¡Feliz Dia de Los Reyes!

Dear Everyone,

These past couple weeks have been good but hard. Good because we´ve been finding a lot of people to teach. Hard because nobody wants to meet until after the fiestas. So we haven´t really had as many visits as normal lately. In Spain they have 3 holidays in a row. Christmas and New Years of course, but they also celebrate Dia de los Reyes Magos, which might be even bigger than Christmas here. It´s on January 6th and it´s a holiday celebrating the 3 kings that brought gifts to Christ following the star. There was a big parade, which we did not go see, but heard it was pretty big. Also, today is Rebajas which is super exciting. It´s like Boxing Day in Canada or Black Friday in the States. It´s just huge sales and things are super cheap at almost every store. So today we are going to go to Porto Pi, where they have a huge mall and I can buy white missionary shirts for cheap. And socks too. All my socks have holes in them. I have found that there are a lot of good places to shop here. In Palma they have a Corte Ingles which is huge and like a big American department store. Also they have an outlet mall in Marratxí with a lot of American and European stores. And then Porto Pi is a big touristy looking shopping center. Whenever we go out towards there we always hear British tourists speaking English. I hear English all the time in the street, but it´s always British people. I´ve only ever heard Americans speaking once I think, besides missionaries. I am getting a lot better at speaking the language and especially at understanding. I can understand almost everything from most people. It depends on the accent still. There are some accents I still have a hard time understanding anything. I´ve already told you that the Cuban and Dominican accents are super hard, but I want to add to that list Andalucía, which is the name of an area in the south of Spain. They are so hard to understand. Our branch mission leader is from Granada in Andalucía and I can´t understand a word he says. I want you all to know that I love the work, I love being a missionary, I love Spain, and I love serving the Lord.

Elder Coleman

2014....The best is yet to be!

Dear Everyone,

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and that everyone is excited for New Years! I know I am. Especially because 2014 is the year where I will be a missionary for the entire year. From day first to day last, I will be on a mission serving the Lord. So, some news. It isn´t really exciting to anyone back home, but I got my residency here in Spain! I have to go tomorrow to Barcelona to pick up my DNI, the residency card. It´s exciting to me for a few reasons. One, I won´t have to carry my passport with my whenever I want to use my credit card, because they ask for either your DNI or passport. Also, I can go get registered at the city hall here in Palma and with that I get a bus card which makes riding the bus cheaper. So far, since being here in Palma, I have spent 42€ on bus rides. It all gets reimbursed by the mission, but that´s still a lot of money. Some more news is we´ve been finding new investigators like crazy. We found a few people knocking doors, an older Spaniard man, a 19 year old Argentine boy, and in the same apartment we found a potential investigator with a blonde girl from the Canary Islands that I honestly thought was American until she started talking. We also found a Cuban family that has been taught by the missionaries last year, but got really busy and the missionaries dropped them. But now they are available again. They have 2 kids and they are a really friendly family. We are also finding Phillipino investigators like crazy as well. Well, I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Year. I hope everyone has some good New Years resolutions.

Elder Coleman

And finally, here are some pictures from Spain!

 A typical apartment building.

 The city square.

 A soccer stadium.

 The gardens at the castle in Barcelona.

 The castle I visited after first arriving in Spain.

 More garden shots.

 The view of Barcelona from the castle.

 My piso!  (Apartment)

 Behind the church building in Palma.

 There may be palm trees in Palma, but it's not feeling tropical!

 My companion, Elder McMahon, from Indiana.  He's the one running.

 I may be on a mission, but my eating habits haven't changed.

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas....not!

It´s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas... not. There´s no snow here. I wish we could even have a little snow. It´s super super warm in the morning/afternoon and then it gets really cold later on, but it doesn´t ever snow here. I do like the the lights they put up though. They have lights they hang between the streets. Some are in the shape of stars, and some say Merry Christmas in Mallorquin (a dialect of Catalan) "Bones Festes". This last week we went out to a pueblo (a small town), called Andratx (pronounced Ahndratch in English). Well, it´s kind of a pueblo. It´s a little bigger than a pueblo. It could be its own city. We went out their to visit a Phillipina investigadora that we have out there. Her name is Rochelle and she only speaks Tagalog and English because she lived in England for a long time. Her sister Dempy is a member and has lived in Spain all her life pretty much. They are so fun, and we are going out their for Christmas Eve dinner. It´s an hour and a half bus ride away though, which is super far for this tiny island. The only thing stopping Rochelle from getting baptized are her parents back in the Phillipines. She´s 24, so she can do what she wants, but her parents are really against it so she´s a little nervous about just going ahead and getting baptized, but she comes to church every week with Dempy. English class is so fun at church. We teach Gospel Principles in English for those few members who speak English better than Spanish. There are no native English speakers though. It consists of Rochelle and Dempy, and sometimes Dempy´s husband Jasp who are all Phillipino. And also Monday, Frank and his wife, and John Robert come too. They are Nigerian and have the funniest accent. They always ask "Howyoudoin?" or "Howyourday?" and you have to say "Idoingfine" or " Mydayfine" back to them. And John Robert is one of the Nigerians who always comes to English Gospel Principles and he just takes over the whole time. He always raises his hand and asks "Can I add something?" and then he goes off for the whole block. But he has a lot of good things to say, so it´s alright. I am really excited about Skyping home on Christmas and being able to talk to my parents. I love Christmas time, even when there´s no snow. I hope we can all take the time to remember why we really celebrate Christmas. I wish all of you back home the very best Christmas filled with good meals, lots of family time, and a focus on Jesus Christ who died so that we can be with our families forever. Let us love those around us this Christmas as He has shown his love for us. 

