Brett's Words--"Number Crunching"

Ok, so promise you won´t freak out. I swear I had no idea. I´m just kidding, I kind of knew, but wasn´t sure so I didn´t mention it before now. What am I talking about? let´s go back to last Thursday during weekly planning:

Elder Garcia and I were having a great time planning for all of our awesome investigators and chowing down on some homemade fruit salad, and we are just about to finish up when...We get a call from President Clegg. So we look at each other and Elder Garcia answers it "Hey, President. How are you?"
"oh I´m fine. Elder Garcia are you sick?"
"no" "oh, well is Elder Anderson sick?"
"no."
"oh...well you´re going to be sick when I tell you this!"

I have to say that our President is the coolest mission president ever. He then proceeded to tell Elder Garcia that he was going to have the opportunity to train a brand new Elder here in Pontevedra and how important it is. So after praising Elder Garcia immensely, he then let him know how serious and important this calling is. And then he passed the phone to me.
"hey, Elder Anderson, are you out of bed yet?" (it was 2:00)
"yeah, kind of president."
"really though?"
"well I actually have a hard time with that President."
"you should probably try a little harder with that"
"ok President"
"Well, I wanted to tell you that you will be leaving Pontevedra. And you will be getting a lot closer to us than you probably ever wanted to be."

I repeat, coolest man ever. He then proceeded to tell me that I am leaving Pontevedra on Wednesday and taking an 11 hour train ride to----------Bilbao! Actually a part of it called Las Arenas. And that I will be the new financial secretary for the Spain Bilbao mission. What!? Ok, so I know I´m good with numbers, but I really don´t want to be jumping on the Elder Gilmore bandwagon(I heard through the rumor mill that he was secretary or something, maybe you could send me a bit of his recent emails or whatever). But yeah, all joking aside, I am stoked. President Clegg told me that we are still missionaries first and that we are "teaching and baptizing missionaries" so I can still do the fun stuff. He also said we set the example in the mission and, "as the office goes, so goes the rest of the mission". He also told me what a big responsibility it is to be in charge of the church´s money and that I should avoid stealing all of it and escaping to France. I repeat he rocks and now I am going to be working with him and Hermana Clegg a lot.

I am super excited for this next step. But that brings me back to leaving Pontevedra. When I left Logroño I didn´t have too many ties, left my first area to go tear up my second one and be better. I also didn´t have too many cool investigators or close member friends to leave. But this is different. I think in a big way I grew up in Pontevedra. I love the members, I love the city, I love the investigators. I have seen the best examples of how people´s lives are better by following the Gospel than I have ever seen. I have met and worked with members who are some of the strongest, best people I have met.

This last transfer we have been throwing up the best numbers and best success that this city has seen in more than a year, and between that there was almost nothing. I don´t want to leave. I gave my farewell testimony in church yesterday and it was super sad. Christian, the man we baptized back in February got up and had Elder Garcia translate his testimony(Christian is from Ghana and doesn´t speak much spanish) and Christian thanked God for bringing the missionaries to me and thanked me personally.

This has been the happiest time of my mission, this last transfer. But I know I have done what I needed to do, I have left the area better than how I found it, I have left the Rama (branch) better than how I found it. And I worked my guts out here, and because of that I don´t want to leave.lol. But yeah. Asi es la vida. Or C´est la vi (I have know idea how to spell that, but it´s french) or é o que hai (Galego) or é o que temos(Portuguese) or that´s the way the cookie crumbles(American). So yeah, just wanted you all to know that.

We had an awesome week to cap it off, lots of cool progress in our investigators and lots of fun, a big Spanish fiesta Saturday night to celebrate the beginning of the bull fights. In the fiesta everyone got in teams with the same shirts and threw wine and coke and water all over everybody, mostly wine. Yeah, we stayed away from that one, with our white shirts and all.

I will get to Bilbao and be in a trio (3 missionaries) for a transfer (6 weeks) while I get trained up, then the old financial secretary leaves and I´m on my own. I will be with Elder Barber(the old one) and Elder Strickland(the travel secretary). They usually only train you for 3 weeks, but we are also getting a new senior couple to help us out and so they want a little more stability for a bit.

