Spain 38th Week 5-11 Jan 09

Spain 38th Week 5-11 January 2009

Happy Wise men/Kings Day! This was a very interesting holiday that is celebrated in Spain and South America as we understand. It is the “Big” day for gifts for the children. There are huge parades everywhere throughout the country on the night of January 5th, this is when the three Wise men/Kings arrive and give gifts to the children. We went to the parade in our community (Moratalaz), it wound its way through the community…it started at 5:30 pm and reached our location about 7:30 pm. It moves very slowly and there are thousands of people fighting to get a good spot. The parade started off with two live elephants followed by live camels and horses. Of course, there were floats, about ten in all and they were loaded with mainly children and on three of them one of the Wise men/King. They were throwing candy out to the crowd and everyone got more than their share. It was really enjoyable to watch the expression on the younger children’s faces…they were so excited knowing what was going to happen later that night and the following day.

Followng the parades they shoot off fireworks, there is a field just behind the Temple where they shot themoff, here are some wonderful pictures. Following the fireworks we all met in the foyer to enjoy goodies and Cholocate (the thick, rich chocolate) - it is to die for!

Christmas, 25th of December, is just coming into its’ own and is not celebrated near as much as this special day. Santa Claus (Papa Noel) is not really evident like it is in the USA. The kids receive about 1/3 of their gifts on Christmas and the rest on the 6th of January. It was kind of fun to watch all of the parents running around like crazy on the afternoon of January 5th, trying to get the last minute gifts…it was crazy. I was reminded of a quote that Fred Todd used to always say, “People buy things that they don’t real need with money that they don’t have to impress people that they don’t even like.” I’m afraid that I have been guilty of doing just this and as I get older I can see the wisdom in the saying!

On Tuesday, with the Temple being closed for Day of the Wise men/Kings several of the Temple Missionaries went to Manzanares de Real. This is a city on the outskirts of Madrid that has a beautiful Castle. It sits at the base of a mountain and is fronted by a lake. It was constructed in 1435 and was used until just recently by the family Mendoza. They have now turned it over to the city of Madrid and the city is restoring it to the timeframe of importance.

This was kind of a short week at the Temple, we worked Wednesday through Saturday. There were not a lot of people that came this week, but those that did worked pretty steady throughout the week. We were very short of workers as one missionary was sick all week, so we really had to improvise with only four missionaries to run the entire Temple. We had to call on the Temple Presidency and Recorders several times to meet all of our responsibilities. The Temple is now closed for major cleaning/repair work for the next two weeks. Most of the missionaries are heading off to visit different parts of the country. We will be traveling, by train, to Valencia (eastern Spain) for three days, then return to Madrid for one day and then head for Marbella (southern Spain) for a week in the Marriott Marbella Beach Resort. From there we will go and see other nearby cities/towns/sights. Hopefully, the weather will be much better the farther south we go. We may not get the blog updated until we return on the 24th of January.

On Thursday we had quite a surprise, it SNOWED almost 6” during the day. Those that live in the area said that this is the most snow they have bad in many, many years. It was extremely cold and the wind blew. The MTC missionaries were outside having some friendly snow ball fights. Just about the entire city shut down due to the snow….they obviously don’t have the snow removal equipment that other northern countries/states do. We had a missionary couple that had taken the city bus to Carrefour (Spain’s Wal-Mart) earlier in the morning, they bought several bags of groceries and trudged out to the bus stop all the time fighting the blowing snow. After about 30 minutes of waiting at the bus stop and guy came up to them and told them that the city bus lines had closed business due to the snow storm. They had to walk home in the snow and unplowed sidewalks/roads, a distance of just about two miles, needless to say they were very, very cold and wet.

We mentioned in one of the last blogs about the Christmas Concert that the Stake Choir had put on and they were going to perform a encore performance tonight-we were really looking forward to going to hear them again. Due to many of the performers living on the outskirts of Madrid and other communities where the snow was worse, it was cancelled because people can’t get around very good as of yet.

We are extremely blessed to be serving in the mission field, our testimonies have grown greatly and we know that each of our family have been blessed by their sacrifices. As we begin this new year we are excited to have more time to learn about the things that we should be doing with our lives, choosing our priorities and trying to make eternal memories. We are so proud of each of you and the manner in which you live your lives. We know the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to be TRUE, God lives and Jesus is the Christ, our Savior and Redeemer. We encourage all of our grandchildren to prepare for their missions and to our children and friends we extend the invitation to prepare to serve a full-time mission whether it be from your home or somewhere else-the blessings and rewards are magnificent! We love you and look forward to sharing our thoughts and blessing with each of you.
Love Mom & Dad - Nan & Papa - Tom & Sharon