September 17, 2012 - Family Email

Our new ZONE

Well we didn´t have any baptisms this week but they will be baptized all together on the 29th, so keep your fingers crossed and pray!  I will talk about investigators in a little bit.  So as you already know I went to the mission home this last week!  Haha no it was really funny I was talking to Hermana Deere about the pictures getting up on the blog because I have called her like 3 times about it!  I was like Hermana Deere I don´t really care about me getting on the blog it´s the mother.  Haha so the next day she literally finishes taking the picture of all the District Leaders and sees me running out of the bathroom and starts laughing and giving me crap!  So she took one of my face all close up!  Good times.  District Leader Conference was great.  I got to sleep in Elder Manning´s piso with Elder Rhees Jackson and we slept in a seperate room and we talked for a while I love Elder Jackson.

ME and Elder Jones on the way to DL Conference.  We met some Asians that spoke English haha they loved us

 So this week I got your package on Tuesday morning, I had just missed it when we went to email last week so I had to wait until Tuesday morning to go pick it up!  I love it so much thank you!!!  I love the Book, ha it kinda scares me though, President Kimball makes me feel like a lot of people are damned or not going to live in the Celestial Kingdom.  As President Clegg say´s and I quote "NOBODY STUMBLES INTO THE CELESTIAL KINGDOM" or "THERE WILL BE NO ACCIDENTAL SALVATION".  Those are my two favorite quotes along with others.  Thanks for the face scrub and the candy even though Heather supplied me with candy for a couple of months!  I have been sharing my candy with some of my close friends!  So I was out of town for two days this week and Alba won't be able to go to the temple this week so we are going to teach them and hopefully get Paqui, Paqui, Alba, Belén and Antonia(HOPEFULLY) baptized on the 29th.  They are all Spanish from Jaén.  That is a lot of Spaniards right there!  We also started teaching a guy that is really good.  He is also Spanish and his name is Juan.  He has come to church for the past two weeks and we finally got to teach him and he wants to get baptized!  He told us he wants to stop smoking and he knows he has to before he gets baptized.  So pray for him and Paqui to quit smoking.  Antonia is still there, not really progressing.  She has her problems and we are hoping that when she sees Alba get baptized it will touch her and make her want to change.  Miguel and Rocio are doing great and they will be baptized on the 28th!  We are just teaching them and they are doing great and it´s reactivating the mom Pilar.  She is great and has desires to stop smoking and find someone to get sealed in the temple with.  She really wants to raise her kids in the gospel.  Blanca taught Relief Society yesterday and she loved it she says. 

This is what I EAT pasta always...it´s cheap and good and I make it

 So probably the coolest thing in my mission happened this week.  It was so simple but the best thing in my mission.  So we gave two Books of Mormon to Rosana and Sebastian and told them to write their testimonies in them and we are going to hand them out to their neighbors.  So Rosana is writing hers and finishes and then Sebastian finishes and his mom reads it and starts crying.  Man I  am crying right now.  That was the best experience in my mission.  I know that the best thing a parent can read or hear is the testimony of their child.  It was the best thing in the world.  Well with that I finished my week.  Everything is going great and I am good and things with the companion are good.  I am just learning patience.  The Lord really wants me to grow up and leave the mission knowing how to be an adult and kind of take care of a kid.  I know the church is true and I love my mission.

CODES

September 10, 2012 - Family Email

District Leadership Training in Malaga.

So this week was really good and please don´t worry about me I am fine.  The mission really helps me not to be like depressed or sad or mad.  I feel like I can get through a lot of things now.  Living alone with someone you really don´t get a long with for 3 months is nothing!  So I haven´t gotten the package yet, but my guess is that I will get it today or tomorrow!  Tomorrow I am going to the mission home for District Leader Training so I will get to see some old friends I think.  I think I will see Elder Brown which I miss him a lot.  He was a fun companion.  So I will get a little break tomorrow in the morning for two whole days in the mission home.  I get home on Wednesday night.

