Algeciras!!!

Hola and bienvenido!!! I am now in Algecias, Spain!!!!! This place is way intense. The south of Spain is nothing like I thought it would be. Not in a better or worse way, but just way different. I met my trainer, Elder Ward, at the bus stop and then we took our bags and walked to our apartment. The entire city is on a hill. Everywhere we walk I feel like I am walking up hill, and even when we walk back, for some reason it is like walking up hill again. I feel like I am never walking down hill! My calves will be ripped after this transfer. Anyways, we had to take my bags up this massive hill to our apartment and I just was dead. Our apartment is on the seventh floor or this nice apartment complex. The actual apartment is pretty nice, and is comfortable. The only thin I don't like about it is that it has like tile floors (so its freezing in the morning) and the water pressure on the shower is lower than low. Other than that though this place is pretty cool!! Our view is amazing, and I can see a lot of the city and mountains in the background.

The past few days have just been pretty much settling in and unpacking and hard work. The accent here is differnt. They have the zeta, but on top of that they usually drop the last letter of the word, which makes it difficult for me to understand. I am trying really hard to participate in discussions and understand the language but it's really frustrating and hard. I am hoping that I start breaking through at least a little bit soon. Sunday was an absolutely insane day. We started walking to church and it was clear. After a little bit it starting to sprinkle. Then, out of nowhere a massive downpour. We tried running the rest of the way to church but it was too late - I was soaking wet. I felt like I had just got out of the shower. The weather can be a killer to church attendance here. We didn't have too many people, but we still made it work. It's amazing the Spirit you can feel even though you are in a small  branch in the middle of nowhere. Luckily, we were able to get a ride back to the apartment, and we were kinda bummed that because of the rain it caused a lot of our investigators to skip out on church.

Finally, the rain stopped and we went to go to some of our citas. We started walking to them and they are closer to the beach area. EVERYTHING was like destroyed. There was mud absolutely everywhere and people's businesses were destroyed. We asked what happend, and apparently that same storm from earlier caused everything to flood. We talked to one guy who said that he saw a tornado touch down on the water. We kept walking and we saw a giant pile of snow, and we were curious so we got closer. It wasn't snow, it was hail. It had hailed so much that it was piled up on the side of the road. The hail was the size of airsoft bb's. When we finally got to the investigator's house, he hold us that the water got up to knee height in their house. We then spent the next few hours setting up everything in his house to dry. He explained to us that the city was supposed to be cleaning the sewer and septic system and they had been delaying and slacking, so that in combination of the storm caused stuff to flood. She said that water was coming up through the toilets even at first. So that stuff that was mud, was actually mud and poop. That explained the smell. Well, everyones business and houses over in that area were ruined. We are going  back later today and going to help them out, and see if they need anything. Other than that, the weekend has been "normal". This week should be a good one and I should stay busy. Wish me luck and I will talk to you later!!!

Love,
Elder Card