Week 31 - March 9, 2015 - Adjusting to Oviedo

Well, I´m here. And it is not as nearly as cold as a Utah winter, but MAN AM I COLD. I guess that´s the problem with coming from the islands. 

To start out, this place is beautiful. The city recently won some sort of "golden broom" for being Europe´s cleanest city - there aren´t even regular garbage cans. You have to wait until night, and then they come pick them up at 3am. When you get outside the city, the whole place looks like the Shire. And you can see from our window a statue of Cristo like in Rio on top of a small hill. Definitely a weird change from the southern utah looking rock that was Gran Canaria.

The New companion! Elder Emmett, from Misouri. He´s a good guy. Just got finished being trained. He´s a hard worker and walks faster than I do, partly because his tainer was about 7ft tall. He contacts with these words every time, "Hello. We are missionaries." which send many spaniards fleeing like a goat with her young from two young lions. (Alma 13) We started out our first morning with him giving warnings as to when the white bible said we needed to leave piso. 25m. 15m. 10m. 5m. No offense, but I´ve been doing this for a while now. I was ready at 11 on the dot. And he was five minutes late. Needless to say, he doesn´t yell out warnings any more. We are going to have so much fun! We´ve taken over some of the investigators from an old companionship, so there is so much work to do! I really feel blessed to have so much stuff ready to occurr right as I get here. In Telde, we had to find all the stuff to do. Now it kinda is just here, and we have to do it!

The new Branch! The Branch president is amazing! He´s got like 5 kids, all under the age of 10. Sacrament meeting reminds me of Utah. Babies run por todos lados making all sorts of noise. I still don´t know everyone´s name yet, but I´m getting there. The goal is to memorize everyone by next week. IT´s so fun to see all these people working hard and working united. They seem like such a strong unit, even if we don´t have a stake yet. 15 of the 53 who came to church are awesome YSA, so that helps. 

More info on investigators next week. Suffice for now that I am in the most beautiful area in the mission, in a first world country for the first time in six months (no need to buy water, and the shower is hot!), with an amazing ward and lots of great stuff to do! Elder Maxfield is doing great!

Elder Stew

YSA Activity Oviedo

District Meeting Oviedo

Week 31 - March 9, 2015 - Q&A with Eric and Stewat

ERIC:  Things I want to know when you email me at some point (when you can):  If you are the senior, what adjustments will you make to the direction of your companionship based on what you learned from the first few companions? What are the best three attributes of your first three companions? What are you doing to meet new prospective investigators? What are the two or three important differences you've noticed between Telde and Oviedo?  What scripture has given you the most comfort in the last few months? What American food do you miss at the moment? 

STEWART: 

Yep, I am the senior companion - the other guy just got done being trained. "Greeniebreaking" they call it.

Adjustments to make - I want to change the way this area does nightly planning - pretty much all missionaries I´ve seen (including me a veces) waste that time. I´ve noticed that doing it effectively changes things. But as a heads up, it´s going to be tough because my companion believes it´s his way or the highway - including if both the president and PMG disagree. I´m going to continue to wash dishes - that small service made me love my companions more when they were driving me nuts. I have actually washed both of our dishes every day, which might sound like a chore but is actually a huge blessing. I also want to improve my street contacting and door knocking.

Best things about the old companions - 

Elder Ganowsky (MTC) knew how to smile

Elder Dyer (trainer) knew how to work - with a smile.

Elder Norrell (Greeniebreaker) knew how to love everybody. Great friend.

Elder Emmett thus far only knows how to get on my nerves. But it´s so funny how that changes directly related to how much I wash his dirty dishes. He´s a pretty cool guy. We´re going to get along.

To meet new investigators - that´s another thing we need to fix here. It seems to be too much of  "if you build it, they will come" as oppossed to "get the heck out there and find them". We need to improve the street contacting effectiveness (Elder Emmett hasn´t contacted a soul in the last week) and the door knocking and the working with members. 