Merry Christmas!

Elder Coleman

Dear Everyone,

This week we got sick. Well, I just have the sniffles, but my companions are all sick with sore throats and such. Other than that, it´s been a very productive week. We found a lot of new investigators last week. I´m growing to really like street contacting. Although I know it´s not nearly as effective as working through the members. During weekly planning this week, we came up with some great ideas for working with members. I am excited to start putting them into practice. On another note, Elder Dayes is leaving tomorrow. Leaving, leaving. To go home. Elder Dayes is Elder Burnett´s companion and they share our piso (apartment). It´s sad yet exciting for him. He´s pretty excited to be home for Christmas. He gave his farewell talk in Church yesterday. How it works here is there are 12 missionaries in the city of Palma. 6 are over one branch and 6 over the other. Our branch is named Poniente and the other is Levante. In Poniente there are Elder McMahon and I, Elder Dayes and Elder Burnett, Sister Wallace and Sister Bennet. Both branches share the same building. Levante´s services are at 10 am and ours starts at 4pm, which is super late. Yesterday, one of the speakers, Julio (who was just baptized in julio of this year and is already the branch mission líder) talked way past his time and Elder Dayes gave a really quick testimony. It was pretty funny actually. The branch president got up and handed a note to Julio so that he would wrap it up and I saw it afterwards. It said "Hermano, su tiempo ha terminado. Gracias". He laughed about it and overall, it was a good Sunday. I don´t know if I´ve mentioned this yet, but since the cuture is different here, we have a different time schedule. We still follow the missionary schedule, but shifted forward an hour. So we wake up at 7:30 and go to bed at 11:30 because people wake up later and are out later here. Anway, that´s all for this week. I´m excited for today because we´re going to go visit a castle for preparation day. Until next week. Love you all,

Elder Coleman

On the island

Dear Everyone,

I´m safe in Spain! Last Monday morning I flew out of Salt Lake at 11 in the morning and got to New York at about 5:30 their time. I then hopped on a plane to Barcelona at 7:30. The cross-ocean plane ride was nice, even though I didn´t get a wink of sleep. They had blankets and pillows and complimentary meals and snacks. So with the 8 hour flight and the time difference, I arrived at 9:30 am Tuesday morning Barcelona time. I got picked up (I was the only one at the airport, everyone else came in by train from Madrid), then I got taken to one of the church buildings in Barcelona. That´s where I met all the other new missionaries. They loaded us on a bus and took us to a castle called Montjuïc for a tour. After that, we went to the mission home and got a brief overview and temporary assignments for the night. I got assigned to be in Badalona (an area just outside of Barcelona) for the night while I waited for my real assignment the next day. The next day we had a meeting with the government to get residency then we had an orientation and introduction to the mission. Afterwards we got our assignments. I was assigned to go to Palma, a city on the island of Mallorca in the Balearic islands. It´s commonly known as Palma de Mallorca (Palma of Mallorca). So that´s where I am right now. My companion is Elder McMahon. He´s from Indiana and he´s been out about 16 months. He speaks really really well. I´m still working on that. Everything here is quad lingual, well everything important is. All the signs and important info is in Castellano, Catalán, English, and German. There are a lot of things different in Spain. For example, all the doorknobs are dead center in the middle of the door and have no purpose except to pull the door open. They don´t turn. Also, I heard things were going to be expensive here, but some things are so much cheaper than the States. Some things are expensive though. I´m going to McDonalds later today which is super expensive, but groceries and corner stores and buses and a lot of things are super cheap. Anyway, that´s all for now. Until next week.

The rain in Spain falls mainly on Mallorca!

So after a lot of waiting and flying I am now safe in Palma on the island of Mallorca. I flew to New York Monday at 11 am and got there at about 5:30 their time. I then got on a really nice plane to Barcelona at 7:30. I liked how they served a meal and 2 snacks for free. Also there was a ton of movies to choose from that I would have definitely watched if I hadn´t been on my mission. I stayed the first night in Badalona (a city right out of Barcelona). Then today was transfers and I was assigned to be in Palma. My area is called Poniente B, and my companion/trainer is Elder McMahon from Indiana. My piso is super nice. I´ll send pictures on preperation day. But trust me it´s nice. It´s super rainy here but time to go out and work anyways. Talk to you on Monday.

Love Elder Coleman

I'm in Spain!!

Dear families of our new missionaries,

     We are pleased to inform you that your son has safely arrived in the Spain Barcelona Mission.  Hermana Pace and I, along with the two assistants, met him at the train station.  The group of missionaries we received are wonderful young men and women, ready to go to work. Their enthusiasm reflects their love for the Savior and we are grateful for the privilege of guiding them along as they serve the Lord.

     Every area in the Spain Barcelona Mission is unique and beautiful, rich in history and tradition.  More importantly, each city is full of children of our Heavenly Father, waiting to hear the glad news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

               

     Thank you for the trust you have put in us to shepherd your son.  Please know that we feel a great responsibility to guide and protect “our” missionaries.  We love your sons and daughters as if they were our own.  With the Lord’s help, we intend to make their mission experience in Barcelona the most memorable time of their lives.

Sincerely,

President and Hermana Pace