The Final Countdown

January 22, 2019

Once again I find myself on a train...I've ridden a lot of trains. Trains almost always bring change; that claim holds true today as I head out of Burgos to spend my last six weeks in Villafranca del Penedés, a town about a half an hour away from Barcelona. I will be with an Elder Peterson who I've only met once, maybe twice. I really have no idea what to expect. We have a ward there and I think someone told me that they have a new chapel or something like that. I'll be sure to fill you in on the details when I actually have some.

And now: The moment you've all been waiting for...

Here it is. The Mega-Weekly. 

(Where's a smoke machine and an epic synthesizer intro when you need one?)

So! With January 7, 2019--a Monday to be specific--we begin this tale of two weeks. What exactly happened that day? I couldn't really tell ya. Wait! I remember now. Elder Burr got a well-needed haircut, I bought a couple more souvenirs...there wasn't too much to it. Just a lot of time to rest. The evening was spent "oot and aboot" passing by people, correcting poor information, getting rid of unhelpful information...Burgos Ordenado.

The next day we had our district meeting in Logroño. Logroño's bus schedule is a little more merciful, so even though we still had to get up early, we got to sleep for an hour longer than we usually do on district meeting days. Upon our return we studied for a bit, then helped Nuria with her English. I should probably mention that her mom has fed us more than the members of the branch have. Every time we come by she invites us to eat something, if we have time we do. On the days when we have to get going right after, she already has a bag prepared for us to take home. This time she gave us an entire chorizo as a part of the package. Spaniards can be pretty nice sometimes. 

Wednesday was pretty calm overall. We had our weekly planning in the morning and in the afternoon we hopped on a Bilbao-bound bus (say that one ten times fast) to have our interviews with President Galli. We got there at the same time as Elder Holmes and Elder Pain, so we metro-d on down to the chapel together and then waited with other missionaries for our respective interviews. Once again, I thoroughly enjoyed my time with President Galli and even had a little "interview" with Sister Galli which is something I haven't done since my first round of interviews with them back in the summer. They're a fun couple. After that, Elder Burr and I were sent on a wild goose chase to pick up a large order of day-old bread to feed the teeming masses of elders staying for the night (zone conference was the next day). In the end, we acquired the loaves and headed on back to the Bilbao apartment because the day was done. It's kind of awkward navigating a major European city clutching a big bag of rock-hard baked goods. We ate the softest bar on the way back. We earned it.

The following morning we had zone conference which was a very positive and edifying experience. Also my second to last. Yeesh. After the conference Elder Burr and I parted ways to have exchanges with the Vitoria elders. I teamed up with Elder Cobbley for one last hurrah. Fun Fact: If I'm not mistaken, I was involved in his first companionship exchange on the mission. We had a good evening that ended with a nice visit with a mainly-member family. The father is not a member and recently arrived in Spain. We taught the Restoration as a spiritual thought after after some food and conversation, and it went really well. It was interesting to teach with Elder Cobbley again. Seeing how things have changed over the past 2 years for the both of us, yet not being able to really recognize it. I think it's moments like that which make the time seem to fly.

Friday morning we visited a member in her shoe store, and that was all the time we had before I had to get on a bus to return to Burgos. Our day in Burgos was normal. At the end we visited with Chema and nothing ended up being taught because he was giving us an account of his marital issues, but visits like that tend to happen. Nothing wrong with the occasional venting/therapy session.

We were able to maintain a pretty full Saturday, which doesn't happen too often. We had a first visit with a nice man named Martin, but he didn't have much time to talk, so we introduced him to the Book of Mormon and left one with him to read. Later on we met with a lady in her doorway for a bit. She had met with missionaries in the past and has a very complicated work schedule. We'll see if anything can happen there. We then had a correlation meeting with Fabian, and pretty much ended the evening with a visit in the home of a couple named Yoli and Gustavo. Yoli is the sister of a member of the branch and met with the missionaries frequently before. They lost contact a few months ago and we got back in contact. She warmly accepted us and it was a good visit. We went over the first lesson again to refresh her memory and introduce Gustavo to the concept. Afterwards they gave us a bunch jamón and bread to eat as we learned more about each other. There is a lot of potential there.

Sunday: Sunday ended up being pretty full, another rarity. After church we were going to have a visit with our buddy Nicholas, but he had to move it back so we had some free time in the neighborhood. We hadn't had contact with Alejandra in a while and she lives in that quarter of the city, so we decided to pass by aaand she was home! We caught up a little bit. Her stay in Murcia for the Holidays was unexpectedly extended, so she had just arrived that morning. After that, we met with Nicholas, but didn't have too much time. Just enough to read the introduction together and invite him to read more by our next visit. From there we visited a couple from the ward and we did a little game/spiritual thought about the Holy Ghost and how he works. We were going to meet with Rubén (we've tried numerous times throughout the week) but he had to cancel last minute (as he has done numerous times). We're working on that.

