3/14/16- the pellet gun incident

So I had a interesting experience this week. About two weeks ago my old comp and I were knocking doors. At one of the apartments, a girl who is about 20 answered, and we explained who we are and asked if we could share a message. She said she couldn't today but she wanted us to come back a different day. The next few days I was in Malaga, so my old comp and another missionary passed by, and she couldn't at that moment but they set a meeting for that night at 7:30. Well, that's when I got back
from Malaga, so we missed that meeting. 

So finally this Thursday we went by to see if we could meet with her (with my new companion) oh and also this is the worst part of town. Two or three more blocks up the road is an area where police won't go to help you... the part we were in was bad but wasn't the worst. Anyways we knocked on the door and a guy opens it, and I ask "is Maria home?" and he just shuts the door. And I thought he was going to go get her or something so we waited another few seconds. He didn't come back so we knocked again and this time a lady answered, and I asked again "Is Maria home?" and she began to yell and scream and said something like "why do you guys keep coming here! Leave her alone! She's Muslim! Stop with the Christ crap!" But she said it in meaner ways... So we said that we were sorry and she slammed the door. So we crossed the street and we were standing across from their house. I was looking at my planner trying to see where we were going next, and my comp said "look" and we could see one of the guys from Maria's house out on the balcony just staring at us. Super creepy. I just ignored it and kept looking at my planner, then all of the sudden I hear something hit the wall next to me, and the another. Then my comp yells "RUN!" and we start sprinting down the sidewalk as the man is trying to pick us off like scared rabbits with his pellet gun... it was crazy. I was just sprinting and heard little pellets bouncing off the wall next to me (luckily he didn't have good aim). We sprinted for a good 20 seconds until we got out of range and just looked at each other. Then a police car turned the corner and we flagged them down and explained what went down. And they went and talked to the lady who slammed the door on us. We went with them and we said "good afternoon" to her, and she said "oh now you say good afternoon? What was all that you said at my door about how Christ is the only way and we are dammed!?" (We didn't say that) but anyways they took our info and theirs and we can file a complaint or whatever. President was supposed to tell me what to do but he had to call someone in Germany first to ask them but he never called me back... So yeah. It was just a freaky sprint down the street with some man trying to pump us full of lead! So I'm don't really wanna go back to that part of town...but yeah. 

Plaza de Espana in Sevilla

Shoutout to my sisters city!

3/7/16

Well we got transfers calls Saturday and my companion is being transferred and I'll be receiving Elder Maldonado. Another native speaker for Elder Rex. I think he's Brazilian, or that's what I've hear at least. So maybe Spanish isn't his native language... Should be interesting! He's pretty new to the mission. Hopefully he doesn't mind that he isn't coming to much...it will be nice to hopefully intensely work on my Spanish again. I haven't had a native since last August!  Well I guess we will see how it goes... 

Sevilla

2/29/16

Haha I really don't know what to write about! I've knocked more doors here than all my other areas combined...hundreds of doors...and how many have I entered? Zero. Hahaha that's okay though! Such is the life of a European Missionary! I once heard a quote that some of you may take offense to, so I apologize beforehand. It said "The Lord sends boys to South America to become men, he sends men to Europe to become leaders." Hahah I mean just look how may prophets came to Europe on their missions ;) haha no, I was just talking with my companion yesterday about this. I believe every mission has it own difficulties. Some are harder than others but no mission is easy. Every mission has the good and the bad. I hope nobody comes on a mission thinking it will be all sunshine and rainbows...because it's not. You'll have those days, but you'll also have those days where you just keep stepping one foot in front of the other because that's all you can do. You got find the little moments, save them, and remember them. When things get tough, if you handle the situation well, you will become a better person.. So really in either situation you are being blessed. Whether it be the days with rainbows and sunshine or the dark days... you're being blessed.
Anyways, love you guys!

Costco in Sevilla!!!!!!! 

2/15/16

Well this week has been interesting. I'm starting to feel better finally, I still have a runny nose but that's about it. The work here is kinda like a stagnant puddle of water full of mosquitos... never the less we are trying to get some fresh water circulating in here. We've spent most of the week knocking doors... it's been rough. We supposedly have 2 pretty good investigators in the area, but since I've been here they won't answer the door or their phones. We were going to go to Costco last Monday but my comp couldn't remember how to get there so we saved it for today! I'm looking forward to that, hopefully it won't make me too trunky! They still have hot dogs for 1.50 and everything. So I'm excited for that. 

There are 4 elders in this small town; me, my companion elder Morgan, elder burton and elder reader, who is like 7 feet tall and 280lbs. He's a big man. Anyways, our piso has a roof so I'm going to find a cheap bbq to put up there so I can do some grilling. That would be sweet. Oh and I've gotten two engagement photos this week.... everyone needs to calm down or at this rate I'll have no friends when I get home! Haha congratulations to Shane and Dylan! Crazy! Anyways, I hope all is well back at home. You're are all in my prayers! Even you people who think your not! Sometimes I just pray for certain people randomly... sometimes it's not even people I really know that well or have ever met. I'll just be praying and this person will pop into my head and I pray for them. I'm kinda weird like that. But it can't hurt. Love you all!
Elder Rex

2/8/16

Well hello family and friends. So I got transferred to Dos Hermanas. I'm here with an Elder Morgan from Utah, he seems to be a good guy. This area doesn't have too much to work with but we will see if we can change that around. There is an Air Force base close to here so there are some English speakers who come to church so that's always cool to see/hear. I've been pretty dang sick since I've been here. Like the sickest I've been on my mission... I pretty much have to lay in bed all day. I did for three days so that sucked for everyone. I made myself some homemade chicken noodle soup which was pretty good if I do say so myself. But yeah so the week has been kinda hard. But that's life sometimes. You just gotta keep swimming. Anyways I really don't have much to say since I've been inside sick. We are close to Sevilla, and there is a Costco there, so we are going there next pday and that's going to be sweet! I'll try to have more to say next week. 
Love you all and you are in my prayers. 
Elder Rex

Saying bye to my old comp

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