December 26, 2011 - Family Email

Patricio and Jhardelin.  I love these people more than anything

I want to so say sorry for being a loser, I felt like I had a thousand things to tell you all but I forgot!!!

 

Elder Barahona

This is the house I was at last night to do the Skype thing.  Love their kids!

 

I promised myself I wouldn´t be an awkward person online, but hey, the mission changes you.  Okay, I wasn´t that awkward.  Well I love you all and good thing I am getting a new camera because the screen got cracked last night.  I don´t know how but I came back upstairs after skyping and the screen broke.  I hope you all enjoyed the gifts.  I LOVED everything I got from you all.  Seriously you all spoil me to DEATH.  I am extremely grateful to have the best family in the world.  The best parents EVER.   I had an amazing Christmas and I don´t feel far away from you all.  Well it just doesn´t feel like Christmas in Spain haha.  My favorite thing I got was the skype talk. 

Well i just wrote Damon a letter all in Spanish, haha, because I can understand his beaner Spanish now haha.  I really do love you all and I am extremely blessed with everything I have.  Hey I love you all and I'm doing awesome I am excited for the hollidays to be over so I can start teaching people more.  I love teaching lessons, I love to teach.  Well you all choose the right and I love you.

ELDER HAFEN

 

December 18, 2011 - Email to Family

Hello family!

So cool I got your last package!  This last week was rather interesting!  Well really interesting.  But thank you for the package I got it this last Wedensday because Brother Ortegon had us over for dinner.  I am really suprised you haven´t got the packages yet.  He sent them two weeks ago today, they should be getting there any day now.  I hope they get there soon, they must be all caught back in the Christmas rush of things.  Don´t worry about not being home for Christmas.  Heather is too afraid to talk to me anyway. 

I am a little sad lately, I am getting really tired of not seeing the fruit of my labors here in El Puerto.  I am trying really hard to find people to teach and giving it all I got, it´s just really hard.  t month and I just don´t know about them.  I feel like I have to do a lot on my own here.  I will tell you more at Christmas.  But Mom, don´t worry about me I am fine and happy.  I don´t want you all worried and all that, Smile :)

So this week was rather strange.  Here we were one night just trying to get into Moises´ house and the black lady asks me if I am cold because I never wear a jacket or a sweater, they bother me.  We talk to her for like 5 minutes and get her number, she speaks english not spanish.  She told us she would come to church the next week with her friend and she didn´t.  But we call her and we set up a lesson to teach her Wednesay morning and we went in there and teach her and her friend.  They are rich, we are sitting there wondering how they have a huge screen tv.  So we start talking more and I ask her what her job is and she told me that she´s not gonna lie, she works at a club, she is a stripper.  So, we talk to the ladies and they are really nice and they are Christians.  They are both from Nigeria, the one lady that stopped us in the street and asked me if I was cold is named Vera and her friend is named Sonya.  Vera doesn´t speak English well, but the other lives in Norway and is very smart and reads the Bible.  So we teach them a short lesson on Wednesday, it´s called lesson 0 and it´s just a summary of everything we teach. 

On Friday we go to teach them again, and Vera had to take off and go to work, so we stayed and taught Sonya (the really smart one) the Restoration and she loved it!  She remembered every single little detail about the lesson before about the restoration. So we left her with some Books of Mormons, and invite her to church on Sunday with Vera.  She said Vera won't come because she works too late.  So Sunday morning comes along and we go to pick up Sonya and she is ready and we walk to church.  She is a really nice nice lady.  We take her to church and the members were awesome to her.  So good.  She stayed the whole 3 hours and she said she liked it a lot.  So we teach her a lesson during the seccond hour about the sacrament and baptism and she told us she wants to get baptized she just has to stop doing what she is doing.  She then told us that she is a prostitute.  WOW!!!!  She makes 10 grand a week up in Norway, and she is here in Spain for 6 months on vacation.  She we keep telling her she needs to change and she said she would get baptized.  But she said she CANNOT change because she sends a lot of her money to Africa where her family is suffering.  We are working on the whole faith and trusting in God.  She is awesome though!  I never thought I would teach a prostitute on my mission.  She isn´t working right now.  She actually really is a pretty lady and really funny.  So no worries she isn´t gonna bite us, we have talked to the Zone leaders about her and everything. 

Elena is doing alright, she didn´t make it to church this week and we didn´t teach her.  We see her almost everyday in the street while she waits to get picked up by her boyfriend.  She is really busy with the Holidays and everything.  She still loves the message and wants to hear more.  Elihu, I am mad we didn´t teach him last Saturday because he wasn´t home or wouldn´t answer the door.  He also never answers his phone so it´s near impossible to meet with him.  Especially when he lives 30 minutes away by bus.  Adrian is doing really good, we are going to baptize him the first week in January.  His dad comes the 22nd of this month, and the dad doesn´t like the church so they don´t want drama for his baptism.  So that will have to wait.  So this last week Henry and Paloma ditched us twice so we are done wasting our time there.  I think that is everyone! 

So Christmas we will be doing SKYPE at the Petersons home and they have really nice computers and said we can go into seperate rooms so it´s private.  We will be calling you at 6:00 to 6:30 here in SPAIN.  SO you all need to figure out the time distance because last time I ruined it.  Just stay logged on and around until we add you and start talking.  I will probably use my account again.  Well I am good and I am happy, no worries, just stressed about the work, I should be right?!  I shouldn´t ever feel relaxed!  Well I love you all so very much, I cannot wait to talk to ya´ll!

Cody

December 12, 2011 - Family Email

WHAT?????

You saw Elder Solari??  NO WAY!  HE was a beast missionary!!  He was the most amazing contactor in all of the mission.  He was one of the youngest AP´s then after that he turned into travelling AP.   He was the most nice person I have ever met.  He was one of the missionaries that everyone looked up to that was humble, nice and sweet to all the kids, even the kids that weren´t way outgoing.  That is amazing that you saw him!  I remember 2 weeks into the field I had heard about Elder Solari and we were walking to Zone Conference with a group of missionaries and Elder Solari was being so nice to me because I was freaking out about the language and I was scared and he just sat there and talked to me.  Nice kid, that makes me so happy you ran into him.  I am going to email him and tell him thanks. 

So before I start about the week I need to thank Brother Bryce.  He wrote me a long nice letter that I got last week.  He is a the sweetest man in the whole world.  He told me that he reads my blog every week so he will be reading this!  Thank you Brother Bryce!  and Andy Bryce!  Good luck buddy tear it up!!  The second is I am going to be sending a letter to the house that is for Maddi Jones.  She also wrote me a letter that got sent with a bunch of letters from the ward.  I don´t know her address and I will be writing it today.  The other is I forgot to respond to the question about the quicksilver shirts.  Could you get some for this kid?  I am guessing an adult small would be PERFECT.  He is this little 12 year old Bolivian member that is the missionaries best friend.  Oh one more thing, could you write a thank you card to Brother Ortegon?  He is awesome and some past elders in the mission are taking advantage of the whole base deal and he received 9 packages last week and only one of them was mine and one other was Elder Brown´s.  I only got the one so far.  It takes a little to receive them because they have to go through customs.  I am going to his house this Wednesday for dinner so hopefully he has my other package!  Oh yeah, I am staying in EL PUERTO.  My package that I sent to you all should be there soon.  It got sent last Monday one week ago.  Send everything to the base still!

