April 30, 2012 - Family Email

Nadia and Elder Lignell

Feria Girls, Ooo la la

Hello Family,

So this last week was filled with miracles as well!  Ya girl Nadia got baptized finally!!  It was a great baptism!  I didn´t have to baptize which was good.  I love baptizing people but I would much rather someone in the ward do it because that member will be in the ward for forever and they will have a connection.  That is what I wanted for Nadia but Elder Lignell baptized her which is cool.  I was gonna give her the Holy Ghost but I wanted a member to do it.  So that is what went down with Nadia.  We had the baptism yesterday right after church and a lot of people stayed around to watch which is good.  That is the problem here in Sevilla the ward sucks so bad at helping us.  It really is the worst place with members and missionary work but I love Sevilla.  Nadia is good and she is happy.  Elder Seely, which I love to death, he´s like a Manning to me had two baptisms on Saturday. So, Sevilla is just rocking out!

SO, this last week we had a holiday in Sevilla called the Feria.  Well it is just a giant party were you just dance and drink!  All the girls dress in Flamenco dresses haha. I love the dresses I wanna make Heather buy one and wear it one day!  So I have a picture of one of them!  We tried to find pretty girls to get pictures with, but we weren't in the street much so we didn´t find the prettiest girls.  So the Feria put a little damper on the week but we still taught 20 lessons which is the goal of the mission.  That goal is pretty hard to reach, you have to have a good pool of investigators.  We found 4 new ones this week and two of them already have a baptismal date.  So we now have a total of 8 fechas (dates).  I am going to call them fechas from now on it takes too much time saying the other thing.  So we dropped Pacos fecha because he won't get baptized on the 5th but we are still working with him!  Saturday morning we were doing spilts and I was with Elder Dunoskovic, that is Elder Mannings Dad in the mission, his trainer.  I love him he was my first District leader in Cáceres.  So we found these two ladies on the street that were searching for a  church close to their home so we took them to the church and taught them!  They then returned that night to the baptism and then they came to church all 3 hours then they stayed for the baptism and then came back to the church at 6:00 and we taught them again and I set a fecha with them for the 19th of May!  They are soooo prepared!  I love them.  They are just two ladies from Peru that are here working alone in Spain and they are sweeties!  Their names are Isabel and Grace.  The other people are doing great.  Julian is a champ, he didn´t come to church we aren´t sure why, but I am sure he is fine because he loves us.  Lorena and the two girls are great.  The girls love us and they are reading.  Lorena is doing well, she has a lot of problems and kinda went atheist and she loves that we are trying to help her.  They all came to church as well.  We are also teaching the whole family from Peru and focusing on the girl that is 14, Bridgette.  She came to church and she has a really good friend that is a member here and she just ran along with her all Sunday!  So things are looking great here and the Lord is spoiling me I swear!  I am not doing anything!  I just obey and be persistent!  Oh so Julies' father is a jerk, and we haven´t been able to talk to her or Carina (the mom).  So we will see what happens this next week. I will keep you up to date.

Nadia and Cody

I got the package! Thank you soooo much!  I totally forgot to tell you I am out of tooth paste!!!!!!!!!!  I am an idiot!  I am sorry! The baby Einstiens look great you are amazing mother I will give them to the family, that is Bridgettes family!  We are still going through the 94 futures.  We find like 200 futures a transfer so it´s a long proccess and a lot of people lie and give you wrong numbers and all that! 

Love,
Elder Hafen

April 23, 2012 - Family Email

Okay so this last week was the most success I have had as a missionary!   So to start out we have 8 baptismal dates! 

