Slow Week

Hey fam

This week was a bit different from the normal, also super boring. And I can sum it up in 2 events

The first event is that we had intercambios in Alicante. I worked with Elder Trowell all day.  It consisted of contacted all morning long and at night we went to the ward family home evening. And let me tell you, they’re a lot better than the family home evenings in Elche. About 4 times the people and the ward does everything. 

The second event is that Elder Ord has been a little ill. Enough to have to stay inside for the past 3 days. That’s been fun.  That has summarized our week pretty well. We did make it out every now and again. To go to church, to choir, and yeah. 

Until next week

Élder Pearce 🇪🇸

Viva España málaga 

Viva España Málaga

Hey family

As you have all heard, the church news said this week that as of July 1, 2018 the Spain Málaga misión will be consolidated into the Spain Madrid mission and the Spain Barcelona mission. We found out about 2 weeks ago. Little sad, but it doesn’t really matter because I’ll be home the 28 of June so it not only doesn’t affect me, but my group will also be the last pure blood Malagueño. Viva España Málaga. 

In other news it was also my birthday yesterday. We went out to Dominos for all you can eat pizza on Saturday, and yesterday we had lunch together with the other elders and we ate the cake I bought. It wasn’t the cake I wanted, but the Mercadona we went to didn’t have the one I wanted so I had to go for a different cake. Oh well. It was probably the same flavor anyway. That night we had family home evening and then the hermanas gave me another cake.

But this week was filled with a lot of service. Thursday we went and helped Oswaldo get his restaurant ready. We knocked down a couple walls and took the debris to the trash. And on Saturday we helped out at a primary activity. Even though there were only like 10 kids there, it was a mad house. About 7 of them were chill, but the other 3 ish were nuts. While we were giving a small message at the end those three were just ignoring everything, running around and destroyed everything they could get their hands on.

On Friday after English class, we played soccer with the young men. It had rained the whole morning, so the ground was really wet, which means that the field was super slippery. But we played on. I only fell once, but so did everyone else. Made for an interesting game of soccer.

Until next week

🇺  Élder Pearce 🇪🇸

Viva España málaga 

YSA Activities

Hey fam,

We have had a good week, a little slow, but it had some highlights.

So we’ve been working with Sebastian these past 3 weeks, but this week he actually said that he wants to start over and start figuring it out. So progression, little by little. His wife is going to have a baby in the next couple days so we’ll see what happens. Also Sebastian’s brother just had their baby this last week, so we’ve been doing some service helping them set up the apartment for the child.  We told Sebastian that we’ve been running in the morning, and he expressed interest in losing some weight so he came and ran with us on Saturday

On Friday we had a family home evening in the ysa institute center. In Elche there’s a separate building owned by the church that is used by the ysa. It has a ping pong table, foosball, a library, and classrooms. These building are super rare in Spain.  In fact there’s only 2, Elche and Barcelona. But we had a good turnout. We brought 1 investigator, the other elders brought 3, the hermanas brought 1, and one of our less actives showed up, we were able to share a nice message and play some games together. And established myself as the ping pong and foosball king.

As I said, good week, a little slow, but it had some highlights.

Until next week

🇺  Élder Pearce 🇪🇸

Choir & Lost Keys

January 22, 2018

Another week has come and gone and I’m still in Elche, and still Elder Pearce. This week has been full of things so let’s begin

Tuesday morning we had choir practice, as I think I said last week, the director is very “dedicated” to his calling and he takes it very seriously. It is quite impressive because he’s working with a bunch of people who can’t sing para nada. So he got mad at us tenors for doing poorly in our singing. In my defense, even though I have very little singing ability and have had a cold all week, I was still easily the best singer in the tenors. Let’s go Spain. After we ate lunch with an Argentinian family and then we went to the church and watched the announcement of the new first presidency. That night we went and had a noche de hogar with the garcia family and Conchi. Conchi is a member that came up to us several weeks ago and said that she wants to re-receive the lessons. She’s a bit crazy, but she wants to build her testimony.

