Called to Serve : Update from The Canary Islands!

WAT IS HANNIN EVERYONE!

Before I get into all the details, just want to say I really hope that
everyone is doing well at home.

Well, I guess I will start with leaving the MTC. I am so grateful to
have attended that MTC. So many incredible people there I am really
going to miss! I know that the lords hand definitely played a part in
us all being there with each other because we all learned so much from
each other, and we all helped prepare each other a ton. Truly was a
blessing to be with them specifically and to be in that MTC
specifically. I am so grateful for those trips to the park that we
took and for all the people we were able to touch. So we were the last
group to leave the MTC last Tuesday as most of us weren't going that
far to get to our missions. (Or so we thought). The assistants of the
mission picked us up and took us by metro to the mission home to meet
with the mission president and one of the mission couples (The
Larsens). On the way we Caroled in Spanish in the metro and
proselyted. Caroling was fun but I had an incredible experience with a
lady. I grabbed one of my good buddies from the MTC Élder Fletcher,
and we went up to this lady with a young kid in the metro. We felt
pretty good about our Spanish as we went up to this lady. We began
asking her about how her day was, and just talking to her. I felt
prompted to start talking about the plan of salvation with her, so I
did. As I began asking her about her family and how much she loved
them, the spirit began to fill that metro car and come into the heart
of this woman. She was teary eyed as we began promising her that she
could live with her family forever, and that the gospel could bless
her family. We ended up leaving her with a Book of Mormon and got her
phone number. We told her missionaries would call her in the future
and teach her more but we also told her how much the Book of Mormon
would bless her if she read it and prayed about it. This is just one
example of how I know the lord helps us so much in missionary work.
It's so so important for us to always be doing our best to find those
people, because there are tons of people out there just waiting for us
to say Hola or Hello. We just need to open our mouths as much as we
possibly can. I'm so grateful for the opportunities the lord has given
me to help people like this woman.

As we got to the mission home, we had the last supper with all the
missionaries in the Madrid mission eating together and had a little
fireside with the Larsens and the Packs (They are both so amazing).
The time finally came after a full day of waiting for us to find out
where we were going to be serving our missions. Everyone was super
super super nervous. The Canary Islands missionaries were posted on a
screen in the chapel watching over Skype. I kept thinking, wow, I
really hope that's me in like a year. I was pretty sure I wasn't going
to come here because I talked about the beach a lot in my interview
with the mission president. Well, the time came where there were just
two of us left in the chapel waiting for an assignment. They told us
we were going to the Canaries and both of us kinda just dropped our
chins to the floor in shock. But we were both super excited for this
opportunity. That whole night was a blur. We slept at the Larsens that
night and hopped on a plane the next morning.

After the three hour plane ride, I landed and met my companion. I left
most of my stuff at the mission home because I could only bring one
suitcase but I pretty much just have summer short sleeve shirts here.
Anyways, I thought for sure I was going to be with a super old
missionary. My companion has been out for twelve weeks. He finished
training the transfer before I got here though. He's a greenie too!
Neither of us our fluent, but he understands a lot, so that's good!
Haha its kind of a challenge though. We are working super hard to
learn the language though, and I know the lord will help us. He's so
awesome though. He's a super nice kid from Idaho and we are pretty
similar.

A little bit about the islands. If I were to describe it, I would say
that the islands are like a larger glorified Catalina with more wind,
kinda with the feel of a larger city in South America. It's definitely
not as tropical as Hawaii though. The people here definitely live
with an island feel to life. The whole island pretty much just dies
during medio día. Our investigators all love to tell a ton of stories
which makes it a little challenging to get through lessons but that's
ok, because it makes them that much more loveable. The people talk
super fast and they don't finish their words ever. Mas o menos is
pronounced ma o meno. I can understand a ton of stuff in church, but
it's soo hard to understand the normal people. I'm praying hard though
and working hard as well, so I know it will come eventually. I really
love it here though. We can kinda see the water from our piso, and
there is a picture of Élder Gentry on our wall and a ton in the
church, so I think he served in vecendario too. We walk sooo much
here. We don't have a car, but we do have the bus that everyone takes
to help us cover our half of the island. They are green and they call
it the gua gua. (Pronounced wa wa). Our church is in the middle of the
city and if you didn't know it was there you would miss it.

As far as the work, there are a ton of menos activos (less actives)
here, and a bunch of the people here are from africa or South America.
A lot of people really like talking to us, and we teach people every
day, but a lot of people will sleep through appointments with us and
blow us off. That's alright though, we do contacting when that happens
and we are able to meet some really cool people and we find others to
teach. We have some investigators super close to having a baptismal
date we think, but we shall see. It really isn't about the numbers
here. A lot of our work is in rescuing people and bringing them back
to the right path. I love these people a ton and I'm working on
helping them as best as I can!

As far as mail, if you want to send me something here, mail it to the
mission home, my mom has the address thejena@aol.com . I'm sorry I
haven't responded through letters to a lot of you but i promise I will
send some next week!

Know that I love you all and things are good in the canaries!

My piso (apartment) is pretty sweet. It has some weird Indian
paintings on the walls and Bright colors! We have a dryer too!

-Élder Baron