Nadia is going to get baptized this Sunday, hopefully!  We have it planned to be that way.  She came to church and she was awesome and was answering questions and all in the class.  She is way prepared to get baptized.  We haven´t planned her baptism yet but we are meeting with her this week to get it all done.  This last week was just amazing out of the 94 futures we found we have turned 10 of them into new investigators this last week.  We found this lady named Lorena from Ecuador and she has two daughters named Rosa and Katherina.  They are amazing we have taught them twice and they came to church.  The mom wants to feed us all the time she loves us.  They have a baptismal date for the 19th of May.  They are great.  Rosa is 12 and Katherina is 14.  We also found another young girl and her mom that has a lot of member family. They are from Ecuador.  The mom is named Carina and the daughter is named Julie.  Julie is AWESOME.  She is 15 years old and came to church and the kids accepted her and she just loved church.  We actually met her on Saturday night and she came to church.  We had an amazing lesson with her and her mom.  Julie told us that she is searching a path and wants something to guide her and take her in.  We know its the church and we think she feels a little lonely sometimes or something so the church will be amazing for her.  We haven´t set a date with her yet but I bet in a couple of weeks or so.  We also found someone even better!!  He reminds us of José Luis the guy that just got baptized.  This mans name is Julian and he is from Chile.  He like already feels and knows that the church is true.  He tells us that when we are in his house he feels something so strong and when he reads he feels a burning in the chest.  He came to church yesterday and the members met him and he met the stake president and bishop.  He is solid and has a date for the 19th of May but we are probably going to move it up because he is like ready we just have to teach him the lessons.  The other dates are not strong but need help.  Orstencia a lady from Bolivia that is having a hard time in life; she has one for the 19th of May.  The other is Paco, he is doing well and progressing.  We watched the Joseph Smith movie with him and he really liked it and respects him now.  We are working really hard with him and trying to help him believe and know by faith not by facts.  He wants to know all the historical facts and I have taught him a load of scriptures and shown him the way, now he just has to act you know?  

 

Well I wrote Jerame and told him my love.  I am excited to have a hot niece!!  haha!  I love you all.  Ask me questions next email about the people because there is a lot of new people and I had to write them all out as fast as possible.  We taught 25 lessons this last week and got 10 new people and 24 futures and 8 baptismal dates, we kicked butt!!  Thanks to the Lord.  I make sure I thank Him for everything because it isn´t me, we were in the right place at the right time! 

 

Love,

Code

April 16, 2012 - Family Email

José Luis and Carmen's Baptism (April 14, 2012)

Okay cool I am glad I got that done with.

So one thing real quick I need an all white tie mine has been stolen or something.  Send the package to my piso yes.  I am going to be here one more transfer!  Manning is going AP!!!

Hahah YES!  So my Zone totally won the "Día de Díamante"!!!!  it means the "The day of Diamonds"  Me and the Lignell got 94 futures by ourselves.  We won every companionship in the mission by 30.  The closest to us was like 62 or something!  Haha I will never forget that day in my life.  I stood by my companion and literally talked non stop all day long and yeah it was amazing.  We also found 5 ancient inactive members.  So that was a great experience along with the baptism this week!  I love contacting, so, I was happy all day long and I am really good at getting peoples numbers.  When ya´ll come out to get me I will contact with you so you can see it.  I love the little south Americans they don´t stand a chance!  I found a lot of good people and a lot of younger people which is the best to baptize so they will raise their family in the gospel.  I found like 3 of the most amazing girls.  We are teaching one of them today named Alaska.  She is from Peru and we visited her yesterday at her house and we gave her a Book of Mormon and told her to read the introduction.  I also found this other Bolivian girl I am pretty sure wanted to be my friend she so told me haha.  I also gave a Book of Mormon to this lady from Nicaragua and I talked to her for like 10 minutes and it was the most spiritual contact of my life.  She told me she works two jobs and it will be impossible to talk to her but she gave me her number and I called her to make sure it worked and everything.  When I entered her the number to call her it already existed in my phone and it was her name under  "I Fatima".  I already had a girls number under Fatima and she had a completely different number.  It was like a miracle that she popped up in my phone and I feel like it was a sign from God that she will accept the gospel.  She said she has never talked to missionaries before.  She was a really cute lady that is 28 and has one child that lives in her country, Nicaragua.  She works here and lives without her family.  I told her I will call her to see how the reading is going and everything.  Really good day!!

