Great-alona

November 12, 2018

I am tired. 

But not so tired that I won't write anything! I'm such a fighter.

That was weird, but I already wrote it and there's no going back. This week was going along pretty well until a wrench was thrown into the inner-machinations of the latter half of the week. It was a very uplifting and well-needed wrench but a wrench regardless. 

Not much happened on Monday evening. We bought bus tickets for our district meeting and contacted with little to no success...missionary work!

We woke up at 5am on Tuesday, got ready for the day, and caught our bus to Vitoria at 6:45 for district meeting. The bus schedule is crazy stupid. We arrived at 8:30 then walked to the elders' apartment and stayed there until it was time for the meeting. The meeting started at 12:15 (we had to wait for everyone to arrive), and we had to leave early because the next busses headed for Burgos leave either at 1:15pm or 5:00pm--why we don't take the later one, I don't know. I'm new here. At the bus station, we saw that a bus leaves at 2:15 as well and Elder Otero swears that it wasn't there before. We also wondered why we didn't just have the Hetzels drive us since they are free to come to district meeting whenever they want. Long story short: We made the trip a lot more complicated than it needed to be. We got back and ate lunch with Rosa and witnessed the funny and witty back and forth between her and her son, Andrés. In the evening We hit up the far west of Burgos to knock on some doors. Not much happened there, but whatcha gonna do? 

Wednesday was full-ísimo. We knocked on more doors in Far West, Burgos in the morning, and had an afternoon full of teaching! We met with Alejandra again and went over the Plan of Salvation very deliberately, but it was good. We then met with Philippe with the Hetzels and went over The Gospel of Jesus Christ. We had a good discussion and he keeps progressing. Our day ended with visiting some members. We also received news that our zone conference, previously scheduled for December 4th would be moved to Friday and it would be in Barcelona because Elder Johnson (Europe Area president) was in town. I was also asked by our branch president to give a talk to fill in for a member who was sick. 

That being said, what little plans we had were cancelled as we now had a three-day trip ahead of us. We boarded a train Thursday afternoon with the Hetzels and stayed there for over six hours. We pulled into station around 9:30pm. The zone leaders in Badalona (think: sketchy North Barcelona) came and picked us up and we stayed the night in their apartment. To my great surprise, I discovered that Elder Dransfield also lives in that apartment! It was great seeing him again. We all laughed and chatted and whatnot, then went to bed.

Elder Dransfield from Jacob's time in Andorra

The conference started the next morning. It was a very good conference. A lot of it confirmed that I'm in fact not crazy and that my mindset regarding missionary work is more or less what it should be. I don't have much more to say about that. If I go any further in detail I might just end up on a very rant-y tangent, so I'll just stop there. I loved the messages that both President Galli and Elder Johnson shared. Once the conference ended (it was a long one), we didn't receive any instruction on what to do next, so a group of us navigated the expanse of Barcelona. 

This is not the mission office.

We stopped by the mission office, then found our way to La Sagrada Familia. 

Meh.

It's an impressive building, but I honestly think it's a little ugly. Just overdone. And there's always cranes and scaffolding adding some new unnecessary tower. We then ate KFC, then walked the main streets until it was time to find a place to stay. Elder Otero and I found our way back to Badalona from the very heart of Barcelona via metro. I would say that it was an impressive feat, but we had already used the metro a couple times that day and all you really have to do is follow the signs.

On Saturday we went to the train station and started our 6+ hour long journey back to Burgos around noon. We got back in the evening and had a good visit with Rubén. He's been taught everything and we've reviewed some of the baptismal questions with him. He's moving right along.

Sunday was a very good day. I gave my talk that I had prepared over the previous night and the following morning since trains are not the greatest talk-writing environment. I was asked to speak on humility, so I did just that. I did not think that the talk had nearly enough substance to it, but as I went along it ended up lasting more than the 10 minutes I was assigned and I felt power in the words I spoke. I felt very good about it. Especially for the little amount of time I had used putting it together. Both Rubén and Philippe were at church and both had positive and involved experiences. The branch is in the process of planning a Thanksgiving activity, so I'm pretty excited for that.

Okay. Quick things about the area for those who are still wondering:

- The Hetzels are from western Washington

- Elder Otero is from Texas and is just out of his training

- President Stahl (branch president) is a nice man from California who lives here with his Spanish wife and his three kids

- I think that's all I wanted to clear up, actually.

As a little spiritual thought, I would like to share one line from my talk.

"Nuestras acciones orgullosas efectivamente pueden facilitar debilidad y rebelión en otros."

Which translated is basically:

"Our prideful actions can effectively facilitate weakness and rebellion in others."

We are examples and we must act as such because we do not realize just how many people see what we do and make judgement calls, in part, based on what we do. Let us be humble and always willing to submit to the will of the Father. If we keep the commandments, we will not go astray.

Elder Jensen :)

By the by, Phillipe just passed by the chapel and he has a confirmed and set baptismal date for December 1st!