October 25, 2009

Well, all is normal in Spain. I still don't understand anyone, still see naked posters everywhere, and futbol is still a way of life. That is what I'm going to focus on in my "About Spain" section of this letter.

There is no way to explain the obsession these people here have with this game (I must say, I'm starting to develop an interest in). Here are some examples:
1. There should be a rule here about futbol similar to the politics rule. I don't think that a missionary should be able to talk about their favorite team, I could see losing investigators that way.
2.There is a bar below our piso. The first couple days I never saw it open. I thought it had gone under like everything else in Spain, even though it still looked really nice and fancy inside. Turns out it is only open when Barc, Real Madrid, or Spain futbol games are on and when they are this place is packed. We can tell the score of the game just by when they heer or boo. 
3. And, probably my favorite example: My comp went into a shop to buy a Spain flag. In the window there was a BFC (Barcelona Futbol Club) flag, he asked the price on both. the Spain=€2.50, the BFC=€16.

So this week was a very successful week. We got about 5 new investigators and set 2 more baptismal dates. I'm a little skeptical on all three dates, but I think all three will get baptized eventually. Zone Conference was awesome. Pres Hinckley is amazing. I love when he is talking and he tells a story about "President Hinckley" never dad... kinda funny but I think it's a sign of respect.

I really like my companion. He is a little lazy, but I think we balance each other out. The truth is one of the most important things is to be happy in your companionship, I think outside of teaching by the spirit that leads to the most success.
Well, love y'all lots!

- Elder Roos

Pictures!

We are still waiting for pictures from Elder Roos's camera, but we discovered that his Mission President (the man responsible for all the missionaries in the Barcelona Mission) keeps a blog with pictures.
Enjoy!

At the airport with President and Hna. Hinckley, one of President Hinckley's Assistants, and the other three other elders who are new to the mission.

On the way to the mission home, they stopped at a castle overlooking Barcelona.

Elder Roos with President and Hermana Hinckley and his trainer (first companion), Elder Harris. That "deer in the headlights" look is normal for the first day in the mission.

The Missionaries of the Valencia Zone-
All the missionaries serving in/around the city of Valencia.

October 19, 2009

Well, one week down. Sad to say this week was not as ¨exciting¨ as my first week. Lets see. Did an exchange with the zone leaders and went down to Valencia for a day. That was kinda exciting, some kids tried to give us some pot, that would have made trying to speak Spanish more interesting.

Well, i think the man who the J.W.s tried to bribe has come back to the light. We set a baptismal date with him for the 7th of November so we will see how that goes. Keep him in your prayers. We have about 5 or 6 investigators but none are really moving that fast so we are trying to pick up the paste.

So the other day I was walking around with my companion and just bugging/ motivating him. He looks at me and goes, "You aren't gonna let me die are you?" I just laugh and said, "Nope, that isn't as fun as bugging you every day."

Another funny story. So one morning me and him were making fun of each other and we start wresting and i get him on the ground and just start poking him and nagging him. When he got up he looked at me and said ¨You suck at trying to be like Jesus.¨ That was made quote of the week.

Some stuff I learned:
You gotta be careful when complimenting someones tie because they will try to take it off and give it to you. I finally had to tell him I had one really similar but thanks.

Also, the less money someone has the more they want to feed you. There is the sweetest lady who got baptized a month before I got here and she has no job and rents a room out of someone's piso, but she is always feeding us. I feel bad but she cooks so well

Well things are good here, my Spanish is still barely recognizable but it will get better. love you

well love y'all
Elder Roos

Stephen's Address

This will be his address for at least the next six weeks:

C/ casal duch 16, 1B
Castellón 12005
España

A more permanent address:
C/ Calatrava 10-12, bajos
Barcelona, Catalunya 08017
Spain

He's Finally in the Field!

So Im sure you all have lots of questions so I'll try to anwser them and let you know about the crazy first week I've had.