Elder Banbury

 

Eating with Elder Estrada and his companion

So this week I had to go back to Sevilla and I finally got my residency card and I am legal in Spain now.  It was a great little trip and I think I have a picture of my venture with Elder Banbury.  We had some extra time in Sevilla so we ended up eating with Elder Estrada and his companion.  It was super fun to be with two of my previous companions.  I love these two kids and they will be friends of mine for forever.  After the trip to Sevilla we had to do a HUGE service project.  Jude if you thought grandma had a lot of garbage in her house you should have seen this ladies home!!  She literally had things stacked to the ceiling.  It has taken over 15 hours to clean out, and the members aren´t even done yet.  I have never been more disgusted in my entire life.  This lady is a hoarder I believe is the word.  After all of that we got to finally teach.  

 

We, as of right now, have 7 baptismal dates.  So cool little story; Alba has been coming to church and the activities and now she wants to get baptized!!  So she will get baptized this weekend we are positive because she wants to go to the temple the next week to do baptisms for the dead.  Also her and Belén are really good friends and now Belén is going to pray to see if she should get baptized with Alba.  So maybe we will have 2 baptisms this week.  We set a baptismal with Antonia, Alba´s mom for the 29th but we will see with her.  She has problems and is one of the most stubborn people I have ever met, but at the same time she is a sweetheart!  So that is what is going on with them.  Paqui and Paqui are doing well.  We had a birthday party for the little Paqui and it went well and a lot of members came.  Rocio and Miguel Ángel are doing good and just waiting to get batized!   So all is going well here in Jaén.  I am running a little short on time because I wrote some other people today.  I love you all and thanks for sending me a package!  Send me some pictures of the deck and the BYU ward.  I love seeing pictures and all that!  

 

Well have a good week and I love you all. 

September 3, 2012 - Family Email

Are you trying to make me fat with all that food????  I might die with all that candy!
 

So this week was unreal!  Really good week.  First we had to go to Málaga for the conference thing we had going on.  That was pretty cool I have some pictures of me and Elder Manning.  I called him and told him he had to wear grey with me so he did so.  So we both have on a grey suit and greys ties for our girl Rachel.  So make sure those get sent to her!!  Sorry, my suit really is grey, just a really dark grey but I tried my hardest.  We still pray and fast for her!  I will continue to do so until the end of my mission!
 

I had a dream about you too mom, and it was a tender mercy. I was talking to you the day after I got home from my mission and we were grocery shopping I will have to tell you the dream when I get home.

So things went really well this week.  I went to Sevilla with Elder Banbury to go do our residency and it wasn't ready; so this week we have to go and travel back!  That kinda sucks but I love Sevilla!  It was a good little break because I was super tired but in the end the traveling made me even more tired.  I have been really tired mentally and a little physically.  I am not going to lie dealing with the problems and Bi-polar attitude of my companion really wears me out, but oh well I just try to have a good and patient attitude.  When I went out to Málaga for the conference I had a really good father and son experience with Elder Shaver.  I really love that kid.  We had to stay the night in Granada to go and catch the bus to Málaga the following morning.  So Elder Shaver came up to me and told me a personal trial that he is going through in his life.  He then asked me for a blessing and he was being really serious and really needed help right then in that moment.  There were a lot of Elder´s there in the piso and he asked me to give the blessing.  So we went in a room and it was kinda late and I gave him a blessing for like 20 minutes.  I really haven´t felt the spirit that strong before in my life.  He was crying and I almost started crying in the middle of the blessing.  Shaver is a really special missionary.  Elder Banbury came searching for us and walked into the room because he didn´t know when we were traveling to Sevilla, he told me that he saw some sort of angel or spirit.  He said when he opened the door the spirit was unreal and he thought he saw something in the room and closed the door.  It was a really amazing experience, the priesthood has the power of the administering of angels. 
 

So the baptism was unreal!!!  It was amazing Blanca (From El Salvador) asked me to baptize her and I felt really privileged.  She is a really special lady and member.  So special that right after she got confirmed on Sunday she got called as a relief society teacher!  We have like 60 active members and she was called!!  When they called her name to sustain her she stood up and was crying!!  She is so good.  The baptism was so spiritual and after she bore her testimony for like 10 minutes; which she shared her conversion story, she said she had found the only true church and she knows it´s true.  So there is some pictures of her and her son!  Her sons name is Fermin and he is 2 years old.  He loves us but is really shy.  We had I think 7 investigators at the baptism and then yesterday we had 8 in church!!!  That has to be a record in Jaén.  The most I have ever had was 10 in Sevilla.  The cool thing is almost every single one of them can get baptized!  So Antonia and Alba came to church.  The wife of our ward mission leader and his daughter.  We taught them this last week with the second counselor in the ward.  It was a great lesson and Alba is going to Málaga this weekend for a church activity.  Paqui, Paqui and Belén came to the baptism and the two daughters are going to Málaga as well this weekend!!  Belén was out of town on Sunday or she would have gone to church with her mom and sister.  Also the two that are getting baptized on the 28th came to church!  Rocio and Miguel Angel.  They are doing well and we are still just teaching them.  Antonio and Ana the two are getting married in October and they are so good!  They go to every activity and all 3 hours of church.  They read the scriptures and Liahona all the time and read together.  Ana asked for a blessing and asked for me to give her one.  She has a lot of health problems but is doing better.  So all is going great!!  I only have 4 more weeks until the transfer is over!  Crazy!  I am excited to get my package with the book.  I love the pictures thanks for all you did for the package!!

