Cantan Santos Angeles

Dear family,
So once again, in a little Muslim computer shop, where the keyboards
Don’t quite function right. The weeks just fly by! This past week,
Elder Bodily and I had an absolute blast. He is my new companion from
Ogden, Utah. He plays the piano super well, he knows the scriptures,
and he´s a runner. We have way too much fun together. I´m going to
send a picture of us that we took right before we went out to go
proselyting.
So on Tuesday, I met Elder Bodily, and then we did all the stuff that
we needed to do, and then that night we went to Plaza Catalunya in the
heart of Barcelona and did contacts and sang to the missionaries that
were going home. It´s so weird seeing missionaries go home! We had a
good time singing, even though it was freezing! All the missionaries
that will go home in the summer have it so much better because the
nights are way more beautiful. It gets cold here in Spain. Not as
cold as Russia or the Baltics like the Froelich Elders, but pretty
cold.
So on Wednesday, we had a cita with a Dominican lady named Margarita.
She is really, really nice, and we´ve been meeting with her for a long
time. She wants to get baptized, and she knows that it´s something
she has to do, the only problem is that she works on Sunday and says
that she can´t give that up. We´re still working with her. We want
to get her baptized this year, but maybe that´s not the will of the
Lord. She’s really nice, she loves the elders, and she loves all the
members that we´ve introduced her to. Then we had our district
meeting, and one of the Hermanas in our district is from Spain, so we
did the whole meeting in Spanish! That still blows me away, that by
being immersed in Spanish, you just kind of learn it. So then this
night, we met a new investigator named Eddy, who is a sad soul. He´s
from Ecuador, he doesn´t work, he sits at home all day, and he told us
that he doesn´t really have purpose to his life. We hope that we can
help him out a lot, and help him realize his divine potential and his
purpose in the plan of salvation. He live with a member named Angel,
who is this man with one leg and he walks funny and I just love him to
death. He is so humble and sweet and I just give him a big hug
every time I see him. The members here are wonderful. Another cita we
had was with a man and a woman named Mariuxi and Nixon. They are from
Ecuador, she´s really sweet and patient and loves the missionaries and
what we teach, and he´s pretty good, but has anger problems. She´s
really patient with him. Of course, they´re not married, but they are
pretty interested. If we can get them married, the gospel would be
so so so good for them. Then for dinner we went to Los Luque, and we
ate so much. I´m starving right now because we ran out of food from
last week!
On Thursday, we got stood up a lot, but we did a lot of good work. We
talked to a lot of people and set up a lot of good citas for this
week. We had dinner with the Dominican lady named Marienela, and it
just makes me want to baptize lots of people! She takes care of us
like we´re her children. The gospel brings people together like
nothing else. On Friday, I got to go on intercambios with a Spaniard
named Elder Ramirez, and he was SO INTENSE. I was so worn out from
being with him because he had so much energy, talked so much! He is
the best missionary, and my brain was fried from thinking straight in
Spanish. Having a native companion would be so fun but so difficult!
I hope that I get it one day. Today we contacted a lot of people and
had a lot of good visits. One visit was with a man named Pepe, and his
wife is LDS and he isn´t. He thinks he´s too learned to be a member
of the church. We had a good cita with him, and my intercambio
companion told him that he would get baptized one day. The guy said
one day, I will. It was a good cita. The spirit can change hearts.
On Saturday, we had a lot of good things going on. We met with a lot
of good people. We contacted 50 people today, and talked to them
about the gospel. It was so fun. We talked to all different kinds of
people. People who believe, don´t believe, want to believe, don´t
want to believe. Nice people, mean people, swearing people. It was
fun. It was late and we preached to a bunch of people drinking in a
park. We just bore testimony about the happiness that God wants for
us. We had a really good time. Missionary work is the most fun when
you´re working the hardest. That´s absolutely the truth. I love it!
We had a good visit with a girl named Katy who is working to get
baptized in an Evangelical church. We taught the Restoration
beautifully, and we told her to read and pray about the Book of
Mormon. We felt the spirit, she felt the spirit, and she knew that
what we were teaching was true. Her husband came out in the middle of
the lesson and got mad at her for listening to us. We were trying to
be nice and he got mad, and then she got mad at him and told him to go
into his room. He left in a huff. This girl Katy has been prepared.
She´s going to read a part of the Book of Mormon and pray and we´re
meeting with her again this week. The good thing that we know is that
the Book is true, and that God WILL answer her if she prays sincerely.
I just sent my president letter to you, and that has basically everything in it.
Basically, we´re having a blast here in L’Hospitalet. I love my peanut
butter sandwiches. On one worldy note, that´s awesome that Lebron
had 38 points. He´s the man.
So, we´re so excited for Christmas here. It´s a wonderful time. It´s
going to be a white Christmas for us here, because we´re going to help
someone receive the saving ordinance of baptism before the end of the
year. I have faith, and Elder Bodily and I are going to work hard and
do it with the help of the Lord.
I love you fam, keep being great!
Love,
Elder Pericle
P.s. In every cita, Elder Bodily and I sing Christmas songs in
Spanish, and it´s wonderful. The people here love hearing two
American boys sing.

That Child of His

Querido familia,
Aquí estoy otra vez en el locutorio con los ordenadores que no
funcionan. Esta semana pasada volió super rápido. Me quedo aquí en
Hospitalet pero ahora yo tengo otro compañero se llama Elder Bodily.
Él es de Utah y es super listo. Vamos a tener éxito juntos. Alright,
if you can understand that I will be impressed! I got the package
with the peanut butter and the Ensign and the pictures. I still
haven´t opened the peanut butter yet - the more I´m on the mission the
more I realize I´m like dad - I have to hang up my towel so it dries
out, I don´t sleep as well at night when I don´t scrub my feet before
going to bed. Love ya dad. I think today I will have a good peanut
butter and jelly sandwich with all the Elders in our piso. I think
they´ll like that.
Anyway, this past week was just a joy. I really enjoyed it. On
Lunes, we had two Noche de Hogars, and it was fabulous. The members
here are wonderful. They always feed us, and they love the
missionaries, and we love them. They are all such examples, and they
have such beautiful families. So on Martes we had our thanksgiving
dinner, and we bought a 4.7 kilo turkey, and Elder Booher cooked it.
He spent so long preparing it. Elder Booher is quite the cook, it´s
really impressive. He is not with us anymore, he has left and has
gone to a different area in the mission, but my seven weeks with him
were great. He cooked so well. For the dinner, Elder Atkin and I
were in charge of chocolate chip cookies. So we made the cookies, but
we didn´t put in enough flour, so we put the cookies in the oven, they
melted into a big pool, so we poured it back into the bowl, added more
flour, and cooked the cookies. We were so worried about how they
would turn out, and they turned out to be such a hit. It was so good
to celebrate thanksgiving. It was kind of cool to that a bunch of
American missionaries were in a little chapel in Hospitalet eating
mashed potatoes, turkey, pumpkin pie, cookies. It was way good.
After the dinner, I went on intercambios with Elder Booher for two
days, and it was good. We talked to a lot of people. I never thought
I´d say this, but knocking doors is pretty fun. You really never know
who you are going to get, who is going to answer the door on the other
side. Most of the time, people are pretty rude, but some times people
are pretty nice. We had a good time together, Elder Booher and I.
I´ll miss him a lot, especially his cooking! Our eating habits are
going to go way down!
So on thursday, we kind of had a tough day. We had seven visits set
up, and all of them seemed pretty solid, but only two showed up. It
was a little bit of a struggle, but it was good. Those days that are
hard are the days that you remember. Elder Hansen and I still worked
hard, and we enjoyed our time in the street we had. It´s so fun
talking to people. There are so many people that just blow you off,
but when you find someone who will talk to you, it´s wonderful.
People can still tell I´m an American when I talk, because of my
accent, so that´s something that I´m going to try really hard to work
on.
On friday, the same thing happened. We had seven visits set up, and
this time only 4 stood us up. It was still good though. We are
working with this Menos Activo guy named Salva, and he is a good guy.
He is a Spaniard, and he doesn´t have upper teeth and so it´s nearly
impossible to understand him, but he juts loves the missionaries,
feeds us scary lamb loins and sheep cheese (nasty!). He has quite a
few problemos, but we are working with him on that. The Lord loves
this child of His.
Then, we had a visit with a member that night, Felicidad, and on my
right toe, my toenail was starting to hurt, and so she fixed it up,
because that is what she does for her job. She gave me some good
hints to take care of my feet. People are really nice to the
missionaries!
On saturday, we had a really good day. We had our Dominican friend,
Victor, and he is just great. He loves the missionaries, tells his
nephew that he needs to come to church and get baptized so he can go
on a mission, and wants to be baptized himself so bad, but he has to
get divorced from his second wife first. The change we´ve seen in him
is incredible. Only the gospel can do that. Then, we had a visit
with a 12 year old Chilena girl sho is inactive, and it was crazy
because Annie is older than her! Annie is probably getting so big,
isn´t she? This girl is really shy, and it made me think - if two
foreign missionaries came and visited Annie, she´d probably be pretty
shy too wouldnt she? I love the people here.
Then, Saturday night, we went and taught a lesson to the mom, the
teenage daughter, and the Dora the Explorer look a like in the house
of a member. We did this activity called Señor Huevo, and it explains
the gospel of Jesus Christ, and how they are certain things that we
have to do in order to enter into the kingdom of God. You use and
egg, and it won´t fit in with the shell, so you have to take off the
shell. Still doesn´t fit. Needs baptism, dunk it in water. Still
doesn´t fit. Needs the holy ghost, drop some matches in, and it fits.
Then you put the lid on, and that´s perserverar hasta el fin
(preserve to the end? I don´t know how to say it in English!) The
family didn´t seem like they were getting it, but we found out later
that they understand perfectly. The member family was great, and they
helped us so much. The mom and two daughters made up some lame excuse
not to come to church. Pretty much, they hated church. Can you
believe that! We had a visit with them yesterday though, and we
sorted everything out . They want to be baptized so bad, that they are
willing to work through this whole thing of church. We´re just going
to keep working with them, and they should be baptized the 11th or
18th of December.
On Sunday, we didn´t have any visits all day. We spent the whole
afternoon after church passing by people, and no one would let us in.
It was okay though, we got some good street work done and talked to
some pretty good people in the street. Elder Hansen has really taught
me a lot about street contacting. It´s fun to talk to people about
the gospel.
So yesterday we had a neat experience. We were in the house of a guy
we talked to on the street, Victor, another Dominicano that we are
teaching, and we find out that the woman he lives with almost got
baptized back in her country. We were excited to work with them, and
then all of a sudden this guy comes through the door, someone who also
lives in the apartment. We just ran back to his room, and we didn´t
think anything of it. We continued talking to the Dominicans, and
then the guy came out and said, "hey, you guys are Mormons right?"
"Uh, yeah we are, why?" "Well I studied with Mormons about 3 years
ago and I´ve been looking for some more missionaries to come and teach
me. I almost got baptized!" We were very excited. It was really a
neat experience, and we´re visiting all of them tomorrow. It should
be really good.
So last night, also was the Barcelona Madrid soccer game here in
Barcelona. So basically once the game started at 9, there was not a
soul in the street. We would walk around, and the town would explode
at different times, and we knew that Barc scored. It was awesome. We
did not get any work done during this time, but Elder Hansen and I had
a good time in the street walking around looking for people.
So yeah, everything is going great here on the mission. I see
miracles everyday, I have a new companion now, I´m still here in
Hospitalet, my Spanish is improving slowly, we´re excited for this
upcoming transfer. Basically it´s just wonderful.
That makes me really happy that you had the missionaries over for
breakfast! I bet they loved that. Keep being great family.
For Christmas, I really don´t know what I need! I have basically
everything. I really do. Maybe I´ll think of something and let you
know. Thanks so much for the package! I loved it.
And it´s crazy that one year ago tomorrow, I broke my arm in Provo.
Look at how far I´ve come in one year. I can do hard things with the
Lord´s help. Without Aunt Lisa and dad, I don´t know if I would have
made it! That was a trying time - get dad to tell you about when I
was all depressed. It makes me smile. The challenges we have in life
are all for our good. Well I have to go, next week I´ll send
pictures. Keep being great, love you all.
Love,
Elder Pericle

