Really good week this week. We had our baptism on Saturday, and Sunday was a great day in Church. We had a ton of people there. 98. Which is super super good for us. And lots of people showed up that haven´t come in a while. Less actives and whatnot. And Today I went to Gibraltar which was awesome. Transfers are this week, and Hermana Chance is leaving. She is going to Fuengirola and Hermana Johns is going to be a SHE (basically just a leadership position for Hermanas, they go and splits with other hermanas and are just machines). SHEs always are in a pair of two, so this other SHE is coming to live in Jerez, and this pair of SHEs is also going to train a new hermana. Super cool. Elder Erickson and I will kick it here for another transfer, which is exactly what I wanted. I absolutely love Elder Erickson. We get along super well, even though we are so different. He is absolutely wonderful. And I am super glad Johns is staying here too, cause she´s awesome as well. We all have tons of fun. And work hard. Of course :)
I wasn´t in Jerez very much this week. I was in Malaga for about two days with Johns. There was this big leadership training and her and I went. That´s how I got to spend the night with Jordan Quinn. It was SOO great to see him. I love the fact that he is here too. So I think they will split my district. We will have like 14 people in it now, so I am pretty sure that they will just make Jerez its own district. We´ll see. Hooper is leaving. He goes home in December and will spend his last two transfers in Malaga training. I´ll miss him a ton. But things are going really well. The baptism was awesome. The Hermanas baptized A, the husband of the south american girl that Pardo and I baptized, M. He was our investigator, but when we split the area he became the hermana´s because he lives in their area. Maribel is doing super awesome. Same with Victoriano. But yeah, Antonio and Ana were baptized on Saturday. I was priviliged to baptize Antonio, and Elder Erickson baptized Ana. And then on Sunday I confirmed Ana and ended up giving two baby blessings. Which was a surprise. I was sitting there and all of the sudden they announced that there would be three baby blessings and two confirmations. I was only expecting one baby blessing. But we blessed Lola (Paola´s daugther) first and I did that, it was scary but it went well. And then Emilio and Rosario (my second and third converts) wanted their seven year old daughter blessed. And the daughter asked me to do that one as well. So that was a surprise. Fun stuff. I was really nervous about all of it, but it went ok. I didn´t bless or confirm as elegantly as the bishop or WML did that day, but I did my best and I felt the Spirit. A priesthood blessing is a priesthood blessing. It doesn´t matter how poorly we speak, the power is not in the words we say.
Quick insert about trivial matters..... If you haven´t sent my package yet, could you put pretzel m&ms in there??
I love you guys a ton. I can´t believe Spencer leaves so soon. Honestly time is FLYING by. Sometimes I feel like I am speeding down the freeway with the wind hurling at my face when it comes to time. This last transfer went by very quickly. I will hit 6 months in less than three weeks. And a week after Spencer leaves on his mission, I will hit 7 months. Super crazy. This transfer is going to be great though. Elder Erickson and I have set some high goals this transfer and we want to make it perfect. We are going to try our hardest.
About the package thing, always better that you don´t send it to the mission office. I guess for JQ it doesn´t matter a whole lot since he is so close to the mission office, but it gets here so much faster if you send it to my address. Could you put some pens in there too?? Decent ones? Everyone here spends a fortune on these super nice pens called parkers, but I don´t want to. But my papermates are about gone. So yeah.
