!
So here i am. You might want to start sending letters to the mission again, i dont know our address yet but i will let you know when i do. My new number is 627486590. I have my own phone now so you can call whenever you want. I will keep planning on 930 for now.
Sorry about the scantyness of the email. As you can imagine, things are little hectic right now. I thought a whitewash was just a special tricks to turn your garments super white.
That comment may be evidence enough of my capacities.
Pray for those that have to put up with me, they will need it.
Love,
Elder Sky
Saturday, May 8, 2010
its a hot one 28 Apr 2010
Has the heat hit over there yet? This last week has been a scorcher. I was thinking about it and i am really stoked to get to have a non-stop sauna on the home stretch to burn off some of the cushion i have built up. You know, pross-cushion. Makes sitting and walking through big crowds a lot less painful.
I will get you the pictures of my john the beloved impression next week.
Call time, whoo! My companion is getting his call at 700pm our time. That stands unconfirmed. He has a really big family and we want to allow for some buffer so i was thinking 900 or 930 my time. If that gets in the way of church you could even push as far as 1000ish. We go to bed at 1130. So let me know which works for you. They are all good with me. It is the same number as Christmas = 627486512. As always i will let you figure out all the codage so i don't mess us up.
Wow, that pretty much does it for the business. Okay then, lets get to it.
I have two occurrences of note. I will tell them in reverse order. One comes from Saturday and the other from Sunday, and you were paying attention when you read the previous sentence that means i will start with Sunday and then tell Saturday's. "Why?" you might ask. Well, i am not really sure, the recent one is just fresher in my mind so i want to spit it out quick. Plus, i think the Saturday one is more of a mission nature, so we will count it as the grand finale. "Why is he expounding on such a useless explanation?" you might ask. Well, i would ask the same question. That is why we get along so well, you and i (consider the you to be the Spanish vosotros so that you can all be included).
Also may be for the lack of info i have to share this week. Sorry, it is rather warm in this cyber spot and i think my brain is sweating.
On to Sunday's happenings. We have been pushing way hard to work with the youth of the ward. They are super sweet but the adults treat them like crudloads (to be honest, i don't even know what that means, but it came to mind, and as always happens, what come to mind comes to pass). Our big focus right now is to find families and replacements (young dudes that will go on missions after baptism). We decided to go right ahead and start working with the possible ward replacements. We play soccer ever Saturday with them which is sweet. I have discovered how to deceive them into thinking i have talent. I do either one of two things. 1- play goalie. In Spain there is no public grass, so everyone plays on concrete mini courts. The goals are small and i am big. Whenever anyone wants to shoot a just gently lay myself down in front of them and make the save. That is the first mode of deceit. Next up. 2- move and flail arms a great deal while running. I have come to find that the added movement adds a great deal of trickery to one's level of play. These have both worked wonders for me and have gotten me into their circle of trust. Their families were pretty excited about that so they invited us over to eat empanadas. I refused to let them feed us empanadas unless they agreed to teach us how to make them. They agreed. It was awesome. I am know capable of making an Ecuadorian cheese empanada. Now for the point of all this. While we were finishing things up. The young men of the ward had successfully been gathered together and to pass the time pulled out the karaoke game they have for the xbox 360. When i walked in, cooking apron and all, they jokingly asked me to give it a try. I looked them in the eye and with the speed of a snake strike snatched the microphone right out of their hand. This game was legit, it rates you and everything. They carefully picked my song and set me loose. The performance left all of us breathless. They gave me complicated by Avril Lavigne so that was my excuse. But as for them, they saw me take that song out for a stroll through the park and even gave it a goodnight kiss, and not only that, the game gave me a big bang rating. I don't even know what that means, but apparently it was good because we have now become their idols. They kept saying, "Elder Carr, eres una maquina, tio." I love the Spanish culture. Had i known the path to the trust and heart of a Spanish joven was a simple stroll down karaoke lane i would have taken these kids out for a walk along time ago. So, the big news is that we are in. I will keep you posted.