Hospitalet--Could this be it?

Dear family,
Here it is, yet another week, sitting in a Muslim computer shop on a
computer that doesn´t work just right. The work is going so great
here in L'Hospitalet, I basically love it. It really is awesome.
Elder Hansen and I are doing really well, and we´re getting a lot of
work done and seeing some pretty cool miracles. So on preparation day
of last week, we invited the guy kelly that looks like Lebron James to
come and play basketball with us. We played, and he was pretty good,
but I was playing pretty well. We just played half court, and I kind
of went off. He said that I could easily get on the team he plays for
and makes 400 € a game. Worth it? Not really. I love basketball
though. On Monday of this week, we had a family home evening with
this one man, named Rodrigo. Served a mission, married in the temple,
now he´s completely inactive. It´s pretty sad, I won´t lie. We
talked to him about prayer, and we asked him about some stories from
his mission. He told us two, and one of them was about when he was
really hungry with his companion, because it was near the end of the
month and they didn't really have any money to buy any food. So they
were kind of forced into fasting. They were talking, and Rodrigo told
his companion that all he wanted was some chicken and potatoes. They
said the prayer to go out that morning, and the companion asked the
Lord to bless his companion with chicken and potatoes. They just kind
of laughed, like 19 year olds do, and they went out to work. He said
he remembers it was a hard day, but they worked hard, and they didn´t
eat all day. As they were walking back to their apartment, a member
invited them over to eat, and fed them chicken and potatoes. He
started to cry telling us about it. He knows that this Church is the
true church, he´s just got to come back. I really enjoyed that visit
with him. On Tuesday, we visited a 20 year old girl, who is a menos
activa and comes to church every now and then because her mom is super
inactive and doesn´t want anything to do with it. She tries her best
and has to basically raise two little brothers. We raised her spirits
with a scripture, told her thanks for being an example to her
brothers. She was very thankful for our visit. Being an example is
so important. So on Tuesday, we also had a really cool experience.
This family of three, the mom, the 17 year old daughter, and the 8
year old daughter from Bolivia that looks just like Dora the Explorer
let us come over. They don´t have electricity, they don´t have water,
they don´t have gas. They´re basically dirt poor. We went over, and
the mom talked to us for 45 minutes and told us her life story. It
was so intense. The kids used to beg for food, the mom was abused,
the 17 year old girl has a 2 year old kid, almost got killed by the
father. It´s nuts what these people went through. We got to the
visit at 5, and we had to leave at 5;45 because it was so dark I
couldn´t see her face. It was sad. The good thing is, is that they
all accepted to be baptized, and we´re working with them. The mom
told us recently that our presence has changed the feeling in their
home. Little do they know is that it isn´t us, but the Spirit. She
said usually the girls hate getting up in the morning, but now that
they know we´re coming, they get up and they´re all excited and
everything. I love the change that the gospel of Jesus Christ makes.
The mom and the 17 year old daughter love to learn so much, and they
have so many questions. They are good. We actually brought them to
church on sunday, and the mom said she
didn´t like it. She said she felt weird, and that she didn´t
learn as much as she wanted to. She said that in Relief Society,
people didn´t talk about the gospel as much as they should. She said
that all they talked about were going away pàrties and what happened
that last week. She said that she didn´t really like it, but that she
still wanted to keep learning from us. How can people not like
church!! We talked with her, and on Sunday night, we took her to a
members house and watched the Restoration DVD. It was so good. I
loved it, she loved it, we all loved it. This member family is the
greatest, and I love them so much. The spirit in their home is just
so good. The woman was crying, and said she felt so good and that
she´ll continue towards her baptism. The 17 year old said that her
birthday was December 9th, and she wants to be baptized before then.
I love it. The member family then brought out these huge plates of
rice and beans, and the little 8 year old girl, Dora the Explorer look
a like ate the food just as fast as I did, and I eat fast. She must
have been starving. We are so blessed, we don´t even know it. This
poor little girl must have been so hungry. She ate so much so fast!
I´m so glad that the Lord allowed us to meet and to teach this family.
This family has been prepared so well, and they need baptism so bad.
They´re scheduled to be baptized on Dec 4th, and transfers are next
week. With my luck, I´d be transferred out of here. I know, I know,
everything is done for a purpose, and it´s a team effort, but it´s the
natural man in me, and I hope I´m here for their baptism! We´ll see
how it goes. (¡Iré y haré!)
So yeah, that was the coolest part of this week, we found this family,
they want to get baptized so bad, they´re so prepared, and they love
having us over. These two big American boys who come over and teach
about the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. It´s wonderful. The
church is true!
It was a really good week this last week. It was a little long at
some points, but it´s funny how the minutes and hours are long, but
weeks fly by. It´s crazy to me that it´s already November 22nd.
We´re going to have a thanksgiving meal on Tuesday with our district.
We´re pretty excited for it.
For the Book of Mormon reading dad, there´s a part in Preach my Gospel
in chapter 5 that talks about the Book of Mormon and how it answers
questions of the soul. Check it out, it ´s really good. I´d have him
read Mosiah 3, 3 Nephi 11, Moroni 10:3-5. All are very popular, but
all that guy has to do is to feel the Spirit. If the Book of Mormon
is true, then everything falls into place. I´ve been reading the Book
of Mormon a lot lately in my personal study, and I really like it. I
learn so much every time I read it, and I´m really loving it. It´s
absolutely the word of God, and it´s absolutely what the world needs.
Do you remember the talk by Elder Holland about Safety for the Soul?
It´s incredible. It talks about Joseph and Hyrum going to their death
with the Book of Mormon, and how they didn´t deny it, not even once.
It´s so good, I highly recommend listening to it. The spirit is so
strong with that. Elder Holland says in there, that he wants it
absolutely clear when he stands before the Judgement Bar of God, that
he declared to the world in the most straightforward and simple
language he could summon, that the Book of Mormon and all that it
entails is true and is the word of God. I love that. The Book of
Mormon is true, and that´s all that matters. It absolutely testifies
of Christ. I´ve gotten to be so much closer to Christ now on my
mission by reading it. It´s wonderful. Girls, I hope you all serve
missions.
So yeah, that´s about it. We´ll see how everything goes. It sounds
like you all are having a good time at home. Count your blessings,
that you have running water and electricty, heat, comfy beds. It´s
such a good experience to be here and to see the other side of things.
Really humbles you. I love it.
Well, keep being great. I´ll keep serving.
Love,
Elder Pericle

