My Legs Aren't European! Week 26

We have a running joke in our home that Hayden is Superman.  Cooper (age 6) pretends to believe that Hayden is really Superman, and he tries to convince all of his friends that it's true.  He usually shows them this picture (photographed by Ben Leavitt), and that's all she wrote. 

Today Cooper wrote the following to Hayden in his email:  Dear Hayden,  You're my best super hero.  I love you very much.  And you are my super man!!!!! Love, Cooper

Hayden's reply made my day:  I love you little dude. Keep working towards developing your superpowers. Someday, you will realize what you really are, what you can do. Elder Oliver

 3 Year Old Elder Oliver, already trying to figure out his super powers.

And now, on to the main email!

So, new area. New people. New ties. Dirty old streets.

We have had quite the week. I had to say farewell to the people in Torrevieja. That was hard. I didn't get to say goodbye to L, and that was really hard. There are lots of things that needed to get done, lots of things that we were rushing around trying to finish.  Didn't get it all done, because I had to leave Torrevieja a day earlier than everybody else had to leave their areas.

Let me explain. Elder L is going to train a new missionary in Torrevieja, so, on Tuesday he needed to catch a bus to Málaga to go pick him up, which would leave me solo in Torrevieja. That can't happen. So, I had to pack up a day early and we took the bus to Murcia. I spent the day there with another companionship and we went and visited a bunch of people, namely a guy with with a pet pigeon, and some really bizzare statues. It was interesting, to say the least.

Then on Wednesday, we caught the bus at 10:30 to Málaga. We made a stop in Granada for 30 min, and I was suprised to see my dad (Elder R, they call their trainer their dad), who gave me nice little Christmas present (chocolate:)   ) Seriously, it was so nice to see him, it had only been 6 weeks, but oh well. Then we finished up the journey to Málaga, and met my new comp there. His name is Elder Dansie. He is trying to learn how to cook now. He's pretty good at it, and he makes food for all of the elders in the piso. Which is, Me, him, and Elder Proctor and Elder Oldroyd. 2 Utahns, 2 Arizonans. It's pretty awesome, we're all like, best friends already. We all get along, and in the 3 days that we have been here, some interesting things have happened. We have met some seriously interesting people. This will be a sweet couple of months.

Alrighty, so Algeciras is near Gibraltar. We are going to go in a few weeks, and we are going to see the monkeys. That will be flippin sweet. There is a member that drives us everywhere here, he's a champ. He is going to take us to Gibraltar. And then we will see Africa. because Our city is basically in a valley, and we can't see squat, because it is always foggy. 

As far as investigators, this area really doesn't have much. We are going to have to work our booties off to get some baptisms here. There is really a truckload of work to do here. But, that is a good thing. That is why the Lord has called us here. And all four of us are really hard workers, so hopefully we'll be able to help make a difference here. 

The other elders had a baptism here on Friday. It was a good start to the transfer, because they are both new. (They had a person ready by the other elders, so it really wasn't theirs, but it was still cool) We went to the chapel really early, and started filling up the font/birthing tub. However, there was no hot water, so Elder Dansie and I were boiling water on the stove, and tossing it into the tub to try and help. It didn't. Elder Proctor did the ordinance, and afterwards, I played a little musical number on the violin. By the way, Elder Dansie had a dream that he learned to play the violin, 2 months ago, and then we get assigned as companions! That is pretty cool. I guess I need to teach him a bit now.

We had a good p-day today, we went to a couple of places, I got a super cheap skinny tie, and a sock tie. Now my collection is complete. Haha. I tried on some cheap European dress pants at Zara. I figured out that my legs aren't European. I cam out of the dressing room, looked in the mirror, and realized that I looked like I was just wearing fancy spandex. I didn't buy them.

And this place is sketchy. Like, we are afraid of contacting people. Especially at night. So, I am glad I don't have a shiny watch. Elder Dansie and his last comp got robbed a few weeks ago. Sooo, yeah. This will be an adventure. Just pray a little extra hard for us.

My Spanish has gotten a heck of a lot better. I am speaking better than ever, and I got told by 2 people (natives) that my Spanish sounded really good, and sounds SPANISH. So, I am happy. And I continue to work hard.

Alrighty. I love you guys, keep up the hard work. I hope I answered your questions.

¡Os quiero mucho!

Elder Oliver

ps, Brother M delivered my Christmas package to me while I was in Murcia, in between my areas, which was another adventure.