Letter #27

Thanks so much for your emails this week. I am glad that you got my letter that I sent. I am wearing one of those old Spaniard ties today. It is tan and has a little lion and a lamb laying together at the very bottom.  I could not resist to take that one! I am glad to hear that everyone had a good week! 

Madrid is a lot defferent than the north. Both in missionary work and getting around. My area is Barrio 8 Vallecas which is about a 30 minute bus ride to the church and the Temple. I am able to go to the Temple October 2nd! I am really excited for that. Every transfer I will be able to go to the temple which is great.

In my new area we do all of our contacting down one big street called Avenida de Albufera. It is a big long street and it has access to the Metro all the way down.  In Vallecas this street is where most of the stores and everything else is.  Needless to say we spend a lot of time on that street. In the north we were able to go contact in different parts of the city but here it is basically just one street. We have tried contacting in other places but there are no people off of Avenida de Albufera.  We use the busses and metro and RENFE a lot which is the train. I like getting around on the Metro. Having had some experience on the London Tube and the NYC Subway has definitely come in handy :) 

I had a pretty good week. We had a lot more lessons and we spent a little less time on the street. I don´t even know what we did that first week of the transfer because we had no lessons. Things are picking up now though and Í am excited! One of our new investigators, Miguel, has not been answering his phone for the past couple of day. He didn´t show up at the last lesson that we scheduled with him and now I think he is kind of dodging us. It is super frustrating because he was so prepared and he was very receptive. I am just hoping that he lost his phone or something rather than not wanting to meet with us. We will get him. That is something that we always say before we go to a lesson. We are going to get you so good Miguel. :) haha.

Every Monday we have a Noche de Hogar ( Family Home Evening) at the church.   We invite investigators and other members. This week we had a really stong lesson on the Atonement and it was very spiritual. I was a main part of this lesson. We gave everyone a challenge to through a ball an impossible distance.  If they didn´t make it then I had to take a bite of an onion. Nobody could make this distance.  After each person tried I would take a bite of the nasty onion. After a while everyone had gone through but I still had to keep eating for the people that were not there that night that would have tried and for the people in the past. I repesented the Savior and the onion represented the sins of the world. At first I was taking some pretty good size bites, just like eating an apple.  After a while it got so pungent!! The Elder teaching continued the lesson about the Atonement while everyone watched me eat this onion. It was super hard and it burned but I ate the entire thing just like Christ finished the Atonement even though it was painful. My whole mouth and nasals burned the rest of the night and my breath reaked of onion the nest day... haha. It was a tough one but it was worth it for the lesson! 

The rest of the week went pretty well. We met some new investigators and recieved some good references from the street. Pretty good week.

Today we plan on going down to Sol to go check out this store called Fútbolmania because they are supposed to have some cheap jersey's from last year.  So, if I find one I will probably get a jersey for a souvenir.  The elder's and I purchased a nice grilled cheese maker this morning which we have been trying to get for the past 3 weeks. We are all pretty excited for it this week.

Other than that not much has happened. The work is going well and I am happy. Thanks for all of the support and the emails! I am excited to hear all about next week and what is going on. 

Lots of love,

Elder Miles

Letter #26

A Coruna Train Station with the Hermanas

I am doing great! My companion and I are full of missionary excitement and we are working hard. We do a ton of contacting in the streets but I have just gotten used to that and I have improved a ton with contacting. To answer your question, in our mission we do set goals to baptize people when we do weekly planning. We actually commited a man to be baptized this week. We don´t have a date set with him yet but we are going to set one with him TONIGHT! We met him in the streets about 2 weeks ago and he really has a desire to change his life. He is a pretty cool guy.  He is Spanish and he plays Flamanco guitar in the Metros. Awesome!

Something really cool happened this week. Elder Ballard from the Twelve Apostles was in town because he was creating a stake in the Canary Islands. He rearranged some of his schedule so that he could talk to all of the missionaries that were around Madrid! I got to shake his hand!! Super cool! He spoke about D&C 11 which was an answer to Hyrum Smiths prayer on what he should do. That chapter is really good and I have found a lot of comfort out of it! The spirit of missionary work was so strong that I was just ready to get back out to the streets after that.

Pulpo Gallego (Octopus from Galicia) Delicious!

When I went into that meeting I had a question that I was thinking about and I was wondering if Elder Ballard would answer it during his talk. I wanted to ask him what the best approach when contacting people. My answer was given very clearly when he said,´´The answer to the question that many missionaries ask me is what is the best way to approach somone when contacting....  It was Very Clear and super cool to receive an answer to my question. The Prophet and his Apostles are truely men of God and I testify that they are called to help us by the power of the Priesthood.

I believe it when you said that Elder Packer said that our times are much harder than they were in the pioneer days. There is a lot of crazy stuff that happens here in Madrid that is kind of an eye opener. I love Madrid, it is a really cool city and I love using all the trains, metro's and busses to get around town. 

I am excited for dad to get the and advancement in the Priesthood! I was wondering when that would happen.

The language is definitely starting to click! I do most of the talking in our companionship so it is a ton of good practice.  It's exciting to feel the language coming!  (Jayden is doing great.  Jim writes his letters in Spanish to him and Jayden writes Jim back all in Spanish.  We're excited for him!)

