It's A Small World After All! (Go ahead, and sing the song!)

Dear Everyone,

Today is transfers! I didn´t get transferred and neither did my companion. I´m super excited to still be in Palma, but this is probably my last transfer here. It will be my 4th and it´s not very common to be in an area longer than that. I can´t really think of anything excited that happened this week or anything to write about. Let´s see. Oh, the only other Canadian missionary in the zone left and I´ll be the only one. I´ve told you about Elder Hardy right? Well Elder Hardy has been serving in Manacor (a city in the east part of Mallorca) for a long time. He´s from Calgary Alberta. We also met a man here in Palma named Oliver. He´s from Lethbridge Alberta and stopped the other Elders one day because a lot of his friends have been missionaries and he wanted to know more. He´s pretty young and is trying to find work here teaching English. Elder Hardy was super excited when we told him about Oliver he said "I was born in Lethbridge!!". It´s funny how small the world is. The other day, well a few weeks ago, we contacted a Spanish man on the street. He had worked for many years on an Alaskan cruise line, living in Seattle. He said he knew Vancouver very well also and loved that part of the world. The world is just tiny. I love a lot of things about Spain. I love the food and the culture. If you want to try an amazing Spanish dish, look up how to make Tortilla de Patata or Tortilla Española. They are the same thing and it is super good. It´s available pre made in Mercadona (our supermarket) and I didn´t know that before. I just found out. I have to go buy some. I´ll try to send you all pictures when I can. For now, take care. I´ll try to be more interesting with my email next week.

Preston sighting!  I found this blog and saw photos of Preston when he was at that recent conference!  Go see the photos!
 http://spainbarcelonamission.blogspot.com/    This blog is done by the mission home itself.   I've found at least 3-4 photos of him.  Anytime they talk about the Baleares zone conferences, look for his face!

Important Life Lessons Learned: How to Fry the Perfect Egg. Check!

Dear Everyone,

This week was not super exciting. Here are a few of my experiences. First, we went to a notary to sign my powers away. Yep, the mission office called and the Registrador asked me to go sign away my power of representation. The reason for that is so that in Madrid, they can take steps to begin the renewal process of my residency card when the time comes. The cool part of that is one line of the document he gave me says that I speak Spanish. So, I guess legally I speak Spanish haha. The second thing is we went to eat at a member´s home named Maricarmen. She´s the one who brought Adela, our recent convert, into the church. She is absolutely hilarious and a really good cook. She´s from Granada, in the south of Spain. The south part of Spain, called Andalucía has a reputation much like the southern states. The people there have a heavy accent, are very friendly and open, are typically pretty religious and are known for good food. We ate tortilla de patata which has to be one of my favorite foods that I have tried from Spain, as well as frito Mallorquín, some lomo (pork chops I think) as well as bread and cheese with everything. Also, speaking of food, I have just about mastered the perfect egg. I usually buy bacon and eggs to make during the week. The first time I tried to fry an egg, it turned out pretty mangled. I mean, I knew how to fry stuff, but I hadn´t had much practice before the mission. This week however, I can get the egg fried just perfect, with the yolk still intact and runny almost every time. Oh, the reason I haven´t been able to send pictures is because the USB to SD card converter I bought in Salt Lake broke. It broke a while ago, but I have always just used Elder McMahon´s. Since he´s been gone I haven´t been able to send pictures. I´ve been looking for a converter but they seem to be nowhere. We even went to a huge BestBuy-type place and couldn´t find one anywhere. Well, I´ll keep looking because today we are going to Cap de Formentor again. It´s the big lighthouse we went to a while ago. We´re going because Elder Oliveira hasn´t been yet. I don´t mind going again because it´s literally the best and most famous view on the island. I´ll be sure to get some pictures of me this time and send them as soon as I can. Bye for now!

Mini vacation: missionary style!

First off, I loved Bilbao. It has such a big city feel. Palma actually has more people, but it just feels tiny. Bilbao has a big city feel, very metropolitan and such. We arrived Tuesday night, took a bus from the airport, and got off near our hotel. It was a really nice hotel and for a while I felt like I was on vacation. I forgot my camera though, so I´ll have to get pictures from someone else to send you. We got up early the next morning, had breakfast in the hotel and then walked to the Bilbao chapel. There was a fog out in the morning that felt and smelt great. When we got to the chapel, everyone was just greeting other missionaries, but I didn´t really know anyone, being new. Then Elder Kearon arrived and talked to us. Wow, he really is a servant of the Lord. I could feel the power in the things he said. He´s a convert to the Church, and when he talked about the missionaries coming up to him on the street in London and talking to him for the first time, I could feel the love he had for them. I want to be the kind of missionary that someone can talk about with such emotion years later. After the conference we flew directly from Bilbao to Palma and it was back to work. We found this week a wonderful part member family from Ecuador. They live all the way out in Andratx, so our branch mission leader Julio graciously helps us out by driving us out there when we have visits. His testimony is really helpful too, as he is a new member himself, baptized in July. This family has 2 daughters ages 16 and 17 who are not members, but have accepted a baptismal date for the 29th of March. I am very excited for this week and all the work we have ahead of us.