 
Elder Cody

August 27, 2012 - Family Email

Happy Birthday Jude I do Love you!!!!!!!

So this last week was unreal.

So remember little Blanca from El Salvador??  And, remember we taught her the Restoration and she began to cry at the end of the lesson?  Well we met with her this last Monday and she told us a little story.  So in that lesson two weeks ago she went home that night and prayed to know if this was the true church.  That night she fell asleep and dreamed the first vision!!!!  She told us she literally felt like she was there with Joseph Smith in the grove of trees.  She started crying when she told us that.  Is that unreal???  The church is true I couldn´t help but get teary eyes when she was telling us.  We met in the house of Rosana and Sebastian and that´s where we teach her now.  So after she told us that dream we of course asked her to be baptized and she said yes.  She told us that when she saw Sebastian and Nerea get baptized she wanted to as well in that exact moment.  So the church is true.  Blanca is getting baptized on Friday the 31rst of August.  We have been teaching her almost everyday and she came to church yesterday and she is doing great. 

So we also have been working with other families.  The less active family with the two kids are going to be baptized on the 29th of September.  They are super excited and they are for sure baptisms.  The mom is named Pilar and she gave us a reference of a family that consists of a mom and two daughters.  The daughter had already been coming to church for a little bit with Nerea because they are friends.  The mom is named Paqui, and then a daughter that is 15 named Belén, and the smallest named Paqui 12 as well.  Paqui the daughter is so good.  She LOVES young women's and is doing the Personal Progress things.  So she will get baptized too, I am positive.  The mom and and Paqui came to church this Sunday as well.  We have taught them I think three times now.  They are progressing little by little. 
 

So we had an activity this last Friday with all the members.  It is like a game night we arranged because the branch here needs to be more close.  So a lot of people came and some non members and we played sports.  Haha everyone thinks I am good at basket ball but I am really not that good I am just American so I played it with my buddies.  We played soccer as well with all the little kids.
So I have another set of investigators that are great.  Antonio is a man that was excommunicated and he has a girl friend named Ana.  They are both Spanish and awesome.  They are getting married in October and they already started the papers.  So they are in good shape.  Ana reads the Book of Mormon like everyday and marked scriptures and everything.  They came to church and the activity.  They are progressing and they want to get married in the temple next year.  So they both need to be baptized and Ana will be a convert.  Antonio used to be a seminary teacher and a counselor in the branch here.  Really smart man and really spiritual.  They both want the church so bad. 
So send the package here to my piso I will be here more than a month.
 

We haven't met with any of the Paraguayans this week.  They are super flaky and really don´t have a lot of desires to know stuff.  My companion knows that but doesn´t want to accept it because they are his people.  The one really good one is on vacation right now so we will talk to her next week or so. 
Well that was my week!  This week I have a lot of traveling.  We go to Málaga for Zone Conference and then I go to Sevilla with Elder Banbury for Residency cards!  I am excited!!
 

I hope you enjoy the BYU ward. I will have to go there with ya´ll because I want to be where ya´ll are at.  Tell the ladies that I love them haha.  I am going to be so weird when I get home..I already feel the awkward returned missionary feel around people I meet that speak English haha. 

