Spain 44th Week 16-22 Feb 09

Spain 44th Week 16-22 Feb 2009

Well, another week has come and gone! I know we only wrote the last blog a couple of days ago. This week was a very spiritual week as we had the opportunity to spend some time with Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and his wife. President Robert C. Oaks, president of the European area, and his wife also attended. They arrived on Tuesday, came to the Temple for the 4:00 pm session (Tom had the experience of working very closely with them while they were in the Temple) then later that night they held a meeting for all Temple workers and their spouses. It was incredible and they spoke directly to the point of Temple worship and the blessing that are available to us as we faithfully attend.

Elder Bednar said many things that really hit home and made us appreciate the blessings that we have and can receive while serving in the Temple. With everyone present having a temple recommend, he could really talk candidly with us and we all came away with a greater love and understanding for the temple ordinances. He spoke of the difference between a faithful saint that suddenly appears and rushes into the Temple without prior planning or preparation and the one that faithfully attends/worships in the Temple being properly prepared and ready to listen and learn to and from the spirit. I think back and wonder how many times I had done exactly what he described? He also spoke about the Book of Mormon and Lehi’s dream and the number of times that Nephi is told to “look.” He spoke of the Temple being the Lord’s university on the earth and that we had opportunity to receive personal revelation. The interesting point was that most of the time we always want and expect to receive revelation/answers to our questions/prayers….but, many times we receive revelation/inspiration to ask or to know the questions that we should be asking, studying, pondering and praying about. This is not rocket science, but it really hit home with me. I know I have struggled on occasion wondering why I haven’t received answers to my questions, I now understand that perhaps I was not even asking the correct question and the inspiration that I was receiving was not properly interpreted because I was looking for something else-interesting point to ponder.

The following night, Wednesday, they held another meeting with all of the members from the Madrid area….it was more packed than stake conference had been and that was standing room only. He allowed the audience to ask questions for nearly two hours. We didn’t know prior, but the question was asked about how long someone should have to wait for their spouse to accept the gospel before taking other steps. He responded “isn’t it interesting that the Lord would send one of His Apostles here to answer this one question.” He comes from a family where it took his father 44 years to accept the gospel. His mother and siblings had been members for this entire time, but he would not budge even though he attended church every week with his family. His point was that he is the only current Apostle who did not come from an active family and that he had personal insight into this very question. His response was simple, yet pure “Our Father in Heaven is patient, He loves each one of us as His children, but will not force anyone to do something-that would be contrary to His teachings/law. “ He continued saying “his family truly tried to be an example, faithfully fulfilling all assignments, encouraging participation and being patient with his father and over time he [father] felt the spirit and one day called and asked David to come and baptize someone…to his amazement it was to baptize him“- this was the biggest shock of his life up until that time. There are many other things that we said, but none would be appropriate for the blog. By the way, Wednesday during the day, he spent three hours with the missionaries from the Madrid mission and the MTC missionaries, they said the time spent was truly magnificent. On Thursday, he and his party were off to Granada to meet with the members, on Friday he met with the members in Cadiz, then on Saturday and today he was at the stake conference in Sevilla. What a blessing it was to the members and missionaries in Spain to actually see and feel of spirit of one of the Lord’s anointed.

Last Monday, at Family Home Evening we had a treat in hearing from a retired church employee, Steve Clawson, who now lives in Copenhagen, Denmark. He had been employed by the church for about 25 years and had been directly involved with the making of the Temple films and languages. I can’t say too much excepting that it was really amazing and you could definitely see the hand of the Lord in the production of the films. Just a note, the film is now available in over 80 languages.

The members from Cadiz were in town this week, they brought many workers (more than we have ever had from one area) for most of the week. It was really good to watch their Temple workers accomplish a lot of the work that the Temple Missionaries typically have to accomplish. Many of them departed for home (6-8 drive) on Friday so they could participate in the meeting with Elder Bednar and President Oaks that night.

Today, we had the privilege of speaking to the missionaries in the MTC. There are about 20 Elders and Sisters at this time (five of the Elders and one sister are here from the Russia, St. Petersburg Mission for their visa renewal). There is an amazingly strong spirit in the MTC and it radiates throughout our building and the entire Temple plaza. This is the fourth time we have spoken and they haven’t thrown rotten tomatoes at us yet? It’s kind of neat to be able to give basically the same talk every six weeks (with slight improvements) to a new group of missionaries. Today, the spirit was particularly strong and you could see that all of us were touched. After the meeting we were invited to eat with them, President Gene Hill and Sister Joan, his wife. Later tonight we went, as usual, to listen to their weekly Sunday evening concert in the plaza of the Temple.

