A Kerfuffle? Altercation? ... and a happy result.

alright im writing sloppy because i have a pretty crazy story. so last monday. literally right after i emailed. we were waiting for the bus because we were going to go to jerez to go shopping. it was me, elder nunez, and elder hall. we were just standing there at the bus stop, and i look over at elder hall and some huge buff short crazy looking guy with long dark ponytail is up in elder halls face and they are just staring at each other. at first i thought he was an investigator of member or something, but then he starts yelling at elder hall, right in his face. so i realized that this guy isnt friendly, so i walk up and stick my hand out and say hola, and he gets up in my face starts yelling like a crazy guy (obvi on drugs) and claps his hands super hard right in my face which freaked me out. then he shoves me really hard, and comes up to be again and i shove him away from me, and then some woman runs in and breaks us apart and yells at me WHAT ARE YOU DOING??? and i say NOTHING! and shes shoving him away, and then he shoves her really hard, so i run in to break them apart, and he shoves me again and is trying to grab me. then i realize that they are like boyfriend and girlfriend or something. and she shoves him down the sidewalk as he keeps trying to get back at us. it was crazy, we had no idea what happened. so the bus came, and i got on to pay, elder nunez was on the bus waiting behind me, and elder hall was still outside the door of the bus waiting to get on. after i pay i look down the bus to see where to sit, and i see the same huge guy just sprinting down the sidewalk back at us. and i turn back to elder hall and yell GET ON THE BUS, and i grab him and pull him on. the guy would have just leveled him if he had still been outside. so the guy jumps on the bus and is yelling and screaming at us, and then he just shoves me really hard again into the side of the bus. im putting my hands up and shoving him off me, and the girl comes back and pulls him back down the sidewalk. it all happened right next to the driver and i looked at him and he was just acting like nothing happened. it was really weird. 

so then we´re sitting on the bus talking and some guy sits down behind us and asks what happened? so elder nunez explains and we all say yeah the guy was on drugs or something. and then we started talking about how we´re missionaries and blah blah balh and we teach english class and he was interested in that. then elder nunez sits next to him and starts talking about the book of mormon. the guy and his wife were really interested and asking amazing questions. then nunez said that the book was a gift for him and he started crying! because he was so happy! and his wife was really happy too. we took their info and were freaking out after they got off the bus. but then me and elder nunez realized that they live in the other area. so we cant teach them...it was a miracle though. that that guy was messing with us, and it opened up a conversation with golden investigators. 

the next day we did splits and so i was in the other area, and we visited that couple. they are amazing and so nice. before the lesson even started they told us that this was our house and we can come by whenever we wanted. he started crying again during the lesson and she said the closing prayer. they are amazing and would be perfect members. its a shame we cant teach them more but hopefully theyll be baptized soon and come to church and stuff... 

Tri-Zone Conference from the very SW part of Spain. Calvin is third from back left.

thursday night i stayed in puerto santa maria and did splits with an elder there. its a cool little town. friday we had a zone conference in sevilla with the president so that was cool. the chapel in sevilla is really really nice. i think its the nicest in all of spain. the conference was fun. not many of my friends from the mission are serving in this part of spain right now but i still got to see a few people.

thats allllll!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

love ya!

Surf's Up! 6 months Out - 25% (September 23, 2013)

yeah the six months flew by. like i told domineau, i feel like i really havent started my mission yet. and i´m sure the next 18 months will go by even faster. thats good about christian. i´d like to email him. if you can send me his email i´ll try and send him an email next week before he leaves.

my american comp is leaving tomorrow - he'll be working in the mission home. [...]

we went and ate at the american families house this past week. they live out of the city in kind of a

Hard to believe they have surf this big in his area in Spain but... (not C's pic)

resort-long term vacation area. its in santi petri, which is sooo nice. right on the beach, and has golfing, super nice hotels and everything. there house is literally right on the beach. there backyard is the beach. we ate fajitas which were really good. the family is really nice. they lived in italy for a little while before spain, and they really dont seem to want to move back to the U.S. the wife seems to really not like the u.s. she mentioned that she thought us declaring independence from the UK was a bad move...ok...but theyre nice. robert is like a total surfer guy. he says he goes surfing at least a couple times a week.