Three diferences from Telde... The ward is WAAY younger. There´s about 15 active YSA, 2 preparing for missions and 2 just got back. In Telde there were 0. There´s also a LOT more potential to work with the members, because of how united they are and that there´s about 20 more. Still a pretty small branch though. There´s also a companionship of Hermanas with whom we share the area - that will be very different. In Telde, we only saw other missionaries every Wednesday. Sometimes we even see the Hermanas in the street. They also just closed one of the elder companionships here - so between us and the hermanas we´re picking up half and half of an old companionship´s stuff. So there feels like a LOT more work to do. The city is much bigger as well, which is nice because there´s always people to contact. 

Scripture of comfort - Alma 7 11-17. And then follow up with 2 Nephi 2: 8. And then follow up with Alma 39:16.  And a talk called "Believing Christ and the Atonement." 

And I really, really miss peanut butter. 

Week 30, March 2 2015 - Transfer to Oviedo

Sorry Transfers were all yesterday. I flew out at 7:00 a.m., sat in a train station until a train left at 5, and then I went through (Trace me on the map) Valladolid, Palencia, Leon, and got off in OVIEDO! It´s way up north, another itty bitty branch, and my companion just got finished being trained. It´s gonna be a great time. Anywho, I was told to email so you all can know we´re alive. Mailing address is:

Elder Stewart Maxfield

Calle Fraternidad #34 6A

Oviedo, Asturias, 33013

SPAIN

Hasta Luego!

Love, Elder Maxfield

Returning Tuperware to the Senior couple, what could be happier

P-day fun in the sand and sun

Big breakfast with Zone

Week 29, Feb 29, 2015 - "Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand...." Alexander Graham Bell

But no one ever REALLY knows transfers - President Jackson sometimes changes them five minutes before they go out. But in my case, the patterns show that I´m probably leaving - no one´s ever stayed here for longer than six months. It´s fine, I won´t miss the sun, blue skies, 72º weather... Ok. I´ll definitely miss some things. Gofio. The members. Their funny Spanish. According to the missionaries, this mission is really a 3-in-1 deal, cause the three main areas are just so different from one another.  There´s the islands (1 zone). The North (2 zones). And Madrid (5 zones). If I ever make it to all three, I´ll be able to say if the stereotypes hold up. 

This week was great. We didn´t have a chance to play soccer today. Santi and Flo couldn´t make it, and everyone else kinda flaked out... So we got up early and went to see the sunrise in the south of the island! (Hermanas´ idea. Never would´ve thought of that). But it was all covered in sand dunes - partially created by the desert climate and partially by the fact that we´re so close to Africa the sand just blew over. It was super cool. Sorry, just realized you don´t know who Santiago and Florencio are. The call themselves Santi and Flo, and sometimes we fall into that habit when we play soccer. 

These newest investigators get a whole paragraph, because they´re also my favorite part of the week. Their names are Santiago and Florencio. And they are YSA! Telde has almost no YSA - I think I can count on one hand the number of menos activos and investigators who would fit this category. Which is sad, because the YSA are the future of the church - they are the missionaries, the friends to those who need them, the future leaders - and so Elder Norrell and I have been doing some focused work on these young men through the English classes we teach. First they were our friends  -They are now investigating! Reading the Book of Mormon, talking with us, and of course playing soccer on P-Day and coming to English class. They´re great kids, and up until now they just were potential investigators. They also were among the six nonmembers at church (record for our time together, and record for Elder Norrell´s mission.) It definitley feels good to get some fruit out of our English classes, into which we´ve put so much effort. These classes take up a lot more time now that we decided to care about them - and whaddya know, focusing brought forth blessings. Alexander Graham Bell once said"Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand.  The sun's rays do not burn until brought to a focus."  (I definitely did not steal that quote from Dad. But it applied so well to what we´ve been up to.)

