Still in Puertollano

Hey hey hey!!! This week hasn't been the most exciting, but we are getting a lot of work done!!! Elder Hatch and I are getting along great and are tearing it up. Shall we review the week??

Well after getting off the computer last week we went and took a zone P-Day. We met up with the Los Clegg and the other missionaries and we all went to a Spanish National Park named Tablas de Daimler. It was just a huge park and a large wetlands type area with bridges going all across it. It was really cool. Once again to gain sympathy from everyone, I will tell you that my camera still has no charger, so you will receive no pictures. Well, I guess you would say, Elder Card, why don't you go buy one?? Oh... I'm sorry, a small Spanish pueblo of less than 50,000 doesn't really have a local Kodak store. If only I had a charger for my Kodak Easyshare M550.... But anyways....

I do have some pictures that I might receive from the other missionaries, so maybe I will send you some when they come my way. This past week I also had the opportunity to read the talk called The Fourth Missionary. It was an amazing talk and it made me reflect on the type of missionary that I really want to be. Whoever is reading this that wants to go on a mission NEEDS to read that talk, and if you are reading this and your son is on a mission, SEND it to them!! It was so good, and it made such a huge impact.

Sadly, Elder Hatch hurt his leg awhile ago. He was limping on it for awhile so that mediodía   I made sure to take care of him. He layed down on the sofa and I made him lunch and everything haha. It was actually kind of fun for me to do. And I am sure he appreciated the service and downtime. His leg is perfect now though. 

A lot of the past few days has been a lot of street contacting. I finally accomplished one of my dreams; I contacted a guy from Africa. They have the coolest accents and they are usually extremely open to learn. AND they speak English. To be honest, I have just been speaking with everyone all the time in Spanish that it actually was harder in English to teach him. We'll see if he continues taking the lessons. We also have been trying to reactivate this less active member named Israel. He is 17 years old, and we are hoping to get him activated and go on a mission. We challenged him to re read the whole BOM and when we met with him yesterday he said he had already completed all of First Nephi!! What a huge accomplishment for him. 

And some good news: I am finally legal in Spain!! Haha. The residency process takes a long long time and is a huge pain. In fact, I was in Ciudad Real last week to try and do it and they shunned us away, telling us to go to Madrid. Well, we learned that all you have to do is argue a little with them. As bad and as horrible as it sounds, I am almost positive they are a lot more patient, and understanding with us because one thing: We are American..... and.... well we had a lawyer too. 

We had such a pain, and I was on the verge of deportation that we had our lawyer on standby, and after they rejected us, we were like, woah, woah, woah. One second I need to make a phone call. Talk to this man please. We then handed the phone over to the lady, and it was our lawyer on the phone. After a lot of frustrated talking for nearly 15 minutes (no joke), she went into the back room for another 10 minutes, and then came back and did my paperwork. She was not happy though. "Vale, pues, firma aquí, pone su huella aquí. Gracias, Venga!! Adios!"" Now, looks like I am not going anywhere for at least a year (when I need to renew it).

Finally, we had to fix a few things in our apartment, so the president of the branch came over and fixed them for us free of charge. To thank him for his help we made dinner for him and his family in our piso Saturday night. It was really fun, and Hatch and I worked together making the dinner and all. This week is the start of the new transfer, so 6 more week in Puertollano!!! Hahah. I am totally happy though. The time is just flying!!! Thanks again for the support!! 