our pregnant woman investigator says she wants to get baptized, were gonna wait until after the baby, which should come this week. shes been really moody lately. anything we say to her she finds a way to make it negative. but friday night there was a musical put on by the stake, and it was about the french-spanish war, so nothing about the church. it was a big event in san fernando, and a ton of non members and members were there at nice theater down town. it got a ton of publicity. our pregnant investigator wanted to go so we were able to go to. she got all dressed up to go (which was annoying because we missed two buses waiting for her to get ready), and she was like super pretty before she was pregnant. and she told us that all her life shes been the hottest girl around, and shes depressed about it now. but she got all made up and looked really good. it was a fun night. my comp took some pics ( i forgot my camera) i´ll try and get them. 

saturday and sunday was stake conference. we had a stake priesthood meeting which was really good. the stake president is such a beast. so spiritual. he talked about setting goals and stuff, and then also, (it seemed kind of random) he basically begged everyone who was having problems with pornography to stop and repent. it was a little out of place at first but you could tell that it was so guided by the spirit, and it was so powerful. they also talked about finding the less active members in our stake and working with them. a lot about missionary work too. i hope youre ready, because i guarantee at conference in a couple weeks the GA´s are going to beat you all to death about helping the missionaries more...

the ward and city are good. i took a few pics of the city. most of that area is the other elders though. we have a lot of ugly roads and farms.

thats about it. i think things will be more effective now that we´re only going to have the two of us.

love you and hope things are going well!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Biggest Cockroach I've Ever Seen (September 16, 2013)

Calvin is now in the beautiful city of Chiclana! (new address posted on the right column)

i guess we can go anywhere in the mission on pday. but pday starts at 11 and ends at 6;30 so we dont have much time. We´ve just been hanging around here the past couple weeks. cadiz is 40 minutes away. san fernando which is a big city is like 20-25 minutes away. but we have 5 elders here so its fine to just hang around. the area is split so there are two other elders on the other side of town. one is elder hall. im not sure if he has a blog, but hes from my group and is from salt lake. he´s really cool. he looks a lot like tyler balkman. there are 2 sisters in my district,both natives.

no we won't move to a bigger place. the mission doesnt want to buy any more pisos right now. in a few months i'm sure this area will move back to only two elders. im hoping after this transfer but we´ll see.

[...] but my other comp...I LOVE HIM. we get along really well and he's really funny. i really dont understand why he had such a bad rep. i wish he trusted me more to talk in lessons but he's realizing that i can contribute more than our other companion.

the ward is really awesome. theres an american family that's in the ward. the guy works for the u.s.  military here in cadiz so they moved the whole family here. I´m not sure where hes from but his wife is from eugene. They are a totally normal young american couple with a couple young kids. i think they are about 35ish. his name is robert guttenburg. we´re going to eat at their house tomorrow at 6. a normal, american time to eat a meal!!

ok so we have an investigator who wants to get baptized, but she lives with her boyfriend, and shes going to have a baby any day now. shes like 40 and hes like 26 (bad decision on her part). so they arent going to get married or anything, and she knows that he has another girlfriend on the side. hes not interested in the gospel or anything, but shes really nice and is always making us dinner. we went over to her house a few days ago, and she told us that the night before, she asked her boyfriend to set up the crib for the baby. he was doing it wrong, and she was telling him that, and they started getting in a fight, and he broke the crib (punched it so the wood shattered). she got super mad and called his other girlfriend, saying that SHE was his girlfriend and was pregnant. so the other girl came over the apartment and they all had a fight, and the guy took all his stuff and moved out. so she was almost crying when she told us this, so we bought some glue and fixed the crib, and got a member woman to come over and hang out with her. She´s having a baby any day and the guy just left. what a shame. but now she can get baptized!!!! but the guy owns the apartment, and im sure he´ll want to see his child, so it´s a sticky situation. we´ll see how it goes.

