Burrgosmeister Meisterburrgos

December 17, 2018

Man, this was a pretty long week. It's weird to think that Elder Burr arrived in Burgos only a couple days ago, but it's also totally believable when I really think about it. My concept of time is pretty skewed at this point. Anywho! We were able to keep ourselves occupied pretty much every day, so I don't have too much to complain about.

Monday: 

Elder Benedict's last day in Burgos. Fortunately, he hadn't completely unpacked yet in case he would be getting transferred after three weeks, so he was all good to go!...Until we learned that he would be taking a flight as a part of his trip to his new area in Lorca. He had to do a complete reassessment of his baggage to get everything under weight, which took a good minute. His flight was also leaving early the next morning from Bilbao, so we had to travel there the night before. We met up with a fun group of elders in the Bilbao apartment, about half of which were heading out the next day.

Tuesday: 

Transfer/Preparation Day. Elder Benedict took off to the airport with Elder Iñesta to catch their flight, then another missionary left to catch a train to Barcelona to pick up his trainee, then the rest of us dropped off an Elder Holland (no relation to Jeffrey, but arguably similar in appearance) at the train station because we were actually up at that point. I spent much of the day with Elder Pain and Elder Eigueren in a mini-trio as we waited for our new companions to arrive. Elder Eiguren and Elder Pain's new companions got to Bilbao around 2 o'clock which made me feel like the shortest man in the world. As we were all reuniting, it became clear to me that 6' really isn't that tall. Elder Pain is about 6'3, Elder Eiguren and Elder Willden are around 6'5, and Elder Holmes is practically 7' tall. We spent the afternoon writing and what not, then when the evening came, the remaining group of missionaries awaiting their companions bussed over to the airport. Elder Burr came in around 9:40pm. We spent one more night in Bilbao.

Wednesday: All the pueblos. 

Elder Burr and I bussed back to Burgos (ended up being the 3hr 30min route) where we dropped off his bags at our apartment, then proceeded to an eating visit with Rosa for a fun Spanish meal full of wit and sarcasm. We later taught English and then had a FHE with Philippe and the Hetzels. 

Thursday: Weekly planning and stuff. 

In the morning we had that wonderful first weekly planning session of the transfer where I essentially talked Elder Burr's ear off as I explained the whole situation with Burgos. Our evening was spent being out and about where my new companion learned just how "contact-friendly" of an area Burgos is (it's not). We had a couple alright conversations with people in the street, but nothing really came from them.

Friday: Another trip to Bilbao. 

We had to have district meeting in Bilbao because all of the DLs were over there for a training meeting. We then rushed back to the bus station to get back to our area. That evening we were able to visit a couple different members with the intention on ending the day with Rubén. Rubén couldn't meet, so we began our deep-cleaning of the phone and Area Book because it's pretty bad.

Saturday: La Comida Navideña. 

We tried to play sports in the morning, but it was rainy and cold so nobody came. We ended up making some calls and cleaning the phone for a bit. In the afternoon we had a branch Christmas activity with a lot of food and laughter. It ended up being very well attended and our friend, Alejandra, came and seemed to have a good time. When the activity was over, we were back on the streets. I remember the days when a church activity ending meant an automatic wind-down to the the day...those were the days. Once again, we were able to have a couple chats with the occasional pedestrian, but that was all it was: a chat. 

Sunday: George Smith and the beam of light. 

The day was pretty full of the usual Sabbath things. Alejandra fully intended on coming to church, but couldn't due to some vomiting...I hope the food from the potluck didn't cause that. When we headed out to work in the afternoon a man came up from behind us, bent down and read our nametags out loud, then told us to give him our "pitch" because he saw stuff about some George Smith who had a lot of wives on the History Channel and wanted us to explain our religion to him. He invited us to the bar right behind us (he was already a little buzzed) to talk and I politely declined saying that we were on the way to visit a friend. He insisted, I persisted, then he started to do that thing that Spaniards always do when they're drunk whenever you say no to their "generosity" and started to act offended and partially hostile, so I gave in to diffuse the situation, and we taught him about the Restoration of the Church in a booth. It was not a productive conversation, to say the least. But he has a Book of Mormon now and says that he'll read it and get back to us. Our day ended with an FHE in the Hetzels' apartment. 

Elder Burr is doing good. He is in the same group as Elder Benedict (has about a year and a half in the mission), is from Orem, Utah, and ladies, he's single. ;) We're just moving right along here in Bur-r-rgos. I don't think we'll be seeing snow anytime soon which isn't too fun, but it's whatevs. This week we'll be having yet another trip to Bilbao then some exchanges with the Vitoria elders. Plans like that are always a good way to break up the monotony.

That's all I've got for today. Have a good one!

Elder Jensen :)

Welcome, Elder Burr!