I am glad to hear that everything is going well at home and that everyone is safe. I hope that everyone gets feeling better from the bug going around there... My health is great and I am doing fine. I sent a letter last week so I hope that you guys get that soon. I will try and include pictures of the piso next week. We need to clean it this week because it is kind of a wreck and we havent had time to clean it... 

I Love you all so much and I hope everything is going great at home.

Elder Jayden

Letter #25

I was so glad to hear from everybody this week! I hope that the second week of school all went well. 

Josh I am also glad to hear that you are studying your scriptures and Preach my Gospel. I am so grateful for the time that I had to prepare for the mission. Also great job on becoming the president of LD,in debate. I am excited to hear all about that. You should also go to Homecoming ;)

Jenna, sounds like you had a good week with friends and eating at the Lion House with mom. Fancy Shmancy. Thanks so much for your email :)

Jonny, It was crazy to hear that there are 20 deacons in the ward! I hope that you feel like you at least get to serve a couple times a month. Score with the new bull whip and tie!  cha ching! That is also super cool that you got the new Book of Mormon. I havent seen it yet. Thanks for your questions that you asked me as well.

Sorry to hear that Grandma Anderson fell... I am glad that Dad and Jerry were able to exercize some Priesthood power. I was able to annoint oil for the blessing of the sick and afflicted this past week for an Elder. 

I bet you guys are glad that the weather is finally starting to lower. It has been pretty hot and dry here in Madrid. I actually have to use my chapstick...since I don't live near the ocean air in the north anymore.  I have been dried out living in the city. :( It hasn´t been terribly hot but bastante. 

My buddy, Juan Carlos

Madrid has been cool so far. We ride the bus, metro and train. We also do a lot of walking. We don´t get bikes or cars. When I traveled down to Madrid on the train we took a different route so we didn´t pass by where the recent train accident was. I wasn't nervous, tranquilo. 

The work this past week was still pretty slow. Elder Anderson and I did a lot of contacting in the streets. The people here are more open to listen to what we have to say but we still don´t get a ton of references. It is easy to lose excitement when we are in the street for 5 hours at a time just trying to talk to people. I am suprisingly still sane though, so that is good right?  I was able to meet a less active member and one of our investigators this week and they were both super awesome! I am excited to go and visit them again this next week! 

Elder Ian Anderson is from Centerville Utah. He is a hard working and an obedient Elder. We are both farely fresh so it has been interesting trying to figure some things out. We live with two other Elders in a piso. This piso is a lot bigger than the one that I was at in A Coruña. 

I miss the north but I am excited to work here in Madrid, The Ward seems awesome and there are so many people here to talk to and teach here. A Coruña had like 200 thousand and Madrid has like 6 million, quite the leap in population!

Antonio and his dogs

Before I left A Coruna I had a cool experience I hadn't told you yet.  There was a guy in the streets who stopped us and told us he had a bunch of ties he wanted to give us.  He inherited them from his new piso that he just moved into. He said he admired the work we did and he knows that we wear ties everyday.  He bought us a water at the bar and we were able to tell him about the work we did as missionaries. He gave us his address and told us to meet him the next day. We went to his piso and it was in a really nice area and next to a beautiful beach.  He was a super nice guy. We asked if we could share a message with him and unfortunately he declined and said he was too busy.  He gave my companion and I 15 cool old Spanish ties apiece.  We were pretty excited.  It would have been better if he would have had more time.  Maybe he will let us share a message next time?

I havent written a letter yet, sorry I know that I said that I was going to.. I will try by best this week.. 

I am doing great! Healthy, happy, working hard. I love you all so much and I hope that you all have an awesome week!! 

Love Elder Miles

Letter #24

I just got transferred!

I am no longer in A Coruña. I took a train this morning and now I am back in Madrid.  I will be serving in Vallecas in ward 8.  I am sad that I had to leave everyone in A Coruña and my native companion, Elder Barragán.  But, I am also excited to be in Mardid! There's a lot more work here in Madrid and many wards instead of little branches. I am with my new companion, Elder Anderson from Centerville, Utah. I am excited to be with him. We have already found out that we have a lot in common. I am now the Senor Companion. Although, I only have one more transfer than he does. Our spanish with be improving a lot within the next couple transfers. 

I am so grateful for the time that I was able to have in A Coruña. I will miss that place and all the people that I was able to meet and grow to love. I have some awesome stories that I want to share but I don´t have much time on the computer since P-day is already over. I will send my experiences in a letter this week.

Just wanted to write a very quick note to let you know that I had been transfered.  I don´t know the address quite yet so don´t be sending stuff up to A Coruña.  If you have that is okay.  The Elders up there will just have to send it down to me. Elder Barragán told me that I only have to pay him 5 euros for him to send them... broma!

I am excited to be in Madrid.  The mission is such an exciting time in my life. This morning I was in the very north of Spain and now I am in the hustle and bustle of Madrid. This city feels enormous in comparision to A Coruña. I already got to see Hermana Smith who was in my district during the MTC so that was fun. There are so many missionaries here in Madrid! It´s crazy! The north felt so secluded and tranquilo.