There and Back Again: A Hobbit's Tale by Bilbao Baggins

September 10, 2018

Alrighty! How are we all doing today? 

This past week was a little weird and not much happened, while a lot happened at the same time. We started the week on Monday because our preparation day was moved to Thursday on account of a zone activity in Bilbao set up by our zone leaders. That being said, we worked on a Monday, and it felt really weird. Nothing too notable occurred beyond a visit with Jhoselin where we went over the Plan of Salvation again. She's doing well.

On Tuesday morning we helped move a piano into the chapel in La Seu. We now have areal piano instead of a keyboard! In the evening we met with a man named Abdiel who we had contacted on the street last week. He's from Panama, comes from a Jehovah's Witness background (but isn't too active at the moment), and can also speak English. Right now we're really just explaining what our church believes and clearing up any misconceptions he has about us. We taught about the Restoration of the Gospel and he wasn't really against anything; for now, I think he just want to learn more about us more than change his life and embrace what we teach, but we'll see how it goes. He's really nice. What sparked his curiosity was the sci-fi show called "The Expanse". Evidentally, at one point there's a little bit on "Space Mormons" that live in an asteroid colony that build a generational colonizing starship called "Nauvoo" so they can fly off to Kolob. It made us chuckle.

To compensate for the Bilbao trip, we had our weekly planning on Wednesday morning. In the evening, we worked in La Seu and met with Pájaro to eat some arepas. No complaints there. After our time with Pajaro, we embarked on the journey to Bilbao that took up the remainder of the week. We drove to Lleida in the evening, parked at the chapel, and stayed the night with the elders there. 

Train from Lleida to Bilbao.

The following morning, we boarded a train at 8:45 and sat there for six hours. Luckily, we were seated with the missionaries from Lleida, so we were able to have fun and talk the whole way. As for the zone activity...there wasn't one. Absolutely nothing was planned, so the night before, the zone leaders asked us to bring games and stuff so we could all hang out in the park. We ate lunch at The Good Burger (it's been a good minute since I've eaten there), the took an over-complicated route to the chapel which included a counterproductive and unnecessary metro ride, put our stuff in the chapel, then went to the park. We just ended up playing ultimate frisbee for 2 hours. It was fun, don't get me wrong, but that's really the only thing we did as a group. After we finished, it was discovered that an hermana's bag was missing from the pile of bags that we had right next to where we were playing. Fortunately, the bag was found within minutes after a group search of the area, and everything was still there, including her sentimental letter from her grandmother that she always keeps in her wallet.....if you don't want something stolen, don't put it in the one thing that every common thief would take first. Anywho, I was mistaken. Everything except for her mission card was still there, but that can be cancelled and replaced.

It should be added that another Elder ended up realizing that his watch, phone, and personal card was stolen as well and there was nary a hint of gathering up a search party. Sorry, Elder Tuttle. 

Man, I got really cynical there for a second. So yeah! After frisbee we all walked back to the church and hung around there writing emails and what not. The apartment in Bilbao is huuuge and we had 16ish elders all sleeping under the same roof. A lot of stories were told, a lot a jokes were made, and a lot of laughter rang through the night air. But I also didn't fall asleep until much later than I should have.

Friday was our first normal zone conference with President Galli and it went well! At one point President Galli talked to us being authentic with other people in our work and I loved it. In all honesty, all of the strict rules and add-ons from the old Barcelona mission made a lot of the missionaries in it very...fake. Forced. Insincere. It's a little hard to deal with. Fortunately, the people that I interact with more personally aren't, but yeah. It's a different culture entirely. The conference ended and I somehow ended up going to a cita with Elder Browning and a mission friend of his, but we were staying another night in Bilbao so it gave me something to do in the evening. The second night we had less people in the apartment so I got to bed a little earlier. But just a little earlier.

Bilbao's main train station.

Saturday morning we woke up and walked to the train that left at 6:30 in the morning. From there we rode six hours back to Lleida. We were all tired and half-crazed, but it was still a good viaje. We arrived in Lleida around noon. The elders, half-starved and sleep-deprived headed themselves on down to a Dominos buffet. We laughed a looot. We have fun together, the Lleida elders and us. It's a shame that we live in another country. After lunch we drove back to Andorra where we met up with Isabella and met with a member for a spill. There ain't no rest for the wicked.

Sunday was a lot more calm, which was well-needed. We taught Sunday School both in Andorra and La Seu this week. Sister Southwick made us some cookies. I'm running out of time and energy to write. 

Spiritual thought will be coming at you next week!

I hope all is well at home.

Elder Jensen :)