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

September 12, 2011 - Email to Family

Sept. San Fernando Zone Conference

¿Qué tal mi familia?

How is everyone? Mother you are the best person in the world I love you. Carlos Ortegon is a member on base and we send him the packages and then he delivers them to the Elder´s because he is awesome! Elder Banbury got like 3 packages this week through the base! I am excited to get a package! 

So this week was different! It was amazing I got to spend a night and a morning where I was born into the mission.  Cáceres! It was amazing and I loved it soo much! I got to visit Silvia and Sofia! Right as I saw them they literally have a glow on them now. The Holy Ghost really changes people and you can tell when someone has the truth finally. The baptism was amazing I heard. The dad baptized his daughter Sofia first and then the wife Silvia! After everyone in the whole branch gave their testimonies and Mauricio the dad got up and was bawling and stared at Silvia in the eyes and told her that he loved her and he would DIE for here and that they are going to the temple to get married!! Silvia and the whole family was suuuuper happy to see me. I call them my parents in Spain. We are for sure going to visit them when you come pick me up! They are the sweetest most humble people. So apparently Sofia wanted me to baptize her, I was crushed when I heard that! I wanted to be there for their baptism more than anything in the world, that´s my family!! The mom is so happy all the time now, before she just did not look happy. She has the biggest smile all the time now. I didn´t get the chance to see Carlos or Liliana. But Liliana is good and helping teach with the missionaries and 1st counselor in the Relief Society!! Go Liliana! Oh haha so yeah I went to Cáceres to get my Residency card and they didn´t have it so in 20 days I get to go back! YES! But I actually don´t like leaving my area and being away not teaching the people I was called to serve!

Silvia (Mom) and Sofia's (15) Baptism

So this week we got a new investigator that is golden! HE is 21 years old and already believes everything we have told him. He is a straight up Spaniard! We are working hard with him and taught the Restoration to him super good and the Gospel of Jesus Christ to him. His name is Jorge and he has a baptismal date for the 24th this month! We are gonna teach him a lot and get him prepared and make sure he is following the commandments. He is a really smart kid. He was Catholic but doesn´t believe that it´s the true church of Christ. He told us that this is the true church! He also thinks that the Bible faults stuff! The Lord once again has blessed us with someone that is prepared to hear the gospel. I swear all you have to do is be obedient and work hard and the Lord will bless! So as far as investigators this week they are all about the same. I was gone for two whole days so that kinda put a damper on teaching people. We taught Alejandra the Word of Wisdom because well she has troubles with it. It was a really good lesson but still tied down to her boy friend. I asked her if she would be a member of this church if she didn´t have her boy friend and she said yes. I am really close with her and I am trying my absolute hardest to give her happiness. I almost made her cry this last lesson because she doesn’t believe in life after this life. I told her she doesn’t know there is a life after this life because she is all caught up in the worldly things and not doing things that Christ wants of us. He suffered for us so that we have the opportunity to live with our families forever!  Jaun is still smoking and only 5 a day right now because he is sick. Mom haha all the people in Spain are like him. That is the classic traditional Spaniard man cigarette, a beer, no shirt, shorty shorts and they cross their legs like a woman.

Oh So Elder Manning was in Cáceres on splits so I got to hang out with my Boy!! I got to have a sleepover with Manny!!! He is good!

Hanging out with Elder Manning again

Well I love you all and I hope you all are reading you scriptures and enjoying the life with the dogs. I hope the shoulder improves mom! How is it? Dad how is work? The Bike?

Love,

Code Man

Zone Conference again

September 5, 2011 - Email to Family

Juan, we teach him on his bed with his shirt off

Hello everybody!

So I was happy this morning because I got a letter from my mommy!
Thanks for saying nice things about me MOM!  So this week was a good one.  I was down a couple of days because our investigators are sooo flaky I don´t know what to do to make them want salvation!  But I will keep trying.  We had a lot of investigators at church yesterday.  The super smoker guy came to church finally.  His name is Juan 27 years old and he is Spanish.  hahahaha I have a picture of him. 