Okay so yeah we had a good week.  We got 2 new investigators, still searching for the good ones that want to listen.  But we saw a lot of progress with people.  So to start off I don´t know if you ever remember me mentioning about Patricio and Jhardelin.  Well Patricio is an in active member and Jhardelin is his wife.  Patricio is from Ecuador and she is from Peru.  Well Jhardelin is not a member and kinda catholic.  She has been hearing from the missionaries for years and never got baptized.  Well her husband doesn´t want her to get baptized and neither did she.  She always has been having doubts and everything about the church.  But me and Elder Brown have been teaching her AWESOME lessons.  She loves Jesus so much.  She absolutely loves the Plan of Salvation.  Well yesterday after we taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ she told us that she wants to be baptized!!  Well Patricio said no and he doesn´t want to be the one to baptize her.  She asked us how many more lessons we have left to teach her and I told her 3 left.  Patricio wants his brother to come home from the mission in 14 months to baptize her but she says she doesn´t want to wait.  I have been teaching this family for 4 and half months!  I love them so much!  She makes awesome food from Peru, I die every time I go over there it´s soooo good.  I would love nothing more then to see her get baptized.  They have a really complicating story that I will explain to you over Christmas.  So Adrian will mostly likely be getting baptized the 22nd this month!  WOOH!  His grandpa is here and a sweet man.  I talked to him for awhile at church yesterday.  Elena came to church yesterday and we taught her the Restoration and she liked it a lot.  After she came to sacrament and it was the children's program.  She loved the children's program because there is like 10 kids that are fluent in English and Spanish.  She loved it.  We see a lot of progress with her.  The other kid we got, I forgot to tell you about, is Elihu.  He is from El Salvador and awesome! We serve in two areas kinda.  A place called Rota and El Puerto.  Rota is on the other side of the Base.  Well Elihu´s mother is a member but works on Sundays.   So he has a really hard time coming to church.  He reads the Book of Mormon and believes and loves our church.  We have have taught him twice now.  He is a new investigator of about 2 weeks.  He is 21 years old.  Henry and Paloma, the same.  We couldn´t even meet with them this week.  They are so lazy and don't want anything. Pepi is too sick to come to church and loves the Virgin Mary.  So I think that is about it for investigators.  The two new investigators are Paco from Spain, that is atheist and Saida from Bolivia that doesn´t want anything.  We are trying with them though!

Thanks so much for the package!  You are amazing parents I love you sooooo much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  My comp says thanks for the calender!  Tell Heather's mother thank you and I will do everything she tells me! 

I love you guys!

CODY

December 5, 2011 - Family Email

Hello family how are you??

Cody having Thanksgiving with his district. The Elder you see first on the left is Elder Reese Jackson - Cody played soccer with him on Rangers. Elder Jackson just arrived in Spain a few weeks ago and they ran into each other and had a great reunion. So fun!

Well just to be quick and get this over with mom.  My skin is fine!  So you don´t need to worry about that.  I still have the little bumps on the back of my neck so when the stuff gets here I will take it.  So I have not received my package yet.  I will probably get it at the Christmas Party this Friday because the American´s live like 20 minutes from the church.  So I really hope I don´t get transferred.  The 14th of December are transfers.  I would miss all my other packages!!!  But I will make sure Elder Brown gives them to President and I will have to wait a while probably.  So my package for all of you should be sent today!  I gave it to a member yesterday and he should be putting it in the mail today or some day this week.  I sent it to the house so be on the look out.  I put a lot of effort into this package it stressed me out some times.  I put a letter on top with all of the instructions!  I will be sure to write Grandma Hafen a letter.  I made Christmas cards and I was going to send her one.  She always writes me.  I get a letter almost every 3 weeks.  I have written her back no worries!  Her last letter I couldn't read her cursive though!  I will need your help after the mish.  So I let you know the people that I was personally sending them to and the rest I asked if you could deliver them!  Thanks mother.  Okay real fast I would like after shave because it smells good and feels good.  I don´t get irritated there, rarely I will get one tiny little pimples under there.  I would like two small things in the package really quick.  1. A floss refill 2. retainer cleaner tablet things.  Okay so have I answered everything? I hope so.  Now the week:

So the week went really well.  I can say I have done a lot of work since I got to El Puerto.  Often I feel like I have done nothing because it´s a hard area to find people that want to do stuff.  But I have tried really hard and worked a lot of less actives to try and get them back.  I have grown a lot here.  I am getting really close with the members here.  This week was good.  However we never met with Elena.  She is the lady from Paraguay.  She had to go to Sevilla for some reason so she didn´t show up to our teaching appointment (I was upset).  But we saw her on the street walking and we talked to her, the Lord put her in our path because we hadn´t talked to her and she told us she was coming to church.  Sunday came around and she never showed up.  We still have her number and we are going to teach her, I know it.  Well Adrian is doing good.  No he isn´t getting baptized this week.  His grandpa is coming the 20th to baptize him, but the mom wants to do it all the way in January.  Adrian´s parents are separated so he has to go with his dad over the Holidays so that´s why we are doing January.  We are going to talk with the Mom and try and do it before he leaves with the dad.  The dad doesn´t like the church so we are thinking it would be better before he is with his dad.  So hopefully the baptism is soon!! So lets see what more happened this week.  Moises is doing good I guess, we are teaching him but I think we just picked up another Juan.  He smokes and doesn´t have a job.  We are trying to see progress with him but who knows.  I have faith but he needs to change a lot of things in his life.  Henry and Paloma are better.  We had a drop talk with them.  I almost started crying when I was talking about Eternal Families.  My voice cracked because I know I can live with my family for  forever, like I can literally picture it, I know it.  It will just be perfect and amazing.  I got good at holding back tears when talking about spiritual things sometimes I break down but not often.  I only cry when I am with Elder Manning talking about spiritual things.  He makes me cry because he´s a baby.  But they said they would be baptized in the future.  I will make it happen soon; they just need a member in there to help push them.  I wish there was someone in the ward to help push things along that would be good friends to them.  I have been thinking so hard for someone but I haven´t found it yet.  So we aren´t dropping Henry and Paloma they are just not progressing that much.  So other than that the other investigators that are new we haven´t been able to really sit down and meet with them.  This last week we got to go to Cádiz and contact for like 2 hours out in the street.  Cádiz is breath taking.  I got to watch the the sun set over the ocean, it sucked. It was all perfect and orange and red and I was with a dude. Oh well I am taking Heather here!  So the weather is freaking!  We leave the house and it´s short sleeve weather and then it gets so cold because it´s humid.  I just tough it out and don´t wear a jacket.  I hate carying a sweater in my back pack.  So I am excited for the packages and hope that I am in Puerto one more transfer, I think I will!  I love you all and hope you get the package ASAP.  But there is stuff you can´t open till Christmas, or if you want to, you can open it soon. 

Love you!  

