Letters from Madrid

Elder Roos finally got transferred to Madrid. He will be there until about the October 5th before heading to Barcelona. If you would like to write him, he said letters are only taking about 4 or 5 days to get there and his birthday is September 30th.

CCM Elder Roos
Calle del Templo, 2, 4planta
28030 Madrid
Spain

September 16, 2009

Well I'm here and lets just say I'm very sad i only get to spend 3 weeks here. first off we are in the same complex as the temple and all the church stuff is right here. So this is the funny part, the Provo Mtc is 2300 missionaries, this is 20, 19 of which came today to if i had been here on time it would had been me and the hermana in my district only at the mtc for a couple days. yeah so my class me myself and hermana. Also our pdays we can go out to Madrid and shop and go see the palace and all the stuff around here. Also instead of teaching members acting as investigators, on Saturdays we get to go to Madrid´s version of central park and contact people. Like i said this place is awesome. O and I tried to talk to the Spaniard sitting next to me on the plane and I'm want my last 2 months money back cause I don't know what they were teaching me but it was not Spanish. I didn't know it was humanly possible to talk that fast. O well its just as easy to tell them that you have a "don" (gift) for them and hand them a pass along card. makes it easier on both parties.
Sorry if my spelling is worse than normal but I still  haven't slept yet so my brain is a little bit on the warped mode right now.
Love all of you and hope all is well.
-Elder Roos                                  

September 24, 2009

So I have several things to say. First off I want y'all to do some research for me and see if I have broken a record. Yesterday A new elder got here and was made my companion, that means in the 7 weeks iv been on my mission I have had 6 different companions. 3 in Provo and now 3 here. If i keep up at this pace, i will have just shy of 100 comp for my mission.
#2 I have been trying to think of something that the Provo MTC has over this one and I'm not quite sure. This place is amazing. O and i was made district leader, which is a good thing since there is only 2 in my district and the other is a sister. I will send you a picture of my view every night, I'm not sure if it can be beat.
The park was awesome, but very humbling. First off I can understand a good amount but even when I say the correct words in Spanish they have no idea what I'm saying cause I sound like such a gringo.Talked to several people but not too much luck but its OK. The park itself is huge and beautiful. I send pictures of that too. The other missionaries here are awesome. I love the Spaniards and they are really making a difference in my language.
I love it in Spain. The temple is amazing and the is nothing in America like this city. Think of it this way, a old building in America is 200 yrs old, here, that would still be considered a teenager.

A Little Behind

We got word tonight that Stevie got his visa. He will leave next Tuesday. I'm sorry I have been a slacker lately, here are the last few letters.
September 10, 2009
So another wonderful morning from Provo. I keep checking in the travel office and the same lady keeps telling me know word, but she doesnt even check my name or look anything up.... so we will see.
So cool story. My companion talked to a lady in the Referral Center over the phone a couple days ago and set up another appointment to teach her. So yesterday when he was supposed to teach her he got called down to meet with someone so I took it for him. The lady's name is Nicole and she loves the church and feels something so strong in it, we had her call the missionaries in her area and now she is getting baptized on Oct 24. How cool is that?
Besides that all is well here.
September 8, 2009
Man I wish i was at home so i could go paint Blake Kennedy's driveway blue. I know Im a fair weather fan of BYU but seriously beating OK in a brand new statuim..... thats mention worthy. We were doing a survice activity on saterday night and one of the Janitors phone beeped and he just started to scream. LOL yeah that was funny to see. Do I even wanna know how my UTes did?
Ok now to the stuff im am suppose to betalking about. This week has probably been the toughest yet just because we are finishing up all the grammar and now just hitting Spanish hard. I think yesterday I said only about 40 words in englesh... and you know how much I talk.
Thought of the day... This week I have two. First is to do with the atonement. Jesus took 99% of the pain of our sins while in the garden and on the cross, If we dont do our 1% by smiply repenting and coming unto him, his 99% is in vain. I no i dont want that weight on me.
Point number two. So I made my first long term mission goal this week. It is going to sound out of reach but thats why i wrote it down to constantly motovate myself. In one month while im on my mission, Im going to bring 10 people unto christ through baptism. Knowing that spain you usually get 2 or 3 throughout you entire mission, that seemed crazy to go through my head, but then I thought about alma and ammon. They went to the land of there enemy and baptized thousends, so how hard can 10 in a month be. Anything is possable in the hands on the lord. If i dont get this goal, its only becaus ei didnt have the faith that the lord would lead my to those people.
September 3, 2009
Good morning,
Its another beautiful day in Provo..... NOt too much to talk about today. Lets see I talked online to a man for 2 hrs last night and he kept getting real close to somthing good then would take 2 steps back... o well. Outside of that all is well. I saw Matt Winteron the other day. I guess she is teaching here.
O and ull like this, The new district in my zone has a female teacher from Alpharette Ga. She went to the Ny Ny mission. Any guesses... yeah im sure she was thrilled to see me. HAHA
O so my funny story even gets to translate (My way of forcing him to atleast read the email)
So I was teaching the first lesson in spainish and i got to the atonment
"Jesucristo muerté en el cruz por nuestros pescados" Well at that point the missionary I was teaching started cracking up... and i havent lived it down yet.
September 1, 2009
Hello,
Still in good old Provo Utah.... i mean why would anynone wanna leave the good old utah valley for Spain..... I mean y see some of the worlds oldest buildings when i can have a wonderfull view of utah lake and all the utah buildings that look the same.
Things are good here. I like my two new companions but its just a lil difficult to get put in to a companionship when thy have already had several weeks to get theere own thing down. Its fine a Tricycle can be as fun as a bike right?
So spiritual tought of the email. Somthing that really hit me this week. Sins we dont concider sins (this more applys to missionaries but i think it can be applied in all lifes)
1)Frustration- Yuo dont usually think of this as a sin but if I really find this as satans most powerful tool in all his arson, cause he can hit everyone with it and they dont even know it is of him. When I get frustrated, every second i spend i that state is a second that i am ont doing him work and not letting the holy ghost use me a tool for the lords work
2)Self Pitty- Nothing good come of this,expecally for me... the next two years are not about me... one bit. Thats why they limit contact with outside world, its not to take away destractions, its cause right now im not stephen roos, Im elder roos> Stephen works fro the navy and is a flirt. Elder Roos is a servant of god and that is the only thing he does.
3) Contention- Contention is of the devil. If you cant love the fellow man, God's own children, then you have no business teaching them. It drives out the spirit and nothing good comes of it. It is you telling the lord that your own personally priorities are more important than his.

