1 Year Down!

In many ways it's really hard to believe that we have actually been out for a year! The days have been long, the weeks short, and the months just kind of a blur. Now we have less than 11 months to go. It's kind of weird but I am getting to the point where life here in Spain seems normal, and life back home almost seems foreign. I suppose that it will be something like when I came home from Uruguay all those years ago. There will be a period of adjustment. This time, however, I know what will help us, and that is going to be jumping right into whatever calling we get. One thing we hope to do is spend a ton of time in the Temple. That is one thing that we dearly miss. We have seen Tammy and Gerald serving as shift coordinators down in St. George, and hearing about the amazing experiences that they have been having, and we both are anxious to have those types of sweet experiences. In the meantime, we are loving our time here in Spain being around the missionaries and the members of our ward. 

Today was a special day for us. Our friend Joel, who was just baptized, passed the Sacrament for the first time. It was sweet to see him excited about being able to contribute. We also had a baptism this evening, and he came to that as well. He told me that it was special for him to be able to see another baptism because it reminded him of his own. I joked with him that he is just an old member of the church now. Also today, our friend Leon who was baptized just a couple of months ago gave a talk in church. I was proud of him because he really doesn't speak Spanish that well. He bravely read his talk. It was interesting to see what Google Translate did with it, because he has really been struggling with pronunciation. The key though was that he was willing to get up there and try. It was neat.

This week we went down to Tarragona which is just over an hour away from Barcelona to check out a piso that will be for a senior couple. It's a nice place, and if all goes well they will enjoy it swimming pool and all! Thankfully, we won't have to get any furniture up front because it is basically furnished. 

On Wednesday, they had MLC (mission leadership council). It was fun to see all the zone leaders and sister training leaders come to the mission home. It is always kind of chaotic, but these sweet missionaries bring an amazing spirit with them, and we just like to soak it all in. This coming week will be Zone Conferences, and so we will get a double dose of being around the missionaries! The President had a conflicting meeting with a Catholic Nun and so he decided to have 4 zones of missionaries come to Barcelona on one day instead of doing it on two days like normal. There will be a BOATLOAD of missionaries. We're going to help them assemble emergency preparedness kits and so Brenda has been going bonkers trying to order all the things we need from Amazon.es. That has been crazy because for some reason they limit you on what you can purchase from them. To me it makes no sense at all. If I want to buy 130 book bags, they should sell me those bags. It's not like we're asking for a discount or anything. But no. They say you can only order 40 or something, and no more. If you go back in to hit them again for the same item, they have kept track, and tell you you have already hit your limit. However, they will let you order a different color. It doesn't say they are out of stock, it just says you have reached your limit. Then, instead of sending those 40 items in one box, they will send 20 in a box, and then several separate shipments of one or two bags each. So you get it all trickling in over a couple of days. Ah...Spain!

We had some real fun on Friday. I was pretty tired, but Brenda needed to get out of the piso and so she convinced me to go with her to the park so we could play ping-pong. It was goofy, and silly (we're both terrible), but it was a ton of fun. It reminded us that we need to do things just for the fun of it. 

My sister Cindy told me about a devotional that Elder and Sister Bednar gave at BYUI close to their 50th anniversary. It was really sweet. Here is the link

Elder and Sister Bednar

It made us realize that things like playing Ping-pong in the park are important. 

Come Follow Me this week was on Section 88 of the Doctrine and Covenants. What a powerful revelation! The thing that stuck out to me was something that John Bytheway pointed out in his podcast. In Verse 63 he pointed out that in every move mentioned there, we have to make the first step. When we draw near to Him, He immediately will draw near to us. When we seek Him, we will find Him. When we ask, He gives. When we knock, He opens. He will never violate our agency, but when we go to Him, He will be there always. The older I get the more evidence I see of just how much our Heavenly Father and our Savior love us. It is truly humbling.

We hope that the coming week is special for you. We love you all.

Click for Pics

P.S. Last week I forgot to link the photos in. I have fixed that if you're interested. :-)