178

Ya, I figured the trunky comments would arrive. I was bracing myself for today. The last transfer is here. It feels so weird. I also feel so old. I talk about missionaries who have all gone home and events in the mission from before most of the people were here. All these new little kids are coming in and it just makes me feel like an old fart talking to them. And all the members and investigators are reminding me of how much time I have left. Also my agenda now doubles as a nice countdown of how much time is left. Not to sound trunky, but I´m excited for the next changes because I finally know what is going to happen to me and I can pack in advance! 

I´m staying in my area with my companion.

On a random note, we found 10€ ties on sale for 1€ so we all bought tons. I bought six and 2 of them came with matching cufflinks and only cost 50 cents more.

Well we teach a piano class here. I don´t know if I mentioned that. But while waiting for that I decided to try and strike up a conversation and asked my companion what his favorite piece of music is that he plays. He said it was Rachmaninoff´s 2nd Piano Concierto, 1st Movement and then he proceeded to play it. Oh goodness that is a difficult and epic piece of music. Look it up.

I had a random happy moment to myself. We contacted a woman in the street and she gave us her number and while she was saying it all the daughter who was like 5 finished the last numbers by saying "178" but the mom "corrected" her quickly and gave us "179" as the last three digits. Turns out that the number ending in 179 didn´t even exist but I had written down the little girls response so I called that. The woman´s sister answered and confirmed that it was her real number so now we´re trying to get in contact with her. It was a nice contrast of deceitful adults and pure, honest children. It makes me laugh a bit.

Well iPads are officially coming on June 10! Although it doesn´t matter to me because I probably won´t get one. Although it´s still pretty cool to be here when all this is changing and starting. I´ll at least get to share my companion´s iPad and bother him. Also, as a side note for mom: Whenever I see young kids in the ward on their phone I do what you always did to my iPod and just attack the screen with all my fingers to see if they die in their game. It does indeed work.

Well the Villalba trip was awesome. I thought it was going to be me, Elder Weeks, and Elder Anderson but it turns out that they invited all the Elders from the past year and a half that are still here. I´ll send pictures once I bring my cable. It was so weird to see all the Elders together (there were like 20 of us) and a bunch of the members there who I haven´t seen in almost a year. To make it all even weirder, it was all in a bright, beautiful field and we had lunch underneath a giant picturesque tree and there were purple flowers everywhere. It was like a dream. It was kind of how I imagine seeing people in the spirit world or celestial kingdom. Seeing all of your old friends and family in a bright, beautiful field and greeting them and everyone is smiling and playing games and laughing and whatnot. Pretty trippy. It was really nice to see everyone again. A few of those people are also going home tomorrow so that was nice too. It was also a pretty sad farewell for the Elders going home. It might also be my last time seeing them. Man, everything is so weird realizing it´s probably or for sure the last time of doing something. Ever since transfers, I´ve been hit with a burning fire to work and also a storm of trunkiness. It´s an interesting contrast and there are so many other contrasting emotions. It´ll be a fun transfer. I am excited!

I love you all and miss you loads!

Os quiero,

Elder Morgan

Dreamlike Field

Villalba Party

Summertime

I´ve seen some other religions. The Jehovah´s Witnesses have these cute little stands on doilies to hold all their books and pamphlets but we never really run into them because they just stay still in plazas. Some evangelist churches with go out once in a while with blue vests to proselyte. I haven´t really seen Adventist proselyting but there is a nice adventist baker man who gives us bread. Supposedly the Catholics still have missionaries because people think we are them sometimes, but I´ve never met one.

I will gladly do the mowing. I don´t know why, but I enjoy it. Whenever I see one of the few lawns of grass around here (there´s not that many) and it smells like mowers I get a little nostalgic. Most places just let various weeds grow with some patchy grass to fill in the dirt with some green.

It´s ok, I figured you´d be pretty trunky on the call. There´s a group leaving in a week and I can´t imagine how trunky their parents were. One elder I knew who left last year couldn´t skype his family because they were on the plane to pick him up. Awkward timing.