We are so blessed to be here in the beautiful country of Spain, to have the opportunity to learn from the people and the spirit of the Lord. We are humbled each and everyday as we enter into the House of the Lord. Our respect and understanding of what we are doing grows everyday and we truly love the work. We know we have missed a few important events at home with our family, but we know we are doing what we should be doing and hopefully, learning what we should be learning. We know the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to be the only true church on the face of the earth, that God lives, Jesus is the Christ-our Savior and Redeemer, we have a living Prophet on the earth today and the Book of Mormon is true. We are deeply indebted to each and everyone of you for your love, support and prayers but mostly to our Heavenly Father for His confidence and His blessings. May you know of our love and admiration for Him, His Son and the Holy Spirit. God be with you til we meet again is our prayer.
Love Mom & Dad/Nana and Papa

Spain 43rd Week 9-15 Feb 09

Spain 43rd Week 9-15 Feb 2009

Monday was a fun day. Thanks to all of you for your emails and cards and phone call, it meant so much to me. I happen to be the Birthday chairmen for the Temple Missionaries. Tom and I decorate their door on their Birthday and leave a little treat.

No, I did not decorate my own door another couple did! Others leave gifts throughout the day. We invited some couples to go bowling with us on that day. The Sproul’s and the Lunt’s went with us. We ate lunch at Fosters America first and then went bowling. We had a good time even though our scores don’t show that! I quit after one game because we women wanted to go shopping and look around. The men played two more games and it did not get any better for them! I’m sure we will go again now that we know where it is.

We were on the morning shift this week. After having one week of afternoons, then two weeks of vacation, then two weeks more of afternoon shift, we forgot how to get up so early! The hard part was we were not tired at night until much later than usual. That is way unusual for Tom because he really has never been a late night person! So we laid low after our shift because we were bushed!

Saturday was of course, Valentines Day. Happy belated Valentines day to all of you. It is celebrated here, but it didn’t seem to be a big deal. We went out to eat with the Lunt’s to the Chinese Restaurant . They know us on a first name basis now! They give us a little dollar gift when we leave it’s great! We call the one waiter Jackie Chan, he loves to talk to us. Tom bought me a rose at one of the flower shops which I am enjoying now.

Also, on Saturday during our shift, I had the opportunity to help and be the escort of a girl who was receiving her own endowment and then was being sealed afterwards. She was a convert of two years and they had been married civilly for two years. She was from Oregon and he was from Idaho. They have lived in Germany for six months, her husband is a contractor there. This girl was the only member of her family who is a member and her husbands family could not come. I think she was scared to death and didn’t really know what to think. President Moore the President of the Temple married them and did a wonderful job. She was a beautiful girl and she said that they were going to adopt some children from Ghana when they have enough money to do so. This is the second time I have been able to help with a bride and it is so wonderful.

Today was our Stake Conference. Elder Cousse from the Seventy was the visiting authority. He is from France and he gave his talk in English which was great for some of us-he had a person translate it into Spanish, then he concluded with his testimony in French which was also translated. It was his daughter who was the other bride I got to help with. The church was packed, there were even some people having to stand because there were no more chairs. Too bad our stake at home doesn’t do that ! The church we go to is right across from our apartment and can be entered from down in the parking lot, or through the plaza. We also have an entrance to the Temple underground, we have it so rough!

After Stake Conference we were invited to eat with the Fourtina’s, the couple that we had a few weeks ago come here. They are the French couple who we love. They will be leaving next month and we are really going to miss them. We started the meal with crackers. Then we had deviled eggs, and a green and sort of like our potato salad next with bread. We then had a hot rice casserole and veal with a sauce. Then they brought out three different cheese’s! Then for desert she gave us crepes with different topping to spread on them. Needless to say we needed a stomach pump because we ate too much! I guess that is how they serve dinner in France Wow! It was all very good and there were also the Taggart’s and Sister Lafertt there. They finished off the meal with crepes with all types of filling. It was quite the conversation with English, French, and Spanish being spoken!

