This has been another wonderful week in Madrid! The saints from Hospitalet (north east part of country) were in town and kept the sessions steady in numbers. School has started here in Spain so there were not as many youth as usual during the week although on Friday a bus left their area (5.5 hour trip) very early in the morning loaded with almost 70 young people and they arrived here and performed baptisms the entire day. They then got back on the bus that night and returned home; now that is a lot of traveling for the opportunity and privilege of performing ordinances in the House of the Lord. Again, we had many dear friends come and go; tears were shed and hugs sent them/us on our way.
On a historical note, the first stake in the Bilbao area (northern Spain) of the church was created last Sunday; they had been a district but are now a stake. People from the area seem ecstatic and grateful for the growth that has taken place over the last few years that enabled this change.
On Monday, we went downtown with the Ford’s (Rodney & Marcia) to show them around Plaza Sol and the adjoining area. We had a fun time, ate at Burger King and while we were there, Marcia had her purse stolen. We were all sitting around a table (two of us on a bench); she put her purse next to her husband on the bench and we were eating, talking, and obviously not paying attention. We had all noticed a weird guy at the door and had seen a “different” guy sit down a few feet from us on the bench. We surmise they were working together and the one outside drew our attention away while the other one grabbed the purse. It is really frustrating to think that you must have a firm hold on everything at all times and that you can’t relax for one minute. We checked all of the dumpsters nearby to see if it had been thrown there after looking for cash, but found nothing. It was a good, yet bad reminder to all of us to be on the lookout as there are some people out there looking to take advantage of others.
Later that night we were invited to the Ford’s for dinner along with the Sproul’s (Bob & Susan). We had a fun night eating, talking and getting to know each other a little bit better.
The Sproul’s will soon be busy most every night of the week with Institute classes, socials, etc so it was good to spend some time with them. They have invited us to come to their apartment (3 bedrooms) when we return from our cruise for a couple of nights before we head home.
Paul and Kellie were kind enough to send us a few mementos to give to some special people that we have served with here and we began giving some of them out this week. We also had some pictures made up of us in front of the Temple with our address on the back that we are giving to a few people (probably use them for a dart board)! It has been really neat to see some the reactions on their faces as they open up the little gift and see what they received. Brother Barranco (all 4’ 10” of him) has been on cloud nine and today as we were leaving the chapel we saw the Madrid Mission President, he had been in Brother Barranco’s ward today and he said he was wandering around showing everyone the picture. Also, we gave Brother Quirce a glass engraved image of the Salt Lake Temple….now this is a “tough guy” who has never shown his emotions in public. He has worked here every day since the Temple opened, 10 years ago, he is a sealer and comes every afternoon. He is always willing to do whatever is asked of him even though he is one of the veterans and knows how to do everything better than 99% of the people that work here. Anyway, as we gave him this token of our appreciation, his eyes quickly filled with tears and he just grabbed me and gave me a big hug. When we composed ourselves we took some pictures in front of the Temple and they departed, after another hug (I have never been able to give him one before in the year and half we have been here). This made everything worth it, to see him brought to tears by a simple act. He is one of the people that we will never forget. In the ten years he has worked here he has performed more than 100,000 sealings of parents or children to parents…what a record!
We were also able to get some other couples together today to take some photographs: 
Brother Angel Barranco, 
Brother Emilio & Sister Quirce, 
Brother Jose Luis & Sister Oliveras (this guy is a clown, very nervous type and is really fun to be around),
Brother Jamie & Sister de la Torre, 
Felix & Jennifer. These are just a few of favorite friends with whom we have worked.
Friday night we invited Aderson & Dolores (Lolita) Santos to dinner before they left. 
We went to a favorite Chinese restaurant. 
We had a meal fit for a king and the company made things that much better. It has been fun to watch them get ready for their trip home to Sau Paulo, Brazil. They had purchased so many things (clothing, bread making machines, waffle irons, etc) because they are so much cheaper here than in Brazil. Well, to make a long story short, some of their children were coming over to travel with them (they were bringing empty suitcases to take stuff home)….well, they didn’t come-you can imagine the mess. 
They shipped home six large boxes of “stuff”…needless to say all of the savings and then some was taken by the shipping costs. They were flying Iberia airlines from Madrid directly to Sau Paulo and they were only allowed one suitcase between them (23 kilos=50 lbs) and carry on of no more than 10 kilos. They had seven suitcases, including carry on, and as I lifted them this morning I know that at least three of them weighed probably 50 kilos! I hope they found a very generous ticket person at the desk. They are great people and everyone will miss them, they were really fun “tranquilo” people and she could imitate anyone in any circumstance.
Saturday night we had a knock at the door and opened it to find a short, little guy (Brother Acma) from the Philippines (now lives in Barcelona) standing there. He had been in the Temple this week and wanted to take a picture with us.
He had a BYU hat on-said the Mission President had given it to him and it wears it everywhere! We laughed with him, not really understanding his English nor his Spanish but he left happy. He’s returning home to the Philippines in a few months.