Love

Elder Steven Card

Elder Hatch

What a week. Well let me see if I can remember everything that happened. First off, me and Elder Hatch are getting along great. He is seriously just filled with knowledge. I have learned so much from him. We spend a lot of our time walking the streets and telling stories in between contacts. I feel like I am listening to a bishop or stake president giving me advice when he talks to me, not a 19 year old missionary. He is just way intelligent and just a blast to be with. Well, he also has helped jump start the area. We are teaching a lot more now. This last week we spent a lot of time with less active members, and to be honest it was a little hard. Not many wanted to listen, but we did get this one 17 year old kid to listen named Israel. In fact, we even got him to come to church. Not only that, but we gave him a ward roster of all of the less actives and he knew a lot of them from back in the day. He said he would help us! So maybe now we can finally get in the door!!!
I am also the Aaronic Priesthood teacher so I showed the kids a General Conference talk of someone that they knew. Gayle M. Clegg. She gave a talk in April 2004, and it was awesome. Hmna. Clegg is now serving a senior couple missionary with her husband here in Spain, and I am blessed to talk to them all the time. She told us all of the behind the scenes work it takes to do a talk. It's quite a blessing to work shoulder to shoulder with some of the truly inspired leaders of the church. (He used to be a Mission President in Portugal, she used to be the 2nd cons. on the general Primary board).
Then again, it is great to have even amazing local leadership. Presidente Montes and his wife came over to our piso last night since we had some problems. We had a couple lights out, a sink faucet broken, etc. Well, to us, the problems seemed like... well problems... He just came in after church and was like, oh this is easy to fix, and fixed it all for us. Elder Hatch and I have gotten permission from the Pres to invite them back to our piso later this week and cook dinner for them as a thank you.
Well, yesterday was a pretty busy day. I had to give a talk about the importance of being prepared. I actually thought it was really good. I was impressed with myself haha. I used the analogy of preparing for a car trip. Before you leave, you check the oil, bring food and water and buckle your seat belt. Well then, like all great talks do, I used that analogy and expounded on it. The oil, well I used the story of the 10 virgins, and applied it. The food and water??? Well, Jesus did say he was the bread of life, and drink his water and you will never thirst but have everlasting life. And the seat belt?? Well, even if you wear a seat belt in a crash it will hurt, but it will save you. Sound familiar??? When we sin (crash), we can be saved (seat belt) even though it might be painful it will save our soul. Yeah??? Yeah??? Well, obviously I went into detail into each one, but that was my main idea. Use an analogy at the start then keep going back to it through the talk.
Elder Hatch and I also did a special musical number. He sung and played his recorded and I accompanied him with the piano (You'd be surprised at how well I have improved). IT was just a great Sunday. The overall week was pretty good too. I mean, we were walking the streets and these chicos invited us to play basketball with them, so I got to play for the first time in forever. It was way fun, adn since their hoop was only about 8 and a half, I got to dunk it haha. Elder Hatch is taller than me actually, so he had fun with that too. Well, now we are in Ciudad Real about to have a zone P Day. The Cleggs are taking us to some ruins and lunch. It should be a fun day!! Until next time!!!
Love
Elder Card

Wow!

Well, this past week has been a nice change. I hear that everything back home is changing as well, so I guess that change is in the air. Well, to be honest, there aren't too many amazing stories, but a lot did change. For example, the car that we had was moved to Murcia. How did it get to Murcia? Well, my companion, Elder Corradi went with it! New companion time... Well, I got my new companion on Wednesday. He is one transfer ahead of me, he is from Orange County, California, he went to BYU Provo for business, he was a swim teacher and a swimmer for his high school, and... what else? Well, I guess his name? His name is Elder Jake Hatch. He is way cool. He knows what he is doing. He can speak Spanish well. He knows a lot, and we get along great. He easily has already been my favorite companion (not that I have had that many). Well, one of my favorites. Time will tell where he ranks lol.

Well, he is such a hard worker so the past few days I have been exhausted, but in a good way. He has brought in his own style and own "inside information" that he has learned in the field. For example, we go to bars often to get free glasses of water in the hot sun haha. Sounds simple, but before this, I was dying in the hot sun parched. Now I am never parched lol. One accomplishment that I had this week: Well, I also try to help ladies with their bags. It has become like a game since the ladies will never allow you to help them out. After weeks and weeks of trying I finally got one lady to let me help her with her bags. I felt so accomplished and we got her reference and she owns like a little corner shop so we can now go in there and she will hook us up. lol

We also have gotten a lot of new investigators lately. Ana and Andres are from Romania and they are way legit. They don't smoke or drink, and he love the Book of Mormon. The only doubt he has is about Thomas S Monson and him being a prophet. I think to him, you need to show miracles to be a prophet, so we will work with him on that. We have another lady from Nicaragua named Angelica and she is awesome as well. She has totally accepted everything we have taught her, so now we are working towards baptism.

Well, I wish it could have been a bit more exciting this week. I think we are going to buy another jamon leg since the last one was just so dang good. I will send pictures. I thought that since I sent like three pictures or so, that makes up for my short post this week.

Well thanks for the support. Stay in touch!!
Love,
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I'm an Hermana!!....Well kind of....

Well..... only kind of. I just celebrated my 6 month mark on the mission last week!!! That means I only have an hermana sized mission to go of 18 months. The past six months have totally flown, and this past week has flown as well. I have a few pictures, and some other of the missionaries are sending me more. I sadly cant take my own pictures because I have lost my camera and have yet to get a new charger for it, so I am relying on the generosity of everyone else.