On to Saturday's happenings. The week was a pretty rough one. It happens. No biggie. Saturday was one of the happiest days ever. I love how much Heavenly Father loves giving us presents. On Saturday there were 3 baptism in our ward. Cicilia, Guadalupe, and Luis. They are all so amazing. They are all such miracles. It seriously was one of the most amazing tender mercies of my life. As always happens, there are those feelings i have and i think just about every missionary has when things go tough about not being sure if I'm doing enough. You know, not really sure if there is that much change being made. It is a nasty temptation, but it happens. It was a tough week so i was getting some thoughts like that and i just had to keep telling myself, "Self, shut your mouth, you know you are working hard. Quit thinking it depends on you." Then Saturday came and it was incredible. Cicilia is a woman that was walking down a dark street on my first night in the area. I saw her and thought that it would be weird to talk to her because it would probably freak her out. We passed her and i just felt the strongest feeling of "who cares?" I stopped and ran back to get her. Funny because this actually freaked her out more. She tried to get away and almost ran, but as soon as had made my move toward i felt so strongly that she needed to hear something. So i told her that. She stopped, turned around slowly and i told her she needed this message. She asked me what it was and i just said the first thing that came to mind. I told her that she would be able be with her family forever. She started to cry and said that her husband had died just a little while ago. It was an incredible experience. It freaks me out to think what would have happen had i just kept walking. It is really sad to think of those i have let walk by. Pretty good motivator to do better. Guadalupe is her daughter and is now preparing to serve a mission. Luis is an old Spaniard man that was investigating the church 10 years ago but as soon as he started to get interested his father died and he lost contact with the church and God. 10 years later he ran into missionaries and asked them to pass by him, but they could never get in contact with him and lost his info. I was flipping through some old numbers we had lying around and i saw his name "Luis Conejo" and i thought, "that name is sweet, we have to go by him." Elder Wallace found his info and made it happen. He is so cool. Then when we got home that night i got word that a kid named Michael Alvarez had been baptized in Aranjuez. He had moved in while i was there and i got to get his info when his member family introduced him to us. He said he wasn't interested and i just called him a liar. When i asked why i told him that he didn't even know what he wasn't interested in. He was in the middle of making some big changes and he was looking for something more. We started teaching him and he totally got into it but had to leave because of a new job. Apparently he just got back and was baptized soon after. It was such an amazing weekend.
As you can imagine, life is good.
Stay true, don't turn blue, i love you,
Elder Sky
I will get you the pictures of my john the beloved impression next week.
Call time, whoo! My companion is getting his call at 700pm our time. That stands unconfirmed. He has a really big family and we want to allow for some buffer so i was thinking 900 or 930 my time. If that gets in the way of church you could even push as far as 1000ish. We go to bed at 1130. So let me know which works for you. They are all good with me. It is the same number as Christmas = 627486512. As always i will let you figure out all the codage so i don't mess us up.
Wow, that pretty much does it for the business. Okay then, lets get to it.
I have two occurrences of note. I will tell them in reverse order. One comes from Saturday and the other from Sunday, and you were paying attention when you read the previous sentence that means i will start with Sunday and then tell Saturday's. "Why?" you might ask. Well, i am not really sure, the recent one is just fresher in my mind so i want to spit it out quick. Plus, i think the Saturday one is more of a mission nature, so we will count it as the grand finale. "Why is he expounding on such a useless explanation?" you might ask. Well, i would ask the same question. That is why we get along so well, you and i (consider the you to be the Spanish vosotros so that you can all be included).
Also may be for the lack of info i have to share this week. Sorry, it is rather warm in this cyber spot and i think my brain is sweating.