CODY

November 28, 2011 - Email to Family

I am laughing in the subject of my email because that was really loooong instructions of what I should do with all of those medicines.  So I hope there is other instructions inside the package!  But wow, thank you for doing all of that for me!  You all are my angels! (Mom, Mama Stratton and Heather). 

How are all of you?

Well I had a really good week, well the start of the week was rough but it all ended up good.  I have been in a grumpy mood kinda because I am sick of our piso and the workers have keys to it and they come in and out of it as they please.  We are moving out of it though in like 30 days.  The Land Lord should be receiving an email today telling them that we are out!  President Clegg said that we can no longer live in that piso!  There is mold every where and our piso just smells no matter how much bleach I use to clean it.  We have been piso hunting, something I thought I would never have to do in Spanish.  It isn´t bad I can say now that I never really get lost in a conversation and I can Speak pretty good.  It is weird, I don´t know when you can say you are fluent or not.  I would say I am not because I need to grow my vocab!  But as far as conjugating verbs into the right form, I can do that fast now when talking!  Speaking of Spanish I gave a talk in church and I didn´t even plan it out.  I received a call about an hour before sacrament meeting and I talked for 20  minutes straight. After the branch President said I was Elder Holland haha.  I went up and dropped the law down about reading the scriptures.  Speaking of scriptures I have a reading assignment for all of you.  I just read Alma 5 this morning and it´s one of my favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon.  So you all should read it this week, it soo powerful!

So this week was really good.  We had a combined District Meeting with the zone down in Cádiz.  That was a lot of fun!  But on the train ride guess who just appears out of no where as a missionary, a new little missionary???  Reese Jackson! haha remember Reese from the Rangers?  Yeah I played soccer with him when I was just a little guy.  Of course he is still taller than me and all!  But he entered into the MTC in August and just barely got here like a week ago and he is serving in my Zone in a city called Algerciras.  So that was so funny to see him and talk to him for a while.  Small world huh?  So after the District Meeting we went to the Osmond´s home on base.  That was super good and we ate a lot of food, but it didn´t feel like Thanksgiving without my family or THE YAMS.  She made yams, but they weren´t Grandma Hafen´s yams.  So that was still way fun.  There were other members there, a young couple that are in their 30's.  They don´t have any children yet!  The guy's job is he takes apart bombs!  He jumpes out of planes and sneaks up and disarms a gosh dang Iraqi bomb.  So that guy is awesome, they feed us a lot.  But the Osmond´s are sweet hearts and invited us over to eat some Turkey.  The turkey was awesome! 

So cool story it was Friday night and I was rather upset.  We were about to get new investigators but the people weren´t home of course because they are Bolivians.  So our plans fell through and we had gone all week with out finding new people to teach.  That is what we are doing now because no one is progressing, only Adrian.  So I was mad and I just started walking fast and contacting everyone I see while passing by old investigators homes.  I get 2 futures which is okay and it´s about time to go home and we are walking by a corner and these two ladies yell at us and ask who we are.  So we talk to them for a while and one is from Brazil and the other Paraguay. YES!  So they told us they wanted to come to church and get a Bible.  We thought ha yeah whatever we will see if they show up to church.  So sacrament ends on Sunday and we walk out of the room and there standing in the hall way is the lady from Paraguay and her boy friend.  So she comes to the investigator class and she is super smart and she offered the last prayer and said thanks for helping me find these people and putting these boys in my path!  ha it was awesome!  We are going to teach her the Restoration on Wednesday and see how she is going.  She is a believer and loves this church.  She was asking me how do I become a member of this church?  She is Catholic and practices the Catholic church.  But that isn´t gonna stop us!  It seems whenever I am getting down or feel like we don´t have work, the Lord always comes through! We are imperfect and human and always mess up, but the Lord blesses us!  We also have one more person to start teaching a kid from El Salvador, his mom is a member and he just moved here a month ago.  So we are gonna see him too!  I am excited for the work!  I am doing good and I hope I answered all of your questions.  I have some questions!

1.  All of my quicksilver shirts, could you send them in one of the packages?  There is a member here a little boy that thinks quicksilver is the nicest brand in the world, so everything that is quicksilver could you send? I am gonna give it to him.  I remember all my quicksilver shirts are too small!

2.  Some aftershave in the package.  I think that´s it! 

I LOVE YOU.

OS QUIERO

November 21, 2011 - Email to Family

 Hey my beloved family.

This last week went rather fast!  I cannot believe that it´s Thanksgiving again!  That was a really fast year that just took place!  I cannot believe it, literally the time is flying by so fast.  We had a really good week and we found 3 new people to teach!  That is pretty good right?

Well about that whole staph infection deal.  To start it off it´s like a boil under the skin and they hurt really bad.  I punctured it and drained it out for like 4 days straight and got my hands on some antibiotics.  That was really hard to do, and I still have one on my neck.  So that leads me to a question.  Can you send me an emergency package of antibiotics??  With the package, if you love me send a CD of Mannheim Steamroller and Josh Grobans Christmas CD.  Haha it´s Christmas and I don´t have a lot of music.  It´s the only thing we can do as missionaries is music!  We have a Mannheim Steamroller CD so you can burn that if you want!  Thanks mother, sorry I feel like I am always asking for stuff!!!  I hate it but the antibiotics I need to fight it all off! 

Okay so this week was really fun.  We had Zone Conference, which was sooo much fun.  I like our Zone and all the missionaries in it.  The lesson Pres Clegg gave was amazing and Sister Clegg´s was amazing.  They are truly inspired people called by God to lead us.  They are awesome and they spoil the missionaries!  We found 3 new people to teach this week.  The first one is named Pepi.  She is super old and has been meeting with the missionaries for 14 years.  She is a nice lady and hasn´t seen the missionaries for like a year.  She asks us to come over and to visit her because she lives alone and likes the company.  She fell once and broke her hip and 3 days later her neighbor found her and saved her.  She is a beast, she laid there for 3 days with out food and couldn´t moved at all.  She is like 70 something years old.  The second is Moises, he is a younger guy that is 32 years old from Spain.  He is a good guy and believes everything we have told him, but I am pretty sure he is a drug addict.  I am positive I saw Marijuana buds all over his table, so we will see he has only been taught once.  The other is a lady from Bolivia named Sonia.  We contacted her a long time ago and finally passed by and got a lesson with her.  So we are going to try super hard with her.  I think we are going to see really good progress with her.  She just needs to read the Book of Mormon I think and really pray with her heart.  We have only taught her once too because she is new.  I dropped Juan yesterday morning because he wouldn´t come to church; so I am done and fed up with him.  We have tried so hard with him and prayed a lot but he just won't progress or grow up.  Claudia, she is done, Henry and Paloma, they are done too, oh and I talked to Betty and she said there is too many serious bad things happening in her life right now and she can´t listen to us.  I tried my hardest to bear my testimony over the phone to her.  She won't even meet with us to give her Beach Boy Cd's back.  haha she gave us her Cd's to listen to but of course we didn´t listen to them.  She wanted us to translate two songs for her so she could understand what they are singing about.  Haha so we just looked it up on the Internet and printed them out.  Well Adrian the little 10 year old is awesome.  We taught him yesterday after church and that was a lot of fun. 

