I've Never Seen So Much Green In My Apple-tizing Life

Áviles, Asturias, Spain.


This place is cool. It's not like I never left Arizona as a kid but I never went somewhere with this much GREEN. On our train ride in we just went through tunnels in between mountains without one break in the greeeeeeeen.


And to finish explaining the title, I thought that Appletizer was a Canary-Islands-exclusive kind of thing but my new favorite soda is available here in the north. My new comp and I have decided to become the zone Appletizer borrachos, ya saben. And it's GREEN.


Oh yeah, I met Elder Tapia on Thursday in Madrid, he's pretty famous in the mission because he's a machine. He's also from the Dominican Republic so I might be losing this Canarian accent pretty soon. We'll see.


Let's rewind real quick so I can talk about all the stuff that had to happen for me to get here. We got transfer news on Monday but didn't get travel plans for a few days. On Tuesday we had a mission finding challenge to see how many people we could find on the streets in three hours. President Eastland promised to humiliate himself in a few different ways if we hit certain goals. Unfortunately for us we didn't hit them so he didn't have to chug a liter of milk, shave his legs, or jump into the unused (GREEN) mission home pool. But Elder Romrell and I met some cool people. The Islands Zone had a hard time because Tuesday was Canary Islands Day and no one really wanted to talk.


The rest of our time in the islands was cool, we said goodbye to a lot of members before we got whitewashed and tried to go out with style. We tried to meet with the most progressing people that we're teaching and to set them up for success. We had one last English class and finally left on Thursday. 


We packed up our bags, caught a taxi to the airport with our boy Manuel, I turned 20 (thanks for all the messages!), and we checked in. The lady at the desk put Elder Romrell on standby since the flight was over booked, and just told us to go though security and hope he'd get a seat. He did. Yeehaw


We pulled to Madrid, got picked up by some other missionaries, and dropped off Elder Romrell in his new area in the Madrid 9th ward. He's going to do great but I miss him already. That's my son right there.


Then I got taken to the mission office and met Elder Tapia. We talked to the office Elders but it took us a while to get our travel plans. We ended up spending all of Friday in Madrid, but found stuff to do. We did a ton of planning for our area and zone, helped pick up some new missionaries, and got to go to the Madrid temple.


On Saturday our train wasn't until the afternoon so we got to watch all the new guys (GREENies?) get their trainers. I found out who's going to Lanzarote with Elder Rawle. Elder Christiensen's gonna kill it. Then we headed to our train station and spent like 4 hours on our way to the north. That's where I saw all the green. We arrived in Gijon, caught a bus to Aviles, and found the Aviles piso. It's really nice, and even has one of those cabinets with fancy dishes and cups that are to look at but not to use. We'll be disregarding that.


The next day, Sunday, was great because we got to go to the Gijon ward, meet the Gijon hermanas, and meet all the members. The Gijon ward covers Áviles, so they'll be our members for this area, but we want to have so many Áviles people in the Gijon ward that they have to start a branch in Áviles. It's totally possible.


The ward in huge, I've only served in large branches and small wards so Sunday was an experience for sure. We had testimony meeting which was crazy busy, and as we shook what felt like hundreds of hands at the door I saw SO MANY kids and youth and young adults. I loved the Arrecife ward on Lanzarote but there weren't many young people there. The Gijon ward is vibrant and complicated and full of people just doing their best to live the gospel. That's pretty cool. Something that blew me away was the rise of chatter right after the closing prayer. It's been a long time since I've heard that. 


They asked me and Hermana Fitisemanu, the new Gijon hermana, to bear our testimonies first, and I talked about how our efforts to live the gospel open us up to God's blessings, but also allow us to be instruments in God's hands to bless other people. It was just awesome to see so many people in one place doing their best to live the restored gospel.


We walked around a ton yesterday and visited a ton of people, but it's so weird being in a new area and not knowing stuff. I forgot how crazy getting a new area is, it's like losing a hand or an eye. I miss my Island Kingdom but this place will be home for me soon.


Today's P-day, and we walked around Gijon for a while. We needed to be in Gijon because, if you can believe it, we're heading back to Madrid for MLC already. I'm on another 4-hour train right now, its kinda nuts. We had a great 48 hours on our area though, and when we get back Áviles is going to be awesome.


Y'all have a great week!
Elder Curtis 


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Appletizer at the drunkard monument
Don't mess with AP Baird
Green
Farewell Manuel and Pancho
Mi loco Elder Tapia






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