Well, this past week was... quite memorable. First, on Tuesday we had our normal district meeting in Ciudad Real. Nothing out of the ordinary, and we were going to do splits with the Zone Leaders so we decided that we would just split up after the District meeting. Well, the thing was that.... well, Tuesday ending up being some weird holiday that none of the missionaries knew of. So some of the elders from Valdepeñas missed their bus. They got to the bus station and when they tried to buy tickets to Ciudad Real they realized that.... well... there were no buses running at all that day. So, the zone leaders had to pick them up in their car. 

However, the zone leaders got lost so we started district meeting almost 2 hours late. However, it wasn't too bad. To pass the time, the hermanas and the Cleggs and us had an impromptu choir practice. After they finally arrived we had our meeting then we split up. I would go with Elder Hamilton and the Valdepeñas elders and take them home, then start our split with Elder Hamilton, while my comp would go do splits with Elder Hamiltons comp.

Sounds like a good plan, eh? Well.... we decided to put in some gas because we were low. Did you know that the difference between diesel and unleaded gasoline in Spain is only a difference of one syllable? Well..... you can already tell where this is heading. Of course, we put it in the wrong gas. We get about 2 minutes away and we decided to turn back because our car gave us all major whiplash from all the kicking it made haha. We drove it back to the gas station and realized it was the wrong gas, so we had to go to a mechanic, right? Well, remember, it was a holiday... Well, we couldn't just leave the car in the parking lot, but we couldn't be running the gas through the engine so we pushed the car all the way to the mechanic. It was like a nice 15 minute push, with stop lights, traffic and all. You can only imagine 3 elders with white shirts and ties pushing this car through Ciudad Real. (Of course, Elder Hamilton was inside the car)

Well, that actually was the highlight of the week. The Cleggs grandchildren came to visit them this week so we got to meet them. They participated in our district meeting, and since the Cleggs visited Puertollano for church, the grandchildren (Blake and Brandon (both 16)) got to pass the sacrament, and I think they had a good experience. The reason they came, beside seeing missionary work and all, is that they are both extremely talented with the piano. So this past Saturday we had a fireside in Ciudad Real with singing and guitars, and everything. A lot of members of the district attended and participated. And Brandon played a bunch of songs on the Piano. The one that stood out in my head was All of Me by Jon Schmidt. He played it perfectly. I have it on video. So one day I will send it over. 

Oh yeah.... Elder Corradi is getting transferred!!! He is going to serve in Murcia. That means that I will get a new comp this week. His name is Elder Hatch from Utah (of course) and he is way tall. I think he is 6'7". Well, I haven't personally met him, but apparently he is was nice, and a good worker. He is about two transfers or so ahead of me. So those are the exciting things in my life...

Until next week!! I will let you know how all goes!! 

Love

Elder Card

Two Years

Hmmm..... what happened this week? Oh yeah. I remember. The weeks honestly just blend together. It is hard to remember what happened in just one specific week. Well, to be honest, this week was a bit rough. One of the most saddening and disappointing experiences are when these people who you are teaching and care for so much, disappoint you. Either by deciding to no longer listen to your message, or just not showing up for church. If only they knew what they were missing out on. Sitting at the front doors of the church on a Sunday waiting for them to show up is extremely disappointing when they don't actually show up, but they have their agency....

You could say that was the theme of this week. A lot of the week me and Elder Corradi were scrambling since a lot of people either didn't show up to their appointments or something like that. We still did have a lot of cool experiences though. I have been assigned as the new pianist for the church haha. The old pianist was the President's 12 year old son. He played out of the simplified hymn book, and earlier this week when a lot of people bailed on us, I spent my time waiting for them in the chapel with the piano. I started playing like I usually do. I honestly don't even think I am that good, but the President overheard me and I am the new pianist haha. I started yesterday, and lo and behold, I played perfectly. Woah. I was surprised even at myself. When they said I needed to play like Called to Serve and Loor al Profeta (Wow, so much time in Spain I forgot what it was called in English). 

What else?? Oh yeah... we teach English class!!! We have it twice a week. Wednesday for the "experienced" people who already know how to speak but just want practice. And then Saturday evening for people who want to completely start from scratch. Wow is it hard to teach them!!! I was surprised at the amount of patience I had with them but still, you can definitely scratch English teacher off my list of future jobs. Wow, just a rough one. But still, it was a cool experience. Maybe this week we will find more success. I know we will!! Well, thanks for all the love and support like always. Stay in touch!

Love

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