 

I love you all.
CODES

August 20, 2012 - Family Email

Hey family,

Me and Peterson brushing our teeth

 

Well this last week was really fun and I got to go to the mission home and see friends!  I got to see Elder Manning and Elder Peterson which is always good.  I love those two with all my heart.  Yes mother make sure that we don´t schedule mine and Elder Manning's homecoming the same day because I have to go to his.  So the trainers training was great and we learned a lot.  After that the next day which was Thursday I got to do a 24 hour split with my father Elder Shaver!  It was so good and we teach really well together.  It is almost like he taught me how to be a missionary.  It was really fun to teach and do missionary work with him because I can speak Spanish and he told me I really surprised him how much I have grown.  I am no where near perfect and not a perfect missionary but I can say I have tried my hardest thus far in my mission.  I plan to continue like that and even harder until I die.  It was really good to see you all together with Rachel she looks great.  That little smile on her face makes me feel a lot better, but I am still torn up inside.  I know Elder Manning is really sad as well. I got to talk to him the next day I found out and he gave me a big hug.  I really love that little girl.  Elder Manning and I both fasted this last weekend for her and she is in all my daily prayers.  I ask God "que protejas a mi hermanita Rachel y que la consueles por favor" and I say more stuff but I always ask him that.  It means to protect my little sister Rachel and console her please.  I know she is doing good and there are many people praying for her at home and here in Spain.  I also put here name in the temple in Madrid.  You can call and give names I didn´t know that.

 

Me with a catholic cathedral in Granada

So this week we weren´t here very long in our area but we saw some miracles.  A less active family came to our baptism last week and we taught their little kids that want to get baptized too.  So two new people that can get baptized.  Their names are Rocio and Miguel Angel.  I really don´t know a lot about them because I was in Granada with Elder Shaver.  Also we found like 8 ladies from Paraguay and my companion is pretty excited.   Their names are Nancy, Nancy, Blanca, Emi, Gladis and I really can´t remember the rest of them because we have only taught them once.  They are good though and made us food!  Blanca was out of town this weekend, so we didn´t teach her.  However we have been keeping in good contact and tonight we are going to teach her with Rosana and Sebastian in their home.  It will be a great lesson and I am positive that Blanca from El Salvador will get baptized.  She is another really special spirit.  

 

Yesterday was an interesting day because we gave over 10 blessings and blessed two homes.  There is a family here that has a lot of problems and is kinda a rough family in the terms of smoking, tattoos and so on.  So we blessed every member of the family and the mom loves me and the 18 year old daughter.  The mom asked me to bless the home so that was a first for me; and then I blessed the dad, a little boy and the 18 year old daughter María.  We have been teaching her here and there because she isn´t a member.  She is really cool though and I really feel bad for the direction of her life, it worries me.  

Our little zone of Granada missing one companionship.

So that is about all that has happened this week.  I am doing well and things with Elder Rojas are a lot better.  I am not sure if it is me being more patient or him changing.  I hope it´s a little of both.  Oh so Elder Banbury is the new comp of Elder Shaver as a Zone Leader.  I am super EXCITED.

 

CODY

August 13, 2012

(For those who don't know; Cody has a girlfriend, Heather Stratton. Cody is very close with her family, especially her younger twin sisters Jordyn and Rachel. Rachel was just diagnosed with cancer-a brain tumor they can not operate on because of where it is located and because of the type - it is very serious. The survival rate is 6 to 9 months after diagnosis. We are all praying for a miracle and we know that Rachel can do it! Cody has been aware she has been sick since June but doctors couldn't find out why, because she had different symptoms. Cody just found out it was cancer. He loves Rachel like a little sister. Rachel wrote him and told him about it, and this is his response. We also had told Cody about our Lake Powell trip)

 

Family,

Wow that was a really sad and good email.  I cried and I laughed.  Thank you for taking pictures and telling me about the trip.  Rachel.  I love that girl, I cannot believe that.  Sorry I am kinda speechless right now and I don´t know what to say.  I hope my email will be some what lengthy.  I will pray and fast for her don´t worry.  I have been praying for her the past two weeks after Heather told me that she was sick.  WOW, I am sorry I am really speechless.  All I know is that the Lord works miracles and is a God of miracles.  The only reason he would not work miracles around us, is if we don´t have faith.  Mormón 9: 19-20 I believe.  I need to study some scriptures for her and send her some stuff.  She literally is a little sister to me and I know I will see her when I get home. 

The young girl is Neyera. The boy is Sebastian

So I am doing great.  The baptisms were unreal.  The spirit was so strong and it was one of the best days on my mission.  So me and the zone leaders picked Elder Rojas to baptize Sebastian because he really didn´t want to choose who to baptize him.  I think Elder Rojas needed it and it was his first baptism ever.  I am really close to Sebastian's family I love them so much!  They are the best.