Hola Again

To My Family,
Everything is going great here in little L´Hospitalet. Did you know that we´re pretty close to where FC Barcelona plays? I want to go to a game some day. I bought a David Villa jersey a while ago, one of my first weeks here, and I wear it all the time in piso. It´s just part of the Barcelona, Catalunya pride! So this past week was just a joy. It was just a blur. Sometimes when you´re out on the street and you have no where to go and no one wants to talk to you, it seems like life will never end, but then all of a sudden it´s preparation day again and you´re sitting in a Muslim Locutorio writing home. So this past week we got 6 new investigators! It was really cool. On Monday, a family in the ward, Los Cedeño, invited over a friend for a family home evening, and we went over. We just talked a little bit about the church and about the Book of Mormon. The family dedicated the Book of Mormon and the girl was so touched that we would share this with her. It was really cool. Members are really the best way to do missionary work.
On Tuesday we had our district meeting, and it was really spiritual the whole time. We talked a lot about ways that we could do our part as a district to help the mission reach the goal of 400 baptisms. I felt the spirit strong the whole meeting, and we all had a testimony meeting at the end, and we all feel really good about what we can do as a district. One of the ideas that we got is that in our visits, we are going to ask people for who we can pray for that night, people they know who need prayers, and we are going to give the people a dropped call, just to let them know that we are praying for these people and for them. So every night at 10:30 we stop what we´re doing, give a handful of dropped calls, and kneel down and pray for these people. Praying for them really has increased my love for all these people. Our investigators and our menos activos love it. We love it too.
So after the district meeting I went on an intercambio with Elder Morrison, who is serving in Cornella. It is not too far from here. I was reminded of dad telling me to hang up my towel (something that I ALWAYS do!) because in their piso they didn´t hang up their towels and they all smelled of mildew and they hadn´t done their dishes in weeks! It was an absolute mess. I had a good time on my intercambio, and I definitely learned the importance of hanging up towels and keeping the place clean. I can´t believe how messy I was before the mission! I´ve gotten so much better at keeping things organized. Yes, I still have a bit of clutter, but it is not requisite for a man to run faster than he has strength. Anyway, also on this intercambio, we also did a lot of Noche de Hogars (family home evenings) and I hope that you´re doing them at home! The members here are so good, and it´s so weird that we just go in there and talk Spanish. I did get Grandma and Grandpa´s letters (Thanks so much for that!), and in one of them they said that I don´t even realize that I´ve learned a new language. It´s already like a part of me, and that´s so true. It´s so weird. I´ll be sitting in discussions, telling people how I feel about the gospel and explaining it, and all of a sudden I´ll stop and think to myself, this is weird, I´m talking in Spanish like it´s nothing. Now my Spanish is not perfect, but I´m working on it. It´s really cool how 19 year old boys go out and preach the gospel in foreign languages. I love it, the chuch is true.
On Thursday we had our weekly planning session, and Elder Hansen realized that he only had 14 weeks left on his mission! We made appropriate goals to finish out this transfer strong. I don´t know if I´m staying or if I´m going, so we´ll see in two weeks!
So on Friday, we had a meeting with our new ward mission leader. I always thought that that calling was probably the worst, but boy was I wrong! That has got to be the best calling that there is. We had such a good time planning on the mission plan for the ward. His name is Omar and he´s from Argentina, and so he speaks funny (people say the Spaniards speak funny - lies!) and he´s super intense. He has major tiffs with the Bishop and the Bishop's wife, and he always tells us about it. He´s a good guy, and he´s very excited about missionary work. I can´t wait to be a member missionary later on in life, but as for now it´s my time to serve full time.
On Saturday, we found a new investigator, LeBron James! Okay it´s not really LeBron, but he looks just like LeBron. His name is Kelly and he plays professional basketball around here in Barç and he is a model as well. He really looks like Lebron, and he is so ready for baptism. We´re going to work with him to get him baptized, and he´s excited. He was taught by Elders long ago, and he moved and was kind of forgotten about, and we tracked him down. The only thing is, is that he´s 27 and not married but expecting a baby in the next couple of weeks with his girlfriend of 4 years. His first baby. We asked him about marriage and he said that he was way too young! People are funny. We´re going to work with him, and we invited him to play ball with us today at 3 in the chapel, so we´ll see how that goes. He does look just like Lebron though.
On Saturday afternoon we were in the chapel eating lunch with some members, and they had a super sábado in the chapel. There were youth from Barcelona, Hospitalet, Zaragoza, and Valencia! Basically all over Spain. It was cool to see all the Spanish youth. I kind of wished that I was a youth in Spain, but then I realized that all of them wish they were growing up in the states! It was weird seeing the super saturday, I kind of felt like I should be in there. It wasn´t too long ago that I was a youth. Time flies sisters! Take advantage of all the youth activities. I have fond memories of mom forcing me to go to stake dances!
So then we had a small miracle. It was Saturday night, and a contact we made said that he wanted us to go over to his house at 7. So we went over there, and there was no one there. So we knocked on some doors around the building (so fun, because you never know who is on the other side!) and we came back to the guys door 15 minutes later, and a little girl opened the door, and we asked for Miguel, the contact, and she said hold on. A mom and a teenage girl came to the door and they introduced themselves. Their dad recently died, and they had been reading the bible, and they said that they want us to come over and to teach them about the word of God! (people say that a lot in Spanish - la palabra de Dios - and it sounds weird in English, but who knows). We are so excited to work with them. They were super nice.
So on Sunday, we had 3 investigators in Church, Angel, the intense Spaniard, Victor, the humble Dominican, and Johnathan, a 22 year old who could pass as 14, who was their with his Menos Activo wife. People loved them to death, and they all loved church. Church is such a privilege to go to! (I´m reminded of myself and of Annie, and our kicking and screaming and saying we didn't like church. We are too funny) I love the Church in Spain. It´s a different world over here. We had the primary program, and it was still the same - kids screaming in the microphone and some kids who spoke so softly. I love it!
So yeah, it was a really good week. Dad, I´m taking multivitamins, so that should all be good. Elder Hansen and I wake up every morning to go run stairs and jump rope . I love it. I´m really good about getting up on time, if not early, so you should be proud of that! I sure am. I can´t imagine lying in bed for hours on end like I used to do - so lazy! Congratulations on the girls, Gabbi on her smoking fast half marathon, Izzy and Annie on their ear piercings, Alex on being Alex.... So when I got the emails, about half of them were about crying over Luna. That is sad I will admit. Life is a tender thing. We only live a mortal life once.
I got Nonno´s letter, planning on writing him back today or next week. I got letters from the youth, from our hometeachers, from Bishop Carter, from Grandma and Grandpa. Thanks for all of them!
Well I got to get going. I´ll get you a picture of the styling Spanish coat that I have. It´s weird that my sisters are growing up! Keep growing, keep me updated on everything! Life as a missionary is great.
Love,
Elder Pericle

Hola from Hospitalet

Querido familia,
It sounds like everything is going well at home. It´s weird that I´m not in the states for Halloween. I think that they´re starting to celebrate Halloween a little bit here, but it´s just an excuse for girls to dress even more immodestly than they already do, and for guys to dress up like freaks! It´s really a freak show. But oh well, everyone has their thing.
How are the Serbians? I remember in the MTC I met a kid that was going to Serbia I think. That´s insane. It´s also really cool to me how people know English. We meet people here all the time that know English. It´s really cool. Kids here in Catalunya (the city-state or region of Barcelona) know Spanish, Catalan, and some English. And us kids in America complain about how hard Spanish is! It´s crazy.
But yeah, this past week has been great. I did two intercambios, so that was a really fun time. I missed Elder Hansen though. We get along really well. It´s so weird to me that he only has 2 and a half transfers left! I always joke with him that we´re never going to get to hang out after the mission, because he´s going to be married! He refuses, and tells me that there is no possible way he could get married. I think he will thoug. He´s a really good missionary.
So we´ve been teaching this guy named Victor, and he´s pretty much the light of our life right now. He´s a Dominican guy, and his family was just baptized in the Dominican Republic a few weeks ago. He loves reading the Book of Mormon, and he loves the missionaries. We´ve been on intercambios a lot to his house, so he´s met about 10 different missionaries. We told him that he´s getting to meet a ton of missionaries, and he told us that he doesn´t care who comes, as long as he gets taught the word of God! We set a baptismal date with him for the 13th of November, and we´re very excited. He´s a really, really good investigator, and he loves his family. We had stake conference yesterday, and he came with us and he loved it. Hermana Hinckley spoke, and she doesn´t speak very good Spanish, but the Spirit was very strong. The temple president from Madrid was there, and he spoke a lot about prayer, and it was awesome. Then the Stake President spoke, and he´s a Spaniard, and it was so good. Victor loved it all, and I introduced him to quite a few people, including President Hinckley, and Victor was all shy. It was funny, but it made me realize something - how brave investigators are for coming to church for the first time. They don´t know anyone, just these two 20 year old missionaries. He came with his Book of Mormon in hand, and just came and enjoyed. It was a really good experience.
Yesterday morning, Elder Hansen and I left early for stake conference to go pick up Victor, and we got down the street, and all of a sudden the heavens opened up and it started pouring. Absolutely pouring. So we just started running as fast as we could towards the metro, and we finally got there, and we were absolutely soaked. We were both wearing suits, and it looked like we jumped in a pool. We got on the metro, and people were staring at us, because they had no idea it was raining outside. It was really insane that it rained that much in so little time. We were drenched. And when we got to where we were going, it was sunny, so it looked like it never rained. It was the weirdest thing. So we got Victor, and we were drenched, the gel completely ran out of all my hair, my skin was dry because the lotion was gone. I looked really good, let me tell you. It was a funny experience. I couldn´t stop laughing. It was really funny, but really uncomfortable during stake conference.
But yeah, everything is going really well here in Hospitalet. On one of my intercambios with an Elder named Elder Hughes, we figured out that we were at BYU together, went to all of the same parties and knew some of the same people. It´s funny how small of a world it is. With Elder Hughes, we both worked outside of our own areas, we worked in a different Elders area, which we both kind of knew but not really. It´s crazy how these 19, 20 year old boys get trusted to go out in Spain and do work. We had a really great time, talked to a lot of people, and set up that area really well. There was a 10 minute period where we were approached, or we talked to 3 people, and one was married to a return missionary and wanted to learn more, a guy was a week away from getting baptized and left the country and hasn´t seen the missionaries since, and a woman who was baptized in Bolivia and hasn´t been to church since. They all wanted us to come by, and so we got all their information and set up the Elders in that area really, really well. It was way good.
We also met with a menos activo named Marco Antonio, and I thought it was going to be like a 30, 40 year old guy, so I went up to the door, and this kid answered it, he looked about 14, and he told us to come in. I asked if I could talk to his dad, Marco Antonio, and he goes, actually I´m Marco Antonio. It was funny. But the reason why he went inactive is not funny. He told us that we thought the Church wasn´t being run right, and that playing football for Wednesday night activity is not acceptable. It was nuts. We didn´t know what to say, so we just asked him questions. We were thinking to ourselves, what 16 year old kid says this!? We then asked him if he wanted to serve a mission, and he said yes. But he hadn´t been to church in over a year. So we told him that if he wanted to serve a mission, he better come back. He could be a great missionary, but he just lets this little thing get in the way. I learned a lot about forgiving from him. I´m so glad that I´m on my mission right now, it´s really the best.
So on Thursday this past week, we had a really stressful day. We helped some members move, and they lived on the third story of a building, and they had some HEAVY stuff. I thought I was going to die trying to get the refrigerator down these super narrow stairs. Then after that, we had to find a man to come with us to an investigators house, and the kid that we got went off on a 20 minute rant about how to prove the Book of Mormon is true by knowing geography. Me and Elder Hansen were so frustrated. Then the kid made us late to another visit, and we already had someone else coming with us, and we made that kid wait for 30 minutes. So we had 2 missionaries and 2 young men coming with us, and me and Elder Hansen were so stressed. We were both sweating so bad and were so flustered. Oh the life of a missionary, isn´t it great! I love it, there is nothing better. So we ended up visiting this woman named Milagros, and it was a miracle how we got her information. This woman came up to us on the metro and said I know someone that you need to visit. She gave us the information and when to pass by, and we did, and it was this menos activa woman, Milagros. She is way good, and has had a rough, rough life. She wants to come back, and we´re so excited to work with her and to help her. She´s awesome. So the visit was good despite the stressful buildup. Then we had dinner with all 4 of the missionaries with this Dominican lady named Marienela. She is the best. She´s pretty old and she´s like our grandma, and we all just make her laugh and she takes care of us and loves the missionaries. She was looking at the church for about 10 years, and finally got baptized. Never give up on people!
But yeah, Hospitalet is great. We have great members, great missionaries, and a whole lot of work to do. We´re having a General Authority come this week, Elder Teixera, and I get to greet him. How nerve racking!
So it´s a fiesta today in Spain, so everything is closed down, and we have pretty much no food except cereal at our house. They party too much in Spain.
Well, thanks for everything. It sounds like everyone is doing really well, like you´re enjoying life. I´m doing fantastic here, I got my new jacket, and I pretty much love it. It´s so nice. I still have to buy a scarf, but I´ll get that sooner or later. I love the missionary work, and I love you family!
Love, Elder Pericle