Letter #2 - What Happened to Our Stephen?

So I can tell you how glad i am that I didn't go to Spain on Tuesday. every Tuesday night we have a devotional. And this one we got to hear Elder Richard G. Scott come speak. That is a unbelievably strong man. When he walked in the auditorium, the entire spirit of the place changed, how close to God do you have to be to be able to do something like that? He spoke about recognizing the promptings of the spirit, mostly for protection. It was amazing. In no way would have i traded that to be in Spain right now. He also touched on the subject of prayer and if done with enough faith, how powerful it can be.
Yesterday we had a teacher talk to us about the missionaries we like in the Book of Mormon. After we went through all of that he told us, "Okay, what powers did those missionaries have that we today don't?" And he is right, I am granted with the same powers that Alma, Ammon, Dan Jones, and all those other great man who baptized thousands had. The only difference is do I have the faith that god allow me perform the same works they did.
Besides that no word on the Visa. I know it will come when it is suppose to, but I really am hoping that it is suppose to soon. I mean Spain or Provo, i no its close but i think Spain in the winner. Beside that nothing to report. The Spanish is coming, slow but it is coming.
Love
Elder Stephen Roos
I love you,
*Editor's Note: Pictures to be posted soon, he just sent home a camera card.

Two Letters This Week : Letter #1

So guess what, I'm not on my way to Spain. I bet you didn't see that one coming. O well its fine. I mean I cant think of why i would even wanna leave. I mean this is Provo, UT. one of the 7 wonders of the world right. Well my companion and my 2 roommates left early this morning. Now I'm in a threesome companionship with two of the guys in the district. They are cool so it should work out, I would just much rather be outta here. You know how i am about that stuff.
   Besides that everything is still the same every day. Lets see, i wake up, go to class, eat, a little bit of gym, the press the restart button for the next day. I'm just ready for a different same old same old.
   Well i love all of you hand home all is well.

Second Letter

Hello, two weeks done here. things are going really well. Me and my comp are about the only ones who still dont wanna kill each other. thats probably because we are too busy laughing at everyone else. Spanish is going well. I go to bed feeling like my head is going to explode and i haven't learned anything but then i look back and i'm like wow i've only been doing this for 2 weeks. yesterday we taught the first lesson in spanish, it was only like 7 min though and mostly memorized. Besides that everything is awesome. so it doesn't look like i'm going to be leaving on the 25 because my visa still hasnt come though. that's what i get for sending it in late. but we will see.

Note from Stephen's Family - Please give us your address and email address so Stephen has it.

Pictures

Here are a few pictures of Stevie going into the Missionary Training Center (MTC).

With Mom and Dad before leaving Aunt Penny's house.
Saying goodbye to Grandma.
On the way to Provo they stopped to have lunch with a good friend, Jeff Sites.
The classic MTC Picture.
Dad trying not to cry.
New missionaries are met by other missionaries who are at the MTC who serve as their guide. It worked out that a good friend from home, Robbie Reid, was able to be Stevie's guide.

The Letter

well made it through the first week, all is well here. Went to the temple today and went and saw it on sunday. I love my comp. We get along very well but both of us like to get stuff done. NOthing really to repport, I wake up at 630, got to class, go to breafast, go to class, go to lunch go to class, dinner, class then plan for tomorrow (which will be class) then go to bed and start over. Besides that thats about it, o we do get 35 min of gym. The laungage is going well. Its alot easier to learn it when its what i want to do and i dont hate the teacher.