Cádiz

So this last week we had to go to Cádiz to go pick up my companions residency card!  We soo realized that we were walking pretty much on the beach.  So we took pictures!!  Also we saw a cruise ship parked there I will send that picture too!  But Cádiz is sooo pretty!  I would like to take you all there one day!  It´s a super ancient city but way nice and clean with a beach!  So last Monday night we were in a far away place called Pablado Naval.  It is right next to the naval base where the Americans live.  So we were there and we left our lesson at 10:20 to go catch our bus.  We waited for the bus for 40 minutes and it never showed.  The bus´s stopped coming that late!!  So at 11:00pm we set foot for our piso an hour and 10 minutes away!!!  haha We said a pray and started walking for a long time!!  It was kinda scary at times because we walked through forest stuff, which is scary that late in Spain.  But all was well and we didn´t die!  So Alejandra, we had a lesson with her and found out a lot about her.  She lives with her boy friend who absolutely hates religion.  Alejandra does not work and completely relies on her boy.  She won't ever come to church because he controls her on the weekends and has to be with him.  He won't let her do anything.  She says she believes all the stuff we teach her and she reads the Book of Mormon but won't progress because she tells us she can´t.  All she will tell us is that she can´t.  She told us that she isn´t happy in her life.  I talked to her forever and bore my testimony soo strong.  I know she can feel it but she won't do anything.  We are teaching a lady that is 28 from Bolivia named Betty.  She is scared of a lot of things.  She is scared for her salvation, she was Evangelist.  We taught her a super good lesson on the plan of salvation.  She always has good questions that are hard to answer; good thing I study the scriptures!  Another investigator that is new is Jose.  He is from El Salvador.  He came to church yesterday and we taught him a lesson and set a Baptismal date with him! For the 1st of October.  He is soo ready but really scared. I had to push him to get the date but we are going to start working hard with him because he believes everything and is a solid investigator.  He has heard close to all the lessons.  We are working with the African American Jumpe, he randomly showed up to church again! He is a good guy.  Well that is about all that happened this week.  Oh wait.  This last Tuesday we got owned!  hahaa We got our money for the month and we went to go buy groceries and when we came outside it was dropping buckets of rain!!  Like a hurricane and we had a crap load of food and no umbrella.  So we stole the shopping cart and ran for 20 minutes to our piso!  We looked like we jumped into a lake! 

Mother I love you!  You are a sweet heart!  I owe you my life!  Thanks for fixing my card.!  I still don´t have mtn dew or peanut butter.

Just me and the comp

OH so the baptism dates I set with Silvia and Sofia in CACERES!!!!!!!!!!!!  THEY BOTH GOT BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I STARTED CRYING WHEN I FOUND OUT!  I get to go to Cáceres tomorrow to pick up my residency card!!!!! I cannot wait!

Love,

Code

August 30, 2011 - Email to Family

Hey everyone!!  Oh how I love you parents.

So about the member who is going to give me peanut butter and Mountain Dew - he wasn´t at church and I have not received it; sad day because I don´t have any money to buy food so I am going to starve this week but oh well!  So my companion is from Glendale, Arizona.  We are having a nice time together.  He refuses to call our companionship a marriage though. haha.  However we get along good and we have fun and work hard.

