Week 9

Wow what a long week again! Idk if time is going fast or slow but I've only been in Spain 2 months and I feel like I've been here 6 hahaha but looks like I have a lot more time to learn and grow. 

So from last P-day starting Tuesday we had district meeting as usual, this time I had to give a 5-minute lesson in the meeting all in Spanish and everyone said I killed it. They say that my Spanish is better than most of their Spanish 4 months into their mission and I have been here half the time, the gift of tongues is real people. After that, the day was pretty normal, besides I tried Kebab for the first time. Kebab is this meat that they put in a tortilla with some vegetables but it's illegal in the US to sell. Its because it's horrible for you, the meat is on this big kebab pole and sits in a roaster cooking all day and while people order some they cut some off the stick and let it keep going. If it isn't all used up after the day, they put it into the freezer and pull it out the next day. So who knows how old this meat is but anyways it's pretty good, not amazing but good only because your stomach hurts for the rest of the day after you eat it like I said it's not too good for you hahaha

Wednesday was a normal day, lots of contacting in the calles (streets) and walking around this town of Manacor. It gets really tiring but it's the mission life. After lunch, we went to teach a lesson to an investigator of many years. Her name is Clara, she is a 60-year-old Catalan woman who's basically a member without the ordinances. She comes to church every week, goes to all the activities, and meets with the missionaries often. But she won't commit to baptism because the believes she won't be a good member of this church which is insane. She's a better member than most of our actual members. But anyways we taught her and told her we won't obligate her to baptism like other missionaries but our plan is to finish teaching her all the lessons and then lay the ultimatum down on her. We will see how it goes. After that lesson though she loves us and she has cooked us food twice this last week so I'm not mad. After the lesson, we taught an English class that usually has only 1-2 people come but this time it was like 7-8 and we were packed and unprepared but it was good and I hope they all come back next time. 

Thursday is weekly planning day and we take half the day to plan for the week and the next half as a normal day. Basically we did more contacting which is good because like I've said in the past We have been struggling to find people. Friday was another normal day of lessons that fell through and so we did some training and then more contacting but this time in a little town called arta about 30 minutes from Manacor. It was good we passed by some homes and then called it a night. 

Saturday... oh Saturday was fun. We started off the day in a pueblo called Villafranca to do some service for a member. All we did was this - she had this old cart like the one you would see pioneers use and we took this old wooden door a mile down the street to her brother's house and came back. I guess trek did prepare me for something hahaha it was so weird but we did it and had fun with it. Then she made us some food which was like this weird flavorless soup with rice, mushrooms, tomatoes, shrimp, chicken legs and other things I didn't know what they were. Just a slop of things together and by the end I was full. That's all I can say about that haha. After that, we had a visit with an old investigator named Eduardo and all I can say is this man is golden. We went to his house and he's all alone he said his wife and him are having a "break" and so he's depressed and down but he's noticed that the missionaries have always come when he's facing some kind of big problem. He said he feels like this time he needs to do something about it and follow up with the invitations from the missionaries. He has a sincere desire to change his life and get on the right path of God so we taught him a bit about how the gospel can bless families and set up a regular appointment schedule with him. Honestly, I felt really good about this lesson and this man, and I can already see him in a baptismal jumpsuit. 

Sunday was a normal day with church and piano and such, not really too much to say about that. We ate at a member's house after church and this time it was a rice and beans soup, not chicken feet soup so that was good hahaha. 

Today was another P-day and we went to Palma to do some shopping. I've been needing pants for weeks now and some new shoes and finally today we found everything we've been looking for. It was super productive and after that we came back to Manacor and went grocery shopping but we've been worried about money recently so before we went to check out accounts and we were so lucky we saw our accounts way more full, about 20$ more than before, just enough for us to go buy food. We have to send reimbursements back to the mission office for some things like train or bus tickets and it usually takes 2 weeks to process but they came early and thank goodness because if not we would be pretty hungry this week. 

I don't have much more to say I wanted to make a list of things I've learned about Spain and the mission since I've been here that I haven't talked about much:

1. I will probably have lung cancer after the two years I've been here from all the second-hand smoke here. European smoke a lot more than you would think.

2. Mallorquin is another dialect of Spain, it's like Catalan pretty much but a different accent and I understand nothing of it.

3. Mediodia (about 1:00-5:00 is dead everywhere) so hard to be a missionary in this time

4. Latin Americans will listen to missionaries but old Mallorquin or Spanish people will not hahaha

5. If you get a prompting to talk to someone it's 99% from the Spirit. Just talk and it will work out. God has prepared people for you to talk to.

6. Leave early to go to piso or you will have to run to make sure you are there on time at the end of the night, not fun.