ok so we have another investigator. she´s a bit crazy but is soooo spiritual. we took her to the chapel and gave her a tour. there were a bunch of youth and pèople there for an activity so it was perfect for her to meet them. we waited until the end to show her the baptismal font, but when we were talking about it, we looked inside and in the corner of the font was THE BIGGEST COACKROACH I´VE EVER SEEN. just hanging out in the corner. she didnt say anything about it but we were freaking out and just said ¨o yeah and we´re gonna clean the font really well before the baptism¨. it was really funny. she has a date to get baptized for the 28th of september, but we found out that shes not married. she said she was, but in spain you can become a legal couple, but thats different from being legally married. and she isnt legally married. but we told her that and she said ok monday i´m gonna try and see how to get legally married. shes awesome. she talks a lot and seems a little crazy at times but shes really nice. she has a 19 year old daughter whos pregnant and she was there when we were talking about the law of chastity and the mom kept looking at her saying ¨ISN'T THIS WHAT I WAS TELLING YOU LAST NIGHT¨ HOW COULD THEY HAVE KNOWN WE WERE TALKING ABOUT THIS?? THEY ARE INSPIRED OF GOD. it was pretty awkward. but she asked for a blessing of comfort for her and her daughter. so i gave her daughter a blessing which was pretty cool. 

i think thats about it. we had ward council which was really good. everyone wants to help. there are a ton of inactive people. 134 woman on the relief society role but only 30 are attending...

love ya love ya adios

Heading South - Off to Cadiz (September 9, 2013)

I bet we will go to gibraltar at some point. it´s not too far away. i really like it here. the ward is amazing. they usually have about 130 people at church every week!!! there are tons of young married couples and kids of all ages. it really seems like a normal american ward. one of the teachers from the mtc in spain lives in this ward so it was cool to see him again. he´s young and just got back from his mission like a year ago so he wants to come out and help us. 

our piso is sooooo small. i have some pics but this computer is really slow so i dont know if theyll have time to upload. but its wayyyy smaller than my last piso. only one bathroom for three people, one table to study for three people. but we´re making it work. i think we´ll be a trio at least through this transfer. there are a lot of trios right now because there arent enough areas open to put missionaries. in a few months the trios will fall away. the water is like 15 minutes away. but there are like little parts where the water has seeped into the countryside. theres a lot of fields here. its different from crevillente but also the city part is bigger and cooler than crevillente. there are 5 elders in the city. 2 have the city part of chiclana, and us 3 have more of the field countryside area. which means a ton of walking. the foods the same i guess. i havent noticed much of a difference.

so the companion that everyone said is pretty horrible is good right now. the members and investigators love him. he can be a little irreverent at times, but he does pretty much all the work because...the other companion is like the shyest kid ive ever met. and pretty weird to be honest.hes really obedient though which is nice. but he takes cold showers because he thinks it will help him get a 6 pack. he does want to be like a super good missionary and studies a ton but hes just super super shy. the two of them are complete opposites and i think thats why i am here.

one thing ive noticed is that in this part of spain buildings seem a lot more authentic. in the east its just a bunch of tall pisos that are all the same. but here the pisos and buildings are shorter, but they are much more authentic spanish style. i like it.

i met an investigator named susel. she has a lot of friends in the ward and wants to get baptized. the problem is that she is about to have a baby, and she´s living with her boyfriend so she cant get baptized. shes really nice though. we went to eat at her house for an early dinner at 6, but things kept going wrong with the food so we didnt start eating until 10!!!!!!!! super late and a pretty big waste of time. but the food was really good. the family situations here are so ridiculous. people will date and live together for like 6 years, have a kid, maybe 2. and then separate and move far away from each other. its really sad for the children. like this investigator said that she and her boyfriend arent going to get married, and shes prob gonna move away to barcelona soon after she has her kid. sad...

last night we were in the chapel because elder nunez had to call people for their weekly numbers (hes district leader) and so i was reading the teachings of the prophets book for President Mckay and i read something i liked a lot. it said "the true  purpose of this life is the perfection of humanity through individual effort, under the guidance of God´s inspiration". i think that´s so true. this world can be a terrible place, and the best way to change it is individually. we can´t change other people but we can be an example to them through bettering ourselves. there´s my spiritual thought for ya.

 

love ya!!!