 I am so jealous of Matt, he is going to Peru.  I love Peruvians more than anything.  I think they are my favorite people in the world.  So I am going to attach some photos here.

Elder Rojas and Sebastian

Sebastian and his Mother, Lolo

Elder Rojas and Neyera

We had a really great week.  We had to travel up to Madrid and back and that took from 8:30 in the morning until 11:30 at night.  So that made me tired.  My companion had to do his residency up there so that
was kinda fun to go up to Madrid.  Tomorrow we get to go to the mission home in Faungirola, where we have a follow up trainers meeting.  I am stoked I need to give someone a hug right now so I get to see Manning and Peterson tomorrow.  I am sorry I really don´t know what to write right now I am just nervous.  I love you all and I love you so much I hope you know that.

We met a new lady named Blanca.  She is from El Salvador and is so good.  She came to the church Friday morning and we taught her and at the end she told us that no other message in the world has touched her
heart like ours and started crying.  She also came to the baptism.  The thing is that her husband is an old Spanish guy who controls her and he gets mad if she goes to church and all that.  She still goes behind his back and I am positive she will get baptized.  Antonia and Alba are good and stubborn.  The whole family didn´t come to church and our ward mission leader didn´t show up to the baptism.  The ward missionaries sang a musical number with us in the baptism it was super good.  The baptism song from the primary hymns.  The one about rainbows.  Well I am doing good don´t worry about me!  I would love the wedding pictures soon haha.  I hope you all had fun at Powell and the next you go I will be there!!  I am excited for ya´ll to come out but no worries I am not trunkie and you won´t make me trunkie.

I love you all.

CODY

August 6, 2012

So I have a ton of cool pictures but I left my converter cord home.  This morning we hiked up a mountain and there is a castle there and you can see all of the city of Jaén.  So I promise to get some pictures to you soon, the next week for sure. I need some photos because it has been awhile.  When do you get pics from the wedding?

So things are going great here in Jaén.  We have the last lessons to teach to Sebastian and Nereya.  We need to teach Nereya like 3 lesson and interview her, and Sebastian has like only one lesson left to be taught.  So Sebastian's mother is named Rosana and she bore her testimony yesterday in sacrament meeting and just cried.  She is an amazing woman and I love her so much and her son!  We haven´t talked to the husband yet but in her testimony she said she wants her husband to be baptized soon.  Gosh she is just such a good lady!!  She always gives us drinks and is so happy to see us all the time.  We are teaching a new lady named Ursula that is really good.  She studied with the missionaries like a year ago.  She has a lot of hard stupid questions when all she needs to do is ask God.  She is from some country in Africa but amazingly smart.  She studies here in Spain and works.  She speaks French and perfect Spanish.  She is really cool and I feel the spirit a lot when we're teaching her.  We are also teaching our ward mission leader's wife and daughter.  They came to church!!  They need a lot of work though.  The mom is named Antonia and the 13 year old daughter is named Alba! We have taught them twice now and the mom says no because she hasn´t received her answer.  In testimony meeting it was the best thing in the world.  A lady that is really good friends with Antonia bore her testimony straight to Antonia and thanked Rosana for sharing her testimony.  So hopefully it moved Antonia a little.  I am not sure why but Alba is super nervous about baptism or something.  We are going to work with her super hard and I am not going to give up.  I am going to be praying for a miracle there with them. 

So training Elder Rojas is the hardest thing I have ever done on my mission.  He is the weirdest person I have met and I love him to death.  However at the same time I want to rip my hair out.  He is unteachable and I can never give counsel.  Elder Shaver tried to talk to him this last week and they ended up fighting on the phone.  He is really special.  Pray for me to have patience please.  I really never have problems with people but this kid is really something else.  I am doing well though no worries and I am happy.  I get to do splits with Elder Shaver this week because Elder Shaver and my companion can´t do it haha.  So things are looking good here in Jaén and we are working really hard.  I am so tired you have no idea how hilly it is here.  I am also working out everyday not because I have six months to be sexy!  I just want my body to be in a little better shape so I can start working out hard when I get home.  I love you all so much and you are great.

REMEMBER PHOTOS

CODES