November 22, 2012

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope everyone is enjoying a day of good American food, family and friends. My companion and I as well as our piso-mates have decided to put a Spanish spin on our Thanksgiving. After this we are going downtown into Madrid to a café to eat as much paella as we can (afford). We are still going to the mission activity tonight for desert though. I wish we were going to watch a cheesy movie like you, Dad! Our activity is going to be a talent show and I have to dance the freaking YMCA again. Not fun. But other than that it should be a good holiday/p-day.

We´ve all become pretty close as a piso now. In fact we stayed up a little past 11 the other night playing Risk. It reminded me of when we used to play. I´m a lot better now, in fact I think I´m winning as of now (we only played about 2 turns each, so by the end of the transfer we may have finished a game). I´m glad that we have a fun time together.

Actually, I have felt a little worried lately. I feel like recently we´ve just been going through the motions in our lessons. I feel like I need to improve my teaching a lot and teach with more power. I guess that just comes through prayer and from focusing on the people and the work always. Anyways, just a feeling I´m having. Any advice or encouragement you have would be great. And of course your prayers always help, thank you for that.

I would like Mom to know that I paid an extra 18 euros to get my jersey printed specifically with Xavi Alonso´s name and number, that he plays midfield, can score a goal from the midline, and that I will be growing a beard like his as soon as I get home. Also I have the ultimate Real Madrid/Spain/fútbol in general fan as a companion, so if you ever have any questions, just ask me and I'll find out the answer from him. It is a pretty amazing jersey though, isn´t it? I love it.

The riot/strike didn´t bother us too much since it was p-day. The worst thing was that we had to walk an hour and half home at 10 at night because the metro was shut down. The funny thing was that all the demonstrators had to do the exact same thing because they shut the metro down. Serves them right. Also fun fact we learned about Spain after that: apparently after Franco was removed from power the people created a law that they can have strikes whenever they want and, get this, that there is an annual salary from the government for organizing strikes. Also, this is a law that can never be taken away.

That picture of the tree makes me want to cry! That´s so sad. That is a ton of snow! Has it continued to snow or was that just a freak storm? I love the girl´s costumes, haha! That is one happy nerd. Was Sarah silent all night then? Haha, that looks like it was way fun!

I´m not sure how you guys run things, but if you could make sure the following goes on the blog: "A shout out to Grandma and Grandpa: thank you so much for your card and for the pictures! Those really took me back, haha! Sorry that you haven´t heard from me, I tried to respond to your e-mail, but maybe it didn´t work. I have gotten your letters and I have been meaning to write one back, but I haven´t done it yet. I promise I will. Thanks for all the letters, I love hearing from you." Yeah. . . need I say more?

A funny story for you all from this week. We got a call from a group of college students who were doing some sort of project on the Mormon church and they wanted to know if they could interview us. We said okay and set up a time to meet at the temple. We get there and turns out they are film students. So they have this huge camera and a boom mike, the whole nine yards, right? It wasn´t a very long interview, but they were all very Spanish and I could not understand the questions hardly at all, but they wanted both of us to talk, so I tried my best and then Elder Rigtrup answered what they were actually asking. It was super embarrassing and now in some Spanish college there is a video of me rambling about the Word of Wisdom and sealing in the temple in terrible Spanish, and probably with subtitles so they can understand me.

Other than that the work is going pretty well. We have a recent convert who was practically inactive, who has completely changed this past week. He came to all of church and was super happy, talking to everyone. We have had a couple good lessons with him since and he has really opened up and showed desires to learn and continue forward.

Albert is pretty much our only investigator right now, and I´m little worried about him. He only came to one hour of church and he fired us for a Noche de Hogar with a member family. I think he is getting nervous, but I´m not sure why. But he is still a great guy and we want him to have the blessings of the Gospel too bad to lose hope. Other than that just pray that we can find some new people, we need more people and the excitement of someone new.

Well, I have to go now. Thank you all for everything. Thanks for love and support. Thanks for writing me every week and telling me about life in the outside world. I love you guys sooooooo much! I hope all is well and you have a wonderful Thanksgiving! Remember how much the Lord has blessed us. Until next week.

Elder Cousins