This whole week has been incredible weather wise. It has been sunny and in the mid sixties and seventies I went outside to read my book yesterday and it felt so good-no coat needed. Tom has been helping the Temple Presidency rewrite all of the instructions for the Madrid Spain Temple workers. He has been on the computer for the last three weeks. That’s what he gets for having such great skills in that area.

We love the spirit that abides here. Every time we come off the street to the Temple grounds you can feel it. We love working at the Temple. We have been asked if we know anyone we know if they would like to come serve in this Temple. We would highly recommend it to anyone who could do so, so spread the word around and let us know if you know someone who could serve here. We feel so blessed for this opportunity, especially when we realize we could have been sent anywhere like outer Mongolia. We hope you are all recognizing your blessings, sometimes we take things so for granted. We miss you all but the way time has been flying we will be home before you know it. Love to all of you. Mom and Dad/Nana and Papa

Spain 42nd Week 2-8 Feb 09

Spain 42nd Week 2 - 8 Feb 2009

This week was more normal than most that we have recently had. The Temple work went well with the saints from Coimbra and Porto Norte, Portugal. There weren’t quite as many that usually come so consequently, the work was a little slow (small sessions). Some that came were the old, reliable ones: Brother Texeiria and Alves (sealers), both of whom have been full time Temple missionaries in the past. They are both great men and have a love for Temple work! It was good to practice the Portuguese language again and to learn from them. One day as we were working at the veil I was behind it, Brother Bradshaw (English) was presenting and we had five brethren come through; one French, one Spanish, one Italian, one Portuguese, and one English person in the same session - now that was a challenge and showed me just how diversified this Temple is.

On Monday, we went for some check ups at the doctor’s office, then went and ate pizza at Pizza Hut with the Lunt’s. Later that night we had our monthly Temple Missionary Family Home Evening. It was good to have everyone together and to learn about the gospel of Jesus Christ. Following the lesson we had the opportunity of eating (all you can eat) crepes. The Fourtina’s, from France, made about 150 crepes and we ate and ate and ate until most of them were gone….they were delicious and authentic!

Tuesday through Saturday at the Temple was pretty normal with nothing special to report excepting that on Wednesday at our preparation meeting prior to starting our shift (I was at the recommend desk so I didn’t get to hear) but President Moore called on mom to offer the invocation. He thought that she would do it in English, but to his surprise she did it in Spanish! In public and without any notes, I was so proud of her when I heard. She says it was really simple, but others told me that you could have cut the spirit with a knife and most had tears in their eyes as she concluded. She is such an example to me!

Saturday for movie night we watched a documentary called "Mario’s Conviction." It had just been shown at the Mormon Film Festival and President and Sister Hill (MTC President) had brought it down to show us. It was a true story of a mafia man from Detroit, Michigan who had been touched by the spirit and left his life of crime (stealing big ticket equipment items and selling them across state lines) and joined the church. It told of his childhood, dropping out of school at nine years of age and went to work for his father. He became intertwined with the mafia and started stealing from the rich. This later turned to the big ticket items. One day he came to Provo, Utah to meet with a guy about a “legitimate” business, as he visited with him he could tell that it was also a “con” and he just about killed the guy, left and went back to Detroit. One day he was in Washington DC and saw the Temple and wanted to go in. He found out that he could not just enter, but had to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in good standing with a recommend. A few days later a couple of missionaries knocked on his door, he started talking at about 5:00 pm with them and they were still talking at 10:00 pm, the Elders stated that they had to leave and get home according to mission rules. He said he didn’t care about mission rules, that if they left they could never come back. They called their Mission President, he talked to Mario and told him that they had to leave by 11:00 pm and that if he allowed them to stay that he would have to follow them home to make sure they were safe. To make a long story short, he was later baptized, but soon learned that he could not lead a two-way life….he knew he had to make a break from the mafia. This was usually not allowed and most that wanted to leave merely disappeared. He agreed to meet with the higher ups in the syndicate at an old mafia warehouse, he really didn’t expect to leave the building alive, but put his faith and trust in the Lord. He was allowed to leave following the meeting. The individual that allowed him to do so made the comment “If you live like ‘those’ people, we have nothing to fear.” This crime boss was speaking based on experience that he had gained while trying to bribe then Governor George Romney. They (mafia) had taken one million dollars to an meeting with Governor Romney offering it to him for some favorable decisions. They enticed him with women and many other things, but he would not compromise and later began to earnestly fight big crime. This comment was based on this experience, that Mario would live the laws and commandments totally and that the mafia would not have to worry about being “ratted on.” If you have the chance of seeing this show/documentary we recommend that you do so.