Short but sweet, and hot!

It is so hot here! I am dying of heat. Especially because we have to wear either a suit coat or a sweater until General Conference. Speaking of conferences, I am very excited to be able to listen to Elder Kearon come speak to us. We all fly out of the islands tomorrow at 6 to Barcelona where we´ll catch another flight to Bilbao which is on the north coast of Spain. They will house us in hotels and we´ll get up early to be in the Bilbao chapel by 9am ready to hear Elder Kearon speak. I am very excited as well for General Conference next month, I can´t wait. That´s pretty much all I have for this week.

6 Months Down! 18 to Go!

This week has been kind of slow. We´ve helped people move three times this week and we´ve been doing a lot of walking talking to people. I have been pretty tired. We have a great family who accepted a date for baptism on the 15 of March. I am super excited for them and I hope they can be ready by then. I have gotten a couple of emails about the Olympics, but to be honest I didn´t even know they were going on. I guess it´s because the winter Olympics are smaller, at least here. Also, everything is all about soccer "futbol" here. Everyone asks which team you support. I always say Barcelona because that´s the mission I´m in. I´ve also become a real fan of theirs as I´ve been here. I have a jersey of theirs that I got at a Nike outlet for only 24€ during Rebajas (kind of the Spanish equivalent of Black Friday or Boxing Day but for a couple weeks). Last week I went to the Cathedral of Palma and we took some great pictures, but it was closed and we couldn´t go in. I hope to be able to go in before I leave here. Oh, some news I almost forgot to mention. Next week, the mission is being visited by Elder Kearon on the Seventy. He´s in the Area Presidency of Europe and he´s going to speak to all the missionaries in the mission. He´s divided it into 2 sessions. One in Barcelona and one in Bilbao. Apparently to even out the number of missionaries in each conference, they are flying our zone to Bilbao on the 11th so we can be there to listen to Elder Kearon on the 12th. They will also probably be putting us in hotels. I am excited, as I haven´t been to Bilbao before and at the same time, I´m upset to miss 2 days of work in our area. That´s pretty much all the news I have.

Oh also, tomorrow is my 6th month mark in the mission! Wow that flew by super quick!

Math missionary style-x(funny) + y(Preston) + z(unknown)=Busy

What a blessing it has been to have Elder Oliveira here. I´ve already told you that he´s from Brasil but he has lived in Málaga since he was 3. He has such a funny accent when he speaks. It´s not a Brasilian accent, it´s an Andaluz (the southern part of Spain) accent. When he speaks Portuguese, he doesn´t have a Brazilian accent either, he speaks with the Andaluz accent in Portuguese too. He´s learning English, but he´s not that good so we only ever speak Spanish. He is super funny and I know we will have lots of success here. This week has been kind of hard because we were in a trio almost all week because Elder Farah (one of the other missionaries from the branch that lives with us) didn´t get a companion. His companion was the old secretary to President and had to stay to train the new one. But he arrives today so we will be able to focus on our area instead of having to focus on 2 areas. We don´t have any baptismal dates right now, but we are working with a great family from Bolivia that could get baptized any second because they´ve already been to church over 5 times and to a baptism. I personally feel as though the mother is a little scared and so she doesn´t want to get baptized just yet. And the daughters just follow the mom. I have faith that they will be baptized soon. That´s pretty much all the news for this week. Venga. Hasta luego  

Another miracle baptism!

This week we had a miracle. We had a baptism! Usually we commit people to baptism 2 weeks in advance so they can prepare and go to church a couple times, but this time we did something different. Adela is a friend of Maricarmen (a member) and she has been to church 2 or 3 times before in the past few weeks, but we haven´t had an opportunity to meet with her until this week. So on Monday after preparation day, we met with her and realized she was really prepared. We committed her to be baptized this Saturday and she agreed. She is wonderful. She reads the Book of Mormon every day and prays. When we taught her the Plan of Salvation, she cried tears of joy because she realized that her 2 sons that have died are not lost. She asked me to baptize her, and I included some pictures. She is from A Coruña, Spain and she is one of the nicest people I´ve met. Also, some news today. You might be wondering why I´m emailing on a Tuesday. It´s because of transfers! Elder McMahon left to serve in Barcelona. I´m staying here, and I´m getting a new companion. His name is Elder Oliveira, he´s from Brazil but he´s lived in Spain most of his life. I don´t know what he´s like because we´re going to pick him up from the airport tonight. He´ll be my first native-speaking companion though. And my first companion not from the US. I´m excited. 

Elder McMahon, me, Adela, and Maricarmen at Adela's baptism.