Week 7 -- November 18, 2019

SPAIN & RAIN




Hola everyone!!! How are you all doing??? It has been a crazy week!!! But I'm in Spain now which is insane!!!!!! (Let's see how many things I can get to rhyme with Spain🤔)

I'll apologize in advance, this will be a long email:/ lo siento!
(Also my mom made a blog where she uploads all my emails so you can check that out if you want, it's,  elderboden@blogspot.com )

Spain is súper súper cool!!!! I'm in the Northest Part, San Sebastión,  so it rains 24/7 and is FREEZING 24/7!!!! SO FREAKING COLD!!!!! We have an amigo in France so that will be cool going to France!! My mission president and his wife are really really cool!!! Love them!!! I LOVE my companion!!! His name is Elder Toro, hes from Peru, but lived in Barcelona for a year before his mission, his dad lives 5 mins from the mission home ðŸ˜‚ Hes a native Spanish speaker, so that's been helping me learn Spanish way better!! 

San Sebastión is BEAUTIFUL!!!!! President Galli said its rated on some websites as the prettiest city in Europe,  so the photography here will be awesome! But I dont think I've seen a blue sky here yet🤔 but it's all good, every day except the first day here I've been smart enough to bring an umbrella and coat!! When I first got to our piso(apartment) holy cow it was NASTY!!! I was disgusted. Elder Toro said that his previous companion never wanted to clean and it drove him crazy, so of course we spent over 2 hours deep cleaning and killing cockroaches in the kitchen, which is literally smaller than a normal sized bathroom,  so it should definitely not take over two hours to clean! But holy cow it's so much better! Everytime either of us walk in, we are just like, wow I love it!!!

It was really cool, the First day, President and sister Galli, and the Assistants, picked us up from the Barcelona Airport, the travel here was insane, 2 hour train to slc, 4 hour flight to New York,  and then 7 hour flight to Barcelona to get there at 10 am, which completely confused my brain because I thought it was bedtime cuz I couldn't sleep on the plane Ahhhhhh fun times. ( everyone was falling asleep all day) But so after that we rode around in a bus and toured Barcelona a little, went to a cool old military fort and then went to the mission home and had lunch.  Meals here are weird!!!! We eat a big lunch and then like a piece of bread for dinner, big change from all you can eat at the MTC. We stayed the night with the Elders in Barcelona, literally across the street from the famous Sagrada Familia! Which is INSANE!!! No pictures could ever do it justice,  it is massive. The next day went to the mission home to meet our trainers!!!

 One of my good friends from high school has been serving in Barcelona for 7 months now and she was one of the trainers so it was really cool seeing Hermana Bluth there!!! I definitely didn't expect to see her day 2!!!! Super super fun to talk to her for a while!!! We got our assignments, and then those serving in the north had to stay overnight again, but everyone else just left right there! 
The next morning we had a 7 hour train and 1.5 hour bus ride to San Sebastion early in the morning. Yay more traveling... but we got here and then the work just started! I unpacked and then we left and started talking to people on the street! As far as the language goes, I'm pretty sure we are in Basque region, but tbh, not totally sure, because I cant understand anyone anyway🤷‍♂️ Everyone here speaks REALLY  fast!!! Elder Toro says a bunch of signs are in a language he doesn't know so that's awesome, but everyone at least understands Spanish and can respond if they need to in Spanish!! Its really difficult, especially going to church yesterday because I truly domt understand a word anyone around me is saying, so in sacrament when they called me up and invited me to share my testimony, I had no idea and just sat there until.it went quiet and everyone looked at me until I figured it out😂 as far as speaking goes,  I feel pretty good.  Elder Toro has taught me a ton, I can say pretty much everything I'm trying to, in definitely broken Spanish! Many people told me they loved my testimony,  so that's good!

Saturday was a crazy amazing and spiritual day, we were on the bus, going to a members house for lunch, and a lady sat next to us, so I said hello! After a while of talking she gave us her contact info and we're working on setting up an appointment!! After eating lunch with a lady named Hermana Concha and her grandson Martin, elder toro explained that this previous sunday was the first time Martin has taken the sacrament in 4 years,  that's really cool that hes coming back!!! Hes 23, and that night we had an indexing night at the church and Martin came!!! There was this cute old lady named julie there who had never really heard of the church before,  so we gave her a tour of the building and taught her about baptism and the Book of Mormon,  i gave her a book of mormon, and we are going to be meeting with her soon!!! Afterwards, we were on our way to go knock doors and we got a call from Martin asking if we wanted to go to dinner! We had INCREDIBLE  burgers and it was a ton of fun!!! Hes a super fun guy and elder toro was explaining to me after that Martin wants to serve a mission, but he struggles a lot with smoking and that night he was planning on going to a probably not so great party, but instead wanted to go to dinner with us!! Yay blessings!!! We went contacting in the park after and talked to this man for 30 mins, but he has no interest in religion, it makes me really sad seeing people confused, I feel so much love for everyone here and just everywhere!!! I just want people to know how much their savior loves them!!!

I'm exhausted 24/7, its FREEZING 25/7, I understand 2 percent of what people say, so many people don't want to listen to us,  BUT, my companion has so much love for the Savior,  he has such a desire to serve, we love the people so much,  the members are so strong and so nice,  the food here rocks, Jesus is my Savior, I literally speak from my heart and it works, this is the most incredible experience ever and i absolutely love it and dont want to trade it for anything!!! I hope everything is going great back home i love you guys!!! Spain rocks and you all should be jealous  ;)

-Elder Boden

1. First view of beautiful Barcelona 

2. Learned our lesson about my companion getting his bus pass stolen and both of us forgetting umbrellas and coats...

3. View from our Piso! (The first day, it was only blue skies for like 30 mins total this week)

4. Some awesome travel companions

5. Hermana Bluth!!!

6. The edge of Spain!

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