This week we are having a combined district meeting, well our whole zone this Thursday and having Thanksgiving.  We were going to have another Thanksgiving with the guy that we can send packages through but he is going to Portugal this week.  So oh well.  I think another American is inviting us over still.  I don´t really care, it doesn´t feel like the Holidays.  Well I think I answered all of your questions!  I love you all so much!  Thanks for all you do for me and you are amazing!  Have a good Thanksgiving! 

CODY

November 14, 2011 - Email to Family

Hey family that I love!

 

Well this was a good week and very different.  It is really weird not teaching as many lessons as I used to.  This area is very different and hard!  I like it a lot.  El Puerto is a great little city and the people are super nice, however with that comes lazy and kick back attitude.  So with that we are possibly dropping 4 people that we are teaching.  The first is Claudia.  She cancelled on us like 4 times so I am done wasting the small time we have on her.  I know that my efforts aren´t wasted, but when they are ruining time we could use to find new people and search for the people more prepared, that isn´t cool!  So Claudia is most likely dropped.  Henry and Paloma, they won't come to church and he didn´t answer my last two phone calls, so they aren´t going in any direction of improving.  We are going to have a lesson with them to see what´s up and ask if they are here to learn and progress or do they think we are jokes and wasting our time with them.  The last is Juan.  He is a sweet guy and we really don´t want to drop him, but he has had 5 months to drop smoking and still isn´t trying very hard at all to drop it.  We had a really good lesson with him, but he is taking away time from us.  We did a really good job in the street this last week, and my contacting has improved a lot, I can talk a lot better with people.   My Spanish has jumped a lot.  Yesterday I had to translate the young women's class into English for a girl while the teacher was speaking in Spanish.  That was fun and I surprised myself in how well it went.  I knew everything that she was teaching.  I love listening to the lady speak, she is from Madrid and there they speak the PURE clean Spanish.  She is the Presidents wife here in the branch and she is beautiful.  She is a super nice lady and a BOMB missionary because she helped get Petri in the water.  So this week we were in the streets a lot.  I am helping Elder Brown out a lot with the Spanish.  I love serving with him, he is funny and I love the kid to death.  He asks me to correct him, which is weird, just 5 months ago Elder Shaver was the one correcting me.  Elder Brown is a good kid and has a more happy and positive spirit about him.  I have really enjoyed the time with him.  We are staying in the apartment we are at.  The health Elders came and checked our piso and walked through it with the landlord.  Which was nice because they're adults. So they tell the landlord this has to be fixed.  Hopefully we are getting better beds and that will be fixed.  It has been raining a lot more here, it was pouring on the way to come email you all right now!  While the health Elders were here he had the opportunity to check out my staff infection that I had failed to tell you about mother.  I figured that I would wait to tell you when it had gone away.  So it´s all good, I was in pain for about two weeks and I couldn´t even sleep on my back because it was on my tail bone.  But hey the good news is that it´s gone!  I also got it on my neck but it´s going away too, well gone almost.  So I may be making some purchases soon for Christmas, so don´t get all upset!  I have been trying really hard to not spend money and buy things I don´t need.  The reason the American base didn´t charge me is because I took out American money, not EUROS.  So for Christmas, I guess I have a couple of things I can think of that would be nice! 

My list to SANTA:
1. The Prophet of the Restoration (you know the cool one they played up at the Joseph Smith building)
2.  Exercise Band things, one that has the medium Resistance.
3. Okay this is the big one, IF you haven´t come up with something else because I don´t really need anything.  Okay so there are these bigger electronic dictionaries that conjugate the words and have a lot of words.  The little one you sent me doesn´t have hardly any words! Sorry but they don´t have them, or they are words that they use in Mexico and no body here understands them.  There are some that are pretty pricey, but that is what I would like for Christmas.  Look for the one that has the most words, I heard amazon has the best ones for cheaper, maybe.  They said that you should send all the packages before the the beginning of Dec 7th or we won't get them.  SEND THEM TO THE BASE.  You can send me 2 HUGE flat rate boxes for 12 bucks.  DO NOT PUT SPAIN at the bottom.  Tell them that you are sending them to military. 
4. Peanut butter.  Like a big jar or crunchy and creamy
5. Deodorant
6. Ties
7. YOUR LOVE. (CANDY)(MTN DEW)

 

Love you all,

Elder Code

November 7, 2011 - Email to Family

How is my lovely family?

Well I am doing really good.  I love my new comp he is super funny and  a clean freak.  Which is nice Elder Banbury was a slob and Elder Shaver never picked up his socks and that made me soo mad.  Elder Spencer JM Brown.  He is from South Jordan Utah.  We represent UTAH.  He says to look him up on facebook, he is a nerd.

Well this week was different.  I really don´t want to talk about investigators because I really feel all of them are not progressing.  We have Adrian, who is 10 years old and he will be baptized in December.  I have been teaching him for a long time and his grandpa is going to come and baptize him.  He has to be taught by us and be interviewed by another missionary.  He is funny and a good kid.  He is Spanish and Swiss.  His mother is from Switzerland.  But we don´t get to teach him that often.  Henry and Paloma are not coming to church and I fear never will.  They have told me at least 7 times they will come and never do.  I have tried everything.  Same with Claudia we even went to her home and she wouldn´t answer the door.  So I am done with those three.  If they don´t come to church they cannot be baptized.  So really I don´t know what more to say about investigators.  Sorry.   All I know that it is time to start finding new ones to teach.  I am not going to be doing it alone or on my own strength or the strength of my companion.  We are going to search with the power of Christ because that is the only way we are going to find people.  I am annoyed with our land lord guy.  I have to deal with problems in the house because our piso SUCKS.  Well, I have to do it all in Spanish and some of the Spanish people are can be prideful, so, we may just end up moving!  That would be nice I have been sleeping on a crappy couch for four months now because we own 3 beds and 2 of them are broken.  Well it sounds like you and dad are doing good!  That is fun to hear that you all are going to go snow shoeing and loose weight.  Dad told me to make sure that you are loosing weight every email haha. 

So this is weird I am all alone to take over El Puerto.  This is the first time that I have had to do this.  It is different and I want to find new people to teach because the others clearly don´t want to change, yet.  So we are going to find people that are already prepared.  It is weird I have to speak a lot and I feel like my Spanish has jumped in a more comfortable way, like I can understand people more.  I still need to increase my vocab.  I am helping Elder Brown out with the Spanish.  He is really hard on himself.  It is weird to be the one correcting someone.  Elder Shaver corrected me so much.  He was super hard on me.  But it payed off and I love him for it now.  Elder Shaver was an amazing trainer, I love the kid. 

So Petri, I ended up giving her the Holy Ghost.  I tried really hard to put in Elder Browns name and the Branch President but she wanted me to do it.  I thought it would be a good experience for him to do it.  But yeah she is all done now and super happy.  They laddies in the ward are taking super good care of her.  Well that is about all this week.  I am about to upload some photos.  The shortest kid that is brown and not Elder Rodriguez is Elder Basurto.  He was my district leader and he left to Cáceres!!!!!!  He is going to tear that place apart.  Elder Basurto is CRAZY.  In a good way.  Well I love you all!  Thanks for all you do.
hahahahahahahaaaa DUSTY!  SO FUNNY, LOVED THE PIC.  Good for him.

