Serving In Spain

Monday, February 9, 2015

Week 27 - Feb 9 - "Do or do not, there is no try" Yoda

In Telde! It´s a great time here. But we are actually passing through a serious cold spell - in the peninsula it´s snowing record-breaking style (what Utah needs) and the islands got the tail end of the storm. We can see our breath occassionally! The Canarios wander around with big giant winter coats and hats like those Bhutanese immigrants who used to come to church - They are FREEZING. It´s so funny it´s sad - I go around with my sweater and that´s it.

President´s coming to the islands for some interviews this Thursday, and then we heard he´s coming to our District Meeting as well. So we were super worried what sort of sinning we had been doing to merit the big guns... Until we called around and realized that he´s been doing interviews all over the mission (apparently a February custom). Thank heavens for cell phones in the mission. Also, we´re having a General Authority come to the islands for a Mission Tour this month to impart his knowledge and wisdom. Which is pretty cool. And then I realized that not every kid here had two General Authorities in his ward (and one of them was even my home teacher!), so then I realize that´s REALLY cool. We´re excited.

In other news, the pancake streak continues - When the companion only has enough money buy food for three days, then he needs pancakes the rest. Haha but it´s fun, and I´m starting to add fun things like yogurt and nuts or applesauce and chocolate and see what happens. I have a starving in-house guinea pig. Y lo aprovecharé.

In more serious news, Juan Soro, our main investigator, is talking about baptism - no fecha, but the members (whom he LOVES) are very supportive and helpful, unlike his menos activo brother. They keep making allusions to it in class, like "Juan, when you get baptized, you´ll be renewing your covenants in the Santa Cena as well." "Juan, let´s suppose you got baptized tomorrow - how would you bear your testimony? About the things that changed you - the book of mormon, Joseph Smith, etc." Not super important news, but it made me laugh.

We had a really cool experience working with the members. Presidente Castro, the old mission leader and new Quorum presidente, decided that we could aprovechar some old member information thingys (cédulas, in Spanish) that were in the cabinets - see if anyone got missed when this branch switched from paper to computer. Several names yielded nothing - death, moving, etc. But, we found a family that had slipped through the cracks! Up in the mountains, a nice little hike (because the bus that´s SUPPOSED to go up there doesn´t). They´ve got a little ways to go (word of wisdom, lack of desire to pay tithing..), but they´re interested in listening. It was awesome to see that yielded someone to teach, because we´re having some dificulties finding new investigators. Our town is full of people who are only here for the early mornings or late nights- otherwise they´re in the big cities working.

We also saw some fruit from our English classes! After about four weeks of consistent spiritual thoughts, a 21 year old named Florencio decided to come to church! And not only did he come, but he stayed for all three hours and participated. I expected a 21 year old would come for the first bit, sleep, and get out as quick as he could. We kinda tricked him into coming cause my companion was giving a talk. So that was really cool. He said he might come next week, and we´re going to try and teach him this coming week as well. His buddy Santiago didn´t come, but we´ve played soccer twice now with them, and I think they definitely have potential.

It´s so interesting and so simple at the same time - people who do stuff progress! There´s nothing that makes me happier than moments like Juan Soro running frantically to us saying "I was assigned to read Ether, but I can´t find it!! I found Moroni about Baptism and Alma about Faith, but where is Ether??" I think that´s our best way to advance in the gospel. Do stuff. Magnify callings. For us, open the boca in all times and with all people - even if they just came back from Mass. That´s my missionary thought - DO STUFF. It works miracles. In the words of Yoda (Charles this is for you) "Do or do not. There is no ´try.´"

I was going to share a funny story, but this casino keeps going "BINGOBINGOBINGO GANO GANO DINEROOOOOO!" And so I can´t think. Gospel´s true, I love it here. And I made it to Isaiah in the OT. MAN that guy is tough.

Love,

Elder Stew.

Monday, February 2, 2015

Week 26 - Feb 2 - Stewart vs. The Ostrich

January is completely gone. I don´t even know where it went. February literally is my last month in Telde. (Most likely) Transfers occur March 2nd, and my 6 month island paradise is coming to a close.

We had a great week. We had a noche de hogar in the rama, and it was amazing! I really really love these people. They´re all so different and so funny and so spiritual. Being with the members makes any problems not problems anymore. They make great food, bring a great spirit... I loaded up some videos from that event. They won´t make much sense, but I just wanted to try and preserve some of what I felt. These people are amazing. The game we played was called Saber y Ganar, based off an old Spanish game show. It was pretty darn funny, and kinda hard. We won, no thanks to me - the games required faster thinking in Spanish than I´ve got thus far. But it was awesome! Quote of the night: Carlos the Mission Leader/Elders Quorum president/primary teacher smacked a kid in the head. And the kid responded, "What´d I do to you?" And Carlos - "Nada, pero me gustó pegarte." There´s nothing really like ward activities. It was also nice to see a recent convert and a menos activo there - they´re both due for the preisthood come Stake Conference! How cool is that? And Ezequiel might be falling in love with one of the young women - which would be excellent cause it´d keep him going to church. But not so excellent cause she´s going to leave and go on a mission.

Today, we played fútbol for pday with some guys from English class. One of them had hair like Bridger - flowing everywhere. It was a little awkward when they started pulling off their shirts (we´re back to a balmy 72º) and we were still clothed thanks to the garments. But it all worked out and we didn´t have to explain anything that would´ve scared ém haha. These guys are interested in what we do because now we´re buddies - had we talked to them in the street, we would´ve gotten a couple laughs and they would´ve practiced their English cussing. This is definitely the way to work with the Jovenes. And, it´s fun to play soccer.

