Spain 6th Week 26 May - 1 Jun 2008

Spain 6th Week 26 May - 1 June 2008

Well another week has already passed and it was a busy week serving in the Temple. On Monday we were taken by the MTC staff to a lawyer’s office downtown, Madrid to sign a paper for our extended stay here in Spain. There were many people waiting in a line, but we were taken to the front of the line (had to be in our missionary dress with name tags) and signed some papers and were given back our passports. These papers were temporary documents that we need to keep on us until we receive our “Residency” cards in about 2 months. The residency card is required to be updated every year so we will need to have them updated one more time before we leave. The residency cards contain our picture and our finger print.

Later that day we rode the subway to the northern part of Madrid and visited one of the largest malls (La Vaguada Mall) in Spain. It was a rather large mall with 2 and ½ floors of stores….we believe “El Corte de Ingles” was the flagship store. We spent about two hours looking around and purchased one little item.

We have had recently a lot of Elders/Sister/Couples arrive here from Russia for a couple of days while their visas were renewed. Most have said that they hope they get to come here every three months, conditions are much better here than in Russia. Of course, while they are here they attend the Temple as much as possible. People from southern Spain (Malaga area) were scheduled to come in this past week, but due to a bus driver strike, most did not come-a few came in personal cars for Friday and Saturday. We continue to meet some great and faithful people from around the area, most of them surprise us with their dedication to completing the Temple work for their families.

We also had a rather large group of students come in from Brigham Young University (student exchange program). They performed a lot of ordinances and even attended church today. It was good to see some more “TRUE BLUE” saints. We also had a couple of sisters come to our apartment that were traveling Spain for a few weeks (one had served a mission here and they were having the time of their lives). We allowed them to use our phone to call some acquaintances and to share with them some cookies and drink-they left a fun “Thank You” card.

We also went to the weekly (Tues Morning) Farmers Market about two miles from our apartment. It reminded me of the Flea Market on Oahu, excepting there were many more little stands that sold fruits and vegetables….we only purchased some ankle high socks. But will probably return in another few weeks and buy some of our fruit and vegetables there….they appeared to be much fresher than what you get in the store….although it’s crazy with people and the sales people yelling at the top of their voices to “Come buy here!”

Sharon actually completed some initiatory work without reading the paper. The lady that worked with her said she did a magnificent job and pronounced all the words correctly!

Today, Sunday we were invited to have dinner with one of the local missionaries and a member of the Temple Presidency and also serve as the “Service Missionaries” for the hotel portion of the building in which we live. The dinner was excellent, true Spanish cuisine and it tasted wonderful. They had invited another couple to come, so we had a great couple of hours in their apartment and grew a lot closer to them. They really are great and gracious people-it’s not always easy to associate with the workers when you are in a leadership position.

We want each and everyone of you to know how much we love and appreciate you. Your prayers on our behalf are felt by us and we hope that this blog helps each of you to feel of the love we have for this mission call, for the work in the Temple, and for the people of this area. We know the gospel of Jesus Christ to be TRUE, God lives and Jesus is our Savior and Redeemer. May the Lord bless each and everyone of you in all that you do.