Spain at last!

¡Buenas dias mis queridos amigos y familia!
So, crazy week! We are in SPAIN!! It feels very different to think we are actually here. I love it! We flew all day Wednesday pretty much and got in to Barcelona Thursday morning. We got like no sleep so we were all (and still are) very tired. It's also weird to think it is like 4 am there right now! Anyways, Barcelona is great. We got the chance to talk to a few natives on the plane, which had us super excited the whole flight over. At the airport we were a little early so we had to wait like 20 min for the Paces and the office Elders to meet us. They are all great. Los ayudantes are Elder Cerqueira de Portugal and Elder Archibald de Alabama.

Elder  Ryan Coombs at Barcelona Airport!

 I've realized a lot of the missionaries are from the states and a few from south america, and a few native Spaniards. The first day we went to go see a castle that overlooked barcelona that is close to the shore, and it was super cool. This city is huge!

Barcelona

 President Pace took us each one by one to talk and welcome us as we walked around. There were 6 elders and 2 hermanas and a married couple that came with us on our flight, and we should be getting 3 more elders and 1 hermana next week. Everyone here was super excited to get us! We feel so popular!

After the castle trip we went to the office, the Paces fed us, and we settled in a little. President also told us to take a 2 hour nap, which we gladly did =) President Pace is the best though, and not just for that. He cares insanely much about each of us, loves people and is super lovable, knows how to work, and has an amazing grasp on things and a vision for where he wants to be. He felt strongly to make the goal for 20 baptisms a week in the mission, which is not where we are at, but where he feels the Lord wants us to be. We actually had about 13 this weekend throughout the mission! For the first day we split off on temporary assignments, I went with Elder Cerquiera and Elder Bozarth with Elder Archibald which was lots of fun. The next day we had the actual official welcome and interviews with President when we were actually a little more awake to remember stuff =) We also got another temporary assignment until our transfers in Feb. 10 days or so. I am with Elder Shiflet from Arizona, and Elder Shumway with Elder Olson from Utah. Both of them are great guys and lots of fun. They're the Zone Leaders here in Hospitalet. It's tons of fun! This mission, the president, and missionaries are definitely for me! Each mission has a unique feel, vision, and personalitly I guess you can say, and the missionaries are all a certain kind/type of people, if you know what I mean. I love it here! Obedience is focus, baptism is focus, and it's an optimistic, loving, and hopeful feel to it. The culture of Spain itself is different too! The housing is all apartments stacked super high and the ground level is all shops and stores. It's kinda hard to find/keep track of the doors, because there is one to get in. You push the doorbell/call button to whichever room then they have a button in their room they open it with and then you just walk up the stairs or elevator and walk right into their door to their apartment! The streets are all one way and the other half of the road is parked cars (which are all pretty small!) Most people walk or take the metro, so we contact a lot of people there. Espanoles son mucho mas duro, so it's different to contact them. They either don't believe in God, claim to be catholic and don't care, or are just wishy washy. There are people from everywhere here-it's more of a melting pot than the states! Most of our ward is de Ecuador, theres a few Bolivians, Peru. There's lots of European too, and Africa. There's actually quite a bit of middle east, and the chino stores sell stuff super cheap so missionaries love them =) It's pretty warm if you are in the sun, but all the buildings are so tall that you walk mostly in the shade, so it's a little more chilly. Still don't really know my way around, but it's nice already knowing the language, minus the accent so everyone can pin you as gringo right off. I love it here though! We feel like real missionaries at home at last! That's about all for now...we don't have much time to email. Love you all and hope all is great in the states! Tenga un buen dia y semana! Estoy bien aqui, y en manos buenos del  Señor y misioneros!