Love, Elder Cody

October 31, 2011 - Email to Family

Petri's Baptism - October 30, 2011

Hey, so I am here on American soil, well not really because Spain owns it, but I am on the American base right now!!!!

So, this morning I played Racket Ball and basket ball (on an American hoop) and ate some Taco Bell!  Now I am emailing for free, which is awesome!  A guy from the ward has been taking us around the base, it's awesome.  I also got a Mtn Dew!  So yeah I have been getting spoiled today.  It is a Holiday I love Halloween. 

So the NEWS!  I am staying here in El Puerto and I am getting a new companion named Elder Brown.  He is 6'7" and played basket ball at UVU.  He has like 3 months less than me in the mission, so I am senior companion again.  I have heard he doesn't speak too good yet, I am ready to help him out.  I am looking forward to that because El Puerto is my city now and I get to kinda direct the work.  I have a lot of good ideas and ways I want to do the work here.  Hopefully we will be getting some new investigators because the ones we have need to start doing stuff or I will be dropping them.  

Petri, Alona and her daughter

Petri got dunked last night and I still did the baptism!  I baptized someone for the first time in my life.  That was really cool, I loved it!  It was a super cool spiritual experience.  I felt really good and scared all at the same time.  This is super weird hearing a lot of English, I have forgotten how to speak to people in English, well I have forgotten how to greet people.  Well Petri was super happy and she still doesn't have the Holy Ghost we will see who gives it to her on Sunday, maybe I will have to do it too.  The baptism was really small, she didn't want a lot of people there.  But it was small and simple and a really amazing feeling.  I felt really good and the old Spanish ladies in the ward do a really good job at welcoming her in the ward.  We found Petri through this lady named Alona, she is from Russia.  Alona  is awesome, she is going through a divorce right now and she has the cutest kids alive.  Her husband doesn't want anything to do with the church.  So the picture of the baptism with the lady and her cute daughter is Alona.  So the baptism was just awesome.  I didn't have to re do it.  The prayer I did twice because the first time I forgot to say her name.  So investigators this week we did okay.  There is no one new.  We did teach Henry and Paloma finally again and set new dates with them to get baptized, it is to make them work and do commitments.  They don't do anything for example yesterday morning I called Henry and they said they would go to church and they didn't show up.  They don't read or really pray to know if these things are true.  They don't take us seriously.  We need a member in there to slap them around a little.  Claudia is doing good, but she cancelled on us 2 times in a row I  was rather upset.  So I am almost out of time, sorry this is kinda short but I have pictures!!!  So this past week the Spanish garbage is on strike and all of the streets are packed full of trash, it smells soooooo bad.  It is gross.  

 

I cannot believe that Jerame did that to his knee again.  I feel horrible.  I hate that sooooo bad.  I am not going to play sports like that to blow out my knee again.  Well I am in love with soccer so I am going to play that still.  I want to focus on triathlons.  I am glad that dad likes his new bike, it looks siiiick.  I am excited to ride it, but not train on it haha!  Well I am doing super good and the time is flying by super fast.  Thanks for the video!  haha the dogs were super funny I liked that email a lot.  I love you all and you're in my prayers!

CODY

October 24, 2011 - Family Email

haha Zac is pretty cute and funny!!

So yeah tell Bry I got his letter and thank you! So I have a question can you send me the video of Damon rapping the End of the year song?  Okay so you have to go to you tube, then look for "End of the Year Rap OHS 2010" Then there will be a place next to the video that says EMB code, copy the website thing and put it on the email.  If you have questions ask Heather or Dustin or Jerame!  Could you do that?  I want to show my companion Damon´s video.

So this week was long and hard.  Well it wasn´t long just we had a really rough start.  Petri told us that she couldn´t pay tithing.  I think she thought that you HAVE to pay to be a member.  She doesn´t make very much money so it´s super hard and she has to pay for her, her son and her daughter that should have a job.  But we had a lesson with her and a member that is American/Spanish and she helped us out soo much.  Then we had a Halloween party at the church and Petri came to it and she told me she hates it when she is not with us because she doesn´t feel the Spirit!  All she wants in life is to feel peace because she has lived in fear her whole life.  She has had a horrible life because of her ex husband and she only feels happy and peaceful around us and the Mormons.  Haha she grabbed my arm and told me not to leave her because she wanted to feel happier.  But yeah she is on track to get baptized this Sunday night!  She chose me to baptize her!  But I think Elder Banbury is leaving El Puerto this next Wednesday the 2nd or 3rd so he asked if he could baptize her if he leaves and I said alright.  So I may just give her the Holy Ghost.  Which is cool I guess, Petri didn´t want to choose between us but she finally did and it was me.  We are pretty close I always hang around her to make sure she isn´t alone at church and the parties and when we teach her so I think she feels the closest to me.  She always gives me the biggest smile and grabs my arm all the time haha.  But the other investigators are okay.  To be honest none of them are progressing nor doing the things they should be doing.  The people are sooooooooo hard here.  None of them do anything.  Like half of them don´t have jobs and do nothing all day and won’t do their commitments or come to church.  So I don´t know what else to say about them.  We didn´t meet with Betty this last week she was ignoring us.  Henry and Paloma are not doing anything.  We didn´t meet with them either.  Juan only smoked one cig yesterday, that is because he ran out of tobacco and money.  So I don´t know about Jaun, I honestly feel like I am dealing with a four year old.  He can read and he loves reading, but he just isn´t smart.  I love the guy and he is funny, I love his excuses for not coming to church.  He is doing all of his commitments.  Claudia we are not spending much time with her, she keeps cancelling on us.  So we met this guy from Romania, well he stopped us on the street and he speaks English.  He understands a lot and can speak pretty well.  So we taught him the Restoration.  My first time teaching in English, it was so weird, but the spirit was super strong.  He asked the best questions too.  He is a really good new investigator; a little hard to get a hold of; but super nice.  He is a bodyguard for the French Legion - whatever that is.  His name is Lorenzo.  We had a good week I guess, we were really down when Petri dropped the bomb on us, but she is all good!  We had two eating lessons with Americans this last week and that was awesome!

So yes I got the package!  THANK YOU SOOO MUCH.  I love the shoes, they are a little different than the other ones so that makes me happy, I didn´t want the same shoes because that is boring.  Thanks for the Reese’s, makes life so much better.  I am very grateful for the stuff!  Sorry this is kinda short!  So I had to pay 30 Euros to pick up my package because it got flagged.  I think because it had shoes in it, I think they do that because they think I am going to go sell them or something.  So that is why I took out 30 bucks sorry!!!  I am going to buy a jersey I think because they are 40 Euros off and it is my favorite team! 

Thank you and I love all of you!

Elder Cody

October 17, 2011 - Family Email

Hello family again!!