So investigator wise we are getting somewhere I think.  I did some research in the area book and I found this lady that was referred from her Father in-law who is a bishop in Madrid.  I called the number and talked to her husband.  They are on vacation until the middle of September.  Her husband is a member but in active.  We are going go to get them back and baptize her!  So we had a really good lesson with Alejandra and her friend Rosita.  Alejandra is 23 or 25 and from Bolivia.  She is gorgeous.  Her friend Rosita is from Guatemala.  We taught them a lesson we didn´t plan on and ended up talking about the Book of Mormon and the correct way with the authority of God to baptize.  I pulled out the Bible and taught them that it´s right here, Matthew 3:11.  There is two authorities you have to have.  John the Baptist only had the Aaronic priesthood that is why Jesus Christ received the Holy Ghost from God.  After that Alejandra asked me ¿Entonces, No estoy baustizado?  "Then, I am not baptized?  I said, The truth NO! That was really good.  She has a boy friend and I believe she lives with him.  Her boyfriend hates religion; so it would be bad if he found out that she was talking to us.  Her friend Rosita is awesome.  She is a little older closer to 40.  She is super interested and wants to progress.  When I pull out scriptures she thinks I am a genius with the scriptures haha.  I just have studied a lot and I love to read now.  I take personal study super serious and I read the Book of Mormon with a student guide!  But they are good I am going to get a picture with them this week so you can see who I am teaching.  We are also teaching a member’s son that isn´t baptized named Adrian.  He is 10 and will get baptized in December.  The mom wants his dad to baptize him which is understandable.  I am guessing that I won’t be here for that or Banburry.  We have a lot of investigators too.  I found an old investigator in the area too named Betty.  We taught her yesterday and it was super good!!  She has a lot of fear of the church.  She is super shy.  But she opened up and talked to us for like 30 minutes about something that happened in her life about the Evangelist church.  She wants to read the Book of Mormon and learn more.  Other than that we have taught the guy that loves to smoke.  Yesterday he had already smoked a whole pack when we went to visit him at like 8:30.  Oh we are teaching an African named Jumpe.  He is sooooo nice.  Last Saturday there was a baptism like 10 minutes away in a city called Jerez and we invited like 20 investigators to go.  We were running on the streets and we saw our last investigator, Jumpe.  We went to him and asked Jumpe ¿Puede asistir un buatismo con nosotros? He looked at us like he was going to say yes and then replied " Seria imposible"  hahaa he said it would be impossible because he has to go do pull ups at the beach.  We got owned by him.  But then he randomly showed up at church yesterday looking fly!  haha we will see where he goes. He told us when we taught him that anything good is true.  He thinks every religion is good.  He is a nice man though. 

I forgot to tell you like I see the Ocean every day of my life and it is depressing!  Not really I don’t even miss it.

I LOVE YOU!  Sorry you guys are losers and alone!  I’ll move into the basement when I get married but I’m not waiting 6 years - sorry papa!

Love,

Code

Cody's Mission Report

(Given By Judy August 21, 2011 – 8^th Ward)

          It is a privilege to speak with Sis. Caitlin Christensen – our families have been very close. In fact Caitlin served in the exact area that my husband Brad Hafen served – we won’t state how many years ago that was! When Brady our third son gave his farewell talk 3 ½ years ago over this same pulpit Bry Christensen; Caitlin’s father spoke with him; when Caitlin gave her farewell address Cody was the youth speaker; so it seems fitting that someone from our family should be speaking along with Caitlin. Bishop you better get thinking about which Christensen will talk with Cody on his welcome home! I want to give Caitlin plenty of time to talk because I know that’s why many of you are here. My subject is very interesting though – I’ve been asked to speak about my son Cody who is serving a mission in Malaga, Spain.

            Cody has been serving a very long 6 months now – many of you may think he hasn’t been gone very long, but you are not his mother. We have watched our young son who wore flip flops, T-shirts, shorts and a punk hair cut turn into a man – a representative of our Savior Jesus Christ. We read his letters and feel the spirit and his testimony grow. 

            Cody had a very humbling experience right before submitted his mission papers. He tore his ACL in the right knee and had surgery. He spent weeks laying in bed reading and watching TV. Because he loves sports he watched sporting events. The Tour De France – in 2010 was won by Alberto Contador of Spain. Cody started saying things like “I love Spain.” He watched The Men’s World Cup – and during this, the TV shows things about the different countries and stories about players. Well Spain won The Men’s World Cup in 2010; and we heard I love Spain and the people, and then “I’m going to Spain on my mission Mom.” I told Cody he was watching too much TV. Cody continued to tell us that he was going to Spain on his mission.  When Cody opened his mission call in October; he pointed up towards Heaven and said; “He knows me!” We all knew then that Cody was going to Spain. I posted on Facebook that Cody had received his mission call where he wanted to go. I received a funny - cute comment back from my dear friend Jen Michel – “I didn’t know that missionaries got to pick their missions.” Cody was just lucky and prepared early to fall in love with Spain and its people; it’s amazing how the Lord uses humbling events in our lives to prepare us to further his work.

Cody was gradually immersed into the Spanish culture by starting at the Provo MTC for 4 weeks and then Madrid Spain’s MTC for the next 4 weeks. The Madrid MTC only had 21 missionaries during Cody’s stay so it was very personal. They had the Madrid Temple which he loved; and they contacted in a park each Saturday. The missionaries would sing in the park; the park is so beautiful it’s breathtaking. The Mission President over the Madrid MTC, Pres. Earl is a wonderful man of God. Cody loves him; and Pres. Earl still sends encouragement to him through emails.

