#42 11 Months

Ward Mission Leader

Arganda is doing well, sadly I am not there anymore. Both Elder Cordova and I were transferred.  There are now two new elders in the area. We said goodbye to all the ward members that we love and we packed up and left this morning. I am now in my fourth area in Talavera de la Reina which is about an hour and a half southwest of Madrid.  It is close to Toledo. We have a car here! We have a lot of people that we teach that are in little towns so the car will be useful. I am excited to be here. It sounds like the members feed us a lot and it seems like a pretty cool area. I have only seen a little bit of the area but it reminds me of Cuenca when I did intercambios. My comp's name is Elder Stephens, another kid from Idaho. He seems cool. He lived in California and was actually born in San Jose as well! His home now is just right outside of Boise. He has about a year and a half out in the mission so we are both senior companions. Time to get some work done! 

Pavones District

I am doing well. One of the members wanted to test Elder Cordova´s blood and mine.  I had pretty low blood sugar even after eating. I am going to try and eat more sugar than I guess, fine with me. My level was 118 after eating. 

It was sad saying goodbye to all the ward members. I was there for 6 months and I got to know quite a bit of them. There were some members that cried and that made me realize how much of a difference that I was able to make while I was there. It was very touching to see. I have couple places to stay here in Madrid if I ever get to come back. I will really miss all the wonderful people here.

Mom the dream that you had was really cool! I have prayed for you to be blessed with dreams like the ones you have had  a couple times before. I am glad to hear that you are being taken care of and comforted.

Thanks for all the updates on everyone! I am doing great. I am a little quiet around the new Elders I am with, which I have noticed is what usually happens with me. I am not comfortable with them yet but I soon will be.

It is always weird to be in a new area. It is exciting to see new things and meet new people. I will let you know how my first week goes here! 

Love you Mom,

Elder Miles

Letter #41 Ten Months

 Had a great week this week. Elder Cordova and I are getting along great and working hard. We call each other the white boy and the brown kid.  We are going to have another baptism this week! I am so excited :) He is a guy from Colombia, which is where Jace served.  He has been taught since last April. We have been trying so hard to get this guy to come to church to help him progress and finally he came.   We actually got him to give us ride there :) Usually it takes about an hour to get to church by Metro but in his car it took literally 10 minutes. He is a quick driver, haha. His baptism will be this Friday and he might be the first person that I baptize, if he wants me to! 

My companion and I are great friends with some great families in the ward. They are inviting us over now without us asking them :) There has been some people that have been adding me on facebook here so make sure to add them.

This week went pretty well. It was the first week of the transfer and it was nice to get another fresh start. We do not have very many investigators and now since our main one is getting baptized we are going to be on a serious search for some new people to teach. 

It is so cool to hear that Jace is back from his mission and to hear that he enjoyed his mission. I am learning so much here and I can´t wait to see how much knowledge I can take home with me when it is my time. 

The weather here is awesome.  It has been spring since the new year. I told my companion that this city is a metropolis that controls their weather. As soon as they put out some planter plots with palm trees the weather turns to spring! It has been fun to see the seasons change while I've lived here. 

My debit card is now activated and I withdrew 50€ last week. My package is now in the mission office and now I am just waiting from the office elders to bring it down to my chapel! It has been a good wait and I am excited to get it! 

Well on to another week of work! I have been trying hard to improve on my Spanish. I feel like a lot of people can't understand me lately so I am studying harder on pronunciation and listening closer to people.  Also, I have been studing a lot in Preach My Gospel and it has been really good. I am on page 6 so far in ´My Purpose.´

Love you all so much!   

Love Elder Miles

Letter #40

It was so good to see you on Christmas with skype! I am  still on that high. I am so glad that you were all able to have such a good time together in California with the Truemans. It reminded me of the good old times and I can´t wait to head back over to those neck of the woods sometime. It is really cool that everything seemed to just work out when you decided to take off for a weekend. It just goes to show that Heavenly Father is mindful of your desires, He provided. 

Here goes my week.

