Leadership Council

We began the week with our wonderful Leadership Council.  The focus of the meeting was on Meaningful Prayer and having success in getting investigators to Sunday church meetings. We also gave instruction on how to manage stress, discouragement and depression. We gave medical advice along with spiritual guidance to help us feel our best.

 

  

President Dayton and I with a recent convert

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Transfers

Transfers again--we were so excited to welcome our 11 new missionaries...and so sad to see our 23 missionaries return home.


 

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

 

 

 

   

We were especially sad to say good-bye to Elder and sister Flores.  They have served in the mission office for 18 months and have been the heart and soul of our mission, working tirelessly with medical and the finances of our mission. We had a delightful evening honoring them by going to dinner with the office staff and a few of their closest friends. We returned to the Mission Home and shared choice experiences we have shared and the many ways they have blessed our lives and those in the mission. The Flores' will be greatly missed!

   

                                                 

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BYU and Baptisms

This week was one of many meetings, planning, organizing and preparing for upcoming events.  It was nice to get many things accomplished on the home front before taking off again.  The BYU basketball team was in Barcelona for 2 games and we encouraged missionaries to bring investigators to the game.  We shared a wonderful evening together cheering the Cougars on to Victory. Here are a few pictures of us with the team.

Baptisms are such a choice experience and our favorites meetings to attend in the mission. 80% of our converts are people who have immigrated from South America, Central America, Brasil, the Philippians, and Africa. Here are a few pictures of baptisms we had the opportunity of attending.

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Specialty Training and Ghana

President was VERY busy during Specialized Training. The assistants, Elder Dunn and Elder Skousen were marvelous traveling companions. The focus of the training was on being a full service missionary and understanding the apostasy.

I was in Ghana picking up my youngest son and 6th missionary in our family.  We enjoyed 5 wonderful days together, meeting the many people he had baptized, attending meetings, experiencing the culture, food and unique customs in that beautiful land. I then went to Arizona for my sons wedding, the birth of a new grandchild, and the baptism of an oldest grandchild. It was a BUSY two weeks.

   

                        

   

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Missionary Interviews

   

We so enjoyed traveling to each zone, meeting with the missionaries in their areas.  Each missionary had a 15-20 minute interview with President Dayton.  I loved getting acquainted with the companion during the interviews.  We came away very inspired KNOWING we have the BEST missionaries in the mission field. These young men and women are deeply committed to the gospel, very close to the Savior, full of love for the Book of Mormon, enthusiastic testifiers, and truly understanding of their charge to bring many of our Fathers children to the waters of baptism.  We are grateful for such dedicated, obedient, and hard working missionaries. 

                         

   

Bilbao

                       

                       

Vitoria

                       

                       

Zaragoza

   

                       

Valencia

                       

                       

                       

Barcelona

We have traveled all through the parts of North East Spain in our first month here-- Bilbao(where a Guggenheim Museum is located), Vitoria (Gorgeous mountains and green hills), Zaragoza (named after Cesar Augusta and home of El Cid), Valencia (known for their oranges), Mallorca (exotic islands), and Barcelona (home of Familia Sagrada, Guell Park, and the Boqueria). What an interesting and beautiful country it is!

   

We also had the opportunity to hold Mission Leadership Council with our Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders.

   

We then had the chance to attend Zone Enfoque in the Hospitalet zone.

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Welcoming Our New missionaries

We LOVED welcoming our 9 new missionaries. We drove them to Montjuic where President gave an inspiring message of their calling, telling the history of  Spain and what they can expect in this wonderful country. We enjoyed lunch at the Mission Home and then the new missionaries were given the opportunity to go on splits with our seasoned missionaries.

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The following day we said good-bye to 16 marvelous missionaries. We have learned that this is the hardest part of the mission. That afternoon we announced the first companions (trainers) our new missionaries would have for the first 12 weeks of their missions. As you can see--some of our trainers were way excited!

   

   

We enjoy a leisure Sunday with our Assistants, Elders Skousen & Dunn. Our schedule is absolutely hectic with one month being interview month with 180 missionaries, one month being Zone Conference which is a 6 hour training session for 8 different zones, the third month being Specialty Training month where we do 4 hours of training in 8 different zones. Then the cycle repeats. We travel extensively with many of our cities being 7 and 8 hours from Barcelona. Every 6 weeks there is a major transfer with missionaries finishing their mission and leaving and new missionaries coming in at the same time. We find it is a challenge to keep things organized and working smoothly along with that, we get somewhere in the neighborhood of 20-25 phone calls with them coming from sick missionaries, doctrinal questions, questions about who qualifies for baptisms, calls from the representative of the 70 (the IFR- In-Field Representative). We write weekly messages for our newsletter and give frequent firesides and talks in church. We also go to a different ward or branch every single week, there is not a lot of discretionary time but we love it and have never been happier and more fulfilled.

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