7. I have been prepared more than anyone I've ever known to serve in the mission they're assigned. hands down. I can name so many reasons but just recently I noticed the scripture I put on my mission plaque is our mission scripture. We recite it every morning in Spanish before we leave piso. I didn't even know this before the mission but it's like that and I feel so blessed. 3 Nephi 5:13 - read it people! 

8. The power of prayers are real, super real. First I asked everyone to pray to help me adjust physically and you know what my feet don't hurt too bad and I'm adjusting. Second this last week I asked everyone to pray for us to find people, what happened? We doubled the number of people we found in the previous two weeks combined. Not only do I learn that prayers are answered but also that I have so many supporting and loving friends and family members back home so thank you all.

This is my email everyone, it's gonna have some of the first pictures from my first area but pretty small and I'm sorry but I still haven't bought my own phone yet here so I can't really take any photos. Thank you all for the emails and pictures and prayers they help so much. I love you all, talk to you next week!

Elder Keith 

First: a store in Palma that sells only runner ducks. Literally, the most satisfying thing I've ever seen 

Second: a picture of me in Porto Cristo 

Third: all the district after district meeting where I tried Kebab for the first time 

Fourth: a cool picture from the pueblo arta

Fifth: was literally every street looks like in Manacor. One way streets full of apartment buildings and sidewalks that are only one person wide.

Sixth: some street art from the pueblo arta I think....

Week 9 Email to Mom

July 16, 2018
Yesterday marked 2 months of me being in Spain, feels like it's been forever though hahaha. This last week was good and hard. You never really realize before the mission how hard it will be, and not hard mentally but physically. 

This last week has been a week of finding lots of people, way more than the previous weeks combined. We can truly feel the help of your prayers so please don't stop them. We went from finding maybe 1 or 2 people a week to 5-6 this week.

Spain has a thing called rebajas which means sale, around July to September all stores discount their items from 25%-50% off so I've been searching for things, today was pretty successful. We found 2 pairs of pants for me from a shop called mango. They're good quality but they need to be hemmed badly.  They don't hem or make any of their pants shorter so I need to find a shop or someone who can do that for me. And I found a pair of shoes, I'm gonna make the ones I have walking shoes and I bought some for sports, they're indoor soccer shoes I got for 35€ at Corte de Ingles, it was a steal. 

I hear the world cup was crazy Idk if you guys watched it or not but we were in Porto Cristo during the final and everyone was going nuts. We could see some of the game from the bars that were open. 

Sorry but I still don't have a phone. I've tried figuring it out, apparently, President Galli emailed someone at headquarters about the situation and so I'm waiting, I can't even buy a phone and wait. Kinda silly. So sorry but there won't be really any pictures. I did change my profile picture on Facebook though, I took that photo in Porto Cristo. 

Anyways sounds like everything worked out with your school and temple which is good, I can't believe I won't go to the temple for almost 2 years it's crazy.

Also so I found out they're adding all of the northern parts of Spain into the Barcelona mission in August. So that means we will have all of the North which has it's own stake now. Also that means my MTC companion will now in August be in my mission for the rest of the 2 years which is crazy. 

That's all I have for now I will send a group email in a few hours. So stay tuned for more. Love you!

Elder Keith 

Yes, I received your package the first day I entered the mission home before I went to Manacor. It was weird they said they got it early and was like who's elder Keith?? We don't have one here hahahaha. It was great, I love all the gifts thank you. I haven't finished all the candy and the socks I can only wear on P-day but I will wear them. Also, the tie is great I have a few floral ties now it's a nice collection. Today I had extra time so I sent him an email too. You can read the one I sent him also. Love you

Elder Keith 

Week 8 Email to Mom and Dad

July 9, 2018
So I pretty much sent most of the info from the last week in my general email but I wanted to send you guys this one to tell you how I'm doing and such

I'm doing good but it's been hard. I'm sorry every day it's definitely a hard thing to be out here and do the work we do. I've had a chronic problem with my shoulders like a pinching feeling and it's been a week and if it continues I might have to see a doctor or something. Idk what it is.

Physically it's hard but mentally I've been kept up. I can definitely feel the prayers of everyone keeping me going. This mission has a lot of hard rules that get to me like keeping to all the times and such but we have rules where like when we speak English we can't say dude, guy, awesome, cool, freaking or pretty much anything a normal 19 -year-old would say and it's so hard I can't even explain it. I struggle so hard and I find it hard something to understand all the smaller rules they give us that seem so dumb. Lots of other missions are less strict and have way more success so Idk where they get the idea from sometimes.

I'm trying to learn to love the islands more it's so hot here and it's so hard to be a missionary here in our area. I think with time it will come but right now I need to be better at it.