Carmen and Elder Cody (April 14, 2012)

Yes that is right José Luis and Carmen got baptized.  I ended up baptizing Carmen and Lignell baptized José Luis and it was amazing.  We had 5 baptisms that day because the other area in Sevilla got 3.  This week was really crazy and we didn´t get to do much because I had do interview 4 people and we had one day of all contacting.  So the baptism was awesome!  Carmen was so happy and excited the whole time!  They brought 3 non member friends!!  They are unreal and just love the church.  One of the members ended up confirming them the Holy Ghost so that was good.  They are just amazing!  The best thing is that they are moving to the USA next month so they will live close to us.  They are going to live with Carmens brother that is a MEMBER.  He works in the Atlanta temple!  We are excited I want to go out to their sealing in a year maybe!  Wow I am taking forever to write an email I am sorry!  I have to go soon.  I had to write Elder Waite back and to Dusty a little bit.  We have already  found 2 new investigators from the day of contacts!  It is a long process to make them become investigators.  I am loving the mission and I hope I have answered all of your questions! 

José Luis and Carmen

OH flavor I would like some old spice pure sport and AXE Fresh I really don´t care what flavor just not the white ones because they ball up and fall out of my pits.  I love you all and I hope this was somewhat of a cool letter.  It was a great week and as a zone we had 7 baptisms this weekend!  Go Sevilla!  I love you all!  Thanks for the flowers JUDE!  You are the best mom ever!

Love,

ELDER CODY

STAR WARS!!!!!!!

Yes, I live right next to the Queen's Palace where they filmed the first 3 Star Wars Movies!

April 9, 2012 - Family Email

Good Morning Family,

Isn't he so cute

Wow I am sorry I didn´t even look at the calender to see that it was your anniversary!  I am sorry!  I have just memorized the birthdays and double check myself here and there!  Well happy anniversary!  So I was wondering if you could help me out!  I need deodorant again!  Could you buy a different flavor?  And if it is possible that movie that is a baby Einstein? Oh there is this group of girls that sing gospel songs named Mercy River.  Could you see if they have a CD?  I am pretty sure they do.  That is all!  Thanks parents!! Oh and print out all of the engagement pics of Brady.  Wow that is crazy!! He really is getting married.  Well they look great, I am super excited for them.  I think about them a lot, me and Brady we're close!  It is gonna suck not having him there to help when I get home!  I remember helping Brady haha, we got super close.  Oh well I have Heather!  She will do a better job and she looks a lot better than Brady.  Oh mother before I forget Elder Manning is upset because you didn´t write him back haha.  So write him back, he feels bad!  Yes I remember Josh really loved Annie the whole time he was dating the other girl.  He always told me to like her to cover it.  I am happy they are writing each other haha.   

The Elders were trying to be cool like Cody

Last week  was really good, but a little slow due to the big holiday they do here in Spain.  So this last week was called Holy Week or Semana Santa.  It is a giant Catholic holiday were they just worship the death of Christ, Mary and idols.  They are insane.  I saw a video of all the people worshiping the Virgin Mary.  The hooded people, I have no idea what they do, something like they are sinners or something weird.  So every year during this week in Spain it rains like crazy.  I remember last year it rained like crazy and ruins a lot of the Holy Week parties because they charge the streets with floats and all that jazz.  So it always rains and ruins the holiday.  It is a sign from God that they shouldn´t be doing it.  Ya me and the Shaver are close.  We had a really good time in Cáceres, we worked our butts off and we were frustrated a lot.  It is like the Sons of Mosiah, when they reunited they were rejoicing and all that.  We just love each other.  It is something about the work of the Lord.  Plus he is my father in the mission and going to the field at first sucks and it is a very humbling time.  Also he only had 9 weeks in the field when he got me!  So we were youngies!  I love that kid, we spend a lot of time together at Concilio.

