Week 19, Dec. 15 - Baptism and New Companion

So I got a new companion last Monday, after I wrote. Named Elder Norrell. He´s pretty darn cool. He´s not Elder Dyer, but we get work done. He´s been up north, in Madrid, and now down here in the islands (what the missionaries call a 3-mission mission. Because those three areas are all very, Very different.) He cooks, cleans, preaches, teaches, has the Spirit, and sleeps during MedioDia. It´s a goood time.

Saying Good-bye to Elder Dyer 

I´ve been  showing him the ropes, which is pretty fun. Things like, "Don´t talk to that guy, he´s nuts. And thisa Testigo. And the bus stops here. It goes there. Well. I guess is doesn´t go there. We´re lost now. I really should have paid attention last transfer." Not really like that, but we have been lost twice because, why not take the new guy to places you´ve never been? Yesterday we wandered around an unfamiliar beach pueblo, because people are ALWAYS on the beach on Sundays. (Seriously. Sunday is a holy day of rest - at the beach.) But we didn´t go out on the sand or close to it or anything bad like that. As soon as he gets to know the area, we´re going to do splits - the members are really excited because for them all the work necessary is showing up, and we´ll do all the planning. Working with the members is funny here, because there´s not very many. There´s ten people in Ward Council and 40 that come to church every week - the ward mission leader told me there were "Muchos jefes y pocos indios" when I asked him about ward Council.

We also had a baptism this last week  -  TWO. One of them was Ezikiel, and the other was an 8 year old. Baptisms are really, REALLY stressful because I want everything to go perfectly. But it´s very rewarding to see an inactive man watch his son get baptized, and then to watch a baptism of an 8 year old whose mother is only partly active. It makes the stress and the letdowns and the missed appointments and everything else that makes Missionaries get down worth it. I´ve been reading the "History of the Church" by Joseph Smith and there´s some pretty cool stuff in there. If I remember right, the editor and compiler of Joseph´s history makes the following comment regarding the scripture, "After much tribulation come the blessings." He says that means not that tribulations might come, but that they have to come. Also that blessings have to come as well. I thought that was super cool and can totally apply it to the mission. The stress and heartache from investigators can surely be listed as tribulations - but after a lot of those you see things like Mercedes and William and a growing church. I love it here.

(Pause for a second. I´m realizing how fun it is to read scriptures and Mission Stuff. Our church library has a few books in English that I´ve taken advantage of. Since the MTC I´ve read the BOM twice, the New Testament, Jesus the Christ, Our Heritage, Our Search for Happiness, A Marvelous work and a Wonder, Articles of Faith, The Miracle of Forgiveness (still on that one - Spanish) and three volumes of History of the Church.  We also just barely got the Liahona with all the Conference talks. Yessss. You realize how incredibly AWESOME Joseph Smith was when you read History of the Church.)

I seem to have contracted a cold or allergies or something. Runny nose, teary eyes, lost voice, etc. It´s a good thing oranges are in season because they are really, REALLY good for when I´ve felt like this - The Mercadona lady gave me a really wierd look when I bought 5 pounds of oranges for one person. But other than that, I feel great and I won´t let it impede me from working. That´d just be downright silly. 

While we´re on the subject, Skype calls next week - no letters. P-Day will be Christmas. I´ll be at the old mission home with all the other missionaries from the island from the morning until around 6:30 that night. Which corresponds to the early, EARLY morning at home until eleven thirty (7 hour difference to the Canaries).  I have no idea how to put on contacts, nor what sort of money it will cost. I´d like to do it earlier in the morning (Utah Time), at 8:00 or sometime around there. What we can do is assign Maren or Dad (seeing as they´re the IT of the house) to check out the account I created for the family under Mom´s email before I left (mom should have the password) and try and add me as a contact or something (if that´s necessary) and we can start the call then (at 8).  Maren can work her technology gismo wizardry from both ends. I´ll be on my email starting at 1:45 (7:45am Utah) and we can email for a second before it gets figured out. It won´t take very long. Our very technologically un-savvy Mission Leader asked us to set up a skype call for him with someone on another island, and it didn´t take longer than ten minutes. So I´m sure we´ll figure it out. If you guys want to change anything, email me and I´ll see it while Santa Clause is doing his thing over there (From about midnight Utah time onward I´ll be able to check my email.)

Well, that´s all folks. The Church is true. 

Elder Stew.