We hosted the Saturday night movie and watched The Black Stallion. The movie was good but the company much better…it is fun to just get together and spend some time. With two shifts at the Temple we don’t always have an opportunity to get to know one another.
Later that night we listened (KSL radio) to the BYU versus Tulane football game. It was fun to again hear the action of the game…we had not listened the week before versus Oklahoma because it came on at 2:00 am. It’s hard to believe that we will actually be home to see the last three games this year.
Not being trunky, but wanting all family and friends to know we will work our final Temple shift the morning of 3 October. 
Lee & Colleen Haas will have arrived on the 29th of September and we will leave for a Mediterranean Cruise on 4 October out of Barcelona. We will return to Madrid the night of 11 October, have a day to finish up any loose ends then leave the Madrid airport the morning of 13 October, arriving in Salt Lake City at about 8:30pm. We look forward to seeing our families and friends, but are not anxious to leave our friends and family here in Madrid. We have been invited to give our mission report on Sunday, 25 October at 9:00am in the Taylorsville 27th Ward-we have forgotten the address, but it is within a half a block of our home in West Valley. You are all invited to the meeting and to the house afterwards for some snacks.
We know the gospel of Jesus Christ is TRUE. God lives and Jesus is our Savior and Redeemer! The Book of Mormon is TRUE and was written for our time. Thomas S. Monson is a Prophet of God on the earth today. We appreciate all of the prayers that have been offered in our behalf, they have truly been heartfelt. We love and appreciate each and every one of you. God be with you till we meet again. Love Mom & Dad / Nana & Papa / Elder y Hermana Shaw
Tom put ham in a crock pot with barbeque sauce and it was a big hit! The salads, desserts and rolls were brought by everyone else. It was nice and everyone seemed to enjoy sharing time together. Those who had come were the Ford’s from Bountiful, 
who served some of their mission in the Canary’s. They will be here for eight months. The Anta’s were going to stay for two months, 
but have had some family problems so they have already gone. 
Sister Massei,a single sister from France who will be here for eighteen months.
Brother Silvestre (Barcelona) also left he had been here for a month-his wife is inactive and he came on his own. The Moreira's (Portugal) have been here for a month and are returning home, they are wonderful people and always did more than their fair share.
The Santo’s who are from Brazil have been here for eighteen months leave tomorrow. Most of the couples that we have served with most of our time here have now left, except for the Taggart’s who will leave in November.
They have become good friends and are from South Jordan but most recently St. George. They are serving for two years so they have some time left before they go home. We had a fun time and good food.
She was very welcome being the first grandchild, and because it took 5years of trying before they had her. They named her Ruth (Rut).
Sister Miller is the Physician Assistant here for the MTC and the full time Missionaries. The food was excellent and of course we ate till we were full to the brim! The Sisters shared a scripture about gratitude. It’s always great to share time with them.
Sister Sophia Silva (Tom has called her Queen Sophia and bowed to her since we have been here for the Queen of Spain), 
Brother and Sister Ferreira from the Azores, 
they come once a year for their entire vacation. They are truly an inspiration to us. 
On Monday, we took a picnic and went down to Retiro Park (similar to Central Park in NYC), ate lunch, sat in the shade of the hundreds of trees and read books; it was really a relaxing time. 
We visited the majestic lake and monument to Alfonso XII, 
he must have really been proud of his accomplishments as the monument is very expansive?
Robert and Susan Sproul had gone the day before but told us that it was kind of a joke…there were fences up along the street, thousands of people that thought they were matadors or world record holders in the mile or drunks that made the whole affair a mess. 
So we passed on the event, he forward us two pictures so you can see how crazy it really was.
He is a great worker and our hats come off to him as he is here alone, his wife was baptized several years ago but is inactive at this point. He hopes that one day she will want to return to activity and then they can fulfill a mission together. We also went to listen to the weekly Missionary Choir…it is a little bit different now as they only have seven missionaries in the MTC. Five are French and two Americans. The numbers have really dwindled and will stay pretty low until next month about this time, but long range forecast has the numbers staying relatively small through the end of the year.
We had been there once before but it was in the winter and we wanted to see it in the summer. Some of the people who work in the Temple live there. 
It was about a half an hour train ride. It was 104 degrees that day so needless to say we melted! 
We still had a good time and we ate Dominos Pizza there.
Their green onions here are very big compared to ours back home. The dough of the bread was a thin square piece of dough that rose up and tasted like croissants. She fixed us a cream soup that had zucchini squash and milk and cheese. Hey two Spanish foods that we actually liked! It was good to talk with her. She has done a lot of Genealogy and has many names for the Temple.
The Moreira’s have been here for a month, they just finished an eighteen month mission in Madera. We hardly worked on the same shift but they were very nice people. The Santos’s have been our next door neighbors and we have gotten quite close. Sister Santo’s is a nut she missed her calling in life of being a Mime. She imitates in action and words many of the workers in the Temple. She keeps us in stitches all the time. She and Tom have had a competition going all the time about the number of men in a session and the number of women. Of course she had more to gloat about because almost always there are more women. Brother Santos’s would speak a mixture of Portuguese and Spanish, and very few could understand him! One of his favorite words was tranquillo and that word describes him perfectly. We will really miss them; they have been a lot of fun.