Pics are of my church here in Sevilla, it is HUGE!  How could our church not be true??

So this last week was great.  Jose Luis and Carmen Rosa are doing excellent.  They are getting baptized for sure!  Elder Lignell and I will be doing the baptizing and the confirming but we don´t know who will do what yet.  Hahaha get this José has now read the entire gospel principles book from cover to cover and Carmen is in Alma 50 and José is in 2 Nephi 18.  They are just machines!!  They are amazing and miracles.  So yes they will be getting baptized on Jerames birthday right?  Happy Birthday my favorite brother!  The other people are doing good as well.  Paul still comes to church but still hasn´t dropped the bad habits.  So yeah that is a little sad but he wants to change.  Oh in the blog do you see me doing the Iron Man stance with my fist on the ground?????  Yeah I look siiiiiiiiiick!  I did that for all of you! The family from Peru is great except Yovana and Isabel arean´t married so we will have to work on that!  Isabel has a daughter that we can baptize so we are going to start focusing on her a lot.  We have a lesson with them today!  Nadia we haven´t seen her all week, she is working like crazy and it is near impossible to talk to her.  One day she will get baptized.  Paco the old Spanish guy is going good, I think he now realizes he needs to pray to know and not find out all the little facts.  Well I need to write Dusty back and Jerame a little love note telling him happy birthday!  Well I love you all and I am doing great!  I love the mission and my comp is a good guy.  Oh we had an Emergency transfer and there is a new kid in my apartment with Elder Seely.  How is Mitt Romney?  I have heard a lot about him?  Updates please!

Love and Kisses, 

CODY

April 2, 2012 - Family Email

Zone Conference Training

Hey everyone!!!  I am trying to be quick and good all at the same time.  I have to catch a train to Málaga soon!  Yep that is right I have another Zone Leader Conference deal.  So that means I have my nice suit on.  When I arrive there I will make sure that I get a picture taken.  I will ask Hermana Clegg to do it or Manning or Shaver.  So YEAH!!!!!  I was the only one in my Zone that saw cha boy Archuletta and no one believed me!!  I knew I saw him with the red tie and all.  Well to be honest I love the kid now.  He sings really good Christmas music and we still listen to him with out it being Christmas.

Zone Conference Training

I really loved conference.  It was really nice and José and Carmen both came.  They couldn´t Sunday afternoon but they came to the first one and José came to priesthood.  This last week was awesome with them.  We set the 14th as their baptism date.  So they are for sure getting baptized together!  They are the most prepared people I have ever met.  They are amazing people.  This last week we gave them a Gospel Principles book to study and they did.  We went into their home ready to teach a lesson about the ten commandments and Carmen had a question about tithing.  So we stopped and started teaching tithing and she taught the whole lesson better than I would have ever done.  She read the section in the book and then taught us all of it and she was amazed and said again that this is the true Church.  They also watched a video of last general conference and it was like a sum up/high light video.  José told me they seem like angels.  So I am sure they enjoyed conference.  Well Paul is doing good kinda.  He told us yesterday after we had watched conference that he is smoking and making sex with his girlfriend.  That was what he exactly said.  So he told us that he will for sure get baptized we just need to work with him more and really commit him to repent and follow the commandments.  Haha he is the cutest man, he calls us big brother and hugs us and tells us that he loves us.  He is a good guy.  So Nadia is doing well.  She still is way busy and right now is sick so we couldn´t meet with her this last week.  We talked with her mom and she said that she is doing well and reading.  We obviously didn´t get the chance to tell her to pull out the rings.  So we have another excellent investigator named Ionica from Romania.  She came to the Sunday morning session and after she just told me that was really emotional for her and that she just loved it.  She is amazing as well I love her to death.  She works two jobs and gets a half hour break between both of them.  She is a really busy lady and really smart.  She usually always comes to church.  I have taught her twice and that was due to it being holidays.  So with time she should get in the water.