Espana

Dear Family,
It sounds like everything is going very well at home. Thanks for the email Izzy! It really made me smile. You need to practice piano more! One regret that I do have is the piano. I learned how to play "Mas Cerca Dios de Ti" on the piano (Nearer my God to thee) and I actually played it at district meeting with the pedal and everything and people thought I could play the piano! I was like, yeah I played for a bit when I was younger. Then I told them the truth about how I quit. It was funny. But keep playing the piano. When all you girls serve missions (hopefully!) then you´ll play it all the time. It´s the best.
Thanks for dealing with the money situation. I´m going to go and try to withdraw some money today. Dad is way too funny! "I´ll wire the money." It makes me feel as if I were Jason Bourne, here in Barcelona. It is still incredible everyday that I´m actually on my mission, in Spain, speaking Spanish, UNDERSTANDING Spanish, talking to all sorts of people, having EVERYBODY look at you on the street. We were walking home from church the other day, and we had to walk down a little side street and there were a bunch of bars, and it was mediodia so everyone was there drinking and eating, and the place got a little quiet when we walked through, and everyone stared. Old men, young men, old women, young pretty Spanish girls. I felt like I was in a zoo. We just keep walking and talking to each other. People really do notice missionaries. It´s really cool. A mission is the greatest.
So this past week, I went on intercambios with Elder Booher. My two zone leader companions, Elder Hansen and Elder Atkin, trust me so much. It´s nuts. They just sent us out, so we went out and we had a good time. Elder Booher is from Kentucky, home schooled, has ten brothers and sisters, lives on a farm, told me that he didn´t have any friends, just his family, never been on a date, and is the sweetest, purest, most innocent person I have ever met. There´s a funny story about him around the mission, and it was when he was down in Valencia, and his companion was this pretty "cool" guy if you want to say, and they passed a group of beautiful spanish girls, and the one elder said "Oh my goodness Elder could you believe that?" and Elder Booher reportedly said "Yeah that was crazy! That girl had the same type of hair that my horse had!" Too funny. He really is so innocent and so pure. The light of Christ just BURNS through him. It´s so good. I learn a lot from him. He also cooks a ton, and he teaches us how to cook. He taught me what the difference between soup and stew was. He makes cookies, he cooks up spaghetti, he makes pizza, all kinds of things. He´s great. It´s so cool that different Elders from different walks of life are here together because they have one thing in common, that this gospel is true. That´s a testimony in itself. It´s so awesome.
So this past week, we taught 20 lessons, which is the goal of the mission for each companionship, so we were very proud of that, and we still had 13 people stand us up! 13 times, we set up citas, called people to confirm, and they just weren´t there. Can you imagine having someone call you, tell you that they´re going to be there, and you blatantly lie and just not be there? It really blows me and Elder Hansens minds. People are too funny. Something always comes up, and it makes us laugh. A message that we shared with a lot of people this week is about this life on earth, and the need to "escoger hoy" or choose today. That´s really what we have to do, is choose today. We have to choose who we are going to serve. I have to choose every single morning if I´m going to wake up on time, and every single day it´s a struggle, but every single day I just have to do it, and every single day I´m so proud of myself and so happy that I made that choice. Everything we do is a choice, and we have to makes choices to follow God and His plan of happiness, or Satan and his plan of misery. When you put it like that, it´s really easy to choose, but bad choices are often chocolate coated, and consequences don´t always follow right away. It´s interesting. I read something the other day in a talk or somewhere, and it said that if consequences always directly followed choices, there would be no crime, no bad things, and everyone would be doing the right thing. Can you imagine if everytime you touched a cigarette or lied or stole something or took the name of the Lord in vain you got shocked like Laman and Lemuel? The thing is, is that this isn´t the case. People don´t necessarily see the consequences of not going to church, or of not reading, or of not praying, or of breaking the law of chastity or the word of wisdom. People just don´t see those negative consequences right away. And people don´t see the positive consquences right away either. Some days, we do all we can, we talk to as many people as we can, we set up a lot of citas and get stood up, and we try and be obedient, but it seems like nothing is going our way. It seems like we might as well be sitting at home, eating a chocolate pastry, having Elder Booher cook food, and kicking back with our feet up. We don´t always see the fruits of our efforts, the positive consequences of doing what is right. But, everything will catch up to us one day, whether for good or for bad. We have to choose each day what we´re going to do.
So we met with Daniel the other day. He once again, said all the right things. I decided to talk about the law of chastity with him. We had a good talk, and I basically laid it out really straight for him. I then asked him if he was keeping it completely. He said no. I was sad. We talked about it, and I talked to Elder Atkin that night, and we were wondering what in the world to do. We still don´t know what to do. It´s a commandment, and he has to keep it. We´ll keep brainstorming on that. It made me so sad to hear that!
Julio is doing so good though. His brother flew in, and his brother is actually married to the woman that Julio is with. So they´re going to get a divorce, and Julio and Hipatia are going to get married. Julio´s brother has noticed a change in Julio, and he wants to take the lessons now. They are so good. Hipatia is about to have a baby anyday now, and she said she´d call us when it happened so we could go see the baby in the hospital. Julio and Hipatia are so good, they´re so happy and they love the gospel. They´re so proud of each other, of how good they feel, and how great this gospel is. Julio is absolutely going to get baptized.
So one more thing, a ridiculous story. We found this member, named Gisella, and we found out that her husband and 3 kids aren´t members! So we went over there, talked to them, and we found out that they had all taken the discussions before, but they weren´t too sure about it. The dad is nuts. He refuses to pray outloud, and makes a point of doing a silent prayer at the end of every lesson. He said that he wants to be a Christian, and he is searching for the church that is Christ´s church, not the Catholics or the Buddhists or the Mormons. He wants to follow Christ. "I don´t want to join Joseph Smith´s church" he said. So foolish. So we basically told him, look, you get down on your knees, you pray to your Father in Heaven, and you ask him what you should do. He was a little taken back, but he said that we´ll see. Everything that he was saying was golden, but it was silly. We have to get to the bottom of this.
Anyways, one last thing. We had a special fireside in the mission home last night. We went and the speaker was the very first missionary in Barcelona. He was here when the first sacrament meeting was here and they had to do it on the beach. It was awesome. President Hinckley called on me to give the prayer, and I admit, I was a little nervous! It all went well. We have interviews tomorrow, and I´m pretty excited about it.
My companion, Elder Randall Hansen, is the greatest. Andrew, my room mate, is in the MTC and he´s going to be serving in Chile Osorno, a freezing cold mission. We´re going to play some basketball today.
I know that this work is true. That Christ lives, that He was resurrected, that His church is once again on the Earth. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet. I love the song "Millions shall know Brother Joseph again." I´m a part of fufilling that prophecy as we go into homes and teach about this. This gospel is the greatest.
My family is the greatest. I love my new razor, I´m starting to get 5 o clock shadow on my chin. Keep me updated about Lebron.
Thanks for all you do, I love you all so much.
Love,
Elder Pericle