Monday: I went to Toledo and had an awesome time there just seeing the sights and stealing away a little bit away from my area. Later when I got home Elder Cordova and I had two really good lessons right in a row. We had a member with us for both of them which was super good.

Tuesday: Someone called us the night before and told us that someone gave us a package and it was waiting in the church. It wasn´t our packages from home and no I have not gotten it yet, but we went and grabbed it Tuesday morning and it was full of Spanish sweets :) Somebody, we don´t know who, really spoiled us with chocolates and chorizo, and other Spanish dulces :) We felt like kings! Later that day we somehow had 3 meals to go to with member! The first meal was with a Spanish Family, the first counselor, the second was with a less active member from Peru, and the last meal was with our Argentinian family. I was filled to the brim with food. After having a rough and trying December we were blessed so much that we could literally not receive anymore. We had to take the last meal home with us so we could eat it later :) 

Wednesday: My last district meeting as district leader... It went well and afterwards we all went out to eat together as a district :) 

Thursday: I did another Baptismal interview for Hermana Palomino and Gauna. His name is Jorge and is from Peru and he was very prepared. It was so cool to interview him because every question I asked him he basically answered with his testimony. I love giving interviews because it shows the end result of somebody that is ready to get baptized. 

Friday: We had a busy morning planned and we had a member with us to go to a bunch of lessons but all of our plans fell through... It was kind of disappointing but it went by quick. That evening Jorge was baptized. It went really well and he was so excited! 

Saturday: We left the piso that morning without our umbrellas, first mistake. We ran over to see a less active member and then we went over to the other side of town to knock some doors because it was getting cold and we wanted to get out of the ugly weather. Pretty soon it starting raining really hard. We decided to call an investigator. (A guy who invited us to his church but we ended up not being able to go) Luckily he let us come over! We ran over as quick as we could in the now pouring rain and by the time we got over there we were soaked! It was fun though and I had a smile on my face. The lesson we had was intense because we were using a lot of scriptures to help him understand the Book of Mormon but he was very close minded.  We decided that he is not ready to take the lessons. It seems bad to do but he will be ready in a later time in his life with different missionaries. 

That night was also transfer calls!!! I am staying here in Arganda with Elder Cordova but now I am not District Leader... I am happy that I am staying the same this trasfer :) I am kind of sad that I am no longer DL though. It was fun but at the same time I have a bit weight taken off my shoulders.

Sunday: Church went really well. Jorge was confirmed. I feel so comfortable in the 8th ward here. I am friends with members and it is fun to say hi to familiar faces. Later that night we had a family home evening with our awesome Peruvian member family. We taught a lesson and had dessert and played pictionary. 

All in all it was a fun week. Happy new year! Love you so much mom and I hope that you have great week. 

Love, elder Miles

Letter #39 Merry Christmas!

The Christmas season in the mission field has been good. It has been different but I have enjoyed it. It definitly doesn´t feel like the christmas that I am used to at home but I have had fun. 

MONDAY: All the missionaries in Madrid sang a big Christmas concert for everyone here. There was about 150 missionaries and there was a nice program and refreshments and everything. It took place at the church and it was filled all the way to the back of the overflow! It was a great experience. We learned some fun songs in Spanish, such as Los Peces en el Río.

TUESDAY: My whole district came out to Arganda del Rey (my area) and we contacted todo el mundo! We were all there for a good hour and a half and it went really well. It was cool to have so many missionaries in one little area. Afterwards we all went to eat pizza at a little pizza place. 

WEDNESDAY: I got to go to the Temple in the morning which went great. I love being able to go there on my mission. I feel so close to our Hevenly Father there. I also had a zone meeting and then later I went to Cuenca to do intercambios (exchanges) I was with an Elder that is from a small town outside of Rome Italy! It was so cool to be able to get know him and his culture a little bit. It is amazing how we can both speak Spanish together even though I speak English and he speaks Italian. 