So the time is going by rather fast, it always feels like I am brushing my teeth and sleeping but I am always tired and feel like I need more sleep.  Does that make sense?  The missionary part of the day goes by super fast I don´t even remember doing half the stuff I do because it goes by so fast and takes up the whole day!  So yeah the suit fell apart and I was sad; I held off telling you for awhile because I knew you would be pissed!!  So I haven´t gotten the package yet because last Wednesday was another holiday. 

But this week we worked super hard again and we got 25 lessons.  This week was very regular again but, yesterday we had kind of a cool experience.  It was one of those moments were I felt like the weight of peoples salvation was on top of my shoulders.  So we just contacting another Bolivian (because there is millions out here) and we had passed by her house many of times but she is always working or just says she´s busy when she really isn´t doing much, but we stopped by her house.  We knocked on the door and I asked how are you? All that stuff and I could tell she was crying.  I asked; "Is there anything we can do to help you?"  She said no, and I asked when could we come over another time.  She said next week.  I said okay and I told her we are going to give her our number in case she needs help with something because she is like 40 years old and crying.  As I was writing down our number she said come in.  We do so and sat down and she is just crying and starts explaining to us that her sons girl friend left him and took their child and that her son said he was going to kill himself.  This mother hadn´t seen him since Saturday night and so close to 24 hours.  We kept on telling her that we are here to help and everything.  Elder Banbury had no idea what to do, I was already taking lead of the conversation.  She kept talking and crying and I pulled out my Book of Mormon and just started searching and searching for something.  I asked her if she was a believer in Christ and God and if she believed in prayer.  I asked her if she had prayed for comfort and for help today and she said yes.  So I am still searching and I found the scripture!!  1 Nephi 17:13 or 13:17 it says I will be your light in the desert if you look unto me and keep my commandments and I will lead you to the promised land you will know that I was the one that lead you.  So I read this to her and than of course I likened it unto her as Nephi teaches us to do so.  I told her that you need to look unto Christ right now.  You don´t know where your son is, you are in a desert, you are lost and in darkness.  Christ is your light, he loves you and look up to him.  He will guide you.  She was crying and I was so sincere, I had never been like that with someone before.  I have never been able to share something so powerfully before.  I know that the Lord put us in her path to help her.  We weren´t planning on stopping by her house at all yesterday because she always says she´s busy.  We opened the door to a weeping woman and helped her out.  When I left the house I felt like a disciple of Christ, even though we didn´t take away the problem and I felt so helpless.  I didn´t know what to do to her, I couldn´t hug her or anything to comfort her.  All I had was the words of Christ and a testimony.  I tried right?  She said we could come back and she wants us to talk to her son without her there to help him.  So we are going to stop by one afternoon to talk to him, if he is still alive, we have no idea.  But that was a really cool experience for me, I was praying so much in that house saying please help me find something to help your daughter!  I only addressed her concerns and tried to help her, not try to get a lesson in and teach her and try to get her baptized.  I was trying to think of what Christ would do in this situation. 

Breakfast with President Clegg

Well mother no, no one got baptized.  The next person to be baptized would be Angeles or Petri.  Petri is still doing awesome and is getting baptized on the 30th.  Angeles is getting interviewed on Thursday.  She can´t understand the questions but she loves church and feels it. She won't pray still in front of us.  She is a nice lady and we will see what our district leader says Thursday about her interview. We have still called Jorge a lot and he won't answer, so I guess he is done for.  Elder Banbury is super sad about him; It's the closest person he has had to baptism here in Puerto and he failed us.  But we have Angeles and Petri and Juan if he quits smoking.  He has improved a lot but he is soooo addicted.  Right now he is only smoking 3 to 5 a day.  Yesterday he only left once during sacrament, he may not of even smoked during the 5 minutes he was gone.  Henry and Paloma are super flaky and are hard to teach.  They are so nice and would be good Mormons, one day. Betty had a really, really bad week.  Her boss died, well her job, she took care of an older lady and she died.  We talked to her on the phone for 20 minutes last night and we are going to talk to her tomorrow.  This last Tuesday we taught Pres Clegg and Hermana Clegg about the Book of Mormon and how to receive an answer.  We did really good.  Hermana Clegg loved it!  Well that´s about all that happened this week!  I love you all and mother feel better! Thanks again for the package even though I dont´t have it yet!

Cooking Breakfast for President Clegg

Love,

Cody

October 10, 2011 - Family Email

Hello beloved family of mine,

 

Jude I am sorry; I have been praying for you and your shoulder in Spanish this last week!  I have been praying that you recover fast and all that good stuff!  Mother you are amazing!  Thanks for doing that because those shoes suck!  Elder Rodriguez has the same ones and they did that!  They sent him a new pair of shoes too.  But I wanted the eccos becuase they are still going strong and are not showing any sign of ripping on the insides.  So since we are talking about things that rip or break I figured this would be a good time to tell you that all the way back in Madrid my Mr Mac suit fell apart...the material was horrid and wore out.  I think it´s because the Provo MTC made us wear suits every day all day long no matter what we were doing.  I am sorry!!  So I have been wearing the Texas one for 6 months now when we have to wear them!  Tell Sandy Apostle (my swim coach) hello and I love her! I will want hints on how to get a long distance stroke down for triathalons!

 

Okay so this week was good.  We worked really hard and we got 23 lessons, that is a high for us here in El Puerto.  I hit 20 lessons once in Cáceres.  Cáceres is different work though and it´s hard to have a lot of investigators.  So this week the investigators were okay.  Petri however is doing super good.  She told us a lot about her past life and I feal horrible.  She is a beast and went through a lot crap with her Ex Husband who is really not a very nice man and it ruined here mind!  She has certain things that scare her like slamming doors and stuff becuase it reminds her of him.  For example we invited her to a baptism in San Fernando like a half hour away by train that the Elder´s there had and getting on the train with the doors and stuff was hard for her to do.  We didn´t ride with her there but on the way back she rode with us and she seemed okay because she feels safe with us.  She told us that she just wants to restart a whole new life and move on.  We told her that it´s this church and after baptism we start a new life with Christ.  She knows that it´s this church and she knows that it´s all true.  She came to church yesterday for the whole 3 hours!  She is awesome and still doing awesome!  Juan is doing pretty good but he wouldn´t come to church yesterday because his shoes hurt his feet.  He is only smoking 1 cig a day!  haha he is funny and a little out of life.  He is 27 years old and acts like he is 7!  Henry and Paloma are pretty dang flakey and not too intelligent, however the wife Paloma has interest in the stuff we teach but has little education like everyone here in El Puerto.  Angeles is doing good she came to church this Sunday.  The Branch President here told us to have caution with her about baptizing her but, Pres Clegg told us to dunk her!  So what do we do??  She likes the church but I truly don´t know if she knows it´s true.  All she knows is that she feels good!  So we are working with her, Clegg told me "Elder don´t have any fear baptizing an old lady that doesn´t know anything, if they can feel BAPTIZE THEM!"  haha.  So that is that.  Claudia is a new girl we are teaching and she is cool a little weird and a few screws loose.  She is 21 and from Bolivia but we had a good lesson with her about how to recieve an answer through the Book of Mormon and prayer.  We are teaching that to Pres Clegg and Hermana Clegg tomorrow morning.  I have been studying really hard for it in Preach My Gospel this week.  I found that I need to still be praying and do the Moroni promise with regularity.  I did so the other day and right as I started asking I felt the spirit instantly.  I did that promise for the first time in Provo and never recieved an answer and I did it again in Madrid after reading 2 Nephi 3 and I recieved an answer!  Now I am in love with the Book of Mormon!  I pray everday after personal study to see if it is true...and it is.  I could never deny it.  It either comes from the devil or God.  God and Christ persuadeth a man to do good and the Book of Mormon does that!  Betty has been sick this week she texted us and told us to call her today, so I am ready and excited to start teaching her again!  Jorge we ran into him in the train station and he told us he is suuuuuper busy and that he is still reading though.  We called him and he still hasn´t answered.  oh well!  If he is a true follower of Christ he will get baptized and follow the church! Well that is all I have this week!  I am doing good and the spanish is improving.  Petri thinks that I speak perfectly but I still lack soooo much! Well I love you all and I hope everything is good!  When do ya´ll go to Texas??  How is my dog?  I miss her!  Well this is my email and I am working hard I can´t believe I have started the 4th week of this transfer!  Time is gone!