Just Two More Weeks In Crevillente (August 19, 2013)

this week felt really long...the longest of my mission. but its ok. only two more weeks left in crevillente!!!!

so theres this woman in our ward, and i only ever saw her during sacrament, and she'd leave right after so i assumed she was less active or something. we had never talked. and so tuesday we went by her apartment, and she let us in. it turns out she's in the stake primary presidency and so shes always visiting other wards. shes the mother of another active member. and she speaks english and french and works as a translator for church videos. it made me realize how lost i can be with the relationships and people of this branch. hopefully my next area will be better. 

wednesday we went to go see a member, he wasnt there but his daughter who is excommunicated was there. we'd talked with her a little before and she had said she didnt believe the church was true. but we had a lesson with her and it was super spiritual and she said at the end that she knew the church was true. she cant get baptized again anytime soon but hopefully we can continue to help her.

we had special training with the president in alicante thursday. and thursday was a big holiday so the bus schedules were weird and we had to wake up at 5 in the morning to take the bus from elche to alicante. as all of us missionaries were walking towards the bus station we saw a ton of youth walking the opposite way, and at first we thought that they had all gotten up early to travel somewhere for the holiday, but it turns out that there was a huuuuuuge concert party thing in some big plaza, and it was still going on. at five in the morning... it was crazy. there were tons of youth there, and they all looked like zombies and staring at us. 

that was really it...this week we're trying to find 555 new investigators as a mission, and to have 100 baptisms in september. itll be hard but i think we can find 7 here.

p-day im gonna go buy a man purse i think. september 1 we have to lose our backpacks. so we're gonna go to elche where they have a store kind of like nordstrom.

im feeling good. my back has been hurting, which hurts my knee and ankle. ive been thinking of going to a chirpopractor, but i dunno.

no i havent had to use my inhaler. my sinus' are better but still not perfect.

yeah time is flying, cant believe 5 months already...

love yya tons 

We Set A New Record! (September 2, 2013)

Calvin enjoying "Main St Soda's" big competitor - "Freeway Cola"...and Ketchup

(Mom here - This was the week I forgot to write - he was not happy!! Can't say I blame him!)

I don´t have a ton to share. This week was really long. My comp is getting lazier and lazier every day. i read a scripture that made me think of him. moroni 9 verse 4   [Behold, I am laboring with them continually; and when I speak the word of God with ^asharpness they tremble and anger against me; and when I use no sharpness they ^bharden their hearts against it; wherefore, I fear lest the Spirit of the Lord hath eased ^cstriving with them.] 

We made our goal and found 8 new investigators this week. 

I had to give an impromptu talk in sacrament meeting yesterday. it turned out good though. i used a scripture i had memorized. i think its alma 13´26. about how angels are preparing the hearts of men to hear the gospel. sorry i dont really have any guidance for what to write about...nissa went to the temple this past weekend which was good, but then she lied to us and said her mom didnt have gasoline to take her to church yesterday. o well. blehhhhhhhh one more week. maddie still hasnt heard from provo yet_ i dont have an exclamation mark on this computer

 

love ya wish i had more to say this week but youre busy with dom so youll survive!!

We found 558 as a mission which is super good. we found 8 as a companionship, and the goal was 7, so we beat it. a few of them are really good and im excited about. 2 of them tried to sell us amway, a pyramid scheme business...we said no no we cant do that we´re missionaries, and they kept trying so hard to convince us that its ok if we just bought a little, and sold some to our other missionary friends...

i have a few more pics but we´re in elche right now and i forgot my camera cord. we dont do much for pday, because none of us have money to travel, and elder leon is super lazy and wants to either play soccer or do nothing. 

im pretty sure im leaving because president said something to me about when i train, and also when i said goodbye to his wife she said ´see you soon´which im assuming meant see you in malaga in a couple of weeks when you come pick up your new missionary. but yeah i guess i could stay.

this was probably the worst week elder _____ has had. super lazy. it was hard this week because we had no lessons set bcause we were just trying to find new people. so we were just walking around all day and he would just complain the whole time and then not want to go back out and stuff. it was a week the whole mission set aside to be extremely obedient, and he was just the exact opposite. im making sure this week we have a lot of things to do though so it should be better.