Another Day in Paradise

Dear family,
So I got the package, and all the candy is already gone. Me and Elder
Hansen and Elder Atkin and Elder Booher all had a good time eating it
all. Thanks for the razor, it´s the greatest thing that maybe has
ever happened to me. I don´t have to use shaving cream! Also, thanks
for the tie and the music and the sweater. It has gotten pretty cold
here lately, and I´m about to go and buy a nice Spanish jacket. I´ve
decided that on the mission, you can still be stylish.
So anyways, life has just been a joy this past week with Elder Hansen.
He´s a major stud. He has about 4 months left in the mission, and
he´s just on top of things. He speaks great spanish and he is always
helping me out. I´m hoping that I can really improve with him. We´ve
been laying the foundation for a great work this past week. On
Tuesday we had the singing for the angels, and it was raining and
freezing! Also, something sad happened. One of my companions that I
had in the CCM in Madrid, pulled me aside and told me that it was so
good to hear my voice. He told me that he was going to tell me
something and that he didn´t want me to be disappointed in him. I
said never. He told me that he was going home, that he thinks he has
depression. It was a sad time. I hated seeing that. I just gave him
a hug, told him I loved him and that everything was going to work out
and to keep in touch. He was crying, I was crying. It´s a hard life,
but the truth will go on. Singing for the angels was good. There
were a few elders that served in the ward that I´m currently serving
in, and almost half the ward was there. That´s how it might be for
me! I think in July 2012 it won´t be raining, so it will all be nice.
On Wednesday, we did a lot of passing by former investigators, and we
got rejected all day. We finally got let in at an investigator named
Julio. He´s living with a menos activo woman named Hipatia. All they
have to do is get married and he´ll be baptized in less than a week.
I love them. Then we visited Juana, a recent convert from Africa and
once again I sat by Gustavo and let him play with my watch. I love
little Gustavo. Then we went to Roxanna´s house, and she´s just like
Gabbi. She´s 18 and she´s a recent convert of two months, and she´s
great. She was crazy before she got baptized, but now that she´s
baptized she wants to serve a mission and do everything. She loves
the gospel and she loves helping out the missionaries. The gospel is
the greatest. On Thursday, we did a lot of walking, and we only got
into two houses. It was a long day. But the longest day that I have
had on my mission was on Friday. We had 4 good citas set up with
people, and at every single one we got fired. It was extremely
frustrating. We did more walking this day than I have ever done in my
life. It was insane. Elder Hansen and I did a lot of talking, and we
had a grand time, but it was a long day. Some people just don´t
respect your time. They set up citas with you, blatantly don´t show
up, then think all it takes is a simple sorry to suffice. Oh man, I
got a little mad. But I calmed down alright. It was a really long
day, but I got back to the apartment, and I felt good about the effort
that I put forth that day. I felt good about the people we contacted,
the phonecalls we made to reach out to people, and our overall effort
and attitude. I´m pretty sure the Lord was pleased with our effort to
serve even when it wasn´t easy. On Saturday, our first two citas got
dropped again, and it was so annoying! We finally got in with a Menos
activo man named Salva, who gives us good hugs. We talked about being
temple worthy. Being temple worthy is so important. It makes me kind
of sad that some people aren´t. We´re really going to work with him.
He brought us out some Sardines, and I was nervous at first, but it
was actually pretty good. I´m getting like dad - liking scary scary
foods. So then we had lunch with a member and that little girl
definitely reminds me of Izzy. Are my sisters growng up? They
probably are. Don´t grow up too much! So then we met with Daniel.
He said all the right things, had pretty good excuses for missing
church, but ít just didn´t feel right. I don´t know about him. It´s
so hard! He was so good, and all of a sudden he got blessed with
work, and his snake of a girlfriend came back to him and he forgot
about God. It´s so frustrating! He said he was going to come to
church for sure on Sunday, but he didn´t show up. Now that´s
annoying, when people say things that they don´t mean. I´ve really
started to learn about the importance of words. Words are so
important. I made it one of my goals to really mean everything I say.
Whether it´s a talk, like I gave on sunday, or whether it´s a contact
or phonecall or just talking with my companions in the piso. I love
them. So on Sunday, Julio, whom I´ve already talked about, came to
church in new church clothes that he bought. He looks way good, all
he needs to do is get married! Tough situation. Church was good, I
gave a talk about charity. Basically all I had time for was my
testimony. I just told the people I loved them and that Christ loves
us and suffered for us. That´s our great message to the world, is
that Christ redeemed us. Everything else is supplemental to that.
Christ performed the Atonement, the knowledge and the authority to
access the atonement was lost, restored through Joseph Smith, the Book
of Mormon proves that this happens. Man, the gospel is beautiful. So
on Sunday, we ate with a Filipino family, and we had such good food.
They have a daughter that can play the piano (by the way, I learned
how to play Nearer my God to Thee!) and an inactive son. They are
very distraught by the son, but we have faith that he will come back
into the fold. It will all work out. People have their agency, we
have to remember that. So after that food, we met with an antiguo
investigator that speaks English. It´s weird being a missionary in
English, just because I´m so used to praying in Spanish and talking
about the gospel in Spanish. It was good though. He said that he
didn´t want to be baptized, but that he liked us coming over. Little
does he know that he can´t play with fire and not get burned (fire of
the holy ghost - when you get two missionaries walking around for such
a long time you come up with silly jokes like this). He is a way nice
guy, and we´re going to continue to teach him. So we did some more
pass bys, got rejected some more, then I called a member, and we went
to her house, and she has 3 kids and a husband, and the kids were all
so bland. They were lifeless. It was weird. We thought that the
whole family were members, just because we didn´t know, and so we
talked about prayer, then we talked about members helping the
missionaries to baptize. I said "As a ward we have a goal of 15
baptisms, and we need 10 more." Little did I know that we were in the
presence of 4 non members, the dad and kids. SO AWKWARD! The dad
talked to us and said that it doesn´t matter what church you join,
because all that matters is your works. How wrong is he! We´re going
to give a knock out restoration lesson this next time, and show him
what´s up! So the last visit we had last night was a pass by, and we
didn´t know who it was, but it ended up being a temple sealer and his
wife, and they were as Spanish as they come, and they let us in and
gave us food and shared with us their conversion story, which came
because of missionaries knocking doors. It really was such a tender
mercy of the Lord. It had been a tough week, and the Lord just put
these wonderful people in our path to lighten the load. The gospel is
the greatest.
So yes, thanks for the package, the wonderful letters, the tie that
I´m wearing right now. Thanks for being supportive and for being
there for me. Thanks for being a great family. Isn´t it so cool that
we´re sealed in the temple? Some people DREAM of that, but they have
vices that they can´t get over to get to the temple. We´re so
blessed, and sometimes we don´t realize it. We talked a lot about
gratitude this past week, about how we need to give thanks. Giving
prayers where you only give thanks - that´s hard for me because I´m
always asking for things! It really makes you realize how blessed you
are. I love this gospel.
So in my talk, I said one sentence. "La mision es la mejor cosa que
me ha pasado" The mission is the best thing that has ever happened to
me. It´s only been 3 and a half months, and I already love it. There
is so much that lies ahead, and I´m so excited to get ahead and to
dive in. This gospel is true, there´s no doubt in my mind.
So Alex, happy 16th birthday. Gone on a date yet? Let me know!
Izzy, thanks for the long letter! I heard that at the park everyone
just loved Stella. You would love all the nasty dogs here in Spain.
They´re cute, just nasty. Annie, how´s procrastinating coming along?
I set a bad example for you by always waiting to the last minute. get
stuff done, you save yourself grief! Gabbi 89 minutes and 10 miles,
that´s flying! Way to go. Let me know how your half marathon goes.
And here´s your shoutout! Thanks for all the prayers. I really do
feel them. When I get tired and down, I just think of my sisters.
So anyways, if you could send one thing, maybe in the mail. Just about
15 or 20 pictures of the family, recent pictures of me, pictures of us
doing things, that would be great. The members loving seeing pictures
of the family of my companions, and I want to share that too!
Anyways, I got to get going. Time to go buy some nice Spanish clothes
for the winter! Much love, and continue to be the best family.
Love,
Elder Pericle

