We had a fun, but busy week. On Monday we went on a tour to see the different nativity scenes. Here they call them Belen’s which stands for Bethlehem. The first one we saw was in the city’s Postal building. It was the biggest one we saw (The figurines are all about 6"-8" tall, each stone of the city wall, cave, etc is so detailed it's unbelieveable!) This first one covered a space of about 40' x 40', it must have take a month or more to set up.
I can’t believe the detail and how beautiful they are. There were also school children singing when we were there. 
It reminded us of our grand kids and the dance recitals and school programs we have been able to go to. The second place we went was in a Cathedral. I t was similar to the first one but not quite as big.
As we walked in there was a Priest sitting in a confession booth with the window open. He was reading scripture. After we had looked at the Belen we walked back to leave. I looked over at the Priest again and he hadn’t moved a muscle so I thought he was a mannequin. I was walking over to get a closer look and thought I might touch him, when somebody sneezed and he looked up. So glad I didn’t try to touch him!We then went to another Cathedral which they say has one of the very first Belen in Spain.
It was much simpler and came from Equador. Right above the scene were some nuns sitting in a room. They also looked like mannequins to. We kept watching and finally one of them blinked so we were fooled again. Needless to say there are a lot of stiff people in these places. We were told that this was also a place where the nuns lived. They would bake cookies every day and sell them for their livelyhood. When the cookies were ready at certain times the public could go in and put a Euro in a slot and then the table would spin around and allow you to take a cookie. We wanted to do that but the cookies were not being sold when we were there.The guide told us of a custom in Spain where when a couple gets married they buy figurines of Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus.
As their family grows they add more figures to their manger scene. When the children are old enough they are given some money from parents or grandparents at Christmas time to pick out one figure. She said that it was customary that when you had the wisemen you would place them further away at first, and move them daily towards the manger. Also it was a custom to let the child who had been the best behaved on Christmas eve to put the baby Jesus in the manger. We went to the Plaza Mayor and saw a lot of manger pieces and figurines for sale. They had booths all over the square with Christmas items for sale. We thought this tradition was a neat one. Later that night we went around Madrid to see some of the Christmas lights, we were shocked to find out that all of the lights are turned off at 10:00pm but these are a few of our favorites:
That day we took around our Christmas gifts to all the other Missionaries at the Temple. We gave them the toilet paper wreath with the saying, The house is decorated with such festive thrill, to celebrate the season of joy and good will. What better place to have a wreath than on the door that spells relief! We also gave them a bar of Tom’s fudge which has become very popular here! That evening for home evening the Missionaries caroled on the temple grounds 
over by the manger scene. We did have some people who stopped to listen and watch. 
It was a very cold evening and we were happy to go back inside the hostal and have churros and Hot chocolate. Last night we were invited to go to the MTC to watch the film “Joseph Smith, Prophet of the Restoration.” We have seen it about four times before but some of the people had never seen it. It was so good to see it again and to remember what a wonderful valiant prophet he is. The MTC President also showed us another short feature called “Only a Stonecutter,” if you ever get the chance to see this it is wonderful. It tells the story of a convert, immigrant from England who is called to be a stonecutter on the Salt Lake Temple. He walks from Alpine, Utah to the Temple site (22 miles each way) every Monday morning then back home on Friday night. He does this for twenty years (he never sees the completion of the Temple before he dies), but he is the one who chiseled the words on the east side of the Temple “House of the Lord, etc.” An interesting and inspiring point is that he had an accident while milking the family cow and they had to amputate his leg. He made a homemade wooden leg and over the next few weeks grew accustomed to using it and for the last 10 years of his walking to SLC he did this on the wooden leg. We had light refreshments afterwards. It was a great evening.
Today we had a young couple (Jose Luis & Eva Maria Vinas) come for dinner (holding their gift of fudge).
This is the second time we have seen them since we have been here. They are staying for three weeks. They are really special to us and have a great love for temple work. They look so young as you can see in the picture. We will probably do something more with them before they leave.Tonight there is a Christmas program by the stake choir. This choir has been practicing since the middle of October and many of the members have been traveling for at least one hour each way every Sunday evening. There were about 75 strong voices along with others who played piano and instrumental numbers-it was the first time we had seen a drum and guitar used in the chapel. It was the best performance that we have seen or heard from a local choir ever! They were electrifying, we were sitting on the front two rows (Missionaries) and you could actually feel their voices beating on your body. This will long be remembered and they are going to do it again on the 11th of January-we will be there again. They also had the Temple Missionaries sing a number, it was nice, but no where near the quality of this fantastic choir. They say some
people stay after church which ends at 1:00pm to save seats…it doesn’t start until 7:oopm!
We are so excited to be able to see you all on the web cam on Christmas. We hope you will feel us close even though we can’t be there. We are so grateful for the Savior, for his birth, his life and his sacrifice for everyone. What a beautiful and perfect plan the plan of salvation is. How grateful we are to be members of his true church and to be able to receive guidance through a living Prophet. We pray daily that you will feel our Father’s spirit in your homes. We love you all and hope that this Christmas will be a memorable one.
As we watched the Christmas devotional and heard President Erying’s talk, a flood of memories came to us. Of doing the manger scene each year with our family. As he said with teary eyes the Marys and Josephs and others grew up and have now started their own traditions. We love carrying that tradition on with the grandchildren and have missed seeing that this year. Again we love you all dearly, Mom and Dad Papa and Nana
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