For lunch on Wednesday a member from the campo invited us to come and eat with him. So he comes and picks us up in a Land Rover and takes us to his campo. It is a super nice house, even in America it’s a very nice house. So we ate on his patio, and then after he wanted to show us his karaoke machine, so he spends the next ten minutes singing us Spanish songs on his karaoke machine. And as I’ve mentioned, Spaniards and singing don’t mix, so I enjoyed my time listening. Quite funny. After studies we left piso and Elder Ord forgot the keys, so we got locked out. We spent the next 30 min trying to get in to no avail, so we call a member and he comes to get it open, to no avail. So he calls his wife to come help. And while we were waiting for her in the lobby, a neighbor comes in and comments about why he wasn’t invited to the party. So then we say we’re locked out. This is where things get a bit crazy. He’s says that he thinks he has a key to our piso. And he did. The dueño gave him a copy over ten years ago and he still had it, so we were able to get in. 

Friday we went and ate Colombian food for lunch with the Garcias. The hermanas got locked out of piso so we had to come save them. We had English class, and had choir practice. Then we finished the night eating with the elder’s quorum President. 

Saturday we traveled down to Alicante. Participated in a baptism and then we started our zone conference. 7 hours later we received sufficient training for our Facebook and technology and we received smartphones. Samgung A5's. 

Sunday, the ward figured out I could play the piano, so I became the ward pianist. We’re going on 9 months with me as pianist. But today was a little rough. 2 of the 4 songs were true to the faith and call to serve. At least for me two of the hardest songs in the hymn book, so it was a bit rough. Then we had ward noche de hogar. And people actually came. It was nice. A good 7 people turn out. 

Until next week

🇺🇸  Élder Pearce 🇪🇸

Elx, and Facebook?

Well I made it safe and sound to Elx (valenciano for Elche).

The first half of this week we spent the time saying goodbye to people. We started off Monday night by going to Israel’s and Diego’s house to say goodbye. We ate some cake and had a little lesson and said goodbye. Then we went off to José Benjamin’s to end the night. As usual he gave us a ton of food, which included super stale cereal in boiling milk. That part wasn’t yummy.

Tuesday was our day of eating. For mediodía we went to Paco’s one last time to say goodbye. It wasn’t too bad until we got to dessert. He always has flan for us and it’s not good. So he had that and then he brought out a chocolate waffle thing. We were pretty pumped, until we took the first bite. It was bad. A nice stale, very dense waffle covered in old chocolate. So with that sitting in our stomachs, we went off to our next eating cita 3 hours later. We met with Junior and Daniela, and we had some pique machu. Good stuff but we were getting a little full. But then immediately after we went to our final eating cita for the night. We were in a trio all day with Elder Child because Elder Moore went to Malaga to get his trainee. So we went to a member’s house in Elder Child’s area and ate with them. They gave us fish and mashed potatoes. And that ended the night. A lot of food, but that is what happens the day before transfers.

So Wednesday I catch a 45 min bus to Elx. And I meet up with Elder Ord and the other elders here in Elx.  We eat together and then we go to work. We met with Sebastian who’s a nonmember of a member family. We go over every Wednesday and read the Book of Mormon with them. There was also a big announcement in the mission, because we will now have access to Facebook. We all knew it was coming, we just didn’t know when. Now it’s here. I was hoping it wouldn’t come for 6 more months, but it is what it is. 

Thursday we ate with Encarni, who’s a non crazy member in the ward. It’s nice because non crazy members are a little hard to come by in Spain. And we ended the night eating with the Fernando Caballero who’s a member from Cadiz. So he automatically likes me because I served there.

Friday morning we were contacting, because that’s all you do in the morning. And we got a call from the other elders (who just happen to live across the plaza from us). So as they were leaving in the morning, as a joke, one elder walks out the door and locks the door while the other went to grab a book. And the 25 year old lock broke when he locked it. So one elder was trapped on the inside of their piso and one stuck in the hallway. So we came over and tried to get it open, but we couldn’t. So we called a locksmith and just wait with the elder on the outside until the locksmith comes. So our morning got ruined by the lock. Then we ate with another member family. They have a kid on a mission in Argentina. Then we met with a less active member who talked to the missionaries on the street. He just moved here from Ecuador and wants to come back. We had English class and ended the night watching the funeral for President Monson.

Saturday we ate with Encarni's sister, had some choir practice. Relative to people in America, I suck. But to people in Spain, I’m not all too shabby.

Sunday we had church, I gave a little welcome testimony. We also had family home evening night. I taught a nice lesson about the sacrament and we played some games. But it’s been a little annoying, because the 2 wards in Elche are having a little fight about when they want to have family home evening. It was originally Thursday, but our ward changed it to Sunday because it makes more sense, but the other ward flipped out and doesn’t want to change, even though everybody works Thursdays so nobody shows up anyway. 

