Vitoria

Monday morning Aug. 19th,  twelve of us left for Spain. We arrived at the airport in Barcelona at 3:00pm on Tuesday. Then we ate and did interviews with President and Sister Galli. That night we stayed at some Elders apartments in Barcelona. On Wednesday we had training and received our assignments of where we will be serving in Spain. My first area I will be serving in is Vitoria, which is a pretty big city just south of Bilbao in the northern part of Spain known as Basque Country.  We took a super long train ride to Pamplona and spent the night with the Elders there. So we ended up making it to Vitoria Thursday afternoon. 

with my new comp Elder Lyman

My companion is Elder Lyman. He has been out on his mission for about 18 months. Not a lot of people speak Basque (which is a totally different language than Spanish and is spoken in this region of Spain), but some signs are in Basque.  We share the area with Hermanas (Sister Missionaries). There is one church building in our city and we live only 2 blocks away from it. 

The church building in Vitoria

This week we had district council. There are eight of us in our district. This week we got to teach an English lesson which was super fun. Saturday we played soccer with people from our ward. Then afterwards a nonmember bought us sodas at a restaurant. Sunday we had two new amigos/people we are teaching at church. We also had two meal appointments Sunday and both had nonmembers there. We were able to testify of the Book of Mormon and it was awesome! 

Have a great week!

Elder Neuberger

The streets of Vitoria

Lunch with our district

Sign in Basque (top), Spanish (bottom)

view from the apartment where we spent the
first night in Barcelona. (Stadium in the distance)

Arrived in Spain

I made it to Spain and they gave us a few minutes to write home.  I'll just try and some everything up real quick. Wow let me just say so many things went wrong on our flight but people who see missionaries are so nice.  Elder griffins dad bought us lunch and some lady in the airport gave elder Griffin and I money for dinner. 

These masks also helped with sleeping on the plane.

Our flight in JFK got delayed a half hour so I think we started boarding around 9:45pm and we sat near the back of the plane I was next to Elder Madsen and Elder Plewe. Once everyone was on the plane we were taxing but then had to turn around because someone was super sick or something.  So we had to wait for the medics to arrive. Which took like an hour and a half. Then they also had to replace some oxygen thing on the airplane. Which took a while and then they made another announcement that there were 10 planes ahead of us to take off. So we actually got in the air at around 12:10am. They gave us pillows on the plane and I slept sooo good!

with President and Sister Galli

When we landed they didn't have the stairs lined up right so that took like 20 minutes and then we had to wait in line for customs which was super long. We finally got our luggage at 3:00pm. We were supposed to get there I think around 10am this morning.  Barcelona is so pretty from what I can tell. There are lots of rolling hills/mountains covered in vegetation and it looks like the houses/towns are kinds built into them. We didn't get to go to the castle to look over the whole city of Barcelona because we didn't have time, but we just ate lunch at the mission home we had enchiladas.

Right now we're just doing interviews with President, his wife, and the nurse. Also they are encouraging us to take a nap right now to help with the jetlag.  Also one of the assistants to the president was asking what we like to do and I said fish and president fly fishes, and one elder asked if we could fish for pday. And he said some elders did that today.  Also our pday is Monday except every 6 weeks it is on Tuesday (transfer day). Just had my interview with President. I think that's all, I should figure out my new area today and more information later.  

I hope y'all are having an awesome time. 

Elder Neuberger

We made a cactus before we left the MTC
with all of the empty Cactus Cooler soda cans
we had collected while we were there.

Provo Temple

The Provo temple opened back up this week so today our district went to the temple. It was very crowded since it has been closed the last six weeks. On Sunday our Zone went on a temple walk also(see pictures). This week we have been really focusing on SYL which stands for speak your language. We were challenged by our teachers to speak only Spanish for the whole week. I have really started to see my language improve because of the challenge.  

Wednesday our district got to host the new missionaries coming into the MTC and I got to see Elder McDivitt (my good friend from South Carolina). Also this week we finished our last TRC lesson and got to teach a few lessons to members. Those of us going to Spain went to Utah Valley University to pick up our Visas.  There were 26 of us.  11 going to Barcelona and 16 to Madrid...So I will be heading to Spain on Monday.  The MTC has been so awesome!  Stay tuned to find out where my first area will be in Spain.....  

Elder Neuberger

Enjoy the pictures.

with my comp Elder Griffin

with Elder McDivitt

with branch President Durant

(fake) Mustache Monday

Neuberger meets Oldham

she served in the same mission as Chase and knows him

with my teacher Hermano Grajeda

Elder Griffin's parents sent Buffalo Wild Wings

South Carolina and Spain right next to each other

tie swap

weekly schedule

Pictures: Hermano Grajeda (teacher), Elder McDivitt, Neuberger meets Oldham, Elder Griffins parents sent bdubs, temple pics, fake mustaches 

Flight plans

with Elder Hales

This week we started teaching a new person in TRC. Elder Griffin and I taught about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. Our teaching is getting better with each week.  Also, I ran into Christian Baez again and Elder Hales.  We got our flight plans to Barcelona.  We leave Salt Lake on Monday Aug. 19th, and arrive in Barcelona on Tuesday morning. Also, two Elders in our district going to Ecuador have been temporarily reassigned to California as they are waiting on their visas.  

On Monday the Korea and Spain flag were next to each other. (I though that was pretty cool).  One funny thing that happened this week was our teacher got observed. The lady observing did an activity with us where we all stood in a circle around her and she would toss a rock to us and we would say a phrase in Spanish. Every time we would toss it back she would drop it. Twelve in a row😂.  I also inherited a mini fridge from someone who just left the MTC.  It is my box of sunshine before I pass it down to some lucky individual when I leave.

Have a great week!

Elder Neuberger

the mini fridge

EFY going on across the street

Class outside

Time in the MTC feels so weird the days are slow but the weeks fly by. Sunday Elder Griffin and I gave a lesson in priesthood class on Christlike attributes. Since it was our halfway mark in the MTC this week we got new district and zone leaders. 

This week Michelle Craig (1st counselor in Young Women's presidency) spoke at our large group meeting.  One thing she said that I liked was "to learn the language of the spirit, we need to speak, listen, and write down promptings." Last night we went outside for class it was really nice because it was cool and there are no bugs in Utah (unlike Alabama and South Carolina).   Also we finished our last TRC lesson with the person we have been teaching. We have gotten better each time, but we still have a lot to learn.   Not to much to say,but I hope you like the pictures.

Love,

Elder Neuberger 

fun in class

The Korean and Spain flag are right next to each
other at the MTC.

view of Sunset from our class room

Mom sent me some fishing lights
to decorate my room.