Well Elder Helske--now Paul Helske--came to visit for a week. I didn´t get to see him much because he kind of mainly came back for a girl in another city. But we did get to see him and hangout with him a bit. He brought me a keychain and tar licorice (the brand is Leijona) because I like that stuff. It tastes kind of smokey and minty. It was weird to see him kiss people on the cheek. And his poor little white legs haven´t seen sun for 3 years so he got a pretty bad sunburn. It was so bad that he couldn´t wear long pants and go to the wedding he wanted to see.

Well we are hard core in summer time and it is hot. It also kind of scares me because I knew what this summer means for my mission.

Not much else happened besides a Zone Conference. We have some pretty solid investigators that I have hope for. I am in kind of a hurry because we´re also going up to Villalba to visit. That should be fun. Thanks for all the letters I get! I love you all and miss you loads!

Os quiero,

Elder Morgan 

Mother's Day Call and Photos!

We had a great Skype call with Elder Morgan yesterday. He looked good and happy. He was at a member's house and he was helping them make biscuit cinnamon rolls. (They didn't take them out of the oven when he told them to while we were talking. He had to go rescue the rolls and they were a little dark. Still yummy, I'm sure.)

We talked for over an hour about many things, but I can't think of anything to post here. I knew he wouldn't have anything to write on p-day, so I pleaded for photos. Thankfully, he obliged.  Enjoy!

District in Barrio 9

 L to R: Elder Sarango from Ecuador, but lives in Murcia, Elder Galvan from Huntington Beach, Me, Elder Helske from Finland, Elder McAllister from American Fork, Elder Cotton from Kansas City; Front: Hermana Valencia from Chicago, Hermana Ter Host from Cincinnati.

Madrid Mission, April 2015

 Daniel didn't know where he's standing, but the group includes the Canary Islands who rarely join them.

President and Hermana Jackson

Madrid Open, May 2015

Serving is John Isner from the USA-- he's 6'10"

John Isner at the Madrid Open

Puerta del Oeste (West Gate)

View of the Royal Palace

Temple of Debod -- playing frisbee here on P-day

Park at Temple of Debod

With Elder Helske and a member visiting Toledo

I'm Feeling Very...Open

Well this p-day we´re going to the Madrid Open (tennis tournament)! I´m not a huge fan of tennis but it´s fairly cheap, our district wants to go, and in reality I had no better plans. I have no thoughts on it now since I haven´t seen much. It should be pretty fun. We also found out that President Jackson is going as well! We´ll see how it goes.

Butterfly in Finnish is "perhonen (PER-ho-nen)" and the thunder god´s name is "perkele (PER-ke-le)". The thunder god´s name is also the name of the devil and can be used in normal conversation, just not as a shout. 

I cannot imagine what joy you guys had while looking for a dress for Kara. I have seen you guys ooh and aww over little girls clothing for the last few years and I feel like a little baby wedding dress would just be ecstasy.

On random news of the week, we were talking to an evangelist family in the street and the dad said he wanted to give us a hug and right before he hugged me he said, "I do this in the name of Jesus Christ," and then hugged me. That was definitely my first time being hugged in the name of Jesus Christ. Interesting experience.

Our ward had a Mother´s Day party (Mother´s Day here was this last Sunday. Ya. Weird.) on Saturday and it reminded me how different American and Spanish/Latino ward parties are. Like normal, there were long tables and food and talking and everything but after everyone was done eating they quickly removed the tables and had a very up beat dance. And all ages dance since it´s not just party or pop music here. It seems like old people get more excited than the youth at times. We left soon after that started and the dance lasted for hours afterward.

So ya, the skype call will be, if we can do it, at 11 AM your time which is 7 my time. It´s basically the only time that works since my companion´s family have church that starts at 11. He´ll skype an hour earlier.  

Anyways, that all for now. Gotta go! See you guys on Sunday! Love you all!

