From Spain:
Me Voy! Que lastima, pero adios--
So those are the lyrics to a hit song here that plays all the time. I actually like it a lot, but probably shouldn´t. It means, I´m leaving, what a shame, but goodbye. And yes, it does have something to do with transfer news! I am leaving Logroño today actually. I am going to go to León first, take care of residency stuff, spend the night, then head off to my new city- Pontevedra. That is where Elder Larson, my companion now, just came from, so I have been pumping tons of info from him. It is exciting. So also about boxes, Grandad I got yours and thanks a lot. You did an amazing job selecting those things. I really hadn´t asked for anything and you sent some really key things(peanut butter, oatmeal, jelly, and peanuts). About the package from home, it probably is in Bilbao right now if you sent it to the mission office. I will get in in a couple more weeks during our zone conference. If you sent it to Logroño it is probably now in the hands of a Jitan(gypsie race that are all over Europe) and we won´t get it back. If you send letters or anything to the mission office we only get those during 1. interviews or 2.Zone conference, the only 2 times during a transfer that we see the president. They have to travel all over northern spain to get to the different cities so they only come and bring stuff twice every six weeks. That being in mind, you can send anything to either the mission office or my city, the mission office takes longer, but if it gets to the city after i have gone Elders aren´t so good at forwarding stuff. Elder Lawson(other in piso) had a box in his old area for 5 months and finally the Presidents wife made them mail it themselves and pay the postage. But me moving won´t be a problem for another 4 or 5 months, and you usually stay in an area for 6 so yeah-food for thought.
So I gave my leaving testimony in Sacrament meeting yesterday and it was awesome to look at at the faces of all the members I have gotten close to. There are so many good people here that are so willing to help. Also, Javier was there! Yeah, so I jumped on that and got a picture with him. he is such a stud. I said goodbye to Carmina too and did like a flashback thing. It is so amazing to see the gospel change people. You usually hear that about people becoming nicer or stopping smoking or stuff, but the Gospel and influence of the spirit also helps us in so many other ways. We had a visit with her this week(we tried 3, but the members jacked us twice-not a normal thing though) and she was soooo different then when we first met her. Our first visit was ridiculous, but she has been made capable. In this visit last week she didn´t just tell random stories, but she shared personal experiences that actually had to do with the subject. She read scriptures and commented on them and what she understands from them. She answered our questions. It was a miracle. I was so happy after that visit. Last week we gave her Ether 12 to read and when we checked up on her she told us she had actually read that and then finished the whole Book of Mormon. We didn´t really believe her, cause she tells stories that sometimes seem made up, but then in the visit I asked her one way God speaks to her and she talked about how she was reading Moroni 8 and God told her we shouldn´t baptize children. And I was like...she did read the whole thing. We continually underestimate her, and the miracles that God works on people. It was awesome. We are starting to think her stories might all be true, maybe she does host the prince of Spain in her mansion hotel with 17 rooms in her village. Who knows?
But yeah, we also had a great lesson this week that made me understand even more the principle of-we need to experience sorrow so we can appreciate joy more. We were knocking and told a man we had a message about the purpose of life and he was like, come in. And we were like, "huh? This isn´t how it goes. You are supposed to slam the door." And then we went in and taught him. He is a was awesome Spanish man with a little baby, he got married a year ago and he has a bunch of faith in God. He has many ideas similar to ours also. It was the most amazing lesson ever, we taught more personably than I had ever before. We only taught about God and families cause he only had 15 minutes, but we testified to him a bunch and brought out random scriptures to read. It was like the perfect lesson, and the spirit was so strong. Only hitch was at the end he told us that he would call us when he had more time, which usually means never, but we know his address so they are going to pass by in a week or so. And after I was just so happy. I felt so good, that after a long trying few weeks, we had an amazing lesson. This is our purpose and it makes us happier. I then thought that if we had been having a ton of lessons, that probably wouldn´t have seemed so special, So I was stoked.
SO congrats to Trevor for getting into BYU. Alright! The legacy continues. Unless you are going to Ole Miss instead? So that is about it, I love you all, am excited for Pontevedra. -Elder Anderson
From The Philippines:
Agyaman Ti Adobo--
So I have a little announcement. Happy Birthday Mom! You’ll probably receive this after your birthday, because mail here is really slow. It’s not in any way because I forgot to mention it in the last e-mail. Anyways, I had a thought. I was reading 3 Nephi 5:20 and I was likening it to myself.“I am [Kyle], and a pure descendent of [Adam]. I have reason to bless my God and Savior Jesus Christ, that he brought our fathers out of the land of [Britain], (and no one knew save it [was everyone who has read a textbook]) and that he hath given me and my people so much knowledge unto the salvation of our souls.”So aside from the sweet knowledge that I am a PURE descendent of Adam (which actually only excludes one person), I was thinking about how blessed I am to have had the gospel in my life growing up. I have reason to thank my Lord and Savior, and one more person I added was my mother. I teach a lot of part member families, and have even taught two guys whose girlfriends made them listen. I’ve noticed it’s really hard in the lessons when the guy doesn’t really want to know, because we all have to have the desire to know first. So I’m glad mom pushed. And I thank you, mom. I thank you for all the opportunities you have allowed our family. For all the love and growth that wouldn’t have come as abundantly if not through the practices of the gospel in our home. I’m thankful that you loved us enough to insure those blessings, even before we were born. So I thank my God, and I thank you, mom.
P.S. –I love you too dad, don’t feel left out. Thanks for taking the time to listen to the message, and acting on it.Business: I have received the package Dad and enjoy it thoroughly. I totally love the Nearer My God To Me Rendition. It’s awesome. The coat is really overkill though, especially as it has just started to warm up again. But thanks for the thought. I have not been able to watch the videos because of a software program at this computer shop, but right now I am burning a DVD I can put in my DVD player and listen to (we don’t have a screen in the apartment).
So this week we had a Service project. It was just like any other service project, except for the fact that within two minutes of choosing our selective swords in our quest to vanquish the grass, our 19 year old fellowshipper cut his leg due to excessive follow through. Yeah. I’m a foreigner, and even I didn’t cut my own leg. He didn’t say anything. He just walked inside. Then his 20 year old brother got tired after fifteen minutes and joined him, where they sang karaoke until we came in after a couple hours. It wasn’t deep, but it did need stitches. It was kind of funny though. He took first year college to be a nurses assistant, and ran into the house to ask the lady who washes clothes for a living what he should do. She was like “You’re the nurses assistant!” He dropped out though because “It was too hard.” So now he sits at home all day with with his brother with no plans to work, study, or go on a mission. It kind of works out well though, because they’re free to work all the time when we need a male.
So yeah, time’s a little short, and not a whole lot happened this week, except for the less active priest we taught preparing himself and blessing the sacrament. That made me happy. We also cooked chicken curry at our Branch President’s house earlier that was really good, and of which I also ate way too much. We’re still finding new people to teach. Two of which we saw on the street earlier and they were the ones who reminded us we had lessons with them later. That was cool. It’s usually us reminding them. They seem excited, so we’ll see what happens.I love you all. Take care.
And Trevor stop showing me up in everything, I can’t do anything to counter it right now.
P.S. The title is an Illokano joke. It's supposed to be Agyaman Ti Adu (many thanks) but instead of Adu I said Adobo(the Philippines national dish). Hahahahaha.
