Week 7

I don't have a lot of time, so this is going to be short!  Today was my first Dia de Preparacion in the field.  It was nice!  Elder Jennings and I went to the store and did some shopping and stuff.  I bought a wallet because I was sick of folding Euros in half to get them to fit...Anyway my first couple days here have had ups and downs.  We'll start with some of the downs.  First the baptism we were supposed to have fell through and then none of our investigators, who were said they were coming to sacrament meeting, came.  The way I look at it though is if we go through the bad the good seems so much better.  Anyway, on Saturday we had an awesome day!  We went out street contacting in the morning and we got a ton of numbers!!  We taught short 5 minute lessons to 4 people and set up a follow up visit with three of them!  We set up a great week for this week!!!  I'm so excited for it!!  Well I love you all and hope you're all doing well!

Con amor,

Elder Jonson

Week 6 1/2

Well I get to email for a bit today because I'm new!

Ok starting off, Saturday was a little rough at the park but Elder Ward and I gave out a Book of Mormon on the Metro!!  So that brightened my entire day!

Sunday was good as usual, but Monday was great!!  We packed, ate pizza for dinner, had a testimony meeting and had a devotional with President and Sister Lovell!  It was fantastic!

Now on to the more recent stuff, Tuesday morning we left the MTC and got on a high speed train to Barcelona!!  It was such a cool experience going on that.  At one point I looked up and saw that we were going 295 km/h!!  It was crazy!!  We got to Barcelona and met Presidente and Hermana Pace in the train station!  We then got in a bus and went to the chapel for Barrio Dos in Barcelona and dropped off my luggage.  I then took my overnight bag (backpack) and we went to the Mission home.  There they fed us, interviewed us, and then took us on a brief tour of Barcelona.  It was so amazing!!  I love Barcelona already!!  We then came back to the mission home and got our "temporary companions."  My companion was Elder Wilkinson!  We then rode the Metro over to the Badalona area where we stopped at his Piso (apartment) and dropped my stuff off.  We then went out street contacting!  We talked to everyone and Elder Wilkinson was awesome!! We then went and had a Family Home Evening with a member family.  It was so much fun and they fed us!! After that we went back out street contacting and we met a Jehova's Witness, that was interesting....Afterward we went back to the piso and sat in on planning for Elder Wilkinson and his real companion.  Then went to bed.

The next morning, we woke up early and went with an Elder in that piso, who was going to be training someone in that area, to a stake center.  We then went and got our fingerprints done at the police station so we could get our Spanish ID's, I'll get that in a month or two.  Afterwards we took a bus back to Barrio Dos' capilla and studied for awhile.  We then had a devotional with President and Sister Pace and at the end we got to find out where we were going!  I was the second to last missionary assigned out of my group so that was kind of nerve wracking!!  On a side note, Elder Stapleton, my MTC friend happens to be going to the area where I slept for my first night....anyway, I got up there and President announced that I was going to the PALMA MALLORCA area!!  For those of you who don't know where that is, Palma Mallorca is the largest of three islands in the Mediterranean Sea belonging to Spain!  So immediately after the meeting my new companion and I grabbed my bags and went to the airport!  My new companion is Elder Jennings from Mesa, Arizona!!  I'm his first missionary to be trained!  He has been in the field for 7 months and in Mallorca for a transfer (6 weeks).  He is so awesome and way nice!  I can't wait to get to know him better!

Anyway, on the 40 minute flight from Barcelona to Palma I sat next to a guy who was reading a rock climbing magazine and I would like to thank Taylor Watkins and Josh Schmidt for teaching me a little bit about climbing so I could try and communicate with him.  I gave him a pass along card and hope he looks to find more.  On the flight they managed to lose one of my bags...but while I was typing this email, they airline called Elder Jennings and said they were at our piso to drop it off!  I saved this draft and we ran back to our piso and picked it up!!  The thing I was most excited for that I didn't have in my other bag was my sweaters!! I am so sick of my suit jacket right now...anyway all is great here in Palma Mallorca!  Next week we have Enfoque, so we meeting with everyone in our zone and hear what the President told the Zone Leaders to tell us.  I'll write again on Monday I believe, who knows... I love the Barcelona Mission already!

Parker Skousen you are so lucky to be going to this mission!!!  It is the best mission in the world!

I love you all and hope you are doing well!!

Con Amor,

Elder Jonson

My New Address:

C/Nicolao de Pacs 23, 2A

Palma de Mallorca  07006

España

Letters take about a week to get here from the US and packages take about a week and half to two weeks to get here!  Write me!!

First Area - Palma de Mallorca

Hey!!