It was another week of walking, talking, preaching, and rejection. Telde seems to turn into a ghost town when we walk around, even on the busiest streets. I guess some people are sowers and some are reapers. We´ve got a lot that´s getting ready - lots of potential investigators, some progressing, some promising references and the members are excited to help - but no baptismal dates set. Which makes it a little rough sometimes, but it´s a lot of fun to just be here and work!

Love, Elder Stew

P.S. I don´t have ANYONE´s email address. So can you tell David and Catherine that I got their Christmas packages? They really meant a lot - and my companion is now sick of hearing christmas music after christmas. It was nice to have a switch from my Ipod haha.

Monday, January 26, 2015

Week 25, Jan 26 - Walking and Knocking

Hey hello! Telde is still Telde. Although, it´s gotten really really cold recently. The temperature, which is USUALLY a nice, balmy 72, suddenly dropped to a horrid and frigid 70. The island is in a crisis.

We had some really cool experiences this week. We have been doing a lot of door knocking and a lot of contacting. One guy slammed the door so fast he locked his dog out. But we had one really cool lesson. One of our investigators, Fran, has LOADS of questions about more iffy doctrine - things like the law of chastity and coffee. He said that we´re super strange and that coffee, "brightens the world and makes me feel good." (Sidenote - marijuana smokers I´ve met have used his exact words. Trust God, folks.) He said, "The world says it´s fine. So therefore it is." And then my companion bore a beautiful testimony about how he knew that Joseph Smith was a prophet - and that means this is true. And then I shared how "God´s ways are higher than ours" (Isiah 50-someting...) and I trusted in the Lord more than I trusted in the world. The lesson ended in Fran, for the first time I´ve seen, positively and completely accepting a commitment. He said that he would completely drop coffee to show God he was ready for an answer, but he wasn´t sure if he could make it to church. (typical.) AND THEN HE SHOWED UP. That was an answer to some very fervent prayers - now we just need to give him a date.

Last week, for P-day, we went to the mall. (Companion´s idea... It was so-so.) But I did find some cheap, not bad looking and durable ties. 1€ each. So naturally I bought 15. And this week, we went to play soccer in Las Palmas with all 10 missionaries on the island. Elder Bartholomew (Bart), who was with me in the CCM, is now in the islands! We had a lot of fun in the CCM, and now I get to see him again, so that´s pretty cool. We let some onlookers join in, including one guy who played while smoking. Good times. I played using my Torres jersey I got for christmas (Thanks Dad.)

We teach English classes, which are VERY fun. It´s a great way to introduce people to Mormons, cause members come, and they see we don´t have horns or tails. We teach a basic class, where we sing the alphabet song and I play the piano (Maren, Emma, Squid - continue with the piano. It´s a useful skill that now I have to teach myself in the mission. How do you even read the bass clef anyways.... Here, the ward pianists are a 15 year old girl, a 12 year old girl, and a 10 year old girl. Sound familiar?) In the intermediate class, we teach things like the English imperfect and pronunciatation. And in the advanced class, the students present opinions and defend themselves on topics like "Who would win in a fight - Pirates or Ninjas?" We have a very good time, and there´s two families who come who have (cross your fingers) some potential! No lessons yet, but

I´m not sure what else to say without being boring. We do a lot of finding because we haven´t gotten any references. So we wander streets and knock doors. And finally we found one person. (oh. also everyone is out of town.) A family, YES! And they said no, and we asked if they could at least visit this website and the wife responded like a wookiee, almost yelling "NO TENEMOS TIEMPO NI GANAS." (Insert appropriate Chewbacca noise.) I am very grateful for my excellent shoes and excellent socks, because I think we easily do 10 miles a day. IT´S AWESOME!

I think I´ll close by saying I love it here! I´ll bet, the way transfers work out, I´ve only got February and then I leave March 2nd, so I´m definitely trying to make the most of it.

Hasta luego!

Elder Stew.

Monday, January 19, 2015

Week 24, Jan 19 - Pondering the Old Testament

Well the news is in - I´m staying the entire winter in a place that doesn´t know winter. The Lord really does bless His missionaries. In fact, my whole district stayed. I don´t have a whole lot of time to write this week, because we´re working on the piso - we´ve got some IKEA furniture to build. The other stuff broke because missionaries are not nice to appartments - it´s a miracle that any landlord ever joined the church. I want everybody to know that I am healthy and happy here in Telde - and that life as a missionary is awesome.

I decided to start the Old Testament. I just finished Deuteronomy. And I´m really glad you taught Gospel Doctrine and that we talked about it sometimes because I see SO many cool things in that very confusing Mosaic law. I highlighted every time it said, "A male without blemish" for obvious reasons. And then you find verses like Joshua 7:10 that you can tell your companion to look up when he´s napping instead of doing something productive. And, I found this little nugget this morning. Read what Moses says to give courage to Joshua. (Last couple chapters of Deuterononmy). And then you read what Jehovah says to give courage to Joshua. (Joshua ch. 1) And then (this is where I applied it) realize that Jehovah´s words aren´t really His - they´re Moses´. (of course, they could be His that He gave to Moses, but that´s another thing.)

I see it as Jehovah quoting Moses. And He´s speaking peace to Joshua´s soul in a way that made for some cool verses. But even more than that - He´s speaking peace to Joshua´s soul in a way that, to Joshua, means A LOT. He´s speaking peace to Joshua in a way that only Joshua would recognize as significant. And really, that´s what He does for all of us. He talks to all of us in ways that other people might perceive as, "Oh, that´s pretty cool." But for us, it means the world.

Love,

Elder Stew