Finally! Going to Spain! Elder Ryan Coombs, with the other Spain visa waiters from the Ogden, Utah mission are reporting to the Provo, Utah MTC to get their visas processed by a visiting consulate authority.
Vamos a Espania!! I Thought I'd send my quick update! We got here in the MTC and got all of our stuff signed.The guy was telling us about how it was a little on both ends in Madrid and Los Angeles as to why it has taken so long. Basically, they had a slow few months from August to January and were really understaffed, so our stuff sat on the desk. But, everyone should get visas pretty quick now, they are optimistic and hired new staff. Sounds like all of the newly called won't have to wait. So we fly out to JFK tomorrow morning, fly out from there to Barcelona, flying all night and arriving the next morning in sunny Spain! We are all super stoked! There are a lot of missionaries heading out today, tomorrow and next week. There are a lot more for Madrid and Malaga, only a few we have met headed for Barcelona. Elder Miskin has been in the MTC call center the whole time. He leaves Tuesday. Also, I saw Elder Hunter Black (Skylers brother) here when we arrived this morning, He is leaving for Costa Rica soon. That is all my news.. I will see if I have a chance to call from New York. Os quiero!
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Christmas Photos
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| Elder Coombs with his aunt Anne Cook, husband Mitch, children , Cannon and Addison, with Grandma and Grandpa Valberg. Christmas Eve Dinner in Hooper, Utah |
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| Christmas time with the Eckart family |
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| Elder Wright, Elder Coombs, and Elder Ward |
Feliz ano nuevo!!
Feliz ano nuevo!! Y Buenos tardes a todos que estais leyendo esto! ;)
It was fine by all of us though!
Also, you asked about Christmas Eve. Since everyone celebrates it on the evening of the 24th, practically nobody was home or they were getting stuff ready, so we couldn't really do much. We shoveled a few people's driveways, had snowball fights with the kids we were helping, went sledding with a couple others, did a few visits for the Bishop, then went up to Anne's for dinner. After that we didn't have much to do. We went and watched this house that had some crazy Christmas lights synchronized with Christmas music for like an hour haha. It was pretty sweet.
So basically, Elder Ward, Elder Wright, and I are tearing it up out here in Clearfield. It's been great! We've done a lot of tracting in the new area (north) and have done lots of visits in Syracuse based off of ward maps we got from the English missionaries, and some referrals/potentials the branch President gave us. We tracted into mostly members, most of them white and not spanish speaking. Either them or anti's/people who have met with missionaries for like a thousand years or a bajillion times and really don't care. Much better to find the members who offer us food/goodies/money for lunches ;) Sometimes they have more referrals for us too! So that's been fun. We've picked up a lot of new investigators in Clearfield with a date. We have 6, with more on the way! There is a family Silva/Briseno who the mom was recently baptized when they lived in Layton a month ago, and the husband and two teenage boys that we are working with.They are super cool. The kids love the church and want to go, and already have had super powerful spiritual confirmations of the truth of the Book of Mormon and baptism. The dad wants to change, just is kinda scared and likes his other church still. The Oxandabarat kids have a date too. They are the family that moved in from North Ogden. The parents have been less active, but now want to start going again. They have 4 boys and a girl. The oldest is almost 10, the next 8, then they go down to the daughter, who is a couple years. They would have probably been baptized the 5th this week, but they didn't come to church, so they have to wait until the 12th, and the father still has to meet with the Bishop to see if he will be able to baptize them. Nicole, the 9 year old we've been teaching, her parents in Guatemala said no they didn't want her to be baptized, but the grandparents that she's living with have legal custody over her and the Bishop will probably push them to do it anyways =) Yolanda hasn't been cooperating to set up an appointment recently, so we have no idea where she's at with her answer. Pepe Olaya went to Cali for a while, so we have to wait for them to get back. Our recent convert Rolando is still having a super rough time with his situation with his wife leaving and his work and stuff. We pass by often to comfort him/read in the Book of Mormon, he still hasn't gone to visit the Bishop or to church yet though. He needs lots of prayers =) The ward was really good at supporting him, but they can't ever seem to catch him or have stopped going apparently.