Well I got assigned my first area and my first companion and I made it there safe and sound! My companion is Elder Jennings from Mesa, AZ and my area is Palma de Mallorca!!  I think I'm going to get to email tomorrow for longer, but this email is just to say I made it safe.  Athens will be happy to know that I lost one of my bags on the flight from Barcelona to Palma de Mallorca, but I'm supposed to get it tomorrow or tonight, who knows...ah well!  This is awesome!  It was a little sad to see all my friends go but I've made a new one in Elder Jennings.  He is fantastic and I'm his first missionary he's trained!  I'm so excited!!  Love you all!  I'll write more about my first day in Barcelona tomorrow!

Con Amor,

Elder Jonson

Photo with the Barcelona Mission President

With President and Sister Pace

Picture with the MTC President

 With the Madrid MTC President

Week 6

Well I'm off!! Tomorrow at 6 am I leave the MTC and catch a train to Barcelona!  I love you all and remember:  ¡Todo lo puedo en Cristo que me fortalece!  Now I have to go finish packing....

 

Con amor,

Elder Jonson

Week 5

Hello everyone!  How are you all doing?  I hope it is great because this is definitely the best time to be living in!  This week has been fantastic!  There are always the ups and downs but overall there are always more ups than downs.  One of the downs of this week was our service project.  We literally mopped the parking garage for the temple…I guess whatever helps…  Anyway last P-Day we went to the mall, kind of a waste but we got to come back and rest for a bit afterwards!  The best part of P-Days is definitely the MTC devotional at night.  We watched a devotional from Elder Holland and those are always amazing.  This one was on Missionaries who come home after their missions and go inactive.  He said that we have to have at least one convert on our missions, and it better be us!  I have definitely been changed just in the month I’ve been here it is so crazy! 

Oh by the way I leave the MTC for the Spain Barcelona Mission on TUESDAY!!!!  I leave at 6 AM (10 PM on Monday Utah time) from the MTC and catch a high speed train to BARCELONA at 7!!  I am so excited and nervous at the same time!!

The greatest experience I had this week was giving out my first ever copy of the Book of Mormon in the Parque Retiro!!!!  My companion for this week was Elder Del Amo, who is from the south of Spain and is only here in the MTC for two weeks before he goes to the Madrid Mission.  He didn’t speak a lot of English but I spoke enough Spanish and we were good enough at charades that we could communicate.  We were going around the park not having a lot of success and so Elder Del Amo suggested that we say a prayer.  So we said a prayer and not 5 minutes later, we decided to stop and talk to this lady who was taking pictures.  We waited for her to finish and then went up and started talking to her.  She was from Brazil and so she spoke Portuguese, but she also spoke a little bit of English.  So with a combination of my English and broken Spanish and Elder Del Amo’s perfect Spainish we taught her about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon and she accepted a Book of Mormon in Spanish because we didn’t have one in Portuguese.  The best moment of the day was when we got back to the MTC and heard that Elder Sadler and his companion had found the same lady after we did and were able to trade her Spanish Book of Mormon for a Portuguese one!  The Lord always finds a way to get his work done!  I am seeing that more and more!  Also on a side note, one of the new native Spanish Elders here is Elder Narcizo.  He is the funniest guy and everything he does is ten times funnier because he’s a dwarf (midget)!   On Thursday he was running around with this little black poncho on acting like Harry Potter!  It was hilarious!

One of the best things that has started happening here in the MTC since we got all of the Native Spanish speakers is singing.  Every night after we all finish eating dinner Elder Ward sits down at the piano in the cafeteria and plays a couple hymns and we all sing as loud as we possibly can in Spanish or Russian!  It is amazing the power that comes from music!

My experience here at the MTC has been amazing but it’s coming to a close.  One of the funniest things I see was the “Teachers Archive of Wrong Spanish Phrases.”  In this the teachers kept some of the funniest phrases new missionaries have said and mixed up words in.  For example one missionary said, “Adán y Eva se caigaron.”  The sentence is supposed to say Adam and Eve fell.  The word for Fell in Spanish is cayeron.  So the phrase the Missionary said actually meant:  Adam and Eve pooped themselves.  It was awesome to be able to laugh at the mistakes others have made and realize that although I don’t think I’m doing well with Spanish, I’m doing a lot better than some other missionaries!

I can’t wait to continue learning the Spanish language and Serve the Lord.  I love the Lord and know that I am where I am supposed to be at this time in my life.  The Lord said to Peter, If ye love me, feed my sheep.  And that is what I am doing.  I have a testimony of this Gospel and of the authenticity of this church.  Yo sé que la Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Últimos Días es la verdad.  If you don’t have a testimony of this church and all of its parts, go get one.  It will bless you more than you could ever imagine!  I love you all and hope you are all having a wonderful time reading this!

Con Amor,

Elder Tikal J. Jonson