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