Nos Vemos!*

The Christmas package came! I don´t know if I can open it or not. From what I read from Wesley it sounds like some is ok to open now and some is wrapped. I´ll go for it. If I see nothing wrapped I´ll shut it and pretend I saw nothing. Although now it´s too late to say that I didn´t but I shouldn´t lie anyways. Ya, It just barely dipped below freezing on Sunday. Everyone here is dying and always asks me how I´m not cold. Now my nickname is Iceman but imagine with a thick Spanish accent. It does snow in the mountains and a bit here, but not much. I think the North might be a bit warmer than us or at least the stuff by the ocean because the water keeps the temperature from dropping too much.

Aww, I´m missing all the beginning winter accidents. Pity. It´s going to be wonderful driving when I get home. I´ve learned much more patience here with travelling so a car will be so dang fast. A bus takes like 4 times as long as a car does if people give us rides. The trains are nice now. I have a B3 Abono! You can buy public transport passes of increasing sizes. The A Abono covers main Madrid and it goes all the way to E2 which goes outside the providence and places as far away as Toledo. I don´t have that but I have much more power to travel now! 

Alright, Investigators. We have only a few but it´s quality rather than quantity. We have a guy from Nigeria who came to us in church asking to be baptized and now he´s almost at the end and should be baptized in a week if all goes to plan. Then we have a Spanish man who has been wanting to be baptized for a while but it´s a case of the infamous Spanish wedding paperwork. He´ll be married in the beginning of January and baptized soon after. Then we have a girl who´s a friend of a member and she wants to be baptized but her parents didn´t know what was going down so they want to investigate everything before they let her and hopefully they´ll be converted since they're pretty open and nice. Another Dominican guy wants to be baptized but he has some vague legal stuff that we don´t know about and some personal drama, but he wants to be baptized. Another lady is a mother of two member children but is waiting for her husband who is also investigating to come back from England where is now. Both want to be baptized I believe. Then we just started teaching a Dominican guy who works at a bar in his bar and he´s really hopeful. And we have a Romanian guy who is on the right path to baptism but isn´t sure about it yet. It´s a huge contrast to the people in Vallecas who were a lot good people that wouldn´t go to church or having a huge desire to be baptized. I´m very excited for this area. I´m really sad to leave my old investigators that I´ve worked so hard with but I´m really happy about this area. My baptismal clothing should be on the drying rack a few times here.

I baptized a guy on Saturday! The Hermanas asked me to baptize him for them (After they had already put my name on all the programs) but I was pumped. He is Yaw Kokwa from Ghana. His nickname is Lala and he was actually a reference passed on from me and Elder Shumway in Vallecas. He was so happy the whole time. 

Oh! I ATE CHESTNUTS ROASTED OVER AN OPEN FIRE! Yes. Yes I did. It makes me happy. It´s a lot different than you´d think. I imagined something along the lines of a walnut or a peanut. It has the thinnest husk ever and the inside is like a tiny potato. It´s slightly salty and slightly sweet. I can scratch that off my bucket list. Next one is getting a face shave with a straight edge razor. Yes they do that here and yes I am so excited to try it.

So we were running to the train and Elder Fisher jumped in right before the doors closed but I couldn´t get in despite our efforts to open the door. It felt really awkward to be alone. It was really funny though. 

They apparently play Settlers of Katan (Catan?) here! Here it´s just Catan. Just thought you´d want to know. 

I had intercambios with an elder who had 1 week in the mission. That was very interesting. It made me remember being new. There´s a certain basic Spanish that we all use and when you´re new you say hi to everyone you see and so many other things. And he´s from Orem! He went to Timp. Elder Schwenke.* It was cool to talk about my old home city. 

So we passed by the ice rink to see the youth and teach our investigator at the ice rink. Apparently their budget didn´t fit in a Zamboni. I now understand why. It was so snowy and scraped up. Like gouges in the ice. I tried the Spanish hot chocolate. Oh my goodness it is wonderful. It´s so thick and rich. Love it! Some recent converts had invited us over for breakfast and we taught a lesson and set up their tree. It was really cool to do that. 

I busted out the Christmas music finally. It´s a bit bittersweet. It makes me feel happy but also it´s tinged with missing home. I finally understand "Riu Riu Chiu" from Dad´s Christmas album. Or at least more of it. It´s still pretty fast. 

I just came back from our choir practice--hence the reason I´m in kind of a hurry. We´re singing What Child is This (Que Niño es Este?), Hark! the Herald Angels Sing (Escuchad el Son Triunfal), Silent Night (Noche de Luz), Joy to the World (Regocijad!) and Los Peces en el Rio. The last is a Spanish song and is very strange. It´s all about fishes drinking so that they can watch Mary brush her hair and clean diapers. But still look it up. It´s fun. And it´s been in my head for the last month.  We have a huge concert of all the missionaries in Madrid to sing to investigators and members and whatnot. It´ll be awesome.

I hope I wrote enough. It feels like I´ve written so little but I guess it´s been a lot. Maybe it´s just a contrast from last week. Sorry about the long one. I hope you all enjoyed it. I´ve noticed that these have turned into a mix of diary of events and mission work. Maybe I should focus more on mission work like Wesley´s? I don´t know. I like telling random stuff and facts. We´ll see what goes down after a while. Anyway, miss you all loads and love you even more! I´ll probably be seeing you soon on video!

Nos vemos! (See you!)

 *Daniel didn't know it yet, but Elder Schwenke is the grandson of the Relief Society President in our ward--small world!