THURSDAY: We had a miracle baptism! A girl named Ana that has been going to church for the past 3 years with her boyfriend and their family decided to get baptized this past week. We did all we could to teach her all the lessons so she coud get baptized. Right after I came back from Cuenca I went to the church and filled up the font and she was baptized Thursday night. It was so amazing :)

FRIDAY: One of our member families that we visit gave birth this week and we went over to see how she was doing. We went over and she had dinner prepared for us! Just 3 days after having a baby and she was up and adam cooking us food! They are an awesome family. 

SATURDAY: I did an intercambio with an elder from Finland. We get along very well, his name is Elder Helske! 

SUNDAY: Ana was confirmed and I was able to stand in the confirmation circle! That was an awesome experience as well. Ana is from Romania and super nice. She is only 19.

MONDAY: I did a district meeting and it went really well. I gave a blessing to an Hermana that needed comfort. It was the most spiritual blessing that I have ever given. It felt so inspired and by the end of it, all of us were in tears... my companion, her who I gave the blessing, her companion and me. Right after that I did a baptismal interview of a man that is going to be baptized this evening! He is a Spaniard named Jose and he is an invetigator of the other elders in my district. 

TUESDAY: All the missionaries had a dinner at a families house. We all ate a delicious Peruvian meal. Later that night we had a devotional for missionaries only. President spoke to us and everyone got their packages. I'm sure I'll get mine soon. 

Wednesday: Merry Christmas! 

That was a very busy week full of fun, stress, excitement, the spirit. I hope everyone else had a great Christmas. 

Love you all.

Elder Miles

Letter #38, 9 Months!

Hello Family!

It sounded like you had a great time this week with the Anderson party at our house, Mom´s choir, Jenna´s dance performance, Jonny´s music concert! I am bummed out that I had to miss all that! Christmastime is always my favorite at home. It is always so exciting and cozy. I thought that it was hilarious how Josh got caught sneaking into the Christmas closet! It was fun to hear that story from all of your emails :) 

Mom, that sounded fun for you to call into the mission office. I wonder who you talked to?  You could have even talked with my trainer, Elder Bird, since he is in the office and incharge of mail over there. It will be funny to see how much my speech changes by the end of the mission. 

Sounds like the Anderson family party was a hit! It is weird that I was not able to be there for that one. I had to buy myself a bag of peanuts today and now I understand why. I must have been missing the party & the "pass the parcel" game. I am so glad that you had such a great week! 

I actually wrote down what I did this week so I will start with Monday.

Monday: All of the missionaries in Madrid are doing a big Christmas concert which we are performing at today. We had a big practice with everyone and it was fun to see my mission friends. I was touched by the spirit a couple times during the practice which reminded me of the way Mom feels when she performs her amazing choir concerts. I felt like I was following in your footsteps, Mom. Later that day, we went to visit one of our investigators, Ani. She is from Brazil. The past couple of times we have visited her she has had a friend over but this time she had three. There was an older Spaniard man, Older Dominican woman, and her friend from Bolivia. After getting to know them a little bit it was obvious that all four of them, including Ani, were at a great level of spirituality. Da igaul, we taught them all the "Plan of Salvation" and we did a great job of adjusting to their needs. One was athiest, one believes that God was everything, one was kind of believing in God and Ani is just awesome but is always running around taking care of kids. It was so cool to teach such nice people with many different beliefs all at once. While I bore my testimony to them I was amazed that I was able to do that in front of people that I have never even met before with such different backgrounds. It was a cool experience.

Tuesday: We are friends with the guy that works in the churro and chocolate stand. He has been giving us free churros and chocolate ever since we met him. His name is Abraham from Bolivia. He is a really nice guy and fun to visit with, but he is always working. As of right now we aren´t realy teaching him  but we are there to keep a good image of the church so that one day, when he decides to come to church, he can remember us. There is also another family in our ward that we visit named the Minguitos, Spaniards. They are all really nice. We shared a fun lesson with them.

Wednesday: The main thing that happend on Wednesday was that we met with a new investigator named Ana. She has been actually been coming to church with her member boyfriend for the past 3 years but just hasn´t been babtized. We are good friends with the boyfriend's family, The Boriosi´s from Argentina, sshhaa. 