We met some snakes this week.  They are the girls or women that want to marry you (the American missionaries).  Haha Elder Lignell told them that I have a girlfriend so they backed off from me.  The scary thing is that they are 19 years old.  They are from Peru and they are fat.  However I think they have real potential and could be good investigators.  They are named Lesli and Fresia.  They are cousins I believe and Lesli has a little sister named Erica that we met on the street.  Lesli has two children and one is 4 years old!  So that was kind of weird.  She is in love with Elder Lignell it´s hilarious.  We only go there if the mom is there or the father.  We actually found them through the mom, I stopped the mom in the street and then we called her one day and she told us to come teach her daughters.  Oh so we are teaching a family from Peru and they just love us.  They are so cool and really should be baptized I think.  We teach Isabel and Yovana.  They live in the same home and I think they are sister in laws.  They are so good, they just work on Sunday and I don´t think Isabel is married.  Isabel came to conference last night at 6.  They liked it I think.  They brought a lot of little kids and the 4 year old Rachel loves me haha.  So Yovana is an amazing lady and was wondering if I could get her some of the baby Einsteins in English because she wants her kids to learn it.  So could you maybe find that mom?  I think they want an infant one and one for like 4 years old and younger aged?  I hope they aren´t expensive, she is like begging me!  Well that was about all the week wrapped up the best I could!  I hope it all makes sense.  Oh and this Spaniard named Paco came to conference.  He believes in God a lot but he doesn´t believe in Joseph Smith and he just wants to figure everything out with out faith.  He looks like a lot of fun.  I will have to pull out the Bible and do some authority and restoration scriptures.  So tomorrow Elder Peterson is giving us a ride home from Málaga to Sevilla so I am stoked to get to spend more time with him!  Well I love you all!

So there is the most famous Holiday in Spain going on this week and this how they dress up to start worshiping images and stuff.  They love Mary and the saints and the death of Christ.  So my comp found these little kids so we ran and got a pic with them.

Love you,
Elder Cody

March 26, 2012 - Email to Family

Hey how are ya´ll?  Sorry you are sick mother feel better okay?  

Well this last week was really busy but good at the same time.  As you see we had what is called Specialized Training.  That really turned out well.  We talked about finding people because we don´t!  Well I know all the people that serve in Sevilla (in the city) we find a lot.  However in the other little cities around us they don´t find as much which results in less lessons and they are discouraged and don´t want to contact.  So we made up an activity and did a lesson.  So that was cool and we listened to Hermana Clegg and President.  We didn´t have the opportunity to really go around and teach a lot. 

President cooking up some hamburgers

 So, key investigators that are worth talking about are José Luis and Carmen.  They are the most amazing investigators I have ever met.  I like start crying when I leave their home because it just feels so good in there.  As I explained the last time, he is from here in Sevilla and she is from Peru.  They are married and they have no children.  They have come to church the last 2 weeks in a row and they came to a baptism last night.  They loved the baptism and they are just solid.  José is almost, or in 2 Nephi right now.  He loves the Book of Mormon and he told us that when he is reading he will feel a wind or something.  He told us at the first of the week that he is waiting for an answer still.  He knows that everything is true, he even said so like twice now.  He even said he will have dreams here and there but doesn´t remember what they are, but they have something to do with us or the church.  Carmen is just awesome and loves the church.  She maybe isn´t as far along as José but she is solid.  She tells us how much better José is because he used to be super stressed out all of the time.  So they are amazing and have a goal to be baptized on the 14th of April. 

Nadia is the other one that is solid.  She is 19 years old from Peru.  She is working a lot this month so we only see her once a week.  She is super ready and likes to come to church when she can.  She also should be getting baptized on the 14th of April.  We haven´t told her yet that she will need to pull off her lip ring and nose ring...But her mom is a member so that should help.  Her mom got baptized like 3 months ago. 
Paul.  He is from Nigeria.  Really nice man and just a cool dude.  He has come to church the past two weeks and just wants to get baptized.  I am not sure if he can read yet, but there is already a guy from Nigeria in the ward so they get along together great.  Paul should be getting baptized on the 14th as well.  We still have a lot of teaching to do to him and make sure he understands the commandments and everything.  We teach him in English.