One super cool miracle story. So we were at the church 1/2 hour before sacrament meeting, and we get this phone call from an unknown number. Some guy is talking in a jumbled, unorganized voice and kinda fast and it takes a while for Elder Ward to understand him. He basically told us he wanted to meet/talk with us sometime. (All in Spanish) Elder Ward was like "Ok, church starts in 25 min, want to come?" "No, no I can't, I have to go visit someone, can you come by later, at like 7?" "Yeah, sure. What's your address?" "It's 525...*jumbled nonsense, phone going in and out*" "I'm sorry, what was it?" "It's 525...well, nevermind. You know the Aztec Market store?" Elder Ward looks at me and asks...I say yeah "Yeah..." "And you know the laundromat right by there?" (Again he looks at me...I say yeah) "Yeah..." "Ok, let's meet there at 7". So we agreed and planned on that. So all through the day we were thinking about this sketchy appointment to meet at this dumpy laundromat. We went there around 6:50 and waited a littlebit, scoping out any hispanic looking people, thinking this might be some sort of drug deal situation or something. At around 7 we text him saying we're there, and this guy comes out from behind it. He took us into his place, basically a little garage behind one of the empty for rent spaces nearby. Long story short, this guy has talked to missionaries before and turned them down at his door where he used to live. Recently he says he's been searching God, and looking for something. He said one day he felt like he should go for a ride in his truck. While he was out he passed some missionaries walking, and felt like he should stop to talk to them. He thought "no, I'm not talking to those missionaries!" and kept driving. He said he felt strongly that he should turn around and talk to them, so he did but couldn't find them. He said he found them by a gas station and pulled up and asked if they spoke spanish. (this was the Clearfield Center English Elders, so they said no..but gave him our number.) So thus we got our phone call. As we talked with them he said if we really did come at 7 then we must be of God, and if not, then oh well I guess we weren't. But we were there 7 on the dot, so he was astounded. He ate up everything we taught with the Restoration and accepted a date for baptism the 26th! So it will be fun teaching Alberto =) So yeah, we have a lot of cool things happening, and I almost don't want to go quite yet to see some baptisms happen, because I haven't had much while I've been here, but then again I do kinda want to go...so, I can be content with whatever the Lord gives me! I love my new companions though, they're super fun. We spent our p-day new years playing cards (I taught them nertz ;) and we played a few other games) and taking naps. We all get along well, teach together well, and are tearing it up in the work!
We had a zone study today, Elder Walz who goes home tomorrow taught a lot of it and gave us tons of good advice, but they did a good job teaching about goals and applying them more effectively in the work. President Hiers has a new vision for the year, for the first quarter (3 months) about changing the old mission culture, achieving great things, and improving the work a lot. I think a lot of great things are going to be coming out. A lot of the older missionaries who knew President Olsen more have a harder time adapting to the new culture, but the newer missionaries all seem to just eat it up. It makes me wonder about what cool things President Pace has rolling out and what all of us new missionaries that will hopefully be heading in soon will do. Neat stuff. And with missionary work in general with all the new missionaries and changes. It's great to be a missionary in such exciting times and with all of the amazing tools, recources, and more experienced teachers we have!
So, it feels weird to be in 2013. The year everyone thought wouldn't come because of "December 21" nonsense (I was kinda surprised we didn't meet any crazies...apparently there were a few in Ogden). Also, I didn't think I would still be in Utah by this year, pero asi es! We didn't do too much for New Years. President said we had to be in by 9. We did all of our appointments as regular, had our dinner at 8 because the lady couldn't do it earlier. It seemed like she was a little upset when we told her we only had like 45 min...I think she was planning on us staying for some party. Oh well, we missionaries do what we do! We pretty much just went home an slept through the new year =)
It was fine by all of us though!
Also, you asked about Christmas Eve. Since everyone celebrates it on the evening of the 24th, practically nobody was home or they were getting stuff ready, so we couldn't really do much. We shoveled a few people's driveways, had snowball fights with the kids we were helping, went sledding with a couple others, did a few visits for the Bishop, then went up to Anne's for dinner. After that we didn't have much to do. We went and watched this house that had some crazy Christmas lights synchronized with Christmas music for like an hour haha. It was pretty sweet.