SUPER SUPER SUPER jealous that you guys get to go to Warrenton. You honestly have no idea. I would love to go to Oregon. Honestly that is what I want to do when I get home. Just a short trip to Oregon and clam chowder. Erickson and I talk about oregon all the time. His family goes there too. They have some pretty cool traditions, but we both just love oregon. When they go to Oregon they go crabbing, which sounds really fun. You should look into that. You rent these baskets with bait in them attached to a long rope and huck them in the water off the dock, and then they sink and after a while they fill up with crabs and you can keep them, depending on the size. They always eat a ton of crab when they go. Sounds super cool. I want to do that with my family. You all better think of me when you eat those clam chowder bread bowls. Wow. It is so so not fair. I literally have been talking about Oregon at least once a day for the last 6 weeks, and now you guys are going. Oh well. Have fun :) Enjoy your last few weeks with my amazing brother. I am so proud of him. He is going to do so well. Only a few days in the MTC and then San Fernando is going to have one incredible missionary to work with. Guess what- Spencer is going to the San Fernando mission, and right now I am serving in the zone of San Fernando. That´s what my zone is called. Kind of ironic.
Well I am really happy for Spencer. I hope he´s excited. He needs to really enjoy these last few weeks, because in about 6 months he will not even remember what being a normal human being is like. Life changes so quickly. But it all goes by so fast. I don´t even know anymore. I feel like the P days are like every other day. Super weird. Today we went to Gibraltar and it was AWESOME. It is actually a British territory, so after we crossed customs it was like a whole different world. Even the weather was different!! It was super cloudy and windy, and I loved it. Felt like heaven. I guess it´s a good thing that I wasn´t sent to England on my mission. I am just fascinated by that country. And the accents seriously make me super jealous. I don´t know why they speak our language so much better than we do. Just walking around all the old shoppes today listening to tons of young, attractive women speak with a British accent was super hard. I was almost relieved to get out of there. Really distracting!! You guys would love Gibraltar though. Definitely up our alley. The rock was cool. We didn´t hike all the way up, just far enough to see the monkeys. It´s kind of funny. A huge rock with monkeys all over it. They were jumping on us and everything. And we had a bag with cans of soda in it and as we were walking down the mountain back to the city, a pack of monkeys attacked hermana johns who was carrying the bag and then she flipped and threw it at me, so then this huge monkey jumped on my arm and starting ripping into the bag so I, in my panic mode, decided that spinning around in circles would solve the problem. Really I don´t know why. But I just start spinning around hoping that the monkey would fall off, and it didn´t. It was flipping huge. Finally the bag ripped and all of our soda went rolling down the hill and the monkeys ran after it. So did we. We managed to save some of the cans, but the monkeys got some too. I was ticked. Fun day though. I am glad we went. I love British culture. I loved hearing people speak english again!! I would pass people and say hola or buenas because that´s what I am so used to. I am sure it´ll be like that when I return home as well.
So Things are going well. Tonight we have a really important appt with Pablo and Maria. We are going to set a baptismal date for the 28th of September. And Jose and Paola are doing well too.
I am happy. We are working hard and I am learning lots. I am really starting to care a lot about the people. This transfer will be awesome. Members feed us often enough. 2 or 3 times a week. But I am not a huge fan of eating with members. It is so hard to get out of their house with enough time to study and stuff during medio dia. I prefer being at home and cooking for myself. But we eat with members often enough.
Spencer sounds like a champ. He is so talented. I really miss him. I will record his video and send you my sd card probably next week. Don´t watch his video until the night he gets set apart though. Watch it with everyone there when they are all talking about how amazing Spencer is and how much they´ll miss him. Mine will fit in quite nicely. I hope Brigham is doing well. I am going to record a video for him too. I miss both of them so much. I hate thinking that I won´t see Brigham for 4 years. That is absolutely crazy. We have an awesome family and I love us so much. I hope you´re doing better Mom. You´re wonderful and I hope you never forget that. You mean the world to your children, even if we have a difficult time showing it. And I really admire Dad for his faith and example. He is such a champ. I hope I can be as good of a Father as he is.
Those movies sound awesome. I miss movies more than I thought I would. It´s harder with an american companion that loves movies so much. He is rubbing off on me. So is Johns. Don´t worry though mom. Spain is super safe. I am not worried in the slightest.
Anyway. That´s all folks. Life is good and I am excited for the next six weeks. Keep doing well. I love you all more than anything. Be happy!!!
Preston
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