Jueves: I did intercambios with my Zone Leader and left Elder Cordova in charge in Arganda. It was a stress reliever to get out of my area for a day and have someone else incharge. Elder Eskelson is one of my zone leaders and he actually flew to Spain with me on the same flight. I have a picture of us at the airport! It was cool that we were able to be together for a day.

Friday: Finished intercambios and I went back to Arganda. Elder Cordova was so relieved to have me back. He told me that he is so appreciative for me and that I am willing to get him to work and for me to be in-charge. I was glad to hear that. I think I might leave and go away for intercambios more often ;) 

Saturday: There was a big end of the year Christmas party! It turned out very well. Lots of food, people, good program and everyone loved it. The Missionaries in my ward and I all sang Jingle bell rock and Venid Adoremos (I can´t remember what it is in English..) The ward all seemed to love that too. Something crazy that happened there though was that Ana, the girl we taught on Wednesday, told us that she wants to get baptized this Thursday!! That came out of nowhere! Elder Cordova and I set a goal to have one baptism this month and it is happening! We have to teach her all of the lessons but she pretty much knows everthing since she has been going to church for the past 3 years. 

Sunday: Good day at church, taught Ana again. 

This week should be fun! Tonight we are having our big choir concert and tomorrow we are having a Blitz in Arganda! Elder Cordova and I thought it would be cool if we got all of the missionaries in our district to come out to Arganda and proselyte, so that is what we are doing tomorrow. Afterwards, we are going to go hit the Telepizza for Medio Dia lunch all together. I hope that it all turns out well.  It will let Arganda know that the Mormons are here. Wednesday, I am going out to Cuenca to do an intercambio with an Elder from Italia. Look that city up online for some pictures. Some of the pisos are built into the cliffs.  AND Thursday is Ana´s babtism! 

I have been reading "The Living Christ" everyday for the past couple weeks in my personal study. It is the testimony from the Prophet and his Apostles. I have really enjoyed doing that because it has centered my life more on Christ. It shares the true importance of Christ and what he did for us. That would be a good one to read together. 

I hope that you all have a great week! I will talk to you next Wednesday on Skype :)

Love you all and have fun :)

Elder Miles

Letter #37

I have yet made another week without any of my own money :)  It sure has been inconvinient. I have been eating rice, pasta, and cereal. I do not like relying on using my comps money. We even had to borrow money from a ward member to go to church on the metro which was very kind of them. All the metro traveling has killed us.  We are doing fine though and we have not gone without because the Lord is looking over us. 

There are a couple of families that are a great help in the work. They give us people to teach and they let us use their houses. There are not as many people in the street here as there were in Vallecas so it makes contacting really hard. Our ward building is in Madrid so we have to travel there and back for district meetings, english classes, Noche de Hogar, and for church. It has been kind of a pain to have to travel out there especially without a metro pass. Elder Cordova ran out of money supporting us both to get there and back. We had to ask a member to help us out so we could get to church this sunday.

It is funny that you said that we just need these people to open their doors because the other day we just knocked doors all day. We must have gone from house to house for about 75 houses and not a single one had any interest. It was a long day to say the least. I don´t know if we were in the wrong area, if the spirit was telling me to go somewhere else or what. The work here is slow and it has taken a good amout of patience but it is improving. 

I am enjoying Arganda, the members are awesome and the word is that there might be a branch here soon :)

I loved hearing about your mission dad. At times I like to picture you as a missionary and how you would have worked or how you would have reacted to the situations that I go through here. 

We set a fecha this last week with a guy from Columbia. I hope that we can get him to continue to progress. 

 

I am excited to see what happens here in Arganda during the Christmas season! I am really excited to skype home and see you all. Luckily, the members have had mercy on us and we are going to have a meal with a family on the 24th and 25th :) Yum, one of them is going to make us Turkey! 

Thanks for all your support and prayers! I hope that you have a great week! 

Love Elder JJ

Answers:

What are the drivers like in Spain?

