Hey Family! I will go ahead and start answering some of Dad´s questions. First, a little about our zone/district. Our District is called the district of Leon. It includes pretty much all of the area north of Madrid. So, it is a pretty large area. We don´t have any stakes here, but a lot of branches. Our missionary district is 5 pairs of missionaries, 2 here in Aviles, and the other three in a bigger city closeby called Oviedo. Like I said, we have 2 sets of missionaries here in Aviles! That is so cool! Especially because before about 6 months ago, this area had been closed for 2 years. Our branch is small, but it is slowly growing! We had 30 people at church on Sunday, which is way up from the 15 we had about 3 months ago. Haha, about the comida. I have been eating quite a bit since I got out to the field, but I´m starting to moderate a little bit. Haha, as far as weight goes though? I haven´t weighed my self since I got to the field, but I have stayed pretty consistent. Gotta love that high metabolism! I sleep very well here! Probably because we are working so hard during the day. Still working on the whole thinking in spanish thing, but everyday, I can feel my spanish skills going up. Haha, about the twelve grapes thing. All that I know right now is that everyone watches the TV at midnight on new years eve, just like back home, and in Sol in downtown Madrid, there is a big countdown. When it gets to 12, you have to eat twelve grapes for every sound of the chime of the clock. Haha, Im pretty excited to do that! It´s a little harder here in spain, because the grapes that they sell have seeds, so it makes it interesting. Christmas here has many different traditions, so I will have to tell you about all of them after christmas. Whew, I hope that wasn´t confusing in any way! Things are going so great out in the field. We are working hard, and we have seen the fruits of our labors. We did intercambios (companion exchanges) this weekend, which was awesome! I got to go to Oviedo and work with Elder Jaforus, who is from American Fork! He is a great missionary, and I think we will be friends for quite a while. The coolest part is that we got to set a baptism date with one of our investigators here in Aviles, who has been hesitating for a while. This Friday! I am so excited to have my first baptism! Thank you so much for the package, I am excited to get it! I have all of the gifts for the kids for Christmas, and I am going to try and send them this week sometime. They´re nothing huge, but I hope that they like them. Thank you so much for all of the prayers in my behalf, I am so happy to be out in the field, sharing something that I love so much with other people. Until Next Week! Elder Rawlinson

Hello family! I absolutley loved getting your email! That picture is so great! Now that I´m out in the field, I can´t really print stuff, so can you send me a copy in a letter? Also some other family pictures would be great. Speaking of that! Here is my address: Jose Manuel Pedregal 14 Escalera Derecha 4D Aviles 33401 España Group message: First week out in El Campo Misional(the mission field)! I´m very very excited to be here! I was very surprised when I heard that I was going to the North of Spain, as most missionaries stay in the Madrid area. It is gorgeous up here! I am in a little town called Aviles. When I say little, I mean about 80,000. Haha, not too little! But since everyone lives in appartments, it only takes about 30 minutes to walk from one side of the city to the other. It is very green up here! A little chilly as well! The weather here reminds me a lot of the north west, it rains pretty much every day, and is not sunny very often, but I love it! It is gorgeous, and I will need to send some pictures soon. My first few days out here have been pretty great, but really, really hard. I thought I knew quite a bit of Spanish my last week in the MTC, but I have realized that it is totally different talking to real people. I´m slowly getting the hang of it, but I now understand why return missionaries say don´t give up in the first few months. The work is going great! My companion is so good! His name is Elder Parkinson, and he is from Kaysville. He only has been out for 4 months, and he is already training! But I completley understand why. He is very good at the Language, and is a very hard worker. The church has a branch here, where there are about 20 active members. The members are so awesome! They help us out so much with everything we do! It is a little strange with some of our investigators, as I didn´t start out with them. It feels like I am just being put in the middle of someone elses lessons, but I am getting used to it. I will let you know next week more about that, but we have one investigator that commited to baptism on Friday, and another family where two of their children are pretty interested in the church. Once again, I will let you know more about them next week. I love teaching the gospel! And sharing something with other people that means so much to me! Tell Skyler congrats for me! I´m so excited for him! When does he leave? I´m so happy to have a family that supports me so much! My MTC companion, Elder Schwenke is in Alconbendas, just outside Madrid. And I am not sure if he is related to that football player. Thanks for everything family! I will keep in touch weekly! Elder Kaleb Rawlinson PS If you or anyone else needs to send a package, make sure to send it to the office. I am going to try and send a Christmas package back home, but I don´t think it will make it back by Christmas.

November 14 letter

¡Hola! ¿Qué tal mi familia y amigos? Greetings from Spain!!! The weather is still fantastic here, but even better is the spirit of God that exists in this MTC. The language is coming along so well, and I am getting very excited to enter the field! Only a week and a half more! We just barely got back from the temple, and I am in love with it! It is one of the most beautiful things I have seen. The spirit I feel, and the inspiration I get there are special and undeniable. Let´s see, what else is there? I can´t remember if I said anything about this last week. There is a popular TV channel here that has filmed us a couple times in the past week and half, as they are making a segment on Mormons in Spain. If anyone wants to look that up on the internet (I think that is what its called, I can´t exactly remember. ;) ) the show is called commando actualidad, and the channel is TV 1 Española. That experience was very interesting! There was a day where a film crew was following the MTC president around, and also interviewed a few of the missionaries, in Spanish!!! Im glad that they didn´t choose to interview me, that would have been so stressful. The MTC received 30 new missionaries on Tuesday. All of them are native Spanish speakers that will be entering the field at the same time as us. So we now have almost 60 missionaries here. Very exciting! And it gives me a chance to practice my Spanish a little more! Every Thursday, we watch an MTC devotional either from the past, or live from Provo. Last weeks was from Elder Bednar on Christmas of 2011. It was one of the best devotionals I have ever listened to! It was on the Character of Christ. He stated that the character of Christ is to turn outward and serve people when the natural man would turn inward and focus on himself. I know that my mission will help me to overcome myself and become more like Christ, and I want to challenge each of you to do the same thing back home. I know that as we do this, we will become more in tune with the spirit and the will of The Father, and find more joy in this earthly experience. I miss all of you tons, but I love this work more than almost anything right now. I am always praying for all you, and I hope things are going great in The States.! This gospel is true. More and more, day by day, I am seeing that more clearly. I am very excited to get into the field and serve the people of this gorgeous country. ¡Grande es el Salvador y su Evangelio! Family! I´m so happy right now! I just got back from Sol, and I got some postcards I will have to send to Ethan when I get his letter. The fence looks very good! Tell everyone to check the blog, because I don´t have too much time today. I love each and every one of you! Keep me updated. Elder Rawlinson