Well I gotta go! I love you!

CODY

October 3, 2011 - Family Email

Okay So I just wrote Brady and Jerame I am on a role.

So how is everyone??  Sounds like you have been busy around the home and I am praying for you Jude!  haha mom I am sorry I love you!  You will be fine and recover strong you and Dad are Healthy grandparents!  So I forgot to take pictures of the holes in my shoes; so I am going to go home take pictures and send them to you a little later today or this week, I am sure I will do it in like 5 hours.  They need to be fixed, if they by chance just refund you get the ones that look exactly like them but Eccos.  If not just send the others to my house I get it faster that way. 

His shoes at 7 months

His shoes at 7 months

So this week was really good in many different ways.  First off I got sent off to Cáceres and they had my card!  I am now legal in Spain!  It was good to see Silvia and that family!  They are doing super good and Shaver is starting to teach the older daughter!  She asked them what they did to her family - they are happy!  haha.  So Shaver told me I sound perfect in Spanish now, but by no means am I fluent.  I can sound good I just need to learn more words and understand the people better.  I would say that is the hardest part to me is the understanding the people! 

So this week investigator wise was pretty good.  We had a good lesson with Betty.  She is super prepared but also super scared about everything.  I have been praying a lot for her and I came to Conference with a question "What does Betty need to be baptized?"  Of course it was answered, The Book of Mormon.  That guy that talked about the Book of Mormon was SICK!!!  His last name was Callister I believe, I don´t have my notes on me.  Yeah she just needs to read more, I am going to print off that talk and give it to her.  She is doing good though and I am getting pretty close to her.  I shared stories with her that I have learned from other investigators.    Jorge has continued to not answer his phone we haven´t seen or heard from him in over a week.  We have no idea what is up.  Jose told us he doesn´t want anything to do with the church and he was wasting our time.  He lives far away and always cancels on us.  It is sad but hey we gotta move on and baptize other people.  We had to drop the baptismal date with Erika because she isn´t married!  That seems to be a huge problem in the whole mission, people aren´t married.  Henry and Paloma are good, we didn´t have a good lesson with them because her psycho grandma was there and ruined the lesson.  Next time we teach them and she is there I am going to ask her please not to talk; if she wants to, she can sit in on the lesson.  She is a crazy old woman that likes American boys.  We call old ladies that are like that snakes.  We have like 3 snakes here in El Puerto, they are CRAAAZY, they literally hit on us it´s super funny and they are like 60 to 75 years old.  Jumpe is doing really really good, he is the only investigator that came to conference.  We didn´t have many because it was in Cádiz.  But he said he really liked it a lot and it was very interesting. I need to send ya´ll a picture of him.  Angeles is...good.  She really doesn´t understand anything we teach because we are positive she has no education.  So I need to ask president what the rules are on that, if she can get baptized or not.  She comes to church and likes it a lot, she doesn´t really comprehend or understand anything.  So we will see, she is a nice lady.  Juan is still smoking but we are seeing progress in him a lot.  He wants to change and be baptized.  He has to be clean of smoking for like two weeks before he can get dunked in the water.  So we have an angel though, her name is Petri.  We taught her and I asked her if she would follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone that has the authority of God.  She said YES.  We had a really sweet lesson with this lady, she is amazing and has a date to be baptized the 29th this month, if we think she is ready.  If not she said oh I will wait the next week.  I know she felt the spirit when we taught her the Restoration and that is why she says she has no single doubt in her head about the church.  I swear all you have to do is read the Bible and know that the only true church of Christ is ours.  So she is awesome and she is from Spain.  She is divorced and has a 6 year old boy and a 20 year old girl which we haven´t seen yet.  Petri has come to church already with us once and loved it!  I already told ya´ll that.  So that is her!!!  So that is all for investigators this week, we didn´t talk with Alejandra at all this week, I feel super sad for her though.

So Conference was AWESOME.  We went to Cádiz and watched in English with all the Elders and two Sister Missionaries.  It was awesome.  I Only heard 3 sessions though, the Priesthood Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning.  Priesthood session was good HOLLAND tore it up! That man is a freaking animal.  I felt like all of them were saying that the YOUTH are evil!  Like I felt like I was hearing Lehi complain about Laman and Lemuel.  It´s true though I have been there, the Aaronic Priesthood age, they are very influenced by the world.  It was awesome; I watched conference with a Mtn Dew and a Baby Ruth candy bar.  The guy that you sent the package to brought us to Cádiz and gave us Jerky, Doritos and a can of mtn dew!  So good!!  So that pretty much sums up the week! I typed that really fast and I am tired!  I love you all!

Love to you all,

Elder Code Man

September 26, 2011 - Email to Family

¡Hola amada familia mía! (Hello my beloved family, I am trying really hard to speak like a prophet in Spanish)

So this week was CRAZY busy.  We worked super hard!

This is Elder Anderson and Elder Valasco leaving, they were in my district.  Good Missionaries Valasco is from Bolivia and Anderson from South Jordan Utah

So first off I finally got the package, it was perfect thank you so much I love it! One thing DON¨T PUT SPAIN UNDER THE ADDRESS TO THAT GUY!  My companion gets sent packages bigger than that for 12 bucks!  You SPENT 45!!!  Thank you parents I love you!  I have decided since you don´t go down into the basement I will just re-do all of it and live down there so you won’t be alone anymore and I can do all the yard work and lift stuff for ya´ll.  So other good news is little Elder Rodriguez (from San Antonio) got moved into my district so I get to see him tomorrow at district meeting.  He will probably take over this area next transfer and I will stay here in El Puerto for 2 more transfers at least (I think) so we will be seeing a lot of each other for awhile!  I am excited! 

