Almost everyone here is from a different country and therefore I get to live in Madrid and have the unique food of each of those countries. So this week I had cow tongue on Saturday ( it was surprisingly delicious and tender, I would definitely recommend it). Monday I had some mixture of spices and other things that was basically the spitting image of vomit. ( That too was very good). Then later I had a soup that had the basic potatoes, carrots, chicken, except for some reason the bones were still included. So the food here is pretty good, except I hear the milk is not desirable in any way, probably because Madrid is a huge city in the middle of a desert. But they do have this mixture of fruit juice and milk that's amazing. My companion says that if Spain got anything right it is the juice.
So once you get into the field you realize that people have different accents and talk quite a bit faster than expected. So there are quite a few times, especially with the thick accents, that I have to turn to my companion and ask him what they just said. The language is coming, but rather slow unfortunately. But if I follow the schedule that I have been given, I should be able to be a trainer in 12 weeks, hopefully.
So my companion´s name is Elder Wilson, he has 9 months, almost 10 in the mission and he is from Utah. His Spanish is pretty good, at least significantly greater than mine. We live in an apartment at an intersection just above the metro and bus station. ( if you are unfamiliar with the buildings in Spain, there are stores at the first floor and then apartments on all the floors above it). The only problem about Spain is that EVERYONE smokes, so almost every time you pass someone you can smell their cigarette. You can actually basically always smell it, one of my resource teachers in Provo said that Spain smells old, but to me it just smells like old cigarette smoke.
Anyway, we have somewhere around 20 to 25 investigators right now, none of them have a baptismal date at this moment, but some of them are getting pretty close. Right now we have two families, relatively new, that are amazing. One has already started coming to church and all the other activities and if I didn´t know better I could almost believe that they are a Mormon family. The other we have only taught once, but they already believed some of the same things that we believe and it appears that the teachings of the restoration make sense to them. Of course we need a prophet because ... for an example. At one point the husband started completing our sentence about what we were teaching, it is awesome. Also, they have great questions which basically show that we have the true gospel, it´s awesome. The work is awesome and it makes me so excited and happy to see other people progressing and coming to the truth. The only annoying thing is when we contact someone that seems amazing and then they end up being in another companionship´s area, or they end up having a problem that could be very difficult for them to overcome. I wish we could help them all. Also, surprisingly, it is the young people that are interested in the gospel, the old people won´t even talk to you usually. It´s kind of weird because to me it seems like the exact opposite of the US.
So I don´t know what else to say, I am in the same apartment with my companion from the Madrid MTC, so that is interesting, at least it isn´t one of the people that I don´t know. The ward is great, they help out a lot and we have been fed by someone almost every single day this past week, it´s awesome, so I hope you guys are taking care of the missionaries there, because basically the only times that we get dinner is when we are fed by someone ( we basically don´t have time until about 9:30 at night).
Well, I don´t know what else to say, I have started writing letters to all of you guys, but I don´t know if I will finish this week, so they may not come for awhile. Also, I gave some people at the Provo MTC the address to the house, so would you be able to forward those to me every once in awhile please? Also, I might include some letters to other people in a group of letters to you, would you be able to pass those along as well?
Well, I think that´s about it. Hasta la proxima semana.
Love,
Elder Johnson
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