Final Letter

Whelp 2 years have come and I’m coming home. I was gonna write a nice reflective letter about the mission but I really don’t want to. You’ll see me in 3 days so I’m sorry but that’s what my homecoming talk is for by. The mission has been good, I changed a lot, saw many miracles and learned a lot.

Tuesday I fulfilled the Sevilla dream. That is we walked around Sevilla for 4 hours contacting. That night I was trying to kill a mosquito and I smashed it against the window and it ended up cracking the window pretty badly jaja.

Wednesday I had my exit interview with president. We talked about what my plans are for after the mission and he emphasized a lot on the need to get married, it was exactly how the stereotypical exit interview is.

Thursday we had to wait around the piso and wait for a repairman to come and look at a leak the downstairs neighbors were complaining about. After we went to Juan Carlos' to check up on him and read a bit in the Book of Mormon with him. And then he asked us to help him out
tomorrow with some service.

Friday morning we get to Juan’s house, where he drives us about 100 meters and then we get 1 box of fruit, put it in the car and then drive back home. Simple, almost useless service, but he was grateful for the help we offered him. It was also very hot and humid, and we ended up walking the streets for the rest of the morning, it was rough. And now that the heat is hitting people are even less likely to talk to us now. We ate with Juanma and after we had our final English class and we learned how to make gazpacho. Just imagine salad dressing in drink form, that’s gazpacho. I’ll make it for you later. And then to end the night we said goodbye to Galicia, a nice Colombian lady that makes the best food.

Saturday we went and taught my final lesson with Ana, she’s the same. After to celebrate the end of the transfer we went and ate at an all you can eat buffet, but it was very disappointing. It had like no variate. Then we were just going to walk the hour home, while stopping and talking to Jennifer and a guy named Jon, but both failed us, so we ended up walking the hour all the way home in humidity and heat. Fun stuff. Then we went to a ward party, where they just blasted Spanish music to a point where you couldn’t even talk. But there was some good food.

Today we’ve gone up to Sevilla to enjoy my final p-day. Toured Plaza de España and took some pics. Until we head home.

See you Thursday

🇺🇸  Élder Pearce 🇪🇸
Viva España málaga

Sevilla

Hey fam

Tuesday morning was the usual walking and contacting. That night we went to go pass by a less active kid. He didn’t answer, so we were like let’s wait a bit outside to see if anything happens. Sure enough like 4 min later he shows up so we were able to talk a bit and update some info. After we were sitting on a bench calling some people and some gypsies started crowding around us. Slowly they started to move in towards the bench, so we got suspicious and left. Turns out they just wanted the bench because right when we stood up they took control of the bench. It was weird.

Wednesday we taught an early lesson with Milagros and then caught a bus up to Sevilla for interviews with president. I ended up not having the interview, because I’ll be having mine on Wednesday. It was a little rough because we got there super early because of the bus schedules and it was locked so we had to be out in the Sevillan heat for about 45 min waiting.

Thursday I was feeling pretty sick in the morning but we still went and ate lunch with bishop and family, and then helped him move some chairs and tables afterwards. We went to go see Inés after and ate fruit with her. Update on José Luis. He left his hospital bed this past week and is now recovering in a wheelchair in a residency in Sevilla.  After we did some studying and then went to an fhe to end the night and celebrated the birthday of a YSA member there as well.

Friday we went back up to Sevilla to have my last and the last Spain Malaga mission zone conference. It was good, I got to give my dying testimony. It went well. Also I had 8 of my 14 comps there. Which is a good number. But most of the conference was just talking about the
change of missions.

Saturday we went to Ana’s and talked a bit. After we were waiting at the bus stop, (now the bus system is a little rough and comes at random times) so while we were waiting a drunk guy came up to us and started talking. The bus didn’t come for a half an hour so he talked to us for a long time, us and the other people waiting were just laughing the whole time. We visited Paco in the afternoon and contacted until we got home.

Until next week

🇺🇸  Élder Pearce 🇪🇸

Viva España málaga

Trip to Costco

Hey fam

Tuesday after district meeting we went to Costco as usual. But this time me and Christensen bought some Costco muffins to bring home for breakfast. Blueberry and chocolate. After we had a video lesson with an investigator that lives pretty far away. We talked about the blessings that come from sacrifice and reading the Book of Mormon. She would be super good if she didn’t live 1.5 hours away.

Wednesday we met with Paco and Fernando again. They finally came to church this past week. So that’s good. After we finally got in contact with a less active family from Nigeria. Turns out we had the address wrong. So all the times we thought they failed us on appointments we failed them. Oops. But they took it pretty well.

Thursday we had nothing to do until 9pm so we walked around, talked to people and got rejected more than average. But a member did bring a friend to the fhe we had that night which turned things around a bit more.

Friday we ate with a less active member in the church. And we had to wait in the church for some repairmen to come, so it turned out well. There are way too many people that can’t come to church because they work too much. Then right after we went to eat with Juanma and came home quite full. Then we went to English class, and waited around for people to show up for the ward fhe but nobody came...

Saturday we set up a lesson with Tania, who just got back from Peru, and her boyfriend Juan. Juan kept pushing back the appointment and when we got there he got a message saying that Tania couldn’t come. And then that night right when we got on the bus to go to Ana’s pueblo, she  canceled, so we had to go the 20 min there just to come the 20 min back. And then correlation failed us. So we ended up passing by some points, but we did meet a less active guy.

