Missionary Interviews October 18th-25th

                     

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President and I meet with investigators in Valencia. The people here are very warm and gracious and do many things to bless our lives. This investigator spent three hours making a beautiful peach cake for us to share with our missionaries.We are treated like royalty everywhere we go. 

                      

We had the joy of seeing one of our recently returned missionaries, Hermana Jimenez, while in Valencia doing interviews.

   

Our missionaries come in all shapes and sizes...we love them all. 

   

President and I had the opportunity to visit the Lladro factory in Valencia, this was a life long dream of mine!

   

We attended a baptism in Barcelona, our favorite meeting in the church. We love to see many joining the church and especially love to see how the gospel changes peoples lives. We feel so grateful for the privilege of serving our Heavenly Father, we love Him so much and our testimonies have grown more than we thought possible. We see many miracles that occur every day which result in more of our Heavenly Father's children entering the waters of baptism. We have never been more certain of the truth of our message, never been more sure of our cause, the restored gospel of Jesus Christ is the great hope for the future of mankind.

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Missionary Interviews/ Our New Office Couple October 11th-18th

   

This week President Dayton and I welcomed our new office couple, Elder and Sister Morejon to the mission. They will be responsible for the financial affairs of the mission, distribution, and medical affairs. We have such a need for missionary couples to build and strength our wards, love our missionaries when they get discouraged, check apartments to make sure they have all needed items and are clean. There is much work to be done with the single adults, family history work, office help, and especially to reactive members. 

   

Following missionary interviews in the Balearic islands we give some of the Elders a ride to the airport.

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Missionary Leadership Council

   

Mission Leadership Council--October 6, 2015 (Zone and Sister Training Leaders from the entire mission). We discussed General Conference and the many ways it directly applies to the work we're doing here in Spain. We feel so grateful for the leaders of the church, for their inspired messages that bless all of our lives.

   

We continue to love Spain...it is beautiful and very interesting, driving on the narrow, Spanish roads is truly an exercise in faith and things are done somewhat differently here. There are virtually no large cars, gasoline is much more expensive (which is why there are no large cars), parking garages are tiny and are hard to negotiate, there are many round-a-bouts and one way streets. We are amazed that the whole country comes to a halt between 2-5pm. Almost all stores close down and the people go home to eat and take a nap. They use trains extensively here-- far more than airlines and street signs are in both Castillano and Catalan. There are very few stand alone homes. The chapels are rarely stand alone buildings and are virtually always attached to some other large building. 

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Week of September 27- October 4-- Arrival of large, new missionary group, and Farewell to a fantastic group of veteran El Faro missionaries

   

President Dayton and I visited the Vilafranca Ward, and toured the site for the beautiful new chapel with Bishop Borrut and President Silvestre, of the L'Hospitalet Stake. We were invited to speak in the ward which normally has 75-80 people in attendance. We found out that Bishop Burrot had sent out colored flyers and Facebook announcements with our picture announcing that the Mission President and his wife would be speaking. They have to have an average attendance of 80 per sacrament meeting for two quarters before they can build. They had fallen short the first three weeks of the month, to our astonishment approximately 125 people showed up for the meeting, over-flowing the chapel and filling the halls. The Bishop was absolutely convinced it was because he had advertised our coming, we were less convinced but very happy with their high attendance.

   

President Dayton and I say farewell to an outstanding group of El Faro Missionaries upon completion of their missions (Elders Wheat, Roberts, Dailey, Lower, Webber, Richens, and Hermana Dorgia).

   

El Faro was blessed by the addition of 26 new missionaries, on September 29, 2015. Welcome to the greatest mission on the Earth's great face.

   

President Dayton and I with one of the new missionaries (Hermana Stapley) in front of the Spanish flag.

                         

There is nothing like meeting your new companion for the first time!!! (Elder McCreary meeting his new companion Elder Cullimore)

The best part of the training meeting is when our new missionaries get to meet their trainers and find out where they will be serving!

                          

                           

                           

                         

                         

                         

                         

                         

                         

                         

                         

                         

                         

                         

                         

                         

                         

                         

                         

                         

                         

                         

                         

                         

                         

                         

   

We went to a Catalan restaurant it was named La Fonda and had chicken Paella and sea bass which they served whole with the head still on. They brought this live lobster and placed it on our table before our entree arrived. It was interesting to see the server fillet and bone the fish and then serve it to us. The restaurant was right by the bay and with the pretty lights it was pretty spectacular.

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Another great week of Zone Conferences with the missionaries of El Faro.

   

L'Hospitalet Zone Conference-- September 21, 2015

   

Combined Barcelona/Badalona Zone Conference-- September 23, 2015

   

Valencia Zone Conference-- September 25, 2015

                           

President and I sang a song, entitled "Dos Zapatos" (two shoes). The message of the song was the importance of finding (encontrar) and teaching (enseñar), which was then written on the right and left shoe-soles respectively. 

   

President Dayton and I giving a demonstration on how to become master teachers at Zone Conference.

   

President Dayton teaching about the history of El Faro (Spain Barcelona Mission).

                        

Hermanas Gutoff, Ingram, Lamareaux, and Vance sing about Preach My Gospel during lunch of the Zone Confernce.

                       

Due to some cross training of the office staff, we had 7 elders in an apartment for 4...it makes for a crowded bathroom!

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