A Barcelona Birthday

Dear family,
How is everything? This past week was just a joy to be a missionary. I mean, all weeks are like that, but this one especially, because it was my birthday! Last week we found quite a few new investigators, 4 to be exact. One of them is named Marian. She is a Spanish lady, and boy do I already love her. She is the nicest lady, and she has such a Spanish accent that it is a little hard to understand her, but it´s all good. She is about 35 or so and she was living with a guy for 8 years and he made her get two abortions because he didn´t want children, and when she finally said that she was having a child, he packed up his things and left her. It basically ruined her. She was a reference from the sisters, and she needs baptism so bad! We invited her to be baptized and she accepted, but she doesn´t really know what it´s all about, so we have a lot of teaching to do. She´s so nice and she´s so willing to learn. Her little boy is a little rascal, but it´s all good.
Another investigator we had was Lucy. She called us from a card we handed out with our number on it, and we went over there, and she thought we were normal Christian missionaries, and that we were there to train her to go on a mission of her own. How weird is that? She told us that she was evangelical, and that she had an Argentinian Prophet whom she followed. So we gave her a Book of Mormon, and told her to read and pray. She was way nice and said that she would do it. Then the next day, we saw her in the street (coincidence? I think not!) and we waved and she started walking away pretty fast. We caught up to her and talked to her and she said that she asked her Argentine prophet or whatever about the Book of Mormon and that he got so mad and told her she would go to hell if she read it! How nuts is that. So she told us that she didn´t want to see us again. Man, how grateful I am for a Heavenly Father that I can pray to and ask if things are true, and not some Argentine guy who claims to be a prophet. We just told her that if she wants to know it´s true she should pray and not ask someone who knows nothing about it. It was a little disheartening, but the truth will go on. We know these things are true, and no one can deny that, ever.
So let me tell you about one of our investigators that we have. Her named is Aster. I might have talked about her before, but I just love her so much that I have to tell you more about her. She´s a crack up. She´s 26, and Dominican. She lives with some solid members here, and we started teaching her. The first time we talked to her, we told her to pray, and she refused. It took so many subsesquent visits to get her to pray with us, but she finally did it! And she was way good. She loves us missionaries coming over. She makes us laugh so much. We taught about the law of chastity, and she always says ¡Que fuerte! She´s a crack up. She knows that she has to be baptized, and that she´s going to be baptized, it´s just a matter of when. We´ll see how it goes. We love visiting her, and we are GOING to baptize her.
So we had Ariana´s baptism this past Sunday. It was a beautiful event. She is a pretty girl, really skinny, and she was so excited about getting baptized. She was excited to invite her friends, excited to have everyone there. As missionaries, we sang "Senior Te Necesito" and we got a bunch of people crying, including ourselves almost. It was beautiful. Baptism is a beautiful thing. So many people need it. There´s a lot of urgency for this message to be shared with all around Spain, all around the world.
So Daniel, he hasn´t been coming to church lately. I met with him while we were on exchanges, and we talked and he said that everything is going great and he´s reading and praying, but something just didn´t seem right. We told him that he still had to keep coming to church, and he said that he´d come, but he didn´t show up. We bought him a nice Book of Mormon and wrote our testimonies in it, and he loved that, but I just don´t know. I heard a good quote by President Hinckley - "The limit of your faith and actions is other people´s agency." Darned agency! We´re going to keep working with him. It breaks my heart that he hasn´t been to church in a while. I can´t imagine not going to church. Not taking of the Sacrament, man that would be hard. I´m so grateful for church, for the members, for the spirit that is there, for the opportunity to renew our baptismal covenants every week. I love church. Girls, you better make church a priority! We´ve been teaching a lot about the Sabbath day lately, to members, to menos activos, to investigators. A lot of people either work on sunday, watch Barcelona football games, or play football. We´re trying to get people to keep the Sabbath day more holy, because there are so many blessings in store for keeping in holy. Family, I challenge you to keep the Sabbath day more holy! Try it out for one day. I know, I wasn´t the best example of keeping it holy with my Halo playing ways and doing homework and sometimes hanging out with friends, but I´ve since repented, and I´ve determined to be better at it. Sundays as a missionary is weird, but it´s so good. We come home after church to eat, and I almost got undressed, but then I realized, hey, I´m a full time missionary, Sundays are primetime proselyting! It made me giggle to myself. I still can´t believe I´m in Spain on a mission. It´s so weird. I love it.
So we had transfers yesterday, and I got a new companion! I´m staying here in Hospitalet, and my new companion is Elder Hansen. He´s from Washington, and he played football at Utah. Yeah, college football! He is way nice, and he´s way humble. I like him a lot already, and I´m finally in a two some! It´s going to be different, I´m going to have to talk a lot more! I´m way excited for it though. We´re going to see a lot of miracles, of that I´m sure.
My birthday was a blast this past week. I woke up and cooked a ton of eggs and bacon and toast and we had orange juice. It was good. Then we planned for the week (I´ve done more planning on my mission already than I have in my whole past life). My companions then made such good pasta (not as good as Dad´s) for lunch. It was awesome. Then my companions had to go do interviews for some baptisms, so I was on splits with another elder, and we went around and visited people and just had a good time. We taught a lot. A member family, Los Calle (the Calle´s) had us over for dinner. Their two little daughters are too cute. We had some great food, I don´t remember what it is. I always ask for seconds though. I´m starting to appreciate vegetables. Dad´s going to have to teach me how to make his special pasta sauce when I get back. They gave me a pair of Oakley sunglasses for my birthday. How nice is that! I love the members here.
So tonight we have singing for the angels when the missionaries go home, and it´s kind of weird. I´ve already been out on my mission for three months. I hate thinking about that. When I was in the MTC,missionaries would count down how many days they had left (ridiculous!). I hate thinking about how much time I have left, because it´s so short. Time goes by so fast, and it makes me realize how much I have to love and take advantage of, and give my all every single day, every single visit. I´ve been trying to do that, and the work just becomes a joy. I try not to think about when the next time we´re going to eat is or anything. I love this work. It´s a divine work, I see miracles every day, I see the Hand of the Lord in everything I do. I can´t deny it. This is the true gospel of Jesus Christ. Joseph Smith really did see the Father and the Son, he translated the Book of Mormon, and it´s a true book. It was written for us. Jesus Christ took up himself our sins, He paid the price for our sins. I am forever indebted for that. We have a prophet on the earth today, and I definitely can´t deny that. I love looking over my conference notes - there´s no way that I can deny those men as Prophets and apostles. It´s so true.
I´m so blessed to be serving here in Spain. It´s the greatest. There is no place I´d rather be - even in Cancun sipping on a piña colada. I love Hospitalet, I love the shower that is either freezing cold or scalding, I love how we have no food, I love how much we get rejected, I love sweating and being so sweaty and not being able to shower, I love the rain and getting soaked, I love my companions, I love taking the metro, I love the members, I love the investigators, I love the menos activos. I love my mission is basically what I´m trying to say.
Thanks for everything family - for the support, for the pictures of kittens (thanks gabs), for the package that I still have to receive (we´re going to the office tonight so it might be ther. If you want to send peanut butter some time that´d be great! Peanut butter - I never realized how much I loved it until I didn´t have it. I´m going to buy a way nice coat pretty soon, so make sure there is sufficient funds on the card!
I love my family, and I love my mission.
Love,
Elder Pericle

Feliz Cumpleanos a mi

Hola familia,
Let me just tell you that this past week was a joy to be a missionary in the Spain Barcelona Mission. This really is the greatest mission in the whole world, no doubt in my mind. I love it here. This past week we had a three day training with President Hinckley, and he taught us a lot about the new curriculum that they´re integrating into all the missions. It was just a joy to sit there and listen to him, and learn and receive revelation. I would get so tired after those things, because I was writing so much and learning so much about myself and about how to be a better missionary.
President is very business like. You can tell that he is very successful in life, because he sets goals and works closely with the Lord. He just loves this work, it´s very obvious by how he teaches and talks about it. He doesn´t talk about his father or his mission too much, but when he does you could hear a pin drop in the room, because every single person is listening so intently! It´s so good listening to him. I look up to him so much. He gives hugs now - the older missionaries said that he used to not give hugs. His wife is so sweet, and whenever she talks to you she makes you feel like you´re her favorite missionary in the whole wide world. She is precious and overflows with love for the work, her husband, and the Lord. She´s great.
So we had another miracle. There is this girl, Ariana, I´m not sure if I´ve talked about her before, but she´s 15 I think and she wanted to get baptized so bad! But her dad was dead set against it. She was very distraught about the whole thing, so we fasted, and we fasted for her dad to get work, and he got work 10 minutes after we ended the fast. He still said no the baptism, even after she approached him and the mom had an intervention. We kept meeting with her and we told her that we were going to pray for her in every prayer, and that she should do the same, and that if we were diligent, we were going to see a miracle. We planned a baptism for October 10th, and we said that´s when you´re getting baptized. How bold is that! So we prayed, and we did it for about a week. We continued meeting with her, got her reading her scriptures every day, and then right before we were about to go to bed a few nights ago, she called us and told her that she was sitting in the living room, reading her scriptures, and her dad came in and said ¿Ariana, quieres bautizarse en serio? and she said sí, and then he said ¡Pues te bautiza ya! So basically he said do you really want to get baptized? And she said yes, and then he said, well then get baptized! His heart was changed. That is an absolute miracle. We were so happy for that. That was a sweet moment on the mission. We saw her at conference and she was smiling and she was so good. She is very excited. We´re going to get the baptism all planned out this week and get her baptized on sunday. We´re so excited. The Lord holds true. It was really great.
I loved conference. It was so good to listen to the prophet and the apostles. You can´t listen to them and NOT know that they are men inspired by God. It was so awesome to listen to them. I took so many notes and have a lot of goals to set of self improvement. One thing that President Hinckley really pounds into us is goal setting. Goal setting is so key. I´ve decided that its time to start setting goals. I´m going to set my goals and work towards them. I´m excited about it. Today on our p-day I´m going to go back to the Piso and write out a list of goals.´
It´s so weird to me that I´ve almost been out in the field a month! Time goes so fast, yet it feels like I´ve been here forever. I love the people here, I love the area. This really is the greatest area in the whole mission. The members are so great, they feed us all the time. There are so many cute little kids in this ward too. I try and make it a point to see the kids, to get down and look them in the eye and give them hugs and talk to them. I get to talk to them in the informal way, so that´s good practice for me. It still blows my mind that these little tiny kids can speak Spanish! One of the kids in particular is Gustavo. He´s so precious. I think he has ADHD or something, because he is all over the place and he is a devil. His mother and him are African, and she was recently baptized. He´s 5 years old. When we go over to his house, my companions say he´s a devil. But I just sit him down beside me, put my arm around him, and let him tell me about his snails and about his Spain picture book. He writes his name for me, his handwriting looks like mine (bad). He´s great. I´m nice to him, because he´s going to grow up and be such a good missionary. I think of what my leaders thought of me when I was a little 11 year old shy boy scout. Or when I was 6 years old and a rebel in primary! It´s all about the leaders you have. I´ve realized the importance of example and love.
LOVE. Man, that´s the key to missionary work. When I can´t understand the language, and we´re in a cita, and it´s so hot and it´s really late or it´s right after lunch, I just pray for love and charity. There are so many special people here. Everyone is a child of God. Even the Spaniard who talks so fast and uses swear words at us. He´s a child of God. People are children of God with potential! I´ve been trying to work on my love for people. I try and say hi to everyone at church, smile, ask how they´re doing, what we can do for them. People are so great here. Of course you get the people who chastise and say things, but hey, that´s quite alright. Let em yell! They don´t know what they´re missing.
Thanks for the birthday package. I haven´t received it yet, and I´m not sure when I will. You probably don´t have to get me a scarf, I´ll just buy one here. I think I´m putting on weight, or my pants are shrinking, because they´re tighter than when I started the mission! The food is really good. I made french toast the other day, I remembered dad just cracking a bunch of eggs in a bowl, a little cinnamon, and soaking pieces of bread, then frying them. My companions loved me for doing that. Just trying to be nice!
So anyways, how are my beautiful sisters? Gabbi, Alex - make a list of boys that disrespect you, and I´ll take care of them when I get back. Just kidding. But remember that you´re special. Special to mom and dad, special to me, special to your other sisters. You set an example for our family, for me, for your friends, and you will set an example for your husband and your children when you have them. I know that´s way in the future, but hey, you grow up faster than you know. It seems like yesterday that I would come home from basketball games mad as a hatter because coach didn´t play me. And now look at me - I´m sitting in a little city outside of Barcelona, a missionary of Jesus Christ. Weird. Just remember who you are, feel free to drop a line every now and then. Izzy, there was a rat like dog in the subway the other day, i think it was a greyhound. It was ugly, but I thought of you and how with your ever optimistic attitude you would have loved it. Annie, love trees, don´t procrastinate, don´t play too much halo! Alex, same thing, don´t play too much halo. Don´t crash my car, tell me how your homecoming date it. Gabbi, HOW IS IT BEING A SENIOR?? Let me know all.
Mom and dad, I can´t express my gratitude enough. When Elder Holland was speaking, oh man, it was too much. I love you way too much. Thanks so much for all you do, for getting me on a mission, for loving me even when it was impossible, for supporting me. I´m way too blessed to have you as parents. Thank you.
I love my mission, and I´ll continue to serve, as long as you continue to fight as well. Until next time, and with much love,
Elder Pericle

