Accents Will Abound

Wow, everyone in the ward is just going to have the most ridiculous accents after their Spanish speaking missions. Those Argentines will be especially silly. I figured out what is going on with Europe exactly. Throughout Europe, there is a 75% reduction in the number of missionaries. And in Madrid we have a 50% cut. There are three reasons that I have been told. One, it's a slower area compared to the other Spain missions. Two, they need members to step up their efforts so it's kind of like a little motivation for them. And third, kind of, is the financial crisis. But yeah, lots more missionaries are going to South America now.

And yeah, definitely lost my glasses. I will just be blind my mission, no worries. As long as I don't ever have to drive, I should be OK.

To start off, I have to tell you about our awesome week. Our baptismal date, Daiana, had her date for the 15th. Her interview was yesterday, Tuesday. After our lesson last Monday, the 2nd, we weren't able to get in contact with her. To explain I have to go back about 3 weeks. Her husband is a less active member. One day he came to church with his wife, Daiana, and we set an appointment. She liked church, liked our message, he started getting active, it was going well. Then one day for work I guess, he had to go to Cuba out of the blue. So, we just started bringing a member with us to all the lessons, since a man has to be present in lessons. She was progressing well and was fine. Then her husband arrived home the 3rd, and that was the last day we had contact with her. Well, Monday night she finally answered her phone and said she needed time. We don't know if it was because of the interview, the husband, or what, but now she won't really talk to us. So... alright, GO missions!

We do have like 8 people that want to be baptized BUT aren't married or can't come to church. Alright Spain! But things are going good so I really can't complain. I am sure Daiana will be baptized soon.

Since we have a car we tried to visit all the members who don't live near buses. One of them is this old man who lives alone and never married. We think he was pretty lonely. We ended up visiting him twice a week and getting to know him pretty well. Since my companion was going, he gave him these really nice books of Don Quixote, which are famous over here. Maybe dad knows of him. And yeah, then I guess he wanted to give me something too so he gave me a really nice watch. Members here are just great. It was really hard accepting it because we don't know if he is struggling with money or not. But yeah, it was pretty neat.

Unfortunately I lose the car in 5 days. I am going to have to learn the bus system now...

Either my companion or I have been sick since Friday so this week has just been kind of rough. We had zone conference last Thursday and that was good. To review, the elders before us had a baptism like 1 week before we came. The member, named Ana, told us she wanted nothing to do with the church. So, once again we have no idea what happened. We saw her the day before zone conference and she just did not want to talk to us at all. So at zone conference, we asked the Elder who baptized her if he knew anything. He said no. The humor of this story is in what my companion said next. He asked, "Have you talked to Ana lately? We saw her yesterday and she does not look good, spiritually." I turned to my companion and told him he has been out waaaaaaay too long if he is making comments like that. I actually have a quote book of funny things that Elder Jacobs has said. It's pretty funny. Anyway, I am excited for transfers!
Stay pretty.

Elder Dunn