8/28/16

Welp, I'm in Nerja, the most touristy place in our entire mission! Like holy cow...I don't think anyone actually lives here, everyone is from various countries in Europe... it's crazy. You walk down the street and you hear English, German, Finnish, and a whole bunch of other languages. Half of the time I don't even know what country I am in. As you can imagine this all makes the work very difficult, for multiple reasons:
1. Language barrier
2. They don't live here so they wont be here for a long period of time
3. They are on vacation and don't want us bothering them

It really is beautiful place though! It's somewhere I hope to return to when I'm not a missionary so I can take advantage of the beaches. Haha It's really a crazy place to be. We do have a few other cities that we take a bus to, and they aren't as touristy. 

Right now we are working with a lady named Anna. She's from Ecuador, and she loves the Book of Mormon and is honestly read to be baptized! It's great. But she hasn't come to church! She says her family needs her on Sundays... so we will work on that.

Our apartment is very small, probably half the size of my last one. We have a kitchen/living room combo, a bedroom, and bathroom. It's really weird. Everything here is just kind of weird. We went to visit someone the other day and he had some cocaine out on his table. He then pulled out a syringe with some heroine. So that was super strange. 

Anyways, I'm doing well. My comp is a good guy, like i said, he's finishing his mission this transfer and I finish the next one so we are old men out here in the mission field. We are tied with the assistants to be the oldest companionship in the mission.

Anyways love you all
Elder Rex

Nerja

8/22/16

Dear family,
This is Elder Rex speaking! I just wanted to let you guys know you guys know that I am being transferred! I will be heading to a little city called Nerja. That's where all the tourists go to go to the beach and have fun during the summertime. It's a branch and not a ward, so it should be pretty small and spread out from what I've heard. Also, we are in charge of all the fast offerings over there. Should be interesting. I'll be with Elder Alexander, he's the old assistant to president. Should be cool, he ends his mission this transfer and me the next. I hear the work is pretty hard there because nobody really lives there, they just go to visit for the summer and all leave in the end of August. Soooo I'll get there just in time for everyone to leave haha. I'll try to send some photos!

7/18/16

So last week after emailing at the church we had a interesting experience with a 50 year old Spanish man. 3 other elders and I were pulling out of the church parking lot in a car, and you have to lock a gate after you leave, so we were kinda on the sidewalk for like 10 seconds as my comp hopped out and locked the gate. So this guy on the sidewalk just starts kicking our car so i hopped out and told him to calm down and asked what his problem was and asked him to stop. Then he started getting mad and said he was going to cut my throat and blah blah blah and then he took all this trash and threw it all over the church property, so I started clapping for him sarcastically (maybe not the best thing to do) and my comp wasn't looking because he was locking the gate. And then this guy just slaps my comp hard on the face so I grabbed him in a bear hug and told him that we will call the police if he doesn't stop. Then he proceded to fall out of my arms on to the floor and yelled "police police help me!" and said HE was going to call the police, so he faked called them and said 4 of us attacked him and his arm was hurt. At this point we think we are waiting for the police, so drove the car back to the church parking lot to wait for them, and I was by this guy and the other elders were like 10 feet away just having parked the car. And the man asked me what I was doing and I said I'm a missionary and then he goes on to tell me very bad things which I cannot write, and the punches me in the chin and I was upset but the other missionaries told me to walk away. So i did because of course it wasn't worth it to continue to argue with him, and as I left he called us more bad things. It was probably the most frustrating experience of my mission because there was nothing I could do...probably a good thing. 

Anyways  Elder Sant got transferred on Wednesday and I got a new companion, Elder Blasi, he's a good kid. He's from Missouri. Then we were in a trio from Thursday to Saturday because another elder was alone because his companion was traveling to the mission home. I'm back with Elder Harvey in my district so that's sweet! I've been with him pretty much half my mission! Also, thanks to all the people who wished me a happy birthday! You're all the best! I hope you have a great week! You're all in my prayers :) 

Love, 

Elder

6/27/16

Well, what can I tell you about Cartagena... it's hot and I sweat a lot. I have to shower three times a day sometimes. Pretty nasty. We just do a lot of walking as of now..trying to find people to teach. That's pretty much what we have done the last two weeks, knock on doors and knock on some more! That's life for me as of now! We eat Burger King every Monday even though we really don't want to, it's just the closest to the church, so we get forced to pretty much haha. The other day we were contacting and some guy told us he has 4 toes and took his shoe off to show us! That was interesting, the most exciting thing that has happened in awhile. I wish I could tell you about investigators but we don't really have anything! We are finding...hopefully haha. I hope everyone is doing well. You're in my prayers!

Love,
Elder Rex

6/13/16

Hey there world, well I'm now serving in the city of Cartagena with a former companion so that's kind of weird! I'm with Elder Sant, who I trained. It's hot here, real hot. And humid! Today we hiked to the top of a mountain to this castle and I'm feeling pretty roasted. I didn't wear any sunscreen...whoops. Maybe I'll get a nice tan though! Or my skin will just fall off...anyways. I don't really know much about the area or anything but it's pretty much my first time being in a big city so that's pretty cool! You see lots of missionaries on pdays compared to my last area where it was just me and my companion. I'll probably be able to tell you more next week!

Love Elder Rex

4/18/16

Hey there, well I'm still here! We will find out Saturday if I will be transferred or not... it'll be weird if I do because this will be my first area with just two transfers but it's looking pretty possible. And that means I'll have probably two more areas to go because I have 5 transfers to go so probably a 2 and 3 transfer areas or I could stay here a transfer and just have one 4 transfer area. Who knows... not me. I've come to realize that I can impress people with how much I eat. It's kind how I prove I'm a man. Like today at lunch I out ate a 7 foot tall elder, I out eat a lot of people out here and I gain the respect of people by doing it. In my last area there was a big Ecuadorean man who loved me because I once put down like 30 chicken wings, empenadas and stuff, and I don't even get fat by doing so! The work here is interesting, all the teenagers here try to make fun of us and just laugh at us, but I just think it's funny. They really just don't know who I am. They see me as the guy walking around in the shirt and tie everyday talking about Jesus (partially because that's

who I am...) but I don't think they realize I'm pretty dang normal just like them. It's funny sometimes because they'll try to catch you off guard but then realize I'm just  a normal guy and they get confused. Pretty much we are visiting 3 people a lot as of lately, all three are single fathers in their late thirties. They seem to believe that me and elder Maldonado can find them so nice Mormon women to fix their problems. One is actually progressing pretty well and is interested in the gospel. The other is convinced that if he had a tractor and a woman all his problems would be solved (sounds like a country song to me....) and the other either watches the movie Bugs Life's or sleeps when we teach him and claims that he's listening but just with his eyes closed.... hahaha soooo yeah that's my life as of lately. All seriousness they are all good guys who want to be happy and have a happy family. 

So...Cody got engaged... That's good for him! Super weird for me to think he will be married when I get back...super weird! People are dropping like flies back home...love is in the air apparently. All you women reading this, I'll be home in 7 months...mark your calendars...go ahead and call or text Courtney if you want to set a date in advance because it's possible they will be in high demand ;) hahah just kidding let's be real...I'll probably be afraid of girls when I come home.... I hope all is well back home. You are in my prayers! Love you all! Especially those of you who take your time to read this! I know I'm pretty bad at keeping up but I write this for you guys!!! Mainly for my mom...but the few others too! Haha adios!