She was quite a bit later than she thought she would be so it was a late supper.
They food was great and we had an enjoyable evening. This was also the last working day for Elder David and Sister Eleanor Rust (Vernal, Utah) 
and Sister Lorraine Linares (Kearns, Utah) in the Temple. 
We will now be on our own for music at our preparation meeting as they are two organ players that we have had. They have all been wonderful friends and would go out of their way to make anyone happy. They will be greatly missed.
The sandwich is really good. It was fun to talk with them and to hear of the eight years they have spent as counselors in the Madrid Temple Presidency. These are the ones that we think Miles knows from San Fernando. They informed us that they had just spoken with President F. Burton Howard and that he is going in to have his other hip replaced on the 20th of August.
We love the people, the culture and traditions. There are so many people that we owe so much to that we could never repay them all. We look forward to again seeing our family in person and feeling of their love. We are engaged in the work of the Lord and we stand ready, able and willing to do the things that He would ask of us at any time. Take good care of yourselves, thanks to each of you for your love, support and prayers.Love Mom & Dad / Nan & Papa / Elder y Hermana Shaw
We had Elders Haynie, Stearns, Rands, and Forberg. Elder Stearns brother (Nick) had played football for BYU and played fullback. He played when Luke Staley was there. These are wonderful Elder’s. They said that the work is going well in Madrid. They shared a scripture and a thought with us before they left. It was great to get to know them better and to feel of their spirit.
We had Sisters Toon, Barnes, and Miller. Sister Miller is the Physician’s Assistant for the Madrid Mission, MTC and the Temple Missionaries. They had a Doctor here before but he has gone home and now the main Doctor for the District is in Germany. So if there are prescriptions needed or questions that Sister Miller doesn’t have an answer to then they call the other Doctor. She is older, about thirty. Sister Barnes is older than the norm also. She finished college with a Masters degree before she came out. She is twenty eight. We had a wonderful time with them also. We had taco soup and they were so excited to have some American food. They also shared a message with us. The spirit was very strong as we shared some thoughts.
They will be leaving in a week and a half. They are going to tour the Scandinavian countries and go to five different Temples. We are really going to miss them. When they leave there will only be us and the Taggart’s left of the American Temple Missionaries. This is a new missionary couple from Portugal (Moreira's) they will be here for one month and are enjoying their first assignment in the Temple. They recently completed a proselyting mission in Portugal.
It is hard to say good bye to other Missionaries who we might not see again. Also as Tom has mentioned it is very hard to say goodbye to so many of the patrons who will not be coming back to the Temple before we leave. We have truly met some wonderful people while serving here. We hope all of you are well and happy. It seems like there has been a lot of sickness lately in the family. We pray for your well being and protection constantly. We pray that the spirit of the Lord will be in your homes and helping you in every way. By the way happy anniversary this week to Paul and Kellie, Kristy and Miles, and Jeff and Amanda!
the Rust’s (Vernal, Utah),
Sister Linares (Kearns, Utah) and the Ugalde’s (Valencia).
We assigned certain dishes but it was called a ‘Pot Luck’ and the food was wonderful, the main course was Arabian Chicken and everyone had a wonderful time reminiscing and looking to the future. We used some beautiful decorations that had been left by the Lymans’s.
They are members of our ward and dear friends; she was the one that I did the countdown for her marriage day and later for the birth of their daughter. She gave birth Tuesday (she is on 6 month maternity leave from the Temple) and came home Friday. They were really excited and she is a beautiful baby girl (Julianna)…it made us homesick again for our two new granddaughters (Maddie and Phoebe). It was about 100 degrees in their apartment, so we hope that all went well for them the first night? Naomi is one of the secretaries in the Temple office.
It is hard to believe that within the next three months almost all of us from the original group will be home.
He was the Stake President when the Temple was completed and dedicated and had many stories to tell about time spent with the King and Queen of Spain, Presidents Hinckley, Monson and Elders Holland and Uchtdorf. They are wonderful people with great testimonies, their daughter Sarah is married to the Bishop of our Ward (Oscar Ovejeros). Sarah is also expecting a baby in the next couple of weeks; so needless to say, Carlos and Rosario are on cloud nine.
Right now there are about 25 missionaries in the MTC, but seven of them leave this Tuesday and most of the others are here for another three weeks. We have the opportunity to speak to them again in two weeks and look forward to that opportunity.
They are too numerous to count, we know our family has also been blessed beyond measure and we will forever be grateful to a loving Heavenly Father for His patience with us and our minimal efforts. We know that we are involved in the true work of the Lord; there is no doubt in our minds and hearts. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God and by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things. We love each and every one of you with all of our hearts. May God be with you til we meet again.