First off im in a pueblo (town) about a hour outside of Valencia called Castellón. It's a decient size. We have a decient size Ward, I would guess we had about 50 people at church Sunday. Our area is really big but we just stay in our little pueblo unless we get a referral from another town. It a trek of about a 30 min train ride in both directions.  Something funny is that every little pueblo has there own futbol team. Its kinda like college football how there are diffrent size leagues. Our team is a mid size I think.

My companion is Elder Harris. He is from Soda Springs Idaho and has been on his mission for 22 months. So both good and bad comes from that. The good is he knows a lot and he speaks well. Also there isn't really that much stuff he hasn't ran into. The bad is he is ready to go home. But I'll work on the work ethic of his, it's a little harder since im so green and the jr comp but none the less, i really like him and he is a good guy but not always the most motivated. I told him that one day this week im gonna play sr comp and he just get to be my translator.

Spainish is comming along. I have no choice but to pick it up quick. I can already see a huge improvement in this week. A lady new convert in the ward told me that if I keep working like I do and keep improving that I could be able to understand and communicate in a month, so thats our goal.

As far as missionary work I'm loving the area I'm in. First off the Barcelona mission is the highest baptizing mission in Europe. We did have two people with baptisim dates but another church( who will remain nameless cause I'm not suppose to talk bad about Jehova Witnesses and there corruption) has been bribing them by offering to pay their bills and help their finacial problems and these two are kinda lazy, but we did have a really powerful plan of salvation lesson with them yesterday so we will see. But we have a good amount of work, we taught just shy of 20 lesson last week and we started on Wednesday.

So now the things I've already done and learned. First off the most effective way to advertize in spain is with naked people, not sure how advertizing clothes with people not wearing clothes works but non the less...
2.Jehova Witnesses are tricky, we were walking around one evening and here two little sweet looking ladies stop us and were like "teach us teach us", I being fresh had no idea what was happening, and my companion didnt have enough time to warn me before i said "oh of course....".  45 min later we left and i told my companion that I didnt know that Satan wore a skirt and quoted the bible....
2.5- Spain has atleast a holiday a week and this week it landed on our pday so it took us a while to find a computer lab that was open
3.pull-ups... not always the best idea. so Saturday night i was doing pullups on a bar we have between a door frame, about 5 pull-ups into it the bar falls and my shin goes right on the middle of the frame. It hurt so bad i thought i broke it so my comp comes over, goes to get ice and we dont have any, so we call the ward mission leader and he brings some over. and then he points out that i had managed to bend the frame ( as proud and took a picture of it for you) well you will be glad to know that i didnt break it but just bruised the bone, so its all good
4. and the winner for weird stuff so far. Our church is really loud and at one point a baby the row across from us wouldn't stop crying, so finally the mom lifts her shirt up and puts the kid right into possion, I look over to Elder Harris and he just nods his head and says welcome to spain.

But I really do love it, it is awesome. We have some really cool people.
Well, I love ya'll and hope you enjoy my long letter.

love,
Elder Roos

October 1, 2009

*Editor's Note - Stephen was in transit last week, so we didn't get a letter but we should get one from Barcelona this week.
Well hello from Madrid. things are going really well here. Next Tuesday is really sneaking up on my, its all right I'm kinda excited to stop all this classroom stuff and do some real work. So for my birthday I got woken up by for of the other missionaries.It made me smile, after i got over being woken up. They gave me a Book of Mormon with all their testimonies in it. I was pretty cool. I cant believe how many people from the ward as sent me birthday cards. I'm am gonna respond to them and send you a letter with them so you can give them to them, is that alright... even if it isn't,it wont matter cause i wont get the answer until next week. Things are awesome here. The Palace was awesome, ill send you pictures. The park was awesome this week. We gave away a couple of BofMs and even got a reference from a person. I can testify and say I agree with what my companion told you so I think i did my part  :) 

Well I love y'all. Thanks for remembering me on my birthday.
-Elder Roos