Letter #11

jayden.miles@myldsmail.net

 Hey thanks for all of your emails! Jenna your 9th grade party at La Caille sounded like it was a fun time. The escargot that you ate sounded pretty interesting, haha. Josh I hope you had an awesome 17th birthday... even though you had school and work. Iron Man 3 was probably awesome. I know most of the movies that are coming out but it is weird that I am literally not allowed to see any of them. 
Thank you Dad for your email, you always give me strength through your words of encouragement and support.  There is a family in my branch that is from Montevideo Uruguay! We had lunch with them this last week, probably the best meal that I have had in Spain so far! We ate big chicken legs and ribs :) Thank you Mom for the letter and your advice about building relationships.  You´re sending me another package?! :) Thank you so much Mom! I freak-en love mail! haha. Now I am friends with the Correos guys instead of the UPS guys.

This week went pretty well. For P-day last week we went to a commercial center that is about a 10 minute walk from our piso. All of the stores are clothing stores. Jenna you would have had a fit, haha.  All the clothes here are so cool. I had a hard time not buying anything. I may have to splurge when I leave my mission and get some clothes. I ate the famous churros and chocolate. It was a little disappointing actually. It was still pretty good but the churros are not very sweet. I expected something a little more... unhealthy covered in sugar and cinnamon. 

I had my first Zone Conference this past Wednesday. We took a bus down to Santiago to meet there. It was really fun to see other missionaries and learn from those who have much more experience than I have.

While we were there we got to see the Santiago Cathedral which was really cool! Santiago´s center is the classic Spain you picture with the narrow alley ways, cobblestone and old architecture. I am kind of hoping that it opens up for missionaries. There is a church there but no missionaries. Technically, it is part of my area which is a hour away but, we can only go if we have a lesson. 

We have another baptismal date for the month or July!!  If all goes as planned we should have at least two or three. I´m really excited for this next transfer to be here. I highly doubt that I will be transfered while I am still being trained. 

One of our investigators is named Juan Reyes.  He is a little Dominican Republic guy that lives about a 20 minutes walk away from us. The sencond day that I was here in a Coruña we had a lesson with him and not until this last week have we been able to be in contact with him.  We have a little bit of a problem with invetigators disappearing from us. But, this week we found him outside of his house! He lives on the first floor of his piso complex with his family and supposedly one of his rooms was locked and they couldn't get in from the inside. So he got a ladder and tried to get in through the window from the outside. His ladder was not quite long enough so he ran inside and came out with another ladder that was obviously not long enough either. He also came out with some electrical wire that looked like you use for speakers. He tied the two ladders together and we helped hold this thing still while he scrambled up to his window. This was the definition of "jury rigged" it was so sketch! Then afterwards we all went inside and had a great lesson.

Everything is going great. I am still working hard. Some days are definitly harder than others trying to stay motivated and want to go work. I thought that it would always be easy to want to work and talk to people. I have been praying for the patience to have a strong desire to serve the people here. My prayer is being answered the more I talk to ward members, teach lessons and knock doors. My Spanish is improving poco a poco. I have definitely seen progress from the first week of being here! 

I love you family so much. I can´t wait to hear from you next week! 

Elder Jayden Miles