Cody’s first area was Huelva. Huelva is very cool in the history books because it is the home of the famous Christopher Columbus. Huelva is on the south east corner of Spain right next to Portugal. Cody sent us pictures of Christopher Columbus’s statue that is in the cities down town. He only stayed two weeks in Huelva; Cody and his trainer were transferred to Caseras. Caseras changed Cody into a man. He served in this area around 12 weeks. When Cody and his companion arrived they only had one investigator; and a tiny branch with only three priesthood holders. The spirit guided them and they ended up working with many investigators and were blessed with two baptisms. The first was a young man around 20 from Brazil. His name is Carlos and he actually approached them. Cody was amazed because the youth that are around their age just yell at them and spit at them. They throw fireworks and other things at them; but not Carlos he smiled at them and they were shocked and then he started talking to them. He was so golden; he was so ready for the gospel. After his second lesson he accepted baptism, went to his pastor and asked to have his name removed from the records. The pastor told him that he could never join their church again, but Carlos didn’t care. Carlos’s girlfriend broke up with him and his friends were mad at him. Carlos didn’t care he knew the gospel was true and can’t wait to be a missionary too. If Carlos goes on a mission it will be the first missionary to leave from the Caseras area. Cody’s other baptism is a woman from Argentina named Liliana. Liliana moved from Argentina to be with her mother; who is a member of the church. It was so awesome to watch her join the church and be able to receive all the blessing that the gospel gives. Quote Cody’s letter: “So Elder Shaver did the baptizing, 3 times!  Haaha Liliana didn´t like the water very much she kept popping up!  But it was super special and felt so right.  The following day Sunday, I GAVE HER THE HOLY GHOST in Spanish.  I gave a blessing in Spanish.  It was amazing; I gave a child of God His Spirit to have for eternity.  I also confirmed her a member of the only true Church of Jesus Christ on the earth.  It was a good experience for me but, terrifying.  I didn´t even end up saying the things I planned on saying to her, gotta love the Spirit.” 

You may have noticed that Cody’s investigators are from different countries. He has not been able to teach one person that is actually from Spain. The people that are prepared and ready for the gospel are from other countries; Africa, Dominican Republic, Argentina, Columbia and Brazil. When Cody left Caseras it was really hard on him. He loved the people and the area. The branch felt like family. He left behind 10 investigators with three of them having baptismal dates.

He just got to his new area almost two weeks ago; it’s called El Puerto de Santa Maria. The area is right on the ocean; it is a very old and very poor city. The people are really easy to talk to and very easy going. This is what else he had to say about his new area that he is very excited about; “The Members!!!  You aren´t going to believe this.  So there is a military base here!!!!  We have close to 25 to 30 members from America!!!!!!!  They are super nice and sweethearts.  On Sunday we ate on base with The Osmond’s, from Sandy, Utah. I had the opportunity to eat cheddar cheese and black beans.  I was soooo happy and it tasted soo good.  They live right on the beach it´s super pretty.  Oh and there is peanut butter because of the base! So yeah I like the new area, it´s really pretty and I love the accent.  Every week we do service; we serve food to the homeless people - that was a fun experience.” So this city is on the ocean and it is tempting for Cody because he is a swimmer! Cody is very blessed to have a wonderful Mission President, Pres. Clegg and a very sweet wife. They are from Bountiful and will be completing their mission this next July 2012. Cody will then have a new Mission President to finish out his mission.

If you want to be able to keep up on Cody we have a mission blog that our oldest son keeps up for him; the address is kcodyhafen.blogspot.com. Cody is our fourth missionary – he is our youngest child; we have loved watching the growth in all four of our children from missions. Our family has received so many blessings from having missionaries. We will miss those blessings, the weekly emails, and the phone calls on holidays when Cody completes his mission. We know Cody has been so very blessed. I’ve always said that when I have a missionary out, that they are my walking testimony; if I didn’t know that this church was true I could never send my children to foreign lands like Russia, Brazil, Ireland and now Spain. I know this church is true; that this church is led by a Prophet of God; That Joseph Smith restored this gospel; that Jesus Christ is our Savior – who died for us so that we can live with Heavenly Father.