Well this week was another week in Almeria. It was good but honestly I don't have much to say. The work here is slow, we have been trying to get it going again since I opened it but it's been hard, I love my area and the few people in it. The few people. That's the problem, our area isn't the best geographically. But that's okay! I just gotta work and know the lord will do the rest. Time flies out here, it's a strange thing. It's kind of like I'm on a different planet and my 13 months have been like 5 years for you guys or something. If you have ever seen the movie interstellar you'll understand me, or if you're an astrophysicist. If you're an astrophysicist and you are reading my blog, write me. I'm sure we could talk about Star Wars and stuff ;) haha love all you guys back at home! Thanks for your love and support!

Elder Rex

I bought some cool boots

12/28/15-- this is a long one!!

Well Christmas was conquered!!

Last Monday we went to an all you can eat Asian food Buffett, and I probably ate too much bad Chinese food. But you gotta do that as a missionary when you pay 10 euros. I cant afford not to eat a lot at that price. They have a bunch of uncooked sea food that they will cook up for you and some elders were freaking out about some of this stuff. There was some nasty squid though, not gunna lie.

Tuesday not much happened from what I remember. Oh we stayed home all day waiting for my companions packages which never came. So We decided to call DHL and get their address so we could go pick them up so he could have them before Christmas. We walked 20 minutes before we realized we were walking in the correct direction but the road we were on didn't take us there. So we back tracked 20 minutes to a different road which led us to a dirt road and by this time it's dark outside and we are in a sketchy area. So we walk this dirt road for ten minutes in the general direction  that we want to go and we can see the industrial park we need to be in but it's surround by a barbed wire fence. So I told my comp we would walk the perimeter until we found a weak spot to infiltrate. We walked probably 5 minutes and we
found a decent place to hop the fence. It was weird, it was like somebody just cut out the mid section of this fence so we had to hop this little fence but we had to be careful because there was barbed wire above us. It wasn't too bad for me because I have long legs so I kinda just stepped over the shorter fence. My comp had to balance himself on top of a chain link fence to get over it... it didn't look comfy. Anyways we got the packages and started back but a new way, as we were walking a man stopped us and said "elders what are you doing here? It's not safe, where are you going, to the chapel?" I knew we weren't in a good area I just didn't know another way to go. We were right by a neighbor hood called El Puche, I call it little Afghanistan. Apparently and elder got stabbed there not too long ago. So needless to say we don't got there anymore. So this guy saved us and gave us a shortcut to take. Super nice of him to save our lives like that. We made it home safe after that!

Wednesday we went to Murcia for a Christmas conference, we had to wake up at 4:30 in the morning which sucked because we had a 5:30 bus to catch. And it's not a nice bus ride...it is a 4 and a half hour bus ride. Luckily I was tired enough I slept the whole way pretty much. We had a talent show there and it was pretty good. Elder Black, my Scottish friend killed it on the guitar and singing. I think all the girls there fell in love with him. After the talent show we heard from a few people and then we ate a ton of pallea. Then we had to make our bus ride back to Almeria...we were supposed to leave at 6:30 but out bus driver didn't show up till a little after 7 so that's was lame. The we started out long ride back, with 26 stops on the way. Whoooo....and I'm getting sick at this point. So we get back pretty late and slept in the other elders piso because we live a good 50 minute walk from the bus station.

Thursday I woke up feeling pretty crappy, my throat, nose and head were all broken. Good way to start of Christmas Eve. We didn't do much this day, I laid around in the morning not feeling good. Later Elder Layton and I went and bought some gifts for a missionary who's package didn't arrive. We bought a whole pig leg for him and a pull up bar. After that we went to a members house to eat Christmas Eve dinner and
a little Christmas program. We had the Christmas program first and sang some songs and then ate the food. It was pretty funny elder Layton and Elder Hammond ate a ton of food the first round because they thought we weren't going to have anymore food. So pretty much they were stuffed before the main course....greenies... And we had dessert after that! It was pretty good. We had potatoes and pork loin or something like that. By the end of that night I think I went through 20 tissues. I was sneezing and just dying. I just went home and slept.

Friday! I was supposed to wake up early and make banana bread but I was still sick so I wasn't really feeling it. We had a district breakfast party where the sister missionaries made pancakes, bacon and fruit salad. That's was super nice of them. And they gave us all a stocking which had some cool socks in them! After that we came back to piso to open presents. Shout out to all the lovely people who included stuff in my package! I really appreciate it :) after that we went back to the church to skype the family. Pretty much we were there all day because me and my companion skyped at different times.

Saturday we played soccer, well I wasn't planning on it because I'm sick  but I was forced to play because there wasn't enough people. So I kinda tried to take it easy. Afterwards we went to a members house to eat food, they made us Colombian food. It's called papa rellena. Pretty much it's a mashed potato ball that's stuffed with rice, meat and a hard boiled egg and then dipped in batter and fried. They are super good...I ate three of them and they are pretty big. I was the only one who ate three.

Sunday was Sunday, we ate at the bishops house. He has a son who is studying at byu home for break but he didn't talk to us much. I always pictured the bishop as pretty strict tight man but he was pretty
relaxed, cracking jokes and what not. Pretty funny guy, after dinner we go into some interesting conversation about pretty non important "profound" doctrine hahaha my comp asked why dinosaurs came to the earth and the bishop said "I have a book for you" he came back with a 500 page book he had read called "the palaces of kolob"........so yeah..... We also drank a bunch of peach drinks that were super good. You could say it was a good day.

This long letter is a Christmas present for you guys!

Love elder Rex

12/14/15

Well I have my new companion elder Hammond. He's from Utah and is a pretty cool guy. He played baseball and football in high school and rocked a mullet. We should get a lot done this transfer together so
that's going to be fun. I also have a goal to make banana bread weekly and learn to make pallea. So it should be a transfer full of good food if all goes according to plan! AND I skype home in like 11 days or something like that! That's weird....should be a fun time to see everyone! I'm not sure exactly at what time but I will keep you updated. I'm trying to plan some fun things for the district this Christmas. We have three new missionaries and I think it might be tough on them. I'm the only one in my district who was has had Christmas in the mission. So hopefully nobody gets too trunky. We just played some basketball, it was the first time in the mission where we have actually played so it was super fun, makes me excited to play when I come home! Hopefully not in soccer shoes though. We played 21 and being a big man playing that isn't very fun because this was pretty much a no rules game so I got hacked soooo much,...we don't really have any progressing investigators as of now but hopefully we find some. This area has been rough. That's okay though, better me than someone else! Anyways, I love you guys!

Elder Rex