Week 24 Email to Mom and Dad

Wow I love Gandia.  I think I could finish my mission here.

So traveling was the worst.  The office elders did a horrible job of doing my travel plans. I left really early Tuesday and got back in Valencia around 9 at night, I was traveling 12 hours. They decided to fly me to Barcelona and not Valencia which makes no sense.  It is cheaper to fly to Valencia and then I took a train to Valencia which was 3 hours so I wanted a ton of time traveling and didn't get any free time on my free day. Also it was more expensive but whatever I'm here now.

 

Gandia Is really pretty, it's a bigger city and it has almost everything you need in an area. It's almost like being in the main city but just smaller. The ward is amazing, there's about 80-90 active members and they feed us every day. I've had everything this week from Latino food to paella!

The apartment is great too, it's so much bigger and cleaner and newer, it's a a livable environment. Honestly starting in Manacor makes me appreciate this so much more.

This last week we've basically done contacting, just a ton of contacting because the teaching pool is small.

My companion and me get along super well, our personalities click and we work super well together. His name is Elder Tingey and he's from Arizona. He has about 15 months in the mission. 

Its getting super cold here like really cold and super fast, so today I'm going into Valencia and I'm gonna buy some gloves and sweaters and stuff to get me by, I pulled out more cash from my personal card and I think the account is pretty low now. 

I watched the last 10 minutes of el clasico in a mall yesterday on a TV outside. We played super well! The thing is here everyone follows Valencia because it's the local team but they're playing really bad and this a big game so everyone likes Barcelona or Madrid, most of them Barcelona! I hope while I'm here I can take a tour of the Valencia stadium in the city.  It's the second oldest stadium in Spain and not too far to get there. 

Idk what else I have to say, love you both send me questions if you have some.

Elder Keith 

Week 24

1. Valencia Paella, contains: rice, shrimp, rabbit, bell pepper, and meatballs but it's super super good 

2. Fish in a small park in Gandia 

3. View from my new apartment in Gandia

4. Walkway that's super good to contact people in the city 

5. Museums in Valencia

Hola to everyone! Its been 2 weeks sorry for the silence but I have not had time to email at all, but ill fill you in! So last week not much happened except I learned I am being and am transferred! I am now in an town called Gandia on the east coast of Spain close to the town of Valencia! I love it here, a lot. I'm sad to leave the people in Manacor but I will always keep in touch with them and one day I may go back and visit. 

Gandia is a big city! It's perfect for contacting and has lots of people there, I see new people every day and it helps the work progress well. It doesn't mean we are teaching constantly.  I've been contacting all week basically so we are in stage one right now. We have a large ward here of like 80-90 active members that come every week and they love to feed us and help up with lessons so its going super well! We have a really nice apartment and literally everything a missionary needs in an area and apartment.

My new companion is Elder Tingey from Arizona, and he has about 15 months in the mission. He's super funny and we get along super well. He's super strong he played football in high school and he's super active. With contacting this whole last week I was so tired following him around hahaha. 

Like I said we basically contacted all week, we taught I think 3 lessons. One of them was with a gypsy man who we taught English and invited to church. One was with some Brazilian members and they are exchange students so they had 3 friends over, from Germany, Taiwan, and Italy and we taught them all and gave them Books of Mormon. And the other was with a Columbian woman who we actually had to drop teaching. 

So as missionaries we are supposed to keep of track of the progress of the people  we teach and if they aren't progressing after 2 or 3 lessons we have to stop teaching them because we're trying to teach those who are ready to accept the gospel and keep learning. It's sad to stop teaching someone but we end up keeping their record and future missionaries will teach them. We accept it isn't the time for them and we move forward. 

This last week I've been studying the New Testament,  and I've been readying in Timothy and these books that are super small and can read in like 20 minutes. I really enjoy the words of Paul when he says this:

15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

We in Spain hear a lot that people don't want to hear the gospel because they already have faith and don't need to do more. Faith to most of the people is only believing and this is all that is necessary but it says in the Bible as well that faith without works is dead. So we have a responsibility to work hard and believe, like it says in this scripture we are approved by God when we are hardworking and do our part. This helps me on days when it's hard to go out and work because I have to remember my purpose and just do it anyways and I will be rewarded 

Love you all hope to hear from more of you! It was a quiet week but I didn't email as well so I apologize.  My prayers go out to all of you and have a great week!

Elder Keith