On Sunday, we were invited to dinner at Gordon and Kathryn Thomas’s apartment.

The food was great and we had a fun time getting to know each other better. This is their fourth mission (extended six months from a calling to the Canary Islands). They were previously missionaries in Chile and Argentina. They were also Mission Presidents in Argentina West at the same time President and Sister Moore were presiding in another Argentinean mission. They were both professors at Brigham Young University and have a wealth of experience and a wonderful story.

Next Saturday and Sunday is our Stake Conference and we have Elder Causse (French), second counselor in the Area Presidency and we are excited to hear from him. Also, on Feb 17th we have the opportunity of listening to Elder David A. Bednar in a special meeting for all Temple workers and their spouses. He will be attending the Temple earlier in the day and speaking to us later in the evening. This should be a great experience, more to come in coming weeks.

We are privileged to be here serving in this beautiful part of the world and we know that we are doing what we should be doing at this time of our lives.We are dearly missing each of you, but know that you are being blessed at the same time. We reflect on the picture/saying that was given to us often “Behold, verily I say unto you, go from them only for a little time, and declare my word and I will prepare a place for them” D&C 31:6. We know the gospel of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to be true, God lives and Jesus is the Christ, Thomas S. Monson is a living prophet of God here on the earth today and the Book of Mormon is true. We love each and everyone of you with all of our hears, you are in our prayers morning and night.
Love Mom & Dad / Nana & Papa

Spain 41st Week 26 Jan - 1 Feb 09

Spain 41st Week 26 Jan - 1 Feb 09

This week has been a quiet one after all of our vacationing the last two weeks. On Monday we did go to Ikea the store I think it is fairly new here. Connected to that store their was a shopping mall and a CarreFour store which is like Walmart. The Mall actually has a bowling alley in it! We are so excited to go back and bowl some games! In Ikea they sell hot dogs which we were told were like Sam’s Club and Costco. They were a far cry from those hot dogs. The hot dog was very skinny and the bun was about one third the size of the hot dog! We had never been to an Ikea before and Dad thought a lot of the stuff was made very poorly. They also had some more restaurants, Like T G I Friday and Foster’s Hollywood which we are excited to go to.

We were on afternoons at the Temple this past week. The Temple was not very busy this week we had to cancel some of the sessions. This coming week the Portuguese are coming so attendance should pick up. This coming week we will be on afternoons also because they have been trying a different schedule where we trade around more and work with all of the Missionaries and not just stay on the same shift.

Today which is Sunday it snowed again, this is the third time in Madrid this year.

There were great big flakes and it looked like it was really going to stick but it didn’t. As we have said the people go nuts around here when it snows because they see it so seldom. Apparently this year has been much colder in all of Spain this winter.

Today we had the Fourtina’s the French couple and Sister Martin’s from Portugal who are all Temple Missionaries.

We have not had the opportunity to work with the Fourtina’s yet but this week we will. They are serving for three months and will be going home the first of March. They are so sweet and they were so scared to come at first because they did not know how to speak Spanish only French. Everybody loves them and will be sad when they leave. They were two representatives of the Church to open up a couple of countries in Africa, they could not do missionary work, but worked with the government in allowing the church into the country. They are really pioneers of the Church. Sister Martin’s will be here four at least nine months and she speaks five different languages! She is a convert of four years and is a very strong member. Sister Fourtina’s made us a wonderful desert. She cut us monster pieces and of course none of us complained. It is been great to have people over to learn more about them and to get better acquainted.

We love serving here in Spain and feel so privileged to have been called here.Our President has asked us if we know any people who are interested in serving here in the near future. A lot of us came close to the same time and he will need replacements. So if anyone knows of someone who would be let us know. We would highly recommend it to anyone, it is a super Mission. Tom wrote the worlds longest blog last week and this probably will be our shortest! We love to hear from all of you and love to share with you our experiences. Please feel of our love and support for each and everyone of you. Thanks for being there for us. Love Mom and Dad / Nana and Papa