But yeah. I love you all, take it easy, trentin don´t die in band camp. Trevor, play some Call of Duty 4 for me while listening to the old Mayday Parade cd.(actually it seems like the cool one to me, but when I get back it will be really old). We are going to Vigo today to spend my last P-day with the district and eat at a chinese buffet. Oh yeah. Also, toma kyle( eat it), I am making bank eating at members houses cause I´m leaving.lol.

Well, have a good week, and pray for me to not get frustrated working with computers and numbers all day. -Elder Anderson

Kyle's Words--"I am Sparticus"

This has been a great week. With a new record. You will be impressed. We had a dinner appointment EVERY single night this week except (of course) Saturday (fasting). But we had two Sunday so it makes up for it. Yep. After a year in the Philippines I’ve figured things out. It was great. Monday was probably the best. I just mentioned to a member that in Mississippi we eat fried catfish and okra. We show up Monday and we have:Catfish Curry! It was actually really good. With lots of okra. Great dinner. It also had a dessert\soup with coconut milk and guavas (dulce or something?). Nice hot dessert on a rainy night. The second night it was just some hot dog imitations from a stand, but we got to ride in the sweet car of a rich member. We hopped into his 100% tinted car (no laws on window tint here. Life is sweet for the rich people) and then he asked my companion “Do you like the Eagles?” My companion says yes, and he pulls out a random DVD player and sets us up with the Eagles Live in Concert. We got him to switch eventually, but his playlist was only stuff like Nelly, Snoop Dog, and Akon. This guy’s like 40. Way cool though. He also told us he was going down to Manila on the 17th (right after transfers) and asked if we like Pizza Hut. AHHHHHHHH!!!!! I sooo hope I’m not transferred. I’ll probably slip him a thousand pesos and tell him to get as many krispy kreme as he can. It’s only 20 bucks, but here that lasts us a whole week with food and travel. And that’s eating well. So it seems a lot to me. But I’m still doing it. Don’t worry, I’ll work for four hours when I get back home to make up for it. That is, if I can find a job.

It’s way easy though. You just have to ask the right questions. What are you going to use that kamote for? Oh yeah? That’s funny, I haven’t ever seen it done that way. Yeah, I guess we could taste some but we have an appointment right now. Sure, we could come back later. Done. That simple. They love it when you know what ingredients are. So for this past year I have been asking like crazy, and now I just have to say random things I know about different ingredients or ways to cook it. Once they’re on the topic of food, its about a 95% chance they will offer you some. I also learned on my own how to cook torones this week Way good for breakfast with bananas picked fresh off of our tree.I promise we actually have done work.

A lot of let down’s this week. I want to work on my hope, but there is a point where it’s just foolish and you’ve got to drop them. Especially when they won’t be honest with you. On a plus though,Bubert decided to get baptized!. We’ve been teaching him forever. He’s always known, but has been worried about his nonmember aunt that basically raised him. We commit him almost every time we visit, but recently he’s said that HE will be the one to tell us. So we’ve been focusing on the importance of baptism. This week though, because of scheduling we haven’t been able to teach him. Then we went to a birthday party for some food yesterday and he was cooking the duck. We ate inside and then went out to talk to him, just check up on him because he didn’t come to church. I told him we missed him and he said “But I can still be baptized at the end of the month, right?” And I was like, “Really?” not wanting to get my hopes up, because he likes to joke. Then he asked “What’s the date of the last Saturday in August?” I whipped out my wallet like my life depended on it and checked my cool little pocket calendar I got from the smoothie shop in Santiago. “The 29th”“Ok, that’s when I’ll get baptized.” Holy Cow. I was so happy. It was awesome. I guess he just needed some time.

So let’s keep working, and make sure he doesn’t change his mind again. That’s all. I love you all. Bye.

Happy Birthday, Trevor!

Trevor turned 18 a couple of weeks ago. His friend, Ben, turned 18 a couple of days ago. So last night they had a big party. They wanted a dinosaur theme and Trevor asked for a dinosaur cake. So this is what I made for him. I haven't made a fun cake like this in several years. And it is probably the last one I will make for Trevor. Here's to little boys that never quite grow up! I love you Trevor.

What do you do with the world's largest cucumber?

You make pickles! One cucumber made 12 pints of relish and another 3 made 6 quarts of dill pickles. This was my first ever canning adventure. Thanks to Vanetta it was a great success. Aren't those jars just beautiful? :)