Familia,
¿Cómo estáis? I hope everyone is doing well. This week I got a good computer with a good keyboard. The last week the keyboard was broken and the space bar was being difficult. So, what new to update you on... Let me think...
We have a baptism next week! We´re so excited for him. His name is Daniel, and he completely changed his life around. The first time we saw him he was not very motivated. But now, he´s full of life, he loves to read the good book, and he comes to church! Yesterday at church, he was a little late, and we saw him standing outside, so we went outside and we saw him with his girlfriend. We invited them to come in, but she said she didn´t want to. He told us to wait one minute, and they were talking, so we went over and talked to a member for a bit. Then they disappeared! We freaked out, because we didn´t know what to do. We ran down the steps, (The chapel here is 3 stories) and we went outside to look for them and they were walking to the metro. I told Elder Awerkamp ¨we can´t lose them!¨¨ So we ran after them, and asked what was up, and the girlfriend said she didn´t want to go. We pleaded with her and said no we´re leaving. We asked Daniel what was going on, and he said that he was just going to walk her and come back. We said we´d wait for him at the top of the metro. It took him about 10 minutes to say goodbye to her. I´m pretty sure that she was trying to get him to come with her, but Daniel came to church. He said, I´m ready, it´s the first time I feel like I´m doing something right in my life, and I feel it in my heart.¨¨ Oh how happy we were to hear this. He really is so ready, and the gospel really changes people, just like dad said in his email to me. But, the gospel doesn´t change us, we have to change ourselves THROUGH the gospel. We have to put in our part in order to enjoy the blessings of the gospel.
That´s something that we´ve been focusing on a lot lately in our companionship, is a lot of inactivos or menos activos. We passed by a less active girl, and she said that her life was really tough, and she welcomed us in. She said she knew that this was the true church, but she didn´t want to come back to church because the road back is hard. We said we know it´s hard, but ´´vale the pena´´ (Worth the pain). So we´re going to go over to her house 3 times a week to read the Book of Mormon, we call her everyday to see how she´s going, and we´re trying to reignite that flame that was there when she decided to get baptized. She then told us of her sister and her brother in law, both of whom are returned missionaries, married in the temple, and have been inactive for years. We were flabbergasted to hear this! How could you go inactive after serving a mission? It´s easier than it seems though. I remember hearing somewhere that faith has a very short shelf life, and that you can´t continue to be a good member of the church without reading and praying and going to church. You have to constantly be fortifying yourself, constantly reminding yourself of the covenants you made at baptism and in the temple. My companions and I had a long talk about how people who served missions and were faithful in the church go inactive. We decided that if any of us ever go inactive (which won´t ever happen, but you have to have a backup plan!) that the other two of us will go over and will reignite that flame that we currently have, remind them that they know it is true, and that this is the only way. We practiced on each other too while we were walking around. It was fun.
Speaking of walking around, it is really fun to walk around here. It´s awesome taking the metro, awesome having everyone look at you, and awesome just being in Spain. We have a few Spaniards in our ward, and we had food at their houses this week, and it was so good! We had tortilla de patata, with some garlic sauce, fried pork, some other good stuff. Oh man. Napolitanas are so good. Horchata, which is like a vanilla rice drink, OH so good. The food here is awesome. In our apartment we don´t eat very well, but we´re very blessed with a great ward, who loves us and feeds us. I´m blessed to be in such a great area.
Let me tell you about a few people that we´re teaching. We´re currently teaching a sister of a Dominican member. The member´s name is Marienela, and she is the sweetest old lady. She´s so nice. Her sister is Rosalina. She just doesn´t get excited about anything. She´s been sitting in on our discussions, and this last time, I went on intercambios with a hispanic boy, Jose Antonio Hijo, and we taught the first discussion. It was awesome. The spirit was so strong, and I answered all her questions and got her to read and she said she would pray. That´s all you have to do to find out if this is true or not. Read and pray, and come to church. So we´re going back to Rosalinas house this week, so we´ll see how it goes.
Then we have Roxanna. She was baptized right before I got here. She´s 18, she´s Peruvian, and she´s fiery. She reminds me of Gabbi. She was crazy before she was baptized, and she´s still crazy now, but crazy about the gospel. My companions tell me she´s so much happier now. We still visit her to teach her the lessons again and to help her out. She´s a perfect example of how the gospel changes lives for the better.
Next we have Walter. He´s a converso reciente as well, and he´s a stud. He´s about 18, and he knows so much about the gospel. He loves me, because I don´t speak too well. He likes to teach me, and he likes to learn English. He´s not too sure about a mission, because his family is poor, so we´re trying to work on that. He´s a good guy.
One more thing. There is a man named Andrés. His daughters name was on the ward list, so we passed by, and he let us up, and he said he´s only home for about 2 hours every couple of days because he works so much, so we´re lucky we passed him. He told us that his whole family are members, except for him, because he works every Sunday. He is from Bolivia, and his whole family moved back to Bolivia except for him. He is working here, living alone for 3 years in order to support his family. He has a good job, makes good money to support his family, but he works every day, including Sundays. Why does this have to happen? He says that he knows this church is true, and wants to get baptized, but he can´t because he works Sundays. So what do we do? We invite him to request off, or find other Sundays. He was not pleased. He said his wife would get mad, his kids would starve, other stuff. We read him a scripture about do the things God wants, and he´ll take care of the rest. It´s really tough things that people have to do. The good thing is that it is definitely worth it. He said he´d read and pray, and we´re going to go back to his house every couple of days to read with him. Maybe even if he can´t get baptized now, when he goes back to his country, and he doesn´t have to work on Sundays, he can get baptized right away.
It´s funny, I´ve already been here a few weeks, and I´m already loving the people. I love the people, I understand what they go through, I pray with them, (I haven´t cried with them yet, but maybe I will), I laugh with them, I don´t understand them a lot of the time, but I love them all the more. It´s great being here.
Alright I don´t have too much time, I have to write my Presidents letter. But, I love you, I know that this church is true, and I´m excited for a baptism coming up!
Love, Elder Pericle

Hospitalet

Familia,

I love it here. I love the members. I love the area. I love the heat. I love that I sweat so much and that I can't shower and night. I love that we can´t control how cold or hot the water is. I love that none of us know how to cook so we eat peanut butter and corn flakes (like the cereal) for our sandwiches. I love that we don't have a dryer and that my clothes get rock hard in the sun. I love that we walk everywhere and take the metro. I love that the members feed us, ALL THE TIME. I love that I´ll probably get fat. I love getting called Jehovahs Witnesses and politely correcting people. I love speaking Spanish. I just love it.
L´Hospitalet is a little city right outside of Barcelona. The members are all so great. A lot of them are from Ecuador or South America. There are a few Spaniards in the ward, but not many. Everyone is so nice. On Sunday, I tried to introduce myself to everyone. People smile, they try and talk to me in Spanish, and it´s so hard to understand them, but I just smile big and try to answer them back. They love me all the more for that, at least I hope so. All the Brothers love giving the missionaries hugs, and all the sisters love giving handshakes. I swear, I´ve shaken more hands and learned more names and faces already than in my whole life before. I simply love it here.
So my companions are Elder Awerkamp and Elder Atkin. Both are from St George. Elder Awerkamp is 6´3 and went to the same high school as Andrew my room mate. He did a year at BYU too. Elder Atkin played basketball at Dixie State college in Southern Utah, and he´s about 6¨5 Both of them are great Elders. They are very impressed with me, and said that I´m one of the best missionaries they´ve ever been with. I´m humbled by that. I hope that you got my letter to the President. I tried to include a lot of the stories in there, so read that.
So, you can send mail to the mission office, which is the Barcelona address. That´s easier than sending it to me in my piso, because who knows how long I´ll be here. I hope it´s for quite some time, because I love it here. It´s pretty much a small city here. It´s awesome. We should have a baptism by my birthday, which will be awesome. I´m also excited for general conference.
So like I said, we don´t have time to shower at night. We go out at 11:30 and we usually don´t get back at 10:30 at night, so it´s pretty much a super long day. It´s good though, cause we get home, plan, I wash my face, write a few things in my journal, pray, and pass out. I fall asleep so fast here in the field. I wake up tired, I go throughout the day tired but excited, and I come home at night pretty much ready to pass out. It´s awesome though, I feel like we get so much done and we teach and preach. The food here is great. We´ve had a lot of different things. We´re going to have to do some shopping today, because we literally have no food at the piso. And the water here tastes like chlorine. This definitely isn´t the states.
So, in Spain there´s a problem of people living together. Like everyone lives together and isn´t married. We have to fix that.
So the other day we went to a members house, and I cooked hamburgers. That´s right, me and my companions cooked hamburgers. The woman wanted to teach us. It was fun, and I learned new words. People like talking to me, and I just try and smile and pray that I´ll understand what they´re saying. There´s a boy in our ward, named Walter, and he´s from Ecuador and he´s about 18 and a total stud, and we get along great. He speaks so fast to me, and I catch a few words every now and then, and he loves teaching me spanish. He´ll make a great missionary.
My testimony for this week is that we are products of the Restoration. Because of Joseph Smith´s question to God, and because God loves us, we have the fulness of the gospel. We live in an exciting time, and I´m lucky to be a missionary. I´m lucky to have the chance to share this with people. It doesn´t make sense to why people won´t join the church, but that´s something that I have to figure out and to help them with. We have a prophet on the earth today, and supposedly General Conference is Christmas on the mission, so I´m extremely excited for it. I love the mission work, I love everything. Life is hard, but life is great. I love wearing my black name tag with pride. Time to go. Continue to fight the good fight, because that´s what I´m going to do.