Until next week

🇺🇸  Élder Pearce 🇪🇸

Viva España málaga

Dessert Judging

Hey family

Tuesday we went up to district meeting and then went to Costco afterwards. When we got back to Huelva we had a video call with a person we found on our phone. But she lives an hour and a half away so well see. 

Wednesday decided to go to a big park in Huelva to see if we could talk to anyone. But nobody was there so we left disappointed. Then everything failed us that afternoon so we wandered around and talked to people on the street all day. 

Thursday we went and ate an afternoon snack with a family. They brought out some super good pancakes. And we ended the night having an fhe with the ysa. 

Friday morning we met with Ana then when we got back we made some cookies until we went to eat lunch with Juanma. Afterwards, we made some more cookies, then went and taught Jennifer again. She's doing well. But just doesn't have any time to come to church because of work. Then we went to the church to set up for and have our dessert competition for the ward. That's why we made the cookies. It turned out actually pretty well.  As the judges it was a bit scary picking the winners because you never know who will freak out on you. But a red velvet cake won everything. 

Saturday we ate cold pork chops with a member for lunch. And met with a good amount of less active members. 

Sunday we had an area conference where we heard from a member of the 70 and Elder Uchtdorf via satellite. It was funny to see technology illiterate members trying to set it up with a terrible Wi-Fi connection. But we got everything working with about 3 min to spare.  

Until next week

Elder Pearce

Good Food

Hey family

Tuesday we finally were able to meet with Jennifer again. Turns out she went to Valencia for a month. But now she's back and doing well. We also had another video call with a less active girl living really far away that's passing through some difficulties. Then we went to a Colombian member’s house and ate some really good arepas.

Wednesday we had district meeting and ate some good Dominican food after. We went and read the BOM with Juan Carlos and then went over to see how our friend Paco is doing because his dad died last week. He's good.

Thursday. We went to Mercadona before we weekly planned and this girl yelled out elders to us. It was a nice American who's over here with the military and she wanted to know where the church was. That lunch we ate with bishop and after we went to Inés' house to meet her boyfriend from Madrid. Turns out he's President Izquierdos grandson (the branch president in Motril) then that night we had another fhe with all the ysa in the elders quorum presidents house. 

Friday consisted of contacting. Eating with Juanma. Teaching English. And having a ndh that nobody came to.

Saturday morning we went to Ana and set the date for the fast. But we're going to have to push it back a week. And then we went to Abraham's house to help make a prize for an activity were having this week. And after ate some really good chicken with them. 

Sunday was normal. There was a little outrage during sacrament meeting. It was really bot so somebody turned on the air. Then about 10 min later the 2 counselor turned off the air even though it was still hot. Cause a little outrage as I said. But that's all. 

Until next week

Elder Pearce

New Companion

Monday night we went to our weekly fhe. We had a nice time catching up and saying goodbye to Elder Randall. Also we ate snails, because Elder Randall has never eaten snails before.

Tuesday we went to Sevilla for district meeting, and then when we came home all of our citas failed, so we spent our last day together doing the usual street stuff.

Wednesday we went back up to Sevilla to send Elder Randall off to Chiclana and I spent the rest of the day in the bus station waiting for elder Christensen to arrive. We didn’t get back home until pretty late, so we didn’t have time to do anything

Thursday we started introducing Elder Christensen to everyone, we passed by and talked to paco and Fernando 2 less actives and then over to Juan Carlos to help realign his beliefs again.

Friday morning we walked the streets. The most fascinating part of that was that we met a person from Panama, one of the few Spanish speaking countries that I haven’t met anybody from yet. Then we ate at Juanma's. We had our nightly journey of correlation, English class,

and fhe. After we had a birthday party with the YSA. And I established myself as the ping pong king in this area.

Saturday we went to Ana’s house again, to set up a ward fast for her to quit smoking. That night everything failed and it rained, so it was a bit rough.

Sunday was a very average day, nothing new in church, and some studies. Fun stuff.

Until next week

🇺🇸  Élder Pearce 🇪🇸
Viva España málaga

Mother's Day

Hey fam.

Wednesday we participated in our first video lesson. We “met” with a less active member that lives 1.5 hours away by car. It was weird. Also at the end there was some voice playback so everything we said would get repeated to us louder than her voice. So it got a little rough. Jaja

Thursday we brought one of our less active members we’ve been teaching and brought him to some other less actives we’ve been teaching and knocked out 2 birds with one stone, but they did talk a lot. After we went and ate with a member and learned some bird biology from the family.

Friday morning we didn’t have anything to do so we went to work in the streets. We were walking a long and here a guy yell out “elders”. He’s a nice BYU student studying abroad in Madrid and came down to meet some family he had here. So he introduced us to his cousin and her friend, and gave us references for the rest of the family. Sadly they don’t want anything, except the friend hopefully.

Saturday we got failed by everything.

Sunday. While we were setting up chairs, 3 random people came in and introduced them to us. 1 is a member in Madrid and she brought her 2 non-member friends. We gave them a really good chapel tour and then after sacrament I was gonna go to them immediately after playing the piano, but I turned around and they disappeared, without a trace. We also passed by a crazy less active member that night after the mother day call.

🇺🇸  Élder Pearce 🇪🇸
Viva España málaga

Our second surprise text of his entire mission came early Mother's Day from a lady
traveling in Spain, who served as a missionary in Huelva 20 years ago.