The drivers here I think are crazy.  They do stop on a dime when you even approch a crosswalk though.

What kind of Spanish Christmas celebrations are there?

I am not sure what people do here for Christmas but I know there are lots little festive pastries and such.

Love you!

Elder JJ 

Letter #36

Thanks so much for all the awesome pictures of home and your emails! The house looks amazing as it does every year for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I can't believe  I used to live there! I am used to little shanty piso and when I saw those pictures I was suprised! The poster that you made was awesome! I will keep sending more pictures. I really thought it was cool. 

It sounds like Thanksgiving was a hit again this year! I sure did miss being home for it.  Around 9 pm Spain time my companion and I were picturing our moms taking the turkey out of the oven. Thanksgiving was my first day in my new area so we didn´t get to eat a meal at the members. What we did though was buy lunch for medio dia from a Kebab :) It is Turkish food and it was delicious and really cheap. Turkish food=Thanksgiving Turkey...good enough for us! I am not going to lie, it sucked being away from home on Thanksgiving. I had no money and my companion & I are brand new to the area so we just worked the rest of the day. 

My new area is fun. I am in a little city named Arganda del Rey.  It's about an hour outside of Madrid by Metro. I am still a part of the same ward.  It just means that we have to travel farther to get to the church 3 times a week. The members out here in Arganda and another city that we have called Rivas, are awesome! I am excited to be out here. I am hoping to work with the members a lot and hopefully get to enjoy some good family meals:) We live in a little hole in the wall that is next to a huge Catholic church. It is actually pretty cozy now since we have it stocked with some food and the heat is working now:) The sisters picked the piso and only lived here for 4 days before they were transferred. It has a nice happy orange wall and a baby blue little boy's room which is where we sleep. Que lindo, hermanas! 

My companion's name is Elder Cordova. He is from New Jersey.  His view from his house is across the Hudson River and New York City! It has been fun to talk to him about New York and some of the places that I was familiar with. He is on his 3rd transfer. His parents are from Ecuador, so he is fluent in Spanish.  I'm excited for him to help me with mine:) He is a nice guy and has helped me out with my "no money" situation. He turns 19 this December. He was serving in Leon before this transfer.  It sounds like he was with some disobedient Elders before. I have been helping him to learn the mission rules. He is really willing to be obedient and work hard, which I am very grateful for. I am excited to be with him.

I will let you know next week when my companion and I decide on what time we want to skype home! I am way excited to see everyone :) 

I don´t think I will be going to Toledo to pick stuff out for Christmas... I can´t really think of anything that I would like you to send me. I do miss Peanut Butter a little bit haha. Sorry that I am not much help. Although, I would really enjoy some music! Mainly, I would love hymns and classical music but if there is any other church songs that you like to load that would be awesome. It should be music that invites the spirit:)  I would love some music and some supplies from the homeland!

Something that I studied this morning was Christlike attributes. I realized during my study that these attributes will not only make me a better missionary but also a better person in general. I am going to make it my goal to improve on these attributes that are listed in Preach my Gospel. 

I read this talk during my time on the computer and I really liked it. The Gospel blesses our lives immensely.  We can show our gratitude to our Savior by sharing it with others. The message of the Restored Gospel really is a message of happiness and joy. God loves us and he wants us to return to live with Him, therefore he has prepared a way that we can do so. Jesus Christ is the way. He is our example. He has suffered for our sins, our afflictions, sickness, (Alma 7) through the Atonement. Focus on Christ this season and share the joyful message of Salvation with others. 

https://www.lds.org/liahona/2013/12/family-and-friends-forever?lang=eng&clang=eng&clang=spa

The Living Christ: Testimony of the Apostles

http://jesuschrist.lds.org/SonOfGod/eng/testimonies-of-him/articles/the-living-christ-the-testimony-of-the-apostles-of-the-church-of-jesus-christ-of-latter-day-saints

I hope that you have a great week. I will continue working hard and focusing on the work. 

Love you so much y espero que le vaya bien.

Love Elder Miles