Honestly, I have to write the President too which I totally forget about so I don't have much more time to email sorry but thank you for the emails. I love you guys 

Elder Keith 

Week 8

Wow what a week. First off thank you all for the emails I received and the prayers they all help so much. Also I'm sorry but there won't be any pictures really too because I still don't have a phone but I promise they will come. If you want to know where I've been at look up Manacor Spain for pictures hahaha or Portocristo on the island of Mallorca Spain is gorgeous (I like it more than Manacor).

So leaving off from last week we had Tuesday as P-day which isn't normal we usually have P-days on Monday. Tuesday night was just me staying the night while my companion went back to Manacor with another elder. We did an intercambio or in English an exchange and so all Tuesday night and Wednesday during the day I was with our district leader Elder Salazar. He is from Ecuador and speaks English so for 24 hours it was all Spanish and I can say I was drained after that hahahaha. He's a really great elder and talked to me got to know me and talked to me about mission goals and honestly I'm at a lost here. I'm here on the mission because I know I'm supposed to be but not with anything else really here. I know this gospel is true and I want to be here and share it with the people of Spain wherever that is. I want to learn the language fluently and that's it.  I haven't found anything else I'm looking for from the mission. I believe with time it will come but Elder Salazar is trying to help me come up with some goals. 

Thursday was weekly planning and so most of the day was inside planning for our investigators and going over goals. Honestly everyone, we need some help. This area is dead at the moment. We're really struggling to find people to teach and for appointments to follow through. We planned about 15 appointments for this last week which is a good number and only 2 went through and one of those lessons was with a recent convert so it kinda doesn't count. We need lots of prayers and any ideas because we need to start putting some numbers up out here.

Friday was my first normal day in the mission where I got to follow a normal schedule. Our days are pretty much like this.

7:30-9:00 (wake up,exercise,eat breakfast,get ready for the day)

9:00-10:00(Personal Study)

10:00-11:30(daily planning and companion study)

11:45-2:00 (proselyting/appointments) 

2:00-3:00(lunch)

3:00-4:00(language study)

4:00-8:00(appointments/proselyting)

9:00-10:00(calls and area book cleaning)

10:00-11:30(eat dinner, free time, and go to sleep.

This seems like a long day but it's actually shorter than you would think. Friday was basically we planned appointments that didn't go through so we went to pass by a less-active family's house that we've passed by many times but have never been home. But this time they were home. Their names are Victoria and Miguel and they are both members but really busy people. They have 2 daughters and just are a normal family but with a lot of problems with one of the daughters who has blood problems and has to go to the hospital once a week. We got to know them and then my companion shared a video called "Alto me Eleva" in Spanish I don't know the name in English but it's about how we all have trials but God is always there for us. Super touching video and when we finished the video the two members were crying they both said that this brought them a lot of comfort. We talked to them about church and things and I shared that we know that church attendance is a commandment and God prepares a way for us to fufill every commandment (using 1 Nephi 3:7 as reference). It was super spiritual and a great experience for me and the family. 

Saturday was a normal day as well but pretty much how I explained a lot of appointments that fell through. So we have had a lot of time in the streets but honestly after about 4:00 when we go out after lunch and study it's dead everyone takes mediodia off and is gone. So we have done a lot of training things for me we have to do online and some days we are really frustrated and go to the church and play ping pong for about 25 minutes to cool off. Our branch has a ping pong table and a water machine that dispenses ice cold water, it's heavenly.  

Sunday wow lots to talk about. First off I hope all you remember I had to give a talk but that wasn't all. I got to play 4 songs in sacrament meeting (one of them I didn't know at all) and give a 15 minute talk and give a prayer. Literally half of the service was me playing piano or talking in Spanish. Just what a day and then after that we went to a member's house for lunch. They're a Columbian couple and they made us a soup with chicken and potatoes and vegetables with rice and salad which was really good and filling. Also they're South Americans so they put everything of the chicken in the soup. So guess what I saw first when they handed me the food... a chicken foot... that's right a chicken foot. And how do you eat a chicken foot? You suck all the skin and cartilage out and leave the bones on the plate. Have to say I was pretty surprised... anyways the rest of the day was a family history activity with the ward and then some street contacting, which was good because we found a man who agreed to set up a visit with us next week. He is from Ecuador and listened to the missionaries about 40 years ago. We talked to him at his door for about 20 minutes and he started to yawn hahaha so I told my companion we should wrap this up and go. 

Today was a normal P-day. We went shopping I need to get some pants and some new running shoes cause I've put holes  in the ones I have. In this tiny town there's not much to see and so it was a pretty unsuccessful shopping day. We bought our food for the week. We cleaned our apartment finally. This piso has been trashed for too long and today finally it looks nice and presentable. Oh also we got haircuts which here in Spain and dirt cheap and is one of my favourite haircuts I've ever had. 6€ is a steal. 

