Another week has come and gone, where do the days and the weeks go? We were on afternoons this week and the work was steady. The stake from Valencia (south east part of Spain) was in town and it was wonderful to see many of our good friends, but even harder to say goodbye as they are not scheduled to come back before we leave. On the weekend, many of the young people came up and did baptisms for the dead, there were about 35 of them and they did sessions every 2 hours so we were really hopping! There were several marriages on Saturday also; it was great to see all of the brides, grooms and wedding parties taking pictures around the temple grounds.
On Monday, Berkley and I took the tour of Real Madrid Stadium in downtown Madrid.
The closest thing that I can think in comparison would be Yankee Stadium. Real Madrid started its playing days in 1902 and has won literally hundreds of cups, ribbons, trophies and much more throughout the world. They have “official” fan clubs in over 75 countries, their team logo 
and uniforms are one of the most sought after collector’s items. The stadium itself has grown to where it nowadays holds 80,000 fans for soccer games. The field was built just for soccer, consequently the upper seats are much like the Energy Solutions building…
are almost straight up and down which means that everyone thinks they are right on top of the game. 
They were replacing the water trickle system and the grass on the field, so it was just dirt, but you can see that it is a beautiful place and original stadium is almost 50 years old.The Real Madrid organization sponsors much more than soccer; basketball, tennis, track and other events. They have over the years continually constructed practice fields/complexes throughout Madrid. The current one is quite a colossal complex with several full size soccer fields, pools, tennis courts, basketball courts, housing, libraries, stores, schools, training rooms and much more all for the up and coming athletes.
The seats for the Royal Family are pretty nice, like theater seating (the Royal family’s seats are the blue ones).
If you look closely the floor of their area is hardwood and concrete throughout the rest of the stadium. They have their own private dining room and I’m sure wonderful dinners are served there!The Hall of Fame (history/trophy room) is probably unsurpassed in the world with all of their championships, cups, most valuable players, etc. in all of the sports listed above.
Some of the trophies are huge and wouldn’t fit in my living room. 
Ronaldo just signed with Real Madrid and they had 50,000 people show up for his introduction and press conference. 
Boy, oh boy, do they love and take their soccer serious here! And to think that Real Madrid is not the “national” team that recently won the European Cup.We are continually amazed at the faithfulness of the many of the saints in Spain, Portugal, France and Italy. Just recently they added the island of Sardinia to our Temple District so we should be seeing a few more Italian saints than we have in the past. They come to the temple with one purpose – to get the work done for their ancestors…and without delay! They really have taught us about temple worship and making priorities in our lives to attend the Temple.
These next two-three months will really be exciting as many of the eighteen month missionary couples are leaving and those that are replacing them are here for anywhere from one to three months. We see that there will be many training challenges ahead and hopefully, we have prepared some training materials that will aid in their training as quickly as possible.
Today we invited three single sisters from the ward to dinner; Linda Lovera, Barbara de Silva and Everley (l to r : Sharon, Barbara, Tom, Everley & Linda)
Linda is from Venezuela and has eaten here a few times before (lived in Venezuela and we actually ate in her home several years ago when we were picking up Scott), Barbara and Everley are from Brasil. Barbara teaches our Gospel Doctrine class and Everley is involved in many other activities. She is going to BYU next year to study in the English Language Study course. We had a great dinner and everyone ate too much. They are such fun girls and wished that they had a better selection of younger, faithful men here in Spain.We just watched the 80th Anniversary of the Tabernacle Choir Broadcasts. It was really a magnificent program with a lot of historical information and many wonderful songs. It’s hard to believe that it has been running weekly for 80 consecutive years.
We are going to go down and listen to the missionary choir program and will be looking for Stephen B. Allen (old Bishop and counselor in TNCS). He is here to look at the MTC in Spain; he is the Managing Director of the Missionary Department. We have been invited to each lunch with President & Sister Hill and him tomorrow in the MTC, it will be fun to see him again…maybe we’ll sing a chorus of “Rise and Shout the Cougars are out.”
We want each of you to know that we are extremely happy in the service of our fellowmen and our God!
We love serving in the Temple and the blessings that it has brought to us and our families. We know we are engaged in the work of the latter days and that there is much more that we need to do to be prepared. 
However, we know God lives and Jesus is our Savior and Redeemer and we will try and do all we can to merit returning to His presence, we have the same hope and prayer for each of you. We love you with all of our hearts.Love Mom & Dad / Nana & Pap / Elder y Hermana Shaw
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