Musser Mission Blog

 I was dreading this past week for the entire transfer. We sent home 16 of the finest missionaries that I have ever seen. This included 3 elders who served as assistants to the President that we have had the privilege of working with. When they are in the office all the time, you can't help but learn to love them, and so they took a chunk of our hearts with them when they left. Pictured above are Elders Garff, Crane, and Spilsbury. Along with these young men almost all of the other missionaries had served in leadership positions as zone leader or sister training leader. We were able to receive 11 new missionaries. It looks like a pretty good group, and the miracle continues. This new group included one Hermana Eyring...yes, THAT Eyring! She is his granddaughter.  It is just a wonderful miracle to watch these incredible young people do the Lord's work. They get here frightened, and unsure, and they leave with power and confidence. The funny thing is that as we work with them to...

 This is the result when you ask ChatGPT to make a caricature of your photo. Too bad I didn't ask it for a "skinny caricature". We have had a kind of a crazy week. On Monday we took the mission car in to get it serviced, then walked to work from the shop. I thought that an oil change would take them just a few minutes, but we didn't get to go a pick it up until Wednesday. After they called, we walked down to the shop again (a little further than what we walk when we walk to work). We thought it would be pretty quick. I was a little nervous when I looked around the shop at the cars that were parked on the street, and didn't see ours. We waited around for several minutes while someone was sent to get the car back for us. It turns out that it was in a parking garage across the street. As he pulled up the ramp out of the garage, the tech asked if the tire pressure warning had been on for long. I said no, and then walked around the car to find the right front tire almo...

  Today, it will be hard to keep this short. There is just too much! The photo above is proof that God is in the details. The BarcelonaTemple was announced quite some time ago. The lot is purchased, and the Church has been trying for some time to get all of the permitting done that needs to be done. The Temple Lot actually is in the city boundaries of Sant Cugat which is just over the hill from Barcelona. The problem is that the city seems to have been "slow rolling" this whole process. Apparently when you turn in the application for permits they have something like 3 months to come back with an answer. Either to allow you to build, or what they aren't in agreement with. What has been happening over and over again, is the city would go 2 months and about 25 days and then come back with a list of things they don't like. The Church would then make adjustments and resubmit only to wait another 2 months and about 25 days again; over and over again. We have a couple in our...

 I wanted to start off this week by talking about this beautiful painting that hangs in the President's home. It's a beautiful picture of the Savior as he first exited the tomb. The story behind this picture is that there was a missionary who was really struggling. He just couldn't talk to people. He was a brilliant artist (as you can see), so his companion was inspired with a wonderful idea. He told him "you sit here in the plaza and paint, and I will talk with the people about what you are painting. This is what he was painting. The Lord has use of all of our talents, even old geezers like me. This week has been one wild ride from start to finish. On Monday we took Alicia and her family down to the Gothic Quarter and wandered the streets for a while. We then jumped on the metro to take a train up to the office because we had a couple of things that we needed to do there. Of course, we had to take them to eat sushi. It was a little scary for the kids, but they ended u...

  It feels like Summer has arrived in Spain! We're back to having to empty the bucket that catches all of the water that the AC pulls from the air. If I had neglected to get that done last night, it would have run all over the place. Alicia and family made it back to Spain after their Disney cruise around Italy. Sounds like they had a blast; especially our little Emily. She loved being called a "princess", and made sure to show us all the "treasures" that she had collected.  While they were gone on their cruise it was Zone Conference week, and it was kind of crazy. It is always a challenge to make sure that the food gets prepared, and all of the logistics are covered; especially when some of the staff are brand new. It always involves loading up the van with food, cooking supplies, water, mail, Books of Mormon, cleaning supplies, etc. We have to get all of that to the Chapel, set up all of the tables, chairs, and get everything ready. This time was a little bit ...