We talked to Fran this week as well - and we finally figured out the cause of his stalling progression. His girlfriend is really pressuring him to . . . do stuff they shouldn´t, chastity speaking. Almost-threating-to-break-up pressure. And Fran basically said that, although he feels like the church is true, he couldn´t leave this girl if she was going to make him choose. How said is that? The thing that´s brought more blessings into more people´s lives for EVER, he will willingly miss out on for a girl. (Now would be a good time to insert an Adam and Eve joke, but we all know that Adam did that on purpose - he got blessings, progression, the chance for eternal life, AND the girl.) We´re going to talk to him today, so I don´t know what´s happened yet with this crazy lady - but the lesson we can learn from all this is to surround yourself with good friends. Good people. People who won´t make you make hard choices like this - people who make what for Fran is a hard choice turn into an easy choice. Emma, Maren, Charles, Squid - stick to friends who make life easier. Not harder.

Love, quite possibly for the last time from an island,

Elder Stew.

Sunrise in Telde

Week 28 - Feb 16, 2015 - Sacrifice brings blessings

Another week in Telde - And it was great! Cold spell gone - back to island paradise. The other day, we went up to the mountains with an investigator who wanted to introduce us to his friends. COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. There were sheep everywhere, orange trees that friendly neighbors let you pick, flowers, fresh air, craggly cliff faces - we city missionaries were certainly out of our element. But we got some free oranges for smoothies, so that was nice. It´s made with oranges, pineapples, kiwis, strawberries, gofio, and yogurt. Not only all natural ingredients, but all made on farms less than an hour away! NIce Vitamin C bomb to chase away any weird sickness. (I´m fine, by the way).

We played soccer again today, with some kids who are investigating the church. It´s the third week in a row, with promieses of becoming a regular thing, so my companion bought himself some brand new soccer shoes. (I didn´t because I think I´m headed back to the peninsula in 2 weeks.) But anyways his very new and very expensive shoes rewarded by breaking and with a MASSIVE blister over basically the whole front of his foot. He´s doing great though - better than I thought he would. He´s really lucky because this upcoming week has very few lessons already planned, which means plenty of contacting and walking on his raw skin to toughen it up!

Our investigators are doing great as well! It´s so cool to see eternal progression in someone else. When they keep the commandments, pray, read, you feel the spirit so strong that testimony just comes. People are saying things and doing things with us they would NOT have done 3 months ago. One of them, Fran couldn´t make it to church this week, because he was a bouncer at a party in Las Palmas. Caraval was last saturday. Thank heavens everyone left our town for the big city. All we saw was people in various shades of crazy getting onto buses headed far away. Carnaval was actually one of the quitest times all year - almost even more than New Year´s morning. But anyways Fran was a bouncer for this CRAZY party - he saw things nobody should ever see. His job included Sparta-kicking some borachos off the truck (where the party is) and leaving their passed-out bodies on benches or in the street. He told us that he hates carnaval and can understand why God´s commandments forbid most things done there. Fran recently dropped coffee, tea, alcohol, and girls for the sake of being in tune with the spirit - so this job was a sure bet he was NOT doing anything he shouldn´t. I love God. 

Oh also we are on the road to having a Rama Mission Leader! We didn´t have one after the calling change, but now I think we´re close. A menos activo named José Matias recently came back to church (not by anything we did - all the Spirit, because beforehand he was very anti-church, polygamy and stuff). He is on the road to recieve the Melchisidek priesthood this coming conference, about which he is VERY excited. The Branch President told José that he wanted him to start working with the missionaries so that, after conference, he could become Mission Leader. So I bought José a Preach my gospel, and we invited him to a discussion. Not only did he show up (early) but he came having studied the whole of The Plan of Salvation, including how to give commitments at the end! That was super cool. He kept asking "Now what´s my job again? And which scripture is the best for that?" 

In other news . . . Well there is not a whole lot of other news (also I´m running out of money on this computer) We´re doing great out here! The gospel is true. Jesus Christ is the redeemer. The Book of Mormon is the word of God. Bear your testimony without fear. Sacrifice brings blessings. Consecration and perfection - we´re getting there eventually. What´s important is to remember what Yoda said. These are some of my thoughts in my current conference talk kick. I love having a USB. 

Elder Stew

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.

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.