The president of the branch´s wife asked us to go into the attic to grab something for her and we found this little guy, that would be a dead bird

So this week we set 6 baptismal dates!!  We had a big week the Lord extremely blessed us.  We had Zone Conference last week and they told us to challenge EVERYONE to baptism.  We did so this last week.  So we have:

1. Jorge Oct 8th

2. Betty Oct 15th

3. Henry and Paloma Oct 15th (They are a couple)

4. Erika Oct 22th

5. Angeles Oct 22th

6. Juan 29th

7. Jose 29th

So these people are the people who we are teaching right now.  We didn´t talk to Alejandra this week we don´t know what´s up with her.  She has cancelled on us twice in a row.  So if she calls us we will talk and most likely tell her if she doesn´t want to change and actually do it, bye.  It´s super sad and that is one less soul not saved, yet.  I want to save them all right now!  I know she will LIVE this gospel one day in this life or the next, she has already accepted it.  So Jorge we had a really good week with him.  We taught him and he is reading and he said he wants to get baptized and then he came to a ward party and got to know the members.  He is a beast!  But then he didn´t show up to church.  I know he had to work late Saturday night until like 8 in the morning maybe.  We are going to take him to General Conference most likely.  But as of right now he isn´t answering his telephone.  Betty she is awesome, I love this girl.  I pray for her sooo much sometimes like 10 minutes straight for her.  I want her to not be scared anymore!  I studied for like an hour creating a lesson about fear, trust and faith.  How Fear is the opposite of faith.  I found a load of scriptures and wrote her a whole paper and all to teach her and give her.  We had to fight kinda hard to set the baptismal date.  We told her it´s just a goal to work for so we know what we are working for not just here to chat and talk about the Bible and stuff.  She loves to read and study when she has time, she works a lot and lives alone and all of her family lives in Bolivia and they are going through tough times there.  So she is a little stressed out and she worries about everything.  I have studied a lot so I can usually answer her questions.  I am about to read the New Testament to help me understand the Bible and Christ`s life.  So pray for her to calm down and receive an answer that Joseph Smith was a true prophet and the Book of Mormon is the word of God.  Henry and Paloma are new.  They are interesting and very receptive.  They are strange and well not very educated.  Henry is 50 and Paloma is 20.  That kinda creaped me out because I am practically 20,  that is me marrying my mother.  But they are super nice and accepted the baptismal invite if by then they know that this church is true.  Henry is from Colombia and Paloma is Spanish.  Angeles is a Gitana (Gypsy) or just Spanish, her husband is a member and she didn´t know that she needed to be baptized to live with God.  She said yes to the invite and we are going to work hard with her.  Juan said he will quit smoking by the 8th of October.  He came to church yesterday and had to leave twice to smoke.  Yesterday he smoked 20 cigs!!  That is bad but he said he was super nervous for some reason.  Jose still has a date but it is hard to meet with him and he is scared about keeping the covenants of baptism after he is baptized.  He still doesn´t know the truthfulness of this message.  He is really scared to about baptism.  Oh Erika is new we got her at the ward party we had.  The members bring a lot of friends then we look around like vultures and contact them, it´s awesome.  She is from Colombia and we taught her the Restoration and it was super good.  She isn´t married though so we cannot baptize her and she is kinda super Catholic.  We are gonna get them married though!  So that was the week!  We did work and I did a lot of contacting.  I got like 11 futures with the numbers of people on the street by myself.  I am getting good at weaseling people into listening.  But the thing is that people give you fake numbers a lot.  Oh well!  The chosen people won’t lie!  We have been blessed with a lot of work and we are working hard.  Oh yeah a helicopter crashed kinda close to our home last week but a forgot to tell you all that!!  That was pretty cool we got to see it!  So that is all and I love you guys soo much!  The package was awesome.  Tell Bry and the Altamirano’s that I got their letters and thanks you so much, oh Derek Preece too!  Tell them thank you!!! 

Oh Jude do my shoes have a warranty on them????  Because the Johnston Murphy’s I have wore holes on the inside of the back of the heals and they are starting to give me blisters, I forgot to take pictures I will get them to you next week. Thanks let me know if we need to send them or something.

September 19, 2011 - Email to Family

  ¿Comó estáis?

So this week was very regular nothing too exciting happened sorry!  So if my email seems short or boring it´s because this week was super regular and a lot of people cancelled on us. 

So as I was saying this week was super regular investigator-wise.  This week we never ended up teaching Alejandra because she cancelled on us at least 3 times.  We are about ready to drop her because she isn´t changing.  She will read her chapters we give her and she says she wants to change but won’t do the things she needs to.  She seems super ready just caught up into the world of things and won’t break up with her boy friend because she has no family out here and somewhere to live or a job.  It is super hard to find a job out here.  So I am pretty bummed about that because I love her and I hate dropping people I feel like that is one less child of God saved.  I love all my brothers and sisters.  Jorge, we taught him Tuesday and it was a good lesson and he still wants to get baptized but we put it off another week because these last 4 days he hasn’t been answering his phone and didn´t show to our lesson we set up for Thursday; so he kinda wasted our time waiting for him, I was a little upset.  I see so much progress in him.  Oh haha I don´t know if I shared this last week but he brought us some car magazines that had like porn in it haha so we immediately taught him the Law of Chastity and he understood and told us he didn´t know that was a commandment and was willing to follow it.  He is a good guy and I hope he will start answering his phone and not waste our time and not show up to appointments because our time to work is suuuuuper short.  We have to baptize all of El Puerto de Santa María! So Juan, we are close to dropping him.  We have taught him everything maybe 5 times and he still doesn´t know what Joseph Smith did and why he is important.  We asked him "Why do you think we are here?"  He replied "to make me stop smoking."  So if there is one thing he learned it´s that smoking is bad.  We gave him the pre-drop lesson and Elder Banbury was a little sad but it has to be done unless he changes, because he is literally wasting precious time we have to find the chosen and prepared children of God.  Let’s see we have one other really good investigator but she is a little weird.  Her name is Betty.  Betty is from Bolivia and really worried about everything.  She always has the most weird and hard questions.  Like she thinks that soldiers out in Afghanistan that are of our faith that are killing people are breaking the commandment don´t kill. We told her that´s their job and they are protecting our country and helping the people there.  She is really concerned about her Salvation I think.  We were arguing for like 5 minutes about this all and while Elder Banbury was talking to her I was just praying Father bring the spirit back "ayudame para que pueda saber que necesito hacer para ayudar Betty." (Father help so that I may know what I need to do to help Betty.)  After the first thing that came into my head is that she hasn´t even prayed to see if Joseph Smith was a prophet.  So I asked her this and she said NO.  For the 4 weeks we have been teaching her not once has she prayed to see if these things are true.  She has just been trying to find fault in our church.  She believes a lot of the things we teach, like the doctrine.  She asked me if I had the Authority to baptize so she is thinking about it a lot. So that is Betty.  This weekend we had the Stake Conference in Chiclana.  HOLY COW, sooooo gorgeous.  This place is paradise and after we had dinner at a members home that live on the beach.  It was horrible I didn´t even look at the beach just the ocean.  I have pictures!  SO GORGEOUS.  They have this really nice hotel really close to their home called the BARCELO maybe you could check it out.  Oh ps I can see the blog of the mission so you don’t have to attach all the pictures!  Oh the guy said he got a package so I will get it sometime this week!  I am excited!!!!!!!!!!!

Lucia jumped into my picture!

Elder Cody