Mucho amor y un abrazo fuerte,
Elder Pericle

First Area

Nicholas Pericle to Tony, me
show details Sep 9 (11 days ago)

Hola from L´Hospitalet! I have arrived in Barcelona and iI´m officially in my first area and one of the things that President has us do is write an email to our family. I´m in a 3 some! again! I must have to learn something from a 3 some. I´ll probably be in one forever. My companions are Elder Awerkamp and Elder Atkin, and they´re both from St. George and have about 8 months left. They´re great elders, and they´re very committed to this work. They´ve very obedient, and that´s what I was praying for, was obedient trainers so that I had a good example to me in my first transfer. The Lord listens. So I´m in L´Hospitalet, it´s right outside of Barcelona. It´s a nice place, and the missionaries and the President told me that this is the best place to start off. The work is really progressing here, so that´s exciting. The bed here isn´t the comfiest, and the shower was freezing! But I´m happy to be here. A mission is already very tough, but nothing that can be done easily is worth it. There´s so much that I have to do! Both of my companions are from St. George, and they´re zone leaders, so I´ll be doing a lot of traveling with them. I´m in my first area, I taught my first lesson last night, invited someone to get baptized, and they declined but we´re going back again tonight. We have lunch with a member in a little over an hour, and that should prove to be great. Then we have about 5 appointments tonight. It´s going to be a good time.
A few things that I´ve learned on the mission - it is hard work. It´s the hardest thing I´ve done in my life so far, but that´s okay, it will be worth it so much. It has already taught me the importance of planning and goal setting and being bold. It´s almost impossible to understand people here! I can talk pretty well, and I can say what I have to say but when it comes to understanding I am very lost. My trainers are amazed with the way I was prepared with Spanish and my knowledge. I didn´t think I was prepared at all, but they say that I´m so lucky to already be able to speak. now i just have to learn to understand. The mission is treatin me great so far, and i´m thouroughly enjoying all aspects and all parts of it. i´m a little overwhelmed at it, but it´s time to buckle down and put all that stuff that I learned in the MTC and in mission prep and from all my young men´s leaders and from dad into practice. it´s very easy to just talk about HOW to be a good missionary, but BEING that good missionary is tougher than in sounds. I can do it though. I´ve prayed longer and harder than I ever have before, and it´s paying off. I need to continue to do it, because without the Lord´s help, I´m doomed. It´s very frustrating not being able to understand, but I´m not going to get frustrated, because that will make it even harder. I´m just going to give it time. I´m actively listening, actively learning, and trying to speak and contribute when I can.
So last night, because we´re so close to Barcelona, we got to go into the town and sing for the missionaries that were leaving, and it was way cool. People stop and take pictures of you and think that you´re famous or something. Little do they know that we´re just lowly missionaries, who are trying to do the right thing. That´s the only thing that I can do, is the right thing. I contacted a pretty attractive Norwegian woman on vacation here , and me and my companion talked to her for about 10 minutes about the gospel and spain, and when we gave her a handshake afterwards, she beso´d me (kissed me on the cheek) and everyone who was singing was watching me, including President Hinckley. How embarrassing! I talked to him after and he told me to repent, while he was laughing. It was a good time. YEsterday was kind of a daze, partly because I couldn´t believe that I was in a 3 some yet again, then because I was going to my first area, then because I taught my first lesson, then because I saw my first living area, then because the Spain MTC is so much nicer than our living areas here! Yesterday was fantastic. It was just a shocker. Now today, reality has set in, and it´s time to do work. I´m excited. Thanks for sending me that inspirational thing mom, and thanks for the advice dad. I´m reallly trying to not compare myself to others, because then pride and discouragement come. My Spanish is pretty good, but there´s so much more I have to learn and do. It´s so weird meeting new people with real problems and real concerns, who need real help. It´s really awesome, but it´s really weird. You don´t want to mess it up, so you pray extra hard. Talk about pressure. I have already gotten discouraged once when I coudn´t understand much, but my companions bought me a chocolate filled bread thing, called napolitana, and it was absolutely incredible. Now I´m here, writing this email. I got to get going, but I´ll write to you on my pday, which is on monday. Feel free to write me back before then. Mucho amor.

Love,
Elder Pericle

I´m two months into my mission. You might ask what my feelings are. Nervous, excited, apprehensive, joyful. It´s a "mesclavo" or mix. It´s weird. Tomorrow, I will go to Barcelona. I´m about to begin my real mission, and I´m excited for that. It´s going to the best. Let me tell you about an experience I had on saturday. I got to go to the park, and they put me with another American. They trust me to speak Spanish. Weird. So we go out, and we got rejected so much! Some woman told us to forget her, because she was Catholic. You tell a lot of people to have a good day on the mission, let me tell you. So then, we found the guy, who last saturday, told us that he wanted to meet us at the same bench and discuss the Book of Mormon. He was there! And he had read! He didn´t pray though. It made me sad, but we had a good 45 minute talk about the Book of Mormon and the gospel, and we got his information, and passed it onto other elders in the Madrid mission. We also invited him to come to church at the stake center by the temple, and that we would go with him, and he said he would go and we were so excited, and we didn´t show up. It was really sad. I guess I´m just getting prepared for more and more rejections. It´s all good though. I got to talk to him for 45 minutes in Spanish. IN SPANISH. I´m basically native. Not quite, but I´m working there. I put in my work, and the Lord will take care of the rest. I love this work. It´s really a privilege to be able to be a missionary. I learn more and more about how awesome this gospel is everyday. My testimony is constantly growing, I take a lot of gospel notes. It´s hard to write in my journal, just cause I´m so busy. It´s okay though, I´ll get around to it.
Sometimes I feel down, but then I remember the missionaries that came before me. Heber Kimball went on how many missions? Followers of Christ have to make sacrifices, that´s the price. The reward? Glory in the kingdom of the Father. There is no rest right now. There will be rest later.
I´m excited to get to Barcelona. I will take some pictures of my first area for you. I´m excited to meet President Hinckley. I´m excited to preach the good word. I´m just very excited. I love this gospel, I love my family, and I love Spain. Look at Romans 15:24. This isn´t the first time the gospel has been preached in Spain.
-Elder Pericle

¡Hola!
Here I am, in the Spain MTC, and it´s great. I am thoroughly enjoying myself now, even though I am in another 3 some! It´s not too bad here though because you´re not joined at the hip like in Provo. They really trust you here, and you don´t have every single hour of your day planned out for you. There´s a lot of time where you just get to choose your focus in your studies. I´ve been focusing and studying a lot, even though today my alarm didn´t go off and I looked at my alarm at 6:50! I was so mad. But it´s okay, it was an honest mistake. So during our gym time, we get to go play football with some kids, and it´s in this cool football pitch that´s like from the movie El Dorado. It´s all concrete, and it´s in like a pit. It´s way cool, I´ve never seen anything like it. The kid´s here were all really good, and they´re all like 13 to 16, and they all have piercings and tattoos, but they are good kids. They´re pretty shy, and when I scored a goal I said ¨"¿Bueno por an Americano sí?" and they didn´t really laugh, but I did. They knew who Landon Donovan was, and that made me happy. But anyways, talking to them made me excited to get out to the field and to proselyte to people just like them. I was talking to this one English elder here, Elder Middleton, and we were talking about how much the church and the priesthood would change these kids lives. It made us both excited. It´s going to be good. Today, we have to go give some fingerprints to some government agency, then sign some papers, and they´re sending all the Americans out into the metro by themselves! This could get dangerous. But we´re missionaries, so we´ll be okay. Then, we come back here for lunch, and head back out into the city for 3 hours to look around.
So yeah, I´m just in SPAIN having a grand time. The teachers here are all very nice, and there are 7 or so Spaniards who I try and talk to all the time. They like talking to me, and I LOVE talking to them. When I first got here they basically shattered my confidence in Spanish, but I am slowing putting it back together. They talk so fast, and they use words that aren´t used in Latin America, which is where my teachers served, so I have a lot of learning to do, but hey, it´s all good.
So I´m glad that you all are well, school´s about to start up I guess, and that will be fun. Make sure to study hard!
Wait until September 8th to send me any real mail, but feel free to email me all you want! I hope to here from you soon. I have to go get ready to go downtown. Adios.
Mucho amor,
Elder Pericle

Familia familia,
¿Qué pasa? I successfully made it onto our flight to Madrid. They closed the gate but when we got there they opened it back up for us. The flight was pretty painless, but it was weird because everyone was speaking Spanish, and this is NOT the language that I learned in the MTC. It´s crazy listening to Spaniards speak. When we got out of the airport we were looking for someone to pick us up, and no one was there, so we exchanged our money, and were going to use a pay phone, but some members walked up to us and asked us what we were doing and they let us use their phone to call the MTC president, who had no idea we were arriving! Tender mercies, let me tell you. So there are only 15 of us in the Madrid MTC right now, and it´s pretty much awesome - 7 north americans, and 8 native speakers. The food is incredible (from the one meal that I had), the temple is pretty much the coolest building I have ever seen in my entire life, and I´m pretty much in the middle of a culture shock. I have to start speaking with a lisp now, and it´s crazy. It´s way difficult, but hey, I can do hard things. The MTC President here is really cool, and he´s letting us go to bed tonight at 5:30 because he knows how exhausted we are - and let me tell you, I´m pretty darn exhausted. You can´t sleep well on a plane, especially when your legs keep getting in the way. I´m sorry that I didn´t get to talk long in New York, but it was due to circumstances beyond my control. I will be in this MTC until Sept 8, when I will take the bullet train to Barcelona, have dinner with President Hinckley, then get sent off to some part of Spain. I love it here - it´s beautiful. The Spanish here is weird, but it´s easy on the ears. I don´t know if it´s as easy on the ears as Italiano, but it´s up there.
Well, I don´t know what else to say! I´m doing good, I´m happy, I´m tired, but I´m motivated to do good tomorrow. I just need to catch up on my sleep and all will be well.
Oh! So there´s this one elder here, Elder Tyson-Boice or something, and he´s from Hyde Park and knows Grandma and Grandpa Leavitt and Jessica. Small world. Well he used to live in Hyde Park, but now he lives in the South of Spain, and he´s lived there for 9 years, so his Spanish is pretty much incredible. It´s kind of intimidating talking to people when you barely know the language. It´s cool though. I´m excited to play soccer tomorrow with some nativos, and to go to the mall and contact and go to the park and contact. This place is like a deluxe hotel. One of the elders who had already been out a transer, Elder Redd, told me that he feels like he is cheating because this place is so nice. I´ll enjoy this while I can. Well, I´m going to go take pictures by the temple. Talk to you later! My new p-day is on Thursday, so make sure you shoot me back an email before then.
Love, Elder Pericle