[Intermission]

Alright I'm now in the greater Barcelona area. It was a long train ride.

Monday: Burgroño. We achieved the unthinkable and had a preparation day just for Burgroño. The two isolated cities of Burgos and Logroño only have one companionship each and we never really get to see...anybody. Elder Ferraz, the Austrian prodigy that he is, asked for permission to switch our Monday evening hours to the morning and to have a joint activity in Burgos. They could spend the night, and our district meeting in Burgos (for the first time) would take place the next day without any morning travel on Tuesday. Since it was still a Monday, most of the doable things in Burgos were closed. However, the free evening opened up a little more opportunity. After a hefty meal at Papa John's we went to the bowling alley. We walk in, pay for the game, grab our shoes, and what is the first song to come on? Freaking September by Earth, Wind, and Fire. I honestly stood there in shock for a couple seconds before it set in that I was about to bowl to one of the greatest "let the party begin" hype tracks of the 20th century. After a good time bowling (I won) we went to the centro, passed by the cathedral, and headed up to the castle. The castle itself was closed, but the view was awe-inspiring in the light of the setting sun. The rest of our time was spent writing emails and such. Burgroño Day was one of the better P-days of the mission.

Tuesday: Bizcocho and Disappointment. We had District Meeting in Burgos and it was a hoot. Our 8 person district, guest starring the zone leaders made us a small army. It was a really good meeting, and the Hetzels had all of us over for lunch. I had one of the best pasta salads of my life. Our evening was full, buuuut everybody cancelled on us. Even Nuria. However, her mom wanted us to pass by for a sec because she made us a bizcocho. A "bizcocho" is pretty much cake. Sometimes it has frosting, sometimes it has fruit, if it's a dense baked treat (like banana bread or carrot cake), it's called "bizcocho". She made us one that filled an entire baking pan. Very nice. Crazy nice. No complaints. The rest of the evening was spent cleaning up Burgos' Area Book and making some calls. Burgos Ordenado.

Wednesday: Morning Appointment? We met with a man that Elder Burr and Elder Fryer found on their exchange named Helber. We had a good and quick visit with him, and we'll have to see where things go from there. In the evening a solid group of four, experienced people came to English and it felt a little like Cartagena again. I hope they keep coming. The class kinda died down during the Holidays and it hasn't really recovered yet. We ended the evening with a FHE with Philippe and the Hetzels.

Thurs: Normalito. We had weekly planning in the morning, met with a man named Juan Carlos (another vent/therapy session) and Jennifer found a hole in her schedule to meet. The whole Jennifer-Johanna situation is kinda stuck for now due to their work schedules, so we're just trying to maintain a friendly and edifying relationship with them until circumstances change. More Burgos Ordenado to end the night.

Fri: Cancelled. We had four visits set up and all four ended up not happening. Whatcha gonna due? We are getting everything so clean for Burgos. Contacts, map points, Area Book registers. It's a pretty satisfying process, I'm not gonna lie.

Sat: Open Schedule The only planned visit was with Alejandra. We ended up not being able to be there for very long because it got pushed back and then we had a correlation meeting with Fabian. So we read a chapter of the Book of Mormon with her, decided that we would be reviewing everything that she had been taught so far in our future visits. On our way to correlation in the pouring rain (it snowed a lot one day, but nothing ever stuck, and it had been drizzly for most of the week) we received a text informing us that it would be moved to the next day. More of Burgos Ordenado. That evening we received the call and thus began the packing process. And talk-writing process because I was assigned a talk short-notice as if somebody knew that I was leaving.

Sun: Final Preparations. The talk went well. I actually wasn't left with enough time to give the whole thing, so I had to cut it short. We had another visit with Nicholas where we read the first chapter of the Book of Mormon and then He told us some very personal things that I'm not permitted to write home about. We'll keep visiting him because he's a beast. Our evening ended at the Hetzels' with a family in the branch. It was a good time. We ate, laughed a lot, and had a good look into John 1, the theme of this week's Come, Follow Me lesson.

I'm bushed from all the travel and writing, so today will have to wait for next week. Elder Burr and I managed to stay pretty busy for pretty much the entire transfer. We only had one week where we didn't have to leave Burgos for some reason, and that was the last one. The ball is starting to roll and we should be seeing some good things from Burgos pretty soon.

I hope you enjoyed the epistle. I'm sure to have a lot to write about next week.

Stay tuned!

Elder Jensen :)