The others aren´t really worth talking about yet.  We have like 25 other investigators that are newish people that we have found; we are just sorting through them finding the ones that want to progress.

I played soccer last week and I felt FINE!  I prayed really hard and my knee is great.  It has a little weird stinging sensation here and there but that is normal.  I am sure it is just the nerves kicking around.  So I am sending the present to Brady today!  I love you so much!!!!!

CODY

Missionary Buddies

March 19, 2012 - Email to Family

Hello family that I love!

Zone Leader Training

 

How are all you? Mother my guess is that you wrote that last email on your phone??  Because there was a lot of letters with out spaces in them.  Well I bet that was fun looking for that dress with Jaycee, she looks great.  I bet you just loved getting to do that!  Well that is good you finally got to see Heather, don´t let her be a stranger!  I am excited to see the home and all that one day.  Elder Manning asked me that you keep talking to his parents about picking us up.  He told me that his brother will be picking him up for sure and wants you all to fly out together.  So get his parents now!  So this last week was a lot fun.  We had Zone Leader Conference which you already know of and it was great to see my boys Peterson and Manning.  I am in love with them.  I really know that the Lord wanted me to be called February 23 and to go through the mission together with them.  I feel like they are my brothers like The Son´s of Mosiah.  I was thinking about that this morning.  So I am trying to think, oh yeah so I bought Brady a birthday present and I just need to send it in the mail.  It is sick, I got a steal on a jersey and bought a Barcelona jersey that is like a neon peach color.  I know he will love it.  I will try and send it out today if the time allows me to.  I am always running sorry, and today I have to prepare a lesson for the Zone we are going to teach on the 22nd.  So I am doing excellent, besides my knee, I can´t really run or jump anymore.  It hurts on the outside of my knee next to the knee cap.  It doesn´t hurt at all walking only if I attempt to run so I haven´t played soccer in like 3 weeks. 

 

So this week a little miracle happened to me and Elder Lignell.  So there is this little neighborhood that me and Elder Waite just destroyed.  We have like 5 or 7 investigators in this little area all with in a 5 seconds walk distance.  We knocked almost every door and there is a total of yeah 7 people we teach there.  The only thing that sucks is that none of them progress.  So me and Elder Lignell were trying to pass by these homes and we turning to one of the apartments and this Spanish man stops us.  We didn´t even see him next to us.  He is this really nice clean guy with tight running shorts on about to go exercise.  He told us that his brother in law is a member of the church in Atlanta Georgia.  We asked if we could talk to him and he said of course and he lives right in front of where we were standing.  So later that night we went over to his house and he was there with his wife from Peru.  They are married (thank heavens) and they are just the nicest people in the world.  His name is José Luis and Carmen Rosa.  We taught them and then two days later we passed by and taught them the Restoration and it was excellent.  They understand everything well and they actually read for us.  The next day they both came to church on time to the investigators class and the teacher is AMAZING.  She is the cutest lady from Argentina named Marina.  She is so good to the investigators and the class was about Christ and it was amazing.  They had to of loved church and the members were really nice to them.  I felt the spirit so strong that day.  So that was something that really was amazing this week.  All of our hard work paid off in that little area that me and Elder Waite had spent a lot of time.  Nadia is doing well, she is coming to the activities in the church and believes all that we teach her and feels more comfortable about being baptized.  She did just get a lip ring this week which was kinda a shocker to us.  She needs some better influence in her life.  Her mom has told us that she has rough friends.  SO please pray for these people.  The week was good though we worked hard and we were gone for 2 days out the week in Málaga.  So that was a my week, other than that the normal good old missionary work!

 

Zone Leader Training

Zone Leader Training

Love you all!

 

CODY