That’s the life of Elx

Until next week

🇺🇸  Élder Pearce 🇪🇸

Baptism of Diego

Well. I wrote a super good weekly, but it all got deleted, it happens. I’m getting transferred. As president told me 3 weeks ago were getting pink washed which means they’re replacing us with hermanas. But it’s fine, I come in and baptize twice in two transfers and leave. I’m going off to the land of palm trees, Elche. With Elder Ord. So we’ll see how that goes. I’m pumped.

So the first half of the week was normal, it included English classes and a baptismal interview for Diego.

Friday rolls around and it’s 3 Kings Day eve. It included a parade. We needed to teach Diego the last lesson, we needed to find a man and I end up calling 90% of the ward. A lot of the time multiple times. We finally get a member. And as we’re walking over to pick him up, we pass Diego’s mom who changed the lesson back a few hours. So we tell the member to go teach English class and come back. We couldn’t find him. And 5 min after the lesson should have started. We found him in the middle of the crowd. So we were finally able to teach the lesson.

Saturday we had the baptism of Diego. He and his family showed up 10 min late. But it turned out super good. I directed the meeting and everything went according to plan. And Sunday I had the great opportunity to confirm him.

The other weekly was way better. Sorry.

Until next week

Elder Pearce

Happy New Year

Hey fam.

So on Tuesday we ate Burger King and started our intercambios with Elder Moore and Elder Child. I went off with Elder Moore and went to a recent convert’s house and made cookies with her, and played some games while the cookies baked. After we contacted, I started to feel a little sick. Then the night came around and we went to a less active family. But starting to get super sick, so we pushed through the lesson and went home. So I got food poisoning from Burger King. First time in the mission I vomited. Almost made it all the way without being sick, only had 6 more months. Oh well. It happens

So I was out all day Wednesday, but we went and taught English class, but it was a bit too much for me. So we went home and I crashed after.

Thursday I was feeling a lot better. We kind of got screwed over that night because we went to the church for a lesson and he didn’t show, so we called him and he said he was just leaving, and he didn’t come, we call and he said he was coming, but he never came.

Friday came along and we had English class again. I did a great job teaching Gladys passive voice. She gets it. Maybe I’ll become an English teacher when I’ll get home. Yeah. No. Anything but that. 

Saturday we met with Manuel, his wife Manuela wasn’t there for the first part of the lesson, so we were actually able to have a lesson. (She likes to talk). We had a nice little lesson on the restoration and Manuela comes in and it becomes impossible to teach, but I did learn that the Virgin Mary appeared to the catholic people in Spain and did some miracles for them before ascending to heaven. We also got in finally with a couple. He races motorcycles and she’s an excommunicated Jehovah’s Witness. And we were able to have an interesting, but nice, lesson with them.

Sunday, we had church, went home did our studies until nightfall. Then we chilled until midnight where we ate 12 grapes. It’s a tradition in Spain that you eat 12 grapes in 12 seconds and for every grape you eat in the 12 seconds is 1 month of good luck. Sufficient to say I got 12 months of good luck. 

What I've learned about Faith, hope and charity in my studies:

So first off there are 3 things that always go together in the gospel. Faith, hope, charity. We can find it all over the scriptures. Moroni 7 is a well known one. Paul talks about it in 1 Corinthians 13. We find from those scriptures that it is faith, then hope, then charity. In that order. Faith leads to hope which leads to charity. So to understand hope, we need to understand faith.

So what is faith. In the scriptures there are 2 definitions to what faith is. Alma 32:21 and Hebrews 11:1 

if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true. Alma

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews

And then in the April conference of this year Elder Ulisses Soares said

Faith is the source of living with divine purpose and eternal perspective.

In other words. Faith is the source of hope. But in reality faith is the source of everything. It is the first principle of the gospel. It goes faith repentance, baptism, Holy Ghost, endure. 

So faith is the source of everything. Including hope.

So what is hope. In ether 12:4 moroni teaches us that

4 Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God.

Hope for a better world. Or in other words hope for eternal life. And preach my gospel defines hope as an abiding trust that the Lord will fulfill His promises to you.

It is a trust that god will fulfill his promises, a trust that if we obey we will get a better world or eternal life. That is hope.

And having hope gives you an better outlook on life and naturally it makes you want to help others receive hope. Which leads to charity, or the pure love of Christ.

And there we go, faith hope and charity. 

🇺🇸  Élder Pearce 🇪🇸