Honestly this week has been so much better than last week. It's still hard, my body hurts more than ever but I keep moving on and working hard each day. I'm finding more ways to enjoy the mission like getting on the roof of our apartment building at night with my companion and just talking or playing contacting games. I'm thankful for the emails and the prayers from everyone. Please send me emails and pictures and continue to pray. Love you all!

Elder Keith

Week 7 Email to Mom and Dad

Wow, a week and a half of being in the field gives you so much to talk about. I'm sorry if I forget to say a lot but I'm gonna try and do my best. First off I don't have a phone yet they're still waiting till they get confirmation for me to go buy one so I'm using our area phone to write these emails. I am in Manacor on the island on Mallorca for the next 12 weeks and I didn't admit this to anyone but the islands were the last place I wanted to serve.... but I'm here and I'm doing my best to love the humidity and how small it is. We serve a branch that covers about 40% of the Island with a little less than 30 members in it so it's tiny. I play the piano for this branch because literally, no one knows how to play here. They also don't know how to sing because when I played this last Sunday everyone sings so slow like half the speed the songs are supposed to be, but I can fix that hahaha. My companion is elder Holbrook, he is from Utah and has been in the mission for about a year. He's way better than my MTC companion by far already. He's pretty fluent in Spanish and helps me a lot to understand the area and other things. He hates to clean so when I got to the piso it was trashed, stuff all over and dishes that haven't been washed for a week. So I've been keeping him in shape to make sure we live in a clean area. It's definitely an even companionship. I haven't had a normal day yet in the mission. I've traveled to Palma which is an hour and a half on the train from Manacor 4 times now in a week and every time I come it takes up most of the day. We've taught only 2 lessons since I've been here and only done maybe 3 hours of proselyting. My left shoulder is killing me and I have blisters all over my feet now but I keep going. Honestly, it sounds like a lot of complaining but it's just more adjusting. I haven't really settled yet and it's been hard. Today we are going back to Palma for some barbecue for 4th of July even though it's the 3rdP- because today is our P-day instead of Monday. The new rule that President Galli made is now we can email all day and read emails all day only on P-days.  I'm not allowed to check emails except for P-daysI'mIm about to get off the train but later tonight I will have time to send a general email and more info. 
Love you and talk to you later, 

Elder Keith  

Week 7

Wow ok a week and a half of time in the field gives me so much to talk about I will try and sum it up quick.

First day In the field we stay the night with a temporary companion and I stayed with an Elder Fowler who leaves the mission this transfer. He was very nice we went and taught a transsexual man with a boob job first then had dinner with a member. It was a good and very interesting night. I stayed in his piso which is right next to the Sagrada Familia cathedral for those of you who know what that is. It's literally right across the street. The next day we received all the info on the mission rules and stuff like that and then received our trainers or first companion in the mission. Also, we have some super strict mission rules like we have to change the vocab we use and so much stuff. It's a story for another time but all I can say is they're hard to keep and seem super ridiculous. I was assigned to serve with Elder Holbrook an Elder from Utah who's been on the mission for about a year to serve on the island of Mallorca in a tiny town called Manacor. We have a nice piso and a very small branch about 30 members and I get to play the piano each week for them. We get to give talks in church next week too which is so fantastic. 15 minute talks in Spanish. I'm so excited. Ok piso is the Spanish word for apartment for those that don't know that. We've visited the city of Palma about 4 times in the week I've been in the field and with Sunday,weekly planning day, district meeting, and some conference all this week I really haven't had a normal day yet and today I am having an exchange with the district leader for the  next day. We've had a lot of good times and the people and everything are all great, but I need to get used to this place. The Islands was the last place I wanted to serve. I've been adjusting to the missionary life too, my whole body hurts from my feet to my head with this nasty sunburn I have. My shoulders hurt worse than anything. It's hard it's definitely a sacrifice to be here. It's hard physically more than mentally. Thank you all for the emails and I'm sorry I won't be able to write to most of you. The rules for emails are different here and we've been so busy that I haven't found much time to email. I can only check emails on Mondays as well. I'm sure there's a lot I've missed in this emails and I would add more if I had time. I don't have any photos either because I don't have a phone yet either. Please keep me in your prayers to help me survive here hahaha it's hard. I love you all and I'll email again next week. 

Elder Keith

Day 2 in Barcelona... and update from the Mission Blog

I took the pictures and information from the espanabarcelonamission.blogspot.com to update the blog.

This morning all of the new missionaries and their future trainers came to the mission home for some final instruction. We held a session to Train the Trainers. We also had a luncheon of Lasagna and salad with all the new missionaries and trainers.

(we all know how much Jonathan LOVES lasagna!!! Haha!!)

Elder Adcock presents President Dayton with the golden envelope with the new assignments. As you can see, they were quite excited to get their new companions!

Elder Keith Will be serving with Elder Holbrook in Manacor!!

We are so excited for these new and energetic missionaries!

I love how we can get pics and info from the mission home through their blog.