So basically, Elder Ward, Elder Wright, and I are tearing it up out here in Clearfield. It's been great! We've done a lot of tracting in the new area (north) and have done lots of visits in Syracuse based off of ward maps we got from the English missionaries, and some referrals/potentials the branch President gave us. We tracted into mostly members, most of them white and not spanish speaking. Either them or anti's/people who have met with missionaries for like a thousand years or a bajillion times and really don't care. Much better to find the members who offer us food/goodies/money for lunches ;) Sometimes they have more referrals for us too! So that's been fun. We've picked up a lot of new investigators in Clearfield with a date. We have 6, with more on the way! There is a family Silva/Briseno who the mom was recently baptized when they lived in Layton a month ago, and the husband and two teenage boys that we are working with.They are super cool. The kids love the church and want to go, and already have had super powerful spiritual confirmations of the truth of the Book of Mormon and baptism. The dad wants to change, just is kinda scared and likes his other church still. The Oxandabarat kids have a date too. They are the family that moved in from North Ogden. The parents have been less active, but now want to start going again. They have 4 boys and a girl. The oldest is almost 10, the next 8, then they go down to the daughter, who is a couple years. They would have probably been baptized the 5th this week, but they didn't come to church, so they have to wait until the 12th, and the father still has to meet with the Bishop to see if he will be able to baptize them. Nicole, the 9 year old we've been teaching, her parents in Guatemala said no they didn't want her to be baptized, but the grandparents that she's living with have legal custody over her and the Bishop will probably push them to do it anyways =) Yolanda hasn't been cooperating to set up an appointment recently, so we have no idea where she's at with her answer. Pepe Olaya went to Cali for a while, so we have to wait for them to get back. Our recent convert Rolando is still having a super rough time with his situation with his wife leaving and his work and stuff. We pass by often to comfort him/read in the Book of Mormon, he still hasn't gone to visit the Bishop or to church yet though. He needs lots of prayers =) The ward was really good at supporting him, but they can't ever seem to catch him or have stopped going apparently.
One super cool miracle story. So we were at the church 1/2 hour before sacrament meeting, and we get this phone call from an unknown number. Some guy is talking in a jumbled, unorganized voice and kinda fast and it takes a while for Elder Ward to understand him. He basically told us he wanted to meet/talk with us sometime. (All in Spanish) Elder Ward was like "Ok, church starts in 25 min, want to come?" "No, no I can't, I have to go visit someone, can you come by later, at like 7?" "Yeah, sure. What's your address?" "It's 525...*jumbled nonsense, phone going in and out*" "I'm sorry, what was it?" "It's 525...well, nevermind. You know the Aztec Market store?" Elder Ward looks at me and asks...I say yeah "Yeah..." "And you know the laundromat right by there?" (Again he looks at me...I say yeah) "Yeah..." "Ok, let's meet there at 7". So we agreed and planned on that. So all through the day we were thinking about this sketchy appointment to meet at this dumpy laundromat. We went there around 6:50 and waited a littlebit, scoping out any hispanic looking people, thinking this might be some sort of drug deal situation or something. At around 7 we text him saying we're there, and this guy comes out from behind it. He took us into his place, basically a little garage behind one of the empty for rent spaces nearby. Long story short, this guy has talked to missionaries before and turned them down at his door where he used to live. Recently he says he's been searching God, and looking for something. He said one day he felt like he should go for a ride in his truck. While he was out he passed some missionaries walking, and felt like he should stop to talk to them. He thought "no, I'm not talking to those missionaries!" and kept driving. He said he felt strongly that he should turn around and talk to them, so he did but couldn't find them. He said he found them by a gas station and pulled up and asked if they spoke spanish. (this was the Clearfield Center English Elders, so they said no..but gave him our number.) So thus we got our phone call. As we talked with them he said if we really did come at 7 then we must be of God, and if not, then oh well I guess we weren't. But we were there 7 on the dot, so he was astounded. He ate up everything we taught with the Restoration and accepted a date for baptism the 26th! So it will be fun teaching Alberto =) So yeah, we have a lot of cool things happening, and I almost don't want to go quite yet to see some baptisms happen, because I haven't had much while I've been here, but then again I do kinda want to go...so, I can be content with whatever the Lord gives me! I love my new companions though, they're super fun. We spent our p-day new years playing cards (I taught them nertz ;) and we played a few other games) and taking naps. We all get along well, teach together well, and are tearing it up in the work!
We had a zone study today, Elder Walz who goes home tomorrow taught a lot of it and gave us tons of good advice, but they did a good job teaching about goals and applying them more effectively in the work. President Hiers has a new vision for the year, for the first quarter (3 months) about changing the old mission culture, achieving great things, and improving the work a lot. I think a lot of great things are going to be coming out. A lot of the older missionaries who knew President Olsen more have a harder time adapting to the new culture, but the newer missionaries all seem to just eat it up. It makes me wonder about what cool things President Pace has rolling out and what all of us new missionaries that will hopefully be heading in soon will do. Neat stuff. And with missionary work in general with all the new missionaries and changes. It's great to be a missionary in such exciting times and with all of the amazing tools, recources, and more experienced teachers we have!
That's about all for this week. Love you guys! The Church is true, and the Gospel blesses lives. It can for members too! Always look for the small miracles/tender mercies, because they are always there, and look for answers to prayers in ways you might not expect...that's usually where they are! Ciau!
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