Spain 2nd Week 28 Apr-3 May 08

Week 2 (28 April - 3 May 2008)
This week was an exciting week and pretty busy, the Lisbon, Portugal stake was at the Temple. We worked the afternoon shift (2:00 - 9:00 pm), Tom had the recommend desk so he had to be there by 1:30 each day. Sharon went with him and studied the Spanish ordinances. Every Wednesday the Elders/Sisters from the MTC come to the Temple early in the morning and Every Thursday Elders/Sisters from the Madrid Spain Mission can come to the Temple…they even have these sessions in English.

On Monday afternoon we had a going away party for three couples (Larry and Linda Bynum-Atlanta, Victor and Asuncion Clemente-Alicante, Spain and Emilio and Julia Blesa-Madrid Spain) they will be going home in the next few days….the Clemente’s and Blesa’s were locals that worked here for six months. The party was out of this world (decorations). Sister Lyman is a magician at decorating, they food was wonderful and it was also Sister Howard’s birthday.

Church was good this past week, we start with Priesthood and Relief Society, then have an English (Temple Missionary and others that want to attend) Sunday School class on the stage. President Howard usually attends and is very attentive to what is being taught….wants to know the reference for anything that is introduced. He taught this past week and he can take the simple and open your eyes and hearts to a totally different understanding! He came up to me following the Sacrament Meeting and asked me to teach on May 11th, I told him, sorry, I was planning on being out of town. Without hesitation he said “then make it three weeks!” Needless to say, I’m teaching on the 11th. I’m sure he will question most of my lesson-oh well, I may never have to do it again?

We went downtown by subway today (Friday) and tried to visit the Prado (next to the Louvre) in importance as far as museums go. However, today and yesterday was a holiday and the crowds were unbelievable, they went down the street for miles….so we just wandered through the gardens and around town. We went into a church, visited the “Retiro” a gigantic park similar to Central Park in NYC and had fun looking around a little piece of the big city. The entrance of the park was what used to be the “Reigning Family” personal park for their own pleasure and the gardens, statutes, etc were immaculate…you wonder how sometimes people let their leaders get away with so much of the treasures of the land.

We pulled the all-time boo-boo of the time….with the stores being closed on Thursday and Friday, we walked about 2 miles to Carrefour (French Wal-Mart) to do some shopping, needless to say, the store was jammed packed-it was truly “bumper cars.” We didn’t have time to get everything that we needed because we had to get back to work our shift at the Temple. I had even promised Sharon a McDonald’s hamburger, but had to forgo that to make sure we got back in time.

Sunday, we attended church and had Sister Loraine Linares over for dinner (she is a single sister serving in the Temple from Kearns, UT). It was also, Mother’s Day in Spain, whereas it is next week in the USA. The primary children sang some songs in Fast Meeting then testimonies were given. It was amazing to see, even before the Bishop said “the balance of the meeting will be your testimonies” there were about 15 people rush to the stand and about 7-8 more headed up…he promptly stood up and said that there were sufficient people for today’s meeting-that is a lot different than back home where there are minutes that pass by without people standing to bear testimony. We are going to listen to the MTC missionaries sing...they sing every Sunday evening in the courtyard and there are always several people that come to listen, they usually sound pretty good. We are back on the day shift this week, so it will be pretty busy all week.