Os quiero,

Elder Morgan

P.S. And May the Fourth be with you. :D

Psych

Well, about the mother´s day call. I´m not sure how skype will work. In my past calls, it´s been on an iPad and that hasn´t really worked. I can try to get a computer, but I still have to organize with some members to skype somewhere. It´ll probably be on an iPad, though. We´ll see. I have no official time planned yet either. You might have to ditch church a bit early. We´re thinking of me doing my call at 11, your time. I´m not even sure how to do a google chat call. I tried at Christmas so I think we´ll stick to skype. I´ll try to get more info this week.

Trunky moment of the week: In the metro they have little videos of news around the country and sports scores and whatnot. While we were chilling on the metro, I saw x-wings on the screen and immediately knew it was news on Star Wars 7. They didn´t show much but it was a pretty low blow of trunky-ness.

Random moment: We realized this week that Elder Weeks and Elder Cotton are almost exactly like Shaun and Gus from Psych. In both scenarios, one is a brown haired white guy who´s kind of a goof ball but still vaguely serious and the other is a black guy who´s more sophisticated and reasonable but his black slang and sass is still ever present.

We´re finding more success in that pueblo called Boadilla del Monte. When we first got there we just contacting all afternoon but now we have set lessons and everything. We also now know how the area much more. The one member family that lives there told us if there´s a baptism in Boadilla, they´ll throw whoever it is a huge party. I love going there and I love seeing the growth from next to nothing.

We met a Finnish woman in the street! I tried to remember all the Finnish culture and language that I knew but the only thing was the language. And that´s not even that great. My companion taught me to say, hello, thanks, a swear word (the Finnish thunder god´s name), butterfly (what he always said instead of that swearword), and that random tongue twister about a dog eating some monk´s bean soup. Ya, it didn´t help. Sadly, I also forgot the city that he lives by and I didn´t remember to mention saunas, of all things. But it was a fun little experience.

Not much else to tell. The weather cooled down a bit. It´s nice because we´re in the streets a lot. I miss you all and love you loads!

Os quiero,

Elder Morgan

Hot and Not Too Hot

Well this will be a short letter as well, regrettably. Not really much happened this week and I´m not feeling too hot. Quite the contrary, it is also getting really hot outside.

My new companion is Elder Johnsen from Holiday, Utah. He has one less transfer than me. I realized that basically everyone has less time than me. He´s a good worker. He´s very untouched by the world and innocent too. That´s all I´ll say for now.

Well more people seem to be disappearing so we´re back to the beloved streets again. Amongst the grumpy, hurried masses we´ve found some nice people. Including a man from Paraguay who was really chill. Although we already have some nice people to teach as well.

And on random news, my old companion Elder Weeks (from my second transfer in Villalba) just got transferred here to Carabanchel.

Well I have no more news for the week. Please pray for me a lot. I miss you all a lot and love you loads!

Os quiero mucho,

Elder Morgan

Beloved Transfers

When we went to the temple this week I saw a group of tourists being lead by a tour guide standing across the street from the temple. They were all looking at the temple and the tour guide had a paper with a picture of the temple and info so I assume that our temple is part of some tours of Madrid. Weird. We went to the temple last week and Elder Helske asked to hear it in Finnish so that we could see the old video. I love that one so much!

Ya... Transfers came again. I strongly dislike them sometimes. I get really attached to people and places and transfers just ruin that. Elder Helske will be home tomorrow and now my companion is Elder Johnsen from Holiday, Utah. I haven´t got to know him much, though. Well, I still have this awful drained, crappy feeling of transfers lingering within me, so this won´t be too long of an email.

We made cinnamon rolls! We went to a members house and I made biscuit cinnamon rolls while my companion made Finnish cinnamon rolls. They´re more like actual rolls to eat with dinner but sweeter and they have cardamom in them. They were pretty good.

That´s all. Not really too exciting of a week. I miss you all and love you loads!

-Elder Morgan