On to Sunday's happenings. We have been pushing way hard to work with the youth of the ward. They are super sweet but the adults treat them like crudloads (to be honest, i don't even know what that means, but it came to mind, and as always happens, what come to mind comes to pass). Our big focus right now is to find families and replacements (young dudes that will go on missions after baptism). We decided to go right ahead and start working with the possible ward replacements. We play soccer ever Saturday with them which is sweet. I have discovered how to deceive them into thinking i have talent. I do either one of two things. 1- play goalie. In Spain there is no public grass, so everyone plays on concrete mini courts. The goals are small and i am big. Whenever anyone wants to shoot a just gently lay myself down in front of them and make the save. That is the first mode of deceit. Next up. 2- move and flail arms a great deal while running. I have come to find that the added movement adds a great deal of trickery to one's level of play. These have both worked wonders for me and have gotten me into their circle of trust. Their families were pretty excited about that so they invited us over to eat empanadas. I refused to let them feed us empanadas unless they agreed to teach us how to make them. They agreed. It was awesome. I am know capable of making an Ecuadorian cheese empanada. Now for the point of all this. While we were finishing things up. The young men of the ward had successfully been gathered together and to pass the time pulled out the karaoke game they have for the xbox 360. When i walked in, cooking apron and all, they jokingly asked me to give it a try. I looked them in the eye and with the speed of a snake strike snatched the microphone right out of their hand. This game was legit, it rates you and everything. They carefully picked my song and set me loose. The performance left all of us breathless. They gave me complicated by Avril Lavigne so that was my excuse. But as for them, they saw me take that song out for a stroll through the park and even gave it a goodnight kiss, and not only that, the game gave me a big bang rating. I don't even know what that means, but apparently it was good because we have now become their idols. They kept saying, "Elder Carr, eres una maquina, tio." I love the Spanish culture. Had i known the path to the trust and heart of a Spanish joven was a simple stroll down karaoke lane i would have taken these kids out for a walk along time ago. So, the big news is that we are in. I will keep you posted.
On to Saturday's happenings. The week was a pretty rough one. It happens. No biggie. Saturday was one of the happiest days ever. I love how much Heavenly Father loves giving us presents. On Saturday there were 3 baptism in our ward. Cicilia, Guadalupe, and Luis. They are all so amazing. They are all such miracles. It seriously was one of the most amazing tender mercies of my life. As always happens, there are those feelings i have and i think just about every missionary has when things go tough about not being sure if I'm doing enough. You know, not really sure if there is that much change being made. It is a nasty temptation, but it happens. It was a tough week so i was getting some thoughts like that and i just had to keep telling myself, "Self, shut your mouth, you know you are working hard. Quit thinking it depends on you." Then Saturday came and it was incredible. Cicilia is a woman that was walking down a dark street on my first night in the area. I saw her and thought that it would be weird to talk to her because it would probably freak her out. We passed her and i just felt the strongest feeling of "who cares?" I stopped and ran back to get her. Funny because this actually freaked her out more. She tried to get away and almost ran, but as soon as had made my move toward i felt so strongly that she needed to hear something. So i told her that. She stopped, turned around slowly and i told her she needed this message. She asked me what it was and i just said the first thing that came to mind. I told her that she would be able be with her family forever. She started to cry and said that her husband had died just a little while ago. It was an incredible experience. It freaks me out to think what would have happen had i just kept walking. It is really sad to think of those i have let walk by. Pretty good motivator to do better. Guadalupe is her daughter and is now preparing to serve a mission. Luis is an old Spaniard man that was investigating the church 10 years ago but as soon as he started to get interested his father died and he lost contact with the church and God. 10 years later he ran into missionaries and asked them to pass by him, but they could never get in contact with him and lost his info. I was flipping through some old numbers we had lying around and i saw his name "Luis Conejo" and i thought, "that name is sweet, we have to go by him." Elder Wallace found his info and made it happen. He is so cool. Then when we got home that night i got word that a kid named Michael Alvarez had been baptized in Aranjuez. He had moved in while i was there and i got to get his info when his member family introduced him to us. He said he wasn't interested and i just called him a liar. When i asked why i told him that he didn't even know what he wasn't interested in. He was in the middle of making some big changes and he was looking for something more. We started teaching him and he totally got into it but had to leave because of a new job. Apparently he just got back and was baptized soon after. It was such an amazing weekend.
As you can imagine, life is good.
Stay true, don't turn blue, i love you,
Elder Sky
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