More on Alcoy

Dearrrrrrrr family!
Alcoy is incredible. I loved Hospitalet so much, but I think I might love Alcoy even more. It´s way down south, about two hours down from Valencia, and it´s a tiny little Spanish town. Cobblestone streets, 20,000 people, tons and tons of Spaniards with little to no south americans. I love it. This past week was great. After I emailed you, we got on a train, Elder Atkin and I. He´s like the older brother that I never had. He´s got 4 transfers left, and he speaks great Spanish, and he´s been with me since the beginning of my mission. We were together. Right before we were about to get on the train, I got a call from a member, and she told me that a member, Salva, had passed away. She didn´t know much, but she wanted to let us know before we left, because she knew that we used to visit him all the time. It was a sad moment, because we weren´t going to see him again in Spain, and he wasn´t going to give us a glass of coke like he always did, but we knew that we were going to see him again one day, thanks to the Atonement of Christ. It´s crazy how much love we as missionaries develop for people. So on our way down to Valencia from Barcelona, Elder Atkin and I were together, and it was super stressful carrying all of our luggage, because I have three bigs things and my briefcase, and I´ve heard too many horror stories about stuff getting stolen, so I was super careful, almost paranoid. I take after dad too much. I watched my stuff like a hawk. On the way down to Valencia, the train stopped, and we found out that we had to get off the train, take all of our stuff about a half mile away to a bus, that was going to take us to another train station, where we had to load all of our luggage again. I was sweating, stressing, because I had this heavy lugagge and so much of it. But this nice man from Africa came and helped me out. His name was Francisco. He saw me in my state of need, and he grabbed one of my bags and walked beside me and helped me out. I was so grateful for that. The world needs more people that are willing to help out like that! So we finally got to Valencia, and my companion came up from Alcoy to pick me up. I found out that every Tuesday, we take a two hour train ride to Valencia for district meeting, then we take the bus back at four, and we don´t get back until 6. That´s a ton of traveling! A lot of time to think and to read scriptures!
So first arriving in Alcoy, I find out that the missionaries who had been here in the past had had an absolutely terrible relationship with the members. I found out that there were fights, and it was just bad. Last transfer was pretty slow for the missionaries here, due to illness and disanimation. They have a few investigators here that aren´t really progressing, and are really nice, but don´t want to be baptized. The first thing I said to Elder Bowers was "We´re going to get this work going." Me and him are really excited about what we can do here. This past week, we were passing by a lot of people on the ward list, only to find out that they didn´t live there anymore, and were contacting people and talking to everyone. My spanish is really starting to take off, and let me tell you, it is an absolute joy! I still need to work on the accent, but I can understand pretty well, and I can get my point across. It´s such a joy. Heavenly Father has really blessed me with the gift of tongues.
So let me tell you one experience. We got a reference from this woman that the missionaries have been teaching forever that can´t be baptized because she works on Sunday, and so we went with her to her friends house. We were there with the bishop, and then friend was from Portugal, but she spoke English very well. She was telling us about her "twins" and how they were so sick and how the doctor said that she might as well put them down. She was going on and on, and we were really confused. Elder Bowers and I and the bishop were all looking at each other and wondering what was going on. We were really confused. Then she offered to show us her twins. We go back, and they are two nasty cats that are sick! They were in this baby crib, and had blankets around them and everything. She was very distressed about the state of her cats, and we were sensitive about it and everything, but those weren´t even cute cats! Oh the experiences of the mission.
So, one investigator we have, Abelardo, is a man from Colombia, and he loves the missionaries, and loves the Bible, and doesn´t see the need for the Book of Mormon. He says the Book of Mormon is good and all, but he doesn´t really understand it. We just have to get him to see and to feel by the power of the Holy Ghost that the Book of Mormon, if it really was written by prophets in the Ancient Americas, and if it really was translated by Joseph Smith by the power of God, it means absolutely everything! My testimony of the Book of Mormon has grown so much, and I don´t let a day get by without reading from it and feeling of the incredible spirit that comes from reading it. I love it.
So yesterday, we had church. I love church. The ward in Hospitalet was about 120, 130 people, and about 10 spaniards. The ward here is about 40 people, and about 3 south americans. It´s incredible! I just had a huge smile on, and Elder Bowers and I went around and shook hands, gave hugs to people, set up visits with people, and met so many people. I love the members here. You can tell that they are a little nervous about the missionaries, due to some things in the past, but we´re going to change that. We are going to get into every members home and read the scriptures with them and show them that we´re serious and we´re here to help the work go along here in Alcoy. The missionary that I replaced here couldn´t eat a lot of things because he was super allergic, and so the members were kind of annoyed at that. They are excited to cook for me, and I´m excited to eat! There are a lot of old people in our ward, and I´m excited to go over and talk to them all and to serve them and just love them to death. Last night, we had a fireside about missionary work, and it went super well. Now that I can communicate alright in Spanish, I just want to talk and talk and talk! We got the ward, or the 25 people that showed up, really excited about missionary work, and we gained their trust a lot. I´ve learned the power of the smile, and how a smile really makes life better. Enthusiasm is so important when it comes to missionary work, and me and Elder Bowers are going to try and be the most enthusiastic missionaries Alcoy has ever seen! I´m so excited to visit a lot of the members and to get to know them and just love them to death. Then, together with the members, the work can really move forward here in Alcoy.
So, dad, you´re a little sick? So am I. I had a cough, and am a little "constipado", which doesn´t mean what you think it means. It means stuffed up or something like that in Spanish. I like to say that a lot, because it makes me laugh a little. I´m still a twenty year old boy! Being sick is the worst, but it makes me realize how grateful I am for health. Oh, so if you write to the address in Barcelona, I´ll get my mail about every 6 weeks. But if you write to the address of our apartment here, I´ll get it right away! My address is
Elder Pericle
c/ Perú 40, 1, 2
03803 Alcoy
España
Feel free to write to that! It´s nice getting mail.
So, because I´ve been studying Spanish so much and really trying to immerse myself, my English has started to struggle. I´´m going to be so weird when I get back. My sisters are going to laugh at me.
Well, I got to get going. I pretty much love Alcoy, I love the small ward here, I love the members, Elder Bowers is great, I love Spanish, I love the Book of Mormon. There´s just a lot of love in my life right now, and it´s great. I´m really enjoying myself, and I´m really enjoying serving the Lord in the mission field.
Mucho Amor,
Elder Pericle

p.s. there´s this old man here that typed the whole Libro de Mormón on a type writer with one finger. Isn´t that neat?